The Shutdown Continues

The federal government shutdown is on day 26, the second longest of all time, and the record holder for person-days of federal employee furloughs. Trump has accounted for a majority of all days that the government has been shut down for all time.

Trump has literally demolished the East Wing of the White House to put up a ballroom (all contrary to federal law regarding how that is done).

SNAP, a.k.a. food stamps, will be shut off on November 1, 2025, out of Trump's spite because there are contingency funds in place to keep it going longer.

Trump continues to deny everyone federal disaster aid.

Trump continues to illegally murder people in boats in the Caribbean, ostensibly because they are dealing drugs, but that isn't grounds for summary execution, the basis for doing so hasn't been substantiated, and Congress hasn't authorized it.

ICE is ignoring the law and court orders in Chicago. On the bright side, someone stole two National Guard tanks in Memphis.

The No Kings Protest on October 18, 2025 extended to large attendances even in deeply red places. About 8.1 million people nationwide participated.

In a political stunt to celebrate the Marine Corps. birthday, they fired artillery rounds over Interstate Highway I-5, where some rounds exploded prematurely over the highway.

Charlie Kirk's wife appears to be deeply connected to kidnappings of Romanian children for adoptions when she was 17 years old in an activity that Trump apparently played a part in funding.

The National Young Republicans Group's racist, pro-Nazi, pro-rape group chat was exposed. The group also stiffed venues where it held events of tens of thousands of dollars more than once.

More than a third of ICE applicants can't pass basic physical fitness tests. About half of them can't pass a basic, open book test, on the part of immigration law that they need to know and the 4th Amendment.

The Toronto Blue Jays are in the World Series.

Trump increased tariffs on Canadian imports by 10% because he didn't like a truthful TV ad playing recordings of Ronald Reagan explaining how bad tariffs are.

Trump is ramping up dubious criminal prosecutions of his political opponents using illegally appointed attorneys in the Justice Department's U.S. attorneys' office.

Trump appears to have received more than a billion dollars of illegal personal gain from his office already since January 20 when he was sworn in.

Trump illegally tried to conduct layoffs during the government shutdown, which a judge halted.

Republicans are refusing to swear in a newly elected Democrat to the house from Arizona because they don't want to release the Epstein files and don't care about the continuing government shutdown.

All of this just scratches the surface of the horrible news that rains down every day.

Not All Hope Is Lost (Yet)!

Keep fighting!

Every week (there are rare days of respite) there is news so bad that I vacillate between outrage and despair over the future of our country.

On the other hand, while we have plummeted into a less free semi-democracy, and plenty of irrevocable damage has been done, we aren't yet beyond a point of no return.

The government shutdown demonstrates that Congress can do something. And, with the "nuclear option" well-established in the U.S. Senate now, the fact that the filibuster hasn't be abrogated to end the shutdown means that there is at least some tacit dissatisfaction with the administration among some Republicans in Congress, even if they are too cowardly to translate that into a roll call vote against the President.

While SCOTUS has frequently shut down lower court checks on Trump's assault on the rule of law, the lower federal courts and litigation of blue states has slowed the process down and put serious friction in the way of his bid to become a dictator.

Attempted military occupations of L.A., D.C., Chicago, and Portland (OR), have had far less shock and awe that Trump hoped. His birthday parade flopped and his rally of generals and admirals likewise demonstrated that while the military may reluctantly obey their commander in chief, that he does not have firm control of, or the loyal and enthusiastic support of, the military.

Trump's aggressive secret police style ICE tactics have undermined public backing for his immigration policies, which were a key factor in getting him and the Republicans in Congress who only have a razor thin majority as it is in the House and in the Senate, elected.

Now that the rich have gotten their tax breaks, they don't need him nearly so badly any more, and are shifting to worrying about whether his bad economic policies will deny them any profits to evade taxes on at all.

We are thirteen months away from the midterm elections, at a time when Trump's popularity has plummeted to record lows and where Democrats are vastly over performing in special vacancy elections. GOP gerrymanders are getting a response from Blue state counter-gerrymanders. And, the cost the GOP risks when it grasps for more Republican districts is that those districts may become less safe and flip as public opinion turns against Trump (primarily among disappointed Republicans and independents who voted for Trump).

It is dim, but there is still some light at the end of the tunnel.

A Fire ICE Act

ICE is rotten to the core. Basically everyone who works for it is a corrupt, racist, bad cop, with no regard for the rule of law who lacks moral character.

Democrats in Congress should sponsor the Fire ICE Act. This would:

1. Immediately terminate the employment of every single employee and contractor working for ICE.

2. Permanently bar every former ICE employee from working for any federal government agency or any federal government contractor in any capacity, even as an unpaid volunteer or as prison labor.

3. Permanently bar every former ICE employee from receiving security clearances.

4. Permanently bar every former ICE employee from receiving federal financial aid for higher education.

5. Permanently bar every former ICE employee from eligibility for SBA loans.

6. Permanently bar every former ICE employee from serving as a sponsor for any immigrant.

7. Retroactively downgrade every former ICE employee who is a military veteran to dishonorably discharged status.

8. Permanently bar every former ICE employee from receiving federal farm aid.

9. Permanently bar every former ICE employee from receiving federal housing or disaster assistance, including FHA and VA loans.

10. Revoke all non-vested employee benefits of the ICE employee from any federal government employment.

11. Extend the statute of limitations for civil liability and criminal liability committed in connection with service as an ICE agent to 50 years.

12. Create a private cause of action, including minimum statutory damages of $50,000 and attorneys' fees, for any violation of federal law committed by an ICE agent while employed by ICE or a contractor for ICE. This would include any wrongful deportation and any detention made without probable cause. And, allow any vested retirement funds or homestead property to be used to satisfy any such judgment even if it would otherwise have been exempt from creditors. Make any such debts non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.

13. Bar all companies that provided deportation transportation services to ICE from all future government  contracts.

14. Make all former ICE employees ineligible to serve on the board of any 501(c)(3) organization, or as an officer or paid employee of any such organization.

