The Book I Read in July 2025 & Why It Stood Alone

You know a reader is in trouble when the only book she read in the month of July was a cookbook!

The Scottish Cookbook: Hebridean Baker, by Coinneach MacLeod

Photo of the front cover of The Hebridean Baker by Coinneach MacLeod
The Scottish Cookbook:
The Hebridean Baker, by Coinneach MacLeod

This was a fun read. I doubt I’ll try any of the recipes, but the recipes are interspersed with stories about the islands in the Outer Hebrides. They were interesting and the photographs brought back memories of my visit to Lewis and Harris.

Some of the recipes sounded interesting, but I was primarily drawn into the stories MacLeod shared. The photographs were beautiful and took me back to my wonderful trips to the Outer Hebrides and my dear friends on the Isle of Lewis.

More than a reading slump

Those of you who have followed my blog over the years have, no doubt, noticed that I have read very few books this year. In one or more blog posts I have blamed my slump on the current threats to our American democracy. That was not an idle excuse. It is very much the reason I have read almost no fiction in 2025. In conjunction with that same reason, I have spent an inordinate amount of time writing blog posts up to six times a week instead of my former usual of once a week.

However, this summer there has been a third reason for my lack of reading novels. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you know what I’m talking about.

I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter

A couple of years ago, I started writing a devotional book. Imposter Syndrome set in, and I put it away.

Imposter Syndrome tells a person that they aren’t good enough. It says to a writer, “Who do you think you are? You can’t write a book!” It says to the writer of a devotional book, “You’ve got to be kidding! You have no formal religious training! You have no degrees in theology!”

Late this spring, I decided to publish my devotional book anyway. Due to the nature of the subject matter, I needed to get it out before winter set in.

Self-publishing a book requires one to jump out of the boat and into the water at the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim.

I’ve done that before. I self-published two local history books, two historical short stories, and a cookbook through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). However, KDP being part of Amazon, I soon learned that bookstores are not interested in selling your books. Amazon is seen as a bookstore’s enemy.

You live and learn. It just takes some of us longer to learn than it takes others.

In the spring I started researching IngramSpark. A book self-published through IngramSpark can be ordered by bookstores and libraries!

Those of you who know me well, know that I am not computer literate. Those of you who know me very well know that I have memory problems that make it incredibly difficult to learn new things. Having to learn a new computer program, for instance, is just about my worst nightmare.

It was with more than a little apprehension that I created an account with IngramSpark and jumped into the deep end of a new pool.

My summer has been a whirlwind of learning new things, editing words I wrote a while back, and adding contemporary examples. I learned new marketing techniques and have tried my best to implement them.

In my July newsletter, I offered Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) for the first time in my life. There was a learning curve there as I had to create a special ARC book cover. I also learned who in my small circle were willing to accept a free ARC and who were not. The timing wasn’t right for some people. It is all part of the process. Writers are required to have thick skin.

I anticipate the release in early September of I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter.

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

Be on the lookout for more specific announcements!

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 remain closed, which is the same number reported for the last three weeks. The NC Department of Transportation reports 40 roads have just partial access, which is a decrease of two roads since the previous Friday.

In case you missed my weekly update on July 26, here’s a link to that blog post in which I gave the National Park Service’s three-phase plan for reopening the Blue Ridge Parkway: Books Banned at U.S. Department of Defense Schools.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Alert!

In a related story, on Saturday, US-441/Newfound Gap Road – the only road that crosses the entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Cherokee, North Carolina to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, was closed due to heavy rainfall causing the undercutting of a section of the road in Tennessee by Walker Prong Camp Creek between Mile Marker 12 and Mile Marker 13.

The entire road was closed for evaluation, but part of it in the North Carolina part of the park has reopened. There is no estimate of when the Tennessee portion of the road will reopen. The stated detour route is I-40, which is still just two lanes and 35 mph due to the massive damage done last September by Hurricane Helene.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have time and are in the mood to read a good book – fiction or nonfiction.

Remember the people of Ukraine, the starving children in Gaza, and the people of western North Carolina still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene last September.

Janet

AI, Copyright Infringement, Trump, and Mark Twain

I would love to rant about the 90,000-square-foot $200 million gold ballroom that is to replace the East Wing of the White House beginning in September, but I won’t chase that rabbit today. I had already planned to write about artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright infringement today.

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

I hate to have to “beat a dead horse,” as the saying goes, but AI is on my mind. I’m just a novice author, but this hits home.

What could Mark Twain possibly have to do with AI? Trust me. I’ll get to that.

You may have read my July 16, 2025, blog post, My soul is worth more than $205.

I’m just small potatoes in the big scheme of things in the publishing industry, but even some of the most famous authors are being taken advantage of my AI.

David Baldacci

I will mention David Baldacci as an example. Many of you are, no doubt, fans of his novels.

Baldacci has testified before a Congressional committee because even he has been victimized by AI.

You can tout the wonders and benefits of AI all day long, but when it steals your intellectual property, you might change your tune.

Baldacci said to that Congressional committee, “I truly felt like someone had backed up a truck to my imagination and stolen everything I’d ever created.”

Along comes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The Trump Administration has a long track record of using intellectual property without the creator’s permission. They use music without permission and First Lady Melania Trump gave a speech that was almost verbatim a speech First Lady Michelle Obama had given.

The latest incident occurred on July 1, 2025, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted a painting by the late Christian artist, Thomas Kinkade on X without his estate’s permission.

The Kinkade Family Foundation has asked Homeland Security to take the image down from X.

Furthermore, his estate says, “At The Kinkade Family Foundation, we strongly condemn the sentiment expressed in the post and the deplorable actions that DHS continues to carry out,” Kinkade’s family wrote, “Like many of you, we were deeply troubled to see this image used to promote division and xenophobia associated with the ideals of DHS, as this is antithetical to our mission.”

When will the Trump Administration learn that everything in the world does not belong to them?

Pending AI Court Cases

As of July 25, 2025, there were 29 “literary works” ongoing cases before the federal courts. Other AI cases before the federal courts were 11 “visual works” cases, five “musical works” cases, three “sound recording” cases, one “audiovisual” case, and one “computer program” case about copyright infringement.

Wise words on the subject from Mark Twain

You might be asking, “How could Mark Twain have said anything about AI?”

