A young woman and Chicago resident named Jill Ciminillo has become the target of coast-to-coast mockery and ridicule after she reacted to President Trump’s stated intention of making Chicago next on his list of urban hellscapes to make safe with federal intervention.
The conservative media (including Fox News) and blogosphere gleefully pounced, digging up her old social media posts…
and pronouncing Jill the poster girl for irrational Trump Derangement. “Dear leader trying to protect me,” one social media wag wrote in a tart “translation,” “I admit there is a serious problem here with crime and violence, but because of my hatred of you, we would rather suffer in our own self inflicted suffering. Signed – A Liberal white woman.” Ciminillo quickly deleted all of her social media accounts, surely hoping against hope that her 15 minutes of infamy won’t last any longer than that.
I feel sorry for Jill, and while it is appropriate for the absurdity of her post to be discussed and debunked, she is a victim, not a villain. She is infected with the Trump Derangement Virus because she has been the target of relentless, irresponsible, dishonest fear-mongering by the Axis of Unethical Conduct, including some once-admirable Americans who have allowed themselves to be pulled into the conspiracy.
Here, for example, was Ralph Nader, in many ways an American hero (who, like so many narrow-focus activists, got way out in front of his metaphorical skis), in March of this year. This is long, but it is the kind of unhinged hysteria from a once respectable liberal voice that convinces people like Jill (and my once astute Facebook Friend who just posted it) that “resistance” is the only moral, ethical and patriotic course. Here’s Ralph…
Stay Silent and Stay Powerless Against Trump’s TyrannyThere are reasons why influential or knowledgeable Americans are staying silent as the worsening fascist dictatorship of the Trumpsters and Musketeers gets more entrenched by the day. Most of these reasons are simple cover for cowardice.Start with the once-powerful Bush family dynasty. They despise Trump as he does them. Rich and comfortable George W. Bush is very proud of his Administration’s funding of AIDS medicines saving lives in Africa and elsewhere. Trump, driven by vengeance and megalomania, moved immediately to dismantle this program. Immediate harm commenced to millions of victims in Africa and elsewhere who are reliant on this U.S. assistance (including programs to lessen the health toll on people afflicted by tuberculosis and malaria).Not a peep from George W. Bush, preoccupied with his landscape painting and perhaps occasional pangs of guilt from his butchery in Iraq. His signal program is going down in flames and he keeps his mouth shut, as he has largely done since the upstart loudmouth Trump ended the Bush family’s power over the Republican Party.Then there are the Clintons and Obama. They are very rich, and have no political aspirations. Yet, though horrified by what they see Trump doing to the government and its domestic social safety net services they once ruled, mum’s the word.What are these politicians afraid of as they watch the overthrow of our government and the oncoming police state? Trump, after all, was not elected to become a dictator—declaring war on the American people with his firings and smashing of critical “people’s programs” that benefit liberals and conservatives, red state and blue state residents alike.Do they fear being discomforted by Trump/Musk unleashing hate and threats against them, and getting tarred by Trump’s tirades and violent incitations? No excuses. Regard for our country must take precedence to help galvanize their own constituencies to resist tyranny and fight for Democracy.What about Kamala Harris — the hapless loser to Trump in November’s presidential election? She must think she has something to say on behalf of the 75 million people who voted for her or against Trump. Silence! She is perfect bait for Trump’s intimidation tactics. She is afraid to tangle with Trump despite his declining polls, rising inflation, the falling stock market and anti-people budget slashing which is harming her supporters and Trump voters’ economic wellbeing, health and safety.This phenomenon of going dark is widespread. Regulators and prosecutors who were either fired or quit in advance have not risen to defend their own agencies and departments, if only to elevate the morale of those civil servants remaining behind and under siege.Why aren’t we hearing from Gary Gensler, former head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), now being dismantled, especially since the SEC is dropping his cases against alleged cryptocurrency crooks?Why aren’t we hearing much more (she wrote one op-ed) from Samantha Power, the former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under Biden, whose life-saving agency is literally being illegally closed down, but for pending court challenges?Why aren’t we hearing from Michael Regan, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under Biden about saboteur Lee Zeldin, Trump’s head of EPA, who is now giving green lights to lethal polluters and other environmental destructions?These and many other former government officials all have their own circles – in some cases, millions of people – who need to hear from them.They can take some courage of the seven former I.R.S. Commissioners — from Republican and Democratic Administrations — who condemned slicing the I.R.S staff in half and aiding and abetting big time tax evasion by the undertaxed super-rich and giant corporations. I am told that they would be eager to testify, should the Democrats in Congress have the energy to hold unofficial hearings as ranking members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees.Banding together is one way of reducing the fear factor. After Trump purged the career military at the Pentagon to put his own “yes men” at the top, five former Secretaries of Defense, who served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, sent a letter to Congress denouncing Trump’s firing of senior military officers and requesting “immediate” House and Senate hearings to “assess the national security implications of Mr. Trump’s dismissals.” Not a chance by the GOP majority there. But they could ask the Democrats to hold UNOFFICIAL HEARINGS as ranking members of the Armed Services Committees!Illinois Governor JB Pritzker can be one of the prime witnesses at these hearings – he has no fear of speaking his mind against the Trumpsters.On March 6, 2025, the Washington Bureau Chief of the New York Times, Elisabeth Bumiller, put her rare byline on an urgent report titled, “‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves.” She writes: “The silence grows louder every day. Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents [one exception is Wesleyan University President Michael Roth] fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.”To be sure, government employees and other unions are speaking out and suing in federal court. So are national citizen groups like Public Citizen and the Center for Constitutional Rights, though hampered in alerting large audiences by newspapers like the Times rarely reporting their initiatives.Yes, Ms. Bumiller, pay attention to that aspect of your responsibility. Moreover, the Times’ editorial page (op-ed and editorials) are not adequately reflecting the urgency of her reporting. Nor are her reporters covering the informed outspokenness and actions of civic organizations.Don’t self-censoring people know that they are helping the Trumpian dread, threat and fear machine get worse? Study Germany and Italy in the nineteen thirties.The Trump/Musk lawless, cruel, arrogant, dictatorial regime is in our White House. Their police state infrastructure is in place. Silence is complicity!
Now there’s a guy who should have been mocked and humiliated! Nader apparently saw nothing wrong with Democrats mounting a demented puppet President before the public while a Soviet-style news media joined in the attempt to fool everyone that Biden was “sharp as a tack.” Nader didn’t mind open borders while Biden’s DHS Secretary said the the border was “secure;” he didn’t object to government sanctioned anti-white discrimination; he saw nothing amiss with a partisan star chamber in the house rigged to tell the public that what wasn’t an “insurrection” was one, or a party’s weaponization of the justice system to eliminate its most powerful political foe. I can’t blame a trusting, bubble-raised Chicago woman who believes Ralph Nader, even if what he’s claiming is utter nonsense.
To state the obvious, or at least it should be: President Trump has done nothing “dictatorial”—he’s using the powers the Constitution gives him, and, unlike his first term when he was hobbled by a series of unethical and democratic norm-scarring measures designed to make it impossible for him to govern (Ralph had nothing to say about that, either), using them deftly and well.
I’m reasonably sure Jill watches MSNBC—oops, sorry: “MS”—which is still, hour after hour, day after day, parroting the Democrats’ pathetic talking point since at least 2022 that Donald Trump is a nascent Hitler. Over the weekend the all-anti-Trump-propaganda-all-the-time Democratic Party mouthpiece brought on Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-PA) to warn that the President plans to take over major cities with federal agents to facilitate canceling future elections. One of the network’s “contributors” added, “Is it possible that he is going to do this in city after city in order to then say, ‘You know what, the country is too dangerous — I’m in power here, and we don’t have to have elections?'”And there was former RNC chairman Michael Steele, who sold out to the far left network that pays him a pretty penny to be its Ana Navarro (of The View, a reliable Trump-bashing Republican), to say on cue…
“I think that’s exactly the case. I’ll put a finer point on what you just said as a native Washingtonian, and I think I speak for a lot of Washingtonians tonight who watched this BS spectacle, this performative effort by the President of the United States. As you note, this is not about crime — this is about the militarization of our police. This is about the victimization of the citizens who live in the District of Columbia — and it’s also about the deployment of that military in such a way to prove Donald Trump has the power to do whatever the hell he wants to do, and that nobody will stop him.”
How can anyone blame Jill Ciminillo for making the brave, honorable, ethical choice to sacrifice her personal safety and well-being to save the United States of America from a ruthless dictator whose plan is to end our constitutional republic? I won’t. I will blame the institutions and people who have made her gullible, fearful, ignorant, biased and stupid.
Ethics Alarms 
I was listening to WMAL this morning and they were discussing the warring social media posts between Wes Moore and Trump on the issue of crime in Baltimore. At one point the concept of the school to prison pipeline came up and the hosts were lamenting that Baltimore City public school children were virtually illiterate – and they are when only 10% can do math at grade level and reading ability is almost nil. Full disclosure, I am a product of the BCPS graduating in 1974. Why have things changed so badly in BCPS in the last 50 years and why were they better in the long run up to my graduation when black kids were expected to graduate and could perform as well as their white cohort.
The hosts felt that the fact the BCPS are doing a poor job is a reason for the school to prison pipeline. That may be part of it but the root cause of poor academic performance is that far too many inculcate the belief in children that no matter what they do the system is rigged against them in favor of those with white privilege.