15. Revoke the visas of any ICE employee who is not a U.S. citizen.

16. Prohibit former ICE agents from owning or possessing firearms.

17. Bar former ICE officers from making new applications for federal disability benefits.

18. Prohibit federal civilian employees and federal government contractors hired in any law enforcement role from wearing masks, or enforcing the law in unmarked cars, subject to very narrow exceptions that are heavily reported upon, required all sorts of red tape, and are limited to circumstances that never include immigration enforcement.

19. Create a list of places like hospitals, court houses, churches, and immigration offices, where immigration enforcement is not allowed.

20. Allow any state or city to prohibit federal immigration enforcement from taking place in their jurisdiction, subject to very narrow exceptions for people convicted of serious felonies within the last five years.

21. End all grounds for denaturalization and punish people who secured U.S. citizenship by fraud with criminal penalties that do not revoke their U.S. citizenship.

22. Place former ICE agents at the bottom of the priority list to receive organ transplants, at at the end of the line for any Medicaid, Medicare, or VA medical benefit for which there is a waiting list.

23. Prohibit former ICE agents from receiving any honor or recognition from the federal government and revoke any honor or recognition that the former ICE agent was previously awarded by any federal government entity, military or civilian.

24. Deny former ICE agents any benefit of U.S. international child custody treaties.

25. Prohibit former ICE agents from notarizing any document used in the federal courts or submitted to a federal government agency.

26. Make former ICE agents ineligible for all federal licenses, including but not limited to, patent examiners, SEC licenses, BLM grazing permits, FCC licenses, interpreter qualifications, pilot's licenses, federal firearms dealer's licenses, and federal fishing or hunting licenses.

27. Prohibit former ICE agents from being buried in military cemeteries.

28. Prohibit former ICE agents from being granted patent or trademark applications.

29. Prohibit former ICE agents from serving as officers of any federally recognized employee unions.

30. Prohibit former ICE agents from attending any federal educational institutions.

31. Prohibit former ICE agents from making mining claims.

32. Impose a 50% excise tax on any vested, deferred compensation payable to former ICE agents on top of any other applicable taxes.

33. Enact a rebuttable presumption in any federal discrimination case that a former ICE agent intended to engage in illegal discrimination.

34. Prohibit former ICE agents from serving a registered lobbyists.

35. Require former ICE agents to disclose their employment with ICE to all future employers, in any commercial contract, in any campaign for public office, and prior to being issued a marriage license.

36. Make status as a former ICE agent an aggravating factor under the federal sentencing guidelines.

37. Prohibit former ICE agents from entering federal parks and federal landmarks.

38. Prohibit former ICE agents from serving as officers or directors of any publicly held company.

39. Prohibit former ICE agents from purchasing cyptocurrencies or selling crypocurrencies that were not owned prior to the enactment of the law.

40. Prohibit former ICE agents from obtaining any federal loan or bailout of any kind.

41. Disclose all internal ICE records and a list of all former ICE agents to the public on a publicly available database that disclosed all internal affairs information, all service information, and all contract information of former agents.

42. Immediately release everyone in ICE detention who isn't an undocumented immigrant convicted of a crime within the last five years that is a felony or worse. Transfer the rest to the federal Department of Corrections.

43. Ban all future private prison contracts of any kind.

44. Deny all de minimis tariff exemptions for former ICE agents.

45. Formally authorize private sector employers and state and local government employers to discriminate against former ICE agents.

46. Give cases in which former ICE agents are plaintiffs, the lowest scheduling priority in federal court.

47. Require disclosure of former ICE agent status in every lawsuit filed by a former ICE agent, and as part of the witness testimony of every former ICE agent in any federal court or federal administrative agency proceeding.

48. Prohibit former ICE agents from participating in clinical trials for new drugs and medical devices.

49. Prohibit former ICE agents from receiving any new federal tax credits.

50. Prohibit former ICE agents from serving as employees or unpaid volunteers in federal funded schools at any level.

If this bill is introduced as a bill in Congress, and secured enough co-sponsors in the House and Senate to have some credible chance of being seriously considered, it doesn't even matter if it passes. 

It will still powerfully discourage people considering employment with ICE from doing so. Every if some provisions are subsequently invalidated by the courts and are severed from the larger bill, the uncertainty would seriously chill anyway from applying to work for it.

Facts About Donald Trump And His Administration

Some of the major themes of Trump 2.0's agenda are quite simply contrary to the law and Trump is just such as bad President and bad person.

* Opposition to the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians is not antisemitic.

* The U.S. Supreme Court has specifically held for decades that antisemitic speech is protected the First Amendment. National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977).

* Equity and inclusion have been legally required in employment, at least since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and in public education since Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

* Diversity achieved by breaking down barriers to employment and education for women, people of diverse sexual orientation, minorities, and people with disabilities is legal, and arguably mandated by U.S. Civil Rights laws.

* Diversity achieved by favorable treatment of women, people of diverse sexual orientation, minorities, and people with disabilities, relative to a meritocratic standard is legal to overcome past discrimination.

* No U.S. law is a valid basis for removing books and websites that laud the achievements of historical women, people of diverse sexual orientation, minorities, and people with disabilities, or depict these individuals in fiction. Indeed, multiple court cases applying existing U.S. law have held that this kind of censorship in public libraries is illegal, such as a recent case involving the Elizabeth school district in Colorado.

* None of the Trump 2.0's political appointments have been remotely meritocratic, contrary to his claim that he wants to end affirmative action.

* There is no legal basis for the U.S. federal government to prohibit educational institutions, public or private, at any legal, from teaching critical race theory.

* Discrimination against white, straight men in employment and education is modest at best, and mostly, non-existent.

* Discrimination against Christians in the U.S. is basically non-existent, and, instead, for the most part, the U.S. sees significant discrimination against non-Christians.

* Christian religious freedom is not a valid basis for discrimination against homosexuals and transgender people by organizations that are not religious organizations.

