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Welcome to The Village Oak Tree
I am your host, Terrance Ó Domhnaill.
Thank you for joining me once again.
This week, I continue to talk about immigration, the environment, and this latest deal with these dumbasses working for Trump. There's a lot to unpack once again.
Once I've finished talking about the news stories I found for this week, stick around to read another chapter of The Priest by Michael Campi
So come, pull up a chair, and let me regale you with the news I have from outside your village and a story to make you think.
It seems that every week lately, there is no dearth of stories that, in some way or another, have something to do with Trump. He's in nearly every news story around the world about something he said or signed.
He seems to think his executive decrees are now the law of the land once he signs them. How is that not thinking like a dictator? I mean, he went off the rails last weekend about an official painting of him in the Colorado state house that he thought made him look distorted. Obviously, they replaced the portrait.
There are now judges from all levels of the countries judiciary filing injunctions to stop him, which is drawing flak from the top all the way down through the Trump administration.
The question on most people's minds right now, will they be able to stop him? I'm one of them. A lot of us are wondering what that would even look like.
I have more stories from across the spectrum that all have to do with Trump and his autopen. About his impact on the constitution, tourism, the environment, and national security.
Remember last week when I told everyone about all of the active duty troops and a navy destroyer being deployed to the southern border? Apparently they have a plan and it isn't a very good one. Along with all of the other violations of the constitution, Trump wants to do away with the posse comitatus act of 1878 that expressly forbids the deployment of active duty troops on U.S. soil for domestic law enforcement unless directly authorized by congress.
Trump administration plans for militarized border in New Mexico – report
Administration reportedly working to fulfill a conservative dream: create buffer zone to be occupied by US troops
From The Guardian/us-news
Since we don't have a congress anymore, I guess we can add this one to the trash heap as well. All the republicans in congress and some democrats know how to do is stick their tongues out and wag their tales like good little doggies these days, waiting for Trump to pat them on the heads and say, “good doggie.”
Last week, I found several stories about international visitors who found disfavor with Trump's new Army of immigration soldiers. This week, I have a story posted in Medium.com from a Canadian celebrity who ended up spending two long weeks in a couple of different, ugly, ICE detention centers before being released to return back to Canada. All because of a minor hiccup on a previous work visa that had been cleared up before being issued a valid one. That didn't seem to make a difference to the U.S. version of the Nazi SS troops we have guarding entry to the U.S.
You’re Not a Criminal, But You’re Going to Jail: My ICE Detention Story as a Canadian Citizen
Jasmine Mooney in Medium.com
She tells everyone that she was lucky because she had the financial resources to reach out to friends to secure her release, eventually. She relates that there are a lot of people in the detention centers, who have been there for months waiting to be deported or not. According to her description, these detention centers are some of the worst for basic human dignity. Worse than most prisons. For a country that used to pride itself for standing up for human rights, the U.S. has fallen a long way towards the bottom of that statistic. I recently read about an international human rights organization that has dramatically lowered the United States standing with regard for human rights now with all of this business of international visitors.
I have a couple of stories from Canada's CBC news, regarding all of this. An Indian international grad student who feared for her life, self-deported herself across the border to Canada to claim asylum. She was attending Columbia University in NYC and because of her pro-Palestinian stance, she became a target of ICE and skipped out just ahead of an arrest. Just for exercising her first amendment rights last year.
Grad student who fled U.S. says claims about her alleged support of Hamas are 'absurd'
Ranjani Srinivasan fled to Canada amid a U.S. crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters
CBC News ·
They are seriously going after non-citizen college students everywhere who took part in any pro-Palestine protests. They're now national security risks and are all to be deported. Lawyers and judges are fighting back as best as they can but Trump has a bigger army. I found a story last night from CBC Canada about a south Korean student who has been living in the U.S. since she was aged seven, who ICE is chasing around trying to deport her. They have revoked her green card but her lawyers have managed to get a temporary halt in order for a judge to make a decision. This is just the beginning of things to come.
