Read

Jan. 5, 2026 — Venezuela: Not Embracing the “Saving Lives” Justification, by Timothy Trainer

In this week’s blog post by IP attorney and award-winning author Timothy Trainer, he takes a look at two issues facing the US, and the world. Scroll down for more. Follow Tim on Substack.

Who accepts the stated justification for the abduction of Venezuela’s Maduro as saving U.S. lives because of Venezuela’s role in supplying drugs to the United States? We should remind ourselves that just weeks ago, Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted in a U.S. court for his involvement in drug trafficking. The drug angle is undermined by Trump’s own actions.

Additional information weakens Trump’s argument. According to our own Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.N.’s Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), most illegal fentanyl enters the country from Mexico and there’s no evidence that there are significant levels of that drug produced in South America: Get the Facts: Is Venezuela a primary drug trafficker to the United States?, KCRA3 TV.

This article notes that “Venezuela is not among the primary direct traffickers of cocaine to the U.S.” and “there is no known direct cocaine trade route from Venezuela to the U.S. via sea. The only known direct Venezuela to U.S. trafficking route is via air, according to drug seizure data from UNODC. Cocaine could still arrive from Venezuela to the U.S. through intermediary countries.”

There’s another glaring reason why one should be skeptical about the claims that this administration took this action to protect U.S. lives.

If this administration was serious about U.S. lives, it wouldn’t be ignoring decades of science and medical research when it comes to vaccination of children. On New Year’s Eve, the Washington Post reported that the country is “experiencing its highest annual measles case tally in at least 33 years:” As U.S. vaccination rates fall, see how your school compares, The Washington Post. The Post article reported that “South Carolina this month [December 2025], a measles outbreak topped 175 cases, mostly among unvaccinated individuals, with hundreds quarantined.”

The measles outbreak began in 2024 as the U.S. experienced a significant drop in childhood vaccination rates. About 93 per cent of the 2025 cases affected those who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown: US measles cases surpass 2,000 for first time in 30 years, The Times.

One has to ask the question: Do parents who have embraced the anti-vaccine (anti-science) position then turn around and take their ill children to the hospital where science/research backed treatment occurs?

Take any medicines prescribed or over the counter? Do they suddenly rely on science AFTER a child is sickened by taking advice from a doctor or giving an ill child the medicine as recommended by a physician?

One major observation of the dynamics at play is that we have an anti-science/research crowd at the top of agencies who ignore decades of proven medicine and science that leads to illness and, sometimes, death. This administration tells us how much they care about the lives of citizens while convincing tens of thousands not to do everything possible to prevent children from severe illnesses and death thereby contradicting their own stated position of wanting to save lives in this country. Apparently, the administration discounts the value of children.

My reading is that the Venezuela adventure is not about life saving because information and facts exist that contradict that justification. As it has been in the past with other U.S. administrations, it’s about oil and money plain and simple. In the aftermath of the abduction, Trump is quoted as saying, “We built Venezuela’s oil industry with American talent, drive and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us.

Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars. They took all of our property:” Trump pledges US return to Venezuela oil industry after Maduro’s capture, Fox Business. He makes clear what this military operation was all about: “We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country.”

What Trump says underscores what everything is about: MONEY. It will never be about others and saving the lives of the people of these United States. It has never been about lifesaving. If the lives of THE PEOPLE mattered to this administration, it wouldn’t be undermining policies that have kept the children of this country safe from preventable diseases for decades.

Timothy Trainer in Washington, DC • Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

About the Timothy Trainer: Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer, who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.

Tim found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2022. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff.

Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2019, Pendulum Over the Pacific, was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains.

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Click here to learn about all of Tim’s books.

Watch

Listen

Listen to the podcast on Inkandescent Radio January 2026, Ep9 Tim’s Travails: Today we invite you to listen to two attorney turned authors talk about their journeys, art and craft as Tim welcomes award-winning noir author Christopher Chambers Tim gets the down and dirty on: Why is it that when a DC resident is the victim, few seem to care, but earlier this year when someone who was part of the DOGE army was a victim, it got the attention of the White House. Similarly, the recent shooting of National Guard members caused the White House to threaten a more uniformed presence. Why such a different reaction? And so much more! Read

January 2026, Ep9 Tim’s Travails: Today we invite you to listen to two attorney turned authors talk about their journeys, art and craft as Tim welcomes award-winning noir author Christopher Chambers

January 2026 — This month on IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer’s podcast/video show we meet attorney turned award-winning noir author Christopher Chambers

Today’s Topic: Author to Author • Attorney to Attorney

Tim will talk with Chris about:

How does being a life-long Washington, D.C., resident influence your writing?
What allows you to capture the “gritty” aspects of your novels?
Washington, D.C., has historically been viewed as a high-crime city, but that crime is often concentrated in neighborhoods where the victims are nameless, faceless people. Yet, if a staffer from Capitol Hill or someone with political connections is a victim of crime, it hits the front page and national media, how do you reconcile this, or is that possible?
Why is it that when a DC resident is the victim, few seem to care, but earlier this year when someone who was part of the DOGE army was a victim, it got the attention of the White House. Similarly, the recent shooting of National Guard members caused the White House to threaten a more uniformed presence. Why such a different reaction?

Don’t miss it!

About our guest: Chris is a lecturer at Georgetown University, Chair of the International Conflict Resolution Center and is General Counsel to a not-for-profit benefitting HBCUs: Student Housing of America. He is the author of the Angela Bivens thriller series for Random House, The Rocket Crockett pulp noir series, and Black Pulp for Prose-Press, and editor, along with Gary Phillips, of The Darker Mask graphic short story collection, the Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again: Honoring Harlem’s Herb Jeffries. He was a finalist in 2008 for the PEN/Malamud Short Story Award for “Leviathan.”

He’s contributed short stories to The Obama Inheritance: 15 Stories of Conspiracy Noir (Three Rooms Press) and is the winner of the Anthony Award. The Black Panther: Tales Of Wakanda, The Faking of the President, and Midnight Hour, Witnesses for the Dead with Gar Anthony Haywood–all major award-winning collections and bestsellers. His noir hardboiled mystery Scavenger (2020) won a starred review and profile in Publishers Weekly; the sequel Standalone sees the return of the indestructible homeless addict turned PI Dickie Cornish, patrolling the unforgiving city streets ravaged by COVID, with the third in the trilogy Streetwhys in 2025. His next Marvel contribution is in Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson.

About Chris’s latest book, “Street Whys:” We again meet Washington, DC’s notorious detective, former street denizen Dickie Cornish, who faces off with bloodthirsty cops and the justice department. Underground detective Dickie Cornish faces a vindictive murder rap from his past if he doesn’t agree to help prove that the fentanyl ravaging the streets of DC is bankrolled by shadowy donors of a certain former president. Broke and desperate, Cornish soon finds himself on a collision course with shady public defenders and corrupt police officers, forcing him to use his street connections to flip their plan. Or die.

The Dickie Cornish series has met with widespread critical acclaim: Publishers Weekly dubbed the series debut, Scavenger, “[A] no-holds-barred crime novel…a 21st-century twist on traditional hardboiled noir.” The Strand Magazine selected Standalone, the second book in the series, as one of the “Top 25 Mystery Novels of the Year,” adding, “It’s apparent that the modern heir to Chandler, Woolrich, and Cain is Christopher Chambers, enough said.” And renowned crime author George Pelecanos raves that the series “really nails Washington, DC in the current environment.” Click here to buy the book.

Learn more: ChrisChambersNoir.com

Photo of Timothy Trainer by AnnaGibbs.com

About Tim’s Travails: In this podcast/video sereis, IP attorney and author Tim Trainer introduce us to experts around the country who have insight into the law, international trade, and more, to help us better understand our world in 2025 and beyond.

Tim, himself, fits the bill for he worked for three decades for the US government and private law firms focusing on international trade, and has developed a deep understanding of global economics and politics.

Writing books is his passion. The author of seven books as of 2025, he has penned several non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2020. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff. Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2017, Pendulum Over the Pacific was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains. In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection. In December 2024, he followed it with The China Factor.

Stay tuned for more episodes on InkandescentRadio.com and Inkandescent.tv, and of course, log in regularly for new blog entries and other information on Tim’s website, www.TimothyTrainer.com.

Watch

Listen

Listen to the podcast on Inkandescent Radio December 2025, Ep8 Tim’s Travails: Meet Chen Wang, CEO of Steelike, Inc., and former Deputy Executive Director for Regulatory Affairs of the American Intellectual Property Law Association This month on IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer's podcast/video show, we meet Chen Wang, the co-founder and CEO of Steelike, and former Deputy Executive Director for Regulatory Affairs of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. Read

December 2025, Ep8 Tim’s Travails: Meet Chen Wang, CEO of Steelike, Inc., and former Deputy Executive Director for Regulatory Affairs of the American Intellectual Property Law Association

December 2025 — This month on IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer’s podcast/video show, we meet Chen Wang, the co-founder and CEO of Steelike, and former Deputy Executive Director for Regulatory Affairs of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

This month’s topic: Women in Engineering

Questions for Chen:

How did you decide to enter this area? What were your interests and influences as a child? How did that impact your decision to become an engineer, and then a lawyer?
How do the areas of engineering and law complement each other?
As the CEO of Steelike, how do you see the role of AI impacting your industry? What are some of the upsides and downsides?
What do you believe is the role of personal relationships in the age of the Internet and AI? How do you see it playing out in the next 3-5 years, and beyond?

