THE CASH STUFF FOR NOV. 13, 2025

 

                                                               PROF. IRVING JOYNER

JOYNER URGES AFRICAN-AMERICANS

TO BECOME AWARE OF HOW TRUMP

IS “DESTROYING DEMOCRACY”

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Mass termination of federal employees; denial of SNAP benefits for the poor; brutal raids by masked federal ICE, Border Patrol and FBI agents on nonwhite communities in Black-run cities in Democratic states; elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion policies across the board.

There’s little question that many Americans have seen enough, and on Nov. 4th Election Day last week, voiced their disapproval of Pres. Trump and the Republican Party’s policies that have dramatically changed America not for the better, all while Trump’s tariffs are hurting the economy, and hurting affordability, especially in the black community.

Political analyst Professor Irving Joyner of North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham says it is imperative that African-Americans join with other Americans in going to the voting booth in November 2026, and cast their ballots to stop what is going on presently by taking the majority away from the Republicans so that Pres. Trump  cannot do further damage with congressional approval.

In an exclusive interview, Prof. Joyner shared his thoughts about what impact that first 10 months of the second Trump Administration have had.

“The devastating impacts that Presidential Executive actions have imposed upon the Democratic Process and the functioning of the federal government in this country by Donald Trump and his allies will have a long-term, if not permanent, effect within the United States,” Prof. Joyner said. 

“In the first eleven months of this Administration, every organ of government has been severely and negatively impacted. These acts include, but are not restricted to, continuing attacks on voting rights, the destruction of the immigration process, the widespread unlawful firing of federal employees without due process, the  destruction of the Department of Education and elimination of federal support for educational institutions, the use of the federal military to invade urban cities, the dismantling of governmental Civil Rights investigative functioning to the establishment and use of the Department of Justice as a private law firm for the Executive Branch of government and more.  Many of these actions are presently under review by the “Trump-Leaning” US Supreme Court which is expected to endorse most or all of them.”

Prof. Joyner continued, “While these actions originated with Donald Trump, they have been sanctioned by an army of Trumpets, (Trump Allies and collaborators) who presently occupy positions of power in the Executive, Congressional, the United States Supreme Court which controls the Judicial branches of government and many State governments. As such, no matter what happens to Donald Trump, it will take years to remove the many elected officials and agents who now control federal agencies in this country.”

“We have witnessed the most profound restructuring of the Republic form of government and the destruction of Democracy that have ever occurred in history and it will not be easily and quickly restored to the more progressive America that has been developed since the Civil War,” Prof. Joyner continued. “What has occurred in the past [ten] months should come as no surprise since they were forecasted in the Project 2025 plan which was authored by the [conservative] Heritage Foundation prior to the [2024] elections and most of the authors of the plans are now appointed officials in the Trump Administration.”

Prof. Joyner then issue his warning to the Black community about what it must ultimately do to join with others to stop what Pres. Trump is doing to the nation.

“For African Americans, people of color and those who still believe in a progressive Democracy, the test of that commitment must be demonstrated during the coming [twelve] months,” Joyner warned. “If there is no visible resistance to the steady destruction of this Democracy before the 2026 mid-term election, this Democracy will be completely destroyed. While it will take decades to restore what we previously achieved in this country, the first steps toward restoration must be taken now!”

African-Americans must vote in the 2026 midterm elections, Prof. Joyner maintains, just as they did, joining with whites, Hispanics and others on November 4th in what has been widely seen as a wholesale rejection of punitive Trump and Republican policies.

-30-

FEDERAL JUDGES TO HEAR

ARGUMENTS TO BLOCK NEW

VOTING MAP ON NOV. 19

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

A hearing to consider arguments for a preliminary injunction against the new voting maps for the First and Third Congressional districts will be held Nov. 19th in Winston-Salem, by a federal three-judge panel. That hearing will take place just 12 days before candidates filing for the 2026 midterm elections.

