February 6, 2026

I'm going to talk about Trump's racism, but I'm not distracted from anything.

...Trump's latest vile attacks on the Obamas are indeed an attempted distraction from something or the other he's desperate for the American people to not dwell on.

But it's also another reinforcement of white, republican political leaders' deliberate retreat from the promises of the civil rights era; not as some leveling of the playing field as many of them like to couch their demagoguery and sophistry; but as a pronounced diminution of the value and contributions of black people in this country, and even an elevation of actual traitors to this nation who were invested in slavery and genocide.

There has never been a full realization of the promises behind the 14th Amendment which intended to grant citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., including formerly enslaved individuals, and ensure equal protection under the law. Or the 15th Amendment, prohibiting the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Instead, there's been a wanton clawing back of those federal protections in successive republican presidencies since the Reagan era, aided vigorously by like-minded republicans in Congress and on the Supreme Court.

Thing is, Americans already witnessed to the injustice and abuses of the past voted these republicans into office. It's not as if aliens landed from another planet and brain-boxed these people. Sure, republican politicians have honed their political appeal to the lowest denominator and have either discovered, or advantaged a well of racism in America that never went away.

We saw this during the Obama presidency with the 'backlash,' as many journos described it, against the notion of a black man and his supporters making rules and norms for a white majority, of which, many were assuming their race's (or religion's) eternal dominance over the rest of the country.

So much noise was made about affirmative action, as if blacks in America had achieved more than a tenuous parity with their white counterparts which was balanced on a disingenuous promise of equality that never occurred to millions of white in the country, and was never actually accepted by the multitudes who were made to grudgingly relinquish their spaces to people they'd been conditioned to believe were beneath them; made to be subservient in ways they'd never before even contemplated.

I remember well, my first opportunity to rise to the level of management in the retail store where I worked as a young man, and being told that I would be transferred to D.C. in a predominately black neighborhood, and asking (and getting such defensiveness) why the company seemed to be unable to keep black managers in the suburbs.

I explained to him that I grew up in this community, and in fact, had attended the high school directly in back of the store. After a few hours I was called back into the office and informed that my retail management training would begin in that very suburban country, not the suggested deporting to someone else's hometown; but not without a lecture from him about how 'offended' he was by my complaint.

I told him that, 'I appreciated his offense,' and I don't know how that went over with him, but that one act of defiance propelled me into several decades of upwardly mobile successes in that industry into retirement.

We got to a certain point in repairing the damage done in this country, with successive presidents honoring and assisting the advancement of black people through a society still inclined to discrimination as opportunism against people who can't remove the color of their skin to accommodate or negate their bias against them; and someone decided it was fine and dandy to appeal to those antipathies as a way to political power.

That's the essence of the republican party today, with their appeals to the worst of the worst, parading out the same tired, corrosive racism that their great-grandfathers once used to subjugate an entire race of people to their will.

But while this nation may well still have a well-spring of insecure losers who think blaming people of color for their own lameness makes them lions and kings; if you look around, these fools are surrounded. THAT'S why they're squealing and slopping about like stuck pigs.

They're sensing the end of their delusional political front they erected to avoid measuring their weakness and cowardly lameness against the people they've been telling themselves are 'DEI' and inferior to their sorry selves. it's been really something to see what the republican party has become as they parade around in what they believe are their best suits, and shit all over themselves as we watch.

Dominance and superiority over others is something these people exercise, not something they inherently possess. As one of my writing influences, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote so eloquently at beginning of the last century in his book, 'Souls of Black Folk' :

February 4, 2026

They almost had me believing in my freedom

They almost had me believing in my freedom
But I've always been a fugitive in this country
Marked by skin dark enough to be perversely
Advantageous to those who measure worth
By declaring their own whiteness as virtue
And my brownness as an existential threat.

Racism wasn't chic in the days of my youth;
Not like it was in this country's not so distant past
Where slurs, slights, and outright discrimination
Flourished under the umbrella of segregated Jim Crow.
But it is still being used by some over the years since
To control levels of access and acceptability of non-whites
In a white-dominated political system.

What becomes of a quest for national unity when
Our contributions in developing and reforming this nation
Are not acknowledged or reciprocated? Can we really put Aside our identifications with unique heritages and regard Ourselves as 'homogenized,' even as our needs are ignored
As the advancement of a person of color to the highest
Office in the land is openly disparaged by open racism?

My own first understandings of my place in this country
Came in the form of homilies seeking to assuage the scars
From generations of government enabled repression against
People who looked like me; perpetrated by people looking
Similar to the ones who had perpetuated the discrimination
Through countless generations of false superiority over others
They expected to labor like servants, without recompense.

Homilies about the 'content of my character' more important
Than the 'color of my skin,' delivered in the same breath as
Slanderous and hateful characterizations of my skin color
As a weapon intended to harm my oppressors as they worried
They might be subjected to the same dominating abuses at
The hands of the very human beings they had oppressed.

Those homilies were ingrained in me on the very same streets
Where Brett Kavanaugh grew up; the very same community
Where the Supreme Court justice partied until he was blackout drunk and raped a woman as he held her down.
The very same justice who decided to let Trump's Gestapo
Racially profile and abduct people based on their 'ethnicity,'
Surmising that the abomination of humanity would be 'brief.'

How would they identify a Somalian by just looking at them,
Other than by assuming their brown skin is determinative
of some transgression or criminality deserving of abuse?
How will they determine whether someone is a Haitian as
They accost them on the street and hustle them into their Unmarked vehicles like I can imagine the Klan did when
Racism was considered to be a performing a public service?

How does a nation of imperious leaders get the point where They arbitrarily rule that undocumented immigrants are a Drag on American society to the point where they allow the Ethnic cleansing of people who contributed approximately $96.7 Billion in taxes to the U.S. economy in 2022, claiming Their mere undocumented presence in this country is a threat To citizens who benefit from their labor and contribution?

Who are we, people of color? We Black, we Brown?
We the Egyptians. We the Portuguese. We the Sudanese; the Nubian; the Ashanti; the Mossi. We Arabs; we Spanish; wWe Indians; we Europeans; we Maya; we Aztec; we Olmec;
We the Moslem; we Muslim; we Nordic; we the Jastorf;
We Christian; we Buddhist; we the agnostic and the atheist.

