OPINION: Dementia and Corruption at 20500

OPINION:

Dementia and Corruption at 20500Not every president of the United States is remembered well.

OPINION:

Dementia and Corruption at 20500 

Editor: The number 20500 most commonly refers to the Zip code for Washington, D.C., often associated with federal buildings like the White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20500)

By D. S. Mitchell

I started the Calamity News and Politics website to vent my frustrations and to keep from losing my frigging liberal mind; that was at the end of 2016, right after Trump’s first presidential win. I joined the Women’s March and the Resistance. Well, its 2026 and the Mango Menace is running wild through the government.  I have always tried to focus on facts and also try to support my statements with at least two sources. With this post, I’ve thrown all those established behaviors to the wind. Fuck Trump and that Project 2025 crowd, here’s what I as an average everyday American am  seeing from Trump and his cronies, and this list of ten terrible things Trump has done in his first year, not one damn one of them has helped lower grocery prices or made life better for the average American.

1.) Presidential dementia should be a big concern for us as Americans and as citizens of the world. This near  80 year  old guy that we call “president” is a babbling, wandering, impulsive, mentally disabled individual encumbered by several severe personality disorders and undeniable and worsening dementia.  Trump has always been evil and cruel, now he is demented too. Seriously, I worry who is running the damn country? What, you say, Trump may not be running the country? It is obvious after listening to 2 or 3 minutes of Trump’s indiscernible  word salad that he’s not running much but his mouth. I believe this guy is incapable of finding his own ass with a handful of toilet paper. They were doing MRI’s of the brain and multiple cognitive tests at his second, or was it his third annual physical. LOL. I thought annual physical meant once a year. However, in our guys case he needs more testing. Shit, folks, I’m 3,500 miles away and I can tell you, without MRI’s and cognitive tests that Trump is deep into his decline into dementia. So; a couple likely suspects for running the country in Trump’s mental absence are the Jewish pretend Nazi, Stephen Miller and the anti-humanist, Russell Vogt. Scary combo. As far as the Trump kids go, they’re out making billions of dollars from foreign governments. Gotta make it while Daddy is in the White House appears to be the combined mantra.

2.)  Images of the masked ICE agents massively funded, newly emboldened and empowered handcuffing and loading people into vans and disappearing them without access to legal representation, without due process. This crap isn’t supposed to happen in America. It definitely reminds me of the Nazi’s rounding up the Jews eighty-five years ago in Germany.  Obviously, hate lives on. But, in some ways this goes beyond hate and straight to the pocketbook of several Trump supporters. These allies intend to make billions of dollars running government concentration camps, like Alligator Alcatraz. The plan is not to remove the immigrants from our country, but to instead, imprison the immigrants and pay some company owned by a card carrying MAGA to operate a government prison at the cost of millions of dollars a year; until then we’ll be filling prisons in Sudan, Cuba, and El Salvador at the cost of the American tax payer.

3.)  I once had a husband.  He believed and practiced the theory, “if you repeat a lie enough times, most people believe it.”  I am more of the,  “You can fool all the people some of the time.  You can fool some of the people, part of the time,  but you can never fool all the people, all of the time.”  I’m watching Trump and he’s lost his luster even to many of the diehards. I’ve got my fingers crossed.  There’s a lot at stake here, our country is celebrating 250 years as a constitutional republic (democracy). But, for how much longer. We need 3 active branches of government each religiously exerting its guaranteed checks and balance power. You would think the reps and senators and the black robed justices on the Supreme Court would cherish their power and guard that power, but since Trump came down the escalator the reps, the senators and the all powerful justices have turned over their power to a 35 count felon.

4.)  In 1973, Richard Nixon declared, “there can be no whitewash at the White House.” A thought that is needed now more than ever; because there is a stench rising out of  Washington, D.C. the stink so foul it can be smelled around the world. I have never smelled anything so disgusting, except the odor that hovers over a rendering plant in mid-August.  a.) A “free” jet for the prez from Qatar. Qatar?? The prez of the U.S. is taking “a gift” from one of the biggest troublemakers in the middle east. Qatar is a supporter of Hamas. This new, “free” Air Force One that’s going to cost at least a billion dollars of U.S government money to retro-fit, and then the old fossil takes it home with him. Wow. Sounds wrong. b.) And then there’s the billions of dollars in profit for the prez and his family from their crypto currency shenanigan’s. Who’s writing the rules on this made up currency?  Oh, silly me, there are no rules and regulations and that’s what makes it so lucrative, folks. c.) With a series of million dollar a plate dinner dates with Donald and the fossil fuel barons have reversed United States environmental policy and Trump is quickly returning to a “drill baby drill” mentality, opening up wide swaths of public lands, most dramatically in Alaska. d.) And the “maybe you” or  “maybe not you” tariffs, I wonder how much is costs to be a “maybe not you” in the tariff war the prez has decided to unleash on the American consumer. e.)  What is the price of a pardon? We may never find out but the pardons being issued by this president seem to have a lot of donor money behind the presidential action.

