Bravo, Judge Leon!
Judge Leon blocks Pentagon and Hegseth in prosecution to punish Mark Kelly over ‘illegal orders’ video
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, noted that while serving in the armed forces, military forces have limitations on some of their freedoms, but said that no court had ever extended that doctrine to retired service members, and he would not be the first to do so.
“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” the judge wrote.
Leon quoted singer-songwriter Bob Dylan to say, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” ”
The Judge had some pithy and appropriate things to say about military retirees and their rights to free speech, and in particular to Kelly’s position not only as a retired veteran, but also as a current Senator, where his responsibility to represent his electorate would be severely hampered by intimidating threats to take away or reduce his pension, or bring him back on duty to court-martial him for his “crime.”
His crime? Senator Kelly appeared in a video with five other veterans serving in the Senate reminding service members they have a responsibility NOT to obey illegal orders.
After WWII, many German leaders tried to excuse their crimes by saying “We were only following orders.”
When orders violate the Constitution, we do not have to comply. Constitutional rights apply to all people living in the United States, all residents; every person is authorized due process of the law.
These Constitutional Rights are being tested. Judge Leon is a Bush appointed judge, a man with years of judicial procedures behind him.
We are finding some ironic ways in which our President is unifying us. Republicans and Democrats alike recoiled in horror at the goon-squad “policing” in Minnesota. Republican and Democrat judicial appointees are correcting mistaken applications of power and brute force, and corraling them back where they belong. And God Bless Bad Bunny for reminding us that America is two continents, and that we are all stronger together. The vast majority of Americans on both continents were ready for some joy, and words of brotherhood, liberty and equality. We have more in common than we have differences.
If the United States of America is to continue to be a land welcoming those seeking opportunity and freedom, we all have to work towards this together, supporting our common values and finding ways to cooperate, even in areas where we disagree.
By the way, under the catagory of unanticipated consequences, Senator Mark Kelly received a huge surge of financial contributions to defend himself against this intimidation by our Secretary of Defense. This is a man who could successfully run for President, with his presence, his courage, his background and his steadfast approach.
“Your Mission is to Shine”
Today, our priest took on the brave task of dealing – not with politics or political events, (God forbid!) but addressing how we, as members of the body of Christ, are to respond to these events. We are to be light. We are to do what the bible tells us to do. We are to treat our fellow human beings – even those who are not like us, who do not share our opinions, with the dignity and love with which every human being were created.
Holy Smokes! That’s a tall order. We are to love one another. We are to welcome the stranger. We are to share. We are not to gossip or say mean things about our friends – or anyone!
In the resources posted online for his sermon, he quotes C. Andrew Doyle, 9th Bishop of Texas, from his blog. Because it is publicly posted, I am sharing because when he posts, he expects people to read.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
An Embodied Christian Call to De‑escalation, Dignity, and Truthfulness in Immigration Enforcement
O God,… we thank Thee for Thy Church, founded upon Thy Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon Thee… Help us to realize that man was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity. Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace, help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow, will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.
— Martin Luther King Jr.
A pastoral and theological statement for this moment — with particular concern for Minnesota.
Introduction
Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota Craig LoyaI write this statement not as a political pundit but as a pastor and teacher of the Christian faith, as a bishop in the line of the Apostles, now having served in that particular office for 18 years. I have read and followed events regarding immigration throughout my time as bishop and have made no secret of my belief that the church is called to serve all people. Over the last month, I have been watching events across the country, with particular interest in Minnesota.
The Church exists to care for souls, which means I will care for souls on both sides of any partisan debate. I will speak both to Republicans and Democrats, to Independents and the politically exhausted, to immigrants and citizens, to agents and to those who fear the agents, to people who protest and to people who feel threatened by protest. I will not tell anyone how to vote. But neither will I stand silently when fear overwhelms our public life. How could I? Our hearts grieve at what we are bearing witness to in the world around us, especially as it has to do with immigration.
Across the country, immigration enforcement has become a flashpoint of fear and rage. In Minnesota, that tension has sharpened into tragedy and public crisis.
