Tag: democracy

Tom’s Report on the State of America’s Democratic Health

As of March 28, 2025

Weekly Summary of Key Benchmarks of Democratic Backsliding and Erosion

What a week. Trump continued his assault on the 6th Amendment, the right to counsel, and the 1st Amendment through executive action targeting law firms. It has become a pattern, no a policy, of this administration to threaten, extort, strong arm law firms it considers “vexatious” by executive order. A modern day version of Bills of Attainder.

According to NBC, Trump issued a new memorandum March 22 titled “Preventing the Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court.”  The memo gives AG Bondi the power to revoke security clearances of attorneys and terminate federal contracts of law firms if she deems their lawsuits against the administration are “unreasonable” or “vexatious.”

Also this week, Trump signed an executive order against the law firm Jenner and Block, a law firm with clients litigating Trump administration actions. The law firm also has some connection to Robert Muller.  

In a disappointing move, one targeted law firm capitulated to Trump.  The law firm Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP bowed to Trump at a White House meeting following a Trump Executive Order targeting the law firm’s business.  They admitted wrongdoing of a former partner who left the law firm in 2021 to work the New York City’s District Attorney’s Office which prosecuted Trump’s Porn Star payoff case;  offered $40 million in free pro bono legal work supporting Trump administration initiatives; change their DEI hiring practices. Who would want to hire a law firm like that?  

Trump continued to use police powers to violate the 1st Amendment right to dissent and assembly, focusing on foreign nationals legally in the U.S. A Tufts University PhD candidate of Turkish origin was arrested by ICE in an undercover takedown usually reserved for drug dealers. A federal judge ordered that the detainee remain in Massachusetts pending court hearings. In a bold and illegal subversion of Habeas Corpus, ICE engaged in a game of find-and-seek and the detainee ended up in a detention facility in Louisiana. I can’t imagine the terror and fear this woman must feel at this nightmare unfolds. This flagrant attack on the judicial system is a pattern of this administration. The slow slide in to authoritarian rule is in full expression this week.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a second generation Cuban-American whose grandfather fled Fidel Castro’s regime, announced that over 300 student visas had been revoked for students engaging in political activism, who he labeled “lunatics.” How sad that it only took one generation to turn from asylum seeker to despot.

For a detailed cumulative list of benchmarks charting our country’s slide into despotism please click the ‘Benchmark’ link above.

Let me know how I am doing. Leave a like or a comment. Thanks.

Captain Ahab with Nukes: Let’s Chat.

By now most folks have heard of Signalgate, the scandal that involves Trump’s national security team using a commercial, unsecured app to engage in a group chat to discuss attacks on Houthis in Yemen.  The texts in addition to disclosing an imminent attack on Houthi targets also included internal White House policy debates, whether to postpone the attacks, and how to make “Europe” pay America for keeping shipping lanes open, and reflections on ‘deadbeat’ European. Later in the texts, the ‘order of battle’ for the attacks on Houthi targets and battle damage assessments was provided.  What has not been published is the name of an “active CIA intelligence officer” named by the CIA Director during the chat.

The White House claims the information discussed was unclassified.  The democrats roll their eyes and say it was classified. I don’t want to focus on the classified unclassified debate or the hypocrisy of the law and order rightwing.  To me the worst part of the group chat has nothing to do with the obvious classified nature of the information disclosed by the posse incompetente.  It’s what the texts reveal about Trump, our national security priorities, and his judgment in selecting his national security team.

First, the choice to use Signal was a conspicuous display of their sloppy amateurism. It explains why the Russians are running circles around Trump’s peace negotiating team.  Second, this motely group appears afraid to speak their minds to the boss.  That’s their core job, providing timely, frank, and honest advice.  It never ends well for Kings who have feckless and clueless advisors.  Third, it is clear our national security policy has nothing to do with America’s security but Trump’s personal vendettas, punishing those who trespassed against him.  Fourth, Trump is the personification of Captain Ahab but with nukes. Europe his white whale, the “Tariff” his whaling ship.

I was shocked at the sophomoric reactions to the serious life and death ramifications of their actions.  Instead of somber reflection that innocents died in that collapsed building – along with a bad guy – they send childish celebratory emojis texts.  When someone’ killed I always think, “what a better time than now to send a string of jingoistic emojis.”   They have the emotional intelligence of rocks.  

