Category: Racism & Bigotry

They erased his words

In case you live in a so-called “Blue State” – one that is not controlled by the Republican Party – you might think that most of the authoritarianism exists on the federal government level.

I live in a state that elected a Democrat for Governor last year (thank goodness!), a Democrat for Lt. Governor (and, therefore, President of the State Senate), and a Democrat for State Attorney General, but our General Assembly – State Legislature – is dominated by Republicans.

Last week, to ensure that President Trump will endorse Phil Berger in the 2026 election, the North Carolina General Assembly voted to redraw/re-gerrymander the U.S. Congressional Districts in our State. Phil Berger is President Pro-Tempore of the N.C. State Senate. He represents the 26th District in the State Senate.

Photo of part of hte North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh
Photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash

Before last week, North Carolina had 10 Congressional seats held by Republicans and four seats held by Democrats. That wasn’t good enough for Trump, even though he only received 50.86% of the popular vote in North Carolina on November 5, 2024. Trump and his supporters call 50.86% “a mandate.”

Before last week’s vote to blatantly gerrymander North Carolina “because California redrew its map in favor of the Democrats” Don Davis, who just happens to be one of only two black North Carolinians in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under the new map, it will be nigh unto impossible for Don Davis to keep his seat in Congress in the 2026 election.

Before last week, I did not know who Michael Garrett was.

North Carolina State Senator Michael Garrett of Greensboro, who represents the 27th State Senate District in the General Assembly, made a speech on the floor of the Senate chambers. Since the Republicans in the North Carolina Senate voted to strike it from the record, it has been put on YouTube. I invite you to listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY8KNA-qTdg (Sen. Michael Garrett Delivers Powerful Speech Against Republican Rigged Maps.)

Senator Garrett’s response to his speech being stricken

In response to his speech being stricken from the official government record, I will share what Mr. Garrett wrote on his NC Senate Facebook page. I copied the following from https://www.democraticunderground.com/106913604. That website says it copied the following “from Michael Garrett NC Senate FB page on NC redistricting,” and I am bringing it to your attention today. Here it is:

“They Were So Afraid, They Erased the Words.”

“Yesterday, I stood on the Senate floor and spoke truth about what happened in North Carolina. About democracy being stolen in broad daylight. About rigged maps and broken promises. About betraying every sacrifice ever made for the right to vote.

“Then something extraordinary happened.

“Senator Grafstein moved that my remarks be spread upon the journal, entered into the permanent record of this body. This is routine. It happens constantly. It’s almost always done without objection, a simple courtesy extended across party lines for speeches on both sides.

“The Republicans immediately objected.

“They forced a vote. And on a straight party line, they voted to keep my words out of the permanent record.

“In my entire time in the Senate, I have never seen this happen.

“Let that sink in for a moment.

“They rigged the maps. Then they voted to erase any record of someone calling them out for it.


“This isn’t about me. This is about what their fear reveals.

“They weren’t afraid of my words because they were false, they were afraid because they were true. They weren’t blocking the record to protect themselves, they were doing it because they know history will judge them harshly for what they did yesterday.

“They stood on that floor, voted to rig our elections at Trump’s command, and then, in the very next breath, tried to memory-hole anyone who dared to say it out loud.

“That’s not the behavior of people confident in their principles. That’s the behavior of people ashamed of their actions.

“If what they did was righteous, they’d want it documented. If their cause was just, they’d welcome debate for the permanent record. If they believed they were serving North Carolina, they’d let history judge them on the merits.

“But they don’t believe any of that. They know what they did was wrong. They know they sold out democracy. They know they chose Trump over the people of North Carolina. They know they stole voices and rigged maps and betrayed their oaths.

“And they’re so ashamed, so terrified that future generations will read what was said and render judgment, that they won’t even let the words stand in the record.

“But you can’t erase truth by blocking it from a journal.

“You can’t make democracy’s defenders disappear by parliamentary procedure. You can’t memory-hole a movement by refusing to record it.

“Those words were said. Thousands watched online. The press reported it. North Carolinians heard it. And now millions more will hear about it, because their attempt to silence it only amplified the message.

“They tried to bury the truth. Instead, they proved it.

“Their fear is our proof. Their shame is our vindication.

“Because you don’t try to erase words from the record unless those words have power. You don’t vote on party lines to block routine motions unless you’re terrified of what they represent. You don’t abandon decades of Senate courtesy unless you know, deep in your bones, that history will not be kind.

“They are losing, and they know it.

“Not today’s vote, they won that. They got their rigged maps. They’ll steal their seats. They’ll cling to power for a few more years.

“But they’re losing the war that matters. The war for legitimacy. The war for history’s judgment. The war for the hearts and minds of the next generation watching this unfold.
“This weekend, millions marched saying “America has no kings.” Yesterday, North Carolina Republicans proved exactly why those marches were necessary. They rigged our elections, tried to erase any record of opposition, then went home thinking they’d won.

“They have no idea what’s coming.

“Because every time they silence a voice, ten more rise up. Every time they rig a map, a thousand more people organize. Every time they betray democracy, a million more Americans understand: this is the fight of our generation, and surrender is not an option.

“Their fear means we’re winning. Their desperation means our movement has power. Their need to erase us from the record means they hear us perfectly, and what they hear terrifies them.

“So we get louder. We organize harder. We fight fiercer.

“They can block words from a journal, but they cannot block the march of justice. They can erase speeches from the record, but they cannot erase the promise from the hearts of a people who refuse to bow to kings.

“They were so afraid of the truth, they voted to erase it from history.

“That tells you everything about the weakness of their cause and everything about the power of ours.

“Yesterday, truth was spoken. Today, they’re still trying to silence it. Tomorrow, we rise louder than before.

“The fight continues. The promise endures. And every desperate attempt they make to silence us only proves we’re saying exactly what they fear most:

“Their time is ending. Democracy’s reckoning is coming. And no rigged map, no stolen vote, no erased record can stop a people who refuse to be silent.

“We’re just getting started.

“#NoKings #NCPolitics #DefendDemocracy #TheyreAfraid #Democracy #WeAreWinning”

Take courage from Michael Garrett’s words

No matter where in the world you live, take courage from Michael Garrett’s words, even though the Republicans in the North Carolina State Senate did not want you to hear them.

As NC Senator Michael Garrett said, the politicians are choosing their voters instead of the voters choosing their politicians.

