Trump administration says they have terminated the Temporary Protected Person status and will deport 532,000 people currently living legally in this country.  These people from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were sponsored here by US citizens and permanent residents to escape horrific conditions in their home countries.  They are not criminals.  They are causing no harm.  And in many cases they are contributing members of the communities where they are living.  Nothing remains for them in their home countries and their lives may be in danger if they return.

Also Friday Trump cancelled security clearance for Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton.  There was no reason other than vengeance to do this and many others like General Miley and senior intelligence officers.

In addition to hapazard cutting of important government programs and picking a tarriff without friends and allies, II believe Trump enjoys revenge, meanness and cruelty.  It is the mark of the man.  He admires Elon Musk for the same reason.  And many Republican legislators are enamored (or scared) of Trump for his cruelty.  It is a sickness.

I hope there will be a big fat lawsuit specific to the Temporary Protected Persons.  The action sounds like EX-POST-FACTO (persecution of legal status after the fact) to me.  I hope Democrats will start calling out the insane meanness and cruelty of this man.

The mark of a good leader is the respect and consideration with which he or she treats other people and by extension other nations.

The Houthis is Yemen cannot be allowed to shoot up international shipping in the Red Sea, which connects to the Suez Canal.  Their cause, humanitarian aid for Gaza is just, but they cannot be attacking ships in the Red Sea.  Actually I don’t think Iran is so stupid as to tell them to do this but Iran may be supplying the weapons.  Last Tuesday, the Houthis said they would resume attacks unless aid to Gaza was restored.  I don’t know if they actually did that but the Trump administration launched and continues a major military attack on the Houthis.  In effect we are at war with Yemen.  Civilians are being killed in the targeting of Houthis leaders.

What would I have done as president?  Certainly I would have sent an urgent diplomatic mission last Tuesday when the Houthis made their announcement.  I would have explained to them and Iran, quietly but firmly,  what would happen if they resumed these attacks.  I would have tried to resume humanitarian aid to Gaza but which is complicated by a breakdown of the  Israeli-Hamas cease fire.  I would not have leaped to the meanest and cruelest response.  And if I was forced to military action I would just do it, without mouthing off or political posturing.

And with regard the Venezuelan immigrants, alleged to be gang members, already in custody ….. I would follow the laws of our County and any court order ….. pending appeal if I disagree.   In any case I would detain them within the United States rather than the cruel and unusual action of sending them to prison in a foreign country or Guantanamo or any other mean and cruel location.

I respect our Constitution and the laws of our Nation.

So Trump was completely outmaneuvered by Putin in the conversation about a cease-fire in Ukraine.  Meanness and cruelty to nearly everyone except kissy-poo Putin.  Maybe this Times Radio report (search MI6-Trump) explains some things about Trump and Putin.  Now I would expect him to cease all assistance to Ukraine just as Putin wants.

Regarding the EPA and the recent barrage of executive orders, what is the point of reversing advances in clean air and clean water.  We ignore Climate Change at our peril and that of the whole world.

And ICE came to our town yesterday, breaking up a family by grabbing a man off the street (just after he dropped his U.S citizen son off at school) a law abiding, hard working, contributing to our community, man who has been here at least 15 years.   Meanness and cruelty.

The American Cemetery above Omaha Beach in France, my parents generation.  The Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C., our nation had the courage to inscribe there the names of more than fifty thousand killed in Vietnam, my generation.  And the women’s memorial nearby.  The images don’t quite line up with what I am about to say, but the way we treat people in service to our County fits for me.  Will we remember the 17 inspector generals summarily dismissed by Trump.   The senior national security officers dismissed.  The disabled veteran who received a positive job evaluation but fired by Musk for “poor performance”.  The DOJ attorney fired for her ethical stance about restoring Mel Gibson’s gun rights ….. he’s a friend of the President.  The multiple DOJ attorney’s who would not dismiss the case against New York mayor Eric Adams.  The Forest Service employees in Idaho and Montana caught in Musk’s purge.  The Bonville Power staff.  The leadership of the National Archives.  Thousands laid off at USAID, Department of Education, Veterans Administration, even the weather service.  Please read my previous post about “Efficiency not Cruelty”.  I just keep thinking about all these people, their homes, children and families.  And I know there are more I have not mentioned.  I’m starting to loose track of them all.  Like unwarranted police killings of unarmed individuals and mass shootings across the country,  I try to remember all their names but I can’t.  The unfathomable cruelty ….. the courts have taken some actions but the direction and the cruelty remains the same.  I am so sorry.

