I want to clarify that I am not making a statement about marriage in general in this post. I am laser focused in this article on the definition of marriage and a woman’s place in the family and society based on Christian Nationalist ideology.

The comments he has made have really stuck in my head. I spent a lot of time thinking about it because all of the statements he makes, in one way or another, demonize women. To get an idea of what I mean, please watch the video below.

The reason I have ruminated over his comments is because they directly target women. Women who are educated, self-sufficient, and financially independent are seen as a threat. The Christian Nationalists hate it so much that they are working to roll back hard-fought rights of women.

These “Christian” men want to remove the opportunities for women such as going to college, being financially independent, and deciding whether or not to get married and have children. They want to go back in time where women didn’t have the right to vote, or have their own bank account, or credit card, or the ability to take out a loan or a mortgage. In fact, they want to forbid women from speaking in public.

They claim that women are inferior in every way to men. That men are the ones who are natural born leaders and that women should not have the right to make decisions outside the household.

Their latest agenda is to take away a woman’s right to vote. In this next clip, he demonizes women who vote for progressive policies.

Notice how he starts the conversation by stating that young white men are the victims in our society? How they are being discriminated against in the workplace and in society in general because they are white men? This perspective is totally delusional.

Let’s look at the facts:

Men are paid more for doing the same job as women.

Men are promoted more often to management positions than women.

White men have been overwhelmingly the majority in Congress.

All presidents, except for one, in the 250 years of this country have been white men.

Men have always had bodily autonomy. Depending on the state, women do not.

White men hold the majority of property in this country.

The list of privileges, especially for white males, in this country is endless.

This statement is so far from the truth, it left me speechless. In fact, this whole country was set up for white men. They have been given everything where the rest of us have had to fight for our rights. The constant oppression they have forced onto all marginalized communities- women, blacks, LGBTQ+, immigrants, etc. since the beginning of this country is ongoing.

The worst part of this type of religion, is the hate and misogyny is wrapped in Bible verses. The one overwhelming message I take away from this horrible man is that if women don’t comply with his beliefs, they should be punished. In the next clip he specifically calls out women who have chosen not to marry or have children.

Reverend Trevors does a wonderful job explaining the role of the church and the views Jesus held about women. There is nothing Christian about the teachings of Joel Webbon.

This may seem like an off-the-wall article about men who hate women and their entitlement of being in a position of authority. But the scary truth is these are the types of pastors who are guiding the current administration. In particular, Pete Hegseth subscribes to this type of theology. And I’m sure that this is something that appeals to other white men in this administration. The underlining foundation of this type of religion is white male supremacy.

It explains their swift removal of DEI programs and firing women and blacks in the federal government. It explains the dismantling of the Voters Rights Act by the corrupt Supreme Court. It explains the push to appeal the 19th amendment of the Constitution that granted women the right to vote. It explains the attempt to end mail-in voting and the SAVE ACT that requires additional documentation for women to vote. It explains the Department of Education changing the policies for reducing student loans for careers that traditionally attract women- nursing, teaching, counseling, etc.

If these men are the chosen leaders, why do they feel the need to oppress women? If they are naturally superior in every way, why do they need to unlevel the playing field?

I’ll tell you why. Their platform is based on male insecurity and entitlement. These men think because they were born white males, others are required to bow down and submit to them. They believe that white supremacy gives them the right to run this country. They also believe that women have been given too many advantages that has made it unnecessary for them to be dependent on a man. In other words, with an education and financially independence, women can choose not to be forced into marriage. Throughout most of human existence, women did not have that choice because they did not have the right to inherit property or have a means of financial stability without getting married. They were shunned and ostracized if they chose not to marry or have children. In fact, they were viewed as property. Their life was dependent on the generosity of their husband or male relatives.

I believe these types of men are weak and resentful. They have a problem with educated women because those women are not easy to control and are typically more willing to speak up and challenge them. That is a problem for these men. They believe women should be compliant and submissive, no matter what horrible decision these men make. Women are supposed shut up and live with it.

With all the entitlement and misogyny preached by these men, it’s pretty obvious to me where it leads- the abuse of women. They tell themselves they have the God given right to enforce compliance over their wives. This is a recipe for abuse.

If these men are really this weak and entitled, they are the last people who should be in charge of a family or run this country. It shouldn’t be a requirement to oppress everyone else, who is not white or male, in order for you to get be in a position of authority. They are unfit to lead.

First, I would like to describe a couple of scenarios.

Imagine you are walking home and arrive at your apartment complex. When you arrive there, a woman is at the front door and blocks you from entering. She demands to see your key to prove you live there. She refuses to move. She insists that it is her building and that you have no right to enter. You tell her that if she doesn’t move, you will be pushing your way past her to enter the building. She refuses to move so you push past her. She still demands that you prove to her that you live there. You walk away and she decides to follow you and continues to harass you. Then she tries to block the elevator.

Now imagine that you are a black father with his two teenage sons on vacation. You are staying with friends at an apartment complex with a swimming pool. Two women, one with a clipboard and the other standing by, ask you to show you have a right to be there.

They demand you show your ID. You refuse. Because you are told you are being uncooperative, they call the police. At this point, your youngest has become very upset and starts crying. He begs you to show your ID so you are not arrested and taken to jail.

How about you going on the beach and you decide to fish…

What do these situations have in common? The people who are being harassed are black and the people harassing them are white.

Some may say, “Well, we didn’t see what happened prior this point. They must have done something to provoke this situation.”

If you are one of those people, you don’t understand how racism works. Racist people automatically assume if you are black and show up to typically all white spaces, you have no right to be there.

Now imagine you are black and have to deal with this type of treatment once a day, once a week, once a month. How long would you be able to tolerate it? Also, how much would you tolerate before you end up in a physical altercation?

Because in some instances, the racist people decide to put there hands on you by either grabbing you are hitting you. In either case, it is considered assault. What would you do?

The truth is, when you are a black person in this country, you are constantly reminded about your race. The situations I have shared are more overt, but they happen to black people on a daily basis. It should be pretty obvious that they are racially motivated. Racism shows up in all forms- subtle comments, the way people look at you, and their general behavior towards you.

I wish I could tell you how many times I have been discriminated against as a black female, but I can’t. It has become so often that it is just part of my existence. Not that you ever get used to it, but you understand that is always a possible outcome when you go to new places, meet new people, or just at the grocery store on a random Tuesday.

The overall message in all of the cases is “You have no right to be here.” Which basically equates to “You have no right to exist.”

Imagine being told that your entire life. If you can, then you have a pretty good idea what it feels like to be a black person and live in this country. And if you can’t, lucky you. Black people don’t have that option.

1.Female

2. Black

3. And over the age of 50

I realized I hit this milestone based on the extensive job search I did three years ago at the age of 51. I spent an entire year researching how to write my resume, taking online courses on how to land a job, and what I learned was disappointing. All of the courses geared toward people over 50 basically told us to conceal our age on resumes. They suggested that we not include anything that would give away our ages- from leaving off the year we graduated from college to truncating our years of experience to a maximum of 14 years; regardless the number of years of experience we had in the industry we worked in. Anything more than 14 years was interpreted as “old”.

The other main battle for resume submission is that companies now employ AI bots to scan the resumes. This means a machine is deciding if a human being actually receives and reads your resume at all. Most of the time it is sent into the cyber void, never to be seen again. In particular, if it detects that you are on the “older” side of the population. I have blamed AI for this prejudice, but the truth is, it is only following orders. The programmer who made the AI resume scanner is the one who determines who is too old for a position. And in general, AI programmers are 20 or 30 somethings making these decisions. They are not older and don’t understand the consequences of banning older employees for being accepted for positions within a company.

The problem is only going to get worse. Most people rely on their paychecks until they reach the age where they become eligible to receive their social security. And that depends on the year you were born. For those born after 1960, they must be 67 years old to collect their full social security benefits. There is currently a proposal by the current administration to increase it to 70.

How many people are physically or mentally able to work at the age of 70? I had a back injury at work a couple of months ago and I’m still recovering. I can’t imagine what kind of shape I’ll be in when I reach 70.

So, you are over 50 years old and you’re being pushed out of your job, but you have 14 to 16 years to go before you can collect your full social security. What do you do?

This is the situation I found myself in 3 years ago. I fought to keep my job at the time and was successful. But I quickly realized that this was a temporary solution. There was still a target on my back for the 3 reasons I explained earlier.

The last interview I had in the tech industry was literally traumatizing. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but it truly is not.

After a year of putting in several resumes and not receiving one job offer, I decided to pivot. I decided to pursue a master’s degree in mental health counseling. Lord knows I have personal experience with racism, sexism, and working in a hostile work environment. I could easily sympathize with anyone experiencing these issues.

I started my coursework in January 2025. I have 5 classes and 3 internships to complete. My graduation date is August of 2027.