We are all driven to roil tradition and unite, to prevent us
From isolating ourselves and our country into obscurity.
History in this country is rooted in slavery and oppression,
But in the search for the roots we sometimes find that the More we draw closer to our black identity, the more we seem To distance ourselves from broader America which insists our Community must necessarily be at odds with white Americans; unlearned from our tragic, repressive beginnings.

Their fear of me has turned them into predators; while my fear Of their predation has made me a fugitive from a society Where I am to be targeted and hunted down like a dangerous Animal by government forces, which, actually represent the Most pernicious threat we all face right now; not the brown Skin; accents; or any other characteristic which my former Neighbor has allowed his nation's agents to regard as threats.

Fear of this oppressive government has also rendered me a Recluse, not willing to subject myself to encounters which I
Will never comply with; not under any circumstances, as I
Try to hold onto those notions of freedom that have been Repeatedly made false by those who would deny me my Rights, and by a government that encourages that tyranny
against me, my family, and against my fellow man.

I no longer believe in homilies about my place in the U.S. Because I'm still a fugitive by virtue of my brown skin; a
Fugitive in the eyes of a roving gang of government
Thugs armed and armored to 'briefly' deny me my
Rights of citizenship; all to effectuate a partisan government Program unsupported by the vast majority of Americans.
America regarded me as less than a citizen when I was born, And my dark skin has betrayed me to this tyranny ever since.

They almost had me believing in my freedom... almost.


-Ron

February 3, 2026

Whatever Trump is doing with the Ga. ballots, he's befouled them, rendering them useless in any court action

"These are the original voting records, original absentee ballots," Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington, a Democrat, told ABC News regarding the materials seized by the FBI. "Once that stuff leaves our custody, where is the chain of custody? How can we know if we're going to get everything back? How can we know if they might do something mischievous?"

In addition to the spoiling of any evidence of anything regarding the ballots, there's the open interference by the president in whatever the Trump-enabling plaintiffs who got a court order to halt the routine destruction of old ballots and store them intended to prove, ostensibly on his behalf; on behalf of the perp who was indicted in that very county for trying to get state officials to change the outcome of the vote; a case in which several of his co-defendants, including Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Scott Hall, pleaded guilty and agreed in those pleas to provide evidence against the remaining defendants.

This may well be a dry run for the midterms, seizing ballots and waiting to see if anyone stops them. That's likely even if other things are true, as well, such as a continuation of Trump's obsessively demonstrated desire to obscure the treason he committed in Georgia and elsewhere.

That conflict of interest, and Tulsi Gabbard's presence at the snatch and grab with and her reported contact with Donald Trump as it was happening, or happened, puts the former defendant nearly at the scene of the crime removing evidence instrumental in contradicting his claims about winning the Ga. presidential contest; namely the actual results.

Trump's open collusion with Tulsi Gabbard in getting his hands on the ballots is an obvious extension of his original crime; charges which were opportunistically dropped against the remaining defendants, despite guilty pleas which included promises of incriminating testimony against the others.

I see that Georgia is now suing to get them back, and they need to because they contain sensitive voter information. In effect, they're now worthless to any criminal investigation, other than this conspiracy of Trump, his DOJ, and Gabbard to break the chain of custody and effectively tamper with voter ballots.

In fact, the order should go out from the courts to destroy them as they were originally scheduled to according to Georgia law; but for their emerging value in this new case of ballot tampering with the very same election results; by the very same defendant state prosecutors just let off the hook for previous attempts to tamper with them.

February 3, 2026

Constitution says states run their elections, not the federal govt. Trump's call to nationalize them is illegal

U.S. Constitution grants states the authority to conduct federal elections, subject to laws passed by Congress.

Trump's suggestion to nationalize elections is a direct violation of this constitutional principle. The Constitution's Elections Clause states that "the Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."

This means that local officials across thousands of jurisdictions administer elections and tabulate votes, with safeguards built in that make it "almost impossible for systems to be breached on a scale to affect federal or state results."

Trump's open call for republicans to 'nationalize elections' is an extension of his stochastic lawlessness and treason where he incited his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol and then later pardoned them.

Trump is calling for republicans to surrender their states' elections to the Trump regime; for them to place their elections under the authority of the completely politicized DOJ of a president already convicted of election fraud who was indicted for trying to steal the next one.

Clearly challenged by polls showing huge drops in support across the board for republicans, Trump is desperately trying to muscle his way into taking elections in America away from the people.

But Americans don't have to stand for this lawlessness and treason. His entreaties to republicans are to not just 'Stop the Steal,' as his supporters' prevaricating mantra pretended before they attacked the nation's capitol and savagely beat police, but to actually hijack elections from states which would potentially disadvantage him and his party.

Donald Trump has just advocated yet another illegal election action, presaging other illegal intentions of his for the upcoming midterm elections. In a normal world, when an already convicted felon, who tried to defraud an election and illegally overturn the results of another, advocates illegally interfering in yet another election, that would put such an onus of criminality on them that they would instantly lose the political support that kept them in power.

Likewise, any convicted criminal who openly advocated yet another illegality for the very same offense they're institutionally known to perpetrate would be subject to immediate inquiry by authorities, and likely arrested.

Instead, Trump's bizarre and demented demand is being related by the press as some sort of official proclamation, as if the Executive branch can just imperially assume control of state elections by fiat in an interview. But, most disturbingly, not actually portraying it as an autocratic attempted theft of our democracy, but as some kind of simple policy choice he and his republican sycophants can unilaterally decide and effect with impunity.

That's been the operating principle of this lawless presidency; to just break the law and see if anyone will hold them accountable, knowing well that present-day republicans in Congress are loath to act to uphold the Constitution and laws which limit or restrain their own party's president.

Republicans are on a crime spree of their own; a grifting and tyrannical snatch and grab by the republican majority in this period of relative unaccountability for just about everything they're engaged in which their majority controls. But, it's not going to last forever, and many of them would be well advised that they don't hold any of the immunity the maga majority on the Supreme Court granted Donald Trump.

Do republicans actually want Trump running their state elections? How does that protect or promote any but his own narrow political interest? It's not as if he's been picking winners, or even advantaging republicans in elections with his behavior in office.

But, let's say some republicans will take him up on this... they'll be instant co-conspirators in certain prosecutions in the future, with no one in sight to pardon them out of the pit of shameful treason he's led them to.

I mean, the charges are already stacking up, and the writing's on the wall for a Democratic majority determined to bring the FO to their FA.

