Trump Turns His Attention to His "Suckers" and "Losers" on Memorial Day

 

Can a leopard change its spots on Memorial Day? Can all the negative things one might have said in the past about our military heroes, military life and military sacrifice be forgotten?

Perhaps by standing at attention, offering new-found faint praise and pretending that anyone who disagrees with his own war policies now that he is president is disrespect to our armed forces and traitors to our country, Donald Trump is trusting that the Americans he has poured into combat and those stateside whose votes he is in need of will forget.

We, however, need to remember the unkind things Mr. Trump has said in private and in public, as a civilian and as America’s commander-in-chief.

On Memorial Day 2017 President Donald Trump made the obligatory presidential visit to Arlington Cemetery in the company of General John Kelly. There, in front of the grave of Kelly’s own son, Trump questioned why anyone would sacrifice their life in battle. “I don’t get it. What’s in it for them?”

One year later, according to General Kelly and three other staff members who were present, Trump insisted on canceling a scheduled visit to the American Cemetery in Paris to honor the Americans who gave their lives in liberating France. “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” He went on to refer to marines dying in France as “suckers.”

After returning from France, Trump asked Kelly to develop a military parade to demonstrate to the world the strength of America’s military hardware but advised Kelly not to include any wounded veterans in the parade. According to Kelly, the following conversation commenced:

“Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade,” Trump insisted.

“Those are the heroes,” Kelly replied. “In our society, there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are – and they are buried over in Arlington.”

Trump didn’t care. “I don’t want them. It doesn’t look good for me.”

General Mark Milley repeats a similar experience. At an event honoring veterans, a veteran who survived war but his legs did not, was introduced to Trump. Trump was harsh with Milley afterward, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, see the wounded.” He ordered his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to never repeat that offense.

There was an early clue that Trump had no respect for our military heroes when on national television in 2015 he argued that John McCain, who, when a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam was offered the opportunity to be released from the POW camp because McCain’s father was an admiral, but refused the North Vietnamese offer saying he did not deserve preferential treatment over the other Americans in captivity, is “not a war hero…because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

While McCain did not defend himself against Trump’s remarks, he did defend a Gold Star family that Trump was being hostile towards in 2016 because the parents of a slain soldier were Muslim and they had made public they would not be voting for Mr. Trump.

“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents. He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States – to say nothing of his entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how strongly I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement,” McCain said. “I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.”

There was an even earlier clue as to Trump’s disrespect for military service and the risks of serving in the military. As a civilian, during Vietnam, while interviewed by Howard Stern Trump shrugged off a soldier’s risk of life in the conflict and narcissistically compared his wild sex life, moving from female encounter to female encounter and the risks of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, to the dangers of a soldier under fire. He called his hedonistic sex life “my Vietnam” and referred to himself as “a brave soldier.”

Those who smile when they see Trump hug the American flag and read his tweets on how much he appreciates those fighting his war in Iran may have difficulty questioning whether Trump can actually be this callous towards those who have fallen. They then need to consider those who have actually been in his presence who know firsthand. Here’s what Trump’s former communications director Alyssa Griffin says:

“Despite publicly praising the military and claiming to be the most pro-military president…Trump will fundamentally never understand service the way those who have actually served in uniform will, and it’s one of the countless reasons he’s unfit to be commander-in-chief,” she stated after giving examples of his failure in her presence to have empathy for those who serve and who have fallen.

Trump’s former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper concludes “I think he’s unfit for office. He puts himself before the country. His actions are all about him and not about the country.”

Trump’s former Chief-of-Staff General Kelly sums it up as good as anyone when he not only concludes that Trump doesn’t understand or respect those who have served and sacrificed, but that Trump also “…is a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.”

Our City Betrayed the Concerns of Our Citizens Regarding ICE

 

ICE has been active in Escondido…and the City of Escondido has been active with ICE.

No one expected ICE to ignore Escondido. Many in Escondido would agree that if there is illegal activity that our laws should be enforced. But the majority of Escondido residents also recognize that the rule of law is a two-way street – that not only do citizens and non-citizens residing in the United States must follow the law, so do we expect the government and law enforcement to abide by the Constitution, law and decency.

ICE does not play by the rules…and the rules they choose to ignore have  included warrant-less invasion of homes, the trauma of masked men in unmarked vehicles grabbing people off the streets without identifying who they are and the reasons for their actions; ignoring their Constitutional rights for due process; both legal immigrants and US citizens caught in ICE’s wide net and improperly detained; excessive force against both those they apprehend and observers; inflicting physical harm on many ranging from pepper spraying the face of a one-year-old to a total of 53 deaths of those in ICE custody or during an ICE raid during the past 12 months including six this month alone.

Because of this – and in particular light of the filmed evidence of the recent killing of two US citizens who were using their cell phones to film ICE activity – the majority of Escondido residents do not want our city partnering in any way with ICE.

Therefore, it is disturbing and unacceptable that the City of Escondido signed a contract with ICE on January 14^th to allow ICE to practice shooting at our Police Department’s firing range in exchange for $67,500.

ICE will train 200 agents 20 days per year annually in groups of 20. According to the ICE San Diego field office, they needed “a secluded location” that would accommodate training with firearms and tactical medical exercises.

The need for “seclusion” and unsupervised privacy makes residents still more suspicious of ICE operatives who already make citizens both uncomfortable and afraid in that they prefer to wear masks to hide their identity.

The City Council has scheduled discussion on the contract at the February 25^th City Council meeting as public concern and pressure has mounted. At this hearing the contract not only needs to be discussed, but the judgement that failed to see that it would be problematic within the community also needs to be addressed. The City Attorney must be directed to review the contract and determine how the contract might be voided. If not legally able to cancel the contract, then they should consider how to amend it to place restrictions on ICE and require objective supervision of ICE proceedings during their training exercises.

The City demonstrated poor judgement in not being able to identify the mood and concerns of the community they serve, if not also revealing a shared mindset when it comes to how ICE operates. It makes no difference that prior administrators had cooperated with ICE…that was pre-Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Kristi Nome ICE. The City negotiated a new contract and signed this pact with ICE one week after the Rene Good killing and after a year of observing this edition of ICE’s terrorizing tactics.

Given the documented measures of inappropriate methods and cruelty by ICE Escondido does not want to see similar incidents victimize our residents. We don’t want children pulled out of their schools. We don’t want a five-year-old child used as bait to trap his father. We don’t want a one-year-old pepper sprayed. We don’t want a disabled woman yanked from her car. We don’t want an innocent 56-year-old man taken from his home without warrant wearing nothing but his underwear and left standing in freezing temperatures. We don’t want someone executed by ICE thugs for attempting to aid a woman shoved onto the ground by ICE while filming their deeds with a cell phone.

