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MY THOTS - Increasingly, voters across the nation are having considerable difficulty keeping up with current affairs. Between wars, tariffs, DEI, funding cuts, vaccines and a batch of FBI files which may or may not exist, staying abreast of current affairs can be daunting. To make sure that you are on top of it all, here’s a quick quiz.
True or False: In a surprising turn of events, President Trump has ordered the release of more than $5 billion dollars of federal funding for education. The funds, which the administration had frozen pending an “analysis,” are intended to support educational programs in school districts across the country. The White House freeze was lifted before courts had heard or ruled on several lawsuits challenging the freeze. The reversal, which will enable access for millions of students to effective and efficient learning, is a dramatic U-turn which won praise from both Republican and Democratic legislators.
True or False: President Donald Trump has abruptly abandoned plans to add a $200 million ball room to the White House. The change in plans follows his controversial remake of the storied White House Rose Garden and the addition of impressive changes to the mansion’s décor including removal of some Presidential portraits and the extensive addition of gold filigrees and ornamentation. Addressing reporters as he boarded Air Force One, the President said, “While I know how to create the best ball rooms ever built, I’ve decided that the White House is so old and tired that even a grand ball room won’t help. The place is a dump. I am seriously considering a total rehab of the place from the ground up.”
True or False: FBI agents have arrested a curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. John Smythe, an intern assisting the Museum’s Director, has been apprehended and charged with “multiple violations of an Executive Order which “forbids slanderous and/or contemptuous disrespect of the President.” Smythe was arrested and led through a phalanx of reporters and cameras at his home in suburban Maryland one day after he restored, without permission, documents explaining the charges and outcome of two Congressional impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. Those documents had previously been removed from the Museums display areas. Before he was escorted to a van and driven away, Smythe shouted “The truth shall set me free.”
True or False: Shortly after entering the so-called Alligator Alcatraz facility housing an indeterminant number of people charged with being in the U.S. illegally, five members of Congress were forbidden to leave. The five Representatives had repeatedly been denied access to the facility which they wished to inspect and evaluate. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noam finally granted their request, but as soon as they entered the hastily constructed jail, she ordered guards to prevent them from leaving, saying, “They claim that conditions in this magnificent facility are unacceptable, so I’m giving them the chances to experience just how great it is first-hand. I’m sure that after a couple of weeks, they will recognize that this prison is humane, secure, and comfortable.”
True or False: Following a series of after-session rulings handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court without any explanation or justification, Justice Joseph Alioto granted an interview in which he asserted that the Court is not and cannot be “regulated” by anyone, specifying in particular that Congress has no power to regulate the Court.
Scoring: Award yourself ten points for each correct answer. The first and last questions in the quiz are True. All the others are (more or less) False.
(David M. Hamlin contributes to CityWatch/LA in addition to his work in short fiction and mystery novels.)