I am still working in engineering for the time being. I recently had a run-in with my current manager who has threatened to terminate me for performing the job in a manner he says is unsatisfactory. I just found out last Friday that not only am I doing exactly what all my team members have been doing, that I have been doing exactly what has been done on that team for the past 21 years. Yet, I am the only one being singled-out and reprimanded. I am the only one who is being “evaluated” for the next 4 to 6 weeks to determine if I will be fired for poor performance. What’s the difference between me and my other 3 coworkers? They are all white males in their 20s and early 30s.

Because the threat of unemployment is eminent, I decided to go ahead and start applying for entry level positions in the mental health industry. I had an interview this past Thursday, along with 8 other applicants. I was no doubt the oldest person there applying for the position. I’ll admit to dying my hair to make myself look younger. You have to use everything to your advantage.

I am happy to report that my interview went well. The employer is proceeding with the next steps in the hiring process. There is more than one opening, so that increases my odds of getting hired.

The major downside is that I will have to take a drastic pay cut for the next three years. The pay is 45% of my current salary for the job I just applied for. After I graduate and have passed the licensing exam, I will become a mental health counselor associate and my pay will increase. But it will only be 67% of my current salary. I will have to work for 2 years before I can become a licensed mental health counselor. At that point, I should receive another pay increase. But that’s 3 years at low wages in an economy where most people can’t afford to pay rent, buy groceries, or get gas.

I have reviewed my budget and made cuts to streaming services and any extras that I normally buy without thinking. I also have some money in savings; that’s the only way any of this would even be possible. I know a lot of people don’t have savings to rely on. So, I consider myself fortunate.

But I’m not going to lie and say I’m comfortable with the fact that my salary is going to be literally cut in half for the next 3 years. I’m a frugal person…but still.

I will say that none of this information about the pay was provided to me when I started the master’s program. I may have had second thoughts about pursuing this particular career. But I’m too far gone to turn back now.

Besides, I am encouraged that I have a shot of leaving my current toxic workplace. And since my job is currently being threatened, half an income is better than none at all.

Why?

Because Trump hates the same brown and black people they do. They believe in white supremacy and that is the most important characteristic about this demographic of voters. Their slogan shouldn’t be “Make America Great Again.” It should be “Make America White Again.”

U.S. Immigration Policies Have Always Been Racist

Immigration policy has always been weaponized in the United States. At any period in our history, groups of people from other countries were either denied access, or granted limited number of immigrants from those countries. All of the policies were based on racial biases which were enforced by the government through immigration laws.

Trump has gone a step further by issuing an Executive Order in January 2025 trying to revoke birthright citizenship as granted in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. This includes the citizenship of Native Americans who were here long before white Europeans.

What they are doing to people now who are without U.S. citizenship is inhumane. They have stripped people of the right to due process which is given to them in the Constitution. They are ripping families apart, deporting people without allowing their day in court, and many people are dying in the concentration camps that have been built in the past year and a half.

I read a post this past week about a Hispanic man who was stopped on his way to work by ICE and they shot and killed him. One commentor asked one question- “Was he here legally?” Basically the commentor felt if someone wasn’t here “legally,” it was perfectly acceptable to shoot and kill them.

But let’s really take a step back and look at the people who are part of this administration and this policy of removing people that are not American citizens, along with their children. Many times the children are referred to as “anchor babies.”

This is where the hypocrisy is undeniable.

Let’s take a perusal through the Trump cabinet and see who are the Anchor Babies

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio, the current United States Secretary of State. His parents came to the United States from Cuba in 1956. They didn’t become U.S. citizens until 1975, which was 4 years after Marco Rubio was born. So according to the Trump administration, Rubio is an anchor baby and his parents should’ve deported during the 19 years they were in the country as non-U.S. citizens.

Kash Patel

The current Director of the FBI is a Trump loyalist who has held several roles in the current administration. Kash Patel was born to Indian immigrants who moved to New York. Because of the 14th Amendment, the same Constitutional Amendment that Trump has tried to have the Supreme Court reverse, Patel is a birthright citizen, meaning he was born here, so he has instant citizenship. Another anchor baby.

Nikki Haley

She served in Trump’s first cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the Untied Nations. She was born in 1972 to parents who immigrated here from Punjab, India. Her father became a U.S. citizen in 1978 and her mother in 2003. So she is also an anchor baby.

Elaine Chao

Chao, the spouse of Mitch McConnell, became the Secretary of Transportation and Labor under the first Trump administration. Her family immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan in the early 1960s and later became naturalized citizens. There is no information about the timeline for their citizenship and it has not been disclosed. There is very little information from interviews and government directories. Although she wouldn’t be considered an anchor baby, she was a non-U.S. citizen for a period of time. So she also should be deported.

Other GOP Members Who are Anchor Babies

Vivek Ramaswamy

Both of his parents were green card holders when he was born in Ohio in 1985. His mother eventually became a naturalized citizen, but his father never did. He still has his Indian citizenship from India. Ramaswamy ran for president under the Republican platform.

Usha Vance

The first that comes to mind. Married to J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from India in the 1970s. There is no record searchable information regarding when they became citizens in relation to the date of her birth. This is very typical of the Trump administration scrubbing online information.

The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy- Trump’s Immigrant Wives

Trump married two women who immigrated to the U.S. and had babies after they became U.S. citizens. Ivana Trump was born in Czechoslovakia. Don Jr. was born in 1977. Ivanka Trump was born in 1981. Eric Trump was born in 1984. Ivana Trump became a U.S. citizen in 1988.

Melania Trump was born in Slovenia. She came to the U.S. in 1996 and didn’t become a U.S. citizen until July of 2006. Baron Trump was born in March of 2006.

If Trump’s policy was in effect when both of these women could have been deported; along with 4 out of 5 of Trump’s own children for being born to non-citizen mothers.

I am pointing out this fact for one reason. The Trump administration is deporting spouses of legal U.S. citizens. By legal, I mean their parents and grandparents, and probably several generations, have been born here.

The most ironic part of all of this is I have heard numerous stories about people who voted for Trump, only to have their spouses deported because they were immigrants and did not yet have their citizenship. Imagine. You are in favor of mass deportation, yet you have an immigrant spouse. Your spouse gets deported, and you still back Trump.

The thing I will never understand about people who are white, and especially minorities who back Trump, who are so against immigration is the fact that their ancestors were also immigrants. Not to mention, if you asked the Native Americans who were here first, “Did the white people on the Mayflower, and those who came after, come here legally?” I’m pretty sure they would’ve said, “Hell no!”

So it is puzzling to me how MAGA screams about this being their country and telling everyone else, specifically brown and black people, to go back to where they came from. Because if you’re paying attention to history, Europeans stole this country from the people who were already here and called it “Divine Destiny.” This is just another way of saying, “We are superior to brown people, therefore we deserve to take what we want.”

This attitude is alive and well in the Trump administration along with all it’s supporters. They are blinded by white supremacy and fear this country turning into one where white people are not in the majority. They completely ignore the truth about how this country was founded. Their ancestors arrived here as immigrants.

References

https://www.newsweek.com/birthright-citizenship-immigrants-trump-marco-rubio-supreme-court-11771140

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/vivek-ramaswamy-shares-familys-citizenship-story-shaped-two-hardline-p-rcna107981

You may be thinking, “Great, they’ll get a head start on learning how to use technology and they will be able to easily integrate into modern society.” It was probably the general belief of most educators and I could see how that made sense. But the truth is, technology is seriously handicapping the ability for kids to learn. In fact, I watched a video (see below) where a neuroscientist explains that this will be the first generation of children who are not smarter than their parents.

This should worry everybody, not just people who have kids. Because what he is implying is that the current generation of kids will have less ability, less creativity, less problem solving, and less critical thinking skills.

Why does this matter?

It matters because the way a person learns directly correlates cognitive development. This is critical when developing creativity and the ability to problem-solve. Critical thinking skills is the core of many jobs like scientist, researchers, and other professions which ultimately lead to scientific discoveries and breakthroughs in areas like medicine, and yes, technology. A civilization can not make advancements if there are no people with critical thinking skills.

We are already seeing this problem in the U.S. especially in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) professions. It’s well known that many companies have utilized HB-1 visas to bring people from India, China, and other countries to fill technical jobs due to a shortage of candidates in the U.S. Some would argue that this is due to the fact that companies can pay these candidates much less than what they would have to pay a U.S. citizen. That is true. But the simple fact that there are not enough well trained college graduates in the U.S. can also be true at the same time. Our education system is failing our students.

Negative Mental Impacts

The truth is technology may be a convenience, but there are a host of reasons that it is harming children’s ability to learn. Constant screen time for kids results in lower attention spans, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, poor sleep, and hinders the development of executive functioning.

For example, if an adult relies on devices to calm an upset child, they are removing the ability for the child to learn self-soothing skills and to be able to calm themselves which increases the possibility of children having meltdowns and tantrums.

Children who have more than five hours of screen time a day are at risk for higher levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. There is also an indication that children who rely heavily on devices are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Negative Physical Impacts

Blue light emitted from digital devices, such as a cell phone or iPad, is one of the main disrupters of sleep. Poor sleep results in mood swings, delayed physical growth, and learning.

