Tag Archives: Trump

Where is Sesame Street

when we need it? I’m specifically talking about The Count. As you may recall, Sesame Street always featured a number and at the end of the show certain letters and numbers were credited as “sponsors.”

It appears that the Republican Party has a dire need and should bring on The Count as a consultant for an exorbitant sum.

They’re learning the number 1. Except they still think the First Amendment means MAGA gets to say and do whatever it wants (see Jan. 6) and no-one else does. That needs a lot of work. When one thinks that half the country are heathens and domestic terrorists, they’ve got another numbers problem, as in convincing more voters to elect them.

Of late they’ve been having issues with the number 4. As in the Fourth Amendment, illegal search and seizure. ICE and Border Patrol activities have been brutally killing Americans while running amok in the greater (and great) Twin Cities area.

Now, after Saturday’s violent murder of protester Alex Pretti, a firestorm has erupted over the number 2. Now, Republicans have been flogging ability to bear arms anywhere, at any time, for any purpose. Now MAGA Chief Trump says protesters aren’t allowed to legally carry a weapon on the streets. Wait, wasn’t that hailed on Jan. 6’s insurrection? If I, who’s never had or wanted a firearm, am confused, imagine the MAGA gun devotees who’ve done everything to be able to bring their guns to stores and to church. The NRA is flexing its weakening muscle, but a lot of MAGA voters will dump Trump in a heartbeat if he disappoints them on his newest take on the Number 2.

Aside from numeric advice, I’ve some political advice for MAGA faithfuls. NEVER elect a politician who says his/her national platform is “whatever I say it is.” All you get is guns one day, no guns the next; tariffs one day; triple the next and none the following day. And Tylenol causes autism, y’know. Don’t even talk to me about mifepristone.

Look at the Constitution, MAGA. What hill are you willing to die on for Trump? Think about it. Yours in peace and justice, Dee

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Well, here we have it. ICE and Border Patrol are killing innocent protestors, U.S. Citizens to boot, and defining them as “domestic terrorists.” Then they’re hiding the evidence so that the agencies cannot be supervised by Congress or held accountable by the courts.

Now Senator Mike Lee (R – UT) and Rep. Tim Burchett (R – TN) are using their expertise as representatives of renowned maritime states (Utah’s Great Salt Lake is so salty even fish can’t live in it) to authorize piracy on the high seas.

These bozos want to revive from Civil War days the practice of “letters of marque and reprisal,” where ship captains can seize ships even outside territorial waters and keep most of the proceeds. No word as to whether they’ll be masked or if just an eye patch will do.

Because there’s nothing important for Congress to do except go on extended vacations, they’d like private pirates to take on the war against drug cartels. Nothing can possibly go wrong in their envisioned scenario!

Homeland Security still hasn’t provided information on any of the U.S. military strikes on “drug boats” in international waters, so one can assume these pirates will be just fine as judges and executioners of anyone whose boat they board at sea. Will they fly the Jolly Roger to identify themselves?

On another matter, consider the great lengths gun rights advocates have gone to in order to open carry in Wal-Mart and church. Problem is, the latest murder, of a V.A nurse, was filming ICE/CBP actions while trying to assist a protestor who was sprayed in the face. He never went for his weapon, and after they took it from him, they shot him multiple times anyway. But he’s not allowed to carry a licensed firearm, probably protecting his own neighborhood, because using his cell phone to record illegal government actions is “domestic terrorism.” He brought it upon himself, people, using his cell phone camera to “massacre” masked agents.

Look for more on what I’m calling the “Insurrectionist Full Employment Act” for Three Percenters, Proud Boys and other semi-organized militias of pardoned, angry white men who love using guns on citizens and those in the legal system trying to become so. I can see the recruitment ads now, similar to ICE and CBP. Perhaps they’ll purloin some Jimmy Buffet tunes. “Boat Drinks,” anyone?

My thoughts are with the people of Minnesota who are living in he** right now. We must stop this madness NOW! Yours in freedom, Dee

Oysters

No, not the bivalves. Though I love them. I’m talking about “the world is my oyster” and the dangers of naming as general manager of the world’s largest grocery chain a man who has evidently never been to a grocery store.