Columbia University student can't be detained by immigration officials for now, judge rules
Yunseo Chung is a permanent U.S. resident who is fighting effort to deport her
From CBC Canada
I have another story about a musical duet from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on tour in the U.S. They were traveling in Ohio on their way to their next gig, when they were harassed by local police just because they are Canadian.
Halifax musicians say U.S. traffic stop led to drug search, questions about allegiance
MacDonald sisters shaken by experience but say they plan to continue touring in the U.S.
CBC News
I'm sure there are plenty more as the government of Canada is now issuing travel warnings to Canadians who wish to travel in or through the United States for any reason. As it is, a new U.S. law set to start in April, says that all foreigners who wish to stay in the U.S. for more than thirty days must have their photos taken and be fingerprinted like common criminals.
Ottawa updates advisory for travellers to U.S., noting visitors must register for longer stays
Failure to comply could result in fines, misdemeanour prosecution, advisory says
The Canadian Press
I also found another story from someone living in eastern Europe. She used to be a frequent visitor to the U.S. She has written about it before, which is why I follow her. But now, she is singing a different tune. In her latest article, she talks about how the sentiment in Europe has swung the opposite way now. No one wants to visit the U.S. for pleasure anymore. They're too afraid. Even herself, after listening to the people around her, and all of the chaos coming from the news feeds, says she will not be returning to the U.S. anytime soon. At least not until Trump is just a bad memory.
The U.S. Slowly Bans Travel: French Anti-Trump Scientist Denied Entry
How long will the world be able to enter the U.S. and Americans get out?
Mona Lazar in Medium.com
If that's not a deterrent to international tourism, I don't know what is. On top of all of that, with all of the latest detentions and deportations of Europeans lately, certain EU countries are also issuing travel warnings to its citizens regarding travel to the United States. I expect this to spread across the world.
Some European countries and Canada issue advisories for travelers to the U.S
By Chandelis Duster for NPR
Trump and his new army are warning the world. The United States is not a friendly country anymore. Visit at your peril. Imagine the millions of tourism dollars that will disappear from the U.S. economy as these international tourists go somewhere else for their vacations?
In my last story, they mention that governments are warning their citizens to scrub their personal electronic devices and social media accounts before traveling to the U.S. now. They're advising them to not take any laptops with them, if they can, in order to stay below the border patrol radar upon entry to the U.S. Anyone wishing to enter the United States from anywhere, will have all of their electronic devices inspected for any subversive content now. If they find something they don’t like, people will be denied entry or worse, detained for weeks or more in horrid conditions.
This is what the United States has become under Trump, a militaristic police state that's deliberately trying to deter anyone from entering the country they don't like the looks of. We're all waiting for the list of countries he plans to put on the travel bans he promised. It promises to be quite large, according to some reports.
He canceled all of the Biden temporary status visas for about 530,000 people who petitioned to come to the U.S. from really bad places, like Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, and a few others. Now, they're required to return from whence they came. Can you imagine having to return to the hellhole they call Haiti because the new president considers you a sub-human? The logistics alone is staggering. How does the Trump government plan to get all of these people home? Put them in chains and force them onto a plane, like he just did with all of those Venezuelan's he sent to El Salvador last week?
Then there's the environment. As I noted last week, Trump has choked off NOAA, and north America will be paying a price for that in more lives and property losses soon. With the near elimination of the EPA, there will be a lot more loss of life ahead. I have a couple of articles that us give some detail about what's in store for the west and, especially the south west this spring. Thanks to Trump and his minions, this will only continue to get worse.
EPA Deregulation Would Be a ‘Tragedy’ for Health, Experts Say
Physicians and scientists say rollbacks on pollution, transportation and greenhouse gas emissions regulations are a serious risk to public health.
By Keerti Gopal for Inside Climate News
Despite Staff and Budget Cuts, NOAA Issues Critical Drought Warnings in Its Spring Climate Outlook
By Bob Berwyn for Inside Climate News
The embattled agency continues to disseminate crucial updates in a hostile political environment, while scientists warn that cutting climate intelligence is folly at a time of escalating climate extremes.
