Merch for Sale in the West Wing

A small study off the Oval Office in the White House was once used by Presidents as an actual study.  President Reagan was pictured working on his 1985 inaugural address there.  George Bush directed the invasion of Panama from there.  The study has now been reconfigured.

You can buy tumblers, water bottles, towels, and a gold tray, all with Trump’s name on them.  You can also buy hats that say “Trump 2028” and “4 More Years.”

And that’s not all!  

We have mugs with the presidential seal, books about Trump, a keepsake gold “presidential bill,” and matchbooks with the president’s signature.  You can even buy Trump fragrances.  

You might want to forego that last item. 

See Doug Mills and Ashley Wu, “West Wing Witness to History Now Has Whiff of a Gift Shop,”  New York Times, (Nov. 21, 2025), p. A14.   

Protests in Charlotte

My friend Bill sent me a photo of students protesting ICE raids in Charlotte.  Those ICE guys are so cute.  They called their raids “Charlotte’s Web.”  

The important point here is that an estimated 30,000 people, most of them students from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system (along with many of their parents) filled athletic fields and public areas with signs denouncing ICE raids and activities.  The resistance grows.

85% of wetlands

That is the amount of wetlands that will be stripped of protection once the new Trump EPA policies take effect.

I do not remember any of the MAGA people at Trump rallies last fall complaining about wetlands protection.  I know that some developers think the rules on what constitutes a wetland are too extensive, but most developers have learned to live with the rules.  I don’t see a mass movement of thousands of people pushing for withdrawing protection for wetlands.

So why now?  Why this?

Unfortunately, even if a president with some sense of the importance of wetlands to the climate, to aquifers, to endangered species, to the health of the nation is elected in 2028, it will be too late for the wetlands that have been drained, degraded, or starved of their water supply.

I don’t get this.  It is the mentality of a small boy throwing rocks at a bird’s nest.

Information for this post is from Maxine Joselow, “E.P.A. Rule Would Strip Protections for Wetlands,” New York Times, (Nov. 18., 2025), p. A15.

83rd birthday

Yeah, I’m old.  I have two thoughts about it.  Our daughter sent me a card that shows a guy standing on his hands with two guys holding him up.  The caption is:  “Don’t worry about getting older.  You’re still going to do dumb stuff, only slower.”  She knows me well.

My second thought is about something Studs Terkel said when somebody asked him who would want to live to be 80.  Terkel replied, “Everybody I know who is 79.”

At least one student in the class was uncomfortable...

Jessica Adams, a professor at Indiana University, showed a graphic that labeled the slogan “Make America Great Again” as covert racism.  A student in the class then wrote to U.S. Senator Jim Banks, a MAGA supporter, to tell the Senator that Professor Adams made him “uncomfortable.”  

Sen. Banks then complained to the college administration, which then removed Adams from teaching the course.

Really.  Uncomfortable?  Remember when “trigger warnings” and “snowflakes” were a thing?  Evidently those terms can now describe Trump-supporting college students.  Poor babies.

And what is wrong with Senator Banks?  And what is wrong with the Indiana University administrators?  How did we get here?

Info for this post is from Stephanie Saul, “Professor Barred From Teaching a Class,” New York Times (10 Nov. 2025), p. 19. 

In the dark

 Evidently the high winds knocked down some wires, and we had no electricity for about two hours.  No computer, no heat, no water pump, no heat pump, no Eagles game, no email, no refrigerator or freezer. 

We have some emergency lights, but all they do is make you realize how much you miss the electric lights.  

I was about to go to bed when the power was restored about 8:45.  It would be interesting if a giant solar storm knocked out the grid.  I wonder how long it would take to descend into total chaos.  I’m guessing about 24 hours.

Teaching American government today

I taught a variety of classes at San José State–Introduction to American Government, Parties and Elections, Public Opinion, U.S. Environmental Policy, Controversial Legal Issues, Political Philosophy, American Studies, even a course in Political Film.  My favorite course was the Intro to American Government.  Most of the students were not political science majors, and I believed it was so important to give them a good grounding in both the Constitutional order and the need for responsible citizenship.

I would not enjoy teaching today.  Laws and policies that I thought were enshrined and accepted are going by the boards.  I don’t know how you’d begin to discuss what Trump is doing.

For example, Congress has the “power of the purse.”  Of the three branches, Congress is mentioned first in the Constitution, and its powers and responsibilities are spelled out in detail.  The President is not allowed to allocate funds.  The President has no “item veto.”  He cannot decide to not spend money that Congress has allocated.  Nor can he spend money that Congress has not allocated.  He can’t launch attacks on foreign citizens.  He must faithfully execute the laws.

And yet Trump has spent money never allocated by Congress.  He has refused to spend money that Congress has allocated.  He has killed foreign nationals with no declaration of war and bragged about it.  He has ignored rights spelled out in the Bill of Rights.  I could go on, but every reader of this blog knows that the America Constitution is no longer revered by the Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, nor the members of the Cabinet and heads of Executive agencies.  

How do political science professors even begin to deal with that?