Tag: Panama Canal

#OnThisDay: James Monroe’s Birthday, 1758

When I have an #OnThisDay topic to blog about, I try to tie it in with a current event. Sometimes that’s easier than other times.

When I created my 2025 editorial calendar for my blog months ago, I wondered what I could do with Jame Monroe’s birthday for my April 28, 2025, blog post. How could I make James Monroe’s 267th birthday interesting?

Then, the Trump Administration came along and US-international relations were disrupted like eggs in a turned over basket rolling in all directions and breaking.

Monroe Doctrine! US and Western Hemisphere relations! Bingo!

But what about James Monroe’s Birthday and early years?

Born in Virginia, he had to withdraw from the Campbelltown Academy at the age of 16 when his parent died. He was needed to manage the family farm and take care of his three younger brothers. One of his maternal uncles stepped in as sort of a surrogate father. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, so he took Monroe to Williamsburg and enrolled him in the College of William and Mary in June 1774.

About 18 months later, Monroe dropped out of college to join the Continental Army. He suffered a severed artery in the Battle of Trenton and nearly died.

After the Revolutionary War, he resumed his law studies under Thomas Jefferson until 1783.

Monroe served in the US Senate, but he left the Senate in 1794 to be George Washington’s Ambassador to France. He later served as Ambassador to Britain.

He was elected Governor of Virginia in 1799. As President Jefferson’s special envoy, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. He served as President James Madison’s Secretary of State beginning in 1811. During the War of 1812, he served as both Secretary of State and Secretary of War.

He was what one might call an “over achiever.” And I haven’t even mentioned that he was elected US President in 1816 and was reelected for a second term in 1820.

And what about the Monroe Doctrine?

Are they still teaching school children about the Monroe Doctrine. I hope so, but it’s hard for me to keep up since I don’t have a close family member in grade school now.

In his annual speech before the US Congress in 1823, Monroe outlined his plans for a new American foreign policy.

Why did the Monroe Doctrine came about?

The US and Britain were both concerned that Spain was going to gain more control in Latin America, and the US was concerned about Russia’s territorial ambitions along the northwest coast of North America.

George Canning, British Foreign Minister, wanted a joint US-Britain agreement, but US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams argued against that and won. Hence, the Monroe Doctrine was officially just a US policy.

The four main points of the Monroe Doctrine, which made the US the protectorate of the Western Hemisphere:

  1. The US would not interfere in the internal affairs or wars between European countries;
  2. The US would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies in the Western Hemisphere;
  3. There would be no further colonization in the Western Hemisphere; and
  4. The US would consider further European colonization, military intervention, or other interference in the Western Hemisphere as a potentially hostile act.

Jump forward 200 years

In 1962, US President John F. Kennedy invoked the Monroe Doctrine during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy ordered a naval and air quarantine of Cuba after the Soviet Union started building missile-launching sites there.

President Ronald Reagan used the Monroe Doctrine as policy principle in the 1980s to justify US intervention in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

President George H.W. Bush invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify a US invasion of Panama to oust Manuel Noriega.

After the Cold War and as the 21st century approached, US involvement in Latin America decreased, but there was a growing resentment in some countries over the US thinking it could call the shots.

Then comes the illicit drug trade.

Then comes a flood of immigrants trying to enter the United States legally and illegal.

Then comes Donald Trump.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 202 years later!

US President Trump in 2025 took it upon himself to rename the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America,” but only Republicans are calling it that.

In 2025, the US President has cozied up with the President/Dictator of El Salvador to the point that we’re helping to finance the most notorious prison in the world. Trump is threatening to steal the Panama Canal from Panama even though the two-fold Torrijos-Carter Treaties in 1977 transferred the canal to Panama as of December 31, 1999. Trump repeatedly says President Jimmy Carter sold the canal for one dollar, but the Torrijos-Carter Treaties were not a financial transaction. The Panama Canal Treaty gave Panama control of the canal over a 20-year period. The Treaty of Permanent Neutrality guaranteed the Panama Canal will remain open to international shipping.

President Trump claims he can make Canada the 51st state. Too bad for Puerto Rico. It’s been waiting to become the 51st state for decades.

