Earlier today I was asked to explain how the Republican administration under Donald Trump has shredded the Constitution and why DSA candidates are so needed in this time of turmoil. I barely made it through the preamble when I realized that this is going to need a deeper dive.

So here we go; part 1 of things Republicans have done to violate the Constitution, abdicate their constitutional authority, while bending the knee to an audience of one.

Preamble

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

“Establish justice”: There is no equal justice in America. There is one justice for the wealthy, and a separate justice for the poor. There is justice for white people, and a separate justice for people who have any sort of non-white coloration.

”Insure domestic tranquility”: The point here is to promote a sense of peace among the people of the country. With the Trump regime deploying the military into American cities there is nothing but fear and panic as our neighbors, friends, and family are being kidnapped, abused, and in some cases, murdered.

"Promote the general welfare": The Constitution exists to provide a framework by which government provides what is needed to support the governed. This does not mean raising prices on everything and causing people to have to choose between food or medication. It does not mean supporting a predatory health insurance system that feeds the wealthy at the expense of people’s lives. Most of all, it does not mean sending billions of dollars overseas to countries who are committing genocide of entire regions.

Republicans under Trump don't care about citizens being hungry or sick dying as long as the wealthy get everything they want and the truly guilty are not exposed for their many crimes. It's "pay to play" in this administration, and that - itself - is a crime!

Article 1

Section 1

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

Trump Republicans have the numbers to have 100% control over both the House and Senate chambers. In other words, they have ALL legislative powers. However, what have they done, other than bend the knee to the President and allow him to run roughshod over everything with countless Executive Orders?

Trump declared war on Iran without consulting Congress, and has continued the war without a congressional declaration of war. He’s levied tariffs against virtually everyone (except Russia) without any congressional oversight or approval. He’s deployed the military into American cities without congressional approval or oversight. In fact, congress members who have tried to exercise their rights to inspect the Trump detention centers have often been turned away, sometimes violently, denying these people their rights as an elected official.

All this is bad. Truly bad. But let’s split hairs for a moment. Section 1 says “legislative powers”, which basically means passing laws. What laws have Republicans passed with this full control of the government? If you answered “next to none”, you’d be spot on, because they’re doing nothing but going on TV and talking about supporting Trump’s ridiculous EOs. They have acquiesced the power of their position to a demented old man who craps his pants and sleeps all day and rage-tweets at night while being “served” by a young, super-sketchy, blonde girl who looks suspiciously like his daughter.

To be fair, they have passed one piece of legislation: H.R. 1. (You may know it by its stripper name, “Big Beautiful Bill”.) This legislation is absolute treason, as it takes away resources for “the general welfare” of the public and gives significant tax breaks to a small cabal of the wealthy who have padded the pockets of the President to curry legislative favor. The bill is big, but the only beautiful thing about it is how it gives Republicans something to complain about when they lose power. We must never forget who foisted this horseshit upon a nation who deserves much, much better from its elect.

Section 2

This section about the House of Representatives is more administrative than legislative and as such is not being violated by the Trump regime as there’s nothing for Trump to gain by gaming this section.

Section 3

“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”

This section about the Senate is also administrative but it talks about impeachment. This clause is needing to be changed because if the party in control is not willing to prosecute a President because he is in their party, they are derelict of duty and have abdicated their constitutional responsibility.

Section 4

“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof;”

The present Republican-led legislature has done nothing to prevent the President from sowing distrust in the election process, using debunked conspiracy theories and a whole lot of bluster to distract people from the truth.

Section 5

“Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.”

House speaker Mike Johnson called for a recess following Adelita Grijalva’s special election victory. Democrats stayed in D.C. working. Republicans fled. This was done to prevent swearing in a Democrat to the House of Representatives to avoid a shift in Republican-held power dynamics.

Sections 6, 7

No violations that I can see. As if the previous violations aren’t enough?

Section 8

This is going to be a long one. Let’s take it paragraph by paragraph: (Note that we’re only including the sections with something noteworthy.)

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

Congress, NOT the President, is responsible for determining and levying “duties” (tariffs).

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

Congress, not the administration, is to regulate commerce with foreign nations. Certainly not something that should be handed to a lacky like Scott Bessent, an unelected corrupt Kushner, or Marco Big Shoes.

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

Congress is responsible for immigration policy, not a racist President with a pen and no problems ruling by EO/edict.

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Crypto, anyone? Has this Republican-led Congress done anything to regulate cryptocurrencies offered by their President and his brologarchs?

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

Congress is charged with promoting the progress of science and arts, not putting a living President’s name on buildings and canceling science and art programs, especially those that have led to advances that save people’s lives.

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

As if that matters, with the supreme court being bought and paid for and giving the President immunity for literally murder and other crimes.

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

The Law of Nations is better known as “international law”, and I would think that bombing Iran - especially killing innocent civilian children - without congressional oversight or approval would be a pretty egregious violation. Murdering Venezuelan fisherman without a declaration of war under the ruse of drug-running is also in direct violation to just about every international law.

As an aside, now that he’s killed Venezuelans, Cubans, Iranians, and Americans, has he lowered the bar so far that he’s inviting attacks on Americans?

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

Would you look at that? Congress has the SOLE AUTHORITY to declare war. So, the fact that they’ve NOT done this means that the Iran conflict is not “technically” a war, but that doesn’t stop American servicemembers from coming home in flag-draped boxes. The last time this happened it was Nixon with Vietnam, and when that was finally over, 58,000 of those servicemembers were lost, some lost so violently that there was nothing to return home under that flag.

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

So any war should not go beyond two years? Hmmm. Seems this detail has been lost a few times over the decades. Think the Iran thing will be done in two years? No, I don’t either. They’ll just come back and ask for more money.

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

Congress is solely charged with establishing the regulations for land and naval services. The President has absolutely no authority to send ICE (American gestapo) into American cities to terrorize, brutalize, and murder people with extreme prejudice.

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

January 6, anyone? Maybe congress would have called the military to suppress the insurrection if they weren’t, I dunno, running for their lives?

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Again, the President has ZERO say in the organizing, arming, training, or governing any branch of military force, whether it be Space Farce, ICE, the Army, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard.

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Get that? Making laws is their JOB. Kneeling to the President is NOT.

Section 9

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

The USA has not been invaded. Habeas corpus, the legal principle that allows a person to know why they are being detained, is violated daily by Trump’s gestapo, a.k.a. ICE.

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

Congress may not have done this but then again, this congress hasn’t done much. The President, by attempting to change birthright citizenship, has stomped all over this “ex post facto law” clause.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

No duty on exports? Curious. Tariff = Duty.

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

The President is not allowed to give preference in commerce or revenue to any state, regardless of how they vote. Yet, he withheld COVID-19 supplies and financial resources to blue states during the pandemic.

Section. 10.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

You would think that with all these sections talking about exports and duties being solely the responsibility of Congress, they’d take that role a bit more seriously rather than allowing the President to attack both allies and adversaries alike with them.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Question: Could the American gestapo be considered an invasion into the states by the federal government?

Thanks for reading. Next, we’ll look into Article 2. That’ll be a doozie.

While the present American regime rolls out Flock cameras nationwide to surveil and record citizens’ every move, I’d like to suggest another form of resistance.

Most of us have cameras on our person all the time. What if we banded together to form a human network to track the movements of regime officials (past and present), their families, and known associates? Then we can work to catalog this information into a database of everywhere these folks go and how they got there, what their security profile is, and every other move they make.

I call this network “Flock You.”

There is a well-supported narrative that the regime will somehow try to upend the midterm elections in a few short weeks. They could do this by staging a false flag operation that kills innocents (which they’ve done before), or they could deploy ICE to polling places to “discourage” people from voting, or far worse. The problem as I see it, without Democrat pushback the regime folks believe they’re untouchable and there’s no limit to the depravity they’re willing to try to sabotage the midterms.

If that happens, we should have a solid repository of surveillance to support measured and actionable response. Maybe, just maybe, if they know we’re doing this, it’ll give them cause to pause their reckless treasons. Possibly not, but it would be better to have it than not when the proverbial Donarrhea hits the fan.

In 1970, I became a first grader. I remember learning a little bit about American history, such as how the pilgrims came to America and hosted the first Thanksgiving with the peaceful native tribes. As I grew older, I learned how this story is actually a tragic whitewashing of history, as the true story of the relationship between the settlers and indigenous people is much more stained with the blood of innocents.

So when exactly was America great?

Before we attempt to answer this question, let’s first establish what “great” means. Every person will likely offer a different definition, so for purposes of this discussion let’s refer to a couple lines from America’s founding documents:

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —Declaration of Independence

• We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. —U.S. Constitution

We now know that the phrase “all men” in the Declaration literally meant all males of the species, so I’d like to amend this to read “all people” for defining greatness. Women make up half of the population and if it weren’t for them, none of us would exist so it’s important to include them in these definitions as well. (If you don’t like that change, I invite you to a) stop reading now, b) add a comment, or c) fuck all the way off, call your mother, and apologize.)

With these two founding statements in mind, let’s say America is/was great when:

• All people are treated equally in government, workplace, community, application of law or any other situation, regardless of income, position, gender, orientation, ethnicity, or any other characteristic.

• All people can live the life that suits them without fear, intimidation, or oversight.

• All people are free and empowered to pursue happiness in their chosen existence.

We also know that the founders were slave owners themselves, and apparently didn’t see any problem with owning other people like cattle. Was America great when these documents were ratified? I certainly think not! Women had zero rights. Slaves were… enslaved, abused, and routinely killed simply for the color of their skin.

Slavery predates both of these documents (1492). From 1787 to 1868, black people were only considered 3/5 of a person for the census, and had no rights to vote. Voting rights were extended to black men aged 21 and older IF THEY OWNED PROPERTY in 1870, but many were still unable to vote out of fear for their lives until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Black women were entirely excluded from voting during this period. Therefore, from 1619 until black people could vote in 1965, we can safely say for this reason, America was a far cry from living up to its ideals of “greatness.”

From the late 15th century until the late 19th century, the settlers to this new world slaughtered the indigenous people of this land, people who had cared for the land for centuries and had thrived upon it. So was America great while indigenous men, women, and children were being slaughtered in a massive theft of land by entitled and ignorant white people?

Moving into the 20th century, America participated in two world wars, as the nation built an excessively large and expensive military-industrial machine. Men and boys were sent to foreign lands to kill other people hopped up on this ideal of “protecting the American way of life”. But what WAS the American way of life, other than a history of slavery and killing? Did half million Americans coming home from those conflicts in flag-draped boxes make America “great?”

In the late 20’s, the “industrial” part of the military-industrial machine unilaterally decided that government should work for them. This led to terrible government policy like the Smoot-Hawley Tariff act of 1930 that placed high tariffs on consumer goods. Other countries responded in kind, and this, combined with the lax controls on speculative trading of stocks and bonds, led to the Great Depression where folks like the Rockefeller and Rothschild families lived in luxury while the rest of the country was left to starve to death. Was America great during this period, when the rich could dine on fine wine and caviar while the rest of the country were burying their families from starvation?

As of 1965, everyone finally had the right to vote, though voter intimidation was still rampant. The Vietnam War raged during this time, once again sending thousands of young people into battle to be returned in more flag-draped boxes. At home, the country was racked by protests against the war, leading to the government sending National Guard troops into American cities to quell the unrest. This then led to the Kent State Massacre, where National Guard troops opened fire on unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine. Did killing students with the American military make America great? Did the killing of American soldiers on foreign soil make America great?

John Kennedy, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated during this period. Did any of THAT make America great?

Furthermore, was ANYTHING helping the American people at large actually accomplished with all this racism and killing over three centuries?