5.)  The unrelenting attacks and insults against the media, by President Trump, are inexcusable and dangerous.  A little contention is good, but what is going on is unprecedented.  Since when does the top liar in the country have the right to accuse anyone of being “fake.”  The fabricated accusations by Trump are disgusting and unnecessary.  Trump’s assault against the press must stop. The press in an indispensable part of our democracy, understood by our founding fathers that’s why we have the First Amendment to the Constitution.  Free speech whether written or spoken is the foundation of democracy. Calling people “fat”, “nasty”, and “stupid” demeans the office of president and calls into question the abilities and motives of anyone that dares tell the world the emperor has no clothes.

6.) “Who knew, health care was so complicated?” President Trump expressed Monday, February 27, 2017.   OMG.  Move forward to 2026. Nine years later and the dumb ass has participated in the biggest bait and switch in American history. Well, at least now, he admits, not everything can be solved on Truth Social.  In fact, the Republicans are so mean and cruel that they are about to give billionaires the biggest tax cuts in history while making health insurance skyrocket in price for the average American. On top of that health care calamity this country is designated as #42 on the world health care service effectiveness list.  That’s a pathetic placement.  “42”?  That means 41  other countries in the world are providing better and cheaper health care than we are. Absolutely, heartbreaking.  41 other countries provide both  better and cheaper health care for their citizens than we do here in the United States.  Has anyone thought to go to the  number 1 country, or even the number  2 country; and see how they do it?  Universal health care; that’s where I’d start, if I really wanted the best for the American people.  Let’s find out how to do it right.  We can still learn.

7.) What a bungled mess the Trump Administration has made of the Epstein files, nothing unusual for this crew of idiots. Trump’s AG, Pam Bondi said she was about ready to make Epstein’s client list public, whipping up public furor for the big reveal. In fact, Ms. AG said the file was “sitting on my desk right now,” leading to expectations that the information would soon be released. For Trump, a candidate that had made a big deal of releasing the Epstein files was now treading water, doing a lot of backscene arm twisting to keep the files secret. Then by memo the DOJ stated it would not be releasing the promised files. Reports indicate that Trump is mentioned at least 1500 times (maybe more) in the documents received from the Epstein estate. In at least one photo it sure looked like a 50-ish year old Trump had hold of a young beauty contestant’s breast. But, it must contain a lot more than a couple inappropriate pictures otherwise Donnie wouldn’t be so damn scared of what the full reveal will expose. Trump says “people will get hurt.” What the F? Epstein is believed to have sexually abused and trafficked over a 1,000 women and under age girls, perhaps more. These women have been hurt and continue to be hurt. It was about this time that even the Republicans began to break from the official dogma. Marjorie Taylor Green the most famous MAGA in the House, said, “no more”  to the coverup and announced plans to resign from office in January 2026,  after a very public falling out with Donald Trump.

8.)  Trump was impeached twice during his first term, but the Republican dominated Senate refused to convict. and it didn’t seem to slow the 35 count felon down. After a try at insurrection Trump and his followers went loudly into the political night…until 2024 when this friken’ criminal was re-elected by an amnesic electorate and the first thing he did was commute or pardon the January 6th, rioters. The only saving grace in this situation has been that many of them were criminals and kept offending which led to further incarceration. His second term has been different; the Republicans control the house, the senate, and the White House. In 2017 the Democrats were in charge of the House, led by spit fire Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. It seems that the Republicans have no intention to bring this dog to heel. Soo00, folks we need to send the MAGA’s reps and senators home with their tails between their legs and send a whole new generation of Democrats to Washington.

