What May Come 2

In March of 2025, I posted my thoughts on what may come during the second DJT term.

Here is a link to that post. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/03/what-may-come.html 

The good news is that some of the things I thought might occur have not. For instance, despite my correct prediction that American citizens would be killed in our streets, and that large protests against the Trump administration would occur, martial law has not been declared anywhere. Now, it is true that as punishment for those American citizens who reside in states which did not vote GOP, there have been various "investigations", national guard deployments, and increased ICE activities, the ultimate weapon of martial law has not been used. While I am grateful for being wrong on that account, I still stand behind the prediction that it may still be utilized.

Related to the killing of American citizens, Bruce Springsteen provided an answer to my question as to who would follow in Neil Young's footprints and create a song about death in our streets.  

I was also wrong about a national abortion ban. While there may still be some action towards that direction, still may be calls to revive the Comstock Act as a way to outlaw the mailing of mifepristone (especially when Todd Blanche is confirmed as Attorney General), I am hopeful that there is not enough time before the midterms to get that done. Doesn't mean Trump may not try an executive action along those lines, or that RFK Jr might not sway the FDA to change its rulings about drugs used for abortion, but for now, I am, again, grateful to be wrong.

I did expect that childhood diseases might increase due to the vaccine hesitancy that has been driven by RFK Jr's worm addled brain, and am not surprised that we are having record food borne illnesses considering the attacks against science and the government workers who have worked under the radar to inspect and regulate those businesses who produce our food. Let's not forget to praise Musk and DOGE for some of this as well.

I also touched on the possibility of a resurgence of American imperialism, which was right on the mark considering the forced removal of Venezuela's leader, not to mention the Iran War. While I admit that I didn't see the actual war in Iran coming, knowing that the concept of potentially interrupting the flow of oil was the main reason why previous administrations did not attempt what we now see is a disastrous plan, at least the oil companies are raking in huge profits. Certainly their perspective has always been the prime driver of our Middle East foreign policy, even before Trump. Now, at least it is out in the open! 

And yes, gay marriage is still the law of the land, having not been returned to the states. Again, glad to be wrong, but I have little faith that the Supreme Court may use the same logic (or lack thereof) the decide that since the founders didn't mention gay marriage in any of their documents or writings, there is no historical justification for using the Bill of Rights or the Constitution to guarantee such a right. Perhaps it might be another one of the rulings of the Roberts Court, along with Citizens United, Dobbs and the recent Humphreys Executor, not to mention the patently ridiculous and offensive ruling that presidents are immune to prosecution while in office, that will change the landscape of American politics, economics, and society. Pretty good for an institution that claims not to buck precedent or make laws! 

I ended that post with the sincere hope that I would be wrong in some of most dire predictions, and I am glad to have been right (or wrong) in a few areas. 

But, as I witness a man who can never admit any mistakes, has surrounded himself with sycophants who knowingly hide the truth from him, or, are just using him to get what they want, such as Stephen Miller, the ultimate racist, a man who can't help but brag about himself while belittling every other leader, past US presidents included, who prefers to ruin the lives of American citizens (see David Hearn) and those seeking to become Americans (see all those he has rounded up, even at actual asylum hearings, even some with sons, spouses, children serving in our military), someone who continues to talk about $2 gas being a thing, inflation being over, affordability being a Democrat scam, a leader (supposed) who now bandies about the "communist" description for anyone who disagrees with him (having zoomed right past the S word, S for socialist), I still expect some kind of federal intervention in the November elections. 

That is already a fact in his executive order concerning mail in ballots and his attempt to compel the United State Post Office to screen mail in ballots in states that do not change their election rules to suit him.

Whether DJT decides to run for a third term to further challenge and poop upon our Constitution, or merely becomes content with enriching himself and his family in the next two years, it is hard to fathom anything not to outrageous for him to attempt, and for the GOP controlled Congress to allow. While it seems that the Dems might control the House after November, again, most likely after Trump declares some of the results invalid, and/or pushes Mike Johnson not to seat those Dems who helped flip the House (Johnson being one of the worst House leaders in my lifetime, considering that he doesn't lead as much as take orders), I don't expect the Senate to flip so there will be another two years of Congressional impotency.

And executive orders like no one has even seen, to quote the man who exaggerates and lies like no president in our history.

Finally, the stock market is currently on a record run. I struggle mightily with this trend. On one hand, my selfish instincts are happy that my nest egg is growing and that I should continue to be able to live comfortably, despite the outrageous prices at the pump (drill baby drill not withstanding), and the inflationary pressures that are preventing the Fed from lowering interest rates.

Yet my personal outlook is completely overpowered by the knowledge that should the market continue to rise, some people will continue to vote for Republicans for that one reason only. They will ignore the fact that millions of their fellow citizens have lost their health insurance, that student loan debt continues to manacle those under 30, that we our government is actively rounding up hard working people (and let's not pretend they are mostly brown people) who believed in the message of the Statue of Liberty, but now face the reality that it is a lie, not to mention the tens of thousands of federal workers who have been forced out of their jobs for being loyal to the country over the president.

Do I wish for a 15% market drop? Sometimes.

If that's what it takes to wake up America from their fever, then I am willing to suffer a bit. I just hope that all the bad stuff to come, the Social Security shortfall (or bogus fix if it doesn't address the cap on when income is taxed), the future increase in childhood disease and death, the ongoing climate crisis featuring record breaking heat, storms, damage, along with the growing growth of AI and its drain on resources, water and power especially, is so overwhelming that our next president, regardless of party, will spend all his/her efforts on remediations rather than progress.

 

 

 

 

 

Birthright Citizenship

On January 20th, 2025, days after being inaugurated, Donald Trump signed executive order 14160 in which he redefines the interpretation  of the 14th Amendment, section 1, which defines birthright citizenship. Here is that Amendment which was passed by Congress in June of 1866, and ratified by the states in July of 1868.

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

The argument for this alteration was that the purpose of the 14th Amendment was to address those born in America to slaves who did not have citizenship, not to mention any rights normally associated with human beings, and that it was not meant to include children born to people here illegally. (I guess all those slaves brought here against their will were here legally?)

A quick aside. The reason why people born to slaves on American soil were not automatically granted citizenship before the passage of the 14th Amendment was because the Naturalization Acts of 1790 and 1795, which were passed to grant United States citizenship for all people living in the colonies at the time, only granted citizenship to white people. Some might argue that if the founders had true divine inspiration they might have included all people regardless of skin color.

Anyway, what is being debated here is the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" which I underlined in the above reproduction. In the minds of some people, anyone born to a person who came to America illegally might be said to be outside that requirement, the idea being that the parents of that child do not have allegiance to America, hence their breaking of immigration laws to gain access. 

I am not immune to the logic of this point although, considering that the vast number of Americans who are citizens today, are descendants of people who came to America when there were no immigration laws, seems rather petty. Certainly, we can debate how many people we should allow entry into our country, how easy or hard it should be to become a citizen, but do we really want to punish the children of those who work around the immigration laws? 

Not to mention, we don't withhold or remove citizenship for those children born to Americans who blatantly violate our laws.   

Wouldn't it be more beneficial to identify those who are here illegally, register them as prospective citizens, provide a path to achieve this designation which would include some form of payment, all the while removing the minority of those who commit violent crimes, or who are repeat offenders of non-violent crimes?

Considering the budget for ICE is tens of billions of dollars, it seems very cost ineffective to spend money tracking down people who have only the blemish of entering the country illegally, but have since been upstanding, productive non-citizens.

Speaking of non-citizens, my paternal family line, the part of my family that a few of my Trump voting siblings are extremely proud of, includes non-citizens. Neither of my paternal grandparents were United States citizens when my father was born. It was only after the third of his children were born did my paternal grandfather apply for citizenship, and not till after all her children were born did my paternal grandmother become a citizen. Perhaps my father, uncle and two aunts were not anchor babies in the strict sense, as my paternal grandparents were here for 15 plus years before applying for citizenship, but they were certainly born to non-citizens. 

I sometime will ask those who favor this new interpretation about their family tree. Many have only a faint idea about their ancestry while being so adamant about who is American and who isn't.  

Of course, some people might say it is not about crimes, or jobs, or resources spent on people here illegally rather than on Americans, it is really about prejudice. It is not hard to make the case the president and some of his supporters are racist. He has made it abundantly clear that he prefers immigrants be white, and conversely, that he believes people from "those" countries are vermin, less than human, have bad genes, etc.

