----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August 2018)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO." (S. Jonas, July 2025)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Paine, December 23, 1776
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These items are presented for your consideration, not necessarily either in order of importance, or chronology. Most of them are brief commentaries on postings by the great political analyst, Steve Schmidt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Trump Administration is arresting people for over-staying visas (of several types): Click Here How about arresting inadequately trained people for impersonating police officers and placing them in prisons under procedures not provided for in the law, beginning with no arrest warrants sworn out before a judge.
Click Here Why did Senators Cassidy and Cornyn (both dumped by Trump), and Tillis (retiring) support the Blanche nomination when one knows that they know that he (Blanche) is a) completely unqualified and b) presents with an enormous set of conflicts of interest? MSNow's Larry O'Donnell was, in the 1990s, the Staff Director of the Senate Finance Committee. Thus, he knows the Senate and how it operates very well. He stated that they did so because they want to stay in the "Senate Club," among other things becoming lobbyists (and likely making quite a bit more money than they made as a Senator). And so, they hardly want to be shunned by their Repub. Colleagues.
On the Ballroom: Click Here. Would Trump obey a negative ruling? (It was "would" when I originally wrote this piece.) The verb is, as of this writing, "will." But who knows? After all, here's just one example of his not obeying a Supreme Court ruling that Art. 1 of the 14th Amendment means what it says:
"AMENDMENT XIV (Adopted July 21, 1868): Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
(Of interest, although few have raised it, is Art. 3 of the same amendment: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.")
On June 12, 2026, Steve Schmidt said that in his view the two most dangerous men in the World are Donald Trump and Elon Musk. For once I must disagree with Steve. The two most dangerous men in the world right now, in my view, are right here in the US. One is Russell Vought, Director of P2025 and of the Federal Office of Management and Budget. His ultimate goal, on which he is working very hard and is achieving some success, is to replace US Constitutional Government with its built-in "separation of powers" with a unitary government, along the lines of Monarchy and Fascism, which would make the U.S. one of the world's leading fascist powers. The other is Stephen Miller, Minister of Domestic Purification and Expulsion of "Foreigners." They are directing the fascist takeover which will occur after the TrumpRepubloFascists finish cementing their position in the Federal government, by Click Here) successfully fixing the 2026 elections.
On June 13, 2026, Steve noted that Trump continually tries to escape the truth. But, in order to escape the truth, first one has to know what it is. Since Trump certainly has no idea what "truth" is, he cannot possibly escape it.
June 18, 2026. On "Watching Trump." You can bet your bottom dollar that no one is watching Trump's apparent physical/mental decline more closely than the TrumpRepubloFascist leadership at P2025/OMB (click here). They would like to be able to get him retired when their indicators indicate that the time is right. One BIG Problem for them is that they have no nearly adequate replacement.
June 20, 2026. Just imagine, after the Trumpist-Fall, how many "Trump-Times" doctoral dissertation proposals on Trump-Corruption alone there will be, over how many decades? A rich field to dig into as the Trumpers, like they are, unleashed by Trump, digging for oil and gas.
June 26, 2026. What Megyn Kelly (one cannot have a more Irish name than that) has said about Haitian immigrants is right out of the playbook of what the "Natives" (and nativists) said about the Irish during the hey-day of the "Know-nothings" in the 1850s: click here. And xenophobia (spreading well beyond the Irish) has been in the sinews of the Republican Party ever since representatives of the Know-Nothings were present, and involved, at its founding 1856.
June 26, 2026. Steve raises the question of whether there "has there been a rupture" in the fabric of Constitutional Democacy under the TrumpRepublicans. In my view, our nation is not there yet. But as I have said (and illustrated) many times, that is direction in which P2025 and the TrumpRepubloFascists are driving us. Their number one target is the Separation of Powers that is textually built into the Constitution, the creation of which was of course the number two result (after Independence) of the Declaration of Independence and the subsequent War for it. Unfortunately, the Enemies of US Constitutional Democracy are well on their way to achieving their objective. Fortunately, it is not too late. And people like Steve Schmidt are essential for leadership in achieving that goal.
June 30, 2026. "Donald Trump posted an AI-generated golden eagle on the White House balcony with the 11 stars of the Confederacy [emphasis added]." Indeed, Trump and the TrumpRepubloFascists (click here) are not shy about announcing their racism and announcing that it stands right at the center of their ideology. As I have said since Aug. 2018 in the headings for every one of my columns that are regularly posted on OpEdNews.com: "Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." "
On again and off, Trump has talked about annexing all or part of Canada. (If that were to happen, I wonder if he would learn to speak French, fluently. After all, the current Canadian Prime Minster, Mark Carney, is fluent in both languages.) More importantly, given the rightward direction in which the Republican Party is firmly moving, it is of interest to note that in 1989, in a fund-raising letter (referenced in chap. 16 of my book The 15% Solution, available on Amazon) Pat Buchanan (remember him[?]) actually proposed that the United States annex the four Western Provinces of Canada: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. That took the 19th century "54-40 or fight" conflict (wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_boundary_dispute) to a whole different level.
On Trumpist "Love for the Confederacy," at its beginning, the book by Edward Bonekemper, III, The Myth of the Lost Cause, posits that that 1890s myth "was a constructed historical narrative on the causes of the Civil War. It argued that despite the Confederacy losing the Civil War, their cause was a heroic and just one, based on defending one's homeland, state's rights, and the constitutional right to secession." By, for example, fiddling with numerous displays in a variety of the Smithsonian Institution's museums, Trump is simply determined to bring that myth back, again. After all, doing so fits right in with the tri-themed campaign that Trump ran, on "Racism, Sexism, and Xenophobia." Doesn't it.
Finally, the use by the TrumpRepubloFascists of terms like "Commie" and "Communist" (going back to Trump-mentor Roy Cohen) are signs of weakness. It means that they have nothing else, certainly cannot argue on the issues, and want to use Trump's "Look over there" Magic Trick[SJ1] to a fair-thee-well.
(Article changed on Aug 09, 2026 at 9:59 AM EDT)
(Article changed on Aug 09, 2026 at 11:44 AM EDT)
(Article changed on Aug 09, 2026 at 4:05 PM EDT)
Post Article Comment and Rate This Article
