The sequel

“LIBERATION DAY.”

In his Inaugural Address, now President Donald Trump declared January 20, 2025, to be Liberation Day. I’m not sure what we’re being liberated from, and I’m sure Trump doesn’t know either. Maybe he saw a MAGA meme that has him portrayed as some kind of cosplay George Patton storming the beach at Normandy.

Anyway, on January 20, we know that Trump gave three separate speeches, each one worse than the other. But in reality, his words were forgettable if for the only reason that we’ve heard them all before.

The sequels are never as entertaining or as interesting as the original.

It is not for his various speeches at the MAGA rallies he held on that day that will be remembered. Instead January 20, 2025, will be remembered because of his actions. And some were real beauts.

Some low lights:

Baby it’s cold outside… the ghost of William Henry Harrison, our 9th president and holder of the shortest tenure in office, must have visited Trump in the night. Harrison, on a cold wet day, without any overcoat rode a horse to his inauguration site where, after taking the oath of office, he delivered a two-hour Inaugural Address, the longest such address in our history.

Exactly one month to the day, Harrison died of pneumonia at age 68. Harrison set two records that still stand.

Not wanting to beat that record, Trump moved his festivities indoors. Besides, Melania hates having cold feet.

The decision to move indoors was made just days prior to the Inauguration leaving tens of thousands of his supporters out of the money they spent to go to Washington to see their hero make history.

Most had to watch the ceremonies on television like I did for free. Sorry Bubba from Oklahoma, Trump has never had a refund policy.

Speaking of the ceremony… there were a couple of things that jumped out at me. First, what was the deal with that hat? You know what I mean, That Hat. Was it a fashion choice or a defense mechanism? After Trump took the oath, he moved in to give Melania a kiss and was BLOCKED! Apparently, she fortified her border around her head and kept the invader out!

But didn’t she look like the guy who tried to kill Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark? Just saying.

Second, Trump raised his right hand but never put his left on the Bible(s) when he took the oath. That struck me as odd given his role as a part time Bible salesman. The common assumption was that Trump was afraid that he’d be consumed by fire as in the last scenes of Raiders.

I don’t think that was the reason. And the Rosetta Stone reveals the reason imbedded in his first speech of the day. He said that God spared him so that he, Donald J. Trump, could Make America Great Again.

Which brings me to…

Divine Rights of President…obviously it’s “Kings” but I don’t want to aggrandize him. We all know, if not the history, the concept of Divine Rights of Kings. Simply put, the sovereign only answers to God and nobody else.

Innovator that he is, Trump resurrected and applied the concept to…him! And because he is the anointed source of all power, he can rule via executive fiat. Lucky for him there were over 100 orders awaiting his scrawl. Among the low lights are these…

Closing the southern border – he declared a national emergency at the border, enabling him to use the military to enforce the border. Coincident to the order was the cancellation of all asylum hearings. People had to wait months if not years for their hearings scheduled for January 20. Shortly past noon on the 20th, all hearings were canceled. The cruelty is the point.

Add to that the declaration that all the Mexican cartels are terrorist organizations. We’ll wait to see where this goes.

Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – boy, somebody on Team Trump went on the WayBack Machine. John Adams and the Federalist Party were politically inspired to enact this Act to cripple the new Democrat-Republican party formed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Jefferson was Adams’ vice president at the time. Awkward.

This Act gives the president the authority to apprehend and deport all undocumented immigrants who may be (or may not be) members of foreign gangs and “eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil”

Put it this way, in West Side Story the Sharks would be considered a foreign gang, but the homegrown Jets would be ok.

But there’s a slight problem with this order. In order to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, shouldn’t there be a, you know, enemy? Have we declared hostilities against Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Ghana, et al.? And here I thought we were going to war with Denmark.

People around the country are anxiously awaiting the authorities to descend on their communities to enforce the Alien Enemies Act. Even churches, temples, synagogues, and schools won’t be safe havens for those pursued. Again, cruelty remain the point.

