Tag: war in Iran

What’s been happening since last week – Part II

Yesterday’s blog post (https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/06/04/whats-been-happening-since-last-week-part-i/) got to be too long, so I had to divide it.

Today’s blog post got even longer after the news broke about the removal of 900 scientific deep-sea instruments and Trump’s plans for the Lincoln Memorial.

Pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and settle in for a wild ride.

Golf Resort in Vietnam

Not satisfied just to destroy farmland and forests, etc. and rip people off in the United States, the Trumps are developing a $1.5 billion golf resort in the Hung Yen province in Vietnam.

Besides farmers being forced off their land for very little compensation, they are also having to exhume the bodies of their ancestors and bury them somewhere else.

It seems that Eric Trump is in charge of this project, which he says will be “the envy of all of Asia and of the entire world,” according The Daily Beast, which included a photo of Eric at the indoor ground-breaking ceremony.

Can Gaza be far behind?

Kushner’s Resort in Albania

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners firm is building a $4 billion luxury resort, including 10,000 hotel rooms in the Vjosa-Narta “protected” coast in southern Albania.

At the mouth of the Vjosa River, the land became a protected national park three years ago. Flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, loggerhead turtles, 200+ species of birds. Sounds like a beautiful place. No wonder it was given “protected” status.

But blatant corruption is not limited to Washington, DC. The Albanian Parliament conveniently changed the rules just weeks before Kushner submitted his resort plans. Would you believe the rules were changed to only allow five-star resorts? Surely that had nothing to do with Kushner’s father-in-law being the U.S. President.

You can’t make this stuff up!

Thousands of Albanians are protesting in the streets of the capital city of Tirana. They are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Power to the people!

CBS fires Scott Pelley

The Trump Administration did not fire Scott Pelley… directly. However, the current leadership at CBS has cow-towed to the Trump Administration on every turn.

“60 Minutes” was the longest running new magazine on TV. It was a highly-respected broadcast. CBS is destroying it. Bit by bit. Piece by piece. And with it goes a bastion of exceptional investigative journalism.

Long-time CBS journalist and regular “60 Minutes” contributor Scott Pelley dared to stand up to the CEO of CBS on Monday, so he was fired on Tuesday.

CBS fired one of its giants. I hope a more wise and honest television broadcast company will give him a job, if he wants it.

I include this news item in today’s blog because it is one more piece of evidence that Donald Trump’s campaign to rid our nation of truth in journalism and truth in history is trickling down into the corporations that for nearly 100 years stood for integrity. The example he sets as an alleged businessman now stands as the example the wealthy and influential capitalists in our country aspire to emulate.

Seeing the collapse of CBS in real time is sad. It is also infuriating, because it is being done on purpose by either short-sighted or evil people. I don’t know which.

Another thing that infuriates me

This month, the National Science Foundation will begin (or perhaps has begun) to bring up more than 900 deep-sea instruments that track the collapse of climate as we have enjoyed it.

The instruments, placed and monitored by the Ocean Observatories Initiative are off the coast of North Carolina (where the Gulf Stream famously collides with the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean), and off the coasts of Oregon and Alaska. They are also in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland.

These instruments were collecting and transmitting data in real time about ocean temperatures, carbon absorption, chemicals, and geological and biological conditions.

But the Trump Administration is not interested in people knowing about trends in the climate or the conditions in the world’s oceans. After all, Trump hasn’t figured out yet how to build a money-making resort on the ocean floor.

He isn’t interested in people knowing about hurricanes until they hit. We saw that demonstrated in the Oval Office when Trump took a Sharpie pen and literally thought he could thereby change the path of a hurricane.

Congress tried twice to try to stop Trump from slashing the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s budget by 80%. By ordering the more than 900 climate measuring instruments to be hauled up from the oceans, he is essentially giving Congress the middle finger. Again.

“Threatened” Grizzly Bears are now threatened by U.S. Government

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states were already officially “threatened,” but that did not satisfy the U.S. Government when it came to the grizzlies living in the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.

For decades, scientific research has proven that a female grizzly bear needs 2,500 acres of land that is free of roads and other human activity, but the U.S. Government has decided that in order to cut down part of the forest, a female grizzly in the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest only needs just one acre.

The 2,500-acre policy still stands elsewhere… for now.

That particular area is crucial to the healthy genetic exchange between the grizzlies in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Cut down the forest and squeeze a huge grizzly bear onto one acre of land surrounded by logging roads and see what you get. For starters… starving bears run over by logging trucks.

Maybe that’s the goal?

The “Greatest Show on Earth” invitation has a catch

Trump says he loves the military. He says he has done more for the military than any other U.S. President. (He also says he has done more for people of color, Puerto Ricans, children, the elderly, the poor, the middle class….)

He issued an invitation of sorts to our military personnel. He wants hundreds of them to come watch the display of men fighting on the White House grounds on his birthday. They must have a waist to height ratio of .55 or less. They must wear short sleeve dress uniforms. They cannot be stationed in the Washington, DC area, and … there’s just one other thing. They must pay for their own transportation.

Thank you for the invitation, Sir!

Too bad thousands of them were deployed to the War with Iran in March and April and won’t be able to make it to Washington on June 14. Of course, where they are, they’ll probably take a moment to remember that it is Flag Day.

“Rally to End all Rallies!”

