I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
Once-a-week since November 25, 2025, I have blogged about a different story in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. Today’s post is about the seventh story in the book in which my great-great-great-great-grandfather, John Calvin McElwee, tells his granddaughter (my great-great-grandmother) about his experience the day that the Revolutionary War came to his family’s doorstep.
The Battle of Kings Mountain took place near the border of North and South Carolina on October 7, 1780. Hearing the first shots of the battle fired, John, his father, and one of his brothers ran from their house to join the battle. John was just 15 years old.
John, his brother, and their father are not listed in all accounts of the Battle of Kings Mountain, since they were not members of an organized military company that took part in the battle; however, they are mentioned in various publications.
It was fun to imagine my great-great-grandmother as a little girl sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he told her about his work as a weaver and what happened the day of the battle.
The McElwee’s house was on land that became part of Kings Mountain National Military Park and, therefore, the U.S. Department of the Interior had a draftsman measure and draw the house in detail. Having that information made the house come alive for me and made it easy for me to visualize how the family lived. Unfortunately, the house was demolished around 1934 when the land was acquired by the U.S. Government for the park.
How fortunate I am to have access to drawings and floor plans for my McElwee ancestors’ house from the mid-1700s!
This story is more creative nonfiction than short story. I could have created conflict within the family to make it more of a historical short story, but I chose not to embellish the facts of the family in that way. I hope you will enjoy it anyway.
You can find the paperback at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC, or ask for it at your local independent bookstore. Bookstores can order it from IngramSpark.
If you purchase my book and enjoy it, please give it a rating on Amazon and write a brief review of it for that site or Goodreads.com. Also, recommend it to your friends!
Word of mouth publicity is the best! Thank you!
Hurricane Helene Recovery Update
As of January 2, 2026, the North Carolina Department of Transportation has reopened 90% of the roads damaged by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Some 270 bridges and 870 culverts have been repairs or replaced. Twenty-four roads in the state remain closed due to the hurricane and, of course, I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge near the Tennessee line is still just one lane in each direction and a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit for months, if not years, to come.
The total monetary cost of damages is estimated by the NC Department of Transportation to be $4.9 billion. The State of North Carolina has spent $2.7 billion so far and has been reimbursed $411.46 million by the federal government.
Five years ago today, Trump and his MAGA followers attempted a coup in Washington, DC. To call it anything else would not serve the truth or history.
The White House website tells a much different story of that day. It is a narrative that Trump and his minions have espoused since that day. No matter what you do, as long as Donald Trump is in the White House, do not believe one word that is on WhiteHouse.gov.
Photo by Simon Ray on Unsplash
Trump and his followers think we will forget that Trump told the rioters on January 6, 2021, to march to the U.S. Capitol. He even claimed he was going with them. Of course, that was just part of the lie. They should have known that “President Bone Spurs” didn’t have the guts to enter the fray. He knew the Secret Service would never allow it. It was all bluster.
They think we will forget that Trump told the rioters, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
They think if they repeat the lies long enough and loud enough, the American people and the world will forget what they saw with their own eyes that day.
They think we will forget the Congressional testimony given under oath by witnesses, by the police officers who were beaten, crushed, and sprayed with bear spray and pepper spray that day.
They think we will doubt the words of the members of Congress who feared for their lives that day as they gathered to certify that Joe Biden had been lawfully elected United States President in November 2020.
Photo credit: alireza jalilian on unsplash.com
They think we will forget that the rioters built a gallows on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol that day and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.” Trump had turned on Vice President Pence because Pence refused to call the election rigged.
They think we will forget that Trump called them wonderful people and expressed his praise for them.
I watched live TV in absolute horror on January 6, 2021, as the rioters broke the windows of the U.S. Capitol, broke down doors, destroyed all manner of public property in that sacred building, broke into the offices of members of Congress, broke into the U.S. House Chambers, and rifled through papers.
Raphael Assouline on Unsplash
It was a wholesale desecration of the seat of American democracy. The historian in me prays that history books will give a fair, true, and honest explanation of January 6, 2021.
More than 1,500 rioters were charged with breaking various laws on January 6, 2021.
Joe Biden was inaugurated U.S. President on a tense January 20, 2021.
Donald Trump was somehow elected U.S. President on November 5, 2024, with 51% of the popular vote,
Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025, and immediately pardoned the rioters.
After campaigning on “America First” and not involving the U.S. in foreign wars or regime topplings, on Saturday he ordered the U.S. military to physically remove the dictator of Venezuela. On Sunday, he hinted that Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico might be next.
Yesterday, Assistant White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller questioned Denmark’s legal claim over Greenland.
Today, the White House Press Secretary said talks are taking place on how the U.S. will “acquire” Greenland and military action is “not off the table.”
Today Trump joked about possibly cancelling the next national election.
Trump’s modis operandi is to try to make a joke, then see how people respond. He continues to feed that “joke” by bringing it up again… and again… and pretty soon… he doesn’t present it as a joke but a possibility… and pretty soon… masked agents are in the streets snatching people, and military personnel are in Venezuela.
