Tag: trump

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.

The Sunday Paper: A story of Hurricane Helene, Elk, A Mexican Cantina, Canada, and DEI

I arrived in a rain squall in a little place called Maggie Valley, west of Asheville, the night before Helene hit.  I was there to meet up with a group of photographers to capture the elk rut in nearby Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  Little did we know that the hurricane would devastate communities dotting the valley floor and mountain sides alike.  Raging rivers, power outages, flooding, communities swept away, roads destroyed, cell towers gone.  No power, no cell service, no TV, no GPS.  And that was the start.  Soon gas stations closed, stores emptied.  Then came the cash economy.  

We were literally cutoff.  Not only were we cut off we were blind as well.  We had no idea what was happening beyond our little valley.  The hotel I think had generator power, and as the days passed the hotel filled up with folks who needed power to run ventilators or other medical devices.  I heard the folks next door whispering as they swapped oxygen tanks through the night. 

Our group started to gather tidbits of intel from folks we ran into.  Mostly about local roads and interstates.  The interstates were closed in all the cardinal directions.  Because no one had paper maps, we started to collect local tourist-type magazines and tear the cartoon like maps out, you know the ones with no scale or accuracy.  From these we crafted homemade mosaic of the area and updated them with the intel we had gathered:  I-40 west closed, I-40 east closed, I-26 north closed, I-26 south unknown….

Our hotel fortunately had an attached Mexican Cantina Restaurant.  It became the gathering spot, a morning and nightly spot to meet up with folks and share information, great food, soon cash only.  No doubt they had their issues at home coping with the damage brought by the hurricane, yet they showed up.  The hotel staff were just a great as the restaurant staff.  You would ask as how things were going:  Things okay at home?  Family safe?  Their responses guarded, stoic. 

We strangers, that is the 12 or so photographers from across the country, banded together.  Shared family stories, swapped tales about our dogs, “loaned” cash to folks that needed it.  No one asked or cared about one’s political views, one’s origins or status.  That was all bullshit now. We gamed and planned exit strategies to get home.

One morning the Mexican Cantina was crowded with new faces, the parking lot crowded with utility trucks.  I didn’t recognize the company name.  I approached a group eating breakfast and asked what roads they took to get into the region. They said they were prepositioned in the area before the storm and didn’t know anything about road leading  out of the area.  I asked where they were from.  Their response: Canada.  I thanked them. They planned to be in the area for a while they said.  Damage to the electrical infrastructure was bad, needed rebuilding, they added.

Our ragtag group of photographers made it out.  Most went east then north.  I went north through Asheville and saw first-hand the devastation.  Asheville was hurting.  Going north on I-26 I eventually diverted off onto country roads.  My stomach sank to my feet when I saw sign saying Exit, road closed ahead. I-26 was closed. Once on the country roads it was ‘follow the car in front of you,’ hoping the road would remain open. 

At some point, I stopped at an intersection near a bridge where there were two state trooper cars.  I pointed to the road, asking, “Does that road go to Tennessee?” The response: “Yep.”  It was a blur and didn’t really know where I was or where I was going.  Finally, came around a bend, I think south of Erwin, and got a look at the river valley and I-26.  The interstate looked as if someone had scooped up the valley and tossed all the mud and boulders and tree trunks onto it.  One of those moments that takes your breath away.

Once I finally got decent radio and news feeds as I neared I-81, I was angered by news reports of the rank politics of casting blame on Biden and the Democrats  I was goddamned livid because it sullied how we all banded together to help each other.   Strangers all.  

The news that Hurricane relief funds for Asheville, North Carolina were recently denied by the Trump Administration because of language in Asheville’s hundred or so page funding request, sparked my rage again.  It also brought back memories of the Canadians who came to help and how they are being taunted by Trump.  Is that how we repay friendship to our neighbors and friends?  The offending funding request contained a single line about minority and women-owned businesses. The HUD secretary said, ‘DEI is dead at HUD.’ Mean, petty and cruel are still live and thriving it seems.

Today, I kind of feel like I did on that country road last year:  Kind of a blur, not really knowing where my country is or where it is going.  

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. 

The Rule of Law:   Are Trump’s Executive Orders the New Bills of Attainder?

You may have noticed the term ‘Bill of Attainder’ recently in newspaper articles or streaming news services.  

A federal district Judge this week imposed a temporary restraining order on Trump’s Executive Order punishing a law firm that represents Democratic Party clients in general, and former special counsel Jack Smith in particular.  The Executive Order barred the firm, Perkins Cole, from federal contracts, stripped security clearances, and prohibited federal employees from retaining the firm for legal services.  The judge compared the Executive Order to a Bill of Attainder, writing that the Order ‘sent chills down her spine.’  Two things.  First, thank God someone has a spine in Washington DC, and two, it should send chills down everyone’s spines.