The fossil fuel industry is salivating over this, along with the chemical companies, the mining companies and on down the line. With no more federal oversight of their corporations, they'll be tearing off all of the physical restraints that the EPA imposed, like filters for smoke stacks, water cleanup, mining runoffs and so on. A lot of people living near any of these facilities are going to die a lot faster and more of them. But the corporations will make lots more money in the short term, and that's all that matters right now.
In line with the environment, and global warming, I have another article I found about the long standing water treaty that the U.S. has had with Mexico. I wrote about this about a year ago and Trump is at it again.
US rejects Mexico’s request for water as Trump opens new battle front
State department turns down special request to supply city of Tijuana in drought-affected north for first time ever
In The Guardian
This treaty, dating back to 1944, is a deal between the U.S. and northern Mexico, to share water from the Rio Grande, and Colorado Rivers every five years. As you may know, the southwest part of north America has been experiencing a mega-drought for a while now. This sharing deal is coming up for a switchover in October of 2025, and the United States wants to renege on the treaty, stating that Mexico hasn't been keeping up their end of things. They've been coming up short on the amount of water promised to the U.S. lately.
So what part about there being a drought don't you morons understand? I would think that due to this drought condition, these people could work out some sort of equitable solution. But noooo, the Americans under Donald Trump, who is famous for pulling out of treaties, will probably pull out of this one as well and doom a lot of Mexican farmers.
If these farmers go under due to lack of water, Americans, and Canadians can kiss a lot of their winter fruits, berries and vegetables goodbye. Probably a lot of summer produce as well, as the American farmers can't pick up the slack anymore. With California losing farmland to wildfires and droughts, they're falling away fast.
Guess what north America, if you think your fresh produce is expensive now, just wait. For those of us who live in the east, our only recourse will be the local farmers, depending on where you live. There are a couple where I live but for those people who live in the urban areas, sucks to be you. You better learn how to grow a lot of rooftop gardens soon.
I also have another environmental article from Inside Climate news. This one is about the rapidly failing Tesla car company around the world.
What Does Tesla’s Slide Mean for the US Electric Vehicle Market?
The dominant EV maker in the nation is now a partisan lightning rod that’s losing value fast. But a weakened giant can cause harm regardless of politics.
By Dan Gearino for Inside Climate News
In the U.S., Tesla had a near monopoly on EV cars. Indeed, there have been a lot of them on the roads around where I live. Now, because of the companies capricious owner, Tesla's stock prices have dropped like stones, and people around the western world are boycotting Tesla dealers. In the U.S and Canada, there've been several instances of outright destructive vandalism at dealers across north America. A couple of arrests have been made, but the protests and boycotts continue. Of course, Trump is threatening vandals with deportation to El Salvador, citing domestic terrorism. Even U.S. citizens, if they get arrested.
In China, which was the second biggest market for Tesla EV's in the world once upon a time, they've also fallen by the wayside in the wake of cheaper and better made Chinese EV cars. BYD is kicking their ass in Asia right now. And now, probably in Europe too, as the people in the EU are also buying more Chinese EV's than Tesla's now. Ooopsy. It seems that poor Elon will have to lean more heavily on his defense contracts with the U.S. to keep his profit margins up.
And that's also starting to show some cracks in the floor. Trump shut off a supposed briefing for a classified operational plan for a possible war with China that Musk thought he could just waltz in with the secretary of defense and listen to. This was reported by the New York Times and denied by the white house. And you wonder why Musk is so unpopular in the United States right now, and Europe and Canada and so on.
Will he wear out his welcome soon? If senator Bernie Sanders and representative Alexandria Cortes have their way, he will.
They're running around the country holding rallies everywhere, to bring attention to the oligarchy and authoritarian takeover of the government. A 1000 people in Las Vegas, 34000 people in Denver, 15000 people in Tempe, Arizona, another 9000 in Tucson, and going strong. Over 80,000 so far.
If they keep going the way they are, they could generate enough momentum for a popular uprising. Considering that republican politicians are no shows for their constituency town halls lately out of fear of the people who voted for them. Some democrats are stepping in to put on mini-Sanders like town halls to hear the grievances, while the republicans are AWOL. Some districts around the country are holding town halls without them and yelling about why their legislators are all missing?