The new voting maps, if enacted, would break up the historic Black Belt of majority African-American counties in northeastern North Carolina. Plaintiffs argue that enactment would dilute black voting strength there, not allowing black voters to elect congressional representation of their choice.

Plaintiffs have asked the court for an expedited review of their lawsuits against the newly drawn congressional districts. Republican legislative leaders are expected to defend the redrawn districts, and are asking the court to dismiss the lawsuits.

Republican legislative leaders are seeking to create an extra GOP-leaning congressional district that will add to the Republican majority already in Congress and give President Trump an advantage to further his policy agenda.

Texas has created five districts for this purpose, but voters in California last week overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, which automatically, but temporarily, created five additional Democratic-leaning districts to offset those created by Texas. 

Virginia is also expected to create a Democrat-leaning district to offset what North Carolina is doing.

In a court filing last week, Republican legislative leaders argued that they’re allowed to redraw congressional districts for partisan reasons.

“Supreme Court precedent is clear ‘that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts,’” attorneys for the GOP argued. 

But plaintiffs seeking to stop the new voting maps see it differently.

“In a virtually unprecedented move, the [North Carolina General Assembly] engaged in mid-decade redistricting entirely on its own initiative,” argued attorneys for the NC NAACP, Common Cause NC and other plaintiffs.

“No new Census compelled it. No intervening court order prompted it. No legitimate state interest justified it. The NCGA targeted Congressional District 1 in the redistricting process for one reason alone: to punish the voters in North Carolina’s historic Black Belt, including Plaintiffs, who had challenged the previous districting plan in this Court and who exercised their political power to oppose the map-drawers’ preferred candidates and policies in 2024.”

Republican legislative leaders have until Nov. 14th to respond to plaintiff’s motion to review their two lawsuits to block the new voting maps.

Plaintiffs have until Nov. 21st to respond to Republican leaders.

A trial date, expected for sometime in 2026, has yet to be set by the court.

-30-

THE NEW CASH COMMENTARY FOR NOV. 13, 2025

                                                                  CASH MICHAELS

                         DID YOU GET OUR MESSAGE? WE’RE WOKE!

                                by Cash Michaels

Boy, wasn’t last week something?

Democrats from “sea to shining sea” (my fancy way of saying from New York City to California, and many places in between) wiped the floor with win after win, not just in large marquee places like the Big Apple, New Jersey and Virginia, but also here in North Carolina and other states holding smaller, local, but significant off-year elections.

Dems even had victories in tough suburban areas, along with Hispanic voters, who left the party in 2024. Apparently seeing many other latinos being brutally manhandled by federal officers in 2025 has left a bad taste in their mouths this election.

“It was good to see progressives get off the mat,” former Pres. Barack Obama said. “It was a good reminder that, it turns out that the American people are paying attention.”

“And what this election also taught us is that it turns out that if, number one, you have candidates with integrity who believe in something and are in it for the right reasons, they can win. And what we also learned is that when young people are engaged and involved, then we win.” 

“This is a big loss,” Fox News anchor Bret Baier, a sometime Trump golfing buddy, countered on-air the next day. “If you look inside the numbers, there are some dangerous things.” "Dangerous" for who, Bret? You're supposed to be a 'fair and balanced' newsman.

        Sounds like you had a serious problem with the results.

For example in Charlotte, Queen City voters reelected Mayor Vi Lyles by 70%, and told all but one Republican City Council member to hit the bricks, now giving Dems an 11-1 majority.

Same song in Wilmington, where Democrats on the City Council now have a 7-0 majority.

This was truly a mandate.

Based on the overwhelming results, it seems like Democratic candidates across the country all got the same memo - run for something!

In this case, “running for something” meant campaigning to improve everyone’s quality of life by addressing our bad economy, corrupted democracy and dysfunctional government, with a singular purpose - vowing to do legislatively what’s necessary to make American living more affordable and reasonable for everyone.

Cause when you do that, and mean it, you automatically run against the person and political party responsible for who two-thirds of Americans, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, said was responsible that the country getting "pretty seriously off on the wrong track.”

Trump and the Republicans. 

