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.
For today’s blog post, I’m taking advantage of a local history column I wrote for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper on August 23, 2006.
If you enjoy this post, you might enjoy the books in which I published the local history column articles I wrote from 2006 through 2012, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2. The story I’m sharing today is found in Book 1.
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, by Janet Morrison
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2, by Janet Morrison
The articles I wrote for the newspaper came primarily from the history of Township One in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, but many topics would be of general interest to anyone who enjoys reading about history. They are specific to Cabarrus County, yet many of them are indicative of life in rural and small-town America since the 1700s.
My books are available at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC and on Amazon.
Sit back, and prepare to be transported to a simpler time in the 1870s.
“Pioneer Mills: No Place For a Preacher’s Son”
Did you know that there is a written account of a child’s memories of the Harrisburg area in the 1870s?
The Rev. Joseph B. Mack came from Charleston, South Carolina in 1871 to be the pastor of Rocky River Presbyterian Church. When he and his family arrived, the manse the congregation was building for his family to live in was not completed.
Church member Robert Harvey Morrison moved his own family into a tenant house and gave the new minister’s family his home in the Pioneer Mills community. Pioneer Mills was a gold-mining boom town in the early- to mid-19th century. It was apparently still a rip-roarin’ place in 1871.
Robert Harvey Morrison House
A special homecoming was held at the church on August 12, 1912. Rev. Mack’s son, Dr. William Mack, was unable to attend. He sent his regrets from New York and put some of his childhood memories on paper. Fortunately for us, his letter to homecoming master of ceremonies Mr. Morrison Caldwell was printed in the Concord newspapers the following week.
Dr. Mack wrote, “My first Rocky River recollection is getting off the train at Harris Depot and going in the dark to the home of Uncle Solomon Harris.” I don’t believe Dr. Mack was related to Mr. Harris. This was probably a term of endearment and respect.
He continued, “There we met Ed and ‘Little Jim’ (to distinguish him from ‘Big Jim,’ the son of Mr. McKamie Harris.) Uncle Solomon had the biggest fire-place I ever saw; it seemed as big as a barn door.
“Shortly afterwards we went to Pioneer Mills…. There… was the old Gold mine, Barnhardt’s store and McAnulty’s shoemaker shop…. While there I decided to become either a merchant or shoemaker, for Barnhardt’s store and McAnulty’s shop kindled young ambitions; better to ‘keep store’ or ‘mend shoes,’ than as a preacher’s son to be moving around from place to place.
“But Pioneer Mills was ‘no place for a preacher’s son.’ Soon we moved again; this time to the brand new brick parsonage, close by the church. We used to go to church in a big closed carriage drawn by two mules; now, every Sunday, we walked to church, going down a steep hill, across a branch, and through the grove to the famous old house of worship.”
Dr. Mack’s letter also read, “Those were happy years; happy in springtime with its apple blossoms, song birds, morning-glories and Tish McKinley’s Sassafras tea; happy in the summertime with its blackberries and plums, its bob-whites in the wheat fields, its lightning and thunder storms, its bare-footed boys and girls, and its bitter quinine to keep off third-day chills; happy in the autumntime, with its white fields of unpicked cotton and its beautiful trees with leaves of myriad hues; and happy in the wintertime, with its snows, its big hickory back-logs, its boys in boots red-topped and toes brass-tipped, its red-cheeked girls in wraps and ‘choke rags,’ and its Christmas Holidays and turkeys.”
Dr. Mack’s colorful memories paint an idyllic picture of life in Township #1 in the early 1870s. Will the children of 2006 have equally as wonderful memories?
(Published in Harrisburg Horizons newspaper, August 23, 2006.)
Resources: The Presbyterian Congregation on Rocky River, by Thomas Hugh Spence, Jr., 1954; The Concord Daily Tribune, August 16, 1912; and The Concord Times, August 19, 1912.