1970’s - An international oil embargo was triggered by OPEC countries attacking Israel, and America aligned with Israel. Participating OPEC nations then banned exports of oil to America (et al.) thus quadrupling oil prices and triggering severe shortages.

1980’s - Ronald Reagon, in defiance of Congress, approved sales of arms to Iran in a negotiation to get American hostages released. The prices of these armaments were inflated to allow the administration to redirect money to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels in their attempts to seize control of that country, despite the passing of the Bolen Amendment prohibiting funding of the Contras. Iran got armaments, Nicaragua got money, and Americans got the bill. Did this make America great?

Despite not being engaged in any active wars during the 80’s, over 21,000 active duty military members returned home in flag-draped boxes. Were we great yet?

1990’s - Following the invasion by Iraq of Kuwait - a significant oil producing nation - George H. W. Bush launched Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990’s. This war, and its sister war in Afghanistan, raged until the mid 2010’s, diverting billions of dollars of American tax money to the war and leaving America nothing but more flag-draped boxes of her children.

2000’s - 9/11, Global War on Terrorism - more flag draped boxes. More billions upon billions of American tax money spent to kill other people with the only return being more flag-draped boxes of Americans.

2010’s - The Citizens United vs. FEC ruling gave corporations carte blanche access to fund political campaigns. It was now legal to do what had been done for decades illegally: buy elected officials and influence voting. Did this make America great?

2018 - COVID-19: After the administration dismantled the infectious diseases branch of the CDC, a global pandemic quickly spread the globe. From 2018-2022, approximately 1 million Americans died from the virus, ushered along by a reckless disregard of its lethality from the administration. Did this make America great?

2024 - Republicans, led by the “Make America Great Again” campaign, vote overwhelmingly to return Donald J. Trump to the Oval Office for a second term.

Make America Great AGAIN? When was it ever great to begin with?

America has never been great, not according to the founding documents. Rather than maximizing the potential of decades of prosperity (with occasional moments of terror), the people seem to be normalized into accepting decades of terror with only brief moments of peace and prosperity.

We are a country founded on entitlement, slavery, selfishness, and murder that has, briefly, experienced moments of peace. We have never experienced prosperity on a national scale. We have never experienced equality or even parity on a national scale. The two main political parties, bought by corporate and oligarch special interests, spread propaganda through mainstream and social media. Foreign actors influence our elections, direct domestic and foreign policy while buying American politicians and property, thus negatively impacting our national security.

It’s been said that insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. THAT is the story of America. Our history is filled with terrible deeds done by terrible men using our money in terrible ways.

It’s high time for change.

Abraham Lincoln, in the Gettysburg Address, said “…these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

That’s the target. We are to have a government OF the people. ALL people. We are to have a government BY the people. ALL People. And most importantly, we are to have a government FOR the people.

ALL PEOPLE.

FULL STOP.

Anything less is NOT great.

Imagine a country where no child goes hungry, where jobs are plentiful and wages are sufficient for life, liberty, and a genuine pursuit of happiness.

Imagine a country where every person, regardless of any marketing demographic, is free to live their best life without fear, intimidation, or influence.

Imagine a country where we, the people, dream big and can work together to solve problems rather than inviting angertainment into our lives to separate us into “us” vs. “them”.

Imagine a country where our basic needs such as food, housing, healthcare, education, childcare, and transportation are affordable and plenty.

Imagine a country where our tax money is invested wisely and returned to the people who paid it with broad and functional social services instead of funding wars killing people of other nations while our own people are left to starve and rot in poverty.

Imagine a country where truth is more regarded than harmful, divisive, propaganda.

Imagine a country where our leaders truly work for us and if they don’t, we the people have the means to remove them.

Imagine a country where our children can receive education grounded in truth and integrity, learning the actual history of America so they can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

Then, political parties be damned, vote for THAT.

TW: Not happy. But please stay to the end, I have an idea.

My friends, I’m frustrated. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. What I’m feeling is probably better described as some combination of anger and sadness, mired in an overwhelming sense of fear, panic, and existential dread.

I’m angry that nobody has done anything consequential to slow Trump’s Appetite for Destruction Tour. I’m sad that establishment Democrats have done little to nothing to hold this treasonous administration accountable for the decimation of America’s respect on the world stage, the destruction of the People’s house (and property), the endless grifting to enrich the President and his cronies at the expense of the people, and the constant lying to cover all of it. Finally, I’m frustrated that the Dems appear to be in disarray merely months before the midterms, and that leaves me absolutely terrified that Republicans might maintain their majority, and the corresponding damage that goes with that, well after November.

While Democrats flounder to find a message that will break through the noise of MAGA, Republicans are going all in on their messaging, which appears to be something like this:

• “Laws? We don’t need no stinkin’ laws.”

• “Rich people aren’t rich enough. Fuck the ‘poors’.”

• “We can do all the crimes and you’re powerless to stop us.”

• “Nazis are very fine people.”

• “Brown and trans people (that we’ve never met and know nothing about) are the enemy.”

• “We have billions to waste on wars and vanity projects, but healthcare is too expensive. And frankly, we don’t care about you anyway.”

Instead of “no new wars”, we have the newly renamed Department of War operating an illegal Iran war* where the administration is committing war crimes to cover up involvement in the worst pedophilia ring in the history of the world.

Speaking of pedophilia, the administration is in violation of the law by not releasing the Epstein files with unredacted perpetrator names. (I suspect it’s obvious why, but it’s a broken law nonetheless.)

Instead of lowering prices for “groceries”, you know, that old fashioned word that purportedly nobody knew before the Melon Felon said it, prices for basic necessities have risen across the board while the billionaire grifter President boasts, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation”. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, from the former “government efficiency” 🤬 department, now has a net worth in the trillions thanks to all those sweet, sweet billions-of-dollars contracts with the U.S. government. Meanwhile, everyday Americans are left to weigh the cost of driving to work against how many meals they can afford.

America First, my ass.

What was touted to be “America first” has turned into “Israeli genocide first.” Pay no attention that Israel provides universal healthcare to their citizens funded by OUR U.S. tax dollars while you have to use GoFundMe to pay for a colonoscopy or medication.

Congress is bought and paid for by the broligarchs, SCOTUS is irreparably corrupted and has lost all sense of the meaning of “nonpartisan”, and the 30% of the country who voted for this monstrosity has absolutely no idea why buying a pound of hamburger requires a second mortgage.

It sucks. Lord how it sucks.

But I have an idea.

Republicans have stated they wanted America to be run like a business. To this end, they hired a person who has failed at SO MANY of them to do to America what he’s done to so many of his enterprises: Kill it. But let’s put that aside for a moment to look at the opportunity this may present.

When a business hurts people, a typical remedy is via class action lawsuits. Do you suppose it could be possible for us, the rational, to file one or several class action suits against Donald Trump, his heirs and assigns, including his administration past AND present?

When the first brick was moved during the unauthorized demolition of the East Wing of the White House, We the People were injured. He tore down OUR building without OUR approval. When he held the UFC spectacle on the lawn, OUR lawn was damaged, and OUR money will ostensibly be used to repair it.

When he came in with Elon and cut important programs that help Americans, he hurt OUR people. When he lawlessly deported people based on the color of their skin, he injured OUR families and neighbors.

When he recklessly sent the U.S. military into Iran, he caused the deaths of OUR citizens, Iranian schoolchildren, and led to the subsequent attacks that impacted Lebanon, and several other of OUR Middle East allies, damaging the good reputation of OUR nation.

He said that his vanity projects would be funded by private donors, then later admitted that it was actually going to be paid with OUR money. I don’t know about you, but I certainly haven’t dedicated the last 40 years of my life paying taxes to fund his vanity.

So here’s my question:

Has your nation been injured by Trump administration? If so, it may be entitled to compensation.

Trump should have to personally fund the rebuilding of the East Wing, pay back the costs of the defacing of the Kennedy Center, pay for the restoration of the White House grounds, pay millions each to the families of the soldiers fallen in his illegal Iran war, return all the money gained fraudulently by his business ventures in violation of the Emoluments Clause, and while we’re at it, how about some reparations for the Epstein victims?

And that’s just to start.

I don’t care what he says he’s worth on paper. In real life he’s worthless and America should seize his ill-gotten gains to fighting for the American people and restoring our place in the world. I mean, isn’t that what a President is SUPPOSED to do?

Hey , , or ! What are our options?

Here’s why this is important RIGHT NOW. I believe games are already afoot for Republicans to improperly influence the November 2026 midterm election. If that were not true, would they be spending so much time distracting everyone with the demolition of the White House and grounds, the reflecting pool debacle, the SAVE [Trump’s Arse] Act [of treason], dodging the Epstein affair, and hiding Mitch McConnell’s demise? Let us also not forget about all the tax monies going to fund Israel’s Palestinian genocide and the hundreds of Iranian children murdered needlessly by American forces.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Mitch McConnell will be formally declared departed on August 4th or 5th, 2026. He may have shuffled off this mortal coil already, but nobody will know a damn thing until it’s too late (procedurally) to refill his seat before the midterms.

Also somewhere around this time, Republicans will do a shadow vote to pass some version of the SAVE Act to disenfranchise women and those on limited incomes from voting. By that point, the options for valid identification will be limited, and Trump will put a pause on the issuance of passports to ensure that if you don’t have a legal document for voting identification already, you certainly won’t be able to get one before the election. Additionally, watch for Trump apologists to work over the postal system to ensure that mail-in ballots cannot be counted.

If, the election continues on schedule, expect him to sic his brownshirts on some blue city a couple of days before the election and then declare martial law to “restore order”, suspending the midterms. Make no mistake, he doesn’t want a free and fair election, or really any election at all. History (and the present) attest to the extreme lengths that he will go to get his way.

He’s fighting against America. So it’s time America fights back. Who’s with me?

*There has yet to be a declaration of war issued by the U.S. Congress

Having been a resident of southeast Indiana for only a couple of years now, I must admit I really love it here. Autumn colors blaze with every shade of red, orange, and yellow imaginable. The people are generally kind (with a few notable exceptions). And winters are far milder than my home state of Colorado.

But it's not perfect. Two things about Indiana give me cause to pause. First, the humidity in spring is darn near unbearable. Seriously, the air is so wet it's hard to breathe and a ten-minute walk will leave a person drenched without ever encountering a single drop of rain.

Another thing that's confounding is that this state is such a Republican stronghold that in any election, news channels show the state as solid red almost immediately after the polls close and before most of the votes have been counted, almost as if they don't believe that people might vote any other way.

With Republicans dominating the political landscape here for so long, you would think that by now they'd have figured out how to make Indiana the very best place to be: great jobs, extensive opportunity, high wages, low unemployment, well-rounded education, safe neighborhoods, government staying out of everyone's business, and people having the freedom to live their authentic lives. Unfortunately, the very opposite is true.

According to USNews.com, Indiana ranks #33 overall out of the 50 states. We're ranked #21 in terms of crime, which on its own sounds better than most until you also consider that we're ranked #36 in the success of the corrections system. With the economy, Indiana ranks #40, which is terrible as too many people here struggle at or below the poverty line. Average wages, especially for teachers, is markedly below a majority of states, and yet Indiana education ranks #19 nationally. (Frankly, Indiana teachers are amazing and deserve far better than poverty wages.)

For fiscal stability and healthcare: Indiana ranks #35. For supporting this beautiful environment with blazing color trees, extraordinary diversity of wildlife, as well as countless pristine lakes, streams, and rivers, Indiana ranks dead last - #50. That's terrifying.

It's almost as if the Republicans have controlled all the levers of power for so long, they've forgotten that there are real people out here struggling to get by. They are also failing to realize that these same people are growing tired of voting for help that never arrives.

