Welcome to our Group!
Do you have more to say? You can do it in this section.
Please submit all articles to [email protected]. All articles are subject to approval from the Writers Group.
The Group meets the 4th Saturday of the month at 3:00pm. For more information and meeting location, please contact Louis Sones at [email protected]
ARE WE BETTER OFF NOW THAN WE WERE ONE YEAR AGO
By Paul Arieti
After one year of Donald Trump’s second term, it’s time to ask, borrowing from former president Ronald Regan, are we better off than we were one year ago.
From January 2025 until now, unemployment has increased from 4.0% to 4.3% and adding to that is the significant reduction in job growth. Annual Job growth has slowed considerably from 1.46 million in 2024 to a recently revised 181,000 in 2025.
During 2025 core inflation has increased from 2.8 to 3.0. So far Trump has failed to “end inflation” as promised during his campaign. Basic commodities such as beef, poultry, eggs and vegetables have increased significantly in 2025. While a gallon of gas has fallen from the national average of $3.11 at the beginning of 2025 to $2.97 at the end, the administration has little control over gas prices since they are determined by global crude oil and refining costs.
In July 2025 Trump approved an extension to his 2017 tax cuts which mostly benefit the wealthy and corporations. These tax cuts have significantly contributed to the increase in the nation’s record levels of inequality. By the end of 2025, the top 1% now hold about 32% of the nation’s household net wealth while the bottom 50% hold only 2.5%. Further, the top 10% now own 87% of all stock market wealth while the bottom 50% own only 1% and the number of billionaires has increased from 565 in 2017 to 902 in 2025.
During 2025 one of the most disturbing actions by the Trump administration is the treatment of immigrants. While the number of formal deportations (removals of people arrested inside the U.S. rather than at the border) during 2024 and 2025 were comparable at about 230,000, the methods used by the Trump compared to the Biden administration are unnecessarily severe, cruel and have resulted in unjustified loss of life. The irony is that we need immigrants. Because of recent significantly reduced birthrates, without immigration our population is projected to shrink in the near future and together with our aging population this will put an unsustainable burden on the working age population.
Trump promised to end the Ukrainian war on “day one”. It is now the end of year one and Russia continues their brutal assault on Ukrainian infrastructure and its civilians with little change on the battlefield and continued attempts by the Trump administration to pressure Ukraine to concede territory which would only reward Russian aggression. Also, after two years of brutal Israeli attacks and near total devastation of the country, a ceasefire was negotiated in Gaza. Yet Israeli strikes and violent clashes continue. Finally, Trump’s backers in the MAGA movement must be wondering what happened to his “America First” pledge considering the several surprise foreign military actions he has authorized in the past year. While our military successfully removed the Venezuelan dictator last year, the anti-democratic regime remains in place. And now the attacks on Iran, what could go wrong?
Trump claims everything has improved during this past year, but the facts are quite the opposite. All in all, we are clearly no better off and, in many ways, much worse off than we were one year ago!
If You Can’t Fix It, Break It
By: Lou Sones
Here we go again. Another shutdown and more meager asks by the Dems: No masks for ICE agents; judicial warrants for ICE raids; body cams; etc. Not good enough. Does anyone think that Trump, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, or Christi Noem will follow any of these laws, even if our cowardly congressional representatives would pass them (which they won’t)? Congress or the courts will not stop them. The Supreme Court has become a joke. Even they won’t stop the evil that has descended on our country. So, what do we do?
Once again, the Democrats have some leverage. We can shut DHS down and demand something big and bold: that the vast amount of money designated for ICE be repurposed for health care, affordable housing, SNAP`, and every other service the Trump administration has laid waste to. Will this work? Probably not. But it will make more and more people aware of the fast-moving train running off the rails, making America no longer the land of the free. But we still have to be “the home of the brave”. We have to keep denying funding for DHS long enough to make as many people as possible realize that Trump and his sinister cabinet are the ones causing the pain from a non-functioning TSA, FEMA, and Coast Guard. In the last funding showdown, we made health care front and center in the minds of so many more Americans. We accomplished this by shutting down the government for 43 days, and it was very successful. We have to use the same strategy and cut off the money for DHS for as long as it takes to make more and more Americans aware of the horrors of ICE.
And let’s not forget that if we give more money to DHS, it will be used to build ICE detention centers to hold hundreds of thousands of mostly innocent prisoners. Prisoners who are being beaten, denied medical care, given undrinkable water, and denied legal counsel. Prisoners who are five-year-old children, pregnant women, people with cancer, and those with other life-threatening diseases. Prisoners who are American citizens, who were taken just for peacefully protesting. Prisoners who were arrested just for being brown, black, or having a Spanish accent. And now they’re gunning for the Press. More money for DHS will be used to aid and abet Donald Trump and Stephen Miller in building more prisons for profit. And I’m sure Trump loyalists will find a way to grift off the suffering of thousands and thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
ICE is broken, and no tinkering around the edges or feckless guidelines will fix it. We’ve all heard the saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. But with ICE, “We can’t fix it, we have to break it”. That’s our mission. Over the next few years, we have to use every tool in our toolbox to say “mission accomplished”.