Artificial Intelligence was pure science fiction in Mark Twain’s day – if it was even fanaticized at all, but he said something about a machine writing a story. It precisely captures my feelings about AI and literature.

Photo of Samuel Clemmons (a.k.a. Mark Twain) from Library of Congress

I just happened to be reading “How to Tell a Story,” by Mark Twain Tuesday afternoon. (Disclaimer: Mark Twain has been one of my favorite authors since I was in elementary school.)

The point of Twain’s essay is the oral telling of a story and not the writing of one, but I think his main point applies perfectly to the conflict in 2025 between the creative writing by a human and the collection of words generated by AI.

Twain begins this essay with the words, “I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told, for I have been almost daily in the company of the most expert story-tellers for many years.”

He goes on to say that there are various kinds of stories but the only one that is difficult to write or tell is the humorous one. He maintains that, “The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter.”

Twain explains that the humorous story meanders before getting to the point and, in fact, might have no point other than to entertain. On the other hand, he says the comic and witty stories “must be brief and end with a point.”

He says, “The humorous story is strictly a work of art – high and delicate art – and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous story – understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print – was created in America, and has remained at home.”

I won’t go into Twain’s detailed description of how a humorous story is told, for that would take you down a rabbit hole and distract you from the point of my blog post.

Suffice it to say that Twain claims that an American storyteller meanders and gives the impression that he or she is not even aware that the story is funny, while the teller of the comic or witty story across the pond not only tells the audience in the beginning that they are going to tell a comic or witty story but also starts to laugh at the punch line before they even reach it. Twain says, “It is a pathetic thing to see.”

In “How to Tell a Story,” Twain relates a story about a wounded soldier. First, he presents it in the straight forward way the story teller in England, France, Germany, or Italy would tell it.

Then, he tells it like someone in America would tell it in a simple and innocent yet sincere way by going off track and possibly adding details that were not in the original or are not necessary to the story.

Twain says, “This is art and fine and beautiful, and only a master can compass it; but a machine could tell the other story.”

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Remember the people of Ukraine, the starving children in Gaza, and the people in western North Carolina who are still recovering from Hurricane Helene.

Janet

More Matters of Concern

Here are some items I did not have room to include in this morning’s blog post.

Artist cancels showing at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

Photo of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC
Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash

The artist of a 2018 portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama has withdrawn from her schedule showing at the National Portrait Gallery after being told one of her paintings was not acceptable in light of President Trump’s March Executive Order regarding museums.

Amy Sherald’s painting “Trans Forming Liberty” depicts the Statue of Liberty as a transgender woman. After being told she could not include the painting in her show, Sherald informed the secretary of the Smithsonian in writing that, “it has become clear that the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived.”

This would have been the first National Portrait Gallery’s showing… ever… by a Black contemporary artist.

The Smithsonian is “disappointed,” but not as disappointed as I am about what the Trump Administration is doing to free expression, science, medical research, and the treasure that was the Smithsonian Institution.

Columbia University caved in to Trump

Photo of part of the Columbia University campus in New York City. Photo by Tobias Pfeifer on Unsplash

So it can continue to admit international students and receive federal funds, Columbia University caved in to the bully. Under the guise of being concerned about Jewish students being discriminated against on Columbia’s campus, the Trump Administration strong-armed the university into bending a knee and paying $220 million for alleged violation of U.S. antidiscrimination laws.

In the agreement last Wednesday, Columbia is supposed to get to keep billions of dollars for research grants. Columbia must revise its admissions policies, campus protest policies, and its curriculum.

The university’s acting president, Claire Shipman, says the agreement protects Columbia’s values and autonomy, but it isn’t clear how that is possible with the Trump Administration dictating admissions, protests, and curriculum.

The Trump Administration calls the agreement “a road map for settlements” as it eyes other colleges accused of not addressing antisemitism.

When the students return to camp in September, it will be interesting to see if they are allowed to protest Israel’s bombing of Gaza and starving the Gazans by restricting food aid.

As I recall, that’s what started this whole thing.

And now Trump has turned his sights on the medical and law schools at Duke University. Anything to disrupt medical care and medical research, I guess. Some 600 Duke University staff have taken early retirement buyouts so far.

A reversal from the U.S. Department of Education

This is the first positive thing I’ve been able to report about the U.S. Department of Education since Inauguration Day. After North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and 19 other state attorneys general and governors sued the U.S. Department of Education for freezing $5.5 billion nationally, the Department Secretary caved! That means North Carolina will get the $165 million it had counted on until the Trump Administration pulled the plug.

U.S. Aid to Gaza

While in Scotland on Sunday, Trump whined for several minutes because nobody thanked the United States for giving $60 million in aid to Gaza. He claimed that no other country had given Gaza anything.

No one wants to see a U.S. President whine. Of course, he also cheated at golf while in Scotland, too. And he bad-mouthed President Biden, the mayor London, and a bunch of other people.

Is Netanyahu delusional or what?

Netanyahu says there is no starvation in Gaza. The whole world sees it. Even U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia admits it is true. It has to be pretty horrific for Marjorie Taylor Green to admit something.

Sadly, the United States is complicit because it continues to support Israel in its war on Gaza. This stopped being “self-defense” a long time ago, Netanyahu. It stopped with the indiscriminate bombing of schools, hospitals, and residential areas. It stopped being self-defense when Israel stopped allowing food and medicine to enter Gaza. The food drop last week was too little, too late – and that’s the nicest thing I can say about it. Israel only did that to try to appease the growing public outcry about the starving children.

Meanwhile, U.S. Representative Randy Fine of Florida, who happens to be Jewish, put this on X on June 2: “Tell your fellow Muslim terrorists to release the hostages and surrender. Until then, #StarveAway.” As far as I can determine, he has not changed his anti-Gaza stance. He would probably say he is just anti-Hamas, but it is the total population of Gaza that is bearing the horrors of this war.

How can someone who is wealthy enough and well enough connected to be elected to the United States Congress and live in the richest country in the world – and probably never missed a meal in his life — have no compassion for starving children?

The level of white privilege and hatred in so many Americans who are in positions of power boggles the mind.

