Look What They've Done to our Country Dad

 I'm channeling my departed Dad who was a Marine during World War II with a message today.

"You're not going to believe what's happening in America today, Dad. We have a dictator and are living in an authoritarian state.

State sanctioned goons with masks and weapons are roaming the country instilling fear and panic upon the people. They beat them mercilessly and they kill them if they resist. The State has given these gestapo-like goon's complete immunity. 

Not even children are safe. One example from yesterday. ICE goons attacked a car stuck in traffic and threw gas grenades and flashbangs inside the car where there was a six-month old baby who stopped breathing and would have died had he not been rushed to the hospital.

Active military units have been surged into Democratic cities that resist our tyrant's lawless takeover of the nation. Believe it or not a crooked real estate developer convicted of 34 counts of fraud is that tyrant... Donald J. Trump.

We only have one branch of government now - the executive branch. The other two branches have been neutered by the MAGA cult that got Trump into power. He's installed right-wing lunatics in his lawless cabinet to poison every government agency.

In one short year Trump has turned all of our allies against us by imposing draconian tariffs and threatening them with military action if they try to stop his goal of taking over the Western Hemisphere. 

I'm not kidding. Trump wants to invade Greenland (of all places) an ally of America for 250 years. He also threatening other South American countries after invading Venezuela to seize their oil resources. 

He's threatening to take over Cuba and bomb Mexico. Our strongest ally in the region, Canada, has been pushed to the brink by Trump's tariffs and rhetoric about making them a 51st state in America.

Trump is enriching his family by abusing the stock market and making corrupt deals with countries that promise to build golf courses and hotels with his name on them. Qatar gave him a $400 million jet... as a gift that will keep on giving.

This one is going to be hard on you Dad, Trump has torn down the East Wing of The White House to make way for an adjoining ballroom twice the size of the People's House.

Trump is acting out his gilded age fantasies by turning the interior of the White House into a French brothel. The gold accents on every wall make it look cheap and unnecessarily gaudy. As for the ballroom it too will be gilded age monstrosity out of the 1920s.

I could go on Dad, but you get the idea. Everything you stood for as an American Marine is crumbling along with a Democratic republic."

As it Stands, the "Greatest Generation" is probably turning over in their graves.

Trump Regime Opens Overseas Bank Account in Qatar - That's Just the Tip of the Iceberg

No active president in American history has ever opened a foreign bank account to funnel stolen oil funds from another country. 

It's another first for the current corrupt regime that knows no boundaries.

The same people who gifted Trump a $400 million Boeing jet have now set up a special bank account for Trump to personally siphon off profits under the aspics of administrating Venezuela's oil industry profits to help out - get this - the people of Venezuela! 

Supposedly the funds were spread out among multiple bank accounts (with Qatar getting the lion's share), but good luck in trying to locate those other locations. So now our government is opening offshore accounts with no accountability from congress.

The regime justified the blatant rip-off by pointing out that they selected Qatar, as a neutral location from which the funds could be freely and safely moved without risk of seizure. From whom? The regimes Energy Department promised to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution This is a classic fox in the henhouse example. 

Trump's cronies are busy cementing a revenue flow that will personally go to Trump with the remainder going to victimized Venezuela. Then what? Consider this; there is still an authoritarian government - despite kidnapping the country's president and wife. How likely is it that the regime is going to use that money to help the people?

Meanwhile that's just the tip of the iceberg as Trump continues to say he's going to take over Greenland one way or another. Invasion is on the table, and the world is watching with bated breath. 

A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers met the leaders of Greenland and Denmark in Copenhagen today. Their mission was to "lower the temperature" with assurances of congressional support after Trump's threat to invade the Arctic island.

NATO has warned Trump they won't stand aside if he attacks Greenland and a majority of the Western world will oppose him. Countries like Germany and Sweden have already sent military units to Greenland, with more pledged to come in the case of war.

If you think that's scary, just look at the war here at home with Trump goons assaulting, killing, and violating Minnesotans human rights.

As it Stands, it's another day in America... how are you holding up?

Nothing is 'Off the Table' in Trump's World

PRESS CONFERENCE #1

Reporter: "Are you going to invade Venezuela?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

Another reporter: "Are you going to invade Greenland?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

Another reporter: "Are you going to bomb Mexico?