Hurricane Helene Update
As of Friday, of the 1,468 road closures in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene last September, 33 are still closed and 39 have partial access. Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line will be limited to one lane traffic in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit for the foreseeable future.
On a happy note, on Friday, a 38-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway opened from Asheville to Graveyard Fields and Mount Pisgah! This is south of Asheville.
Hurricane Erin
On the other end of the state, Hurricane Erin skirted the Outer Banks of North Carolina last week, dumping tons of sand and water on NC Highway 12. NC-12 is the only highway connecting Hatteras Island to the islands to the north. Crews are working to reopen the highway as soon as possible as the summer tourist season is winding down.
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 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 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 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 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 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.
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.
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
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.
“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.
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.
Along the lines of yesterday’s blog post, today I’m writing about the lack of a separation of church and state in public education in Oklahoma.
My concern is that once one of the 50 states in our country gets away with the eroding of the separation of church and state, other states with such leanings take note and follow suit.
The separation of church and state is in the very foundation of our country. My sister and I came across a blatant example of how things were in colonial Virginia while we were doing genealogical research.
One of our ancestors was in and out of jail in Virginia in the early 1700s for such things as “playing cards on the Sabbath.” What hit us in the face, though, was that every time he was put in jail for playing cards on the Sabbath, abusing a judge, or not paying his court fine, his fine was that he had to give the Church of England so many pounds of tobacco.
That was the law in colonial days, and it one of the root causes of the American Revolution.
It is no surprise, then, that the first clause in our Bill of Rights – the first clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
Ryan Walters in Oklahoma
Oklahoma School Superintendent Ryan Walters said on Friday that his state will no longer give statewide reading and math tests. Each school district will be left to choose what tests to give its students.
So much for trying to have a statewide standard in education.
Walters has been a controversial person as he set out from the beginning to disrupt education in Oklahoma. He made a name for himself by requiring every classroom to be equipped with a Bible with very specific criteria.
Only two Bibles on the market met those criteria: Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A. Bible” (endorsed by Donald Trump, who gets a commission for copies sold) and “We The People Bible” endorsed by Donald Trump, Jr. Greenwood’s Bible sells for $60 and Trump, Jr.’s Bible sells for a mere $90. Walters asked for bids to buy 55,000 of them. (Jesus must be so proud of both of them… er… all three of these men.
Last November, Walters emailed school superintendents across Oklahoma to announce that the State had purchased 500 “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bibles and required that students be shown a prerecorded video of the announcement. That video of Walters included his making accusations against his political opponents and then he transitioned into a prayer for “Trump’s [campaign] Team” and praying against Trump’s opponents. As State School Superintendent, Walters has no power to dictate curriculum.
What are Ryan Walters’ qualifications to be a state school superintendent?
He is a Republican.
He supports the book-banning organization Moms for Liberty.
He requested that teachers show their students a video of him praying for Donald Trump.
He lashes out against “woke ideology.”
He has accused teachers of trying to indoctrinate students.
He labeled the Oklahoma Education Association is a “terrorist organization.”
He says the separation of church and state is a liberal “myth.”
He claims the “left-wing media” hates the Bible.
The Oklahoma Education Association
Take a look at the “Vision, Mission, and Values” of the Oklahoma Education Association on the teachers’ organization website (https://okea.org/about-oea/) and tell me what indicates it is a “terrorist organization.”
Questionable ethics
Speaking at a town hall, Walters responded to, “How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of critical race theory?” by saying, “Let’s not tie it to the skin color and say that the skin color determined that.”
In May 2022, it was reported by newspapers in Oklahoma that even while working as the state’s Secretary of Education, Walters stayed on as the executive director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, a nonprofit organization that was somehow able to pay Walters $120,000 per year. The organization was/is funded by national school privatization proponents and charter school expansion advocates including the Walton Family Foundation and a group funded by Charles Koch.