We all know that prolonged screen time means having a more sedentary life. This leads to higher rates of obesity. Over time, issues with neck and back pain develop from unnatural bending of the head forward to look at the device for prolonged periods.

There is also noticeable decline in memory for kids who spend 40 to 50 hours a week on devices with screen. They show signs of decreased short-term memory as well as loss of grey matter.

Luckily, there is an easy fix for this unwanted trend. It simply involves less screen time for kids in school and at home.

Educators and parents need to reevaluate the use of digital devices and also model the use of these devices in moderation. This is probably a big ask of adults as well as kids since most of us are perpetually connected to our devices.

But look at the alternative. Is it worth it?

References

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/negative-effects-screen-time-kids-rcna61316

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations/h-1b-cap-season

First off, let me give the definition of a datacenter since it is key to this discussion.

According to Wikipedia-

A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.^[1][2] Data centers are critical infrastructure for the storage and processing of information, and they support the global financial system, cloud services, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

In other words, it is the a facility with network servers and support equipment to store digital information for companies and is known as “the cloud” in technical terms.

Technology and Advancements

As an engineer, I understand that we have exponential growth in the field of technology. There are discoveries and inventions that radically shift technology every 5 to 10 years which requires more computing and storage capacity. This is where datacenters were born. All of the “cloud” networks and artificial intelligence would not be possible without this type of infrastructure. With the ever increasing demands of AI, there are billions of dollars from private investors who receive state tax subsidies and fast-tracking permits to build datacenters at a much faster rate than before.

The size of a datacenter could be as small as a single room in an office building to campuses that could cover several acres. As of 2024, the average datacenter site was approximately 224 acres in size, or the equivalent of 450 football fields. The largest datacenters, called hyperscale facilities, required up to 1,000 acres or 1.6 square miles of land.

As of January 2026, there are over 3,900 datacenters in the U.S. which is about 37% of the world’s total. Virginia is called the data center capital of the world since it has the largest number of datacenters at a total of 566. Ten states have 60% of all datacenters as shown below.

Sourced from the World Institute Resources

But At What Cost?

As important as technology is in our capitalistic society, rush for profit at the cost of the environment is a tale as old as time. Since the industrial age corporations have been the scourge of communities with little to no mechanism to make them accountable for the environmental damage they have done. Datacenters are no different. I see the familiar pattern of overwhelmingly negative impacts. Communities are finding out too late about the outpaced stripping of resources these datacenters require to function. The truth is that most cities and town councils are not putting into place policies to regulate datacenters when they are proposed by large corporations and investment firms. And the consequences are felt by the local residents and communities.

How Datacenters Harm Communities

They are Energy Hogs

A single AI datacenter can requires as much power as 100,000 average homes. The hyperscale facilities require up to 20 times that amount. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be datacenters built that require a total of 90 gigawatts of power, which is 9 times the equivalent of the energy required to power New York city at peak demand.

With the ancient power grid we have now, and no upgrades, this is unsustainable. New York has been known for having brown outs and blacks outs during peak summer temperatures.

This increase in need for energy has also translated into costs for building additional electrical infrastructure being passed on to regular customers. In 2025 there was an increase of over $60 billion in charges, or a rise of 10%, passed on to regular customers for electricity. This surcharge was used to build new facilities for datacenters.

They Consume Large Amounts of Water

Datacenters require thousands of gallons of water to cool their network servers. For example, an average sized facility uses as much as 300,000 gallons of water per day, with some using up to 5 million gallons daily. It is projected that by 2028, datacenters in the U.S . will require up to 32 billion gallons on a yearly basis. This is the equivalent of 360,000 households.

This is already becoming a problem for communities facing drought or depleting water supplies. Of the datacenters built since 2022, two-thirds are located in areas with water supply issues such as southern Arizona, the Colorado River Basin, and Texas.

Air Pollution

Due to the need for constant and reliable power, many datacenters are powered by gas and diesel generators for backup power. Using gas powered generators on a daily basis creates air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Diesel generators are known for harmful pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, that have been directly linked to respiratory disease, heart disease, and asthma among other health problems.

Noise Pollution

The construction of the datacenters, along with the constant droning of rooftop cooling systems and generators all product noise pollution. The noise can be equivalent to a motorcycle or a jackhammer. If the noise reaches 85 decibels over a sustained period of time, this can lead to hearing damage. The noise may be for hours or days. One area in Virginia reported sleep disruption and headaches leading to a lower quality of life due to the noise generated by datacenters located nearby.

Competition for Land

Because datacenters can take up a large amount of land, there are concerns about rezoning affecting agricultural land. Some argue it could result in loss of productive farmland.

Marginalized Communities

Datacenters, with their increased environmental impacts of air pollution and water pollution, are most often placed in Black and low-income communities. These are communities that already suffer from the encroachment of industries that are known for water and air pollution which create increased health risks to the residents.

Communities are Pushing Back

Local communities are pushing back and confronting city councils who are unilaterally making decisions for datacenters without input from the general public.

There are stories recently in the news that show that more and more communities are pushing back on datacenter sites being approved in their city.

Festus, Missouri- Residents in this city voted out half of their city council in April of 2026 after they approved a development agreement for a $6 billion datacenter to be located in their town. The ousted council members were replaced with grassroots candidates who opposed datacenters and ran on a platform of transparency.

Temple, Texas- After a vote by the city council to rezone land for a $700 million datacenter, residents initiated a recall for the mayor and two council members in April 2026.

Sand Springs, Oklahoma- The city council approved a large Google datacenter which triggered a recall against the city councilors over the approval.

One story that is getting a lot of coverage is the one coming out of Utah. Kevin O’leary, the Canadian billionaire, has a stake in the datacenter that is now being opposed by local citizens. He is claiming that the protesters are Chinese operatives.

Strong Policies on Datacenters are Needed

State and local governments can make a difference in how datacenters impact communities. They can implement policies that hold developers and investors to requirements to safeguard local communities. This includes mandates for clean energy, noise mitigation, and financial commitments to building energy infrastructure instead of passing the costs on to residents. They can also require alternate cooling systems that don’t burden the local water supply used by the community. Federal policies also need to be in place to regulate noise and pollution control of all datacenters. There also needs to be transparency for the local community to understand what the impacts are when a datacenter is proposed to be located in their town.

The expansion of datacenters is probably inevitable. But there should be a better plan to safeguard our communities and natural resources.

References

https://www.wri.org/insights/us-data-center-growth-impacts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center

Where to Start?

After stealing a Supreme Court appointment from Obama (he had nominated Merrick Garland and Mitch McConnell blocked the appointment by refusing to have hearings in Congress for the nomination) Trump ultimately got the ability to name three Supreme Court Justices- Neil Gorsuch, Brent Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. All three of these nominees knew that they had to “tow the line” in their hearings in order to be nominated. In other words, they lied to Congress. They perjured themselves to get the nomination. Why do I say that? Because when asked about Roe v. Wade they all said in so many words that it was “Settled law” which means it would not be challenged. As we all know, this was a lie. As soon as they had a 6-3 majority, they overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. Their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization eliminated the federal right to abortion and gave the authority back to the states.

This has created a health care and legal crisis for pregnant women and their providers. Republican led states have instituted draconian laws that have resulted in horrific outcomes towards pregnant women. This includes women suffering miscarriages being refused medical treatment by doctors who were afraid of going to jail, women dying from sepsis because of pregnancy, and women having miscarriages and being jailed and charged with murder. Abortion care saves women’s lives. The maternal mortality rate has increased by 33% since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Next is the Kavanaugh Stop. For those who aren’t familiar with this ruling, in September of 2025 the Supreme Court green lit the abuse and terroristic treatment by ICE. They basically ruled it was acceptable to ignore everyone’s Constitutional right to Habeas Corpus - the right of receiving a warrant before being taken into custody. In Particular, they stated that it is perfectly acceptable to racially profile anyone who looks Hispanic and take them into custody without proof that they are in the U.S. illegally. Brent Kavanaugh wrote in defense of this racist policy so they refer to it as the “Kavanaugh Stop.” The premise for this justification was that people who were wrongly racially profiled would only suffer “brief encounters” with ICE and be quickly released after proving citizenship or lawful status. In reality, people have been handcuffed, brutalized, and separated from their families for extended periods of time even if they were lawful citizens of the U.S. As of October 2025, there have been at least 170 U.S. citizens illegally detained by ICE.

Last, but not least, is the Civil Rights Voting Act. Last week the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 based on the ruling of Lousiana v. Callais. Again in a 6-3 ruling, the court struck down the protections of majority Black districts to ensure fair representation. They re-interpreted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to state that proof is required to show intentional discrimination rather than just the impact, which reverses the original ruling. This decision now lets states redraw maps to eliminate districts with majority black residents altogether. Meaning that there will no longer be Black representation in Congress or state and local legislatures in predominantly red states.

