Month: January 2025

Trump On Rampage: Denial Of Temporary Protected Status For 600,000 Venezuelans, And Protective Tariffs Of 25 Percent On Canada And Mexico!

Donald Trump, after just 11 days in office, is clearly on a rampage of destruction, so overwhelming that it is hard to fathom and simplify the damage done.

The government is now denying the temporary protected status granted to about 600,000 Venezuelan refugees in 2021.

And it seems inevitable the same will happen to refugees from Haiti, Ukraine, and Afghanistan.

Additionally, on Saturday, the plan is to impose 25 percent protective tariffs on all goods from our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, which will cause massive inflation if it goes on for a long time.

This is a series of actions that can be considered a “political massacre”, and endangers the entire nation long term!

As we enter February, one has to wonder how much more can decent Americans take!

Richard Nixon, by comparison, is a “choir boy”!

Shocking Plane Crash In DC Politicized By Trump As “DEI”!

The shocking plane crash on the Potomac River at Reagan National Airport in Washington DC is a massive tragedy, the first such event since 2009.

Overall, America has an outstanding record regarding air traffic control, although there have been a number of “close shaves”, near accidents, that thankfully did not occur.

But for Donald Trump to make the tragedy political and claim that Democrats, and specifically Joe Biden and Barack Obama, are responsible due to “DEI”, is unconscionable.

Trump claims that having some air traffic controllers who are women or non white men lower the standards of excellence is an outrage, pure racism and sexism! And to bring up the concept of intellectual or mental disabilities is ridiculous, as no one is engaged in this kind of work who has intellectual or mental disabilities.

It is making people who have such disabilities a new target for Donald Trump, who, however, has made fun of disabled reporters in past years, and has no heart or common decency!

Of course, his loyal supporters, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just mouth his prejudices.

And Trump attacked reporters who challenged his purposefully biases, with no shame, although he does not have a clue as to what caused the tragedy!

And he also attacked a great public servant, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was outstanding in that position under Joe Biden, and also served well as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

By making Buttigieg an easy target directly, Trump is also speaking out the fact that Buttigieg is a gay male with a husband and two sons, but at the same time, Trump has a Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, who is also a gay male with a husband and children, so a clear double standard!

Trump, Project 2025, And Open Declaration Of War On Federal Government: A Massive Crisis!

Donald Trump had claimed he knew nothing about Project 2025, a right wing radical attack on the federal government.

But now, it is clear that Trump is utilizing the extremism of Project 2025 to declare open war on the federal government!

The shock of Trump ordering a total freeze on all government funding immediately, which was only temporarily paused by a federal judge until a ruling on next Monday, is reeling across all 50 states and our relations with foreign nations as well.

Firing 18 Inspectors General who are committed to open, honest government investigations, and working to decimate the existing civil service protections of federal government workers in order to replace all of them with political loyalists, is also a shocking attack on the concept of honest, good government!

The decision of Trump to fire all those engaged in the Justice Department into his wrongdoings that led to impeachments and indictments, and also to weed out those in Defense and National Security posts who are not slavishly loyal to his vision, is terrifying.

Trump’s disruption of international relations and foreign policy with his aggressiveness toward Panama, Denmark over Greenland, and tariff threats against our Latin American neighbors and Canada, are a danger of massive proportions!

Trump is moving toward authoritarian dictatorship, which was predictable, and there is no time for shock, but rather for action by Democrats, the courts, and the sensible news media to move to prevent in every way possible this grab for absolute power!

Talk Of A Trump Third Term And Putting Trump On Mount Rushmore Pure Lunacy!

The lunacy and craziness around Donald Trump continues, with talk of a Trump third term, which will never happen, as it would require a new constitutional amendment and a repeal of the 22nd Amendment!

Both would need a two thirds vote in the House of Representatives and in the US Senate, followed by three fourths of the states (38) ratifying by a majority in both houses of the state legislatures in 49 states plus the one house legislature in Nebraska.

Additionally, Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has, crazily, proposed that Donald Trump be put on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt!

First of all, putting anyone else on Mount Rushmore is a massive job, and highly unlikely ever to occur!

But if such a suggestion was to be followed through on over time, it should be Franklin D. Roosevelt, not Donald Trump!

And if one was to propose a Republican President, it would be more reasonable to put Dwight D. Eisenhower or even, although not something this author and blogger would promote, Ronald Reagan!

As it is, Mount Rushmore has a Federalist (Washington); a Democratic-Republican (Jefferson); and two Republicans (Lincoln and TR), so the argument for an additional President should be for a Democratic President, with FDR clearly the major example, or possibly Harry Truman!

All this is silliness, as there will never be additions to Mount Rushmore!