It seems like an oxymoron for an advocate for the privatization of public schools to hold the office of Secretary of Education for a state. (North Carolina dodged that bullet in the November 2024 election.)
After successfully campaigning for reelection as State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2022, Walters was fined for 14 violations of Oklahoma political campaign finance ethics rules.
Conclusion
Standardized tests in the United States have been under attack for years. I am not personally qualified to say the tests are good or bad. I believe all such educational resources should be up for constant scrutiny to elevate the education of the children in the United States; however, to just eliminate the testing does not seem to be a good answer.
Leaving curriculum selection and testing up to each little school district is a recipe for disaster. Look at the individuals on your local school board. What are their qualifications for making such decisions?
It’s past time for Americans to start paying more attention to the names on a ballot and not just to those running for President. Government begins on the local level. I caution you against voting for anyone just because they seem to be “a good person.”
There are a lot of Rayn Walters-types running for office in the United States, so be careful who you vote for.
There are lots of wolves walking around in sheep’s clothing.
President Trump just can’t help himself, and I’m going to keep talking about it on my blog as long as I can. The day may come when I don’t have the freedom to do that.
This week has been brutal!
Let’s stop training mental health counselors
Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash
Even though every time there is a “lone wolf” terrorist attack or mass shooting in the U.S., there is an outcry for more mental health facilities and more mental health counselling.
So why did Trump stop a $10 million grant program to train mental health counselors?
Trump says he won’t run for a third term
Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution seems straightforward to me: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
Trump announced on Tuesday that he does not plan to run for a third term as U.S. President.
That’s big of him!
It isn’t known whether he plans to move out of the White House at the end of his second term, or whether he plans to just never leave office.
Anti-Science Trump
Trump has ordered NASA to destroy two satellites that provide detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. Just because Trump thinks climate change is a hoax does not make it so.
Farmers, scientists, oil and gas companies, among others, depend on the data gathered by those two satellites.
The American taxpayers paid $750 million for those satellites.
Trump on human biology
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Trump was truly on a roll Tuesday. He appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box and talked about how he believes undocumented immigrants are naturally made for farm work and people who live in inner cities can’t do it.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Here’s a quote from the show:
“We can’t let our farmers not have anybody,” Trump added of undocumented farm laborers, primarily of Hispanic origin, who are being targeted for deportation by his Department of Homeland Security. “These [are] people that you can’t replace them very easily – you know, people that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’re just not doing that work. And they’ve tried – we’ve tried, everybody tried. They don’t do it. These people do it naturally, naturally.”
I love how Rolling Stone summed up the incident: “It should go without saying that no group of people feels an intrinsic urge to cultivate the land for sub-livable wages and at constant risk of detainment and deportation, but the president doubled down.”
mRNA vaccine research cancelled
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced on Wednesday that the Trump Administration is cancelling $500 million in mRNA vaccine research. Kennedy, a lifelong vaccine-denier, claims there is a more high-tech way to develop vaccines. He also said there is no proof that mRNA vaccines work against respiratory viruses. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) beg to differ, saying the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine saved an estimated 14.4 million lives.
Twenty-two different research projects are being halted, including those studying the possibility of using mRNA vaccines in the treatment of cystic fibrosis and pancreatic cancer.
Who put RFKjr in charge of vaccines? Oh yeah… Donald Trump and the United States Senate.
This decision could wreak havoc with our health and our economy.
Trump pulls United States out of UNESCO
The White House announced yesterday that Trump is withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Trump considers UNESCO to have a “woke” and politically divisive agenda.
This outrageous!
When I wrote The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina for Arcadia Publishing in 2014, I proudly included the following: “The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization named Grandfather Mountain a member of the international network of Biosphere Reserves in 1992 because it supported 42 rare and endangered species.”
If Trump thinks by pulling the United States out of UNESCO he can erase that, he is wrong. My book stands as is, and I will not edit Grandfather Mountain’s UNESCO designation out of it!