This is already impacting elections. Louisiana’s Governor Jeff Landry has suspended the May 16 election for the U.S. House so they can redraw the congressional maps to dismantle the majority Black districts. Alabama lawmakers plan to ignore the May 19th primary results and hold a new election based on redrawing the districts if allowed by their state supreme court. And Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee signed a new congressional map into law two days ago that splits the Democratically held district of Memphis to remove the voting majority of Black voters. Because of this, state representatives such as Justin Pearson will lose their district seat due to racial gerrymandering.

Rep. Justin Pearson D-Memphis attempting to attend a Senate Committee meeting being blocked by the Sergeant of Arms on the second day of special session for redistricting at Cordell Hull State Office Building in Nashville, TN on Wednesday May 6, 2026. Reported by Angela Latham at Tennessean News.

I have seen comments on social media by white people who say, “What’s the big deal, no one has lost their right to vote” of “Good, there shouldn’t be a policy based on racial identity in voting.”

These people have no idea about the history of voting in the United States, or they just don’t care about the discrimination Black Americans have faced once they were given the right to vote. The poll taxes, the literacy tests, the Jim Crow laws, the threats of violence to keep Black people from voting. In fact, the original premise of the KKK, a white supremacist group from 1865-1877, during the Reconstruction Era, was to scare Black people by threatening, whipping, and murdering Black citizens to stop them from voting.

The Supreme Court has reinstituted voter discrimination. It has handed the political power to Republican lawmakers to redistrict every Black representative out of existence.

Chief John Roberts has a long history of wanting to dismantle the Civil Rights Act of 1965. When he worked as a lawyer in the Reagan administration in the 1980s, he wrote several memos attacking the law and created legal arguments to undermine it. In a 1982 memo he stated that the law was, “the most intrusive interference imaginable by federal courts into state and local processes.” Roberts has made a 40 year career out of opposing the Civil Rights Act and has finally succeeded in reversing the laws toward voting equality.

The Supreme Court is not a court of the people. It is now the court of white supremacy. There is no justice for women or minorities as long as conversative judges maintain the majority.

If Democrats win back the House and Senate and we elect a Democratic president, the first order of business should be to expand the Supreme Court. There is no set law determining the number of justices. It has been done before and it can be done again.

References

https://thegepi.org/maternal-mortality-abortion-bans/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20maternal%20mortality%20was%20up%2033%20percent%20post%2Dban.&text=Within%20Texas%2C%20Black%20women%20were,suffer%20maternal%20death%20in%202023.&text=Mothers%20in%20Texas%20were%201.7,as%20mothers%20in%20supportive%20states.

https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/chief-justice-robertss-vendetta-against-voting-rights-act

One trip to the hospital can put you thousands of dollars in debt. Most American families don’t have the savings or ability to pay off this level of debt quickly. In many cases it takes years to pay off, or they ultimately file for bankruptcy.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 100 million Americans owe $220 billion in medical debt.

Health insurance is supposed to protect us from these outrageous bills, right?

Wrong.

Anyone who has an insurance policy knows that there are a lot of “conditions” and “loopholes” written in the insurance contracts so that the insurance companies pay out as little as possible.

Pay More Get Less

Take, for example, United Health Care. They have one of the highest claim rejection rates in the U.S. by insurance companies. On a regular basis, UHC rejects one-third of all claims.

I personally experienced this. Last year I accidentally cut my hand and needed stitches. I was in the emergency room during the Christmas holiday season. Remarkably, I was stitched up and on my way in less than 40 minutes. When the bill arrived, I almost fell out of my chair. I was being billed $3000 for getting 4 stitches. The hospital bill indicated that the claim they submitted to UHC had been denied. They recommended I call my insurance company.

I called UHC and asked why my claim had been denied. The insurance representative said that they didn’t have information about who was liable for the injury so they rejected the claim. I explained that it was an accident and self-inflicted injury that happened at my home. They then said that they would accept the claim. With insurance coverage, I ended up paying $350.

Now, what is wrong with this picture? First, the insurance company did not reach out to me to ask me for the information they needed to file the claim. Secondly, tell me why I was charged $3000 for an injury that was ultimately brought down to $350. That’s literally 10% of the original charge. Not only is the insurance companies corrupt, so are the hospital billing practices.

Harmful Hospital Billing Practices

Hospitals are guilty of price gauging patients. They are not patient centered but profit centered institutions.

Common billing practices include:

• Upcoding and billing errors- They bill for more expensive services than provided

• Phantom charges- Billing patients for servers, medication, or supplies that were never provided

• Unbundling- Charging for procedures separately instead of using a code that bundles services which lowers total cost

• Excessive Markup and fees- Charging the highest prices for drugs and supplies, sometimes as much as 1700% or charging “facility fees” for services that could be provided at a regular doctor’s office

• Double billing- Attempting to charge twice for services already paid by your insurance provider

The Human Cost

Lack of coverage by insurance companies and inflated billing practices by hospitals and health care organizations is costing people not only money, but their actual lives. Because people can’t afford health care, or their medication, an estimated 68,000 people die every year. For example, people who are diabetic are dying for trying to ration their insulin due to the exorbitant cost of insulin.

Source: https://rightcarealliance.org/activities/insulin/

Can We Afford It?

Studies show that a single-payer universal health care system could save $450 billion annually. It would require a tax increase, but it would also reduce medical costs by as much as $14,000 per person by getting rid of insurance premiums, lowering administrative costs, and reducing drug prices.

How do you know there is an actual cost savings? Other countries such as Germany, Canada, and the UK report significantly lower per-person health costs compared to the United States.

Medicaid For All

Of the 33 industrialized counties, only the United States doesn’t have universal health care.

Why?

We are supposedly the wealthiest country in the world. Why can’t give everyone health insurance? What is the point of paying taxes if we can’t provide necessary safety nets to every American?

We don’t have health care because the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies can give unlimited amounts of campaign donations to Congress members through lobbying. Yet, those same Congress members are getting free health care for them and their families for the rest of their lives. Yet they regularly vote down bills to provide coverage for average Americans.

We need to start electing people who will represent the average American.

If there is a will, there is a way. Universal health care is possible. We just need to elect people who can make this a reality.

References

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8572548/

https://rightcarealliance.org/activities/insulin/

How did we get here?

Citizens United v. FEC (2010). In this Supreme Court case, the court ruled 5 to 4 in favor of the conservative non-profit organization Citizens United that the First Amendment allows for political donations by corporations and the ultra wealthy without restrictions imposed by the government. This ruling created the unlimited “dark money” that is funneled into U.S. elections, which is how Super PACs came to be. The ruling stated that this unlimited amount of money doesn’t cause corruption or the appearance of corruption. The Supreme Court couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Impact

Dark money spending increased from $5 million dollars in 2006 to over $1 billion by 2024.

Source: Americans for Tax Fairness

How does this effect our political system?

You need to look no further than the current administration. Corporations like Meta, Amazon, Google, and wealthy individuals like Elon Musk have all benefitted from donating large sums of money to the Trump Administration. They gave a $1 million donation for his inauguration which bought them a front seat to the event. They have been rewarded by policies including The Big Beautiful Bill which gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy and stripped vital programs from every day Americans.

The Big Beautiful Bill Cut

• $900 billion from Medicaid

• $650 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP)

• $350 billion for student loans and college assistance

And added $4.5 trillion in national debt to fund tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

Americans are now experiencing the biggest loss in health insurance coverage in U.S. history. Because of these cuts, 11 million Americans are now uninsured.

Americans can’t afford gas, groceries, or rent due to the tariffs randomly placed by Trump to assert his power. He is costing all of us a fortune.

What did the money buy them?

Let’s look at one example of what unlimited money in politics can buy someone who is wealthy.

Let’s take Elon Musk

Elon Musk has benefited the most from government contracts. It is estimated that he has received $38 billion from the U.S. government over the past 20 years. SpaceX leads in federal contracts totaling $22 billion as of 2024. Musk’s companies are contracted to receive $11.8 billion over the next couple of years. Let’s not forget Musk gave Trump $250 million in campaign donations.

Being in charge of DOGE also bought Musk a unique opportunity. He was given the authority to dismantle or weaken every government agency that had any regulatory power over Musk’s companies. The following agencies had open investigations against Musk-

• Department of Labor- Due to unsafe work conditions, unfair labor practices, and retaliatory firing of employees.

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)- Due to Tesla safety concerns with full self-driving modes of Tesla vehicles.

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)- Proposed fines for SpaceX regarding licensing violations.

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- Environmental violations at SpaceX launch sites.

• Department of Justice- Investigated over hiring practices

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)- Tesla sued over allegations of racial harassment and discrimination

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)- Complaints about Tesla consumer practices.

• Department of Transportation (DOT)- Investigation of Neuralink over the transport of hazardous materials.

Due to his campaign contributions, all of these investigations magically went away. In 2025 Trump fired numerous Inspectors Generals who were actively investigating Musk’s companies and replaced.