President Trump threatens to steal Greenland from Denmark “any way we have to.”

Come to think of it… Trump claims he can make Canada, Greenland, Denmark, and Europe jump at his command, but he said he has no power to make El Salvador return to the US a man his Homeland Security people mistakenly kidnapped and shipped to the CECOT Prison. Who knew El Salvador was more powerful than the US? Well, we know now.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised Guyana that we’ll protect it if Venezuela invades it.

Just wait until Trump learns the names of some other Central and South American countries. He’ll want to take them, too, or maybe bow the knee to them like he has El Salvador.

Geography is not Trump’s strong point. Has he figured out what or where the Republic of the Congo is yet?

Incidentally, what has become of James Monroe’s house? OR… Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

In February, 2025, the owners of Oak Hill in Loudoun County, Virginia, offered to give the estate to the State of Virginia so the home and 1,200 acres could be turned into a State Park. It turns out that the State doesn’t want it!

The property owners were reportedly offered $55 million for the house and estate, but they were willing to take a fraction of that amount if the State of Virginia would make it a State Park.

The last I read about it the State hasn’t budged.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 58 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, three state highways, and 50 state roads. That’s an incredible improvement over the 105 roads that were still closed a week earlier. Good weather has surely helped.

Although technically “open” now, I-40 in Haywood County at the Tennessee line is still open for just one lane in both directions with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit.

There are still no estimates of when all the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will reopen. I encourage you to watch the 18-minute early April video at https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/helene-impacts-and-recovery.htm. Scroll down below “Common Questions” to get to the video. This is a wonderful recent update on the progress being made and the monumental task that lies ahead to get 157 more miles of the parkway open. Below the video is a map showing where the parkway is open and where it is still closed.

Until my next blog post tomorrow

Keep reading good books.

Remember the people of Ukraine, Myanmar, and western North Carolina.

Janet

16 more highlights of how things are going in America

Are you as tired as I am of being bombarded with the news of the day? And yet I feel called to lay out 16 more instances today of not just cracks in our system of government but some basic failings and actions that fly in the face of the US Constitution and common decency. You can thank me now or you can thank me later for deleting three items from today’s list.

Many of the items on today’s list are not being covered in the media. I hear or read a snippet of a story, and then I look for more information and documentation. I use reliable sources, and I don’t deal in conspiracy theories.

I used to not know or care what political party someone else aligned with, but we live in an era now where that seems to be the first thing someone wants you to know about them. That literally wear in on their heads and post it in their yards. There is little tolerance for anyone who does not agree with them, so it is tempting to keep one’s mouth shut.

Our current situation in the US is exhausting everyone who treasures democracy. I am exhausted, but when I learn about something that blatantly runs contrary to the US Constitution and is so viciously forced on the American people, I can’t seem to stay quiet.

For good measure, I’m including a couple of things that you just might not have heard about. Lots of things are slipping under the news cycle radar because too much is happening too fast.

Each thing considered by itself might not seem so bad or dangerous, but when digested together patterns appear.

  • The Kremlin has confirmed that Russian President Valdimir Putin has gifted Donald Trump with a portrait he commissioned by a Russian artist. US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was giddy talking about it on TV. After all, Witkoff’s diplomatic experience could fit on the head of a pin with room left over. His qualifications for being US Special Envoy to the Middle East – which apparently includes Moscow? – are that he is an American billionaire real estate investor. The portrait? Who knows better how to flatter and gain the confidence of Donald Trump than ex-KGB Agent Vladimir Putin?

  • The Associated Press reported, “The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has proposed gutting the State Department’s budget by almost 50%, closing a number of overseas diplomatic missions, slashing the number of diplomatic staff, and eliminating funding for nearly all international organizations, including the United Nations, many of its agencies and for NATO headquarters, officials said. The proposal, which was presented to the State Department last week and is still in a highly preliminary phase, is not expected to pass muster with either the department’s leadership or Congress, which will ultimately be asked to vote on the entire federal budget  in the coming months.” It depends on if Congress grows a spine. Stay tuned!