About Chen: Based in Springfield, VA, Steelike supplies a proprietary ultra-high-performance composite material, known as Steelike UHPC, for the construction, repair, preservation, and protection of infrastructure. Previously, she was Deputy Executive Director for Regulatory Affairs of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), based in Arlington, Virginia, where she served as a senior advisor to the Executive Director, and had day-to-day responsibility for AIPLA’s domestic and international intellectual property policy work and regulatory issues of concern to the Association.

She also held the position of Deputy Chief Intellectual Property Counsel and Corporate Counsel at E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. Her legal practice encompassed corporate mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing, world-wide patent procurement, freedom-to-operate analysis, counseling related to trade secret protection, IP strategy formulation and implementation as well the preparation, negotiation, implementation and interpretation of agreements with multinationals, universities, and various governmental entities.

Chen serves as an Advisor on the International Trade Advisory Committee, a unique public-private partnership jointly managed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of United States Trade Representative (USTR), engaged in formulating U.S. trade policy. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In addition, she is the Continuing Author of the Baxter, World Patent Law and Practice treatise, published by Matthew Bender & Company, a LexisNexis company.

After graduating with a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, Chen began her career as an associate at a boutique intellectual property law firm based in Chicago.

Learn more: steelike.com

Photos of Tim by AnnaGibbs.com

About Tim’s Travails: In this podcast/video series, IP attorney and author Tim Trainer introduces us to experts around the country who have insight into the law, international trade, and more, to help us better understand our world in 2025 and beyond.

Read

Dec. 22, 2025 — “U.S.: All Over the Map,” by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer

Check out this latest blog post by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer • Be sure to follow Tim on Substack

Dec. 22, 2025 — We’ve entered that time of year. Millions will sit by their televisions and other devices watching endless football games. Time will be spent with family and friends as great meals are prepared and consumed. People will unwrap gifts, and some will wonder what to do with a necktie that’ll never be knotted because of casual work settings, and sweaters never worn because they will never be cold enough to be needed.

‘Tis the season of diversion from the routine. As holiday-related travel and the holidays themselves consume our attention, Trump and his crew may do things hoping that we will take no notice.

The administration is all around the world stirring the pot in our name. In addition to killing people and taking out small boats in the Caribbean, the U.S. is seizing oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump recently announced the closure of airspace over Venezuela: Trump orders the closure of Venezuelan airspace l POLITICO.

We began Christmas week by appointing a special envoy to Greenland. This is an unnecessary act provoking immediate reaction from both officials in Greenland and Denmark: Trump appoints envoy to Greenland, stirs backlash | Reuters. This administration delivers great lessons on how not to interact with friends and allies.

This holiday week also included reporting that the U.S. is stepping up surveillance flights over Nigeria: US conducting surveillance flights over Nigeria after Trump intervention threat | Reuters. One has to wonder what makes Nigeria a priority for overall U.S. security. While the reporting notes the existence of a militant group in Nigeria, this country isn’t the only one that has such groups and far from the only one that has groups not friendly to the U.S.

There is no doubt that Nigeria’s domestic politics and the numerous groups operating within the country that are battling each other challenge governance. The Reuters article notes that armed groups attack both the Muslim and Christian populations within the country.

The justification for a lot of the U.S. military-related activity in Nigeria is the Trump Administration’s view that Nigeria has failed to protect Christians (but it’s okay for Muslim’s to be killed?). The U.S. Defense Department has been instructed to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria if the country fails to crack down on the killing of Christians.

This is not the time of year to have our attention diverted. On any given day and in your name, the U.S. Government could veer in the direction of even broader killing. How ironic it is that during this festive time, when millions celebrate Christmas and all that it is supposed to represent, the U.S. Government prepares a rapid military response team to kill in the name of religion.

Of course, there is nothing to suggest that Trump, his appointees, and many elected GOP officeholders are truly committed to Christianity. The evidence is provided daily in the way they govern in our country. They have little to no desire to take care of and assist those in most need. By cutting and reducing assistance to those needing health care and those needing assistance for food, the idea of trying to “protect” Christians abroad rings hollow as the current majority party acts in complete contradiction of so many values Christians and those of other religions hold dear.

Nigeria is a religious ploy. Greenland is a diversion, and Venezuela is showing all how we can bully. Wishing all a safe and happy holiday season and hoping you’ll remain attuned to what is being done in our name.

Timothy Trainer in Washington, DC. Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

Read

Dec. 8, 2025: “Lawlessness: The Headlong Dive,” by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer”

Dec. 8, 2025 — Check out the latest blog post by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer • Be sure to follow Tim on Substack

How can anyone be surprised or shocked? The man who is at the head of government is himself lawless. In addition to being lawless himself, he silently admires other criminals based on their actions. And, yes, there’s evidence to support this.

There is no slow, gradual descent into lawlessness by the head of government or those he has appointed to top jobs. There has been acceptance of the lawlessness and an embrace of it by his GOP cult followers from the very start. And, it started well before Trump ever took office in 2017, but the habit and culture of Trump’s lawlessness is far too long a history to reprise it here. It is, however, worth mentioning some.

Despite Trump’s stated reason for wanting more uniformed officers on the streets to quell criminal activity, it’s clear from his own conduct that this is simply a political or vengeful decision that targets cities and states primarily run by his political opponents. It is also a way to garner support from his cult followers.

He contradicts his own stated reasons about the need to combat crime and drug use. Trump is so anti-crime and anti-violence that he recently pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras.

Hernandez was prosecuted in a U.S. court of law and convicted. What was Honduras ex-president convicted of and why has Trump pardoned him? Unlike those being blown out of the water based on questionable evidence at best, prosecutors who successfully got a conviction against Hernandez provided evidence in a court of law in the United States. The evidence against Hernandez included “intercepted phone calls, ledgers which recorded bribes paid by drug traffickers to Hernández, and photographs of Hernández with members of the Valle cartel at the 2010 World Cup.” While Trump pardons a man convicted based on actual evidence, he and his military kill based on shaky allegations, with no hard evidence ever being presented.

The more one looks and reads, the greater Trump’s anti-crime ploy rings hollow. The Washington Post found that Trump wasted no time in pardoning another convicted drug lord by taking that action on his first full day in office in January. Ross Ulbricht, the man who benefited from this pardon, was convicted in a court of law for “creating the largest online black market for illegal drugs and other illicit goods.” Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric – The Washington Post. Trump may have campaigned on the issue of the terrible drug crisis, but his crackdown is really a crackdown against enforcing penalties against convicted felons who were proven to be involved in trafficking drugs. He has “granted pardons or commutations to almost 90 others for drug-related crimes”.

Of course, for a man who has been dealt multiple blows by the U.S. justice system, there are reasons for his disdain of law and justice. Given all the legal activity that surrounds the criminal-in-chief who is referred to as POTUS (President of the United States), some can be forgiven if they overlook a few of his legal transgressions. Let’s recall that he agreed to pay $25 million due to the fraud case arising from Trump University. Trump paying $25M after judge approves Trump University deal | AP News And, the New York state fraud case against Trump, though ultimately resulting in finding the financial penalty excessive, left intact the lower court’s finding of fraud by Trump et. al.

Trump’s entanglements that have resulted in findings of fraud extend beyond his profitable endeavors. A New York state judge ordered Trump “to pay $2 million to a group of nonprofit organizations as part of a settlement in a civil lawsuit stemming from persistent violations of state charities laws.” The payment resolves a case brought by the New York attorney general’s office after the Trump Foundation held a fundraiser for military veterans during the 2016 campaign. President Donald Trump ordered to pay $2M to collection of nonprofits as part of civil lawsuit – ABC News. Trump and his adult children were accused of “conflating charity with politics, repeatedly using charitable donations for personal, political and business gains, including legal settlements, campaign contributions and even to purchase a portrait of Trump to hang at one of his hotels.”

Beyond all the fraud cases, Trump’s life of lawlessness includes a jury finding him to have sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. Jury finds Trump liable for sexual abuse, awards E. Jean Carroll $5M | AP News. Her claims of Trump’s improper and illegal behavior toward women are not isolated as more than a dozen other women have accused him of sexual assault and harassment. There’s also this pesky criminal conviction where a jury found him guilty of 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actress. Trump hush money verdict: Guilty of all 34 counts | AP News.