This is the level of corruption that money can buy due to the Citizens United ruling. The Supreme Court handed all the political power of the U.S. government to a handful of wealthy corporations and donors.

Where is the representation for the average American? How does giving extremely wealth companies massive tax cuts, and direct intervention into our government agencies benefit us?

It doesn’t. As we see what is playing out in real time, there is a massive grift campaign taking place. All these government contracts are being handed to the wealthy. The most troubling part is that it includes the President of the United States. He is giving out tax payer money to his family, friends, and himself.

• $40 billion to Argentina

• $10 billions to Trump’s “Board of Peace”

• Hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to a drone company belonging to his sons

• $2 billion a day to an Unconstitutional war in Iran

Yet we are told that there is no money for day care, Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

This is what allowing unlimited money in politics has bought the average American. This is why Citizens United needs to be reversed. Americans are being bled dry by the 1% class.

This is the downfall of our American Democracy. Billionaire greed will end us all. And those in power at the White House and Congress couldn’t care less because they are padding their pockets. This is ruining our country and our government. America will not survive this level of kleptocracy by the wealthy.

References

https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/citizens-united-15-years-later/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_(organization)

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We all know that birds of a feather flock together. So, he has recruited other men who have been accused of rape to join him in his cabinet. And to add insult to injury, one of these guys (Matt Gaetz) was accused of statutory rape and sex trafficking of minors as the head of the Department of Justice. It was so over the top, that even some Republicans in Congress balked at the idea of confirming him. Although Gaetz didn’t get the position as Attorney General, many other men accused of sexual assault did. That includes Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

I can’t think of any other time in history where anybody running for President or being nominated for a top level cabinet position, and have been convicted of being a rapist, or even hinted at been accused of such a thing, could possibly survive the scrutiny involved of running for office.

Yet, here we are. We are at a point in time where a majority of Americans have normalized, and accepted rape culture. I never in a million years thought that I would say such a thing, much less say it in public, but it’s true.

All of the signs have been there at least for the past couple of years. I’m noticing more and more content on YouTube that this topic keeps coming up. Maybe it is the curse of the algorithm I’ve been assigned, but the stories of rape and abuse of women are real. And some men are really celebrating and embracing this fact.

Take for example, Nick Fuentes. He went viral for saying on one of his podcasts, “Your body, my choice.” This set off a huge backlash. Many women were really angry about this statement. And rightly so. Especially when you saw how giddy he was when he said those words. And the fact that he mocked, “Hi I’m your congressman. It’s your body, my choice.”

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He gave us a glimpse of how the GOP sees women and how they use political power to take away women’s rights. And, to claim the right to do whatever they want to women, which implies assaulting them.

And just when you think it’s only strangers and corrupt politicians you have to be concerned about when dealing with sexual assault, we receive and even more disturbing message.

Welcome to the Rape Academy. A website that has recently been exposed for teaching husbands how to drug and rape their wives. In February of this year alone there were 62 million visitors, a large majority of them being from the U.S. That is 62 million visits in just one month. Not only do the men give each other advice on how to properly drug women based on the weight to avoid overdosing, they brag to each other about doing it on a regular basis. To make matters work, 21,000 videos have been uploaded on this website showing these men raping their unconscious wives. They have people pay subscription fees to watch the videos. Some women have found out after being drugged and sexually assaulted for five or ten years.

I knew we had a problem with rape culture, but I never imagined in a million years that men, who claimed to love their wives, would commit such a heinous act on the women who have born their children and supported them. It is literally mind blowing to me that men would even consider such an atrocity.

One female reporter infiltrated the website by impersonating a man and exposed what was happening.

I really have no other words to say. I just wanted to share why so many women have legitimate reasons for not wanting to pursue romantic relationships or get married. This reason is at the top of the list for me. If this is what we have to deal with, I’ll chose the bear every single time.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Jean_Carroll_v._Donald_J._Trump

I also have a son who joined the Coast Guard last year. This was an uncomfortable conversation in the beginning when he told me he was considering joining. We had long discussions weighing the pros and the cons. He knows my stance on war and knew that I’d probably be against him enlisting. But, I realized the possibility of him being shipped overseas to fight was a lot less likely since the mission of the Coast Guard is to guard the U.S. coastlines and to patrol our waters. I made peace with it, to some degree, and supported his decision.

That brings me to today when I find out from one of my favorite YouTubers That Pete Hegseth is literally starving the naval officers on the ships in the war in the Middle East. They are barely feeding them any food. She showed photos of what the officers are being fed, and it’s barely enough to keep someone alive.

Because I have a son in the military, I am devastated to see this poor treatment of our troops. These brave officers are risking their lives and this is how they’re being treated?

This is a slap in the face considering Hegseth has reportedly spent $92 billion on extravagant items and food in the month of September last you. You read that correctly, he spent $92 billion in one month. It is part of the “spend it or lose it” requirements of the government. September is the end of the fiscal year and all moneys have to be spent because it doesn’t roll over into the next year.

They also spent $98,000 on a piano and $21,000 on a violin. How is this necessary for carrying out military orders at the Pentagon?

Family members of these troops have tried sending care packages so that they are fed. But guess what? Because Trump has added a blockade of his own, no packages are getting through. So even when the families try to step up and help feed their loved ones, they are cut off.

It’s bad enough to send our troops to fight in an unnecessary war, but to also starve them while you’re doing it?

House Democrats have filed six articles of impeachment against Hegseth for high crimes and misdemeanors for starting an unconstitutional war and for blowing up ships without cause off the coast of Venezuela.

He is yet one of the many incompetent and dangerous members of Trumps cabinet. Hegseth needs to be immediately impeached an removed.

In fact, all of them need to be removed. It’s time to invoke Article 2 Section 4 of the constitution. Get rid of Trump and his entire incompetent administration.

References

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/15/democrats-pete-hegseth-impeachment

As I sat waiting for my flights, I noticed several things. One, is that at least half of the flight attendants were minority and/or spoke with accents. Therefore, it’s very likely they were either immigrants or first generation Americans.

I had to go to the customer service desk about my flight being delayed, and I noticed that the customer service agents were speaking a different language between themselves while they were assisting customers. They spoke English when addressing customers, but chose a different language when speaking to each other. Mostly likely immigrants.

I notice that those providing wheelchair assistance to passengers were also speaking different languages. Again, most likely immigrants.

I stopped at a Wendy’s in the airport for dinner and all the wait staff where minorities.

The same was true with the cleaning staff. All of them appeared to be minorities and possibly immigrants.

I say this to say, these are the people who are vital to keeping the airport running and customer services working. Why would you introduce an organization such as ICE into an ecosystem so reliant on immigrant workers?

The people who are cheering for ICE to deport all the brown and black people are the same people benefitting from all of these services. What would actually happen if ICE went into these very large airports, which are so dependent on immigrant labor, and rounded up every single one of these employees?

I’ll tell you what would happen- Air travel would come to a screeching halt. All the people going on business trips, Spring Break, and Summer vacations would quickly realize they can not live a privileged lifestyle without all the immigrant labor which is foundational to privileged experiences in this country. I say it is a privilege because air travel is not cheap and it requires expendable income to be able to travel.

This is true about every part of American life. This country runs off the backs of low paid labor. From agriculture, to the construction industry, to the senior living communities that depend on health care, a majority of these companies hire low paid immigrant labor.

The lack of thought and foresight of privileged white Americans who are advocating for deporting and detaining immigrants, who are here both legally and illegally, is something I will never understand. They benefit the most from having immigrant labor in our country. This has always been true.

I read yesterday that Congress has decided to fund TSA because airlines decided to revoke privileges to sitting Congress members such as TSA priority and other perks. So, now that it impacts them, they are finally making a deal to pay the TSA agents. Congress is no different than MAGA. They only act when it personally affects them. And this is the problem with having Republicans run the government. They turn a blind eye when federal employees are not getting paid. For that reason, I believe Congress members should not get paid if any part of the federal government goes into shutdown. They are federal employees so they also should not be paid for not doing their jobs for the Americans who put them in office.

Also, we need to vote out all the Congress members who have supported and funded ICE. They are complicit in allowing a domestic terrorist organization to terrorize the American public. As they always say, election has consequences. Make Congress pay for what they are doing to harm everyone in this country, especially immigrants.

So what is the stop-gap proposal by the Trump regime? It's to put ICE agents in place of TSA agents. What could possibly go wrong?

I thought about all the people, who were not white, going to the airport and basically becoming racially profiled and being sent to a concentration camps. Writing that sentence feels insane, yet here we are. I saw on the news where ICE arrested one woman at the airport while her 7 or 8 year old daughter cried hysterically.

I considered this a personal threat. You see, it just so happens that I would be traveling (I am actually sitting in the airport writing this post) this weekend. I am a minority with a permanent tan and have been asked many times what country I'm from even though I was born an American and speak English exceptionally well.

