Tag: First Amendment

It’s been one of those weeks

Sometimes the best-laid plans just don’t pan out. Such is life.

This is Janet’s Writing Blog, so today I start my post with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into my life this week as a self-published writer.

If you read my blog on Tuesday, Traveling Through History is released today!, you know I was celebrating the release of the e-version of my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, but I mentioned that the paperback was not being released that day as planned.

Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison

I thought I had everything in place for the paperback’s release worldwide by Ingram-Spark.

I sent handwritten notes to various independent bookstores along with a detailed information sheet about the book. I told them they would be able to order the book from Ingram-Spark and have it in stock in their stores on November 4 or very shortly thereafter.

The e-book is available – and I’m over the moon about that! But as of today, I still don’t know what the hold-up is for the paperback. Perhaps I will learn something today.

I decided to go ahead and self-publish the paperback on Amazon in the United States, and I expect it to be available here on November 11. I hope Ingram-Spark will release it for worldwide distribution next week – which will include Amazon in countries other than the U.S. — but that remains to be seen. Bookstores will not order it from Amazon. I needed Ingram-Spark for that.

Such is the life of a self-published author! This glitch is not the end of the world. It was just something I had hoped to get checked off my to-do list on November 4.

Thank you to those of you who have congratulated me on the release of the e-book. And a huge thanks to those of you who have purchased the book! I understand that Ingram-Spark has distributed the e-book to Amazon.UK, so I assume it is also available on the worldwide e-markets of Amazon.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC…

The government shutdown continues as I write this on the night of November 6. One result of the shutdown is that the air traffic controllers and TSA agents who keep the flying public safe are not being paid. They are expected to show up for work and give their undivided attention to all the details their jobs entail… without pay.

To try to force Congress to do its job and pass a federal budget, the White House gave the airlines less than 24 hours’ notice that they had to start cancelling flights at the forty busiest airports in the country. A certain percentage of flights must be cancelled with each passing day beginning today.

But none of this will interfere with Trump’s weekly trip to play golf in Florida.

Since an alleged “businessman” is President of the United States, it baffles me that the order came from the White House (or what’s left of it) with no regard for the chaos such a sudden order will cause airlines, airports, passengers, and the employees of the airlines and airports.

It appears “President Marie Antoinette” knows no more about business than he knows about a democratic government. Throwing a Great Gatsby-themed party at his mansion in Florida last week while federal employees are not receiving paychecks is the height of being tone deaf. He is completely out-of-touch with the average American.

President Antoinette says commercial aviation in the U.S. is “100% safe,” even though air traffic controllers work without pay and some have had to take a second job and are working exhausted.

And why was a large “The Oval Office” sign installed at what’s left of the White House this week? Can President Antoinette not find his office?

Yesterday, the President announced that he will force the price of weight-loss drugs down because they are too expensive. Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Medicare and Medicaid programs announced that Americans will lose 135 billion pounds before the mid-term elections next November. I’m not good at math, but the population of the United States is around 343 million. That means every American would have to lose 394 pounds to make Dr. Oz’s statement true.

Something is very, very wrong in Washington, DC, and it is being denied by the members of Congress and by what’s left of the White House.

A cheaper Thanksgiving Dinner?

Trump and various Republicans in Congress have bragged this week that they talked to the CEO of Walmart and he told them that everyone’s Thanksgiving Dinner will be 20% cheaper this year than it was last year while Joe Biden was US President.

What Trump and none of the Republicans have explained is that the Walmart CEO based that on the fact that this year Walmart decreased the number of items it considers to be a Thanksgiving dinner. Slick move, Walmart!

Of course, Trump has changed the 20% to 25% because that is what he does. He exaggerates or decreases statistics in whichever way serves his purpose.

The Walmart CEO’s hocus-pocus with the facts has led many Republican lawmakers who have never set foot in the grocery store to announce that grocery prices have plummeted since Trump took office on January 20, 2025. They really do think American citizens are stupid and will believe the politicians instead of their own wallets.

Until my next blog post

I will be caring for my sister as she recovers from surgery over the coming weeks, so I might not blog as often as I have in the recent past. We expect everything to go smoothly, but I will have added responsibilities vying for my time and attention.