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

Another reporter: Are you going to take over Cuba?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

Another reporter: "Are you going to bomb Iran?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

Another reporter: "Are you going to make Canada the 51st in the union?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

PRESS CONFERENCE #2

Reporter: "Are you going to surge military troops into Minnesota and other states that you don't like because of the massive protests against ICE?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table." 

Reporter: "What will you do if the Supreme Court rejects your petition to review E. Jean Carroll's successful $5 million defamation case against you?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

Reporter: "What will you do to ensure your ballroom is built despite the legal challenges it faces?"

Trump: "Nothing is off the table."

By now you get the picture.

The most corrupt and traitorous president in American history has no limits. Only his "morality" can stop him he claims. But he has no morals. He lies daily. He threatens and bullies both Americans and other countries relentlessly. He never lets the pressure off Americans who resist his cruelty. The shame that he has brought on our once proud democracy will take a generation to recover from.

As Trump continues to go off the rails to distract the public from releasing the Epstein files, he's getting increasingly mentally and physically unstable. He brags about passing cognitive tests every couple of months, but a person doesn't normally get them that often unless there's a screw loose.

As it Stands, it's up to We the People to defend our republic from this lunatic. I'm proud of the ever-growing resistance against Trump's authoritarian regime and war on democracy.

I'm Back with Some Interesting Observations

The bug that laid me low for several days still lingers but I have this primordial urge to write. Therefore I am.

It wasn't just me feeling sick and wondering what new circle of hell I was experiencing. The U.S. is in the midst of a real bad season dominated by a newer flu strain, subclade K a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is a subtype of Influenza A.

There have been increasing hospital cases and pediatric deaths this year, with officials expecting the intense activity to continue for several weeks. Officials are calling it a "super flu" but I'm calling it the "mother of all nasty virus's!"

I would like to point out that I got a flu shot this year. Apparently, it wasn't effective against our new super flu. 

Okay. Your probably tired of me whining so I'll make some sharp insightful observations regarding the current situations in our country.

Trump is a lunatic on the loose. But you know that if you live in America.

The reality that ICE is the modern version of the Gestapo has never been clearer than now. An out-of-control ICE agent murdered a woman, Renee Good, an America citizen who fell victim to a thug attacking her for trying to get away from him.

Worse, everyone from Trump to the DOJ are covering up the murder by claiming Good was a domestic terrorist. Despite videos showing every second of the assault authorities are telling us not to believe our eyes when we watched videos of Good's last moments from every possible angle.

There are increasing protests throughout the nation over ICE's invasion of cities Trump doesn't like. Citizens are organizing resistance in their neighborhoods that are under assault by ICE goons. 

Trump's own lawyers, from Minnesota to Virginia are resigning rather than pursue his illegal attempts to get rid of his perceived enemies using lies rather than facts.

I can't help wondering what the top diplomats from Denmark and Greenland are saying to our couch-loving vice-president J.D. Vance and little Marco Rubio today. 

They met this morning. I'm guessing their telling Trump's trolls to leave them alone or they will have to defend themselves and invoke article five of NATO's collective defense agreement.

Meanwhile Trump is openly threatening Greenland with invasion if they don't sell the country to him. That's politics in America today.

On the lighter side a worker at Ford Motor Company flipped Trump off and called him a "pedophile protector" during his visit to a Ford plant yesterday. He was fired but a GoFundMe account immediately sprung up to support him.

Oh yeah! The president of the United States said, "Fuck you!" and flipped the worker off with his stubby middle finger. After checking, it appears we've never had a president so foul-mouthed that he publicly used the F bomb while addressing an American citizen.

As it Stands, I want to thank the thousands of readers who stopped by to see how I was doing the last few days. You averaged 10,000 plus daily. Shout out to Singapore, you led the way with views.

Brief Blog Break: I've Got the Crud

It's going to be a couple of days before I post anything as I try to shake off the crud. I don't know exactly what I have but its brutal!

While you're here I do have reading material for you. Go to the right of the page and check out my archives. Over 20 years to choose from.

Do you like flash fiction and poetry?

Here's a link: The Creative Chronicles of Dave Stancliff – Prose and Poetry

I'll be back soon as I shake this crud off.

