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Letters and Articles on the Trump Administration
Unless otherwise noted, letters were submitted to the
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune newspaper
Project 2025 Religious Agenda
6 Oct 2024
A major theme permeating the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025
is the imposition of fundamentalist white Christian Nationalism
throughout all aspects of government policies and practices and
completely breaking down the wall between church and state.
It starts with a de facto national abortion ban by enforcing the
1873 Comstock Act that outlaws shipping abortion medications and
supplies by mail or over state lines. Mifepristone will be
unapproved and they are gunning for contraception. States will
be required to report on abortions performed there and include
the patients' home states. Planned Parenthood will be defunded.
Next, it calls for a complete ban on pornography -- defined as
any books, movies, or TV shows that include LGBTQ+ content or
characters. It will also eliminate science-based sex education
in public schools, replacing it with abstinence-only. History
classes will be whitewashed to remove discussion of racism and
teach that America was founded as a Christian nation.
After that is the culmination of Republicans' long running plan
to dismantle public education -- especially in poor, minority
districts. Public schools will be starved as federal aid is
diverted to vouchers for private and religious ones.
It will strip anti-discrimination protections from women and
LGBTQ+ people in education and the workplace. Religion-based
service organizations would be legally allowed to discriminate
against gay or non-Christian clients. No-fault divorce would be
eliminated amid a push to restore a patriarchal family
structure.
Since this plan also concentrates power in the president,
Congressional approval may not be needed to implement the above.
Plus, after 50 years of stacking the federal courts with
right-wing, activist judges, they are likely to be upheld.
Trump has tried to distance himself from this plan, but that's
just another lie. It was written by his former staffers and has
his name literally all over it. Note that none of this is new.
Republicans have been implementing many of these provisions
state-by-state for 50 years.
The only way to stop this from becoming reality is to keep Trump
out of power and elect Democrats at all levels.
Michael Bleiweiss
Donald
Trump Channels Woodrow Wilson
1 Dec 2024
The November 27 column about Woodrow Wilson by George F. Will
was very informative. But, the most interesting part to me was
that he could have substituted the name "Donald Trump" and have
drawn the same observations.
Racism:
Throughout Trump's career in real estate, he has eagerly engaged
in redlining -- the explicit exclusion of blacks from renting or
purchasing his properties. He was the most prominent promoter of
the "birther" conspiracy that asserted that our black president,
Barak Obama, was not born in the United States, and denigrated
Kamela Harris' race as a major theme in his presidential
campaign.
Misogyny:
Trump has a long history of sexually assaulting women.
Appointing a few hard right-wing women with major conflicts of
interest aside, he constantly denigrates women. Whenever a
strong woman criticizes him, she is "nasty."
Authoritarianism:
Trump has threatened to aggressively prosecute his political
opponents and to shut down any broadcast stations that criticize
him. He has also threatened to use the military to violently
put-down any protests against him -- as he did to a Black Lives
Matter protest (so that he could hold a bible upside-down in
front of a church). He has also accepted the support of
right-wing militias, neo-Nazi groups, and white Christian
Nationalist activists -- a ready-made cadre of thugs.
History is rhyming for sure.
Michael Bleiweiss
Original Column:
https://www.timescall.com/2024/11/24/george-will-at-last-woodrow-wilsons-reputation-gets-the-dismantling-it-richly-deserves
Removing the
Brakes on Trump's Government Corruption
28 Jan 2025
President Trump has fired 18 Inspectors General across the
government's agencies. These are the officials who investigate
allegations of crimes, unethical behavior, and other malfeasance
within their respective departments. His reasons for this are
obvious in light of the fact that he and members of his
administration have already engaged in unconstitutional and
illegal activities.
These include single handedly ordering cancellation of
birthright citizenship, blatant violations of the Emoluments
Clause of the Constitution (including his new Trump coin and
charging his Secret Service agents to stay at his properties),
and warrantless raids of businesses with indiscriminate arrests.
At his inauguration, Trump did not place his hand on the Bible
when taking his oath of office. Perhaps he thinks that negates
his obligation to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the
land and that the firings plus his Supreme Court's grant of
immunity will allow him to get away with anything he wants.
But, it does only if we let him. It is up to us, the people, to
hold him accountable.
Trump's
Private Militia
31 Jan 2025
President Trump has pardoned the 1,500 insurrectionists who
attacked the Capitol building. This includes members of the Oath
Keepers and Proud Boys revolutionary groups plus other violent
anti-government radicals. A vast number of them are totally
unrepentant. Indeed, one freed prisoner said that he is going to
buy more guns.
