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Bits and Pieces, by Lorraine Marie

• Janaury 26, 2026:  Minneapolis witnessed the second killing of a U.S. citizen by federal agents in their state last Saturday morning. Alex Pretti, 37, was one of tens of thousands protesting federal immigration agents’ invasion. He’d been filming Border Patrol officers carrying out a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” when his ordeal began. Pretti had no criminal record and was a local ICU nurse. 

• November 27:  Trump’s deployment of federalized National Guard troops to “blue” American cities has tallied up a tax bill of “at least $437 million to date,” according to independent research reported by the National Campaign for Justice. The NCJ says Trump’s administration is concealing records about the full scope of the spending and which agencies are footing the bill

• September 4:  Last week 182 FEMA employees wrote a warning to Congress, saying a third of staff have “separated” from the agency this year, “eroding” institutional knowledge, and rendering it impossible to effectively help with natural calamities, various media reported. The 36 who signed the document were quickly put on “administrative leave.” The letter asked for protection from “politically motivated firings.” 

• July 31: Israeli-Gaza headlines: Gaza doctors "becoming too weak to treat patients" as Israel-induced hunger crisis deepens; UN says 6,000 trucks worth of aid ready to enter Gaza and urges Israel to allow access; Holocaust professor says Israel's destruction of Gaza now "greater than destruction of Hiroshima"; Israel again intercepts Gaza-bound ship carrying activists and humanitarian aid; Israel announces "tactical pause" in Gaza fighting after outrage over starving Palestinians, and, Israel allows new trickle of aid into Gaza, but not enough to "stave off famine," UN warns. 

• July 24:  The Trump Administration ordered incineration for nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food, enough to feed 1.5 million children, The Atlantic said.

More than 250 people held at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” have no criminal record, according to the Miami Herald. Officials had claimed the facility would only be for the “worst of the worst.” 

• June 5:  While most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are not yet activated, Trump’s trade war has cost companies more than $35 billion in lost sales and higher costs, Reuters reported.

• May 29:  In a late night 215-214 vote Republicans recently passed President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act (all Dems voted no, with two Republicans). It would extend 2017 massive tax cuts for the wealthy (due to expire in late 2025), add an estimated $4 to $5 trillion to the national debt, and authorize $45 billion for a border wall, various media reported. To accomplish that: eight million people will lose Medicaid coverage, Medicare will be cut by a half trillion dollars, and food aid cut by $250 billion. The National Review described the bill as a “political spending spree wrapped in a tax-cut ribbon.” From Slate: “The Senate finds much of what the House is doing to be adorable. Look at them, playing grown-up legislature! The Senate fully intends to sand off the sharp edges… so many of the final decisions being made in the House…are unlikely to reach the finish line...” Blaring inclusion: a provision for crippling the U.S. Supreme Court. Absent: the provision that would have taxed non-profits. 

• May 22:  President Donald Trump’s preferred pick to head the USPS, FedEx board member David Steiner, has been appointed Postmaster General. FedEx is the USPS’s leading competitor. The letter carriers union sees the appointment as a conflict of interest and an ominous step toward USPS privatization. 

• May 8:  Is everyone in the U.S. entitled to due process? President Donald Trump was recently asked on Meet the Press. “I don’t know…I’m not a lawyer,” he responded. But the Constitution states “no person shall…be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of the law.” In 1993 conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the Fifth Amendment “well established” that aliens are entitled to due process “in deportation proceedings.” Trump suggested to his interviewer that he could ignore due process since it is too slow, and he has “brilliant lawyers” to guide him. 

• April 24:  Political pundits warn we are in a Constitutional crisis: the Trump Administration has been defying numerous court orders, including those regarding deportation of migrants. Legal analyst Joyce Vance stated, “The Trump administration wants a confrontation with the courts. Trump wants to try to break them. That’s an essential path forward for a dictator.” It’s been cat and mouse: The Administration holds deportees in different states, requiring different judges to rule, and behind the scenes they’ve tried to move detainees to where judges haven’t ruled, so they can be moved beyond U.S. borders. 

• April 10:  The stock market suffered a decline of up to $6.6 billion in valuation since Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement. On his Truth Social media site Trump told investors to buy while markets plunge, because “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!”

• A bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate to require the president to notify Congress of tariffs, allowing 60 days to approve or deny them, and allowing Congress to end any tariff at any time. It’s not expected to gain House approval, where Republicans dominate. 

• March 27:  Changes due to Elon Musk’s DOGE staff cuts to Social Security appear designed to crash the Social Security system, which has operated efficiently for 90 years -- even when understaffed. Fortune.com reported that a former SS Commissioner warns that benefits could be cut in the next one to three months, followed by eventual systemic collapse. Before collapse, late payments are likely, hence the former Commissioner’s warning to “start saving now” ahead of a payment stop.

Prior to DOGE SS interference, former SS Board of Trustee member Robert Reich says SS did have a payment accuracy rate of 99.7% and ultra-low administrative costs of 0.5%. 

• March 20:   Are we in a Constitutional crisis? Some say not yet, others say yes, and others say we are on the cusp. From various media: A federal judge ordered evidence from the White House about whether they are violating court orders regarding deporting migrants via airplane with little to no due process. The response was “We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judge thinks.” Trump’s Dept. of Justice said they would not appear in court or provide information about deportation flights. 

• March 6:       What do Libertarians think about the Trump Administration? The Washington Post turned to the Cato Institute’s Ilya Somin, a law professor: “bad on the metrics of both economic and personal liberty”; attacking freedom of the press is “troubling,” as is Trump’s “kissing the rear end of a dictator like Vladimir Putin.” Somin likes some of the efforts to cut regulations and taxes, but “the horrible things Trump is doing massively outweigh many times over the good that he might do in a few areas.” Also offensive: Trump’s circumventing Congress’s spending authority; the GOP budget will “massively add to the deficit;” 

• February 27:      Numerous media say in his first month back in office Trump spent $10.7 million of taxpayers’ money to play golf. 

• February 13:      Trump’s government funding freeze is impacting farmers. Many had USDA contracts for help on their farms, The Washington Post reported. A court order said the funds must be “immediately restored.” 

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