As it Stands, thanks for stopping by.

Trump Strikes Again - This Time it's Syria

Trump and his minions are busy picking fights around the globe and alienating the United States from the rest of the world.

The latest strike against another country, Syria, happened today.

U.S. Central Command rolled out Operation Hawkeye Strike, which the Pentagon said was ordered by Trump on Dec. 19 in response to an ISIS ambush which killed two soldiers and an interpreter on Dec. 13th.

CENTCOM spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told NBC News that more than 35 targets were struck in Saturday's operation.

Rather than argue about whether we should have responded with "large scale strikes" or diplomacy I'd rather address the core problem of Trump playing mad general and moving American military members around like toy soldiers on a game board.

Trump aka Private Bonespurs never got to play with guns and people's lives in real life, and he is making up for that fact by launching strikes and threatening global warfare. He's prancing around the White House like Patton on meth.

One thing is clear; Trump has worldwide aspirations and wants to join other dictators in the hall of shame with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping.

Military strikes in the turbulent middle east have a long history. What I find disturbing with this latest attack is it's coming off invading Venezuela and kidnapping the country's leader and his wife. In addition, Trump is threatening to invade Greenland and is unrolling his plans to conquer the Western hemisphere.

That's a lot of military action in a compressed period of time. From the looks of it, Americans better be prepared for a bigger war in the near future. 

Trump is unhinged because he can't make the Epstein files scandal go away. There's something so harmful in them that he's ready to distract the country with endless wars and illegal invasions of weaker nations as long as he's in power.

Meanwhile, our Secretary of War Defense Pete Hegseth and MAGA influencer Lara Loomer, were taking a joy ride on an E-4B "Nightwatch" aircraft - commonly referred to as the Doomsday Plane - on Thursday.

The Doomsday Plane is a modified Boeing 747 engineered to be a highly survivable, airborne command, control, and communications center in the event of a national emergency, such as a nuclear war.

One more thing; an aircraft designed to detect nuclear activity was observed traversing several American states the same day as the Doomsday plane went to LA.

The aircraft, a Boeing WC-135R Constant Phoenix, is commonly referred to as a "nuclear sniffer" jet.

As it Stands, having lived during the Cold War I can see too many similarities now as Trump steers the United States into a global conflict.

Executions on the Streets: Trump Regime Tells Americans Not to Believe Their Eyes

I, like millions of Americans, witnessed an ICE agent murder an American citizen in Minneapolis two days ago. Since then, the Trump regime has lied about what happened and is telling Americans not to believe their eyes.

The president of the United States blatantly lied when the news came out claiming the victim, Renee Nicole Good, was a domestic terrorist and that she "violently, willfully and viciously ran over an ICE officer."

"It's hard to believe he is still alive." Trump said doubling down on his fake recount of what supposedly happened. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem immediately came out after the shooting and claimed - without any evidence - that the driver was a domestic terrorist. She lied and she knew she was lying.

If you take a close look at the video, it shows that Good's car did not knock down the ICE agent, whose legs were to the side of the SUV as it moved by him while he fired. Then the killer walked away from the scene and the coverup commenced.

Noem claimed the agent went to the hospital afterwards for his injuries. The problem with that is he looked fine after executing an American citizen and then hurrying away from the scene of his crime obviously uninjured.

What I find particularly horrifying is Republican lawmakers are spreading Trump and Noem's lies like the gospel. I know they've seen the video - even if they claim not to have - and that they're meekly going along with the fraudulent story that MAGA morons are spreading like manure in the far-right propaganda machine.

It's getting scary lately as Trump is embracing seizing all the countries in the Western hemisphere and is literally taking over states and the judiciary system. But this latest assault on normalcy has crossed a line reminiscent of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

Imagine. The leader of the free world is trying to tell us what is real and what isn't. Dementia Don no longer cares about appearances. He's waging war against reality and the world. So far, he's been unchecked as Democrats desperately try to curb his corrupt regime.

Defying all laws, Trump is encouraging ICE and other agencies to carry out executions against innocent protestors who defy his draconian purge of immigrants.   

In the ongoing coverup attempts to shield the shooter, Jonathan E. Ross, Noem initially tried to hide his name from the press but failed. Then she tried to garner sympathy for Ross by recounting a story about where he was dragged by a car during an ICE operation and got fifty stitches in June 2025.