The First Lady Melania Trump Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Photo of Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Photo by Santeri Liukkonen on Unsplash

Yes, you read that correctly. U.S. Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho is chair of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. He tucked the provision into the fiscal year 2026 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, which passed the Committee on Appropriations 33 to 28.

The proposal was written into the fiscal year 2026 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. The measure was approved by the Committee on Appropriations with a vote of 33 to 28.

One has to wonder how long it will be before the name “TRUMP” will be plastered on the outside of the building in giant gold letters. How long will it be before the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is painted gold? 

Two Items of Good News

President Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is not running for the United States Senate from North Carolina in 2026.

Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is running for the United States Senate to fill the seat vacated by Thom Tillis in 2026.

Until my next blog post

I hope you are reading a good book.

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

Janet

A Few Matters of Concern

For those of you who cannot watch the news any more “because it’s too sad,” I apologize. You might not want to read this blog post.

There is just something deep down inside me that compels me to comment on the continuing dismantling of our democracy.

Some doctors in the United States are now telling their patients not to keep up with current events because it’s not good for their health. Mine hasn’t told me that yet, so I’m steamrolling forward.

(I am making a point to listen to relaxing music every day now though, so that’s a positive result of Donald Trump’s reelection. I highly recommend the hammered dulcimer and guitar instrumentals of Steve and Ruth Smith.)

What’s in store for CBS?

Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the merger/takeover of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, by Skydance. The new company will apparently be called New Paramount.

It seems to me a more accurate name would be 19th Century Paramount, for that’s what the FCC chair and the folks at Skydance plan to do.

I’m going to quote FCC chair Brendan Carr, because I want those of you who missed it to see just what kind of person we have in charge of the FCC, which issues all TV and radio broadcast licenses. Aa thinking person, I find Mr. Carr’s attitude to be beneath the level of trust and integrity his office holds (or used to). Here’s what Mr. Carr said in a statement issued along with the FCC’s decision:

“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”

Carr also stated, “In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum. Skydance will also adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media.”

From what I gathered online and on news broadcasts, among other things, Skydance promised not to have any diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at New Paramount. And Paramount promised to donate $16 million to the Trump Presidential Library. (That’s the greatest oxymoron I’ve ever heard!)

Will all the people of color and all the women at CBS and all the other media Skydance will now own need to find employment elsewhere? Will there be no more people of color or women in the movies made by Paramount Studios?

One can’t help but wonder what the future of broadcasting will be in the United States with Trump and his ilk in charge.

If you voted for Trump last November, is that what you wanted? If it is, please don’t tell me. I really don’t want to know that about my blog readers.

National Science Foundation

Photo of a row of microscopes
Photo by Ousa Chea on Unsplash

We know from many things the Trump Administration has done that he is anti-science. I mean, you can’t fire medical researchers at the National Institutes of Health and be pro-science. Simple as that.

The National Science Foundation is speaking out about politically motivated actions that have been taken to derail the traditional peer-review process related to grants. Instead of outside peers reviewing grant applications, Trump has directed grant proposals to be screened for political compliance first. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff will now decide which scientific research proposals are approved for federal grants.

We can safely assume there will be no grants approved for scientific research related to race, climate, or LGBTQ+ health.

More than 1,600 National Science Foundation grants were suddenly cancelled by DOGE on July 3, 2025.

The long-range ramifications of three-and-a-half more years of Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of both houses of Congress cannot even be imagined in the area of scientific research in the United States. I hope other countries will fill in the gap.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule came about in 2001 because there was a backlog in repairs to roads in our national forests. Repairs and maintenance of park roads were too expensive, so this rule was adopted under which no new roads were to be developed in national forests to save money and to protect the environment.

Guess what the Trump Administration wants to do.

Contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, even if you know it will do no good. Be able to tell your children and grandchildren that you tried to save the national forests.

Federal lands in New Mexico to be drilled

Photo of four oil drilling rigs
Photo by Documerica on Unsplash

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced last Thursday the federal government’s profit of $58,260,929 from the gas and oil leasing of 7,502.76 acres of “our” land in New Mexico.

The press release from the Bureau of Land Management did not use the word “profit.” The statement referred to the 58 million dollars as “revenue.” That sounds so much better than calling it “profit” or “blood money.”

New Acting President of U.S. Institute of Peace

The new Acting President of the U.S. Institute of Peace – a taxpayer-funded agency – is white supremacist Darren Beattie. So now the person overseeing the U.S. State Department’s efforts to fight extremist rhetoric is a man who actively traffics in it.

His website publishes January 6 conspiracy theories. He lost his job with the first Trump Administration because he attended a white supremacist conference, so why is he back?

Confirmation of Emil Bove

The Senate confirmed former Trump lawyer Emil Bove in a 50-49 vote for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge yesterday, ignoring complaints about his conduct from Justice Department employees.

Bove was one of Trump’s personal lawyers. The message this sends to his other attorneys is that if they remain loyal to him, they can look forward to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge, too.

Someone, please stop the madness.

Until my next blog post

Keep reading whatever you can.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Remember the people of Ukraine, the people of western North Carolina, and the starving children of Gaza.

Janet

“Bonus Army” Evicted from DC in 1932

I had never heard of the “Bonus Army” or this incident until I stumbled across it while looking for blog topics I could write about on or near — their anniversary dates. This one belonged on yesterday’s blog but got crowded out by the 157th anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Since the “Bonus Army” needed its own day on my blog, that’s today’s topic.

Why the name “Bonus Army”

As the federal government is prone to do, it came up with a plan to reward individuals who served in the military during World War I but there was a catch. They couldn’t receive their “bonus” payment until 1945 – nearly 30 years after their combat service.

Established by Congress in 1924, the so-called “Tombstone Bonus” would be paid to World War I veterans in 1945 to thank them for their service.

It brings to mind the case of soldiers who were in the American Revolution in the 1770s but were not eligible for a pension until 1832 when most of them were dead.

There seems to be a pattern here.

But then came The Great Depression

The stock market crashed in 1929, and by 1932 things were not getting any better.

Desperate for financial relief, 400 World War I veterans gathered in Portland, Oregon. Led by veteran Walter M. Waters, on May 17, 1932, they left Portland on a donated train and traveled to Iowa, from where they had to walk and hitchhike the remaining 900 miles to Washington, D.C. to make politicians acknowledge their dire straits.