End Birthright Citizenship – consistent with the Divine Rights of Presidents, Trump feels he needn’t amend the Constitution. All he need do is issue an Executive Order and poof no more birthright citizenship. He doesn’t even need any pixie dust.

Amendment XIV s. 1.1.2 clearly states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  It’s not even close and the courts have consistently upheld the plain meaning of the amendment (see e.g., United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649). Twenty-two states (my state included) have filed a complaint in federal court for declaratory and injunctive relief to overturn the president’s illegal Executive Order.

It is more than likely that the complainants will win this case, even if it goes to the Supreme Court. But it is equally likely that if the Supremes find against Trump, he would channel his inner Andrew Jackson and say something like, “they made their judgment, now let them enforce it.”

NOTE: since I wrote the above, a federal judge in Washington state enjoined the implementation of Trump’s order. Indulge me by partially quoting Judge Coughenour, a Reagan appointment:

“Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind. Go ahead.” … “I’d like to go back to your opinion about the constitutionality of this order, I've been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”

This did my professional and personal good. I only wish he could’ve found away to impose sanctions on those guys if only for wasting the court’s time.

End D.E.I. Programs – the federal government will no longer attempt to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in its work force. Now the buzz word is “meritocracy.” God forbid we have a government workforce that looks like America.

Related to that is the Order that the federal government will only recognize two genders – male and female. Protections for federal transgender prisoners were abolished. On the second full day of his administration, Trump sent federal workers who work on D.E.I. policies home on paid leave. He’s also directed department heads, within the next 30 days, to come up with a dismissal plan for these employees.

Making matters even worse was a memorandum to federal workers promising “adverse” consequences if they didn’t snitch on others engaged in D.E.I. activities. Hmmm, where have we seen this before?

Needless to say that Nancy Mace is no doubt relieved that congressional rest rooms are now, again, safe havens.

Anticipating this order, before Trump even had taken his Oath of Office, the feckless and gutless CEOs of many of our major companies announced that their D.E.I. programs were being abandoned. This is what Obedience in Advance looks like.

Drill, Baby, Drill – Trump declared a “national energy emergency,” even though in 2024 the United States had the highest oil production EVER! Sorry for my Sean Spicer moment.

Compound that with the suspension of all leases for wind farms because they “degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve American energy consumers.” He also ended what Team Trump refers to as an “electric vehicle mandate.”

As an aside, thanks to climate change to which fossil fuel emissions are a major cause, on January 22, 2025, there was snow on the beaches in Pensacola, Florida. And 8 inches of snow on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Louisiana.

He, She, and not “Other” – “It will officially be the policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female…” “Nonbinary,” or “Other” will be eliminated from all federal forms, including passports and Visas.

Oh, and he’s also ordered our withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

There are more, many more, including unilaterally changing the names of bodies of water and tall mountains. He officially authorized DOGE with Elon Musk as the head, perhaps with a West Wing office. And he suspended all foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending review to decide if these programs align with Trump’s agenda. He also made the country safe for Tic Tok for 75 days, undermining already enacted and court ratified law.

I didn’t focus on the elephants in the room, the representatives of the oligarchy exerting its influence on Trump’s government, but I will in a separate piece. For now, don’t overlook Elon Musk’s “weird arm gesture” as too many in the media described it. It was a NAZI salute, made to the larger audience and made to the dignitaries behind him, including the 47th president of the United States. One gesture might have been weird, immediately repeating the gesture was deliberate.

While it may seem that I covered a lot of ground, please know that what I covered was only the tip of an exceptionally large iceberg. Channeling his inner Divine Right, Trump may have committed the most egregious act that any leader of a democratic society could commit.

L’Etat c’est moi – fittingly channeling his Devine Right, he copped a page out of French King Louis XIV’s reign. Roughly translated, it’s “I’m the boss.”

As the boss, as the Supreme Court affirmed last year the pardon power was identified as being a core function of the presidency. The president can pardon whoever he wants, whenever he wants, for whatever reason he wants.

Unless the president is Joe Biden, whose pardons were “bogus.” Don’t get me started!

