PROMISES, PROMISES

...Promises-you knew Trump would never keep. What have you actually gotten since he became President? Trump promised he would get tough on immigration. He kept that promise. Yes, he got tough. He has, in fact, cracked down on illegal immigration. Yes, it is the most secure border in recent history. Illegal entries are down by 95%. However, there have been 139,000 deportations without due process. This is not the constitutional way to control illegal immigration. I can't make sense of randomly picking immigrants (many who are here legally) and pulling them from their jobs and families and sending them to prison. And yet, he still condones January 6th? How can you pardon over 1800 people who attacked the police and the Capitol? How do we allow all of this? Trump promised to end the Israeli War and the Ukraine War on Day one of his Presidency. Neither war has ended. Hostages are still in captivity. For those of you who think he is good for Israel, please explain. In Israel, Netanyahu is disliked and Trump backs Netanyahu. Trump is more interested in taking credit for the truce earlier this year than helping end the war and getting the hostages returned. Netanyahu was asleep at the switch-he should've take responsibility for the events of Oct. 7 and resigned. There are still 59 hostages in captivity in the Gaza Strip-what is being done to get these hostages back? Are they even alive? Remember Trump's promise that "he was the only one capable of ending the war in Gaza"? As far as the Ukraine War, Trump has been despicable and horrible to Zelinsky and his country. Trump, once again, is only interested in what benefits him. In this case, he wavers between supporting Putin and Zelinksky. Trump recently forced Zelinsky to sign an agreement that covered minerals, oil, gas, and other natural resources and still does not provide security guarantees for Ukraine. Repayment to the U.S. was his objective of this deal. As recently as May 2, a Russian drone attack On Karkiv injured over 40 people. The war is not over and Trump has not kept this promise. Musk promised to cut 2 trillion from the Federal Budget. He's actually cut 150 billion. He has slashed the federal work force, university grants and research, and shut down agencies. Meanwhile, Trump has made over 7 golfing visits to Mar-a-Lago. Here he (over)charges the U.S. government to house his secret service and the White House Staff. He has supposedly spent $100,000,000 for 39 rounds in his first 100 days (see the cover of The New Yorker). Additionally, the Florida Sheriff spends $240,000/day to help protect Trump while he is in Florida. So far, the Trump administration has spent more than 6% as the Biden administration during the same period of time. That increase doesn't include added costs of required payments to 225,000 ousted federal workers. Presently,We have a shortage of social security workers, IRS workers, air traffic controllers, FDA workers, and the list goes on. Trump has promised an energy emergency and a drop in Utility bills-that has not happened. Trump has promised to lower the cost of living but tariffs on foreign goods will increase our prices. Trump has pledged to eliminate taxes on Tips, Overtime, and Social Security Payments. None of this happened. Trump promises to fight Antisemitism in our country. His strategy is to punish Universities by cutting billions of federal dollars to combat antisemitism. However, he is hurting innocent foreign students by ending their legal status to attend these schools. He is banishing curriculum in colleges that he doesn't think portray American values. He has eliminated funding for pediatric cancer research, and for tuberculosis research. At Harvard, he has frozen more than 2 billion in grants and contracts. How does eliminating DEI, research funding, curriculum, and talented foreign students from a university banish Antisemitism? This hurts ALL students-Jewish students too! Europe is attracting the spurned talent and hoping to surpass America in science and medical research. International sudents and faculty have seen their visas revoked. The NY Times writes today that "the continent's leaders are hoping to benefit as the Trump administration cuts support for research and threatens universities with the freezing of federal funds." So, how do we deal with Antisemitism? We educate people. The news reports that recently an antisemitic incident happened at David Portnoy's Barstool in Philadelphia. Customers held a sign that said F--- the Jews. The owner, Portnoy, was distraught and wanted to punish these kids. But, instead, he decided to make it a teaching moment and to pay for them to tour Aushwitz. (FYI-the servers who allowed the sign were fired and one of the kids was suspended from Temple University). "NOBODY COULD IMAGINE A FEW YEARS AGO THAT ONE OF THE GREAT DEMOCRACIES OF THE WORLD WOULD ELIMINATE RESEARCH PROGRAMS ON THE PRETEXT THAT THE WORD 'DIVERSITY' APPEARED IN ITS PROGRAM" (President Macron). Trump promised to instill tariffs. He did keep that promise. And, because of tariffs, the stock market has been volatile. In fact, it's the most volatile period for the market since the pandemic. The index at the heart of many 401k accounts is more than 7% below its all time high due to the uncertainty of a recession. Now, Trump has threatened a 100% tariff on foreign made films! The result is that cars, tires, toys, clothing, electronics, construction, groceries, and movies will all be more expensive. Shipments from China have basically ceased. Truckers and dock workers no longer will work overtime. Less containers shipped, less employment needed.....Importers are not sending goods to the U.S. Where is the Congress? This shouldn't be a Republican/Democrat issue. Politics aside-how does one person destroy global economics and get away with it??? We seem to be going BACKWARDS. Books are banned, subjects in schools are banned, transgender and gay lifestyles are being banned, foreign films are banned, abortion is banned, vaccines are discouraged....what's next? Oh, and Trump just screwed the 911 Health program staffers-they are fired. The Republicans were behind this program and fully backed the World Trade Center Program. Now, we aren't taking care of the 911 heroes. Can you believe Republicans are not speaking up? Oh, I forgot to mention that funding for PBS and NPR was also taken away. We're becoming a country of morons. Forty years of free trade down the tubes. Our world is becoming like the society in The Handmaid's Tale. How is it possible that we are being told what we can and can't read, who we can and can't have sex with, which movies we can see, what birth control we can and cannot use, which vaccines will be available to us or our children? I feel sorry for my children and grandchildren. They will not have the freedoms that I grew up with. God help us all. WISHING YOU A HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! IT'S THE BEST JOY AND JOB EVER (EXCEPT MAYBE BEING A GRANDPARENT!) PEACE OUT-ONE B