If that incident was so dramatic it's likely Ross has PTSD, and he shouldn't have been out in the field. There are desk jobs. None of this exonerates Ross, but it does show how the system failed him. 

As it Stands, protests over the cold-blooded murder are popping up in cities across the country today. In spite of Trump's war on reality Americans are going to believe what they see... not what they hear from our newly minted authoritarian government.

America: 'We Will Find then Kill You'

Of all the terrible things Trump has done since being re-elected his break with NATO and Western countries may be the worst.

As I write this NATO countries are making emergency plans to defend themselves against Trump's international aggression. 

America has become the Western hemisphere's Russia. Trump's Donroe Doctrine is no different than the old Soviet Union doctrine of controlling countries too weak to defend themselves.

Trump's threats to invade Greenland comes as a shock to most Americans. Why has that suddenly even become a thing? 

It's because Trump is cranking up his shock and awe campaign to distract from the fact that he's hiding the Epstein documents. Their full release scares the hell out of him and he's demonstrating that by threatening to start World War III.

As unbelievably petty as that may sound just look what's been happening every time some Epstein documents drip out from the DOJ's stalling program. Some dramatic event(s) suddenly overshadow them. 

We, the public, never heard a word about Trump's ambition to conquer the Western hemisphere until it was revealed that there were millions of Epstein documents that weren't turned over, despite law demanding their release on Dec. 19th, 2025.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said,"... we will find you and will kill you," referring to drug cartels, and reflecting a Trumpian approach that also applies to American citizens who dare to stand up to his corrupt regime. 

Just today an American citizen, Renee Good, was brutally murdered by an out-of-control ICE agent in Minneapolis. Proud dog killer, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, doubled down in her denial that the ICE agent murdered a U.S. citizen. She claimed Good was a domestic terrorist and that "we kill bad people." 

Renee Good was not a domestic terrorist, or an illegal immigrant. She was the victim of an out-of-control ICE agent following the governments agenda to shoot first and ask questions later.

The biggest domestic, and now international, terrorist is Trump. Listen to the way he talks like a mob boss to the leaders of our allies who he disrespects daily. His contempt for international law is forcing our allies away from America and into a defensive pact to stop Trump from attacking their countries.

Trump has successfully turned America into a predator state defying the world and international laws.

As it Stands, it's sickening seeing a sexual predator and felon willing to drag the United States of America into World War III... just to keep the Epstein files secret.

Coping with Chaos at Home and Abroad

If any of the following sounds familiar just raise your hand.

I'm fighting depression. I think it's the mother of all depressions and it's not going away until Trump is out of office - one way or another.

My internal war with PTSD is getting more difficult as our first felon seeks to conquer the Western hemisphere. Rumors of war are circulating like angry hornets and I'm mentally revisiting a jungle with enemies all around me.

My honorable profession of journalism is being destroyed and we're well on our way to a State Media backing Big Brother. The demise of truthful reporting is plunging us into the darkness of a fascist regime. 

I don't like going out in public. I was never a social gadfly, but there was as time I enjoyed going out with friends to wineries and fine restaurants. Now I'm afraid I'll run into MAGA assholes that will trigger me.

I'm worried about our economy. Especially if there's another government shutdown this month.

I'm concerned for those Americans who are losing their health care because we have a tyrant who doesn't give a shit about them.

It irritates me to see Trump putting his damn name on everything from the Institute of Peace to The Kennedy Center.

I worry about the midterms being rigged by MAGA officials.

It makes me sick watching ICE invade democratic cities and violating laws by denying the basic rights that immigrants have.

I'm really concerned about the rise of racism and White Power groups - like Christian Nationalists - who are getting bolder every day in their pursuit of a White America. 

I never thought I'd see the day America would become the bad guy in the world community. Our NATO allies are uniting against Trump's aggression and violations of international law during the invasion of Venezuela.

I am weary of hearing about the ongoing saga of the Epstein files. Everyone knows Trump holds all the controls and will never get exposed so it's all just clickbait with no real resolution in sight.

I could go on, but space doesn't permit it.

Please... don't be concerned for me, I'm a survivor and will get through these hard times with the help of my wife of 51 years, family and friends.

