Category Archives: Voter Suppression

What Trump Has Taken From Us.

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Despite his braggadocio, Trump likely wasn’t a billionaire when he regained the presidency last year. But he certainly is now.

In just the first year of the Felon’s second term in office, he and his family have enriched themselves with an astonishing $2.2 billion, most of it from taxpayers and those who invested in his unscrupulous cryptocurrency scheme. And that sum is just a fraction of what his regime has cost taxpayers through his “Big Beautiful Bill”, his war of choice, and his numerous vanity projects.

Indeed, at least $11.6 trillion of our $40 trillion national debt (29 percent) has been accumulated while Trump has been in office. And another $2 trillion increase under Biden should rightfully be attributed to Trump’s failed Covid response. Imagine how much more debt Trump can accumulate in the remaining two-and-a-half years of his term.

But taxpayer money is the least of what he and his cronies have taken from us.

  • Since the Felon recaptured the Oval Office, much of the power of Congress has been usurped by the Executive Office with help from the MAGA-controlled SCOTUS.
  • Immigrants and many American citizens have lost their right to due process – the opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law. And after the murders of American citizens by ICE, many Americans have lost their sense of personal safety.
  • So, too, have we lost our constitutional right to privacy as the result of Flock cameras and other forms of government surveillance,
  • Through Trump appointments of loyalists, our independent and ethical judiciary has been compromised.
  • Similarly, our DOJ and FBI have been politicized and charged with arresting Trump’s political enemies.
  • The constitutional freedom of the press has been compromised.
  • Likewise, our constitutional freedom of speech has been under attack as never before.
  • The leadership of our military has been decapitated and weakened.
  • Our Department of Defense has been turned into the Department of War – an act, given Trump’s war of choice against Iran, is more than symbolic.
  • The government bureau created to protect taxpayers’ personal finances – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – has been dismantled.
  • Our voting rights, especially those of minorities and youth, are subjected to a multi-pronged attack of gerrymandering, federal interference, intimidation, and more.
  • Many Americans have lost access to healthcare as a result of cutbacks needed to further reduce the taxes of corporations and billionaires.
  • Additionally, funding cuts to the National Institutes for Health and the Centers for Disease Control have again weakened our ability to predict and respond to future pandemics.
  • The defunding of USAID quite literally cost millions of lives in less developed nations that depended on the charity of the US. As it turned out, that was just the first attack on our international reputation. Since then, we have lost the respect of longtime allies and most of the civilized world due to the regime’s trade tariffs and lack of concern for NATO, the UN and human rights.
  • Trust is science and expertise have been lost as evidenced by our disregard for the environment, the climate crisis and looming extinction of tens of thousands of species.
  • Public funding of religious and private schools along with cuts to public schools have compromised our world class education system.
  • The Felon’s inflated ego has cost us Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden, the East Wing, the South Lawn, a tastefully decorated Oval Office, 60 cherry trees, and possibly the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
  • Trump’s racism has caused the government to rewrite history.
  • We have lost nearly 600,000 of our friends and neighbors – immigrants who have been detained and deported – most of them law abiding, hardworking people and their families.
  • Trump’s war of choice, corporate deregulation and his ill-advised tariffs have cost us affordable fuel and groceries.
  • Worst of all, a majority of our citizens have lost trust in our government and grasp of the truth given his never-ending tsunami of lies.

The Coming Reckoning.

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In the 1930s and late 1960s, the U.S. experienced unparalleled social progress under Democratic leadership that made life better for the vast majority of Americans. In the 1930s, we saw the official end of the Gilded Age along with the economic rescue of millions of Americans after the Great Depression thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR also created Social Security which meant that after a lifetime of work most Americans could finally experience a comfortable retirement.

Though he is most known for a war he did not start, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He also created Medicare and Medicaid as part of his war on poverty.

Though he never served as president, Ralph Nader had an enormous impact on our quality of life in the 1970s. As a result of his efforts, the Freedom of Information Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Clean Water Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act, and the Whistleblower Protection Act were born. He also influenced the creation of the EPA to help clean up our environment and OSHA to improve the safety of workers.