The wheels are falling off the bus rapidly.

Janet

Just another week in America

It is heartbreaking to have to write about the state of things in the United States. If you are reading this in another country, it must be confusing. Trust me, most Americans are just as confused as you are.

U.S. Government Shutdown

The Republicans blame the Democrats. The Democrats blame the Republicans. But in 2011, Donald J. Trump said if the federal government shutdown, it would be the fault of the President of the United States.

Thousands of federal employees are in limbo. Thousands of others, like air traffic controllers, are expected to continue to work without pay. I seem to recall a Trump slogan: “Make America Safe Again.” Do you feel safe yet?

Trump’s tariffs have hung the American farmer out to dry. Between abruptly ending USAID and getting in a tariff war with China, the soybean market has all but disappeared.

Photo of letters on wooden blocks spelling out: USA Tarriffs.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

No one in the White House or the U.S. Congress appears to care if thousands of farmers lose everything they have while the political games play out.

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

Every single American depends on the American farmers every single day. Where does Trump think we will get our food after all the farmers go bankrupt? They cannot bounce back from bankruptcy like he has. He does not have a clue what a farm is or how it functions.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi please the audience of one she was performing for yesterday before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, but I don’t think she impressed the nation.

If the majority of Americans thought she behaved professionally, then we are in deeper trouble than I thought.

It was a horrible display of sarcasm and dodging every question. She is the poster girl for RUDE.

The FBI, Southern Poverty Law Center, & Anti-Defamation League

Photo of the seal of the FBI
Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash

The Associated Press reported: “FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is cutting ties with two organizations that for decades have tracked domestic extremism and racial and religious bias, a move that follows complaints about the groups from some conservatives and prominent allies of President Donald Trump.

“Patel said Friday that the FBI would sever its relationship with the Southern Poverty Center, asserting that the organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” and criticizing it for its use of a “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States. A statement earlier in the week from Patel said the FBI would end ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization that fights antisemitism.”

I found it odd that the Trump Administration is cutting ties with the Anti-Defamation League while simultaneously punishing universities it claims are discriminating against Jewish students. It appears that the U.S. Department of Justice can’t decide whether to help Jewish people or persecute them. As President Trump often says, “We’ll have to wait and see.”

The FBI has worked in partnership with prominent civil rights groups for decades, but I guess Kash Patel doesn’t want any part of it. Or, perhaps he’s just following Trump’s orders. The Southern Poverty Center and the Anti-Defamation League have provided research on hate crimes and domestic extremism to the FBI in the past, but it seems some conservatives think they are not fair.

Meanwhile… President Trump breaks the law by sending the Texas National Guard to Chicago, uninvited and unwanted

Trump is also talking about invoking the Insurrection Act. Funny how he did not invoke it or even call up the National Guard on January 6, 2021, when The Capitol was under siege by his angry mob.

In the last four days, Trump has called Democrats “gnats,” “low IQ people,” and “Somalians.” I guess he got tired calling us “the enemy of the people” and “left-wing lunatics.”

Students of history, can you name a dictator from Germany who used those same tactics in the 1930s to dehumanize the citizens?

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

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

Blog topics keep dropping in my lap

One of these days I hope to be able to enjoy reading fiction again. I miss the days when I wanted to read every historical novel that was published. I can’t remember the last one I read. I’m pretty sure it was before Inauguration Day 2025.

I miss not having books I’ve read to blog about the first Monday of each month. I read parts of several books in August, but I didn’t finish reading any of them.

I settled down at the computer on Friday evening after supper to look for that afternoon’s weekly update on the status of road repairs in western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene a full eleven months ago. I can’t imagine the stress the people who live or work along some of those roads must be under at this point.

For eleven months, I have tried to give an update on Mondays of the progress being made in repairing western North Carolina since the hurricane. Roads are not the most important things being repaired or needing to be repaired. People lost family members, their homes, their businesses, their friends, their communities, and their sense of security. But I don’t know how to report on how those losses are being coped with or healed. I report the progress being made in rebuilding roads and highways because that is something tangible that I can find statistics about. I hope in some way it reminds people in other parts of the United States that just because Hurricane Helene is no longer in the headlines, it doesn’t mean it is over.

On Friday evening, I didn’t know what I was going to blog about today, but I knew I needed to include my weekly update about the roads. I sat down at the computer to get that part of today’s blog written.

But before I could put anything in the search engine, a disturbing piece of breaking news popped up. Although the announcement was put online shortly before 6:30 p.m., the national news channel I watched at 6:30 did not mention it. I guess it was more important to talk about this being Labor Day weekend and how that would specifically bring in lots of business for a particular convenience store chain on steroids.

The free publicity the network gave that convenience store chain was bizarre. It was the kind of story one would expect on “a slow day for news.” But we have not had “a slow day for news” in this country in eight months.

Instead of reporting on how busy the franchises in that convenience store chain would be over the long holiday weekend, I wish that network had reported on what the U.S. Supreme Court did on Friday.

National Institutes of Health

Photo of a woman in a white lab coat looking into a microscope.

The piece of news that was not reported is devastating to a lot of people. In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration can indeed cut $783 million in National Institutes of Health grants connected to diversity programs. Thus, the injunction that a federal judge had put on the action has been lifted.

Too bad that 90,000-square foot ballroom that’s going to dwarf the White House isn’t in place. I’m sure lots of people in The White House would love to go dancing to celebrate this victory over medical research and diversity.

Voice of America

Photo of a silver microphone.
Photo by Jono Hirst on Unsplash

Another thing Trump could celebrate over the Labor Day weekend was the firing of more than 500 employees of Voice of America and its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, on Friday night. It comes across as, “Happy Labor Day! You’re fired!”

Voice of America was founded by the United States in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda. Every week for 83 years, it has delivered news to 420 million people in 63 languages in more than 100 countries.

But the Trump Administration does not see the need for it and has been working for eight months to destroy it. One of his Executive Orders in March placed more than 1,000 journalists on indefinite administrative leave.

Kari Lake, an Arizona politician, is tasked by Trump to dismantle Voice of America. She fired 500 contractors in May and tried to fire 600 federal employees in June.

Trump says the Voice of America is speaking for our adversaries and not for the American people. He has produced no evidence. By “our adversaries” does he mean North Korea, China, and Russia? Or does he mean his Democratic political adversaries? I tend to think he means the Democrats. He cannot tolerate people speaking the truth.