Tariffs on our nearest neighbors, friends and allies, Canada, Mexico, the European Union and China ….. it is just bizarre crazy.  It seems Trump will start a fight with just about everybody except Putin.  Go figure.

Then there is Trump’s obsession with revenge against anyone who has challenged him.  Most recently trying to deny certain law firms access to government records or even entry into buildings.

And today the Alien Enemies Act, an effort to deport people without considerations or due process of their individual circumstance.  Cruelty!

The case of this Palestinian man, a legal US resident who was involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University.  Political dissent is not antisemitism.  Admit I don’t know much about the demonstrations but he has been arrested and being held at a detention facility in Louisiana, awaiting deportation.  Trump threatens there will be more.  This sounds like an effort to suppress dissent.  Heaven knows the Palestinians in Gaza have suffered.  Can’t blame them for speaking out.  Gaza is mostly the only home they know.

And the Administration announces that 83% of programs at USAID will be eliminated.  These programs were funded and approved by Congress and Congress should be involved in their review.  USAID is primarily about food, medicine and health care.  Hard for me to believe 83% of the programs are unneeded.  Still sounds like cold turkey cruelty.  Who decided this, Elon Musk?  Please read my previous post, “Efficiency not Cruelty”.

IT DOES NOT MATTER.  He is already weakening out country by firing experienced intelligence and security officers ….. and by imposing tariffs on our nearest trading partners which will ultimately be paid by American consumers.  His  “State of the Union” said nothing about inflation, the cost of medicine, housing or food.  These are non-issues to these fat cats.  He is abandoning our western allies from WWII and inflaming divisions between Americans and our friends abroad.  He is abandoning Ukraine.  Putin could not hope for more anyway, so why does it matter if Trump is a Russian asset?

It appears the United States will abandon Ukraine, a democratic nation fighting for survival against Russian invasion.  Trump appears to be cozying up to Putin again, something I could never understand during his first term.  Further the United States seems about to forsake our NATO friends and allies in Europe.  Although I was an objector in Vietnam, we seem to have forgotten the WWII lesson of Poland in 1939.

It is estimated something in excess of 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded.  Russia does not say exactly.  Ukrains says they have lost about 45,000 soldiers killed and 325,000 wounded, plus 150,000 civilians killed or wounded.  The war seems to be more or less at a stalemate with an increasing proportion of the Ukrainian population wanting it to end.  My compassion extends equally to Russian families who did not choose this war, even now to North Koreans thrown into the battle.  The human race has had great trouble with strong-man tyrants and dictators.  Only four generations since the world rose up to swat down that last one.  Regardless the agressor, once the blood starts flowingi it seems to find its own justification.

I suppose the answer at this point, not a solution but an answer, is a cease-fire more or less in place ….. until Russia and Putin starts this shit again.  When Trump and Putin met behind closed doors in Helsinki, and Trump demanded even the interpreter’s notes be given to him, that was the first time the word “treason” entered my mind.  And today our President is tearing down the United States security institutions while inflaming  culture war divisions within the country.  How deep is the moral abyss?  The institutionalized corruption of the Eric Adams debacle may be only the beginning.  Border patrol turning off their body cameras, what is that about?   The depth of cruelty in mass firings without cause;  see my previous post about efficiency not cruelty.   Are we paying attention?  Or are we mostly working just to get by?  Inflation has notched up again.  Food prices continue high and rising.  Fuel, which had dropped to near pre-covid levels, jumped up again here in the last week.  Is it the Trump tariffs?

Has extreme partisan politics brought us to this?

This morning, 2/19, Trump is saying exactly Putin’s claim, that Ukraine started the war.  Where is the conscience of our nation?

I don’t have a lot of heroes but Voledymyr Zelensky is one.  A very brave man.

Below I outline how I would make the Federal Government smaller and more efficient   Would I have done this without the current Musk/Trump/DOGE fuss?  I think I would because I have been thinking about this and like all those people lined up at the Park in Eagle Pass, a deeper dive into the numbers is very disturbing.