The universe must dislike me because it chose the very same week to put ICE in the airports that I would be traveling to my son's Coast Guard graduation. I chose to fly instead due to the distance. I hate driving long distance.

So the week before my trip, I was really nervous. I was so worried, I even gave a couple of friends the contact information for my sister and son just in case I was detained and didn't make it back home.

Think about that. Read the last paragraph again.

We now live in a country where American born minorities are concerned about going to the local airports to travel and getting abducted. This is our new reality.

I will say I lucked out because there's a small airport near where I live and there were no ICE agents when I arrived bright and early Thursday morning. I had a connecting flight at a larger airport, but I didn't have to go through TSA check in.

I made it to my destination, no problem. Instant relief.

My return flight was today, Friday. The airport I was leaving to go home was also pretty small. I had an evening flight with a connection in NY. Luckily, I didn't see one ICE agent. Again, relief.

I make it to the NY airport and because I don't have to go through TSA, I am able to relax.

I am currently waiting to board my final flight home. I seriously feel like I've dodged a bullet. That's the best analogy I can come up with since dealing with ICE can literally become a life or death situation.

I know for a lot of people, especially those who are not minorities, all this seems pretty far removed. But for someone brown or black like me, it is part of our everyday calculations. We have to determine the level of risk we may be subjecting ourselves to.

I can tell you, I wouldn't fly for any other reason other than to be there for my son or in case an extreme emergency.

I honestly feel it is no longer safe for minorities to travel with ICE in our airports.

This is the dystopian America brought to you by fascism. Hitler would be so proud.

You may be asking yourself how I would know this. Well, last time there were still adults in the room to tell him “No.” There was Mark Milley who was the Joint Chiefs of Staff and army general, John Kelly a former U.S. Marine Corps general, and other senior level officials who had been in their positions and had the experience and knowledge to know what was legal. This time, he figured out that those people were an obstacle to his vision of becoming a dictator. After all, when he was interviewed, he actually admitted that he would become a dictator on day one.

Everyone laughed it off, even him. But he told a partial truth. He said for it would only be for one day. We now see he meant as long as he’s president.

So fast forward today to 2026. What have we seen in the past year and a couple of months since he has taken office? He has done so many illegal things and Congress has done nothing to stop him. Off the top of my head, he has done the following-

• Fired hundreds of thousands of federal employees through DOGE, including “DEI” hires. There have been approximately 300,000 black women federal employees fired).

• He rigged the stock market and did insider trading with his rich friends

• He has accepted money from foreign countries in to the tune of billions of dollars through his crypto scams.

• He blocked money that was funded through Congress to cover programs such as cancer research for children and other life saving research and gutted the CDC.

• He stole $10 billion for his Board of Peace organization.

• Accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar and allowed them to move to one of our military bases in the US to train their pilots.

• He blocked the release of the Epstein files

• Illegally detained brown and black people without due process, deported or placed them in literal concentration camps. Some being US citizens.

• Started an illegal work with Iran to satisfy Netanyahu, sending American soldiers to die in a war not approved by Congress.

And on and on this list could go.

The reason I am pointing all of these depressing things out is because we need to seriously ask ourselves why the American people have not revolted?

Where is the line?

Where is the line where people stand up and shout, “This is too much!” and actually do something about it?

We all know that Congress is complicit. They could have saved us so much grief if they had impeached him months ago. I would image the list of impeachable offense is a mile long at this point. They and the Supreme Court have failed the American people.

So I’m asking the American people, when is it enough?

Now, I know that people are active and they are participating in organizations like 50:50:1. And there are the No Kings Marches. But to me, this is not really getting the job done. Participating in a one day protest doesn’t really do much. Protesting on a Saturday every couple of months isn’t going to change anything.

Look at what other countries are willing to do to call out their rogue governments. South Korea stopped an attempted coup by their president within 24hrs. Some European counties protest for weeks on end to remove dictators. What happened to us?

I think we have become too complacent. We are stuck in a mindset of comfort and convenience. We aren’t willing to sacrifice our comfort even though the world is burning down around us.

Or maybe, the truth is without the 92%, the engine of change is missing. What do I mean by the 92%? The 92%, to which I belong, is the percentage of black women who voted for Kamala Harris. And because she lost, the black community has decided to take a seat and not participate in protests to remove Trump from office. They have taken the stance that if white people voted for Trump, white people will have to remove him.

The other reason the 92% have stepped back from protesting this time is because they firmly believe that the Stephen Millers and other white supremacists in the Trump administration wanted to instigate a race war. They were hopeful that black and brown people would lead the protest so they can invoke Marshall law and make the U.S. a military state. I believe this to be true. Because there is far more police violence against protesters when a large portion of the protesters are black.

This video by shows a protest where the vast majority of protestors were white, but the people they zip-tied and arrested were all black women.

I’m sure other people were probably arrested, but they made a point to round up the black people and arrest them. Black people have been used as a shield for protests for several decades. This time they said no more.

This may be one reason no coordinated long-term protests have been organized. Black women have played a key role in all the civil rights movements throughout history. They were part of the protests for women having the right to vote. They were part of the protests during the 1960s civil rights movements. The participated in the LGBTQ protests for equal rights, and on and one.

To effect change, I think there needs to be a significant boycott or general strike by a large percentage of the American public. This means a good percentage of people not going to work and/or participating in economic boycotts. We have already seen the boycotts work. Look at what happened when people boycotted on behalf of Jimmy Kimmel. Disney lost billions of dollars in a very short period of time. They estimate that within a week’s time, over 1.7 to 3 million people cancelled their streaming subscriptions which cost the company somewhere between $3.8 to $5 billion. We also saw what happened with people turned on Elon Musk and dumped Tesla. It nearly decimated the business.

If Americans were willing to organize and also do a general boycott, where people would stay home from work and refuse work until he was booted out of the White House, that would be the ultimate protest. But, I know a lot of people will say that is asking too much of a sacrifice.

But my question still remains the same. When is it too much? And when it gets to be too much, what are we willing to do about it?

This got me to thinking about all the things women are expected to do. In most societies, females are taught that they are to be in service to their family. We are taught to be kind, pleasant and compliant. These are so ingrained into our culture, that we never stop and think about the reason. And the reason is, we are expected to be in service to others. We are expected to give of our time and energy with no complaints. We are socialized to uphold the patriarchy.

We are taught to be in service and compliant to men.

And the kicker is, no one seems to acknowledge that without all this unpaid labor, so many things would fall apart in our society.

Women carry so much and are expected to do so much. Society as a whole expects women to:

• Keep the household maintained (cleaning, laundry, etc.)

• Raise the children

• Keep track of all school assignments and functions

• Be a chauffer for kid’s extracurricular activities

• Be the family counselor

• Stay up with sick kids

• Keep up with doctor’s appointments

• Arrange for all holiday events & buy presents for family and friends

• Be the emotional support for her spouse

• Take care of elderly parents (including in-laws)

• Work a fulltime job (if required to make ends meet)

• Be willing to step away from their career to tend to their family

Do all of this with little or no complaints

I know some people see nothing wrong with this list and they are happy to contribute, which is fine. But the thing that bothers me the most is there is a sense of entitlement to women’s unpaid labor. It’s just assumed that women should always be self-sacrificing, and yet a lot of this goes unappreciated by many male partners or husbands. They think women are just supposed to sign up for all of this with little to no help. The truth is couples who have children place a large responsibility on the women to juggle it all. Few men consider that they are able to work long hours because they have someone at home holding down the fort. They can go golfing all day Sunday because they have someone who is home taking care of their children. There is a built-in support system that they never have to worry about.

I say few men consider all of this because I have seen many reddit and YouTube posts by wives and girlfriends who talk about being taken for granted. In one video, a man tells his wife that she has been, “Riding on his coat tails for 10 years” because she is a stay-at-home mother of two. He says she has taken advantage of him by relying on his income to pay the bills. Hello? How much money does he think it would cost him to have someone do all the things for his home and children if his wife didn’t provide the unpaid labor for their family on a daily basis?

As this article explains, women’s unpaid labor is seen as an entitlement.

The interesting part is this is true even in the case when women earn more money than their husbands or live-in partners. Men still feel that women should be taking care of things in the home and responsible for the child care.

One of my favorite people, Jeanne Anne Craig a retired school counselor and author of “It’s Not How SMART You Are It’s HOW You are Smart,” told me she conducted a study on this topic. Several years ago, as part of her thesis in college, she wrote about married couples where the women were in professional roles such as a doctor. She found that even as the women made more money, they were the ones who ultimately had to balance career and family obligations. This included taking on most of the household responsibilities and arranging child care.

I recently read an article that stated that when women make more money, their male partner doubles down and helps even less in the household to assert his dominance. This requires the woman to take on even more of the household responsibilities as a way of reinforcing gender roles. In other words, this is to assert that the woman is to be responsible for the household and the children, not the man. Basically, it is a clear reinforcement of patriarchy. The woman is to be in service to the family.

On average in married couples, when both people are working full time, women are still expected to do the majority of the household work and manage the responsibilities of childcare.