My grandfather was a carpenter, a handyman, a fix-it guy. He replicated an 18th century workbench that he left my dad, along with all his tools. When I was growing up, Dad went to the hardware store in our small village to get washers or brads or something he needed for a project.

Dad didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps, instead became the first to go to college and go on to get his doctorate and become a college president and many other things. As an adult, one day I took him to the new Home Depot and he was flabbergasted by the range of stuff one could buy. All right there, under one roof! Wow! He had no idea.

Donald Trump has probably always had a full larder, filled by servants. He never had to look at the price of anything or decide a week’s meals on a budget. The fact that he only equates beef and bacon as “groceries” demonstrates only his mastery of a fast food menu.

Now, he’s been elected general manager of the largest grocery store in the world. He has no clue that the bacon and beef he’s so fond of come from farms. That only two countries in the world can successfully grow vanilla beans, an item practically every country in the world wants and needs. Or that it’s tough to grow great coffee beans and aside from Hawaii, the USA can’t produce enough to satisfy a nation with a coffee crush. Bigly. More than his affection for Diet Coke.

This might explain why he wants to give every Greenlander $100K to switch allegiance from Greenland to the USA. He only wants to give Americans a $1K cash award instead of health insurance that won’t even cover a month’s premium, wait, it’s not even allowed to be used to pay the premium, only out-of-pocket costs which will cost more than that if your kid breaks his finger playing hoops with his buddies in your driveway.

What’s on the menu today, Stephen Miller? Greenland? Panama? How about Canada, gotta get me some maple syrup for those pancakes. Nicaragua, nah that’s so last week. The oil companies can fight that out, “my” military did what I wanted so now everyone’ll play ball. I need a new shiny object for today. Whose lives can I ruin today, Stephen?

This week I’m using the last greens from a frozen garden to make a vegetable soup with farro, frozen tomatoes from the summer crop, and a couple cans of cheap Navy beans that have been in the pantry for a while. Trump has someone buy him a steak, cook it and he never sees the prep, cooking, clean-up or leftover management operation. It’s “one and done.” Out of sight, out of mind.

Trump tweets and others spend months planning to decapitate a despotic regime, invading another country’s inviolable territory to benefit his mega-donors. Then he has a party to watch the invasion on TV, brags about it at a press conference, and now his wiki bio is padded with “Acting President of Venezuela.”

Done, what’s on today’s agenda, Stephen? Let’s go to a small town in Iowa and roust people out of bed in the middle of the night and shoot them if they ask to put on clothes before they’re stuffed by masked men into an unmarked vechicle and deported to El Salvador without so much as a phone call.

Fellow Americans, we are all in the crosshairs now. Literally. ICE is not just after violent criminals who are in the USA illegally. They’re the tail-light police, the free speech police and they won’t take no in terms of a valid US passport for an answer. One wrong move and you’re shot in the face for shopping at Home Depot. And over your dead body they’ll swear that you were a socialist lefty pig who is part of a large anarchic conspiracy to make one Donald J Trump look bad.

I recall going to Mass as a child after Vatican II, when we stood, looked to our left and to our right, reached out with our hand and gave the sign of peace. Now is the time for Americans to look out our doors, smile at our neighbors and share a sign of peace. We’re in this together, all races, creeds and sexual orientations. This is our clarion call. We’re better than what the Trump regime thinks we are. We’re smarter, tougher and have the Constitution and laws of the land in our favor. We’re Americans. Call your Senators and Representatives and say as they did in “Network,” “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Yours in freedom, Dee

“I Lift My Lamp

beside the golden door.” The New York Harbor is, along with Ellis Island, what was first seen by many of our ancestors as they traveled to this promised land. The tired, poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free remember the welcoming figure who stood gloriously in the harbor, our Statue of Liberty. The Emma Lazarus poem is at its base, The New Colossus.

Ours is a nation of immigrants, and now the perfectionist a***es who want an Aryan “Christian” authoritarian nation want only “heritage Americans” to be here.

