Some weeks I have blogged on Friday as sort of a catch-up or catch-all about what’s happened over the past week. I do not wish to fall into that as a routine or habit. Too much is happening. I don’t want that self-inflicted pressure.
However, I will take the opportunity today to comment about a few things that stood out to me this week. Most, you have heard about. Others, probably not. No one can read and hear it all. It is not humanly possible as we are traveling through a political and social world propelling us at warp speed whether we want to be propelled or not.
I will not take the blame
According to Trump, it is my fault and the fault of people like me who dare to be critical of the tactics of ICE who caused a snipper – who was a registered Independent — to murder two ICE detainees on Wednesday in Dallas, Texas.
I beg to differ. Is it not Trump who is sending ICE agents out in over-sized face masks, sunglasses, and riot gear without badges or any identification in unmarked vehicles to snatch people off the street?
Perhaps it is the pictures and videos of the ICE agents that have fueled anger in our country.
When the person who has the loudest microphone and biggest name recognition in the entire world uses his platform every single day to call individuals and groups of people ugly names, we have reached a dangerous place not just in the United States but worldwide.
When the President of the United States verbally, in writing, and on social media daily calls people names and makes baseless accusations, does he not need to bear part of the blame for the political violence in our country?
Special Education Grants Cancelled
As the Trump Administration’s ongoing war against diversity, equity, and inclusion, the U.S. Department of Education has cancelled a grant made to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the training of future preschool teachers who want to teach students with disabilities.
Since 2011, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the university has run the SCRIPT-NC program through which it has contributed to special education training for about 10,000 students taking classes in child care in the statewide community college system.
The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute announced in the fall of 2023 that it had received a $1 million five-year grant to help fund SCRIPT-NC. With last Friday night’s Department of Education announcement, UNC will lose $200,000 this year and apparently the funding for the remaining three years. The grant to UNC was one of 25 grants for special education teacher training programs that were abruptly cancelled by the Trump Administration last Friday night.
The cancellation notices all cited diversity, equity, inclusion, or race in the grant applications. Each of the cancellation notices concluded with the following words: “the project would be in conflict with agency policy and priorities, and so is not in the best interest of the Federal Government.”
The U.S. Department of Education claims those grants will be repurposed to support special education. Are we left to assume they will be repurposed to only help white children from wealthy families? I don’t know what else we are supposed to conclude.
The grant applications were filed while Joe Biden was President. His administration encouraged applicants to explain how grant money would be used to help underserved populations. The Trump Administration is not interested in the underserved citizens of our country.
How are any of us supposed to function when a new President comes into office and cancels everything the prior President’s administration supported and programs that the U.S. Congress funded? These grant and federal program cancellations are destroying everything from education to infrastructure to our economy.
When you can’t count on what is here today to be here tomorrow, how are you supposed to accomplish anything?
I’m glad Trump has no control over the sun or gravity. We can still count on them being here tomorrow.
My source for the information about the UNC grant: https://www.wunc.org/education.
Speak Up for Justice
I had the opportunity yesterday afternoon to watch and listen to another live presentation online from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. These monthly informational discussions are free to watch on Zoom.
Yesterday’s program was “Unprotected and Under Fire: State Judges at Risk as congress Weighs Action” and the panel was made up of judges from across the country.
If you aren’t aware, you need to be aware that more and more of the 30,000 judges in our country are receiving verifiable death threats. It is estimated that one-third of the state judges and their families have received such threats. This must stop!
If judges are forced out of fear to rule in a certain way on a case instead of ruling based on their interpretation of and respect for the rule of law, our democracy will crumble.
State judges do not have the protections that federal judges have. Senate Bill 2379 was introduced on July 22, 2025, to address this dangerous gap in protection of members of the state judiciaries. The short title is “Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act.”
Please urge your U.S. Senators to support this. If you wish to read the entire bill as it stands now, the text can be found at https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/2379/text/is.
Domestic Terrorism Memo
ABC News reported yesterday afternoon that “President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a promised presidential memorandum implementing an administration-wide effort aimed at alleged ‘domestic terrorism’ and ‘organized political violence.’
“He said it was directed to tackle what he claimed was a rise in ‘bad people’ and ‘anarchists’ from the left and groups that he said funded them.”
He is blatantly only going after “bad people” who oppose Republicans. He isn’t going after “bad people” on the right like the ones who assassinated Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, on June 14, 2025, after attempting to assassinate John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette earlier that morning. Elected officials who are Democrats plainly don’t count in Trump’s book.
Only the people on the left side are “bad people,” according to Trump as he daily refers to us as “left-wing lunatics.”
Free Speech
It seems that when it comes down to it, Trump has a corner on the free speech market. Although freedom of speech is guaranteed in the United States by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, we have witnessed an assault on free speech for several weeks.
After a public outcry, ABC put “Jimmy Kimmel Live” back on the air. We won that battle, but the war is not over.
Trump will continue to push the limits of his power to try to quiet all voices that dare to speak out against him. The first group dictators go after are the comedians. We are seeing that play out here. Intimidation. Threats. Naming which comedians are next on his list on social media.
Trump continues to go after universities and journalists. He said this week that it ought to be against the law for a journalist to say anything bad about him. I’m sure writers are on that list. Comedians, writers, and intellectuals are always on such lists. Need I go on?
Now, Democrats are supposed to remain silent as Trump and his supporters spew their hate?
Weaponization of the U.S. Justice Department
The federal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey by a grand jury yesterday afternoon will stand as a stark reminder that Trump will leave no rock unturned as he instructs the U.S. Justice Department to go after his political enemies and people who criticize him.
Trump fired the federal prosecutor who refused to bring charges against Comey. This week he appointed an insurance lawyer who used to work for him and has never prosecuted anyone in her life to prosecute Comey. Reports indicate that she has never even been involved in the prosecution of a case.
Perhaps all this is just to embarrass Comey and cost him a lot of money. If I were pressing charges against a former FBI Director, I would want an experienced prosecutor on the case. But what do I know?
Trump has named Comey and numerous others he wants indicted or arrested and has announced that they are all guilty, corrupt, bad people who should go to prison.
He told U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post on Saturday to go after Comey, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. As I stated in a blog post earlier this week, Trump hold grudges.
Comey is being charged with lying to Congress five years ago, but what about when Pam Bondi testified before Congress on January 15-16, 2025, that as U.S. Attorney General she would not weaponize the U.S. Justice Department, was that a lie?
In the United States today, we can only pray that the rule of law will prevail and ask God to continue to give us the strength to speak up for the Constitution.
The indictment of James Comey yesterday was shocking but not surprising. Whether Comey is guilty or not, I hope the countless accusations Trump has made in speeches and on social media against Comey will result in the unraveling of these indictments.
The United States Department of Justice is exactly what that says. It is the United States Department of Justice, not the President of the United States’ Department of Justice.
Our democracy cannot stand if we have a U.S. President who can dictate that the U.S. Department of Justice can and must go after his political adversaries. It cannot and will not stand if that is where we are.
At 8:00 p.m., Thursday night, September 25, 2025, as I write this, it feels like we are there.
Janet
Janet's Writing Blog 