The incumbent Republican state senator for this district - Gary Byrne - has done little to nothing to represent the people in the district. He doesn't hold town halls (or at least they're not advertised as being open to the public) and has not shown interest in getting input from the people who live here and struggle with real-people problems like housing, quality healthcare, affordable food, good jobs, stable economy, wage inequality, those sorts of things. Yet, he's had plenty of time to simp for Donald Trump, publicly claim that diversity, equity, and inclusion is discrimination, strenuously oppose facemasks for protecting the public health, even during a pandemic, and to rake in more donations from political action committees than individuals. With that sort of record, we're left to wonder: Who exactly is Mr. Byrne representing in the Senate?

Contrast this to Ethan Sweetland-May, his challenger for the Senate in the 2026 election. Ethan has invested his life in service to the communities of the district, even spending 11 years as a garbage collector. He's seen the decline in the standard of living for local residents and is running for State Senate in District 47 to make a positive change for the people.

Let's take a moment to unpack Ethan and see what he's all about.

• Ethan is in tune with people. He believes that your political affiliation is less important than who you are as a person. No matter who you are or where you are in life, Ethan believes everyone wants safe communities, good opportunities, and a voice in the decisions that impact our lives and the future of our communities.

• Ethan believes that everyone should be free to make personal decisions without government interference or intrusion. While Ethan is a man of faith, he is a strong supporter of learning from science to help keep people safe and healthy.

• Ethan supports a living wage for workers and affordable, quality healthcare for everyone. People shouldn't have to choose between going to the doctor and having food for the foreseeable future.

• Ethan supports safe communities, where people treat each other with dignity and respect first and foremost, knowing that it's more productive to work together to solve problems than going to war over meaningless trivialities.

• Most importantly, Ethan is the Hoosier ready to stand up and be the leader we deserve.

I recently attended a town hall where Ethan laid out his vision for what could be. It was energizing to hear a candidate openly talk about the real problems that we're facing with ideas that could become real solutions. Unlike most candidates, Ethan is brutally frank about his reasons for running; that is, to represent the people, to speak for the people, and to work for changes that make Indiana the place to be.

No matter our race, creed, or class; whether you grew up here or chose to make this home; whether you live on a county road or a neighborhood street, everyone deserves a fair shot and a voice that counts. -Ethan Sweetland-May

During this meeting, I asked him: "Most people who get elected have grandiose ideas of great things, but then after a while they change, becoming more focused on themselves than their constituents. In other words, what assurances can you provide that you won't go to the Senate as a hero, and come home later as a douchebag?" (Subtlety isn't my strong suit.) Ethan responded: "I'm not running for me; I'm running to represent all of you." He then committed to regular town halls and community meetings throughout the district so we can hold him to task and make sure he's keeping our voices first and foremost in his work in the Senate.

Here's a person - not some slick politician, but a husband and dad like us - who wants to represent us and is willing to listen and let us hold him accountable. Refreshing!

It's been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Decades of Republican rule have not made Indiana great, no matter what the politicians might claim. It's time for a refreshing change.

For more information about Ethan, his positions, motivations, and his strong commitment to integrity, please visit his website: https://www.ethanforstatesenate.com/

In 1965, it was observed that the number of transistors in integrated circuits was doubling about every two years, and with it, computing power itself was doubling every couple of years. This observation was later dubbed “Moore’s Law” after Gorden Moore, Intel CEO and the father of the theory. For decades it has been a mainstay of the technology industry.

In 1975, the most powerful computer on the planet was the Cray 1 from Cray Research. This machine was both hungry and fast; performing a jaw-dropping 160 million floating point calculations every second, consuming 115kw of power, roughly the amount of power needed to run 10-12 homes of that time. The next iteration of the Cray, the X-MP, used a staggering 345 kw of power, the rough equivalent of the power required to run 30 homes.

Today in 2026, a Google Pixel 10 or iPhone smartphone can perform in excess of 1.5 TRILLION floating point calculations every second and it does it on a battery that is as thin as a couple sheets of paper and lasts 24-36 hours on a single charge. It requires no external cooling systems or expensive air conditioning.

So tell me again why we need to trade miles and miles of farmland and millions of gallons of drinking water for “data centers” to house the computer systems needed to run AI?

There is no question that the computing power to do AI is extensive. However, the technology to support these advances is already here, in our pockets. Additionally, companies like Nvidia have invested God-knows-how-much to build processors to handle the really heavy math (100+ trillion calculations/sec!), and millions of gamers worldwide use that technology every day playing games like Assassin’s Creed, Red Dead Redemption II, and Mass Effect.

I’ve been in the computing industry since 1980. It certainly wasn’t the beginning, but early enough to be there to watch the tech industry become a toddler and take its first unsteady steps. With this in mind, it’s been a hell of a ride to be a part of an industry that expanded 160 million calculations/sec to over 100 trillion calculations/sec while improving the energy efficiency and shrinking the form factor and infrastructure needed to support it to roughly the size of a small beer cooler.

Today, billionaires are trying to make us believe that they need us to sacrifice our farmland, our food supply, our drinking water, our national parks, and our very lives to build these large monstrous data centers because they need more computing power?

I’m calling bullshit. This is a money grab, where the people and the planet are being sacrificed to support the pet projects of petulant pedophiles.

No, this isn’t about computing power at all. Rather, this data center push is about STORAGE. See, we all carry around mind-blowing computing power in our pockets. But storage, that is, the keeping records, takes physical space. Even though storage devices, like computing, have gotten smaller and more efficient, the greater the storage capacity, the more energy and infrastructure is needed to support it.

But who would need that much storage? Or more importantly, what would these billionaires want to keep on all that storage? And why? What’s in it for them?

GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS. VIRTUALLY UNLIMITED PILES OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.

This building of data centers is to support the gestapo state that the present administration is working to put in place before the midterm elections. Folks like Bezos, Ellison, Altman, and Zuckerberg have ponied up world-destroying volumes of cash for the opportunity to sit at the table where the world is set ablaze as they race to see who can roast the first marshmallow.

This is why we need to oppose these new data centers. Because the information being kept will be about US:

• Evidence to control US.

• Information to influence US.

• Analysis to hurt US.

I spoke about this tonight with Sarah Blessing, candidate for Indiana State Representative in District 70. As a former teacher, she is also concerned about the aggressive push for data centers in Indiana because of the immense electric requirements, likely to drive up the electric bills for everyone in the surrounding area. She also expressed concern about the impact on our community water supply, air quality, and most importantly, the secrecy that enshrouds the decision making for such monstrous facilities.

“This is not how government should work. The people who live in a community should have a voice BEFORE giant industrial projects are approved. Technology is important, but not more important than PEOPLE.”
-Sarah Blessing

We all need to be calling our representatives and senators to tell them that we oppose these data centers. We’re already seen them build concentration camps on American soil; we cannot sit idly by while they rape our land and water and air while hurting the people in secret and lying about it loudly in public.

Then we need to elect better people.

Over the weekend I received a newsletter from the incumbent U.S. Representative for Indiana’s 9th District, Erin Houchin. In this note she highlighted a number of pandering and milquetoast accomplishments, while completely avoiding any discussion of the war with Iran, the lack of accountability for the perpetrators in the Epstein files, an economy in shambles, and the daily attacks on democracy from the Trump administration, Then again, it’s hard to expect much from a congressional representative who is so far up the President’s colon that she refuses to meet, respond to, or even listen to her constituents.

Now admittedly, I’m no constitutional scholar. However, it would seem to me that the point of a representative government is to REPRESENT the people, not ignore and abuse them while padding your own pockets on their suffering.

Fortunately, Ms. Houchin is up for election this year, and we, the citizens of Indiana’s 9th, have a fantastic opportunity with her competition.

Meet Brad Meyer

My first impression of Brad is that he’s not another slick politician. He’s a home-grown Hoosier, born and raised in central Indiana and tuned into the needs of the people. But who is he, really? Let’s unpack:

• Brad is smart. Brad earned both a bachelor’s degree and a graduate degree from Purdue University. He’s worked in a variety of jobs throughout his career and was even tapped to become a civilian engineer with the U.S. Naval Surface War Center, working on technology to protect American servicemembers in hostile situations.

• Brad is sensible. Having spent his career in engineering, precision machining, production, and management, he knows what it takes to get the job done right and how to marshal the right people to make incredible things happen.

• Brad cares about people. Brad never planned for a career in politics, but he left a secure retirement to run for office out of concern for the people being hurt by the Trump administration shuttering valuable programs that help the people while giving tax breaks to a few wealthy donors.

• Brad believes in the potential of everyone, regardless of political leaning, age, gender, or other marketing demographics. He sees young workers starting out, struggling to survive, and he also sees people who have been working for decades that are being pinched out of their well-earned retirements.

• Brad understands that people are healthier, are more effective workers, and build better communities and alliances when they aren’t struggling to just get by.

• Brad supports healthcare for all because no American should go broke trying to stay alive and well. By supporting higher wages, fair taxes, and restoring the bargaining power of workers, Brad is committed to rebuilding the middle class that was at one time a fountain of prosperity for America.

• Brad is focused on helping convert renters to homeowners through expanding affordability and opportunity in the housing market.

• Brad is committed to the U.S. Constitution and his oath to protect and defend it from those who wish to usurp or abolish it.

• Brad embodies the core American value of sharing commitment with each other, our communities, and our common purpose - to make America a better place for everyone, not just the wealthy or the politically connected.

If you’re in Indiana and believe that America is a better place when we all have a voice and a place at the table, check out Brad Meyer. You won’t be disappointed.

Finally, check out this brief video of Brad talking about why he’s running:

https://bradmeyer.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Brad-Meyer-Short-Introduction.mp4

Additional information on Brad Meyer can be found at

https://bradmeyer.org/

In November, residents of Indiana district 70 will go to the polls to select between Scott Fluhr (R) or Sarah Blessing (I/D) to represent them in the Indiana State House. Let’s take a peek at where the candidates stand on some crucial issues. Who aligns more with your priorities?

• Education

  • Fluhr: Scott’s website doesn’t say anything about education. It does say that he is a conservative Republican and his parents were teachers. He has come out in the press as being supportive of private school vouchers and privatization efforts. He has no endorsements from educational groups but is proud of his high AQ rating with the National Rifle Association.

  • Blessing: As a former teacher for 18 years, Sarah strongly supports public schools and opposes privatization, which erodes funding for public schools. She also understands how vital rural schools are to the success of communities and supports providing the needed resources to help both teachers and students thrive. Sarah also supports increasing investment in special education and mental health support throughout the educational system. Finally, Sarah believes that no child should fear for their life while trying to get an education, and strongly supports common-sense gun laws to reduce gun violence in schools.

• Healthcare

  • Blessing: Sarah believes that healthcare decisions are between people and their doctors, not politicians. With three children, she is also acutely aware of how prohibitively expensive it is to get quality healthcare and is focused on expanding affordable healthcare for families.
    
    Sarah believes in protecting the rights of women to make their own health decisions without fear. She understands how important rural hospitals are to remote communities, and will work to expand affordable access to healthcare throughout district 70. Sarah has also spoken publicly about her own dangerous pregnancy experiences and understands personally how critical emergency and specialized healthcare access can be. As a mother, she believes in the sanctity of life but also believes it is not the role of government to criminalize women’s healthcare.

  • Fluhr: Scott Fluhr is endorsed by Indiana Right to Life and aligns himself with conservative Republican leadership that supported Indiana’s near-total abortion ban. He does not believe that women are intelligent enough to make their own healthcare decisions and has voted to reduce or eliminate essential healthcare services for women.