“Bonus Army” participants demonstrating in front of an empty U.S. Capitol in summer of 1932. (Photo from Library of Congress; taken by Underwood & Underwood)

Other veterans learned of the movement and headed to Washington, D.C. By June 1, 1932, there were 1,500 veterans in the nation’s capital to plead with Congress and President Herbert Hoover to find a way to give them their bonus checks early.

The veterans camped out in various locations across Washington, D.C. The Anacostia Flats site was the largest of their shanty towns at 30 acres. It gained the name “Camp Bartlett” because it was John H. Bartlett, the former Assistant Postmaster General and former Governor of New Hampshire who owned the land and let the veterans camp there.

Anacostia Flats encampment in Washington, D.C. in 1932. (Photo from Library of Congress, from the Harris & Ewing Collection)

On June 1, D.C. Police Superintendent Brigadier General Pelham D. Glassford asked Congress for $75,000 to feed the veterans, but the request was denied.

In mid-June, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the immediate payment of the bonus, but the U.S. Senate rejected it. President Hoover had said he would veto the bill if it passed in both chambers.

Photo taken in 1932 at one of the Bonus Army encampments in Washington, DC. (Photo from Library of Congress; taken by Harris & Ewing, photographer)

Veterans kept coming to Washington to plead their case. By the end of July, 1932, it was estimated that up to 20,000 of them had arrived.

It did not end well

In an action that rattles one’s nerves even to read about it 93 years later, on July 28, 1932, President Hoover ordered the U.S. Army and local police to remove all the protesting veterans from Washington.

General Douglas MacArthur led the mission. George S. Patton, whose name we all know from World War II, also participated. In an ironic turn of events, one of the veterans expelled from the nation’s capital by Patton was Joe Angelo, the soldier who saved Patton’s life in World War I.

Some 3,500 U.S. Army infantry and cavalry troops were called up to rid the city of the marchers. Of that number, 800 were actively used in the mission while the other 2,700 were held in reserve.

Violence ensued as the marchers resisted, but they were no match for the fire power of the U.S. Army. Five tanks manned by soldiers with machine guns, troops using tear gas and bayonets, and troops with torches setting fire to the encampments was more than the unarmed veterans could overcome.

Some of them thought they would be safe at Camp Bartlett, since it was on private land and the order to evacuate had only mentioned federal lands. They soon learned that Camp Bartlett was to be cleared also.

General MacArthur threatened to have a civilian bystander arrested for shouting, “The American flag means nothing to me after this!” at the troops.

One of the marchers, William Hashka of Chicago, was shot and killed near the U.S. Capitol.

Excuses and reactions

In a statement that sounds all too familiar to us in 2025, President Hoover claimed that many of the marchers were not veterans. He said they were Communists and criminals.

Falling in line with Hoover, MacArthur said only ten percent of the marchers were veterans.

Vice President Charles Curtis was heckled about the incident while making a speech in Las Vegas on July 29. He responded with, “You cowards, I’m not afraid of any of you.”

Police Superintendent Glassford said on July 29 that the use of federal troops had caused the trouble and that it could have been handled peacefully.

Does any of this sound familiar to you in 2025?

Some newspapers across the nation endorsed Hoover’s actions, while others called it “sheer stupidity.”

In 1936, the World War I veterans received their bonus, but it took Congress overriding President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s veto to accomplish it.

During World War II, in 1944, Congress passed the G.I. Bill to assist veterans.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Don’t forget the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina – or the starving children in Gaza.

Janet

#OnThisDay: 14th Amendment Ratified in 1868

Today is the anniversary date for two events that warrant our attention. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on July 28, 1868 – 157 years ago today.

And on July 28, 1932, U.S. President Herbert Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to remove the protesting World War I veterans from Washington, D.C.

To give each of those events their due attention, I will blog about the 14th Amendment today, and I will blog about the “Bonus Army” tomorrow.

The 14th Amendment

The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

Until the recent past, we never heard much about the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and many of us would have been hard pressed to have told you what it was about without looking it up.

Now it is front and center and will be a major issue before the U.S. Supreme Court when they reconvene this fall.

The 14th Amendment is known as “The Birthright Amendment.” It came about immediately after the Civil War to extend citizenship to formerly enslaved individuals; however, the words “formerly enslaved,” “slave,” “slavery,” “Africa,” “African” or any other such qualifiers do not appear in the document.

The Trump Administration wants to abolish the 14th Amendment. Trump claims that it only applies to the people who were slaves prior to the Civil War. If successful in proving that before the U.S. Supreme Court, it will mean that the children of undocumented immigrants will no longer be awarded U.S. citizenship.

That is a major political and legal issue, so it will be incumbent upon the U.S. Supreme Court Justices to weigh all aspects of the matter carefully. Regardless of the Court’s ruling, a lot of people are going to be angry.

People who do not want citizenship to be automatically granted to a baby born on U.S. soil argue that other countries have no such law.

Background information about the 14th Amendment can still be found at https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment.

It’s not just Section 1 of the 14th Amendment that makes Trump uneasy. I imagine Section 3 makes him and some politicians nervous in light of the January 6, 2021, attempted coup.

The text of the 14th Amendment

AMENDMENT XIV

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Hurricane Helene Update

Sign blocking travel by car, bike, or on foot on National Park Service property on Blue Ridge Parkway at Asheville, NC, June 10, 2025
Barricade on Blue Ridge Parkway beside entrance to Folk Art Center at Asheville, June 10, 2025

12 more miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina have reopened from Milepost 305.2 near Beacon Heights and U.S. 221 to Milepost 317.5 at U.S. 221 near the Linville Falls community!

The Linville Falls spur road, campground, picnic area, and visitor center remain closed, due to hurricane damage.

There were at least 57 landslides across almost 200 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Recovery has been broken down into three phases. The 12-mile opening last week is one of 12 projects included in Phase 1. When that phase is completed this fall, some 48 miles of the Parkway will have been restored.

Phase 2 includes the repair of 21 landslides in eight areas which are mostly located between Milepost 318.2 and Milepost 323.4, south of Linville Falls. It is hoped that Phase 2 will be completed by the fall of 2026.