Notwithstanding the prejudice of Trump, I could understand someone whose family history included ancestors born in America for 150 years or more, making a case for "American" to be defined as a person with an extended lineage of people born here, but two of Trump's three wives are immigrants and his mother was born in Scotland. As is true of so many Americans today, a large percentage of us are first or second generation Americans with much longer family histories in Europe. I guess what I am saying is that it seems very disingenuous for so many first and second generation Americans whose ancestors came to America when the borders were truly open, to be so hung up on punishing today's immigrants who, like our own grandparents, came here looking for opportunity and freedom.

Another thing I ask people who defend this new interpretation of the 14th Amendment is, what did you do to earn American citizenship?

Unless they happen to be recently naturalized citizens, most either say that they were born here, without the added reference to their parents, such as "I was born to American citizens", or they say nothing because they know they are Americans precisely because of birthright citizenship. In either case, they had no control over who their parents were or which country they happened to be conceived and birthed in. They are the winners of the birth lottery which is as random a chance as there is, yet are adamant in punishing the losers of that same lottery, the babies who were born to non-citizens.

When I further dig in and say, "I guess God doesn't love them enough to have allowed them to be born to American parents", I mostly get silence. 

You see, that's the thing. Trump has convinced millions of Americans that people who want to come to America today are criminals, rapists, people left out of insane asylums, etc, so they are OK with denying the children of those people the exact same citizenship rights that they enjoy, even thought they did nothing to earn that right.

Finally, on multiple occasions, Trump has said that America is the only country that has birthright citizenship. This is, of course, just another lie that he tells people who prefer to live in ignorance, and prejudice, rather than googling the question which would reveal that many countries, especially those in North America, have the same birthright citizenship rules as we do.

I don't know how the Supreme Court will rule on this issue, although there was some sense during the oral arguments that they were skeptical of the arguments for the executive order. 

Frankly, the fact that they had the oral arguments in the first place, is a bad indicator of just how obsequious this Supreme Court is towards the whims of Trump. Once the executive order was deemed unconstitutional by lower courts, SCOTUS should have refused to take the case, especially considering the decisions which have already been rendered by the Supreme Court in the past, most importantly the case of United States vs Wong Kim Ark. Feel free to google it for the details, but in essence, the Court ruled that a Chinese child born to non-citizen Chinese parents, a young man who was refused re-entry into America because of anti-Chinese prejudice at the time, was deemed an American citizen by rule of, you guessed it, the 14th Amendment, section 1.

Let's just hope that the Roberts Court rebukes Trump in no uncertain terms. They owe us that after their horrendous decision to gut the Voting Rights Act.   

 

 

Slavery and Other Woke Subjects

Wonderful article in the January edition of the Smithsonian called The Life and Trials of Samuel Green. Now, of course, very few people, including me, have any clue who Samuel Green was, or why knowing about his life was important.

First though, I must say that I am grateful that the president's war against any facts and truth that annoy his sensibilities, including those battles against the Smithsonian, its magazine as well as the museums, has not gone so far as to prevent articles like the one to which I am referring to be stripped from publication. While some may take that as a hopeful sign, or perhaps even proof that his attacks on the truth are overblown, I offer the recent removal of references to slavery by the  National Park Service from the President's House in Philadelphia as a reminder that we are losing small battles every day in this war to whitewash our shared history.

So, to quickly summarize, Samuel Green who was born into slavery around 1802, and spent decades in bondage, was able to save enough money due to his being "hired" out to other farms to purchase his freedom in 1833, and then the freedom on his wife about nine years later, although their two children remained enslaved.

Despite this horrific fact in itself, Green spent the next few decades involved in preaching about the Gospel. Although, to be precise, his ministry was called "exhorting" as Black men were not allowed to become ministers even within the more advanced (for its time) rules of the Methodist religion.

Sadly, the times were moving in the wrong direction for free and enslaved Blacks as the country careened towards the eventual secession of the South, followed by the Civil War. Life for people like Green did not get better, only worse, as laws were created which enshrined the separation of the races in terms of voting rights and land ownership, and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act which compelled runaways, even in free states, to be returned to their enslavers.

By 1854, Green's son and sister, having recently been sold to a man they regarded as the worst man in Maryland due to his vicious whippings and abuse, decided to flee to Canada.

A note here. Is it me, or is telling American citizens that they must participate in what they regard as an immoral act, reporting the whereabouts of enslaved people so they can be returned to their "owners", not dissimilar to administration officials at DHS and ICE advising protesters in the various cities being invaded by armed, masked officers to stand back, or even help them locate, people, and yes, they are people, who are being targeted for their non-white skin color?

Anyway, at this point, the abolitionist movement was in full vigor with books like Harriet Tubman's Uncle Tom's Cabin being widely circulated. 

Sam Jr did escape successfully, which, along with other successful escapes from the various plantations and farms where slavery was in full bloom, caused even more backlash against Blacks, freemen as well as those who were slaves.

Which brings us to the day when Samuel Green was arrested for aiding, among others, his son to flee to Canada. 

And what was the most damning evidence presented? That Green owned a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, an "inflammatory" book that "created discontent" and fomented "insurrection".

So, in April 1857, Green was convicted, to a great extent, for owning a book, and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Fortunately for Green, he was pardoned after only five years behind bars, a free man again, for the second time.

Learning about the atrocities committed by American businessmen who believed that their way of life was threatened by the abolition of slavery, about how even after the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted, Black people in America were subject to all sorts of cruelty, including lynching, but even worse, systemic bigotry embedded in the laws of our country, is painful. And that some type of divine intervention was instrumental in our nation's founding, seems ludicrous.

As I have said before, it is OK to have two thoughts in our heads at once, the belief that American democracy is a noble experiment, that "all men are created equal" is an axiom worth striving to prove, that the Constitution and Bill of Rights were created by men with foresight and great ideals, despite their owning slaves, dismissing women's rights, and believing that only land owners should have the right to vote. They were men, not gods, and men can be both good and evil in their deeds.

But people like Donald Trump seem incapable of this trait. They perceive that acknowledging faults equates to weakness, so better to pretend that only good things have happened in America, than to deal with the times when we fell far short of the ideals of our founders, who themselves fell short of their own noble words.

What really galls me, really makes me cheer, at times, for some type of calamity to befall our great country, is that along with the obsession with ridding America of DEI policies, those very same people think that we are a Christian nation. That deporting people whose only crime is that they violated an arbitrary line in the sand to attain a better life is what Jesus would do. And, that killing American citizens who believe that the real morality is standing against such cruelty is OK too.

I am not a believer that God intervenes in our daily lives, that She somehow favors people born in country A over those born in country B, or that natural disasters occur due to excessive sinning, or a lack of acknowledgement of who is really in charge.

But, if God is truly watching, is truly contemplating some form of punishment for those who have perverted or otherwise misinterpreted the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, I wonder if we would even recognize such an event in its true meaning. That perhaps:

extreme weather events are divine signs that we are on the wrong track in our abuse of our planet.

economic meltdowns (like 2008) are hints from above that our devotion to money and material possessions is off path.

the slaughter of humans, be it in Ukraine or Palestine, Sudan or Myanmar, should remind us that God expects us to seek peace, and to call out those who create chaos and violence, regardless of whether that nation or ideology aligns with our beliefs. Killing is killing.

All around America, especially in red states, there are active efforts to suppress the history of our country in the guise of a war against wokeness, even though those same people have a hard time defining what is woke. 

I maintain that the teachings of Christ are some of the most woke lessons ever presented which make it all the more insidious that those same people who are so fervently anti-woke, at the same time pretend to be Christian. I call them CHINOs, rhymes with RINOs, Christian in name only.

If you truly believe that diversity, equity and inclusion are horrible concepts then you must reject all the great accomplishments achieved by non-white men, women, first and second generation Americans, anyone with a disability, in other words, over 70% of the population because if it wasn't for policies that encouraged people that looked different from our founders, all white men, in the 250 years of our national existence, America would never have attained its current, although perhaps tenuous due to the current administration's egoistic policies, position in the world.

Better woke than asleep, or worse, just cruel. 

 

 

 

 

 

No Kings Protest

Today there will be another No Kings protest, marked by thousands of individual marches and demonstrations taking place in all 50 states, attended by what will certainly be millions of people, perhaps even tens of millions. 

Unfortunately, Nora has an all day activity that was planned months ago, and since she is driving there and we only have one car, neither of us will be attending, unlike the one that was held this past June. 

Here is a link to the post I did after that event. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/06/protests-and-civil-disobedience.html 

Since I won't be there, chanting and celebrating my First Amendment right to assemble, I thought I might delineate the many disagreements I have with the current administration, and some of the more egregious actions that have occurred, and are ongoing.

But first, a comment on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's recent assertion that it is the GOP that is the party protecting our Constitutional freedoms.