I continue to work on that historical novel I’ve told you I’m writing. Distractions will, no doubt, continue to try to derail that process. I will continue to keep up with politics and share my thoughts on my blog in 2026, but I will also keep writing that novel. Escaping to the 1760s in Virginia and North Carolina just might be what keeps me sane.
Last week I wrote a blog post for today. As a result of what Trump did on Saturday, though, it no longer seemed appropriate to use it. I’ll save it for another day, because it is about one of the stories in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
I have mentioned or alluded to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro before.
Flag of Venezuela Photo by aboodi vesakaran on Unsplash
On August 28, 2025 in my blog, Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, I wrote that Trump was quietly stationing U.S. Navy Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other military ships and planes off the coast of Venezuela. I wrote, “The official White House explanation is that it is an anti-illegal drug operation, but it is no secret that Trump wants to overthrow the Maduro regime.”
On December 10, 2025, in my blog, Trump’s National Security Strategy – The Western Hemisphere, I gave some details of Trump’s November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. Among other things, it talked about our use of lethal force and how American businesses would benefit. The NSS went so far as to state that any U.S. Government employee who interacts with countries in the Western Hemisphere must understand that it is “part of their job to help American companies compete and succeed.”
Now that Trump claims the U.S. will “run Venezuela” and we will “take back our oil,” I guess Trump and U.S. oil companies will be the beneficiaries of Saturday’s military action.
On December 31, 2025 in my A look back at 2025 blog post, I listed a few of the things Trump did last year. One of my paragraphs read as follows: “He thinks he has the right to oust the dictator in a South American nation because that country sits on a lot of oil. He claims Venezuelans are bringing massive amounts of illegal drugs to the U.S. in those tiny boats. In his mind, though, it is easier to claim they’re transporting drugs and obliterate all the evidence along with the people in the boats.”
What Trump did in the wee hours on Saturday morning gives Putin the greenlight to take Ukraine and other European countries. It gives Xi the greenlight to take Taiwan.
Trump has left the United States without a moral leg to stand on when any other dictator in the world decides to go off half-cocked and overthrow a government or a leader they don’t like.
Trump says Maduro is a “bad person.” Just because a country has a “bad person” in charge does not give the United States or any other country the right to overthrow that person and their regime. After all, most of us think Donald Trump is a “bad person.”
The United States has overthrown foreign leaders before. It has never gone well. It goes against the Constitution of the United States of America. It overrides the authority of the U.S. Congress when a U.S. President launches a military attack on another country.
This is not rocket science; it’s just political science. It is the very foundation of our nation. It is not difficult to understand for those of us who have lived here for seven decades. We learned the tenets of American democracy from birth in our homes and at school in our formative years. We have continued to learn it throughout our lives just by having the privilege of being American citizens.
It is beyond unfortunate that we now have a U.S. President who was either never taught those things or has chosen to ignore them. He thumbs his nose at the law and those of us who love America. He believes he is above the law, and those of us who obey the law are “losers.”
And that, my friends, is how we arrived at Saturday morning, January 3, 2026.
Maduro and his wife are now being held in a prison in New York City. It is said that they will be charged with running illegal drugs to the United States.
This is all smoke and mirrors by the U.S. President, for just a few weeks ago he pardoned the former leader of Honduras for his running of drugs to the United States. So why spend an estimated $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to overthrow Maduro? And he is just getting started. The hard work comes after the overthrow, especially when you have no plan and the American people are not behind you.
In Trump World, it all depends on who you are and what Trump can get out of you.
The American people don’t want to run Venezuela. We don’t want to make Canada our 51st state. We don’t want to steal Greenland from Denmark. We don’t want a $400 million ballroom at the White House. We don’t want Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We don’t want a massive arch in Washington, DC. We don’t want masked federal officers snatching people off the streets. We don’t want Trump’s face on our money or our national park passes. We don’t want Trump’s name on anything.
Americans want affordable healthcare and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) we can trust. We want our food inspected by a reliable U.S. Department of Agriculture. We want people to make a fair wage that will enable them to reach the American Dream of home ownership. We want religion left out of our public schools. We want university professors free to teach without government interference. We want our national parks preserved and not destroyed for the sake of gas and oil exploration. We want endangered species protected from extinction. We want a country where citizens are encouraged to vote without intimidation. We want a country where we are all just Americans and minorities are not labeled “other.”
We want a U.S. Congress with the guts to stop Trump’s power grab and overreach.
We want a U.S. Supreme Court that admits the error of their ways when they ruled that a sitting U.S. President cannot be held guilty of breaking a law.
We want a President who speaks and acts from a place of intelligence and empathy – not a gutter-mouth bully. Is it too much to ask that we have a President who speaks in complete sentences? Is it too much to ask for a President who honors the U.S. Constitution? Is it too much to ask for a President who does not call our citizens vicious names?