The result of this is that Trump now has his own private militia
that can "bust heads" on his behalf, intimidating and attacking
anyone who criticizes or displeases him. In case you think this
can't happen, one of them has already attacked the mother of the
capitol police officer whose neck was tazed during the riot,
calling her a traitor and hurling a paper bag full of feces at
her.
Can you say "Brown Shirts?" Be afraid -- and watch your back.
Non-DEI =
Discrimination
3 Feb 2025
President Trump and the Republicans are on a vendetta against
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). If anything at all goes
wrong with something, Trump immediately blames DEI. He is on
the warpath to eliminate it from our country, has already issued
an executive order to purge it from all of our government
agencies, and is picking agency heads that share this agenda.
This is nothing new. Republicans (and the former Southern
Democrats who converted when the Civil Rights Act passed) have
done everything in their power to obstruct it since the Civil
War. Neither is it new that corporations and giant, powerful
institutions are falling over themselves to comply, feigning
mortal terror of our Great Leader when it's actually just
getting permission. Most of those that are rolling back their
DEI initiatives want to anyway. They have long histories
of marginalizing minority and female employees. That's why it
was so easy for Harvard to fire their black, female president.
But, let's be clear. The opposite of DEI is not equality or
equal opportunity. It is discrimination and sexism. This is
all about restoring and securing white male power and privilege.
Thank You Gaza War
Protesters
6 Feb 2025
Congratulations and thank you to those supporters of
Palestinians who withheld their vote for Kamela Harris or voted
for Trump as a protest against President Biden's failure to
force Israel to end their viscous war in Gaza. You helped get
Trump elected. Trump effectively won by only an aggregate 15,000
votes in the six swing states, meaning that your votes might
have helped to swing the election.
Now, we have a president who is a buddy to Israel's wannabe
dictator, who will give him anything he wants. Indeed, Trump is
now trying to become a war criminal by promoting the ethnic
cleansing of Gaza, suggesting that its population move to other
countries so that he can turn it into a resort for billionaires.
It would also leave it open for Israel to build their own
settlements -- just what its right-wing religious extremists
lust after.
You were warned and knew Trump's record. Remember, he is the one
who moved our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I hope you're
happy with the results.
Renaming the
Gulf of Mexico
11 Feb 2025
The Gulf of Mexico was given its name by the Spanish
Conquistadors in the early 1,500s. Now, Donald Trump has decreed
that it be renamed it to the "Gulf of America" with the stroke
of an executive order. The arrogance and chutzpah of arbitrarily
changing a designation that has been in use for 500 years
boggles the mind. I'm surprised that the narcissist-in-chief
didn't call it the "Gulf of Trump."
Other countries must be laughing their heads off at us. None
will take it seriously. He has also ordered all of the
map-making companies to make the change and they are already
capitulating to his bullying (just check Google Maps). Why are
they so afraid of him? They should be telling him to go pound
sand.
Corporate
Welfare for Data Centers
15 Feb 2025
Donald Trump is spending half a trillion dollars of taxpayer
money to subsidize the construction of massive artificial
intelligence data centers and the power plants needed to run
them. This is pure corporate welfare and comes at the same time
he and Republicans are slashing programs that help the poor and
middle class.
Tellingly, the proposed power plants will all be gas-fired --
consistent with Trump's total commitment to fossil fuels.
Apparently, these giant corporations and their billionaire CEOs
aren't even thinking of using the buildings' huge, flat roofs to
hold solar panels or to install windmills next to them to
mitigate the enormous power consumption of these gigantic
buildings. It would save them money and "generate" some good
public relations.
Are they afraid of the wrath of the great and powerful Trump and
his government contracts or do they just not care about the fate
of our planet -- just short-term profits?
Dismantling
the Civil Service
17 Feb 2025
Hans von Spakovsky and Seth Lucas give us more disinformation
and misdirection from the Heritage Foundation -- the authors of
Project 2025 (DOGE ... Doing It Better than Eisenhower - Feb.
12). The goal of Donald Trump, his hatchetman Elon Musk, and the
extreme right-wing ideologues being salted throughout the
government is not cost-cutting. It is to dismantle it and
cripple its ability to reign in corporate abuses and provide
services to ordinary Americans. Along the way, they also plan to
install fundamentalist white Christian Nationalist dogma as
government policy.