The time you take to read my rants and blog posts is appreciated more than you know. Your “likes” and comments are what keep me going.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

I’m grateful that I still have the freedom of speech guaranteed to me by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I am very aware that some of the people reading my blog in other countries cannot imagine having the freedoms we have in America. Even though our form of government is under attack from within, I believe there are enough of us who love democracy to save our country and put things right someday.

Janet

Happy “No Kings” Day!

I’m not able to participate in a “No Kings” Protest today, but I will be there in spirit. I will continue to voice my protest via my blog.

Photo of a white crown suspended in air
Photo by Megan Watson on Unsplash

The Republican Congressional leaders attacked the demonstrations in advance, calling today’s demonstrations “The Hate America Rally.” Nothing could be further from the truth. It sounds like something a dictator would say.

In America, we have a First Amendment right of freedom of speech. We are free to demonstrate and protest.

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

Isn’t that what the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, said they were doing: exercising their First Amendment right? Of course, they went beyond protesting when they tried to kill police officers and broke into the U.S. Capitol as they tried to prevent the certification of the November 2020 Presidential election.

Whatever bizarre or nasty thing Trump says, the Cabinet members all have to repeat. Even Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent jumped on that bandwagon to toe the party line.

The President said participants in “The Hate America Rally” are paid. He said their signs look professionally made and that is proof that they are being paid to protest.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said the participants are members of ANTIFA. Since ANTIFA is an acronym for Anti-Fascist, it seems to me that every American should be ANTIFA. Do you not find it worrisome that the U.S. President and Congressional leaders are against anti-fascists? It indicates to me that they are pro-Fascism. But we aren’t supposed to call them that. It makes them angry and they are offended when they are called Fascists although they claim to hate anti-Fascists.

The “Hate America” rally was held at Donald Trump’s urging on January 6, 2021. That’s the day his followers tried to stop the certification of the November 2020 Presidential election because their guy whined and said he won even though he didn’t win. He convinced them that the election was stolen. And now, almost five years later, he wants that election investigated again. He is so small, he cannot stand to be a loser.

Photo credit: Andra C. Taylor, Jr. on unsplash

The rioters that day physically attacked the police officers the Republicans claim they love and respect so much. They defaced the U.S. Capitol. They erected a gallows and chanted “hang Mike Pence!” They smeared their defecation in the halls of the U.S. Capitol and broke into the offices of U.S. Representatives. They broke things. They stole things. They made a wholesale attack on our form of government

That was the official “Hate America” Insurrection. I watched it live on TV in horror. I can’t imagine the level of hate for the United States those people held in their hearts. Then, the nail in the coffin was when Donald Trump pardoned them.

That is all I need to know about Donald J. Trump, Sr.

The people demonstrating today are doing so out of love for America. They are horrified to see how our democracy being chipped away daily with a sledgehammer.

They are horrified to see the National Guard used as a political pawn and weapon by their President.

They are sick and tired of being called “left wing radical lunatics” and worse by their President.

They are horrified to see masked ICE agents violently attacking people – citizens and non-citizens – and hauling them off to detention centers.

Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash

They are horrified that their President is ordering boats in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea to be blown to smithereens because they might be transporting drugs to America, and now their President threatens to launch a land attack on Venezuela – ignoring The War Powers Act.

They don’t like that their President is bailing out Argentina to the tune of $20 billion while the American farmer goes bankrupt due to the dismantling of USAID and the tariffs he has issued on China and other countries.

They are furious that public education and public health programs are under attack by the Trump Administration.

They are horrified to see the blatant hate for people of color, the objectifying of women, the homophobia, and the hate for transgender individuals demonstrated by the Trump Administration.

In anticipation for the peaceful “No Kings” demonstrations being held today, the Governors of Virginia and Texas mobilized their states’ National Guard members yesterday.

It’s a shame that the National Guard wasn’t called up to defend the members of Congress and the U.S. Capitol and our form of government on January 6, 2021.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt showed her true colors this week when she said, “The Democrat Party’s main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

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

The fact that President Trump did not make a statement to reprimand her or disavow her comment, indicates that he agrees with her.

