lettersfrom412

[lettersfrom412]

Trump speaks the truth

The federal government is apparently no longer required to justify anything. The Administration sends officials to the courts and Congress with insufficient knowledge to answer basic questions. Explanations are unnecessary because:

Any federal judge, employee, contractor or any law firm, media outlet, university, elected leader, podcaster, or social media influencer who disagrees with any aspect of the Trump agenda hates America. 'Nuff said.

If you question the consequences of any Presidential act, you must suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Case closed.

If you report the news with insufficient praise for the President – or worse, ask about contradictions – you are an enemy of the American people. Period.

The Trump Administration is busy deleting facts and figures the federal government has traditionally used to inform decisions. They've replaced it with a simple formula – Whatever the President says is true and correct. That's all you need to know.

This complete lack of accountability isn't healthy. When will you begin to push back?

[lettersfrom412]

“They came from the Congo, but nobody knows what that is,” the President says. Tell him.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, with 111 million people, covers the area once owned by the King of Belgium. It is the 11th largest nation in the world, and is 95 percent Christian. The Republic of Congo, with 6 million people, is a former French colony.

After DRC's independence in 1960, the United States overthrew the elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, and for 40 years backed the dictatorship of Joseph Mobutu. No one expects a geography expert, but one should something about America's history.

Recently DRC President Felix Tshisekedi offered the White House a minerals deal – similar to Ukraine's – to help them fight an invasion by Rwanda. They got no response.

On a totally unrelated note, Cuba released hundreds of convicts and mental patients from the port of Mariel in 1980. That isn't happening today. Is this our standard for veracity? It's true because the President says it is?

We need better. Urge the President to deal with real issues instead of campfire horror stories.

[lettersfrom412]

Asleep at the switch

The Trump Administration has a weird concept of democracy. They say because the President was elected by a majority, all the people who voted against him are wrong, bad and stupid. That's why they've established a federal apparatus to make sure universities, schools, libraries, etc. instill values like American exceptionalism.

The President is taking a jackhammer to America's foundations – civil rights, human rights, free speech and privacy – while running roughshod over congressional prerogatives.

This Administration's model is the patron system. Institutions, businesses and foreign leaders fawn and scrape to the one man who determines favors and punishments. The entire federal apparatus must be bend to his whims and fancies.

This is not the system I learned in six-grade civics class. Did Mrs. Marbury have it wrong?

[lettersfrom412]

Facts is facts

What is a fact?

The President weighs 224 pounds. Antisemitism and liberal bias require government intervention in elite universities. All education decisions will be returned to the states except for some new requirements. The Supreme Court said the Alien Enemies Act is in full effect. The President would bring somebody back if the Supreme Court said so. The President can't influence El Salvador. The tumult in the markets is a brilliant strategy. Tariffs will mean income taxes will be unnecessary. It will be easy for DOGE to cut $1 trillion in federal spending. The President wins every golf tournament he enters. Cutting taxes will make revenues go up. Ignoring $4 trillion in deficits from tax cuts will not increase the debt. Denmark is a bad ally, Ukraine made Russia invade them, and Canada is a potential threat.

What will reality be like tomorrow?

****

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

[lettersfrom412]

Contracting out abuse

The Trump Administration seems gleeful about the future of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The case is perfect for demonstrating their disdain for due process and common decency.

We are repeatedly told that the people sent to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center are the “worst of the worst.” And yet, the White House says even if they haven't committed rape and murder, it's enough that they broke the law entering the country. Enough to justify indefinite confinement in a gulag?

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the new arrangement unprecedented and extraordinary. Agreed.

It's unprecedented to confine prisoners in another country for profit. It's extraordinary that America would contract out abuse. It's also appalling in its cavalier disregard for the law and human rights.

[lettersfrom412]

Tariff madness

Where are we on tariffs? They're up, they're down, they're permanent, they're frozen, they're a revenue raiser, they're a negotiating tool.

The White House assures us this is a plan. Phase one was to have the U.S. Trade Representative testify over two days that the tariffs were non-negotiable. Then the President set a 90-day period for nations and corporations to come beg concessions from him.

Meanwhile small businesses are paralyzed, and the whole world is increasingly antagonistic toward the U.S.

This Administration has been dangerously careless – from DOGE's ham-handed antics to careless handling of war plans – while the President draws our attention to shower heads and unflattering portraits. Why should we trust them?

Congress has clear Constitutional authority here. How long will it shirk its responsibility?

[lettersfrom412]

Command and control

In a free market capitalistic system, the “invisible hand” drives decisions. The individual choices of people animate supply and demand, and the sum of those free decisions flow organically into the common good.

Command and control systems are different. The state determines what the national needs are and directs production in those areas. Government spending on military capability is the key driver of demand.

President Trump asserts the right to pick winners and losers. He sets tariff rates day by day. He sells cars on the White House lawn. He expands subsidies to coal and oil extraction and suppresses wind and solar energy. He dictates the flow of shower heads and speculates in cryptocurrencies. Each day more media outlets, law firms, private universities and public schools bend to his will.

This isn't a slippery slope. It's a raging crisis.

[lettersfrom412]

So much whining

The President of the United States continues to assail the 2020 election results. Yesterday, he punished people for the crime of presenting facts to prove him wrong. Still today, he claims to have evidence the election was “fixed.”

The 2020 Presidential election results were accepted by all 50 states after thorough review according to their stringent procedures. Over 60 court decisions found no factual basis for the Trump campaign's claims.

The head of his post-election legal team, Rudy Giuliani, said it best, “We've got lots of theories. We just don't have the evidence.”

It's unseemly for the leader of the free world to continue to whine about election that is long over. Make it stop.

[lettersfrom412]

Enemies foreign & domestic

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced my dread about the Trump Administration's expansive read of the Aliens Enemies Act.

“The implications of the government’s position are that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress,” she wrote.

The Administration has tried to play cute with its interpretation of “invasion” and “war.” That's all the more reason for alarm.

President Trump has long pledged to settle the score with his political opponents – or as he calls them enemies of the people – elected leaders, federal employees, courts, media outlets, universities, law firms and more. His retribution tour has already begun.

Using the Alien Enemies Act would work well for the next phase of this campaign – a promise he is determined to fulfill.

[lettersfrom412]

Tariffs

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer's defenses of the Administration's blanket tariff policies lacked any substance.

He brushed aside concerns about negative effects on small businesses and working families – repeating stating that the only alternative is the status quo, our current trade deficit was the Biden Administration's fault, and everything will work out for everybody in the long run.

He was unable to accurately state when, where and how upcoming tariffs will take effect – reflecting the lack of strategy propelling these actions.

Be not afraid. If a company has problems replacing imported materials for their manufacturing, they can look forward to millions of industrial jobs being re-shored in the next five to ten years.

It's insulting, and we deserve better than the Administration's empty reassurances and blue sky projections.

[lettersfrom412]

Replacement theory

Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk say an unnamed group is working to replace “legacy” American voters with people born elsewhere. The theory is that new immigrants will vote overwhelmingly for Democrats – often before they become citizens.

Recently, Elon Musk claimed to provide evidence that Social Security and other federal programs were designed to lure people from other countries who would be reliable Democratic votes. His unfounded conclusions are irresponsible for someone in his position. If such actions were underway since the idea was first posited in the Reagan era, it would have been accomplished by now.

Many top White House advisors such as Musk, Vice President JD Vance and Laura Loomer believe this conspiracy. Do you?

[lettersfrom412]

Fascism defined

Using the word “Nazi” is often considered the end of any rational discussion. But fascism has a specific definition, and it is identifiable by certain characteristics.

In a fascist structure, businesses and government work in concert to expand military capacity. Industrial leaders gain valuable contracts for supporting the national leader's military ambitions and cultural directives. A pliant legislature rubber stamps it all.

Such governments aspire to national economic self-sufficiency – even if it requires expanding the nation's borders. They blur the distinction between military and domestic law enforcement. They use claims of national security to avoid accountability.

Schools, universities, law firms, media outlets, cultural institutions and others are formally required to instill patriotism and promote national exceptionalism – as defined by the national leader.

Call this anything you want, but the dictionary has a name for it.

[lettersfrom412]

The Trump Administration's national prohibition on diversity, inclusion and equity – in any manifestation – in America's 13,000 public school districts is the kind of top-down federal control of curriculum Republicans claim to deplore.

At the same time, the Administration insists schools must promote American exceptionalism and restore focus on patriotism.

A national curriculum – once conservative's greatest fear – is now the law by proclamation. Henceforth efforts to expand educational opportunities will be replaced by ideological purity.

The standard it sets is so ambiguous no teacher, administrator or parent could ever tell if an action, policy or random statement was afoul of the law.

How long will Congress sit idly by while the President dismantles programs it has authorized and funded? Do you see no problem with where this is headed?

[lettersfrom412]

The Trump monarchy

The Trump Administration's view of its powers covers everything – removing unflattering portraits, renaming international bodies of water, emptying California reservoirs, selling the White House Easter egg roll, advertising cars on the White House lawn, prosecuting undeclared wars with Iran and Venezuela, carrying out extraordinary renditions, dictating the Kennedy Center season from the Oval Office.

In short, the President can do anything he wants, and anyone who disagrees is an enemy of the people. That's not how a Democratic Republic is supposed to work.

An effective government needs continuity to carry out national objectives, including those established by statute. If all our commitments, policies, protocols, traditions, alliances, etc. were at the whim of the President, how could we ever accomplish anything?

“A Republic if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin said. Ending the Trump monarchy is essential to keeping it, Senator. Please take a stand.

[lettersfrom412]

U.S. aggression

President Trump styles himself as the great peacemaker – in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere.

So what's with the saber-rattling on Greenland and Canada? It's not funny, and it's not in our national interests to pick fights with allies.

Please don't describe the benefits of U.S. control over the natural resources of Canada or Greenland. If we owned all of North and South America, we would be an even more indomitable nation. If we owned the Philippines and South Korea, we'd be in a better position to challenge China. It's silly, and it's not going to happen.

Canada and Greenland will never voluntarily join the United States – and the continuing threat to invade them is alarming. Please get the President to back off these childish fantasies once and for all.

[lettersfrom412]

No accountability

This morning I read Victor Davis Hanson's explanation of why I shouldn't worry about the Signal chat leak. Other people have done worse things, he said, so it's not that bad. According to Hanson, Democrats have no right to care about national security because they failed to blame Hillary Clinton for Americans killed in Benghazi and President Biden for deaths in Afghanistan.

For myself, I don't look around to see if other people have done worse things to justify my actions. The Administration has excuses but still no apology or commitment to improve.

It's no surprise that the Trump Administration is cavalier about vital secrets. President Trump's mishandling of documents at Mar-a-Lago was irresponsible. Now he's brought that same casual attitude to the White House.

Where is the accountability?

[lettersfrom412]

Union history

The President declared that federal employee unions are a threat to national security. Ridiculous.

Unions – public and private – have played a key role in protecting health and safety, fighting against arbitrary actions and working to improve the organizations they're involved in. The record of American labor is one of real progress for working families. Strong union representation is much needed today.

Over the past half century, corporate-funded anti-union activities have shaped state and federal law – overwhelmingly in favor of employers. Wage equity, health care coverage and retirement security have plummeted as a result.

These incessant anti-labor actions are attacks on free speech, free association and the right of individuals to pursue economic success – in short, an unAmerican assault on our nation's core values.