The U.S. 250 Years Later, now with a Stranger in Paradise

We must renew and we must give rebirth to the American Constitution, to the Statue of Liberty, and to the Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe. As a complement to America, remember Winston Churchill fell in love with that hymn and asked to have it played at his Funeral.

Our Founding Fathers with some strong words of advice.

PROLOGUE

Many immigrants for 250 years have been coming to America, many of them thinking they were coming to a land called paradise. For the first 100 years under our U.S. Constitution, we were so successful with our immigration program that the French on our 100th anniversary gave us a gift of the Statue of Liberty as a recognition of our introducing the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Since that time many many immigrants still are believers in our country as, a paradise to be cherished. It's very important for the reader to note that immigrants commit fewer crimes in America than the average American citizen. Unfortunately, the MAGA group thinks otherwise, wrongly, and it believes a perverse interpretation for new incoming immigrants. It is a tactic used by the Executive branch to cause division, the old divide and conquer routine amongst the people. It produces hatred, it produces disinformation. It is truly a despicable approach and not the American way. In our history as a nation we have made many many mistakes, we have harmed many of our citizens improperly, we have done things that were embarrassing but we have always tried to face the music of truth politically and make amends for our errors. We all must realize that democracy is certainly not a perfect form of government. There are flaws, there are mistakes, but as Winston Churchill stated, “democracy is still the best of the worst”. Dear reader are the concepts over immigration, the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution still alive? Barely, we are threatened with the loss of the rule of law and a loss of respect for what we have stood for in the past. Our standing in the free world is practically fully diminished. It's disgraceful the way we are treating documented and even undocumented immigrants. And the way we treat minorities, blacks, Hispanics and all other minorities that have obtained rights of citizenship, is truly unfortunate. But now there is a MAGA political course that suggests some groups should lose their rights to vote. And oddly enough the MAGA group likes to start rumors that undocumented and even documented green card holders are trying to vote improperly. They can't come up with evidence, but they stand by their lies, without facts or evidence. There is way too much divide and conquer tactics by MAGA politicians. Remember bigotry and hate impacts the federal budget. Getting along with all and every aspect of community saves money. Finally remember, building trade schools instead of prisons will also bring on a successful foundation in the community.

THIS STRANGER IN PARADISE

If you guessed the stranger in paradise is our President, you are right, he is anti-American and unamerican in many many ways. On the campaign trail he often disparaged everything about the United States. Fact check. Remember he stands for three things: more power, more wealth, and more retribution. He has never understood our great American history. He doesn't know Washington, he doesn't know Jefferson, he doesn't know Lincoln, and he has forgotten what President Ronald Reagan did to the Russian dictatorship. Remember after World War II the Russians occupied many European eastern countries. Many many people now believe our President is a divider not a uniter. He likes the word exclusion, not inclusion. Our Founding Fathers after the Declaration of Independence and the failure after seven years of the Articles of Confederation decided they needed an attempt at a better form of government. They were the most powerful 55 men, some also the wealthiest men in America arrived in Philadelphia in1787 when they decided to seek “a more perfect union” made-up “of the people by the people and for the people”. Were they worried that their new experiment the U.S. Constitution would fail? Sure, but they put in checks and balances into a document divided into three parts: the Legislative, Article One, the Executive, Article Two, and the Judicial, Article Three. Each article was to watch-dog the other two. Sadly, our president has been able to unravel that concept as he seeks more power and more retribution and of course, we now see that he has added at least $4 billion in the past year to his estate, as the Executive. He is excellent politically on enforcing his will over his MAGA House and Senate, and the Speaker of the House Michael Johnson seems to take direct orders daily from the Executive branch, really and truly like a propaganda lieutenant. Fact check.

The Supreme Court has extended the power of the Executive by the use of an immunity clause. That allows the President to act first and say it's in his duty as president to do so. Those things may or may not be proven Constitutional later on. Is this an expansion of the U.S. Constitution version of the Executive branch? I'm not a lawyer but I know many lawyers that think it is. Has he used that immunity clause? He does not pay any attention to the separation of powers he does not want oversight, and he doesn't want anyone to interfere with his wide-open use of the United States Treasury. And interestingly and unfortunately, he is already $3 trillion over budget in a year and a half. Is this nuts? The people must be alerted to the fact that with wars, no bid contracts, strange and unusual misuse of so many political ideas is alarming. The $14 million reflecting pond is now a green pond full of algae and dead ducks. On our 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the people should be unified as a group of citizens. This is not the case, most of the President's celebration is about him not about our history, not about our leading the free world. He has zero interest in leading the free world. And doesn't know we have done so since 1945, by all former American presidents. Right now, he wakes up every morning with new strategy on how to overcome the November 3rd election coming up. All of his appointees, all of his strategy is aimed at undermining the rule of law and the way we vote. Fact Check Fact Check. Then note a peculiarity; when he wins there was never any cheating, but when he feels there will be a loss he exclaims, “there was cheating and it was all a rigged deal”. Fact check.