We have reached a dangerous time in our country when the person who was elected to be President of the United States – president of all 50 states – president of all citizens of the United States – thinks it is acceptable to call the citizens who are registered Democrats “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

I resent being called a Hamas terrorist, an illegal alien, and a violent criminal, but the worst part of this is that such a thing can be said from the official communicator and spokesperson of the White House and no one in the Trump Administration or the Republican Party speaks out to condemn the remarks.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

And that, my friends, is one more reason why millions of Americans are protesting today. They are sick and tired of being sick and tired and being on the receiving end of a fire hose of attacks since January 20, 2025.

Janet

Running out of blog post titles

It is getting more difficult by the week to blog about the things going on in our federal government. I have just about run out of words.

I know I’m “preaching to the choir” because people who read my blog either already agree with me or I’m “spitting in the wind” if they don’t. None of you are going to change your minds at this point. You either acknowledge what has happened to our country or you don’t.

If you have not seen and heard enough since January 20, 2025, to join the Resistance, you never will.

Photo of brown wooden anagram letters spelling out Choose Your Words
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Violent rhetoric

In case you thought all the nasty people were “on the left,” I will just take a moment to point out that it was John Gillette, a Republican Arizona State Representative who posted a threatening statement on X in response to an old YouTube video clip from March in which Democrat U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal talked about preparations for street protests against the Trump administration.

Gillette’s post: “Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged … it will continue.”

Congress member Jayapal in no way advocated for the overthrow of the American government. As far as I know, peaceful protests are still protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

No rule of law on international waters

Trump has put U.S. military personnel in violation of criminal and military law by ordering them to kill 17 people in boats in international waters. Just because Trump says those 17 people were smuggling drugs into the United States doesn’t make it true.

Traditionally, drug smugglers who are caught in the act are arrested and tried in a court of law. Trump’s tactic this year of ordering the military to blow up boats, the boats’ occupants, and all possible evidence of a crime is reckless and wrong.

What the meeting at Quantico cost us

It was a meeting that could have been securely held via Zoom. In an apparent show of power, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of Generals and Admirals to Quantico, Virginia, for a meeting yesterday.

They had to leave their command posts from all over the world with one week’s notice for what was reported to be a 71-minute meeting. Or, maybe that was how many minutes Trump rambled on about how he loves his signature, about President Obama and President Biden, and about the multitude of wars no one can identify that Trump claims to have ended this year.

The parts of his talk that I heard were incoherent ramblings. If anything, they were worse than his usual “weavings.”

I heard the cost of the meeting for taxpayers was $6 million, which is pocket change for Trump and his ilk. No big deal.

But the monetary cost of the meeting is the least of our worries.

If I get started writing about the remarks Secretary of Defense Hegseth said about women in the military, social justice, and climate change, I will say some things I should not put in print. I know some women in the military who could fight just as hard and effectively as Hegseth. Just sayin’.

Every American should be horrified by the words of Hegseth and Trump. When the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America announces to the world that we will no longer abide by “the rules of engagement,” it is indeed a dark day in our country and the world at large.

If the United States military is no longer going to abide by the international laws and norms for the conduct of war, then no one in the world is safe.

When a United States President thinks it is a good idea to send troops into our cities to train, it is a dark day for our country.

When a United States President cannot tell the difference between a live news report (i.e., reality) and an old video clip of a civil unrest and declares war on Portland, Oregon, we should all be very, very afraid.

When the United States President posts an AI-generated racially-doctored and derogatory meme of the Minority Leader of the United States Senate and the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives on social media, one is led to ask if he is 79 years old or 12 years old. (I apologize to all the 12-year-olds of the world. That was unfair to you.)

All this from this week, folks. And it was only Tuesday evening as I wrote this.

The Federal Government Shutdown

Here we go again. The United States Congress cannot figure out a budget for more than three months at a time. Regular people should be so lucky!

It is sad that so many of the members of Congress think this is a game. They are playing with peoples’ lives and livelihood. Trump glibly said he will just fire a lot of federal government employees. That’s a great attitude, isn’t it?