Johnson uses as his comparison, the restrictions that occurred during the pandemic, presumably the suppression of various medical treatments that were awash on the internet, and, of course, the lock downs, the encouragement of social distancing, and the wearing of masks.

While, in retrospect, it is debatable that keeping kids out of school was a wise policy, in the long run, given the data that now shows that kids were not prone to COVID, and that perhaps emphasis on the reduction  of illness, hospitalizations, and death would have been a better message, as opposed to prevention, which seemed to suggest that a vaccine would prevent the illness, there is a point to be made that some mistakes were made by federal and state officials.

And, to be blunt, that telling Americans what they should do, in any sphere of life, rarely goes well. If nothing, we can be a rebellious population, even to the point of acting like two year olds who repeat the word often told to them as they begin to explore their world and become mobile - saying NO.

We love to say no, even when we are told something that is for our own good.

So, again, Johnson might have a point of two when saying that there were some restrictions placed upon Americans from 2020-2022. Of course, the fact that Trump was president in 2020 when the lock downs occurred, that his administration worked with the vaccine manufacturers on Project Warp Speed to develop the vaccines, and gave them immunity for side effects, by the way, seems to be facts that he forgets.

Also, the simple facts that over a million Americans died from COVID from 2020 to 2022, that during a few different stretches, 3 to 4,000 people were dying every day, just as many who were killed on 9/11, and that the scientific community was continually learning how to combat this unique virus, also seem to elude him.

Were mistakes made? Certainly, in the name of saving as many lives as possible, and in an abundance of caution, our national reaction may have been too aggressive. But that is hindsight. When bodies were piling up outside morgues and we really had no clue how to treat the people who were gasping for breath and dying in droves, the best advice was all we had.  

To me however, I believe that far more lives were saved because of the recommendations as to how to combat the spread of the disease. Hopefully, we will not have a similar pandemic in my lifetime in which no coordinated national actions are taken to reduce its spread, thereby having a comparison to know for sure, but I vehemently disagree with Johnson using those restrictions and recommendations as examples of a government suppressing free speech.

More importantly, after Johnson's impassioned statements that the No Kings rallies were a wonderful example of how American freedoms are being protected by this president, he went on to describe the protests as gatherings to express a Hate America agenda. Now, certainly, he has a right to his opinion, but when a government official, in fact, the man who is third in line to the presidency, states openly that people who disagree with his political viewpoint hate our country, that is not an example of defending our Constitutional rights. Worse, it gives tacit approval for those who agree with him to justify any type of violent counter protest or activity against those America Hating people. 

Even further, Johnson also likes to couch his rhetoric as a reflection of God's will, as if he has a direct line to the mind of the Almighty. The fact that, perhaps, some people believe that God is encouraging them to attend No Kings protests today, doesn't enter his mind. Or that their understanding of the founders very specific desires to cut ties with England and its King, may be driving them to the streets today.

Lastly, and most importantly, most of the people protesting today, not only don't hate America, they love America, or at least what their perceptions of what America was and could be again, without Donald J. Trump in the White House.

Johnson completely whiffs on his interpretation of these protests, as the reality is, Americans only engage in public displays of their opinions because they love America. Those that don't vote, or don't care, or think their actions won't matter, stay at home. 

Mr Johnson, we don't hate America but we do hate what America is becoming under the leadership of Trump. Perhaps someday you will be able to understand that attacks against Trump's cruel policies emanate from a love of America and what she can be, as the vast majority of people who will be chanting NO KINGS believe.

As promised then, and in response to an acquaintance who asked me why I don't like Trump, here is my list, in no particular order, as is my First Amendment right to express.

- Executive order declaring that trans people are not people which is resulting in them being kicked out of the military and being denied health care, among other things 

- Firing of DOJ lawyers who worked on cases with Jack Smith. This action, remaking the DOJ with people who will do his bidding reached a new low in the last few weeks when he replaced the US Attorney in eastern Virginia with one of his personal lawyers, an insurance lawyer, to boot, who promptly indicted James Comey and Tish James, after the previous DOJ attorney, a longtime Republican, failed to do so, citing a lack of credible evidence

- Targeting FBI agents who investigated and helped prosecute January 6th criminals. Also, those who were photographed kneeling during some of the George Floyd protests

- Pardoning the January 6th criminals, en masse, even those who admitted to beating up police officers, even those who were caught on tape battering those officers and vandalizing the Capitol building

- Threatening Canada, Greenland, Panama

- Selling out Ukraine, favoring Russia, although this assertion needs context. I think the real issue is Trump will never forgive Zelensky for not investigating Biden, and, of course, Trump has a serious bromance with Putin, so in some ways, this is more about supporting his buddy, and dissing an entire nation of people because he has a grudge against their leader

- Similar to above, attaching a huge tariff against Brazil because their legislative and judicial branches had more guts than ours, as they indicted and jailed their ex-president when he tried to remain in power illegally, a man who supported Trump

- Treating the two plus million Palestinians as so much garbage, due in part to his deep seated racism, but also due to his love affair with strongmen who have no qualms about killing large sums of people to remain in power

- Executive order altering birth right citizenship. Punishing children for the sins of their parents, as un-Christian an act as you will ever see a president enact, not to mention in violation of the Constitution.

- Freezing monies already approved by the previous Congress. Again, unconstitutional as Congress has the power of the purse, allegedly.

- Tariffs against virtually every country in the world, many for no reason other than a personal like or dislike of their leaders (see above for Brazil), some in direct violation of his own treaties (like for Canada and Mexico), some with vague references to trade imbalances that are justified with a calculation that is unrealistic at best, nonsensical at worse, but all, bordering on unconstitutional considering that they all represent a tax on American businesses and consumers, which, again is supposed to be within the purview of Congress

- Attacks on the federal work force. Although his attack dog, Elon Musk has retreated from Washington DC with his tail between his legs, OMB head Russel Vought has famously said that he wants all federal workers to be afraid of losing their jobs. As this attack of public service continues, it may very well take a generation before Americans regain the belief that serving their country is a noble cause, and worth the sacrifice in monetary compensation

- Deporting people without due process. Again, perhaps unconstitutional, but certainly not in keeping with America's lofty sense of justice and fairness

- Allowing DOGE to access sensitive data. We really don't know how this may transpire, but should there be a massive breach of taxpayer and citizen data, there should be no surprise if the source was allowing people loyal to Musk, not America, gain access to government data bases

- Ending USAID programs. Many Americans most likely don't care about this atrocity since so many have bought into the selfishness mantra of America First, but it will result in the death of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands or people across the globe, especially children. So much for a kinder, gentler hand

- Revoked legal status for migrants who used the CBP One App to apply for asylum. Again, probably flying under the radar, but this extremely mean policy basically said, too bad if you followed the law before, the law has changed. Talk about pulling the rug out from under someone. I would imagine no American would stand for being told they were being arrested for committing an act, in the past, that used to be legal, but isn't now, but when "those" people are described as invaders and criminals, we fail to be outraged

- Scrubbing federal data bases of references of "woke" subjects and references, such as war heroes that were black, or the name of the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan (Enola Gay), and, of course, any reference to climate change

- Revoking student visas, and rejecting apps for students applying to American colleges if they have expressed any opinions that the administration doesn't like. So much for freedom of expression

- Executive order boosting coal. So ridiculous, it's hard to fathom such a backwards action

- Extortion of law firms and universities. At first, this one was working. But now it seems that there is some unity, at least among the academic world, to resist trading federal dollars for how they develop their curriculum, who they hire, who the admit into their schools, etc, although the business community is still all in on capitulating to Trump's demands, this being most recently displayed at the White House when a bunch of rich corporate types wrote checks to Trump to pay for his ballroom.

- Firing and take over of the Kennedy center board as well as attacking the independence of the Smithsonian

- Firing of a slew of inspector generals whose very job is to find fraud, waste and abuse. This act in particular demonstrated how much of a fraud was that whole exercise played out by Musk and Trump. Musk wanted to neuter many of the federal departments that oversaw his business interests, and Trump just wanted to eliminate any oversight into his criminal activity

- Hiring of a bunch of Fox personalities. When asked by a Trump supporter why that bothered me, I asked them how they would feel if Biden had recruited from CNN and MSNBC to fill some important posts in his administration. It seemed like that individual hadn't considered that could happen, didn't seem to think about such a possibility when defending Trump's Fox obsession. Not to mention his naming people like Linda McMahon and Kristi Noem for important cabinet posts. Perhaps all those attacks on DEI are correct, there must have been a white male somewhere with more experience to run such important departments

- Blowing up boats and killing people in contradiction of international law, and providing no evidence or proof to support the action. The fact that the admiral in charge of that area recently resigned, may indicate that there is no real proof, just Trump and Hegseth flexing their manliness, while Congress completely abdicates their constitutional obligation of oversight, and consent

Amazingly, that is not even close to a full list of things that have made me conclude that America is in decline, as I have stated so many times, or that Americans have lost their way. 