Our City Council needs to partner with the citizens of Escondido, not with the masked, unidentified thugs of ICE.

 

 

Two Escondido Teachers Put At-Risk Youths at Risk

 

Homeless.

40% of children who are homeless had been evicted from their family homes because their parents refused to accept them being gay or transgender according to homeless surveys. Studies show that gay and transgender teens are 120% higher at risk of being forced from their homes by their parents than any other group.

Prostitution and drug addiction.

Survival on the streets most always results in those gay teens resorting to prostitution in order to survive according to studies by various agencies such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Network for Youth. Coping with the harshness of rejection by family, living homeless and depending on prostitution for survival most often leads to drug use and drug addiction.

In cases where a parent refuses to accept their child’s identity, eviction is not always the punishment. The child may remain in the home, but according to interviews with unwelcomed gay teens, they report physical and/or emotional abuse while remaining in the home. Many of these become runaways, all suffer emotional scarring and often psychological trauma.

This is the tragic result of those parents who cannot tolerate having a gay or transgender child. While we can assume most parents in this day and age are enlightened and loving enough to accept their children should they discover their child is gay or believes they could be transgender, the reality is that there are many parents who do not.

That is why it is important to accept a teenager’s understanding of their own parents and their own family situation. That is why it is important to allow the teen to determine if it is best to share the child’s sexual identification and if so, when to discuss it with the parents. Only that teen has a full understanding what the parental reaction will be and what the risk of consequences might be.

US District Judge Roger Benitez disagrees.

Benitez agreed with two Escondido Middle School teachers that it is instead the right of teachers to violate the teen’s privacy and be allowed to contact the parents to report to the parent that their child believes that they are transgender or gay. Those two teachers filed a lawsuit challenging the policies of the Escondido Elementary School District and the State of California.

Those policies attempt to protect the child by assuming the child knows their parents and their homelife better than anyone outside of their home. The policies also assume that the teen has better insight into their own body and that the teen has the right to question their own sexuality. Therefore, the existing policies prohibit school personnel from going behind a teen’s back to inform the parent if they overhear or are directly told by the student that the student believes they are gay or might be transgender.

The teachers had stated that instead such policies are a violation of their rights. Conservative Christians, they argue that their religious freedom and their freedom of speech is being violated if they are not allowed to pass on to the parents how the teen refers to their own sexual identity. Without understanding the teen’s family’s dynamics, without understanding the teen’s biological makeup much less apparently not understanding the conclusions of science and not understanding statistics revealing potential consequences, these two choose to interfere.

Benitez sees their point. He adds his concern that teens who have these sexual identities are possibly mentally ill as well.

“(These policies) harm the child who needs parental guidance and possibly mental health intervention…They harm the parents by depriving them of the long-recognized 14^th Amendment right to care, guide, and make health care decisions…and by substantially burdening many parents’ 1^st Amendment right to train their children in their held religious beliefs.”

“And finally,” he continued, “they harm teachers who are compelled to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs…”

For the record, the 14^th Amendment defines national citizenship, guaranteeing due process and equal protection under the law to all persons. It does not apply to this situation nor support the teachers’ argument. Additionally, it is debatable that the Constitutional right to Freedom of Religion gave citizens the latitude to enforce their “sincerely held religious beliefs” on others. In fact, it exists for the very opposite reason.

Benitez has an extremely conservative perspective on issues and judgements. It is routine for his decisions to be overturned in appeals court. In the past eight years he has had four significant decisions overturned, as well as a decision in 2010 where he was refusing to uphold the Constitutional requirement for separation of church and state by ruling that public schools should be allowed to hang religious posters and banners inside classrooms.

Hopefully the Court of Appeals will toss this ignorant and harmful ruling into the same trash bin.

How Donald Trump Feels About Our Veterans in His Own Words

 It's Veterans Day. A time to honor our veterans. It is also a time that we turn to our president to represent this special day with tributes and the president's own views on those who served our country in the military. Given that our current president Donald Trump hugs the American flag and in public speaks favorably about our veterans, it is important to know exactly how he reveals his true mindset when discussing those feelings with people who are also conservative Republicans and who themselves are veterans who worked under him in his first administration. Here are quotes from these military heroes on what they shared are Trump's private conversations with them:

General Mark Milley, Trump's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after a Veterans Day event in which Milley wheeled a multiple amputee veteran up to Trump for Trump to shake his hand: "Why do you bring people like that here? See the wounded, no one wants to see that...Don't do that again."

General John Kelly, Trump's Chief of Staff shared an incident: In planning a military parade, Trump insisted "Look, I don't want wounded guys in the parade." Kelly says he responded "Those are the heroes. In our society there's only one group of people more heroic than they are -- and they are buried over in Arlington."

To this Kelly says Trump replied "I don’t want them. It doesn't look good for me."

Trump insisted that General Kelly cancel a scheduled visit to a cemetery in Paris of American war dead. "Why should I visit that cemetery? It's filled with losers" and he referred to marines who were killed in France as "suckers."

When visiting Arlington National Cemetery to honor our war dead, Trump said to Kelly "I don't get it. What's in it for them?"

Trump publicly had no trouble making his feelings about veteran John McCain, disagreeing with people who considered McCain heroic for refusing to be released from a Vietnamese prison camp until other POWs were also released: "He's not a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured." 

And what do these veterans and conservatives who served Trump in his first term think of him as our nation's leader?

“Trump will fundamentally never understand service those who have actually served in uniform will, and it’s one of the countless reasons he is unfit to be commander-in-chief” – Alyssa Griffin, Trump’s Communications Director

"Donald Trump's disdain for the American military and admiration for dictators like Hitler is rooted in his desire for absolute, unchecked power." and "he has no idea what America stands for and what America is all about"..."He admires autocrats and murderous dictators"- General Kelly.

"Trump would rule like a dictator (if given a second term)...Trump has fascist tendencies" and "Trump is the single greatest threat to American democracy" -- General Kelly.

"Trump is a wannabe dictator...He is fascist to the core" -- General Milley.

"Trump doesn't care for our (the military's) values...He needs to leave office. The fate of our Republic depends upon it" -- General James Mattis, Trump's Secretary of State.

Trump is a dangerous threat to our democracy “undermining our institutions and that makes me worry for the direction of our country” -- Admiral William McRaven, who led the successful killing of Osama bin Ladin.