As a politician running for office in a democracy, it’s tough to sell Stephen Miller’s version of America and get elected. I’ve read that Mr. Miller wants only one hundred million of us 330 million Americans to actually belong and remain here. Thanks to Donald Trump, a supine Republican Congress and backwardly (and monetarily) motivated Supreme Court he may get his wish, if we don’t stop him.

Thanks to the Big Awful Bill, Trump’s now got his secret Gestapo, disapearring thousands without Constitutional protections. He’s deporting us, starving us (SNAP), cutting off our access to health care (Medicaid, Medicare) and vaccines that have prevented nasty diseases for decades. They’re polluting our air and water, and not providing aid (FEMA) in natural disasters that are compounded by climate change. Oops, the scary weather thingie that doesn’t exist.

Still, getting rid of 200 million of us without us knowing about it is a challenge. Am I a Heritage American? No-one knows. Like “woke,” it’s in the eye of the eye of the beholder. Let’s see, my mother had a Green Card for fifty years. Parents Brit/Irish and French-Canadian. Father born in US from German and Swiss parents. Sounds suspect, especially as one side was Catholic, the other Lutheran. I’m a mutt, for sure, but always an American.

Let’s beat this, together. The only true native Americans are, well, Native Americans. The rest of us came from elsewhere. My grandfather escaped Hitler’s brownshirts in the 1920’s. Let’s stop these Nazis. Dee

White House Walk of Shame

President #48 Walk of Fame to Oval Office, redesignation of TRUMP PLAQUE

Framed Photo: Trump condoms “I’m Huuuuuge!

Donald J Trump was elected twice. A convicted sexual predator, he sullied the nation by being the first White House occupant convicted of multiple (34) felonies, who encouraged his children to follow his example by shaking down world leaders and rich folks with business before the U.S. government for money to vastly enrich his family personally; thus contravening our Constitution, laws and presidential norms.

He proudly brought overt hatred of everyone not a rich, white, heterosexual, Republican, Christian male into the White House and therefore, American revisionist history. His abject loathing of all (but subservient) women, Blacks, minorities, the disabled, veterans and all Democrats was foisted on the American people as acceptable and desired behavior.

Notoriously thin-skinned as  late-in-life politician, he spent most of his second term exacting retribution against anyone who might have once crossed his path and irked him in any way. Military heroes, astronauts, comedians, no-one was safe from his IRS, DOJ, Pentagon, mortgage lending arms or FCC. Entire states were denied federal funds because they had a Democrat as a governor, and he took great pride in his efforts to divide our country against itself

He brought his real estate expertise to bear, changing Washington, D.C. regardless of zoning laws, historical considerations, funds needed or how his changes affected the American people who own all these structures. His particular style blends rococo and tyrant chic and while he would never admit to having been inspired by anyone, his muses include worldwide wrestling, Liberace and in his “Je ne sais quoi” attitude, Marie Antoinette.

Early influences were mob lawyer Roy Cohn and the most notorious pedophile the world has ever known, Jeffrey Epstein, he knew in his “gut” to only learn from the best. Known for rewarding loyalty over competence, both his terms courted disaster for the nation’s democracy and rule of law.

To experience Trump’s Washington, visit the newly-gilded Trump-Washington monument, the Trumponian Institution (formerly the Smithsonian) and the Arc de Trump. The Trump Ballroom, his signature work, was nearing completion when a giant sinkhole suddenly ate it, all 875,000 sf of it. The current administration has invited all Americans who have lost their Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP benefits to pan for gold in the sinkhole (all the gilded Oval Office decorations were tossed in for good measure). When every last shred of gold is gone, the former East Wing will be rebuilt under the guidance of historic preservationists and a Blue Ribbon panel of former First Ladies.

Peace At Any Price

I commend the choice of Ms. Machado for the Nobel Peace Prize. There is a vast difference in wanting peace and solely wanting a peace prize.

Ms. Machado is a champion of her people, trying to bring democracy to a dictatorship while hiding in fear for her life. No doubt the prize money will be used to help in her herculean efforts.