Some tariffs ruled illegal

Photo of letters on wooden blocks spelling out: USA Tarriffs.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

A Federal Appeals Court has ruled that some of the tariffs ordered by the Trump Administration are illegal. We haven’t heard the last of this. Like a dog with a bone, Trump won’t let go without a fight.

Chicago prepares for Trump

Photo of a huge dome-like reflective sculpture in Chicago reflecting the sky and buildings
Photo by Sawyer Bengtson on Unsplash

The City of Chicago and the Governor of Illinois prepare for an invasion by Trump’s military this week. The mayor of Chicago vows to not roll over and play dead.

Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an order on Saturday stating that the Chicago police will not “collaborate with federal agents on joint law enforcement patrols, arrest operations, or other law enforcement duties including civil immigration enforcement.”

The mayor’s order “urges” federal officers in Chicago “to refrain from wearing masks, to wear and use body cameras and to identify themselves to members of the public with names and badge numbers.”

That is what local law enforcement officers do, so why shouldn’t federal officers be required to do the same? The argument that Trump’s thugs must wear masks because their lives are in danger doesn’t hold water. Every law enforcement officer’s life is in danger when they are on the job, but they don’t get to hide behind masks like Trump’s people or the Ku Klux Klan.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, of the 1,469 roads and highways that had to be closed in western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene, 33 were still closed and 38 have partial access.

A temporary US-64/US-74 between Chimney Rock and Bat Cave opened last week.

Another section of the Blue Ridge Parkway reopened on Friday, meaning that the 85 miles from Asheville to the parkway’s southern terminus near Cherokee are now open! Work continues on various sections of the road north of Asheville.

It was announced last Thursday that the rebuilding of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge North Carolina at the Tennessee line is expected to be completed by the end of 2028. That’s not a typo. 2028.

The NC Department of Transportation is constructing a retaining wall along the Pigeon River below the highway, which will be 30 feet thick and 100 feet tall in some places.

A temporary wall now allows two lanes (one in each direction) to be open with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit. Monitoring devices are in place to alert drivers to possible landslides.

The reconstruction of five miles of the interstate in the gorge is expected to cost $1.3 billion.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Alert Update

US-441/Newfound Gap Road in the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is expected to be repaired and reopened by September 30. Earlier estimates were in October. Heavy rainfall caused the undercutting a section of the road between Mile Marker 12 and Mile Mark 13 during flooding on August 2.

Hurricane Erin Update

NC-12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island, NC reopened last Monday and ferry service to Hatteras Island resumed. By the end of last week, what was left of Hurricane Erin was lashing the Butt of Lewis on the northern tip of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Erin did not give up easily.

Too much news

In less than 24 hours from Friday night until midday on Saturday, I went from not knowing what I could blog about today to having an abundance of topics vying for my attention. I miss the good old days of 2024 when there wasn’t much news on weekends.

Janet

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC

Here are some snippets of just a few of the things that have taken place in and around Washington, D.C. in the last ten days or so. Most of them aren’t getting much coverage by the mainstream news media.

I’m sorry this is so long. I’m only the messenger, and it’s only Wednesday night as I put the finishing touches on this. It just might be my longest blog post ever. That in itself is indicative of the state of things in America today.

Photo of the White House, Washingon, D.C.
The White House, Washington, D.C.

Another mass school shooting in America

Yesterday’s mass shooting at a school in Minnesota was met with “thoughts and prayers” and flags lowered to half-staff at the White House. Isn’t it a shame that is all politicians can do? Their “thoughts and prayers” are not stopping the bullets.

Cruelty at the highest level

I mentioned the mysterious influence that Laura Loomer has over President Trump in my August 19, 2025, blog post, Trump and one of his “advisors”.

It seems Loomer has not gone away or tamped down her hatred for certain groups of people. She was upset that a few severely injured Palestinian children from Gaza were being brought to the United States for medical care. Children who were missing arms and legs, children with severe burns, etc. Loomer called them a “national security threat” and “Islamic invaders.”

On Friday, August 15, Loomer spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the next day the State Department announced it was pausing all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza.

Guns for National Guard Troops in Washington, DC

Last Friday evening, U.S Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC to start carrying their weapons.

National Guard troops are trained for war, not for everyday crime control on the street of America.

Trump has turned our nation’s capital into a police state and his followers think it is a beautiful thing. To them, the ends always justify the means.

That’s how far we have moved away from understanding the Constitution of the United States of America, the law, and the spirit of the law. The “party of law and order” has lost its way and lost sight of the law and is only interested in their idea of “order.”

The Posse Comitatus Act limits the federal government in the use of U.S. military personnel in the enforcement of domestic policies within the United States. First signed into law in 1878, the bill has been updated in 1956, 1981, and 2021.

The Posse Comitatus Act does not prevent the Army or the Air National Guard from acting in a law enforcement capacity in its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor.

But, at the invitation from Trump, various state governors have fallen in line and sent their National Guard troops or promised/offered to send their National Guard troops to Washington, DC or wherever Trump chooses to send them. The letter of the law: “home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor” has fallen by the wayside.

In the meantime, National Guard personnel are being called upon to leave their families, their businesses, and their jobs to deploy to Washington, DC to do whatever Trump decides they should do.

The National Guard is being turned into a political pawn, which absolutely goes against the United States Constitution and all federal laws regarding the military.

I’ll have more about the National Guard and various other topics in my blog post tomorrow.

Hegseth fires more top military personnel

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. It just so happens that Gen. Kruse issued a report saying that the U.S. airstrikes against Iran several months ago only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. His report contradicted Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.”

This is proof once more that Trump does not want the truth. He wants unquestioning loyalty like he sees dictators in North Korea, China, and Russia getting.

Hegseth also fired Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore and Rear Admiral Milton Sands. Lacore was chief officer of the Navy Reserve. Sands oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command and was a Navy SEAL.

No reasons were given for the firings, and no public announcements were made by the Defense Department. They were just quietly done late on a Friday when the public is not supposed to be paying attention.

600+ cuts at CDC

More than 600 researchers and other employees of the Centers for Disease Control are expected to receive their notices of termination this week. This is all part of the Trump Administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.

