The Importance Of Civics Education

"Generations of Americans were not taught how to live in a democracy. That, ultimately, is what civic education is about. So what happens when we lose that knowledge? Where are we today and why should we care? Where do we go from here?

"In partnership with iCivics, we're bringing you conversations with the people who are paying attention and doing something about it. Civics can have a future in this democracy -- in fact, civics is how this democracy will have a future."

Click on the link below for a wake-up call podcast regarding the future of our way of life in the USA:

What Happens When We Don't Trust Democracy?

Clarifying US Presidential Executive Orders

Executive orders, signed by the President, direct the government to take specific actions, but they cannot override existing laws or create new ones. They carry the force of law for federal agencies, but Congress can counter them with legislation, and courts can overturn them if they are found to be unconstitutional. [1, 2, 3]

What Executive Orders Can Do: [1, 1, 3, 3]

• Direct government agencies to take specific actions: They can instruct agencies on how to implement existing laws, set policy priorities, or order agencies to take or cease certain actions. [1, 1, 3, 3]
• Manage operations of the federal government: They can be used to streamline operations, improve efficiency, or address specific issues within the executive branch. [3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7]
• Respond to emergencies or situations: They can be used to address national emergencies or unforeseen circumstances that require immediate action. [8, 8]
• Enforce broad statutes: Executive orders can play a significant role in how broad laws are enforced and interpreted. [8, 8]
• Amend or repeal previous orders: A president can modify or revoke executive orders issued by previous administrations. [3, 3]

What Executive Orders Cannot Do: [1, 1, 2, 2]

• Create new laws or override existing statutes: Executive orders are not legislative actions and cannot change the legal framework established by Congress. [1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4]
• Declare war: The power to declare war rests with Congress. [1, 1, 9, 9]
• Override the President's veto: While Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds vote in both houses, they cannot directly override an executive order. [1, 2, 2, 5, 10]
• Infringe on constitutional rights: Executive orders cannot contradict the Constitution or fundamental rights. [3, 3, 11, 11]
• Change the scope of a President's enumerated powers: While the President can use their executive powers to enforce laws, they cannot expand or contract those powers through an executive order. [1, 11, 11]

Generative AI is experimental.

[1] https://www.aclu-nj.org/en/news/what-executive-order-and-how-does-it-work

[2] https://www.woodsrogers.com/insights/publications/5-facts-about-executive-orders-that-may-surprise-you

[3] https://campaignlegal.org/update/what-are-executive-orders-and-how-do-they-work

[4] https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/publications/teaching-legal-docs/what-is-an-executive-order-/

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb6_XFxiUCU

[6] https://www.cobrief.app/resources/contract-definitions-library/executive-order-definition-copy-customize-and-use-instantly/

[7] https://report.woodard.com/articles/executive-orders-the-good-the-bad-and-the-impact-on-businesses-fpwr

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_order

[9] https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/news/war-powers-resolution-1973

[10] https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/executive-orders-how-they-work-their-limits/89-958eb635-e7c6-4866-a7f9-7a76ea17d42e

[11] https://www.acslaw.org/inbrief/what-is-an-executive-order-and-what-legal-weight-does-it-carry/

Fareed Zakaria Continues To Focus On What Is Important

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qk4FBS73Ts

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4VfaYi_vJY&t=1s

DOGE Attacks Federal Workers: The Truth About Them

"Sen. Joni Ernst, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and other politicians have continued to make incorrect statements about the federal workforce. Their statements have eroded their own credibility and are just an attempt at tarnishing the reputations of civil servants to make it easier to fire them and contract out their jobs to for-profit corporations.

"We believe that facts matter, and AFGE will continue to debunk these misconceptions as they come in."

Click on the link below for a debunking of the false claims about Federal Workers:

AFGE Continues to Debunk Misconceptions About Federal Workers

Is It Too Much To Compare Trump With Hitler?

One cannot go on the internet without seeing posts comparing Trump to Hitler. Hell, I do it:

Is it wrong? I don't think so. Larry David seems to agree with me over Bill Maher. However, Michael Smerconish agrees with Bill Maher. I admit, my stance is powerful and binary. Here is supporting evidence for my position:

"Nazis don't always look like bad guys in funny helmets. The Nazis and other bigots in khaki slacks and bright polo shirts who marched in Charlottesville chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans I'd rather not repeat on a Saturday — or at all. But it's discouraging to feel that you have to explain, more than 70 years after Nazi Germany was defeated, why Nazis are still the menace that embody evil.