You see, that’s what’s been missing. A political party that actually, and actively, fought for the American people in the past year. A political party willing to stand up strong against the folks who not only run Washington, but actually own it.

That’s why it’s taken bold Democrats willing to stand up strong and unyielding during the longest federal shutdown in history to make it clear that those days of bending over and taking it from Trump and the Republicans are over. Since Dems can’t pass anything because they are a minority in the House and Senate, and don’t have the White House, they have to leverage the only effective weapon they really have.

Courage!

And hopefully, that courage, that willingness to stand up to Trump and the Republicans as they sell the average American down the proverbial river to the rich and filthy, will yield positive results a year from now in the 2026 midterm elections.

Because only then, if Dems are able to win enough seats to take back the House, making my fellow Brooklyn homeboy Hakeem Jeffries speaker of the House, will we be able to stop much of the foolishness coming out of the Trump White House (a place now known as “Corrupt-a-lago”).

And that’s why last week’s election results are encouraging. Because it shows that Americans - meaning Democrats, a sizable number of independent voters, and even some Republicans - are ready for a dramatic change. After 10 months of Trump, we’ve all seen enough, and we know that we have to stop this nonsense before we completely lose our country, our democracy, and our minds.

And I love the way it all came together.

In October, 7 million people hit the streets across America in protest to declare that we simply will NOT have a king.

The federal shutdown also manifested itself in October, with Trump and the Republicans not only ignoring the massive protests, but actually, and insanely, taunting them with more and more brutal ICE and Border Patrol agent raids in our cities; more and more federal employee firings; more and more obscene behavior with a $300 million White House gilded ballroom and wrecking ball to the East Wing; illegal tariffs raising costs for American businesses and consumers; trips abroad to get fancy gifts from foreign leaders while our government at home is shutdown; holding an atrocious and obscene “Great Gatsby” party for rich people at Mar-a-lago resort while over 40 million Americans were set to lose their SNAP food stamp benefits; and a lot of other stuff that signaled to everybody that their president was hopelessly out of touch, committed only to his own warped personal agenda, and not caring at all about solving our problems.

In fact, Trump was actually adding to our problems, and acting as if he had the absolute and unassailable right to do so!

But folks were paying attention, and had had enough. We just needed a constructive outlet through which we could express our frustration with the B.S. we were experiencing.

Enter November 4th, Election Day! The day Americans WOKE up!

I put that in caps because I know it bothers MAGA people, but you know what? I don’t care, because now heading into 2026, we have a horserace.

By the way, I recently read a conservative pundit who ignorantly likened being woke to white nationalism. There could be no purer crap. Being woke simply means being aware of the truth, and it is not restricted to any one race, color or creed. It is NOT “reverse racism!”

Last Tuesday, millions of Americans, arguably “woke” to the fact that their country has been hijacked by forces not in their best interests, took the time and effort to send an important message.

WE’VE HAD ENOUGH!

So now, that fire must continue to burn going into 2026, so that folks can change the House, and counter the power of Trump before it becomes too late.

I must tell you that the size and proportion of last week’s Democratic victories, which for the record, again went well beyond the blue state boundaries of New York, Virginia, New Jersey and California , is encouraging. It comes as no surprise that there are reports that Trump is trying to come up with some new policies from his administration that address affordability, even though he says he doesn't want t talk about it because his administration was better at affordability than any other.

        Yeah, and my grandmother won four gold medals for track in the last Summer Olympics!

Trump  even got the Supreme Court to stop a judge’s order for him to restart full SNAP benefits. Atrocious!

I can’t tell you how saddened I was to read a quote from a 25 year-old Colorado woman on the front page of The N.Y. Times Friday, “I went to the dumpster behind a Walmart, and I grabbed as much as I could.” Reportedly, this woman's nearest food panty had ran out of food.

What Trump and his Republicans have done to this country, and especially our poor, is disgraceful, and it sickens me.