One of the more famous ones, and someone I know somewhat personally, is Maine's republican senator Susan Collins. Although she has never attended a town hall in the twenty years she has held the office that the famed Olympia Snowe gifted her all of those years ago, her voters are looking for her now. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota put on a really good town hall to support all of this. More and more democrats are starting to come out of the woodwork to capitalize on this, so expect to see more in the coming weeks ahead.
All across the country, people are looking for their elected representatives to give them an earful and the republicans are in hiding, refusing to come out.
The ones who did early on, where booed off the stages, so the rest took the hint. This doesn't bode well for them in the midterms coming up late next year. None of that helps the voters who have finally figured out that they were conned by the MAGA cult once again. Now, it's even worse. Now they're getting really angry. Right now, it appears to be mostly the democrats and independents who either stayed home last November, or have voters regret. But as soon as these federal social service program cuts go into effect, you can expect to see a bunch of republican voters turn against Trump too.
With the impending massive cuts promised for Medicaid, veterans benefits, maybe social security, and a host of other social programs that Trump and Musk want to eliminate, the people are starting to feel it and are waking up.
With what's going on at the Sanders and Cortes rallies, the republican no-shows, and the deepening poverty levels amongst the working class, that's only going to get worse in the coming months, despite the rallies, Trump and his republican ass kissers are heading for a lot of trouble.
It's bad enough that the judiciary is coming after him for violating the law and the constitution. Now, he's starting to generate a popular uprising from the voters themselves. The question for all of us, is how bad will this get before something gives?
The trouble is, Trump has set himself up to be shielded from all of this with that supreme court ruling last year. The congress, not so much, and they know it.
For the very few people who will listen or read this, here is a little civics lesson that we used to learn back in high school. I don't know what's being taught in schools anymore so I'm going to hold an impromptu lesson right here.
In 19 states, the voters in any given district have the authority to gather up enough signatures on a recall referendum that can be submitted to the state legislature and the governor to recall a U.S. representative or even a senator, if there is enough support from the voters in that district.
It has happened in the past. Some were successful and some not so much. It would be hard to do but it would certainly get someone's attention. Each state has its own rules for setting this up so anyone who's interested can quickly search online for their state to see if that state allows recalls of elected politicians, and how to do it.
If your state does not allow recalls, then there is the protest. Something we can do still, for now, as Senator Sanders and Representative Cortes are exercising their right to do so right now. I seriously doubt Trump will send his goon squads out to arrest them in front of thousands of rally goers. We could see riots like they are experiencing in Türkiye right now after the mayor of Istanbul was arrested last week.
Do you think senator Sanders and representative Cortes have to worry about Musk throwing a bunch of money into their primaries coming up soon, in order to get rid of them? If Musk is still around at the end of this year, you can bet on it. Look at what he is doing in Wisconsin in order to influence the voters there for the state supreme court election coming up. So that means this duo will need to work hard and fast to get their message across to the voters in order to do something about all of this chaos. Before Trump drives the economy into a serious recession and tries to take over the government in a soft coup or, Musk attempts to upset them in their next election run. Personally, I’m more worried about a soft coup at this point.
With everything else that's going on, there's a lot of speculation about whether any of these, perceived, enemies of the state will have their families threatened or actually hurt or killed by one of these fanatical MAGA cultists, or worse, have an unmarked, masked fire team show up in the dead of night to whisk someone away to be disappeared. Much like those goon squads in Portland, Oregon a few years ago that Thom Hartmann talks about frequently. Or, in the case of a couple of congress women from Minnesota, and Washington state, maybe have their citizenships revoked and they, along with their families, picked up for deportation. According to Trump, himself and his secretary of state Rubio have the authority to do that.
The rest of the democrats need to get their heads out of their asses and get on the bandwagon. They need to get out in front of the voters now, not tomorrow. Because if Trump gets his way with the courts, there might not be a tomorrow soon. Some of them are but not nearly enough and time is running out.
According to a recent post by my favorite doomscroller, Ms. Jessica Wildfire, there are a lot of journalists and blog writers predicting that Trump has a deadline for some time in April to finalize his takeover of the U.S. government and turn it into an authoritarian oligarchy.