"The 20th century saw a lot of state-sanctioned mass murder: Stalin, Mao, Mengistu and Pol Pot, Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Ethiopia's Red Terror, the Great Purge, the Cultural Revolution, and more. In America, there were lynchings and the cruelty of official segregation, which followed the end of slavery, and the massacre of so many Native Americans." (link)

In sum, here are several links supporting me on this question: 

• https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-donald-trump-germany-adolf-hitler-dictatorship-propaganda-politics/

• https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/22/al-gore-compares-trump-administration-to-third-reich-hitler-00302348

• https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/undergrad-honors/62/

• https://chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-the-editor/2025/02/25/pritzker-trump-comparison-nazi-hitler-academic-commentary

• https://theharvardpoliticalreview.com/trump-rhetoric-hitler/#google_vignette

• https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-authoritarian-rhetoric-hitler-mussolini/680296/

• https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/russian-foreign-minister-compares-trumps-america-first-to-nazi-propaganda/

• https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-trumps-rhetoric-compares-to-historic-fascist-language

A Gem In A Pile Of Poop

 

He was a good person.
He would have made a good humanist.
Too bad that he was indoctrinated into false 
and harmful ideology at a young age,
as are most.

Exposing Conservative "Family Values"

 

How Authoritarianism Takes Hold

"How does authoritarianism take hold? What warning signs do we often miss? In this episode, we speak with Bruce Neuburger, author of Postcards to Hitler: A German Jew’s Defiance in a Time of Terror, about the rise of political extremism—then and now. Neuburger shares his grandfather’s incredible story of resistance under Nazi rule and explores the modern parallels we can’t afford to ignore.

🔹 How authoritarian regimes normalize oppression
🔹 The role of propaganda in shaping public perception
🔹 Lessons from Nazi Germany and today’s political landscape
🔹 What individuals can do to push back against creeping authoritarianism"

Click here for the podcast.

Voter Suppression in 2024

In Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen, investigative reporter Greg Palast hunts down the MAGA vigilantes who came for your vote in 2024. Click here for a free streaming of the documentary.

"Mickey Mouse Is Smarter That Trump"

Click on the link below for a detailed examination of the idiocy of Trump's trade and economic policies and DOGE. If this doesn't scare the Hell out of you, you are not educable:

Jeffrey Sachs Goes Off, Roasts Donald Trump’s Trade Talk

Why Facts Don't Work To Change Minds

I would be at the front of the line supporting facts as a counter to falsehood. However, there is growing evidence that confronting someone who is in error with facts as a first-line approach to them fails royally. 

Click on the link below for a science-based approach to how to initially interact with individuals who are mistaken by accepting harmful ideas:

Using harm as a universal moral outrage to better communicate 

The Manosphere: A Major Problem For The USA

"The 'manosphere' is made up of macho podcasters and influencers, a space where UFC fighters are among those who reign supreme, like Jake Shields. CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan sits down with Shields and also speaks with independent journalist Vera Papisova as part of "MisinfoNation: Extreme America," airing Sunday, April 13 at 8pm ET/PT on 'The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.'"

Click here for a 7-minute video exposing a dangerous segment of US society that is at the center of the White Supremacy movement, and thus, the Republican Party.

Immigration Myths Debunked

Click here for an extensive debunking of essentially all of the negative myths and stereotypes involving immigration to the USA:

• 1. Immigrants commit more crimes than native citizens.
• 2. Immigrants raise the crime rates where they settle.
• 3. Undocumented immigrants freeload all kinds of social services.
• 4. Undocumented immigrants pay no taxes.
• 5. Immigrant laborers drive wages down, harming native citizens.
• 6. There is an unprecedented invasion at the southern border, constituting a national emergency.
• 7. Immigrants bring fentanyl into the US from Mexico.
• 8. Immigrants take good jobs from native citizens.
• 9. It's easy to get citizenship legally, there's no reason they can't do that.
• 10. The US has long had an open border policy which has been economically disastrous.

The USA Is At The Tipping Point

"The Trump regime is on the cusp of a showdown with the Supreme Court. Depending on what the Court does and how the regime responds, it could openly become a dictatorship in two ways."

Click here to continue.

Bill Maher: Gullible Or Groveling

Bill Maher has the skill to sell nonsense to the gullible. He plays the "Centrist" card open-faced and ignores reality, as all such media personalities do. Reality/truth is not close to being represented by the center of the US political conversation.

Click here to learn what he had to say about his meeting with Donald Trump a few days ago.

The Person Who Knows It All Knows Nothing

The saying "the person who knows it all knows nothing" highlights a paradox: someone who believes they know everything is likely unaware of their limitations and the vastness of unknown knowledge. It suggests that true wisdom lies in acknowledging the limits of one's knowledge and remaining open to learning. This idea is often associated with Socrates' famous statement, "I know that I know nothing".