By firing or forcing to resign tens of thousands of employees
across all of the agencies, they will be hollowed out and unable
to fulfill their functions. But, that may be moot because they
will be rolling back the regulations that protect us,
eliminating the programs we depend on, and even shutting them
down completely. A comprehensive list is too long to fit in a
mere letter.
All this is both illegal and unconstitutional, but that is
irrelevant to them. Even if Congress acted to stop it (unlikely
since Republicans support this agenda) they would be vetoed
and/or ignored. Courts can issue injunctions, but they have no
independent enforcement power. All of those tools lie
exclusively in the executive branch and Trump can thumb his nose
at them.
For those civil servants who took Trump's buy-out offer, don't
count on getting your severance package. The offer is illegal,
Congress has allocated no money for it, and Trump is notorious
for stiffing his contractors and employees.
People voted for Trump to get lower grocery prices, but those
are still increasing. Instead, you're getting a fascist
oligarchy. You were warned, but were seduced by the conman.
Trump's
Regime's Order of Love
24 Feb 2025
David Mills' column on J.D. Vance's views on the order of love
(JD Vance, the 13th Century Trumpian Thinker - Feb. 22) was very
enlightening. However, he only starts to follow it through to
the next logical step -- the actual order of love practiced by
the Trump regime and Republicans. Let's look at their policies.
They start by gutting and disabling all of the programs and
agencies that help ordinary Americans:
* Protection from being cheated by banks and credit card
companies (CFPB);
* Protection from being abused and cheated at work (NLRB);
* Promotion of public health and protection from epidemics (CDC,
WHO);
* Research on improved treatments for illnesses (NIH);
* Reducing pollution from industry and damage to the environment
(EPA);
* Ensuring safe air travel (FAA);
* Weather reports and mitigating climate change (NOAA);
* Natural disaster recovery (FEMA);
* Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, Food Stamps, Meals on Wheels,
veterans services;
* Aid to local public schools, school lunch, special education,
and Head Start (DOE).
On the other side:
* Extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts for billionaires and
corporations
(creating over $1 trillion annual deficits);
* Firing the IRS workers who would have audited billionaires and
giant corporations
and answered the phone for ordinary taxpayers' questions;
* Weakening national security by firing thousands of FBI and CIA
agents.
* Abandoning support for Europe, NATO, and Ukraine while
coddling up
to Russia
and Vladimir Putin (Trump's idol and role model).
So, there we have it. Their order of love is:
billionaires/corporations, Russia, our allies, and then the
American people at the bottom. To all you Trump voters, you've
been had.
Original Column:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/david-mills-jd-vance-the-13th-century-trumpian-thinker/ar-AA1yVZyL
Trump's Fragile
Ego
2 Mar 2025
Poor Donald Trump. His fragile ego is bruised because Ukrainian
president Zalensky didn't bow down and grovel at his feet and
kiss the ring, thanking him for selling out his country to
Russia and stealing their mineral wealth. Then, attack dog JD
Vance piled on. It reminded me of a couple of parents
reprimanding a child for not acquiescing to their plans for his
future life.
Trump is like a mob boss. He does nothing for anyone unless they
do something of greater value for him. He thought that he could
make Ukraine an offer they couldn't refuse. But, Zalensky
realized that Trump was valuing Russia's interests over his
country's (or America's) and did refuse. Remember too that Trump
previously tried to extort Zalensky in 2020 by withholding
weapons to get dirt in Hunter Biden.
Zalensky knows with whom he's dealing.
I sincerely hope that his refusal to be bullied pays off.
Trump Is a
Russian Asset
11 Mar 2025
Donald Trump has revealed himself to be a Russian asset. Since
taking office, pretty much
every action that he has taken has served to weaken our country
and our status on the world
stage.
He picks fights with our allies while cozying up to dictators --
especially his role model,
Vladimir Putin. He attacks NATO, threatens to pull us out, and
states that he will not
protect NATO allies from Russian aggression. He has pulled us
out of international
organizations, started trade wars with our allies, and even
suspended cyber operations against
Russia. And, with his hatchet man Elon Musk and a cabinet of
Project 2025 operatives, he is
rapidly and aggressively dismantling our government's ability to
function.
In his first term, he withheld arms shipments to Ukraine while
extorting them into providing
dirt on Joe Biden. Now, he gaslights us about who started it,
picked a fight with their
president, and paused arms deliveries and intelligence sharing.
He talks about a peace deal,
but the deal-maker-in-chief has already agreed to giving a third
of the country away to Russia
even before negotiations start.