• Listening to the People

  • Fluhr: Scott’s website hits on all of the Republican talking points like “America First”, “Conservative”, “Republican control”, “More guns”, “Less immigrants” and his support for Trump-flavored political discourse. He does a lot of volunteering, but one must wonder if those are merely a means for ensuring Harrison county is a “Republican stronghold”. He has shown no interest in listening to residents with opposing views.

  • Blessing: Sarah is running to represent all of the people of District 70 — not one side or another or specifically as a proxy to national political movements. She is focused on practical solutions, not political talking points and understands that the first step to solving a problem is to listen to the people to better understand the problem. Only then can everyone work together to create a solution.

• Priorities

  • Blessing: Sarah’s focus is on helping people by improving education, healthcare, solving real problems for real people, and improving opportunities for all to succeed.

  • Fluhr: As chairman of the Harrison County Republican Party for almost 18 years, Scott appears to be focused only on expanding the party. His website opens with this screed: “We live in a critical time in the life of our great country. If we don’t stand up and fight to put America first, the freedoms and life we have enjoyed will not be here for future generations. Southern Indiana needs strong conservative voices in Indianapolis, voices who will fight for the conservative values we cherish: faith, family, freedom, and hard work.” Fun fact, the word “people” appears zero times on his website.

• Endorsements

  • Fluhr: Scott’s website shows a number of endorsements including Indiana Congresswoman Erin Houchin - who skips her own town hall meetings and refuses to speak to constituents - and the National Rifle Association.

  • Blessing: Sarah is endorsed by Indivisible Indiana and a whole lot of individuals who are tired of being lied to, led on, and let down by elected officials.

References

Sarah Blessing:

https://www.SarahBlessing.com/

Scott Fluhr: https://www.hoosiersforscott.com/

If you could design the perfect person to represent you in government, what qualities would you include? Would integrity be high on your list? What about decency, or maybe caring for others? Or how about someone who works to make everyone’s lives better?

If you’re a voter in southern Indiana, you need to check out Sarah Blessing, candidate for State Representative in district 70. Not sure you’re in this district? Check out this handy map!

But who is Sarah? And why should she have your support?

• Sarah is a HOOSIER. She’s not some Jenny-come-lately who migrated into the state; she’s been here the whole time. She understands what people need, how they hurt, and how to help.

• Sarah is BRILLIANT. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Indiana University and later completed her master’s degree in Education at Indiana Wesleyan University. She then spent 18 years teaching at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in New Albany, where she helped thousands of students grow academically and personally. Her time in the classroom gave her a deep understanding of the challenges facing educators and families across Indiana.

• Sarah is FOCUSED on things that matter. As a representative in the state House, Sarah’s goal is to tackle the issues that matter to people: strong schools, affordable housing, accessible healthcare, and creating opportunities for families and businesses to be successful.

• Sarah is a PROBLEM-SOLVER. Unlike most politicians that seem to create more drama than they solve, Sarah brings thoughtful solutions to the discussion with real potential for positive change.

• Sarah is COMPASSIONATE. With food, housing, utilities, taxes, and fuel prices skyrocketing, Sarah understands that people are hurting and will fight to provide real relief to those who need it and to lower costs for working families.
  
  During the pandemic, Sarah worked closely with families struggling to pay bills, find housing, and navigate complicated systems. Again and again she saw hardworking people doing everything right but still falling through the cracks. That experience convinced her that real change requires fixing the systems themselves. She decided to run for State Representative to ensure government works for everyday Hoosiers—not just powerful interests.

• Sarah is RESPONSIBLE. Wondering why your property taxes keep going up? Sarah will fight for transparency to help you get the answers you deserve. Your government should be working to protect your wallet, not constantly dipping into it.

• Sarah is CARING. District 70 is largely rural, with limited access to healthcare. Families shouldn’t have to travel long distances to see a doctor or receive basic care. Sarah will work to expand access to healthcare near homes and will fight to make it more affordable.

• Sarah is all about FAMILY. Sarah and her husband Chris have been married for ten years and are raising three wonderful children: Micah, Adeline and Asher. Like many families in District 70, they want their children to grow up in a community that is safe, strong, smart, and built for future opportunities for everyone.

• Sarah stands with SMALL BUSINESS. Small businesses and family farms are the backbone of communities across District 70. Local entrepreneurs and farmers help drive the economy, create jobs, and keep our communities strong. Sarah believes state policy should support the people who invest in our towns, not just large corporations. When the economy supports local communities, those local communities support everyone else. When the economy hurts local communities, everyone hurts.

Sarah often says that campaigns are about people, not politics. That belief started with her mother Terry. (I had the distinct privilege of meeting Terry recently. The pride on her face when she introduced herself as “Sarah’s mother” melted my heart.)

Terry Horton spent her career serving children in Southern Indiana as a music teacher, assistant principal, and principal. At Holy Family in New Albany, she was the kind of teacher students never forgot. She didn’t just teach music — she poured love, patience, and confidence into children who needed someone to believe in them. She taught students how to read music, play piano, perform on recorder, and work together in bands and Christmas programs that families still remember years later.

But what mattered most wasn’t just the music. It was how she made kids feel seen.

Today, one of Sarah’s campaign volunteers is a former student of Terry who remembers her as one of her favorite teachers, someone who gave her extra care, encouragement, and attention when she needed it most. Now, she’s helping Terry’s daughter Sarah fight for the community they both love.

That’s the kind of ripple effect that shaped Sarah into the leader she is today.

While raising her own family, Sarah spent 18 years as a fifth-grade teacher, carrying forward the lessons her mother taught her: invest in people, care deeply, and show up for others even when it’s hard. Now, as she runs for State Representative in Indiana’s District 70, she sees an entire community needing that same care and attention. Families are struggling. Prices are high. Too many people feel unheard and left behind.

Sarah believes leadership should look more like teaching — listening, encouraging, helping people grow, and making sure no one feels invisible.

And behind the scenes, Terry is still doing what she has always done: helping others succeed. She attends campaign events, watches Sarah’s children so she can meet voters, helps make phone calls possible, and even cleans the house so her daughter can keep fighting for the people of Harrison, Floyd, Clark, and Washington counties.

For Sarah, this race for the House isn’t a political campaign. It’s the next step in continuing her mother’s legacy of service, compassion, and community.

This November, vote for a Blessing in district 70. You deserve it.

As a past donor, I get anywhere from 10-20 text messages every single day from candidates asking for money. The messages may come with pictures of family, or pictures of kittens (or puppies) or messages about the tragedy that will happen if I don’t quickly rush $1, $3, $6, or some other amount to their campaign.

So far, I’ve been unsuccessful getting my phone number removed from these lists, so I block them. Every single one. If I want to donate to a candidate, it’s not going to be as a response to a puppy, kitten, or hyperbole about how the world will end without my contribution.

To be fair, I don’t get these from local down-ballot candidates. And I do understand that campaigns need money to buy exposure. Without this exposure, good candidates stay unknown and don’t get elected to the positions where they may be desperately needed, which is everywhere in America today. As a result, candidates pay good money for TV ads, radio ads, print ads, signs, online ads… all of the stuff that is so pervasive that few people even notice them anymore. Unfortunately, that also means the return on that investment is minimal.

What candidates need is a way to reach people where they are, without filling future landfills with mailers and signs. It would be even better if it was something that could work for the candidate 24-7 without people having to drive hundreds of miles, knock on thousands of doors, or attend time-consuming meetings. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with knocking on doors, attending meetings, and the like, but they all require one precious limited resource:

TIME

What if candidates mobilized blog writers and podcast hosts to get their message out? For example, when I hit submit on this post, it’ll instantly be emailed to several hundred people as well as show up online and get added to search engines. I can then take the link from this and post it to BlueSky, Nextdoor, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, etc. and also email the link to anyone in my community. If we’re going to reach people where they are, I believe we can reach more people online than in any meeting or door-knocking campaign. Fortunately, the two are not mutually exclusive; this is simply another tool for the toolbox.

All that’s needed is a handful of writers and a candidate with a message to share. Also, unlike traditional advertising, this doesn’t have to cost the candidate anything past the investment in prep time to answer questions and ensure that the messaging is consistent.

So dear candidates, with all due respect, stop texting me for money. This turnip is bled dry. In lieu of money, allow me to offer you exposure on Substack and other social media platforms. There is a phenomenal writer community just ready and waiting to play a part in your success!

Shortly after taking office, Ronald Reagan introduced the Economic Recovery Act of 1981 which cut the top tax rate from 70% to 50%, slashed capital gains taxes, and introduced “trickle-down economics” to the American lexicon. While this wasn’t the first big Republican handout to campaign contributors, this one was quite possibly the biggest middle finger to the middle class, setting the stage for the collar-color wage gap, the decimation of the middle class, and the formation of the billionaire donor class currently pillaging the national coffers for their own gain and amusement.

Here in 2026, history may not be repeating itself, but it sure does rhyme. The criminally corrupt U.S. government, in a repeat of Reagan piss-onomics, is giving tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting programs to provide assistance to the majority of working-class people.

Back in 1981, the big winner were large corporations, who reaped immense profits that, according to Reagan, would “trickle down” to the workers and vastly improve the American way of life for everyone. At first, it looked like the scheme could actually work. But once the uber-wealthy business owners and CEOs saw how trickling empowered the working class, they realized that the more empowered the people became, the less they could be controlled. By the end of the 80’s, CEO pay was an average of 60x of the average worker. Now, 27 years later, CEOs of large corporations make 300x the pay of the average worker.

By comparison, while corporations still reap some benefit from the tax breaks, the big winners in 2026 are individual persons who have amassed more wealth than they could possibly spend in a lifetime. People like Musk, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Bezos, and Murdoch have enough money so that the next 100 generations of their posterity may never have to be employed. But rather than use their amassed wealth to actually help other people, these folks instead use that money to buy politicians to make policies that will make them even richer, at the expenses of everyone else.

As a personal aside, I have to wonder if there’s some secret competition between these folks to be the wealthiest person on the planet. They’ve become so blinded by the race for wealth that they’ve forgotten about all the real-life people they’ve stepped on, stabbed, raped, and/or pillaged to get where they are.

As if that’s not bad enough, the wealthy have also convinced a large portion of their victims that the wealthy shouldn’t pay taxes. It’s appalling to me when people who are most vulnerable to the price of gas and groceries, those whose sons and daughters are going off to fight an unjust war and coming home in bags and boxes, are arguing that the rich shouldn’t have to pay taxes. Or more accurately, the rich shouldn’t have to pay their fair share.

Let’s look at a couple of their arguments:

“If rich people pay taxes, they’ll stop hiring people”

This argument comes from someone who has been gaslit into believing that if a person or a business has to pay more in taxes, they’ll have less money to pay for people. This statement has one critical mistake; it assumes that money paid to people is the same as money paid to the government. While the two payments may come from the same bank account, they are starkly different.

Hiring a person adds value to a company. With that extra value, the company can make more money in the future. On the other hand, paying taxes has no future investment value. Instead, taxes are a payment for services already rendered in the form of public services, infrastructure, and social programs.

The wealthy tend to overlook the fact that they exist because of the people who work in their companies, buy their products, and invest in their stock. The more the wealthy take from the working class, the less likely the working class is to buy their products, be loyal to their employers, or be able to invest at all.

More importantly, wages paid to the working class REDUCE the company’s tax liability. In other words, the more money paid to the workers, the less money the company owes in taxes.

The workers pay taxes on their increased earnings. Even with the higher tax bill here, they’re also earning more so their after-tax pay is still better than it would be otherwise. The end result, people make more money, more taxes are paid, and the nation is more able to afford more services to help everyone thrive.