9.) First our troops were attacking “narco” fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela. Trump upped the ante when he began boarding and seizing Venezuelan oil tankers. Then on 1/3/2026, according to Trump in a morning news conference, flanked by Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi, announced that Nicolas Maduro along with his wife was  apprehended by the U.S military, following a large scale strike on Venezuela. I find this action alarming. What the hell? I’m not alone, the UN’s top counterterrorism expert has condemned the US actions, calling the strikes and “abduction” of Maduro an “illegal aggression.”  Such activities by our government should be alarming. Since when does the U.S. swoop in and kidnap a government leader of a sovereign country? What? Didn’t Trump just pardon Juan Hernandez the former president of Honduras or the crimes Trump is now accusing Venezuela’s leader Maduro. This is not the American way. Really dangerous, folks. Having our demented president Trump claim “we are going to run the country…” should make the hair on your arms stand up. What next, Greenland? Cuba? Mexico? Columbia? Iran?

10.) It was Saturday afternoon and I wasn’t doing anything…so I decided I’d watch former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s testimony to the Republican led House Judiciary Committee on YouTube. Mr. Smith testified in a closed-door deposition in December 2025. He defended his investigations into Donald Trump regarding the 2020 Russian election interference and the missing classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Smith pushed back against accusations that his investigation was politically motivated, and stated categorically that Trump was guilty of all charges brought by the Special Counsel team. Smith denied emphatically  that the probes were in anyway political. I think if you have 6 or so hours, please watch it.

My big question, why are we ‘effin around in Venezuela, Nigeria, Argentina? We have hungry kids in this country, we have sick old people, we have nearly 30 million people about to be unable to pay for health insurance. Stop the bullshit, its time for our government to start taking care of the needy in this country. The cost of Trump’s demented government policy is dangerous and costly. And I want to remind you, just because it hasn’t happened (yet), doesn’t mean it can’t, or won’t.

OPINION: What About Charlie?

OPINION: What About Charlie?

OPINION: What About Charlie?

** “Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized SAINT specifically, the official act of public veneration.”

**The White House announced that Charlie Kirk will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

By Kelli Mathison

 

Charlie? Charlie? Hmmm….Charlie. Charlie Kirk? Mmmm, Charlie Kirk. Who? I don’t know who this guy was but apparently his death beat out Jesus Christ for the top political murder in history.  On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, an American right-wing political activist, was shot and killed while making a  speech at the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah.

So-o-o-o this guy, Charlie Kirk, that more than three quarters of the country never heard of, is getting more fevered press than the crucifixion of  Jesus Christ. Certainly more histrionics than we got when then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi’s 82 year old husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked in their home and nearly beaten to death with a hammer by a pissed off MAGA guy. Or on Jun 14, 2025 — House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (D) Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot in their home by a right wing extremist with little more than a ripple on the political airwaves.

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Cori Bush: The Face of Perseverance

Cori Bush: The Face of Perseverance

Tenacity, Perseverance and Determination, all in one woman, Cori Bush

On Friday 7/30/2021  First term Congresswoman Cori Bush sat down on the steps of the U.S. House of Representatives with a camping chair, a sleeping bag, and a commitment to stop the potential eviction of millions of Americans from their homes.

By William Jones and D. S. Mitchell

Those At Risk

When it became clear that neither Congress nor the White House was going to act to stop a pandemic-era federal eviction moratorium from expiring, leaving hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of low-income Americans at risk for eviction from their homes Cori Bush stepped up.  Ms. Bush — now 45 and a first-term Democratic congresswoman from St. Louis — felt a familiar flood of anxiety and a flash of purpose in the face of the pending crisis.

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Editorial: Government Closure

Government Closure:

Who to Blame and the Effects

By Jones William

He Wants More Money

President Donald Trump’s government technically made a partial government closure at 0000 hours on 22 December 2018 for the third time. This was after the Senate failed to  break a deadlock over the president’s call for a ridiculous amount of money to build a wall on our southern border.  Trump promised a wall and Mexico would pay for it. Well that’s not happening, so Trump is now demanding $5 billion from the American taxpayer to fund his border wall or he will bluster and roar and continue the government closure.

Working Without Pay

The government closure is only a partial shutdown. Because Congress and Trump had earlier approved funding bills of $1.3 trillion for three-quarters for the operation of federal agencies. That meant that only some agencies would be shut after December 21, when funding ran out. Even so, the essential employees in those agencies will be required to continue reporting to work, knowing they will be working without pay until the government re-opens. This new partial government closure effects nearly a million government employees, their families, their creditors.

I’ll Take The Heat

President Trump told all of America he would be the one to  blame for the government closure. He publicly declared before reporters in the Oval Office that he would be ‘proud’ to have a government shutdown.  His sentiments were even echoed by Stephen Miller, the chief strategist of the Trump anti-immigrant policy. After the closure for 16 days in 2013, a poll by Washington Post-ABC News indicated that many Americans placed the responsibility for the stalemate in 2013 on Republicans not on Barack Obama.