It is ironic that the entire CDC Division of Violence Prevention is being eliminated as part of this wave of firings just days after a gunman who thought the COVID vaccine had made him sick sprayed the campus of the CDC with more than 500 bullets.

New CDC Director fired

Centers for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez was fired yesterday just four weeks and one day after obtaining Congressional approval for the position. In her confirmation hearings she seemed to struggle to champion vaccines, knowing that was contradicting the long-held beliefs Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holds.

New CDC Director fired

Centers for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez was fired yesterday just four weeks and one day after obtaining Congressional approval for the position. In her confirmation hearings she seemed to struggle to champion vaccines, knowing that was contradicting the long-held beliefs Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holds.

Within minutes of Monarez’s firing, Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis, and Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases turned in their resignations.

Established on July 1, 1946, the Centers for Disease Control has saved countless lives around the world. It is truly a global tragedy to see what the Trump Administration has done to it.

Threats of ABC and NBC broadcast licenses revoked

On social media on Sunday, Trump all but called for ABC and NBC to lose their broadcast licenses. He said he would support that move by the Federal Communications Commission. He called the two TV networks arms of the Democratic Party and claimed that their reporting is 97% negative about him.

We are moving into extremely dangerous territory as Trump wants to eliminate the free press.

Meanwhile, my Congressman’s newsletters get more disgusting

My “Representative” in the U.S. House of Representatives is on a tear now to stop parents from taking their minor daughters across state lines to get an abortion. It is called the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. He says, “this should be the first of many steps Congress takes to end the tragedy of abortion and preying on the vulnerable.”

If he cared one iota for that pregnant minor child, he would work on legislation to go after the low life man who got that child pregnant. But no! He wants to go after her parents and he wants to force that child to have a baby.

In the same newsletter he claimed that Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will result in “annual wages in North Carolina rising by roughly $5,500 to $10,500 in the long term.” He does not explain how the “big, beautiful bill” will make that happen, nor does he define “long term.” Ten years? 45 years?

That probably sounds great to his constituents who hang on his every word and trust him since he is a Southern Baptist preacher.

This is the same man I could not email about the starving children in Gaza or any of my other concerns while Congress was on vacation the last week of July and the entire month of August because there was “no server available to receive your email.”

He disgusts me.

Russia bombs American manufacturing plant in Ukraine

Two Russian missiles hit an American-owned electronic manufacturing plan in Ukraine.

Ever the tough guy against Russia, Trump responded: “I told [Putin] I’m not happy about it.”

Wow! Putin will be afraid to do that again!

$4 billion wind farm halted by Trump Administration

Trump continues to spit in the face of sources of renewable energy.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited “national security interests” when it ordered the developers of Revolution Wind to “halt all ongoing activities” off the coast of Rhode Island.

The Department of the Interior does not recognize windmills as a “reasonable use of the exclusive economic zone.”

Plans to the 65-turbine windfarm were approved on November 17, 2023, and the project is 80% complete.

If the windfarm’s construction had been allowed completion, beginning in the spring of 2026 it would have generated enough electricity to power 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Another crypto scheme

I use the word “scheme” in the true American use of the term. In the U.S., the word “scheme” carries negative connotations.

It seems that Trump keeps tricking his supporters into investing in crypto. I do not feel sorry for them. The pattern is that he promotes a new crypto investment, calling it a “crypto treasury” firm. People invest, Trump cashes out, and everyone else loses.

The Wall Street Journal commented that there is a pattern here.

Trump invests in corporate and government bonds

It has been reported that Trump has invested more than $100 million in corporate and government bonds since January 20. No wonder he keeps pressuring The Fed to lower interest rates. When that happens, he will make out like a bandit.

Can anyone say, “blackmail”?

Democrat Governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, invited the President to came to Baltimore and join in a “public safety walk” with him and the city’s mayor and other law enforcement officials. In response, Trump said Moore needed to clean up the crime in the city or he would send in the National Guard and possibly withhold federal funds for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key bridge that was rammed and heavily damaged by a barge last year.

Trump quietly stations U.S. military off the coast of Venezuela

Three U.S. Navy Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other military ships and planes have been sent to the coast of Venezuela. The official White House explanation is that it is an anti-illegal drug operation, but it is no secret that Trump wants to overthrow the Maduro regime. After all, this month he issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s capture. Trump tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Maduro during his first term in office.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security in violation of the law

In violation of the Federal Records Act, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is not maintaining any text messages generated since April 9, 2025. All federal agencies are required to keep all records of government operations and transactions. So far, though, there are no ramifications.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wanted her own plane several months ago. Now she wants the department to have its own fleet of planes to use to deport people.

Alligator Alcatraz closing?

The “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in Florida was built and operated at a cost of $400 million. After being operational for two months, Gov. DeSantis says it isn’t needed any more because Homeland Security has done such a great job of deporting people.

I plan a blog post on Tuesday about one of those individuals who has been forced to leave the United States.

Federal Reserve Board of Governors

On Monday, Trump attempted to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors of the quasi-private Federal Reserve. She said she isn’t leaving her position and is suing the Trump Administration. Ms. Cook is the first African-American woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

FEMA employees put on administrative leave

A letter signed by 180 current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Administration went to the FEMA Review Council and Congress on Monday. The letter sounded the alarm that recent cuts to FEMA staff and programs have greatly diminished the government’s capacity to respond to a major disaster.

On Tuesday night, at least two of the signers of the letter were placed on administrative leave indefinitely.

Still attacking Harvard University

On Tuesday, Trump instructed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to get $500 million from Harvard University and not to negotiate that figure.

Union Station in Washington, DC

A week after Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth, and White House Assistant Chief of Staff Stephen Miller were booed at a photo op with National Guard troops at the train station in Washington, DC, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that the federal government is taking control of the train station.

White House Tours Suspended

Without any advance warning, all public tours of the White House have been halted indefinitely.

The White House tours webpage of the National Park Service has been taken down and replaced with, “We’re working on this page. Please check back later.”

This means that school groups and tourists will not be allowed inside the White House until further notice. It does not matter to Trump that these tours are usually schedule months in advance.

There is speculation this came about due to the start of construction of Trump’s 90,000-square-foot $200 million ballroom slated for September 1.

So, “The People’s House” is now closed to “The People.” I can’t help but wonder if it will ever be open to “the people” again. If Trump can figure out a way to charge admission, I’m sure he will.