So, what is a Bill of Attainder?  Like many things in American Constitutional law, it has its roots in England.  William Blackstone’s mid-18th century “Commentaries on the Laws of England” provides the go to legal description of a Bill of Attainder.  Basically, Parliament could sentence a person to death, without a trial, through legislative fiat. Normally, for treasonous acts.  Execution for treason was a ritual in England and other monarchies.  After burning at the stake was banned in late 18th century, hanging, disembowelment while still alive, beheading  and quartering, became standard in England. Parliament could also seize property or banish a person from England simply through legislative acts, sometimes called Bills of Pain or Penalties.  America’s founders thought this a bad idea.  

The Constitution specifically prohibits Bills of Attainder.  At the Constitutional Convention, on Aug 22, delegates Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and James McHenry or Maryland introduced the clause “The Legislature shall pass no Bill of Attainder nor any ex post facto law.”  There was practically no debate, with most of the discussion on whether the latter part of the clause was necessary.  Which suggests they thought it not controversial to ban Bills of Attainder.  Nonetheless, coming very late in the convention, and before air conditioning, I imagine the urge to debate was wanning.  That said, many of the delegates were very familiar with Blackstone’s commentaries and some even had a copy in their personal library and thought the ban necessary.

In Article 1, which enumerates the powers of Congress, section 9, the Constitution states, “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.  In section 10, States were prohibited from enacting Bills of Attainder as well. While the proscriptions apply to Congress and State legislative bodies, it seems that the intent of the ban – and the spirit of the law — would also apply to Executive Orders.  An Executive Order, according the Chief Information Officers Council ( CIO.gov),  has, and I quote, “the force of law.”

I am not a lawyer or Constitutional scholar, but it seems to me that President Trump has weaponized Executive Orders to punish and impose pain on his political and culture war enemies.  Trump’s Bills of Pain and Punishment.

For instance, the creation of DOGE, an extra-legal government agency, to target and eliminate congressionally mandated and funded government programs.  Basically, hanging, gutting, and quartering the career civil service along with executive department and independent agencies without meaningful congressional oversight, public comment, or legal restraint. 

Another example, is the order to ban birthright citizenship through executive order: “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.”  An Order that blatantly lied about the Supreme Court’s century old interpretation of the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship.  More on that in a forthcoming Blog on birthright citizenship. That order is motivated, it appears, by racial animus and is meant to punish the current wave of immigrants to America — which are overwhelmingly brown or black from, as Trump would say, “Shit Hole countries” — by making their children born in America stateless.

And finally, the Executive Order to “Protect the US from Foreign Terrorist and Other National Security or Public Safety Threats,” was used recently as a pre textual basis to detain a permanent legal resident and Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil as a national security risk. After his arrest he was sent to an immigration detention facility hundreds of miles away in Louisiana, even barring him from access to lawyers.  A judge stayed his deportation temporarily. That should scare the crap out of everyone.

Thankfully the courts have countered some of these executive orders, but will the Supreme Court sustain these lower court rulings.  That remains uncertain, even birthright citizenship is in jeopardy, I believe, given the present makeup of the Supreme Court.  If the Supreme Court decides to take up the Birthright case, and not let lower court rulings stand, that should send shivers of fear down every American’s spine.   

Lifeboat:  A recap of John McGuire’s call-in Town Hall

Representative John McGuire of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District held a call-in town hall meeting recently.  I don’t know how many folks attended the town hall, but I do know that when folks were selected to ask McGuire questions the majority queried him about Medicaid cuts and DOGE. Funny, no talks of eggs.

McGuire started the town hall by asking listeners to participate in a poll.  The first question was, “do they want to root out waste, fraud, and abuse? “ That’s like asking Medieval folks if they want to root out Black Death, the plague.  Of course they did.  It’s the methodology that they had quibbles over.  In 17th century England, if a household member got plague, the whole household was locked inside the house for 30 or 45 days, a guard posted outside.  That quarantine was extended as other household members sickened and died.  Normally, everyone perished.  Sounds a bit like DOGE’s methodology regarding USAID and lifesaving anti-viral drugs for millions of Africans. 

But back to the town hall.  The first question McGuire was asked sounded the alarm about the proposed $880 billion dollar cut to government agencies overseen by the energy and commerce committee.  This would entail massive cuts to Medicaid, the caller thought.  McGuire’s response was to happily, almost joyfully, point out that Medicaid was not mentioned once in the proposed budget blueprint.  Duh!  The New York Times reported that if the committee cut all other non-safety net programs under their oversight, they would still have to eliminate an additional $600 billion in funding.  That means Medicaid would be hit….hard.

Another caller, a preacher, pointed out that 24 percent of his district receives Medicaid.   I asked myself, did it ever dawn on McGuire to ask himself, “why do so many folks who work full-time jobs in my district can’t afford medical insurance or care? “ Piss poor wages dude!  Nationwide, over 64 percent of Medicaid recipients work.  In Louisa County, 17 percent receive Medicaid, and this is in a county where unemployment is just a smidge over 2 percent. According to Virginia law, if Medicaid expansion funding from the Federal government drops to a certain level, the program is abandoned.  Yes, abandoned.  That would mean 600,000 Virginians would lose access to health care, many of whom are kids.  Later callers, it was clear, weren’t buying McGuire’s Trumpian responses.