Of first and foremost importance to me however is how individual people are treated.  Wrongful firings, mass layoffs, the gratuitous vengence of cancelled security details, pulling of security clearances, all unnecessary cruelty.  The unimaginable cruelty of cold turkey cancelling USAID, food, medicine and medical care to impoverished people.  And in the case of firing senior national security officers, it is terribly short sighted.  I hate cruelty.

So here is what I would do.

1.  A government wide hiring freeze and shrinkage by attrition.  (Department heads can replace critica skills on an individual basis.)
2.   Offer early retirement.
3.    A Transition out of Government” program which allow a limied number of unpaid days off to seek other work.
4.    A cautious pruning, working with Congress, of programs and branches, which can be combined or deleted.

I would replace DOGE with the “Presidential Task Force for Efficient Government”  working steadily and continuously with select committees of Congress.  It is not flashy and it is not cruel, but it works.

The posts here on my web-site are often written from the perspective, if I were actually President of the United States, what I would do.  Rather than a cronicle of the bizzare over the last couple weeks, here is what I would do.

First the mid=air collision and crash on approach to Reagan Interational Airport in Washington D.C. just acoss the Potomac River from the Capital.  It is never easy to find the right words in these tragedies.  The president’s role should be compassion for the victims and families, and support for the responding agencies.  Full Stop.  I was proud of the first responders’  immediate massive response.  I was pround of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for their immediate response, even while efforts to recover survivors were still underway.  I was equally proud of the NTSB in their determination to conduct an exhausive and fact based investigation.

Regarding disaster relief for the Los Angeles fires, as well as hurricanes in the southeast, Federal disaster asistance should be immediate and not tied to any political issues.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has developed a proceedure from experience of multiple disasters.  Improvements are possible.  Getting people back on their properties is the first priortiy, even if that means a tiny home or mobile home.  Reconstruction of thousands of homes will invariably take time.

So far as making government more efficient, my approach would be a hiring freeze, allowing the government to get smaller by attrition and causing the varios agencies to tighten their belts, as did Bill Clinton.  Department heads are allowed to replace critical skills only.  Evaluation of whole departments is the work of bi-partisan select committees of Congress.  Certainly I would restore the security details for several individuals, restore the security clearances of past national leaders of the intellegence agencies.  Their experience is valuable.  And I would return to work those others terminated by mass firings or layoffs.  As I said, consideration of whole departments is the work for select committees of Congress.

I am of the view that abandonment of the North American Free Trade agreement (negotiated with Canada and Mexico during the first Trump administration) and the imposition of tariffs on Mexico and Canada will likely result in increased costs for most Americans.  This again should be studied by a select committee of Congress before any action is taken.

On the Southern Boarder I would make every effort to seal off illegal entry even if I have to line up U.S. military shoulder to shoulder to fill the gaps in the boarder fence.  Law abiding people who have been here awhile, who have jobs, families and may be paying taxes should not be deported.

While I am very concerned about illegal immigration and energy, one of my greatest concerns for our country is food prices which are already high.   A Declaration of Emergency should be for a threat to life, public health or property.  Food prices could get there.  I would not shoot ourselves in the foot by deporting agricultural workers.  We certainly need more farmers.

Contributing members of our national community, neighbors, friends, essential workers ….. now comes the deportation.  This is inhumane, absolutely wrong and cruel.   Law abiding immigrant working families often with U.S. citizen children.  Been here awhile, they should not be deported.  I keep thinking of Suazo and his crew, patching the pot holes at night on the Francis Scott Key bridge when it went down.  The type of hard work that every new wave of immigrants have done in this country.

Wrong, inhumane, cruel and stupid as well.  Essential workers, harvest crews, disaster clean up, reducing fire hazard in our forests, all the work that immigrants do.  Farmers know that most American citizens will not take these jobs.

We need to stop the influx of refugees at the southern boarder.  There are far too many.  We do not need to deport our friends, neighbors contributing to our nation.

News this morning says Trump will ban trans individuals from serving in the military.  Also wrong.  Mom was a MASH nurse in WWII and told us of the trans men and women serving at that time.  Honorably doing their part for their country.

All of the above, have we really become this intolerant?  Have we become this damn stingy?

Read the letter in full below.

Dear President Trump,

As I take leave of this sacred office I wish you and your family all the best in the next four years. The American people – and people around the world – look to this house for steadiness in the inevitable storms of history, and my prayer is that in the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace for our nation.

May God bless you and guide you as He has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding.

Joe Biden 1-20-25

Biden’s letter to Trump