Just when we thought the baseball caps couldn’t get worse…

Last Friday, Trump paraded around Washington and inside the Oval Office in front of TV cameras wearing a new edition of his baseball caps. “Make America Great Again” wasn’t bad enough.

Trump’s new bright red cap screams out in all capital letters, “Trump Was Right About Everything.”

How sad it is to see a U.S. President wearing a baseball cap so much of the time. Apparently, his wealthy up-bringing failed to tell him that men should not wear a hat inside a building… much less a baseball cap with a ridiculous falsehood on it – inside the Oval Office. I cannot un-see it.

This is the same man who publicly berated Ukrainian President Zelenskyy earlier this year for not wearing a suit to the White House. Yet, he thinks wearing a bright red baseball cap with a huge lie on it while wearing a navy blue suit and sitting behind his desk is appropriate attire for the U.S. President. The only thing that could make it worse would be a bright red suit.

There is apparently a new MAGA cap. It says, “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again.” MASGA. Please tell me this is a joke.

How embarrassing for those of us who see all this for the farce it is. This is tackiness on steroids.

My apologies for the things I forgot to mention, the things I don’t know about, and the things that happened since I scheduled this post last night.

Janet

Another Roundup of Odds & Ends

I seem to be falling into a routine of writing a Friday roundup of happenings in the U.S. Government. Since I have some good and exciting news to blog about tomorrow, I’ll get this week’s roundup of Washington, DC happenings out of the way on Thursday.

It might seem petty for me to comment on the “little” things Trump does, but when you look at them all together you can’t help but see a pattern. All the “little” distractions are intended to make us not see the big picture.

Here we go…

Painting the wall black

Photo of vertical streaks of black paint on the white background
Photo by Kilian Seiler on Unsplash

Trump not only appoints and hires the best people. He also gives them the best jobs to do. A case in point is that he has ordered his “big, beautiful wall” that separates part of the United States from part of Mexico black to make it hotter.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has been unable to report how much all that black paint is costing the American taxpayers, much less people being paid to do the painting.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Where is the Department of Government Efficiency? DOGE has gone quiet.

More White House redecorating?

Apparently, destroying Jackie Kennedy’s beautiful rose garden and replacing it with a concrete patio replete with gutters made in the image of the U.S. flag was not enough.

Building a 90,000-square foot $200 million ballroom on the White House lawn will not be enough.

It appears that the West Colonnade – the iconic walkway that connects the residence quarters of the White House with the West Wing presidential offices – is Trump’s next target.

White House West Colonnade. Photo from the Library of Congress.

With the help of Jeanine Pirro, a former TV personality who Trump appointed to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, it looks like the beautiful colonnade is being transformed into another picture frame gallery since every inch of the Oval Office wall is now covered in picture frames and there’s not room for one more gaudy gold frame.

Trump must own stock in a company that makes gaudy gold picture frames.

Since the West Colonnade walkway is open to the elements of nature, it doesn’t seem to me to be an ideal place to hang pictures, but nobody asked me.

This is wrong on many levels, and it begs the question: “Why do the President of the United States and the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia have time to redecorate the White House?

It’s almost as if Trump plans to never leave.

Did Trump forget the name of the Pacific Ocean?

I do not watch Trump’s favorite TV network. Never have. Never would. Never will. I prefer to get my news from reliable sources and not from puppets of the Trump Regime.

That being said, I saw a quote from Trump’s conversation on that network on Tuesday morning where he appeared to forget the name of the Pacific Ocean. He has a clever way of covering up his gaffes. He does that by never speaking in complete sentences.

Here’s what Trump was quoted as saying on Tuesday after he called in to his favorite TV network’s early morning show:  “You know we have an ocean that’s separating us, right? A thing called…. an ocean. A big, beautiful ocean. And, uh, they don’t, they’re right there. So it’s a different kind of a thing for them.”

It is embarrassing that all other world leaders have a better command of the English language than the President of the United States.

It reminds me of the time during his first term when Trump discovered that Puerto Rico is surrounded by water.

Trump proclaims himself “a war hero”

Donald Trump, who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War by paying a doctor to claim he had bone spurs, has proclaimed himself to be “a war hero” because he sent planes to help Israel bomb Iran.

On a TV show on Tuesday night, Trump started out talking about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but his attention quickly turned to himself, as it usually does. Trump said, “[Netanyahu is] a war hero because we work together. He’s a war hero. I guess I am too. Nobody cares, but I am, too. I mean, I sent theses planes.”

I’ll just leave it at that.

Continuing war on renewable power

Photo of the top of a modern windmill
Photo by Tom Arran on Unsplash

As the rest of the world pursues a future using renewable energy, on Wednesday Trump vowed that his administration will not issue permits for any solar or wind power projects.

Trump said that wind and solar energy are a scam. He wrote, “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”

I guess the days of the United States leading the way into new and better sources of power are over.

(I can’t let this go without quoting my high school senior English teacher, Mrs. Cline, saying, “One exclamation point is sufficient.” Maybe Trump never took an English class. There’s certainly no evidence that he did.)

Mail-in ballots, anyone?

After taking Vladimir Putin’s advice on how to run an honest election, on Monday, Trump said he would issue an Executive Order to stop all mail-in voting in the United States.

Photo of part of a mail-in voting envelope
Photo by Obi on Unsplash

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to walk that back on Tuesday by saying that what Trump meant to say was that he would work through Congress to make such a change.

My first thought on Monday was that Trump’s plan/threat would mean our military personnel deployed outside the United States would no longer be able to vote. Is that really what Trump wants? He claims to love the military when he’s not calling them suckers and losers.

Congressman Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey threw himself into the fray on Tuesday when he said, “Other times, people who are passed away—these are real people I spoke to, large numbers of them, and it’s indicative of what happened around the country.” This brings to mind that famous quote from a movie, “I see dead people walking.” New Jersey has a U.S. Representative who talks to them.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but public education in Oklahoma has taken another turn

Photo of the alphabet on a dark background
Photo by Jessicah Hast on Unsplash

Most of us can be glad we don’t live in Oklahoma or have children attending the public schools there. You may recall that I paid my respects to Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters in my August 13, 2025, blog post, We can only hope other states don’t follow Oklahoma!.

Walters continues to make the news as he has now put in place what he called an “America First” Test for teachers moving to Oklahoma from predominantly Democratic states.