As an aside, Elon Musk is just as guilty. Right at the beginning
of the war, he suddenly cut
off Ukraine's StarLink account -- just as their marine drones
were about to decimate Russia's
Black Sea fleet. Instead, they wandered off harmlessly. Was he
deliberately helping Russia?
It's well documented that, during his election campaigns, Russia
actively intervened in his
favor by creating fake social media accounts to denigrate his
opponents and retaining paid
internet influencers to promote him. They also underwrote his
loans with Deutsche Bank due
to his bad credit. He owes them.
In aggregate, his actions serve Russia's interests over ours.
Unfortunately, removing him
from office won't help because everyone else down the line of
succession is just as bad or
worse. Sustained, vigorous opposition is needed to preserve our
country and democracy.
Erasing
Black and Women's History
22 Mar 2025
The Trump regime is going full bore overboard with their
anti-DEI agenda. Indeed, he has declared outright war on
blacks, women, and the LGBTQ. They are attempting to erase them
from our history and restore full-fledged discrimination.
They started with a database of military firsts and heroes.
Records of woman, black, and gay/trans service members have all
been deleted. It's so extreme that it even includes anyone
whose last name happens to be "Gay." They even deleted
references to the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima). They went on to do the same for records of
service members buried in Arlington cemetery. Sadly, once this
information has been sent down the memory hole, it may be
impossible to recover once (if ever) the Project 2025 agents are
out of office.
They went on to threatening to withhold federal funding from any
colleges with DEI or black/women's/Palestinian studies
programs. Many Republican-controlled states are also
"white"-washing their school curricula -- forbidding the study
of racial discrimination in public schools.
Most recently, he ordered the repeal of all anti-pollution
regulations by power plants and factories and then disbanded the
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council that works to
mitigate the siting of polluting industries in poor and minority
neighborhoods. To top it off, he signed an executive order
allowing government contractors to have segregated facilities.
All of this goes way beyond mere "anti-DEI" and into the realm
of outright racism and misogyny, What comes next -- repeal of
the Civil and Voting Rights Acts and anti-sex discrimination
laws? Indeed, many on the right have been chipping away at
these for many years.
And so we take another step down the road towards an Orwellian
dictatorship.
Trump Gives Away
Media Landscape to Russia
27 Mar 2025
The "New York Daily News" editorial on Donald Trump shutting
down our foreign media outlets (The Politics of Silencing
America - March 24) gives an excellent description of the role
those services played. However, it failed to take the next
logical step -- this is further evidence that Trump is working
for Vladimir Putin, not for America.
These stations modeled the virtues of democracy and an
unfettered free press. The closing of these organizations
creates a vacuum that the Russian and Chinese propaganda
machines will quickly fill and go unchallenged. It is yet
another nail in the coffin of America's standing on the world
stage (in addition to pulling us out of international treaties
and alienating our allies).
It's too bad that the Republican justices on the Supreme Court
gave him immunity, because this could be construed as giving aid
and comfort to the enemy (i.e.; treason). And, one can also ask
why are we hearing no objections from Republicans in Congress?
Original Column:
https://www.NYDailyNews.com/2025/03/18/americas-silence-voice-of-america-goes-off-air-at-trumps-direction
Trump/Musk Corruption Mind-Boggling
8 Apr 2025
On March 6, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) gave a speech detailing
the mind-boggling corruption and self-dealing of Donald Trump,
Elon Musk, and their billionaire friends in just the first six
weeks of his administration. I will summarize it here.
1. January 17: Trump launched his meme coin. This is essentially
a mechanism for foreign oligarchs or corporate CEOs can send him
money directly to influence his policies.
2. During his campaign he met with oil and gas industry
executives and asked for a billion dollars of campaign
contributions in exchange for favorable treatment. On January
20, he instituted his energy strategy that preferences oil and
gas and freezes all wind project permits.
3. January 25: He fires 17 Inspectors General across a broad
range of agencies. Their job is to look for and investigate
corruption. If you are trying to steal from the American people
you fire the watchdogs.
4. January 27: Trump fires Gwyn Wilcox from the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB), rendering it unable to function. Thus,
all active cases before the agency against Elon Musk and other
corporations are now rendered moot.
5. January 30: He awards more than $800,000 worth of Trump Media
& Technology Group stock to several of his cabinet members. This
is equity they can sell to individuals with issues before their
departments or want influence inside the administration.
6. Next comes the weaponization of the Department of Justice
(DOJ), which is turned into an entity that drops cases against
those who are loyal to Trump and aggressively investigates his
critics and opponents.
