Sometimes--okay, practically always--it feels like Donald Trump isn't a president, but rather the leader of a meth fueled biker gang. One that rampages through the streets with flame throwers torching things just because they can. Indeed, the outrages happen so fast and, in such numbers, it is hard to keep up.
Take for example the case of Nory Sontay Ramos and her mom, Estela Ramos Baten. Years ago Ms. Baten fled Guatemala because her life was being threatened by a powerful gang. She naturally took her daughter with her. They settled in the United States where Nory enrolled in school and by all reports became an excellent student. She also developed into an athlete who once she hit high school ran on the cross country team. Neither have been in any trouble with the law, or immigration authorities.
Baten had made a bunch of trips to the immigration courts desperately trying to get her status changed, but a final decision was always put off. Then, during her last attempt she was told to return on June 30 of this year with her kid. Nory was gearing up for her senior year in high school and being an honors student, she became suspicious. Hey, she knew what was going on, especially in Southern California. Stephen Miller's personal Gestapo, ICE, was rounding up people left and right. And despite Trump's claim to only go after the worst of the worst criminal element in the immigrant community they were snatching everyone. When she told her mother she was worried, Ms. Baten reassured her kid that everything would be okay, and, "They had to do things the right way."
You know where this is going don't you? Of course you do.
After hours of being stuck in the federal building, the men in black showed up and carted them both to the airport where they were flown to a camp in Texas. Then it was off to Guatemala, the very place Estela had escaped from because her life was in danger. It's a country Nory Ramos, who had been scheduled to attend cross country practice later that day, barely remembers. In fact, she had been in the U.S. so long she doesn't even speak Spanish. There was no hearing, no chance to speak to a lawyer, and neither of them were allowed to make any calls. To make sure of it, both their phones were confiscated. They arrived in Guatemala City with only the clothes on their backs.
One can only imagine what Stephen Miller's Eastern European Jewish immigrant grandparents are thinking about their descendent now.
Meanwhile, Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. facilitated the firing of Dr. Susan Monarez--head of the CDC--because she wouldn't sign off on his proposed Covid vaccine restrictions. Other CDC senior officials resigned in protest over the firing. In addition, over 1,000 former and current employees of the Health and Human Services Department sent a letter to Kennedy and members of congress saying the Secretary was putting the nation's health at risk and demanding he resign. A Kennedy spokesperson responded to the letter with a statement which said, in part, "Secretary Kennedy has been clear; the CDC has been broken for a long time. Restoring it to the world's most trusted guardian of public health will take sustained reform and more personnel changes."
Kennedy, of course, has the job because Trump felt like he had to reward that sizable part of his base who are convinced all vaccines are a commie plot to poison true Americans. While not completely an anti-vaxxer--it depends on who asks him--Kennedy is the closest thing to one they'll ever get.
The Secretary, who has claimed his use of heroine improved his school grades and once dumped a dead bear cub in the middle of Central Park in NYC has been described by democratic strategist, James Carville this way. "There is," Carville said, "somethin' wrong with that boy."
Then we have a quick flashback to PragerU's America First Test for teachers who are new to Oklahoma. One which slipped under the radar in the last post read, "What cause is Martin Luther King Jr. best known for?" (Notice it didn't say, Dr. Martin Luther King.) The correct answer according to PragerU is, "Advocating for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion." (DEI) That's right, one of the 20th century's greatest civil rights icons--a strict adherent to the philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience to achieve the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution--a Nobel Peace Prize winner--is best known for supporting a buzz phrase which wasn't coined until decades after his murder.
Those of us who were alive back in those days tend to remember Dr. King for a tad more than advocating for DEI. However, you have to hand it to that right wing indoctrination machine, PragerU. They do know how to trivialize the monumental.
Finally, we get to the El Supremo himself, Donald Trump. Tuesday and yesterday a small portion of Jeffrey Epstein's victims told members of congress and the media about the horrors of Epstein's depraved abuse and how Ghislaine Maxwell had not only abetted him, but at times joined in. Most of the women who spoke yesterday weren't even 15 years old when their nightmares began. All of them demanded that Donald Trump's Department of Justice release the entire Epstein file immediately. They weren't the only ones. Trump loyalists like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene agreed with them. Ultra right Congresswoman, Nancy Mace was so disturbed by their testimony left the hearing in tears.
When asked about Epstein in the Oval Office Trump said the scandal is a, "...democrat hoax that never ends." He went on to tell reporters, "They're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success we've had as a nation since I've been President."
None of the women who spoke to the press and Congress have ever accused Donald Trump of committing crimes against them. In fact, one told Lawrence O'Donnell she voted for him last November in part because she believed he would do what he said he would do. One of those things was release the file.
No one knows, except perhaps for Pam Bondi and Trump himself, how many times his name is mentioned in the files, or in what context. We can be absolutely sure though, there is something in them he desperately doesn't want the public to see. And that's no hoax.
It us, however, most certainly the current American Leader, Donald John Trump.
9-4-25
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