When I think back over 2025, the Thomas Paine quote that immediately comes to mind is, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
It is said that every generation thinks they are living in the worst of times – the most challenging times – of any previous generation.
If you’ve been reading my blog all year, you know I am not at all happy with the state of things in the United States. My political rants have pleased many of you and, no doubt, driven some readers away.
I majored in political science and minored in history in college. My Master’s degree is in Public Affairs/Public Administration. Although my early career in government is long ago in my past, I will forever be interested in the workings of government and the blessings of democracy.
The workings of the government and the blessings of democracy have been under attack in the United States since January 20, 2025, and there is no end in sight. In my wildest imagination, I couldn’t have anticipated what this year has been like.
The drama and trauma coming out of what’s left of the White House have been nonstop. The U.S. Congress has been a silent no-show. The U.S. Supreme Court has let us and the U.S. Constitution down repeatedly.
When I look back on 2025 in the future, it will fall in the category of one of the worst of my now 73 years. The years my parents died are in that category. The year that illness robbed me of my career and a way to make a living is in that category. The last four months of 2001 after September 11th fall into that category. That puts 2025 in the worst five years of my life. I don’t say that lightly.
The following paragraphs highlight the things that the U.S. President did in 2025. These are just the things that readily came to mind as I wrote this post. They are in no particular order.
We have a U.S. President who…
We have a U.S. President who is systematically plastering his name on everything from the U.S. Institute of Peace, to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, to a savings plan for infants, to a monstrous ballroom, to a new class of battleships that will lead us into the 19th century. It is traditionally known as an honor when a person has a building named for them; however, there is no honor in naming a building for oneself. Such an action only has negative connotations.
He has desecrated what is left of the White House with the gaudiest gold knickknacks on the face of the earth. He has nailed plaques about former U.S. Presidents written with vitriol on the outside wall of the White House. He plans to build an arch in Washington, DC that is sure to dwarf that one in Paris because, after all, in his eyes bigger is always better – no matter how ugly or inappropriate. We in the South have a word for this: tacky.
He had the entire East Wing of the White House demolished to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom after claiming the ballroom’s construction would come close to the existing building (the East Wing) but would not touch it. Just one of his countless lies.
Two days before Christmas, his Secretary of Homeland Security declared an emergency at the new Homeland Security headquarters on the old St. Elizabeth’s Hospital West Campus at 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Southeast, in Washington, DC so she could demolish 17 historic buildings there, including an Army hospital built in 1855. Declaring an emergency is a way to bypass the laws regulating the National Register of Historic Places. (St. Elizabeth’s West Campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1990 due to its historical and architectural significance.)
He orders boats to be blown to bits and oil tankers to be seized as if he is living in a pirate movie. He sends wannabe federal officers throughout the country to grab anyone who doesn’t have blond hair and blue eyes.
He sends his prisoners “back” to countries they have never been to before. He begs Norwegians to come live in America where they can give up their healthcare, education, weeks of annual vacation, and the right to breathe clean air.
He berates journalists and the memories of beloved individuals like Rob Reiner whom he deems unworthy of respect and “enemies of the people.”
He threatens to cancel the broadcast licenses of major television networks if they dare to report the truth about him.
He continues to have a bee in his bonnet over Greenland. Last week he appointed the Governor of Louisiana to spearhead our stealing of that vast land from Denmark. He wants Greenland so he can control the Arctic along with Russia.
He bombs ISIS in Nigeria because Nigeria sits on a lot of oil and natural gas. He claims he is bombing ISIS because the terrorist organization is killing Christians, but they aren’t just killing Christians.
He gets on national TV and yells at the American people for 18 minutes just before Christmas without taking a breath and Congress does nothing – as if this is normal behavior for a U.S. President. “Nothing to see here.”
He has alienated all our 20th century allies.
He thinks he has the right to oust the dictator in a South American nation because that country sits on a lot of oil. He claims Venezuelans are bringing massive amounts of illegal drugs to the U.S. in those tiny boats. In his mind, though, it is easier to claim they’re transporting drugs and obliterate all the evidence along with the people in the boats.
He buddies up to Vladimir Putin and sends one of his buddies to Moscow to coach Putin in how to negotiate peace in Ukraine as he hangs Ukrainians out to dry to lose massive amounts of their land and, ultimately, probably their democracy. He only wants to have a hand in ending the war in Ukraine because he thinks it will ensure him of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. He is jealous of President Barack Obama for receiving that honor. What he does not understand is that it is awarded for arms reduction, international cooperation, and human rights contributions. He fails on all counts.
He sits idly by as millions of Americans lose their affordable health insurance on January 1, 2026. It’s just a game to him and the Republican members of Congress who will never have to worry about their healthcare because they don’t have to pay for theirs. After all, they aren’t regular folks. Regular folks must pay for their own health insurance while also paying for the healthcare enjoyed by the President and members of Congress. The irony!
He repeatedly tells us that grocery prices have come down, months after he had an epiphany as he learned a new word: groceries. He called it an old-fashioned word, yet it was a new word for him. Never once in his life has he had to worry about where his next meal is coming from or who will prepare it for him.