February 1, 2026

Remnants, Remembrances, and Legacies of Black History

...a (long) focus on my Mom's family for this Black History Month (this is an older, probably familiar post, original linked at the bottom contains replies from distant relatives and revelations about my great-grandmother's marriage to her enslaver).

Good, long Sunday read.

Remnants, Remembrances, and Legacies of Black History



If you can spare it, take some time out this month to look at any of the retrospectives, remembrances, and celebrations of the lives, achievements, and contributions of African Americans throughout our nation's history that folks are offering. Their remarkable and notable stories will be revealed and told to us through the rare photos; the rare anecdotes; through the recounting of the histories of famous and important persons in our communities and in our personal lives. The memories are preserved in fragments of time and place, held in fragile care and often degraded beyond recognition; or just gone for good.

With this year's observance of Black History Month, we've taken yet another step away from the often tragic and perpetually challenging beginnings of those Americans who often found themselves at desperate odds with a society determined to relegate their livelihoods and their rights to separate and often unequal consideration -- usually for no reason other than the color of their skin or their ethnic origin.

The month provides us with a 'teachable moment,' to recall, not only the institutionalized and personalized discrimination; not just revisit the violence; not solely focus on the insults and indifference perpetrated by some against black Americans, but, to recognize the depth and breadth of the motivations and determination of a people so convinced of their rightful place in a country so bent on their oppression to continue to reach out their hands to help the larger society as they helped themselves progress.

I've been aware of the contributions of women to African American history since the occasion was called 'Negro History Week,' and I stood, terrified, before a huge assembly in our large Washington, D.C. elementary school auditorium and read the several paragraphs my father had written for me the night before (and I had partially memorized) on life of the black, contralto opera singer, Marion Anderson.

Of course, we all learned of the brave and heroic efforts of black women like Harriet Tubman and her 'Underground Railroad' shepherding fleeing slaves from capture. Sojourner Truth, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist, provides and early example of a courageous commitment to the betterment of a people and the larger community. We also learned of people like Bessie Coleman who became the first black woman to earn a pilot’s license and first American of any race or gender to earn an international license.

We can also see the contributions of those black American women gifted with artistic and musical ability to develop and fashion the texture and flavor of our culture, from the theater; to the gallery; to the runway; and beyond. We are encouraged and energized by the passion and diversity of African-American women's expression throughout our nation's history. The icons and favorites of our time join their brothers and sisters from the past in their timeless constructions and performances of their inner visions and activism. Many a song; many a performance; many an artwork; sparked or gave encouragement or comfort to changes in our nation -- provided positive reinforcement of progress; or offered stark denouncements of objectionable national behavior or attitudes. Others gave us comfort or provided introspection into the harmony or discord in our own souls and psyches.

There is yet another set of black women 'heroes' and achievers who aren't as readily or frequently recognized for their accomplishments and contributions. There are the folks who made it their mission to advance the causes of equality and integration for themselves, even as they worked to serve the needs and advancement of the public welfare of those outside of their own, mostly-segregated communities. Elected women officials are rare in our nation's early history, but there are countless examples of public and civic activists and advocates who helped form the organizations and commissions which held our nation accountable for its promises of equality and justice before the nation's voters saw fit to elect more women to our legislatures and our public offices.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to receive an M.D. degree. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College in 1864. Phillis Wheatley became the first known African-American woman to publish a book in 1773. Sarah Jane Woodson Early was the first African-American female college instructor (Wilberforce College). Mary Jane Patterson was the first African-American woman to earn a B.A (Oberlin College). Cathay Williams was the first African-American woman enlistee in the U.S. Army . . .

We see the obvious contributions and legacies of these courageous and ambitious women in almost every aspect of our modern lives. Generations of women and men draw inspiration and heed the lessons of these African-American histories in their own pursuits of achievement and greatness. We can track the attitudes of service and commitment to country and community that these black women imbued in their everyday struggles, right up to the present attitudes and efforts of their offspring and the lessons they preserved and are sharing with the young leaders of the future.

____ A journey back through my scrapbooks this week took me on a trip beyond my own mother's past; beyond her mother's -- to the amazing history of an enterprising African-American lady whose ambitions and accomplishments helped provide the impetus and underpinning for the success and progress of countless black women in America as they worked tirelessly to navigate and overcome the many obstacles placed in their path.



Annie Turnbo-Malone

At the turn of the last century, Annie Turnbo Malone, the tenth of eleven children, began working on the hair of family members after she was unable to complete high school because of an illness. Looking for another method to straighten their hair, other than the popular (but injurious) method of pressing it with an flat iron heated on the stove or the fire, Ms. Malone developed her own formula which she named 'Wonderful Hair Grower.' Along with her own brand and style of hot comb, she created an entire arsenal of products to aid in the styling of African women's hair.

In 1902, Annie Malone moved her hair care enterprise from her shack of a headquarters in Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri, in anticipation of generating business at the upcoming World's Fair. In addition to her booth, Mrs. Malone recruited assistants to sell her formula and on-the-spot hair treatment door-to-door. It was such a success that she was able to tour the South the next year and begin to build her fortune. The proceeds enabled her to open a salon in St Louis and she began to market her hair care products under the name of 'Poro.'

By 1910, she had expanded her St. Louis operation to several offices, and in 1917, she opened 'Poro College,' the first hair and cosmetology training facility for the care of African American women's hair. Poro College was a new construction which stretched a full block, and boasted an auditorium, an ice cream parlor and bakery, a theater, a rooftop garden, as well as an entire marketing, manufacturing, and distribution center for her products which provided rare and important employment for hundreds in the community.

The neighborhood surrounding the "Ville" went from 8% black to 86%. Some called it 'white flight,' but it was actually a progression of an oppressed people toward the opportunity and elevation the enterprise provided. The college was also a hub of activity for black entertainers, and several African American organizations located their headquarters in the building. By the 1920s the Poro business, reportedly, employed 175 people in St. Louis and claimed to have as many as 75,000 agents in the United States and elsewhere. Annie Turnbo was said to have amassed as much as $14 million at the height of her operation. She was a proliferate giver and hosted at least two students in each of the scarce black colleges throughout the country.

Although the school offered no formal degree, it provided the teaching and foundation for black women to start and maintain their own businesses; as well as an etiquette training center and springboard for African American women agent/recruiters who prospered by promoting the 'Poro' brand and related services around the country -- and eventually, around the globe.