I was ready to schedule this blog post last night when I read Trump’s announcement about his celebration of America’s 250th birthday has changed names. It is no longer “The Great American State Fair” or whatever he was calling it a few days ago. It is now, “the Greatest Rally, EVER! It will be special at every level – A Rally to end all Rallies!”

All I can say is, “I hope it is the rally to end all rallies. We don’t need any more Trump rallies.”

Trump said that Christopher Macchio will sing “Ave Maria”. I don’t know what “Ave Maia” has to do with the 4th of July. Am I missing something here?

There is no end to the tacky or the expense

It was revealed on Friday that without going out for competitive bids or getting permission from Congress or anyone, Trump had the two matching bronze statues of horses on either side of the street from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery… you guessed it… painted with 23.75 karat gold leaf. They and two other bronze statues were painted gold by a company in Maryland.

Want to know what we, the American taxpayers paid for this? A mere $5 million.

How does that sit with you?

They look like something one would see in China… or the Land of Oz.

This is the same Administration that created DOGE to rid the government of all waste. That was just a year ago. Thousands of medical and scientific researchers were fired and the USAID program was ended, but I don’t think we were ever told how much waste was identified by the teenagers Trump and Elon Musk hired to do the job.

The price for painting of the bottom of the Reflecting Pool bright blue has increased from $13 million to $20 million.

Even tackier than that…

I didn’t know until yesterday that the tacky arch on the White House lawn over where the big birthday fights are going to be held has a name. It is “The Claw” and it holds the lights so the men can fight all night if they want to, I suppose.

“The Claw” is huge, tacky, and ugly. It dwarfs the White House and makes the place look like a poorly planned amusement park.

It prevents the Marine One helicopter from landing at the White House, which seems like a National Security issue to me. (The President must now be transported via motorcade to and from Andrews Joint Air Force Base for his weekly excursions to play golf.)

Lo and behold, Trump thinks it is so beautiful that maybe it will never be torn down. He even compared it to the Eiffel Tower, saying it was supposed to be there temporarily but the people liked it so much they left it up.

“The Claw,” Mr. President, is no Eifel Tower.

Comparing apples and oranges?

Was I the only one who found it bizarre that Trump displayed a large poster in the Oval Office on Wednesday to show us that the Reflecting Pool is longer than some skyscrapers are tall?

He also said it had never worked since it was built in 1922. Who knew? I’ve seen it several times. I didn’t realize it wasn’t working.

Trump takes aim at Lincoln Memorial

Photo of the Lincoln Memorial, apparently in the pre-Trump days when the reflecting part wasn’t working?
(Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash.)

Yesterday, in addition to claiming to know about numerous times someone attempted to build an arch in Washington, DC, Trump spilled the beans on his latest project: Corrections made to the Lincoln Memorial.

He claimed from the Oval Office yesterday afternoon that the Lincoln Memorial is facing the wrong direction and two streets were built that shouldn’t have been built so he is going to add a promenade to the Lincoln Memorial. He, of course, sneaked in his favorite phrase: “some are even calling it the Trump Promenade.”

At that point I was literally in tears. The Lincoln Memorial is my favorite building in Washington, DC. It is devastating to think of what it will look like when TACO gets through with it.

Will it resemble the current East Wing of the White House? (A big hole in the ground.)

Will it have gold paint poured all over it? (Like the bronze horses at the entrance to Memorial Bridge.)

Will it be 80 stories high? (So it can be a tall as the Reflecting Pool is long.)

Will the exquisite statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln be replace with a triumphal statue to Trump with his fist in the air and that ever-present scowl on his orange face?

Ending this post on three positive notes…

  1. On Friday, a federal judge ordered that Donald J. Trump’s name must be removed from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts because it is a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy!

          Trump’s minions have two weeks to remove his name from the building and all signage.

          The judge also called a halt to the two-year long “complete rebuilding” of the Kennedy Center that had been announced by Trump after he appointed himself as Director of the Board of the Center. That was set to begin after the 4th of July.

          Thank goodness parts of our judicial system are still working for the    American people and not for the sitting U.S. President!

          That was the best news I’d heard in a long time.

  • Then, on Monday, June 1, the White House announced that it will abide by the federal court ruling that paused Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund! He’s going to have to find another way to financially compensate his people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

          Of course, when asked by CNN’s Caitlin Collins on Wednesday if the fund is dead or just on hold, he said he did not know… he’ll have to ask his lawyers.

  • Also on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (215 to 208) to force Trump to end the war against Iran if he fails to get Congressional approval for the war he threw us into without Congressional approval. Will the Republicans in the Senate have as much courage?

Light at the end of the tunnel? It’s too early to tell whether it is the light of justice on the horizon or an on-coming train. I know one thing: this is exhausting.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

What’s been happening since last week – Part I

The fire hose of corruption and trickery continues from the White House. I’m trying to keep up, but it’s impossible.

The New Acting Director of National Intelligence

Saying that Bill Pulte, who Trump named as Acting Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday has no intelligence experience is not a joke. It’s true.

When the position of Director of National Intelligence was created by the U.S. Congress in 2004, the law stated that the holder of that title “shall have extensive national security expertise.” That seems like a no-brainer, right?

So much for the law.

We learned during Trump’s first term in office that he prefers to have “acting” directors because “acting” directors and “acting” secretaries of departments of the Executive branch do not have to go through a Congressional confirmation process.

Pulte is the grandson of the Pulte Group’s founder. The company is the nation’s largest residential developer. (In fact, it is developing an 1,100-home development near my home.)