* All levels of government in the United States are strictly forbidden from supporting any particular religion, or religion at all, by the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

* It has been illegal since the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 for the President to refuse to spend Congressionally appropriated funds.

* Generally applicable rules and regulations of the Executive Branch of government in the United States can only be adopted after notice and hearing according to the procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act.

* Speech, legislative lobbying, and legal action against President Trump are protected by the First Amendment and it is illegal for President Trump to retaliate against law firms and individual for doing so.

* Federal employees who are not political employees or lawyers cannot legally be fired by the President without good cause.

* The President has no constitutional authority over employees of Congress or the judicial branch or employees of non-profit corporations formed by the U.S. government, and has only the authority granted to him by federal statutes to do so.

* The President has absolutely no legal authority to defy a court order, even if the legal basis for issuing that order was incorrect and it is later overturned on appeal. Despite this, President Trump has intentionally defied court orders more than once in his first four months in office.

* The U.S. Constitution requires the directors of federal agencies to be nominated by the President and approved by the U.S. Senate, or, when a Congressionally approved law provides otherwise, by a federal judge or a U.S. Senate approved officer of the United States.

* It is illegal for the President to use his office to promote a private business in his official capacity.

* The U.S. Constitution expressly prohibits federal employees, including the President, from receiving gifts or other private benefits from holding a public office without Congressional approval on a case by case basis.

* The international war crime of "aggression" prohibits the U.S. from invading Canada, Greenland, or Panama at this time.

* White South Africans are not facing genocide in South Africa and do not meet the legal criteria to be classified as refugees. The claims that White South Africans are been systemically murdered on account of their identity in South Africa are not true, and the most compelling pieces of evidence the President Trump presented in support of that claim in a White House meeting with the President of South Africa were actually evidence of mass killings of black women in the Democratic Republic of Congo and evidence of symbolic political protests in South Africa in which no one was physically harmed.

* Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, is not a gang members and evidence relied upon by President Trump to support that claim was photoshopped onto a picture of Mr. Garcia.

* The Alien Enemies Act relied upon President Trump for man deportations is not a valid legal basis to deport anyone because the U.S. is not experiencing an invasion within the meaning of the act as President Trump claims, as multiple judges, some appointed by President Trump himself have held, and as an investigation by U.S. government intelligence agencies that he commissioned established.

* The Alien Enemies Act does not legally authorize deportation without due process.

* Only Congress may authorize the suspension of the right to seek a writ of habeas corpus, and only in places where the federal courts are unable to operate. See Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2 (1866).

* A core principle of federal law is that every person, whether or not that person is a U.S. citizen, and whether or not that person is a criminal or terrorist, is entitled to due process before being detained or deported.

* It is a core principle of U.S. constitutional law that every person born in a U.S. state, who does not have diplomatic immunity at the time, is a U.S. citizen. This includes the children of illegal immigrants. No U.S. court has ever ruled to the contrary since the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave rise to this right, was adopted.

* It is illegal for the President to fire members of an independent agency board without cause. Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that ruled that the U.S. Constitution allows the U.S. Congress to enact laws limiting the ability of the President of the United States to fire the executive officials of an independent agency that is quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial in nature.

* The President's authority to unilaterally impose tariffs without an act of Congress doing so is very doubtful, and mere trade deficits with a country are not a valid legal basis for doing so.

* The President has a legal duty to faithfully execute the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the United States.

* Every public official in the United States has a sworn duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

* The fact that the President has been held to have immunity from criminal and civil liability for his official acts does not mean that the President is legally entitled to violate the law, it just limited the legal remedies that are available when he does.

* The fact that the President has been held to have immunity from criminal and civil liability for his official acts does not mean that the President's subordinates charged with carrying out the President's orders also have immunity from criminal and civil liability for their official acts, if they are not judges or prosecutors and the claims are related to their participation in the legal process.

* Trump admitted on TV shortly after he announced tariffs to helping his billionaire friends engaged in insider trading on his tariff news. Many members of his administration and many Republicans in Congress have engaged in insider trading.

* Trump has sold access to the White House to mostly foreign investors in a meme coin he introduced after taking office for a second time. The coin has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump, enriched rich foreign investors, and produces big losses for almost all ordinary investors in the meme coin.

* Trump had basically a commercial for Tesla cars on the White House lawn after Elon Musk's political involvement (an advisor of the President so close that he has been called the co-President) with Trump and Nazi and far right, and Trump has quashed about a dozen federal investigations of Musk's companies, awarded Musk's companies many billions of dollars of government contracts without the usual government bidding process, and has insisted that countries do business with Musk's companies in trade negotiations.

* Members of Congress have an express legal right to inspect immigration detention facilities without notice even if the President orders the officials there not to allow them to do so.

* The President does not have the legal authority to revoke a non-profit organization's tax exemption without good cause, and may not do so for legally authorized good cause specific to eligibility to receive non-profit status for reasons not specific to eligibility for non-profit status under the Internal Revenue Code.

* The President does not have the legal authority to deny a higher educational institution the right to admit and teach international students entitled to student visas under the Immigration And Nationality Act without good cause specifically set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act that is specific to eligibility to do so under the INA.

* The President does not have the legal authority to revoke a student visa, or any other person's immigration status, based upon the lawful free speech.

* It is a crime for IRS officials to share confidential tax information with the government to enforce non-criminal laws.

* It is a crime to use military personnel to enforce the laws within the United States. The law that says so is called the Posse Comitatus Act.

* The President does not have the legal right to blacklist a news reporting agency because he doesn't agree with the views expressed by that agency.

* Donald Trump is a convicted felon.

* Donald Trump is a legally adjudicated rapist.

* Donald Trump has been found repeatedly by the courts to have engaged in fraud, defamatory conduct, and illegal racial discrimination.

* Donald Trump is wealthy in large part because he inherited a large sum of money from his father.

* Six companies, including casinos, that Trump has owned have filed for bankruptcy.

* Trump's University had to settle a civil case against it for fraud for a large sum of money for fraud that Trump personally participated in.