For those who support Trump and do not want to pay attention to these assessments from conservative Republican military heroes who worked for Trump and who had heard these remarks directly from Trump they must ask themselves why would they repeat these remarks and come to these conclusions? They know Trump personally, you do not. They know firsthand the real Trump, you do not.

Why are they doing it? To reveal the true Trump, to warn us all about the dangers of the Trump presidency and to call upon us all to be on our guard and protect democracy and our rule of law from who they are alerting us to what they know to be our single greatest threat.

Californians Can Help Rescue Democracy

Californians have the opportunity to be heroes. Not just heroes to our own community and our own state, but to all the people living in our country.

That opportunity is Prop 50.

Donald Trump doesn’t intend to play fair in next year’s midterms. He has reason for concern: polls show that he is poised to lose control of Congress in 2026 as Democrats are expected to take the majority in the House. District-by-District polling indicates he will fall five seats shy of his needed majority.

Given that knowledge, he should be stumping in those Districts. He should be campaigning hard. Or he should shift to policies and behavior that would prove to be more acceptable to voters.

Instead, he decided to take a different approach. He decided to try to fix the results ahead of time in his favor. And that is precisely what Prop 50 which we will be voting on is all about. It is an attempt to head him off at the pass, to counter his moving his Bishop by us blocking the move with our Queen.

Reminiscent of 2020 when election night projections showed Trump lost the electoral college, prompting Trump to call the Trump-supporting Georgia official in charge of that state’s balloting to request he somehow "find me 11,780 votes" which would then turn the outcome in Georgia inside out, give Trump Georgia's electoral votes and help him be re-elected. Fortunately, this Republican official realized that what Trump was asking him to do was illegal, prudently taped the conversation, and refused to cooperate.

This time Trump called on a more reliable supporter, Texas Governor Greg Abbott. He instructed Abbott to gerrymander Texas' districts in a manner that would cost five currently elected Democrats their seats and turn those seats into safe Republican seats. Abbott agreed.

We can sit back, do nothing and allow this dishonest fixing of the midterms to take place, or we can counter it. Governor Newsom chose to attempt to counter it. He warned Texas that should they proceed with their plan, he will counter by doing the same in California to maintain the rightful balance. Texas proceeded. Newsom responded with Prop 50.

Unlike Texas, here voters will decide if we should change the districts, not the politicians. The legislature drew up the proposed districts, but it is up to us voters to approve them. California voters, then, are ultimately the decision makers, not the politicians. The bipartisan Redistricting Committee is not terminated. Prop 50 decrees this to be a temporary redistricting. In five years, the Redistricting Committee will again address our shift in population and demographics to objectively draw up our districts.

Gerrymandering districts is something all who believe in ethics and democracy wish to avoid. Trump attempting to steer the course away from defeat in an underhanded way such as this is no less undemocratic than when his campaign attempted to send fake electors into seven State Houses after he had lost the popular vote in those seven states. Just as those 84 fake electors were blocked from entering their respective State Houses to preserve the democratic integrity of the people’s will, we in California now have an opportunity to block Trump’s latest illicit maneuver. And if the only possible tools available to us is to literally fight fire with fire – to fight gerrymandering with gerrymandering – we have to rely on that option barring no others.

If you have been concerned, frustrated and upset with the direction politics and authority has taken in America; if you have wanted to contribute to finding a means to curb the undermining of our democratic processes, you have that opportunity November 4^th by casting a Yes vote on Prop 50.

If This is Charlie Kirk Remembrance Day, Then Remember Charlie Kirk Correctly

 

October 14 has been declared by Donald Trump as Charlie Kirk Remembrance Day.

That being so, let us remember Mr. Kirk accurately. Charlie Kirk was the Pied Piper of MAGA. Dedicated to Trump and the MAGA agenda, he recruited youth into MAGA through the open doors of Turning Point. Dedicated to Trump, he sent 350 of his youths to participate at Trump’s January 6^th showdown with democracy.

A man's own words reveal the man. Here, then, is Charlie Kirk:

When asked if it is acceptable that people are killed in shootings, Kirk responded: “I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so we can have the 2^nd Amendment…” – 4/5/23

We can assume he doesn’t feel any need to have empathy for the shooting victims. “I can’t stand the word empathy… I think it does a lot of damage.” – 9/10/25

Referring to Michelle Obama, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Joy Reid, but with the topic of Black women in general, Kirk said “You do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.” – 7/13/23

“We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s… The Civil Rights Act created a beast, and that beast, has turned into an anti-white weapon.” – 4/24

“If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.” – 1/18/24

Of the man Trump and Republicans continue to compare Kirk to, he once said “Martin Luther King was awful. OK? He’s not a good person.” – 12/23

He preached anti-Semitism. “Jewish donors have been the No. 1 funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies…This is a beast created by secular Jews and now they’re coming for Jews.” – 10/26/23

Does that anti-Semitic blame for a country’s potential problems sound familiar to students of history?

According to Kirk, gays are committing sin, and we owe it to them to wake them up to this fact and not allow events like Gay Pride. “You love (gays) by telling them the truth, not confirming or affirming their sin.”

What is the truth according to Kirk? “In Leviticus 18, is that thou shall lay with another man shall be stoned to death. So, Ms. Rachel (Rachel Accurso, who was championing Gay Pride), you quote Leviticus 19, love your neighbor as yourself. (But) the chapter before affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.” – 6/8/24

“Gay couples are not just happy with marriage; they now want to corrupt your children.” – 4/22

“One issue I think that is so against our senses, so against the natural law and dare I say a throbbing middle finger to God, is the transgender thing happening in America right now.” He followed that up by comparing surgeons who perform transgender surgery to Nazis.  – 9/11/23

He’s tough on politicians who disagree with him. “Joe Biden is a corrupt tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America.” – 7/4/23

Not so tough on those who attack those who disagree with him. When Paul Pelosi was beaten with a hammer by a Right-Wing fanatic in what the culprit confessed was a failed attempt to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, Kirk weighed in on the plight of the attacker. “Why has he not been bailed out? By the way, if some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a hero, someone should go and bail this guy out.” – 10/31/22

And regarding capital punishment, Kirk thinks all executions should be televised. “You could have it brought to you by Coca-Cola, and no, I am not kidding.” – 2/15/24

Not to mention young people should be encouraged to watch. “I think at a certain age it’s an initiation” was his response to two others discussing the possibility of televised executions being age appropriate for children as young as 12. – 2/15/24

It is tragic that Kirk was murdered for his beliefs, for exercising his Freedom of Speech. But those beliefs he championed are racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and cruel. He supported violence as a political solution. These are not American values. And, if we are to honor and celebrate people for their deeds in this country, it should be those who do represent and speak out for American values.