He claims to “love the farmers,” but he pulled the financial rug out from under them when he ended the USAID program – not to mention the millions of children and adults who have and will starve to death or die of unnecessary illnesses due to the loss of American food stuffs and medicine.
He rips apart the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health in the name of saving money. He seems to delight in killing science and medical research and, as a result, anyone who benefits from medical or other scientific research. These evil-spirited actions by him and his administration have put the world’s health at risk and turned people from trusting tried-and-true vaccinations.
He punishes colleges and universities for welcoming immigrant and international students and for encouraging students to think for themselves and expose themselves to new ideas.
He has ended all federally-supported programs that encourage women or people of color to get an education and pursue careers. He has randomly said such professions as nursing and architecture are not professional careers and, therefore, people pursuing such careers will no longer be eligible for any federal loans/financial aid.
He calls the Department of Defense the Department of War because that apparently makes him feel like a big man. It shows how small a man he is. Remember how the Wizard of Oz projected his image so he would appear larger than he was? This is what is happening in the White House.
He shields himself and his friends from any punishment they might deserve for hanging out with the likes of Jeffrey Epstein and underage girls. He changes his tune daily about his association with Epstein, and “his” Department of Justice redacts entire pages of the Epstein files while claiming they’re only redacting the names of the victims.
His Christmas Eve message on social media called for CBS to euthanize Stephen Colbert. He didn’t use that word because he has a limited vocabulary, but we got the point. He says Mr. Colbert is filled with hate. Just because Mr. Colbert calls him out every night with jokes that are only telling the truth, our dear leader can’t take it. He proved years ago at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that he can’t laugh at himself. Small-minded, self-absorbed people cannot laugh at themselves.
He randomly calls countries he doesn’t like “sh%th*le” countries. He calls people from Somalia “garbage.”
And yet this man courts evangelicals and they continue to believe with all their hearts that he is a Christian? They cling to him. He is their golden calf. He is their savior. That, my friends, is one of the greatest mysteries of life and the most frightening part of this entire disaster.
I will, no doubt, continue to call out the wrongs, mistakes, poor decisions, and bad judgment I see coming out of Washington, DC in the coming year. I pray the worst of the Trump Administration is over, but I know I might as well be whistling in the wind. I fear things will continue to get worse, and I shudder to contemplate that we are not quite one-fourth of the way through this attack on our democracy.
The Resistance is alive and well. In the words of Sky, a tiny little girl I know, we will persevere!
On a brighter note
This has been an extraordinarily busy and mentally-rewarding year for me as a writer. As my list of published books grows, I can scarcely believe what I accomplished in 2025.
In 2025, I finished writing and published I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter; I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary; and Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
Those three books are available on Amazon and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, North Carolina, along with three of my earlier books: Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1; Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2; and the cookbook my sister and I compiled, The Aunts in the Kitchen: Southern Family Recipes.
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, a vintage postcard book I wrote in 2014 for Arcadia Publishing, is available on Amazon, from the publisher, and in some bookstores.
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison
In 1996, my sister and I compiled three Morrison genealogy books. Those are available through my website, https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com.
I haven’t made any New Year’s Resolutions. Have you? I’d love to know what you have resolved to do (or not do!) in 2026. Drop me a line in the comments below. Who knows? You might inspire me to adopt one of your resolutions!
Once-a-week, since November 25, I have blogged about a different story from my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
The sixth story in the book is “Whom Can We Trust? A Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence Short Story.”
Tradition tells us that Archibald and Maggie Sellers McCurdy built their log cabin in what is now Cabarrus County, North Carolina, in 1773. At that time, Cabarrus had not yet been formed out of the eastern part of old Mecklenburg County. Their house was on the National Register of Historic Places until vandals burned it down a few years ago. Sadly, I never did see the house, but I have seen photographs of it and detailed floor plans and exterior drawings have been preserved.
Archibald McCurdy’s gravestone at Spears Graveyard of Rocky Ri er Presbyterian Church, Cabarrus County, North Carolina
Those drawings and photographs made it easy for me to imagine the McCurdys’ lives. Theirs are names I’ve heard all my life. Archibald was a foot solider in the militia during the Revolutionary War. Maggie was a patriot in her own right, as she earned the name “She-Devil” by the British and Tories. I explain a couple of her feats in the Author’s Note at the end of “Whom Can We Trust?”
Marker placed at Archibald McCurdy’s grave by the Daughters of the American Revolution
The story is set in May 1775 at the time of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. I was inspired by a story I’ve heard all my life about what Archibald McCurdy did on the day that document was signed.
You can find the paperback at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC, or ask for it at your local independent bookstore. Bookstores can order it from IngramSpark.
Today is Bill of Rights Day in the United States. The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. Those amendments were ratified on December 15, 1791, when nine of the 13 states in the union at that time voted for their adoption.
