1 week Ago By Donald Menzel
Oh, I know it’s trite to say “enough is ...
but it’s OK to open a window and yell your lungs out given what is gushing out of Washington these days.” America the beautiful, it’s not. Rather we have become the ugly American snatching a Turkish national and Tufts doctoral graduate student off of the streets by Department of Homeland Security agents, even though she has a visa allowing her to study in the U.
S. This brazen kidnapping was captured by a surveillance camera. A day later, 137 Venezuelan migrants locked in wrist and leg chains accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members were deported to an El Salvador prison.
No legal due process was afforded them to ensure that they are indeed gang members, not U.S. citizens.
We now learn that at least one young Maryland father, Abrego Garcia, 29, was snatched from his vehicle and loaded aboard a waiting aircraft destined for El Salvador. An administrative error, the Trump administration claims. U.
S. Federal District Judge Paula Xinis has ordered the Trump administration to return him to the U.S.
The Trump administration has appealed the ruling contending they have no power to return him because he is in the custody of El Salvador.Now we are engulfed by the unsecured Signal messaging app scandal that endangered U.S.
fighter pilots about to launch an attack on the Houthis in Yemen. Among the high-ranking U.S.
government officials involved in the chat were Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.
Also inadvertently included was Jeff Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. A “hoax,” claimed President Trump. Other responses from Trump officials and congressional allies included “mistake,” “glitch” and “entirely permissible — the chat didn’t include any war plans and contained no classified information.
Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed the scandal with the nonsensical statement, the “mission was successful.”Hillary Clinton put it plainly in The New York Times, “(I)t’s the stupidity. What’s much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat.
That’s dangerous. And it’s just dumb.”Enough is enough!But there’s more.
Is Elon Musk “making America great again” by ransacking federal agencies that you and I rely on to keep us healthy, assure us clean air and water, accessible national parks, unspoiled public lands, and free and fair elections? Does requiring voters to have proof of citizenship promote democracy or serve as a roadblock? What kind of proof is required? A passport that millions of Americans do not have and is expensive to acquire? The U.S. State Department reports that about 170 million Americans, approximately half the population, possess a valid passport.
A birth certificate? Do you know where yours is? A naturalization certificate? A REAL ID, a federally mandated identification card issued by the Department of Homeland Security that meets enhanced security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses.Yet another story of Trump callousness is his utter failure to honor four U.S.
soldiers killed in a Lithuanian training accident. He had more pressing business attending a Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament at his Doral golf course in Florida. Since swearing in on Jan.
20, he has spent more than $26 million in taxpayer funded golf trips. If the Musk DOGE boys are still looking for waste in government spending, they need look no further. What more needs to be said?April 2 was liberation day, according to President Trump.
Are you feeling liberated yet? Are the tariffs Trump placed on friends and adversaries alike, including penguins on human uninhabited islands, making groceries cheaper? Hillary is right, “How much dumber will this get?” Who knows? But don’t hold your breath— it could get dumber. Isn’t it time to open that window and shout, “Enough is enough!”Don Menzel studied political science at Penn State. He resides in Wellington.
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