I’m trying an experiment over the coming days to make my writing a little less verbose. It’s hard for me, because I like to pour out my thoughts regardless of how long the pieces turn out to be. I am learning that while there is a time for more in-depth pieces, these should be the exception rather than the rule, and I’ll try to adhere to that moving forward.
The late great John Lewis said when speaking of the struggles of the civil rights movement to deliver social justice for people of colour:
"That is what we believed in, what we were all about — a mass movement, an irresistible movement of the masses. Not a handful of lawyers in a closed courtroom, but hundreds, thousands of everyday people—disciplined, peaceful people — taking their cause and their belief to the streets.”
He was no stranger to police violence and the scourge of white supremacy in America. It cost lives back then, and it’s costing lives today. There is a binary narrative at the beating heart of Trump’s corrupt extortionist government. He would embrace segregation in a heartbeat were it to be on the table. He has even passed laws to facilitate it since he returned to power.
In a piece from Stanford, in May 2024, Carrie Spector, notes that:
Researchers at Stanford and USC shows that racial and economic segregation among schools has grown steadily in large school districts over the past three decades — an increase that appears to be driven in part by policies favoring school choice over integration.’
As with all racist objectives from the right, they are wrapped in false, so-called good intent. In this case, school choice. Resegregation efforts are, as you would expect, mainly limited to Southern states, which the likes of the Heritage Foundation have long targeted to create and promote hard-right ideology. They have a long tradition of creating template legislation written by their lawyers for legislators to rubber-stamp in trifecta red states. This has resulted in ever more voter suppression laws and extreme pro-life legislation, which ultimately led to the overturning of Roe v Wade. The Stanford piece goes on to note:
Analyzing data from U.S. public schools going back to 1967, the researchers found that segregation between white and Black students has increased by 64 percent since 1988 in the 100 largest districts, and segregation by economic status has increased by about 50 percent since 1991.
The report also provides new evidence about the forces driving recent trends in school segregation, showing that the expansion of charter schools has played a major role.
This isn’t just about racial segregation; it’s also about economic segregation as a vehicle to achieve the former. The piece notes:
Though segregation in most school districts is much lower than it was 60 years ago, the researchers found that over the past three decades, both racial and economic segregation in large districts increased. Much of the increase in economic segregation since 1991, measured by segregation between students eligible and ineligible for free lunch, occurred in the last 15 years.
The direction of travel that the administration has further signposted is the subject of a report by Russell Contreras in Axios on May 29th 2025. In which he noted:
The Trump administration is signaling it wants to ditch federal desegregation efforts in public school systems, a move that would end much-debated, decades-old programs mainly aimed at improving education opportunities for nonwhite students.
I would highly recommend reading the full article, which provides a deeper context for what I believe to be just one of a series of steps this administration is taking to return to ‘the good ole days’ as Trump has often referred to them. A change he made in March of this year means that the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.
As noted by NPR in a report updated on 20th March, Melissa Murray, a constitutional law professor at New York University, stated:
"It's symbolic, but it's incredibly meaningful in its symbolism.” - “These provisions that required federal contractors to adhere to and comply with federal civil rights laws and to maintain integrated rather than segregated workplaces were all part of the federal government's efforts to facilitate the settlement that led to integration in the 1950s and 1960s.” - “The fact that they are now excluding those provisions from the requirements for federal contractors, I think, speaks volumes”
This is not just about schools, but about a wider, slow-burning erosion of long-fought-for human rights. Also in the crosshairs are workers’ rights. Again in March, Trump issued an executive order, Exclusions from Federal Labour-Management Relations Programs. The sole intent of this executive action is to cancel all collective bargaining agreements for most federal employees. It’s a test case intended to expand the removal of hard-fought-for workers’ rights.
Michael Sainato reported in The Guardian on August 22nd 2025, that Everett Kelley, president of the AFGE (the largest federal workers union in the US) stated:
“I think that what this administration is doing is trying us as a test bed. If they are successful, I do believe that they’ll be coming after every labour organisation in the US,” - “This is a fight for the very democracy of this country. This is a fight for every worker in America.”
“If Trump is successful in dismantling AFGE, there’s nothing to stop him from coming after every labour organisation in the country, and we believe he will.”