The U.S. Constitution is a living, breathing document. Even when it was written, many people knew it was inadequate for the new nation because it gave the national government too much power and gave individual citizens and states too little power.
In fact, the U.S. Constitution itself was not ratified (adopted by three-fourths of the states) until there were assurances that amendments were going to follow. The process, though, was not as simple as one might imagine.
For Americans in 2025, the first ten amendments to the Constitution are taken for granted. They make sense to us. They appear to us as a neat little package we easily call the Bill of Rights; however, did you know that when the first Congress of the United States convened on March 4, 1789, they considered 145 proposed amendments?
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in their meetings in New York City over the next six and a half months to hear the debates! Can you imagine?
On September 25, 1789, the Congress submitted 12 of those 145 amendments to the states for consideration. Ten of the 12 were approved by the required nine states over the next 27 months and the Bill of Rights became the law of the land on December 15, 1791.
I tried in vain to find a list of those 145 proposed amendments online this weekend. It would be interesting to know what they were about and why only 12 of them were submitted to the states for consideration.
Even without knowing what the other 133 proposed amendments addresses, I can safely say that our lives have been much simpler since 1791 with a ten-amendment Bill of Rights instead of a 145-amendment Bill of Rights!
The Bill of Rights, condensed version
The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of religion, speech, and the press.
The Second Amendment guarantees us the right to bear arms.
The Third Amendment guarantees that in a time of peace, no citizen will be required to house a soldier without their consent, nor during a time of war except as prescribed by the law.
The Fourth Amendment guarantees us to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. (Unfortunately, I do not believe ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol are currently being held to that.)
The Fifth Amendment is more complex than the first four. It addresses the protection of our rights to life, liberty, and property. It talks about indictments, military actions, double jeopardy, not having to testify against yourself, due process of law, and the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. (The “due process of law” clause has been ignored in some cases this year by the Trump Administration. We have not heard the last of this.)
The Sixth Amendment guarantees us a speedy public trial by an impartial jury in the jurisdiction in which the alleged crime was committed when we are accused of a crime. It also addresses the right to obtain witnesses and assistance of legal counsel for our defense.
The Seventh Amendment addresses our rights in civil cases.
The Eighth Amendment protects us from excessive bail, fines, and “cruel and unusual” punishment.
The Ninth Amendment protects us from being denied our rights or disparaged by the rights that other people have. Just because a right is not listed in the U.S. Constitution, it does not mean that we do not have that right or those rights. Just because a right is not mentioned in the Constitution, the government cannot infringe upon it.
The Tenth Amendment states that powers that are not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution are, therefore, rights of the states or of the people.
Just for fun, when did the Eleventh Amendment come along?
Thinking about the Bill of Rights today, I was curious to find out how long after December 15, 1791, was the Eleventh Amendment ratified and what is it about? We never hear anything about it.
In 1793, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Chisholm v. Georgia that individuals from one state could sue the government of another state. The Eleventh Amendment was ratified in 1795. It protects states from being sued by individuals from another state or country. It established the principle of state sovereign immunity.
How many amendments have been proposed since 1787?
Since the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, approximately 11,985 amendments have been introduced in Congress. Most of them never made it off the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives or the floor of the Senate. Twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution have been ratified.
Janet
P.S. On Friday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to try to stop the construction of President Antionette’s 90,000-square-foot dance hall at the White House. The suit argues that President Antionette did not go through the legal review process for the project.
The courts have not been able to stop him on anything else, so it will be interesting to see where this case goes. I suppose if it goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court his buddies who form the majority of the court will vote for Trump to proceed with his little dance hall. Or, if they vote to stop him, he will just ignore their ruling. After all, he has already demolished the East Wing of the White House to make room for it.
“Let them eat cake.” Or, as he proclaimed last week with the Christmas season fast approaching, a child only needs one pencil.
In addition to the Western Hemisphere, the document addresses Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa – in that order.
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
Asia
As only a document coming out of the Trump White House can say, the Asia portion of the strategy begins with the words, “President Trump single-handedly reversed more than three decades of mistaken American assumptions about China: namely, that by opening our markets to China, encouraging American business to invest in China, and outsourcing our manufacturing to China, we would facilitate China’s entry into the so-called ‘rules based international order.’ This did not happen. China got rich and powerful, and used its wealth and power to its considerable advantage. American elites—over four successive administrations of both political parties—were either willing enablers of China’s strategy or in denial.”
That’s rich, coming from Trump who had so much of his Trump brand merchandise manufactured in China! And his daughter had her line of jewelry made in China! The Trump family took full advantage of the “mistakes” of precious U.S. Presidents and got richer and richer at the expense of the American factory worker.
The document goes on to state, “… the Indo-Pacific is already and will continue to be among the next century’s key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds. To thrive at home, we must successfully compete there—and we are. President Trump signed major agreements during his October 2025 travels that further deepen our powerful ties of commerce, culture, technology, and defense, and reaffirm our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. America retains tremendous assets—the world’s strongest economy and military, world-beating innovation, unrivaled “soft power,” and a historic record of benefiting our allies and partners—that enable us to compete successfully. President Trump is building alliances and strengthening partnerships in the Indo Pacific that will be the bedrock of security and prosperity long into the future.”
