World War II

The 1920s Under Calvin Coolidge And The 2020s Under Donald Trump: Isolationism, Protectionism, Nativism!

Ronald 16 Comments

There could not be more of a difference in personality between Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President (1923-1929) and the 45th and 47th President, Donald Trump (2017-2021, 2025- ).

Coolidge was quiet, soft spoken, avoided publicity and attention, while Trump is bombastic, outspoken, and craves constant publicity and attention.

It seems clear that if Coolidge had ever met Trump, he would be frowning about him as a showboat and braggart!

And yet, the two Presidents actually have much in common, specifically three terms:

Isolationism—desire to avoid involvement with rest of world and alliances

Protectionism—promotion of high protective tariffs

Nativism—support of limitations on immigration from other nations.

These policies in the 1920s led to disaster in the 1930s and 1940s, causing the Great Depression; causing the rise of Fascism, which forced America into World War II; and denying many immigrants, particularly Jewish, but not only them, who were trying to escape from totalitarian Fascism in Italy under Benito Mussolini and Germany under Adolf Hitler. This led to the Holocaust of 12 million people in Nazi Germany’s areas of control!

Sadly, we now seem to be going in that same direction, as a century ago, as immigrants are being deported to an uncertain future, and we are on the cusp of a major economic collapse due to high tariffs being imposed by Donald Trump.

But even worse is the collaboration and flirtation with authoritarian nations, particularly the Russian Federation, against nations that were once America’s democratic allies!

Attack On Universities And Freedom Of Inquiry: Discrimination Against Foreign Students!

Ronald 22 Comments

The Donald Trump Administration has declared war on freedom of inquiry on college and university campuses, and have arrested and plan to deport foreign students on visas who have expressed criticism of the Israel-Gaza War, which has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, a vast majority being women and children, NOT Hamas terrorists. The government is claiming that these students expressing their views are a threat to national security.

This author and blogger agrees that Hamas is a terrorist organization, responsible for the deaths of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, the greatest loss of Jewish lives since the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, which murdered close to 6 million Jews in Europe.

One can consider Hamas reprehensible, and consider the right of a strong response to that horrendous massacre nearly 18 months ago. But with the continued assault and lack of concern about the loss of innocent Palestinian lives with no sign of ending, the fact that people of conscience and principle might speak out or write against the continued tragedy, should not be grounds for arrest and deportation for expression of their freedom of speech.

If violence takes place, that is a different story, but there is no indication that foreign students who have been detained and sent to a Louisiana ICE Prison facility, have indeed been engaged in more than their constitutional rights to the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, press, and assembly, with all who are living in the United States being entitled to such rights. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had stated that such was the case.

The use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 had not been used since World War II, and has only been used three times in a situation of declarations of war, which is not the case presently.

So Secretary of State Marco Rubio has abused his power to order arrests based solely on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 during the Red Scare “McCarthyism” Era, and reinforced in updating of the law in 1988. Again, Scalia had so declared his belief that these laws went too far!

Imagining A Theodore Roosevelt-Donald Trump Meeting!

Ronald 8 Comments

At a tumultuous time like now, in late March 2025, after two months of the second Donald Trump Presidency, it seems appropriate to make a comparison between a past President, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President, and Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President.

First, the similarities:

Both TR and Trump were Republican Presidents, although massively different in philosophy and outlook.

Both TR and Trump ushered in massive change, revolutionary in many ways.

Both TR and Trump were attention grabbers on a daily basis, constantly creating news and publicity.

Both TR and Trump were egomanics, having an element of insecurity that required them to insist on “rocking the boat” on a regular basis.

Both TR and Trump could be described as “characters”, highly outspoken more than any other combination of Presidents.

It has been said that TR wanted to be “the bride at every wedding, and the groom on every wedding cake”, and that Trump wanted to be equally admired and noticed constantly.

TR was toasted by Great Britain as a great man during and after his Presidency, and loved every minute of it, while Donald Trump was toasted as a great man during his first Presidency by the Saudi Arabian government, and loved every minute of it!