* Trump's main business organization and one of its main executives were criminally convicted of tax fraud in New York during the most recent Presidential campaign.

* Trump and organizations he is affiliated with are notorious for not paying their bills when due. He is also notorious for not paying his lawyer's bills.

* Donald Trump has multiple multi-million dollar money judgments from courts that are currently enforceable outstanding against him.

* Donald Trump and his current wife have both acted in pornographic films. His current wife's primary employment prior to meeting Donald Trump was as an actress in pornographic films and her visa was obtained in the "genius" category despite the fact that she had no other meaningful professional or educational expertise, and she was not even a particularly success porn star.

* While they are not legally separated, Trump is de facto mostly separated from his wife and is notorious for subtly disrespecting her in public settings.

* Donald Trump paid $100,000 in hush money in an attempt to silence a prostitute he hired and then misreported it on financial statements.

* Donald Trump has repeatedly engaged in adultery during each of his many marriages.

* Donald Trump has publicly stated that he doesn't know if he has a legal duty to obey the U.S. Constitution despite twice swearing oaths to uphold it as President of the United States.

* Donald Trump is legally prohibited from operating any business or charity in the State of New York as a result of separate business and charitable fraud cases.

* Donald Trump was legally found by a Colorado trial court, in a decision whose factual determinations were affirmed by the Colorado Supreme Court, and which were not found to be incorrect on the merits by the U.S. Supreme Court, to have engaged in an insurrection against the United States that would bar him from holding federal office. The U.S. Supreme Court overruled the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court only on the ground that the provision of the 14th Amendment which bars people who have engaged in insurrections against the United States from holding federal office is not self-executing and must occur in Congressionally authorized legal proceeding (contrary to strong arguments from the language of the U.S. Constitution, the legislative history of the 14th Amendment, and past precedents applying that constitutional provision).

* There is no legal or constitutional way that President Trump can hold the office of President for a third-term.

* There was no credible evidence that President Trump won the Presidential election in 2020, many attorneys who brought claims challenging that election where sanctioned or disbarred for bringing groundless and frivolous claims, and at least one elections official in Colorado was convicted of multiple state election law crimes in an effort to create that impression. Fox News paid more than $800 million to settle defamation claims to that effect in a lawsuit filed by a voting machine maker on the brink of trial in connection with those claims and another very strong defamation claim against it from another voting machine maker is currently pending.

* In President Trump's first four months in office, approximately four dozen court rulings have held that one or more of his Executive Orders is illegal. No President in U.S. history has issued Executive Orders at such a high rate, or had such a large percentage of his Executive Orders held to be illegal.

* Trump has, in a conspiracy with his physicians, repeated made grossly false statements about his height and weight.

* Trump dodged the draft multiple times during the Vietnam War by procuring a false medical excuse claiming that he had "bone spurs" from a doctor that conspired with him to do so.

* Trump was a transfer student to Wharton Business school whose admission was obtained with donations to the college from his father. It is know for certain that he was not a top student as he has sometimes claimed as he was never on the honor roll. He has jealously kept his academic records from Wharton secret but one of his past professors there characterized him as one of the least academically competent students that he ever had.

* Trump's father was a Ku Klux Klan member and a Nazi supporter.

* Despite Trump's America First trade stance, almost all of the merchandise he sells in his various businesses and for his political campaigns is made outside the United States, mostly in China.

* Many members of Trump's family and some of Trump's businesses have been greatly enriched personally in one-sides transactions meant to curry political favor with him.

* Trump was a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, a famous procurer of child prostitutes for the rich and famous including British Prince Andrew, who died in prison after being convicted of related crimes, and Trump was a repeat visitor to Epstein's "sex island" and is shown in pictures surrounded by child prostitutes.

* Trump bragged in a recorded interview of sexually assaulting women.

* Trump has made sexually suggestive comments about his own daughters and was known to have abused his authority as a sponsor of beauty contests for minor girls to watch them undressed in the changing rooms associated with those contests.

* Trump on the campaign trail has mocked a disabled man for being disabled, denigrated veterans and prisoners of war (including Republican Senator John McCain) for being losers, and has encouraged people at his campaign rallies to use violence against hecklers at his rallies.

* Trump went out of his way, prior to being formally involved in politics, to denigrate five teenager who were wrongfully convicted of assault and rape of a jogger in a case occurring in Central Park in New York City in 1989, who were later exonerated by DNA evidence after serving prison terms (New York City later settled the civil case arising from the wrongful convictions for $41 million), and Trump stood by his actions (which may have contributed to their wrongful convictions) after the men were unequivocally exonerated.

* Despite being particularly popular with the Christian right to the point of being viewed as a messiah or saint by some, promoting bible sales to raise funds, and appointing an Evangelical Christian advisor, Trump is not at all religious and knows almost nothing about the Bible or Christian doctrine.

* Both Trump's FBI director and his attorney general in his current term were on the payroll of the Qatari government receiving large amounts of compensation from the Arab oil monarchy shortly before taking their current offices. The Qatari government recently gave Trump a $400 million jet liner for his personal use which his attorney general claimed did not violate constitutional or federal law limitations on receiving personal gifts from foreign governments. Trump's company has been pursuing a multi-billion dollar resort development project in Qatar at the time of this gift.

* No politician in U.S. history has ever publicly made false statements of fact at a rate as high as that of President Trump. Indeed, no one else even comes close.

* Vaccines do not cause autism.

* The measles vaccine is safe, effective, and the most effective way to prevent death or serious long term negative effects from measles.

* Trump's actions since he took office have significantly reduced the number of federal employees available to carry out air traffic control.

* Trump's actions since he took office have significantly reduced the number of federal employees and resources to predict the weather and response to weather related emergencies.

* No President in U.S. history has declined to provide emergency relief authorized by U.S. law to natural disaster victims at the rate that President Trump has in his second term.

* Trump has essentially dismantled federal enforcement of federal laws protecting the civil rights of women, racial minorities, homosexuals, and transgender individuals.