7. February 1: Trump fires the director of the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and and then shuts it down.
Now, Musk and many of Trump's biggest financial backers don't
have to worry about consumer protection actions being taken
against them.
8. February 4: Trump hosted a meeting in the White House between
the Saudi golf league and the PGA to try to resolve their
dispute. Why? Because the Saudi Golf League plays at Trump's
courses in the United States. If Trump uses his official power
to negotiate a settlement between them, he stands to make more
money.
9. February 6: Attorney General Pam Bondi proposes dulling
enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, making it
easier for Trump's friends to get paid quietly by foreign
governments to influence him.
10. February 10: New York mayor Eric Adams gets his corruption
charges dismissed in exchange for pledging political loyalty to
Trump and cooperation with ICE. So, an elected official can now
get away with corruption just by signing up for political
loyalty to Trump.
11. February 10: Trump directs the DOJ to pause enforcement of
U.S. laws prohibiting companies from paying bribes overseas to
get contracts and favorable treatment.
12. February 12: The State Department announces it is going to
buy $400 million of armored Teslas from DOGE head Musk.
13. February 12: Musk's people infiltrate the Department of
Labor (DoL), giving him access to enforcement information at
OSHA -- not only against his companies, but also his
competitors.
14. February 15: 20 people are fired from the FDA's office of
Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, which was reviewing
Musk's Neuralink application, making it clear that you'll get
fired if you don't approve Musk's applications.
15. February 16: It's announced that the FDA cuts will be as
much as 50%. That means hundreds of drugs and devices won't get
approved and snake oil pushers get free reign. This includes:
CMS head Dr. Oz and his V-gummy pills, HHS secretary anti-vaxer
Robert Kennedy, Jr., and FBI director Cash Patel (who sells
vaccine reversal pills).
16. February 19: We learn that the IRS is going to cut 7,000
people, mostly those who audit the billionaires and
corporations.
17. February 19: It's reported that advertising on Musk's social
media platform, X, is growing again. American companies have
decided that, because he has so much regulatory power inside the
government, they need to pay him through X to stay on his good
side.
18. February 20: The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices monthly meeting is cancelled and not rescheduled. This
makes it clear that HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who makes
money off of his attacks on vaccines, will continue them and
continue to profit.
19. February 26: Trump's MAGA hats (which are made in China) are
for sale on his web site and displayed in the Oval Office. Also,
FBI Director Cash Patel is still selling his branded merchandise
and others are selling DOGE merchandise.
20. February 26: News breaks that Musk is going to cancel an FAA
contract with Verizon that had been in the works for years and
substitute his StarLink system.
21. March 6: We learn that guests are paying millions of dollars
to dine with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
I'll add that, when Trump goes golfing at one of his resorts, he
charges his security and staff premium rates to stay there,
profiting off of us taxpayers. Each trip costs us about $3.5
million.
This level of blatant, unabashed corruption is orders of
magnitude beyond anything in American history and worthy of the
most despotic dictators. Any possible "waste and fraud" in
government agencies and programs pales in comparison to this
flagrant money grab.
All of this is illegal and even unconstitutional, but
Republicans seem to be uninterested in objecting, Democrats seem
powerless to stop it, and the courts can't enforce their
rulings. And so, the oligarchic kleptocracy has arrived. Is this
what you voted for?
Original Speech:
https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=hycoCYenXls
Impeaching Trump Is Futile
20 Apr 2025
Laura Bretton and Maggie Stanley advocate impeaching Donald
Trump. I believe that would be an exercise in futility and
grandstanding.
First, in the current Republican-controlled House of
Representatives, an impeachment resolution wouldn't even get a
committee hearing. If it did come to a vote, it wouldn't likely
pass because all Republicans would vote against it -- either out
of fear of Trump or because they agree with his slash and burn
agenda. Just look at their budget for proof of that. If it
somehow passed the House, getting a two-thirds majority in the
Senate would be next to impossible. Remember, Republicans had
two chances to get rid of Trump handed to them on a silver
platter and they balked both times.
Second, removing him from office wouldn't help. The entire line
of succession (18 people) is populated by Trump loyalists and
Project 2025 operatives all the way down. The demolition of our
government and our civil liberties would continue apace. And,
Elon Musk is a "consultant." He can't be impeached, only fired.
The only way to stop the bleeding is to fight every assault on
our institutions and rights tooth and nail and make our
opposition clear en masse. Then, assuming we get to have free
elections in 2026, turn the Republicans in Congress out of
office.
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