War on Democracy: Trump's Reichstag Moment

 

September 10, 2025, will not only be remembered as the day Right Wing activist Charlie Kirk was murdered, it will be remembered as Donald Trump’s Reichstag moment.

In 1933 Germany’s parliament building – the Reichstag – was ruined in a fire. Arrested on the scene was communist Marinus van der Lubbe. Accused of arson and sentenced to death by a Nazi court, the act of political violence gave Hitler the opportunity to declare war on all political opposition, resulting in censorship, control of the press and the nation’s entertainment, outlawing all political parties other than his own, making unjustified arrests and abandoning due process.

Tyler Robinson is proving to be our van der Lubbe. Kirk’s murder has become Trump’s Reichstag.

Little is known of Robinson and his motive. The limited clues that have been shared with the public is that he was raised in a MAGA family, favored Trump as recently as last year, followed Alt Right Nick Fuentes online and is registered as an independent. We also know he has a transgender lover and that he took offense at Kirk’s condemnation of transgenders for undermining our society. We know he messaged his lover that Kirk’s hatred had to be stopped, and he believed murder was the only recourse.

Yet Trump has invented his own evidence, immediately blaming Left Wing politics and Democrats for the assassination, promising he would seek out and end Left Wing activism and commentary that is critical of him.

Trump has declared “The radical Left causes tremendous violence in our country…I think they hate our country.” He says this even though his own DOJ and FBI data shows 71% of political violence is from Right Wing extremists and only 10% from the Left. Data which Trump had removed from the DOJ website after he made these comments. Trump also ignores that two months earlier a MAGA extremist assassinated a Democratic Senator and her husband; in April another MAGA attempted to murder a Democratic Governor and his family by burning them alive while they slept; and in 2021 MAGA violently attacked the Capitol to overturn election results they did not favor

Trump declared ANTIFA, a loosely knitted conglomeration of people opposed to fascism who do little more than march with signs critical of Trump, a terrorist organization. That makes it against the law to participate in ANTIFA.

Trump has declared war on liberal non-profits such as the Open Society Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Type Media Center, threatening to label them terrorist organizations as well and remove their tax-exempt status. He is taking aim at the magazine The Nation.

He has ordered the DOJ and the FBI – two government entities that are supposed to be distanced from the presidency so they are not under political pressure or political direction – to round up his political opponents. The hit list includes Senator Adam Schiff, former FBI Director James Comey, NY AG  Letitia James, his former National Security Advisor John Bolton, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger among others.

He previously installed Trump loyalist and Project 2025 co-author Brendan Carr as FCC Chair with, in Carr’s own words, to put an end to media criticism of Trump.

Networks that include criticism of Trump, the president says, should lose their licenses. He called negative reporting on him “…really illegal” and that “action should be taken.”

Carr took action this week against critic Jimmy Kimmel. Carr warned ABC affiliates they would suffer consequences if they continued to air Kimmel and that ABC risked losing their broadcasting license. Kimmel was suspended.

Trump has already stated that Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers and The View will be next. Why? “They only give me bad publicity,” Trump explained.

Print media is also targeted. They now must receive authorization from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to report on any unclassified information or activity in the Pentagon.

Visas for foreigners are being canceled if they have made negative comments about Kirk and Trump. Employers are being encouraged to fire employees who harbor negative views of Kirk and Trump. Trump has directed the DOJ to arrest anyone he defines as using “hate speech,” which would impact rights to Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press given Trump’s definition, which is anyone speaking negatively of him, his policies and MAGA, while he himself remains the nation’s most high profile and constant voice of hatred and division.

Trump has attempted to undermine the press, the courts, our system of checks and balances and laid the foundation for a police state prior to the Kirk tragedy. But what is noted today has transpired in a little over a week, which illustrates that this is Trump’s pivotal Reichstag moment to both accelerate and justify his authoritarianism.

Protect Our Children, Protect Our Communities

 

Again, our flags are at half-mast. Again, children are murdered for no other reason than for sport. Again, firearms are the weapon used to slaughter the young.

Fletcher Merkle, age 8. Leaves behind a mommy and a daddy.

Harper Moesky, age 10. Leaves behind a mommy and a daddy.

The two most recent children hunted down for sport while learning their ABC’s in the classroom. In total, there have been 148 children killed in school shootings since 1989. College students at study bring the total to 212.

We are horrified. We are saddened. We are angry…And then we become complacent.

Our lawmakers push speed dial to rush out their monthly texts conveying their “thoughts and prayers” and then just as quickly desert the issue, diverting our attention to the plight of the gas stove and gender identification, for example. It seems that while our children now practice duck-and-cover in case of a future school shooting, our politicians have established their own form of duck-and-cover.

Our leaders’ lack of attention to mass shootings in America is as horrific as the crime itself. This is a crisis, and yet our leaders do nothing in what the entire world clearly sees as America’s disturbing culture of gun violence and mass shootings unique to anywhere else on the planet.

70% of school shooters are teens who either attend the targeted school or once had. In the Catholic school shooting this month it was again a former student who shielded himself outside of the school, firing at his pint-sized targets through a window. What can be done beyond thoughts and prayers to help protect our children at school?

 Surrounding the schools with fencing and a security gate requiring visitors to request access could become a state and/or federally funded necessity. In a survey of America’s teachers, only 18% want to be armed as proposed by many conservative lawmakers. However, having armed security on campus makes sense to many. Increase the age to 21 for gun purchases. Parents who don’t secure their firearms to prevent the youth access to the weapon need to be held legally accountable.

Circling the wagons around our schools wouldn’t have protected the patrons watching a movie at the Aurora Theater, concert goers outside of the Mandalay Bay resort, shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket or clubbers at a Miami nightclub, however.  How do we protect all of us in any situation? We start by identifying the usual contributors: mental illness and guns.

Providing mental health care is essential, but it isn’t the lone factor considering that the Nashville school shooter was receiving mental care and that all countries have a mentally ill population – yet those countries don’t experience 1714 victims mass shootings in the past 25 years as we have had in the US according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government. So, what stands out as a difference between us and other nations? Our gun culture. We are only 5% of the world population, yet we possess 42% of guns in private ownership. That doesn’t equate into cataloguing guns as bad, but when it comes to one firearm, that weapon does need to be placed in a police lineup. 85% of deaths in mass killings are at the barrel of assault weapons.