Something Senator Sanders is out there telling everyone at these rallies. Not the April deadline so much but the type of government he thinks Trump is trying to change the democracy into. She suggests that if any Americans want to run away from the U.S. to escape the chaos, they do it before the end of April. I replied to the post telling people that if anyone decides to go, do it quick before Trump shuts down the borders and no one gets in or out without a special pass. Just know this. If someone does leave and Trump shuts down the borders in the name of national security, it'll be a few years before you'll be able to return, if at all. It's going to take a few years after Trump is gone to clean up the mess he's leaving behind.
My state is pretty quiet right now but that could change any day, along with any other state. I'm watching everything very carefully to see which way things are going to swing. MSNBC has become my new go to for domestic U.S. news as the other mainstream media companies are useless now because Trump threatened them with libel suits. But even with that, I'm still watching the independent media for anything that might show up that even MSNBC doesn't pick up or is afraid to broadcast. So far, they haven't shown any signs of caving but that could change tomorrow, if Trump takes a disliking to them. He seems to be doing a lot of that lately.
An example of that, is the stripping away of the security clearances for the law offices who had a hand in prosecuting him last year for one. One of them caved and is back in favor of the king again. You can bet that they'll lose a lot of clients over this capitulation, on top of all of the free legal hours the firm agreed to in order to win back their court favors. Will they still be able to remain in business over the long haul? Will the others cave or stand up and fight?
This is the United States now. A country full of cowed people too afraid of the Trump threat. Trump has figured out how to threaten all of them with something they can't live without. Their money and power.
It's going to be up to the people to set things straight. Let's support Senator Sanders, and representative Cortes, and any other democrats and independents who are willing to stick their necks out to try and save the country from the oligarchs, who want to remake it into something we will definitely regret. Let's support the media and judiciary who are trying to make a stand against this obvious grab for authoritarianism, before it's too late.
I'm sure this will blow up every social media app, and journalistic platform across the world by the time this podcast posts, but I'll add my two cents worth anyway.
In a story that broke on Monday, Kevin Kruse, in his newsletter, Campaign Trails, tells us about how the people in Trump's highest positions accidently looped a news magazine editor from The Atlantic into a highly classified messaging group on an a relatively unsecure chat platform called Signals. Much like WhatsApp only, supposedly more secure. Which I seriously doubt.
He was privy to private, highly classified conversations and operational details regarding the latest military strike on the Houthis in Yemen, which in a normal chain of command, he shouldn't have been anywhere near.
This goes to show the world just how stupid these people are. I'm sure there will be repercussions that may or may not leak out but you have to wonder at the caliber of people entrusted to take care of the American people. Some of these guys are former military and should know better. I mean, I'm former military and I know better and I was just a lowly sergeant. Is this the mentality of the officers running the active duty military now? I left active duty over twenty years ago so maybe I've been gone so long that the military officer corp. has been dumbed down so badly that this is the kind of shit going on in military posts and units across the world.
To quote an old Army saying, "Where're the NCO's?"
If this is what we can expect from our leaders, elected or not, we're so screwed.
The bigger question is what are they going to do about it? The senate grilled some of these people yesterday in hearings, and the house is doing more today. Trump likely chewed some ass privately, then told the world that Mike Walz is a good guy who just made a mistake. You think? For myself, I want to know if the U.S. senate and congress will grow a set of cajónes and actually punish these idiots somehow. I will reserve judgement until I see if they actually do anything or not. A topic for next week maybe?
Here is this week’s installment of The Priest, chapter 28 by Michael Campi for people to read.
Thank you for joining me again. I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll return again to talk about the world we live in.
Please like, subscribe, reply and share the videos or audio podcasts, however you watch or listen. The goal here is to resist the people who want to take our freedoms away from us. I appreciate everyone around the world, no matter who or where you are. Together, using independent media like this, we can resist the authoritarian oligarchs in the west.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish rebellion quote as we try to survive another week. "A Nation is not built by those who turn a blind eye to injustice, but by those who rise up against it." Slán go fóill.
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