As it Stands, I just want people who feel like there's no hope to know I feel the same way sometimes... but I have no intention of giving in to the chaos and I hope you don't. 

The Rise and Fall of CBS News

I grew up watching the Big Three news channels - ABC, CBS, and NBC. There was no internet competing with legitimate news back in those days.

I still remember watching Walter Cronkite who anchored CBS's first nightly half hour news program delivering major historical announcements. He was part of a team at CBS that went to Vietnam to see what was really happening on the ground in the 1960s. 

The government at the time wasn't too happy with Cronkite because he revealed the ugly truth about our involvement in Vietnam. His broadcasts showed dead Americans and the chaos in that worn-torn South Asian country. He didn't have to worry about losing his job because the president of the United States didn't like him telling the truth.

Flash forward today. Under the Trump regime journalists are treated with contempt and suspicion. The Pentagon press corps no longer has legitimate news outlets reporting because they wouldn't sign an agreement to only report the news that the Defense Department provided. The group representing the press now is a collection of far-right propaganda outlets willing to ignore the truth in order to please dear leader.

Somehow, though back room deals and shady CEO's colluding with Trump, CBS news was absorbed by a right-wing CEO who is willingly destroying the iconic channel to further MAGA's agenda.

When I watched CBS's new anchor for the evening news, Tony Dokoupil, coddling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a vomit-worthy interview defending the regimes illegal invasion of Venezuela my heart sank. It was the death of CBS's credibility. 

The most important question CBS could have asked Hegseth had nothing to do with Venezuela. It was straight forward: why were reporters locked out of the Pentagon press briefings, and why should the public accept information delivered through a narrowed, controlled channel?

The final straw was the appointment of Bari Weiss as Editor-in-Chief, a move widely interpreted as accommodation toward the Trump regime. This is what democratic erosion looks like. It's unfolding in real time through polished interviews and familiar formats, when attacks on accountability infrastructure are treated as secondary rather than central.

What I'm seeing is quasi news making accountability impossible. They are no longer merely covering democratic decline; they are helping to accelerate it.

CBS has a rich history of credible reporting that goes back to 1948. In those days we could trust the broadcasters to tell the truth because they weren't intimidated by a criminal in the White House.

As it Stands, the way I see it, it's only a matter of time before ABC and NBC are heavily compromised by our corrupt government and we'll only get state TV. 

Trump's Enablers Will Be Sorry Someday

Anyone who follows a person claiming he regrew his whole ear after a bullet grazed the tip of it, can't be of sound mind and body.

Despite having a lizard brain, Trump can't regrow body parts at will. But that's what he claimed after the so-called assassination attempt against him last year.

A humorous aside from the incident was when his supporters all put a tampon on their ears in stupid solidarity.

That, however, is just one example of what Americans have to live with under Trump's fascist regime. His supporters have been on board for all of his conspircies and lies for years. However, that once solid relationship between MAGA and Trump is now slowly starting to unwind.

When Trump didn't release all of the Epstein files like he promised to his supporters during his re-election campaign, they turned on him and demanded transparency as it became obvious, he and his government minions, were loath to let go all of the documents related to the international sex trafficker.

Under pressure from their constituents GOP lawmakers joined Democrats into forcing Trump to sign a law demanding the immediate release of ALL the Epstein files. That law wasn't worth the paper it was printed on as revelations of millions of concealed documents slowly surfaced - past the deadline for accountability.

The disillusionment of dear leader has taken on a new phase when Trump invaded Venezuela and admitted he wanted to take over other countries - like Greenland. That's not what MAGA world signed up for. 

As Trump goose-steps over Congress, his minions there are already getting cold feet and quitting or retiring early to escape the carnage. History is not going to treat those traitors who enabled Trump to get as far as he has, kindly.

Assuming our republic holds on under Trump's assault, there will come a time of reckoning. Trials, similar to the Nuremberg Trials, will make Trump's cronies pay for their treason.

History has a way of repeating itself when we don't learn it's lessons from books or videos. Hitler's Third Reich was taken down thanks to our allies, but fascism is still alive and well in the world. 

America is once again at a crucial crossroad. This time we're facing a fascist government within our own borders.

As it Stands, coming soon, how CBS joined ranks with Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN to increase the flow of government propaganda.