* No President in the history of the United States has made as many absurdly wrong statements of historical fact as Donald Trump (e.g., that there were air based during the American Revolution, or that the U.S. was an ally of the Roman Emperor, or that Mattel is a country).

* In his 2024 Presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly made knowingly false claims that Haitian refugees in Ohio were stealing and eating cats and dogs, that that public schools were providing free sex change surgeries to transgender children at those schools.

* Many of the pardons issued by Trump have been to people who contributed to his political campaigns.

* Many of the people whom Trump pardoned for January 6, 2021 capitol riot charges have subsequently committed crimes in the four months since he pardoned them.

* President Trump has nominated a convicted felon, who is the father-in-law of one of his children, to be the U.S. ambassador to France.

* No President has had more subordinates and affiliates convicted of crimes than Donald Trump.

* No one other than Donald Trump has been impeached two separate times by the U.S. House of Representatives although neither of those impeachments were upheld by the required two-thirds majority of the U.S. Senate (in both cases the vote was largely on party lines, although a number of Republican Senators joined Democrats to convict in the second impeachment trial). In the second impeachment of Donald Trump, 57% of Senators voted to convict, the highest percentage other than the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868 which failed to convict in the face of 35-19 votes to do so in the U.S. Senate when 36 voters were required to convict.

* Trump, in both his first and second terms, was the least popular President in the history of modern polling.

* Trump's anti-vaccination rhetoric, and pseudo-scientific medical claims about COVID-19, and his downplaying of the severity of the COVID-19 led to hundreds of thousands of preventable COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., primarily among elderly Republicans.

* Trump was indicted in four criminal cases which were still being tried during his 2024 Presidential campaign: a federal case arising from his involvement in the January 6, 2021 capitol riot, a federal case arising from his refusal to return top secret nuclear weapons information to the government that he was storing in a bathroom in his Florida resort, a Georgia case involving his illegal attempts to cause election officials there to engage in election fraud to elect him, and a New York State fraud case in which he was convicted of 34 felonies (but given no substantive criminal sentence in a sentencing hearing conducted after he was elected). The confidential records case was presided over by a federal judge he personally appointed in Florida, and dismissed on the legally dubious grounds that the special prosecutor statute was unconstitutional, with the case dismissed because Justice Department policy prohibits pressing criminal charges against a sitting President. The January 6 case was appealed on the grounds that he had absolute immunity from criminal charges for his official acts, which lower courts unanimously denied but the U.S. Supreme Court with had three justices he personally appointed who did not recuse themselves made the unprecedented decision over a strongly worded dissent that the President has absolute immunity from criminal prosecutions for his official acts. The charges in that cases were revised on remand to limit the case to Trump's unofficial acts (with considerable damning evidence revealed in a final report from the case) and then this federal case was dismissed because Trump was elected President and Justice Department policy is to not prosecute a sitting President.

* Trump routinely dresses inappropriately for state funerals and fell asleep in public during the funeral for Pope Francis.

Some Quick And Simple Immigration Reforms

1. Ease the path to citizenship for people eligible for green cards.

Grant everyone with lawful permanent residency (a.k.a. a "green card"), immediate U.S. citizenship without a citizenship exam, without an English language exam, and without a fee.

Short of that, allow green card holders to do that after the three or five year waiting period that must elapse to be eligible for citizenship under current law, a minimal check to confirm that you haven't had a criminal record or gone out of visa status since you had your green card issued, and a much more modest fee than under the current law (since the administrative process is much simpler).

We shouldn't have the second class citizenship status of lawful permanent residents, who can't vote, can't serve on juries, and are subject to having their green card revoked and being deported if they have a little misstep in life.

Keep in mind also that many green card holders got their green cards when they were children at the sponsorship of a parent, who may have, for whatever reason, not gotten their citizenship (maybe the parent immigrated at middle age or older when learning English fluently is much harder than when you are young, or they can't afford to hire an immigration lawyer to learn what to do).

This also supports that idea that people who permanently reside someplace should be part of the political community there.

New Zealand, while it doesn't go quite this far, does allow non-citizens who have lived there legally for a year or more to vote in its elections, and the E.U. does the same in local elections and in E.U. elections.

2. Create a ten year statute of limitations on deportations that can be converted to citizenship.

I would propose that there be a statute of limitations of ten years of presence in the U.S. after ceasing to be in legal immigration status, after which you cannot be deported. At any time when you cannot be deported, you are eligible to become a U.S. citizen if you can pass a criminal record check and pay a modest fee (but perhaps more than the usual immigration application fee) that functions as a civil penalty for failing to keep in valid immigration status.

As it is we have a complex web of exceptions and paths to citizenship for law abiding citizens who have lived in the U.S. for a long time and have strong ties to the U.S. This would also avoid the need for Congress to periodically pass amnesty legislation (as it did in the Reagan administration) or for the President to establish regulatory safe harbors like DACA.

In pre-modern Europe, there was a similar practice in independent self-governing democratic city-states. People who weren't citizens of the city-state could only be kicked out for not being a citizen for a year after entering it (most of them were centers for merchants, and trade and craftsmen, so lots of outsiders came in and out of the cities on a regular basis), and you became a citizen of the city-state at that point.

This also supports that idea that people who permanently reside someplace should be part of the political community there. We don't want to follow the model of the Arabian oil monarchies where a large part of the resident population (a majority in many cases) are "guest workers" without the full rights of citizens.

3. Issue automatic green cards for graduates of English language of instruction colleges and universities.

Graduates with four year degrees or graduate degrees from U.S. colleges and universities in which the language of instruction is English (or in Puerto Rico, Spanish), and a clean criminal record, should automatically be entitled to a green card (or, if green cards are abolished per the first proposal above, citizenship).

Brain drain is in the best interests of the U.S. Our colleges and universities (at least prior to Trump 2.0), attract more of the best and brightest and most promising foreign students in the world. These promising young people who have what it takes to function as productive members of our society shouldn't have to find a U.S. spouse to gain immigration status or a major tech firm for an H1-B visa to stay in the U.S.