Damning as well, is that hours before our men and women flew into harm’s way, they recklessly telegraphed the attack to our adversaries, who, most likely have compromised Signal.  Did they not think to protect our men and women?  Their gross dereliction of duty betrayed the life and safety or these men and women.  A dishonorable sin in my eyes. They must resign.

The Department of Justice must open a preliminary inquiry whether any laws were broken by members of Trump’s national security team.  Mike Walz and Pete Hegseth must resign.  Sadly, my prediction is that Trump will use this incident to further his relentless attacks on a free press.  Trump will counterpunch with ordering Justice to open an investigation, but the target will be “The Atlantic” and the journalist who was the “accidental” invitee, a guest of Mr. Walz.

Lost and Found: Where in the World is John McGuire

Yesterday, the House of Representative’s DOGE Subcommittee, chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene, provided a WWE style smackdown of senior executives from National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service.  The usual theater, chair shots, kissing up to Fox News, bullying, the outcome preordained. 

John McGuire, Virginia’s 5th Congressional District Representative, and a member of the DOGE Subcommittee was nowhere in sight.  Maybe he was teleworking?  He did not make an appearance (from what I can tell) much less ask any questions.  In an almost 3-hour hearing you would expect him to show up and ask a question or two.  He didn’t.  Was he getting his nails done?  Maybe he was on some Signal group chat. The dais where the representatives lord over the witnesses was mostly empty throughout the hearing, although I must admit, that there were more chairs than members on the Subcommittee.

It was an important hearing.  It was federal funding life or death for NPR and PBS.  Looks like death.  If the Subcommittee had its way, according to Greene, they would never get another penny of taxpayers’ money.  McGuire, I suspect would agree with the Subcommittee’s sentiments.

What galls me is that federal workers have been excoriated for allegedly not showing up for work or being lazy or wasteful, by folks like McGuire.  Justification for purging tens of thousands from federal government payrolls. The usual claptrap.  So, where was he on Wednesday?  My tax dollars, and your tax dollars, pay his salary, and I expect and demand him to put in the time and show up for committee hearings, ask questions when important issues are being discussed.

Please call or write Mr. McGuire and ask where the hell he was yesterday and why wasn’t he at the hearing to ask questions.  Finally, tell him to support NPR and PBS if you are so inclined.

DOGE gets to Audit State Voter Rolls in New Executive Order:  Right to Vote in Mid-Terms Threatened?

Yesterday Trump signed an executive order permitting the federal government to regulate federal elections at the state level.  The order, entitled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of Elections” not only violates the constitutional prerogatives of Congress and the States to regulate and run elections respectively, but repeats timeworn jeremiads of Trump’s favorite election fraud conspiracies.  

The courts should and will issue a pause or injunction because of its blatant unconstitutionality. Bizarrely, it permits DOGE to access state voter rolls to conduct audits.  Yes, DOGE, that extralegal secretive government organization run by an unelected billionaire.  Will any notification of suspension of voting registration come with a Tesla flyer? If you don’t believe me here is the language in the order:

“the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the DOGE Administrator, shall review each State’s publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities as required by 52 U.S.C. 20507, alongside Federal immigration databases and State records requested, including through subpoena where necessary and authorized by law, for consistency with Federal requirements.” 

Setting the constitutionality of the order aside, it underscores Trump’s disturbing mindset and the fantasy world his legal advisors live in.  Every day it’s like going down Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole into a fantastical White House of gibbering lunatic imbeciles.

This is one of the most undisguised attempts to purge millions of registered voters since the end of Reconstruction.  Sowing chaos into the mid-terms is its goal. If America’s past is precursor, DOGE’s audits no doubt will target primarily black and brown voting districts.  Regardless, if you are a registered voter fear losing the right to vote.

Today, please Send an email, write a letter, or call your representative to complain of this latest assault on our rights.

Tom’s Report on the State of America’s Democratic Health

As of March 21, 2025

Benchmarks of Democratic Backsliding and Erosion

Leading the list of abuses this week was Trump’s unconstitutional declaration of war and invocation of the Aliens Enemies Act of 1798; timed to the mass deportation of 200 plus alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador and indefinite imprisonment in a maximum security prison with a history of human rights abuses.

Compounding this mass injustice was Trump’s call to impeach the federal judge who ordered a stop to the illegal deportations, cancelation of flights, and return of flight already in the air. This judicial order — in reality invoking Habeas Corpus a legal right that goes back to the Magna Carta — was ignored. The government lawyers even had the audacity to claim that it was too late because flights were over international waters by the time the written order was received even though the judge had orally ordered the stop earlier in court to the lawyers. Ironically, the flights were over the Gulf of America. How symbolic of how low Trump has sunk.