The administration has a deliberate agenda to roll back rights under the guise of cleverly worded, ambiguous directives that are seemingly uncontroversial on the surface, until you scratch beneath to reveal the true, malign intent. This is about removing obstacles in the pursuit of unbridled greed. Whether it’s workers’ rights, regulations to protect consumers, or a need to protect the environment and public safety, doing harm is just the price to pay for profit.
Trump is taking the US backwards at the very time when America needs to be leaning into the future with forward-thinking policies. The good ship USA is adrift in an ocean of political hatred and division, having alienated every trading partner it ever had. A storm is brewing, and the captain of the ship is unable to focus because he’s more worried about whether someone is saying mean things about him or if an official has failed a loyalty test.
History will reflect on this moment as a time when stupid became the new smart. A time when reality hit home that the depth of incompetence was so great that the only answer was to embark on a campaign of lies and deception to hide the truth from the American people. If only Trump were capable of putting as much effort into working for the many, not the few, as he does in his campaigns of lies and deceit, the world might be in a much better place.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a farmer, an auto-worker or just an average Joe looking to put food on the table; you have become one of the millions of victims of Trump’s state-sponsored robbery of your future. Mistake after mistake is being made, and he’s covering up his economic incompetence with a fantasy world. A world in which you are encouraged to believe that if you just trust an extortionist convicted felon and adjudicated rapist, you will have so much money you won’t know what to spend it on. It’s the same ‘jam tomorrow’ tale told by many a charlatan snake oil salesman before him.
In this moment of peril, you would have to have come down in the last shower of rain to believe a single word Trump or any of his acolytes say. If it comes out of their mouths, it’s invariably a lie. So I can only assume it’s rained heavily on millions of Americans whose heads were kept dry by their red hats. I would ask those people to give this some thought. As reported by CNN Business yesterday:
Moody’s Analytics data shows. As of June 30, the top 20% of earners (those who make about $264,500 a year) accounted for more than 63% of all spending, and the top 10% (those who earn more than $353,000 a year) accounted for more than 49% — both the highest on record, according to data that goes back to 1989. In 2019, during the comparable period, those shares were 59.2% and 44.6%, respectively.
If the wealthy decide to ease up on spending, the US will undoubtedly enter a recession. This consumer spending epidemic by the rich (who, by the way, were just handed millions of dollars stolen from those in the middle and the working poor) is holding the economy together by a golden thread. They have bastardised ‘trickle-down’ economics. The rich can now say they are propping up the economy as a reward for their tax cuts. How twisted is that? They have capped off any illusion of ‘trickle down’ and replaced it with ‘be nice to us or we’ll put the economy into recession’.
I know people are feeling utterly exhausted from the mental torture being imposed on them by the monster in the White House. You are not alone. Sometimes I sit down at my laptop to write, thinking, ‘What’s the point? Nothing I have to say will make a difference’ and then I read a comment like the one I received from Mark Braund yesterday after my post below.
“….You really don’t need to read anyone else on Trump and the consequences of letting him get away with it. This piece is so good I'm taking out a paid subscription now, and so should you.”
I share this not as a victory lap, nor because Mark chose to subscribe, for which I am genuinely grateful, but because we all need to be appreciated from time to time. Comments like this help fuel the next post in support of our collective mission of escaping the torture of this administration. So, take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back because we all play a part each day by ensuring that the truth, no matter its source, is spread as far and wide as possible. We do this in defiance of everything Trump and the cabal pulling his strings stand for. As John Lewis said:
"When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression, and war."
I made this short film in 2022 for the midterm elections, and it holds up as good today as it did back then. John Lewis set the gold standard; he fought the good fight for decades. He got into ‘good trouble, necessary trouble,’ that we might have the right to step up and carry the torch of freedom. It’s time to grab a tissue, watch the film, and ask yourself just this one question.
The video of John Lewis and good, necessary trouble brought me to tears! This is the period in which I grew up, where people were protesting and fighting (non-violently of course) for their rights. Having lived almost 3/4 of a century, I cannot believe we are where we are today - mainly because of disgusting humans without a shred of empathy and who actually think empathy is a bad thing.
This was an excellent article! Thank you 🙏🏽 for sharing your thoughts 💭! I am with you 💯!!