Phase 3 is in the planning stage. During that phase, repairs will be made to 23 sites between Milepost 336.7 and 351.9, which lies between Little Switzerland and Mount Mitchell. There is no published timeline for the work to begin or be completed in Phase 3.

I have driven the entire 252 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina many times and its 207 miles in Virginia at least once, but I doubt I will live to see it fully rebuilt.

If you are planning a trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, you can find current information at https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/helene-impacts-and-recovery.htm. Just be aware that most of it in North Carolina is still closed.

As of Friday, of the 1,457 roads that were closed in western North Carolina last September due to Hurricane Helene, all but 34 are now completely open, which is the same as the prior week’s report. The NC DOT reports 42 roads have partial access.

I-40 at the Tennessee line is still lust opened with a total of two lanes and a 35-m.p.h. speed limit. A report I heard on TV last week said it will take years to fully reconstruct the interstate highway.

Until my next blog post

Keep reading everything you want to read – and some things you don’t want to read but need to read.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina and the children in Gaza who are starving to death through no fault of their own.

Janet

Books Banned at U.S. Department of Defense Schools

Not to be outdone by the State of Tennessee (see yesterday’s blog post: https://janetswritingblog.com/2025/07/24/public-school-libraries-in-texas-and-monroe-county-tennessee/), the U.S. Department of Defense is doubling down on books in the schools it operates for children of military personnel.

Black and White photo of an old outdoor sign that says, "Books"
Photo by Paolo Chiabrando on Unsplash

On July 14, 2025, the Defense Department banned 596 books from its schools.

Here’s an article about it: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/07/14/here-are-596-books-being-banned-defense-department-schools.html.

Here’s a link to the court case with a list of the 596 books: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iKxUEllBpsap4cmH_vfWtzv0h069jkSc/view. (If this link does not work, you can get to it through the military.com article linked above.)

If you don’t have time to read the complete list, here are 70 of them:

(I guess it goes without saying that many books on the list were obviously about gender identity, but the following are books that don’t all into that assumed category.)

A History of Racism in America, by Craig E. Blohm;

A Smart Girl’s Guide to Racism & Inclusion: Standing Up to Racism and Building a Better World, by Deana Singh and Shellene Rodney;

Ab(solutely) normal: short stories that smash mental health Stereotypes, by Nora Carpenter and Ricky Callen;

All You Need is Love: Celebrating Families of All Shapes and Sizes, by Shanni Collins;

Anti-Racism: Powerful Voices, Inspiring Ideas, by Kenrya Rankin;

Be Your True Self: Social Justice and You, by Maribel Valdez Gonzalez;

Better Than We Found It: Conversations to Help Save the World, by Frederick Joseph, Porsche Joseph, and Taylor Denise Richarson;

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Thinks, and Do, by Jennifer L. Eberhardt;

Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person, by Frederick Joseph;

Black Lives Matter, by Marty Gitlin;

Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir, by Walela Nehanda;

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson;

Confronting Racism, by Scientific American Editors;

Critical Perspectives on Social Justice, by Jennifer Peters;

Discrimination, by Jacqueline Langwith;

Equality and Diversity, by Charlie Ogden;

Equality, Social Justice, and Our Future, by Sabrina Adams;

Gender Inequality in Sports: From Title IX to World Titles, by Kirstin Cronn-Mills;

Heads Up Sociology, by Chris Yuill and Christopher Thorpe;

How to Be a (Young) Antiracist and How to Be An Antiracist, by Ibram W. Kendi;

I Am An Antiracist Superhero, by Jennifer Nicole Bacon and Leticia Moreno;

It Doesn’t Have to Be Awkward: Dealing with Relationships, Consent, and Other Hard-To-Talk About Stuff, by Drew Pinsky and Paulina Pinsky;

Male Privilege, by Duchess Harris and Heidi Deal;

Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad;

Racial Bias: Is Change Possible? by Barbara Diggs;

Racial Discrimination, by Peggy J. Parks;

Racial Justice in America: Topics for Change, by Hedreich, Leigh Ann Erickson, and Kelisa Wing;

Racism in America: A Long History of Hate, by Meghan Green;

Say the Right Thing: How to Talk about Identity, Diversity, and Justice, by Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow;

So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo;

Symptoms of Being Human, by Jeff Garvin;

The Antiracism Handbook: Practical Tools to Shift Your Mindset and Uproot Racism in Your Life and Community, by Thema Brayant-Davis and Edith Arrington;

The Antiracist Kid: A Book about Identity, Justice, and Activism, by Tiffany Jewell and Nicole Miles;

The Book of Radical Answers: Real Questions from Real Kids Just Like You, by Sonya Renee Taylor;

The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, by Matt Taibbi and Molly Crabapple;

The Dog Knight, by Jeremy Whitley and Bre Indigo;

The Feeling of Falling in Love, by Mason Deaver;

The Feminism Book, by Georgie Carroll and Hannah McCann;

The Greatest Superpower, by Alex Sanchez;

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander;

The Other Talk: Reckoning With Our White Privilege, by Brendan Kiely;

The Ship We Built, by Lexie Bean and Noah Grigni;

The Sociology Book, by Christopher Thorpe, Chris Yuill, Mitchel Hobbs, Megan Todd, Sarah Temley, and Marcus Weeks;

The Sum of Us: How Racism Hurts Everyone: Adapted for Young Readers, by Heather C. McGhee;

This Book is Anti-Racist, by Tiffany Jewell and Aurelia Durand;

Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, by Lind Villarosa;

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, by Ta-Nehisi Coates;

What is Anti-Racism? by Hendreich Nichols and Kelisa Wing;

What is the Black Lives Matter Movement? by Hendreich Nicols and Kelisa Wing;

What is White Privilege? by Leigh Ann Erickson and Kelisa Wing;

When Women Stood: The Untold Story of Females Who Changed Sports and the World, by Alexandra Powe Allred;

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, by Robin J. DiAngelo;

White Privilege, by M.T. Blakemore;

White Privilege Unmasked: How to Be Part of the Solution, by Judy Ryde;

J is for Justice! by Veronica Arreola;

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, by Beverly Daniel Tatum;

How Can I Be an Ally? by El-Mekki Fatima;

Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America, by Michael Dyson;

How to Fight Racism: A Guide to Standing Up for Racial Justice, by Jemar Tisby;

Racial Justice, by Virginia Loh-hagan;

An ABC of Equality, by Chana Ewing;

Coping with Hate and Intolerance, by Avery Elizabeth Hurt;

Confronting Racism, by Maryellen Lo Bosco;

Respecting Diversity, by Anastasia Suen;

Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, and Identity, by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi;

What is Diversity, by David Anthony;

When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times, by Maya Christina Gonzalez;

This is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias, by Tanya Lloyd Kyi and Drew Shannon;

Prejudice, by Izzi Howell;

You Call This Democracy?: How to Fix Our Government and Deliver Power to the People, by Elizabeth Rusch;

There were also seven AP Psychology books on the list.