As if the National Park Service employees remaining in the mountains of North Carolina haven’t already taken it on the chin since Hurricane Helene twelve months ago… as if the basket weavers, glass blowers, quilters and other textile artists, potters, furniture makers, wood crafts persons, and jewelry artisans of the Southern Highland Craft Guild haven’t already nearly gone bankrupt… the United States Congress just shut down the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville as part of the federal government shutdown. At least, that’s what has happened during prior shutdowns.

So, Senators and Representatives, why did you choose to kick the people of western North Carolina when they were already down?

It is the very beginning of the fall tourist season in those mountains. Countless people have worked to reopen and reconstruction roads and businesses to serve tourists and residents alike. They have pinned their hopes on the 2025 fall tourist season to help them hang onto the businesses they lost or nearly lost to the hurricane.

Members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild greatly depend on selling their unique creations at the Folk Art Center. To say it is a shame that it will be closed for the duration of the government shutdown would be the understatement of the year.

The Folk Art Center is also the home of the 20,000-volume Robert W. Gray Library of “books, exhibition catalogs, video, and more relating to craft from around the world.”  (https://southernhighlandguild.org/folkartcenter/)

And this, America, is just one small victim of the federal government shutdown – all because Republicans and Democrats no longer talk to each other – and most of them on both sides of the aisle apparently couldn’t care less about you and me. They have forgotten who they work for, and they have forgotten their oaths of office.

In closing…

I think most of us in the United States are weary. The reckless attacks on our democracy are taking a toll on many of us. It’s like trying to stand up to the unrelenting force of a fire hose.

I am so old that I remember the decades when women and people of color almost had equal rights.

I remember when members of our military could be proud of their service and could have respect for their Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense, even if they did not agree with some of the decisions made and orders issued.

I remember when we could depend on the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court to protect us.

I remember when politicians had the skill and desire to compromise to make our 249-year-old experiment in democracy work.

It’s sad to feel like the best years of the United States America are behind us.

Janet

In case you were getting optimistic about the U.S. Congress…

In case you were getting optimistic about the U.S. Congress (and let me be clear, I have no idea why you would have been), let me share with you a portion of the email I received on Saturday from the man who “represents” my district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

I said “from the man who ‘represents’ my district” because I cannot say “from the man who represents ME in the U.S. House of Representatives.” He does not represent me in any way, shape, or form.

Photo of dark clouds over the dome of the US Capitol Building
The United States Capitol
Photo by Kyle Mills on Unsplash

His hate-filled newsletters and emails do not reflect any of my core values, even though he is a preacher. In fact, that makes his name-calling and prejudiced statements seem that much more vile.

I know from my experience working in local government that electing a minister to a county commission or city council can go sour very quickly. The U.S. Congress is no different. Politics brings out the worst traits in people.

There is an important reason why our country was founded on the idea of separation of church and state. It’s part of the First Amendment – you know, that Amendment that was openly attacked last week by the Trump Administration.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Back to Mark Harris’ September 22, 2025, email…

The Biden Administration

This is what U.S. Representative Mark Harris remembers from the four years of the Biden Administration: “Under the Biden administration, the FBI spent more time and resources targeting Christians and churches than violent criminals. But the era of weaponizing our justice department is over!”

What is he talking about?

FBI Director Kash Patel

I watched FBI Director Kash Patel appear before the House Judiciary Committee last week. What I saw was a defiant, rude, nervous man fumbling with a hundred little pieces of paper. What I saw was a man who refused to answer “Yes” and “No” questions. I saw a man who lashed out at members of Congress. I saw a man who performed that day for an audience of one on Pennsylvania Avenue.

This is what U.S. Representative Mark Harris saw: “This week, FBI Director Kash Patel appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, and his testimony made one thing clear: law and order have returned. Joe Biden’s FBI targeted parents at school board meetings, Catholics, pro-lifers, and everyday Americans. But President Trump and Kash Patel put an end to all of it!”

In closing

The icing on the cake was the next sentence in Mr. Harris’s email to me: “America is a safer place than it was 9 months ago.”

Why don’t I feel safer?

He feels safe because he is voting the way Trump wants him to vote and he is saying the things Trump wants him to say. He will feel safe until he learns that his loyalty to Trump is not reciprocated. Trump will eventually turn on Mr. Harris because Trump turns on his supporters when he no longer needs them. Isn’t that what mob bosses do?