His genealogy and Mr. Pulte’s loyalty to Trump (such as a social media campaign to oust Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve and pushing to get Trump’s non-supporters like Lisa D. Cook, a Federal Reserve Board of Governors member, prosecuted for fraud – which hasn’t panned out) landed him his current position as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In other words, he oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

According to a June 2, 2026 New York Times report, Pulte will continue in that position while he also serves as Director of National Security.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Trump chose not to visit 14 veterans wounded in the Iran War

While Trump was at Walter Reed Medical Center last Tuesday for a physical examination, he chose not to visit 14 veterans who were wounded in the Iran War.

Trump has downplayed the sacrifices made by our military personnel and their families. He still prefers to call the war “an excursion.”

To admit that 13 American military personnel have been killed and somewhere between 140 and 400 American military personnel have been wounded would be a negative reflection on him and his perfect deal making and war-ending prowess. It is such a distasteful admission from Trump or the Pentagon to make that the public cannot find out how many have been wounded. Hence, the 140 to 400 figure. Just try finding a definitive number in an online search.

I remember back in the 1960s and 1970s when the Pentagon released such information weekly. Some said later that those reports were inaccurate, but at least they made an effort to keep the American people informed about war casualties.

Then there’s the 250th Birthday of America Great American State Fair

For starters, Trump wouldn’t know a state fair if he fell into one. This 10-day or 16-day celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was organized by Donald Trump’s nonprofit Freedom 250.

(“Donald Trump’s nonprofit…,” sounds like an oxymoron to me, but that is how Freedom 250 is described.)

Many singers and artists were invited to perform. Some of them, like Martina McBride, signed on because they thought it was a nonpartisan event.

Most of them, including Trump’s buddy, Kid Rock, have announced they aren’t going to participate. It’s pretty bad if Kid Rock won’t even show up.

I guess it will just be Lee Greenwood singing “I’m Proud to Be an American” over and over and over and over….

Of course, now Trump is calling the performers who have cancelled “third rate.” He wrote on social media that they were “overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.” 

So why did his nonprofit organization invite them?

He now says he might just host the whole thing and turn it into a MAGA Rally… as if that wasn’t what he wanted all along. It’s all about him.

The 4th of July was a nonpartisan celebration of freedom for 249 years. Of course, Trump had to do everything imaginable to try to ruin it this year. Of all the years for him to be in office!

This year’s celebration of a week or two won’t hold a candle to our bicentennial celebration in 1976, which lasted all year – no matter how Trump claims otherwise.

Don’t let him ruin our nation’s 250th birthday for you!

I wonder who told Trump this was our nation’s 250th birthday. I wish they hadn’t told him.

A spelling lesson

It was so classy for the U.S. President to spell “dumb” for us last week. He was excited to point out that “most people” don’t’ know that “dumb” ends in a “b,” then he went on and to claim he had coined the word “dumocrat.” In fact, he went into detail to explain to us exactly what he did to transform “democrat” to “dumocrat,” as if it rocket science.

Mr. President, I’ve heard the word “dumocrat” before you so proudly said it and explained to us in detail how you came up with it. I even had a cousin call me and my grandfather dumocrats in an email to me during Trump’s first term after she found out that I did not support his policies.

To say that I found that offensive is a gross understatement. My grandfather (her great-grandfather) died in 1956 when I was three years old. Frankly, I had no idea of Grandpa’s political leanings, and I don’t know if my cousin knows what she’s talking about. It does not matter to me how Grandpa voted. He’s the only one of my four grandparents who was still alive when I was born. I have only faint memories of him. It brings tears to my eyes as I type these words. For anyone to call him a “dumocrat” when he was a farmer born in the 1870s is abhorrent.

Trump thinking it was cute, clever, funny, mean – whatever his motivation – last week in bringing the word “dumocrat” back to my attention was like pouring gasoline into an old wound and then striking a match. The saddest part, though, is that this example of Trump’s name calling is probably the least offensive one he’s ever used. He is normalizing bad behavior. The derogatory names he calls and things he says about women, for starters.

Microsoft Word is even offended, for it keeps automatically changing “dumocrat” to “democrat” every time I type it. It will be a miracle if I get this published on WordPress the way I’ve written it.

Words are weighty. Words can be used like daggers. The “leader of the free world” should choose his words carefully. They perhaps carry more weight than those of anyone else in the world. And the world is watching and listening.

I cringe to imagine what horrors loom in the 10 days until Trump’s birthday and then the remaining three weeks until the 4th of July.

By the way, we have troops who were sent to the Middle East with very little notice in March and more were sent on April 19 for the war in Iran. No one is talking about them, but they were deployed, and they have no idea when they’ll get to come home.

Trump says he is in no hurry to reach a peace agreement (which he incorrectly calls “a deal.) He keeps drawing a line in the sand. A few minutes later, he moves the line. A businessman conducting a war….

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

“Magic Paint” and Other Trump Administration Plans

Here are a few random things Trump and his administration have going on this week, in case you have turned off the news.

Bison

The Trump Administration wants to move more than 1,000 bison off federally-owned grazing lands in Montana so the land can be sold to individuals. We’ll be lucky if we have 100 acres of federal land left when Trump vacates the White House.