It is not whites who label a minority who achieves success as a “token” at best or a sell out to whitey at worst. Children are impressionable and they learn the lessons taught to them by those they feel are going to teach them that which is correct. When prison is taught to be something to be avoided by not getting involved with “the element” and when black leadership stops blaming white systemic racism for differential achievement levels and parents reinforce the need to learn to read well and be well rounded in terms of education will the school to prison pipeline go the way of the Dodo. When that happens people can walk the streets confident that some kid will not bash you over the head to “take what you got”.
Maybe Wes Moore need to start getting his political handlers to tell Baltimore City kids they have a future if they work for it. Any revolution should be internal because that is what any one of has the capacity to change alone.
Denzel Washington’s second “The Equalizer” movie (though inferior to the first) had a useful section on this problem. He takes a black street kid with artistic talent under his wing, and when he learns that the kid is hanging out with gangbangers, he invades their meeting and drags the kid out of the meeting to confront him. The boy argues that he doesn’t have a chance as a legit worker/citizen, that the gang lifestyle is the only way someone like him can succeed. Denzel dares him to show that he can be cold and ruthless enough to emulate the gang, and convinces him that he has the ability to succeed if he’ll only dedicate himself.
…and that was a GREAT scene!! It’s not very hard to imagine Washington writing a bit of his own (largely Christian) worldview into that dialogue as well.
For 10 years, the Democrats have sold nothing but fear.
And, their base bought it.
I have no sympathy for people who fear Trump.
While not a big fan of FDR his, perhaps, most memorable quote holds no weight with the modern democratic party, which is now telling them they have everything to fear.
-Jut
Jill Ciminillo is a fine example of what leftist indoctrinating propaganda can do to gullible minds. Sure Ciminillo’s a victim but she’s also an indoctrinated moron.
That screed by Ralph Nader reminds me a little of the screed I posted about yesterday. Nader’s repetitive mantra that’s something like “it’s Trump’s fault that we aren’t hearing anything from_____” pretty much falls in line with the “fawning and capitulation to Trump” I talk about in the post I linked to. Here’s a brief excerpt…
People like Nader and Humphrey are extremely biased, their Trump Derangement Syndrome symptoms drives their Trump obsession and critical thinking is nowhere to be found. They have serious self-awareness issues.
I understand the sentiment, but I do not feel much sympathy for her. While she is the victim of a crime, she is not a victim. This is the end result of her, and other Chicagoans, repeatedly voting for the putrescence that is the left-wing ideology of “do what thou will,” rather than the maintaining of law and order. This doesn’t even have to be considered a “divine judgement” of any kind…this is just the natural progression of things.
Ms. Ciminillo should, rather than shake her fist at a President who desires that criminals be punished, go out and buy another car to be hijacked…and then offer the assailants her right forearm to be broken.
Oh wait, she’s already doing that in her tweets. Hope that works out for you.
Ralph Nader is ethically estopped from complaining about people “going dark” unless someone can show me that he made the same complaints about “Political Correctness” back when that became a Thing™. (And P.C. Culture was deliberate intimidation of opposing opinions, exactly like what he complains about now.)
In fact, shutting your mouth is a fantastic, admirable alternative to using your mouth to spout things that most people would consider pure craziness and, as the saying goes, “remove all doubt.”
–Dwayne
I would prefer that tweets of normal citizens with a low public profile who utter commonly shared opinions do not go viral this way. Being a victim of a crime does not mean that all of a sudden you have to take very tough stances on law and order, death penalty, immigration etc. , and that you have to turn from a liberal into a conservative.
Lampooning screeds by well known activists and politicians on conservative websites like Townhall and the Federalist is fair game IMHO, but an unknown person like Jill does not deserve to be made a celebrity in such an antagonistic way. This is an ingredient of cancel culture, something I hoped would disappear after November 2024.
I agree, and EA has written about this before. People shouldn’t mass shame someone who just posted a stupid thought or ill-considered idea. But that’s social media (and, for that matter, blogging): you’ve consented to having the stupidest thing you’ve ever thought or said become your legacy. User beware.
You make a good point unfortunately these unknowns are seeking celebrity status when their posts are allowed to be shared beyond their own followers
My first car was a 1964 Corvair. it got me through college up to the point where i was drafted. It then erved my younger brother for a few years. Thus i would never put stock in what Ralph Nader has to say.
This youg womans response is neither brave, honorable or ethical, it is foolish and detructive to others.
I dissent.
She has an ethical duty as a citizen not to allow herself to be gulled. If she wants to comment on current events, she should educate herself beyond her narrow cocoon.
She is an idiot because she chooses to be. More importantly, she is a victim because she chooses to place herself in danger without insisting the government do it’s job and keep the carjackers off the street via her vote for an anti-crime government.
This lawlessness is the government she voted for, and her victimhood is a direct consequence of that.