And with Trump rated either number 45 or at best number 43 tied with Franklin Pierce and above James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson, in surveys of historians and political scientists, it is truly delusional to consider him worthy of being on Mount Rushmore!

The way Trump is beginning his second Presidency will only insure that he will be number 45 in all rankings of intelligent, educated scholars, and with any American who has a brain, and ethics and morals!

Donald Trump Trying To End All Progress Of Civil Rights Movement Of 1950s And 1960s, Wiping Out History Of Equality!

It is shocking, but not surprising that Donald Trump is aiming at ending all civil rights laws and enforcement, going back to the time of Lyndon B. Johnson, and really even back to earlier efforts and support of Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy.

It is also an attack on the advancements that came under later Presidents and Congresses, to promote equal opportunity, and overcome generations of discrimination and bias by state and local governments.

It is reviving the hatred and prejudice enunciated by generations of the Ku Klux Klan, and such individuals as Orval Faubus of Arkansas, Ross Barnett of Mississippi, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, and most notably, George Wallace of Alabama.

It is a bold move to reinstall Jim Crow laws that dominated from the Gilded Age to the era of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

It is the final surrender of the Republican Party, which had promoted civil rights at a time when Southern Democrats were advocating segregation and defiance of the federal government.

Now, we have a wealthy New York real estate magnate proudly promoting what he has believed his entire life, to bring back the racism and nativism that he has advocated, with so many excusing him or saying that he is not such, when he most clearly is so!

And to top it off, Trump is attempting to remove Birthright Citizenship from Native Americans, the original and only “true” Americans, as well as discriminating against Latinos and Asian Americans as well, as he considers only “white” people from Europe as “true Americans”!

When and how will this crazy revival of hate and prejudice be stopped dead in its tracks?

When will the Republican Party remember the basis of their existence in the mid 19th century, when they were a party of racial equality?

Donald Trump’s Victory In 2024 Fifth Lowest Since 1924!

Donald Trump and his loyalists continue to declare that he had a “massive” victory in the Presidential Election of 2024, when he most certainly did not, and including the fact that his Republican Party now has the barest margin in the House of Representatives that has occurred since the 72nd Congress in 1931-1932, losing the majority on October 22, 1931 to the Democrats and never regaining the majority again until the 80th Congress in 1947-1948.

Trump has the fifth lowest margin of victory by 1.7 percent, only higher than Richard Nixon in 1968 with 0.7 percent, John F. Kennedy in 1960 with O.2 percent, George W. Bush with MINUS 0.5 percent in 2000, and Trump with MINUS 2.1 percent in 2016, with the last two losing the popular vote, but winning the Electoral College.

And Trump did NOT gain the majority of the popular vote, ending up with 49.9 percent.

So Donald Trump does NOT have the mandate he thinks he has, and if Republicans lose one or two seats in replacement elections for members of the House that are joining the administration from Florida and New York, then the Democrats have the possibility of gaining control of the House of Representatives during the present 119th Congress.

With Confirmation Of Pete Hegseth, Can Any Trump Nominee Be Defeated?

With the reality that the US Senate confirmed, by a tie vote broken by Vice President JD Vance, the nomination of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, one must wonder will there ever be FOUR Republican Senators who will stand in the way of any Donald Trump nominee?

One could argue that the defense of the nation, the protection of all Americans, is endangered by having a Secretary of Defense, who has zero qualifications for the position, and has a history of alcohol problems and sexual promiscuity, which could make him suspect of being compromised by foreign spies, in a worst possible scenario.

But with the reality that this nomination went through, is there any hope of any of the other objectionable nominees being stopped?

Tulsi Gabbard is a real security risk if she becomes Director of National Intelligence.

Kash Patel is a danger if he is made head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the next decade, the worst possible nominee since J. Edgar Hoover passed away in 1972.

And Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, a true loose cannon with drug and alcohol problems and delusional behavior and beliefs, is a massive threat to the health and safety of 340 million Americans, with his anti vaccine lunacy and denial of basic science.

So the question arises: Can four Republican Senators be counted upon to reject any or all of these controversial nominees?

One would hope Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins might follow through, but can they be expected to reject all three of these controversial nominees?

Can Mitch McConnell do so as well, considering his concerns about national security and foreign policy, and his having had polio as a child?

But will anyone else, such as Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is a doctor and has expressed concern about RFK Jr’s crazy views on public health?

What about John Curtis, the new Utah Senator who replaced Mitt Romney, and was thought to be a likely vote to oppose Hegseth, but did not do so?

What about James Lankford of Oklahoma, who had been a co-sponsor of immigration legislation in 2024 that Trump convinced Republicans to refuse to support?

What about Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who wavered on Hegseth and ended up supporting him in the end?

And then, there are rumors that Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania might support one of more of these three controversial nominees, and even, crazily, that Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse might support RFK Jr, who was a college friend decades ago.

