He Stood Up
The President of Columbia, Gustavo Petro, has confronted Trump once again and it reveals and reinforces aspects of Trump that America needs to fully understand. It also allows insight into the dynamic between Trump and his enablers, those he selected to lead his government. But more, it shows how Trump maintains his influence over devoted followers as he maintains a very different lifestyle than the economic reality of those who vote for him.
President Petro has openly clashed with Trump since his return to office in January, 2025. Angry at the degrading, forced repatriation of his citizens in handcuffs aboard military aircraft, Petro spoke out. "We are the opposite of the Nazis," Petro wrote referring to the raids and detainment of Hispanic persons by ICE. This resulted in more of Trump's temper tantrum tariff threats. It took a while to smooth things over, combined with an outcry about the potential rise in coffee prices to American consumers.
Then in September at the UN General Assembly, President Petro called for American troops to defy Trump's orders, referencing the occupation of several American cities on trumped up issues. Petro's US Visa was subsequently revoked and the Colombian President can no longer travel to the US even on UN business.
Over the weekend, President Petro returned for round three against Trump. Drawing attention to Trump's illegal war in the Caribbean which has sunk boats and killed civilians from several countries, Petro spoke out against the murder of a Columbian fisherman by the US military. Once again, Trump rankled at the criticism and has threatened to cut off aid to Columbia and impose higher tariffs.
Like the other people recently attacked at sea, this fisherman was not arrested, was not presented with charges, and not allowed a defense. This lack of due process is in line with Trump's war against immigrants in the US where people have been detained and deported with no protections under the law.
Immigrants have been torn away from their families while going through the legal process of obtaining citizenship while attending immigration hearings. The arrests did not come after the judge had made a ruling against their application. Rather, the people were grabbed after the hearing had concluded and the check in was complete or the process was held over for an additional hearing, or the applicant had their stay in the US extended.
But the actions of Colombian President Petro have been taken as acts of defiance seen as challenges to the cult of personality that is Trump. At one point in my childhood, I was subjected to living under the thumb of a man who was a disciplinarian, whose authority was not to be challenged. My stepfather used his fists and once broke the arm of a rocking chair when he swung wildly at me. I had "mouthed off" at him. I have no memory of what it was about but I remember that broken arm.
Trump has been referred to as a father figure. Tucker Carlson's October 2024 speech had the crowd cheering, "Daddy's Home" and "Daddy Don." Trump's position is like that of a patriarch whose word can not be questioned. In a similar manner, Trump's rhetoric has been compared to a mob Don on numerous occasions.
When President Petro has confronted, challenged, and criticized Trump, he is met with the wrath of Trump, the father figure who should never be questioned. And Trump responds by threatening his allowance, the keys to the car, and time out in the form of aid cessation, Visa revocation, and additional tariffs.
The view of Trump as the patriarch had been utilized to shape the Trump cabinet and his political lackeys and bootlicks. But it has also served to create a stranglehold on the poor, the right wing evangelical believers, the Trump base.
Trump's cabinet is comprised of millionaires and billionaires willing to uphold the party line as Trump dictates. Their money seemingly puts them in a position of freedom which civil servants, the everyday poor, and middle class citizens can not afford. Yet, they bend the knee hoping for tax cuts and government contracts to enrich their coffers with filthy lucre.
Outside the cabinet, we have people like Miller whose creepy appearance and shrill voice has reduced his influence as a propagandist like Goebbels. Instead, Stephen Miller has positioned himself as a Reinhard Heydrich, a principal architect of The Final Solution. His calls for daily quotas of immigrants to be rounded up are well documented. His support of mass internment and forced deportation have been enacted. He is power hungry, and like Heydrich, a man with an iron heart.
Sec Def Pigsdeath craves attention and power from his makeup table at the Pentagon. Others like Russell Vought and House Speaker Mike Johnson seek a theocracy and implementation of Project 2025. Republican senators and House Reps have yielded the power of the purse and refuse to use their Second Branch of government to rein in the diktats of a would-be king. These are the people seeking a place at the table and a place in the will.
But it is the commoner whose vote or apathy allow these people and patriarch Daddy Don, Don the Con, to keep power. The evangelicals bow their knee in prayer and subjugation to the one they see as chosen by God. Who are they to question the will of God? They have been taught to respect their elders, obey their parents at the cost of their own lives, and accept the words of authority without question.
But the stranglehold over the poor is the part which is the most sinister. Appealing to their discontent and inability to rise in the world, to obtain the American dream, Trump and the Republican party have shaped the narrative in such a way that a billionaire con man can bilk these people out of their money, their allegiance, and the most valuable thing, their vote.