WHO WAS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE TOM FOLEY?

At this stressful political time in America, it would be helpful to look back and see what other politicians have done under stress. For example, Speaker of the House Tom Foley in 1992 under the Clinton Administration helped lead a push for higher taxes on everyone including the rich. He also led the fight to ban assault weapons for 10 years. It should be noted that not a single Republican voted for either one of these bills. It should be noted that the Speaker who was from the eastern part of the state of Washington lost his reelection in the next cycle. After it was all over, he was asked about why the outcome and he said, “I only know that I voted my conscience”. The Clinton administration went on three years later to have four surplus budgets in a row. Now of course the Republicans in that era like to take credit for the balancing of the budget. What is my point? It’s very simple but also very important that politician’s take pledges and oaths to uphold the U.S. Constitution and our flag. We have lost our moral suasion and no longer follow these oaths and pledges, especially the current MAGA group. A lesson for every 8th grade student being taught history is to realize that for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to succeed, must be full of truth and purpose. Now we have MAGA followers in the House and in the Senate, at least 95% surrendering Article One to the Executive branch. Meanwhile Speaker Michael Johnson most often speaks only of propaganda given to him from the White House. Fact check, because his loyalty is not to the Constitution or flag, its to Donald Trump.

OUR INSTITUTIONS CRUMBLING RELENTLESSLY

This Administration uses Project 2025, which was created by the Heritage Foundation and blessed by the Federalist Society. After winning the election, this Administration put Project 2025 in force and added DOGE as the instrument to redo our institutions. DOGE was led by Russ Vought Elon Musk and JD Vance. They all put together a new political philosophy of change, attempting to reduce the power and tax structure of the of the so called “WOKE institutions”. After the election in February 2025 the chainsaw man, Elon Musk, as head of DOGE suggested thereafter that he wanted to “get rid of the weeds and get rid of the institutions so the weeds will not come back”. Remember the “weeds” are the federal employees. Fact check. They have already laid off over 300,000 federal employees, 30,000 alone from the Veterans Administration. Remember virtually every political institution in Washington was attacked, so that they could get rid of “waste fraud and abuse”. Were they successful? If you ask them, yes, they were successful, but when you asked for proof of how they were successful, they were drawing blanks. Fact check.

The way they handled USAID was strange. This was an Institution founded by John F Kennedy in 1962, to advance the reputation of the United States using soft power, by giving food and medicine to many starving children in the world. In 1962 we were spending 3% of our budget on foreign aid. Remember Denmark in Europe was spending 10% on foreign aid. Now our foreign aid budget is less than 1%. Fact check. When the chainsaw group took over there was food in warehouses, there was food on wharfs, and there was medicine stopped from going to clinics in Africa. All of this was stopped in place. Nobody was told. There was no contingent planning. There was no thoughtful strategy emerging. So, what was the outcome of this cynical and almost hostile approach to redoing an institution? Within four or five months over 1,000,000 recipients throughout the world, mostly in Africa, and mostly children died of starvation and lack of medicine. Dear reader that is not a typo, fact check. It is expected that as a direct result of losing USAID there will be continuous deaths emerging. Does anyone in this Administration care? I would say you can actually hear their yawns! Meanwhile many of these MAGA Republicans boast of their Christian faith.

Now in America Medicaid and medical support for Obamacare have been cut. SNAP benefits and other food benefits are being sharply diminished with many many restrictions. And this Administration boasts about not having to feed the mouths of children. Should we ask the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, who helped create Project 2025 and blessed DOGE if they are pleased with all of these savings in benefits to children and adults? Remember Vice President JD Vance wrote the Prologue to Project 2025. It did not bother him that his big tactical, arbitrary and capricious policies were constructed against our Institutions. Were Project 2025 and DOGE actions good for everyone concerned? Well as I stated earlier that is a joke because we are three trillion dollars over budget despite all of these benefits being curtailed. How come? Where has the $3 trillion gone? Why no oversight? All the benefits were cut, and the U.S. Treasury is being emptied by the minute! An remember, the other losers in this USAID cuts are the American farmers who produced all of the food for these starving children. And remember also for every dollar spent on USAID, 50% of it went to churning the marketplace. So, it was being generous at half price. Fact check. The great myth modernly about the U.S. is we are a giving nation… not any more.

Are we losing our soul in this country when we don't care that a million children were starved to death directly because of governmental actions? In World War II, we had 16,000,000 servicemen fighting the Germans and the Japanese. And in that four-year war, less than 500,000 GIs died in combat. So, when you contrast losing a million starving children in six months it is truly a mind-boggling sad moment in history. Does the free world care, does the MAGA crowd care even though so many of them profess to being “religions”.