Given Trump’s affinity to criminal conduct of various types, it’s no surprise that within weeks of being back in office, he issued an executive order “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security”. Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security – The White House. A significant reason for the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is to stop bribery between individuals and entities engaged in business with foreign officials and governments. Criminal Division | Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit. Trump’s business playbook seems to ignore such limitations and accept or offer payments of all sorts. Putting aside or relaxing rules on bribery appears to fall within his business practices.

Unlike a cute rom-com movie like Sleepless in Seattle, the reality in the U.S. under this administration’s leadership is the nation’s head-long dive into Lawless in America. Indeed, we see a wholesale attack on the rule of law every day and, given the news of the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker just off the coast of Venezuela, U.S. lawless activity will extend beyond our borders. Is our international bullying a way for Trump to imitate Putin?

Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Read

Nov. 27, 2025 — “Thanksgiving: Thanking a Few Judges,” by IP attorney Timothy Trainer

This week’s blog post from Timothy Trainer — On any given day, hundreds of decisions are issued by judges at state and federal court levels. Americans have gotten used to reading articles about “activist” judges. Usually, this tag is applied to a judge whose decision is disliked by those who disagree with that decision.

Here’s something to keep in mind about judges, generally:

First, judges do not file a complaint that initiates a lawsuit. Cases that reach any judge are filed by prosecutors, people, and entities.
In addition, those who initiate cases are the ones who identify the laws or regulations they believe are being violated, thereby informing the court (the judge) what the case is about.
Third, federal judges do not pick and choose which cases they will oversee. In federal courts, there is a system of randomly assigning cases, although there are always exceptions.
Lastly, the job of judges is to apply the facts and evidence presented and determine whether the laws and regulations at the heart of the legal controversy have been violated.

This year has been one that has placed judges in the crosshairs more than ever, given the many cases involving fundamental constitutional issues about not just the rights of citizens, but basic rights of people.

While some of the cases have been appealed and reversed, or decisions stayed until higher courts have an opportunity to review lower court decisions, judges in some cases have reminded us of the important role they occupy in our system and in our country.

As a lawyer and a citizen, I applaud the judges (and their clerks) who are taking the time to write thoughtful and thorough decisions that remind us about our rights despite the attempts of government officials, including law enforcement officers, to violate our laws and our rights as provided for in the Constitution.

Despite threats to both their personal safety and their jobs, many continue to do what they took an oath to do: respect the laws and the Constitution of the United States.

It is impossible to list and comment on all the cases in which judges have provided detailed legal analysis of fundamental rights and what the government can and can’t do.

Judge William G. Young

About Judge William G. Young’s opinion:

While lengthy at 160 pages, Judge Young’s opinion (25-cv-10685-WGY, September 2025) regarding free speech is worthy of reading. He writes that one’s right to free speech is not limited to only U.S. citizens. While the U.S. government threatened deportation because of non-citizens exercising free speech, this judge ruled that the right of free speech does not depend upon one’s citizenship status.

After a lengthy analysis of facts and evidence presented, Judge Young writes on page 123 that “[o]n its face, the First Amendment does not distinguish between citizens and noncitizens; rather, it states simply, ‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.’”

Judge Young writes his decision very much aware of the current political climate and is not deterred. He explains a problem President Trump has with the First Amendment, writing “his fixation with ‘retribution’. ‘I am your retribution’ he thundered famously while on the campaign trail. Yet government retribution for speech (precisely what’s happened here) is directly forbidden by the First Amendment.

The President’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech.” Unsurprisingly, the Trump Administration indicated it would appeal the decision.

Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong

About Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong’s ruling:

Another federal district court judge who issued a significant ruling is Judge Frimpong (25-cv-05605-MEMF-SP, July 7, 2025). Judge Frimpong referenced testimony from individuals regarding the situations involved in the arrests and detentions, noting:

“Agents approached and prevented a non-white individual from walking away, but not those who appeared to be Caucasians. In another case, the agents arrived in unmarked vehicles, pointed a gun, and demanded to see identification without providing a reason for the stop. Yet in a different context, the agents provided no reason for stopping individuals at a church. Since they began on June 6, 2025, federal immigration raids have led to the arrest of over 1,500 people. Agents and officers approached suddenly, in military or SWAT-style clothing, heavily armed, masked, and wearing large vests with generic “POLICE” patches.

In addition to describing some of the tactics, Judge Frimprong writes that “attorneys and legal representatives from CHIRLA and ImmDef attempted to gain access to B-18 to advise detainees of their rights and assess their eligibility for relief, but they were not permitted to enter.”

Judge Frimprong provides the public with a civics lesson by citing previous court proceedings for all of us to read. She cites language from a case in 2000 where the appellate judges wrote that “Hispanic appearance is, in general, of such little probative value that it may not be considered as a relevant factor where particularized or individualized suspicion is required. Moreover, we conclude, for the reasons we have indicated, that it is also not an appropriate factor.”

The judge references another earlier case in 2006 by reminding all of us that “[a]n individual’s inability to speak English may support an officer’s reasonable suspicion that the individual is in this country illegally, [but] [by] itself, however, an individual’s inability to understand English will not justify an investigatory stop because the same characteristic applies to a sizable portion of individuals lawfully present in this country.”

Although Judge Frimpong’s decisions are on appeal, she provides a detailed lesson on the rights of individuals who are targeted by law enforcement. She makes clear that those detained have the right to legal counsel and to a phone call. She also writes that, in the absence of a reasonable suspicion of a violation of immigration laws, these detentions are not in accordance with the law. More importantly, she clarifies what reasonable suspicion requires by writing that:

Defendants [the government] may not rely solely on the factors below, alone or in combination, to form reasonable suspicion for a detentive stop, except as permitted by law:
Apparent race or ethnicity;
Speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent;
Presence at a particular location (e.g. bus stop, car wash, tow yard, day laborer pick up site, agricultural site, etc.); or
The type of work one does.

Judge Frimprong’s 52-page ruling is important, even if she’s overturned on appeal as it provides significant bases for consideration about a person’s freedom of movement without fear of being stopped by law enforcement officers.

Lastly, while many will disagree, federal judges at the district court and appeals court levels have prevented public schools from displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms in Texas and Louisiana. However, the cases arising from these two states will be heard by a full panel of appellate court judges in January.

What has become clear in recent months is that, at the state and federal levels, those who have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution have been actively undermining what they claim to believe. The conduct of many elected officials contradicts what they say and what they’ve sworn to uphold.

We can only hope that there continue to be judges at all levels who still believe in the constitution and laws to protect anyone and everyone from the government’s intrusion into our private lives and will continue to order the government to desist from arbitrary and baseless enforcement actions that threaten our freedoms.

Through their written decisions, these judges are reminding us of the standards to which we must hold the government to account and for that, I thank them.

Timothy Trainer in Washington, DC. Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Click here to learn about all of Tim’s books.

Watch

Listen

Listen to the podcast on Inkandescent Radio November 2025: Ep7 Tim’s Travails — Meet dystopian author Joe Relk talking about how fiction imitates reality in his book series, “Sins of our Saviors” About Sins of the Saviors Book 1: Escape from the Culling Box — No one escaped from hell. Until David, who returns to a twisted shadow of the country and family he left decades ago. The 2028 election was our last – democracy traded for an AI-directed utopia. The network saved humanity from existential threats and curbed our violent tendencies, but it came with a heavy price. Read

November 2025: Ep7 Tim’s Travails — Meet dystopian author Joe Relk talking about how fiction imitates reality in his book series, “Sins of our Saviors”

November 2025 — If you are tracking the news, you’ll be fascinated by this interview with IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer’s podcast/video show and fellow author Joe Relk.

Today’s Topic: How fiction imitates reality — now, more than ever!

Some of the questions that Tim asks Joe include:

Let’s talk about what’s happening today in the fall of 2025 here in the US, including the abandonment of the rule of law. It’s a big theme in your book. How it fiction imitating reality?
What was your forecast when you started writing your book in 1991?
In “Sins of our Saviors,” there is a line that says, “Only I can fix it.” That is happening today with the US president. Tell us about your thoughts as an author and military expert.
Let’s also talk about your thoughts on legalizing corruption.
And so much more! Don’t miss it!

About our guest: Joe Relk is an analyst, manager, and strategic communicator with more than 30 years developing and implementing influential reporting plans, interagency strategies, and public relations initiatives. He joined the State Department as Foreign Service Officer in 2002. Joe has served in Venezuela, Bolivia, Germany, Ecuador, Guatemala, Suriname, and Afghanistan.

As the Stabilization Coordinator at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command from July 2020 until July 2022, he shaped conflict stabilization and prevention aspects of military plans and exercises. Joe was the Political-Economic Section Chief at Embassy Paramaribo between 2018 and 2020. He led an Embassy election observation mission during the height of the global pandemic and coordinated efforts to evacuate Embassy staff and U.S. citizens.