Several hundred words later, the Asia section of the document ends with, “We will also harden and strengthen our military presence in the Western Pacific, while in our dealings with Taiwan and Australia we maintain our determined rhetoric on increased defense spending. Preventing conflict requires a vigilant posture in the Indo-Pacific, a renewed defense industrial base, greater military investment from ourselves and from allies and partners, and winning the economic and technological competition over the long term.”
It appears that Australia was thrown into that last paragraph as an afterthought.
Europe
The European section of the National Security Strategy begins by throwing Europe under the bus, as Trump likes to do. He is critical of every country, including his own. Nothing is good enough. After laying out some supposed statistics (I say supposed because, sadly, I don’t believe anything the Trump Administration says), the document says if the current trend in Europe continues, “the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.”
The paper goes on to address the threat Russia poses with its nuclear weapons and the need to “reestablish conditions of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass, and to mitigate the risk of conflict between Russia and European states.
I find the following statement in the NSS interesting, considering the Trump Administration’s propensity to make it more difficult for U.S. citizens to vote and its blatant efforts to prompt states to gerrymander Congressional district lines to assure him of retaining the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
That statement: “A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes. This is strategically important to the United States precisely because European states cannot reform themselves if they are trapped in political crisis…. Not only can we not afford to write Europe off—doing so would be self-defeating for what this strategy aims to achieve. American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history…. Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory. We will need a strong Europe to help us successfully compete, and to work in concert with us to prevent any adversary from dominating Europe…. We want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.”
The document then addresses NATO and its future as “certain NATO members will become majority non-European.”
The Middle East
This section of the NSS begins by addressing energy and how the Middle East is not as important in that arena as it was for decades. It touts the fact that the U.S. is now an energy exporter. It also boasts that Trump has “revitalized” U.S. alliances in “the Gulf.” It says the threats to peace in the Middle East are not as strong as the news headlines indicate. It brags about the U.S. June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
Africa
The NSS document starts this section by criticizing past American policy in Africa as spreading liberal ideology. Instead, the Trump Administration seeks to partner with “select countries” to create trade to replace the foreign aid of the past.
This section of the document ends with, “The United States should transition from an aid-focused relationship with Africa to a trade- and investment-focused relationship, favoring partnerships with capable, reliable states committed to opening their markets to U.S. goods and services. An immediate area for U.S. investment in Africa, with prospects for a good return on investment, include the energy sector and critical mineral development. Development of U.S.-backed nuclear energy, liquid petroleum gas, and liquified natural gas technologies can generate profits for U.S. businesses and help us in the competition for critical minerals and other resources.
In other words, what’s in it for Trump? He can only see the world through the lens of business. That lens only sees how he can personally benefit financially.
I hate to have such a distrust for and poor perspective of a U.S. President. I don’t enjoy writing any of this.
What we have here in the United States is obviously a Wizard of Oz situation.
The White House quietly released the November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and posted it on the White House website. Since it is the announcement of the official U.S. foreign policy, there is usually a bit of fanfare with its release, but not this year.
Most Americans will never hear about it, much less read it.
It begins with a letter signed by Trump but obviously written by someone else. Probably Stephen Miller. Why do I say that? Simple. It is written in complete sentences.
The letter
That letter is enlightening because it does list the “eight raging conflicts” Trump claims to have put an end to in “just eight months” this year. In case you’re having trouble keeping up with the wars Trump has ended, here’s the list as found in this letter: Cambodia & Thailand, Kosovo & Serbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo & Rwanda, Pakistan & India, Israel & Iran, Egypt & Ethiopia, Armenia & Azerbaijan, and Israel & Gaza, although Israel is not named in the letter. (He wouldn’t want to show the government of Israel in a bad light, would he?)
The letter is full of bluster and boasts of all the amazing things Trump has done and all the “weakness, extremism, and deadly failures” of the Biden Administration. As only Trump can boast, the letter states, “Over the past nine months, we have brought our nation — and the world – back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster.”
The NSS document
The NSS document itself contains 29 pages of details of what the United States wants and what the United States wants from the world.
Some of the introductory remarks would be laughable if they weren’t so sad. For instance, “We want to maintain the United States’ unrivaled ‘soft power’ through which we exercise positive influence throughout the world that furthers our interests” rings hollow considering the Trump Administration obliterated USAID.
The sudden obliteration of USAID not only resulted in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children but also their preventable deaths by the withholding of medical treatments – not to mention how the cessation of the food aid programs hurt the American farmer terribly.