-AI Overview

Click on the link below for the best expose (in his own words!) about the present POTUS you will ever see:

Wall Street Just WENT OFF ON TRUMP With Alarming Warnings!

Civil Servants: The Under-Appreciated Heros Of Government

"Michael Lewis, acclaimed author of The Big Short, Moneyball, and The Fifth Risk joins Lovett to discuss his most recent book, Who is Government? Lewis and his coauthors profile the civil servants whose thankless and unglamorous work prevents mines from collapsing, castaways from drowning, and rare diseases from killing people. He and Jon talk about why it’s so important to break down the 'bureaucrat' stereotype right now, why Lewis is convinced Elon Musk has no idea how to run DOGE, and what leads the people he writes about to stand up to Trump or succumb to their personal ambition."

Click on the link below for an enlightening podcast regarding the truth about the role of government in society:

Bravery in Politics 

Groveling To Trump Only Encourages More Subservience

Friends,

Here’s a slightly stylized version of the conversation now occurring between Trump and:

(1) the presidents and prime ministers of countries on which Trump has slapped tariffs,

(2) CEOs of corporations wanting exemptions from the tariffs,

(3) university presidents wanting to avoid losing federal funding,

(4) senior partners at law firms seeking to avoid a punitive Trump executive order,

(5) CEOs of media corporations seeking to avoid or settle a Trump lawsuit against them and curry favor, and

(6) chairs of the nation’s largest museums, hospitals, libraries, and other nonprofits afraid of losing their tax-exempt status.

- - -

The Oval Office

They (anxiously): Mr. President, sir, thank you for a few moments of your time.

He (impatiently): Cut to the chase: What will you give me?

They: We’re eager to make amends, sir, and give you whatever you want, sir.

He: Start with a public apology.

They: Yes, of course. We should never have done what we were doing. We’ll say so, publicly.

He: And thank me, publicly.

They: Yes, of course. You’re a great president who deserves all of our thanks.

He: The greatest president.

They: The greatest president!

He: What else?

They (groveling): We’ll contribute to a fund of your choosing. $40 million.

He: $100 million.

They: Of course, Mr. President, sir.

He: That’s it?

They (bowing): We also promise never, ever to criticize you, Mr. President, sir. We’ll stop everyone else from criticizing you, too.

He: Good. What else?

They (after kissing his hand): Your family can build a hotel on our property! Several hotels! You’ll get 50 percent of whatever it earns.

He: Fifty?

They (after kissing his shoes): No! Eighty! Ninety! We’ll give you television rights! Book deals! Book deals for your wife! We’ll invest in your Bitcoin!

He: Maybe …

They: Our people will be your serfs!

He (perking up): Serfs?

They: Slaves! And their children will be slaves to your children!

Assistant: Mr. President, sir, you’ve got another meeting.

He (to the grovelers): Let me think about it.

They (as they’re being led out): We’ll throw in a diamond brooch! A Rolex watch! A Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail!

He (to the grovelers): Come back with a better offer.

They (backing out and bowing): Thank you, Mr. President, sir! Thank you! Thank you!

(Assistant closes the door behind them.)

- - -

This dialogue is only a bit exaggerated. There are few things Trump enjoys more than his own dominance over — and the abject subservience of — others.

But with every such deal, Trump’s perceived power grows. With every groveler, he demands more groveling. Every supplicant ensures more supplicants — among presidents and prime ministers, CEOs, university presidents, senior partners at law firms, and CEOs of media corporations.

Those who grovel are harming the world. They are traitors to America.

We fought a Revolutionary War almost 250 years ago to avoid just this.

- - - - - - - - - -

Robert Reich 

He can't see the full picture regarding his actions.
He doesn't understand that most political goals require tweezers and not a hammer.

An Existential Science Crisis For The USA (And The Planet)

"This week, in response to President Trump’s ongoing cuts to scientific research and staffing at federal agencies, nearly 2,000 of the country’s leading scientists signed a letter urging the administration to 'cease its wholesale assault on U.S. science.'

“'We see real danger in this moment,' the letter, which was signed by a number of Nobel Prize winners, stated. 'We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.'

"Last week, the journal Nature published a poll it conducted of more than 1,600 U.S. scientists: 'Are you a US researcher who is considering leaving the country following the disruptions to science prompted by the Trump administration?' the poll asked the group. In response, 75.3% of those polled said yes, while 24.7% said no."

Click here for the full article.

The Wisdom Of Scott Galloway

"Scott Galloway is an entrepreneur, author, professor of marketing at NYU, and host of the Vox Media podcasts 'The Prof G Pod' and 'Pivot' with Kara Swisher. Scott joins Preet to discuss gutting the government, undermining alliances with Europe, masculinity, and togetherness, and why Democrats need to be the party of ideas."

Click on this link for the podcast.