THE WAR IN AFGANISTAN UNDER JOE BIDEN

Because the MAGA crowd were terribly upset when President Joe Biden pulled out of Afghanistan in 2022, we should examine why. Let's go back to 2,300 years ago when Alexander the Great was invading the entire Middle East victoriously, yet he made an exception by bypassing Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a country to this day that has never taken a census. It is a country of 12 separate political groups divided by mountains. It is a country that was occupied by Britain twice before they pulled out and it's a country that the Russians invaded to protect the communists in Kabul in 1982. In 1986 Ronald Reagan sent Stinger missiles to the freedom fighters in Afghanistan, and they destroyed many Russian helicopters. The Russians finally pulled out in 1989 having lost 16,000 troops in battle. So now, after 20 years of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan President Joe Biden had the courage to simply suggest it's time to get out. Formally in America ex-presidents did not have excessive criticism when our country was at war. Yet this President daily made cynical remarks about our leaving. We lost 13 American troops, and a lot of military equipment was left behind. However, in comparison to when we pulled out of Vietnam in 1975 almost 70 American troops were lost and many many Vietnam American sympathizers were killed. But the equipment left behind in Vietnam was at least four times more than that of Afghanistan. My point is simple, leaving a country after a war that we did not win is a very tough pill to swallow. But in the long run I will guarantee you most historians will suggest that President Joe Biden acted in good faith and was in acting in the best interest of the nation.

Remember when President Donald Trump won the Presidency the first time around, he immediately ridiculed President Obama's JCPOA settlement with Iran. In fact, he many times claimed we had loaded an airplane with cash from America and the American taxpayers. Fact Check this. The $1.7 billion given to Iran by the Obama Administration was not American taxpayers money. It was money impounded being held in the United States for 20 years after the fiasco in the American embassy in Tehran. That money plus interest was given back to Iran as part of the Obama settlement and it was paid in Swiss Francs at the request of Iran. The U.S. taxpayers were well served by this Obama-Iranian settlement. We must do everything we can to stop polluting pollical events out of cynicism to distract the voters. Fact check.

Compare the Obama settlement, which included sworn statements that there would be no nuclear weapons in Iran when this settlement was concluded. Now President Donald Trump, after only three or four days of negotiation at the end of February 2026 and after it appears, consultation with Bebe Netanyahu they decided to declare war against Iran. Then made excessive claim after claim after claim that the war was won. But when the Straits of Hormuz were closed by the Iranians at 2,000 ships bult up in the straits, our president wanted this whole mess concluded. So now he will be spending according to estimates, a lot of U.S. taxpayer money, up to $500 billion to settle this war. Fact Check and then Fact Check again.

Please note in February 2024 over 100 PhD political scientists and professors were polled about the Presidential ranking of President Joe Biden and past president Donald Trump's first term. Dear reader they ranked Joe Biden 14th out of 47 presidents and Donald Trump was ranked dead last. Fact Check.

THE WAY FORWARD

Remember how things have now changed in American politics for example in May of 2024 then ex-president Donald Trump was being tried for fraud under his first term and in New York. Speaker of the House Michael Johnson was asked to appear in court to be seen by the jury. The end result was a conviction on 34 counts of fraud against ex-president Donald Trump. The reason I bring it up is the Democratic party hardly spoke of the misuse of power when Speaker Michael Johnson on the taxpayer’s dime showed up in court. Had Nancy Pelosi when she was Speaker of the House appeared at a fraud trial on behalf of a presidential candidate, you can believe the MAGA Republicans would have asked for her Impeachment the following day. The reason I bring this up is we have become totally incapable of ascertaining truth in so many actions of the Executive branch. We must begin with righteous indignation. How can anyone forget that in President Trump’s first term the Washington Post and the Toronto Star documented 30,000 lies during his first term. Fact check. Our country must restore its vigor for truthfulness and make sure that we rid ourselves of cynicism before it overwhelms us.

In World War II our country went to war over the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese and five days later Adolf Hitler declaring war against the United States. We began preparing for war, but we had drafted so many Gis they were being issued wooden rifles because of the lack of equipment. So, we went from wooden rifles to winning the war four years later with an atomic bomb. What did we do in between? We built 68 aircraft carriers, we built hundreds of battleships and destroyers, we produced thousands of liberty ships, we produced over 300,000 bombers and fighter aircraft, our farmers produced enough food that we were actually giving some of our food to the Russians and English. The Russians received footwear from us. Meanwhile Rosie the Riveter became famous as women flocked to the aircraft industry and military connected factories. Every civilian that was capable of working easily found a job. War bonds, war stamps, food and gas rationing all became part of the American daily life. The result was an overwhelming victory in four years. Some called it a miracle. After the war we immediately began thinking of peace and started the United Nations.