"Poro" College contract
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Mostly unrecognized for years, or dismissed or ignored, is the fact of the more famous and more celebrated "Madame Walker's" advantageous beginnings as an actual student at Annie Turnbo Malone's 'Poro' beauty school.

Sarah Breedlove, also know as, 'Madam C. J. Walker,' became one of Ms. Malone's sales agents during 1903. Two years later, however, Ms. Breedlove had developed her own brand of hair care products and moved her new operation, successfully, to Denver. She expanded that operation into hundreds of salons around the country and made a famous fortune selling her hair care solutions to black women.

Another enterprising African American woman, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, also achieved her own expansive legacy of accomplishment and influence in the sunshine and light generated from Poro's beginnings and successes.

Ms. Joyner jump-started her expansive career working for Ms. Walker (Breedlove) in the 1920's, supervising several of her offices and salons. She had been enrolled in the A.B. Molar Beauty School, and in 1916 had become the first black women to graduate from there. She opened her own salon which catered to mostly white clients. She was encouraged to get more training by relatives and she chose the Walker school, which, in turn, recruited her into their business enterprise.

Frustrated that the hair treatments she was providing women seemed to fall apart the next day, Ms. Joyner later invented a contraption, similar to a German one, which would electrify the hairstyle into a hold that would last for days. She patented her invention in 1928 and called it the "Permanent Waving Machine." It's a crazy-looking contraption which hangs from above and connects a single current to several points in a hood from a tangle of wires.

Women were more than satisfied with the long-lasting effects of the treatment to overcome any fear of process. Despite the success of the invention it was considered to be developed using Madame Walker's facilities and resources, so Ms. Joyner never profited directly from Waving Machine. It soon became commonplace in many salons around the country.

“I just wanted to improve the whole process and make it better for both the beauty operator and the client, and to help Black women hold their style for longer periods of time. Who benefited from it wasn’t as important to me as the purpose for which I created it,” she had said.

Marjorie S. Joyner was promoted to manage the Madame C.J. Walker Beauty Colleges as national supervisor after Ms. Breedlove's untimely death in 1919. She oversaw more than 200 schools.

In 1945 Joyner co-founded the United Beauty School Owners and Teachers Association with Mary Bethune McLeod. They co-founded the Alpha Chi Pi Omega Sorority and Fraternity to help raise professional standards for beauticians and direct their energy and efforts for the good of the broader community. In 1973, at the age of 77, Ms. Joyner achieved her bachelor's degree in psychology from Bethune-Cookman College. In fact, one of the first and most enduring efforts of the sorority was/is to raise funds for the preservation of the Bethune College.

“Poro College is consecrated to the uplift of humanity—Race women in particular,” Annie Turnbo Malone once said of her enterprise.

"Uplift" them, it certainly did. My grandmother was among that fortunate progression of African American women who were uplifted by Annie Malone's vision and determination. My grandfather's sister was also directly uplifted by Poro College.


Poro College graduates in 1921
from the Fullwood Family Collection

My grandmother, Rochelle Knight Searcy (pictured above, at the top left), and my aunt, Mary S. Thomas, were both early Poro College graduates. Rochelle got her first diploma in 1921 and Mary received her diploma in 1922, with her baby girl in tow.

Rochelle was an African American woman with very light skin. She was the tenth of 26* children born to Jacob Knight in Molena, Ga., in 1902. Knight was said to have, literally, populated an entire town that he had built up on the 200, or so, acres of land he owned. In 1917, Mrs. Searcy graduated from the Seminar English Preparatory School of the Morris Brown University of Atlanta, Ga..


Rochelle and Henry Searcy
from the Fullwood Family Collection

In 1919, she married Mr. Henry K. Searcy (listed in certificates as a 'farmer') and they soon moved to Charleston, W.Va. -- sister Mary and her husband had already moved there from Georgia. Mr. Thomas had found work as the first Negro bricklayer called to work at the South Charleston Naval Ordinance Plant.

Charleston, in a state which was founded on its resistance to slavery and its allegiance to the Union in 1863, was adapting to the changing demographics of its refuge and opportunity for migrating blacks.

"Between 1919 and 1921 T. G. Nutter, Harry Capehart, and T. J. Coleman, three African-American legislators, were responsible for the creation of several state-funded institutions for blacks. The West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Girls in Huntington and the West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Boys in Lakin, the West Virginia Colored Deaf and Blind School at Institute, and the West Virginia Hospital for Colored Insane at Lakin were all given state funding. The institutions were to be run by African Americans. Other publicly funded institutions for African Americans included the West Virginia Home for the Aged and (Infirmed) Colored Men and Women in Huntington, the West Virginia Colored Orphans Home in Huntington, and the West Virginia Colored Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Denmar." Source: Posey, The Negro Citizen of West Virginia, 58-62; Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.

Charleston wasn't exactly a progressive town, but it was one of those regions which contained a sufficiently large black population to facilitate and require a proportionally adequate number of institutions, facilities, and amenities to satisfy the African Americans community's needs, wants, and concerns. Those would require a workforce able and adequate to the tasks, as well. The Searcys had the right mix of skills and education to make them integral to the success of their new community.


Rochelle Knight Searcy
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Records obtained from W.Va. indicate that Rochelle was pregnant at the time she attended and graduated from Poro College, but sadly, the baby (Mattie J.) was born 'Immature', at home (5 months from the time she received her 'Poro' degree) and the newborn died within hours. Mrs. Searcy successfully bore my mother, three years later. Although there was the certain stress over the shock that the infant, 'Annie Maude', was born blind, her sight was quickly and adequately restored by a new surgical procedure.

It bears reminding that, although my mother was born with skin that was indistinguishable from most white Americans (and with beautiful blond hair and hazel eyes as a compliment), she was still considered and designated on her birth record as 'Negro' and was not allowed to advantage herself of any of the non-black medical facilities.

Fortunately, Charleston was an able town. It eventually produced a man, Dr. John C. Norman (a schoolmate of my mothers' at the all-black Garnet High School), who became a surgeon key in a new procedure in which a pigs' bladder was used to draw off toxins in liver operations. They took good care of their citizens.

