Day: May 20, 2026

We Are ‘Domestic Terrorists’

Do you actively criticize or protest Donny and his merry band of crooks?

If so you may be labeled a domestic terrorist…..Donny and the Hand Job Gang has defined it as….

The brainchild of National Security Council official Sebastian Gorka, the “Counterterrorism Strategy” weaves together Trump’s war on the wider world — which stretches from interventions and wars in Yemen and Iran to Nigeria and Somalia to Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea — with the administration’s war on dissent at home, which has targeted immigrants, legal observers, activists, protesters, and the press.

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Now, according to the Trump administration, the nation is battling three major types of terror groups: “Legacy Islamist Terrorists,” the long-standing focus of America’s counter-terror efforts; “Narcoterrorists and Transnational Gangs”; and “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists.”

This last group is defined in the document as people the administration deems to be “anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.” This puts antifa — a fictional foe that is actually a collection of ideas and not an organization — on par with actual terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, and drug-trafficking syndicates such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

How Trump’s New Counterterrorism Strategy Puts You at Risk

According to these slugs that definition would be me….

I will not deny that I think that Donny and The Slugs are a cancer on our society and the sooner we can eliminate the tumor the sooner we can rebuild this once great country….

So since I am a big mouth opponent am I worried that they will come get me while I sleep?

I will lose little sleep worrying about that….but will they charge me with being a ‘domestic terrorist’?

Unless something changes….there is no federal statute to charge anyone as ‘a domestic terrorist’….you can be charged for a lot of things but a domestic terrorist is not one of them in a legal sense.

Despite officials’ proclivity for the phrase, there is no federal statute to charge someone with domestic terrorism. Federal law does define domestic terrorism—criminal acts “dangerous to human life,” intended to intimidate civilians or influence government policy. But as the FBI noted in a November 2020 memo, “This is a definitional statute, not a charging statute.” The bureau prefers the term domestic violent extremism “because the underlying ideology itself and the advocacy of such beliefs is not prohibited by US law.”

Federal sentencing guidelines already allow for an “enhanced penalty….if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism,” and it’s easy to see its potential for abuse. When leaders of the far-right Proud Boys were convicted for organizing the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, prosecutors alleged the mob violence that day was “no different” than blowing up a building.

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly disagreed but still felt “the constitutional moment we were in that day is something that is so sensitive that it deserves a significant sentence.” Kelly applied terrorism enhancements and sentenced them each to over a decade in prison. (All participants received a presidential pardon in 2025.)

Over the past 25 years, we’ve learned the government won’t waste an opportunity to increase its power in the name of fighting “terror,” whether at home or abroad. The Trump administration already claims the authority to label people “domestic terrorists” based on such perceived offenses as “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity.” The FBI cited January 6 as justification to dramatically increase surveillance of American citizens who opposed then-President Joe Biden. We should look skeptically at any further expansion of power that will supposedly fight “terror.”

(reason.com)

But I am sure if needed Donny and his Magic Sharpie will do the honors.

If you criticize Donny and his Band of Tech Bro thieves are you worried about them coming for you?

Me?  I just say…’Bring It On!’

Tell me what you feel.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

I Hate Defeatism!

“…Land of the free and home of the brave…”

When I returned from Vietnam I began my campaign of protesting the war and I was met with an amazing amount of defeatism…..I started my protests for after seeing that war first hand I could stand by and turn my head and ignore the horrors and the sacrifices.

Defeatism can be found in most aspects of life….your life, your job, etc but for this post I want to address political defeatism.

Personally I hate defeatism to me it is just throwing hands up and accepting crap and no inclination to change things.

First we need to define the term so there is NO confusion.

Defeatism….is a term used to describe an individual’s mindset or attitude characterized by a pervasive belief that failure is inevitable, and success is unattainable. This defeatist thinking can manifest in various aspects of life, including work, relationships, and personal goals. It often leads to a lack of motivation, low self-esteem, and a reluctance to take on challenges.

There seems to be a wealth of defeatism these days especially on blogs….it is fear that drives this cancerous feeling.

…

I can’t say for certain, but I got the clear sense that there is a wide-spread fear among Americans these days of openly expressing opposition to the aspiring orange tyrant in the White House. Putting an anti-Trump bumper sticker on a car could lead to vandalizing of the vehicle, saying something critical of Trump could mean losing friend, a job, or ruining a family gathering. I even heard that one of my J-School alums didn’t want to sign the Class of ‘69 protest letter or even to have a copy of it sent to his email address, explaining to a mutual friend that “I still have a journalism job” and thus even being associated with such a document!

