Opinion

Dear Editor,

Dear Editor,

In an interview on May 4, 2025, with Kristen Welker, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” President Donald Trump was asked: “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as President?” Shockingly, Trump answered: “I don’t know.” Shocking, because Trump, on Inauguration Day three months ago—for the second time in his life—swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Shocking, because the Take Care Clause in Article II requires the president to “faithfully execute the laws.” Shocking, because Article VI declares that “the Constitution and the Laws of the United States shall be the supreme Law of the Land.” Trump’s answer reflects, not ignorance of the solemnity of the oath that he took, but rather the authoritarianism that he is seeking to entrench in the United States, a governing approach that is embodied in a plebiscitary presidency.

So let us look at the United States of America if most or all domestic discretionary spending is eliminated. Even though it is highly unlikely that all domestic discretionary spending will be eliminated, there will be a concerted effort to eliminate a good deal of this spending primarily to pay for a huge tax cut, although being mean and cruel are part of the effort, that will greatly benefit corporations and the most affluent members of our society.

Well, we’ve hit the 100 day mark of the second Trump administration. Donald Trump campaigned as a champion of working class voters. But straight out of the blocks, his policy choices have undermined workers at nearly every turn.

One of the more remarkable features of President Donald Trump’s ongoing, yet unfulfilled, effort in the first 100 days of his second term in office to transform American democracy into an autocracy is its ahistoric path, one that represents a radical departure from the work and vision of the Framers of the Constitution.

Here we are at the end of March, and I’m faced with so many signs of spring on the farm. Here’s a few:

1. The sounds of geese flying! (Yes, I heard some just this week!)
2. The ground is showing through.
3. The farmer surveying the standing water.
4. The gravel crunch and blue sky. (Am I the only one that loves this sound?)
5. Browsing seed catalogs.
6. Enjoying time outside with the kids.
7. Chickens free ranging in the yard and laying more eggs.
8. Oh, and we can’t forget the mud…in my entry, on the eggs and in the chicken yard!

You haven’t truly experienced joy until you’ve watched a 94-year-old woman with a titanium hip strike a pose like she’s on the cover of Vogue, all because our maintenance man at the nursing home put on a fuzzy bunny costume complete with a violet satin vest with matching bow tie and a pair of floppy ears and feet!

Dear Editor,

How ironic: The most inefficient bureaucracy in government turns out to be Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency.”