Both TR and Trump were born to wealth and in New York City, with TR in Manhattan, and Trump in Queens County, and with TR’s vacation home in Nassau County, Long Island, at Oyster Bay, and Trump’s vacation home in Palm Beach County, Florida at Mar a Lago.

As former Presidents running again for reelection in 1912 for TR and 2024 for Trump, both were victims of assassination attempts, with TR more seriously wounded than Trump, but both showing a defiant spirit at the time of their being victims.

Now, the massive differences between TR and Trump!

TR was our youngest President ever at age 42 and ten and a half months of age in September 1901, while Trump was our oldest inagurated President age 78 and 7 months in January 2025, and he will be the oldest President when he leaves office in 2029, surpassing Joe Biden in that statistic if it occurs.

TR believed in a need for a stronger, more engaged national government, challenging the conservative, laissez faire philosophy of the Republican Party, and proudly asserting he was a “progressive”.

Trump has declared “war” on the federal government, wanting to cut down the involvement of the national government in a wide variety of ways, promoting a return to state and local government control as in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

TR was the promoter of environmental reform and conservation of natural resources, regarded as the single most significant President in that area of policy.

Trump has made clear his desire to shut down most environmental and conservation efforts, and promote more drilling and more industrial use of natural resources, despite the reality of climate change and global warming. He is attempting to cut back on national parks, national conservation lands and national monuments in a dramatic fashion.

TR believed in the need for federal government regulation for consumers, regarding food and drug protection, while Trump has allowed himself to appoint a Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is reckless and unstable, and has created great concerns about the protection of health for the American people.

TR promoted openmindedness on workers’s rights, while Trump has demonstrated that he is unconcerned about the average working man and the significance of labor unions.

TR believed in the concept of corporate regulation and responsibility, while Trump has the belief that corporations should not be regulated, and corporate taxes should be cut, both in his first term, and now in his second term. So TR utilized the anti trust laws, while Trump has not and will not do so.

TR and Trump both were involved in the issue of the Panama Canal, with TR promoting a revolution in the area of Colombia which broke away, became independent with US support, and agreed to the building of the Canal, while Trump is now promoting US takeover the Canal, which was given back by treaty in 1977 under Jimmy Carter, and returning to Panamanian control in the year 2000.

TR was aggressive in his relations with the rest of Latin America, promoting the “Big Stick” policy, with intervention in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, while Trump has created tensions in the entire Western Hemisphere, and including our Canadian neighbors to the North, as well as the nations south of the US.

TR cultivated good relations with Japan, while looking down on China, while Trump is being aggressive in his policies toward China, and ready to use tariffs against all nations, including those in Asia.

TR wanted good relations with Europe, particularly with Great Britain and France; was suspicious of Germany; and critical of Russia and its mistreatment of Jews and other minorities. Trump, on the other hand, seems ready to abandon NATO and our close alliances with Western democracies since World War II, and is cozying up with our traditional antagonist, the Russian Federation..

TR won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War, while Trump is hoping for a Nobel Peace Prize by resolving the Russia-Ukraine War.

It is very clear that TR, were he alive today, would be a major critic of Donald Trump, and would have no issue in confronting him openly and “in his face”.

The question is how would Trump react to such scathing and extreme criticism!

Anti DEI Gone Mad: Removal Of All References To Race And Gender On Government Websites

Ronald 3 Comments

The vicious attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) by Donald Trump’s administration has gone totally bonkers, with removal of all references to race, gender, nationality, only allowing information that promotes white straight male dominance.

So the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II and the Tuskegee Airmen are removed from the Defense Department website.

There has been wiping out of Jackie Robinson and other African American contributions and accomplishments on various websites.

The Enola Gay Aircraft (Hiroshima Atomic Bombing in World War II) was removed from the website because it has the word “gay”!

Demeaning of women’s role in government agencies and organizations is full steam ahead.

There is total repudiation of gay or transgender personnel in the military and elsewhere.

Donald Trump is accomplishing the total wipeout of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and since, and also the federal government’s major role in promoting equality and fairness.