You read that correctly. Only teachers moving into Oklahoma from states that voted for Kamala Harris instead of for Donald Trump in the 2024 election are required to take this test.

You can’t make this stuff up!

The test is based on Walters’ assumption that everyone who lives in a “red state” supports everything Trump says and does and everyone who lives in a “blue state” disagrees with everything Trump says and does. At least he’s only in charge of public education in Oklahoma and not the entire country!

I understand there were 50 questions on the test ranging from which chromosomes determine a baby’s sex to how many United States Senators there are, to one about freedom of religion being important to a nation’s identity.

That’s bizarre, considering it is the Republican Party that seems hell bent on making all Americans conservative right-wing Democrat-hating Christians.

Under the U.S. Constitution, we currently have freedom of religion, which also means we have freedom from religion. The government cannot dictate which religion I practice and I am free to practice no religion at all.

Walters was quoted as saying this about the test: “You’re not going to come in here and teach that there’s 27 genders. There’s boys and girls. That’s in our science standards. You’re going to come in, and you’re not going to undermine American exceptionalism by teaching anti-American, anti-Semitic hate.” 

Where do these Republicans get off accusing “woke” people as being anti-Semitic? It has been my experience that Trump supporters are more likely to be anti-Semitic than anyone else, but maybe my personal observations are wrong.

The most bizarre part of all this is that Donald Trump shows no signs of believing in God or any power higher than himself. Why conservative right-wing Christians have fallen under his spell will forever baffle me.

Back to the “woke” test in Oklahoma… Is it not important for Republican teachers to know about chromosomes, the US Senate, and freedom of religion? I guess not.

The objective in Oklahoma is clear. It is not to attract good teachers. It is to attract narrow-minded, easily-influenced teachers who are willing to profess they only vote for Republicans.

Another issue we hoped was dead, but it isn’t

Trump has vowed to double down on all museums in the United States because he thinks they are “too woke” and they spend too much space and time talking about “how bad slavery was.”

Does this mean that museums will now have to tell us how good slavery was?

Photo of a black person's fist with a rope tied around it
Photo credit: Tasha Jolley on unsplash.com

If nothing else, this points to two things: (1) Donald Trump is a racist and (2) he can only view slavery as being good for the economy. How else can anyone human being see slavery as a good thing?

He says he is going to send lawyers into the museums to get rid of all the “woke” exhibits. He says he will start with the Smithsonian Institution.

This is either insanity, dementia, or pure evil.

Regardless of the root of Trump’s problem, it is the rewriting and literal white-washing of American history.

If we cannot depend on the Smithsonian Institution to present our history – the good, the bad, and the ugly – then there is nothing we can depend on.

Can’t someone make him stop?

Janet

The militarization of police in the United States

After seeing pictures of armored vehicles patrolling the streets of Washington, DC last week, I was pleased on Friday that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) issued an “Action Alert” called “Call to Action: Lamenting Increased Militarism on our City Streets.”

The Call to Action for members to write letters opened with two Bible verses:

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares… neither shall they learn war anymore.” —Isaiah 2:4

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” —Matthew 5:9

PC(USA) Call to Action

Church members were encouraged to personalize the letter and send it to President Trump, Vice President Vance, their U.S. Senators, and their U.S Representative. The letters sent out by the denomination read as follows:

“As followers of Jesus Christ and members of the Presbyterian Church (USA), scripture calls us to speak with moral clarity in times of injustice. Today, we lament the increasing militarization of our cities and public spaces—a trend that undermines public trust, deepens racial and economic injustice, and distracts from policies that criminalize poverty, target immigrants and vulnerable populations, and threaten democracy. 

“In recent years, law enforcement agencies nationwide have increasingly utilized military-grade weapons, advanced surveillance technologies, and patrolled our city streets with marked and unmarked armored vehicles. Under the first Trump administration this trend reached new and dangerous heights. In June 2020, peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square were violently dispersed with tear gas and riot control tactics, clearing the way for a photo opportunity misappropriating the Christian religion as a justification for authoritarian control. Federal agents were deployed to cities like Portland without the consent of local officials—actions condemned by civil rights organizations, faith leaders, and international observers alike.

“While these images drew public outcry in years past, the patterns of state violence have not only continued but evolved in recent months under the current Trump Administration. This misuse of policing is not impartial as it disproportionately targets Black and brown communities. Children and teenagers have become primary targets in federal crackdowns masquerading as public safety efforts. In major cities, ICE enforcement actions have significantly increased. Sweeps targeting immigrant and unhoused communities are being conducted with tactical units, not housing specialists or social workers. 

“This month, despite violent crime in Washington, D.C. being at a 30-year low—with violent crime down 26%, homicides down 12%, carjackings down 37%, and overall incidents down more than 35% from 2023— President Trump declared a safety emergency and invoked a little-used clause of the D.C. Home Rule Act to seize control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy 800 National Guard troops under federal authority for 30 days. City leaders, legal experts, and faith communities have denounced this action as politically motivated, unlawful, and an attack on local governance. Nevertheless, President Trump has publicly threatened to expand this strategy to New York City and Chicago, even hinting at the potential use of martial-law-style control.

“As people of faith, we affirm that every person is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). This sacred truth means that each life carries inherent dignity, worth, and agency, not to be denied by the state or reduced to a security threat. When the state targets our youth and treats Black neighborhoods with hostility, it violates not only human rights but the divine imprint each person bears. 

“Our Christian faith and Reformed tradition speak clearly in this moment. We must faithfully resist the idolatry of power and bear witness to God’s peace. God’s vision for peace does not involve militaristic city takeovers, riot shields, or forced sweeps. Proper public safety arises from access to affordable housing, mental health care, community-led safety programs, and accountable, demilitarized law enforcement. The prophet Isaiah envisions a world where tools of war are transformed into tools of growth. Jesus declares that “peacemakers will be called children of God” and teaches that answering violence with more violence and showing overwhelming force are not the ways of Jesus. 

“The PC(USA) has taken strong, faithful stands. The 224th General Assembly (2020) called for an end to the transfer of military equipment to local police forces and a shift toward nonviolent, community-centered public safety approaches.

As Presbyterians, we must not remain neutral in the face of injustice. We must act with moral clarity in this moment.