But I also busted a gut when I saw tape of Republican House “Squeeker” Mike “MAGA Mouse” Johnson telling low-wealth citizens who have had to go without their needed full SNAP benefits since Nov. 1st because of the GOP federal shutdown, that they “have a home in the Republican Party.”

Any low-income person who falls for that crap, deserves the friggin’ haunted house that comes with it!

In fact, Trump, who vowed during the 2024 election that he would lower prices for American consumers on Day One of his administration, is trying mightily to convince folks that grocery prices are down now, crying that Americans are “feeling better,” contrary to facts actually in the stores. Suddenly, “affordability” has become his middle name, apparently replacing “criminality.” Tough to fight the high cost of living with Trump’s incoherent tariffs killing our small businesses for the holidays.

And make no mistake…it is not below Trump and the Republicans to attempt to rig the election system so that November 4th never happens again. In fact, I would be absolutely shocked if our best and brightest in election law, like Attorney Marc Elias, aren’t expecting games to be played, and are gearing up to head these folks off at the pass.

So, did you get our message? We’re woke again, and whether it is the school board, city council, state House, or Congressional House, we’re ready to kick Republicans to the curb like we did last week because they’re too busy kissing Donald Trump’s crooked hind quarters to properly govern in the best interests of the people. Republicans can’t be trusted!

But know this, Democrats…Americans are not totally convinced you have your act back together yet. Don’t think you don’t have to prove yourself here, because you do, more than ever.

Do everything you can to keep all of your campaign promises not just to the people who voted for you, but ALL Americans, PERIOD! Make a significant difference! Show Republicans what true public service is all about.

Are you getting our message, Democrats? Good! Then start fighting for us!

We’re counting on you!

-30-

NEW CASH COMMENTARY FOR NOV. 6, 2025

                                                                 CASH MICHAELS

          BONFIRE OF OUR LEGALITIES

            by Cash Michaels

I was watching the news the other day when I heard the Texas Democratic Party chairman say, “When you elect a clown, you should expect a circus.”

Naturally he was talking about Donald Trump, and I defy anyone to look me dead in the eye and say with a straight face that what we’re going through right now in this country, is not a circus. 

The normalcy we all expect from our government is now a thing of the past. Every day we wake up, expecting to hear more ridiculous nonsense sent out via social media from the president about what or who he likes or doesn’t like that is so beyond what the office calls for, that we’re now emotionally immune to the crazy crap he tries to shove down our throats on a regular basis.  

And that’s dangerous, very dangerous! We'll completely lose our country if we’re not careful!

But let’s cut right to it, shall we? In the ten months since Donald Trump has returned to the White House, the important values that we’ve lost as a nation, and the important values that we are yet to lose, are not important at all to the man who is taking them from us.

In fact, he considered them to be so useless to him, and to the new America he’s constructing, that they're essentially meaningless now, or will be soon.

And that’s why I call this period we’re living in with Trump, "the bonfire of our legalities," coined after that famous 1987 Tom Wolfe bestseller, “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” 

But unlike Tom Wolfe’s classic novel, Trump’s bonfire is about all of the societal and governmental norms he has, and is, expected to trash and burn to turn this country into the authoritarian regime he’s always dreamed of.

Let’s start with what he’s done to the White House. All of the garish changes he’s made in the past ten months may not mean much to you beyond just ostentatious symbols of obscene wealth, but those changes tell us - the American people and the world - what kind of leader Trump sees himself as, and thus, how he will continue to govern.

Apparently American public housing is way below Trump’s usual standard of living. The White House has traditionally been known as “the people’s house” because it belongs to ALL of us, and reflects what we consider best represents our nation. 

Or at least we always thought it did.

Now, Trump can’t breathe unless he’s surrounded by gold and marble garnishments. Apparently he needs a 14-carat toilet bowl to inspire his best thinking. Can’t function unless the very ground he walks on is constructed in tribute to him. He even wants a giant archway built in his honor in the nation’s capital to tout his legacy.

So the guy has a big ego problem, big deal, you say? What laws is he breaking remaking the White House and Washington, D.C. in his image? The question should be what laws isn’t Trump breaking?