Bottom line, it’s in a company’s best interest to hire people SPECIFICALLY for the purposes of reducing tax liability. If a company isn’t hiring a particular person for a particular job, perhaps said person should evaluate what they offer and adjust their trajectory and/or expectations accordingly.

“The rich people earned their money; they should get to keep it”

Could this not be said about the working class? The workers work hard for their money and yet a large portion of it goes to taxes and Social Security, a massive portion goes to healthcare, and what’s left over is supposed to provide housing, food, clothing, and other amenities for the “pursuit of happiness?” Where’s the money for happiness? Vacations are a luxury for the wealthy while the working poor pay for it through their uninterrupted labor.

The fallacy here is that the wealthy have earned their money. Perhaps that was once true. Jeff Bezos burned a lot of midnight oil to get Amazon off the ground. Larry Ellison gave a lot of himself to build Oracle. But that didn’t make them nearly as much as the stock market and real estate. When Amazon went public in 1997, the entire company was valued at $438 million. Jeff Bezos, who is no longer a day-to-day executive at Amazon in 2026, is personally worth somewhere between $220-275 BILLION today. At IPO, Larry Ellison’s Oracle was worth just under $34 million. Larry Ellison is personally worth somewhere between $200-224 BILLION today in 2026.

This isn’t earned income, my friends. This is unrealized capital in the stock market. The stock market value is included as part of a person (or company’s) net worth, but because it’s not liquid (cash or cash equivalent), it’s not taxed until it becomes liquid. So billionaires simply let it ride while their fortunes wax and wane. Someone like Elon Musk might gain or lose a billion dollars a day, but when you’re worth $820 billion, a billion up or down doesn’t even register as an event.

Someone like Musk or Ellison can gain a billion dollars in stock value and owe $0 in taxes on it. At the same time, they can use that stock as collateral on loans to buy yachts, homes, senators, even presidents! Not only do they not pay any taxes on that liquidity, any interest paid on the loan is a deduction, allowing them to reduce their tax liability even more.

In essence, they’re using their unrealized capital to game the system, gaining temporary liquidity in the form of loans backed by their stock holdings and getting tax deductions to do it. So no, they didn’t earn it. They earned enough for them to buy weak politicians who then write the laws that allow them to game the system and stick the working poor with the bill.

“Okay, I agree they should pay at least the same as us. But to be fair, they shouldn’t have to pay more”

The U.S. tax rates have historically been structured in graduated tiers, where one pays more based on their level of income. Here’s the chart for Married Filing Jointly for 2026:

Now, let’s compare this to 1980:

Now, in case you’re not familiar with the graduated tax scale, the way this worked in 1980 was that everyone would pay 10% of everything between $0 and $3,400. If the family made more than $3,400, they would pay 14% of everything between $3,400.01 and $5,500. As earnings crossed a level, the tax rate on any new earnings would increase.

Say, for instance, that a person made $35,205 dollars in 1980. Only $5 was taxed at the 43% level. Every other dollar was taxed at its respective level. While this is ultimately fair - paying taxes based on your incremental income for the year, a system still in place today - eliminating the tax rates over 37% was a phenomenal gift to the people who were already making more income than the average worker. Take a person who would have made an additional $10,600 to hit the maximum for the 43% bracket. Of that $10,600, at 37% they’d pay $3,992 in taxes. At 43%, they’d pay $4,558, an increase of only $636. The 49% bracket is even more stark. If a person made $60,000 that year, at 37% they’d pay $5,254. At 49%, they’d pay $6,958, an increase of $1,704! Now, keep in mind at $60,000 of income they’re already making $24,800 more than the 37% maximum, so an additional $1704 + $636 = $2,340 is a mere 9% of the increase, still well below the national average 14.5% marginal tax rate.

Now, I realize that’s a lot of numbers, so here’s a handy chart:

There’s a lot of information here but of particular interest is the amount of increase in the rightmost column on the last row. In 1980, the 70% tier had no cap, so I artificially inserted $1 million for illustrative purposes. A person who made $1 million in 1980 would pay $549,220 on earnings over $215,400. At 37% - as it is today - they’d pay $203,211, gaining $346,008 and change for only that tier!

In 1980, everything over $215,400 was taxed at 70%. But $215,400 in 1980 would be worth $860,203 in 2026. Is it really unfair if a family making almost a million dollars has to pay more in taxes than someone who can’t afford the gas to commute to their job? This will also have zero impact on the billionaires who have all that unrealized capital gain, but it should help reduce the number of future billionaires buying congress members and presidents while shoring up the social safety net for all of the American people, not just the wealthy or the elect.

I’m not supporting or opposing a 70% tax rate. However, if anyone thinks tax breaks for the wealthy are fair to everyone, they’re either not paying attention or trapped in a cult.

“One day I might be a billionaire, and I wouldn’t like to pay more taxes than I do now.”

How exactly do you plan to go from minimum wage to a billionaire? And if you did become a billionaire, and had to pay like 90% tax on one billion dollars of income, you do realize that leaves you with $100 million, right? That’s got to be a lot better than the $26,000 you’re making now, right?

The problem with this thinking is that it’s the very kind of selfish that got us into this mess. Rich folks who already had more than everyone else wanted even more so they bought politicians to change the tax rules in their favor at the expense of everyone else. It’s not “America first”, it’s “me first and to hell with all y’all”.

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But what can we do about it?

1. Bernie Sanders has proposed removing the cap on earnings that contribute to Social Security. In 2026, the maximum amount of earnings that count towards Social Security is $184,500. Very few earners make enough to stop contributing to Social Security in a year. Meanwhile, the fund is rapidly being depleted and retired people who rely on Social Security to get by are only able to get by living on both edges of poverty. That’s not the America we were promised. Social Security should be able to provide at least a comfortable living to those who have paid into it their entire lives. Call your reps and senators and support this measure.

2. Contact your senators and representatives to support taxing proceeds on loans backed by unrealized gain collateral. Support new progressive candidates that support taxing proceeds backed by unrealized gain collateral.

3. Understand that taxing higher earners at higher levels has always been the American way of taxation. However, since Reagan the rich have been making off like robber barons with the elimination of the higher tax rates while the rest of us have been left to fund the operation and social well-being of America.

4. Oppose Citizens United. Get big money out of politics. Nobody, regardless of their income level, should be able to buy politicians to influence laws that impact everyone.

Most importantly, don’t give up. Protest, be that mosquito in the ear of your congress person, make your voice unmistakably heard. Finally, please share this information with anyone who needs a reality check, because unlike this current administration, reality is not a type of TV show, it’s our everyday lives.

One more thing, if you have a chance, I encourage you to read and bookmark these important founding documents and share them with anyone who might have forgotten our shared history.

Declaration of Independence

U.S Constitution

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In the movie “The Rock”, General Hummel (Ed Harris) is leading a group of commandos taking control of Alcatraz. In one scene, the commandos are on a second floor overlooking a series of showers while the good guys are coming up through a portal in the floor. As the good guys come up through the hole, Hummel shouts, “Your unit is covered from an elevated position, Commander. I'm not gonna ask you again. Don't do anything stupid. No one has to die here.” As it turns out, people do end up dying there, because the elevated position can be a most powerful thing.

While I never served in the military, I’ve heard “never concede the elevated position” so many times it’s become a way of life. For example, the elevated position might be to always speak honestly and with integrity. It might mean being the kind of person that someone can rely upon. In other words, having an elevated position may be nothing more than being a decent reliable person.

EVERYTHING THE GOP HAS EVER STOOD FOR was their elevated position. Thanks to Donald Trump, everyone can now see the smoldering embers of rubble brought low (the lowest, everyone says so!) in his wake. Let’s take a look at some of the elevated positions that the GOP used to claim but have since conceded to Trump:

Claim: The GOP is the party of accountability

Elect a felon, expect felonies. Elect a sexual assaulter, expect to get screwed. The list of things that the GOP has failed to hold Trump accountable for is endless, growing every day. They can’t claim to be about accountability when they let their melon felon do whatever the hell he wants while Little Mike gets on camera to say, “I don’t know anything about that”.

“Rules for thee, not for me” should be the new GOP motto. Heck, it probably already is.

Claim: The GOP is the anti-war party

Iran, Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Greenland, Mexico, Vietnam (!) … We must also not overlook Trumps unwavering support for Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Need I say more?

Here’s a fun fact that you can share with your Christian friends and family around the holiday table: Guess who was born in Palestine, in a little town called Bethlehem, with a father named Joseph and a mother named Mary? Sure, the frozen chosen wants us to believe that God wants them to wipe Palestine off the map, because… God got a bee up his ass about Jesus?

Genocide seems like an awfully unchristian thing to do, no matter who you are or what you believe.

Claim: The GOP is all about fiscal responsibility

Trillions of dollars are being wasted on a war created solely by Donald Trump to distract from the Epstein files and to try to make friends with another war criminal and world killer, Ben Nuts-the-yahoo. Meanwhile, grocery and fuel prices are skyrocketing and the citizens of America are being raped by the healthcare industry just trying to survive the madness. Far too many are not surviving it, while congress goes on extended vacations to avoid HAVING A SPINE.

What about any of this is making America great?

We could have had healthcare a thousand times for what they’re spending on killing Iranian schoolchildren. (I cannot tell you how much it sucks to write that sentence. In the America that we were all promised, we were supposed to be the good guys, but now we’re being represented on the world stage by a bunch of terrorists stealing oil and killing innocent brown people with prejudice.)

Claim: The GOP is the party of “law and order”

The GOP is the party of law and order about as much as Kristi Noem is a qualified pet therapist. You can’t elect a convicted felon, unashamed sexual deviant, and vengeance driven killer of Venezuelan fisherman and still claim that you support “law and order”.

Oh, and what about the Constitution? News flash: Violating the Constitution IS A CRIME. Unlawful search and seizure? GOP has no problem with it. Speaking of, when has the expansion of CONCENTRATION CAMPS on American soil been a Constitutionally protected act?

Claim: The GOP supports veterans

…by cutting programs that help veterans to give a tax break to the wealthiest people who don’t even pay their fair share? Too many veterans come home from war in pieces, and those that come home intact are often broken and battered in other ways. Now Trump is floating the idea of a draft so he can make more veterans that the system will abandon.

No veteran should ever be without a shelter or food or health care or anything else. A nation that forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten. They should keep that in mind.

Claim: The GOP is the party of morality

If we were to compile a list of all the morality failures of Donald Trump, this article might never be finished as it seems he commits new acts of immorality every freaking every day. Heaven forbid we look at the immorality of other members of the party.

Here’s a VERY brief Trump highlight reel:

• “grab ‘em by the p****. When you’re famous they let you do it.”

• “She had blood coming out of her … whatever”

• “A whole civilization will die tonight”

• Ivana, Marla, Melania, and Stormy

• Distributing memes of himself as Jesus

• Profiting off the presidency

• EPSTEIN, EPSTEIN, EPSTEIN

Bottom line, the GOP has conceded all their perceived high ground. Under Trump, they have become the party of terrorism, of war, of immorality, lawlessness, fiscal mismanagement, and of protecting a few billionaires while punishing the millions of voters who elected them.

Keep this list handy next time someone says “The GOP is the party of ….” Unless that next word is “terrorists”, feel free to offer some gentle correction or intense fellowship as required.

Someday in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future, Donald J Trump, sexual abuser, felon, grifter, and unashamed career criminal, will shuffle off this mortal coil. Well, perhaps “shuffle” is a bit of a stretch. It’ll likely be more of a “kerplunk” or something roughly resembling the sound of 300 pounds of wet feces hitting pavement.