How can one person encapsulate such a level of hatred for the beauty and wonder of the world?
ICE having trouble with recruitment?
Photo by Logan Weaver |on Unsplash
It warms my heart to learn that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is having trouble recruiting people to be Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, but Secretary Kristi Noem has come up with a solution. She announced the lifting of the maximum age cap and the lowering of the minimum age to 18.
Until this week a person could be no older than 40 years old to apply for the job. According to Noem, there is now no age limit and she welcomes teenagers to apply.
What could possibly go wrong with 18- and 80-year-old ICE agents?
Ex-Acting FBI Director Fired
Brian Driscoll was Acting Director of the FBI at the beginning of Trump’s second term, but Driscoll refused to give Trump a list of the FBI agents who worked on the January 6, 2021 attempted coup.
Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash
Kash Patel was eventually named FBI Director, but Driscoll had returned to serve in the agency in another position. That was until yesterday when Trump fired him.
All federal employees take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. But Trump demands loyalty to Donald J. Trump alone. If you remain loyal to the U.S. Constitution, he will fire you.
This is not the way things are supposed to be. Will Americans wake up before it is too late?
Breaking the Constitution to have another census
To add a measure of legitimacy to the rigging of the 2026 mid-term elections, Trump is calling for a federal census to be taken this year in which only U.S. citizens will be counted.
Under the law, the census has been taken every 10 years since 1790 and everyone has been counted – not just U.S. citizens.
I guess I need to dust off my passport application and get it submitted as soon as possible, in case my birth certificate does not prove I’m a citizen.
You see, in Texas the Republicans are trying to redraw the U.S. House Districts before the 2026 Congressional election and gerrymander the map to take away five predominantly Democratic districts and convert them into predominantly Republican districts. The bottom line is that Trump does not want to lose the Republican majority currently in the U.S. House.
There has been quite a stir over this very issue in Texas this week, and the U.S. House of Representatives hangs in the balance.
“Why Jefferson, Madison and the Founders Enshrined the Census in our Constitution”
“The U.S. Constitution empowers the Congress to carry out the census in “such manner as they shall by Law direct” (Article I, Section 2). The Founders of our fledgling nation had a bold and ambitious plan to empower the people over their new government. The plan was to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress.
“Enshrining this invention in our Constitution marked a turning point in world history. Previously censuses had been used mainly to tax or confiscate property or to conscript youth into military service. The genius of the Founders was taking a tool of government and making it a tool of political empowerment for the governed over their government.
“They accomplished that goal in 1790 and our country has every 10 years since then. In 1954, Congress codified earlier census acts and all other statutes authorizing the decennial census as Title 13, U.S. Code. Title 13, U.S. Code, does not specify which subjects or questions are to be included in the decennial census. However, it does require the Census Bureau to notify Congress of general census subjects to be addressed 3 years before the decennial census and the actual questions to be asked 2 years before the decennial census.”
Also: “Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution mandates that an apportionment of representatives among the states must be carried out every 10 years. Therefore, apportionment is the original legal purpose of the decennial census, as intended by our Nation’s Founders. Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states, based on the state population counts that result from each decennial census. The apportionment results will be the first data published from the 2020 Census, and those results will determine the amount of political representation each state will have in Congress for the next 10 years.”
That’s a long explanation, but it is really rather simple that the census be taken every ten years. If Trump thinks it will be simple for every U.S. citizen to produce documented proof of citizenship, he is woefully mistaken.
Someone needs to tell him that the U.S. Congress controls the taking of the U.S. Census – not the temporary occupant of the White House.
Resurrection of Confederate statues
Americans will never be able to move on from it’s 1861-1865 civil war as long as people like Donald Trump keep stoking the fire.
The National Park Service, which is operating with a skeleton crew after Trump eliminated thousands of park staff this year, apparently has enough employees left to reinstall the statue of a member of the Ku Klux Klan on the grounds of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department.