The town also produced a couple of African American beauty salon owners. Within the time-frame of my mother's birth, Rochelle had opened her own beauty salon -- 'Rochelle Beauty Shop' on Morris St.. Mrs. Searcy would own and operate that salon for over 37 years. She looked to be at the height of her confidence and ability in this early street scene:


Rochelle in Downtown Charleston
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Rochelle raised Annie Maude (my mother) and included her in almost every aspect of society, enrolling her in the Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls Clubs in which she became a leader. Annie Maude also became a Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church in Charleston. She became a member in the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International and a member of the Ivy Leaf Club.

Annie Maude Searcy took a decidedly more personal approach to the furtherance of the prospects of Charleston's youth; mainly in her own social and educational development.


Annie Maude Searcy
from the Fullwood Family Collection

A graduate from the the all-black Garnet High School, which closed in 1955 due to integration, Ms. Searcy went on to become a teacher, attending and obtaining degrees from West Virginia State College; Atlanta University; UDC; Catholic University; and Trinity College. At West Virginia State, she was secretary to the Dean of Women.



After graduating Garnet High School, Anne (as she later referred to herself), became a supervisor at the West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Girls in Huntington, W.Va..


Anne Searcy
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Anne was a medical secretary at Community General Hospital in Reading, Pa.. She worked for the federal government in Metuchen N.J. for 10 years. She became an elementary school teacher with the Washington, D.C. public schools for 20 years and volunteered as a substitute teacher and teacher's aide for over 20 more years at a nearby Shepherd Elementary school.

____ Sister-in-law, Mary Thomas, also opened a beauty shop in 1924. Mary had twins, a boy and girl, in Charleston, in 1919. The boy died from spinal meningitis when he was 18 months old. She maintained ownership and operation of that salon for nearly 36 years.

In addition to her course at the Poro College, Mrs. Thomas had also obtained a degree in 1909 from Fort Valley State College in Georgia. After two years, and a growing cadre of young women eager to learn the trade -- and Mary eager and Poro-qualified to teach them -- she opened what is considered to be the first beauty/culture school for black women in the state of West Virginia.


Graduates of Mary Thomas' Beauty/Culture School (Mary, at far left)
from the Fullwood Family Collection

She later said she had a love for "doing hair' and a long line of women wanting her to 'do their hair." Mary maintained the shop on Jacob St. for about 35 years and helped many, many women all along the way, reportedly, often putting in twelve-hour days.

Mrs. Thomas also traveled to as many as twenty different states during her career, attending beautician meetings and conventions. Her first visit was to New York.


(Mary Thomas, lower left - Rochelle Searcy, second up from bottom left)
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Mary later helped organize a sorority of beauticians in the Charleston area under the banner of Ms. Bethune's and Ms. Joyner's Alpha Chi Pi Omega group. Later in life, Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Bethune met and became friends.

In this article, Marjorie Stewart Joyner is seen (sitting, second from the left) in a photograph of a gathering of sorors at a Piano recital.



and here, in the original, with my grandmother, Rochelle, and Aunt Mary in attendance:


Alpha Chi Pi Omega Sorority Recital
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Here they are at another gathering; no doubt, organizing some civic mission or raising funds for some public endeavor (Rochelle, seated, on the far right - Mary, standing, second from the right) :


Alpha Chi Pi Omega Sorority Members
from the Fullwood Family Collection

After 1940, Charleston became a hub of activity in opposition to segregation of public facilities, stores, transportation, and other public accommodations. There were also intensified efforts by local residents to get businesses to hire more blacks. Although there were citizens from every corner of the community who gradually rose in support of integration and non-discrimination (in in tune with the emerging legal prohibitions on such acts) there were notable figures who stepped in front of the crowd and waged their own civil-disobedient battles in leading sit-ins and other gradually successful protests in Charleston and the surrounding areas.

"Segregation, making a person an inferior citizen, is a bad thing, an evil thing. I think the majority of white people would gladly see the end of it if it could be done in a way that would not involve them personally," said Elizabeth Harden Gilmore, a local activist and family friend, in 1960. "I think the majority would welcome, if put to a popular vote, an ordinance that would say "we will have no more of this.'"

Mrs. Gilmore, a co-founder of the first CORE chapter in West Virginia, explained: "The greater portion of our ills can be laid to the lack of employment opportunities. If we had good jobs, we could have better educations, decent homes, better medical care, all the things that money can buy to enhance a good life . . . "Yet, we're not getting those things, most of us, because of a sociological condition rather than an intrinsic failing. It isn't fair, and our young people, particularly students, are struck by the unfairness it represents," she said.

Certainly, Mary Thomas' and Rochelle Searcy's children were to be the beneficiaries of the society that these impressive women were building and molding with their steady and dignified lives and efforts.


Mary Thomas' Daughter, Helmar Washington
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Mary's daughter, who she had toted along on her many trips around the country in support of beauticians and in furtherance of her own trade, grew to become a public advocate and activist in her own right. Her efforts were waged inside of the political system after being hired by the newly emerging Social Security administration which she joined in 1955 as a field representative and continued for almost 30 years, retiring as an operations supervisor. Thomas often worked closely with Sen. Jay Rockefeller, in his younger days as a legislator.

Here she is in a newspaper clip on one of her many outreach visits, working to enroll citizens (all races) to advantage them of the newly enacted provisions of the social and retirement law:



Helmar Thomas-Washington was also involved in local politics as league secretary for the Young Negro Democratic Voters League of West Virginia, seen here with her cadre of black and white male associates and legislators:



Mary Thomas, aided by the almost constant companionship of her daughter, went on to live to be 103 years-old.



I see all of those ads for wrinkle cream," she joked, "so I'm thinking I might get me some.

"I just wish - just once - that I could see all of the people I came up with," Mary said in a 1987 interview at 102 years, I wish we could talk about old times. But, they're gone."



Rochelle Searcy went back to St. Louis in 1930 and obtained another degree from Turnbo-Malone's Poro College in 'Fancy Hairdressing.'


Poro College Degree
from the Fullwood Family Collection

Rochelle continued her education as a beautician through the 1950's, enrolling in the beauty school established by Marjorie S. Joyner and Mary Bethune, the United Beauty School Owners and Teacher's Institute. She obtained two more certificate degrees in Advanced Study in Beauty Culture, Methods of Teaching, and Hair Styling; one from New York and another from Detroit, Michigan.


from the Fullwood Family Collection


from the Fullwood Family Collection

Anne Searcy married Charles Fullwood in Reading, Pa. in 1957.