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Trust In Government In Trump’s America

Trust in Government in Trump’s America 

Just My Opinion: By Brett Kondratiew

From The Outside Looking In

At the outset, I am not an American, instead I live in Australia but I have an interest in American Politics. Pretty much because its brutality is unlike anything I have ever seen. However under Donald Trump, it has reached unprecedented ferocity. Is trust in government a victim of Trump intention and rhetoric? Or, a reaction to five decades of government disregard for a growing disgruntled and distrustful electorate?

Controversy And Division

To witness a presidential candidate, openly condone the physical and often violent behavior by his supporters, certainly piqued my interest. Yes, the battlegrounds of immigration and race will always cause controversy and division but when used as an explicit, electoral “plan of attack”, was extraordinary to watch. So here we sit, some two years into the Trump Administration and the question is, “Has Trump’s America altered our trust in government”?

Statistics May Have The Answer

As an observer I would say yes, America has lost faith and trust in her government. Statisticians examining and correlating their numbers all have reached a somewhat different conclusion. Fewer than three-in-ten Americans express faith that their government will do the “right thing.” This distrust in government has been consistent in survey after survey since 2007. So, increased distrust in government is not just a phenomenon of Trump. Perhaps Trump’s election was more about the lack of trust in government than we will ever understand.

How Low Can We Go

Confidence and trust in Trump, the man, is also staggeringly low. Eugene Scott, a writer for The Fix and the Washington Post, presents the following figures.  In Sept 2018, only 36% of people approved of Trump’s job performance. When questioned further, less than 30% believed that Trump would do the “right thing”.  This is the lowest figure seen over the earlier 10 months. Factor in the following stats; more than 50% of men believe that the media have more credibility than the government. It is significant that only 8% of African-Americans  trust Trump. His trust numbers among women are dropping so fast it is hard to get an exact number. Taking all groups together the average of expressed trust in government is at an all time low of 19%.

Is Trust in Trump a Ship that has already sailed?

I like to have a bet on horses but there is no way that I would put any of my hard-earned on someone with so little support. When I decided to write this editorial, I was given a copy of Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear- Trump in the White House.” I did not expect that so early into the read, I would find a man so ill-informed and totally unsuitable to be the “world’s most powerful individual”. Bob Woodward is a highly respected journalist and his book is based on many hours of interviews with multiple firsthand sources. The material presented doesn’t surprise me. Nor, does it surprise me that Trump has refused to comment, other than to call Woodward a “liar” and his book a pack of “lies.”

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OPEN LETTER TO NANCY PELOSI


6/22/2017

Dear Nancy,

I woke up to a very somber crowd at the Morning Joe table.  All kinds of thoughts and commentary were tossed around about how the ‘face’ of the DNC is Nancy Pelosi, and in many districts, your name has become toxic.

It seems that brilliant powerful women cannot be tolerated in this country. If you were morphed into your male alter ego, HE would go down as one of the most brilliant strategic planners and policy makers in House history. And, without a doubt one of the biggest fund raisers.

With that said, I must acknowledge that I am 71 years old. I know that you are 77 years old. As an older person I am glad to see the new faces in the stores, in the offices, and hopefully soon in the Congress. Nancy please step aside.  When you step aside, it should not be in anger, or contention, but rather a natural changing of the guard.  Teach your successor. Nancy, pick your successor and then help them succeed, that’s what great leaders do.

Your admiring fan,

Darlene Mitchell

 

KNOW MEDICARE TERMS AND PLAYERS

Know Medicare Terms And Players

By D. S. Mitchell

The Players

The seven people below, plus lobbyists, private citizens and trade organizations are expecting a big fight over entitlement programs.  Only congress can make major changes to Medicare.  And with the GOP majority in Congress, entitlements are in real danger.

Donald Trump:

Trump campaigned he would not cut Medicare or other public health programs.  But a recent change to his website and his full support of The American Health Care Act makes those promises doubtful. The AHCA is a bill constructed and promoted by Paul Ryan. A plan Ryan and Trump claim will “modernize” Medicare. The Trump website suggests the changes are to deal with “challenges” created by the retirement of the baby boom generation.  Trump will be under pressure from congressional Republicans to back major changes to Medicare. Trump is currently, supporting massive cuts to Medicaid.

Mitch McConnell:

Senate Majority Leader champions the rollback of federal support for social programs.  He has proposed significant changes to Medicare, such as raising the eligibility age. He favors slashing Medicaid across the board.

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