Rep. Jim Jordan has already planned hearings regarding the judge’s legal rulings. Elon Musk made max donations to members of Congress friendly towards the idea of impeaching judges who rule against Trump.

This is what happens after years of right wing rhetoric turning migrants into criminals. We know nothing about these men because they were disappeared without due process, the right to counsel. They had become unworthy victims in the eyes of too many Americans. I get rights, you don’t. That is not how American works. I think someone famous once said, “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”

Of course Trump’s speech to the assembled staff of the Department of Justice where he rallied against the illegal press is of note. This attack on the press and free speech by a sitting President at the Justice Department is unprecedented.

Of additional note, is that government lawyers have determined that the Aliens Enemies Act permits government agents to enter homes without warrants. I presume under some Frankenstein interpretation of the ‘hot pursuit doctrine’ permitted by the Supreme Court. This determination would be in conflict with the bill of rights 4th Amendments protections from government intrusions and seizures without warrants. It suggests a government inching closer to declaring martial law.

I added a Friday Follies of all the sycophantic legislative bills introduced to kiss Trump’s derrière by fawning state and federal lawmakers. Got to have some sense of humor in this time. New entries to the benchmarks cumulative list of trespasses are in bold

For the full report please go to the menu and select Benchmarks. Thanks.

Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

This past Sunday Democrats held an innovative multi-county town hall meeting in Goochland County, Virginia.  The invited guest, Rep. John McGuire (R), who represents Virginia’s 5th congressional district, did not accept the offer to speak to his beloved constituents.  In his place stood a cardboard avatar of McGuire, sporting a long, long, long, red tie, cartoon speech balloons emanated from his head. It reminded me of 18th century satirical political cartoons by William Hogarth.  

It was standing room only, a spirited, eclectic gathering.  Most were women, a good number of veterans, and a few former Republicans sprinkled among us. A microcosm of rural America: farmers, veterans, small business owners, local government employees, a few ministers, a good show of teachers, retirees, and some young’uns.   Some were in their Sunday best, either coming from or going to Church.  

McGuire’s replacement avatar and speaker was a civil rights attorney from Albemarle County.  After introductions he took questions and offered observations about McGuire and directly addressed Chuck Schumer’s about face on the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government.  I think his comments reflected the general mood of the crowd: anger and frustration at Schumer.

The overall tenor of the questions asked was one of concern, fury, and annoyance at Trump and Musk.   These concerns, anger, and frustration were not reserved only for Trump, but at national Democrat leadership in Congress as well:   Where is it?  What’s the opposition strategy?  If you did a word count of participants comments, I think “fight” would be at the top of the list.  The verb, not the noun.

My takeaways from the town hall are that folks are not only worried about Trump’s reckless assault on our Constitution but also troubled by the lack of a will to fight and take risks by national Democratic Party leadership.  Schumer’s about face and capitulation, being Exhibit A.   The lack of an articulated strategy to respond to the erosion of democracy being Exhibit B.  No mid-term election plan, Exhibit C. 

It seems folks feel rudderless in a tempest, watching the ship of state drift closer to the shoals, the captain nowhere to be found, lifeboats swept away.  I imagine leaders in local Democratic party organizations are themselves frustrated at the national leadership.  I see the fatigue in their eyes and hear it in their voices. They are leaning hard into the the headwinds trying to thwart our democracy. They deserve better from national leadership.

I get the sense that folks desperately want to participate in meaningful opposition but only have timeworn responses in their tool kit:  write letters; email or call your representatives; show up for town halls; boycott businesses that support Trump.  These measures seem futile, like using little adhesive band aids when one needs a trauma kit, a tourniquet to keep America’s democracy from bleeding out. 

When I found out a day or two after the town hall that Schumer cancelled his tour to hawk his new book because of security reasons, my first thought was, ‘book tour?” WTF? Really, Rome is burning, and he is going on a book tour.  What doesn’t he get?  It just highlights that the intellectual framework that guides his notion of being a Senator is dated, like orange shag carpets and lava lamps.  He clings to a nostalgic past to the detriment of our future. 