“1. Tell Congress today to end militarized policing, defund inhumane enforcement, and reject the Administration’s unnecessary federal authority to control cities within 30 days.

“2. Support local organizing by joining or supporting immigrant justice and housing coalitions.

“3. Engage congregations by hosting a discussion, worship service, or prayer vigil on militarization, racial justice, and immigration using PC(USA) resources. 

“Let us be the peacemakers Jesus calls us to be. Let us resist the machinery of fear and stand for a world rooted in justice, compassion, and hope.”

What I did

In response, I emailed U.S. Senator Thom Tillis and U.S. Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina.

Then, I attempted to email my Congressman, U.S. Representative Mark Harris. The first problem I encountered was that Mr. Harris does not accept emails longer than 2,000 characters. I edited my letter to meet those limitations.

The second problem I ran into was that when I hit the “send” button, I received a message saying that Representative Harris’ office did not have a server available to receive my email.

I guess while Congress is on an extended five-week vacation, my Representative’s office decided to give its email server a break, too.

I am well aware that contacting the offices of my two U.S. Senators and my U.S. Representative are futile wastes of my time and energy, but these are just about the only options I have to try to save our democracy. I won’t get a chance to vote again until November 2026, if Trump lets us have another election.

Just thought I’d let you know how we’re doing here in the United States.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, of the 1,457 roads that were closed in western North Carolina last September due to Hurricane Helene, 34 were closed, which is one less than reported the week before. As in the previous Friday’s report, the NC Department of Transportation reported that 39 roads have just partial access.

Progress is slow, but I will point out that here in western and the piedmont of North Carolina, we’ve had rain for the last two weeks. I’m not exaggerating. The sun came out on Friday. The sun and the blue sky were a welcome sight!

Of course, I-40 in North Carolina at the Tennessee border is still just one lane in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit for the foreseeable future

On a positive note, on Friday, the National Park Service reopened an 8-mile section of the Blue Ridge Parkway from Milepost 221.8 to 229.7 in North Carolina near the Virginia border. There was a landslide at Milepost 224.9 due to Hurricane Helene.

Friday’s opening makes it possible for visitors to once again drive on a 20-mile stretch of the parkway from Virginia to Doughton Park, including access to Doughton Park campground and The Bluffs restaurant.

Janet

Odds and Ends from the Past Week or So

We started this week with Trump’s announcement that he is deploying 800 National Guard soldiers to get rampant crime under control in Washington, D.C. in spite of the fact that major crimes there are at a 30-year low. Could it be that Monday’s announcement and nearly two-hour news conference were meant to distract us from the Epstein files and everything else that’s going on?

Trump announced on Wednesday that he is putting forth a crime bill which will in the beginning only pertain to Washington, DC. He said he will need National Guard troops in the district for more than 30 days and he will declare a national emergency if he has to. In other words, that’s all part of the “plan.”

In the last seven months, Trump has mastered the practice of solving problems that didn’t exist by declaring emergencies that weren’t happening.

Today, Trump and Putin will meet in Alaska to discuss the future of Ukraine. Too bad Ukraine was shut out of the negotiations. Trump and Putin are both so arrogant, that makes perfect sense to them. What could possibly go wrong?

Here are a few other highlights from this week. I can’t keep up with everything.

Transgender members of the U.S. Air Force

On August 7, 2025, the U.S. Air Force announced that all transgender members of that branch of the military are being forced out of the service. Service members with 15 to 18 years of service were allowed to apply for an exception, but they were all denied.

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the Pentagon permission to ban transgender troops. The Air Force is the first branch of the military to follow through. Even those who have served for 18 years are being forced out without retirement benefits. Their only options are to take a lump-sum separation payment or be removed from the service with nothing. Their service records are being reverted to their birth gender.

This is no way to treat members of our military. A PBS report quoted a master sergeant with 15 years of service including a deployment to Afghanistan as saying, “I feel betrayed and devastated by the news.”

National Weather Service needs people

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

You’ll recall that a few months ago, the Trump Administration said we didn’t need the National Weather Service any more, so hundred of employees were fired. Now it seems that after a record-breaking hot summer and a summer filled with floods in places that have not had floods before… the Trump Administration now wants to hire 450 people.

Someone must have told them this is hurricane season?

Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge

A 2023 land protection plan for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge provided for the refuge to be expanded by 700,000 acres in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, but the Trump Administration cancelled those plans so the land will be available for energy development and agriculture.

White House Protocol Snubbed

It is White House protocol for the official portraits of the three preceding Presidents to be displayed in the entrance to the building so visitors can see them.

In a typically petty move, Trump ordered the portraits of President Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, and President George H.W. Bush to be moved to locations where they cannot be viewed by visitors.

President Obama’s portrait was moved to the top of a staircase that is only used by the First Family, Secret Service, and certain staff. The portraits of both President George W. and George H.W. Bush were moved to the same staircase area.

Trump has snubbed them and moved their portraits, but that doesn’t mean I can include their pictures in my blog.

President Barack Obama Photo from the Library of Congress

President George W. Bush Photo from the Library of Congress

President George H. W. Bush Photo from the Library of Congress

Trump Golf Resort in Vietnam

As Vietnamese farmers are being paid a pittance for their land, the Trump Organization plows forward with construction of a golf resort in Vietnam. Trump wants us to think that the recently negotiated tariffs with Vietnam and the progress toward building the resort have nothing to do with one another.

He wants us to think it is coincidental that the trade tariffs on Vietnamese goods dropped from 46% to 20% at the same time his golf resort plans were being approved.

The 54-hole golf course for VIPs, luxury hotels and villas received swift approval in Vietnam as no fewer than six mandatory procedures, including environmental impact assessments, were ignored.

Reuters quotes the White House as stating, “the business deals of the Trump Organization are entirely separate from trade negotiations.” After all, President Trump’s personal assets are in a trust managed by his children>

Yeah, right!

Trump’s Impeachments & the Smithsonian

USA Today reports that Trump’s two impeachments have been reinstated in the Presidential Impeachments exhibit at the National Museum of American History. The report says, “Some text was changed between displays, specifically concerning Trump’s involvement with the Janu. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and accusations of election interference.” The article did not explain whether references to the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, and Trump’s election interference were included in the revised exhibit or omitted from it.