The statistics suggest that more lives might be saved should this weapon favored by mass murderers be eliminated. Before proposing a ban, outline the benefits of the weapon vs the risks, and if there are conclusive risks, are there alternative firearms that could provide the same benefits? The risks are obvious: in the wrong hands it kills more people in less time than other weapons. For example, at a concert the gunman’s AR15 hit 925 people in less than ten minutes - 58 dead, 867 wounded. As for the benefits, there are far better alternative firearms for hunting – what good is shredding your venison -- and for home security the use of a rifle or handgun in your home is safer for your family and neighbors.

Would a ban work? It did from 1994-2004 when a ban was adopted and the number of mass shootings dropped 17%. When the ban was lifted, mass shootings tripled. Countries that experienced assault weapon mass shootings and then banned assault weapons have not had a mass slaughter since.

At a minimum, requiring universal background checks, gun registration and denying gun ownership to the mentally ill could go far to save lives.

There is evidence that stronger gun policies work. There is evidence that doing nothing has failed. A recent poll reports 71% of Americans want stricter gun laws and 62% want assault weapons banned. It is time our legislators ignored the tantrums of the minority and the dollars of the gun manufacturers’ lobbyists and paid attention to the death toll. Sadly, if you think your Congressman will act by conscience without your nudging, you are wrong. Legislation can be driven by you, if only you would make your voice heard.

Playing Hide and Seek with the Epstein File

 

Pssst. Donald…It ain’t working.

Donald Trump is in trouble. And Donald Trump knows it.

The Teflon Don, able to convince his followers to shrug off and ignore every scandal, every mocking of the handicapped and the unfortunate, every lie, every inconsistency, every act of stupidity, every law he has violated, the bragging of sexual assault and leading a violent attack on Congress to steal an election, has finally found himself sinking in a political tarpit …and his method of pulling himself from the tarpit is less than grabbing a rope to pull himself out but instead using a shovel to dig himself deeper and deeper.

That tarpit is the Epstein file and whether or not he is included in the file. Despite Trump’s claims that he is not, the circumstantial evidence says he is.

When asked if he ever observed Trump in the company of underaged girls, Jeffery Epstein’s response during a disposition was “though I’d like to answer that question…I am going to have to assert my 5^th, 6^th and 14^th amendment rights.” You have to think a “no” answer, if Trump was never engaged with underaged girls, would have been an easy response if that were the case.

In Trump’s own words, something he and Epstein had in common was that “he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” How young?

According to Trump in a Howard Stern interview, he acknowledged liking younger women but did have a line he would not cross: “…(not) like Congressman Foley, with 12 year olds.”

Trump bragged about walking into dressing rooms while teenage girls were undressed at his Miss Teen USA beauty pageants. “As the owner, you sort of get away with things like that.”

Trump was caught on tape lusting over an underaged girl as they each rode the escalator in opposite directions. A friend of Trump’s shared the story of how when they were playing tennis Trump mentioned to him that he found the teenage girl playing in a nearby court attractive and the friend had to advise Trump that the girl was his daughter.

Even with adult women he is immoral. He brags about sexually assaulting women. He was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman. Epstein shared that Trump would use Epstein’s Manhattan apartment to “f### his friend’s wives.” Epstein says when he asked Trump why he is obsessed with having sex with these women, Trump’s reply was “because it’s so bad.”

The question then, is how bad can “it’s so bad” be to pleasure him? One woman has said Trump and Epstein “raped” her when she was 13.

While Trump says he never visited Epstein’s island, in clarifying this he said “I have never had the privilege to visit.” It should be noted that it came out during Epstein’s legal proceedings that underaged sex also occurred in his Manhattan apartment. You don’t have to literally go to the island for Epstein’s services.

So how suspicious is it that Trump not only might have had inappropriate relations with underaged women but also in connection with Epstein? Trump and his administration’s own words and actions make it more and more suspicious.

His Attorney General Pam Bondi stated she had the Epstein file with all its damning evidence on her desk. She said she would soon be releasing it. But then Elon Musk tweets that the reason the file had been withheld is that Trump’s name is included in the file. Bondi’s eventual response to that: there is no such client list. It doesn’t exist.

Trump then fired the prosecutor in the Epstein case.

Trump, who pledged to his base who long sought the release of the files that he would release all the files once elected, now says it is all a hoax. A client list doesn’t exist. When his base objected and continued to call for its release, he condemned those in MAGA who keep pursuing the issue as “fools” and “losers” and instructed them to drop it. His daily obsession and anger with their pursuit for more information, as well as his practice of deflecting questions about the Epstein file by redirecting reporters to wild accusations against the likes of Barak Obama and Oprah Winfrey, only make him appear to be hiding something.

Trump insisted he knows his name does not appear in any Epstein file. Now we know that he was advised by the DOJ in May that his name appears in the file multiple times. That is how Musk learned Trump is included.

His explanation of a file changes frequently. It exists and has been hidden by Democrats because Democrats are listed. It doesn’t exist. It exists, but it is a fake file created by Democrats to frame Trump and Republicans.

On one hand he says no file exists and he has never seen a list of Epstein clients. But then he claims he has seen the evidence that certain Democrats have been on the island, including Bill Clinton “28 times.”

When it became obvious that the House had the votes to order the release of the files, Trump had House Speaker Mike Johnson cut the House off at the pass by closing Congress early. It will not resume for two months. What is happening during this pause? Trump has sent the Assistant Attorney General who served as Trump’s personal attorney during the Stormy Daniels case to meet with Epstein’s convicted partner in the sex crimes for private discussions.

What could be the objective of these sudden discussions? Given Trump’s history of giving pardons to convicted felons who agree to support him, is it unreasonable to believe a pardon is being discussed if she supports his claim that he was never involved?

So, what should happen when Congress returns? Any testimony by brothel madam Ghislaine Maxwell may now be questionable. She may lie in exchange for a pardon. But she can’t change the file itself and an unredacted file won’t lie. Congress must return to ordering the release of the file.

And if Speaker Johnson and Republican Congressmen refuse to do that? That is something they must answer for in next year’s elections.

Big Beautiful Bill or Big Bad Wolf?

 

The Big Bad Wolf is knocking at your door. Little did we know a few years ago that the Big Bad Wolf would be wearing a red cap.