Joe also developed and led an Afghan refugee counseling and release process during Operation Allies Welcome. That system was adapted to process more than 15,000 Afghan refugees. He served at the Office for Afghanistan in Washington, where he developed the first State Department training regimen for civilians deployed in Afghanistan. During his tenure with the Office of Interagency Provincial Affairs (IPA) in Afghanistan, Relk created a retrospective of the civilian surge. He also authored “Afghanistan Through the Humvee Window” and “The Network Apostate.” His prior professions include U.S. Army cryptology analyst, public relations specialist, journalist, talk show host, and photographer. He is originally from Idaho and graduated from Boise State University.

About Joe’s Book: Sins of the Saviors Book 1: Escape from the Culling Box

No one escaped from hell. Until David, who returns to a twisted shadow of the country and family he left decades ago. The 2028 election was our last – democracy traded for an AI-directed utopia. The network saved humanity from existential threats and curbed our violent tendencies, but it came with a heavy price.

As a vestige soldier fleeing a forever war, David must rediscover who he is after the lies that shaped him are torn away. His faith in family, nation, and truth itself is shattered. Now, he must decide whether this new world is worth saving. The elites who saved us must also decide-kill David to preserve control or use him to resurrect free will? Their redemption could plunge us back to the brink of extinction. Again.

SINS OF THE SAVIORS flips the script on evil elites, indisputable truths, and the virtue of free will. In this contemplative technothriller, a dark future is shaped by our actions today. Unlike most dystopian novels that fixate on the collapse into chaos, this story explores the journey out of it-the way back home. Click here to buy the book!

About Sins of the Saviors Prequel: The Network Apostate

The Network saved us. All we had to do was believe.

As political leaders ignore a perfect storm of existential threats, Earth teeters on collapse. Global elites seize control following the 2028 U.S. election, creating a utopia run by the Goliath Network AI. The masses trade truth and humanity for comfort and security.

But Jane can’t shake the feeling something is horribly wrong. She’s old enough to remember life before the transition, aware enough to know what we’ve lost, and just altruistic enough to conspire to get it back. And now it’s personal—they lied about her brother’s death in the forever war.

As she digs deeper, Jane finds herself in a race to preserve the evaporating evidence of Goliath’s lies, and prove David yet lives, before the Network silences her forever.

In this gripping Literary Titan award-winning prequel to the Sins of the Saviors, Jane is torn between her tortured convictions to expose the Network and a gnawing desire to embrace it. Before she enlists others in a dangerous fight, she will need to convince herself that free will is worth risking paradise. Click here to buy the book!

Photos of Tim by AnnaGibbs.com

Read

An ode to Veterans Day, “Wondering, Waiting, Worrying,” by Army brat and veteran Timothy Trainer, author, “The Fortunate Son”

There’s a home to be kept

And beds to be made

There’s an empty space in the bed

And a minute of worrying and a quickening pulse

There are children to raise

And lunches to be wrapped

There are bills to be paid

And a lawn to be mowed

There’s the sun rising in the sky

And a moment looking out wondering

There’s a car that needs repair

And a water leak to be plugged

There’s daily waiting for a message or mail

And the sound of people and cars passing by

There are birthdays to celebrate

And holiday feasts to prepare

There’s that empty chair

And the never-ending worrying

There are aging parents to visit

And meeting friends as a diversion

But the weight of the wait and wondering refuse to lessen

There are teachers to meet

And doctors to see

But the mind preoccupies with worry

There’s only fitful sleep

And mornings of slow rising

There’s the knock on the door, the ringing of the doorbell

And the heart pounds in the chest, feeling every beat

Is there a telegram or people at the door

Is it death or catastrophic injury

There’s life-altering news when that moment comes

And before the door opens, thoughts scramble

There’s no avoiding whatever the fate

And it’s like a branding iron burning that moment forever into the conscience

There’re the combatant and the waiting, worrying, wondering family members

And they are bound as one

And life for all is changed forever

There’s no more waiting, no more wondering

Veterans Day, sacrifices made by many every day

Remember those who serve, their spouses, children, parents, siblings

Read

Nov. 11, 2025 — “Veterans Day 2025: The Undoing?” by Timothy Trainer, author, The Fortunate Son

November 11, 2025 — The confrontations in the streets of U.S. cities between law enforcement and the people have already caused law enforcement agents and officers to be equated with Germany’s secret police of the 1930s, the Gestapo, because of the tactics used to pursue those illegally in the United States. The fully masked officers and agents whose indiscriminate conduct in pursuing suspects, including U.S. citizens, has caused them to be seen as enemies of the people in the eyes of many.

We’ve seen National Guard troops deployed to various cities around the country. Activated by governors or the president, they are in our cities and on our streets wearing military uniforms. To the civilian citizens who see and encounter these part-time soldiers, there’s likely to be no distinction made between the National Guard, reserve service members, and full-time active army troops.

The U.S. military is supposed to protect, yet it has experienced decades of mistrust. Many in society regarded the millions who served in Vietnam in a negative light for a prolonged period of years after the war. There was outright contempt toward those who served in the military during the Vietnam era. They carried with them the weight of a negative reputation for having served in an unpopular war that was decided by politicians. Very few Vietnam veterans escaped the war without physical injuries and/or mental traumas that resulted.

Those millions who served honorably during the Vietnam era were at the mercy of politicians. One could make a convincing argument that it was those politicians in Washington, D.C., who failed to act as honorably as those in uniform, fulfilling their obligations dutifully. The change in sentiment toward Vietnam veterans and the more positive light in which they now live have been hard-won recent developments.

In recent years, the public sentiment toward Vietnam veterans and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been more positive as far as recognizing their service and sacrifice. The public seems to be able to distinguish between those who serve in uniform and those who make the political decision to send our troops into harm’s way, sometimes for unjustified and political reasons.

As we confront the real possibility that the current White House occupant will order active-duty military units onto the streets of our country to oppose their fellow citizens, I fear that we will undermine our military in ways that will, again, take decades to repair.

If army troops are ordered to quash the right of fellow citizens to exercise their free speech rights or to exercise their right to assemble, or for the media to cover a demonstration of people and citizens opposed to Trump policies and actions, what will the public’s view of our military be? How do citizens reconcile the true mission of the U.S. military with scenes of uniformed soldiers confronting citizens seeking to exercise their basic rights as citizens?

The excuse that “I’m just following orders” should not be acceptable if the actions deprive U.S. citizens of the rights the soldiers themselves took an oath to protect and defend.

Let us remind ourselves of the oath these soldiers took at the time they entered the U.S. military:

“I, __________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” Title 10, U.S. Code, Section 502.

There is an interesting twist to the language of the oath, given that soldiers are required to obey the orders of the President and officers while still adhering to actions in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Like many things, it’s arguable that being ordered to deprive U.S. citizens of their rights under the Constitution is not a lawful order if it is simply to satisfy the whims of a president who simply wants to exercise authoritarian power without regard to the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

Essentially, we are seeing Trump use those in uniform as his pawns to punish anyone who disagrees, who fails to knuckle under, who fails to remain silent, and raises a voice against him.

The U.S. Army and the other branches of service exist to protect the country, not a person, not one man’s ego or reputation. Are we about to lose our balance and fall into a precipice with armed soldiers used as Trump’s private army to deprive U.S. citizens of their constitutionally guaranteed rights?

In my experience and opinion, I believe that if Trump uses the army as his private army, it may be undermined as a respected organization for years to come. And like the millions who served in Vietnam, those serving and following the orders of a wannabe authoritarian may endure years of having their service tainted for doing Trump’s dirty work on U.S. soil against U.S. citizens. It’s never easy to rebuild trust and reputation once damaged, just ask our Vietnam veterans.

This Veterans Day, our thoughts are not limited to those who have served, but also to those serving today.

The men and women in uniform are, once again, serving in a perilous time. Sadly, the current threats confronting our military members are many. One of those threats could be characterized as emanating from a domestic foe who occupies the White House and has no regard for either the U.S. Constitution or the nation’s laws.

Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Learn more about this book and Tim’s writing process when he’s interviewed by author Jeffrey James Higgins’ for his new Inkandescent podcast and video show: Elaine’s Literary Salon.

Learn about Tim’s work and books: timothytrainer.com

Read

Oct. 30, 2025 — “Health Care’s Irrelevance to Trump, GOP,” by IP attorney and award-winning author Timothy Trainer

In some cases, having something that is imperfect is better than nothing. When it comes to health care in the United States, having health insurance that is somewhat affordable is better than nothing. In a country deemed as rich as the United States, it is a constant issue of controversy that the country doesn’t have a better health care system for all its people.

At the moment, the federal government shutdown, while about many things, seems to have centered on health care costs. Specifically, the Obamacare/Affordable Care Act issue and how to provide something for as many people as possible is the hurdle that must be overcome to get the government back to work.

It’s worth recalling a few points as Trump and the GOP led Congress could do more but simply won’t. We’ve experienced a decade of Trump rhetoric with nothing other than words to show for his efforts. As a candidate in 2015, Trump vowed to provide the country with “something terrific:” Trump on immigration: Mass deportation and ‘legal status’ | CNN Politics. His “terrific” plan was and continues to be non-existent.