Ballroom

After telling us for more than a year that the $100 million $200 million $400 million ballroom would not cost the American taxpayer one cent (if you don’t count maintenance – which apparently doesn’t count), Trump now has supporters in Congress proposing that we pay $1 billion for it. Don’t forget that Trump sees the White House as his personal property and tore down the East Wing almost overnight without permission from anyone. If I so much as wrote graffiti on a federal government building, I would be fined and imprisoned. Must be nice to be above the law.

“Magic Paint”

President Trump wants to use some selicate-based “magic paint” to brighten up the granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, ignoring some experts who have said it might not be compatible with granite.

This may or may not be magic paint. Photo by Taelynn Christopher on Unsplash

The War in Iran

Trump flipflops between saying we won the war, the war is over, the ceasefire is working, the Strait of Hormuz is open, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the price of gasoline isn’t up, the price of gasoline will plummet when the war is over. (Wait! I thought in March you said it was over.) He even said this week that the war started six weeks ago, although it started ten weeks ago. Perhaps he stopped calling it “an excursion” and started calling it a war six weeks ago. No one knows what he means or what he thinks. He says he’s talking to the leadership in Iran. The Iranian leadership says they haven’t talked to him. When both parties deal regularly in lies, we are left with no one to believe.

Another key problem, in addition to Trump getting us into this war without Congressional approval or a forthright reason for going to war, is that he insists on talking about the ending of the war as “a deal.” Mr. Trump, it takes diplomacy to end wars in which there will be no military victory. That’s what the U.S. Department of State did for almost 250 years. It’s called diplomacy. It’s called negotiations. It is not and has never been called “a deal.” It is not a business transaction. It is international relations. Perhaps you should have stayed out of politics and continued to just try to enter business deals. You obviously don’t know the difference. A few civics and history classes would serve you well.

After weeks of this “excursion,” all we have accomplished is the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and probably gaining more enemies around the world.

Continued Oil Embargo of Cuba

Trump is almost silently enforcing an oil embargo in Cuba. Although he seems to think it will bring the Cuban government to its knees, what it is accomplishing so far is an almost complete lack of electricity on the island nation and $40-a-gallon gasoline. And Americans are complaining about $4.50-a-gallon gasoline. I guess the endgame is to take Cuba in as part of the United States. One must wonder if the Cubans who survive the embargo will desire to become citizens of a country that elected Donald Trump as President … twice.

Children in the Oval Office

This week Trump regaled a group of children with details of the murder of 42,000 protesters in Iran. Seems like unusual behavior for someone who brags about making a perfect score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test three times. Just because he can identify a horse, a tiger, and a duck and draw the face of a clock doesn’t mean he should be turned lose unfiltered to talk to children. He went on to brag that his doctor gives that test for a living and told him that he rarely sees someone ace it.

A note about my Congressman

I occasionally mention my Congressman’s e-newsletters in my blogs. I’m not a fan of his, so I thought it was appropriate that his weekly newsletter last Saturday went to my spam box with a bright red warning: “This message might be dangerous. It contains a suspicious link that was used to steal people’s personal information. Avoid clicking links or replying with personal information.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

When the U.S. President has no moral compass

I write this on the evening of April 7, 2026, as the President of the United States becomes more unhinged by the minute. He clearly places no value on human life.

Once again, at the proverbial eleventh hour, he snatched us back from the brink of a “civilization ending” attack on Iran.

Was that his plan all along?

Did he have a plan?

We’ll never know the truth of the matter.

When the President of the United States of America delights in jerking the world around like it’s his plaything….

When the President of the United States of America makes rash promises and outrageous threats on a daily basis….

When the President of the United States of America is undeterred, the entire world is at risk.

When the President of the United States is undeterred when told that something he wants to do is a war crime….

When the President of the United States is undeterred when told that something he wants to do is against international law….

When the President of the United States says he is not concerned about international law….

When the President of the United States surrounds himself with advisors who either agree with him or lack the moral courage, a love of our democracy, or the rule of law enough to advise against his unhinged wishes….

When the President of the United States promises to destroy the oldest civilization on Earth….

When the President of the United States, in his ignorance, uses profane language to threaten another country, he is playing right into their hands….

When the President of the United States is so ignorant of history and religion that he thinks by using vulgar threats against the regime in power in another country he will stop them from chanting, “Death to America”….

When the President of the United States bizarrely says, “Praise be to Allah” on social media on Easter Sunday….

When the President of the United States is nothing but a spoiled brat bully….

When the President of the United States changes his mind on a whim….

When the President of the United States has no moral compass….

This is where we are tonight: A two-week cease fire.

Perhaps two weeks in which we can take a deep breath and brace ourselves for whatever is to follow.

The two sides in this war are not in agreement on numerous points. They aren’t likely to be in agreement two weeks from now.

Both sides have already declared victory, which would be laughable if the future of the world did not hang in the balance.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to lower the bar

Every single time I think Trump can’t go any lower, he goes much lower. Today’s blog post hits a few of the highlight (or lowlights!) of the past week.

I tried to be a good blogger this week. I made an effort Monday through yesterday to not post about Trump, but I can only remain silent for so long. If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that.

I cannot and will not sit idly by while I have this platform. I’m sorry this is long, but please stay with it to the end.

Death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller

We found out last weekend just how small and callous Donald Trump is.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller died at the age of 81. He was respected by people of both political parties. He was a lifelong servant of the people. He volunteered for military duty during the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart after being shot in the leg.

Upon hearing the news of Mueller’s death from Parkinson’s Disease, President Trump put on his Truth Social account: “Robert Mueller just died. Good. I’m glad he’s dead.”