I’m not referring to the MAGA capped Big Bad Wolf knocking on the doors of immigrants and those protesting Trump’s positions on Gaza, I’m talking about YOUR door.

Trump’s tax bill – which he has marketed as the “Big Beautiful Bill” – negatively impacts everyone in one way or the other.

Loss of net income for 20% of households. According to a study at Yale, the bottom 20% of wage earners will come out 2.9% less in net earnings, while the top 20% will experience a 2.2% increase. Meanwhile, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that the top 1% on average will see their taxes reduced by $66,000 and specific case studies in Texas saw their top millionaires getting a tax reduction of $100,000.

Higher electric rates and energy shortages. The bill seeks to kill renewable energy in favor of coal and other fossil fuel which not only sacrifices our environment from clean energy to toxic pollutants, but it is also projected to impact your utility bill. To cripple expansion of clean energy systems, the bill puts heavy taxes on wind and solar energy projects and strips away tax credits for homeowners who switch to solar. Senator Brian Schatz (HI) points out that 80% of new capacity on the grid came from solar energy last year, and crippling renewable energy systems will “cost people - ratepayers - $60 Billion in this decade alone. Your electric bills are about to go up.”

Interest rates on mortgages and the cost of living can go up. A growing national debt risks increasing interest rates, lowering the country’s credit standing, weakening the dollar and increasing inflation thus increasing the cost of living.

According to the bi-partisan Congressional Budget Office that Congress depends upon for impartial and accurate fiscal analysis of proposed legislation, Trump’s bill is going to add $3.9 Trillion to our debt. This is due to extending Trump’s tax cuts to the billionaire class which itself is projected to amount to a loss of $4 Trillion in revenue. While a shell game is being conducted to suggest that cuts in services to the public could offset this lost revenue, huge increases in defense spending of $153 Billion which includes $25 Billion to fund Trump’s scheme to attempt a dome covering the continental US to shoot down incoming missiles coupled with multiple tax cuts overrides the cuts in services and results in massive debt.

Nursing homes can close. A study by Brown University reveals that 579 nursing homes may close because of the bill’s Medicaid cuts.

In-Home Health Care Services will be cut. Two studies indicate that 477,000 health care workers will lose their jobs due to Medicaid cuts meaning 477,000 disabled persons will not continue receiving their in-home care. They also estimate another 411,000 jobs associated with needed health care will be lost.

Rural hospitals are expected to close. Independent rural hospitals are on track to lose an estimated $465 million in total patient revenue due to the Medicaid cuts in the bill, or an average of $630,665 per hospital with according to one analysis puts 55 hospitals at risk of shutting down.

17 Million people will lose health insurance. The CBO estimates the bill’s changes to health insurance will cost 17 Million people their coverage. This includes cuts to Medicaid as well as removing the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies that made purchasing private health insurance affordable to many who are not eligible for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance.

Lower income families will lose food assistance. The CBO indicates all of the 42 Million households who depend on food subsidies will either see lower amounts of assistance or completely lose food benefits. An example is a single Multiple Sclerosis adult living on $900 per month. She receives $140 in SNAP to help with her food costs – which already falls short. She has been advised to expect that amount to be lowered once Trump’s bill goes into effect. 270,000 homeless are expected to be cut off. Breakfast and lunch programs provided at schools for children from poor families is being slashed or eliminated.

Less Opportunity to send our children to college. Today’s college students are dependent upon student loans. The bill changes eligibility requirements to loans eliminating some households who had previously been eligible; lowers the maximum amount that can be borrowed annually to $20,000 when the average cost is $39,000; and makes repayment of loans at a higher percentage of post-graduation income. The Student Borrower Protection Center estimates college will be costing these students an additional $3,000 per year.

Clean Energy is being put on the back burner. Tax incentives to assist people in installing clean energy alternatives in their homes are ending. Tax incentives to encourage investment and development of wind and solar energy are ending. War has been declared on electric vehicles: the tax incentives for production and purchase of electric vehicles are also ending.

Clearly the primary targets for increased wealth in Trump’s tax policy is the upper 20% of Americans at the expense of the bottom 20% in particular, with random shots at the middle class. Even more clearly is the growing autocratic power of Donald Trump who has the ability to drive Republican legislators into approving a bill that 59% of Americans wanted their legislators to reject.

And while Trump and the GOP removed safety nets for lower income households, the disabled and senior citizens, they include a safety net for themselves by postponing implementation of the Medicaid cuts until after the November 2026 elections, avoiding being held accountable by their constituents who will suffer.

Trump has huffed and he has puffed and he has blown our medical, financial, educational and environmental security down.

A General's Bitter Memorial Day Memory

 

Memorial Day. A day to remember and give our respect, thanks and prayers to those who sacrificed their lives to protect democracy at home and across the globe.

This Memorial Day we should also pause to consider what an American military hero, General John Kelly, shared with us about someone he closely served as chief-of-staff and who is currently hoping to become our president and commander-in-chief.

On Memorial Day 2017 then-President Donald Trump made the obligatory presidential visit to Arlington Cemetery in the company of General Kelly. There, in front of the grave of Kelly’s own son, Trump questioned why anyone would sacrifice their life in battle. “I don’t get it. What’s in it for them?”

One year later, according to General Kelly and three other staff members who were present, Trump insisted on canceling a scheduled visit to the American Cemetery in Paris to honor the Americans who gave their lives in liberating France. “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” He went on to refer to marines dying in France as “suckers.”

After returning from France, Trump asked Kelly to develop a military parade to demonstrate to the world the strength of America’s military hardware but advised Kelly not to include any wounded veterans in the parade. According to Kelly, the following conversation commenced:

“Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade,” Trump insisted.

“Those are the heroes,” Kelly replied. “In our society, there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are – and they are buried over in Arlington.”

Trump didn’t care. “I don’t want them. It doesn’t look good for me.”

General Mark Milley repeats a similar experience. At an event honoring veterans, a veteran who survived war but his legs did not, was introduced to Trump. Trump was harsh with Milley afterward, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, see the wounded.” He ordered his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to never repeat that offense.

There was an early clue that Trump had no respect for our military heroes when on national television in 2015 he argued that John McCain, who, when a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam was offered the opportunity to be released from the POW camp because McCain’s father was an admiral, but refused the North Vietnamese offer saying he did not deserve preferential treatment over the other Americans in captivity, is “not a war hero…because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

While McCain did not defend himself against Trump’s remarks, he did defend a Gold Star family that Trump was being hostile towards in 2016 because the parents of a slain soldier were Muslim and they had made public they would not be voting for Mr. Trump.

