Trump is acting like the dictator he told us he would be. Facts are facts.
Consider: Trump’s ICE police, armed, disguised in ski masks and using unmarked vans sweep people up off streets, out of their homes, break into vehicles and seize people — who’ve committed no crimes — without warrants or probable cause, and disappear them into detention centers, often far from their homes and loved ones.
The United States Constitution states, directly, that no person (not just “citizens”) shall be deprived of their liberty without due process, i.e., a hearing before an impartial judge or jury.
If Trump can declare anyone a “criminal” and imprison them without a warrant or hearing, he can do just that to anyone else, too.
Due process is a fundamental right that every person in the United States enjoys, and if any person or group can be deprived of their liberty without due process, every other, any other person or group can too.
Piracy, summary executions, and committing Acts of War. Forcible seizure of foreign vessels in international waters is an act of piracy.
Summary execution of people aboard boats in international waters who Trump claims are “smuggling drugs” is murder. Drug smugglers should be interdicted, boarded, and if in fact they are smuggling drugs, arrested and prosecuted, tried, and sentenced if found guilty — not murdered in summary executions by air strikes.
Now, kidnapping Maduro, President of Venezuela, in an unprovoked military strike against a sovereign nation. This, plainly, is an act of war.
We’ve lived through the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, we’ve witnessed ongoing attacks on freedom of speech, education, science, the continual torrent of lies, misinformation, and corruption from this administration, its subversion of the rule of law, and the vindictive prosecution of those Trump declares “enemies”. This is not America. This is dictatorship.
Patriotic Americans in former generations faced their own crises and trials, just about every 80 years beginning with the American Revolution, then the Civil War, then the Great Depression and World War II, and now, 80 years later, our own dissembling of American democracy.
We face great difficulties ahead. The choice lies before us: do we meet these challenges head-on, with courage and resolve, or ignore them at our peril.
It’s time we change direction so our country reflects who we are as a people, and to reject the cruelty and lawlessness of this Administration. It’s up to you and me to create our future, and it’s time to get started.
Michael Pullen
Easton
Easton
Rebecca Ellison says
Trump IS a dictator. And we need to act accordingly.
Rick Hughes says
I agree 100%. With the exception of a few court rulings, the Trumpist SCOTUS and Republican Congress are complicit in the takeover of the United States. It is astonishing how so many people are sitting back and letting this happen. EVERY American should be shocked and appalled by what is happening and anyone who is blindly ignoring or applauding Trump is complicit and a traitor to the country and Constitution, the rule of law and everything good that the USA has ever stood for. It is time to take action. Violence is never the answer (except for thugs) – call your elected officials, send letters, participate in protests, financially support the campaigns of those who run in opposition to this MAGA revolution. The fate of the US depends on We the People, or are we just too fat, happy and glued to reality TV to pay attention? Shame on us.
Darrell parsons says
I have worried about all of the above regarding Trump. Now I’m adding my dismay that my grandchildren are coming of military age. For now, of course, the army is volunteer. But as we get sucked further and further into armed conflict, conscription could be close behind. And this is courtesy of our president who sits in Maralago watching on TV as our army kills and captures Venezuelans. Like a kid playing a video game.
Suzanne Todd says
Thank you, Michael. Every day brings a new unimaginable horror. It is up to us to save our democracy.
Robert Willey says
While agree with most of Mr Pullen’s comments, I take issue with the first sentence. People who have entered the US illegally have committed a federal crime by doing so. Full stop.
James Siegman says
Mr. Willey, I agree. You are correct. And the seriousness of that crime is ……….the same as a parking ticket. Whether either of us agree that SHOULD be the severity, it is NOT.
And while I support immigration reform….I believe that we need changes that represent a humane and just way of managing the issue. That these people have broken federal law is not sufficient cause to kidnap them off the street without due process as due process is codified in our Constitution, regardless of one’s citizenship. THAT is one of the many things that made America great. That is why millions came to our shores since the founding of this nation and inspired the Statue of Liberty. So, perhaps we ought to put our heads together to sort out who we are as Americans. Are we so thuggish, hateful and mean spirited that this is our only solution? Or, are we a nation that represents opportunity, freedom and ultimately, compassion to those born into grievous circumstances that wish to move here, contribute to our nation and build a life for themselves. That, sir, is the America that I was raised in. It is the one that I have cherished. And unfortunately, what this country has devolved into over the last 10 years or so is an embarrassment. My 21 years of service in the military feels like a hollow exercise because so many of our citizens have decided to champion cruelty over decency, meanness over kindness. I thought we were better than this. It seems increasingly clear that we are no better….perhaps worse than….some of those “S-hole countries” that our president feels so keen to deride and we now occupy that category BECAUSE of him.
Mary Hunt-Miller says
From what I have read, that is a civil offense, not criminal.
Totch Hartge says
Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam etc. There is no good end to this either for Venezuelans or the World. We are awful at telling other countries how to run things.
What fools we are to follow this Madman.
March and protest. Loud and often
Totch Hartge
Vietnam veteran
Barbara Lee Jefferson says
Enough is enough. Trump is unfit for office. He is unwell, mentally ill, deranged, greedy, narcissistic, dirty.