It is sad that such a civil servant died of a devastating disease at the age of 81; however, it is tragic that the little man sitting in the Oval Office is so self-absorbed and evil-spirited that he wrote such an abhorrent thing.

It was that same Vietnam War Robert Mueller got wounded in that Donald Trump weaseled out of going to after he and his father got a doctor to claim he had bone spurs. He has been ridiculing the veterans of that war ever since.

When a person shows you what they are, believe them. If there is anyone out there who still thinks Trump was sent by God to save America… you might want to look in the mirror and ask yourself which god you and Trump believe in.

Speaking of religion… “Make it for Jesus!”

Has there ever been a U.S. President more devoid of knowledge of Christianity?

On Monday, Trump said he wants photo voter ID with proof of citizenship to be par to the Homeland Security bill. He addressed his remarks to the Republicans and said, “You don’t have to worry about going home for Easter break. Make this one for Jesus. Make it for Jesus. That’s what I tell ‘em. It would be a d_mn good thing.”

Jesus was all about loving your neighbor – and everyone is your neighbor. He was all about taking care of the sick, the poor, the lonely.

Trump is all about hating his neighbors – which is everyone who doesn’t lick his boots. He is all about taking healthcare away from the sick, making poor people pay higher prices for necessities, and ignoring the lonely.

Every single thing I can think of that Jesus demonstrated and asked us to do, Trump demonstrates the opposite and spouts out hate for everyone.

The irony of it all is that the movement is being led by a little orange man who would not know a Christian if he met one.

Can someone please tell Trump that Jesus is not concerned about voter ID or citizenship in the United States? My hunch is that Jesus is more concerned about the way Christians are treating people. For the Republicans to vote a requirement into law that in order to vote in the United States one must present a certified birth certificate would not be a gift for Jesus. Voting for photo voter ID or voter proof of citizenship will not get a single Republican into heaven. 

Yet again, the U.S. President is pushing for a solution to a problem that has been proven not to exist.

The United States of America is not a theocracy… yet.

The Inaugural America First Award

Knowing that we have the neediest U.S. President ever, the Republican Party invented a new award this week.

At the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner on March 25, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, with Congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina proudly standing by his side, announced the creation of the America First Award to be bestowed upon Donald Trump.

It seems that the Republicans in Congress are so enamored with Donald Trump that they must go above and beyond supporting him through thick and thin, through peace time and war, through government shutdowns, and through the dismantling of our medical research, public education, museums, national parks, clean air, and the East Wing of the White House.

Their unflinching support of their puppet master is not enough. They couldn’t help themselves. They had to create a new award with Trump in mind, claiming it will be an annual award. It boggles the mind to think just how many years they will give Donald Trump the America First Award.

Of course, as everything Trumpian requires, the award comes complete with a gold trophy. It can be proudly displayed in the Oval Office next to the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize he was given in December to soothe his ego for not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Please remember that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and, even though she literally gave him the physical part of that honor, the Nobel Committee was quick to assert that Ms. Machado is still the recipient and it in no way belongs to Donald Trump.

U.S. Department of the Treasury bowing to Trump

The U.S. Treasury Department “has considered” minting a new one-dollar coin with Trump’s image on both sides. Well, isn’t that special?

Fortunately, Americans don’t want to carry around heavy coins. Most Americans don’t even carry paper currency now. They sure don’t want a pocket full of big ugly coins bearing Trump’s likeness!

In another development yesterday afternoon, the Treasury Department announced the printing of a new $100 bill which will have the iconic Donald Trump signature on it. This goes against tradition, to say the least.

It will be the first time in 165 years that the signature of a sitting U.S. President will be printed on a piece of paper currency in the United States.

Since his signature resembles a toddler’s angry scrawling (my apologies to all toddlers), won’t that be a wondrous thing to behold?

Trump’s views on children and adults with dyslexia

Photo by Rob Hobson on Unsplash

Trump has belittled California Governor Gavin Newsome many times for admitting that he has dyslexia. Newsome compensates having dyslexia by memorizing speeches and speaking extemporaneously.

But Trump sees that as a weakness, and he always attacks a person where he sees a weakness. That’s just the great guy he is.

This week, Trump attacked Gov. Newsome at least twice for having dyslexia and, in so doing, he attacked every child in our country who struggles to compensate for having it.

Trump labels dyslexia as “a learning disability” and the insinuation is that having a learning disability is something to be ashamed of. To be hidden. To never be admitted to having.

Trump using the term “learning disability” and “dyslexia” as a cudgel. It is a label he can proclaim to try to ruin an opponent’s political aspirations.

Every time Trump talks about dyslexia he shows his ignorance.

Or perhaps he says it because he knows that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was thought to have had dyslexia, but Wilson went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

We all know how jealous Trump is of every recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

What the U.S. President Worries About

In case you wonder what the President of the United States worries about, I found out last Saturday.

One would think the U.S. President had pressing things to worry about like how to get out a war he started in Iran, but that was not the case last Friday.

On Friday, March 20, 2026, President Trump signed a two-page Executive Order dictating that no other NCAA football games can be scheduled during the time slot for the Army-Navy game.

Since they don’t have anything else to do, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce are to make sure all colleges, universities, conferences, and broadcasters comply.