In less than 12 hours after he took the Oath of Office, Trump issued a blanket pardon of 1500 “J6 hostages” including commuting the sentences of violent offenders and leaders of the assault on the Capitol. Ongoing cases in the courts will be dismissed with prejudice.

And it was an assault. It wasn’t a protest, it was an armed insurrection. The purpose was not to persuade legislators from performing their constitutionally mandated duties. It was to physically intimidate and prevent those duties from being carried out.

Over 140 Capitol Police Officers were injured, some severely injured. Four officers died because of the insurrection. Many of these officers continue to physically and mentally recover from the wounds inflicted on them by the mob.

This was NOT a day of “love.”

This insurrection was in service to one man, not to a political philosophy. This insurrection was not to preserve democracy but to ensure one man’s continuation in an office to which he no longer had legal claim.

This insurrection was to keep Donald John Trump in an office that he lost in a free and fair election. It was not about a protest of a “rigged” election. There was no rigged election.

And in anticipation of any MAGAt trolls who might be literate enough to read this, if you challenge what I just wrote, then you’d better bring the receipts. Show me your proof, objective verifiable evidence that the election was rigged, and maybe we can talk. But you’re going to have to convince me that state and federal courts in various jurisdictions, presided over by judges appointed during several administrations – including Trump’s – got it wrong. Or were in on the fix, for which you also need evidence.

I’m just getting started.

Here’s the deal. If Trump said bullshit was good for us, millions would immediately buy a bull and start to harvest their home grown.

On January 6, 2021, there were no bulls, only Trump’s assertions that he had been cheated. And since he had been cheated, and he’s the embodiment of all MAGA members, they had been cheated. And the only way for them to keep their country, they’d have to fight “like hell” for it!

And then it was on. Approximately 3 ½ hours of rampage, assaults, and injuries – over 140 of them. And two deaths on that day. One was Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died of his physical injuries coupled with being sprayed with bear spray. The other was Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot when she attempted to breach a door behind which huddled members of Congress who had yet to be evacuated to a safer location.

Ms. Babbitt has been elevated to the status of MAGA Saint, one who gave her life in unrighteous service to MAGA’s false god. The MAGA hoard did not enter to protest a “rigged” election or out of some impulse of faux patriotism. Wittingly or unwittingly, what they did on January 6 was in service to one man, whose own cause was self-interest while causing others to promote his ambitions to crap on democracy and rule of law.

The death of Ashli Babbitt was not the fault of the officer who fired the shot but is the fault of the narcissistic coward who lit the fuse of the bomb that exploded into the tragic events of that day.

One thousand two hundred fifty of these insurrectionists were convicted after all their due process rights were observed. Over 600 nonviolent insurrectionists were sentenced to be incarcerated, with the average time of incarceration being 60 days. Over 170 violent insurrectionists were incarcerated for longer periods of years. Finally, 14 insurrectionists were found guilty of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to even longer terms of incarceration. This last group had their sentences commuted, not pardoned. Yet.

The remainder of those pardoned had yet to stand trial.

Included in those convicted of seditious conspiracy were the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. These are two anti-democratic, anti-government, anti-rule of law gangs of thugs. And now their leaders are back on the streets with both groups seeking retribution.

In addition to spitting in the faces of investigators, prosecutors, judges, and juries, with these pardons Trump achieved his ambition of crapping on democracy and the rule of law.

There are studies that show when violent criminals are pardoned and released, they feel emboldened to engage in even more severe violence.

And Trump now has two violent militaristic groups beholden to him forming what might become his own private army. Think mid 1930s Germany.

My fear is that what Trump did in a mere 3 ½ days is just the beginning. It is vital that all people of good conscience raise their voices, not in opposition to Trump, but in service of our democratic republic.

Those of us of a certain generation know the possibilities of concerted action against the forces of oppression. We have stood in opposition to an Imperial President. We have stood against senseless war. We stood side by side to protect the individual rights of all people, and against ill-advised policies, sometimes at the risk of our own personal liberties.

And now, at this stage of our lives, we may be called upon once more to stand against this authoritarian injustice.

As I said, the sequel is always worse than the original.