That is why it is interesting to see a new trend. Young women are deciding against getting married and having children. This started in South Korea and is called the 4B movement. This movement is about young women not getting married, having sex, or having children. They are instead focused on their career, hobbies and friendships.

This also ties in to the male loneliness epidemic which has been talked about for the past couple of years.

As women have become more financially independent, most men see this as a threat to relationships. They have been taught that women should be more subservient and willing to be compliant in a relationship. The truth is, there are a lot of unhealthy messaging young men are exposed to including “red pill” content and the “manosphere” podcasters who advocate men using manipulation and coercion in intimate relationships. This is only driving a larger wedge between men and women in the dating environment. Women are opting out of dating altogether because of this toxic dynamic.

It’s time to retire the patriarchy that is fueled by control, dominance, and oppression of women and time for men to step up and become equal partners.

References

https://eige.europa.eu/publications-resources/toolkits-guides/gender-equality-index-2021-report/gender-differences-household-chores?language_content_entity=en

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/women-breadwinners-tripled-since-1970s-still-doing-more-unpaid-work/#:~:text=Even%20in%20marriages%20where%20women,scrubbing%20out%20the%20pan%20afterwards.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jeanne+anne+craig&i=stripbooks&crid=RWZYK1WR8GKD&sprefix=jeanne+anne+craig%2Cstripbooks%2C171&ref=nb_sb_noss

The following rights have been taken away from women in this country under Republican rule:

• Overturning Roe v. Wade

• Ending funding for IVF

• War on contraception and Plan B medication

• Department of Education changing the definition of Professional Degrees to limit student loans in female dominated careers (Nursing, Social Work, Teaching, and Mental Health careers)

And now the latest attack is on women’s right to vote by the newly passed bill called the Save Act. The only thing this bill is trying to save is the Republicans from being voted out during the November midterm elections.

Truth be told, Republicans want to end the right of women to vote.

Why does this disproportionately affect women? I will explain.

The SAVE Act puts the burden on people to have specific documents in order to vote. Not only do you have to have these documents, these documents must match. For example, say you are a woman who is married and you have decided to take your husband’s last name. This is a pretty common occurrence in the U.S. This is now a barrier for you to be able to vote.

The SAVE Act states that in order for you to vote, the name on your birth certificate must match the name on your driver’s license or other forms of identification. So if you are married, these two names are not going to match.

There is one way to bypass this problem, and that is if you own a passport. But most people don’t fall into this category. Also, passports are not cheap. The last time I checked, it was $130 to get one. This disenfranchises people who can’t afford this option.

A lot of people don’t even have their own birth certificates on hand. The National Urban League estimates that millions of eligible voters do note have the now mandatory documents needed to vote according to this new Save Act.

• Two-thirds of Black Americans don’t have a valid passport

• 69 million women and 4 million men do not have a birth certificate that matches their current name

This law will affect millions of people’s right to vote. This is just another hurdle the Republicans have put into place because they know that they are royally screwed after this past year of being complicit in all the harmful policies rolled out by the Trump regime. They have done nothing to stop him and now they see the backlash coming at the midterm elections.

So if you fall into the demographic the SAVE Act is targeting, don’t wait.

• Find or order your birth certificate

• You may also need to find your marriage license

• If you can afford it, get a passport

• If all else fails, you could change your name back to your maiden name and have all of your IDs, including your driver’s license changed to reflect your maiden name

I know the last suggestion sounds extreme, but we are looking at the total collapse of our democracy if Republicans aren’t removed from Congress this November and Trump is left to destroy what is left of our democracy.

If you are as pissed off as I am about what is going on in this country, please do everything you can to protect your right to vote in the upcoming midterms in November.

References

https://nul.org/news/nul-denounces-the-save-act?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22434022204&gbraid=0AAAAADmWGJGhieerSgD9Kc85l8fwone6D&gclid=CjwKCAiAtLvMBhB_EiwA1u6_PqWaVmukmjX6ds9UXyMJDPXsh0WDbIoBdU46DDNAxMr0hPdwez1I-BoCqCMQAvD_BwE

But sometimes, in the attempt to show solidarity, certain phrases are used that actually add to the problem of racism. One of those phrases is, “I don’t see color when I look at people.”

On face value, this sounds great. The person saying this probably believes that they are assuring the minority they are speaking to that they consider them on equal footing. That the person’s color or ethnicity is taken out of the equation and that the person is seen based on the Martin Luther King quote, “Judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character.”

But this is not the message that is really being delivered.

In fact, this phrase has been said to me by white friends in the past. Although I think it was said as a form of allyship, the phrase never sat right with me. Something about it disturbed me and I couldn’t put my finger on it. It seemed dismissive, almost like sidestepping the topic of race altogether.

I finally got an answer this past year when I took a class on multiculturalism for my masters degree program in mental health counseling. This particular phrase came up in the required readings we had for one of our assignments. It explained what I wasn’t able to. I also found the following article that also describes why this phrase is not one that communicates “I see you as my equal.”

The reason this phrase is not affirming to say to minorities is because it dismisses the lived experiences of black and brown people. It says that race isn’t really a factor in everyday life, when it very much is when you are a brown or black person. Discrimination is part of the lived experience of every brown and black person in the United States. To tell someone you don’t see color is basically saying that you have had the privilege of never being discriminated against. It minimizes the fact that people are treated differently based on the color of their skin.

By saying, “I don’t see color” you are giving yourself a pat on the back for not being racist. But you are also indicating that you don’t have to do anything about racism. If you don’t “see” the problem, then you don’t have to try and fix it. It’s a get out of jail free card. It also shuts down the conversation about race altogether. It’s effective because the person has sidestepped the uncomfortable discussion about how our society has mistreated brown and black people. Being forced to look at racism in our society; something a lot of white people have no interest in doing.

This article isn’t meant to shame people who are trying to show solidarity with minorities. It’s an attempt to inform you about things that are said that are actually harmful to the cause. As G.I. Joe used to say in the morning cartoons I watched on Saturday mornings, “Knowing is half the battle.”

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2022/06/19/dear-white-people-when-you-say-you-dont-see-color-this-is-what-we-really-hear/

Fast forward to the actual day when Congress was scheduled to count the ballots at the Capitol Building. He rallied his base and told them that they wouldn’t have a country anymore unless they were willing to “fight like hell.”

Anyone paying attention and watched the crowd could see that they were ready to fight. Many of them had on tactical gear with military uniforms. They even chanted, “Hang Mike Pence,” Trump’s own Vice President, because Pence was unwilling to illegally throw the election. They even set up a noose on the Capital lawn.

Reports later verified that the rioters had brought zip ties, blunt objects, and other items to do physical harm to Congress members. They beat and killed Capital police during the riot. Some police officers sustained such heavy trauma that in the following days of January 6^th, they committed suicide.

Donald Trump sat back and watched the violence and chaos with pleasure. People were calling him and pleading with him to stop the assault. Even his own Chief of Staff and daughter begged him to stop it. After over two and a half hours, he finally relented and went on TV and told the January 6^th crowd how much he loved them and asked them to go home.

After the rioters left, Republicans like Mitch Mc Connell and Lindsay Graham went to the Senate floor and stated that Donald Trump was responsible for what had happened. They laid the blame right at his feet. Then Congress chose to impeach him.

It was discovered soon after that white nationalist militant groups like The Proud Boys, and The Oath Keepers, and others had been apart of the January 6^th rioters. All of the attacks were pre-planned and coordinated. In fact, some of the Congress people had provided psyop information to these groups, including group tours the day before. Some of them even gave information for the whereabouts of Congress members hiding in the Capital building.

Then the fallout happened. The invasion of the Capitol was shown on every major news station. Connections were being made for the general public. This was an illegal attack on our democracy coordinated by Donald Trump.

So, the Conman-in-chief comes up with the story that it was “Antifa.” Then it was an inside job by the FBI. It was a democratic false flag. It was all a hoax to make him look responsible. Those people weren’t his people. Don’t believe your lying eyes. All the Trump flags and merchandise the rioters were wearing were all staged to make him look responsible.

Congress impeached Trump, but didn’t convict him. The Senators who stood on the Senate floor and condemned him ultimately chose power and greed over serving justice for the American people. Because they refused to do so, they made it possible for Trump to run again for President.

The truth came out about the rioters when Donald Trump was elected for a second time. Those rioters were his people. He called them “patriots” and gave them all pardons. All 1600 of them.

You may be asking yourself why I am bringing up January 6^th, 2021?

January 6^th was a test run. Donald Trump was testing Congress, the Supreme Court, and the American public. He wanted to see just how far he could go before getting reprimanded. What he found out was his base would go to any extremes for him. Up to and including extreme violence. He also found out that Congress would do nothing to stop him. The Supreme Court is also to blame. After the attempted coup on January 6th, they said that Trump has “complete immunity” for anything he does while he is President. In short, they have given him absolute power to continue illegal acts against the United States without penalty. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

January 6^th showed Donald Trump that if he wanted to have his own violent militant group, they would “Stand back and stand by” until he had a job for them.