In conclusion

There is a definite pattern here.

The very topics that are tearing our country apart are being banned from Defense Department schools, grades kindergarten through 12th grade.

Ignoring that racism, diversity, gender inequality, and gender identity exist will not make them go away, no matter how much the white supremacists, misogynists, history deniers, and evangelicals want them to.

If we as citizens of the United States cannot read about our problems and differences, face them, acknowledge them, and have an honest conversation about them, how will we ever overcome them?

Until my next blog post

Find a book on this list and read it!

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

Public School Libraries in Texas and Monroe County, Tennessee

I was flabbergasted a couple of weeks ago to learn that a law had passed in Texas that will turn public school library book selection on its head.

Photo of opened books scattered on the floor
Photo by Vrînceanu Iulia on Unsplash

As of September 1, 2025, school boards in Texas will select all books for public school libraries instead of professional librarians. I’ll bet the Texas state legislators thought it would be easy-peazy, so let’s just let the local school board members do it.

Local school board members tend to be just regular people. Most of them do not have college degrees in library science. Dare I go out on a limb and say that none of them do? How many course hours have they studied library collection development?

Why is it that humans assume their job takes a high degree of training and skill, but no one else’s job carries any requirements?

Since I live with a retired public school librarian, I have a ton of questions.

Can all the local school board members in Texas read on a 12th grade level?

What do they know about reading levels?

What do they know about age appropriateness?

Do they know how time-consuming the book selection process is?

Do they know anything about book selection, such as where to even get a list of books available for school libraries?

Do they know how to balance book selection against a budget?

Do they know who the award-winning authors and illustrators are?

Do they know what books are already on the shelves in all the schools in their district so they can avoid duplication and maintain a balance of subject matter?

Do they know everything that is taught on every grade level so they can be sure to order books that will supplement or enhance what is being taught in every classroom?

Does a school board have to be unanimous and vote on each book?

I could list more questions. Those 10 are just the ones that came to me immediately when I read the news report.

What are they thinking in Monroe County, Tennessee?

I read on Sunday that in a report from PEN America that book banners are going after books about cats. No one seems to know why book banners have a vendetta against our little feline friends, but it is happening in Iowa, Florida, and in Monroe County, Tennessee.

Monroe County has banned almost 600 books from its public schools. The Complete Book of Cats and The New Encyclopedia of the Cat are just two of the cat-related titles being pulled from the school library shelves.

I don’t even know what to say about that. I love dogs. I don’t like cats very much (aside from being fascinated by the beauty of tigers), but I would never want books about cats to disappear from libraries.

But wait! On Monday, I learned that one of the books banned from schools in Monroe County is The Complete Book of Dogs, by Rosie Pilbeam! Now they have gone too far!

You can’t go around banning books about dogs! You just can’t! That’s un-American. Dogs are love universally. Every library in the world should have books about dogs – and even cats.

Why in the name of everything reasonable is Monroe County, Tennessee banning cat and dog “encyclopedias” from school libraries? What if that 8th grader or 12th grader aspires to be a veterinarian? Is that student not supposed to learn about animals until they get to college? How ridiculous!

In what universe does it make sense to ban books about cats and dog?

In what world does it make sense to ban ANY books?

Digging deeper into this on the internet, I found that this is the result of Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act, which went into effect this summer.

In addition to apparently any book about cats or dogs, the usual book banners’ target are on the list: To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, Grapes of Wrath, Hidden Figures, Brave New World, Animal Farm; and Aztec, Inca, and Maya.

In my opinion the book above all others that should not be on anyone’s banned books list is Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterley. Heaven forbid a young black girl (or brown girl, or white girl) reads that book and is inspired to be a mathematician!

All kidding aside about dogs and cats, how dare they take Hidden Figures off the public school library shelves! How dare they!

There is such a thing as age appropriateness, but books should not be banned anywhere.

What are they afraid of?

Fortunately, Monroe County, Tennessee, only has a population of 46,250 as of the 2020 U.S. Census, so it’s book banning decisions won’t affect a huge number of children. But, since the Tennessee Age-Appropriate Materials Act applies to the entire state, will other county school systems follow Monroe County’s lead and ban the same 574 books?

North Carolina has some faults, but I’m so glad I don’t live in Texas or Monroe County, Tennessee! How embarrassing for the people there.

A bit of good news out of Washington, DC!

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced on Monday that the U.S. Department of Education decided to unfreeze the money it froze a week or two ago that was earmarked for after-school programs. This means North Carolina will get $36 million of the $165 million the Department of Education originally said it was freezing.

Jackson vowed he will see the U.S. Department of Education in court to try to recover the other $130 million.

Until my next blog post

Read anything and everything you can get your hands on.

Don’t let anyone tell you what you should not read.

Look for my blog post tomorrow about the 596 books the U.S Department of Defense has banned this month from the schools it operates for the children of our military personnel.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

Political Jokes and the First Amendment

In the old days, if a king didn’t like the court jester’s jokes, he could have him executed. In some countries, that might still be the case.

Photo of a piece of paper coming out of a typewriter. The words, "Freedom of Speech' are typed on the paper.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

But in America, we have First Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution… or so we thought until last Thursday.

That was when CBS announced the May 2026 end of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Colbert will not be replaced. The show will cease to exist.

CBS says it was purely a financial decision, but it seemed more than coincidental for it to happen to a show whose host keeps us laughing five nights-a-week as he masterfully puts a humorous spin on that day’s latest pronouncements and blunders made by Donald Trump.

There is nothing coincidental about it, and we all know it – no matter how many of Trump’s minions get on TV and try to convince us that it was.