In recent weeks, Minnesota has seen increased federal immigration enforcement, described by the DHS as the largest operation ever, alongside mass arrests, major protests, and increasingly fraught encounters between federal agents and Minnesotans. This includes multiple shootings involving federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this January alone, including both the killing of Renée Good and this weekend’s shooting that killed Alex Pretti. Nationwide demonstrations have followed over the past week, bringing unrest beyond Minnesota state lines.
Many Minnesotans who support aggressive enforcement are motivated by real concerns: the rule of law, public safety, fairness to those who immigrate legally, and the fear that communities can’t absorb disorder. Those concerns deserve a hearing. But no concern, however sincere, justifies dehumanization, disproportionate force, or policies that treat human beings as leverage.
In parallel with this violence, we have watched the conflict escalate rhetorically and tactically: on threats to invoke the Insurrection Act, talk of “occupation,” and weaponized public speech hardened into competing moral absolutes.
This is precisely the kind of moment that Christians should practice what I have elsewhere called an embodied apologetic: arguing not merely with words but demonstrating publicly, concretely, and nonviolently what we believe about the human person, the nature of authority, and the lordship of Jesus Christ.
By demonstrating, I mean far more than marching or civil disobedience. I mean demonstrating the love of Christ to all people. Remembering that in the migrant in our midst, we see the neighbor as defined by Jesus and the stranger God tells us to care for.
Groundwork: immigration enforcement and the theological depth of creation
To sit quietly while immigrants are demonized, blamed for crime, or dehumanized is to sit quietly while Christian doctrine is being threatened.
The Christian claim is that the Word became flesh, that humanity is encountered, named, and raised to new life in the material particularity of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith does not treat bodies, human lives, or human faces as incidental. When Christians claim that the incarnation altered the universe, we mean that the material world has theological depth.
Every human being bears the image of God, including the migrant at the border and the undocumented worker. That includes the asylum seeker fleeing gunfire and the citizen bystander who gets caught in the middle. It includes the protester holding a sign in the street and the federal agent wearing the uniform.
Human dignity is not conferred by paperwork, politics, or popularity. Human dignity is linked to God by the very generosity of the Godhead to bring us into being.
And when we understand human sinfulness not simply as “bad behavior” but as the fracture between what God has made and our too-often selfish desire to remake creation in our own image…well, then we have a theological framework for our contemporary moment.
The doctrine of sin explains our predicament. But the Christian gospel that Jesus Christ entered into our fractured humanity to redeem and reconcile us to God is our explanation of how things change.
As Christians understand human brokenness and healing, we are neither naïve about fear and disorder nor resigned to it. We recognize sin; we name it; we flee from it. But we do not stand and watch it with holy indifference.
We do not sanctify fear, baptize cruelty, or call dehumanization “prudence.” To insist otherwise isn’t pragmatism; it’s theological divorce: declaring some aspects of creation safe for politics and using Christian language to justify policies or tactics that degrade human dignity or scapegoat racial and ethnic minorities. The Church cannot allow this faith, the faith of every Christian generation, to be twisted in the service of anti-immigrant cruelty.
Which means we cannot accept a public order so structured that it trains us, through constant repetition and a steady diet of dehumanizing rhetoric, to see some people as contaminants, vermin, or existential threats by virtue of their very existence. That’s not realism. It’s idolatry.
And when that mythology attaches itself to nation-states, bullets inevitably follow. The Church has seen where such theological claims lead when fused with nationalism, racial mythology, and demands for unquestioned allegiance.
Christ alone is Lord. No other power takes precedence over the Church in Christ. And when any political ideology inclines that way, Christians must stand against it. If race-craft and nationalist mythology run rampant unchecked in our politics, they will destroy our democracy. Worse still, they are in the end a theological threat to the church.
If federal agents lose sight of their own humanity or basic constitutional rights amid tense confrontations, everyone loses. We are not only witnessing a newfound morality that allows harm, but we are also allowing a state to do moral injury to those who serve in law enforcement.
