Untrustworthiness
The President of Peace, Our Tax Dollars, & Human Life
Welcome. Below is the March 11 preview from the forthcoming and tentatively titled All of Us: A Pro-Democracy Book of Days for America. See earlier editions of this newsletter for more about the book.
This March 11 entry is the explores the ninth of nine elements that characterize America’s collective shadow (ignorance, arrogance, fear, bigotry, violence, greed, excess, bullying, and untrustworthiness).
Untrustworthiness (Integrity) – March 11
Untrustworthiness refers to being undeserving of trust because of past or current duplicity or dishonesty. Betrayal is the act of violating an agreement, trust, or one’s word, and often results from the trait of being untrustworthy.
_____
While untrustworthiness informed all the nation’s foundational subjugations, the trait was most blatant and egregious regarding the 500-plus negotiated treaties, and 300-plus ratified treaties with Native Americans, all of which were partially or completely broken. The untrustworthiness regarding women and Africans resulted not from broken promises, but from culturally given beliefs in the inferiority of women and Africans. (January 24-26, February 1-12)
Post-1865 untrustworthiness remained steady towards women and entered a make-and-break-a-promise phase for men who had been enslaved and who were freed, assured legal protections, and given the vote by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and then subjected to Jim Crow and Black Code laws and public lynchings from 1877 through the mid-1960s especially, but not only in the former Confederacy, whose leaders were pardoned by Andrew Johnson, and many of whom were elected to local and state office.
Women would campaign until 1920 for the vote, and they’re still waiting for an Equal Rights Amendment. Every day of his life, Donald Trump swallows an untrustworthiness pill. Channeling Andrew Johnson, he pardoned insurrectionists he’d incited, encouraged violence against Spanish-speaking people with brown skin, and lies, repeats the lie, doesn’t acknowledge his mistakes, and never apologizes for anything.
Untrustworthiness ‘R’ He.
How Should We Spend the Money We Take From U.S. Citizens?
Having access to billions of American taxpayer dollars, Donald Trump, the authors of Project 2025, those who support and work within his administration, and the Republicans in the U.S. Congress who have traded their hearts and spines for cowardly fealty to their atheistic and nihilistic leader have choices when it comes to spending those billions. Among them, and in no particular order, are:
Invest in America’s public schools and universities.
Invest in science and return the nation to its global leadership therein—or at least begin believing in science again.
Invest in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—programs that Americans of all political persuasions rely on and benefit from.
Related to the above, invest in accessible and affordable health care for all Americans.
Employ the same intelligence and military technology currently being used to target and kill Iranians and destroy their infrastructure to monitor U.S. borders and keep out “the worst of the worst” undocumented immigrants so barely trained ICE and CBP agents can do their actual jobs and stop terrorizing documented immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Fully support and honor our allies in Europe and Ukraine and support them in defeating Russia’s war of choice against Ukraine.
Reinstate the work of USAID and USAGM, first, just to help those who need help, and second, to limit the growing influence of China in those areas previously served by these two agencies.
That’s enough for now. Many more valuable choices exist.
The President of Peace
“President Trump has cemented his legacy as The President of Peace. In addition to the remarkable success achieved during his first term with the historic Abraham Accords, President Trump has leveraged his dealmaking ability to secure unprecedented peace in eight conflicts throughout the world over the course of just eight months of his second term. He negotiated peace between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the DRC and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and ended the war in Gaza with all living hostages returned to their families.”
-from the 2025 United States National Security Strategy
Let’s Bomb Iran
Faced with these and other options, Donald Trump, the authors of Project 2025, those who support and work within his administration, and the Republicans in the U.S. Congress have chosen to go to war with Iran. They have offered no clear, evidence-based rationale, they have not offered even a vague sense of what their endgame is, and as with their war games with Venezuela, they have picked an opponent they’re pretty sure they can defeat quickly—much as their predecessors did in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
This war in Iran is the latest intentional distraction from all the damage already done and still being done domestically in the United States—while Iran burns, ICE agents are still at work; the DOJ continues to weaponize the government against perceived enemies of the president and to impede the rule of law regarding everything from the Epstein files to tariffs to freedom of the press; the president and his supporters continue to promote the myth of widespread voter fraud while they actively work to suppress the vote of those who might disagree with them.
Said differently, those in charge choose to spend money and risk lives that are not theirs, bombing Iranians, in order to distract Americans from the dismantling of their nation. Trump, his kids, his son-in-law, his fellow billionaires see investment opportunities in the greater Middle East, demonstrate no respect for human dignity—especially among Arab and Latino cultures, and are exemplars for untrustworthiness.
We’ll sign off today with John Prine’s “Some Humans Ain’t Human.”