As he arrives at at the Pearly Gates, he is met by St. Peter. We now join that conversation, in progress:

DJT: “Huh, this place looks boring. Where the hell am I?”

PETER: “Close. This is ‘Intake’. You remember eating that cheeseburger?”

“Yeah”

“Well, you’re dead now.”

“DEAD? Hey, those gates look awfully pearly. You should have them coated with gold. I have everything coated with gold, there’s nothing like it, everyone says so.”

Peter shrugs, “Well, let’s look up your record and see what we can do.” Peter scans a tablet, and a look of concern crosses his face. “Donald JOHN Trump, you say?”

DJT laughs, “oh, you’ve heard of me? Well of course, I’m an awfully big deal. Everyone says so. Big strong men are constantly coming up to me and saying ‘sir, sir, you’re such a big deal! The biggest! Nobody’s ever seen a bigger deal than you!’”

Peter looks at the tablet. “Well, it says here that you mismanaged a pandemic and got hundreds of thousands of people killed. Is that true?”

“FAKE NEWS!” Donald shouts. “You should be talking about all of the people that didn’t die. Those people that died, they were weak and pathetic losers, ‘suckers and losers’, I call them.”

Peter winces a little. “Did you order the military to bomb a school in Iran, killing a bunch of young girls?”

“Sure, I had to do that,” Donald responds, “Otherwise, in 10 years I’d be dating all of them.”

“WOW, man, that’s a special level of dark.”

“That’s me, I’m the darkest. People call me ‘The Black.’ I LOVE the blacks and they love me right back. I did more for the blacks than even Abraham Lincoln, everyone says so.”

Peter’s face shows annoyance. “Well, I know Abe very well, and he’s never mentioned you, so I hope you’ll understand my doubts.” He checks the tablet again and says “Dude, I gotta be honest with you. I’m not sure you’d like things upstairs. The streets are paved with gold, but the toilets are not. There’s no money up here, the only currency is faith….”

“You’re SUCH A TOTAL LOSER! FAKE ANGEL!” Trump screams. “You have no clue who I am. GET YOUR MANAGER, GODAMMIT!” Peter shrugs, types a few letters on the tablet, and soon a young brown-skinned man appeared at the gate, with confidence in his steps, an aura of light surrounding him.

“Who the fuck are you?” Donald bellows.

“I AM”

“Jesus Christ, are you fucking stupid or what? I asked who the fuck ARE YOU??”

“I AM AS YOU SAY”

Donald mocks, “Azusei?? Are you f-ing kidding me? What kind of illegal alien name is that? Jesus Christ, I locked up and deported thousands of people like you. Even killed a few. That’s what I did, I killed ‘em. Almost wiped a whole civilization off the map, because when you’re famous, they let you do it. But I didn’t, because those people, the ones I wanted to kill, they love me. Not like WEAK JOE BIDEN or BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA. Those guys are weak socialist commie libtards. Not me, though, I’m strong. And smart - the SMARTEST. I’m a stable genius. And I have big hands, the biggest. Everyone says so.”

Jesus leans over to Peter and whispers, “hey man, hand me the scorecard. I gotta check somethin’”. As Jesus scans the list, Trump continues blustering about windmills and Hannibal Lecter, Arnold Palmer’s dick, pageants, sharks, batteries, immigrants and a whole lot of other things that neither Jesus nor Peter hear because they’ve tuned him out. After a near eternity of scanning the list (which passes in like 3 seconds in Pearly Gate Time), Jesus turns to Peter and says “Yeah, you know what to do.”

Peter directs his attention to the large bloviating one. “Mr. Trump?” Donald doesn’t hear him as he’s too busy complaining about how terrible it was that he had to talk to a brown servant. “MR TRUMP”. No acknowledgement. “SIR!” Finally Donald looks at Peter and smirks. “Oh, now you know who I am. Let me in already, I have a golf date with Rush Limbaugh.”

“Oh absolutely, sir,” says Peter. If you’d just take a small step to the right, you’ll see a lift that will take you to your new home.”

“It’s about fucking time,” Trump bellows as he steps to the right.

Peter taps on his ear and says “Tell Rush Limbaugh that Donald is here to see him”. Then he presses a button and the platform begins to go up.

“Stupid Republican lift,” Peter mutters under his breath. “Go up to go down. Left is right. Wrong is right. But hey, at least they complain less until they’re out of my sight. He’s Lucy’s problem now.”

It’s virtually impossible to overstate how much of a shitshow this Iran war is and will become. In days, if not hours, there will be far too many flag-draped coffins returned to American soil.

If you’re listening to Diaper Don, this war was about stopping Iran from having the ability to create nuclear weapons. Interestingly, this was the reason why Diaperman bombed Iran last summer and - in his words - “obliterated everything.” Recently, he’s had to go kill a bunch of innocent schoolchildren because things really WEREN’T obliterated?

American soldiers are going to be in harm’s way, and for many this will be a one-way trip. Trump has no problems with American citizens getting wounded and dying because, as he so egregiously quipped, they’re just “suckers” and “losers.” He fails to understand the immense gravity of war and the extensive damage to a family when a loved one is returned home to rest in pieces. Then again, he also fails to understand concepts like honesty, integrity, and basic human value.

But the total price of this war won’t be paid on foreign soil. Let us not forget September 11, 2001. Thousands of people died under horrific circumstances because the American government financed a little guerilla warfare sect known as “Al Qaeda” in their fight against Russia and then abandoned them when it became politically expedient to do so.

Then again, remember all the lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan because of Bush’s mythical “weapons of mass destruction?” Or maybe we go back to Ronald Reagan and Oliver North selling military equipment to Iran in the 1980s? Or what about the CIA’s drug running Air America during the Vietnam conflict? Fact is, America has always been in the terrorism business to distract from some disgraceful thing at home. Or if not America at large, it’s certainly been the modis operandi of one party in particular.

The problem is there’s a cost to doing terrorism in the open, with no pretense, no apologies, and no mercy:

Victims hit back.

Iran not having nuclear weapons doesn’t mean America is safe. If history is any indication, a group of folks hell-bent on damage has any number of unsavory options from which to choose. Economic sanctions, infrastructure disruption, fucking ridiculous tariffs, and even airplanes have been effectively used to kill Americans. And lest we forget, there are more military-style firearms in America than any other industrial country on the planet.

What could possibly go wrong?

Stay vigilant, my friends.

Something wicked this way comes.

My last post, “Democrats Could Lose Everything in 2026” has been getting dismal views. While I’m disappointed, I also understand that people periodically need a break from the doom-and-gloom of the present American shitshow. This may not be exactly a ray of fucking sunshine, but it’s a bit more optimistic.

In short, we CAN do this.

As outlined in that article, Democrat leadership cannot view the 2026 election through a “business as usual” lens. Republican games are afoot to disenfranchise women and the non-billionaire class with the SAVE Act (of Treason). Voting machines have been seized in Georgia, the regime is extorting states to provide voter information or suffer continued domestic terror, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the Epstein class has no intention of allowing an election this year.

With that in mind, here’s how we take back control.

1. Democrat lawmakers should be introducing bills to protect citizens right to vote. Propose a bill that says that if ID has to be shown to vote, all forms of legal identification for voting must immediately be provided at no cost, to eliminate the perception of a poll tax. They could brand it as a way to “help” Republicans avoid a messy “misunderstanding” about the unconstitutionality of making voting “pay to play”.
   
   Republicans will, of course, be completely against Democrat-led voter protections, especially if it’s free! Little Johnson will probably forbid any such bills from getting attention. But that’s okay. We can still shout it from the rooftop that Republicans are not interested in free and fair elections, with receipts showing specifically where they stand.

2. Drop hints that, based on DJT’s “concern” for voting integrity and a number of “newly discovered irregularities” in the 2024 election, a full forensic audit will be done to ensure that there was no malfeasance in previous elections.
   
   To be fair, this should have been done anyway. Not doing it right after the election has empowered President Pedo into believing he can do anything without consequences.
   
   But here’s where it gets interesting. If no malfeasance is discovered in the last election, it proves the SAVE Act (of Treason) is entirely useless and a fraudulent attempt to disenfranchise voters. On the other hand, if anything improper at all is discovered, perhaps the Ratpublicans in congress will have their come-to-Jesus moment and decide to get off a sinking ship.
   
   Yeah, I know… Republicans wouldn’t come to Jesus unless he was offering them bags of money and unlimited power.

3. Continue bringing the Turd Reich in front of Congress to account for their misdeeds.
   
   Whatever became of “contempt of congress?” Do we just let Bleach Bitch Bondi disrespect the rule of law and the decorum of congress without any consequences? She should have spent the night in a holding cell with someone named Big Beautiful Billie to “rearrange her priorities”.
   
   Let’s get Pete Kegsbreath to testify as to the killing of fisherman in Venezuela and the ongoing unconstitutional and unapproved military action there. And for the love of God, can someone please shine a fucking spotlight on the recklessness of firing live artillery over the I-5 in California?
   
   Let’s get Tom Inhuman and Tiny Bovine in front of a committee to testify about the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the countless others that have been “terminated” under their watch. Demand they be held accountable for every act of terror their organizations have inflicted upon the peaceful communities of Minneapolis, Portland, and beyond. Demand that everyone associated with ICE and CBP, especially those who were pardoned and then hired in this administration, be held accountable for their acts of domestic terror and dishonor against the American public.

4. Introduce articles of impeachment for every one member of the administration.
   
   Without control of congress, these aren’t going to pass. But these folks need to be reminded daily that the regime is about to be crushed, and Democrats are driving the steamroller.
   
   By the way, this is how Republicans came to power in the first place. While Democrats were busy “going high”, Republicans went to the sub-basement to flood the zone with misinformation, useless litigation, “just try to stop me” executive orders, and a sycophantic congress who are more concerned about being crushed by Trump than they are about being held accountable by their constituents.
   
   So don’t give them a moments rest. Keep them locked up in litigation, congressional hearings, distractions galore.

5. File motions against Trump, forcing him to respond to endless litigation about the 2024 election, the demolition of the East Wing, being in the Epstein files more times than Jesus and God (combined) are in the Bible, attacking Venezuela, imposing tariffs, eliminating USAID leading to countless deaths worldwide, defunding Sesame Street, … everything. If we can’t actually lock him up in prison (yet), we should be able to lock him up in court defending his indefensible actions.

I do respect Michelle Obama for her “when they go low, we go high”. But honey, those days are long gone, decorum having left the White House with the Obamas and Bidens.

Today, saving America is gonna take some alligator wrastlin’.

Bring it on.

If the barrage of emails I get from Democratic candidates across the country are to be trusted, they’re only $5, $10, or $27 away from winning a crucial seat and saving democracy. If only it were that simple!

The Oval Office is presently occupied by an geriatric narcissistic racist psychopath with an uncontrollable commitment to revenge. The only reliable aspects to this presidency are:

1. He only lies on days ending in “y”,

2. He’s surrounded himself with a sycophantic cult whose only commitment to “truth” is whatever he says, no matter how ridiculous or demonstrably false it may be,

3. He’s on the grift every day, lining his pockets with the People’s money as well as loads of dirty money he’s pocketing for personal favors,

4. He’s attacking good people while elevating bad people to positions of power,

5. He’s a central figure of the Epstein class, and very likely has hurt or killed someone’s daughters,

6. Cruelty is, and always has been, his point.

The 2026 midterms should be a race that Democrats have to work to lose. But it’s hardly a done deal. In fact, as things stand today, there is a stronger-than-likely possibility of Democrats being soundly wiped out in November.

“No chance,” you say? “It can’t possibly happen,” you say? Well, nobody expected a person who literally uttered the line “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people who live there” would be elevated to the highest office in America, but here we are.

