It's 9pm and I've just finished reading the comments on my Facebook page about the No Kings Rally in Bloomington, Il, today. I was encouraged by some of the responses and deeply troubled by some of the others.

So, today I went to the No Kings Rally ... along with 1,000 other Bloomington-Normal residents.

The commentators are wrong. We are not Antifa or Communist. We were not paid by George Soros. We are not part of some nonprofit. We were not at a Hate America rally. And we are certainly not pawns in some grand political scheme, nor are we dumb. These are all inflammatory descriptions meant to divide. And don't be so literal ... we know Trump is not a king, but we don't want either a king or a dictator.

Instead, we are concerned Americans -- alarmed by the direction the county is heading and looking for a way to show our dissatisfaction. It is comforting to know we not alone.

And, I believe it is a GRASSROOTS movement.

When the 2024 elections came around, I was a Trump supporter and believed he would decrease government size and eliminate waste, curb illegal immigration by deporting those dangerous and criminal elements -- the illegal gang lords and drug dealers.

But today, 10 months later, I am appalled by the processes he chose. There is so much to discuss on so many fronts, but I'll limit this tirade to two. (We can get into others later: Freedom of Speech, Health Care, Disease Research, FEMA ... he's been really busy the past 10 months.)

1. Decreasing government size

In an ideal world, you assess your personnel and see which ones are competent doing their jobs and which ones aren't. You check to see what the needs are for each department and how critical they are to the maintenance of the organization and society. Instead, Trump with the aid of Elon Musk and a handpicked group of young men -- idealistic, but inexperienced in real life crisis situations -- went into government agencies and laid off workers using a percentage algorithm, removing those who were "probationary".

Sounds good, until you consider what "probationary" means. These were not people placed on temporary status because of poor work ethics.

Instead, these were new hires with enthusiasm and new ideas -- the type of people who would one day replace a generation of retiring workers. These were also the workers who had excelled and were being promoted. In government, a promotion also means you are on probation for a period of time before settling into the job.

So we wind up in a worse situation. New, excited personnel and qualified personnel were removed. The survivors have to work doubly hard and the "hanger-ons" we were trying to remove are still there, inept as ever.

As uncertain and unsettling as this was, we now have a government shutdown, during which workers are being furloughed -- but expected to work -- with no pay. And in the midst of that, more layouts are occurring.

2. Immigration

Again, it sounds good on paper. Get rid of the gangs, rapists, murderers and drug lords. There must not be enough of these around or else they are already in jail.

Instead, ICE was sent in -- with masks, guns and bully clubs -- without warrants or just cause to round up "illegal immigrants" based on how they looked. Green cards and visas and work permits were ignored, as were US Real ID licenses. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles and US citizens were apprehended, bound with tie-wraps and imprisoned without due process, without a phone call, with no way to let families know where they were.

Against the wills of Illinois and California governors, Pritzger and Newsom, federal troops were sent into their states -- supposedly to clean up their crime-ridden cities. I live in downstate Illinois and visit relatives who live Chicago. It's a city for dining, museums, shopping, baseball, weddings and walks on the waterfront. Like every city, it has good and bad areas with problems to be solved -- but it is not a "crime-ridden cesspool". The military prescence is much more damaging than the crime statistics, creating a new level of fear and uncertainty for its people.

Today, schools in Hispanic neighborhoods are asking for volunteers to walk children to and from school, because parents are afraid to leave the house. People going to or from immigration court hearings are being picked up.

The level of abuse and misconduct by ICE agents during these arrests is despicable. Slamming women and political leaders to the ground and ramming cars are not acceptable actions. ICE uses the excuse they were under threat or being obstructed during the arrest of an illegal, but on-site cameras and on-looker statements disprove much of this.

And, of course, Kristi Noem and ICE put out slick news media videos on the evil doers they are apprehending, but are oddly silent about the mistakes they make daily. Many families still don't know where imprisoned relatives are.

Want to prove me wrong? Check the news, listen to the podcast interviews, watch the videos, read-read-read. Then tell me what I missed.

The atrocities are there -- getting worse every day. They are not one-off stories. They are not silly jokes for Maga supporters to laugh at.

The people they are detaining today are trying to raise families and build a future for their children. Some of them have lived here all their lives and know nothing about the language or customs of the countries they are being deported to. They are not the criminals we were promised.

So, today I went to the No Kings Rally ...