Kennedy Center Honors

Trump announced the 2025 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors on Wednesday during a long, rambling press conference. He said he will serve as master of ceremonies for the nationally-televised show even though he claimed that he does not want to do it. It seems the White House Chief of Staff convinced him that, even though he is the President of the United States, he should serve as the master of ceremonies. He went on to say that the TV ratings will be higher if he does it, so he has agreed to do it.

What a joke!

He say $257 million will be spent to rehabilitate the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He claims it has fallen into disrepair. Of course, that’s what he says about the White House, too.

He said new grass will be planted at all the parks in Washington, DC because the grass there is “old.” He says he knows grass because he owns golf courses. In other words, chemical fertilizer will be running freely through the parks in Washington, DC and I suppose sprinkler systems and grounds keepers with Ph.D.s in grass will have to be hired. Anything to keep a park from looking like nature!

He couldn’t leave well enough alone at his announcement and prese conference, though. He had to one again refer to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas,” and he had to rant again about how he actually won the 2020 election but it was “rigged.”

He was able to find the silver lining in being denied the Presidency in 2020, though, because it allowed him to win in 2024 and now he will preside over the World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028.

He managed to sneak into his comments that he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

One has to wonder if this manic state he’s been in all week will continue through tomorrow’s meeting with Putin. If Putin flatters him, it will only get worse.

Continued crackdown on Smithsonian

Photo of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC
National Portrait Gallery, a member museum of the Smithsonian Institution
Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash

Trump announced that eight institution members of the Smithsonian will initially be targeted for a thorough review of all exhibits. It is no accident that the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture are two of the eight museums Trump singled out for scrutiny.

The other six museums are the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Trump’s August 12, 2025, letter to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institutions stated, “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Frankly, Trump’s intrusion into the exhibits at the 21 Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo just destroyed the confidence I’ve always had for the Smithsonian.

He is rewriting history. This is un-American. This is an authoritarian act.

Janet

MASA? The Reimaging of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

“Make America Safe Again” appears to be the new slogan of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but I’ve never felt less safe in my life.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) thugs with masked faces in unmarked vehicles are turned loose to supposedly apprehend “the worst of the worst” among us. The Trump Administration’s catch phrase, “the worst of the worst” can be translated to “immigrant,” except for those who have married into Trump’s family.

In his ramblings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts yesterday he mentioned not letting people into the country if you don’t like what they look like. That pretty much sums up the outlook of his Presidency. He doesn’t want them counted in the U.S. Census either.

I have not seen ICE thugs in person. I live in a semi-rural area. But I’ve seen enough photographs and news reports. All this heightened militarization of the federal government only scares me, even though I’m white and was born in the United States. What’s to say ICE nabs me by mistake?

I keep procrastinating getting a new passport to prove I’m a citizen. It seems like I shouldn’t have to pay $195 just to have a document to prove I’m a citizen. I could just carry a copy of my birth certificate everywhere I go, just in case; however, that merely proves I was born here, and that’s not going to be sufficient after the U.S. Supreme Court lets Trump do away with the 14th Amendment.

What’s to say they nab me because I write uncomplimentary things about Trump? Come to think of it, my passport won’t do me any good if that happens. Maybe I don’t need a passport after all.

The Department of Homeland Security website

Something told me to visit the website for DHS (https://www.dhs.gov/) yesterday afternoon, but I wish I hadn’t. Now I can’t un-see it.

At the top of the home page is a stern-looking image of “Uncle Sam” pointing his finger at the person viewing the computer screen. The text: “AMERICA NEED YOU! America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out. JOIN ICE.” The words, “JOIN ICE” are in a clickable button for your convenience.

I’ve seen photographs of the “Uncle Sam Needs You!” posters that were used in the 1940s, but that was during World War II. “Uncle Sam” needed every American to sacrifice and serve in some way to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan.

Uncle Sam "I want you U.S. Army" poster
Photo from the Library of Congress

For a government agency to use that image today to target immigrants minimizes the importance of the country’s need in the 1940s. To conflate the immigration problems of 2025 with a World War is a slap in the face to my parents’ generation who survived The Great Depression and World War II.

But the DHS website only got worse.

Under the red, white, and blue banner of Uncle Sam pleading for your help is a photograph of Secretary Kristi Noem all decked out like a cowboy atop a horse. She is surrounded by more cowboys on horses like a posse tracking down the bad guys in a B-grade movie set in the 1800s out in the mythical “wild West.

The photo brings back memories of the “Gunsmoke” TV series from the 1950s. Not what I want to see in the United States in the 21st century – not even in a movie or TV program – much less in real life.

I suppose it is all part of the Trump Administration and MAGA’s fascination with guns.

Too many meaningless slogans

Under that bizarre photograph it says, “Making America Safe Again.” Just what we needed: one more “Make America _____ Again!” This has turned into a multiple-choice exercise in which you can fill in just about any adjective that comes to mind.

I would say this “Make America _____ Again” is a broken record, but there’s a whole generation of people out there who wouldn’t have a clue what that means.

I consider it a privilege of birth that I was born and have lived my entire life in the United States of America. I didn’t do anything to deserve that, and I have considered it a blessing.

But I have apparently been living under the misconception that America was a great country. Now, at the ripe old age of 72, I find out it was all a hoax!

This land of opportunity and freedom I have happily lived in all these years which afforded me a free public education and an affordable public university education and gave me the opportunity to earn a living as I chose was all smoke and mirrors! What a shock!

My entire life has apparently been a joke. I only thought I was happy. I only thought I was free. Little did I know all this time I’ve been living in a hell hole, according to President Trump.

Make America Great Again. Make America Healthy Again. Make America Safe Again. For about 24 hours back on July 20, we even had Make Indians Great Again because Trump wanted the Cleveland Guardians baseball team to revert to being the Cleveland Indians.

Frankly, I’m sick of every bit of this. All of these bombastic slogans being made by a failed but somehow famous convicted felon businessman who is running roughshod over the United States of America ring hollow.

What does “great” mean?

Trump’s idea of “great” is equivalent to money, lies, a façade. It’s all a house of cards and it will collapse.

Money does not equate with greatness, to my way of thinking. Greatness is found in how you treat other human beings – how you treat all human beings.

Greatness is not found in calling people stupid, idiots, lunatics, scum, criminals, etc.

Building yourself up by making all manner of false claims about your intellect and accomplishments is not greatness; it’s a sign of weakness and insecurity.

Here we are.

Janet