In a White House press released titled “Preserving America’s Game,” Trump said, “Such scheduling conflicts weaken the national focus on our Military Service Academies and detract from a morale-building event of vital interest to the Department of War. Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that no college football game, specifically college football’s CFP or other postseason games, be broadcast in a manner that directly conflicts with the Army-Navy Game.”

Besides being a ludicrous thing for the U.S. President to be thinking about, it is a nice gift to CBS Sports which is under contract to televise the Army-Navy game through 2038.

It looks like CBS is going to be in competition with FoxNews to be the official broadcaster for the Trump Administration. Every authoritarian regime needs one.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Meanwhile, the war continues in Iran and Trump is begging other countries to help get him out of it… even as he declares almost every day that we won the war in the first hour.

On Monday, Trump all but said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth started the war. Later in the week, Hegseth said, “We negotiate with bombs.”

Trump claims the peace negotiations with Iran are “going well,” while Iran says the US must be negotiating with itself because there are no such talks taking place with Iran.

Trump claims the peace negotiations with Iran are “going fairly well,” while Iran says the US must be negotiating with itself because there are no such talks taking place with Iran.

Sadly, no one on the planet can believe what either side says.

Trump continues the oil embargo against Venezuela, which is bringing Cuba to its knees… so he can take over … you guessed it: Cuba.

Yesterday, Trump announced in relation to the war in Iran that a “Trump day” is not 24 hours. “A Trump day is eternity.”

For those of us living under his regime, it certainly feels like it!

Looking toward the November Mid-Term Elections

If I were a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I would be more than a little worried about the mid-term elections coming up in November. Even though it appears that all the Republicans in the House want the United States to have a monarchy at the very least, they believe a dictator would serve them better. But that’s not what the American people want.

Deep down in their hearts, I don’t think the MAGA voters really want a dictator. They might think they do but, when push comes to shove, I don’t think they will be happy with the outcome after 34 more months of this firehose form of governance.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Various telling things about Trump Administration

I really try not to write about politics every day on my blog, but there are things happening that do not get coverage on the nightly news programs because there are just too many things for journalists to report on.

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

There’s the war in Iran. There are shootings and terrorist attacks. There’s Punch the monkey and his stuffed animal from IKEA in Tokyo. There’s the Kīlauea volcano blowing its stack in Hawaii. There are the women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and his rich friends who apparently are not going to face consequences in the United States like they are in Great Britain.

In a 30-minute news broadcast, minus eight to ten minutes of commercials, a host of happenings fall on the editor’s floor. Today I will touch on a few of those.

Trump’s attitude about the war in Iran

President Trump wants other countries to police the Strait of Hormuz. We’ll see how that goes. He also wants the crews on oil tankers to just be brave and go through the strait. Easy for him to say.

He wants China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and “others” to send warships there to secure the two-mile wide passage. He says things will go “well” with the U.S. coordinating things.

The President said the U.S. may hit Iran’s Kharg Island a few more times “just for fun.” His cavalier attitude over putting American military personnel is harm’s way and spending U.S. tax dollars is deplorable. This is not a video game.

President Trump says he will know when the war is over because he “will feel it in his bones.” He started the war because he “had a feeling.” As a student of history, I don’t recall any other U.S. President approaching a war based on “feelings.”

Can you imagine the misogynistic outcry there would be if a female U.S. President ever said such a thing? She would be the last female U.S. President!

One day he calls the war “a war.” The next day he calls it “an excursion.” The objectives of the war change hourly.

If we get to have a Presidential election in 2028, I hope voters will remember the ramifications when we elect a President who is unable to communicate their objectives or their dependence on facts.

The FCC

After President Trump accused the news media of “intentionally misleading” the public in their coverage of the war in Iran, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses.

We’ve heard these threats before from the Trump Administration, as they try to dictate news coverage.

This is an attack on the free press and a major foundation of our nation. Countries like Russia, China, and North Korea have state-controlled television. We cannot allow this to happen in the United States! If you want to watch and listen to state-controlled TV, you can watch Fox News.

Carr warned that a network’s coverage of the war in Iran will be taken into consideration when their broadcast licenses come up for renewal. In a social media post, Carr warned them that they still had a chance to “correct course” and stop broadcasting “fake news” and distortions of the war.

Carr wrote, “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

He accused broadcast networks of “running hoaxes.”

Carr doubled down on this in an interview with CBS News later on Saturday.

The trouble is that the law is left to interpretation now. Until recently, it was generally agreed that the news media should be free to report facts. Under the Trump Administration, they are being pressured to only report things that put Trump in a good light. This is what they have in autocracies like Russia, China, and North Korea.

Carr has encouraged broadcast networks to air “patriotic pro-America content” this year as we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But when a politically-appointed FCC Chair starts to dictate broadcast content, we and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution are under attack.

When the politician in power gets to decide the definition of “public interest,” freedom of the press is in peril.

We have not heard the last of this. If push comes to shove, I imagine we will see a case going before the U.S. Supreme Court.

I only took one Constitutional Law course in college, so I’m no expert; however, I know under the First Amendment to the Constitution it is illegal for the government to censor free speech.

Print media

The President criticized The Wall Street Journal for reporting last Friday that Iran had damaged five U.S. Air Force tanker planes in Saudi Arabia. It seems he did not want that reported to the public. He insisted that four of those planes had “virtually no damage and are already back in service.”

He is so thin-skinned that he takes honest journalism as a personal affront.

He called The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal “Lowlife ‘Papers’ and accused them of wanting the U.S. to lose the war. He called journalists “sick and demented people.”