This beginning with the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt, the New Deal and Fair Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the advancements under Presidents from Richard Nixon through Joe Biden!

Stephen Miller, Tom Homan And Tattoos: Venezulean Refugees Sent To El Salvador Without Any Due Process: Authoritarianism Run Rampant! :(

Ronald 13 Comments

Donald Trump has just done one of the most abusive, anti constitutional actions imaginable!

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the monstrous, dictatorial Tom Homan, and assisted by equally horrendous Stephen Miller, has sent a few hundred Venezuelan immigrants to horrid prisons in El Salvador, one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet, but often ignored, because of its small population and limited news coverage worldwide.

These Venezuelan refugees are said to be members of a violent Venezuelan gang that committed massive crimes in locations in New York and Colorado, and have been declared “terrorists” by Donald Trump, with him using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for the first time since Japanese internment in detention camps during World War II!

There are many problems with this action, including the fact that the Alien Enemies Act is to be used only in wartime, and we are not at war, except maybe in the mind of Trump, Homan, Miller, and their ilk.

Also, none of these Venezuelan immigrants had their day in court; have not been charged with any crimes specifically; have not had legal representation and ability to defend against any charges; and fundamentally, have not been given due process!

This is authoritarianism at its worst, as this kind of lawlessness could, in theory, be used against any critic in any area of American life, not just supposedly Venezuelan gang members, who all, supposedly have identifying tattoos!

Already, there are cases of individuals whose family members in America have said they are NOT members of a gang, and even if they have tattos, they are not gang related tattoos.

If we are going to assert that anyone with a tattoo of any kind is to be deported to a foreign government that is authoritarian and accepts money from the US to house and mistreat people who have been in the United States, based on lack of evidence of having committed a crime, then ALL of America is in danger, just for being opposed to our President who wants absolute power without limits!

When one realizes that it has been stated that 58 percent of the American people have some kind of tattoo, and even if the number is lower than that, that means we are faced with the greatest threat imaginable in American history!

It means we have a lawless government which can arrest and deport anyone on any grounds without due process to a horrendous foreign dictatorship that will deny them basic human rights without any accountability!

This situation cannot be allowed to stand, and the federal judge in Washington, DC, Chief Judge James Boasberg, who is demanding facts and information and accountability, is now being threatened with impeachment, and condemnation for standing up for the rule of law under the US Constitution.

This is a cause that goes beyond these Venezuelan refugees, as it is a stepping stone to anyone becoming a potential victim.

There is the old saying that was used about Nazi Germany, that when the government came for the Socialists, no one cared, and when they came for the gypsies, no one cared, and when they came for the labor union workers, no one cared, and when they came for the Jews, no one cared. But then, they would come for YOU, and there was no one left to care about YOU!

This is a fight that must be taken in earnest by large crowds marching and demonstrating, and by courageous judges, including Chief Justice John Roberts, who has condemned Donald Trump’s attack on the DC Chief Judge James Boasberg, and also by courageous journalists, and just decent people, who will not sit by and remain silent!

This IS a moment of reckoning for the future of American democracy, and no one can remain on the sidelines!

Massive Abuse: Trump Invocation Of Alien Enemies Act Of 1798!

Ronald 9 Comments

In the early days of the Republic, during the administration of John Adams (1797-1801), the Federalist Party majority in Congress enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, an action against French nationals who had migrated to America during the French Revolution.

President Adams signed the legislation’s four laws, which violated the recent enactment of the Bill of Rights in 1791, and the “Quasi War”, undeclared naval war against France went on from 1798-1800, until the coming to power of Napoleon Bonaparte, led to an agreement to end the undeclared war.

The controversy over the Alien and Sedition Acts led to the defeat of John Adams by Thomas Jefferson in the Presidential Election of 1800, and the repeal of three of the four laws passed in 1798 was the result, but what remained was the Alien Enemies Act.

The law was used during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, under President James Madison, but after that, ignored for a full century.

That law was utilized by Woodrow Wilson in World War I, against nationals of German and other nationals of enemy nations during that war.