There had been requests made to Congress since 1992 to have the 11-foot statue of Confederate Army Gen. Albert Pike removed, but it stayed in place until the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Pike once wrote about the white race, “white race, and that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one that is fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall.”
It sends a chilling message that the Trump Administration is having Pike’s statue put back in place. It sends a strong message to all people of color: Racism is alive and well in the White House.
But that’s not all…
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in response to Trump’s “Executive Order On Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” is having a 32-foot bronze “Confederate Memorial” rebuilt and reinstalled in Arlington National Cemetery.
Sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the statue was installed in 1914 and depicts slaves supporting Confederate soldiers. The statue perpetuates the myth that slaves supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.
But Hegseth didn’t stop by just quietly having the Confederate Memorial reinstalled in Arlington National Cemetery. Apparently not knowing when to stop talking, Hegseth said, “It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.”
That’s rich, coming the week after Trump’s two impeachments were removed from the Presidential Impeachments exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Price of prescription drugs
Photo by Ali Rezaei on Unsplash
If someone in my family or circle of friends said that the price of drugs will decrease by 1,500%, I would assume that person had either had a stroke or had some form of dementia.
So why is it that the President of the United States can say that he is decreasing the price of prescription drugs by 1,500% and no one blinks an eye? He has said this several times.
I fear we have become so accustomed to Trump’s lies and nonsensical proclamations and rantings that we just accept it as, “That’s just the way he is.”
This is not something an adult with any level of intelligence or mental capabilities would say. Any fourth grader knows a 1,500% drop in the cost of a candy bar is a mathematical impossibility.
In conclusion
That’s just eleven things the Trump Administration did this week that I thought you might not have heard about.
I’m sorry this post is so long. Don’t blame the messenger.
The justice system in the United States is under attack. This is not a totally silent assault.
Photo on Unsplash
President Trump and his minions freely call judges names. Calling federal judges such things as “leftist” or “radical” or “deranged” or “monsters” or “idiots” has been a Trump rallying cry.
I don’t know if Trump understands the danger in doing this or whether he is just following the lead of his people like Stephen Miller who know it is a basic way to erode confidence and ultimately destroy the rule of law in our country.
A federal judge takes a vow “to follow the rule of law without fear or favor.”
The unique U.S. judiciary
We have a unique judicial system in the United States. Judges are independent of politics – or they used to be. Our judicial system is the envy of other countries where a national leader can call a judge and dictate how they rule on a case. Law students in the former Soviet Union marvel at our independent judiciary.
Attack on Judge Salas’ family
In July 2020, Judge Esther Salas opened the front door of her home in New Jersey and was met with an angry young man with a gun. Salas’ husband was shot and her son, Daniel, was shot and killed.
The cowardly assailant then turned the gun on himself and was dead when police arrived.
But the killer didn’t just wake up one day and decide to try to murder Judge Salas or her family. He was spoon fed hate speech from the President of the United States. If the President says judges are terrible people, it must be true. Right?
But it did not stop there. Not only has it not stopped; it is escalating.
Intimidation by Pizza
After Daniel’s murder, federal judges across the nation started receiving pizza deliveries – pizzas they had not ordered. Pizzas were being delivered “from Daniel.”
The message was clear: “Judge _____, we know where you live.”
Some adult children of federal judges who don’t even live in the same state as their parents have received such pizzas “from Daniel.”
The message to judges is clear: “Judge ____, we know who your children are and we know where they live.”
At least 50 federal judges have received unwanted pizzas “from Daniel.”
It goes beyond Intimidation by Pizza
Federal Judge Jack McConnell has received six death threats. Laura Loomer, one of Trump’s unofficial advisors, and Elon Musk have launched verbal attacks on his daughter.
Judge McConnell has been wrongly accused of judicial misconduct. A member of Congress went so far as posting a “Wanted!” poster in the halls of the U.S. Capitol with Judge McConnell’s photograph. There are unfounded articles of impeachment pending against Judge McConnell.