Shock and Awe to such an extant that it is too hard, too sad, to keep track of all the horrendous actions being taken, becoming normal, due to the lack of any accountability for Trump.

As I said in the post referred to above, I don't know if protests, even massive ones, are enough. I still envision that some type of violence, real or provoked, will enable Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, or some other form of martial law and that an America citizen will be killed by a national guardsmen or soldier during one of Trump's deployments. The fact that it will almost certainly happen in a blue state, will be no surprise.

And, with all the active gerrymandering going on in red and blue state legislatures, even the 2026 and 2028 elections may not matter, may not reflect the will of the people, or the fact that at least 60, perhaps as much as 65% of Americans are not happy with this administration.

If it all results in some type of performative election, as they have in Hungary and Russia, places whose leaders Trump admires most, then maybe we will have the ultimate example of a breach from our Constitution, the election of someone who is not only not allowed to run, but is unqualified and unpopular, but who holds all the cards, as he likes to reference.

I guess time will tell, but in the meantime

The decline continues.   

 

 

A Few Thoughts

I was going to add the following few thoughts to the beginning of my post on Elaine Pagels, but decided to let them stand alone. 

First, for those of you who have not heard, and I imagine it is an overwhelming majority, the EPA is poised to reverse its decision that the release and continued accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is dangerous, and needs to be addressed. 

This endangerment finding which occurred early in Obama's first term, was the result of a challenge to various EPA regulations that particularly targeted the transportation industry, such as tail pipe emissions and minimum gas mileage standards (CAFE). But also help limit the toxins that are emitted by power plants, especially coal burning ones. Those challenges eventually reached the Supreme Court which ruled that the EPA, in accordance with the Clean Air Act, could create those rules as long as there were scientific studies which proved the logic behind the standards. 

Now, however, the Trump Administration is using non-peer reviewed "studies" that emphasize the cost of these regulations without considering the savings, in lives and dollars, that those regulations have provided. 

What is spectacularly stupid about such a rollback, is the obvious facts on the ground; more billion dollar environmental events, more extreme weather, more push back from Mother Nature against our arrogance.

For some more info, here is a link to an article about this travesty. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epa-revoke-endangerment-finding-regulating-greenhouse-gases/  

Also, a link to a post I wrote in 2014 when I naively thought that, at the time, science was being attacked. I say naively now, because compared to items like the above, the events which triggered that post ten years ago are very small in comparison. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2014/03/science-fiction-and-fact.html 

Suffice it to say that actions like the rescinding of the endangerment finding is not only backward science, even if we assume that those advocating for it are only the stooges of the fossil fuel industry, but anti-science when it becomes clear that the "costs" that might be saved when this ruling is repealed (savings for business) will be outweighed by twice even thrice in costs that will be realized by the public in terms of increased medical ailments (and bills to pay for care), not to mention the additional damage and deaths that climate change, now exacerbated rather than addressed, will create.

I would call it immensely short sighted, if I didn't think it actually reflected rich interests stealing even more money from the rest of us, while causing illness and death, all supported by Trump and his fellow billionaires, and the spineless public servants who roam the halls of Congress pretending to care about their constituents.

Second, I just want to send a personal message to Ghislaine Maxwell. Ghislaine, I know you would prefer not to spend the next 20 years in prison, but be careful with whom you make a deal to get out, or to earn a pardon. Certainly, you have a treasure trove of information concerning who spent time on the Island, who ran in Jeffrey's circle most frequently, who had the weirdest sexual peccadilloes, and that such information will never be worth more or provide as much leverage as now.

In fact, you don't even have to be all that honest, just reveal what you are asked to reveal. After all, morals have never been a problem for you. 

But remember, once you make a deal with the devil, in this case the Trump Administration, they will own you, and while you may be pardoned or released early or just sent to a prison with more freedoms, you will forever have to remain on guard to not say the wrong thing (like the actual truth) to the wrong person at the wrong time.

Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, as long as you possess knowledge regarding Trump's relationship with Epstein, you are at risk for a similar ending that befell your ex-boss. I just hope you have some insurance squirreled away in an off-shore account that can't be easily traced to you, because any leverage you think you hold in your memories, won't be worth a penny if you can't expose the truth, dead or alive. 

Be careful, not because I don't think you are scum for all the pain you helped inflict on all the young women who you trafficked for the rich and slimy, but because I would like to think that karma is real, and that the men behind the horrors might someday be held accountable. 

Lastly, I read an interesting article this morning somewhat related to my initial topic, the decline/attacks against science, but from the perspective that this administration's multi-pronged attack on the institutions that represent knowledge and technological progress may result in America no longer being the country where scientists flock for advanced training and opportunities for cutting edge research in those areas that will drive the future of our planet.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/07/science-empire-america-decline/683711/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20250731&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily 

In a nutshell, the article recounts the decline, throughout history of some of the most advanced nations, scientifically speaking, and how those countries lost their superiority. 

And how, right now, to satisfy his warped opinion of how we should think, and who should be allowed to come to America to study, learn, and share their knowledge, Trump is causing the most intelligent and forward thinking people in the world to rethink their desire to come here while emboldening other countries, European as well as Canada and China, to welcome those same scientists with open arms, and research dollars.

Additionally, by ranting against the higher education institutions like Harvard and Columbia who seek the most brilliant minds in the world, regardless of country of origin or political opinions, he closes the door on those immigrants. Remember, if not for the prejudiced attacks, and outright violence, against the Jews by the Third Reich, the development of our space program, not to mention the creation of the atomic bomb, might not have happened had Hitler and his Aryan acolytes not chased the smartest people out of Germany.

Finally, by slashing the budgets for the NSA, NIH, and other such organizations that fund medical research, Trump is delaying, even cancelling the work of people who one day may have found cures for Alzheimers, Parkinson's cancer, etc, all in the name of some idiotic obsession with rooting out woke doctrine.

And so the decline continues. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cruelty, and Shortsightedness

Back in May, I posted the following opinion concerning the intent of the Trump Administration in its dealings with, well, everyone. In it, I acknowledge that I was a bit surprised, not at the blatant cruelty exhibited by Trump's MAGA policies, not even at the admission by him and many of his acolytes who openly state that making it uncomfortable for illegal immigrants to remain in America is the point, but by the overt cruelty being shown to Americans, whether they work in the federal workforce, or identify as transgender, or merely disagree with the current administration's policies.

Trump, along with people like Tom Homan, Stephen Miller and Russel Vought, have no qualms about treating people, Americans or otherwise, with disdain and inhumanity in the name of their ideology. They are as far from Christians as one can be without actually wearing a swastika. 

As I have said a number of times in past posts, I no longer wonder why everyday Germans allowed, even participated in the attempted genocide of the Jewish people, as we are seeing, first hand, how millions of people who believe they will spend eternity in heaven, are OK with allowing the most vulnerable in our country, and around the globe, to suffer and die. 

Here is a link to that post about cruelty. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/03/cruelty-is-point.html

I originally was going to title this post Cruelty, and Stupidity, but thought I would soften it, a bit, in hopes that some who might have not read it, choose to read it.

So, again, I am mortified at the cruelty of so many of Trump's MAGA policies. But this kind of disagreement might be considered emanating from, and evoking deep emotions.

But they are also, from a rational, or logical viewpoint, shortsighted, or stupid, if I may be so bold, for a number of reasons.

Take tariffs. A tariff is a tax on an imported good which is designed to raise revenue, or equalize the cost of the same product when manufactured in the home country, or to influence trade policies between countries. 

The tax is paid for by the importer, which, unless that business decides to absorb the additional cost, is passed along to the consumer. Now, if all or most of that tax is passed along, everyday people pay more for the same product, leading to higher inflation, at least until a domestic manufacturer can match that new price, which won't necessarily equate to a lower price, but could result in more jobs at home. This seems to be the point of Trump's trade war, to bring jobs back to America.

But at the same time, he publicly reprimands, or threatens, any business that chooses to pass along that tax, which will not make the product more expensive, but which will also not incentivize a company to move the creation of that product back home. 

At that point, the revenue becomes the point, which is fine, but it also means that either the business paying the tariff has to sacrifice profitability, and most likely job expansion, or will be forced to pass along the cost due to pressure from stockholders, creating inflation.