A common comment I heard from people when I expressed my outrage at Trump’s executive orders like the blocking of already-awarded federal research grants, the revoking of already-approved Green Cards and student visas for foreign students, the deportation of children who are US citizens, and the president’s ignoring of judicial and even Supreme Court orders, has been a dismissive and resigned “Yeah, that’s the new normal now.”

I cannot recall observing that sort of defeatism and fear during the dark years of American atrocities in Indochina. When we learned of massacres of civilians in Vietnam by US troops, or of the carpet bombing by B-52s of North Vietnam and later of Cambodia, the news fueled mass marches across the country and in the nation’s capital.

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This is the only way to stop what Shipler and I are noticing: a withdrawal from protest. That cannot be allowed to happen. As Shipler writes, “History is still in the hands of the people, for a time. Whether this enters American history as a passing phase or a fundamental turning point will depend on whether Americans mobilize. To make courage contagious. ‘In a free society,’ said Abraham Joshua Heschel during the civil rights movement, ‘some are guilty, but all are responsible.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/15/fear-of-protesting-trump-policies-spreads-in-us/

Then there is apathy….defeatism and apathy go hand in hand and to the ruination of the nation….

A new kind of plague has spread across the West: the plague of resignation, marked by diminished voter turnout and a general retreat from political engagement. People feel frustrated by a system that seems to yield little change, regardless of their involvement. But treating this “plague” requires an understanding of its cause. While it’s easy to diagnose public sentiment as apathetic and cynical, we must ask what fuels this mindset and what might reverse it.

At the heart of this apathy is a deep-seated reluctance to self-examine or step beyond comfort zones. Many, especially on the political left, hold fixed beliefs about who holds power and who bears responsibility for society’s ills. There’s a pervasive notion that those in power are inherently to blame, that the powerful are perpetually working against the interests of ordinary people. This perspective is often accompanied by the view that any issue of injustice or inequality can be traced back to the “evil” actions of the elite. The public, in turn, finds a certain comfort in this approach. It allows people to feel moral and justified, focusing their frustrations outward rather than examining their own roles and responsibilities.

Apathy and defeatism: the plague of politics

American history will be written by the people.  Will you be part of the ‘brave’ or part of the defeatism that is striking fear in Americans hearts?

Even at my advanced age I refuse to live in fear and reject defeatism in all it’s forms

Who will stand with me?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Someone Please Rescue Our 250th

We are rapidly approach the 250th anniversary of the founding of this country….and to celebrate Donny is making it all about himself and not this great nation.

There has got to be some way to rescue this event from the claws of Donny and his egotistical mind.  A auto race, state fair, BBQ or a UFC match is not the way to commemorate our beginnings.

I was around for the celebration in 1976 and its was the way to celebrate the beginnings of the US of A….it was and will be heads above the silliness the Donny thinks will celebrate our country.

On the 250th anniversary of the United States, some details of the celebrations might seem familiar from the celebrations in 1976 of America’s 200th. People sip from cans decorated with the Liberty Bell and a big round number. Commemorative vehicles drive or fly around with founding documents. Federal dollars and private donations flow toward politicians’ goals. A president directs federal funding toward his pet projects.

A big difference is just how prominent Trump is making himself this time around. It wasn’t always headed this way: Congress created the United States Semiquincentennial Commission in 2016, during the Obama administration. In 2020, Trump created the 1776 Commission—an advisory body committed to propagating whitewashed American history—which Biden disbanded on his first day in office in 2021. Trump reassembled it in 2025, more determined to make the national birthday about him, his followers, and their shared visions of the past. While Richard Nixon sought to leverage bicentennial funds to motivate political support in the 1970s, Trump uses the semiquincentennial moment to promote himself. Trump is even attempting to align a semiquincentennial UFC match with his own 80th birthday.

As historian Marc Stein traces in Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s, a national birthday can launch a much broader, more inclusive, and ambitious national project. Yes, the bicentennial too involved politicians advancing their own aims, and it involved selling things, with a proliferation of commemorative objects. But the events and their backlash also helped promote broader goals. Stein writes of the urban planners who sought to direct bicentennial resources toward remaking cities and revamping tourist destinations. He writes of the contingent of the New Left that hoped to rekindle what they viewed as the radicalism of the founders, and of marginalized communities, who mobilized for a reexamination of American history and for reform in contemporary society. Sometimes these groups disagreed about the past and agreed on the future. Sometimes they disagreed about the future, despite shared ideals of the past.

https://newrepublic.com/article/209315/rescue-america-250th-trump

I will not participate in anything the Donny and his clowns have planned for this point in our history.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”