  • Trump has cancelled almost all 1,200 current grants issued by the National Endowment for the Humanities to reappropriate the money to his pet project of a garden of statues of 250 people in American history he deems heroes. I shudder to think whom he would choose for the honor… and whom he will not select. It takes no imagination to come up with both lists. It’s just too bad for the individuals and organizations who were promised funds for their projects and now the rug has been pulled out from under them. Did you enjoy the PBS film series The Civil War, by Ken Burns? Guess where Burns got some of his funding. This is an insidious way for Trump to kill the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). He wants to pull all federal funds from PBS and now he has moved money from a major source of funding for much of the system’s programming. According to the website for the National Endowment for the Humanities, it is an independent federal agency. I guess it isn’t “independent” anymore.

  • It should be no surprise that US Secretary of Health and Human Resources Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. chose David Geier, a person without a medical degree, to conduct a study of possible links between vaccines and autism. Geier his late father published six papers claiming there is a connection between the two. Geier has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology. The Maryland Board of Physicians charged him with practicing medicine without a license. Anyone want to bet on what Geier’s conclusion will be?

  • A glimmer of Congressional backbone? US House and US Senate versions of a bi-partisan Trade Review Act of 2025 have been introduced which would give Congress the authority to end a tariff ordered by the President after 60 days.

  • It should have come as no surprise that North Carolina’s request for an extension of 100% matching funds for Hurricane Helene recovery was denied, since US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has said she wants to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). NC Governor Josh Stein received the news, ironically, while he was in Avery County with country music star and North Carolina native Eric Church at the groundbreaking for a 40-home development for people who lost their homes in the storm. Eric Church’s foundation spearheaded the project. North Carolina suffered $60 billion in damage from Hurricane Helene last September, and the need for assistance is still great. In February, the State of Georgia’s request for an extension from FEMA was also denied. “Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator” (yes, that is his official title, according to the FEMA website) Cameron Hamilton said in his denial communication to Gov. Stein that the request was “not warranted.” The hurricane recovery aid to NC will continue as a 90% match to what the state spends.

  • On April 3, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins declared 112 million acres of national forests to be in an emergency situation due to their high risk of wildfires and hazardous tree conditions, allowing them to be open for logging. That’s 59% of our national forest acreage. The emergency designation allows the US Forest Service to bypass environmental laws. Trees in our national forests are logged, so that’s not anything new; however, the 59% percent is troubling and declaring an emergency situation so environmental regulations can be ignored also concerns me.

  • Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-4) which gives the Department of Defense authority to take control of federal lands to carry out military operation to repel invasions and seal the border. This includes national wildlife refuges and national forests. Indian reservations are excluded. The military can designate those areas as National Defense Areas, closing off public access indefinitely. Using “national security” to override environmental protections and civilian control of public lands can then easily be applied elsewhere. All Trump needs to do is call something a “national emergency.” This is a very slippery slope in the hands of a man who has absolutely no appreciation for nature or the American citizens.

  • Trump and Musk shut down the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To put a human face on this… Dr. Erik Svendsen, Director of the division, is known for his studies of the effects of the chlorine spill that resulted from a train wreck in 2005 a Graniteville, South Carolina. When the office was suddenly closed by the Trump Administration, Svendsen had to end his participation in a childhood lead investigation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and notify his employees who were working in western North Carolina where Hurricane Helene caused the worst flooding in the state’s history. Water and sewer infrastructure had been ripped apart in September and the area is still dealing with the environmental damage. Too bad! And too bad for state and local health departments across the country that depended on the expertise of Dr. Svendsen and his staff. Too bad for the localities across the nation that were being aided in children’s lead poisoning issues. The division was also in charge of the national asthma control program and other important environmental health tracking networks. The division helped states struggling to make sure private wells are properly built and free of contamination. It was Dr. Svendsen’s division in 2023 that helped health officials in North Carolina unravel a connection between children eating a certain type of applesauce and elevated lead levels in their blood. That work a few years ago resulted in Dr. Svendsen’s division launching efforts that identified 500 additional cases nationally. The result was a national recall of the applesauce polluted with a South American cinnamon high in lead content. An article about this CDC division’s closure in The State newspaper in Columbia, SC quotes Louisiana Sanders, a resident of Graniteville and former SC Department of Health and Environmental Control board member, as saying, “This is going to set us back another 20 or 30 years.”