And then, again, that law was utilized to justify internment of Japanese nationals after the Pearl Harbor attack that brought America into World War II.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation that led to an apology to survivors of the Japanese internment, and financial compensation to those individuals.

But the law remained in the background, and now, eighty years after World War II, Donald Trump has utilized it as a method and justification to accelerate the deportation of millions of immigrants. Trump is first starting with Venezuelan migrants who have been involved in crimes, but also promoting the removal of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees who had been given Temporary Protected Status by President Joe Biden, and face potential threats if they are forcibly returned to Venezuela, where they faced likely imprisonment or death.

And invocation of the Alien Enemies Act will be used as justification for deportation of millions of other undocumented immigrants, which have come to America to escape persecution and violence in their homeland, and now face a threatening future to their health and safety.

This is perceived as a massive abuse of power, and as the most nativist action by the US government in modern American history!

An update, that despite a federal judge ordering to stop removal of some 250 undocumented Venezuelan immigrants and to return those on the way to El Salvador, which has agreed to accept them, that the Trump Administration has ignored the restraining order, and such immigrants have arrived in El Salvador.

Donald Trump, The Full Blown Imperialist! :(

Ronald 40 Comments

Donald Trump was thought to be an isolationist in his foreign policy views in his first term.

But now in his second term, Donald Trump is a full blown imperialist, who has no concern for our relations with nations that have been America’s allies since after World War II.

So Trump is making clear that he intends, even by military force if necessary, to seize control of the Panama Canal, which was legally handed over by treaty in the Jimmy Carter Administration, effective in the year 2000, and with Republican and Democratic backing in the signing of the treaty in 1977. Such action will cause a major rift with Latin America.

So Trump is continuing to assert that Canada will be the “51st state”, and is imposing heavy protective tariffs, and acting aggressive and abusive toward our northern neighbor. This is causing great stress and the rise of antiAmericanism in Canada, which has no intention of giving up its sovereignty.

So Trump is claiming that Greenland, which has been semi-autonomous from Denmark for a long time, will become a territory of the United States, causing hostility and alarm in Denmark, the European Union, and among our NATO Allies.

So Trump is claiming that the Gaza Strip needs to be emptied, and redeveloped with American investment, a totally loony idea, which would cause the spread of Middle East terrorism to all Americans who would work or live in territory that America has no right to claim.

Donald Trump is, clearly, a full blown imperialist, similar in many ways to authoritarian leaders, including Vladimir Putin of Russia, with his attempt to justify invasion and seizing of territory in Ukraine!

This makes the 47th President “a clear and present danger” to international peace!

Civil Liberties Under Attack With Arrest Of Palestinian, Mahmoud Khalil, Activist From Columbia University!

Ronald 1 Comment

Civil liberties are under attack in the Trump Presidency, and the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student of Palestinian descent, is an alarm bell, as there is no justification for his arrest by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and his detention in secret in a prison in Louisiana.

Khalil may have political viewpoints about the Israel-Gaza War that are unpopular and opposed by many American Jews and other supporters of Israel, but that is not justification for the move to deport, when he is here legally on a green card, a permanent resident card with the permission to work,and has not committed any felonies.

Khalil led student demonstrations last spring, but when did we declare there is no freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech, just because some of us may not agree with one’s viewpoints?

This was not the way that demonstrations at the University of Virginia in 2017 by white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers were treated, by Donald Trump!

Trump is acting like a dictator threatening all Americans’ rights to the First Amendment, and this case must be fought to restore the basic principles of the Bill of Rights.

This was abrogated by President John Adams in the 1790s, Woodrow Wilson during and after World War I, and Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, most infamously among our Presidents, and it is not a political or partisan view to oppose violations of the rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution!

Shocking Confrontation Of Trump And Vance With Zelenskyy In Oval Office Indicates “Sellout” Of Ukraine And Europe!

Ronald 14 Comments

In an event that will reverberate for the long term future, Donald Trump and JD Vance had a shocking public confrontation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine in the Oval Office yesterday, repudiating US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, which began with a massive invasion by Vladimir Putin’s military forces three years ago.

