Backwards to the future

Last Friday, while the country was once again catching its collective breath after a week of more calamitous headlines from the "King" Trump Administration, came two pieces of important news.

First, a federal judge “largely blocked” Trump’s executive orders ending federal support of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs, saying that, according to The Associated Press, “the orders likely carry constitutional violations, including against free speech rights.”

The federal judge, a Biden appointee, agreed with the plaintiffs that Trump’s orders had a “chilling effect” on businesses and educational institutions that still wanted to openly support DEI through grants, hiring etc.

Hey, no argument from me, Your Honor! Obviously, Trump’s lawyers are appealing your order, so we’ll see how long it lasts.

But then something else happened last Friday night that was a rude harbinger of things to come.

The clown-president-who-would-be-king fired U.S. Air Force four-star General CQ Brown Jr., the distinguished chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gen. Brown is Black, and according to The Associated Press, Trump gave walking papers to this ‘…history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.”

Gen. Brown, who apparently ran afoul of Trump after making a video telling his life story after the murder of George Floyd, had just been only 16 months in the Joint Chief’s chair job, and devoted over 40 years of his life in military service to his country. More than qualified to be any president’s top military advisor.

Of course any and every president has the right to switch up on Joint Chiefs chairmen when they come in. In the case of Gen. Brown, a distinguished four star, the question is ...why.

I’ve seen the man interviewed, and he doesn’t strike me as anybody’s fool. I’m sure he knew that no matter how loyal he was serving the country, that was not the same as being loyal to the king. And in fact, his new boss, former Fox and Friends weekend TV host Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had already said in a podcast last November that in order to stay loyal to Trump’s abhorrence of DEI, Gen. Brown would have to be fired..

In his book, “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth even questioned whether Gen. Brown was promoted by Pres. Biden to be Joint Chiefs chairman becausehe was Black.

“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt,” Hegseth, a minor military man himself with a bad reputation who couldn’t shine Gen. Brown’s shoes, was quoted as musing in his tome.

And who has King Trump replaced Gen. Brown with? A a retired three-star lt. general who once vowed to Trump that he would “kill” for him.

Trump never forgot that junior general from years back and has now tapped him to be his top military advisor.

For the record, it’s rare for a retired three-star general to be recalled to active duty. And its rare for a three-star to receive his fourth star without earning it in combat first, as King Trump’s replacement for General Brown will. He'll need a waiver.

A Fox weekend TV host. A retired three-star. 

With King Trump, it’s not about who is white and qualified, but who is white and loyal…to him.

Still hoping that DEI goes out of business?

Colin Powell must be rolling over in his grave.

In one sense, I’m glad that Gen. Brown doesn’t work for these clowns anymore. I know he is a creature of duty, and would have served the office of the president of the United States no matter what, as long as the orders from there were legal and made sense.

But on the other side, let’s face it, King Trump’s Administration is turning the clock back on so much progress in this country, even in our military, that who the hell really wants to be part of this nonsense, or even be associated with it.

Think about it. This country has always prided itself for moving forward. No matter what our problems, what made us strong was the sense that America was steadily working to open the doors to the future, with advancements in science, education, social and civil rights, etc.

You had the feeling that we had learned so, so much from our errors of the past, and were using those lessons to, again, open doors for everyone and anyone who wanted to prove themselves, and in the process, move the entire country ahead.

Such progress was vital for our children, and many of us took pride in the world we were working hard to build for them, so that they could correct many of our mistakes, and make America, as Dr. King once said, the nation“… it ought to be!”

During the Obama years in particular, you had the sense that he wanted this country to make the investments in leading on so many fronts heading into the future. Having broken down a major barrier himself, he wanted other progressive Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris to take over the reins of power with progressive vision that would maintain this nation’s leadership position in the world, and give everyone an opportunity to succeed, no matter what their color or gender.

There was tremendous pride in knowing that our government was funding important research grants and projects to unlock the mysteries of serious diseases, or discovering things we never knew about before. Those grants and projects helped to provide jobs for our brightest and our best, whether it be at one of our many research universities like NC A&T University in Greensboro or NC State University in Raleigh, or the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Many jobs were created, especially for Black people, helping them move into the middle-class from poverty. Those federal government investments in the future helped to lift all boats, and create a professional class of all hues.

This country was on the move, on the march. The only thing that could stop us was a damn fool who corrupted the reins of power with his greed and narcissism.  

And that’s just what happened.

In 2016, and again in 2024, we elected King Donald Trump, and now, thanks to his prehistoric and malicious way of thinking and behaving, all of the tremendous progress we’ve made in so many areas of this country is at risk.

All in the name of “making America "great" again.”

“We’re going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come,” King Trump vowed during remarks last weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, all while bragging about how many thousands of federal employees are being fired in the same breath.

The Associated Press recently reported, “President Donald Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad.’

“He likes the ring of calling himself king.”

As we’ve mentioned in past commentaries, the rule of law has been trampled on in so many ways that were once hard to imagine.

The normal function of government has been so corrupted that we can’t even trust it to handle a national health emergency anymore, something we could always trust it to do before the Covid pandemic.

And now that King Trump and his rich, but insane buddy Elon “Chainsaw’ Musk, are cutting thousands of employees from the federal workforce in a backass “search” for government waste and fraud, we truly feel the shift in the firmament. As if we’re sliding backwards to a place we’ve all worked very hard to escape. The thing that confirms it for all of us is King Trump’s social agenda, spearheaded by his brutal assault on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Just last week, King Trump’s klan cut tens of millions in educational funding for North Carolina’s public schools, funding that helped pay teachers who worked in some of the poorest communities of our state to teach at-risk kids.

Funding originally devoted to giving poor children a chance by providing dedicated teachers for them to realize the fruits of education, and hopefully, one day, learn enough to lift themselves out of their desperate circumstances.

With the stroke of a pen, Trump has taken it away from them.

Why shouldn’t government - federal or otherwise - invest in the future of this country by investing in its young people? Where is the harm?

We’ve come too far to go back to the days when white Americans almost exclusively set the standard when it comes to excellence. Not a week goes by now when we don’t hear about some gifted child of color achieving some magnificent goal that we can all celebrate, and point to as a symbol of our collective national progress.

And yet, King Trump would have us think that such success should be suspect. That unless it’s in the fields of sports and entertainment, African-Americans and other people of color are just not capable of achieving a high standard of academic performance or business excellence.

Suffice it to say, I know firsthand that that kind of corrupted thinking is wrong, and yes, bigoted. And it angers me to no end that because this king of corrupt has a god-complex, scores of young people of all colors and backgrounds will be left behind because he has cutoff their opportunity to give back to the country that nurtured them.

The coldblooded bigotry that haunted this nation for most of its young history is back, ladies and gentlemen, led by none other than our president. We now lumber towards the future forsaking almost everything we fought, died for, and achieved as a nation.

What did Trump tell CPAC again?

“We’re going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come.”

Once again, THIS is what you voted for America! Live with it!