Indeed, our borders should be open to any four year college or graduate school college graduate, who earned their degree at an institution where the primary language of instruction is English, and can pass a basic criminal record background check, even if they studied, for example, in Canada, or the U.K., or the Republic of Ireland, or New Zealand, or Australia.

4. Make most skilled work visas convertible to green cards.

People who complete the duration of their H1-B tech visas, or other work authorizing visas that require some high level of skill, should be able to convert their work visas to green cards at the end of the original term of those visas, if they have a clean criminal record, should automatically be entitled to a green card (or, if green cards are abolished per the first proposal above, citizenship).

In addition to H-1B (highly skilled workers mostly in tech), this should include people on L-1 visas (multinationals), O-1 visas (genius visas), P-1 visas (athletes and entertainers), TN visas (NAFTA professionals), EB-1 visas (extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics; outstanding professors or researchers; and certain multinational executives and managers), EB-2 visas (members of the professions holding advanced degrees or for persons with exceptional ability in the arts, sciences, or business), EB-3 visas (professionals, skilled workers, and other workers), EB-4 visas (“special immigrants,” which includes certain religious workers, employees of U.S. foreign service posts, retired employees of international organizations, alien minors who are wards of courts in the United States, and other classes of aliens), and EB-5 visas (business investors who invest $1,050,000 or $800,000 (if the investment is made in a targeted employment area) in a new commercial enterprise that employs at least 10 full-time U.S. workers).

Again, brain drain is in the interests of the U.S. and these individuals, if they are able to work at their work visa job for the duration of the visa, have proven that they are highly valuable and productive contributors to our society whom we want to keep.

5. Eliminate quotas for visas for highly skilled people and immediate family.

There should be no quotas (and not waiting for an annual quota period) for H-1B, L-1 visas, O-1 visas, P-1 visas, TN visas, EB visas, spousal visas, or visa for minor children of people who hold these visas. 

These individuals are an asset to our country and the more we have, the more prosperous and vital we will be.

6. Issue automatic green cards for graduates of English language of instruction high schools who came to the U.S. as children.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals who, on June 15, 2012, were physically present in the United States with no lawful immigration status after having entered the country as children at least five years earlier, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for an employment authorization document (work permit). . . .

To qualify for DACA, applicants must meet the following major requirements, although meeting them does not guarantee approval:

• Have unlawful presence in United States after entering the country before their 16th birthday
• Have lived continuously in the United States since June 15, 2007
• Were under age 31 on as of June 15, 2012 (born on June 16, 1981, or after)
• Were physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012, and at the time of making their request for consideration of deferred action with USCIS
• Had no lawful status on June 15, 2012
• Have completed high school or a GED, have been honorably discharged from the armed forces, or are enrolled in school
• Have not been convicted of a felony or serious misdemeanors, or three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.

From Wikipedia. 

If you come to the U.S. before age 16 (usually something that is not fully your decision) and you graduate from high school in the U.S. from a high school where English is the primary language of instruction (or Spanish in Puerto Rico),  or have been honorably discharged from the military, or have a GED, and don't have a serious felony (see below) on your criminal record, you should be automatically entitled to a green card (or, if green cards are abolished per the first proposal above, citizenship).

You are functionally just as assimilated into U.S. society as people born in the U.S. in immigrant households.

7. Grant U.S. citizenship more promptly and automatically to people in U.S. military service.

If they are good enough to fight for the U.S. in the military, they should be granted citizenship. Perhaps allow for a probationary period to make sure that non-citizens enlisting in the U.S. military make it through basic training and training in their military occupational specialty, without being discharged. But once they have started actually serving in the military, and not just training, they should be granted U.S. citizenship.

8. Limit relevant criminal offenses for immigration purposes to felonies.

Criminal offenses that have a potential for changing your immigration status should be limited to crimes punishable by more than two years in prison (which reflects the fact that in some states, misdemeanors are punishable by up to two years in jail or prison, even though the usual sentences are typically much shorter).

Traffic offenses, or fishing ordinance violations, or public order offenses, for example, should not be grounds for denying someone immigration status. People permanently in the U.S. should not be one misdemeanor, ordinance violation, or petty offense away from being deported.

9. Decriminalize merely being undocumented.

The lowest level immigration offense, of unlawful entry or overstaying your visa, which is a low level misdemeanor, makes up a surprising large share of the criminal docket of the federal courts, especially in states along the Mexican border, during Presidential administration that choose to prosecute this as a crime. The single most commonly charged federal crime is illegal reentry by an alien which accounts for 27.5% of all federal criminal defendants.

Unlawful entry (even repeatedly) or overstaying your visa (even repeatedly) should simply be a non-criminal grounds for deporting someone until they attain legal immigration status or have remained in the U.S. for ten years.

Criminalization in unnecessarily punitive and stigmatizing, for not very culpable conduct that is victimless, and costs money spent incarcerating and processing someone as a criminal who will just be deported again anyway once the sentence is served.

Criminalization also gets in the way of the efficient functioning of the immigration system. A criminal prosecution involves proof beyond a reasonable doubt, a right to trial by jury, a right to counsel, a necessity of a criminal case before an Article III judge or a magistrate in an Article III court, in person presence in the courtroom, etc. A civil action would require only proof by a preponderance of the evidence, no right to trial by jury, no right to counsel, and not even necessarily involvement of an Article III court or in person presence in the courtroom.

10. Eliminate family based visas for remote family.

Family based visas are subject to quotas and typically have long waiting lists. Those waiting lists are particularly long for more distant relatives who may have to be on waiting lists for many, many years to finally receive them.

A limited number (480,000) of green cards are given out to other relatives of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The wait tends to range from three to twenty four years. Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens wait the longest.

The wait is longer for family members from some countries than it is from others in this category. People from Mexico and the Philippines, for example, face very long wait times in this categories of preferred family members.