Federal Judge Robert Lasnik is being asked by younger judges, “How can I keep my family safe?” Judge Lasnik and his adult children have received pizzas “from Daniel.”
Federal Judge John Coughenour says he signed up for this, but his family did not. A SWAT team was sent to his home when someone told police that the judge had murdered his wife. Of course, it was not true. He has been the victim of bomb threats.
Federal Judge Esther Salas grieves that her dead son’s name is being weaponized by the people who hear Trump call judges names and take that as a call to action to intimidate and threaten the lives of judges. She says we need to recognize this for what it is: A real threat to our democracy.
Attacks from the White House are unprecedented
In the decade after the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1954, some judges who tried to enforce the desegregation of public schools ruling were victims of verbal assault; however, Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy supported the Supreme Court ruling.
For President Trump to now brazenly and proudly criticize court rulings and the judges who make them is unprecedented. Federal judges have never before been attacked by the U.S. President or White House staff.
This is serious. This is unacceptable.
This is a concerted attack on the independent judicial system in the United States of America.
What can we do?
We can educate ourselves about what is happening.
We can tell our friends and relatives what is happening, because this is more widespread than most of us realize.
We can explain to teens and young adults who are too young to know that attacks on judges is not normal that this is a direct result of the reckless behavior of President Trump and those who follow his lead.
We can speak up for justice and the rule of law every time we know it if being attacked.
“We the people” are the United States of America. It behooves each of us to defend the rule of law.
It’s hard to feel sorry for a wealthy university like Duke University that has an enormous endowment; however, the Trump Administration’s current little-publicized attack on the institution raises a larger issue.
Duke University will survive without federal grants, at least for a while. Its endowment can pick up the slack, at least for a while.
Exterior of Duke Chapel. Photo credit: Chuck Givens on unsplash.com
The larger issue is the Trump Administration’s continual attack on education on all levels. I believe Trump has no interest in education. He has no interest in what any school, college, or university teaches. He says, “I love the uneducated.” It might be the only truth he has ever spoken.
In a democracy, a president does not dictate university admissions or curriculum in public schools or private schools. In today’s United States, though, Trump believes he has that authority.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent Duke University a letter. Specifically, Kennedy and McMahon threatened the Duke University Medical School and Duke Health (the entire Duke Health healthcare system). If writing letters to threaten universities for having diversity, equity, and inclusion is the only thing the U.S. Department of Education is going to do now, perhaps it needs to be abolished.
The letter alleges that the medical school and healthcare system engage in “wrongful racial preferences” in hiring and admissions. The letter reportedly states, “This vile racism carries a host of excuses and hides behind a smug superiority that such ‘benefitted’ races cannot compete under merit-based consideration.”
Furthermore, the letter says, “Like all racism, ‘affirmative action’ undermines America’s commitment to merit-based justice and violates the nation’s civil rights laws.”
North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC, reports, “Kennedy and McMahon urge Duke administrators set up a ‘Merit and Civil Rights Committee’ to review its diversity policies ‘to avoid invasive federal engagement.’ The secretaries warn the university’s federal funding could be at risk if it doesn’t change course. ‘It is our hope that Duke Medical School and other components of Duke Health will either demonstrate that they merit the privilege of receiving taxpayer support or will enact reforms that make further enforcement efforts unnecessary,’ the letter said.
“McMahon and Kennedy ask the university to respond to the letter within ten business days.”
Earlier this year, nearly 600 Duke employees took voluntary buyouts after Trump slashed research funding. According to WUNC, “Cuts at the National Institutes of Health, along with reductions in Medicare/Medicaid funding could cost the university $350-600 million annually.
Duke plans to lay off more employees between August 5 and August 19.