He needs to be removed, jailed, exiled.
America deserves better.
What do we need to do?
Charles Reeser says
What I find really dangerous is Trump is cornered, and panicked, with the low approval ratings, Epstein files, midterms, and he’ll do anything to not face any consequences. And we still have 3 years to deal with his madness.And what the hell was that about Maduro was filmed saying “Good night, Happy New Year” to U.S. agents as he was being taken into custody. Seemed very casual like a another Ghislaine Maxwell deal in the making
Bob Parker says
Well said. While there has always been tolerance for a spectrum of political views on the U.S., and there should continue to be one in current times, the over riding guide has been fealty to our Constitution, and this must continue to guide our political views. No matter if one adheres to a progress, a liberal, a moderate or a conservative political philosophy, if one identifies as an “American” the Constitution must guide decisions.
William Keppen says
That pretty much sums it up Michael, thank you. Now, if Congress does not exercise their constitutional duties, SOON, Americans have to rise up against them and Trump in the 2026 mid-terms. VOTE, to same our democracy!
Bob Kopec says
Trump has broken so many laws, at least beginning when he started a treasonous insurrection riot during the ‘BIG LIE’ of ‘STOP the Steal’ where 5 people were killed and he continued with the bombings of Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria & Syria. Then came the invasion of Venezuela to get their oil. His disdain for Zelensky & his praise & reward for Putin. Trump’s other crimes of rape, tax evasion made him a 34X convicted felon. He never seeks Congressional approval for anything. He has desecrated the Oval Office and destroyed a part of the W.H. without approval. He has trampled the Constitution he swore to uphold. He has illegally sent masked troops to gather people off American cities & streets. He has bombed and killed over 100 people in small boats at sea at night claiming without proof that they are drug carriers – this from a pathological liar. And, since when is being a drug carrier a death sentence? His level of corruption would embarrass a real third world dictator. The current Congress & John Roberts Supreme Court sit idly by looking on like this is normal and standard operating procedure. It is not.
Who is going to stop this narcissistic megalomaniac?
James O Siegman says
I want t o thank Mike Pullen for his piece above.
I also want to take this a step further. I have seen the statement released by our congressman, Andy Harris and wish to demand answers of him. There is no plan to manage Venezuela. And already our president is threatening Mexico, Columbia, Cuba and again, Greenland. I take issue with Mr. Harris because his statement was so very obsequious, so vacant of meaningful thought of downstream consequences. It express a complete lack of awareness of the realities….suggesting that it was right to go after Maduro due to drug trafficking. Anyone with more than a handful of functioning brain cells knows this is not about drugs. It is not even about the low grade oil under the ground there. It is more about rare earth metals than either of those two things and yet still, it is not necessarily about those either. It is about distracting from the latest batch of Epstein files released. It is about the footage of Jack Smith’s testimony being released. It is about the ever decreasing approval numbers and the fact that he is likely going to take a hit in the midterm election. And the fact that this mall little man will save his own skin at the risk of our military personnel is disgusting. Just as disgusting is the way in which Mr. Harris so vapidly supported those actions.
Folks, if you have loved ones in the military, is this what you want them fighting for? I would like to demand the resignation of Andy Harris, immediately.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson, Ret'd. says
Now a retired bishop in my 80s, I cut my teeth here in Easton as a young priest. Every day I witnessed our young hispanics walking to the supermarket. As a North Dakota boy raised a toddler by a beautiful young Mexican governess from Puebla in Mexico, and having a first-generation Mexican-American wife in the medical profession, I saw them as friends and stopped to talk with them. I was alarmed that no one was caring for these new friends spiritually, practically and legally. Thus began many long years with them here in Easton, and in chapels-of-ease all over Delmarva when forming our new diocese; and as legal representative in then-INS asylum hearings in Virginia, and in U.S. Immigration Court hearings in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
I am horrified both as priest and citizen to see the apostasy of our government against these good people who’ve been forced from their homelands by the crime, greed, and misrepresentation of their own nations, and the economic systems made to favor those rich whom our Blessed Lord’s mother proclaimed “sent empty away” in her hymn in St. Luke’s Gospel. Yet, they’ve arrived here, in a nation where there’s a plan a’foot to make ours a White Christian Nation.
I cry out with you in prayer: Where’s the justice? Yes that, and our prayer must be for our national ethos to recover the spirit of justice our forefathers envisioned. And this is my prayer. And I know, deep inside, it’s your prayer, too. Peace be with you!
James O. Siegman says
It is important to note that the crime, greed and poor governments of the nations many of these people are coming from….is all a result of US adventurism in the past, leaving them with dysfunctional governments and allowing organized crime to talk hold there. As a nation, many of our citizens do not realize this but if they only knew, they may take a different view of the cruelty that we are dealing them now…..as opposed to showing them compassion for what they have endured in their home countries and on the journey to come here….illegally or not. We have not right to be inhumane.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
Indeed! I am old enough to remember John Foster Dulles describing Central American nations as merely our source for “cheap bananas.”