The following are the preferences in order of preference:

Unlimited

• spouses and recent widows and widowers of U.S. citizens
• children (unmarried under age 21), stepchildren, and stepparents as long as the marriage occurred before the child was age 18, and
• adopted children as long as the adoption takes place before the age of 16.

Limited by a 480,000 person a year quota with additional country quotas:

• Unmarried children of a U.S. citizen who are age 21 or older
• Spouses and unmarried children of a Green Card Holder (this includes two subcategories, 2A and 2B; children over age 21 are in category 2B, and wait longer than those in 2A)
• Married children of at least one U.S. citizen parent
• Sisters and brothers of U.S. citizens, where the citizen is at least age 21

Rather than encouraging so many people to apply for visas that they will have to wait many years for and may never receive, we should just eliminate the lower priority family visas entirely, probably at least the last two categories, while upgrading spouses and unmarried children under age 21 of green card holders. 

This would leave only unmarried children over age 21 of U.S. citizens and green card holders in the extended family category with quotas.

Deplorable Trump Team Tactics

Trump has engaged in a "flood the zone" strategy of taking outrageous and unprecedented actions on so many front that his opponents are overwhelmed. As the secondary headline of one analysis explained: ""Trump starts presidency by mocking rule of law and stigmatizing trans Americans" 

This post highlights some of those actions.

* Trump ran for office on immediately lowering the price of eggs. The price of eggs has soared since he took office. He says he can't do anything about it and neither he nor his supporters seem to care.

* Produce prices are at risk of rising in the near future since migrant farm workers are failing to show up, en masse, in states like California, Texas, and Florida, and due to threatened broad 25% tariffs on imports to the U.S. from Mexico, Canada, and other countries (in violation of free trade treaties that Trump himself negotiated in his first term). 

* Gasoline prices are also up for now.

* Trump rescinded an Executive Order from President Biden that limited the price of certain prescription drugs resulting in immediate drug price inflation for large number of patients in the U.S.

* Trump pardoned the more than 1,000 people who committed crimes while storming the capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, some of whom violently assaulted police officers (to the disgust of a police officer's union that supported him in the election).  One pardoned January 6 criminal was since killed in a traffic stop after pointing a gun at a traffic officer, and another has been sentenced to ten years in jail for a deadly DUI. He also made other dubious pardons. 

* Trump has threatened to conquer Greenland and the Panama Canal without any Congressional authorization or legal basis to do so, and to use economic pressure to force Canada to become the 51st U.S. state. In addition to blatantly violating international law, this is also contrary to U.S. law. These proposals are unpopular with the U.S. public (as well as the people of the affected countries) and would blow up the NATO alliance.

* Trump has lied about what he has done with regard to water supplies in California.

* Trump is using the FCC to try to punish National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, formally, over concerns about sponsorships, but really because he doesn't like the fact that their truthful news reporting and the decent values of PBS children's programming impeded his ability to lie unchecked and promote hate.

* Trump baselessly blamed Biden and affirmative action hiring for a crash (see also here) between a regional jet with 64 people on board and a U.S. military helicopter with 3 people on board that killed all 67 people near Reagan National Airport in the District of Columbia. Poor training for military helicopter crews (who were outside their designed flight zone), understaffing of air traffic controllers (only two were on duty when there should have been four), and the somewhat reduced experience of regional jet pilots compared to larger commercial aircraft pilots, were far more likely to be the real causes. Trump had already gutted federal air safety measures, left the FAA without a director, and disrupted federal employees after less than two weeks in office when this happened, although realistically none of these things actually caused this crash.

* "The Pentagon’s intelligence agency paused observances of Pride Month, Black History Month, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, Holocaust Days of Remembrance, Juneteenth and other cultural events, as federal agencies scramble to try to conform to President Trump’s repudiation of diversity programs." From the New York Times.

* Trump repealed Executive Order 11246, 59 years, 3 months, 27 days after it was signed by Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1965, which established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors.

* Federal agencies have been forbidden from communicating scientific or public health information to the public. "The Trump administration, moving quickly to clamp down on health and science agencies, has canceled a string of scientific meetings and instructed federal health officials to refrain from all public communications, including upcoming reports focused on the escalating bird flu crisis in the U.S." As one doctor explained on social media:

Trump just directed the CDC, NIH and FDA to halt all external communications. That means to stop giving scientific reports, health advisories, website updates, etc. In simple terms, if there was a salmonella outbreak with massive food recall needed right now, they wouldn't be allowed to announce it. Scared yet? The order came in Tuesday AM and without a reason or a timeline.

* Trump has started the process to remove the U.S. from the World Health Organization, despite a high risk in the near future of a bird flu epidemic. 

* Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox news commentator, was confirmed with a 50-50 votes with all Democrats and three Republicans opposing him and Vice President J.D. Vance breaking the tie, after credible testimony at his confirmation hearings revealed that he was a seriously impaired alcoholic and a rapist, among other concerns. 

Mr. Hegseth’s selection by President Trump and the confirmation process were complicated by a claim of sexual assault and accusations of abusive behavior, public drunkenness and fiscal mismanagement of two nonprofit veterans groups.

In a sworn statement submitted to the Senate on Tuesday, a former sister-in-law of Mr. Hegseth’s described him as frequently intoxicated and “abusive” toward his second wife. Mr. Hegseth, 44, has denied the account, along with other allegations that have dogged his nomination.

And on Thursday, the office of Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, shared written answers to questions she put to Mr. Hegseth, in which he disclosed that he paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.

He has said that encounter was consensual, and he was never charged with a crime.

A handful of Republicans had said privately that the new allegations in the affidavit from Danielle Diettrich Hegseth, the former wife of Mr. Hegseth’s brother, were concerning. But in the end, only Ms. Collins, Ms. Murkowski and Mr. McConnell voted with Democrats against his confirmation.

Ms. Hegseth said after the vote that she had submitted her affidavit only because she had been assured that it would sway key votes. “There are many reasons women are reluctant to come forward, by name, and tell the truth about a powerful man like him,” she said. “What happened today will make women who have experienced abuse and mistreatment even less forthcoming.”