The White Nationalists groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers didn’t have to wait long after Trump was elected for a second time. There has been a leak of 4500 names of current ICE agents. It would not surprise me if the people who stormed the Capitol were on that list.

January 6^th was a dress rehearsal for what he would do to the American people. That is why we are seeing what we are seeing in Minneapolis. ICE agents have been given authority and complete immunity by the federal government to terrorize citizens. He has given the DHS the authority to kill and detain people on a whim.

He sent out a tweet yesterday declaring now is the time for retribution. He intends to spread fear to finish his takeover of America. He will continue to use ICE nationwide to increase civil unrest and violence so he can claim martial law and cancel all elections.

The sickening thing is there are some people who are still cheering this on. I read somewhere yesterday that 39% of Americans who were surveyed supports ICE. This survey was after the killing of Renee Nicole Good. That means 39% of people support fascism, illegal search and seizure, illegal detainment, and illegal killings by ICE agents.

But what these people don’t realize is they are not immune from what is going to happen in their communities. Just like them losing SNAP benefits, Medicaid and Medicare they are also losing their human rights along with the rest of us. They will continue to pay the same price as the “libtards” they are dead set on punishing. They will lose all the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution because a fascist dictator cares nothing about the subjects who voted their rights away to make him president.

And yet again, the Republicans in Congress and the Supreme Court sit by and do nothing.

How many more people have to die? How much longer are people going to bury their heads in the sand and say, “Well, it doesn’t affect me.”

No one is safe from this Trump regime. Congress and the Supreme Court are complicit. They could have stopped him on day one.

Unless he is removed from office, things are going to continue to get worse. A lot more people will be terrorized. At some point, citizens will decide it is time to defend themselves. The Republicans in Congress and Supreme Court could have stopped all of this. The blood of American citizens is on their hands.

All black parents have to, at some point, explain to their children the harsh realities of being a minority in the U.S. Black parents have to tell their children to be respectful of authority figures to avoid physical harm from authority figures. They have to tell their teenage boys to not make any sudden movements and show their hands if they are pulled over during a traffic stop for fear of possibly being arrested or killed. They have to tell their children to swallow their anger if they are targeted with racial slurs or other microaggressions at school or at work or they will be seen as overly aggressive and be reprimanded or fired. There are a lot of situations that a black person can face that can put them in harms way. Black parents have to help their children navigate this reality.

When I became pregnant, I thought about these things. My husband was white. I didn’t know what the future would hold for my child since he or she could be born with a skin color lighter or darker than my own. I had lived through years of racial discrimination and understood my assignment if I was to raise a brown or black child in this country.

When my son was born, he looked white. By the time he was two, he had platinum blond hair just like his father had at the same age. I knew this changed everything.

Fast forward to now that my son is an adult. He has passed for white his entire life. No one would ever know that he has a biracial mother unless we are together and he introduces me as his mother.

My son is very aware of all the discrimination I have faced at my job over the past two decades because I have talked to him about it. I knew on some fundamental level that he couldn’t actually relate to what I had gone through, although I know he sympathized with me.

I recently had a conversation with him that surprised me. I spoke to him about white privilege. In particular, the white privilege he himself benefits from.

About a month ago, my son texted me about a conversation he had with one of his coworkers. His coworker is a white male who comes from an affluent family. Apparently they go on ski trips on a regular basis. He asked my son if he goes skiing. My son found this to be hilarious. He said, “What about me suggests that I have ever gone skiing in my life? I’ve never had that kind of disposable income.”

He then mentioned that someone else asked if he regularly spent time with his golfing buddies on the weekends.

I replied, “ Congratulations. You are passing for a moderately wealthy or wealthy white male. I bet it’s interesting when people reveal how they see you.”

We continued the conversation by phone. I told him, “Sean, you have been passing for white your entire life.”

He responded, “Mom, I know what I am. I am your son so I know that I have black heritage and I am proud of that.”

I replied, “I know you are my son, but other people who look at you would have no idea. The fact is, you have benefitted from looking white your entire life.”

He was uncomfortable with that statement. And the part that surprised me is that he gave me the same answer as other white people who I’ve spoken with about white privilege.

His answer was, “I have worked hard to be where I’m at.”

I told him yes, he had worked very hard to be in the career he had chosen. But also, both things can be true at the same time. He worked hard AND he benefitted from looking white.

I reminded him of a work situation he shared with me a couple of years ago. He was working for a small company that only had a handful of employees. The company was in a small town close to where we were living at the time. And my son happened upon a conversation being had between the owner and a senior employee.

The conversation was a racist rant about black people and there was liberal use of the N-word. My son walked in on this conversation. They didn’t blink, they just continued on. This was one of many racially offense conversations my son would hear while working at this company.

I told him that if they had thought he was black, he probably would’ve never been hired in the first place. And, the fact that they were perfectly comfortable using racial slurs in front of him indicated that they didn’t know who was in the room with them.

He was quiet for a period of time and thought about what I had to say.

I never imagined that my own son was unaware of his white privilege. And he was just as uncomfortable with me mentioning it as any other white person I have spoken to about this topic. I guess it’s hard to comprehend that there are privileges that you are automatically given that other people don’t get for the simple fact of being born a certain color. If you have never been discriminated against, you think everyone enjoys the same privileges and that there is always equal opportunity.

Anyone reading my Substack posts about my personal experiences will quickly realize that is not the case.

As a parent, I will selfishly say that it is a relief to know that my son will not suffer the same fate I have had as a minority in this country. I don’t have to worry about him taking a run through a middle class neighborhood, like Ahmed Aubrey , and being shot and killed by two white men who felt he had no business being in that particular neighborhood. I don’t have to worry about him getting turned down for a job or a promotion because of his skin color. I don’t have to worry about the police racial profiling him as he is pulled over on a traffic stop, like Philando Castille, and not knowing if he will survive it.

But it does make for an odd reality knowing that I will always be treated as less than and my own son will benefit from the same system that has oppressed me my whole entire life.

If a new person starts this type of conversation, they probably think I am an alarmist. These days there are so many reasons to be alarmed about. This post in particular will probably make you question if I am not a conspiracy theorist as well. But stick with me, I have brought the receipts.

Today’s rant is brought to you courtesy of Trump’s Department of Education. In particular, it’s agenda regarding the declassification of professional positions in many women dominated fields.

Here is a list of the occupations that the Department of Education will no longer recognize as professional degrees. They will be reducing federal aid to students beginning in July 2026-

I underlined counseling and therapy because I am currently in a Masters program for this profession. So for me, this is personal.

The newly installed person, who authored the chapter on education in Project 2025, Lindsey Burke, is implementing the plan to remove educational opportunities for women.

The most hypocritical part about all of this is Lindsey Burke supposedly has a PhD. The irony is she is advocating for making women uneducated, barefoot, and pregnant. Why? Because the Project 2025 agenda for gutting educational opportunities for women is so that they can increase the birth rate. You heard me. The whole point of stripping financial empowerment away from women is so that they can be a housewife and bare children.

Being a housewife and baring children is something every women should have a right to choose. But it should be a choice, not something forced upon us. Some women do not desire to get married or have children. A woman’s value as a human being should not be contingent on these two life choices. We are more than incubators.

The oligarchs are concerned about the plummeting birth rate in the U.S. Of course they are. How can you be a slave driver if you don’t have enough slaves?

The fact that many people are not making a livable wage, can’t afford childcare, can’t afford to buy a home, or even pay their regular bills has somehow escaped these “geniuses” who are now running our country. We do not live in a country that is family-friendly. So they want people to have more children, without the infrastructure it takes to support a family.

They are trying to take this country back to a time when women had no means to financially support themselves and will be forced to marry and have babies. That is the whole agenda. That way, they don’t have a means of escaping bad, unfulfilled, or even violent marriages.

When I heard this, I thought this must be some serious internet trolling. A bad joke or a conspiracy theory. But I have seen several articles and Youtubers discuss this very subject.

For those who may come for me in the comment’s section- No, not every marriage is a bad marriage. No, not every man is financially abusive. Sometimes a couple gets lucky and they have mutual trust in their marriage. I wish this was the case for more women.

I have been on both sides of this equation. I married and had a child very young. My husband was unkind and financially abusive.

I am now a financially independent woman. I would never go back to that life again. I hate the idea that any woman would be forced into that type of situation based on some crackpot plan by the federal government to increase the population.

I could spend several more paragraphs explaining just how much verbal, physical, and financial abuse women suffer even today with educational opportunities, but that’s a rant for a different day. And I can only deal with one outrage at a time because my nervous system can’t take it.

So yes, in this case I am very much an alarmist. They are trying to rollback all the hard fought gains women have made in this country. To that I say “Hell No.” If this doesn’t open people’s eyes, then this citizenry has completely checked out and doesn’t care about the women or the children in this country.