The paragraph that really made me gag, though, was this one:
“Finally, we want the restoration and reinvigoration of American spiritual and cultural health, without which long-term security is impossible. We want an America that cherishes its past glories and its heroes, and that looks forward to a new golden age. We want a people who are proud, happy, and optimistic that they will leave their country to the next generation better than they found it. We want a gainfully employed citizenry – with no one sitting on the sidelines – who take satisfaction from knowing that their work is essential to the prosperity of our nation and to the well-being of individuals and families. This cannot be accomplished without growing numbers of strong, traditional families that raise healthy children.” (Notice the subtle reference to “traditional families.”)
Dear Leader Kim Jong Un of North Korea couldn’t have written that paragraph better! Delete the words “American spiritual” and I would swear I was reading a translation of a statement by Kim or Xi.
A paragraph that sent chills down my spine, though, was this one: “We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States; …we want …; we want … ; and we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine;….”
It was “Trump Corollary” that got to me. Why does his name have to go on every cotton-picking thing?
The document goes on to delineate U.S. policy by region: The Western Hemisphere, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Introductory remarks that preface the regional details include, “The United States is by every measure the most generous nation in history – yet we cannot afford to be equally attentive to every region and every problem in the world.”
The Western Hemisphere
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
The so-called “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine involves making new partners and reconsidering our military presence in the Western Hemisphere. This seems to involve beefing up our Coast Guard and Navy presence “to control se lanes, to thwart illegal and other unwanted migration, to reduce human and drug trafficking, and to control key transit routes in a crisis.” It also includes “targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades.”
Also, “…as we prioritize commercial diplomacy, we will work to strengthen our security partnerships – from weapons sales to intelligence sharing to joint exercises.” This is in response to non-Western Hemisphere nations’ incursions of influence in recent years.
But the National Security Strategy goes on from there and seems to concentrate on the economy and what’s in it for United States companies. As a student of political science, it reads to me as a complete overhaul of the U.S. State Department and the responsibilities of our diplomats and State Department employees out in the field. This makes me cringe.
The U.S. “will reform our own system to expedite approvals and licensing – again, to make ourselves the partner of first choice. The choice all countries should face is whether they want to live in an American-led world of sovereign countries and free economies or in a parallel one in which they are influenced by countries on the other side of the world….
“All our embassies must be aware of major business opportunities in their country, especially major government contracts. Every U.S. Government official that interacts with these countries should understand that part of their job is to help American companies compete and succeed.
“The U.S. Government will identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and present these opportunities for assessment by every U.S. Government financing program, including but not limited to those within the Departments of State, War, and Energy; the Small Business Administration; the International Development Finance Corporation; the Export-Import Bank; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
“We should also partner with regional governments and businesses to build scalable and resilient energy infrastructure, invest in critical mineral access, and harden existing and future cyber communications networks that take full advantage of American encryption and security potential.
“The aforementioned U.S. Government entities should be used to finance some of the costs of purchasing U.S. goods abroad. The United States must also resist and reverse measures such as targeted taxation, unfair regulation, and expropriation that disadvantage U.S. businesses. The terms of our agreements, especially with those countries that depend on us most and therefore over which we have the most leverage, must be sole-source contracts for our companies. At the same time, we should make every effort to push out foreign companies that build infrastructure in the region.”
The part about U.S. State Department – or any other U.S. Government employee – who interacts with countries in the Western Hemisphere to understand that it is “part of their job to help American companies compete and succeed” is a 180-degree change in the purpose U.S. Government employees. It is not part of the job of a State Department employee to promote American companies! At least, it wasn’t part of their job until last Friday. That is absolutely not the job of the U.S. diplomatic corps!
I suppose this being put in writing by the Trump Administration should come as no surprise. After all, the U.S. State Department no longer makes “peace agreements;” it makes “deals” because Trump has an overwhelming lack of understanding or appreciation for the traditional functions of government in a democracy.
Western Hemisphere Command
It was not a coincidence that we learned on Thursday or Friday that two U.S. military command centers will be moving to Fort Bragg here in North Carolina over the next year as a new “Western Hemisphere Command” has been announced.
Possible blog post tomorrow
If I can recover from reading the Western Hemisphere portion of the National Security Strategy, I will blog tomorrow about how it addresses Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The advisory committee on vaccinations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were hand-picked by notorious vaccine-denier Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He just happens to be Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He received the blessings of and confirmation by the U.S. Senate to serve in that capacity.
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
There are things I would like to say to and about the Senators who voted to approve Kennedy for that Cabinet position, but I will temper my remarks here. To give a person who for decades has promoted conspiracy theories about vaccines to Secretary of Health and Human Services was a travesty.
When the U.S. Senate approved the likes of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, and Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security… we get what they voted for: dangerous incompetence.
When people held their noses and voted for the likes of Donald J. Trump for U.S. President, we got what they voted for: dangerous incompetence and a colossal hatred for anyone who isn’t a rich, white male.
What we have now is a growing avalanche of physicians and other medical professions telling us not to trust anything that comes out of the CDC, the Federal Drug Administration, or Health and Human Services. Let that sink in!