Donald Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize for any number of reasons, the ones I can think of offhand are that: Obama has one; he wants another picture on his wall and if the prize is not solid gold, to gild it so it’s a matching set with all his other Oval Office tchotchkes; and he wants to be able to say that the Nobel Committee supports with its “sponsorship” his tacky ginormous ballroom that 99.9% of Americans will never see, and that has no place on the White House grounds.

Lasting peace is something world leaders (many not elected) work tirelessly to attain, then to keep. Trump sees it as a five minute effort with perhaps a handshake and details to be ironed out later, that includes a big personal pot of gold for him and his equally greedy family.

“Winning” a Nobel Peace Prize while bombing countries, also boats in international waters, unconstitutionally tossing out the U.S. Constitution when it’s nettlesome (habeas corpus, free speech) and instilling fear in Americans everywhere apparently doesn’t fly with the Nobel powers that be. Bullying and outright lobbying for the honor is tacky and beneath the office of the presidency. So does alienating our neighbors and other allies, and leaving sick and hungry people in poor countries to die of disease and starvation after years of consistent support. Our president demeans our great nation and all Americans when he acts this way.

He’s not in it for the peace, he’s only in it for a prize. What a shame. Namaste, Dee

Another School Shooting

with a couple of twists. First, the target, a speaker instead of random students. Second, the Keystone Kops response.

Yes, a non-elected political personage was shot and killed. It should not have happened in such an “enlightened” society as ours, except that our gun laws are incredibly lax and allow those with criminal or crazy impulses to easily acquire firearms.

Second, the response was a lesson in how NOT to conduct an investigation. Instead we got an audition for a painfully inept cop show with the FBI director submitting a demo tape for the role of local police chief. And, not to be left out, POTUS himself submitting a demo for police department spokesperson. One writer said that Kash Patel swooped in to impress his “audience of one.” Said author did not say that this is exactly what Dear Leader wants! As a matter of fact, POTUS wanted to get to the mic first.

Then, back in his seat as POTUS Donald Trump maligned the entire half of the country’s active voters who didn’t vote for him, threatened all our first amendment rights (and the right to work and live in our communities) in favor of the second amendment to hunt us down, fire us and kick us off social media for life.

Everyone knows when there’s a disaster, the locals come first and investigate the crime or get on top of the severe weather situation and take care of the survivors of both human-caused and other situations. Similarly, it is also common knowledge that doctors are cautioned, even prohibited, from treating family and friends in order to keep strong emotions at bay.

Now when on a deserted isle and a loved one is bitten by a poisonous snake, the doctor has to act. And when the family returns home safe and sound, no medical board is going to take the doc’s license. Here, in an assassination situation that to this point is a local and state issue, not a federal one, it’s time for POTUS and FBI to step back and let the professionals do what they do best.

What I want from my president in, say, a global pandemic, is to assure the people that he is going to find the problem, get his best people on it and fix it. In the meantime he wants us to stay safe by doing A, B and C. Not to say, if you get the plague and your neighbor is a Democrat, go visit him right away and get his whole family sick. Then I’ll give you the antidote but not them. That way we’ll win the next election and anoint my family as royalty and no longer have elections. And that pesky Constitution can go the way of the dodo.

But what does POTUS do? Ask for millions to beef up his security and, presumably, that of the few federal judges he still likes. Not call for putting down arms or the need for peaceful dialogue, instead let’s kill the bastids and make sure all Democratic donors are shut down so the money is turned off for my opponents and everything will always and forever be about me me me me me.

And Congress? They now want millions for personal security as well, because people don’t like that the Republican trifecta just stole their bank accounts and made sure their children could never afford college or a home of their own. “We can’t hold town halls because people yell at us! They must be paid by George Soros to be here!” We need 24/7 security teams.”

What has changed since last Wednesday? A man was killed, and his killer will go on trial and he’ll probably be jailed for the rest of his long life, setting an appropriate example for others who might be contemplating their own 15 minutes of fame. Law enforcement did their job. The criminal justice system will do the rest. It’s time to turn down the heat, people. Fewer guns, not more. Talk, not violence. To ALL our elected representatives: take stock; be rational; be calm; call for unity and understanding; and, breathe…..

