The advertisement read, “On May 1, 2025, we will come together to raise our voices in support of our quality public schools.” The event was volunteer-organized for the National Education Association.
Some students and adults showed up outside the high school in Solon, Iowa on a rainy Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, from Washington, D.C. U.S. Senator Chris Murphy posted the following:
Everything helps.
The U.S. president looked like an old man struggling to descend the steps outside Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome Saturday morning. He leaned his head over and looked down, watching each footstep like a person who needed assistance on the stairs leading to Saint Peter’s Square where the requiem Mass for Pope Francis would be celebrated.
It seems clear at the end of week fourteen Trump is not in charge of the government. If there is a power player in the administration, it is Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Budget and Management. Vought also played a primary role in creating Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, also known as Project 2025. It is as if they are implementing Project 2025 policies page by page.
It is also clear the administration is in a hurry to gather all power it can in the executive branch of government, under the president specifically. Some describe this as conformance with the unitary executive theory, according to which the president has sole authority over the executive branch of government. In our government today, the legislative and judicial branches continue to have a role to play, including funding the administration and its agencies, and adjudicating what is out of bounds. The president signs executive order after executive order pushing our form of democracy toward the guardrails designed by the founders. No one knows if the guardrails will hold. Some of us have faith.
The Congress returns from Easter recess today. If their work seems superficial in the coming days, the more consequential work of shaping the administration will continue behind the scenes in the lead up to the budget reconciliation vote expected in late May. With the closely divided House, there will be tremendous pressure for Republicans to hold to a conservative budget, one that formalizes some of the president’s executive orders. Everyone knows all it will take is a few Republican House members to vote no to scuttle the conservative dreamscape of government. Democrats cannot afford to let the reconciliation bill pass without a fight.
The playing field is prepared, the players are known. While Democrats are playing defense, they must stick together and find a few Republicans to join them. This alone makes it worth contacting our members of Congress to let them know that the power and money grab by the well to do will not stand.
Why Trump’s pattern of purging our highest-performing military officers is dangerous by Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
“Our standards will be high, uncompromising and clear.” – Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Message to the Force, January 25, 2025
President Donald Trump’s pick for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine (retired), possesses an extraordinary record of service—in Iraq, in special access programs and in the National Guard. There is no question of his capacity to lead, devotion to our country, character, courage or competence.
But those aren’t the qualifications required by law to be the senior-most military officer in our Armed Forces. Federal law requires the chairman to be active duty and have served in any of three senior roles: vice chairman, service chief (except the Coast Guard) or commander of a combatant command. Caine fails to meet one of these.
The president can waive most of the qualifications if he determines it is in our “national interest.” But the only justification that President Trump has stated for waiving these legal standards in this instance is that he remembers Caine stating he “loved” Trump, would “kill” for Trump and that Caine proudly donned a MAGA hat which—as Trump gushed—would be a violation of federal law.
Strangely, Caine has categorically denied that he ever did any of those things, which means either Caine lied—under oath—or that he told the truth and Trump has no justification.
To President Trump, the “national interest” appears to mean personal loyalty.
The nomination of Caine is just the latest example in a dangerous pattern of President Trump purging—in multiple reckless and sudden bursts—the military of its highest-performing general officers from mission-critical roles. Why? Because they promised loyalty to the Constitution instead of to him? These firings have nothing to do with upholding high standards at all they are about prioritizing fealty over qualifications and putting our national security at risk in the process.
Please click here to read the rest of this important opinion piece.
I respect Republican Senator Joni Ernst for her service as the commanding officer of a transportation company during the Iraq War. I also don’t know how an accomplished military officer got tangled up with the DOGE caucus yet she did. She has been a cheerleader, saying, “DOGE will sweep over this city (Washington, D.C.) and forever alter the way it operates.” Indeed, the task force is attempting to do that and the Veterans Administration is not exempt.
When the 2022 PACT Act passed, Ernst was on board. “Our veterans, who have sacrificed so much and continue to pay the price for their service, deserve the life-saving benefits in this bill,” she said. “The PACT Act works to fulfill our duty to care for those who put on the uniform in the name of protecting our freedom, both past and present.”
President Biden staffed the VA to accommodate the new law by hiring some 83,000 new workers. DOGE now seeks to return staffing to 2019 levels, according to Military.com. What happens to the PACT Act if the VA cuts employees hired to fulfill its commitments? Ernst must decide. Support our veterans or support DOGE.
The good things Senator Ernst may have done are undermined by her declaration in support of DOGE. In the meanwhile, veterans may be left untreated while a diminished VA tries to care for their special needs with significantly reduced staff.
Senator Ernst should support the VA or find another line of work.
~ Published as a letter to the editor in the April 27, 2025 Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Who knew the house of cards would fall apart after rendition of legal U.S. residents to El Salvador without due process? But there you have it. The coffee tastes bitter today. Here’s hoping the coming days are sweeter.