De‑escalation is Christian obedience
Because Christ is Lord, we cannot tolerate panic as policy. Christian leaders should call for immediate de‑escalation tactics in Minnesota and nationwide, especially from federal leaders, federal agencies, and ICE. Here’s why and how:
Because life is not a bargaining chip. When policies or tactical shifts treat human bodies as leverage, political leverage, intimidation leverage, violent “force multiplier” leverage, the state courts us into an anti‑human logic that Christians cannot affirm. It’s that simple.
Because fear is contagious. When immigration enforcement looks like a militarized invasion, everyone gets trained to be afraid: parents who teach their kids to hide, workers who avoid hospitals and schools, congregations that fear gathering for worship, citizens who fear recording with their phones, and agents who become afraid, too (more reactive, more quick to see every person of color as a threat).
That fear feeds on itself. Dehumanization multiplies. When any human group is treated as subhuman, everyone’s capacity for recognizing humanity begins to slip away, including the humanity of agents ordered to do their jobs.
Because the Church has something unique to say about what it means to be human.
Unlike many voices in our public life, the Church does not merely talk about human dignity; our allegiance to Christ compels us to embody it. Our witness must not be a slogan; it must be a public pattern of life: prayerful, truthful, courageous, nonviolent, hospitable, committed to the dignity of our neighbors and the strangers who live among us.
For these reasons and more, what we’re seeing must be named:
Agents are operating with increasing combat‑style visibility: helmets and vests, crowd‑control weaponry designed for more confrontational policing, tactical vehicles, and face masks.
Such a posture is often experienced as intimidation rather than order, and it can train communities toward avoidance and suspicion.
Whether you believe immigration law is too harsh or not harsh enough, Christians cannot remain silent about how our public life is changing. Domination is not justice.
When repeated lethal encounters happen across a concentrated operation, even if investigations ultimately exonerate agents in each incident, the moral burden shifts.
The question is no longer simply, “Was this legal?” but “What kind of society are we becoming, if incidents like this become normalized?”
Immediate steps we are asking for, nationwide
Stop. Take a breath. Listen. De‑escalate.
How can federal agencies and federal leaders de‑escalate tactics and posture immediately?
Pause operations that have produced multiple lethal encounters over a short period of time and inflicted widespread trauma across immigrant communities. Commit to visible accountability: name badges, clear chains of command, and timely release of video and incident documentation consistent with due process. Prioritize de‑escalation techniques in training materials and practices — especially community‑engaged operations where children and bystanders are likely to be present. End tactics that reasonably read as intimidation. Even if lawful, if their predictable effect is widespread fear and trauma in communities, stop them and adopt alternatives.
The DHS itself has framed this Minnesota operation as “the largest enforcement operation we’ve ever conducted in Minnesota.” That is cause for additional, not lesser, scrutiny.
What can state and local leaders do to protect both public safety and civil liberties?
Fully protect lawful protest while continuing to hold protesters civilly and criminally accountable should violence occur. Commit to clear nonviolent crowd‑management techniques that don’t replicate wartime intimidation. Do everything in your power to lower the temperature, rather than rhetorically inflaming the situation. Provide additional support and resources for communities experiencing disproportionate fear, including immigrant communities, communities of color, and neighborhoods receiving saturation enforcement.
What can protesters and activists do to practice disciplined nonviolence?
Commitment Card for Peaceful Protests
You are angry. You are grieving. Many of you are operating in understandable fear for your lives. But Christians do not get to numb ourselves to moral agency in the adrenaline of a crowd. Violence is not leadership. If you condemn dehumanization, you cannot then dehumanize the person in the uniform. If you are going to protest for dignity, you must demonstrate dignity.
What can the Church do?
Hold public prayers for peace and truthfulness.
Explicitly call on Christians to lower the temperature where they are: online, in-person, wherever misinformation, dehumanization, and fury are allowed to settle and fester.
Teach our people that anger is human, but vengeance is demonic. Demand better of our leaders. Insist on civil institutions that honor human dignity.
Open churches for pastoral care where needed.
For immigrants afraid to leave their homes. For families disrupted by ICE raids and detentions. For anxious citizens who feel too afraid to leave their homes. And yes, for agents’ families who love their children too much to let them keep policing. In the Diocese of Texas, we do not have the luxury of believing only one side of this conflict sits in our pews.