On December 5, Trump said he supported the recommendations of the CDC vaccine advisory committee (many of whom are known vaccine deniers) in their recommendation that we abandon the 1991 CDC recommendation that all newborn babies in the U.S. receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
Apparently, Trump knows just as much about immunology as the quacks and Republicans on the advisory committee. Having a medical or any level of a health degree was not a prerequisite to be on the committee. Let’s just let any person off the street who supports Trump form new vaccinations policies and schedules for all Americans. What could possibly go wrong?
The hepatitis B vaccine decision flies in the face of medical data. In 1990, approximately 20,000 infants in the U.S. got hepatitis B. In 2020, twenty infants in the U.S. got hepatitis B. The vaccine not only prevents the liver damage caused by hepatitis B. It also prevents the liver cancer that can result from that liver damage.
It remains to be seen how this ill-advised new CDC policy will play out over the coming years. Will pharmaceutical companies limit production of the hepatitis B vaccine? Will parents who want their newborns to be protected from this highly-contagious disease be able to get the vaccine for their children? No one knows the answers to those questions.
A memo that Trump signed on Friday praised the new CDC recommendation and went on to endorse the new policy that instead of leading the world in health science, the CDC will now follow the lead of “peer, developed countries.”
I guess it’s fortunate that Trump’s children and grandchildren were all vaccinated as newborns before this 34-year-old mandate got scrapped last week. His future grandchildren and great-grandchildren might not be so fortunate.
When Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” we didn’t know he thought the CDC was part of the swamp.
We are left to wonder if the CDC will survive three more years of attacks by Trump and Kennedy.
Meanwhile, in Washington, DC last week…
In a move that is so blatantly racist and narcissistic, the Trump Administration removed Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth as days that all our national parks could be visited for free and replaced them with… you are not going to believe this… Trump’s Birthday!
This is not a joke. This is the truth. You can’t make this stuff up!
The United States of America used to be a nation of laws, or am I naïve?
I did not plan to blog today, but something came to my attention that I can’t let slide.
Amnesty International has issued a 48-page report. I thought it was going to be a report on the organization’s findings throughout the world but, no, it is a report on detention facilities in the State of Florida. 48 well-documented pages.
The U.S. Detention Center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” due to its location in the Everglades and the manner in which it was publicized by the Trump Administration and the early reports that came out of there, has completely fallen off the radars of news organizations. With Border Patrol and ICE activities in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis-St. Paul dominating the news cycles along with the Epstein Files and whether the United States is going to bomb Venezuela and force a regime change in that country… “Alligator Alcatraz” cannot compete for attention.
Thank goodness it hasn’t fallen off Amnesty International’s radar. The organization’s report this week paints a horrible picture of conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
I know there are Americans who glibly turn a blind eye to any reports that put the Trump Administration in a bad light. They seem to think it’s acceptable for the U.S. to bomb boats in international waters and launch multiple attacks to kill any survivors. They also tend to agree with Trump that anyone who ends up in a detention center is sub-human and deserves horrible treatment. Many of these people also claim to be Christians. This baffles me, but that isn’t the purpose of today’s blog post.
(And why is Trump’s good buddy, Steve Witkoff, giving Putin advice on how to negotiate with Trump? But I digress.)
Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash
I cannot easily summarize the report in this blog post, but here are a few highlights:
Lights are on around-the-clock;
Although the United Nations considers solitary confinement lasting more than 15 days to be torture, but at “Alligator Alcatraz,” some detainees have been in solitary confinement for more than 100 consecutive days;
Inadequate/ill-maintained plumbing results in toilets overflowing and flooding cells;
Detainees are allowed one five-minute shower per week;
Mold, insects, and rodents abound;
Food is often spoiled or maggot-infested;
Medical and mental health care are often withheld;
At least four detainees have died due to medical neglect;
Detainees are effectively dropped from the immigration court system because ICE and GEO Group refuse to report them to other government authorities;
Guards have used pepper spray in closed cells and then denied decontamination;
Sexual assault is occurring;
Detainees are punished if they complain about conditions;
Force-feeding has been used without proper medical oversight
There are 1,400 detainees being held there now at a facility built for 700;
ICE renewed GEO Group’s contract to operate the facility inspite of all the evidence that the company is not maintaining current standards of incarceration in the United States; and
The Department of Human Services Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties has not inspected “Alligator Alcatraz” since July 2025.
My thoughts
Call me a “bleeding heart liberal” if you wish, but I would ask you if this is now the acceptable penal standard in the United States of America? Do we aspire to be a “Third World” country?
Is anything on the above list making “America Great Again” or did I misunderstand Trump’s campaign promise?
If you are all right with our country treating detainees horribly, then you and I have fundamental differences in how we interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the letter and spirit of the United States Constitution.
The sobering lines of Martin Niemoller’s much-quoted “First they came” statement/poem come to mind.
They haven’t come for me yet, but I feel compelled to speak up for the least of these among us and alleged atrocities committed by the United States Government or its private contractors such as GEO Group.
I love my country. That is why it hurts so much when we fall short of our potential and our history.
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