That’s not just what Duke as an institution and business will lose: Duke Health operates Duke Children’s Hospital, Duke Health Lake Norman Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and Duke University Hospital, as well as 12 urgent care facilities.
But that’s not the only attack on Duke University
The U.S. Department of Education also sent Duke University a letter last week threatening the Duke School of Law’s student-edited Law Journal.
It seems that the law students are too open to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We have gone from recognizing that the playing field is not level to declaring that it is so level that to give anyone a hand up is a violation of everyone’s civil rights.
The playing field in the United States is not level, folks. For an alleged billionaire living in the White House to proclaim that it is level does not make it so. Someone who was born with a silver (or gold?) spoon in his mouth does not have the right to say that every person in America has an equal opportunity.
Those who say that white privilege does not exist are only fooling themselves. This falls into the category of “alternative facts” that the first Trump White House was famous for giving us.
It is easy in the United States today to place all the blame for our current demise of democracy squarely on Donald J. Trump’s shoulders; however, the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate and U.S. House are equally to blame now because both houses of Congress have supported every single thing Trump has done.
But to blame Trump and the U.S. Congress would be the easy way out.
You Voted or You Didn’t Bother to Vote
Photo by Mike Doherty on Unsplash
The American people voted. They elected Trump. In the 50 states, they elected the 100 U.S. Senators for staggered six-year terms. (One-third of the Senators are elected every two years.) In the 435 Congressional districts, they elected the 435 members of the House of Representatives last November. (They serve two-year terms.)
The American people voted for this, either by casting a vote last November or by not casting a vote last November.
This is on us, y’all.
Us.
The American people: those who either through a place of hate or through ignorance, voted for Trump and Republican Senators and Representatives AND those who were too lazy to cast a vote so they let those who did vote decide my future and yours.
If you voted for Trump and any other Republican, you are complicit. If you did not vote, you are complicit. You relinquished your vote and gave it to your crazy neighbor.
Perhaps you thought “my one vote won’t matter.” People have died to give YOU the right to vote. Don’t EVER take your right to vote for granted.
I say all this to get your attention so I can tell you how the way you voted or the fact that you didn’t bother to vote last November has real world ramifications.
Here’s One Example of Real-World Ramifications
The Trump Regime took control of the Smithsonian Institution in March. Trump claimed that some exhibits were “woke” and, in some instances, showed that the United States is not a perfect country.
Taking books off public school library shelves is not enough for Trump and his ilk. They are actively re-writing history.
The Removal of Trump’s Two Impeachments
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has now removed Trump’s name from the list of four U.S. Presidents who have been impeached. The reason? For aesthetic reasons. Museum officials say his name will be included in the list when the exhibit is redone.
Trump is the only U.S. President to have been impeached twice, but according to the Smithsonian Institution in August 2025, Trump was never impeached at all.
Let that sink in, my fellow Americans.
My Two Questions
If someone who lived in Germany in the 1920s through the 1940s were here today, I would ask them the following question: Does this behavior sound familiar to you?
If you live in the United States of America today, I ask you the following question: How can we make it stop, since we have elected a complicit U.S. Congress?
Just to be clear
Donald J. Trump was impeached on December 18, 2019, on grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Donald J. Trump was impeached a second time on January 13, 2021, on grounds of inciting an insurrection.
But nothing happened to Trump. Nothing.
Trump ran for President again in 2024 and was elected to a second four-year term beginning January 20, 2025.
Trump signed an Executive Ordered called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” on March 27, 2025, in which he directed Vice President J.D. Vance to “remove improper ideology” from every place under the Smithsonian Institution — the museums, research centers, and the National Zoo.
I Have Two More Questions
Don’t you just hate it when the National Zoo includes “woke left-wing radical lunatic” animals?
And don’t you just hate it when the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History tells you the truth?
Next up?
We’ll probably get a new and improved jobs report for the month of July. Trump didn’t like the one issued by Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so he fired her. A clear case of “shoot the messenger.”
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