Anyone who has been paying attention notices that Trump is pretty okay with Russia and is eager to abandon established international protections and orders. The Trump Corollary pretty well spells that out.
Several things are made much clearer for me now.
The Trump Regime, embraced and empowered by the Heritage Foundation and IAW Project 2025, has decided that the only elected political office that matters is the presidency.
They’re pulling hard on the unitary executive theory. The POTUS can do whatever he wants so long as he declares it as a threat to the United States.
Reinforced by the Roberts Court shadow docket, they are confident that this will advance with little challenge.
Trump and his minions will employ the United States’ military power and reach to do whatever they want.
This is along the lines of Russia’s thinking. It’s basically an imperial “we’re bigger than you” attitude, so go screw yourself.
Bombing ships and killing the people onboard was their deliberate statement that the Trump Regime thinks it can and will get away with it.
They believe the POTUS is bigger than history and law, whether it’s national or international.
POTUS makes policy and executes wars as he sees fit, in the Trump Regime’s opinion.
The boat bombings of 2025 were a test as well as a statement to see how everyone else reacted.
That the attacks are illegal and horrid and counter to law doesn’t affect the Trump Regime at all.
That they’re purportedly Venezuelan boats and citizens have everything to do with fossil fuels and Venezuela’s reserves, and nothing to do with whether drugs are onboard and destined for the United States.
The target and efforts were perfect test scenarios for them after they first flexed military power by bombing Iran under the guise of protecting Israel.
The Trump Regime is aware of blowback from previous efforts to bully other nations and/or conduct regime change.
That’s one reason why they’re shutting down inroads and making the U.S. hostile to people coming to our nation.
By aggressively doing so and making migrants, immigrants, tourists, and foreigners less prevalent among our population, they can more easily keep tabs and more heavily surveil them when they’re here, and more swiftly and ruthlessly come down on them. In their minds, that probably equates to being less susceptible to terrorist activities.
They’re discounting what could happen to U.S. bases and corporations doing business outside of the United State, or what can happen to tourists beyond our borders. It’s another amazing example of how they think with blinders on. They think the threat of military retaliation will keep U.S. businesses and citizens safe in other nations.
That’s part of their ‘obey or else’ doctrine as Trump has warned others several times.
The Trump Regime is encouraged by how NATO and others responded to Russian aggression.
Trump’s economic policies completely align with the Trump Corollary.
Trump claims that he wants to return manufacturing to the United States. That’s clearly just another promise to satisfy his base.
By breaking trade agreements and increasing tariffs, the Trump Regime has slowed the flow of goods to the United States.
Via this slowdown and tariffs, the Trump Regime can now manipulate what materials enter the country, affecting food supplies, consumer goods, manufacturing, construction, and prices. This becomes another weapon for Trump to coerce cooperation from states, businesses, and people.
Putting U.S. national guard units in ‘blue’ cities along with attacks on the media and the persecution of his political enemies is a deliberate and orchestrated Trump Regime three-pronged strategy.
Their goals are clearly to mute criticism of Trump and his policies.
The strategy permits the regime to control the flow of information and to have boots on the crowd to quell public protests and outcry.
The Trump Regime knows that’s coming. Trump might not know of increasing unpopularity of him and his policies but his regime knows, are they’re expecting it to grow worse, and are planning against it.
Dismantling the Department of Education and shifting focus from public education to private schools empowers the Trump Regime.
The Trump Regime is basically following the old communist game plan. Teach them young, and teach only the ‘facts’ which the Regime wants the young to hear.
This practice creates an easily malleable young population, perfect for expanding military forces.
The icing on the strategy is ICE.
By establishing and heavily funding a huge paramilitary organization, the Trump Regime has created a de facto national police force.
They can then use that ICE force to curtail and restrict travel and enforce curfews in the name of ‘national emergencies’.
Trump, as POTUS, can declare a national emergency at will. Given the nature of the GOP-dominated Congress, Congress would only make mewling noises about it.
That would leave relief about Trump’s declared emergencies to the judicial system, where the Trump-friendly Roberts Court rules.
Can anyone say Iron Curtain? Through the ‘Trump Corollary’ and the Trump Regime’s already well-established practices, this administration is creating the Trump Wall. They, with ‘they’ defined as the primarily white fascist Christians of Trump’s base and the oligarchs courting Trump’s favor, believe that this policy will make the United States stronger and more successful by isolating it and using its military power to bully others. It completely discounts twentieth and twenty-first economic, cultural, political, and military history. It also belies the truth about how the United States advanced through education, opportunity, and international military, diplomatic, and economic cooperation. But remember that those successes and advances were often done when Democrats were in charge. This Trump Corollary is a reactionary throwback to a far different time, one well before computers and the vast technological communications systems that now exist.
The Trump Regime is on that, though. By developing relationships through business, profits, and grift with the techno brothers, they’re establishing the framework for shutting down and manipulating the social media information flow. AI will only enhance the Trump Regime’s ability to manipulate facts and the truth…just as foretold in 1984.
Bottom line, the Trump Corollary is a death knell for true freedom, democracy, and equality in the United States. Unless you have the money or power to procure them.
I broke out of my writerly cocoon this week. I typically get into the coffee shop, find a table and seat, assume the position and shut down to being friendly. I have met Kim, another writer, and chat with her regularly, but briefly. We each respect the writer’s privacy and methodology, so while we will emerge to joke and exchange words, we shut back down and get down to our respective writing processes.
Meanwhile, though, there are dogs. People bring their pups in with them, a practice I applaud. Living in Europe, it wasn’t unusual to encounter dogs in restaurants, cafes, and shops. I’m fine with them.
And the dogs are fine with me. But because they come and visit me, I end up chatting with their people. Then the people open up with their curiosity about what I do there each day. In explaining, others overhear. They volunteer later, privately, that they’re a writer, too. It’s a veritable writing hive.
I also ventured out of my cocoon on my own. A woman sat down beside me yesterday as I was wrapping up. She put a book down, along with a notebook. Always interested in people’s reading material, I glanced over. The book’s title was A Wild Life, a book about women in botany and their discoveries. I have several botanist friends, learned, intelligent, charming people who are passionate about botany. I said, “Pardon me, I saw your book. Are you a botanist?”
“I wish,” she responded.
We chatted about the book and why she chose it. A local person, Lucretia Saville Weems, is the author, and the woman saw it in Bloomsbury’s local authors section and was interested and bought it.
Packing up, I said my goodbyes to her but wasn’t done socializing. I’d noticed a young couple. She was wearing a One Piece sweatshirt. My wife and I are One Piece fans, so I had to pause to compliment her on her top, and then we talked about the television series and enjoyed some laughs.
Probably just something in the air for a few days. I’m back in my cocoon today, ready to get to it.
As I sit here typing, I’m aware of a hair. It sits on the left side of my left eye’s vision. It’s been pestering me for two days. It’s from the Eyebrow Tribe. At first, I just brushed at it. Then I tried finding it in the mirror and pasting it down. When that failed, I tried jerking it out with my fingertips. Should’ve gotten tweezers to seriously address it but no, I was in the middle of something else and was rushing myself. Or should I just clipped it back. Tsk.
And here it is again. Sitting on my vision’s edge, mocking me.
Curse you, little curly hair. Curse you. This isn’t over.
Guess what? It’s a cold and gray, wet and sunny December 6th, 2025, Ashlandia Saturda. The wet is drying, the fog is swirling, the sun is breaking in, and the gray is hanging on. The digital mercury currently rests at 46 F degrees with sunny promises of a 50 F degree high.
Mom and sis battle on. Mom’s mind has taken a turn for the worse, and her behavior has pushed the people living with her to the limit. She’s suddenly paranoid and conspiratorial, making bizarre accusations, and is increasingly hostile and critical, accusing everyone of imaginary slights. Mom has exhibited these traits throughout her adult life. All of her offspring can relate periods of encountering Mom in ‘one of her moods’. This period, which has lasted several days, has driven sis to declare she’ll have nothing to do with Mom any longer. Of course, sis is speaking out of anger, stress, and frustration. Mom has declared that she’ll move back to her house and live alone. “Go for it,” shouted sis, according to sis when we spoke on the phone. We are investigating and discussing trying to get Mom into somewhere else for her living situation.
Today’s song is “Sexcrimes”. This is a 1984 Eurythmics song, full name “Sexcrimes (Nineteen Eighty-Four)”. No idea why The Neurons slotted it into the morning mental music stream this morning. In the kitchen doing breakfast things when it made its appearance. Always sort of an odd song to me, never quite to my preference, but I encountered on the radio back in the day. There is something slightly mesmerizing about it to me, maybe the beat, I suppose.
Read the news last night that the National Parks Service has declared free admission for Trumpy’s birthday. Meanwhile, giving us a massive middle finger, the NPS dropped Juneteenth and MLK Jr’s birthday as holidays with free admission that they’ll recognize. More of that kingliness grace that Trump is imposing on We the People as he defecates on our past collective decisions, history, and heritage. Of course, thanks to Dizzy Donny and the massive staffing and budget cuts under his regime, stories of chaotic situations at national parks are on the rise.
Been thirty days since my gallbladder was removed. Recovering and adjusting seem to be going well. It’s my habit to drink hot water in the morning. This week, I’ve experienced nausea when doing that. From the way it rolls from my abdomen and gathers at the back of my throat by my jaw muscles, most online medical sites tell me it’s not unusual and is most likely because of an irritated Vagus Nerve. As a root cause, that’s not startling. They’ve suggested an overstimulated Vagus Nerve is probably behind my high blood pressure for years. Manuka Honey does settle the nausea.
Coffee has been re-introduced to my biosystems. Hope grace and peace show up someday in the United States again someday. Here we go, into another day.