And why didn’t Mr. Harris address the fact that freedom of speech is under siege in the United States?

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” ~ Brandon Carr, Federal Communications Commissioner, September 17, 2025

I guess Mr. Harris wasn’t paying attention on September 17. He was too busy doing Trump’s bidding and basking in his newfound sense of security.

I have emailed Mr. Harris with various concerns. His responses only serve to remind me that he and Dear Leader are right and I am wrong. Nevertheless, I will keep reminding him who he works for and to what document — not to which man — he pledged his allegiance when he took the oath of office.

“No taxation without representation!” It is 1775 all over again.

Janet

The irony on Constitution Day

It has been a shocking 24 hours in America.

Yesterday, on the 238th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution, Brandon Carr, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) went on a podcast and showed his true MAGA colors. He did Trump’s bidding. Using the language of a mob boss, he threatened ABC if the network did not fire late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

Meme states I saw the death of free speech in America in real time last night.
Meme created by Janet Morrison

Trump once again publicly announced his disdain for the ABC network before he left from Great Britain on Tuesday.

Instead of finally showing a backbone and not caving in to pressure from the Trump Regime, ABC kowtowed to Donald Trump and his minions once again. Trump’s minion du jour yesterday was Brandon Carr.

These people have no shame. Carr was wearing a U.S. Flag on his lapel as he did Trump’s work on that podcast. I’m surprised he wasn’t wearing a big cross necklace like so many of Trump’s people do as they spout hate.

Once you give in to a bully, that bully owns you. Most people learn that on the playground when they’re five years old. The executives of the large corporations, universities, museums, law firms, etc. in the United States did not learn that lesson as children or young adults. They are learning it in 2025, and it is a hideous thing to watch because it means the destruction of the Constitution of the United States.

Yesterday, on the 238th anniversary of the September 17, 1787, signing of the Constitution of the United States of America, the United States reverted to our colonial rule under King George when criticizing the king was against the law.

Here we are. Half the voters voted for this last November. When you vote for a person who has no understanding of right and wrong, no understanding of the Constitution of the United States, and only understands the power of money, this is what you get.

Half of you voted for it and the rest of us are getting slammed with it. Speaking to those of you who are happy about government censorship of free expression, I feel sorry for you because you have no appreciation for the incredible freedoms and opportunities you were handed at birth just by being born in the United States.

When a wannabe dictator tells you he is “going to be a dictator on Day One,” you should believe him.

In the coming days, we will either see Republicans in Congress grow a backbone and speak up for free speech and reel in the FCC, or we will see them continue to be complicit in the dismantling of the Bill of Rights.

Since the official responses from the White House and Trump and his family have been to celebrate, I am not hopeful. There is an old saying in America: “Monkey see, monkey do.”

I’ll keep sounding the alarm as long as I’m allowed to. This is not the country I knew from 1953 through 2024.

Every time I think things can’t get worse….

Janet

Today’s death of free speech

Original meme that says I saw the death of free speech in America in real time tonight.
Meme created by Janet Morrison

Shocked, but not surprised.

One more pillar of the Constitution of the United States of America taken down by the Trump Regime.

Right before our eyes.

They have no shame.

They will not stop.

Janet

We can only hope other states don’t follow Oklahoma!

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.

Janet

How’s that Salmonella infection working for you?

Due to my ongoing internet service problems after underground cables were ripped up just up the road from my house, I will schedule this post for 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 1, 2025, and hope it goes out! More repairs are to be made tomorrow, so I don’t know when I’ll have internet service. I’m sending it without any photographs. Just trying to get it scheduled while I can. Please overlook my typos!

There is a lot going on in the Trump Administration. Some of it is proudly proclaimed on live TV. Some of it is announced with the President surrounded by colorful charts or a map of the Gulf of Mexico on a tripod. (Yes, I will continue to call it by it’s rightful and historical name, even though Trump gave each of his Cabinet members a “Gulf of America” baseball cap at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.)

Some things… I dare say most of them… are done quietly. I try to highlight as many of them as possible on my little blog. I bet some of the items that made my list today flew under your radar.