Here’s the background, as reported by The Washington Post on July 18:

“On July 1, the announcement came that the network’s parent company, Paramount Global — which needs Donald Trump’s administration to approve the pending sale of the company to Skydance Media — was settling (rather than fighting) the president’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview of then-candidate Kamala Harris. They will be paying the president $16 million. Before the settlement, CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens both left (or were made to) after registering their disapproval. Those who remain are clearly shaken. “Can you hold power to account after paying it millions?” John Dickerson, the anchor for “CBS Evening News,” said while reporting on the deal the day the settlement was announced. “Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust?”

Photo of a microphone.
Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST on Unsplash

Trump’s cult members go on CNN and try to convince us that Stephen Colbert “isn’t even funny.” The Republicans have lost any sense of humor they ever had. Colbert is hilarious, and he’s been known to poke fun at politicians of all stripes.

Stephen Colbert, from everything I’ve heard, read, and seen is a descent guy. He does not hide his Roman Catholic faith, nor does he use it to shame or beat someone over the head with it. It is just part of his being and he is not ashamed to mention it on occasion when doing so seems appropriate.

He is never mean-spirited in his jokes. He is a consummate professional who goes out in front of a live audience five nights-a-week to offer them a release from the stresses of every day life.

Mr. Colbert’s father and two of his brothers died in a plane crash in 1974 when Colbert was just 10 years old, so he knows loss and grief on a very personal level. It gives him a heartfelt empathy for others. He demonstrates that empathy by sometimes including in the show ways to encourage others to show their empathy and open their wallets to help people in times of a natural disaster.

If you don’t like Stephen Colbert’s jokes, you don’t have to watch his show. As we used to say, “It’s a free country.”

Trump’s track record on humor

Trump proved on live TV in 2016 that he cannot take a joke. When then U.S. President Barack Obama made a light-hearted joke about Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump never cracked a smile. If Trump had had even a tiny understanding of the White House Correspondents Dinner, he would have known that (1) it was a huge fundraiser for journalism and related internships and (2) it was an annual dinner dominated by good-hearted political jokes.

There was nothing mean-spirited by Obama’s remarks. He mainly poked fun at himself. That’s what people who have good mental health do. But Trump took it as a serious affront, and he will go to his grave still angry about Obana’s words.

An official photo of President Barack Obama from the Library of Congress
U.S. President Barack Obama.
Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

A transcript of President Obama’s remarks, along with parenthetical inclusions of when the audience laughed) can be found at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/01/remarks-president-white-house-correspondents-dinner. The live television broadcast of the Obama’s remarks that night can also we found on YouTube. You can judge for yourself if President Obama’s remarks were mean-spirited. Here is the joke read by President Obama that made Trump so angry:

“Sitting at the same table, I see Mike Bloomberg.  (Applause.)  Mike, a combative, controversial New York billionaire is leading the GOP primary and it is not you.  (Laughter.)  That has to sting a little bit.  (Laughter.)  Although it’s not an entirely fair comparison between you and the Donald.  After all, Mike was a big-city mayor.  He knows policy in depth.  And he’s actually worth the amount of money that he says he is.  (Laughter and applause.)”

Trump sat stone-faced while the audience laughed at the joke. Trump couldn’t find the humor in it, I guess because he knew it was true.

Political humor is as old as mankind. It is unbelievable that someone as old as Donald Trump would not have known that. He clearly didn’t know it in 2016, and he hasn’t learned it yet in 2025.

Back to CBS and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” … Trump went on social media within hours of Thursday’s announcement by CBS. He berated Stephen Colbert and belittled his comedic talents. He celebrated Colbert’s “firing,” and announced that Jimmy Kimmel of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC will be next.

The bigger picture

This is much bigger than the cancellation of a television show. This is much bigger than the attempt to silence one comedian.

This, my friends, is an attack on our First Amendment right to free speech.

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

It puts that ounce of fear in every decision a commercial television network makes, so they will constantly second guess themselves. It makes television producers think twice before they have a certain guest on a show.

It puts that little bit of intimidation in the mind of a comedian who has built a 40-year career poking fun at every United States President because that’s what we do in America. We make fun of our elected leaders.

One-by-one, Trump plans to rid television in America of comedians who dare to make jokes about him. He as much as said so on his social media platform.

It has come to that.

Here in the United States, we now have a President who thinks he has the authority to run roughshod over anyone and everyone.

He even attacked his own supporters last week when some of them dared to ask for the release of the Epstein files. He immediately called them “stupid.” These are the people who have voted for him three times and would happily vote for him again, but he has turned on them and called them names.

You cross Donald Trump, and you pay the price.

He believes he has the right to dictate every facet of our lives – the polluted air we breathe, the medical care we get or don’t get, and now – the television shows we can’t watch.

He has defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because it received federal funds. Now, he has strong-armed CBS into ending a late-night talk show that has been on the air for decades because the host tells political jokes. CBS claims the decision was strictly financial, but we all know the real reason.

On Monday night, Colbert made a joke about CBS paying Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit. Three days later, Colbert’s show gets cancelled. You do the math.

Shame on Trump, but the lion’s share of the shame sits on the shoulders of CBS. First, you let him bully you about “60 Minutes” and now you’ve let him dictate your late-night programming.

Where do you think this will end, CBS? You have given in to a bully!

It is sad when an adult not only cannot laugh at himself but only finds humor in the suffering or misfortune of others. It is tragic when that adult is President of the United States.

Many days, 11:30-11:40 p.m. is the only time during the entire day that I find something to laugh about. I might not know or have an interest in his celebrity guests, but I’m tuning in for the show’s opening monologue.

I will continue to watch “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” every weekday night until May 2026. I’m not sure how I will cope with the Trump regime after that.

Until my next blog post

Keep laughing at politicians.

Keep reading whatever you want to read.

Keep watching whatever you want to watch on TV.

The day may come when you cannot do those things, so don’t take them for granted.

Remember the people of Ukraine. They were living their lives in a democracy one day and the next day Russia started dropping bombs on them.

Remember the people of western North Carolina where people are still recovering from a hurricane and massive flooding that hit ten months ago this week.

Janet

The Immigration Debacle in the United States

I couldn’t say all I wanted to say in yesterday’s blog post. Ready or not, here comes more….