During the campaign in 2016, Trump said that, “On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare. . . . My first day in office, I am going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability:” Fact-checking Trump’s ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare timeline – ABC News.

In 2019, Trump’s continued yapping about health care included his announcement that there would be a “phenomenal” new plan: Trump vows ‘phenomenal’ new health care plan – ABC News. In fact, not only was there never any “phenomenal” new plan, there was no plan at all. As ABC News dug into the issue, even senior White House officials admitted being far from putting together an actual health care bill.

As Trump’s first term neared its end, Trump teased the country about a new health care plan. In July 2020, he commented during an interview that “We’re signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan that the Supreme Court decision on DACA gave me the right to do.” At another point, he said that “Over the next two weeks, I’ll be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions for all customers. That’s a big thing. I’ve always been very strongly in favor – we have to cover pre-existing conditions. So we will be pursuing a major executive order, requiring health insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions for all of its customers:” Trump promised a health care plan before the end of August. It never came. | CNN Politics. Despite all his pronouncements, nothing ever came of all of the blathering rhetoric about health care.

While the GOP controls the White House and Congress today, the plan that has come to light is obvious: strip Americans of the ability to get affordable health care. There never was a plan and they will seemingly never work on and deliver a detailed plan. The GOP talks and, sadly, millions listen to the lies about a future plan that will never exist.

As the 2026 health care enrollment period begins, sticker shock is a polite way of describing the initial premiums people are seeing for their plans: Obamacare enrollees get first look at 2026 prices as premiums soar | CNN Politics. The decade long talk from Trump and the GOP is no longer just talk. They are exposed as having no real concern to fix anything related to health care costs as their history of inaction suggests. This issue, perhaps more than most, underscores what or who Trump and the GOP care about: the rich and super-rich, not the average person.

While many despise her, it seems that the person who accurately explained the situation is none other than Nancy Pelosi who said, “The American people already know exactly what the President’s health care plans mean in their lives: higher costs, worse coverage and the end of lifesaving protections for people with pre-existing conditions:” Trump vows ‘phenomenal’ new health care plan – ABC News. The political party that espouses the importance of a pro-life line item in its platform demonstrates the issue’s irrelevance in its day-to-day conduct. Providing life-saving health care is just political babble to them.

Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Read

“Demolition and Demise: It’s too late to reverse the damage and demolition to the White House. Is it too late to save the constitution and democracy?,” asks IP attorney and award-winning author Timothy Trainer

The East Wing of the White House is demolished for a grand ballroom. The demolition of any part of the White House is, at this point, beyond symbolic of the destruction of the United States as many of us have known it. Trump, his cabinet members, and those elected GOP members in Congress have exposed themselves regarding the extremes they are willing to accept to change the country.

We’ve known for quite some time that the GOP’s favorite color is white. Simply consider the recent moves regarding who will be considered as refugees and allowed to enter the country: Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People – The New York Times.

One of Trump’s earlier acts, the removal of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown, is another example given the fact that there was nothing regarding General Brown’s performance as the Chairman that caused his removal other than the fact that he is African-American: Trump fires chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., NPR. It’s more likely that Defense Secretary Hegseth couldn’t accept the possibility that a man of color was a successful fighter pilot and climbed the ladder of military success on his own, something the SecDef seems to have been unable to accomplish.

House speaker Johnson characterizes those demonstrating on “No Kings Day” as a hate America rally: Johnson describes planned No Kings rally as ‘hate America,’ ‘pro-Hamas’ gathering – POLITICO. Puppet Johnson receives his $223,500 taxpayer salary to be a compliant follower and receives an additional $50,000 for personal allowances for things related to his official duties. As he cowardly says only what Trump tells him to say, other Americans exercised something Johnson and Trump no longer believe in for others: free speech. In the eyes of the spineless elected GOP members, only Trump is allowed to express opinions (facts are beyond him).

Trump cuts off trade negotiations with Canada because he’s upset that an advertisement in Canada featured the late President Reagan speaking about the negative effects of tariffs: Trump Says He’s Cutting Off Trade Negotiations With Canada – The New York Times. Of course, we should not forget that Trump (and his minions) has continued his China antics for months, leading to U.S. soybean farmers selling ZERO soybeans to China in September. China imports no US soybeans in September for first time in seven years. September was also notable for China’s curbing of exports of rare earth magnets to the United States by nearly 29%. Fall in China’s exports of rare earth magnets stokes supply chain fears. These magnets aren’t very important unless one believes they make life convenient, as they are used in earbuds, cell phones, hard disk drives, electric vehicles, wind turbines, MRI machines, and a host of U.S. weapons systems.

While Trump and his followers like to project an image of supporting the military and veterans, this is just a reminder that it is Trump’s people who sought to delay consideration of disability benefits. As applications for benefits pile up, this administration tried to use the government shutdown as an excuse to delay consideration of submissions for disability benefits. Fortunately, the panel that hears such requests denied the Trump Administration’s arguments for further delay, voting 9-0 against the Trump Administration’s request: US court rejects Trump officials’ effort to delay rulings on veterans benefits | Trump administration | The Guardian.

It’s too late to reverse the damage and demolition to the White House. We see daily that elected GOP members are not in their elected positions to protect and defend the Constitution. The question that is before the country is whether it’s already too late to save the constitution and democracy that once existed in the United States.

Image by: Sizzlipedia, Wikimedia Commons

Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Read

“Women: The Other Half (Maybe More),” by author Timothy Trainer

In the days and weeks following the murder of Charlie Kirk, those active on social media and the news reporting industry have provided massive amounts of information and opinion.

Much of what has been said and written is simply noise, easy to overlook. One issue that raised my curiosity and prompted a little “research” was the issue of women in the workplace as opposed to being stay-at-home wives/moms. This one is particularly difficult to let go of, along with many other issues that have been raised.

The discussion or debate about women is an interesting topic. Historically, women were sidelined, kept behind a wall and prevented from doing many things, including things as basic as pursuing an education, entering various occupations, and voting. As a result, it’s ear-piercing to hear anyone talk about the role of women and expressing a desire to return to the past.

With the issue raised, it was worth finding some statistics about where we are. It’s important to know where we are today and how today’s situation might affect the future.

Multiple sources point to the fact that women are taking education more seriously than their male counterparts. A Forbes article reported that nationally women make up 58% of all college students and by 2021 there were approximately three million more women in college than men: Women Continue To Outpace Men In College Enrollment And Graduation. The Forbes report looked at other sources and noted that this phenomenon of more women in college than men was the case in all 50 states and that in 13 states the women made up at least 60% of college students.

The situation is the same or worse, depending on your viewpoint, at the level of graduate studies, where women earned nearly 63% of master’s degrees: College Enrollment Statistics [2025]: Total + by Demographic. The legal profession has seen a significant change in the proportion of women pursuing and obtaining law degrees. Since 2019, more women than men have earned law degrees every year, and the gap is growing: Women in the Legal Profession. In 2023, approximately 55% of law school graduates were women.

Academic areas where women have not yet caught up are in physical and earth sciences, mathematics and computer sciences, and engineering: STEM Statistics: Higher Education | National Girls Collaborative Project. Perhaps it is simply a matter of time. Women do earn a majority of bachelor’s degrees in psychology, biological sciences, and social sciences.

For some, the return to the past may look attractive, though unrealistic. It seems a silly debate and notion to tell anyone, male or female, to sit back and not exercise one’s intellectual capabilities to the fullest in their areas of interest. Are women succeeding in the halls of academic institutions because they are more motivated than their male counterparts? If women are more willing to learn, self-motivate and succeed, not only do they as individuals benefit, but society benefits given the diverse areas they will enter when they move into the work force.

It is a preposterous idea to tell half of the human species to forego their ambitions, put aside their curiosity and not work toward fulfillment. Given these statistics, it’s hard to accept any argument that men are having their jobs taken from them if they aren’t motivated enough to take their education seriously and fill the positions that require a greater level of learning.

Ultimately, we should be celebrating the fact that where men seem to have lost their motivation to pursue education at higher levels, women have stepped in and stepped up.

Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

Watch

Listen

Listen to the podcast on Inkandescent Radio October 2025: Ep6 Tim’s Travails — Meet GW Law Professor Mark Traphagen, the U.S. contributing author to the legal treatise, “Copyright Throughout the World” October 2025 — Artificial Intelligence and its impact on labor is the topic of this month's episode of Tim's Travails, where Tim and GW law professor Mark Traphagen discuss how AI impacts the creative/entertainment industries, including several recent developments: Anthropic's decision to pay out $1.5 billion for downloading thousands of books in violation of copyright law and the required human element to claim copyright to authored works. Don't miss it! Read

October 2025: Ep6 Tim’s Travails — Meet GW Law Professor Mark Traphagen, the U.S. contributing author to the legal treatise, “Copyright Throughout the World”

October 2025 — This month on IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer’s podcast/video show we meet GW Intellectual Property Law Professor Mark Traphagen

Our topic: Artificial Intelligence and its impact on labor, with a focus on how AI impacts the creative/entertainment industries, including several recent developments:

Anthropic’s decision to pay out $1.5 billion for downloading thousands of books in violation of copyright law
The required human element to claim copyright to authored works

About our guest: Mark Traphagen is the U.S. contributing author to the legal treatise Copyright Throughout the World, and has taught international and comparative intellectual property law at the George Washington University Law School and the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, a consortium that includes the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. After starting his legal career with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Finnegan Henderson LLP, Mr. Traphagen represented what is now the Software and Information Industry Association in negotiations for the WIPO Copyright Treaty and Congressional enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He also advised clients about the implementation and enforcement of the WTO TRIPS Agreement and prepared submissions for the annual “Special 301” review by the U.S. Trademark Representative. Today, Mr. Traphagen is the principal of Traphagen Law PLLC, where he practices in the fields of copyright and trademark, entertainment and sports law, advertising and promotions, and privacy and data security. Click here to get LinkedIn with Mark.

About Copyright Throughout the World: Edited by an internationally recognized expert in copyright law, Copyright Throughout the World is a guide to the copyright law of more than 30 nations. This three-volume set is useful for copyright practitioners working with the internet and other media and for academics researching comparative laws. It analyzes the important features of copyright law, related rights, and moral rights from countries throughout the world. Topics covered permit easy comparison of the laws of different countries. Learn more here.

Photos of Tim by AnnaGibbs.com

Read

The Military Writers Society of America honors Timothy Trainer’s third novel, ‘The China Factor,’ with its Bronze Award

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, September 28, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) announced on September 27, 2025, that Timothy Trainer’s third novel, The China Factor, received the Bronze Award in MWSA’s Mystery, Thriller, Crime fiction category: mwsadispatches.com/2025-season.

Ranked this year as high as #63 for Asian Literature on Amazon.com, his latest book comes on the heels of The China Connection, which received a 2024 Bronze Award from the MWSA in the same category. The China Factor is available at amazon.com.

About the book: The China Factor highlights economic friction between the United States and its economic adversaries as the driving force behind the stories. It takes readers from Washington, D.C., and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), unfolding as the FBI thwarts the exchange of stolen information to a Chinese diplomat. Having stopped one attempt, the investigation targets the person providing the information that China had previously received.

What critics are saying: A reviewer at the Military Writers Society of America wrote that the new book “is an intriguing, well-told tale with many twists. The time frame is Spring 2005, and characters are found on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as well as Vietnam.”

What fans are saying: “The China Factor digs into economic and trade competition between China and the U.S. and the tensions arising from that competition. People and governments engage in illegal activity to gain advantages,” says journalist and author Hope Katz Gibbs, founder of the Inkandescent PR + Publishing Co. “Tim has set the book in 2005, but this story is straight out of today’s headlines. Reading this novel, the reader experiences what might occur behind the scenes in the real world.”

She adds that because The China Factor exposes readers to how the Chinese plan to use the stolen information in its commercial pursuits in Vietnam, the book teaches a powerful history lesson. “Tim weaves together the stories of international trade intrigue and personal misgivings from years past through his characters,” she shares, noting, “If you’ve been paying attention to recent headlines, the idea that Vietnam is caught between two world powers will ring true. The China Factor resonates in today’s world.”

Trainer explains that taking real-world tensions that exist and playing with possibilities is a fun and challenging exercise. “In addition to the usual military considerations, there are the economic and trade elements in these relationships that can be explored and exploited.”

Stay tuned for more books by Trainer. Be sure to review his website filled with his weekly column that is also published on Substack, and his monthly video show Tim’s Travails is on YouTube; his podcast is featured on Spotify, Apple and iHeart Radio.

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Read

“Judges and Lawyers: The Right Thing to Do,” by IP attorney and award-winning author Timothy Trainer

Two recent events occurred that highlighted the work and responsibilities of judges and lawyers. A lawyer resigned knowing he was about to be fired. A federal judge tossed a case by strongly suggesting that lawyers acting on behalf of their client, the President, reread the rules regarding what should be in a complaint to initiate a lawsuit.

Unlike television dramas, the real practice of law can be tedious. There’s a lot of sifting through information. That information might be factual, anecdotal, opinions or something wholly different. In Virginia, Erik Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned after hearing that the President was unhappy that he had not filed charges against those the President believes need to be prosecuted.

It isn’t as if Mr. Siebert is soft on crime. His background includes several years as a police officer before pursuing his law degree. Eastern District of Virginia | Meet the U.S. Attorney | United States Department of Justice. Since graduating from law school, Mr. Siebert has practiced criminal law for the Justice Department where he has prosecuted cases since 2010. His demise as the appointed U.S. Attorney is reportedly due to doing something fundamental to the work of an ethical attorney: weighing the evidence and determining whether the evidence supports a criminal prosecution.

Siebert’s failure to initiate cases against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey became an issue for the White House. Top US prosecutor overseeing Letitia James case resigns after Trump threat | Reuters. It seems that Siebert expressed his reservations about the evidence in the cases against the two that are in Trump’s crosshairs. Siebert fell into disfavor because, well, he was doing what a responsible and ethical prosecutor should do: determine whether sufficient evidence exists to criminally prosecute someone, anyone. Doing the right thing is not at all acceptable to Trump and, therefore, the prosecutor who engaged in the kind of evaluation we should expect and demand before any person is subjected to a criminal charge had to go.

In another case, Federal Judge Merryday dismissed Trump’s 85-page defamation complaint against The New York Times. In his four-page ruling, the judge underscored the basics to Trump’s lawyers regarding what the point of a complaint is and isn’t. gov.uscourts.flmd.447437.5.0.pdf. The judge explained that Trump’s complaint was not the proper place to “rage against an adversary”. He wrote that “A complaint is a mechanism to fairly, precisely, directly, soberly, and economically inform the defendants — in a professionally constrained manner consistent with the dignity of the adversarial process in an Article III court of the United States — of the nature and content of the claims. A complaint is a short, plain, direct statement of allegations of fact sufficient to create a facially plausible claim for relief and sufficient to permit the formulation of an informed response”.

Essentially, the judge reminded Trump’s legal counsel that there is a clear and distinct difference between a legal filing and a political rant of displeasure toward people the president targets. Most of the judge’s four pages seemed aimed at Trump’s lawyers, reminding them of the decorum expected of officers of the court.

These developments should serve as a reminder to everyone about the role of legal counsel and the judiciary. A lawyer’s zealous representation of a client does not mean straying from his or her legal and ethical responsibilities before a court. Mr. Siebert’s decision-making process of weighing evidence before deciding whether to prosecute is admirable because it was the right thing to do. Judge Merryday’s dismissal of Trump’s complaint was also the right thing to do while giving the would-be plaintiff time to amend and refile the complaint in accordance with the rules.

We have arrived at a point and a time when those who do the right thing, who still respect the rule of law, and the U.S. legal system, try to prevent the dismantling of a system that helped make the United States a great nation. While Trump and a number of his appointees are intent on violating the laws of these United States, we need judges and other officers of the court to live up to their oaths, remain committed to the rule of law, and act accordingly even when those holding the highest offices in the country refuse to do so.

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Read

“Department of War or Defense: Beyond the Name,” by IP attorney Timothy Trainer, author “The Fortunate Son”

Whether the name is changed officially or not, we will now hear the administration refer to the Department of War for the remainder of this term. The website www.defense.gov now converts to www.war.gov. Interestingly, Kentucky’s Senator Rand Paul has stated that he opposes a formal change and would work to oppose such a change. rawstory.com.

The United States has had an all-volunteer military since 1973. We’ve heard or read repeatedly that the Secretary of Defense (War) wants a more warrior ethos projected by our serving military members. As this administration seeks to generate an image of U.S. forces as more… war-capable, it seems fitting to ask: who are these warriors? Ironically, within days of announcing the change, referring to the Department of War, USA Today published an article on September 6^th on the challenges of recruitment.

For those who are interested in knowing something about the volunteer force, it might be surprising or frightening or confusing to read the headline: “Once these recruits couldn’t make the cut. Now they make up a quarter of Army troops,” usatoday.com. Finding young men and women who meet current enlistment standards isn’t always easy. There are both minimum academic and physical requirements to join the army.

According to the USA Today article, the army maintains a Future Soldier Preparatory Course to help those wanting to enlist to attain the minimum standards so that they can become actual army enlistees. The article reports that it will cost over $200 million this year and next to help people reach the minimum academic and physical standards set to become a “real” army trainee.

USA Today reports that a Defense Department Inspector General report found the Future Soldier course admitted trainees with body fat “far above its stated cap” and “the program’s academic component had also let its stated standards slide”. As unfortunate as these findings might be, the Inspector General’s report also stated that “a significant portion had difficulty speaking or understanding English.” The Defense Department report is dated May 1, 2025, media.defense.gov. The Defense Department report highlights how the Army has not adhered to its own rules regarding assessments of those in the Future Soldier course in order to allow participants to enlist.