A final note about the war, in 1945 German soldiers on the Russian front were fleeing to the American front hoping to be captured by the Americans knowing our fairness in waring tactics. Remember in World War II we had 400,000 German POWs in the United States. Also remember that we fed them the same chow that was given to American GIs. We paid them for working on farms a small stipend. We gave the Nazi generals a wine allowance and two servants. Why would we do such a thing? Because the U.S. military from Washington decided if we treat all of our prisoners well, the Germans and Japanese might respond and treat our GI's well when captured on the battlefield. It worked out extremely good in Germany but not so well in Japan. After the war ended, we occupied the American section of Germany and all of Japan. Were we a domineering big victorious country? We were not. In fact, we set up the United Nations and were selling American style free democracy to both Germany and Japan. Did they show appreciation? They really did. To this day they are two functioning democratic societies. When Konrad Adenauer, Chancelor of Germany met President John F Kennedy in Washington in 1962 he told our President that our style of victory had a genius quality, to forgive and forget what was done to Americans by Germany and Japan. Fact Check.

Patriotism for our past should be stressed. Our American Institutions, our military, our corporations, our law firms, should not be told that they can no longer be inclusive that they can no longer use diversity equity and inclusion. I AM 89 years old I am a veteran I have two brothers buried in Arlington cemetery I can think of nothing worse than the way our military personnel are now being treated. A black chief of staff was fired, black generals are being accused of being promoted under DEI and not under talent. A full bird Colonel, a female transgender went on national television and defended her talent. The way we are handling the ordinary GI is an outrage. They're not receiving mail (cookies from mom) they are sending home text photographs showing the food is not good. When the Secretary of Defense spoke this year at the graduation ceremonies at West Point, he was given a peculiar, muted applause. I watched it on national television and thought our Secretary of Defense’s speech was perverse as he discussed his religion and military prowess. We must pray for our military we must pray for every single American that puts on the uniform and make sure they understand that it's the U.S. Constitution that is their Bible not the Executive branch of our government. Our allegiance is to our country, not to a man. This is the U.S.A, not Russia.

It seems to me that our president looks in the mirror and sees a potentate and sees an emperor, yes even sees a king! However, we must remember who we are in America. 250 years ago, we fought against a king. So now we pledge allegiance to our flag, the rule of law according to our political bible the U.S. Constitution. We take an oath to enforce that Constitution, not to venerate a man or a substitute God. So let us not fold up our tent and give in to cynicism. We must keep the keys to the U.S. Treasury under Article One. We are still a free country allowed to speak under the First Amendment, allowed to legally protest and gather in the streets. This is our right under the Bill of Rights.

I want to remind every American what happened in Hungary in April 2026. Hungary after 16 years of Viktor Orban, the opposition won, without the use of radio television or newspapers that were controlled by Orban. He had controlled all communication in in Hungary. He made his son a billionaire while he ran the government. Meanwhile Vladimir Putin’s Russian operatives were working hard to protect the presidency of Viktor Orban. Vice President JD Vance was in Hungary at the time, and he transcribed a taped message from the President of United States asking the Hungarians to support Viktor Orban. Meanwhile the Vice President and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were both downplaying NATO and the European Union countries. Why? Fact check.

Brazil is another example of the public having enough of dictators and taking back their government. They did not want a potentate they wanted a Democratic society. Remember we want to be the land of the free and the home of the brave as we have been for 250 years. And less we forget the Roman Empire continued another 200 years after Nero had done so much damage to his country.

We must renew and we must give rebirth to the American Constitution, to the Statue of Liberty, and to the Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe. As a complement to America, remember Winston Churchill fell in love with that hymn and asked to have it played at his Funeral.

George Washington in 1792 sought American patriotism to assist him in his new presidency. We have lost over 400,000 GIs in World War II helping other nations. To this day the French and the Dutch and the Danes and many other EU countries are grateful for what we did to keep freedom alive. So let us seek a blessing from God to keep our country free and to do it under the rule of law. And finally, we must maintain our friendship with all the free countries of the world.

Post Script. Dear reader a heads up on President Trump’s SAVE Act. It is right out of the Russian BS to fool the voters. We have a great history of well-run voting structures. No one has proved a major “rigged election”. There is no proof, no facts and no evidence submitted that there was a rigged presidential election in 250 years. So why are we spending millions of dollars trying to change something that has not failed? Truth will free us up if we look at it objectively and save a lot of money. And if I could be blunt, “Truth” Social sometimes is BS.

Opening Image: Microsoft Designer, AI Image Generator, National Archives