Photo of a paper with "Immigration" printed in bold capital letters
Photo by Metin Ozer on Unsplash

Immigration was not handled well during the first Trump Administration (i.e. people put in cages and children separated from their parents without a means of identification). Immigration was mishandled by the Biden Administration (i.e. too lax about enforcing border security). But immigration is a disaster during the second Trump Administration.

Where is the voice of reason? Where is common sense?

Deployment of California National Guard

A full month after the major protests against ICE in a Los Angeles neighborhood, Trump decided it was finally time to let thousands of California National Guard members return to their families and their jobs. Some of them have started speaking out about that experience.

The New York Times is reporting that some of the National Guard personnel have voiced serious concern over being deployed by President Trump. They are calling it a “fake mission.”

The New York Times reported, “Six member of the Guard – including infantrymen, officers and two officials in leadership roles – spoke of low morale and deep concern that the deployment may hurt recruitment for the state-based military force for years to come.”

There are reports of some members of the California National Guard voicing misgivings from the beginning about the deployment.

For Trump to keep them in warehouses in Los Angeles for a full four weeks after all threat of civil violence was over, is the icing on the cake.

It is still beside the point that Trump did not have the authority to deploy a state’s National Guard under the existing circumstances. That authority rests with the state’s governor.

“The moral injuries of this operation, I think, will be enduring. This is not what the military of our country was designed to do, at all,” one member of the Guard told The Times.”

The piece reported that National Guard personnel of Hispanic heritage were especially uncomfortable being deployed to assist ICE in rounding up illegal aliens.

Just one more instance of the chipping away of our democracy and rule of law.

“Take the rest of ‘those people,’ but don’t take my neighbor”

Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed in The New York Times last Saturday. Here’s the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/opinion/immigrants-ice-deportation.html.

The situation he wrote about is a case-in-point of how people voted for Trump because he promised to get the violent immigrants out of the United States. They claim now that they didn’t think he meant ALL immigrants.

(My question to them is, “Why did you believe anything he said?”)

Kristof lives in a farming community in Oregon where the majority of people voted for Trump for president all three times. But now that community is upset because Trump is deporting immigrants they know. He wasn’t supposed to deport local immigrants like Moises Sotelo.

Mr. Sotelo has lived in the community for 31 years, established a vineyard, and employed 10 people. He is a pillar in his church. He is a respected businessman.

But ICE picked up Mr. Sotelo and deported him to Mexico. Kristof says the community is now up in arms. They have raised $150,000 to help with Mr. Soleto’s legal expenses. Good luck with that.

Photo of a man's hands grasping the wire fence he is being held behind.
Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash

The way I see it, many people voted for Trump because he voiced a hatred for immigrants and that appealed to his base. They hate immigrants, too, so Trump is their man. Trump called immigrants names, and that appealed to his base.

Trump said immigrants were a drain on our economy, that they didn’t pay taxes, and – worst of all – they are all violent criminals. He convinced his base that those things were true, even though they are all false.

Trump’s base refuses to accept the fact that immigrants – illegal as well as legal — pay income and sales tax. If they get a paycheck, income and Social Security taxes are deducted from that paycheck. When they purchase anything, they pay state and local sales tax — just like Americans. Who knew?

After Trump and his ICE thugs remove all the immigrants from the United States, the people in Trump’s base are going to be surprised that most crimes in America are committed by Americans. Many of them have white skin, and that’s going to be the biggest surprise of all for them.

The Case of George Retes, U.S. citizen, U.S. Army Veteran

George Retes is a United States citizen and a veteran of the United States Army. When he drove up to the Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California, to report for work, his car was approached by ICE agents. They broke a car window, sprayed him with pepper spray, and dragged him out of his car – all while he was telling them that he was a U.S. citizen and veteran just reporting for work.

ICE detained him for three days.

Photo of a U.S. Army soldier in full combat uniform from behind
Photo by Oleg Ivanov on Unsplash

I saw Mr. Retes interviewed on TV, and this is what the Associated Press reported:

“Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter’s birthday party Saturday.

“He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody.”

I am embarrassed for the United States of America. Such federal police action is not “Making America Great Again.”

This is even worse

Eighty-two-year-old Luis Leon from Allentown, Pennsylvania had been in the United States LEGALLY for 38 years since being granted asylum from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in Chili in 1987. He was a victim of torture by the Pinochet regime.

Unfortunately, in June Mr. Leon lost his wallet which contained his green card.

Thinking all he had to do was request a replacement green card, Mr. Leon and his wife made an appointment to get that taken care of.

But when he arrived for his appointment, Mr. Leon was handcuffed and taken away. His wife was held for 10 hours until a granddaughter could pick her up.

For a month, Mr. Leon’s family had no idea where he was. His name never showed up on the immigration tracker list. ICE had no answers for them. The family looked for him in local prisons, hospitals, and morgues, but they could not find him.

A relative in Chile found him in a hospital in Guatemala and called his family in Pennsylvania on Friday. Mr. Leon had never been to Guatemala before the United States Government decided to disappear him to that country. ICE still won’t confirm their thugs had anything to do with this. ICE claims they are “investigating” the case.

Black-and-white photo of the back of an older man in a wheelchair beside a hospital-type bed.
Photo by Annabel Podevyn on Unsplash

In conclusion

I am at a loss for words to describe how angry I am and how embarrassed I am today to be an American – even though I did not vote for Trump.

Trump campaigned on the promise to deport illegal aliens who were criminals, but now Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) snatches people off the street, from their homes, from their places of employment, and occasionally (what seems like daily) they make egregious mistakes and kidnap the wrong person.

ICE agents are under pressure to arrest 3,000 immigrates every day. So what if they nab a few legal citizens or immigrants who are guilty of nothing more than a traffic ticket?

It is un-American for ICE agents to cover their faces, wear no badges, and not identify themselves. The excuse that they have to cover their faces because they are scared of retribution doesn’t hold water. Local police officers might fear retribution, too, but they don’t wear face masks.

If you voted for Trump, you voted for this. You knew he was a horrible man and you voted for him anyway. I don’t know how you sleep at night.

At least I don’t have to live with the shame of having voted for any of this.

Until my next blog post

Keep up with reliable news reports

Keep reading good fiction and nonfiction books.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet