Category Archives: Current Events

The Oppressed Become The Oppressors.

Posted on by

The bullied become the bullies.

At the risk of being labeled antisemitic (I most certainly am not!!!), I believe it’s time to hold the Israeli Zionist leadership accountable for its role in the ongoing violence and hatred in the Middle East. To begin, we must recognize that Israel has a right to exist. But we also must understand that Americans have been fed a one-sided account of the situation by religious institutions, the government, and Israeli lobbyists, as well as the media and entertainment industries.

Though all Israelis presumably believe in the right of self-determination, unlike Netanyahu and the rightwing Zionists leading Israel, they do not necessarily support reclaiming all of the so-called “Promised Land” as part of the Jewish state.

To understand the current situation, a little history is in order.

The problems began in the late 1800s and early 1900s with the founding of the World Zionist Organization and the resettlement into Palestine of tens of thousands of Jews escaping persecution in Europe and Russia. (I think we can all agree that all humans have a right to live in peace free from persecution, including Jews and Palestinians.)

When, following WWI, the League of Nations authored the British Mandate recognizing British rule over Palestine and Transjordan, hundreds of thousands more Jews arrived in the area. At first, they purchased land and lived in concert with ethnic Palestinians who had occupied the area for generations. But, as millions more Jews immigrated during the build-up to WWII, conflicts began. In response, the British attempted to limit further immigration and recommended that an independent Palestine, governed jointly by Palestinians and Jews, be established within 10 years.

After the horrors of the Holocaust (the Nazi genocide of European Jews and other ethnic groups), illegal immigration into Palestine soared, resulting in Jews comprising 33 percent of the population. When Britain asked the United Nations for help, the UN recommended that the land be divided into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, and that Jerusalem be placed under an international trusteeship.

When the British Mandate was terminated in 1948, Britain withdrew from the area, and a civil war broke out as Jews tried to claim more land. When Jews declared independence and created the nation of Israel, the war expanded into a regional conflict with war crimes committed by both sides and ending in the Nakba with Jews taking 55 percent of the land and violently displacing more than 700,000 Palestinian residents who were forced into refugee camps in Gaza and Jordan.

Not surprisingly, that spawned an enduring hatred amongst the Palestinians who were determined to return to their homes. Those who continued to fight were, of course, labeled terrorists (a convenient label that can be applied by those on either side of a fight). The war also angered Israel’s Arab neighbors who were forced to accept Palestinian refugees. Then, in 1967, Israel initiated a pre-emptive strike against its Arab neighbors, capturing the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

In reality, the wars have never ended.

Israel has controlled all movement in and out of Palestinian lands for decades limiting weapons, even food and medical supplies. When frustrated Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, the soldiers were ordered to shoot at their legs. In addition, Israel began imprisoning Palestinians indefinitely without charges and without trial. (3,329 by the end of 2025.)

More violent Palestinian attacks on Israel have been met with mass killings and destruction, the latest following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 Israelis. In response, Israel committed what Amnesty International, and others have called a genocide and on-going humanitarian crisis by turning most of Gaza into rubble. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed more than 75,000 Palestinians, wounding an additional 171,000 and displacing more than 75,000. Since then, the IDF have also killed more than 560 humanitarian aid workers, along with more than 1,700 healthcare workers, and roughly 300 journalists. During the obliteration of Gaza, medical volunteers from the U.S. also reported dozens of cases of young children, including toddlers, being shot in the head by Israeli snipers.

Palestinian blood scarcely had time to dry in Gaza before Israel turned its attention to the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran.

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers continue to brutally attack and kill Palestinians at will. They have razed Palestinian homes and olive groves in clear attempts to ethnically cleanse the land.

In Lebanon, the goal seems the same. Israel has set about creating a “buffer zone” for Israeli safety. That’s code for carpet bombing a swath of Lebanon, including Beirut, killing any Lebanese civilians who either refuse or are unable to leave. Those attacks have resulted in many thousands of Lebanese killed or wounded.

And to eliminate the threat of Iran as a regional power, Israel’s war criminal Netanyahu talked our own war criminal in the White House into launching a pre-emptive war on Iran. So far, that has led to the death of Iran’s supreme leader, in addition to the bombing of government buildings, military sites, at least one elementary school, universities, and residential buildings. In all, the U.S. has claimed to have flown more than 12,000 combat sorties over Iran and fired more than 850 Tomahawk missiles. And, within the first three weeks of the war, Israel had dropped more than 12,000 bombs – more than 3,600 on the city of Tehran. All to prevent potential Iranian-sponsored attacks from Hezbollah.

Is it any wonder that Israel has asked American taxpayers to pay for tens of billions in more weaponry?

Certainly, terrorist groups from Iran, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern nations have sporadically attacked Israelis since the 1948 Nakba resulting in more than 5,000 Israeli deaths. But over that same time span, Israel has killed more than 130,000 Palestinians – mostly civilians. Indeed, the stated belief of at least one Israeli military leader is that for each Israeli death, 50 Palestinians must die.

As long as that mentality exists, the war will never end as each death radicalizes family members and friends.

Perhaps even more worrisome is the belief held by many Zionists that they cannot stop their expansionist wars until the “Promised Land” is reunited – a view shared by Christian evangelicals who believe that will lead to the return of their Messiah and the rapture of all true believers. Of course, that would mean that the state of Israel would include parts of modern-day Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Such an expansion would only further broaden the conflict, creating endless deaths and destruction

It’s long past time for this cycle of violence to stop! A good place to start would be ending all arms shipments to the bullies at the center of it.

The Astonishing Costs Of Trump’s War.

Posted on by

So far, 13 U.S. military members have been killed and more than 380 wounded in the Trump war on Iran. And it’s estimated that at least 2,000 Iranians have been killed – most of them civilians. As of April 9, the U.S. has struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran – 9,000 in the first 24 days and an average of 300 to 500 every day since. And that doesn’t include the military strikes carried out by the Israelis.

The targets have included missile launch sites, Iranian naval ships, Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, military and government facilities, refineries, and oil depots, as well as at least one elementary school, numerous universities, and residential areas. So, the number of fatalities in Iran are likely much higher. And there are undoubtedly thousands of wounded.

That is the horrific human cost of this ill-conceived and unnecessary war. And the monetary costs, though replaceable, are simply astonishing.

It has been estimated that the build-up prior to the war cost $370 million and that it is costing $18 million per day to operate our two carrier groups in the Middle East. Additionally, the U.S. and Israel have each dropped 18,000 bombs on Iran at a cost to the U.S. of at least $5.8 billion in just the first two weeks. And, without congressional approval, the Trump regime gave $11 billion in military aid to Israel to replenish the munitions it used. (Of course, that’s in addition to the $21.7 billion in military aid sent to Israel since October 7, 2023.)

Other costs of the war include:

  • $270 million for the three F-15s lost
  • $200 million for the two C-130s lost
  • $19 million for the A-10 Warthog shot down
  • $300-500 million for the AWACs jet destroyed by Iran
  • $237 million for the three KC-135 refueling jets lost
  • $600-$900 million for the 12,000 combat sorties flown at a cost $50,000 per hour
  • $195,000-$220,000 for each precision-guided bomb dropped
  • $4,000 for each standard un-guided bomb dropped
  • $100,000 for each JDAM missile fired
  • $2.9 billion for the 850 Tomahawk missiles fired
  • $3.5 million for each JASSM missile fired
  • $3.5 million for each GBU-57 bunker buster bomb dropped
  • $200,000-500,000 for each GBU-58 bunker buster bomb dropped

All of that is in addition to the billions that will be spent on rebuilding our military installations in the Middle East that were destroyed by Iran, or the untold millions in damages to our allies in the region. Of course, there is also the $500 billion the Trump regime hopes to add to our bloated $1 trillion military budget for next year. And, on top of all that is the unknown billions being spent on goods and services as a result of inflation caused by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz limiting the shipment of 20 percent of the world’s oil.

There’s also the disastrous effect on the environment from the carbon clouds billowing from the oil and refining facilities that have been struck.

But perhaps the biggest casualty of all is the damage to the U.S. reputation as a reliable ally and peacemaker – a champion for dignity and the rights of all our planet’s residents. That damage will last for a generation or more.

Paying For An Ill-Conceived War.

Posted on by

After starting an unnecessary and likely unwinnable war costing more than a billion dollars a day, the Trump regime is planning to increase the already bloated military budget by half a trillion dollars – raising it to an astonishing $1.5 trillion, which would make it approximately $350 billion more than the military budgets of the next 14 nations combined!

To pay for it, the regime plans to cut programs that impact the environment, education, healthcare, small business, infrastructure, and much more. Things that impact the lives of most Americans – except, of course, Trump’s family and the host of oligarchs who helped finance his election campaign, his inauguration, his corruption, his grotesque ballroom, and his planned Arch de Trump.

Following is the full list of the proposed cuts*:

$510 million – Grants for farmers and agricultural research
$82 million – Loans for rural small businesses (Fully eliminated)
$61 million – Support for farmers and food markets (Fully eliminated)
$240 million – School meals and food education for children abroad (Fully eliminated)
$659 million – Community building grants
$47 million – Support for minority-owned businesses (Fully eliminated)
$449 million – Economic development grants for communities
$1.6 billion – Weather forecasting, fisheries, and coastal protection (NOAA)
$993 million – Scientific research and technology standards
$150 million – Support for American exports and trade
$2.2 billion – Broadband and internet access programs
$8.5 billion – Funding for public schools
$1.5 billion – Vocational training and adult education (Fully eliminated)
$2.7 billion – College access and higher education support
$15.2 billion – Roads, bridges, and infrastructure projects
$1.1 billion – Home energy efficiency and clean energy programs (Fully eliminated)
$1.1 billion – Scientific research funding
$386 million – Environmental cleanup programs
$150 million – Cutting-edge clean energy research
$4 billion – Help paying home heating and cooling bills for low-income families (Fully eliminated)
$768 million – Refugee resettlement assistance
$819 million – Care and shelter for migrant children
$775 million – Local anti-poverty programs (Fully eliminated)
$5 billion – Public health programs, mental health services, and disease prevention
$5 billion – Medical research (NIH)
$129 million – Healthcare quality and safety research
$356 million – Emergency preparedness and disaster response
$1.3 billion – FEMA community disaster preparedness grants
$707 million – Cybersecurity protection for critical infrastructure
$52 million – Airport and transportation security
$40 million – Protection against chemical and biological weapons threats
$53 million – Funding for homeland security operations
$3.3 billion – Community development block grants (Fully eliminated)
$1.3 billion – Affordable housing construction grants (Fully eliminated)
$393 million – Programs to reduce homelessness
$529 million – Housing assistance for people living with HIV/AIDS (Fully eliminated)
$489 million – Housing and services for Native American communities
$50 million – Grants to help communities build more housing (Fully eliminated)
$60 million – Enforcement of fair housing laws
$58 million – Homebuyer and renter counseling (Fully eliminated)
$45 million – Renewable energy development (Fully eliminated)
$1.7 billion – Local law enforcement and public safety grants
$20 million – Civil rights mediation and legal access (Fully eliminated)
$1.6 billion – Job training for at-risk youth (Fully eliminated)
$395 million – Jobs for low-income seniors (Fully eliminated)
$234 million – Worker safety programs
$101 million – Equal pay and workplace protections
$46 million – Anti-child labor programs abroad
$2 billion – International humanitarian aid
$1.2 billion – Food aid abroad (Fully eliminated)
$4.3 billion – Global health programs
$2.7 billion – United Nations and international partnerships
$642 million – International economic programs
$315 million – Democracy and anti-corruption programs
$486 million – Public transit grants
$4.2 billion – EV charging infrastructure
$372 million – Rural airline service
$145 million – Sustainable infrastructure grants
$204 million – Investment for underserved communities
$1.4 billion – IRS taxpayer services
$100 million – Air pollution programs (Fully eliminated)
$1 billion – EPA environmental grants
$2.5 billion – Clean water infrastructure
$90 million – Diesel pollution reduction (Fully eliminated)
$3.4 billion – NASA science programs
$297 million – NASA innovation
$1.1 billion – International Space Station
$143 million – STEM education
$309 million – Small business development
$170 million – SBA operations
$158 million – Small business loans

This isn’t making America great. It’s not improving American lives. It’s not making America safer. It’s making America unrecognizable.

(*Source: MeidasTouch)

Measuring The Trump Regime 2.0.

Posted on by

When Trump campaigned for a second term, he promised to cut costs, lower inflation, reduce taxes, close the borders, and deport “the worst of the worst”. He also promised to bring peace to Ukraine and the Middle East, and to avoid any more “forever” wars.

So, what has his regime actually done?

  • Dismantled, or attempted to dismantle, much of the federal government.
  • Fired thousands of government employees replacing expertise and experience with loyalty.
  • Pardoned 1,600 criminals, including seditionists and drug traffickers.
  • Shuttered USAID leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of foreigners living in abject poverty.
  • Proclaimed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
  • Threatened to make Canada the 51st state.
  • Threatened to invade Greenland.
  • Threatened to invade Cuba.
  • Threatened to invade Mexico.
  • Violated the Constitution by accepting a $400 million aircraft from Qatar.
  • Forced the Smithsonian and National Parks to remove references to slavery and our genocide of Native Americans.
  • Removed high-ranking black and female officers from the military.
  • Cut ACA subsidies making healthcare unaffordable for millions of Americans.
  • Illegally withheld funds from Planned Parenthood clinics.
  • Forced law firms and universities to kowtow by withholding federal funds.
  • Attacked freedom of the press by filing frivolous lawsuits against media for publishing unflattering stories, helping engineer the takeover of CBS and CNN by a MAGA friendly billionaire, and threatening to revoke media broadcast licenses unless they behave as more regime friendly.
  • Attacked freedom of speech by pressuring networks to remove Colbert and Kimmel, deporting international students for standing up for Palestine, and arresting peaceful demonstrators.
  • Increased inflation through illegal tariffs and his war on Iran.
  • Paved over Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden.
  • Uglified the Oval Office with hundreds of golden trinkets and doodads.
  • Destroyed the East Wing of America’s House (the White House) without permission or prior notice.
  • Placed Trump’s name on the JFK Center for the Arts before closing it for 2 years.
  • Released the Epstein files after redacting the names of predators while revealing the names of victims.
  • Removed the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and set about further destroying the environment by returning to coal-fired power plants and permitting oil drilling on environmentally sensitive lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  • Illegally executed small boat operators in international waters claiming they were carrying drugs.
  • Weaponized the DOJ to falsely charge Trump’s political enemies with crimes.
  • Expanded ICE and CBP into a large, heavily armed police force answering only to Trump with the intent of arresting and deporting 1 million residents per year.
  • Sent masked, armed thugs into Democratic-led cities where they arrested and terrorized lawful residents and ignored the constitutional right to due process. Operation Metro Surge resulted in $200 million in economic damages to the City of Minneapolis and the murders of 2 U.S. citizens.
  • Weakened alliances with longtime allies and threatened to leave NATO.
  • Against international law, illegally sent troops into Venezuela to capture its president and his wife.
  • Along with Israel, began an illegal, and likely unwinnable, war against Iran committing numerous war crimes, including the bombing of an elementary school, universities and civilian residences.
  • Violated at least 19 provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
  • Spent $100 million of taxpayer money on golf outings with the expectation it will exceed $300 million by the end of Trump’s term.
  • Used the presidency to unconstitutionally enrich the Trump family by at least $4 billion.
  • Increased the national debt by $2.7 trillion thus far by cutting taxes on billionaires and multinational corporations.

When you elect a criminal convicted of 34 felonies you shouldn’t be surprised when he does criminal things. It’s not America first. It’s Trump first.

The Political Division That’s Most Concerning.

Posted on by

It’s not left versus right. It’s left versus left. Those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment versus those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment.

What do I mean by that?

By now it should be abundantly clear that the Felon-in-Chief and his MAGA followers are leading our nation down a path toward oligarchy and dictatorship. They’re succeeding in great part because the resistance has been fragmented and largely rudderless.

For many years, involved and caring voters have been split amongst a wide variety of single-issue organizations focused on guns, homelessness, hunger, wildlife, animal rights, air and water quality, climate change, sustainable energy, racial and gender equity, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, indigenous rights, immigrant rights, organized labor, religious freedom, Palestinian rights, Ukraine, healthcare, public education, reining in military spending, tax fairness, voting rights, breaking up corporate monopolies, etc., etc.

All of these issues are important, and I have personally supported most of them. But we are now facing an ideological movement that vehemently opposes progress toward each of these goals. Indeed, those in control of MAGA have pushed policies that are directly counter to them. And they now control all three branches of government, as well as much of the media.

If patriotic and caring people are to interrupt our nation’s slide into tyranny, we must set aside any inclination to base our votes on single or self-serving issues. We must come together and focus on what really matters. That doesn’t mean we have to abandon the goals we care about most. It means we have to ensure that we have a government that will allow us to pursue those goals.

There is only one issue that is important now: Saving our democracy. Period.

Trump Regime Prioritizing War Over Families.

Posted on by

The Trump regime has stated that the cost of its attacks on Iran cost $5.6 billion in advanced munitions for just the first two days. And it has been estimated that the ongoing war has cost our military more than $1 billion per day since. Given that the war is now in its eleventh day, that means we will have already spent roughly $14.6 billion. And that doesn’t include the $300 million cost of the three F-15s that were mistakenly shot down by Kuwait or the billions needed to rebuild or replace military installations in Bahrain, UAE, and Kuwait.

Of course, there’s also the $370 million cost of the military build-up prior to the war, including the operating costs of two carrier groups. Plus, the $11 billion for replenishing Israeli munitions sent to Israel without congressional approval and the proposed $50 billion bill being sought for replenishing our own munitions. All of which adds to our $1.8 trillion deficit and could have been far better used to provide affordable healthcare access and food for hungry Americans.

In addition, there’s the economic costs of the war – the lost oil production, the hikes in oil prices, and the increased costs you pay at the gasoline pump, all of which contribute to inflation.

And don’t forget the human costs of the war: The 170 schoolgirls killed by a U.S. Tomahawk missile, the likely thousands of Iranian civilians killed or displaced by U.S. and Israeli strikes, the seven U.S. soldiers killed by Iran, and the nearly 1 million Lebanese displaced by the Israeli bombing of Beirut.

And what has the war accomplished?

The Trump and Israeli regimes have killed the 86-year-old supreme leader along with much of Iran’s leadership only to see him replaced by a younger, more violent supreme leader. We likely haven’t seriously ended Iran’s desire to build nuclear weapons. (In fact, we probably have made them more committed to that goal than ever before.) We have further destabilized the region. We have caused serious damage to the environment. We have caused a large portion of Iran’s 90 million population to hate us. And we have almost certainly inspired more Iranians to commit acts of terrorism against us.

On the other hand, it did create a significant distraction from the Epstein files, it provided cover for the continued takeover of Palestinian lands in the West Bank, and it promises to keep Israel’s cabinet of genocidal war criminals in power for years to come.

How Bad Is The Minnesota Fraud?

Posted on by

The Trump regime would have you believe that Somali immigrants in Minnesota committed $19 billion in fraud, which was the alleged reason behind Operation Metro Surge (the ICE invasion that brutalized both citizens and noncitizens and left two people dead). But according to an exhaustive study by the Minnesota StarTribune, the figure is actually $217.7 million.

That, of course, is deplorable, but it pales in comparison to the regime’s raids on taxpayer funds. Indeed, it falls short of the expected $300 million taxpayer cost of Trump’s golf outings for his second term. And it’s dwarfed by the $1 billion cost of retrofitting Trump’s mansion in the air that was illegally gifted to him by Qatar.

Trump’s pardons of white-collar criminals have resulted in the forgiveness of more than $1.5 billion in criminal debt owed to victims and the federal government.

Add to that ICE Barbie’s $225 million ad scam and her $270 DHS purchase of luxury jets used for personal travel. There’s also Patel’s personal use of FBI jets for a trip to the Milan Olympics and outings with his girlfriend. There’s the DHS penchant for grossly overpaying for warehouses intended to be used as immigrant concentration camps. And there’s the $660 billion in Trump’s unconstitutional tariffs paid by American consumers.

Even worse is Trump’s illegal and unnecessary war on Iran that’s costing roughly $1 billion per day and could very well drag on for years.

Moreover, it’s estimated that Medicare and Medicaid lose roughly $100 billion annually to fraud, largely because MAGA refuses to hire enough federal auditors to ferret out the abuses. The same is true for the IRS, which is estimated to lose as much as $1 trillion in revenue each year to tax fraud. (Ordinary people are often audited. But billionaires and multinational corporations escape audits because their tax filings are so complex.)

Of course, all of that is a mere fraction of the more than $21 trillion in funding from 1998 to 2015 that the Department of Defense couldn’t account for. The Pentagon has not passed a single audit in its entire history! And despite its $1 trillion budget for this fiscal year, the regime is asking for a $50 billion supplemental budget to replace the munitions expended in just one week of Trump’s assault on Iran, his incursion into Venezuela, and his targeting of alleged drug trafficking boats in international waters.

None of this should come as a surprise. After all, what else should we expect from a regime run by a felon convicted on 34 counts of fraud?

Constitution? What Constitution?

Posted on by

In little more than one year, the Trump regime and the MAGA party have violated or proposed violations of an astounding number of the provisions of the United States Constitution – to the point that one wonders if it any longer has any meaning.

Article 1, Section 4 gives states control of elections, including the times, places and manner of holding elections. Yet Trump and the regime have ordered red states to redistrict in order to gain more congressional seats. The regime intends to limit early voting and mail-in ballots. Trump has also announced his intentions to nationalize elections. And others in the regime propose declaring a national emergency to suspend mid-term elections permitting MAGA to continue its control of Congress.

Article 1, Section 8 gives Congress the exclusive power to raise taxes, control spending, impose tariffs, control commerce with other nations, and to declare war. Yet Trump and his regime have usurped and violated every single provision of this section.

Article 1, Section 9 directs that the privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus protecting individuals from unlawful detention shall not be suspended. Yet the regime’s private army consisting of ICE and CBP have routinely arrested citizens and noncitizens alike often moving them to out-of-state detention centers without the opportunity to call their families or lawyers.

Further, Trump and the regime have completely ignored the provision that “no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.” Ignoring this clause, Trump and his family have accepted a $400 million Qatari jet, a $500 million UAE investment in Trump’s crypto venture, and at least $50 million of Saudi investments in the Trump organization!

Numerous news sources have calculated that Trump and his family have raked in at least $4 billion during the first year of his second term.

Article 2, Section 1 details compensation for the President and clearly states that he shall not receive any other emolument from the United States. Nevertheless, Trump continues weekend trips to his own golf resorts where he charges his security detail top dollar for their accommodations resulting in millions in profits for his family organization.

Article 2, Section 3 clearly states that the President shall see that all laws are faithfully executed. Instead, he and his regime routinely break laws, even ignoring the courts that have ruled against them.

1st Amendment states “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.” Yet the regime has punished many of those who have spoken out against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, even deporting students and noncitizens who were here legally.

1st Amendment also provides for freedom of the press. However, Trump and the regime have ordered the cancellation of Late Night with Stephen Colbert and the temporary removal of Jimmy Kimmel. The regime has also threatened media for truthful reporting that is unflattering to the Felon-in-Chief and used the FCC to directly influence the sale of Warner Brothers to a Trump supporter.

1st Amendment provides for the right of the people to peaceably assemble. But, in his first term, Trump ordered the military and police to violently attack peaceful protestors to clear the way for a photo op with a Bible in front of a church. Likewise, in his second term, the regime has encouraged ICE and CBP to attack legal observers overseeing immigrant detentions fatally shooting at least two of them.

4th Amendment states “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effect against unreasonable searches and seizures.” However, the regime has encouraged ICE and CBP to break down doors and remove residents without judicial warrants.

5th Amendment states “no person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” (Renee Nicolle Good, Alex Pretti and thousands of legal immigrants anyone?)

8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. But from videos and reports, nearly every ICE agent and detention center is in violation.

14th Amendment, Section 1 states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.” Despite the obvious clarity of the wording, Trump is seeking to end birthright citizenship by Executive Order.

14th Amendment, Section 3 states that no person shall hold any office, civil or military, who, having previously taken an oath to support the Constitution shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion. Yet the leader of the January 6 insurrection now sits in the overly gilded Oval Office.

14th Amendment, Section 4 states that “neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” Yet Trump is demanding $230M from the DOJ for its investigations into his participation in the January 6 insurrection. He is also seeking $6M in legal fees from the State of Georgia for its investigation into Trump’s election interference. And Ashli Babbit’s family is being paid nearly $5M for her death while attempting to violently enter the House chamber during the insurrection.

15th Amendment ensures the right of black people to vote. But, for more than 40 years, the GOP (aka MAGA) has worked to make it increasingly more difficult for blacks in heavily Democratic areas to vote. And the Trump regime has demanded that MAGA-controlled states gerrymander districts in order to deny blacks equal representation.

19th Amendment gives women the right to vote. Yet the regime’s SAVE Act, if passed, would make it difficult for millions of women to vote.

22nd Amendment limits the President to two four-year terms. But Trump has often spoken about being President for life, and he and his supporters continue to suggest that there are ways around this amendment.

24th Amendment states that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged for failure to pay a poll tax or other tax. But, in effect, MAGA has created a version of the poll tax by requiring voter IDs in some states and making them increasingly difficult for working people to obtain by limiting the number of locations and closing them on weekends.

26th Amendment gives 18-year-olds the right to vote. But, again, MAGA has made it difficult for many to vote by refusing to accept college-issued IDs and requiring college students to vote in their parents’ home district.

And the Trump regime’s disdain for the law is not limited to violating the Constitution.

The regime has violated numerous laws, including the Hatch Act which forbids federal employees from engaging in partisan political activities while on duty. The regime violated the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the president to obtain congressional approval to withhold appropriated funds, when it blocked funds for governmental agencies, universities, research facilities and more. And it illegally dismantled independent agencies, such as USAID and the U.S. Institute of Peace without congressional approval.

In addition, Trump and the regime have committed a multitude of federal ethics violations, including misuse of federal resources for personal gain. (I’m thinking of you, Kash Patel, Kristi Noem, and Pete Hegseth.) Moreover, Trump and the regime continue to defy multiple court orders.

And unwilling to stop at breaking U.S. laws, Trump and his regime have broken international laws by kidnapping the president of Venezuela and pursuing an ill-conceived war against Iran led by the war criminal Netanyahu.

Tell me again: Which is the “Law and Order Party?”

A Democratic Project 2029.

Posted on by

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 embraced by the Trump regime has made the US virtually unrecognizable by creating an autocratic oligarchy that panders to the wealthy and the powerful and erodes the individual rights guaranteed by our Constitution. And it’s likely to get much worse as Project 2025 is only roughly 50 percent implemented!

When a Democratic president and congressional majority is elected to supplant the MAGA miscreants (assuming we have free and fair elections), we need to be prepared to not only restore our democracy but to improve it with a Project 2029. MAGA has shown us the way to quickly reshape the US according to its ideology. Democrats must not shy away from doing the same. Following are my suggestions:

1 – Immediately nullify all of Trump’s Executive Orders.

2 – Pass legislation to restore all powers to the legislative branch as enumerated in the Constitution.

3 – Order the Attorney General (AG) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to begin prosecutions of those who participated in the Trump regime’s many violations of the Constitution.

4 – Pass legislation to eliminate immunity for all federal employees past, present and future.

5 – Order the AG and DOJ to begin prosecutions of all international war crimes, including those committed by the Trump and Netanyahu regimes.

6 – Reduce, restructure or eliminate DHS, ICE and CBP.

7 – Break up corporate monopolies. No company should ever control more than 10% of any industry.

8 – Impeach Justices Thomas and Alito for their inexcusable grift and unethical behavior and replace them with liberal justices. If necessary, increase the size of SCOTUS to 12 with nonpartisan appointments.

9 – Eliminate financial and weapons support for Israel’s Zionist government until such time it demonstrates respect for the human rights of all people under its control.

10 – To prevent corporations and billionaires from further corrupting our elections, pass legislation to repeal the decisions of Citizens United v FEC and Buckley v Valeo. Ban private campaign donations beyond $500 and provide government funding for all legitimate federal candidates so members of Congress can work instead of spending 40 percent of their time fundraising.

11 – Pass legislation to require every high school graduate to pass a thorough civics test.

12 – Pass legislation to eliminate the electoral college and make election day a national holiday. Automatically register all high school graduates and naturalized citizens to vote.

13 – Pass legislation reinstating the Fairness Doctrine to clearly label and separate opinion from news. Revoke the licenses of any media outlet that fails to do so.