Consider organizing accompaniment/aid in lawful and disciplined ways: Food. Shelter support. Transportation to court hearings. Connections to legal resources. Trauma care. Emergency family preparedness plans. We are currently doing this in the Diocese of Texas, as are many dioceses around the country. You can contribute to our legal fund here. You can contribute and learn more about our convening a multi-faith initiative here feeding people. We will have a new immigration portal up in the near future. I hope this will inspire you to gather local leaders to demonstrate God’s love in Christ in various ways to our immigrant neighbors near our churches.
Train de‑escalation teams for vigils/demonstrations: Teams whose explicit task is to lower the temperature, protect the vulnerable, and prevent further harm. Consider training specific leaders for this ministry if it does not already exist in your community.
Preach and teach the holistic truth of Christian anthropology starting now. That Scripture does not sort people into worthy and unworthy buckets as our habit of Christian life. That there is no politics or policy so vital that we should make an idol of it. That we will not hand the American Church over as a get-out-of-accountability-free card to any national leader or political party that demands our silence or allegiance in return for temporary power.
Christianity is a serious faith precisely because it comes with a seriousness of expectation: that we will love our neighbors as ourselves. That we will speak truth to power. That we will love our enemies. And while Christians are not the silent majority, perhaps the silent Church will speak now.
The Associated Press has reported clergy in Minnesota risking arrest as part of their public witness.
People of faith are beginning to recognize what’s at stake in this moment.
We preach forgiveness, and we preach against sin.
We preach that Christ alone is Lord.
If we say the Word became flesh, we cannot allow policies and tactical shifts that treat human flesh as disposable. If we say Christ alone is Lord, we will not give the silence of the Church to any leader, any political party, or any government agency that demands our blessing as the price of patriotic cooperation.
Social de‑escalation is not merely political point‑scoring. It’s a confession that God’s government doesn’t require us to terrorize our neighbors into obedience, that Christ doesn’t radiate power through humiliation, and that the Spirit produces something other than fear within those who follow him.
Friends, we have been here before in our nation’s history. During my tenure, it was not that long ago that we faced the George Floyd period, among others. Yet, many who will read this can remember the fight for desegregation. We must rise to our better angels again in this moment, wherever we find ourselves. So I say:
To the anxious in our congregations: you are not forgotten.
To immigrant communities in our states: you are not alone.
To officers and agents who feel beyond the reach of critique or moral accountability: you are wrong about that. And, you are also not beyond God’s grace.
To the Church: we must not become the chaplain of fear.
Friends: de‑escalate.
Let’s insist publicly, prayerfully, and steadfastly for social de‑escalation in Minnesota and nationwide. Let’s demand accountable governance and policies that recognize our common dignity. Let’s refuse every ideology that functions by dehumanization. And let’s practice an embodied Christianity that shows our neighbors what it looks like when citizens are governed, not by panic, but by the peace of Christ.
Because otherwise it is not merely a political failure – it is a spiritual failure: a society willing to forget what a human being is. May God give us the courage to tell the truth. The discipline to refuse violence. And the grace to become, together, the kind of people who can carry that peace into a frightened world.
Posted by C. Andrew Doyle at 9:06 AM
Labels: ICE, immigrant, immigration, immigration reform, minneapolis, minnesota
Oath of Citizenship: Joyful Celebration
It’s not often a courtroom is packed with joyful people. And only for this one significant celebration are cameras allowed – even encouraged – in the courtroom. The difference in atmosphere is palpable.
Yesterday, 33 people from a variety of nations took their oath to be responsible American citizens. There were moments when their was no sound, no noise at all, in the courtroom; the silence was a salute to the importance of the event, and respect for the moment.
Judge Collier managed to be both solemn and celebratory, lauding the diversity of the group and the importance of their choice to be US citizens. He, and other, congratulated the applicants for “earning” their citizenship by learning our history, customs and language, and appreciating it’s rewards even more than those of us who are citizens by birth and heritage.