As for attaining better trade pacts, again, certainly a laudable goal, but Trump's proposed tariff rates are not a reaction to high tariffs by our trading partners, but due to trade imbalances. America is the largest buyer of goods in the world which has created a dynamic in the business world in which providing the goods and services we demand, at an affordable price, is accomplished by seeking the cheapest labor costs, either by moving jobs to the Southern states of America, or more commonly, offshore.

I can remember many business people bragging about increasing the standard of living in poorer countries by their moving manufacturing to those places. It was a win-win, cheaper products for Americans, better profits for the business community. Heck, I worked for a small business from 2000-2008 which imported over 90% of our product from China. During the busy season, we had upwards of 40 people in the office and warehouse. It was a small business, began in a garage, that was built into a profitable company that provided a living wage to dozens of Americans. The American dream, or at least a piece of it.

All because the labor market in China enabled sporting goods to be manufactured, and shipped to America, at a price that was competitive with other sporting goods wholesalers. And, again, this practice was defended by conservatives as good for everyone, as it is certainly true that poverty levels in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc, were reduced through these efforts.

And, lets not forget that the vast amount of MAGA paraphernalia is made overseas.

So, if Trump wants to remake the global supply chain, that is certainly his prerogative, having been elected again, but it can not possibly happen without higher prices for the American consumer, and perhaps even a lower standard of living for all those overseas workers who are no longer employed, in addition to Americans who will not have the same purchasing power during the transition. 

So, on one hand, he can't brag about revenue while pretending that the revenue isn't paid for by the American consumer, then tout his trade agreements as negotiating strategies to bring manufacturing jobs back when those pacts are dependent on businesses whose only concern is going to be where they can get a guarantee of stability in trade policy. They won't make 3 and 5 year plans to build plants in America, with Trump's on again, off again, pattern. Let alone his recent tendency of TACO.

Plus, and let's not forget this detail, executive orders to raise and lower tariffs are considered unconstitutional. The court cases are still in motion. So again, does a forward looking corporation take a chance on a multi-billion dollar investment with a completion date in 2027 or 2028, when, in the meantime, these tariffs may be ruled to be an executive overreach, illegal, in other words, or, taken off the table, should there be an election in 2026 and the Dems win the House, or in 2028, should Trump actually leave the White House?

For me though, the greatest example of shortsightedness by the Trump Administration is its attempt to deport a few million people in the next few years when we consider that our birth rate is declining at the same time that our county is aging, and retiring. We need more workers, not less, yet Trump is deporting the very people, immigrants, who have formed the backbone of the American workforce for generations.

So, while AI may replace some jobs with robots, we will still need people willing to work in the lower paid jobs that have always been filled by newly arrived people to our country, while also needing more advanced skills for those who remain in the workforce. 

Which highlights another, and I will call it stupid, Trump focus, which is to make life miserable for young people who have student loan debt, while also discouraging our teenagers to attend college by reducing and eliminating programs which offset the costs.

At this point, there are actual times when Trump or one of his talking heads actively discourages young Americans from attending college. Can you imagine that, advocating for less educated people? I guess when the demographics of those who vote for you consists of a high percentage of voters without a college degree, it might make sense. But to pretend that such a shift away from college is good for America, let alone the businesses who require future workers with advanced knowledge, engineers, scientists, etc, not to mention our shortage of nurses and doctors, is foolish, in the extreme.

It is bad enough that young people, 35 years old and under, face difficulties in attaining home ownership and establishing funds for their futures, but to then make it harder for them to afford college, and the still documented economic advantage that a degree provides while also making student loan payments harsher, and eliminating public service forgiveness programs, is again, incredibly myopic. 

Speaking of public service, again, why would any young person seek such a job, considering that attacks on the federal work force. Despite the lie (I should say, another lie) about the evil deep state propagated by Trump and his allies, we will always need people to work in public service positions knowing the financial compensation is less than similar jobs in the public sector. Yet, the goal seems to be to scare our young men and women from such ideals. Again, no surprise from a person who is completely transactional in everything he does, but one would think that our elected public servants, regardless of party affiliation, would understand and appreciate what these people do for America. 

I certainly understand why the rich rail against IRS agents considering that it is the wealthy who avoid their taxes, to the tune of billions of dollars of uncollected dollars. What surprises me is that everyday voters buy into the lie that the IRS is coming after them, when there are many studies that show that slashing IRS staffing leads to less taxes being collected, generally from the rich who have clever accountants who hide money offshore, and/or use other tricks not available to regular tax payers.

But how does the everyday voter not understand that we need dedicated people to enforce pollution standards, inspect meat packing plants, work as air traffic controllers, audit our nation's books, guarantee fair labor relations, etc, etc, etc. The actual truth is that the federal work force, numerically, did not increase all that much from 1982 to 2023 while the overall population of the country has increased by 100 million people in those 40 years. See link below.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/204535/number-of-governmental-employees-in-the-us/ 

The reality is that we need more dedicated public servants in our federal work force, yet the Trump Project 2025 based philosophy is working against that requirement from both ends, eliminating jobs, in many cases without really knowing what those jobs entail, and discouraging the younger generations from considering those jobs as careers.      

Lastly, and most critically, is Trump's insistence that climate change is a hoax, but even worse, the capitulation of Congress to this ridiculous claim. For those of you still learning about the big, beautiful bill, there are multiple assaults in this area. 

First, the repeated attempts to claw back monies approved and in many cases, promised to businesses and individuals to install and maintain green energy projects, especially wind and solar as well as the elimination of subsidies going forward, even those that make roof top solar arrays less expensive. 

Also, whether merely as a reflection of how much money the fossil fuel industry pumps into our elections, or just because Trump is incapable of understanding how alternate energy sources work, he is doubling down on coal. While I imagine that none of his family will ever find themselves working in a coal mine, he doesn't seem to mind sending mostly red-state Americans to such dirty, dangerous jobs. 

So, while the demands on our electric grids continue to expand, he wants to eliminate the industries which have been responsible for the majority of growth in our country's energy creation.

As Forrest would say, "stupid is as stupid does."

In May of 2011, I wrote a story called The Energy Conundrum. At the time, it was set in the future, in the 2030's, a time not that far off as I type this today. It is the story of American shortsightedness as related to energy. Too bad our elected leaders didn't heed its message then, even sadder that Trump, the GOP, and millions of my fellow citizens are blind to its message today. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2011/05/energy-conundrum.html 

 

 

Messy Divorces

Before I begin this post, I wanted to provide a link to one I wrote in 2017, just as the first Trump presidency began. As I have noted, I have been updating my old posts to reflect a larger font, using a method driven by posts which are accessed by my readers. If a post has been accessed that is still in the smaller font, I enlarge it, reading it again in the process. Someone accessed this one in the last few days.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2017/02/hidden-figures-not-so-hidden-prejudice.html

In this post, I warn the electorate to be careful about aligning itself with someone with such obvious incongruities embedded in his message. Someone who is a product of very slack immigration policies, yet who preaches strict immigration policies while casting aspersions on today's immigrants. And, incomprehensibly, to me at least, finds a willing audience in a population which itself is comprised of a large percentage of first and second generation Americans.

Now, here we are, eight years later, about to embark on another four years of open hostility and cruelty to immigrants, but with the added horror that it will also be directed at American citizens who dare to disagree with our leader's opinions, and worst inclinations.

As the protests against Trump's authoritarian edicts and actions ramp up, there will be more occurrences like what is happening in Los Angeles with the National Guard called to quell "disturbances". From there, it is only a matter of time before American soldiers are authorized to fire into crowds of American citizens. 

Don't say you weren't warned.

---

Divorce is a difficult process for those involved, especially if there are children included. While the divorce rate has been steadily declining in America for the past 15-20 years, it is still true that a majority of marriages that end in divorce include the disposition of children; who gets custody, who pays alimony, etc.

Currently, the news outlets are ablaze with commentary and speculation concerning a very high profile couple who are airing their differences in public; Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Yes, strictly speaking, their current estrangement does not quality as a divorce as they are not married. But one can certainly state unequivocally, that they have been tied at the hip, in lockstep, since last summer when Musk began spending millions of dollars to help Trump win the presidency.

I don't consider it hyperbole to state that no couple's actions in recent history, have effected so many Americans, so quickly and deeply, than the actions of this power couple in the last year in general, and the last four months in particular.

And, while the general fallout of their divorce will not play out in court, at least not right away, the ramifications of their initial "separation"is already being felt across the spectrum of American life.

In a regular divorce, one of the biggest areas of debate is who will get custody of the kids. In this case, there are already clear signs that Trump has the big advantage here as most MAGA politicians and pundits are making it clear that they support the president over the billionaire. Not surprising, as they are far more invested in Trump, have far more to lose if they get on his wrong side, but still curious considering how enthralled so many of the MAGA crowd was with Musk's program to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the government.