Generally, over the past 50 years, the government has praised the performance of the all-volunteer force. As citizens and taxpayers, this report, which is not read by many, should raise concerns about the force we rely upon for national defense (war-fighting).

If nearly a quarter of all troops in the U.S. Army come from this pool of enlistees, are the personnel specialists at the Pentagon ignoring a serious problem? If nearly a quarter of the troops have physical, academic, or language deficiencies, are they able to properly use systems that increasingly incorporate technology? Today’s soldiers are equipped with technology that didn’t exist 15 or 20 years ago. When one reads that soldiers today have mapping tools, night vision devices, and helmet-mounted technology, is the array of new equipment usable by those recruited from the prep course? All the high-tech gear the Army is bringing to soldiers. It isn’t enough to say that they are able to learn to use them in training situations. The requirement will be for these recruits to act and think instinctively if deployed to a combat zone.

All the individualized technology is fine as long as the conditions allow for their use. Anyone who has ever spoken to people who have been in combat will quickly learn that training cannot simulate the real thing. As an example, something as fundamental as map reading might become a necessity when technology fails. What happens when some or all that technology is ineffective?

There’s nothing surprising to read or hear that the Trump Administration wants a name change to the Department of Defense. The administration wants a Department of War. It needs to project masculinity, strength and power. The talk, the chatter, the words all seem to do something else: expose Trump and Hegseth as being examples of frail male egos. Instead of image projection, the United States would be better served if those looking at personnel requirements engaged in an honest assessment of the army’s personnel needs, made the appropriate changes, and dedicated more effort to attract those who meet the minimum standards without the need for special courses.

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Learn more about this book and Tim’s writing process when he’s interviewed by author Jeffrey James Higgins’ for his new Inkandescent podcast and video show: Elaine’s Literary Salon.

Learn about Tim’s work and books: timothytrainer.com

Watch

Listen

Listen to the podcast on Inkandescent Radio September 2025: Ep5 Tim’s Travails — Meet Chun T. Wright, law firm owner and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia September 2025: Chunnie traveled to over 60 countries and built a legal practice that covers copyright, trademark, technology and even something called “adventure travel law.” Tim asks her, "How did you create such a unique mix and what is the common thread?" Read

September 2025: Ep5 Tim’s Travails — Meet Chun T. Wright, law firm owner and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia

September 2025 — This month on IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer’s podcast/video show we meet Chun T. Wright, law firm owner and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia

This month’s topic: The adventure of travel law

Tim asks Chunnie:

You’ve built a legal practice that covers copyright, trademark, technology and even something called “adventure travel law.” How did you create such a unique mix and what is the common thread
You have traveled to over 60 countries, how did that happen?
Out of all those adventures, what are one or two trips that really stand out as unusual, challenging or unforgettable?
Did your travel and outdoor activities lead you into Adventure Travel?
What is Adventure Travel law?
For entrepreneurs and companies listening—whether they’re building cutting-edge tech or leading people up mountains—what’s one piece of legal advice you wish everyone knew?

About our guest: Chun (Chunnie) Wright is the owner of the Law Office of Chun T. Wright, a Washington, DC-based boutique law firm. The firm’s practice areas include intellectual property protection and enforcement (trademark and copyright), technology law, and adventure travel law.

Chunnie has been a litigator at major law firms in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, a federal prosecutor in Washington, DC, and vice president of anti-piracy legal affairs at the Entertainment Software Association, which is the trade association for the video game industry. Chunnie is the Vice Chair and incoming Chair of the International Trademark Association’s Enforcement Committee. Chunnie is also on the Executive Committee of the AUSA Association-DC and on various boards, including the Adventure Travel Trade Association, BirdNote, and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation.

She received her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin and her JD from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. She is an avid scuba diver and traveler who has visited over 60 countries. Learn more here: ctwrightlaw.com

Photos of Tim by AnnaGibbs.com

Read

“Emotional Divisiveness: The Flag,” by Timothy Trainer, author, “The Fortunate Son”

Bad policies? Bad poll numbers? Increasing prices? Is it time to find another issue to divide the people? Or is this the one to rally everyone behind something? Did the busy people in the White House huddle and decide that an Executive Order about flag burning would be an easy win with fist-pumps and chest pounding all around?

Red, white and blue, the colors of our flag are not at all unique. Twenty-nine countries have national flags comprised of the same red, white and blue colors. Countries With Red, White And Blue Flags – WorldAtlas.

It’s a wonderful political ploy. Flag burning annoys, angers and incites people. Who would disagree that the flag is a cherished symbol? Who disagrees that burning the flag is offensive and provocative?

The question is why does flag burning cause this reaction? Beyond a piece of cloth that indicates that the “stars and stripes” is our flag, what is behind the symbolism? Is it because it conjures up images of brave and courageous soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who have carried and hoisted the flag in battle? Is it because we embrace freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of the press guaranteed by the constitution? Is it because it represents progress through the extension of voting rights to women and people of color? Is it because, in theory, we live in a country that delivers equal treatment to all (a concept still questionable in today’s USA)? Is it because of the high standard of living our economy has delivered? Is it because we have, thus far, enjoyed a country that provides what is considered decent basic education capped by some of the best universities in the world?

The United States has witnessed many ways that citizens express displeasure with government policies or conduct as well as discriminatory policies. In 1948, “Edna Griffin organized a boycott, conducted sit-ins, and picketed in front of the store every Saturday for two months, demanding an end to race-based refusal of service.” She eventually won her legal case based on the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The Little Known History of Black Women Using Soda Fountains as Contested Spaces – AAIHS. Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus to white passengers was a peaceful, quiet act to defy discriminatory policies. Rosa Parks | Biography, Accomplishments, Quotes, Family, & Facts | Britannica. It required decades of effort, including picketing and demonstrating in front of the White House for women to gain the right vote in the United States. Women’s Suffrage | Voters and Voting Rights | Presidential Elections and Voting in U.S. History | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress.

Essentially, various types of conduct have displayed citizens’ displeasure at practices or policies deemed not just unacceptable but wrong. Flag burning occurred numerous times at anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam War. It was not until 1989 that the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the matter head on when a demonstrator who opposed some policies of the Reagan Administration burned the flag and was prosecuted.TEXAS, Petitioner v. Gregory Lee JOHNSON. | Supreme Court | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute.

The Executive Order (Prosecuting Burning of The American Flag – The White House) instructs the U.S. Justice Department to “prioritize the enforcement to the fullest extent possible of our Nation’s criminal and civil laws against acts of American Flag desecration that violate applicable, content-neutral laws, while causing harm unrelated to expression, consistent with the First Amendment.” Given the Supreme Court’s decision, the Executive Order is wholly unnecessary because the Court’s decision provides a more instructive legal guide to the type of inquiry necessary to take legal action against an individual who burns the flag.

Nothing is so simple if it’s issued by this White House. When we have a White House occupant who purges women and people of color without any reason given, when he demands apologies, threatens firings, threatens investigations of individuals who he dislikes or who disagrees with him, why not target people who might burn the flag as a political statement of protest?

This Executive Order goes to the heart of what makes the United States unique in the world or has up to this point. Trump’s disdain for anyone disagreeing with him and his demand for those to fall in line with his thinking undercuts the First Amendment’s right to freedom of expression and the premise that the freedom of expression is to protect those who may possess an unpopular political view and may demonstrate their opposition to the government through the act of flag burning.

Indeed, the Supreme Court in the Texas v. Johnson case, which overturned a conviction for flag burning, emphasizes some fundamentals about the First Amendment and our freedom to express our displeasure with our government. The Supreme Court wrote that “Johnson was not, we add, prosecuted for the expression of just any idea; he was prosecuted for his expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of this country, expression situated at the core of our First Amendment values.”

The Court also stated that “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” Near the end of the majority’s decision, the Court wrote: ”Our decision is a reaffirmation of the principles of freedom and inclusiveness that the flag best reflects, and of the conviction that our toleration of criticism such as Johnson’s is a sign and source of our strength.”

Ultimately, it’s ironic that many will applaud this act from a man who defies the laws of these United States, who defies the courts, who violates his oath of office to protect and defend the constitution and who evaded military service. He’ll receive support by tugging at the emotional strings of citizens by attempting to undermine one of the very core rights guaranteed by the constitution and recognized as an act of political defiance and expression by the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Learn more about this book and Tim’s writing process when he’s interviewed by author Jeffrey James Higgins’ for his new Inkandescent podcast and video show: Elaine’s Literary Salon.

Learn about Tim’s work and books: timothytrainer.com

Read

“The Dumbing Down: FBI” by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer

Trump’s troops walk the streets of Washington, D.C. Despite the U.S. Justice Department’s statistics indicating a decrease in violent crime (District of Columbia | Violent Crime in D.C. Hits 30 Year Low | United States Department of Justice), he wants more boots on the ground—U.S. ground. One wonders why he doesn’t do the same in Memphis, Baltimore, St. Louis and Birmingham. Highest Crime Cities in the US 2025 | Stats & Facts About Crime Cities – The Global Statistics. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time.