14 – Pass legislation to fully restore all civil liberties, including a woman’s right to choose.

15 – Pass legislation to ban any convicted felon from holding public office.

16 – Pass legislation to place strict controls on government surveillance and invasions of privacy.

17 – Expand IRS, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security regulators to catch fraudsters.

18 – Make the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes by eliminating tax loopholes.

19 – Eliminate all tax shelters, both on and offshore.

20 – Restore funding for the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.

21 – Restore funding for public education and research grants for universities. Pass legislation to ban government funding of private religious schools.

22 – Enforce rules for churches and 501c3s that ban direct political engagement at risk of losing tax-free status.

23 – Pass legislation instituting term limits on Congress – 4 terms for the House, 3 terms for the Senate.

24 – Restore funding for USAID and other international aid groups, including the UN.

25 – Hold the Department of Defense accountable for failing audits and its inability or refusal to account for more than $21 trillion in spending.

26 – Create a humane and practical immigration policy that accepts refugees and asylum-seekers, that provides renewable work permits for necessary workers, and that provides a path to citizenship.

27 – Address homelessness and food insecurity by recognizing that no one who works or has a disability should be unhoused or hungry.

28 – Rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and aggressively address climate change.

29 – Move quickly to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels.

30 – Ban drilling and oil exploration on federal lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

31 – Claw back all emoluments gained by the Trump family and members of the regime. Pass legislation requiring that anyone who uses a public office for financial gain be fired and prosecuted.

32 – Pass legislation to reinforce separation of church and state.

33 – Restore an accurate account of US history, including the genocide of indigenous people, slavery and Jim Crow.

34 – Pass legislation restoring the Voting Rights Act.

35 – Pass legislation creating Medicare for all.

36 – Notify all federal employees that anyone who makes decisions based on politics and religion will be fired.

37 – Rebuild the East Wing of the White House and restore the Kennedy Rose Garden.

38 – Pass legislation reaffirming our commitment to NATO and all long-standing treaties.

39 – Remove the Trump name from every federal building and edifice and make it illegal to display the name on any structure other than portable toilets.

40 – Instead of an eternal flame, equip Trump’s eventual grave with modesty panels and a catchment basin for the legions of people who will want to piss on it.

At Least 38,000 Reasons To Hold Trump Accountable.

Posted on by

The reaction to the release of a portion of the Epstein files has been fascinating. It seems one mention of a name associated with the sexual predator in any way is enough for many to assume that person is also a predator. But for most of the MAGA minions, nothing can throw shade on the Megalomaniac in the Oval Office.

The Epstein files DO NOT absolve Donald J. Trump of participating in the sexual abuse of children as he claims. Quite the opposite.

Of the files released, 5,430 have included more than 38,000 references to Trump! In the latest tranche alone, his name is mentioned more than 1,000 times! In addition, there are credible tips accusing Trump of sexual assault and the rape of minors, including sworn testimony of victims! And, of course, there are numerous photos of Trump with his then best friend showing them with young girls! Indeed, Trump is so prevalent in the documents they could rightly be called the Epstein-Trump files.

None of that should surprise you given what we already knew of Trump’s sexual misbehavior.

We have seen video of the Felon-in-Chief talking about grabbing women by the p*ssy; of him talking about walking into the dressing room of his Miss Teen beauty pageants; of kissing women without their permission. We know that his first wife testified that he raped her. We know that he had sex with a famous porn star when his third wife was pregnant and paid to cover it up. And we have seen him lose two court cases to E. Jean Carroll based on her claims of sexual assault.

So, is there any reason to not believe that Trump was a willing and active participant in Epstein’s pedophilia? Is there any reason to not believe the claims of the victims?

By all means, let’s hear testimony from the Clintons, Steve Bannon, Bill Gates, Howard Lutnick, Steve Tisch, Brett Ratner, RFK jr., David Copperfield, Alan Dershowitz, Richard Branson, Harvey Weinstein, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Les Wexner, Bill Richardson, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and all the rest. But let’s also hear testimony under oath from those who were closest to Epstein, especially DJT and Melania.

And while we’re at it, let’s also hear testimony from AG Bondi, Deputy AG Blanche, and FBI Director Patel as to why the Epstein list they claimed to have on their desks seems to have vanished into thin air.