Nothing like this incident has ever occurred before, and certainly, not in the public eye for all to witness.

It made clear that Trump is abandoning the close relationship the US has had with European democracies since World War II, and instead is embracing a close friendship with the aggressor, and major threat to world peace, Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation.

This presents a threat to the survival and viability of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which has keep peace and stability for 75 years since 1949.

Shockingly, most Republicans are backing Trump and Vance in their “ambush” of Zelenskyy, and the idea that Vice President Vance would interject himself in the confrontation so directly, was beyond the pale, clearly designed to promote his own Presidential candidacy to succeed Trump in 2028.

Vance has now made himself the most despicable Vice President in modern times, surpassing Spiro Agnew and Dick Cheney in being a confrontational second in command.

All good, decent people will support Zelenskyy and Ukraine, and reputiate the despicable, corrupt, and authoritarian orientation of both Trump and Vance, and of their sycophants in the Cabinet and elsewhere in the US government.

And already, people who had been strongly anti Russian for good reason historically and contemporarily, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and others have clearly decided that they will advance their own agendas, and give up their principles.

If Rubio in particular had any guts or ethics, he would resign, but that clearly is NOT going to happen.

America is in a very dangerous time in so many ways, and this after less than six weeks in office in the second Trump Presidency.

There is a lot of “buyer’s remorse” apparent among voters, who allowed themselves to be bamboozled by a man who was already impeached twice, had 86 indictment charges in four cases, and was convicted on 34 felony charges of those counts for falsifying business records in New York State.

The anarchy and chaos being promoted in both domestic and foreign policy is mind-blowing, and puts the US in a very dangerous condition for the future under Donald Trump!

The Republican Party And Russia From Joseph McCarthy To Donald Trump!

Ronald 18 Comments

The Republican Party has completely reversed its long held stand against Russian aggression, from the time of the Soviet Union’s founding in 1917; through its decline and collapse and the end of the Cold War in 1991; and through the rise of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation in the year 2000 to the present.

Whether Democratic or Republican administrations, the US Government has stood against the imperialism and expansionist urges of the Russian government for more than a century.

No longer though, now, as Donald Trump has embraced Vladimir Putin’s three year war on Ukraine, and called Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy a “dictator”, totally upending all reasonable assessments of the worst destruction and bloodshed in Europe since World War II and Nazi Germany.

Trump has hijacked the Republican Party, silencing most members of the party in the Congress and in the states, who have instead of doing the right thing, condemning Russia’s imperialism and threat to all of Europe and the NATO alliance, rather become the cheering squad for Trump’s destructive relationship with the western democracies, and his embrace of authoritarianism.

Despite the overall negative view of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the Second Red Scare from 1950-1954, he was certainly right on the menace of the Soviet Union, while tragically destroying the reputations of many Americans in his quest for power and influence.

Richard Nixon was also a promoter of the Second Red Scare, along with a multitude of others, but the one consistency in the midst of horrendous abuse of their attack on Democrats, liberals, and decent Americans, there was recognition of the dangers of Communism and the Russian control of Eastern Europe and the desire to expand further.

But now, we see people in the Republican Party who know better, going along with Donald Trump’s destruction of the basic traditions of American foreign policy, in order to advance their own personal agenda and ambitions.

Now, we have Marco Rubio, as Secretary of State, keeping silent on what Trump is doing regarding Russia, and the same for other Cabinet Officers and House and Senate Republicans.

Only a few are willing to speak up and condemn the switch in attitude toward Russia, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Congressman Don Bacon from the Second District of Nebraska.

But Tillis and Bacon are in danger of being opposed for reelection by Elon Musk recruiting opponents, and most Republicans are unwilling to speak up, in fear of losing their seats, which is, sadly, more important than having any principles!

So the Republican Party is a disaster, with the old traditions thrown out, and instead, embracing a war criminal, Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB Spy in the latter years of the former Soviet Union!

It can be assured that Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and other hardline critics of Russia, are tossing in their graves!