“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents. He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States – to say nothing of his entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how strongly I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement,” McCain said. “I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.”

But when our Republican Party, its officers and its candidates insist on supporting Trump to be their leader after Trump’s feelings about our servicemen and women who have given their lives so others might live in freedom have been a matter of record, how can they not be associated with such unpatriotic, uncaring thinking?

Those who smile when they see Trump hug the American flag and offer timely salutes may have difficulty questioning whether Trump can actually be this callous towards those who have fallen. They then need to consider those who have actually been in his presence who know firsthand. Here’s what Trump’s former communications director Alyssa Griffin says:

“Despite publicly praising the military and claiming to be the most pro-military president…Trump will fundamentally never understand service the way those who have actually served in uniform will, and it’s one of the countless reasons he’s unfit to be commander-in-chief,” she stated after giving examples of his failure in her presence to have empathy for those who serve and who have fallen.

This is all worth considering given in a handful of months we must make a decision on who is fit to serve as commander-in-chief.

Trump’s Secretary of Defense Mark Esper warns “I think he’s unfit for office. He puts himself before the country. His actions are all about him and not about the country.”

Having worked closely with Trump, General Kelly concludes that Trump “…is a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.”

And Trump being restored to the presidency?

“God help us” laments the general.

White is Trump's Favorite Color, Brown Not So Much

 

Finally, Donald Trump is allowing persecuted foreigners to apply and receive refuge in the United States. They began arriving this week. They arrived by jet. Some traveled first class. Their luggage by Louis Vuitton.

And they are white.

Wealthy South African’s peeved at their government’s new policy of redistributing land from extensive land holdings are fleeing what they consider unfair land programs and what their fellow South African Elon Musk sees as communism.

In crafting a more acceptable rationale for opening our borders to the white South Africans, Trump went to his spinning wheel and wove a tale of the South African government turning a blind eye to an excessively high murder rate of white farmers, or as Elon Musk defines it, “genocide.”

Truth is, an average of 20,000 murders occur in South Africa annually. Of those, white victims average a total of 58. An investigation concluded these murders are a result of burglaries and theft gone wrong – not a form of ethnic cleansing or racial revenge.

Why the redistribution? Because of South Africa’s past practice of apartheid. Whites in South Africa make up only 7% of the population yet own 73% of the land. That is because the white population benefited from apartheid whose policy prohibited the native black population from owing property. From the seeds of apartheid, large extensive agricultural operations owned by whites grew and blossomed.

Today’s black South Africans would like to farm as well. But they can’t. The whites own all the farmland.

Therefore, the government is trying to correct the situation and create opportunities and equality for the blacks who are locked out of the farming community by carving parcels from the larger farms and ranches.

Trump says that qualifies them for refugee status. Why? Here's a hint: because they're white.

Meanwhile a Latino who fled his country to escape threats of murder by a violent gang was handcuffed, deported and imprisoned in an El Salvadorian prison known as one of the world’s most inhumane by order of the Trump administration. Not only is he a reasonable candidate for asylum in the US, but he was also granted protection by a federal judge to reside in the US. He must report regularly to Immigration. He does. He must not commit a crime. He hasn’t.

It eventually surfaced that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should have never been deported, much less imprisoned. The Trump administration admitted that it was an unfortunate administrative error. Realizing this, a federal judge ruled that the administration must facilitate Garcia’s return.

That was before The Donald got directly involved. He ignores his administration’s original confession. He is ignoring the judge’s orders. He appealed to the Supreme Court to erase the judicial ruling that he must facilitate Garcia’s return, and he lost.

He has made up a story that Garcia has is a gang member and has a horrific criminal history. When countered that there is no proof that Garcia belongs to a gang, Trump presented a poorly photoshopped picture of Garcia’s knuckles with MS13 written across them in a clumsy tactic to fool the public. Trump says they are tattoos. Anyone who sees the picture can see it looks more like someone typed MS13 on the fist. Photographs of Garcia inside the El Salvador prison show the same hand with no such tattoo.

Trump has delegated the responsibility of keeping Garcia incarcerated and keeping the public misinformed about Garcia to Kristi Noem, Director of Homeland Security and of puppy killing fame. Noem has put Trump’s lies on the HS website turning it from a mere fib to propaganda. Her government website’s home page concentrates on its theme “100 Days of Fighting the Fake News” where she says Homeland Security is committed to countering information provided to the public by the press. She then feeds the public lies about Garcia:

She lies claiming two courts found him guilty of being a member of MS13.

She lies that he was ordered deported in 2019.

She falsely suggests he is a sex trafficker.

She falsely claims he beats his wife.

She falsely contends the Supreme Court did not rule against Trump; that the court ruling only requires the US provide transportation into the US from the border if El Salvador choses to release him and that it is a violation of international law for the US to facilitate his release.

Yet in an interview with ABC Television, Trump contradicts Noem acknowledging he can indeed secure the release with one phone call, “But,” Trump says, “I won’t.”

Garcia has no criminal background. He is not a gang member. He does not beat his wife. He was given protective status as he remains in the US by a federal judge. Another federal judge and a unanimous Supreme Court – a conservative Supreme Court where one-third of the judges were appointed by Trump himself -- has instructed Trump to seek his release. But he won’t. Why?

Here’s a hint: because he isn’t white.

Trump Declares War on Knowledge

 

Donald Trump has declared war on knowledge.

Two institutions crucial to any democracy are a free press and education. Both are targeted by Donald Trump for demolition. And both will certainly succumb to his heavy hand, giving up their rights, if they do not each unite with others in their fraternities.

No society can remain democratic and free without a free press. When authoritarians take power, their first act is to control the media. From Lenin sending in Bolsheviks with bayonets to seize control of Russia’s radio stations, to Mussolini shutting down Italy’s newspapers, to Donald Trump who had attempted to cripple the Free Press during his first term by discrediting the media as “fake news” and casting himself as the only person the public could trust for their information. Now in his second term, he’s going for the jugular. He is attacking on multiple flanks: intimidation with billion-dollar lawsuits; threats to jail journalists and producers; threats to scuttle media business ventures; threats to remove their licenses to operate.

He tested the waters with ABC, filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against ABC, with ABC backing down and settling for $15 Million hoping it would send a sign of cooperation to Trump. Trump liked the flavor of that, and now he is pulling lawsuits out of his holster like a villainous  gunslinger. CBS - a $10 Billion lawsuit. The Post - $3.8 Billion. The Des Moines Register is being sued for simply publishing their poll in 2024 showing that Trump was losing.