She had 2 children, a boy; Ronald, and a girl; Maria, who passed away at age 48.


from the Fullwood Family Collection

Shortly before the arrival of her son, Mrs. Fullwood was said to have expressed misgivings about her young marriage and asked her mother, Rochelle, to visit and help straighten things out. In 1961, both Aunt Mary and Rochelle boarded a plane and came to Metuchen in support of their girl. Unfortunately, Charles (Dad) sent them packing back to Charleston, almost as quickly as they had arrived. Rochelle, who had been ill for over three years, died of an infection, at age 59, shortly after her return.


Rochelle, Mary, and Anne
from the Fullwood Family Collection

From these few remnants, recollections, and images from this relatively small community in Charleston W.Va., we can see both the outline and the reality of the sustaining influence of African American women, like Annie Turnbo-Malone, 'Madame Walker', Marjorie Stewart Joyner, and the rest, whose efforts stood out and stood tall against the backdrop of our nation's divided past as they actively and aggressively sought to transform their successes into actual gains for the black women (and men) in their community and for the broader public, as well.

Look at them. Look at their faces. There's almost no trace of the struggle and of the oppression and discrimination raging around their young lives. There's little trace of any of the certain insecurity they must have felt as they pressed forward. On the contrary, there's every evidence that their own individual and collective strengths, intelligence, and abilities enabled them to achieve these remarkable accomplishments against the faltering, but omnipresent, resistance with grace and dignity.

More importantly, these few stories illustrate the profound ignorance and short-sightedness of those who sought to keep these folks down or relegate them to a sub-standard, unequal existence. The more the African American community was forced to rely on themselves, the more they prospered; not in any small part due to the myriad of dynamic women who found a way to learn, develop, build, and prosper; reaching back for every outreaching hand they could grab a hold of -- pulling them up and pushing them forward.

Down to the small kitchens in Charleston, West Virginia -- where the overpowering smell of burning hair being treated and processed with ointments, and hot combs heated on the stove fire lingers in our longing memories for that communal past -- the impact of Annie Turnbo-Malone and the other African American women who stepped out ahead of the racism and bigotry which sought to define their young lives is still being felt and reflected in almost every feminine expression of independence and responsibility in our black communities.


from the Fullwood Family Collection

For my mother, that spirit of advocacy and activism didn't stop at Charleston's border. Anne Searcy Fullwood became more involved in the associations and groups which continue to dedicate themselves to the furthering of their efforts against segregation, discrimination, and the like, into the present day.



She achieved a position on the membership committee of the Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha (her joy). Mrs. Fullwood was also a member of the NAACP and a lifetime member of the National Council of Negro Women.

In fact, after marrying and moving to Metuchen, New Jersey, Anne Fullwood joined the local Auxiliary Memorial VFRW Post and took a secretarial position at the local Raritan Arsenal.



Charles Fullwood also assumed the responsibilities of citizenship and community as he organized a civic group dedicated to the needs of the entire community, all races, which met in their home, "as a watchdog over human rights and a goad to improvement in Negro community consciousness"





Racism was on the way out of public view and on the way out of our public institutions as this young couple started their new lives. But, there were still remnants of discrimination persisting which echoed the past struggles in Charleston; much like the strikes white students held in the town in an attempt to resist integration of blacks into the public schools.



The above article appeared in a local paper in 1962, along with a front-page explanation of the article by the editors of the paper apologizing to readers for being compelled enough by the seriousness of the conflict described to bother to run such story. A local aid squad had rejected the membership of an African American couple with longstanding ties to the community, based solely on their race. Eventually, under public pressure, the offending members on the board resigned and those remaining relented on the memberships and allowed the black couple to serve.

Mom saw the article and responded (much like her son does today) with a sarcastic and scalding letter to the editor; calling the report 'exasperating.'



"How brainy can this borough be?" she wrote. "A new family establishes residency in a new area; for two years a happy Metuchen family, thinking of a way they might make a worthy contribution to the community; and, one day the thought is real -- the Metuchen Aid Squad -- and another day the idea is ended-gone, without brainy reason or fact why the application was returned."

"Congratulations to the members of the squad who were working whole-heartedly, for the purposes of the squad, rather than the 'Color of the Squad'.

How positively 'brainy'. How positively inspiring.


from the Fullwood Family Collection


original post: https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1187585

(excerpts replies)

bjknight (7 posts)
Great grand mother sister

I too am related thru my grandmother. Sisters, ROCHELLE AND ESTELLE. 2 of 26 kids and different mothers. Estelle my great grandmother was born in 1878 , went to school in the area and taught at Knight s academy in 1899.

This beginning for us started in Harris /Pike county Georgia. it has been wonderful reading your info and I still looking for more family info. our history is also like the Kennedies , the black Kennedies that is. John knight, a lawyer justice of peace and plantation owner/farmer. He had a son John Knight who had Jacob. Apparently Jacob was fond of family. He had 3 wives and 26 kids. He like his father was a great farmer back in the day and had great respect from everyone as he was one of the richest men in the area. So our beginning started off as grandchildren of a white man. My grandmother had violet eyes very light of could pass for white. She almost look like your mother, We have a picture of Stella as she was called.

Jacob Knight died in Molena, Ga in 1934 and is buried in Mt Olive. Based on family, Hattie and Delphia , negro wives to Jacob were sisters. Delphia died shortly after giving birth. She birthed Ulyses , Eratus ,Electra, General Sheridan and Rochelle. She was born in 1867 and died in 1897.Shortly thereafter he married Hattie who was born in 1877 and died in 1927. She was as old as some of Jacob s children. We have been unable to secure a picture of Delphia or Annie the first wife or Stella's mother. It is said that there were 26 kids or my great grandma Stella. Annie had 2, Delphia had 5 AND Hattie had 19 . I t looks as though there was a another Rochelle but she didn't make it , most likely died as a baby and another named Cora who was born in 1900. Looking forward to getting more insight from you and other family Fullwoods members too. I need to get your perspectives about my blogs and pictures of Rochelle when was young with her parents and Rochelle s brothers and sisters, Even picture of Jacob. Some say Delphia was named after the city of Philadelphia. Don't know. A s this family could have been a football baseball and basketball team. Could you image famous sports figures in the Knight family back in the 1800s. I will do my best to transmit and sometimes may require the aid of daughter, Jataun. Looking forward to hearing from the family. We have so many gaps of history and hopefully we can piece our history together.