If immigration reform and rounding up undocumented U.S. residents was the first goal of the administration (and it was), they did a terrible job preparing for it. The present goal apparently is to deport one million people per year, far short of what was said on the campaign trail. They did not adequately ramp up the legal system to accommodate due process for each one of this number of deportees. They seemed shocked that the judiciary system won’t let them load random people on cattle cars and sent them off to foreign lands with gulags without charges or a hearing of any kind. They just assumed the judiciary would go along. This lack of due process appears to be a line in the sand. When it get the the U.S. Supreme Court, the hand-picked justices seem unlikely to accept it. We shall see.
One has to ask how much time to spend thinking about Trump and his minions. I follow the news in a cursory way. I am usually familiar with a story someone raises in conversation. It is best for my personal productivity to spend as little time as possible occupied with figuring out what the administration is doing. I do care, yet it seems pointless to try to make sense of it when there is no conventional sense to be made about much of it. There are two key threads: Russell Vought’s implementation of Project 2025, and the daily changing whims of the president. I am not interested in being a spectator in the coliseum.
To maintain my sanity, I have to stay focused on finishing writing the current book. Once it is put to bed, I can turn my attention to other important things.
Today marks eleven weeks since the inauguration. Who knew we would be where we are? I’m not really sure where we are.
Of the many reckless changes the administration made, the following are most concerning to me: elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services; changes to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; threatened changes to the Smithsonian Institution; defunding NOAA; vast cuts in medical research funding; all the programmatic changes to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security; and of course, the reconciliation bill that moved through the U.S. Senate over the weekend providing stunning tax cuts for the well-to-do in society by borrowing money to pay for them. The hits against what we once thought was good keep coming.
On Saturday, millions of people, in all 50 states, demonstrated against the administration’s changes. Crowd estimating is an inexact science yet some say 5 million people showed up. The demonstrations appeared to be peaceful. The president was busy at his golf club, so I doubt he was engaged. The resistance is getting stronger.
The government was stable under Biden. The next president introduced uncertainty about the future. There is no perceptible benefit to the increased instability and uncertainty of our government. We now have a society in which the rich get richer and the rest of us can fight over scraps. Here’s the thing, though. Out of those scraps we will make a meal to nourish and sustain us to make our lives better than we have ever had them. Above all else, we must persist on the path toward righteousness.
On a cool Saturday morning I planted 20 varieties of tomatoes on my bench in the garage. There has been a home-garden tomato crop at almost every place we lived since we married in 1982. I am a couple days late getting seeds into channel trays compared to last year. If all goes well, there will be plenty of tomatoes, beginning in August. I know how to produce a crop.
After noon I watched the BlueSky hashtag #handsoff. Users posted images of Hands Off! demonstrations from all over the country. It was a decent showing of people opposed to the administration, more protesters than usually turn out for nation-wide protests. There is a lot about which to be upset. I did not attend one of several events within half an hour drive of home. I decided an hour’s driving could be better spent.
Instead, I had a 50-minute phone call about unions during the Reagan years. I forwarded a chapter of my memoir in progress to a friend who was a member of the United Auto Workers union during that time. It was a good conversation about things we don’t usually discuss.
After getting his masters, my friend got a job as a teacher in the Saint Louis area. He rose to become president of the National Education Association local. He told me his Sheryl Crow story. Crow had worked as a music teacher for the district and wanted to cash in her pension to head out west. There was a recommendation she leave it in place in case she needed to start over. Of course, she didn’t need that. His Sheryl Crow story is better than mine, which is I heard her play at the Senator Tom Harkin annual steak fry on Sept. 19, 2004.
I had a restless night Friday. The U.S. Senate protected the billionaire class and left the rest of us behind, voting in favor of the reconciliation bill early Saturday morning. Next the bill goes to the House. Its future there is uncertain. The Republican majority is so thin that Texas Governor Abbott is postponing a special election in Houston to replace U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner who died in March. His action takes one Democratic vote off the table. We are in the hard ball league with our politics, where nothing matters except for the income of the owners. We are not the owners.
Cool ambient temperatures kept me out of the garden again. Soon, though, I’ll get out there and dig this year’s plots. Probably, there will be tomatoes. One never knows, yet we plant the seeds.
On Monday, March 31, National Public Radio reported the Institute of Museum and Library Services placed its entire staff on administrative leave. While the employee count is low at about 70, the impact of the institute across the country is high. I recently posted about all they do to help public libraries in my community.
According to a statement from AFGE Local 3403, which represents IMLS workers, the agency’s staff was notified by email about being placed on paid administrative leave for 90 days after a “brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership.” Employees had to turn in government property, and email accounts were disabled. (National Public Radio, March 31, 2025).
The future of previously awarded, yet unpaid grants is uncertain. Work on new proposals stopped. One assumes the institute won’t be returning from leave except to wind down the Congressionally approved institute. Whether the grant-writing process would be transferred to another agency hasn’t been discussed in public. The uncertainty is not good for people who work in public libraries, especially in smaller communities where libraries are widely used as a resource and a foundation of community life.