ABUSES & USURPTATIONS
Guest Author: Joseph Yarnell
Most folks are familiar with the opening two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. However, many who claim to love and believe in the Declaration of Independence have chosen to ignore the second paragraph: “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” “All men” is not limited by any further words. It does not distinguish between races, ethnicities or places of origin; it does not say only natural born citizens who are born from the “right” kind of citizens; it does not even distinguish between citizens and non-citizens. It means ALL. Remember, none of the founding fathers were born citizens of the United States. In fact, our 8th President, Martin Van Buren, is the first President to be a natural born citizen of the United States of America.
Most folks are unaware of, or choose to ignore, the rest of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration goes at length to list the “abuses and usurpations” of the government by the King of England. The abuses we are suffering under the current President, Congress, and Judiciary are eerily similar. In the words of the Declaration:
“He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good… He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance… He has utterly neglected to attend to them… He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people…he has called together legislative bodies at places unusual…for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures…He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States…obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither…He has obstructed the administration of justice…He has made judges dependent on his will alone…He has created a multitude of new offices to harness our people…He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures…He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to the civil power.…”Giving his assent for their acts of pretended legislation:” For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; For protecting them from any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; For imposing taxes upon us without our consent; For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury, and for exciting domestic insurrection among us…”
Our current government also acts purely out of self interest. Morality, Honor, and Integrity have little or no meaning. They would not even consider, and would surely mock, the oath our founding fathers swore at the end of the Declaration of Independence. “And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Devine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
We Are Losing Our Democracy
By: Paul Arieti
Noble laurate economist Joseph Stiglitz has stated: “the only sustainable prosperity is shared prosperity; we pay a high price for inequality in terms of a divided society undermining democracy.” Inequality of wealth prosperity over the past several decades has increased significantly. A prime example is that the top 10% of households hold about 70% of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 50% hold only 2.5%. Another example is the number of billionaires increasing from less than 100 in the early 1990’s to over 1000 today! While the redistribution of wealth to the top slowed somewhat during the Biden administration, it has reaccelerated during Trump’s second term with reductions such as those in healthcare and food assistance programs affecting the bottom half. The unequal sharing of wealth and prosperity is a prime driver of the increasing divisions and the weakening of our democracy in our country.
Along with the risk of personal wealth inequality threatening democracy is the threat of increasing national financial instability. The national debt just passed $38 trillion with an ongoing annual deficit close to $2 trillion. Economists have estimated that approximately half of the current debt is due to the Regan, George W Bush and Trump tax cuts which mostly benefit the wealthy and corporations. Our annual interest payment on that debt is now over $1 trillion. The national debt continues to rise out of control and debt payments alone are consuming an increasing share of our annual expenditures.
Further loss of our democracy is happening on several levels. While increasing wealth inequality and national financial weakness continue to threaten our democracy, the current administration is adding to the erosion of democracy by forcibly sending into our cities inadequately trained armed government agents to remove immigrants. Wearing masks, combat gear and carrying machine guns they are arresting, in many cases, hardworking members of our communities who are trying to improve their lives. Many of the victims are citizens or have a legal right to be here. Many including children have been snatched from their homes, cars, and workplaces and then shipped to foreign countries or incarcerated in remote prisons without due process. Over the past several decades, including Trump’s first term, immigrant removals and returns to their native countries occurred at significant rates (400 to 500 thousand per year except during the Covid years) without the draconian tactics and with due process. The current administration’s actions are clearly undemocratic.
The financial policies and police-state actions of the Trump administration are seriously undermining our democracy. We must continue to resist and push back on these undemocratic actions and follow the lead of many protesting throughout this country. As the brave folks in Minneapolis demonstrate everyday “democracy is not a spectator sport.”
Can Drone Use Be Dangerous?
By Lois Troxell
In the next few years growth in drones is expected to explode to 2.4 million drones. Drone use in war leads to long-term radicalization and increased recruitment for extremists. Killing leaders that include civilian deaths creates more militants. Drones have on-board cameras for real-time targeting, but they frequently fail to distinguish between combatants and civilians. Although President Trump has cancelled casualty reports, estimates are 7,000 to 13,000 civilians killed since 2004 in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, and Afghanistan.
Constant fear of a drone strike leads to mental health issues in non-combatants. Pilots of drones in war suffer from emotional disengagement and exhaustion, burn-out, and PTSD. Civilian use of drones can lead to attackers injecting their own malicious codes. A single drone can shut down an airport. Hacking, noise, and spying are frequently reported but the most common hazard is a drone crashing into someone or something.
Are there political solutions to be tried in the countries where our drones are killing more civilians than combatants? Could we elect leaders who will try?
Once Again NO, NO, NO!!