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Are you tired of winning?

Donald Trump told us that if he was elected U.S. President, Americans would get tired of winning.

Trump wanted the Nobel Peace Prize so much that he invented “wars” around the world so he could claim he ended them. These were wars no one had heard of until he said he had ended them. Singlehandedly, of course. He was so desperate for a trophy that FIFA created a gold one just for him.

After ending all those wars and only receiving accolades from FIFA, I guess his patience ran out in February. The war in Iran has taken the glaring lights of public attention off the Epstein files. Great Britain is punishing British men who abused the girls in Epstein’s orbit, but the United States is tap dancing around the issue. The FBI has not even interviewed the hundreds of accusers, and one cannot help but conclude that is at the direction of Trump. I’m not saying he started a war to take our attention off the Epstein files, but I believe it is serving his purposes.

Americans are being told by Trump every day that we won the war in Iran in the first hour. He has been unable to give us a consistent answer for why he started this war.

In a speech this week, Trump bragged about how he got to name this war “Operation Epic Fury.” He claimed he was given 20 names to choose from and he really loved the way “Operation Epic Fury” sounded. He was telling it like he was leading a high school pep rally, egging on the audience to laugh and cheer at his excellent naming skills.

One day he calls it “a war.” The next day he calls it “an excursion. (I thought an excursion was a side trip you could take on land as part of your vacation cruise package.) The next day, he said it was “a war and an excursion.” How can anyone call what Trump ordered to be done in Iran since February 28 an excursion?

WAH! WAH! WAH! — like the teacher being ignored in a cartoon. It is getting more difficult by the day to keep paying attention, and that’s what Trump is counting on.

At a cost to Americans of nearly $1 billion per day just for the military price, that is staggering – especially from an administration that gutted money for cancer research and so many heretofore valued things we depended on the U.S. Government to support “for the good of all” not just for us but for the good of people around the world.

And what did Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency accomplish last year, if the Department of Defense could spend $2 million of Alaskan king crab, $6.9 million on lobster tail, and more millions on rib-eye steaks in September alone? And the Department of Homeland Security could purchase more than 2,000 vehicles for Immigration and Customs Enforcement with “ICE” painted on the sides in huge letters… when everyone knows ICE vehicles display no identification?

The blood-thirsty rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration in the form of not just their words but the childish and extremely offensive way the White House has put out videos that make war look like a video game were a new low for Trump and his inner circle. Every time we think they can’t stoop lower… they hit a new low. There is no end to it.

Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash

Trump said he will accept nothing short of an unconditional surrender by Iran, but when his press secretary was questioned about that she said that complete surrender will be whatever Trump decides to define it as. It has been hinted that Trump can just say Iran has surrendered, whether Iran has surrendered or not. That is no surprise, since Trump has never been bothered or worried over facts or the truth.

When questioned about the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran, Trump said Iran bombed it. He said Iran isn’t very accurate with its bombs. With all the evidence indicating that it was a Tomahawk missile, Trump’s explanation doesn’t hold water. If you are waiting for him to admit that the United States made a horrible mistake, don’t hold your breath. Several explanations have surfaced over why the school was bombed by mistake, but we do not have President who knows how to admit error or apologize for anything.

Can you seriously imagine any former U.S. President wearing a white “USA” baseball cap to Dover Air Force Base to accept the flag-draped coffins of Americans killed in war? I watched the “Dignified Transfer” live on television last Saturday. It is called the Dignified Transfer for a reason.

Trump showed his true colors by wearing a white USA baseball cap – part of his own brand’s merchandise – to the ceremony. Wearing the cap wasn’t bad enough. He did not remove the cap as the flag-draped coffins were presented in front of him. It was shocking to see but, since it was Donald Trump, it was not surprising.

Trump cannot tolerate criticism, so after being criticized for wearing a baseball cap to the Dignified Transfer on Saturday, he did not attend the Dignified Transfer on Monday night for Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington.

Trump wants us to think that he has already moved on.

Yesterday, in yet another ludicrous attempt to make Americans think our attack on Iran was a fantastic idea and overwhelming success, Trump said on social media that America is going to make “a lot of money” since the price of oil has skyrocketed this week because we are the largest oil producer in the world. He is an insult to our intelligence… or at least to those of us who never voted for him.

Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan was attacked by a terrorist yesterday. A terrorist opened fire and killed the instructor in an ROTC classroom yesterday at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

There appears to have been a massive lack of foresight put into the decision to bomb Iran – and that just might be the biggest understatement of all time. Lack of foresight and lack of forethought are the hallmarks of the Trump Administration.

Who thinks you can poke a bear and not pay the consequences? Who thought we could poke the radical Islamists in the Middle East and not expect them to lash out at us and all their enemies?

Why didn’t Trump and his advisors consider that they might shut down the Strait of Hormuz?

Why didn’t Trump and his advisors consider that they had sleeper cells in the United States?

Why didn’t they take into account that the extremists who survive this war and the descendants of the extremists and innocent people killed in this war will dedicate themselves to terrorizing us?

The battle cry of Iran this week is “Death to America!” The battle cry of Iran has been “Death to America” for 47 years, so it is difficult to see what this war has accomplished.

Trump told us months ago that we had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear war capabilities, but some days this month we’re being told it was their nuclear war capabilities that necessitated the current war. And Trump doesn’t understand why we cannot believe a word he says?