Here’s the problem: Democrats aren’t looking at the election like Republicans.

Republicans will do whatever it takes to come out on top. They’ll break laws, they’ll invent new ways to subvert existing laws and norms without breaking a sweat. Meanwhile, Democrats will scratch their collective asses and wonder how the party of kidnapping, murder, and pedophilia convinced the voting public that kidnapping, murder, and pedophilia were better than affordable healthcare and safe communities.

Since taking office, there’s been the seizing of ballots in Georgia, the blatant extortion for voting information in Minnesota, and an endless Gish gallop of kidnapping, deportations, murder, public defecation, and of course, a little thing called the Epstein files. Meanwhile, Democrats act like there is still a fair fight to be had.

Ah, bless your naive little hearts.

We, the sane people who want to see democracy and the rule of law continue in America, have to stop looking at Republicans as competitors. They’re not. Trump has taught them how the game can be rigged, and rather than stand up for democracy, they’ve bent the knee for a seat at the table.

This all started when the Harris/Walz campaign did not aggressively contest the 2024 election. I believe Trump - with help from Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Ellison, and possibly more, somehow rigged things so that no matter how the people voted, Trump would win. He had people in place to respond if anyone had contested his win, and when nobody formally contested it, he knew nobody would stop him when he did it again, on a larger scale.

As an aside, I find it interesting that once a ballot is cast, a voter cannot go online anywhere to verify the ballot. Even more concerning, there’s no way - other than blind trust in a historically solid tradition and process - that what was placed on a ballot is being aggregated reliably. Are there points where someone might “cook the books”?

My father used to say, “locks only keep out honest people”. I also remember a police detective telling me that the only way to catch a criminal is to first think like one. Therein lies the rub: Honest people don’t try to break locks. Decent people don’t think like criminals, and criminals exploit this to destroy trust and to damage people.

To win in 2026, Democrats have to start thinking like the criminal presently in the Oval. I know, it’s a difficult proposition to try to think as demented as the geriatric toddler who soils his pants on camera, subjecting the room to his odious stench, while endlessly spewing falsehoods and hate. Not everyone is up for such a challenge. But be not dismayed; it’s more difficult with a smart criminal. In our situation, our criminal is of low intelligence, as demonstrated by his reuse of old, rehearsed manipulations.

Let’s assume for a moment that he IS putting systems in place to rig the election. Musk and Zuckerberg may be responsible for delivering his messaging, and Bezos and Ellison both own massive technology farms that process, store, and move tons of information. Control the narrative, control the data, control the outcome.

A second strategy he might employ would be to stage armed “guards” around polling places. He’ll start hinting at it to try to normalize people thinking that he’s going to do it, so people don’t even bother showing up to vote. It’s no secret why he’s attacking Democrat-leaning cities and murdering people with his gestapo; it’s not about immigrants. It’s about striking fear in those cities to try to keep people from voting. If it were about immigrants, he wouldn’t be targeting only blue cities.

He might not put people at the voting places, but he could incentivize his “patriots” to drive around with the biggest flags and trucks and gun racks to intimidate anyone who might be thinking of casting a blue vote. He might even declare voting day as “camo day” so his cult members show up everywhere looking like they’re coming fresh out of a war zone. It’s not legal to advertise party affiliation at a voting place, but might he encourage military style apparel for it’s cosplay terror impact?

Then there’s the bomb threats and other truly scary tactics. Expect it. Expect more. He has everything to lose in this election, and he has the resources to make one hell of a mess. He’s doing it now, so expect his tactics to grow increasingly more unhinged.

Remember when Trump told a crowd “After this, you won’t even have to vote.” That’s not something a sane person would say, or even think. Hell, that’s not even something an effective criminal would utter. But with Trump, he tattles on himself in his bluster. Commonly projecting, he blames Joe Biden and the Democrats for everything he’s doing and has done. When he’s not projecting, he’s boasting.

Somehow he’s lulled his base into believing that if you hate enough, you’ll be great enough.

The only way to get ahead of this is to stop treating Trump like he’s normal. He’s not. He’s so very abnormal that the decimation of America is still within his reach.

It’s not going to take $5, $10, or even a billion dollars. It’s going to take a party that is willing to make a concerned effort to get inside the mind of a mean-spirited mentally unbalanced person and use his own psychopathy against him.

It’s not every day that this Republican administration does something terrible. Just kidding! These people commit crimes like they’re playing some twisted game of Survivor. However, instead of them getting voted off the country, American citizens are getting murdered, shot in the head with non-lethal rounds, tear gassed, beat up, pushed around, threatened and intimidated. Meanwhile, the administration completely disregards the mandatory release of the Epstein files and lies endlessly to cover for their gross incompetence.

So today, I’d like to start a thought experiment. When this regime is finally toppled, what are the things that sane, decent Americans (who oppose murder and the needless decimation of our country) can do to help the nation to recover?

I’ve heard it said that MAGA is much like 9/11. For 9/11, the country will never be the same as it was before the first plane hit the building. Likewise, the country may never be the same as it was before that Melon Felon came down the escalator. In some ways, it makes sense; Both events have triggered immense loss to the nation and her people. But unlike 9/11, Trumpism doesn’t have to be unrecoverable.

By taking decisive action with the next Democratic majority, we can not only recover from this nightmare, we can move America in a direction that is beneficial for the entire world. But these actions must be DECISIVE. No excuses, no shortcuts, no delays.

Without question, there’ll be a lot of swamp muck to get through. Let’s talk about it.

1. Remove and replace Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Todd Blanche, and their entire cabal of criminals posing as the Department of Justice. This must absolutely be first if we’re going to see any actual justice.

2. Impeach, prosecute, remove, and replace the members of the Supreme Court who granted immunity to the President, allowing him to attack his own country without accountability. Restore the sanctity of the rule of law in protecting all citizens. Restore the sanctity of the Constitution to protect all people in the country.

3. Release the Epstein files, in total, unredacted. It’s no secret that as long as Republicans hold the majority, they'll continue committing acts of war and treason to try to distract from that shitshow. But they won’t hold onto power forever. By election or by force, this regime will be toppled.
   
   Launch investigations into all parties identified in the Epstein files, with a particular attention given to any persons who has committed acts of aggression against the United States or her citizens.

4. Annul/reverse all pardons of the Trump regime. Return all convicted Jan 6 insurrectionists to prison.

5. Eliminate all immigration concentration camps and return all citizens and legal residents to their homes. Pay every detainee for lost wages while detained, with interest.

6. Withdraw ICE and any American military deployed by the regime from all American cities. Investigate all ICE and military who have fired any weapon (lethan and non-lethal, tear gas, etc) inside of America according to the UCMJ. (Cosplay as a soldier, get prosecuted as one.)

7. Investigate and prosecute Jonathon Ross and everyone else involved in the killing of Renee Good. Investigate and prosecute everyone involved in the killing of Alex Pretti. Investigate and prosecute everyone involved in the deaths and inhumane treatment of anyone help in immigration concentration camps.

8. Investigate and prosecute Stephen Miller for too many crimes to count. And for the love of god, can we get some kind of law or constitutional amendment that prohibits Nosferatu Goebbels from showing up on TV, radio, or any other media for that matter?

9. Withdraw all troops and warships from Venezuela, Greenland, or anywhere else the Draft Doodie deployed them.

10. Meet with NATO leaders to apologize (profusely) and setup an international tribunal for the Trump regime leadership. Appoint Jack Smith to lead the prosecution. Create a special hot seat for the “Secretary of War”.

11. Investigate all members of the House and Senate who conspired to abdicate their constitutional authority to protect President Pedo.

12. File charges of sedition against the Murdock family, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Janine Pirro, and other Fox News “personalities” for the countless lies they have told with the intent to undermine the American democratic process. Let everyone know the American terrorists aren’t soccer moms, they’re those polished turds under bright lights spewing endless lies and calling it “entertainment.”

13. Investigate Trump for his countless conflicts of interest where he has enriched himself at the expense of the American public. And return/destroy that goddamn tacky Qatari “gift”. Speaking of Qatar, seize all of the private accounts that Trump has been stashing over there “for national security.”

14. Eliminate Citizens United. Remove the power of big money from American politics. While we’re at it, let’s shut down lobbyists too.

15. Proactively seize and liquidate all Trump assets to pay for 1) the deaths of people directly related to his mishandling of COVID, his gestapo, or any other acts of malfeasance by his “administration”. He has profited from the presidency, so he should personally pay for the damage. Identify and seize all of the proceeds from Trump’s grifting “Board of Peace”, cryptoscam, and other related enrichments.

16. Remove the Trump name from the Kennedy Center, and remove him and any of his lackeys from board positions of the Center.

17. Prosecute Donald Trump personally for destroying the East Wing of the White House without approval.

18. Rebuild the East Wing of the White House to its original form, remove all of the tacky gold shit around the Oval Office, restore the Kennedy Rose Garden to its original form, and make Trump pay for all of it out of his personal fortune.

19. Restore the budget and support for Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, and other media that is in the national interest.

20. Restore aid to Ukraine in their war against the Russian invasion. Restore USAID to support the world.

21. Force Trump to pay E. Jean Carrol every penny he owes her, with interest, immediately.

22. Restore with haste all legal prosecutions against Donald Trump and the Trump organization that were suspended upon his election.

23. Rework the second amendment. If those ammosexuals aren’t going to be a “well regulated militia” to promote a “free state”, and instead they align with the authoritarian regime, well, that shit needs to stop RIGHT NOW. It’s amazing how many “good guys with a gun” don’t exist when the nation is actually facing an authoritarian fascist dictatorship.

24. Eliminate the electoral college. One person. One vote. Majority wins.

Well folks, that’s my stream of consciousness. What’d I miss?

As a atheist who converted from a Christian zealot, I worry about this guy. More importantly, I worry about all the damage that is being done to other young people under the moniker of being a “good Christian”.

In this video, he says he was distracted and felt like he was “failing God”. He then goes on to talk about going through the symptoms of a fever. So, as he says it, he yelled up to God and said “I don’t want to die! I know what I did wrong!".

Okay, so let’s just unpack that for a moment. He was feeling out of sorts for a bit and then when he went to rest, he popped a fever. Sounds like maybe the flu. But when your body is trembling so bad you can’t stand and it’s even difficult to catch a breath, it can feel like the end is near.

I got both flu and pneumonia vaccines on the same day and yes, I felt out of sorts until bedtime and then it was several hours of living hell. Low grade fever, but the chills were so bad that breathing was difficult. Sure, it would pass, but going through it sucked.

But this guy says he yelled towards God that he didn’t want to die and he knew what he had done wrong.

WUT?

You copped a fever. There’s nothing spiritual in that. In fact, fevers are remarkably non-spiritual. Now I know you believe that there are demons all around us and this ongoing battle between good and evil can cause bad things to happen in the physical world.

But… Dude…. What if you’re wrong?

What if it was just a touch of flu? Now, you don’t seem like the kind of person to get vaccinated, so maybe you walked by someone in public who was carrying something nasty? My point is, that happens to everyone. Remember COVID?

But ascribing this as a way for a deity to get your attention is a stretch. You yourself said your thoughts of going to heaven were selfish and ignorant. But then you said that you didn’t preach the gospel “out of fear” and somehow are relating this to getting sick.

So let me get this straight, you felt that this almighty being decided to slap you with a fever because you didn’t force your perspectives on other people who didn’t ask for them. Against Matthew 6:5 you felt that it was your place to approach someone in public and foist your beliefs upon them. And for this, for this DESIRE to disobey a cherrypicked passage from your sacred holy book, God slapped you?

What if you’re wrong?