I wrote my federal representative and senators. Senators Grassley and Ernst replied, and based on that communication, we are in a wait and see period while the intentions of the Department of Government Efficiency become public and the process evolves. Placing staff on paid administrative leave throws cold water on initial belief the institute could be saved.
Why is this so important? Public libraries are the lifeblood of our democracy. In addition to public facilities made available for little or no fees, reading is a valued way of learning. The anti-intellectualism behind the assault on museums and libraries is on prominent display with this action. The endgame is the deliberate destruction of knowledge. We are already seeing evidence of this in other parts of the state and federal government.
If locals need to fund our public library, I believe money could be raised if federal grants disappear. Uncertainty is in the air. Just tell us what you are doing, federal government, and with clarity library lovers everywhere will do what is needed to support our public libraries. While this action in unwelcome, it is not the end of the discussion of public libraries and museums.
The ambient temperature is chilly as I write. Not freezing, not spring, just chilly. I yearn to be outside working in the yard and garden. I don’t yearn enough to bundle up and brave the cold and wind. At least I got the garlic in the ground on Saturday and it rained Sunday. I’ll take little victories when they come.
I’ve been spending what seems like a lot of time writing. Each day includes writing emails, social media posts on BlueSky, and at least one blog post. All of that writing is to prime the pump for work on my autobiography. I’m on the draft of Chapter 25 of a possible 50, so the draft is half finished. Time writing is valuable for the distraction it provides. Distraction from our politics, mostly.
On Monday, Paul Krugman posted this graphic:
His comment was about the impact of economic uncertainty on small businesses. It’s not good, he said. However, there are more kinds of uncertainty during the current administration that are equally uncertain.
Will Social Security continue to provide steady retirement income? Will my veteran friends continue to have health care through a viable Veterans Administration system? Will my public library be able to afford things like interlibrary loans, websites, and other services if federal funding goes away? Will research facilities be able to create needed vaccines during the next, inevitable pandemic? When I’m infirm enough to need a nursing home will Medicaid be available to help defray costs? Life today is one big truckload of uncertainties, hence my need to be distracted from it.
As society grows more uncertain, the tendency is to withdraw into what is most important in life: family, maintaining a home, eating sufficiently well to avoid problems, maintaining physical and mental health, and more. Such concerns during the Reagan administration rose and my reaction was to withdraw into what I will call the “Reagan bubble.” Focus on what is important and the heck with everything else. Needing a Reagan bubble complicates things in significant ways.
The tendency is to conserve resources. That means less spending on retail in person and online. It also means using funds to pay down debt. Can we get by with the vehicle we currently own for a few more years? Will the washer and dryer hold up without needing replaced? Conserving resources, multiplied by a society that feels the same way about uncertainty will have negative fallout for the consumer economy. While I’m not an economist, it will be felt across the economy, not just in the consumer sector.
Living in the Reagan bubble will be good for my writing, the same way the coronavirus pandemic was. Until I finish the second book, I need that. That raises another question, though. Where will things be when I do finish the book, hopefully by the end of the year? It’s a big unknown. Those of us who have been to this rodeo before during the Reagan years know what to do.
Below is the message I sent to my federal representatives in Washington, D.C. The president signed an executive order on March 14, which said in part, the Institute of Museum and Library Services is an unnecessary bureaucracy.
…the non-statutory components and functions of the following governmental entities shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law… (Continuing the reduction of the federal bureaucracy, The White House, March 14, 2025).
Here is the message I sent:
What can you do to save the Institute of Museum and Library Services?
I’m writing to express my disappointment that the president intends to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) “to the maximum extent of the law,” via executive order. As you know, the Congress created IMLS and, by law, only the Congress can dissolve this federal agency. As a resident of your district, I don’t understand how the executive branch can intervene in a congressionally created agency, cancel grants, and in effect put it out of business. Please explain.
Our local public library in Solon, Iowa depends on IMLS funds for things like inter-library loans, platform fees, shared online resources with other Iowa libraries, website hosting, the People’s Law Library of Iowa, and more. Depending upon the timeline for ending grants, if that is the final decision, these library services upon which we depend could be disrupted.
If the federal government pulls the plug on IMLS, the community will respond and replace it as we can. We’ll see what the courts say about the president’s executive order. What can the Congress do?
Our community is self-reliant. When we didn’t like that the library was located under the band stand in the city park, we solved the problem by contributing more than $1 million to build the current facility. When we quit claimed the building to the city, they made a commitment for staffing. Ever since, the library has been a valuable community asset.
Thanks for considering my email. Good luck navigating these turbulent times.
Regards, Paul Deaton
Senators Grassley and Ernst replied, and Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks has not. Grassley and Ernst did not really address my concerns, yet they say they support libraries and don’t have an opinion on the effective closing of this agency. Like me, they are concerned and describe the current situation as actively unfolding with a lot to learn. I posted part of Grassley’s response here.
What seems clear from the executive order, and the other actions the president has taken, is the impacts on plain folks like me will be many and will hit me where I live.
The next step is figuring out what I can to about the many changes proposed by the federal government.
Journey Home
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