In addition to national guard troops, reassigning FBI agents to the streets of the nation’s capital will also occur. It’s reported that 120 FBI agents will patrol the streets of Washington, D.C. Federal agents spread out across D.C. amid Trump vow to crack down on crime : NPR. This diversion of FBI agents to the streets means fewer agents to investigate corruption and engage in counter-terrorism work. A cynic would say that by having fewer agents investigating public corruption, white collar crime and financial fraud suits the president and those who he pals around with.

More disturbing about the FBI’s increased role in street crime prevention is the report that the FBI will lower standards for future agents. F.B.I. Plans to Lower Recruiting Standards, Alarming Agents – The New York Times. The New York Times reports that future agents would receive less than half the training at the FBI Academy than their predecessors. In addition, educational standards will be lowered so that new agents will not have to have received at least a four-year college degree.

The practical effect of lowering standards is lowering the individual’s and the agency’s overall capabilities. Will the FBI have enough people who are capable of conducting complex investigations that require analytical skills? Will future agents be able to read and understand complex reports and documents that may be seized in an investigation? This is relevant given the state of U.S. education and the ability of high school graduates to read and understand content. Some data indicate that “two-thirds of American high school graduates have underdeveloped reading skills, with illiteracy being a significant factor in high school graduation rates.” How Many People Graduate High School Illiterate. Will the FBI test applicants before expending training and other resources to put a recruit through the FBI Academy?

The plan to lower standards begs the question: Why aren’t there enough applicants among the pool of college graduates? Or, given that this administration demands individuals place allegiance to the White House occupant over allegiance to the country, is it easier to mold a new agent who cares less about respecting and acting in accordance with the law and the constitution if they have a lower educational standard?

In a different time and under a different set of historical circumstances, the U.S. lowered standards during the 1960s to allow marginal men to be drafted to feed the manpower needs of the war in Vietnam. Project 100,000 increased the pool of eligible young men for military service. How a Plan to ‘Salvage’ Vietnam Recruits Ended Disastrously | HistoryNet. While many military professionals were against the lowered standards, the need for bodies prevailed. One career officer’s view of the project was that “Project 100,000 was implemented to produce more grunts for the killing fields of Vietnam. It took unfit recruits from the bottom of the barrel and rushed them to Vietnam. The result was human applesauce.”

Lowering standards to become an FBI agent is not the same as lowering standards to ship people off to war. Nevertheless, what’s at risk should not be overlooked. Will the FBI continue to conduct the types of national security-related investigations that have been done in the past and at the level of competence necessary to do the job well?

The deeds, the conduct, the hiring/firing exhibited by this administration does not demonstrate a sincere effort to protect and defend the United States. Lowered FBI standards will undermine the agency for an unknown period of time during which adversaries will test U.S. capabilities. What every person should understand is that this is a deliberate and intentional decision that weakens our security. Those making these decisions, while often wrapping themselves in the flag, enjoy projecting a patriotic image as their actions weaken the fundamental mission of the FBI.

The current trend of placing uniformed military personnel on the streets and diverting the FBI to patrolling the streets are unlikely to make the U.S. safer if we neglect other forms of criminal conduct. Who investigates complex cases of industrial espionage by our foreign adversaries? Is this a way of getting the citizenry to focus on day-to-day crimes while white collar criminals steal millions or billions by defrauding U.S. citizens with impunity?

Given the cases in which the sitting president has been found guilty of fraud, it isn’t a surprise that he and his appointees prefer law enforcement to be in the streets rather than investigating fraud schemes, other white-collar crimes or threats of conspiracy or espionage aimed at the U.S.

About the Author: Tim Trainer is an army brat. He was born into the Army in Japan and was a high school junior when his father retired from the Army. Typical of Army or military brats of the times, he had attended 10 schools by the time of his high school graduation. He did not arrive in the United States until he was past his fifth birthday. After arriving in the United States, the Army life meant living in various parts of the United States, on and off post, depending upon his father’s duty station.

He had three “tours of duty” at Ft. Knox, KY, (some elementary school, some high school, and basic training). Upon his discharge from the Army in July 1975, he left the Army behind permanently. At the time of his discharge, he was twenty-one and half years old but had spent twenty years as either an army brat or on active duty.

After the Army years, he eventually earned a law degree and moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1987. Since moving to the Washington, D.C., area, he has worked as an attorney in federal government agencies and in the private sector. He has traveled extensively around the world, including several trips to Vietnam.

This work is evidence that his break from the Army was not “permanent.” In the late 1990s, his father, who was reuniting regularly with men he had served with in B2-7, invited him to meet the guys when they met in Washington, D.C. This led to his father’s invitation to attend a summer reunion in 2003. Since 2003, Mr. Trainer has been a regular attendee of the B2-7 reunions in Washington, D.C., and at the summer gatherings at what he calls “Camp Gast.”

Learn more about Tim and his books: TimothyTrainer.com

Read

“The Money, the Guard, The Black Hole,” by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer

Here’s to headline-grabbing stuff the past several days, along with something that doesn’t grab.

First, we have the supposed concern that advanced computer chips might give the Chinese an opportunity to catch up with the U.S. in artificial intelligence. At a time when money talks louder than usual, Trump decides that if the chip manufacturers are willing to pay to export to China, he’ll allow them to do so. Trump opens door to sales of version of Nvidia’s next-gen AI chips in China | Reuters. Although the chips that China would have access to aren’t the latest available versions, it doesn’t mean they can’t use them as a stepping stone for their own research and development. But for a price, anything is possible as long as a company is willing to pay (extorted?) for the privilege to export.

The second big headline that will bring great applause from some corners is the Presidential Memorandum on Restoring Law and Order to the Streets of the District of Columbia. Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia – The White House. While Trump makes some interesting comments about how bad crime is in the city, the U.S. Justice Department issued a statement in January 2025 that stated: “Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years”. District of Columbia | Violent Crime in D.C. Hits 30 Year Low | United States Department of Justice. Interestingly, statistics available from DC’s Metropolitan Police support the report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. District Crime Data at a Glance | mpdc. Simply put, lies to justify doing things are easier than looking at data, analyzing information and realizing that the actions being announced are not supported by any facts or evidence.

If Trump or members of Congress want to engage in the daily details of running the District of Columbia, perhaps they should resign their positions and run for mayor.

Then there’s the absence of the big, bold, flashing headline that we should know more about: Defense Industrial Base-Dependence on Foreign Suppliers. It’s the type of story that falls into a black hole with few noticing, even fewer reading and the administration having no interest in anyone seeing. A July 24, 2025, report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) should have the public telling the White House to pay attention to national issues that don’t grab headlines but are the hard work of government.

This GAO report is worthy of the public’s time. When we have a government asking for a trillion in taxpayer dollars for national security, it’s a problem when the Defense Department “recognizes that there are serious national security implications for not knowing where components of the goods it procures are manufactured.” GAO-25-107283, DEFENSE INSUSTRIAL BASE: Actions Needed to Address Risks Posed by Dependence on Foreign Suppliers.

The GAO report had to be self-limiting because of the hundreds, thousands of weapons systems that make up the U.S. military arsenal. Given the limitations, the GAO examined information available regarding supply chain information related to the F-35 fighter jet. The report states that the Defense Department knows that the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) “does not contain complete information about F-35 suppliers. . . . FPDS does not include information on the subcontracts that the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, enters with suppliers that provide subsystems, components, and raw materials for the aircraft. DoD, through Lockheed Martin, found that magnets included on some F-35s originated from China.” The discovery of these Chinese-origin magnates resulted in a pause in F-35 production for several months.

The same GAO report found similar deficiencies related to the Defense Department’s acquisition of microelectronics/electronic microcircuits. The report noted that the current data collection systems do not provide complete supply chain visibility.

While the GAO report was unable to look at components/parts sourcing for all U.S. weapons systems, the GAO’s inquiry on three systems exposed a massive deficiency that it states puts the U.S. at risk to potential adversaries.

While millions in the U.S. might applaud Trump’s efforts to force domestic and foreign enterprises to add to our treasury and applaud fabricating lies to place troops in the streets of U.S. cities, when will we expect the U.S. Government to GOVERN and address issues like the one identified in the GAO report? A trillion-dollar defense budget is meaningless if our adversaries can bring us to our knees by refusing to supply us with critical components for our weapons systems.

The problem identified by the GAO is one of thousands of challenges that confront the government, Congress, and the nation, yet we are treated daily to retribution politics. What we seem to be witnessing is not a government for the people, but a government for Trump.

Photo by AnnaGibbs.com

In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.

In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.

Learn more about this book and Tim’s writing process when he’s interviewed by author Jeffrey James Higgins’ for his new Inkandescent podcast and video show: Elaine’s Literary Salon.

Learn about Tim’s work and books: timothytrainer.com

Previous 1 2 3 4 Next