Bulldozing the East Wing of the White House for a $300 million gold-encrusted ballroom that none of us as taxpayers will ever actually get to see or step in, paid for by wealthy corporations, without any official clearance or permissions from another governing body, is clearly another one of Trump’s “break the law first,  say 'so what' later” schemes.

        The other night on "Late Night with Stephen Colbert," former First Lady Michelle Obama, when asked what she thought about the destruction of the East Wing for a ballroom, expressed consternation, saying that the country must “decide what rules are we following and who is to abide by them, and who isn’t. I am lost, and I hope that more Americans feel lost in a way that they want to be found again, because it’s up to us to find what we’re losing.”

        Mrs. Obama will always be my Forever First Lady!

Trust me, I get it. The old White House simply wasn’t as glam as Donald and Melania may have wanted it. But trust me, it had a lot more style than the damn prison cell his crooked -ss truly belongs in!

The bottomline here is Trump has no respect for the country he was elected president of - its values, laws or traditions. Only the power that the office wields, and he’s done everything possible to corrupt that.

When he tells folks, “I can do anything I want,” that should betray the mind of a man who does not see himself as an elected leader and responsible representative of the people, but a ruthless dictator. A figure above our laws, above our beliefs and way below our common decency.

That bonfire is burning, and with it, many of the values we all treasure, and virtually everything we used to pride ourselves as a nation as being.

What else is in that bonfire pile so far? Our democracy to start, along with basic principles like free and fair elections. Soon, the very right to vote itself.

The historic shutdown we’re still in the midst of after over 36 days, has also clued us in to what else serves as social and legal kindling for Trump’s bonfire.

- Not caring about whether 42 million Americans, including children, eat or not by denying them their full SNAP benefits.

- Terminating so-called “Democrat federal workers” he doesn’t have the power to fire from their employment without due process at so-called “Democrat federal agencies,” which have been closed, promising that they will “never” get their jobs back because of their politics. 

- Sending masked ICE, FBI and Border Patrol agents to so-called “Blue” (read Democrat-run) cities in a deliberate effort to terrorize people Trump wants out of the country.

- Grabbing so-called “criminals" off the street and shipping them off to prisons in other countries without legal due process.

We can call all of the above “legalities" because federal judges either have, or have been asked to rule on them. But there's more...

  - Ensuring that the wealthy of this country have disproportionate advantages from the federal government compared to the average taxpaying citizen.

  - Making the executive branch omnipotent by seizing the power of the legislative branch to make laws, levy tariffs and stop congressional appropriations, then ignoring contrarian legal rulings of the judicial branch that threaten exercising that power. 

- Weaponizing the power of the criminal justice system for political retribution against perceived enemies, and rewarding convicted lawbreakers, like 1600 convicted participants in the Jan. 6th, 2021 Capital riot with pardons, thus turning the rule of law on its head.

- Ordering the Justice Dept. to investigate and/or prosecute specific American citizens.

- Threatening war on non-white nations by indiscriminately killing people in international waters under contrived pretenses.

- Seeking to violate Constitutional law by undermining Americans’ birthright citizenship.

   - Not improving the quality of life or lowering costs for everyday citizens as promised.

- Stealing classified documents, then claiming that the federal government is liable for $230 million because it raided his home to reclaim them.

- Developing a closer, warmer relationship with America’s traditional enemies like Russia and North Korea, and a more antagonistic relationship with traditional allies like Canada.

    - Threatening not to send federal funding to Democrat-run cities, or already canceling funding for needed municipal projects. 

- Canceling millions in research funding to colleges and universities that maintain diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

            - Threatening powerful law firms that represent people the Trump Administration considers enemies with cancellation of government contracts.

     -  Successfully suing the news media, demoting established news organizations and expelling reporters from the Pentagon, in order to gain control of administration coverage.

             - Dismantling the U.S. Dept. of Education, putting the educational rights of poor, non-English speaking and handicapped students at risk.

     - Threatening the limitation of freedom of speech.