  • The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has made the decision to withdraw a rule that would have finally set real limits on salmonella levels in raw poultry. Three years of work on this rule that could have prevented more than 160,000 infections every year was simply trashed. Salmonella makes 1.35 million Americans sick every year and kills 420 of them. This rule that the USDA just scrapped would have required poultry companies to test for the most dangerous Salmonella strains. Profits over public health It’s enough to make me want to become a vegan. Apparently, the USDA did not get the memo saying that the US Department of Health and Human Resources has a new motto: “Make America Healthy Again.”

  • President Trump’s pick for US Surgeon General, Dr. Jannette Nesheiwat has been described by the president as “a double board-certified medical doctor,” and a “proud graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.” However, it seems now that she did a residency at the University of Arkansas, but she got her medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten. Her LinkedIn account does not mention the school in the Caribbean. She might be highly-qualified, but it would be nice if the Trump Administration would vet its nominees for such positions of responsibility.

  • The Miami Herald is reporting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has built a two-story plexiglass “tent” in Krome, Florida to house 400 detainees. US Representative Frederica Wilson was taken on a tour last week, three weeks after she had requested to be shown the facility. The report says there are 200 cots on each floor, temporary bathrooms and a TV room. Since she smelled fresh paint on her visit, Rep. Wilson said her next visit will be unannounced so she can see for herself what the conditions really are. She indicated that what she was shown on her tour did not match what she has been hearing about the facility. A plexiglass “tent”? I can’t quite picture that.

  • The Miami Herald newspaper reported that a mother was deported to Cuba, leaving her US citizen husband and their one-year-old daughter who was still breastfeeding behind in Tampa, Florida. What about this makes America great? Absolutely nothing.

  • The wife and children of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the US Government admitted was shipped off to a prison in El Salvador by mistake, have had to go into hiding at an undisclosed location because that same US Government made their home address public! Can’t someone make this incompetence on steroids stop? My hunch is that the individual who made Mrs. Abrego Garcia’s home address public would not want their own address made public.

  • Trump is considering eliminating the 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline for LGBTQ+ Youth. The hotline has fielded 1.3 million calls since it was launched by the Biden Administration in July 2022. I’m left to conclude that it is being eliminated because it doesn’t turn a profit. With all these business people running the government now, they have no concept of doing anything just for the good of the people. Besides, this Administration has made it clear that they don’t recognize LGBTQ+ people as being human beings. They’ve never tried to hide their disdain for individuals who do not fit the mold of white and straight.

  • I read that the soon-to-be-proposed “big, beautiful budget” from the Trump Administration is going to eliminate the Narcan grant program, although the CDC has evidence that there was a 24% decrease in drug overdose deaths in the year ending last September, partly due to Narcan being distributed to first responders through the program. We’ll never know all the minute details of the budget bill, even after it is approved by Congress. It’s too massive, but many American families know that Narcan being available to first responders has saved lives.

  • Calling US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s new TV and radio ads telling immigrants not to come to America “propaganda,” and the President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico is taking steps to ban the TV and radio ads in her country.

  • CNN is reporting that the Trump Administration is considering sending South American and Central American asylum seekers to Libya and Rwanda. I honestly cannot believe I’m having to type those words. I cannot believe this is seriously being considered. Anyone in the White House considering this is evil personified.

  • At his Cabinet meeting on April 30, Trump said that the current economic downturn is Joe Biden’s fault and the continued economic woes we will see in the next three months are also Joe Biden’s fault. He also in a roundabout way said that children aren’t going to have as many toys and the toys they get are going to be more expensive. The example he gave was that instead of having 30 dolls, a child might only have two dolls and those two dolls are going to cost a couple of dollars more. Trump seemed to be the last person in the country to figure that out. Only an out-of-touch billionaire President would speak in terms of a child having 30 dolls. There are some children in the US that would love to have just one doll. And, of course, it’s not just dolls or other toys that aren’t going to be available in the coming months.