If Trump thinks bombing Iran in 2026 will not result in Islamic extremists retaliating against the U.S. and Americans for the rest of time, he clearly knows nothing about ideological extremism.

Perhaps today he will stop bragging about defeating Iran and get back to talking about how easy it would be for him to take over Cuba and Greenland. We get up in the morning and brace ourselves for whatever he said or did overnight and what he will do or say next. He is exhausting.

Americans, are you tired of winning yet?

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

A rare author event

The title of today’s blog post might be misleading. I am not writing about rare authors but rather a rare event for this author.

I could look back through prior years’ records to determine when my last author event was, but let it suffice to say it has been quite a while.

I was delighted to participate in a “Local Author Showcase” at Thornwell Books in Morganton, North Carolina this past Saturday! Being a fan and cheerleaders for independent bookstores, I jumped at the chance to be included in this third annual event at Thornwell Books.

Ad for Third Annual Local Author Showcase at Thornwell Books, Morganton, NC

I had contacted Thornwell Books last year when I published my devotional book and its companion journal. I contacted the store’s owner again in November 2025, when I published Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. I did not know if the store had any of my books in stock, but I thought it wise to participate on Saturday and meet Ashley Ewing, Thornwell’s Bookseller and Socia Media & Events Coordinator.

Thornwell Books was on my list of bookstores to visit the next time I got to travel in the Hickory to Asheville area, but I had not made it there yet. Even though I am not technically “local” to Morganton, I was invited to take part in the bookstore’s three-hour event last Saturday.

It turned out there were 11 authors there from all over North Carolina and one from Columbia, South Carolina, so I was not the only one who traveled 100 miles or so to the event.

Janet and her half-table display space at Local Author Showcase March 7, 2026, at Thornwell Books, Morganton, NC

It was fun to get acquainted with other writers from the region and see what they writer. There were several children’s books authors, a fantasy author, an author of LGBTQ romance, a couple of self-help/inspirational authors, two non-fiction history authors, and the founder of the Spoken Word Society in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. If Mt. Airy sounds familiar, that’s because it is the hometown of Andy Griffin, one of North Carolina’s favorite sons.

Photo of the front cover of Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison
Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison

Two or three of the authors made more sales than the rest of us. I only sold one copy of Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, but I knew going in that it might not be a lucrative financial venture. You just never know how author events will be received, and it was a beautiful and uncommonly warm late winter day that felt more like late April or May. It was more of a networking opportunity.

It was interesting to see how other authors displayed their books, and during slow times we had the opportunity to commiserate about the pitfalls of being a writer such as looking for publishers, the various routes to self-publishing, and how different writers structure (or don’t structure) their writing time. Some of us are outliners and others are “pantsers.” (Pantsers write by the seat of their pants, with no idea where their book’s plot is going. Yikes!)

Thornwell Books

Front entrance to Thornwell Books

Thornwell Books is located at 202 S. Sterling Street in Morganton, NC. Morganton is the county seat of a very old county (Burke) in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, some 60 miles east of Asheville and sits along I-40. The population is around 18,000.

Side entrance to Thornwell Books

The bookstore is in a former Ford car dealership. The architecture is unique and quite interesting. The shop includes a coffee and pastry bar. There are numerous tables in the second-floor loft to accommodate students wanting a place to work on their laptops and study. That area was extremely busy on Saturday, as was the coffee shop. Many locals popped in to get a coffee and buy a newspaper.

Coffee Bar at Thornwell Books and view of part of the reading and study loft

It is the kind of independent bookstore that every town needs. It’s a shame there are so few independent bookstores in existence.

Morganton, North Carolina

If you are ever in Morganton or simply passing through on I-40 on your way to somewhere else, take time to get off the busy interstate and drive into the town. Sterling Street is one of the main streets in the town and easy to find. Thornwell Books is just a couple of blocks from the old courthouse. There is on-street parking and parking on both sides of the store.

There is a downtown shopping district, an old courthouse to drive around in the center of town which features a wonderful statue of the late U.S. Senator Sam Ervin who was born and lived there, a local history museum, Western Piedmont Community College, a building that houses branches of several colleges including Appalachian State University, the North Carolina School for the Deaf, and a state-operated mental hospital.

Burke County Old Courthouse, Morganton, NC, as seen from Thornwell Books

The City of Morganton Municipal Center for the Arts (COMMA) is a beautiful facility that hosts various performances. “The Jazz Legacy Project – Billie Holiday: God Bless the Child” is scheduled for April 17, and the website says the tickets are selling fast. It sounds like a delightful event!

Big cities tend to look down their noses at small cities like Morganton but, as you can see, many of them offer wonderful cultural opportunities and great independent bookstore!

Interesting bench outside Thornwell Books

Meanwhile…

The war in the Middle East rages on as attacks spread throughout the region. A committee in Iran selected a new Ayatollah this weekend – the 56-year-old son of the one killed in the war the previous weekend. The bodies of the first six U.S. military personnel killed in the war were returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday. A seventh U.S. military service person died this weekend from injuries sustained on Iran’s attack on Saudi Arabia on March 1. Russia is reportedly giving intelligence information about the U.S. military to Iran. Ukraine is going to help the United States with drone expertise.

Our European allies continue to watch and wait without making any commitments, except for Germany and Italy. And who can blame them? This is Trump and Netanyahu’s war of choice.

As more countries get dragged into the war to various degrees, it remains a dangerous situation without a clear path to an end.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.