No need to hit the panic button, but time is not on our side, given Trump’ frantic pace to undo democracy. The mid-terms are too far off to make any real, immediate course corrections.  The national Democratic Party leadership needs to get off its’ ass.  Trust us.  We will do the right thing if given the chance, but it requires tough national leadership that is willing to take risks, carry the flag at the front.  At my infantry basic course our motto was:  “Lead, follow, or Get out of the Way.”  Mr. Schumer, get out of the way.     

Birthright Citizenship:  Will the Supreme Court Overturn Wong Kim Ark after 127 years?

The Return of Wong Kim Ark

Wong Kim Ark was born in 1873 in the city of San Francisco to parents of Chinese descent. His parents could never achieve citizenship because of the Chinese Exclusion Act and America’s naturalization laws that privileged whiteness since 1790.  Forever migrants in the land of the free.  However, their son and daughters born in America were American, or so they believed. 

In August 1895 after visiting China, Wong Kim Ark sailed back to the United States eventually arriving at San Francisco Bay.  According to the Supreme Court opinion penned by Justice Horace Gary, Wong Kim Ark was denied entry on the “sole ground that he was not a citizen of the United States.”  That’s a polite way of saying he was denied entry because a capricious and racist customs collector, John Wise, decided he didn’t like the Chinese man standing before him. 

Can you imagine what went through Wong Kim Ark’s mind when Wise denied him entry to his homeland, ordering him detained on the ship that brought him home, the SS Coptic. The helplessness, legal purgatory, you aren’t a ‘real’ American.  We’ve all been vulnerable at some point in our lives to a capricious individual who couldn’t give a crap less whether your life collapsed into a heap of lost dreams, a life placed on hold. That kick in the gut that makes you want to puke. 

Between August 1895 and March 1898 Wong Kim Ark ceased to be a citizen of the United States in the eyes of many Americans, both in and out of the legal system..  Imagine being stateless for years in a country that treated you as an unwanted outsider, useful only for your labor. I can’t imagine the ordeal, living in fear of deportation to a land not native to you.  Ones fate in the hands of an American legal system that was designed to oppress people like you. Life held together by a legal thread tethered to the 14th Amendment.  

The Case 

The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, born out of San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant community’s long experiences with systemic discrimination, filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus to free Wong Kim Ark from detention on the SS Coptic.   That filing began two journeys.  One for Wong Kim Ark to reclaim his citizenship and the other for America to establish the legal principle of birthright citizenship.

Justice Gray framed the argument in late 19th century legalese: “The question presented by the record is whether a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who at the time of his  birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicil and residence in the United States, and are carrying on business, and not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the emperor of China, becomes at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution…”

Thirty-one pages later the Court answered that question:  Yes.  Justice Gray writing, “…The question must be answered in the affirmative.”  This opinion was issued March 28, 1898, and in a week’s time, give or take a day or two, will mark its 127th anniversary.  

The Executive Order

One of his first acts as President, Trump issued Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.”  An Orwellian title meant to disguise racial hatred and the infliction of pain and suffering on vulnerable people.

The executive order set a two-pronged test for determining non-citizenship.  A negative test.  It reads uncomfortably like antebellum slavery statutes that based a child’s fate at birth as free or enslaved based on a parent’s status.  When birth should be a celebration of life this executive order turns into a nightmare, of families potentially destroyed, disassembled by a policy meant to be cruel, meant to dehumanize.

As for the executive order’s constitutionality, three federal district judges declared the executive order unconstitutional and placed pauses on its implementation.  Last week, however, the Supreme Court agreed to review whether the lower court orders should stand.  The Court gave the parties until early April to provide their arguments for keeping or overturning the lower courts opinions.  Why?  The Court did not have to hear the appeal since all three courts issued the same basic opinion.  There were no conflicting opinions to resolve. That is a worrying sign.  The Court should have said, ‘no.’  But they didn’t. 

An Uncertain future?

Will the Court eventually overturn Wong Kim Ark?  Yes, I do.  I suspect that at least four of the Justices would overturn the opinion today if they could.  I am unsure of Roberts and Barrett.  If the Justices later agree to hear oral argument regarding birthright citizenship, I believe they will overturn Wong Kim Ark by a 5-4 vote. Basically, ripping the soul out of this country.  Frankly, I don’t think Trump would have issued the executive order without some prior thumbs up by several Supreme Court justices.