      - Using government influence to personally enrich himself, family and businesses.

       - Threatening the use of the U.S. military on American soil.

               - Accepting expensive gifts from foreign countries and donations from wealthy benefactors.

                - Threatening American civil liberties, including the right to protest.

That’s a pretty long list of violated traditional American values - many with legal implications - that Trump has corrupted and burned through just in the past ten months.

And the damn shame of it is, it is not a compete list by any measure.

A year ago, Zack Beauchamp wrote in Vox before the 2024 presidential election that if Trump won, he would turn “…the government into an extension of his personal will.”

By all accounts, he’s well on his way to doing just that.

How did we get here?

Beauchamp argues in his book, The Reactionary Spirit, that  "...rising political antagonism in America is a perennial outgrowth of its defining conflict over race and national identity — with the current round of conflict sparked largely (albeit not entirely) by backlash to Barack Obama’s 2008 victory."

"The sense among some Americans that they were losing their country to something new, defined by a more diverse population and a more equal social hierarchy, made the idea of a strongman who could roll back change quite appealing to a significant chunk of the American population. These voters had come to constitute a plurality, if not an outright majority, of Republican primary voters — creating the conditions for Trump to rise."

Beauchamp continued, “In 2016, Trump seized on this reactionary discontent and married it to a whole-scale agenda of backlash against the current political order. His policies and political rhetoric — on everything from immigration to gender to trade to foreign policy — were calculated to deepen America’s divisions and mainstream ideas once consigned to the fringes."

But then something unexpected happened in 2016, Beauchamp reminds us. Trump won, and had to scramble to put a government together he was not ready to lead. There was no Project 2025 then, so he had no real roadmap. Some of the people he hired to lead his administration were not as loyal as he demanded, and instead, began working against him.

Trump learned from that experience, and used the four years out of office from 2021 to 2025, to prepare for a second presidency in which he could command more control, demand more loyalty, and become a world power not restricted by the law, but only his own whims.

And from all telltale signs, Trump has no inclination of giving this power up, because as far as he’s concerned, America is just one of his prized possessions like one of his golf courses or resort clubs. Which means he and his family, along with his rich supporters, will now have dominion over that which rightfully belongs to us, the people.

“Cash is making this stuff up,” some of you are saying. Oh, then ask yourself why Trump is closely following the model of other brutal world dictators and how they took power in their respective countries.Vladimir Putin in Russia. Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary. Kim Jong Un in North Korea.

Even Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, otherwise known as the “Quiet General” and “The Pimp.”

These are all longtime autocratic strongmen who do not tolerate dissent, have no problem sending troops in to manhandle or even kill demonstrators, and maintain a tight grip on the levers of their government’s power.

It’s safe to say that Trump loves this style, and doing everything he can corrupt our government to the extent that he can get away with instituting much of this “strongman” stuff here.

And that’s why time is running out for Americans who don’t want a dictatorship of any kind to first pay attention to what’s really going on; second, CARE about what’s really going on, and how it affects ALL of us; and third, seriously prepare to do everything in your power to stop Trump’s power grab and reckless bonfire of our legalities.

        It was heartening indeed to see the tremendous Democratic enthusiasm and victories in New York City, Virginia, New Jersey, California and other places during Tuesday night’s elections, and hopefully Dems can not just hold onto that energy going into 2026, but spread it like wildfire all over this country. No, Trump wasn't on the ballot, but the tremendous mess from his bonfire was!

I’ll share with you what my good friend and colleague, Law Professor Irving Joyner of North Carolina Central University School of Law, told me recently:

For…those who still believe in a progressive Democracy, the test of that commitment must be demonstrated during the coming thirteen months. If there is no visible resistance to the steady destruction of this Democracy before the 2026 mid-term election, this Democracy will be completely destroyed. While it will take decades to restore what we previously achieved in this country, the first steps toward restoration must be taken now!

        “This is not only how we stop Donald Trump, but how we stop the next one,” vowed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani Tuesday night.

Amen!