  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a deal with Guyana, a neighbor and enemy of Venezuela, to share intelligence information and come to the aid of Guyana if it is invaded by Venezuela. Venezuela wants the oil resources in Guyana. In response, on April 11, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro called Rubio an “imbecile.” I almost missed reading about this whole thing. We might need to just be aware.

  • Deportations on steroids: There have been quite a few heartbreaking and frightening stories about actions and inactions of the US Government over the last 12 weeks. (Has it only been 12 weeks since January 20th?) The most heart-wrenching stories so far have been about deportations. People being kidnapped on the street and forced into unmarked vans. University students forced out of the country because their visas are inexplicably revoked. American citizens receiving emails in the middle of the night telling them they have seven days to leave their country. (There are no instructions for just which country they are supposed to escape to. They are being told their “paroles” have been revoked. These are American citizens who have never sought a “parole” because, after all, they were born in the US and have always lived in the US.) One American citizen who received one of those emails from Homeland Security is an immigration attorney! The report I read said that the Trump Administration is revoking the parole of 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who came to the US under a Biden-era humanitarian parole program. The immigration attorney in Massachusetts does not fall into any of those categories.

  • I wish I could share with you the details about what happened to an Australian who has lived in the US for more than five years on a work visa, but I can’t write several thousand words about it. I invite you to do an online search and read the gory details for yourself. In a nutshell, he took his sister’s ashes to scatter them in Australia in March. When his return plane landed in Houston, Texas, he was detained, called names, accused of being a drug dealer, and was put on a flight back to Australia after 36 miserable hours of detention. Everything he owns except two changes of clothes are at his home in the US. He is barred from returning to the US for five years. The details are scary, but they can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/ if you want to read them. I’ve only heard his side of the story, but it appears he was denied due process of law. There is an alarming pattern that the Trump Administration only wants due process when it is a member of the administration who needs due process. The rest of us, not so much.

  • In an apparent effort to ward off Trump taking back the Panama Canal, an agreement has been quietly reached in which US troops will be able to deploy to a bunch of bases along the canal.

  • The National Museum of African America History and Culture opened nine years ago. It has been praised for exhibiting the good and the bad in African American history. But Trump said the museum is part of a “widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history.” I have learned that one of his recent Executive Orders in which he attacked museums and national parks stated, “Museums in our nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn ‒ not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history.” Trump says there are exhibits in the Smithsonian museums that make America look bad. He singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Slavery is part of our national history, Mr. Trump, whether you like it or not. It is an ugly part of our history, but you cannot change the fact that it existed. The museums of the Smithsonian Institution are the envy of the world. At least they were until Trump came along.

  • This pales in comparison to Trump’s numerous threats to our democracy, but it deserves inclusion on my list. Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer arrived for a private appointment with President Trump on April 9 to discuss her concerns about the effects the tariffs will have on her State. Instead of being taken into the Oval Office for their meeting, she was blindsided by being ushered into the room for the signing of an Executive Order calling for the investigation of two high level people in the Biden Administration, Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor. Trump, who has never before had a kind word to say about Whitmer, took that opportunity before cameras to praise the Governor and thereby humiliate her in a public setting and set her up for knee-jerk criticism from her own political party. Can anyone say, “Con man?”

  • Every time Trump, White House Press Secretary Leavitt, or anyone else in Trump’s orbit or on TV calls a judge “rogue,” like Leavitt did yesterday, they are putting all judges at risk. They are not only undermining our justice system, they are encouraging their followers and listeners to pick up a gun or make a bomb to intimidate or murder a judge or someone in a judge’s family. We all need to value and stand up for the rule of law and freedom of the press. We could lose both in the blink of an eye.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have time to read a good book, and I hope you can concentrate enough to read it. I can’t.

Perhaps next week will be the week I only blog once instead of the recent four or five times. We can hope!

Remember the people of Myanmar, Ukraine, Kentucky, and western North Carolina.

Janet