Can you imagine the bureaucratic labyrinth of proof and denial awaiting millions of families should the court overturn 127 years of jurisprudence because a bigoted President doesn’t like black and brown migrants, the denizens of  “shit hole countries;” Trump standing in for the bigoted customs collector before Wong Kim Ark.  Endless rounds of notarized forms, systemic accusations of fraud, denials, reprieves, forever court hearings, fear of separation, dreams of reunion.  A hellhole designed to shatter souls.

Millions of stateless babies, millions of moms and dads sickened from anxious nights and days, families split and devastated by a party that claims to protect and nurture families. The executive order is predicated on racial animus and is counter to America’s values; deliberate misreads the 14th Amendment; trumped-up fables about American jurisprudence.  It does nothing to “protect the meaning and value of American citizenship,” on the contrary it taints America’s soul, divides the country, and throws citizenship into a bureaucratic shithole.

Trump Declares War on Venezuelan Criminal Gang, Invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 today in order to target a criminal gang. One problem, only Congress has the sole power to declare war, the only legal prerequisite to invoke the Act. Trump has illegally overstepped his authority by unilaterally declaring war. The Act has been invoked three times in American history: War of 1812, World War l and World War ll.

This is an unprecedented and dangerous power grab. Please call or email your representatives to stop this madness. Congress must act now.

Tom’s Weekly Report on the State of America’s Democratic Health

As of March 14, 2025

It was a busy week with push back by the courts. Of significance was the apparently warrantless arrest of a legally permanent resident of Palestinian origin for national security reasons. He was arrested in NYC but moved to a detention facility in Louisiana and denied access to legal counsel. Two additional search warrants were executed yesterday (or today) at Columbia University by DHS agents.

Additionally, Trump requested the Supreme Court overturn three district judge rulings staying the implementation of his Birthright Citizenship ban. If the Supreme Court sides with Trump this would nullify the 14th Amendment and fundamentally alter how we as a nation think of citizenship. Very dangerous moment in America.

BENCHMARKS OF DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING AND EROSION

Civil Society:

  • Us verse Them
    • DOD purges DEI related words from all current and previous website posts.  Words such as Gay were removed, to include reference to the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that carried he atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
    • Federal government bans a long list of words that cannot be used in official correspondence, documents, websites, etc.  
    • Republicans in the House of representatives threatened to withhold federal funding if the District of Columbia did not paint over a Black Lives Matters mural. DC obliged.
    • Musk and Shapiro lobby Trump to pardon Derick Chauvin for federal convictions for violating George Floyd’s civil rights when he murdered Floyd.
    • Trump offers expedited citizenship to white south African farmers.
    • Attacks on DEI.  Recent threat to investigate Georgetown University law school and not hire graduates who apply for federal jobs.
    • Attacks on Trans people
    • Increasing number of book bans.
    • Prohibiting teaching African American studies, curriculum
    • Mass deportations
    • Trump requests Supreme Court overturn lower courts decisions to stay the birthright citizenship executive order.  Birthright citizenship executive order.
    • DOGE attacks on career civil service
    • Political attacks on European Allies in particular
    • Tariffs on trade allies 
    • Executive Order stating English is official language
    • Threats to seize Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada
  • Legislative Attacks on Minorities
    • Criminalizing or limiting Trans gender care in states (26 states)
    • Attacks on DEI 
    • Laws restricting trans athletes (23 states)
    • Executive Orders targeting LGBTQ persons in general and the military in particular.
    • As of November 1, 2022, 16 states had passed laws restricting the ability of educators to talk about race and racism in the curriculum. In 2019, only one state had such law. All 16 states provide details of the specific concepts that cannot be taught; five states explicitly prohibit teaching “critical race theory.”
    • Seven states impose penalties for discussing race and racism in the classroom. Two of those states name specific penalties for teachers (Arizona and New Hampshire) and principals (New Hampshire).
  • Political/Military Relations
    • Trump loyalist and right-wing TV broadcaster as SecDef
    • Firing of Chairman and Joint Chiefs
    • Trump loyalist Chairman Joint Chiefs pick
    • Firing of Senior Military Service JAGs
    • Firing of women leadership
    • Purging DEI related words from DOD websites
  • Attacks on liberal democratic Institutions and values
    • Political attacks on US Ally values
    • NATO membership in doubt
    • UN (e.g., recent vote with North Korea, Russia, and Belarus to against resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine)
    • WHO withdrawal
    • Dismantling of USAID
    • Attacks on Press and First Amendment
  • Attacks on career civil service 
    • DOGE.  UPDATE:  A federal judge in San Francisco orders the reinstatement of probationary employees fired in mass layoff.  The District Judge deemed the firings “unlawful.”   
    • House Oversight Chair seeks investigation to “root out partisan staff who joined the executive branch” at the end of the Biden Administration.  Requesting names of all employees hired between Jan 1, 2024 and Jan 20, 2025.
  • Manufactured political, social, economic crises
    • DOGE
    • 2020 election result denial
    • Jan 6 insurrection and coup
    • Trans in sports
    • DEI in government, academic institutes
    • Zelenskyy/Ukraine White House televised meeting
    • Redo: Trade wars/Tariffs
  • Control/Manipulate media platforms
    • Social media companies X and Truth Social have become de facto government communications, issuing government wide edicts. 
    • X (Musk)
    • Truth Social (Trump)
    • Facebook (Zuckerburg Coopted by Trump)
    • Instagram (Zuckerburg Coopted by Trump)
  • Physical, economic, psychological coercion (trolls, social media, etc)
    • X
    • Truth Social
    • Facebook
    • Instagram 
  • Attacks on Science/Academics
    • Citing waste, fraud, and abuse, the EPA administrator canceled $20 Billion in Biden-era climate change grants. A federal judge ordered the EPA to provide an affidavit documenting evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse by Monday, March 17.  Stay tuned.
    • Trump stops $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University for allegedly not protecting Jewish students.  Additional schools on target list.
    • Trump calls for congress to “get rid” of the CHIPS and Science Act, $52 billion for increasing domestic capacity to manufacture computer chips. 
    • Trump on social media threatens to halt funding of universities or colleges that don’t expel students that protest. Threatens to deport foreign students.
    • Attacks on DEI at Universities, Research Institutions, 
    • DOGE mass firings NIH, NOAA, FDA, USDA, National Weather Service
    • WHO withdrawal
    • Eliminating science grants