Just realized that Stella was first one at top of the family and Rochelle is one at the other end as being new baby in 1897. Delphia died around that time and a new wife needed to care for kids and new baby. The things you learn while researching family.

John 1 Knight and wife were born in Maryland according to the 1880 census in Pike county, when asked where the parents were born.

John 2 Knight was born in Pike county. H e was a lawyer, plantation owner/ farmer and military man. With the civil war approaching, John 2 relisted with his commission of major in the confederate army in March 1862. John 2 believed in the southern man's right of ideology and right to defend slavery. He served in the war and was injured and retired and was enlisted in the Regiment U S Veteran Corp in 1864. a unit reserved for the injured and incapacitated , that is where soldiers went for light duty if physically possible after the war.

Based on American history, southern lands were given to the former slaves but was short lived and the land was returned back to the original white owners. Based on family lore no Knight land was given nor taken as John 2 had a slave wife or mulatto woman at home with a son named Jake who was born in 1850 and other kids , Alice and Elle . Farming continued. No outsiders touched this family. No one encroached upon Knight land or they would have to answer to John 2. It looks like God was on their side in my opinion with no lives loss because of the civil war in the Knight family.

After the war John 2 returned home with a war injury and lived on his farm with his wife Violet, kids Elle and Alice per the 1880 U S census. Jacob was 30 years of age living in his own home and his 13/15 year old sisters at home with parent(s) in 1880.

When looking at census , did notice something unique in 1880, Violet a mulatto married with no mention of husband. A couple of doors down John 2 married , white with no mention of wife, Violet. But the family and I supposed friends and neighbors knew and was an inside secret that the government or enumerator didn't know.

Mocaloco (1 post)
Hello Bigtree and others! I have enjoyed reading your post and I do have answers to a lot of your questions

I was born in Molena, Pike Co. Ga. on Jan. 19th 1941 and lived there until 1966 when I moved to Atlanta (Conyers) Ga. I went back for frequent visits until my mother died and I still go but not very often. I knew the Knight family and they were well thought of in the community. The ones I knew best were Ulyses, pronounced U-lus, Duke, pronounced Dook, Theodore, Called T.R. and Electra.

Ulus was a tall, thin medium complected man who lived in the family home on Hwy 18 two miles south of Molena. He was an extremely good natured man, always smiling, laughing and joking. Duke was same disposition as Ulus but much lighter skin, also tall and thin and beautiful smile. T.R went into the Army, dont know if drafted or volunteered, believe he was a Military Police, when he came home he rode a motorcycle a lot. Electra was also tall, thin and
light complected. Educated, she taught school in the White Plains Church just south of Molena off Hwy 18.

During the 50's when Buick came out with the Electra series she bought the first on I ever say. I also knew the Searcys and everyone else in Molena at that time but I wont take the time or space to try to write everything now, just wanted to make contact.

The property you referred to was south of Molena, there is a dirt road that runs directly in front of the house. From that road the property line follows Hwy 18 toward Woodbury and goes to the Flint River, approx one mile frontage on Hwy 18 and goes back to the right of way of the Southern Railway.

read original post: https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1187585

January 30, 2026

If the RW says Don Lemon wasn't acting as a journalist because he has a bias

...that negates the legitimacy of each and every one of their so-called journalists who are nothing but boot-licking advocacy for republicans and Trump.

Like maga youtuber Nick Shirley who has described himself as an independent journalist, and trespassed into nine daycare centers, accompanied by a Minneapolis citizen who had reportedly collaborated with sources within the Minnesota state Capitol to allege fraud that was never substantiated.

Don Lemon was at the church protest that he was just arrested for attending in the same journalistic role he's assumed for decades.

Maga's now cheering on their own DOJ effectively deligimizing all of their self-apponted internet podcasters and influencers who claim to be reporters.

January 29, 2026

I'm sympathetic with folks compelled to directly confront ICE agents, but it's foolish

...I don't think it's the right tactic, and it puts these people protesting, mostly young folks driven to defend their communities, neighbors, and residents under often brutal assault by armed and armored government agents., unnecessarily at risk of their very lives and the people around them.

But I completely understand what compels them to get in the faces of the thugs, especially when they line up against people peacefully protesting like they're a military battalion at war; basically at war against these U.S. communities.

I still bear the impressions of an egg-shaped knot on my head from a protest in '78 where a large cop on a small moped scooted up to me in a crosswalk as I was screaming "fuck you' repeatedly at them and cracked me in the skull with his billy club.

I ran to a trash can, barely able to see through the blood and stars to look for a bottle to throw, and found another protestor doing the same. I found mine, a Miller bottle, and I ran up an embankment to throw it, but I was hit by a cloud of tear gas and fell backward, and then scrambled to my feet and started running for the Ellipse, stumbling across the road screaming, "Look what those motherfuckers did to me!" to the cars in the resulting traffic jam.

I finally caught up with the organizer of the march and rally (it was a smoke-in and we were marching from the front of the WH where we had rallied with Wavy Gravy himself throwing out pin-sized joints from a pillowcase he was carrying like a Santa sack, and the cops had lined up in a line in front of the WH on horseback. We were going to see Root Boy Slim perform at the Lincoln Memorial grounds, who's hits at the time were, 'Boogie Till You Puke' and 'I Lost My Mood Ring.'

"Look what the pigs did to me!" I exclaimed to him through my blood and tears.

"That's too bad, man," was the solitary, mellow reply from the Norml president.

Look folks, I don't want ANY American to get too close or in the way of these murderous ICE bastards. They drag you back to their lair and have been shipping protestors they grab out of state and dumping them there without a way home after detaining them in their hell hole.

I don't actually agree with the tactic of direct confrontation - could be because I'm 65 now - but I am sympathetic to the folks who are compelled to that self-sacrificing act.

However, the jackboots are mostly safe and sound in their armor, with their weapons and beating sticks. You're no match for them.

Stay the fuck back, out of their reach.

And for fucks sakes, I'm not talking about not recording them or helping people who are attacked by them. Don't twist my concern into excusing any of the tactics of ICE or condemning or dissuading protest.

I just don't think getting too close to these thugs is a good idea. I think it's too big a risk. There are very little ways to hold them accountable right now for attacking you, and you can get seriously hurt. Don't twist this into something else, because I have just as much emotion as anyone about what's happening, and my ONLY concern here is the safety of people confronting these thugs.