I mean they gave him carte blanche to access the personal records of every American citizen with nary a negative response. Don't any of them now worry that some of the data he has mined without restraint might reveal some damaging tidbits? Financial records can be very revealing when in the wrong hands.

Another big concern in a divorce is money. Often, the bigger breadwinner must provide alimony to the person, usually the woman, who may have sacrificed her own career to raise the children, or now has primary custody of the kids.

Musk is already threatening to divulge secrets to continue to get his government sweetheart deals and contracts, while Trump is alluding to "the consequences" of Musk changing his allegiance to another political party. Usually the lawyers of the battling couple will advise their clients to stay out of the limelight so as to not provide fodder which might give an advantage to the other side. 

In this case, each of the "adults" has a social media outlet which they control and dominate, so that advice is long moot. 

One might say that since both men are super rich, it won't matter much who comes out on top, financially speaking. But it could certainly matter to the kids, and not just those who are all in on Trump's TACO tariff presidency. 

All of us could experience economic blow back from their divorce. Perhaps enough Republicans are emboldened to vote against the "big, beautiful bill" that passed in the House and is being amended in the Senate. 

Among other things, lots of other things, in fact, many not actually read or understood by those who voted for it, there are provisions for increasing the national debt limit which will become even more critical as we head into the summer, changes to Medicare and Medicaid, and limits on the SALT deduction.

Or, should Trump alter his retribution tour to include everything Musk, thousand of jobs will be effected should those contracts and subsidies disappear overnight.

Funny how all those who disavowed accusations that Trump would use the government's resources to go after his enemies, are either silent at this threat, or applauding it.

Of course, it is entirely possible that some form of reconciliation will occur. When there are two such overt egomaniacs involved, anything is possible as no matter what actually occurs, each will spin a reduction in animosity as a win for them.

Sadly however, there are just as many divorces that are not amicable. Even sadder, it is Americans, regardless of political preference, who will suffer the most.

Finally, I can't help but wonder what might be really going on here. While such a public feud might warm the hearts of democrats, I can't shake the thought that this is just theater, a distraction. 

I have mostly jettisoned the moniker of evil genius when describing Trump, but still recognize that he is a master at drawing our attention away from his real intentions by providing low hanging fruit to grouse about. 

The question is, are they both so stubborn and egotistical that they would actually continue such a public dispute knowing each might suffer, at least temporarily, or is it a concerted effort by one or both to give us a nice show while they work behind the scenes on something even more nefarious, and lucrative, for them.

I often discuss wealth accumulation, even when related to winning the lottery, as a goal which I eschew. Not only don't I believe that money provides happiness, I think that for people like Musk and Trump, it makes them miserable, perhaps even lonely. 

Unfortunately, it is also addictive, and like any addiction, cannot be overcome unless one admits its existence.

In the case of Musk and Trump, it will not come as a surprise to me if it is disclosed at some point in the near future that either together, or separately, their quarrel was all window dressing while they worked to feed their shared addiction of gaining wealth and power. 

If it is truly two narcissists battling over who has the biggest di$$, I won't be surprised, but if it turns out that they have the last laugh over the rest of us, having fallen for the faux fall out, I won't be any more surprised, just disappointed that we were fooled, again.

 

 

    

Take The Win 2

Back in early January, I posted a "letter" to President Elect Trump called "Take The Win". In it, I suggested that he continue telling the American people how great he governed the first time, and how wonderful everything is going now, and that he instruct those media outlets which bend the knee to air story after story to illustrate those points. 

I suggested that they show ICE agents arresting the worst of the worst of the convicted undocumented, perhaps even leading them out of American jails towards deportation planes. That he crow about the markets when stocks are breaking records, regardless of whether anything he has done could have made any difference.

That when the avian flu starts to subside, he take credit for falling egg prices. That any peace talk progress between Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Hamas be treated as proof of his strength. 

And, of course, that any drop in illegal crossings be chalked up to his brilliant immigration strategy.

Here is a link to that first post

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/01/dear-president-trump-take-win.html 

In some areas, Trump has done that. When the market was up in January and early February, he was first to claim it as his doing. Of course, when it dropped like a stone after his tariff announcements, he reverted to blaming Biden, but that is OK, as long as those media outlets that he controls stayed the course and repeated whatever he deemed real news.

And, while, as an actual grocery shopper and gasoline purchaser (I assume he hasn't done either in decades), I know that the price at the pump is a tad higher than on November 6th, or January 21st depending on your choice of start dates, and that eggs, while still much higher than before the avian flu kicked in, have dropped a bit, just keep repeating the lie that prices have dropped significantly. It doesn't matter than any change in the price of eggs is all about our ability to navigate and deal with the avian flu, he can take the win and pretend that he knows more about chickens and eggs than any farmer.

He even has the Secretary of Commerce repeating the nonsense of gas prices being below $2 a gallon, let alone the Press Secretary who gushes about his accomplishments like a Beatles groupie.

Shame on me though, I never expected the tariff policy disaster. While his minions continue to toggle between the justification that tariffs will reduce the flow of fentanyl, will raise enormous amounts of money, or will bring manufacturing back to our country, actual shipments into America are about to be halved, while exports which might previously have sent American made products overseas via contracts under USAID, and other government funded agencies, have been cancelled by DOGE. 

Fortunately, I see good news ahead.

Depending on the timing around possible shortages in our department and grocery stores, Trump will announce breathtakingly brilliant deals with China, the EU, etc which will soon amount to goods flowing into our country again. Like the arsonist who is first to blast water on a fire he set, Trump will then claim that he rescued America from food and merchandise shortages. It won't matter if at the end of the day, the new "deals" look very much like the old deals, or even if a deal here and there is actually worse for our country.

Take the win, hammer the message that his superior negotiating skills have once again saved the day, and move onto the next topic that can be twisted into a pretzel on purpose only to be straightened out afterwards.

Even better, invent a crisis, rather than causing one. Tell everyone of the next impending disaster, whether it exists or not, then solve it, just like his executive order on undocumented people voting. We know it is not a real problem, but should there actually be a midterm election, and it is proven that the number of voters who were undocumented was paltry, it won't matter that it always was paltry, it just matters that he made it so.

To be honest, it kind of surprises me that Trump is not following my advice/his original playbook of creating controversy (such as his original big lie, that Obama was not born in America), then capitalizing on the gullibility of his cult.

I mean, they believed that Haitians were eating the dogs and cats, why actually address a real issue when you can create one?

In this vein, he is already setting the stage for a "peace" in Ukraine. First he pretended that the United States would pull out of facilitating negotiations. Then he faked outrage that Putin kept slaughtering Ukrainians, as if the tens of thousands that have already been killed didn't matter. Eventually, hopefully soon, some form of reduced hostilities will occur, and Trump can take the win and proclaim that his threat to walk away pushed the combatants to the peace table.

In a similar way, he should return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US, then hold a sham trial and deport him again. I am sure he can find a judge who will ignore the evidence, (can you say Aileen Cannon) and rule as he wishes. Can you imagine the victory strut he could take when Garcia is deported by rule of law? Whether that rule of law is true to the term, won't matter, just that he can yell "told ya so".

He should also take the win by emphasizing other deportations of real criminals (we know there are many), and stop deporting people whose only crime was illegal entry, or American children who had the nerve to be born to an undocumented parent. Or kids with cancer.

He can even claim that because of his desire to protect women athletes from competing with men, there are now less than a dozen such trans athletes competing in the NCAA. It doesn't matter that the number was never more than that before, it just matters that he take credit for the small number now.

Another good story is to announce that fentanyl deaths are down due to his aggressive actions against Canada and Mexico. Now, of course, he may want to not repeat Attorney General Bondi's assertion that fentanyl seizures have saved 258 million American lives, that number being a tad over blown considering that she is suggesting that without Trump's leadership, roughly 75% of the people that you know, including infants and those over 80 years old, would have died in the past year.

Still, fentanyl deaths did decrease in the last reporting year, summer of 2023 to September 2024. It doesn't matter that Biden was president then, nor does it matter that one of the reasons for this decline is the availability of naloxone (Narcan) which has been distributed through various government programs into the hands of EMS personnel and into the neighborhoods where drug use is prevalent, nor does it matter that those very programs are under attack via DOGE and the president's recent budget proposal. All that matters is taking credit for the decline.

Take the win.

As I said in the first post, we know, above all, Trump likes to golf. The less he intervenes in trade policy, the less he attempts to bully institutions of higher learning, prestigious law firms, non-profit organizations that raise money for political parties and viewpoints he disagrees with, the more time he can spend on rallies and golf.

Take the win.