What if there is no God but the Christian establishment has groomed you to believe something that cannot be proven outside of one book that has been twisted and mangled in many versions to fit specific narratives? What if, by using guilt and shame, they have forced you into a lifestyle that is not authentically you, but YOUR fear keeps you in line and under their control? What if fear doesn’t make a person disobey, but instead makes one … obey?

The more I listen to this the more I see someone who is trapped. I get it, you’re trying to do the right thing, but what you’re told is right doesn’t quite fit what you know to be right. You don’t want to be sticking your faith into other people’s faces, because you know how rude and obnoxious that can be. But fear makes you do it. Fear makes you obey.

If you truly said no to fear, you would question everything. If there is a God, he didn’t give you a brain so that it could be filled with other people’s thoughts and beliefs. Do your own research. Find the bottom of the well of your belief; is it a solid rock foundation or murky, smelly swamp?

Truth is, I was once like you. And I had the very same experience that you’re having. But I later learned that what I thought was the voice of God was really an amalgam of pastors and preachers mixed with my own imagination. In the end, fear and shame kept me in line. And since leaving the church, and losing almost all my friends, and effectively rebooting spiritually, I have no fear. I have no shame. Sure, mistakes are still made, but I apologize, learn from them, and move on.

While in the church, my favorite Bible verse was Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, follow Him, and He will direct your path.” In the church, that verse looks like a way to be strong and fearless, right? In reality, it’s exactly the opposite. In effect, it’s saying “Do not believe the evidence of your eyes and ears but believe whatever you are told.” (1984, Orwell, paraphrased)

THAT is Christianity. THAT is religion in general. Ancient mysticism and performative rituals to control the masses with fear and shame, continually repackaged for new audiences.

But to be fair, what if I’m wrong?

If I’m wrong, I’ll continue living my best and most authentic life until I die at which point my consciousness will cease to exist and all that will be left behind will be my children and hopefully good memories. Heaven? Ah, hell no. If that’s where the Christians are going, I’d rather take my chances that the other place isn’t real either.

This is a follow-up to my previous post entitled “I Helped Donald Trump Lose $20 Million.” Well, the DJT stock has now gone down below $11 from my last reporting at $15.99/share. Remember, with Sir Lies-A-Lot holding 114 million shares, every penny that this stock goes down, he loses a cool million dollars of value. A mere dollar loss in share price translates to a $100 million loss for him. As of this moment, the stock price is $10.34, so that translates to a $5.65 loss per share from the 15.99 of my last report. Multiply this by his share count, he’s lost $644,100,000 and it couldn’t happen to more deserving piece of human fecal matter (and I’m still not quite convinced about the human part).

Of course, this goes the other way as well: he can make an enormous amount of money when the stock goes up. Fortunately, so can we.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE watching this stock get reduced to rubble. All I want for Christmas is to see this stock price reduced to dust and for him to lose the nearly 1.2 billion dollars in remaining value.

But of course, this means that as he loses money, I do as well. But my losses are minimal; I was up $8 in the last article, now I’m down $20 and change. If the stock goes up, I’ll cash out and keep pushing it lower. At the end of the day, if I lose $100 and Donnie Dumpypants loses a billion, that’s a worthy risk.

As I outlined in my earlier post, I buy 1 share at 9 cents below the current mark. If that purchase goes through, I’ve lost 9 cents but Dumpy has lost $9 million. Then I put in another buy at 9 cents below the mark price. There seem to be a lot of folks putting in these onesy-twosy buys lately.

This stock is fantastically volatile. If a group of people were to drive this thing down on a specific day - maybe Black Friday (?) - the fallout would be gorgeous. And Mango Mussolini would have one more failure under his belt.

Now, as long as I don’t specifically ask you to participate (which would be conspiracy) this is 100% legal. We’re just capitalizing on the volatility of the stock to buy low and maybe sell high should it go back up. And if it doesn’t go back up, oh well, stocks crash out all the time; that’s a normal part of investing.

Happy hunting, my friends.

If you want to understand the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties in America, it’s important to understand what motivates each party. What do they believe in? What do they strive to achieve? The answer, regrettably, can be found in a single word.

• Republicans: Control

• Democrats: Equality

Allow me to explain:

Republicans say they’re fiscally conservative, but then they’ll blow through millions of dollars helping their rich friends/donors while sacrificing critical programs for everyone else. Feeding kids? Hell no, but they have plenty of money to kidnap, detain, and deport people, buy new jets for Cosplay Kristi the Gnome, build a new ballroom that ABSOLUTELY NOBODY asked for, and now apparently there’s going to be a new arch monument, at who knows how egregious a cost, to honor their “fiscally conservative” dear demented leader.

The red hats will tell you they’re all about the Bible, a book that many of them have clearly never read. Treat immigrants as if they are your own people? Support the poor, the widowed, and the fatherless? Oh, HELL to the nah. They’d rather kill fisherman with extrajudicial prejudice, take away food from families just before Thanksgiving (make THAT make sense) and ensure that every child in school has the opportunity to experience hunger and suffering. They won’t fund school lunches, but they’ll look the other way while a shooter robs those same children of a future and then use the tragedy to score political points.

This administration will bankrupt American farmers and then bail out Argentina, the benefactor of all this trade malfeasance with China. They’ll ruin American farmers so their wealthy friends can buy up the land for cheap so that the government can have a direct line of control over the means of food production, all while screaming about how the Democrats are “communist.”

Republicans lie as easily as breathing. They know that whoever controls the media, controls the message. When you control the message, you can make people believe that groceries - that old-fashioned word that ABSOLUTELY NOBODY knew before the Melon Felon uttered it (yeah, right) - are cheaper now than they’ve ever been before. The right believes that Sir Lies-a-Lot has reduced prices on everything by thousands of percent, when in reality they don’t understand the basic math that unequivocally proves the ridiculousness of the claim.

But why do Republicans believe such monumental fabrications? They’ll say it’s because the “demon rats” (their cute little pet-name for the party) are “woke” and “baby killers” and “socialist communist fascists” while literally supporting a textbook-definition fascist regime pushing towards communism with this self-inflicted farm crisis.

Fact is, not only do Republicans believe the lies of their party, most have absolutely no idea what Democrats believe. They’ve been provided a series of dog-whistles (“woke”, “socialist”, “marxist”) that they deploy at will, but they have absolutely no idea what any of it actually means.

At the core, the Democratic party is about equality, which is to say that Democrats would rather empower people than control them. If money is to be spent, Democrats believe that spending should help the most people possible. If laws are to be passed, Democrats believe those laws should have a positive impact on the most people possible. If there are opportunities, Democrats believe that everyone should have equal access to them, regardless of your political leanings, skin color, sexual preference, or any other meaningless marketing demographics.

Republicans say Democrats are all about “taxing and spending” your hard-earned paycheck, but that leaves out a number of very important details. Both parties do the “tax and spend” activity as it’s a core element of governance, but Democrats have historically spent less than Republicans and produced better results for the American people. So yes, both parties spend our money. But Democrats spend more wisely and more conservatively than Republicans. Democrats don’t waste millions destroying entire sections of the White House for vanity projects, but instead have fought for worker rights, health care for everyone, safe streets, and equality in employment and representation.

“BUT DEMOCRATS ARE PUSHING THAT GAY AGENDA”, the red hats scream. What they fail to realize is that the entire agenda of the LGBTQ+ community is EQUALITY. If a person is restricted by another from choosing who or how they love, that’s not equality, it’s oppression. Nobody’s turning your kids gay. That’s not how it works.

“BUT YOU SICK LIBERAL BASTARDS WANT HEALTHCARE FOR ILLEGAL CRIMINALS!” No, man, that’s not a thing. There are laws prohibiting the use of Medicare dollars for non-citizens. Yes, hospitals are required to provide care for everyone regardless of a person’s citizen or non-citizen status, but the dollars spent for that are insignificant when compared to a ballroom that most Americans will never be invited to visit.

By the way, regardless of whatever misinformation is being spewed by the administration, it’s not actually illegal to have brown skin.

“BUT YOU F***ING LIBTARDS SUPPORT KILLING BABIES!” Nope, this is also not a thing. Democrats believe that everyone with a uterus should be free to make decisions about their own body without being limited by a bunch of dudes who are uterus-free zones (both biologically and proximally). Nobody is delivering a baby and then killing it. That is some sick bullshit that talking heads keep claiming without evidence to a group of people they’ve conditioned to believe anything.

There is, however, one exception to the equality rule for Democrats. Men should have no business making laws regulating women’s bodily functions, just as women should not be making laws regulating men’s bodily functions.

I would love to see someone like Elizabeth Warren propose a law mandating vasectomies in pre-teens, just to watch the opposition party fall all over itself in holy outrage.

“WHAT ABOUT THAT DEI BULLSHIT?” they crow. Well, “equity” is right there in the name of “diversity, equity, and inclusion”. The point of DEI is, once again, about treating everyone as equal, regardless of their skin color, country of origin, gender preference, or who they choose to love. It’s not as radical as you might think, considering Jesus himself preached about loving the immigrant, treating others well, and including people rather than excluding them.

“BUT YOU LIBTARDS ARE ALL FUCKING SOCIALISTS!” Do you drive on public roads? Yes? Okay, that’s provided by socialism. Do you pay for the traffic lights that keep accidents from happening? No? This is also a benefit of socialism. Do you get a bill for the police and fire services that protect your community? No? Guess what? That’s also because of socialism. Congratulations, you benefit from socialism every day. All Americans do. Of course, let’s also not forget social security. No self-respecting Republican would EVER take money from THAT socialist program, right?

America isn’t 1970’s USSR. In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, “I do not think that word means what you think it means”.

If you’re decrying socialism, allow me to invite you to read a book explaining political ideologies. Please. For the love of God, please.

Now, there are factions of each party that could use some attention. On the Republican side, there are folks who are so sold-out to the party that they have lost all discernment between truth and lies. They’ve been groomed for so long to believe whatever they’re told that they no longer think for themselves but let others tell them what to believe. These people are, regrettably, unreachable. They’ll defend the rights of a school shooter to own high powered weapons, even when that shooter separates their family members from this mortal coil. They’ll go all in on Oklahoma’s plan to mandate sending underprivileged kids to the military as targets for the enemy, just to “own the libs”.

If you care about kids, don’t force them to go to war.

On the Democrat side, there’s a lot of talk but much less action. The “No Kings” protest was encouraging (even though it wasn’t specifically a Democratic event), but these actions are few and far between where Republicans are dominating the media day in and day out. Many Democrats have grown tired of trying to keep up with all the insanity of the Trump regime so they don’t bother responding to the firehose of lies coming out of the Big Chair and that swamp of sewer clowns that he calls a “cabinet”.

Thank heaven for independent media who are working to get the message out and keep the people informed rather than programmed.

At the end of the day, the difference between the parties is one of either “owning” or “serving”. Republicans want to “own” the liberals, the narrative, the media, the property, the means of production, the methods of reporting, and anything else they can have to keep their side ill-informed and dependent. Democrats want to pull back the veil and empower everyone with the opportunity to be independent and productive members of society, irrespective of how you vote, where you live, or the color of your skin.

Democrats mourn losses regardless of party. Republicans mourn their own (i.e. Charlie Kirk) and cheer when something happens to others (i.e. Paul Pelosi, brown skin people). Democrats mourn how Republicans choose their own destruction with their votes. Democrats want everyone to have healthcare, a safe world for everyone, and for nobody to go hungry or homeless. Republicans want to take away health care and for everyone to own more killing machines. Democrats are okay with your religion or lack thereof as long as it’s not hurting others. Republicans want you to love Jesus or find another place to live. Or die.

Democrats see you as a person. Republicans see you as property.

Any questions?

RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES