Month: December 2024

The incoming Trump administration is already inserting chaos and uncertainty into our lives. Musk and Trump threatened to oust Republican lawmakers if they passed a bi-partisan government budget resolution to keep the government open through March 2025. Thankfully, this resolution passed anyway. It will provide much anticipated relief for victims of the flood disasters and to farmers. Trump bullied ABC News into settling a defamation lawsuit that correctly characterized Trump as a rapist according to a court of law. ABC not only issued a bogus apology but coughed up a $15 million donation to some Trump foundation and museum. Fani Lewis was removed from the criminal case against Trump on appeal for dating a fellow prosecutor on the case. Huh? And the threats and bullying and bribes and bogus lawsuits just keep adding up. And of course, we still have ridiculous and dangerous cabinet confirmations and tariffs and mass deportations in our future this January.

Honestly, I can’t figure out what game they are playing and who besides the ultra-wealthy will ultimately gain anything beyond more wealth and power than they already have. If money makes them so happy, why do they behave so miserably? They joined forces with the religious right who seek Taliban-like control over the lives of everyday Americans. However, by all accounts these folks fail to live up to the moral standards they hope to impose on the rest of us. The men taking charge in January are petty and infantile with over-sized egos and a total lack of empathy. They are clearly misogynist. None of their proposed policies will enrich the lives of average Americans. In fact, they will make life more expensive, uncertain and difficult for most people. Many will be hurt. The environment will take second place to profits. Some may not survive the consequences of the next few years. What good is money if the planet can no longer sustain life?

It’s alarming to watch lawmakers and journalists willingly bow down to the will of billionaire bullies. We supposedly have three co-equal branches of government, but the Supreme Court and the Republican Congress have bowed the knee to the incoming executive branch in advance. It’s truly a mystery what they hope to accomplish once they have deported necessary workers, imposed tariffs on our closest trading partners, installed unqualified loyalists in key government positions, eliminated the department of education, and dismantled the public safety net, leaving us vulnerable to disease and abject poverty.

I’m not sure where any of this will lead us. I know folks are being silenced and freedoms are being rolled back. Americans were warned that Trump threatened our democracy and they scoffed at the idea and voted for him anyway. In Trump, too many found the freedom to express their discomfort with the progress of women, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, and people of color. They believe they were choosing a return to white male superiority and protections for white women. The reality of what they will receive for their vote beyond mass deportations and higher prices and a chaotic government will soon be revealed.

I do know that the end game, whatever it is, is not going to be good for the country nor ultimately for the bullies themselves. History has shown us that oppressed people eventually gather the courage to revolt against their oppressors. I believe Trump voters are only at the beginning stage of recognizing who those oppressors are.

I’m greatly disappointed in the results of the election. Americans knowingly voted for a convicted felon who bullies , lies, cheats, defrauds, and steals. He bankrupted six businesses and cheated consumers, banks, and contractors. He jokes about sexually assaulting women. He insults and threatens those who disagree with him and seeks revenge against those who sought to hold him accountable for his crimes. This is the character of the person about to hold the highest office in our country for a second time and mark my words, nothing good will come from it. The world is dismayed that we elected such a despicable person.

The strange thing is that a number of otherwise decent human beings held their noses and voted for him anyway because the current system isn’t working for them. I’m speaking specifically about older white people and young white males. They understood that unless you were born into wealth or scored “the exceptional person lottery”, it was unlikely that they would reach the apex of success in this country. They were taught to greatly admire the rich and famous. America calls itself the land of opportunity, but really only those born into prominence or the exceptionally talented, intelligent, creative, energetic, and ambitious can become rich, famous, and powerful. The problem is that they were also taught this only applied to white people, specifically white men. They are bothered by the success of “others” and Trump smartly espoused the promise of lower food and gas prices along with safety from criminal migrants and WOKE ideas as a cover story to hide their true motives.

Americans not only idolize the rich, the famous, and the powerful; they aspire to be them! However, most will not become them. Most refuse to acknowledge the fine print of the promise of America. It clearly explains that white people by virtue of their whiteness get a head start. That males by virtue of their maleness get an additional head start. It explains that the wealthy and well-connected live by rules of their own making that will maintain their status and increase their wealth. It explains that women and persons of color will face explicit and unseen obstacles. It explains that only the smartest, the most creative, talented, energetic, and ambitious will be allowed to rise to the top. And only they should be admired.

What we are witnessing today is a rebellion against the system that finally allowed exceptional people of color and women to scale the American ladder based on exceptional merit. The prominence of these folks in the public eye is a concern to some white folks who never thought they would have to compete with so many “others”. The excellence of these newly successful individuals is undeniable, and yet they are not always admired, but often challenged and even threatened at every turn. Unprepared, grossly uneducated, and lacking resilience, average white people see themselves losing ground. These average white people feel left behind despite the head start they were given. They mistakenly believed that their head start was enough to guarantee their middle or upper class status. In their minds they were at least “better than them!” And they were proven wrong! They would never vote for a woman of color no matter her qualifications and no matter the awful alternative.

Of course they are insecure! Of course they need reassurance! But what they really need is for someone to finally tell them the truth that their whiteness does not make the better! In an effort to soothe their fragile white egos and explain their lost ground, Trump and Republicans attributed the success of these exceptional risers to DEI initiatives. It’s sad how easily insecure people choose to believe the lies that make them feel better about themselves. They believed Republicans will lift them up again. And then they voted accordingly. So here we are.

As Trump fills his cabinet with like-minded billionaires who play by different rules to increase their wealth and power at their expense, it will be interesting to see what they offer the insecure and uneducated white folks who put them in power. Who will fill the labor vacancies left by mass deportations? Who will pay for the tariffs? Who will suffer from environmental deregulations, the loss of health insurance, increased maternal deaths, and police brutality? Their hope is that people of color will suffer more than them. And in some cases, they will be right.

However, they fail to realize that they lack the resilience of people of color. They fail to realize that black women walked through the educational doors of opportunity in great numbers. Most of these white forks who voted for Trump lack the exceptional attributes to make them successful in a global economy. Their whiteness will no longer save them because employers will continue to fill positions with educated, creative, and highly skilled folks in order to innovate and to compete with the world. And the folks they hire are not likely to be undereducated insecure white males.

What follows is a draft of the letter I intend to send to Speaker of the House, Mike John, in response to the re-election of Donald Trump and the continued slim majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives and now a slight senate majority. The American voters have spoken, but not by the landslide they need to claim a mandate.

Dear Speaker Mike Johnson,

As a citizen of this beloved country, I feel it is my patriotic duty to write you this letter, imploring you to take your oath to protect and defend our Constitution seriously as well as your pledge of allegiance to the flag of our great country. Since becoming a member of Congress and now Speaker, your allegiance seems to be misplaced.  You seem to have forgotten that our Founders established three co-equal branches of government and explicitly did not want power to reside with one fallible and corruptible human being for good reason.  We do not have a king!!!!  Your allegiance and deference to Donald Trump presents a real danger to this country, to common decency, and to the rule of law.  As Russia celebrates his re-election and his cabinet picks as a road to “dismantle our nation brick by brick”, I cannot help but wonder if there is a plot at work within your Party to not only undermine our Constitution but to destroy the very fabric of our democracy and the institutions, including the press that the citizens rely on to make good decisions.

None of the plans to deport millions of immigrant laborers and to impose tariffs on our closest trading partners make economic sense. The attack on women’s reproductive rights and on the very few transgender individuals among us do not make Constitutional sense. We are a nation that professes liberty and justice for all, but where is the liberty and justice in the policies your Party is putting forth? I don’t believe abortion is murder according to my faith. I am a female without internal conflict, so I don’t understand the transgender experience, but who am I to judge the life and needs of others? I leave these things to God who says He is the judge. In fact, Jesus warned us not to judge others, not to serve money, not to be hypocrites, and not to bear false witness against others. His is the way of love, compassion, and grace. So, what are you doing? And who are you serving? And for what purpose?

I am a Christian.  I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.  I also believe in the separation of church and state as provided in the Establishment Clause of our Constitution. The push to teach the Bible in public schools is not only a violation of the Constitution but a bad idea in general. Whose version and interpretations will be taught?  Yours?  Mine?  The Catholic’s? The Mormon’s?  The Jehovah Witness’s? The Pentecostal’s?  The Lutheran’s?  There are many Christian denominations.  But the greater point is that there are many other religions practiced by Americans in this country. What about their religious texts? There are many who do not believe in God at all.  They have the right not to believe and to not be indoctrinated. Our Founders fled the kind of religious persecution your Party seeks to inflict upon the people of this nation.  You will be no different than the Taliban. History has shown that state forced religious laws always leads to horrific oppression, a blood bath and wars. It certainly is not how Jesus taught us to live!  I implore Republicans to leave religious teachings to parents and houses of worship. Public school children should only be taught to recognize and respect the diversity of how people view God and how they may or may not practice religion. No one is stopping school children from praying or reading their Bibles or referencing their religious beliefs at school.  Those freedoms are and should remain intact.  

When it comes to lawmaking, I urge you to defer to our Constitution and its stated purpose of government to “establish justice”, “ensure domestic tranquility”, “provide for the common defense”, “promote the general welfare” and to “ensure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity”.  Anything beyond that is self-serving and contrary to the welfare of this nation and its people.  Your job is not to serve the profit interests of corporations at the expense of citizens. It is also not to force your religious beliefs down our throats!

More importantly, you and members of your Party seem to require a reminder that you were elected to serve the citizens of this nation and not the president.  We expect you to uphold the Constitution, the rule of law, and to work on behalf of the citizens to keep us safe from deadly viruses, environmental pollutants, gun violence, sexual predators, medical malpractice, unsafe infrastructure, suppression of information, and unchecked police brutality. Your laws should be designed to improve lives, not to endanger them or to remove our individual freedom to live our best lives according to our individual religious and moral beliefs.  The citizens of this country rely on you to use the available scientific evidence, technology and expert knowledge to make the best laws in favor of citizens and not just corporations and especially not in the interest of one man or a few billionaires. It is a balancing act that you have been entrusted with and thus far your Party is failing us.

Leaving women like my daughter to miscarry in a parking lot outside the hospital is not providing the best health care available to young women.  Removing gender affirming care from parents who love their transgender child who is suicidal without it, is not the best we can offer.  Rounding up immigrants seeking safety or fleeing poverty is not in the best interest of a nation that has always depended on immigrant labor.  Fix the immigration laws to meet the actual needs of this country.  Fix our medical system to provide affordable world class healthcare.  Make laws that protect our environment from pollutants that cause diseases and destroy our climate.  Ensure a safety net for those in poverty because of physical and mental disability.  Ensure access to a world class education for American children so they can compete in the world.  Ensure that the elderly among us retire with dignity.  Guarantee freedom of the press to provide accurate information, not government propaganda .  And finally, hold the president and the Supreme Court accountable to obey the laws and defend our Constitution.  Your willingness to overlook corruption and excuse despicable behavior is a gross disservice to the youth of this nation. Nothing good will come of it ignoring lawlessness, cruelty, and bullying. As the saying goes, “one rotten apple spoils the barrel.”

Some say that you are a Christian Nationalist who believes in white supremacy and white male domination.  I hope that isn’t true.  Any reasonable person can look around and see that intelligence, talent, creativity, and drive are not limited to white men, but spread broadly across the human race.  We are all precious in the sight of God and I pray that you believe, understand and govern that way. Please do better and do right by the American people.

Sincerely,

Juanita A. Hall

Citizen of the United States 

I’m glad that Trump didn’t win by a popular vote landslide as previously thought, but by a very narrow margin. That means half the country wasn’t deceived, delusional, hateful, or members of a cult. However, he did win and each of us will have to deal with his policies and observe the inevitable corruption, cruelty, incompetence, garishness, and downright lawlessness he will again bring to the office of the presidency. My response is to do what I can to avoid the mental, physical and financial fallout of another Trump term.

Apparently, I’m not the only liberal who has turned away from corporate media. I ceased watching CNN and MSNBC prior to the election because I noticed they were more interested in views for profit than delivering actual news free of bias. Their “both sides” approach using more pundits with opinions than actual news was a turn off. They clearly sought to gain higher ratings above exercising their duty to inform and so they minimized the actual threat Trump posed to our democracy and to marginalized groups. They normalized his dangerous rhetoric and left millions of Americans with the false impression that he would be good for their pocketbooks. It’s no wonder their ratings have tanked post-election. They don’t deserve viewers, and I certainly don’t want to contribute to national news organizations that omit important stories while they spin the news for views. They committed malpractice and now the nation will pay the price. While CNN and MSNBC don’t outright lie like Fox News, they still failed to report what was really happening and to warn of the danger ahead. CNN was more guilty than MSNBC, but I won’t watch either of them. However, I’ll continue to support investigative journalism, keeping my subscription to the New York Times and getting my news from local stations and publicly funded news organizations who are beholden to me, the viewer, and not corporate shareholders.

Limiting my news consumption will be one of the keys to my preserving my mental health. Already, Trump’s ridiculous cabinet pics and his trade war threats with Canada and Mexico are causing anxiety. When I get anxious, I find action to be the best remedy. I ask myself what I can do to protect myself from the root issue that is causing the anxiety. In this case, my anxiety seems from Trump’s cabinet picks and his promise to place tariffs on our trading partners and to deport millions of immigrants who provide needed labor. Both of these policies will raise prices and cause shortages. Of course, my anxiety cannot compare to the families who will be torn apart by his cruel deportations or the small business owners wondering how they will survive the tariffs on goods they import or the poor who will be negativity impacted by higher prices and cuts to public safety net programs they rely on.

For peace of mind, we’ve acted on decisions to protect our finances and physical well-being. We renewed our passports. We moved some investment money to safer havens. We made major purchases for our home (including a generator) and we completed some renovations we wanted. We’ve stocked up on non-perishables and everyday household supplies. We’ve expanded our vegetable garden. We already grow most of our own fruits and vegetables, but we’ll do more. And this Black Friday, I took advantage of the sales and incentives and purchased essential clothing items and gifts for the next two years. I’m grateful that we were able to accomplish all of this without going into debt or compromising our retirement. We have lived well below our means for many years and our priority of consistent hard work, frugal spending in favor of greater savings and investments has paid off and has prepared us for such a time as this.

After Trump takes office, I will be more apt to wear a mask in public. My husband and I have been vaccinated with all the recommended vaccines for seniors. Already, fewer people are being vaccinated against the flu and Covid-19. I suspect things will get much worse as the Trump administration will be far less likely to be concerned with public health and more apt to cover up any outbreaks and threats to public safety. I will continue to get my annual flu shot and Covid-19 booster if it remains available. But wearing a mask in public spaces will definitely become the norm for me. We already have a water filtration system and air purifiers. I suspect the water and air to go unprotected against pollution in the coming years as the Republicans and the Supreme Court remove power from the EPA. Red states will be worse than blue states that tend to care more about climate change and environmental issues.

A new priority will be saving money and supporting certain organizations. Since we’ve purchased pretty much everything in advance, I plan to use those saved future dollars not on goods, but on greater savings for medical bills, ready cash, and to help fund organizations that feed the hungry, provide education scholarships, and defend our civil rights.

And finally, as a black woman, I think most Americans know that I’m probably not a Trump supporter. That automatically makes me a target to MAGA members, some of whom are hateful and a few who are violent and present a real danger to my well-being. I will avoid spaces where they congregate and when I encounter a red MAGA hat, I will avoid that person. Should a Trump cult member attempt to engage me, I will silently and quickly flee the situation. It is not beyond some people to actively seek confrontation and so I will be avoiding those people at every turn. My greatest concern is that bigots and macho men will be emboldened to harm people of color, LGBTQ folks, young women, and religious minorities once Trump takes office. Our collective sense of personal safety and the expectation of respect from others will be greatly diminished for the next several years. This makes me sad and cautious because I know people are going to get hurt.

My goal is to continue being the caring and respectful human I have always been and to treat others with the dignity and respect their humanity deserves. I plan to be a refuge to the fearful and the injured. I will treat others in the way I want to be treated, with kindness and respect without regard for how they voted. For example, yesterday, I encountered a very pregnant white store clerk. I had no idea how she voted, but I wished her a safe and quick delivery and a healthy baby. She thanked me. She may have been a Trump supporter and if she follows any news, she knows I probably voted for Kamala Harris. However, whatever her politics, she cannot escape the fact that I, a black Harris supporter, wished her well. My point is that we must hold fast to our decency when others have chosen indecency.

There is a verse in the Bible that says it is kindness that leads to repentance. And Lord knows, half of this country is in need of repentance.

Be wise, be safe and stock up and strap in for the next several years.