Donald Trump’s “Wrecking Ball” On The Federal Government!

Donald Trump, in just four days in office, has applied the “wrecking ball” on the federal government.

Thousands of civil servants in many different government agencies have been told not to come to work, and have lost access to their offices and websites.

The Civil Service system set up in 1883 under the Pendleton Act is being eviscerated before our eyes.

The plan is to end government agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) created under President Jimmy Carter; the Department of Education, also created under Carter; and radically changing the State Department, Defense Department, the intelligence agencies, and the Department of Justice, all of whom Trump considers to be the “Deep State”.

Additionally, undocumented immigrants and gay and transgender people are subject to threats and lack of protection of basic human rights.

Plans are in place to undermine public education, and promote a right wing agenda on the curriculum, ignoring the reality of American history, and denying the reality of climate change and global warming.

Access to health and medical information is being limited, and if Robert F. Kennedy Jr is confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary, or even if replaced by some other extremist, the nation will not be ready to deal with future health crises and potential for pandemics, since there is a denial of the reality of disease threats. And any investigation of racial disparities in disease study, and also of health issues involving gays and lesbians, has been halted, an absolutely horrifying scenario!

And Trump is trying to undermine the Constitution by promoting the end of Birthright Citizenship, which is protected by the 14th Amendment, clearly a racist move to limit migration and citizenship of immigrants from Latin America, Asia and Africa.

His proposal to allow a third term defies the 22nd Amendment, and is clearly a power grab by his supporters in Congress.

And his decision to deny continued security to former members of his earlier administration, including John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, is an outrage, putting their lives in danger!

But clearly, he only cares about himself, and does not value human life beyond what it can do for his power grab.

And to top it off, the pardoning of known violent extremists who attacked the US Capitol viciously gives these threats to public order the potential to cause more violence and bloodshed, and likely receive future Presidential pardons, so it is like the Brown Shirts of Adolf Hitler!

We are living in a time of right wing radical extremism, which is a threat to the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the rule of law, and the concept of American democracy.

And at least short term, there is not much of a reaction or counter plans to deal with this crisis which is on the level of a potential equivalent of the Civil War or the Great Depression or World War II in the past of American history!

Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins And? Will Trump Nominees Be Stopped?

Two Republican women Senators, considered the most “moderate” in the party caucus, have come out in committee against the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense.

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine have made clear that they are unhappy with Hegseth’s statements in the past against women in the military, although he has backed off on that idea recently.

Murkowski does not face an election until 2028, and already in the past, had kept her seat as an Independent in one election race. And Susan Collins has hinted she may not run for reelection in 2026, but even if she does, she is in a strong position in a state that is more “Blue”, but her ability to keep her seat has been strong in the past. She has served 28 years and is the longest serving female Republican Senator in American history.

The question is whether there are two more Republicans who will have the guts and courage to join Murkowski and Collins. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, former Majority and Minority Leader, is a “free spirit” in his last two years in the upper chamber, who disagrees with Donald Trump on foreign and defense policy, so might rebel against Hegseth.

Joni Ernst of Iowa seemed a possible negative vote, but was pressured in her home state to support Hegseth, and therefore looks likely to vote for him despite some qualms.

As stated by this author and blogger in an earlier post on January 12, there are a few other Republican Senators who might, hopefully, join in opposition, particularly the new Utah Senator John Curtis, seen as similar in moderation as was Mitt Romney, plus Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina!

If not voting against Hegseth, there is greater possibility that some of this group will vote against other objectionable nominees, including Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, and Kash Patel.

Donald Trump: No Compassion, Empathy Or Humanity, Just Oriented Toward Revenge!

Donald Trump is a wretched human being, a man who clearly is racist, sexist, nativist, misogynist, homophobic, and elements of antisemitism.

Trump is a very disturbed person, who flirts with authoritarian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, and the leaders of other nations with dictatorships.

Somehow, he has a hold on the Republican Party, which refuses to speak out over the years about his outrageous utterances, actions, and illegal and unethical activities.

Now, just two days into his second Presidency, Trump is displaying once again his lack of compassion, empathy, and humanity.

Trump has created a new potential threat with the pardon of all of the January 6, 2021 Insurrectionists.

He has also made clear mass deportation will include raids on churches and schools.

He has eliminated the Spanish language translation on government websites.

He is in process of firing many civil servants in the federal government.

He has demanded an apology from the Washington National Cathedral Bishop, who pleaded with him for the protection of gay, lesbian and transgender people, and undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes.

He has moved to get rid of birthright citizenship, even though it is in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

There are clear signs that he is bent on assuming absolute power, and has totally intimidated members of Congress, who with only a few exceptions, have not been willing to speak out against his actions and intentions.