Thoughts for the Day, February 12, 2025: I write about what I am passionate about.

Trump and I

The last two months have been difficult for me to write this blog. When I get passionate about something, I tend to write about it. I use this blog as a place to express myself. For the past two months Trump has dominated most of my writing and he is the last person I want to write about.

I am an optimist by nature. I am independent in my politics; however, I tend to be liberal on social issues and conservative on financial issues. I am loyal to neither party; however, I have voted for more Democrat than Republicans. I have a strong sense of justice and what is right and what is wrong.

I have strong feelings about Trump. I had these feelings long before he ever decided to run for president in 2015. When I listened to the first Republican presidential debate in August 2015, my feelings about Trump further declined. I believed back then, and I believe it now, he is not fit to be president. I believed it back then and I believe it now, he is a self-centered narcissist who doesn’t give two shits about the United States of America. He has no use for anyone who has no value to him. He values loyalty to him over loyalty to the Constitution and the United States of America.

Trump’s actions leading up to January 6, 2021, are unforgiveable to me. I know what I saw that day. Unlike Mitch McConnell, I will never turn a blind eye to his actions on January 6, 2021. I will never turn a blind eye to what I saw that day. I will never forget.

Unlike McConnell and the Republican members of the Senate in January 2021, I will not give Trump a pass. I will forever stay pissed at those Republican members of congress, who did not find Trump guilty of insurrection. If they had done their job that day, I would not be writing like this today.

I love this country too much to be quiet about what I see Trump/Musk doing to the Rule of Law and our Constitution. If the work of Trump/Musk on any given day is what I feel passionate about, it is what I will write about. There are many things I would rather be writing about, but in the last few months nothing else has risen to the top of my passion.

I look forward to the future when I can write about the positive things going on in the world around me. I look forward to writing about the Detroit sports teams and the University of Michigan and MSU. I look forward to writing about my favorite governor, attorney general, and state legislature and holding them accountable to “fix the damn roads” and improving the transparency in government.

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And the winner is: Elon Musk

From Robert Reich. The Trump-Musk regime is accusing federal civil servants of fraud, based on no evidence, while at the same time allowing corporations to pay off foreign officials, dropping bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams, pardoning a former governor of Illinois who tried to sell his Senate seat, and stopping investigations into foreign influence-peddling in the United States.

On Monday evening, Trump signed an executive order halting investigations and prosecutions of corporate corruption in foreign countries under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977.

Tuesday, Musk held forth in the Oval Office, claiming that drastic reductions in the federal workforce were justified because it was rife with fraud.

I’ve (Reich) spent more than a dozen years in the federal government, and I can tell you that the vast majority of civil servants I’ve had the honor of working with are dedicated and hard-working. They are delivering critical services to Americans and protecting them from corporate malfeasance.

For the richest person in the world to be given a bully-pulpit in the Oval Office to impugn their integrity is beyond shameful….

When Trump was sworn into office, Musk’s six corporations were under more than 32 continuing investigations conducted by at least 11 federal agencies, according to a review by The New York Times.

Most of these cases are now closed or likely to be closed soon, and the agencies that initiated them are being defanged by Musk and Trump.

The cases against Musk and his corporations include a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit accusing Musk and his corporations of violating federal securities laws and a lawsuit by the Federal Aviation Administration accusing him and his rocket company, Space X, of violating worker safety.

When SpaceX’s Starship exploded in January, raining debris over the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the rocket program and ordered an investigation — latest in a series of moves by the agency against SpaceX.

“Safety drives everything we do at the FAA,” the agency’s chief counsel said after proposing $633,000 in fines for alleged violations related to two previous launches. “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.”

Musk accused the agency of engaging in “lawfare” and threatened to sue it for “regulatory overreach.” “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!” Musk wrote on X…

When Trump took office, the National Labor Relations Board had undertaken 24 separate investigations into Musk’s corporations for violating workers’ rights. But Trump has fired three officials at that agency, including a board member — effectively stopping the agency’s ability to rule on cases. Presto, Musk and his corporations are free…

All we know for sure is that Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, who’s accusing federal civil servants of fraud, whose young minions now have access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, and whom Trump has authorized to make draconian reductions in the federal workforce, will make tens of billions more.

This is what oligarchy looks like.

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Antonio Gates: College Basketball Player and Member of the NFL Hall of Fame

On Saturday, Antonio Gates was inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame. Gates never played college football. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the San Diego Chargers after a stellar college basketball career. Gates spent his entire 16-year NFL career with the Chargers.

Although Gates was an all-state football player, he was also an outstanding basketball player at Detroit Central High. He attended MSU immediately out of high school where he planned on playing both football and basketball at MSU. When he arrived, he was told he could only play football, so Gates transferred to EMU where he played basketball for one year. I watched him play many games his freshman year and was astonished how well he could move for a person of his size (girth). He brought his football skills to the basketball court, and he used them well. He left EMU after his freshman year to attend junior college to get his grades up. After one year of junior college, he enrolled at Kent State University where he led them to two MAC championships, and a trip to the NCAA elite eight his junior year. In his senior year he was named honorable mention All-American. Gates gets my Orchid of the Day for his unique path to the NFL Hall of Fame.

Rouge

Today Bridge Magazine hosted the Bridge Culture Club. It was about the documentary Rouge, which was released in 2024. It is a documentary about the 2020 pursuit of River Rouge High School’s 15^th boys’ basketball state championship. The documentary covered the 2020 season where Rouge’s team was ranked the number one team in the state when the season was cut short by Covid. The documentary also covered the Lofton Greene years in the late 50s through the mid 70’s when Rouge won 12 state championships.

I was able to attend the Bridge Culture Club through Zoom where the producer and director of the film shared their story of the making of the film. I was a wonderful way to spend an hour of my day.

See my Video of the Day for the trailer of the documentary.

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Quote of the Day: “I can tell you that the vast majority of civil servants I’ve had the honor of working with are dedicated and hard-working. They are delivering critical services to Americans and protecting them from corporate malfeasance.” Robert Reich

Orchid of the Day: Antonio Gates-See above.

Onion of the Day: Me. I jinxed MSU in my blog yesterday by hoping they would win so I could see UofM and MSU tied for the top of the B1G men’s basketball standings.

Lyrics of the Day: There's a feeling I get when I look to the west And my spirit is crying for leaving. In my thoughts, I have seen rings of smoke through the trees And the voices of those who stand looking. Ooh, it makes me wonder. Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

If you think you know the answer, send me your answer in the comments section of the blog.

Answer to Lyrics of the Day for February 11, 2025: When He Cheats by Carrie Underwood.

“Question of the Day: Can Michigan’s men’s basketball team stay on top of the B1G for the remainder of the regular season?

Video of the Day: (661) Local documentary opens 2024 Freep Film Festival, features Rouge High School basketball team - YouTube

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