By Lou Sones
I just heard Senator Chris Coons in an interview last night. He was saying that he wouldn't support funding DHS unless the administration agreed to certain conditions on ICE: No masks, body cams on ICE agents, etc.
No, No, No! What good are conditions? We all know that Trump and his cabinet will not pay attention to them. Or they will find a way to get around them. That's a given. Coons still thinks politics is civil and that compromise is still an option. NO, No, No! We need to cut off the money, plain and simple.
Oh, but what about FEMA, which is under DHS? Who cares? FEMA isn't doing shit anyway. FEMA might as well not exist. The Small Business Administration, which funds disaster relief programs, is gutted.
Excuse the cliché, but we have to play hardball, as we did in the last shutdown showdown. That got us somewhere. It made it clear that the Dems are for healthcare, and the Republicans don't give a crap.
I know that Trump and his court of evil jesters will still find a way to rain their cruelty on those who oppose them, but we have to slow this train down. At least till the midterms. We have to take a page out of Trump's playbook: delay, delay, and delay.
Please.
Senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'
Lets All Go To The Bar
A Call to Action
By Lou Sones
Though I like my Bourbon, I’m not suggesting that you all join me for drinks. What I am suggesting is that we all write letters to the respective Bar Associations of Lindsey Halligan, Pam Bondi, and Todd Blanche, expressing our outrage at their highly unethical actions
Lindsey Halligan already faces disbarment or disciplinary action for filing meritless cases, as watchdog groups have already filed bar complaints alleging abuse of power.
Over 80 lawyers, law professors, and former judges have already filed a complaint seeking an
investigation and appropriate sanctions against Pamela Jo Bondi, a member of The Florida Bar,
who has engaged in serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the
administration of justice, including ignoring court orders, vindictive prosecution, and firing prosecutors who refused to break their oaths of office.
There have been formal complaints and significant criticism directed at Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche from bar associations and legal ethics experts, particularly the
New York State Bar Association, NYC Bar, the Legal Accountability Center (LAC), and others, accusing him of undermining judicial independence, misusing authority, and exhibiting severe conflicts of interest related to his role in reviewing cases involving Donald Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Although these distinguished members of the legal profession have already written to the various Bar Associations, I think that flooding the zone with a constant stream of letters from ordinary citizens will demonstrate that many of us are aware of the malpractice of Trump’s Department of Justice. We should also cc our letters to the Legal Accountability Center (LAC) and send versions of these letters to all our local representatives, and a version to our local newspapers as op-eds.
One thing I’ve learned from my advocacy experience as a community organizer is that some pressure points are worth continuing to press on.
The American Bar Association recommends that all complaints of misconduct be addressed to the individual state bar associations for a particular lawyer.
For Lindsey Halligan & Pam Bondi.
For Florida Bar Association
Center for Professionalism
[email protected]
For Todd Blanche a member of the State Bars of
Indiana, New Jersey, and Alabama
Supreme Court of the United States Bar,
For Indiana
[email protected]
For New Jersey
Office of Attorney Ethics
[email protected]
For Alabama
Alabama State Bar
Center for Professional Responsibility
www.alabar.org
The Legal Accountability Center
[email protected]
Again, this is just one of many actions we can take to stand firm against Trump’s Department of Justice and to defeat Trumpism itself, which is the mission. Once we can say “Mission Accomplished.”, drinks will be on me.
Just Say No
Another Call To Action
By Lou Sones
Once again, we find ourselves on the verge of becoming a brutal dictatorship under Donald Trump and his cruel henchmen: Steven Miller, Christy Nome, Tom Homan, J.D. Vance, and a myriad of cowardly enablers in both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. And once again, we feel helpless to stop Trump’s Gestapo thugs – ICE.
But we are not helpless. We still have tools in our toolbox that all of us decent citizens can use. We have rallies; we have peaceful protests; we have our vote (hopefully) and our right to free speech (for now). And we have the power of the purse – Boycotts.
Companies with contracts to provide services and goods to
ICE/DHS. THE BLOOD OF INNOCENTS IS ON THEIR HANDS
• Best Western International
• Chick-fil-A Inc
• Hyatt
• Kelly Services
• Lexmark
• Smoothie King
• Toyota Motor Engineering North America
• Starbucks Coffee Puerto Rico
• Tyson Foods
• Right Way Industries
• Accenture
• Amazon Web Services
• AT&T
• Boose Allen Hamilton
• Palantire
• Caci International
• Motorola Solutions
• Core Civic and GEO group
• Fed Ex
Also, lawmakers are staring down another deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown – Jan. 31. And this time, they have to decide how much money to give the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that funds ICE. Now that Congress has witnessed the recent atrocities of ICE, they also have the power of the purse. They can once again vote not to pass the budget unless ICE gets no more money or even gets defunded.
Yes, we are not helpless. We can just say “NO” by boycotting those companies that enable ICE, and we can petition our representatives to just say “NO” to any budget that gives more money to ICE. Better yet, they should say “NO” to any budget that funds ICE at all.
We are not helpless. We can just say “NO”!