His tattoos suggest neo-Nazi or white supremacist leanings.

* Confirmation hearings for failed third-party Presidential candidate RFK, Jr. as U.S. Health And Human Services Secretary show him to be profoundly unqualified and dangerous. His personal behavior is also deeply concerning due to credible sexual assault allegations against him and weird incidents with dead animals. He also has admitted that some of his brain was eaten away by a worm.

* Trump's Office of Personnel Management nominee is on record as publicly stating that he is a "raging msogynist". 

Andrew Kloster has a new job in the Trump administration, as reported by the Project On Government Oversight. Kloster has landed as the new general counsel for the Office of Personnel Management. The New York University Law graduate has made the rounds in conservative legal circles, previously working at OPM in the first Trump term, becoming a prominent 2020 election denier, and serving as general counsel for congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01). . . . "It wasn’t even a long time ago, so it’s hard to even disingenuously chalk it up to youthful indiscretion. In 2023(!) he was tweeting that he identified as a “raging misogynist,” saying, “I’m 100% women respecter precisely because I’m a raging misogynist. I’m so kind you’ll want to kill yourself and die, which is the goal.” Around that time he also tweeted, “I need a woman who looks like she got punched.” Which was only a few months after being served a temporary restraining order. He referred to “literally all women” as annoying liberals. In 2012, he also commented on a Volokh Conspiracy article that, “Consent is probably modern society’s most pernicious fetish.” But it isn’t only women that the new counsel for the federal government’s HR department has attacked online. He also wrote, “Slaves owe us reparations,” and “slavery was voluntary.” He called Chinese people uncivilized and compared them to raccoons. Oh, and he also seemed to encourage a civil war.

* Kash Patel, Trump's nominee for FBI director, has starting suing people for defamation for opposing his nomination, something that is a patently frivolous strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP). 

* Trump’s Press Secretary has been credibly accused of allegedly pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegal campaign donations.

* Key Trump advisor Elon Musk is a big supporter of what is basically a neo-Nazi party in Germany. He's also a big backer of the modern fascist party in Italy. Musk has also been accused of making Nazi salutes at political functions in the U.S.

* Trump is persecuting former Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, without any semblance of due process or justification, removing his security clearance, ending a security detail established due to credible threats from Iranian assassinations, and removing pictures of him from the Pentagon halls, because Milley put obeying the law and doing is job properly ahead of loyalty to Trump. The New York Times notes that:

Donald J. Trump had previously said he deserved to be executed for treason after the general apologized for appearing with Trump in Lafayette Park near the White House after the removal of civilians protesting the murder of George Floyd.

A Pentagon statement said that Hegseth had directed the Defense Department’s inspector general to review whether General Milley should be demoted in retirement.

* Trump has threatened to bring criminal prosecutions as retribution against state and local officials who defy his immigration plans (something that is illegal).

* Trump's Executive Order purporting to freeze all U.S. government grants and loans created widespread chaos and gave rise to a quick injunction from a judge. Trump quickly rescinded the order in one of the first big wins for Democrats since he took office. More legal analysis here and here.

* Trump has attempted to suspend military aid to Ukraine that has already been authorized by Congress. It isn't clear to me if this is part of the order that has since been rescinded.

* Unilaterally and without any legal authority to do so, the "Trump administration offered roughly two million federal workers the option to resign but be paid through the end of September. It is unclear what authority the Trump administration has to offer a payout to effectively the entire federal civilian work force." Elon Musk had ridiculously claimed that cutting the federal work force by 5-10% could reduce the budget by $100 billion, which this vastly overestimates the cost saving that could be achieved.

* Fox News is making up out of whole cloth the false claim that the U.S. funding $50 million of condoms in Gaza.

* Trump's plan for the Gaza Strip is to "clean out the whole thing." 

* Trump's press release staff can't spell the name of Colombia, the country upon which he sought to impose tariffs for its resistance to the manner in which he deported its citizens, something his legal authority to do is dubious. See also here.

* Deportations are being conducted with U.S. Air Force planes, something arguably in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

* Trump's Executive Order purporting to end birthright citizenship is patently unconstitutional and a federal judge in Washington State has stayed it, expressing exasperation at the Justice Department lawyers trying to defend it.

* As part of Trump's mass deportation sweep, a grandmother, mother and baby grandson, who were all U.S. citizens, were detained in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for speaking Spanish in public by immigration officials, and weren't released until birth certificates and proof and citizenship were provided.

* ICE Agents have staked out an ambulance bay at UC-Health Anschutz (the main university hospital in metro Denver) now that Trump has directed them to ignore historical restrictions on immigration enforcement in sensitive areas like hospitals, courts, and churches.

* Leading Christians including the Pope, a Catholic Cardinal, and the Episcopal Bishop in the National Cathedral have decried his harsh immigration tactics:

* Trump's unilateral attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, is unsurprisingly, receiving strong pushback, although Google seems ready to accept it if it is officially sanctioned by a U.S. place naming board.

* Trump, illegally and without the legal authority to do so, "signed an executive order on Tuesday taking steps to end gender-affirming medical treatments for children and teenagers under 19, directing agencies to take a variety of steps to curtail surgeries, hormone therapy and other regimens. The order continued to chip away at social protections for transgender and intersex people, coming one day after Mr. Trump directed the Pentagon to re-evaluate whether anyone who received gender-related medical treatments should be permitted to serve in the military."

* Trump is illegally and unilaterally banning transgender people from U.S. military service.

* Trump is supporting a "U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will open an investigation into Denver Public Schools for “discriminating against its female students” by creating an all-gender bathroom at East High School[.]"" as a way to continue scapegoating of transgender students.

* "The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics." (NYT).

* A right wing summary of Trump's Executive Orders is available here.

* Trump is suggesting that he is not term-limited, blatantly contradicting the constitution, and showing grave disrespect for is duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution and for democracy.

* Incidentally, Trump is the least popular President in the history of polling, for a second time in a row, at the start of his Presidential term.