We are the people of the United States of America. We can, and must, do better. All of us. My thoughts go out to yet another grieving family. Dee

Letter to Congress Rep. on House Budget Bill

By now I’m certain you’ve read the Big Beautiful Bill you voted to pass last week. Perhaps you missed a few things that I, as a new resident of your district, have looked into. First of all, this bill does too much, but it certainly succeeds in taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

I’ve read that your district has a higher poverty rate than Texas as a whole. And that 16.4% of your constituents are on Medicaid now, and 16.2% have no health insurance at all. This bill, H.R.1, also trips the PAYGO wire, automatically triggering $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, which I’ve been on for the past year since I turned 65. That is a serious concern to me and a lot of people I’ve met here in X County.

Here, the poverty rate in 2023 was 20,9%, yes, abysmal. At an orientation to help kindergarten and first grade students read at X Elementary next school year, I also learned that 97% of the children there are eligible for free lunches. Having suffered two bouts of bacterial pneumonia this past March and April, I found out that the patient:clinician rate in the County is 5,998:1.

That said, going with the flow and voting to lower the tax rates of the rich while placing the burden on your constituents may not be the best recipe for your congressional career. I know the “party line” is that no-one will be kicked off Medicaid (but there’s still a “savings” of $900 billion) and that Medicare will not be touched (but it will, it’s not in the bill but PAYGO kicks in and decimates Medicare). Our rural healthcare will leave here, nursing homes will close due to lack of Medicaid funding, and additional work requirements for both Medicaid and SNAP will render your people hungry as well.

The bill also cuts the legs off the federal judiciary, rendering them unable to secure judgements. The Republican Party is also moving along a bill to cede Congressional power to the Executive to single-handedly “reorganize” the entire federal government, close departments and ignore your carefully worded laws willy-nilly.  Watch, at the last minute, it’ll be folded into this omnibus bill and we’ll no longer have separation of powers, and you won’t have a job either. 

At 22, I became a legislative analyst for the NY State Assembly Speaker, writing laws that affected over thirty million people. Having grown wiser with age, I use both my age and experience to help people (and animals) in need. I don’t know how long I’ll be here but you’ll find me helping young students read in the Fall, and doing whatever else I can to help the folks here mitigate the negative effects about to be imposed on them by the officials they elected to represent them.

Please reconsider your vote on the bill as written. Thank you.

Note to Dear Readers: Write now! I’m coming up with a pilot program for rural areas but need local buy-in and being a Northerner, and female, down here isn’t exactly an asset. It’s worth a try if it means doing my part to save our country. Let’s do the work, folks. If our government reps were able to talk to each other and compromise we wouldn’t have to suffer idiocy and subject our kids and grandkids to huge budget deficits. Dee

Just Plane Grift

I think we’re overloading our courts these days with much unconstitutional stream of consciousness from the White House disguised as executive “laws.” Normally there is an office of ethics attached to the Oval Office and an inspector general in most departments, if not all. They try to keep things on an even keel, but no, in this administration they’ve all been conveniently fired.

Accepting a $400 million plane from a foreign country for the president’s exclusive use, then GIVING it to him as a “golden parachute” to use for the rest of his life, with probably another couple hundred million upgrades tacked on for DOD/Secret Service must-haves, is just ludicrous. Illegal as hell, and criminally stupid.

Is this why Trump campaigned on “no tax on tips?” Four hundred million is a heck of a tip, Mr. President.

There are other reasons not to accept this bribe from Qatar, mainly involving national security. I’m sure Mr. Trump has never been a devotee of ancient myth or even Aesop’s fables, lest he take the morals of the stories to heart. You see, there was something called a Trojan horse. It was given as a beautiful gift, only to have the enemy’s army spill out from it’s insides and seize the day surreptitiously.

America decides how its president will get from place to place and with what security precautions, because safe leaders make for a safer country. I don’t know what security measures are on Air Force One, because I’m not supposed to know. ‘Nuff said. We don’t allow foreign nationals, royal families, to provide us with secure transportation for our president. That’s our job.

