Michael Bleiweiss

 

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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

 

 


 

 

 
 

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