January 27, 2026

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely welcome the epiphanies

...from white republicans who seem to have just now caught onto the fact that their government is terrorizing and killing people in this country, including citizens, in the wake of two people who aren't immigrants of brown-skinned slaughtered by federal agents.

I understand that these are people who have made a generational stand against immigrants and others who don't look like them have long felt comfortable in their apparent belief that their anti-immigration politics; as well as their anti-American ignorance about decades and decades of deadly assaults by police forces against communities and individuals of color; or their party's demonizing of LGBTQ communities and individuals, even as those innocent victims became targets of the guns their party refuses to regulate.

I also get that most of them actually just want to go back to the day when they operated their racism and bigotry with more of a wink and a nod, than with the fire hoses and attack dogs their ilk used in their youth against people seeking civil rights in this country.

But you know, it's something, more than nothing. I mean, here I am looking back with some favor on the days when we were fighting and gaining ground in an era of decimation and denial. That's how far we've sunk.

I welcome their words, and suggest we now endeavor to hold them to them. That's how I remember we did it in the past, moving cautiously out of centuries of repression and building coalitions of support to keep us moving forward.

I welcome their epiphanies.

I welcome their awokenness.

January 26, 2026

Have conservatives actually been arming themselves to align with the govt. against the people?

...was their political cottage industry claiming to be arming themselves against an oppressive government just a ruse for arming themselves against people in this country they don't like?

That's the question for conservatives as the Trump administration doubles down on excusing the execution-style killing of Alex Pretti by blaming the victim for legally carrying a concealed gun.

Minneapolis police say Mr. Pretti was legally entitled to carry a gun which several sworn depositions already filed in court say he never pulled out or brandished.

Bovino and others in the administration have conjured up a threat narrative without presenting any proof that the man his agents shot, the ICU nurse, wasn't there to help people as he is seen helping a woman they pushed to the ground before they pepper sprayed them both in the face. They claim that the mere presence of his weapon on his person was proof of intent for whatever chickenshit threat to his armored and armed agents they can think up real quick.

That was what Bovino was claiming on the teevee news yesterday - that his unfounded and outrageous suggestions that Alex Pretti may have been planning to shoot law enforcement officers was evident to him because this private citizen was there with a gun.

Kyle Rittenhouse, anyone....?

Trump supporting, second amendment-touting conservatives found refuge and opportunism in yet another republican administration; right wing dupes of decades of appeals from their political leaders to hate and denigrate their brown-skinned neighbors; mostly poor whites who've been told by their leaders and their niche media that brown-skinned people are the reason they can't find work or can't get ahead; even as their own elected leaders openly rob them blind of the meager benefit they get from government as they fill their own pockets from the U.S. Treasury or use the influence of their offices to enrich themselves instead of their constituents.

Now their own elected officials have shown their true face and have leapt past their promises to unleash government power against mostly brown-skinned immigrants, and have turned those very same repressive resources against EVERYONE, not just the immigrants they acquiesced to the Trump regime's campaign of ethnic cleansing WITH THEIR VOTES.

Will they now just align their armed militancy with the government that's now indiscriminately arrayed it's repressive power against the people? Isn't that what the Trump regime's defenses about some threat from "leftist ideology" is all about, designating their made-up nemesis, "antifa" as a terrorist organization?

Will conservatives simply align themselves with this oppressive regime, convinced that they are in some protected group, and that the 'enemies of the state' as Trump has specifically labeled his Democratic opposition, along with any other opposition be fair game to them for this open warfare against Democratic-led and dominated cities and states?

Or will they recognize that Trump's violent and murderous repression is actually a blunt instrument designed to tear down all of America like he's tearing down the White House, claiming it's too late for "obstructionists" to do anything about it?

Will they realize that the Trump regime justifying the murder of Alex Pretti on the pretext that his holstered, legal gun (removed by an agent seconds before he was shot and killed) was a threat that deserved the punishment of a street-execution by federal agents - now claiming the mere presence of the holstered weapon was proof some kind of mind crime plot to kill them - is a clear and present danger to any one of them the government arbitrarily decides is a threat to the state?

Right wing Trump supporters have lowered their own guard so far that they're caught in-between holding onto their antipathies against brown-skinned people, and maintaining their support for a government they elected into power which is now openly antagonistic to their very political ideology and being.

First the convicted felon they elected said this militarization in our communities was about some threat to the nation from undocumented immigrants; now they're asserting that they're striking out at a "leftist ideology" that threatens THEM and their own politicized interests; insisting that just carrying a gun is a threat to them and the wanton warfare they've been practicing in our neighborhoods.

Which side, whose side are these second amendment-touting conservatives on?

January 26, 2026

Trump says if he simply plows ahead with an illegal project, it's a done deal

...and if we complain we're "obstructionists."

...that's not the legal expectation of Americans who go ahead and tear down or build something in violation of laws or regulations, neglecting to consult authorities who are in charge of regulating those projects.

The remedy is almost always that the offenders are ordered to take the structures down or remove the renovations which don't comply with existing codes.

The hook his lawyers are using here is that there was a perfectly good bomb shelter under the East Wing that was destroyed, and now we're supposedly obligated to build him a new one.

In court filings by the Trump administration in response to the lawsuit, Matthew Quinn, the deputy director of United States Secret Service, said that unless the remaining work is completed, the Secret Service’s ability to protect the president, first family and the White House complex would be "hampered."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/22/white-house-ballroom-construction-judge-decide/88302863007/

I mean, he tore out the defenses that were good enough for every other president; he did that to himself, to the office of the presidency, and the reckoning for that offense is to be borne by the American people, instead.

I had a similar thought when I heard his plane broke down on the way to Davos, wondering if this was going to be a ruse to claim he needed the Qatar bribe jet now.

Or, he'll break the country and claim he gets to build a new one in its place, which is what we're essentially experiencing.

In this case, the remedy that the rest of us would be subjected to is a reversal of course, to remove the illegal project and, only resume building again (if allowed to) ,thereafter, under the laws and regulations that exist.

Back Trump the hell up.

None of his supposed purchases of trinkets for his dream palace have anything to do with the direction or intention of Americans; they've been bulled through to thwart the will of the people, and to thwart the laws that are intended to regulate changes to the people's house; laws and regulations that are intended to keep megalomaniacs like him in check.