David Stafford, our long time Supervisor of Elections, now the right-hand man to Pensacola’s Mayor Reeves, gave a moving and motivating speech about the gift of citizenship, its rewards, and the great responsibility each citizen has to sign up to vote – and to vote.
My friends, you receive my frustrated rants and my frequent musings. Today, I share with you a day full of pure joy. A packed courtroom, for all the right reasons; official speeches, short, pithy, and full of positivity and possibilities, and people who fully believe in the Rule of Law, Equality, Diversity as a strength, and the great inclusionary current of neighborly brotherhood that connects people in the United States of America.
EPSTEIN Files, Please, DOJ Pam Bondi
While we watch aghast as ill-trained ICE agents take down and kill American citizens, and Pam Bondi demands voter registration rolls from Minnesota (and according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Democracy Docket, looking for “sensitive” voter registration information from ALL states), 2 million (estimated) Epstein files have yet to be released.
Minnesotans are the least likely “domestic terrorists” ever, dressed in their buffalo plaid wool shirts and snow boots. Minnesotan, those white bread Scandinavian immigrants from long ago, Paul Bunyan-esque in strength an behavior, amicably welcomed their Somali newcomers, and are now protecting them as best they can while staying alive.
We all have to step back and ask ourselves “Am I a DOMESTIC TERRORIST?”
Look at these good church-going Minnesotans, shuttling immigrant children to school, picking up and delivering groceries to them surreptitiously, taking families hidden in their SUV’s to medical appointments. Do these seem like people who are afraid of their immigrant neighbors?
I respect Customs officials. I respect the rules of our nation. I do not respect those who overstep their jobs, who take delight in the adrenaline rush of attacking protestors, who shoot, rather than exhibit the self-rstraint we expect of law-enforcement. Most of us have no problem with ICE going after, as they state, violent criminals, few as they are.
It’s a Numbers Game
What we object to is going after people who are NOT criminals just because the Toddler-In-Chief wants to be able to show numbers. Trump, you started off your campaign in 2015 going after those rapists, criminals and drug addicts. We didn’t believe you then, and we sure don’t believe you now. We believe our own eyes. We are witnesses to violations of our Constitution by people who should be models of legal behavior.
Corrupting the FBI to investigate political appointments, and firing prosecutors when they tell you there is not evidence to get a conviction is not the American Way.
We know you want to keep your party in power. We know you’re afraid you are going to lose big in upcoming elections, and that is the purpose behind bullying the blue states and trying to intimidate their officials is to get an upper hand on the elections. YOU, who complain about rigged elections, YOU who whine that you really won the 2020 election (and your own elections supervisors would not support your claims) YOU are trying to bully, intimidate and subdue the population so that YOU can rig the elections!
Props to Minnesota! Props to them for showing fortitude, for being good neighbors, for welcoming the stranger (as Moses and Jesus taught us) and for showing self-restraint in the face of thugs and goons itching for a fight. Trump is eager to invoke the Insurrection Act, we know because he says so! Props to you, Minnesota, and to you, Portland for having the maturity and persistence and yes, a sense of humor to outlast, outplay and survive this despicable tyrant.
Oh Those Poor White People, Those Poor White Men
First, a disclaimer. I like men. I like men a lot. Some of my best friends are men, of all colors and nationalities. I am married to a white man.
Our Glorious Leader, the Bone-Spur Coward-in-Chief declares (as he has in Executive Orders from Day One of his Regency) that diversity, equality and inclusiveness are discrimitory against white males, and are hurting them.
I challenge Trump to take a look at statistics. I challenge him to tally the ranks of CEOs and Executives in the USA to see just what percentage of each sex and race are in those positions, and in what proportions. IF white males are not dominant, I will eat this post.
Yes. This is a rant. Yes, I am livid. As a woman, I was privileged to go to university, privileged because my own father was sure that women’s place was in the home, having children, taking care of you know, women things. He was shocked and horrified that I didn’t get a teacher’s degree or a nursing degree, or why had he sent me to college?
A very small percentage of women and people of color have managed to get to the highest positions of influence, power and wealth in the United States. So tell me about the poor white men!
For my American friends who scorn the Middle East; I lived in three countries, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where the voters – men – recently voted for the women in their countries to have the vote. These were men who love their mothers, sisters, cousins, wives and daughters and wanted them to have the dignity of choice of leadership in their own countries. They educated their daughters, and even, in Saudia Arabia, would take their daughters out to the deserts and teach them how to drive, even though it was illegal in Saudi Arabia for women to drive. These Arab, Islamic men you denigrate supported the right of females to vote, to have access to good education. At one time they sent them to the United States. I don’t imagine they will be sending their daughters -or their sons – here now.
It is unthinkable to me that these statements are issuing from privileged white men in charge of our country. We’re looking at universities in Ireland and Scotland where universities will, as US universities once did, encourage free exchange of ideas and fraternity, and equality and respect and dignity of all people.
At one time, not too long ago, in our country, we had laws, and those laws were obeyed! We had laws protecting the cleanliness of our air and water, we had laws protecting the rights of citizens – and non-citizens. We had laws against profiting from public office, laws requiring the disclosure of personal interests, and recusal from decisions that might enrich the decision-maker. We had laws requiring oversight of government policies. We had a Supreme Court that acted with impartiality. We had a President who was not above the law. We had alliances with countries with whom we stood shoulder to shoulder for decades against bullies and thugs.
I expect my son will call and warn me that our Orange Acting President of Venezuela is about to take away my citizenship and send his Goons to my door with zip ties for speaking out. Or maybe just come and shoot me in the face as I offer cookies and ice tea?
So Much For Health and Transparency
It started during COVID. Politicians and their Administrations stopped publicizing statistics when the stats revealed their government was doing little or nothing to prevent spread of disease. Now, under the cover of cost reductions and eliminating fraud they are gutting the agencies that maintain the statistics and restricting publications of what few statistics are being gathered. Fortunately, private institutions and individuals are watching, keeping track, and doing their best to keep a vulnerable population informed.
From Oppressive Governments
Prayer from today’s Lectionary:
PRAYER (contemporary language)
Almighty God, we thank you for the faith and witness of Paul Sasaki, bishop in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, tortured and imprisoned by his government, and Philip Tsen, leader of the Chinese Anglican Church, arrested for his faith. We pray that all Church leaders oppressed by hostile governments may be delivered by your mercy, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may be faithful to the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Diwali: A Light Sparkles in Dark Times
Today, Labor Day, when dark events are taking place in our country, shutting down the light of liberty and democracy, we got an unexpected invitation – to a Diwali party, coming up in a couple months.
We are so honored. And we know Diwali; we were living in Al Fardan 1, in Doha, Qatar, when an Indian neighbor invited all the residents of Al Fardan to come over for Diwali. We didn’t know what Diwali was, and our internet was dial-up and irregular, but we asked around and were told, with big smiles, to go and find out.
The night of Diwali came, and we walked to our neighbor’s house, along with many of our Al Fardan neighbors. We could see it long before we arrived – thousands of candles set out in patterns in the yard, lining the sidewalk, leading us inside, to more lights and a feast of sweets, platters of sweets, all illuminated by gleaming candlelight.
Such open-hearted hospitality. Such generous sharing. No one was excluded; everyone was welcome, and there was plenty for everyone.
Our neighbors’ beliefs were different from ours, and yet, I believe all such generosity, freely given, springs from the same spirit.
We can’t wait for this upcoming Diwali.
Crime Wave? Another Lie
Today I am sharing a blog post from Robert Reich, about how we can deal with the absurdities we are hearing about crime waves – but only in inconveniently Democratic majority cities:
How to respond to Trump’s lies about a “crime wave”
AUG 28, 2025
Friends,
Trump’s escalating rhetoric of a “crime wave” in America, coupled with threats to occupy Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and many other cities, has put many Democrats in a bind.
They worry if they deny crime is a problem, they could turn off swing voters who always and inevitably worry about crime.
As with immigration, crime is an issue that Trump can demagogue because, while the rate of serious crime his fallen dramatically, most Americans continue to fear crime. That fear has been heightened by expanding homeless encampments and drug overdoses in plain view, no matter what the statistics say.
Crime has also been a racial dog whistle. At least since Richard Nixon emphasized “law and order” and Ronald Reagan said he’d be “tough on crime,” Republicans have used fear of crime as code for white fear of Black people.
So what should Democrats do? My suggestion: Don’t simply give statistics showing that the rate of dangerous has fallen. Say safety is critically important, but local police rather than federal troops are best at dealing with it.
Don’t stop there. Hammer Trump for pardoning the 1,500 criminals who violently attacked the United States capitol and caused the deaths of four police officers — and for then firing the federal prosecutors who held them accountable.
Attack him for opening the floodgates to white-collar crime — hobbling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, freezing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, disbanding the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and retreating from almost all federal lawsuits involving money laundering, crypto markets, and foreign corruption.
Since retaking the White House, Trump has granted clemency to Lawrence Duran, a health care executive who was convicted of leading a Medicare fraud and money laundering scheme. Trump has commuted the 14-year sentence of Jason Galanis, who defrauded investors, including a Native American tribe and a teachers’ pension fund, of tens of millions of dollars. He has pardoned Julie and Todd Chrisley, the reality TV stars convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion.
In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi was “swapping out and sidelining career supervisors who were responsible for charging crimes such as corruption, price fixing and securities fraud.”
Trump is soft on crime as long as the crime serves his own purposes. People who try to get on Trump’s good side — such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted on bribery charges during the Biden administration — have seen Trump’s Justice Department drop its charges against them.
Before they poured money into Trump’s initiatives and PACs, many Big Tech corporations were facing federal investigations and enforcement actions. Those investigations and lawsuits are now being dropped.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice dropped its criminal case against Boeing, which involved the company’s role in two plane crashes that killed 346 people — despite Boeing previously agreeing to plead guilty in the case.
Trump is himself a criminal, found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree related to payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Don’t just accuse him of manufacturing a pretext to go into American cities. Hit him hard on his own horrific record of coddling criminals.
History the White House Doesn’t Like: The List of Exhibits Trump Wants Gone
It’s a strange honor to have exhibits selected that the President wants gone. As in Literature, when you read through the list, you learn a lot about the fears and the prejudices of the creator. In recent decades, the United States of America has had a greater tolerance for the idiosyncratic views of artists, appreciating their differing perceptions. The list below is taken word for word from the White House Post called The President is Right About the Smithsonian.
- The National Museum of African American History and Culture debuted a series to educate people on “a society that privileges white people and whiteness” — defining so-called “white dominant culture“ as “ways white people and their traditions, attitudes, and ways of life have been normalized over time” and portraying “the nuclear family,” “work ethic,” and “intellect” as white qualities rooted in racism.
- The campaign featured content from hardcore woke activist Ibram X. Kendi
As part of its campaign to stop being “wealthy, pale, and male,” the National Portrait Gallery featured a choreographed “modern dance performance“ detailing the “ramifications“ of the southern border wall and commissioned an entire series to examine “American portraiture and institutional history… through the lens of historical exclusion.”
The National Portrait Gallery features art commemorating the act of illegally crossing the “inclusive and exclusionary” southern border — even making it a finalist for one of its awards.
(Intlxpatr comment: This painting reminds me of the painting of Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus escaping to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s massacre of the innocents)
The National Museum of African Art displayed an exhibit on “works of speculative fiction that bring to life an immersive, feminist and sacred aquatopia inspired by the legend of Drexciya,” an “underwater kingdom populated by the children of pregnant women who had been thrown overboard or jumped into the ocean during the Middle Passage.”
The American History Museum’s “LGBTQ+ History” exhibit seeks to “understand evolving and overlapping identities such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, transsexual, transvestite, mahu, homosexual, fluid, invert, urning, third sex, two sex, gender-bender, sapphist, hijra, friend of Dorothy, drag queen/king, and many other experiences,” and includes articles on “LGBTQ+ inclusion and skateboarding“ and “the rise of drag ball culture in the 1920s.”