Acceptance of this gift would pose a severe ethical problem. I disagree with SCOTUS in its decision to allow and encourage dark money in elections as I believe all donors should be open and above board in public elections for publicly held office. That’s the reason we have FOIA and Open Meetings laws. What’s necessary now is for Congress to beef up transparency of money in politics, adding to the law provisions for self-funded presidential transition operations, inaugural committees and presidential libraries.

Why is the cabinet stuffed with billionaires who know nothing about the subject matter of their agencies? Grift, access to power and rolling back regulations on their individual industries. Look what Elon Musk’s several months slashing and burning government agencies has gotten him in terms of preferential treatment, his businesses are taking government contracts and easing regulations. His initial Trumpian investment of $200 million for the 2024 general election will be repaid in spades.

Forget about draining the swamp. The White House and this particular administration is the swampiest ever, with “mistakes” of having ethical people on board for Trump I conspicuously absent for the constant grift present in Trump II.

As to Qatar, thanks for the offer, but should be just a plane “no” from the White House. Oh, and Congressional leadership, you’d better wake up and start doing your job soon, or you won’t have one to come back to. Just a thought. Register to vote, and sign up everyone you know. Sanity and ethics must prevail. Dee

My Social Security

I’d just turned eleven when my youngest sister was born. Has nothing to do with anything but I used it to do more than just (unpaid) weekly chores from the Job Jar. I convinced my parents to hire me, as we were living ten miles outside of town, as their babysitter when they had to go to campus events. Fifty cents an hour to take care of my three year-old bro and the baby. Not bad as I was only getting fifty cents allowance per week!

At sixteen I got my working papers so I could get a real job during summers. Weeknights and weekends I was the neighborhood’s pre-eminent babysitter (having so many years valuable experience) and the price was now $1/hr. Now I was ready for big stuff, like teaching gymnastics and doing work for the college admissions office part-time. There was one part of my check receipt I didn’t understand. It was explained to me that by paying into this fund, when I was old I could get something called Social Security.

Fast forward to two years ago and there were serious decisions to be made, as serious as where to go to college and whom to marry. Infinite choices involving Medicare, and luckily we had a referral to a great broker who saw us through the decision-making process. Then when to take Social Security and I decided on my 65th birthday, and it actually started a couple of months later.

Interestingly, when I was indeed eligible, I got to sign into a portal called My Social Security. How quaint. Finally being able to see what I’d been paying for all these years. Then Donald Trump was elected. He still said he wouldn’t touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, but I didn’t believe anything he said his first term (or as early as the 1980’s when I was in NYC’s real estate industry).

Now Elon Musk is taking his chainsaw to the federal government and calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme. The acting director of the Social Security Administration says if Musk’s Minions can’t get access to my work, salary and healthcare history and other personal data he’ll lock SSA employees out of the computer systems and checks will stop going out. And billionaire Commerce secretary Lutnick says if anyone who doesn’t get a check in the mail calls to ask whey, they’re a fraudster.

But I’ve only been on it for a little over a year! After I’m done with automatic deductions for Medicare parts A, B and D there are only a few hundred dollars that usually goes for dog food and care (even the new rescue) and some bills. Yes, I would miss the payments if they were not received, and no, I am not a criminal, just a long-term payer into MY Social Security.

Congress, stop sitting on your thumbs and do something! Trump won with 75 million votes. At least 72.5 million Americans are on Social Security. Get it? We vote.

Telling us we can’t arrange for Social Security benefits without coming into an office is fine. Just don’t shut down the offices and turn off the phones. Is that really too much to ask? You should be more concerned about fraudsters using SSA info to scam seniors out of their checks than internal fraud. And how about the Musk Minions let loose around our sensitive information at the SSA? They’re not vetted or trained. And they care not a whit about our privacy.

Today, it was reported that our VP, the heads of military and intelligence agencies conducted a clandestine attack and planned it not over secure government means, but on a private system that included a reporter! Battle plans and all from DOD’s Pete Hegseth. There’s an arrogance and ignorance here that is heart-stopping. National security, privacy and public records laws broken willy nilly. This entire charade must stop. Dee