The ABC domino effect is causing media executives to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the press nor, as will be the ultimate consequence, American democracy.

CBS is pulling back on their coverage and potential criticism of the Trump administration. The controlling shareholder of their parent company Paramount Global, Shari Redstone, is nervous that Trump will use his influence to scuttle her sale to Skydance Studios which requires FCC approval. The resulting message to the news department to take off their journalistic gloves and put on mittens has resulted in the longtime producer of 60 Minutes to resign.

Paramount and CBS should not join ABC in the bunker. The American press must hold hands, unite and refuse to allow none of Trump’s threats to dictate their reporting of events. America already suffers from Right Wing propaganda networks such as Fox News and Newsmax masquerading as news agencies polluting their audiences’ minds with false information, but for the legitimate press to possibly not share the full story of events will deny the public all the facts they need to help them fully understand what is happening in our country. Incomplete news is as bad as fake news.

Equal in necessity for democracy to thrive is education. Like the press, authoritarians lunge at public schools and higher education to mold them into their likeness; to discipline them into following the teachings of the authoritarian government. Like authoritarians before him, Trump has targeted our schools – from supporting the banning of books in public schools and abolishing the Department of the Education, to dictating specific doctrine that universities must incorporate.

“I love the uneducated,” Trump once smiled. And he means it.

In this battle, Columbia University stepped into the shoes of ABC. The private university was told to adopt nine new policies which included restrictions on departments that address Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies; abolish the University Judicial Board transferring their authority to punish students to one individual; immediate expulsion or multi-year suspension of any student who participated in Anti-Israeli demonstrations; allow greater police authority to arrest future demonstrators; and changing their admissions procedures. If Columbia fails to implement these policy changes, Trump will order the termination of $40 Million in federal funding for research.

Columbia caved. But like in a “B” Western, when the local population first fails to stand up to the greed of the guys dressed in black, a hero rides into town and motivates the townsfolk to stand up to the bad guys. Harvard rode in on their white horse.

Harvard refuses to fall prey to extortion. They said no. Harvard standing tall inspired other universities to circle their wagons.  Hundreds of colleges signed a letter informing Trump that they will not give in to his authoritarian demands and they stand united. Trump responded to Harvard by freezing $2 Billion in funding. That money, said Harvard, goes to researching treatment for cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and other diseases.  That money, said the Trump administration, “is a gravy train.”

If we don’t all unite and become active, not only joining the press and educational institutions but uniting as one to denounce the entire laundry list of Trump’s unconstitutional actions, our silence and apathy will in essence have held the door open for an autocracy with Ronald Reagan’s shining light on the hill having gone dim.

 

A Constiutional Crisis

 

And so, it has happened. The Constitutional crisis has landed.

Two of the most important people responsible for overseeing the security and fairness of our elections during Trump’s first term are officially at risk of going to jail for doing nothing more than acknowledging that there was no fraud in the 2020 election and for pointing out issues within the Trump administration.

 Sebastian Gorka,  Trump’s current Senior Director of Counterterrorism, is calling for jailing any who oppose Trump.

The conservative Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Trump must facilitate the return to the United States an innocent Marylander who was arrested and packed off to a dangerous prison in El Salvador by ICE. Trump has folded his arms and refuses to comply.  

These are the acts of an authoritarian. This is not just the beginning of a Constitutional crisis, it is a Constitutional crisis

Donald Trump is seeking the arrest and potential imprisonment of two members of his first administration because they had confirmed that they told Trump in 2020 that the election was not rigged; that the election was fair; and that Trump lost to Biden.

Trump’s targets are Chris Krebs, Trump’s Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security, and Miles Taylor, his former senior aide at the Department of Homeland Security.

It was Krebs’ job in 2020 to oversee the election to make sure it was conducted fairly. After claims by Trump that the election was stolen, Krebs conducted an investigation. Krebs arrived at the following conclusion:

“…in every case of which we are aware, these claims (of fraud) either have been unsubstantiated or are technical incoherent.”

 It particularly infuriates Trump that Krebs testified before Congress during their investigation of the January 6 attack on Congress. Krebs not only repeated that the election was absent of fraud, but he also took public exception to Trump inflaming his supporters with his allegation that it was stolen before he sent them to ascend upon the Capitol. “Republican officials, senior officials, including the former President, lied to the American people about the security of the 2020 election.”

Ouch. Krebs is going to suffer for that candor.

Taylor is facing the same consequences. He not only vouched that in his position at Homeland Security he is positive there was no fraud, but he also later wrote an OpEd and a book highly critical of Trump. You can’t get away with both undermining Trump’s narrative about the election and criticize Trump. That’s more than he can stand. He too must be investigated and punished. Directly referring to Taylor’s criticism, Trump labeled Taylor’s examples as “all lies” and justifying police action against Taylor because “I think he’s guilty of treason.”

Under any authoritarian regime, to be critical of the authoritarian or to challenge that leader’s version of events is a crime. It is in North Korea. It is in China. It is in Russia. It once was in Germany and Italy. It is now in America.

While Krebs and Taylor’s personal liberty are at risk, Kilmar Abrego Garcia has already lost his. Inappropriately arrested and deported under false charges of being a member of the gang MS-13, he sits in the foreign prison under contract by Trump to accept deportees due to – the Trump administration admitted – an administrative error. This should be an easy fix. It would be…if it didn’t turn out that Trump is happy that he subtracted one more Hispanic from our population.

The Supreme Court came to the rescue. A conservative Court consisting of three Trump appointees ruled 9-0 that Trump must facilitate the return of the victim. But Trump won’t comply. Despite Constitutional requirements that he must comply as an essential part of our system of checks and balances, Trump instead is willing to go to war with the Constitution.

Beginning in his first week in office Trump has fired warning shots that a battle with the Constitution was imminent.   Trump threatened the Freedom of the Press by seeking to remove their right to operate, to jail journalists and producers, and filing lawsuits; he began action to end the Right to Assemble for those who demonstrate against his positions; has done away with due process; intimidates and makes threats against attorneys who challenge his positions; and seeks jail for citizens who either dare to be critical of him, release facts that contradict his narrative, or attempted to hold him accountable for crimes that evidence demonstrates that he committed.

But in defying the Supreme Court, he has fired the most devastating shot at our Constitution since the firing at Ft. Sumter. When he goes to war against the Supreme Court, he is going to war against the Constitution. When he goes to war against the Constitution, he has gone to war against our democracy.