Tour the country telling your faithful followers how great you are by taking credit for whatever seems to be going well at the time, or even by making up things that were fine before. 

And golf like no other president has golfed before. Perhaps even combine the two and golf with "regular" folks who can then be interviewed on Fox and Friends and gush about Trump's golfing prowess, not to mention his brilliant mind and wonderful personality. 

Just stop governing. Let Congress actually work on laws as they are supposed to, if you believe in the Constitution. You can continue to sign stupid executive orders if it makes you feel important and powerful, just restrict them to idiotic things like declaring paper straws are back, and putting Columbus back in Columbus Day.

Of course, it is also possible that Trump will stick with his other tried and true playbook; continue to cause chaos while raking in millions of dollars selling access to the White House. Like a magician who makes the audience look away from the real trick, Trump may prefer throwing out inane proclamations (executive orders), or putting an AI generated picture of himself as pope, or just merely opening his mouth and verbalizing whatever moronic thought pops into his twisted mind.

All the while extorting money and favors from the stupidly and/or cowardly rich who have made the concept of selling out their country for even more money that they will never be able to spend in 1000 lives, into their new favorite hobby.

Or perhaps both. Take the win by continuing to direct his flock to think and believe whatever he tells them, and make a boat load of money to boot. After all, what is the point of being able to fool people if not to make lost of money.

Whatever permutation of this plan that he chooses, in addition to whatever other transactional scam he can concoct, I see a host of "how great is Trump" stories in our future.

Take the win, but at least leave us some money. Maybe even enough to buy four or five dolls and eight or ten pencils. 

 

 

 

Another Oval Office Circus Act

I saw a few clips of the meeting today in the Oval Office with the El Salvadorean president. The highlight, or extremely low light, was when he joked that he couldn't return the man mistakenly sent to his death camp, "How would I do it, smuggle him in?" was the gist of his response.

And of course, he was smiling as he said this, as if the illegal imprisonment of a man was some kind of laughing matter. Not to be outdone, Trump sat right beside him with that disgusting smirk that he displays when he thinks he has outsmarted everyone.

Contrast that sad performance with his tongue lashing of the Ukrainian president about a month ago when Trump was appalled that Zelensky would dare to try to educate him about the history of Russia-Ukraine relations, about how Putin has violated every ceasefire agreement, and about who started the war in the first place.

But, as is all so clear, Trump only has one yardstick for his affections and respect. If you kiss his ass. Zelensky refused, while Bukele has learned from Putin that if you praise Trump, you can get anything you want. 

It would be laughable, if it wasn't so horrific.

Think about it. Bukele thumbed his nose at America and the Supreme Court of the United States, but Trump and his Nazi cow of an attorney general sat there, nodding that they were impotent to force this Central American wanna be dictator to return a prisoner America is paying him to house. That's right, the self proclaimed master negotiator can't figure out a way to broker the return of someone costing the American taxpayers money to stay in El Salvador!

I guess that whole waste, fraud and abuse only applies to programs that the billionaire co-president doesn't like.

Trump is a joke that is no longer funny. He is a danger to America, a threat to our rule of law, and, frankly, a threat to the world's economy with his "tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary" nonsense.

As I have said many times, I will never understand how any everyday, working class American thinks that this president cares about them, and doesn't see that everything he does is for the super rich class which is destroying democracy with their use of the historically horrendous Citizens United decision, or, in some cases, merely to stroke his own ego.

If it is still possible for him to get a boner, he must get one every time he changes course on tariffs and causes world wide markets to plunge and soar, knowing he did it! At least Melania is spared.

The truly sad part is that all the enablers, from Mitch McConnell who stole a Supreme Court seat from Obama for his party and ideology, damn the country, to Mike Johnson who pretends to be a constitutional lawyer only when it aligns with Trump's sordid vision, to all the MAGA voters who have been duped by a reality TV star into thinking he is some kind of expert businessman, will suffer in the end, as we all will, just like poor Mike Pence who defended him tooth and nail for four years only to be thrown under the bus when he wouldn't violate the Constitution for him to remain in power.

Even sadder, when their lives are in turmoil, they may still worship at his feet, being too far gone to climb out of that rabbit hole and admit their mistake. Or to admit that Trump, while not the cancer that is eating away at our collective soul, illustrates that very cancer with his every royal decree (executive order). 

What is even more amazing, is that there will be Fox opinion hosts, as well as the even further right people on NewsMax, etc, who will actually defend the belief that the great almighty United States of America, can't get a prisoner sent by mistake to a far smaller, far less powerful and influential country to be returned. Not even by the Art of the Deal author!

And so the decline continues.

 

One Trump Voter's Remorse

While I may have mentioned that I am working part time now, I don't believe I have provided any details about the work. I am employed at a small chain grocery store, stocking shelves with the thrice weekly deliveries of grocery products. I work with a reasonable diversity of people in terms of age and gender. And, perhaps unlike some work environments, we did discuss politics during the run up to the November election.

So, it came as a surprise when one of the young men I work with admitted to me a few weeks ago that he had voted for Trump. I say surprised because in our discussions last year, he did not express any particular attraction to Trump, and considering that he is a college student struggling to pay tuition while living on his own, perhaps due to my experience with my children and their friends, I had assumed he was leaning towards Harris. 

The good news is that he was willing to admit to me that he regretted his vote, partly, I hope, because he knew I would not lose it over his admission, but also because I gathered that he couldn't discuss his sense of remorse with all that many people. 

One of the reasons for his unhappiness with his vote and the direction of the new administration, was purely selfish. He had been interviewed for a post office job late last year, a job which would provide a substantial raise, and was told that he would be hired in the near future. At this point, given the fact that the USPS is laying off thousands of employees, he is far from sure that it will still occur.

Many people complain that their vote doesn't matter, or that no matter who is elected, it won't effect their lives. Yet for my work friend, he knew for a fact that his choice in November might lead directly to the loss of this job. 

There were other things that have transpired in these first few months that he didn't like, so his regret wasn't just for personal reasons.

When I asked him why he voted for Trump, I framed it as a request to know why he didn't vote for Harris, as, from my perspective, I think it important for democrats to understand the reasons why it wasn't obvious to other voters that Harris was the better option.

His answer was multi-leveled. He didn't know enough about Harris, which I accept as a legitimate answer. He wasn't happy with inflation which he blamed on Biden's policies, and then connected to Harris. Again understandable, if not the full truth of why inflation occurred.

But then he alluded to the fact that so many of his friends, male friends, were excited about Trump. He knew that some of Trump's bravado and pseudo-macho attraction was superficial, but was reluctant to not be "that guy" who went against the grain and voted for Harris. 

This was what surprised me, in that he was tacitly admitting that it was peer pressure that led to his ultimate voting decision, even though he wasn't fully on board with his friend's attraction to Trump's rhetoric. 

What is really ironic, is that this was his first presidential election. His first foray into advanced citizenship, and he was already disappointed with the choices as he was not thrilled with either option. And additionally, he seemed genuinely upset both with the choice he ultimately did make, and the state of America due to that choice.

And that is what bothers me the most, that he is already skeptical about our current version of democracy, after only one experience. Skeptical that democracy is working as it should, skeptical that both parties seem focused on what is good for them, not what is good for the country.

Even more than that, while I accept my sense of hopelessness, or I should say lack of optimism for our country's near term future, I have a hard time accepting such gloom by a young adult with the vast majority of his life to come.

Perhaps that is the silver lining to my friend's pessimistic outlook. Perhaps he will do more research when 2028 rolls around. Or communicate a contrary perspective to those friends who leaned so heavily in Trump's favor. 

Do I think my friend is one of the far too many millions of Americans who are labelled low information voters, regardless of party preference? Not necessarily. But I do think that had he done a little more research, listened more carefully when Trump attacked the federal work force, and expressed his love for tariffs, he may have voted differently. And if we assume that there are tens of thousands of other Americans who fell victim to nonchalance when it comes to civic duty, or just plain lies and falsehoods, maybe the election of 2024 will be a catalyst for a more informed voter.

Why, Joe, are you expressing a sense of optimism?

Well, maybe guarded hopefulness.

As I sit here, after the last few days of a bloodbath in the stock markets, there has been a slight rebound. Did we hit the bottom already? Was that the step back before two big steps forward? Will my friend reconsider his regret if the post office calls him next week, or if he attains a different job to help him finance his young life, school tuition, etc?

I'll let you know.

In the meantime, maybe the best lesson I can take from my friend's revelation is that perhaps I should have communicated more reasons why I was voting for Harris, as opposed to reasons not to vote for Trump. Was that our biggest fault, that democrats in general did not give the low information or independent voter more valid and compelling reasons to vote for Harris? We certainly had a list as long as one's arm of reasons not to vote for Trump, but maybe all that talk was just chalked up to political rhetoric and partisan party politics.