The National Museum of the American Latino features programming highlighting “animated Latinos and Latinas with disabilities” — with content from “a disabled, plus-sized actress” and an “ambulatory wheelchair user” who “educates on their identity being Latinx, LGBTQ+, and disabled.”
The National Museum of the American Latino characterizes the Texas Revolution as a “massive defense of slavery waged by ‘white Anglo Saxon’ settlers against anti-slavery Mexicans fighting for freedom, not a Texan war of independence from Mexico,” and frames the Mexican-American War as “the North American invasion” that was “unprovoked and motivated by pro-slavery politicians.”
According to the National Museum of the American Latino, “what unites Latinas and Latinos“ is “the Black Lives Matter movement.”
The National Portrait Gallery commissioned a “stop-motion drawing animation” that “examines the career“ of Anthony Fauci.
The American History Museum’s exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of Title IX includesbiological men competing in women’s sports and argues in favor of “transgender” athletes competing in sports against the opposite biological sex.
A exhibit at the American History Museum depicts migrants watching Independence Day fireworks “through an opening in the U.S.-Mexico border wall” and says America’s founders “feared non-White immigration.”
The American History Museum features a display that refers to the founding of America as “a profound unsettling of the continent.”
The American History Museum’s “American Democracy” exhibit claims voter integrity measures are “attempts to minimize the political power” of “new and diverse groups of Americans,” while its section on “demonstrations” includes only leftist causes.
An American History Museum exhibit features a depiction of the Statue of Liberty “holding a tomato in her right hand instead of a torch, and a basket of tomatoes in her left hand instead of a tablet.”
- The National Museum of the American Latino features an anti-American exhibit that defines Latino history as centuries of victimhood and exploitation, suggests the U.S. is stolen land, and characterizes U.S. history as rooted in “colonization.”
- The exhibit features writing from illegal immigrants “fighting to belong.”
- The exhibit displays a quote from Claudia de la Cruz, the socialist nominee for president and a director an anti-American hate group, as well as another quote that reads, “We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us.”
- The exhibit remains prominently featured on its website alongside a quote from the Communist Party USA’s Angela Davis, who was once among the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives.
- The National Museum of the American Latino features an anti-American exhibit that defines Latino history as centuries of victimhood and exploitation, suggests the U.S. is stolen land, and characterizes U.S. history as rooted in “colonization.”
- The exhibit features writing from illegal immigrants “fighting to belong.”
- The exhibit displays a quote from Claudia de la Cruz, the socialist nominee for president and a director an anti-American hate group, as well as another quote that reads, “We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us.”
- The exhibit remains prominently featured on its website alongside a quote from the Communist Party USA’s Angela Davis, who was once among the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives.
The former interim director of the future Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum declared the museum will be “inclusive” of biological men posing as women.
Commentary from The Hill, August 22, 2025:
White House lists 20 objectionable Smithsonian exhibits, artworks
BY ASHLEIGH FIELDS – 08/22/25 10:34 AM ET
The Trump administration specifically targeted the American history museum’s “LGBTQ+ History” exhibit and condemned a separate display lauding the 50th anniversary of Title IX with a focus on transgender athletes. President Trump signed an executive order in February barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
The decision to highlight more than a dozen exhibits and artworks as “woke” comes days after Trump criticized the history museum for its depiction of slavery and its impact on Black Americans.
“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” the president wrote Tuesday in a Truth Social post.
“We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,” he added. “This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE.”
During his first term, Trump lauded the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture for its portrayal of harsh truths and storied victories for disenfranchised Black citizens.
Trump’s issue with the depiction of slavery in museums has been widely challenged by Black historians and community leaders.
“Just as the Holocaust is remembered in all its brutality, so must America reckon with the truth of chattel slavery, Jim Crow and racial terror,” Toni Draper, publisher of the Afro-American Newspaper — the archives of which were used to help curate the museum — wrote in a recent op-ed for Afro.com. “Anything less is historical erasure, a rewriting of facts to make the nation appear more palatable.”
“But history is not meant to comfort — it is meant to confront. And only in confrontation do we find the lessons that lead us forward,” she added.
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