Constitution:

  • Insurrection Act
    • Trump issued executive order Jan 20 requiring the Secretaries of defense and DHS to complete a report in 90-days on whether to declare a national emergency at the southern border, invoke the Insurrection Act and other measures.
  • Bills of Attainder
    • Trump Executive Order punishing a law firm that represents Democratic Party clients was rejected in part by a federal judge, who compared the executive order to a ‘Bill of Attainder,’ which is a legislative act by congress that punishes a person without a trial. Bills of attainder are banned by the Constitution (Article 1, section 8).  The judge issued a partial restraining order on the EO, writing the order ‘sent chills down her spine.’
  • Birthright Citizenship Executive Order that bans birthright citizenship, counter to the 14thAmendment and Supreme Court precedence.  Three district judges stayed the order and this week Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the stays.  A ruling in favor of Trump would effectively nullify the 14th Amendment and throw the country in chaos.
  • Presidential Term limits
    • Trump openly discusses multiple terms. 
    • Some in Congress drafting constitutional amendment to do such
  • Erode separation of powers
    • Senate confirms unqualified nominees to all cabinet positions. 
    • DOGE, Congress surrender power of the purse
    • Congress acquiescing to Trump (executive aggrandizement)
    • Centralizing executive power (Unitary theory of executive power).
    • Executive Order for President to assume supervision over independent agencies.
    • Judge permits DOGE to take over the US African Development Foundation, an independent Agency created by Congress.  The Foundation’s mission, according to it’s website, is to “invest in African grassroots organizations, entrepreneurs and small and medium sized businesses to promote local economic development.
  • Attacks on judiciary/court rulings
    • Vance and Musk call for impeachment of judges who rule against Trump initiatives.  
    • Conservative Super Majority on SCOTUS.  Mitchell rule about nominating supreme court justices in election years.  One rule for Democrats another for Republicans.
    • While lower courts are ruling against Trumps recent executive orders, it remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will sustain these rulings. Positive news:  Supreme Court upheld decision to restore USAID funds.
    •  Additionally, Supreme Court’s last term decision to grant Trump unlimited immunity from criminal prosecution for illegal acts done as official acts.
  • Attacks on press independence  
    • Amazon Prime, owned by Bezos, paid Trump’s wife $40 million for a biopic.  Amazon Prime recently added reruns of the TV show The Apprentice to Prime TV.
    • Bezos changing opinion section in Post.  
    • Lawsuits against ABC, CBS, and Des Moines Register.  
    • FCC investigation of NPR and PBS.
    • AP Ban at White House
    • Pentagon kicking out some press agencies
    • White House controlling of who in Press Pool
  • New Unaccountable Institutions (DOGE)
    • US district judge orders DOGE to turn over documents in a ‘discovery request’ from several States AGs, citing DOGE’s “unprecedented power” and “unusual secrecy.”
    • Social media companies X and Truth Social have become de facto government communications, issuing government wide edicts. 
  • Impeachment effectiveness
    • Impeachment failed to remove Trump during his first term.  
    • Calls to impeach judges who issue rulings counter to Trump (Musk/Vance)
  • Amend constitution
    • Trump requests Supreme Court overturn lower court stays on implementing birthright citizenship Executive Order.  Birthright citizenship is major test of Supreme Court independence
    • Change presidential term limits
  • Executive aggrandizement
    • Every day