Certainly, those members of the Cult of Trump were never going to be swayed to desert their leader. But perhaps a better approach to those center right and center left people who voted Biden in 2020, or those who were voting for the first time, may have helped Harris, and other down ballot democrats, win the day.

Should there be a midterm election, and I am far from positive of that eventuality, it may be enough to take back the House by just pointing out how awful the current administration is performing. But a dose of positive messaging from the dems should also be employed to sway those voters like my friend who were on the fence in 2024 but ultimately chose the GOP candidates.

 

 

What May Come

Due to the increase in traffic on my blog, I have seen "hits" to past posts, and have begun to read them, both to get a sense of how my opinions may have changed, and to update them with a larger font to ease future reading. Since I began using the larger font in 2021, there are hundreds of posts to upgrade.

As I may have mentioned before, this process has alerted me to the stark realization that I am no longer hopeful for the future. Certainly not in the short run. 

While many of my past posts detailed the shortcomings of our government leaders, or our current iteration of capitalism, or various Supreme Court decisions, or even just the state of our democracy and the complacent attitude of our citizenry towards their responsibility to participate via research and dialogue in its care, I generally ended with hope that an awakening might be forthcoming. 

I've written many stories along this vein, all with the firm belief that it was only my impatience that presented the biggest obstacle, impatience that what I though we were capable of, was just not manifesting itself quickly enough. But that it would, over time.

Now I am not so sure, not certain that progress is inevitable, and that humanity will eventually figure it out. 

After all, countless civilizations have come and gone that we know of, let alone those that may have inhabited Earth before our written history, not to mention the possibility of life on any of the millions of planets in any of the millions of solar systems in our galaxy, which is one of the millions in our universe.

For all we know, fictional stories like Star Trek which feature all types of life forms from the four corners of the known universe, could reflect reality, which also means that civilizations come and go like so many twigs down a fast flowing stream.

The real question then is, how much of this change of heart is related to the simple fact that I am much closer to my own death than my birth? How much is a reflection of my own sense of mortality?

I would like to think that I am not afraid of death, although living a few years with limited cognitive awareness or severe physical restrictions is another issue.

I am not a firm believer in the afterlife, heaven and hell. I am certainly not sure of some type of eternal reward, having long ago rejected the basis of my birth religion which teaches that salvation lies in the belief of John 3 16. 

At the same time, while I don't deny my past, the life I've lived, the people I spent time with, the actions, good and bad, I engaged in, I don't necessarily long for the "good old" days, not withstanding the energy of youth.

I accept my rose colored glasses reminisces, even enjoy relating the adventures of my youth to the occasional listener who encourages me, but I also know that I was lucky to have been born a white male in the late 1950's, and that my experiences were inextricably tied to this birth lottery win. 

The point of all this, I guess, is to at least acknowledge that fading hope is part and parcel with growing old, yet for me, is not just because I wish to return to the days of my irresponsible youth. I feel that I can both acknowledge that I am experiencing less hope due to my advancing age, but also can see what is going on. One does not cancel out the other or make the other less real or observable.

So, all that being said, I expect some of all of the following things to occur in the next twelve to eighteen months.

---

There are some who pose the question, what will happen when Trump defies a court order. As far as I am concerned, he is already doing just that, so the answer, for now, is nothing will happen. At least not at first. Perhaps as the number of unconstitutional executive orders accumulate, and as the rebukes from various courts mount up, there will be some blow back. But it certainly won't come from Congress, the GOP in both houses having already abdicated there power to the executive they worship, and are afraid of. And, sadly, the Dems in Congress have shown themselves to be almost as spineless, although they sure do engage in some grandstanding in their ineffectiveness.

As for the Supreme Court, where so many challenges to Trump's abuses of power are headed, I do expect some decisions that the MAGA world will decry, but then what? When their rulings are ignored, when threats of impeachment are levied, if not against them then certainly against lower level federal judges, how will they enforce those decisions? 

Which brings us to the People. I fully expect many, and perhaps very large protests to be organized once the weather improves. Certainly there will be disturbances on some college campuses, and in urban settings. Obviously, this is not lost on the current administration as the investigations into various colleges over protests against Israel's slaughter of Palestinian women and children indicate, not to mention the threat of the withholding of funds, and the deportation of protesters who may not be American born.

At this point, I anticipate martial law to be declared, if not nation wide, certainly in specific places, not coincidentally, places where voters did not support the current president. For me, it is not a matter of if, but when. Even more tragically, when the United States military is called to action to suppress these protests, there will be American citizens killed.

The only question will be who will emulate Neil Young and write a 2025 version of the song that begins 

Tin soldiers and Nixon comin' 

We're finally on our own 

This summer I hear the drummin' 

Four dead in Ohio   

But not to be outdone, there will be increasing levels of disease and death as the unscientific policies of RFK Jr begin to be implemented. It won't matter when American children die of diseases that had been virtually wiped out by 21st century discovery and implementation of vaccines, he will just blame poor diet, and a parent's right to allow their children to suffer, and die from a preventable disease. 

No real news there, really, since we will participate in the deaths of children all around the world since helping other countries prevent the  suffering and death of children through USAID programs, among others, do not produce a profit, or are just not a priority for the richest man in the world and his DOGEmen, not to mention that we are OK with gun violence being the current leading cause of death among those 4 years old and less. Perhaps allowing preventable disease to take that number one spot, as it was for decades, will provide some satisfaction to the gun manufacturers when they can say their products aren't the leading cause for children's deaths anymore. 

So, once martial law is declared, the suspension of certain first amendment rights will follow. After all, the constitution is not applicable to an executive with wide ranging immunity from prosecution and accountability (thank you SCOTUS), especially when he cloaks his unconstitutional actions in executive orders.

Also, as I have said in a previous post, Trump will sign a national abortion ban should one land on his desk. There are already women dying due to abortion being returned to the states, this will increase that number tenfold.

Lastly, but certainly not less important, I expect that the Supreme Court will return gay marriage to the states later this year, or early next year. The cases are already teed up by states like Idaho and North Dakota. This will be devastating for the LBGTQ+ community as there is not doubt that at least 20 states will outlaw gay marriage once allowed. And don't worry, those red states won't make the mistake of putting gay marriage up for a referendum. They won't take that chance. 

Already legislatures in states like Missouri and Ohio are finding ways to void their citizens votes to include reproductive rights in their state's constitution, so, lesson learned.

The real question is, will there be a midterm election. Up until recently, I wouldn't have even considered typing such a hyperbolic and outlandish thought, the old Joe being hopeful that sanity and logic would prevail. But now, it won't surprise me when Trump declares that we can't take the chance that the Dems will steal the midterm elections just as they did the 2020 presidential election, so for the sake of democracy we must delay another election.  

This last executive order will then allow him to double down on the further suspension of our first amendment rights, free speech, the press, the right to protest and to petition the government. You know, all those things that allow people to express their dissatisfaction with a government that is not responsive to the people's wishes.

In addition to the stranglehold that the new administration will seek to put in place in terms of limiting protests against his policies, and sending DOJ and FBI to prosecute various news outlets that he deems less than submissive, Trump's version of the weaponization of these institutions, I also expect the resurgence of American imperialism as there is no doubt that the current president wants to extend our power and dominance over other nations or territories through political, economic, or military influence, as is the definition of imperialism.

He has more than once stated that we will own Greenland "one way or another," and has threatened to take over the Panama Canal, not ruling our military action.

And then there is Canada.

One of our most loyal allies, a country which routinely sends emergency personnel to help combat the various weather emergencies that have occurred in border states, and even states much further from our shared border. Our second largest trading partner, and in fact, the largest trading partner for many states within our country.

Sadly, Trump continually insults the leaders of Canada, and by extension, its citizens. He has so roiled our relationship with this pivotal ally that our national anthem is being booed at professional sporting events. 

In all these situations, what the citizens of each of these countries desires is irrelevant. Trump knows best for them, and resistance to his royal decrees is not important. A sentiment that he certainly would extend to citizens of other countries since he believes it true for Americans.

It's no wonder that he sides with Putin over Ukraine, as that is exactly how a megalomaniac leads his country, and perceives the world. Just another resource for the taking as long as I have the bigger military or stronger economy to force them into submission.

I know, rather bleak. 

Who knows, perhaps I will be able to publish a future post in which I admit I was wrong, admit I over reacted, admit that Trump was more bluster than action. Perhaps. 

If so, I will be ecstatic to acknowledge my incorrect predictions. I guess only time will tell.