Voting against their own personal interests in a phrase often bandied about. But what about the appeal to their lesser nature? Tossing out their better angels, the Republican party has chosen to scapegoat others. The party is now associated with cruelty and intolerance, racism and misogyny.
For Democrats, the embrace of hate is a deal breaker for its voters. Among the Republicans it has become part of the package, with Trump on stage telling the generations who follow that racism, cruelty, hate, violence, and a lack of compassion is acceptable. As a result we end up with actual Nazis in their leadership ranks of Young Republican groups and the leadership does not care.
The loyalty within the Trump base continues as Trump openly enriches himself. His Trump Crypto currency has grown as he has received overt bribes. He tastelessly gilds his office and plans for a ballroom worthy of Marie Antoinette. He hands Americans' wealth to Argentina as they undermine our soy farmers by selling Argentinian soy beans to China.
Meanwhile Trump supporters are sharing complaints online about rising utilities due to AI expansion. Farmers are selling family farms and worrying about tariffs. The American dream of owning a home is no longer possible. Rent increases are forcing a subculture of urban car living and van life to arise. Homeless camps are booming. Grocery prices are rising so much that recipes for Struggle Meals are inundating the internet and Hamburger Helper, a 1970s staple, is having a comeback.
But the poor keep getting poorer and their obsession with deifying Trump only grows. His words can not be questioned even when they directly defy his earlier statements. His speeches are not to be parsed even when they are a word salad, indicative of mental decline and an inability to grasp what is actually happening. To question Big Daddy, to defy him, to challenge him, is not allowed in the mindset inculcated by tradition and reinforced through religion and political party.
This brings us back to Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his actions over the past ten months. He has defied Trump. He has challenged Trump. He has called out Trump's own failings from cruel and inhumane treatment of the vulnerable, to sending troops to American cities, and for defying one of the most important precepts of the US Constitution and international law, the right to due process.
President Petro has done what those within the administration and the US government have failed to effectively do: challenge Trump on his level. When the Legislative branch of the United States, a segment with co equal powers as enshrined by the US Constitution, fails to challenge the Executive branch, it has ceded its position as an equal counterbalance and check on the Presidency.
When the National Governors Association divides itself along Party lines, when they refuse to act as one to reject Trump's use of the National Guard in American cities for political jockeying and not legitimate purposes, the Association has failed in its Constitutionally permitted position to assert the rights enumerated to them.
When SCOTUS allows itself to be swayed by personal religion and political alliances, it has bowed its knee to a king, a king of its own making by a SCOTUS decision.
When a political party allows itself to be taken over and consumed by a man set on undermining the US government by acts of sedition, by dismantling and defunding Congressionally established departments, by removing and undercutting the Power of the Purse, and other actions in direct violation of the US Constitution, then that party has failed in its civic duty and its moral obligations.
These legislators, these governors, these judges, the Republican party, all have failed to uphold their Oath of Office as politicians, as civil servants, and for military members the Oath of Enlistment, all which pledge to uphold the US Constitution. It appears the Republicans and Trumpists have taken a loyalty oath to a leader instead of the republic itself.
Columbian President Petro has repeatedly done what our own politicians have failed to do. He has stood up to an autocrat, a would be dictator, and man desirous of kingly surroundings and power. President Petro has stood up to a bully and petty tyrant. He has dared to stand up against a man too senile and mentally unstable to lead, corruptly enriching himself and his cronies, and denying unalienable rights to citizens and non citizens. President Petro has challenged our King George III.
-B A Ash
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From The US Declaration of Independence:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
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As I stayed in this weekend due to illness, I tuned in occasionally to check on the No Kings Protests around the nation and the world. I was pleased to see millions of people out marching for America, for the US Constitution, for democracy, for their fellow humans, and against the rising tide of Fascism.
My favorite protest sign was simple. Trump's face on one side with the word Cunt. The second side had Stephen Miller's picture and it said Runt. So many other signs pointed out the numerous grievances against the temper tantrum tyrant. It felt as if one could glean enough to write another Declaration of Independence.
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From The Atlantic:
“Instead of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, we now have the Conservative Political Action Conference, a kind of movable rent-a-troll event. Identikit nationalists anywhere — Hungary, Poland, Britain, Mexico, Brazil — can pay the CPAC team to come to their country and produce a MAGA show."
“The originalist fallacy that dominates the current Supreme Court — the pretense that it is possible to read the minds of the founders and discern what they ‘really’ meant — in fact turns the founders into ventriloquists’ dummies. We express our own prejudices by moving their lips.”