Rule of Law:

  • Investigations/arrests
    • Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, permanent resident/green card holder, arrested and threatened with deportation as a national security risk. Removed to a detention facility on Louisiana, although arrested in NYC.  Access to lawyers denied. Trump administration said more such arrests were coming.  Judge blocks deportation.  Two additional search warrants were executed at Columbia student residences by DHS agents.  No arrests.
    • Acting US Attorney District of Columbia sends target letter to Georgetown University law school regarding DEI. Threatens to not hire applicant from GT Law school for internships, etc.
    • In a setback to Trump, a court ruled that the firing of the head of the Federal Employee Labor Board, ruling the firing was unlawful.
    • Trump threatens to jail people on “domestic terrorism” charges for vandalizing Tesla cars at a White House garage sale of Tesla vehicles.
    • Trump signs Executive Order suspending security clearances of law firm Perkins Cole, a Seattle-based firm, that has long provided legal work for the DNC and other democratic and liberal groups. In an updated, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order on the executive order, comparing the Order to a “Bill of Attainder.” The judge wrote that EO sent “chills down her spine.”
    • NY Times reports that Senator Chuck Schumer is target of DOJ investigation. 
    • Operation Whirlwind, threat to investigate those that oppose DOGE by acting US Attorney District of Columbia Ed Martin.
    • NYC Mayor quid pro quo:  Drop federal corruption charges in exchange for political fealty.
    • Trump pauses enforcement of law prohibiting US businesses from bribing overseas companies, governments.
    • Trump on social truth threatens to cut funding for universities and colleges that don’t crack down on protests/free speech.  $400 million Columbia university.
    • Bank accounts frozen by DOJ of NGOs receiving funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction fund at the request of EPA admin who labeled these groups as “left wing.”  Eight recipients bank accounts frozen.  A Fed prosecutor resigned, saying she has been pressured to launch a criminal investigation despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
    • Request by border Czar to DOJ to target Rep. Ocasio-Cortez
    • Threat to prosecute “sanctuary cities.”
    • Trump pardons all Jan 6 convicted felons.  Some of whom assaulted police officers.
    • Repeated threats to jail political opponents by Trump
    • Firing and investigation of federal prosecutors who participated in crimes committed by Trump (Jan 6, classified doc case)
    • Fire, demote, and investigate FBI agents
  • Creation of Paramilitaries
    • White Papers submitted to White House to create paramilitary forces to round up undocumented immigrants by multiple groups.  
    • This would circumvent posse comitatus (no use of military in Law enforcement)
  • Armed civilians
    • While the overall number of hate groups has dropped since 2018, the number of white supremacist groups had risen to an all-time high according the Southern Poverty Law Center.  
    • The number of reported incidents has risen, despite an overall drop in total group numbers. 
    • Pardoning of Proud Boys convicted of insurrection.
  • Mass incarcerations
    • Undocumented immigrants
    • Off-shore prison (Guantanamo)
    • Trump state willing to deport American criminals to foreign prisons

Voting Rights/Civil Rights:

  • Protecting elections from cyber attacks
    • The acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency paused “all election security activities” pending the results of an internal investigation (?).  All funding to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis center was cut.  This center helps state and local officials monitor, analyze, and respond to cyber-attacks targeting the nation’s election hardware and software.  Critical CISA election protection staff targeted for termination.
  • Attacks on Suffrage:
    • Birthright citizenship executive order would impact suffrage
  • Attacks on Voting (state/federal laws)
    • North Carolina Supreme Court judge election:  Riggs, a Democratic justice defeated Republican challenger by 734 votes, a vote tally confirmed by two separate recounts.  Republican Griffin filed numerous legal challenges seeking to throw out more than 60,000 ballots. 
    • Trump attempt to take control of FEC and other independent agencies
    • Birthright citizenship would throw voter rolls into chaos and reduce voting rolls by tens of millions.  
    • Federal bill to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and updating voter registration reintroduced 2025.  Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or the SAVE Act.
    • Shortened window to apply for mail-in or absentee voting (10 states since 2020)
    • Shortened window to deliver mail-in or absentee ballots (5 states since 2020)
    • New restrictive voter ID requirements (15 states since 2020)
    • Expanded laws to purge voter rolls (13 states since 2020)
    • Laws that limit number, location, and availability of ballot drop boxes (8 states since 2020)
    • Move US Postal System to Commerce Department open potential to manipulate absentee voting
  • Gerrymandering
    • Creating safe districts where there are no challengers from opposing party. See incumbency rates above.
  • incumbency (win/loss)
    • Too many safe districts.  
    • Incumbent wins reelection 95 percent.  
    • At the state level runs about 94 percent.  A number of states had 100 percent incumbent win.
  • Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights
    • Dobbs decision overturning Roe.  
    • 12 states banned abortions
    • 6 states no women’s health exceptions

Separation of Church and State, Religious Freedom

Supreme Court said States that provide taxpayer funded vouchers to private schools must also provide said vouchers to religious school students (2020).  In 2022 the Court again ruled in another case that the State could not restrict such funds within the school, that is fence off the voucher money to pay for religious instruction and worship.

State Governments establishing Christian studies, symbols, and objects at Public Schools to the exclusion of other religions 

  • Oklahoma: incorporate bible into the curriculum but no other religions’ texts.

Louisianna requires public schools display the ten commandments but no other religions’ tenets. 

No-Show Schumer:  Capitulation in the Age of a Spinless Democratic Party

Chuck Schumer’s astonishing flip flop to vote for the Continuing Resolution to fund the government through the remainder of fiscal year 2025 was if anything predictable.  It highlights Democrat’s Achilles Heel: No convictions.  What do they stand for?   Nothing, it appears.  Nothing they are willing to sacrifice for.

As America struggled with Trump’s blitzkrieg against liberal democracy during the first weeks of his presidency, I was disappointed in the silence of Democratic leaders.  A lack of any coordinated response.  I asked myself, “does America have a Navalny?”  We used to.  Folks like Martin Luther King Jr. or Euguene Debs or Lucy Burns.  Folks willing to go to jail for a principle or closely held principle. If you don’t know who Navalny is, or was, you should.  He was a Russian opposition leader and Putin’s nemesis.  Jailed and poisoned, he managed to leave Russia for medical treatment, and then returned, facing imprisonment and almost certain life in prison or death.  He was arrested on arrival, subjected to a show trial, convicted and imprisoned.  He died in 2024 at age 47.   

I was unaware of his last letter.  While watching “Letters Live” on Youtube, and by chance, I stumbled upon actor Benedict Cumberbatch reading Alexi Navalny’s last letter.  Chance being a weird word in a world of algorithms deciding what you see online.  

Navalny starts the letter by explaining why he returned:  “It’s actually very simple,” he wrote. “I have my country and my convictions and I don’t want to renounce either my country or my convictions.”  He added, “If your convictions are worth anything, you should be ready to standup for them, and, if necessary, make some sacrifices.  And if you’re not ready, then you have no convictions at all. You just think you do.  But those are not convictions and principles, just thoughts in your head.”  Navalny’s words about conviction and principle struck home. They were the confessions of a dying man.  They weren’t trivial academic utterances of someone sitting in a leather chair, safe, and on a third scotch.  This was real.

Chuck Schumer’s  words ring hollow, he has no conviction or principle.  And he is 79.  Neither it seems does the other Democratic Party leaders.  While I disagree with Trump and his party on most everything, they at least have some sort of driving conviction and principle and are willing to take risks, make mistakes, even make sacrifices.  

Americans can at times lose their ways, but deep down they have an innate common sense.  They know Trump is a con and a grifter, but to many he’s their grifter.  On another level, they hate spineless shits who are afraid of their own shadows even more.  They lose respect for those who don’t stand up for their own, don’t stand up for their convictions or principles, however, tainted or screwed up.  That is an unforgiveable sin. The Democratic Leader are just such spineless shits.