The same went for DOGE.  Near universal condemnation of DOGE’s chainsaw approach, many pointing out its cold-heartedness.  One caller, from the Charlottesville area, said folks in her organization – which she specified — were worried about the haphazard cuts and potential cuts to come.  In perhaps a Freudian slip, McGuire spoke of her position and organization in the past tense.   Which he corrected quickly.  I am sure that that slip was noted by listeners.

During overwhelmingly negative comments and questions regarding DOGE’s incompetence and draconian Medicaid cuts, McGuire’s aid interjected and offered an email question.  The email question was quite flattering of McGuire.  Really, were not dumb!

Overall, McGuire got an earful, but I don’t think he listened.  Too often he used rehearsed and prepared talking points (you heard papers shuffling) instead of genuine concern.  Given the tenure of other town halls I seen or heard about, I was surprised at how calm the questioners were.  Very civil, very polite, but direct as well.  McGuire was civil himself, but too often resorting to the same phrase, saying, ‘I still love you even though we disagree.’  

I think McGuire forgot a cardinal rule in politics:  He forgot who he works for.  We expect our politicians to omit and lie and obfuscate, but we don’t expect them to work against our interests.  It was obvious he works for Trump and not us.  Ben Franklin at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 said it best I think:  “In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.”

You may be wondering why Lifeboat” is in the title of this essay. I remember as a kid watching a black and white war movie telling the story of the survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship.  The drama takes place in the overcrowded lifeboat: too many people, not enough space, too little food or water.  As time passed people died or were killed.  I realized later with age and little bit of wisdom, that the lifeboat was a parable about class and society.  The passengers represented a spectrum of society:  a wealthy socialite, working class ship hands, upper class passengers, the young and elderly, a vulnerable woman with a dead child, an enemy portrayed by the German U-boat captain. Conflicts ensued as resources, and hope, dwindled.  Winners and losers.  Everyone dead or morally tainted.

That’s the paradigm that sticks in my mind when I think of politics in America today.  America the Lifeboat.  Billions, tens of billions in cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs — mostly to working class folks – to pay for $4 trillion in tax cuts, the bulk of the dollars going to the wealthiest Americans.   I think that’s not the ‘golden age’ most folks who voted for Trump envisioned or want.

The Faceless Bureaucrat: DOGE and the war on the Career Civil and Foreign Services

Let me start with the proposition that DOGE’s war on the career civil and foreign services is not about waste, fraud, and abuse. It is about removing obstacles to rule by edict by an imperial Presidency. It is about undermining the rule of law.

When pressed for examples of gross government abuse by petty bureaucrats during a phone-in town hall, all Virginia representative John McGuire, a first term Republican from my district, could muster was a federal grant to study cat cannibalism. I did not fact check completely, however, but the study he referenced may have been the same cat experiments reported by the media in 2016, and stopped. .Not exactly the jaw dropping example I expected. In fact, his example undercut his argument greatly about DOGE’s effectiveness.

Hunting down waste, fraud, and abuse is a red herring. The goal is to turn faceless federal bureaucrats into scapegoats, criminals, lazy, unqualified, fat cats, who lounge all day at home in their pajamas while living large off the teats of taxpayers. The fact is the vast, vast majority are hardworking, patriotic, folks, many of whom risk life and limb. Let me tell you about four faceless bureaucrats that I worked with:

The first, a classmate and fellow special agent, was returning home from war-torn Beirut to be a groomsman in another classmate’s Christmas holidays wedding.  He died over Lockerbie, Scottland along with another agent on PAN AM flight 103.  Another colleague and friend of mine died in Baghdad during a rocket attack.  A year later, a fourth colleague died in Mosul when his motorcade was hit by a complex attack followed by a vehicle borne suicide bomber.  Another colleague was in Benghazi when the Ambassador and a communications officer died during an attack on the consulate. He evacuated to another complex and was on the roof defending the complex when a mortar round exploded nearby, concussing him, one leg tethered to his by by shards of skin. He survived. I came to know him as he recovered in hospital. All of them are patriots, they were all veterans, they answered their countries call to serve. They all had families. Till now they were all faceless bureaucrats to you. We knew them, we honored them, we served with them. f

Faceless bureaucrats like these go to work everyday in America and around the world, in every cline, facing every possible danger. Scientist virus hunters in the Congo, climatologists in Antartica, Hot Shot jumpers going into fight massive forest fires, special agents fighting cartels in Mexico with their Mexican counterparts, park rangers rescuing or searching for lost or missing hikers in inhospitable terrain and conditions.

Faceless bureaucrat are a target of DOGE because a non-partisan career civil and foreign service are an important component of a liberal democracy. They are a bulwark against illegal and unconstitutional acts and orders. They swear an oath to defend the Constitution, their loyalty is to the people. They are essential to maintaining the rule of law, not man.