  • On Wednesday afternoon, April 30, the executive in charge of the Port of Los Angeles told CNN that imports coming into his port are down 45% and very soon dock workers and truck drivers will not have much work to do, while the President was announcing at his Cabinet meeting that “cargo ships are making U-turns” in the Pacific Ocean to head back to China to pick up merchandise. Why would anyone believe Trump?

  • The Trump Administration launched an investigation of the University of California at Berkeley on April 25. The US Department of Education will examine all the foreign money the university has received in the last ten years. The Beast reported in May 2023 that UC-Berkeley had not reported $220 million it received from the Chinese government to build a joint Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI). TBSI opened in Shenzhen, China in 2014, but UC-Berkeley says it is no longer affiliated with it. Maybe UC-Berkeley’s foreign receipts do need to be looked at, but it seems like just another Trump attack on a public university. Time will tell.

  • Not giving us an evening to rest, on Monday night Trump floated the idea of using US military personnel for domestic crime prevention. In the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in Charlotte, North Carolina in September 1989, I appreciated the National Guard personnel who directed traffic at major intersections for days until electricity could be restored, but I do not relish the thoughts of the normalizing of seeing military personnel on our streets to fight domestic crime. Besides being an extremely un-American concept, I don’t believe that is the highest and best use of soldiers, sailors, and US Marines. It remains to be seen what Trump will say his plan is. More importantly, it remains to be seen what the true intent and true objective is. If history tells us anything, it tells us that the promise and the delivery by the Trump Administration have very little in common.

  • On Sunday, April 27, Trump got on social media and told Republicans to have protesters removed from their town hall meetings and “not treat them nicely.” So much for the First Amendment to the US Constitution!

  • Citing “senior Wall Street execs with ties to the White House, Fox Business senior correspondent Charles Gasparino reported on X on April 24 that President Trump’s people are giving insider tips to Wall Street executives about trade deals in progress. In particular, one being worked out with India. When asked about this, Gasparino indicated that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s office made no comment but did not deny the truth of the report. If this report is true, it doesn’t sound legal to me. If not illegal, it should be.

  • Trump has removed former US Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff (who is Jewish) from the board overseeing the United States Holocaust Museum. He also removed four other people who were placed on the board by President Biden. That is the President’s prerogative, but it is highly unusual. He says he will only have people on the board who “support Israel.” This is just one more case of Trump conflating things like facts and purposes of museums or other public entities. He and many Americans continue to confuse antisemitism with anti-Israel. It is possible for someone to be against the actions of the government of Israel as a country while not being antisemitic. One is a political entity – a government – and the other is a religion. The political state of Israel created after World War II is not the same as the references to Israel in the Bible! The state of Israel in 2025 is a government that is forcing starvation of the children in Gaza by not permitting international food aid into Gaza. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing. No wonder he and Trump are friends.

  • Finally, an “honest” politician. In a live interview on CNN on Wednesday, April 30, Republican US Representative Randy Fine of Florida said, “I’m here to fight Democrats.” We knew that most the members of Congress like to talk about “reaching across the aisle, “working with my friends across the aisle,” and such platitudes when we know they have no desire to talk to their peers from the other political party. It was surprising to hear a Republican Congressman admit on live TV that he sees his purpose as a member of the US Congress “to fight against Democrats.” When there is no desire or incentive to compromise or try to work together for the good of the country in a time when there is an authoritarian in the White House, we are in a bad place.

Do you remember that war in Ukraine that Trump was going to end in one day? Do you remember how he was going to bring prices down? Do you remember how we were going to get tired of winning?

Most of us are tired 102 days into the second Trump Administration, but I don’t know anyone who is tired of winning.

By the way, Trump has not only denigrated Cabinet meetings into nothing but a Kum Ba Yah moment when every US Department Secretary has to praise him and tell him how wonderful everything is today in the United States, but now he literally rewards them with ridiculous baseball caps proclaiming that the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America.

It looks like a parent handing out birthday favors to the children at a birthday party.

Isn’t it wonderful that we have “a businessman” in the White House? There is such an air of decorum at the Cabinet meetings!

Until my next blog post tomorrow

I hope you have a good book to read and time to read it.

I hope you have not lost hope in America even though my almost daily blog posts lately have given you little about which to be hopeful.

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

Janet, a disgruntled political science major