In 1998, 1999, 2000 and part of 2001, after digging us out of a recession, President Bill Clinton oversaw federal budget surpluses for the first time in decades. This despite the fact that he invested heavily in education and technology, in additional police to lower crime, and in health initiatives such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Earned Income Tax Credit to help low-income families.

President Barack Obama continued the tradition of Democratic presidents repairing the economy after Republican shortcomings by digging us out of the Great Recession. He also created the Affordable Care Act to give tens of millions of Americans access to affordable health insurance. In addition, he pushed for initiatives to mitigate climate change.

And, like Democratic presidents before him, President Joe Biden rescued the economy following the botched pandemic response. He succeeded in getting an infrastructure bill passed after many before him had failed. And he oversaw historic investments in clean energy.

For their part, Republicans have almost universally fought all of these accomplishments along the way. Beginning with President Nixon, we have seen increased attacks on voting rights. And beginning with President Reagan, we have experienced the growth of corporate consolidation and wealth disparity until, in 2014, the U.S. was officially recognized as an oligarchy, which Wikipedia defines as “a type of political system in which the wealthiest citizens deploy unique and concentrated power to defend their unique minority interests.”

In other words, for decades politicians and their benefactors have rigged our government for their personal gain to the point that a significant percentage of our population feels so helpless they want to tear it all down. We’ve watched politics become a profession. We’ve witnessed unparalleled corruption by politicians and corporate leaders as they mortgage our nation’s future.

For example, the national debt now exceeds our GDP as a result of too many wars of choice which have led to uncontrolled military spending. Adding to the problem is the loss of revenue from continuous tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations. Former high-paying jobs have been shipped overseas so corporations can avoid paying worker benefits in their never-ending quest for increased corporate profits. Most industries have been captured by a few corporations that too often collude with one another to fix prices and flex their lobbying muscle for special treatment. This corporate consolidation has led to the collapse of many communities, especially in rural areas. Meanwhile multinationals and foreign corporations have set about controlling agriculture by swallowing up farmland and groundwater sources.

Americans’ overall health and lifespan have been diminished as a result of food scarcity, poor nutrition and lack of access to healthcare. Despite overpowering evidence of the causes and consequences of climate change, the oligarchs and many politicians have buried their heads in the sand refusing to acknowledge that it will devastate our planet with mass extinctions of species (maybe our own) along with extreme weather events, increased wildfires, sea level rise and weakening ocean currents. In addition, climate change is leading to mass migration which places stress on host nations often ending with human rights violations as we’ve seen in the U.S.

The extraction of commodities such as lumber, fossil fuels and minerals is given priority over our more important natural resources such as clean air and water, healthy forests, the diversity of wildlife and even human lives.

Moreover, our Constitution is under attack as never before. Billionaire oligarchs have taken control of our media turning long-standing news organizations into propaganda outlets that ignore reality and spew misinformation to advance their interests. Religion, race, gender and sexual preference are again being used as weapons to distract and divide us.

We are finally reaching the point where our democracy and our corrupted economy can no longer coexist. It is time for a reckoning.

It is time for congressional term limits and accountability for corruption. It is time for an effective FEC, election transparency, and limits on campaign financing. It is time to eliminate all forms of voter suppression and to make Election Day a national holiday. It is time for a strong FCC and the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine. It is time for a truly independent judiciary and Department of Justice. It is time for a wealth tax and real tax fairness. It is time for the application of antitrust laws, the reversal of Buckley v Valeo and the overturning of Citizens United.

It is time for universal healthcare and effective gun laws. It is time to fully fund and restore our public education system that was once the envy of the world. It is time to restore our international standing and strengthen relationships with allies.

And perhaps most important of all, it is time to address climate change with the urgency it requires as if the future of our planet depends on it. Because it does.

The Political Division That’s Most Concerning.

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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.

A Democratic Project 2029.

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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.

1984 In 2026.

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Published in 1949, George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 warned of a future in which a totalitarian government, aided by technology, controlled nearly every aspect of its citizens’ lives through a combination of mass surveillance, propaganda, and lies.

It turns out that his prediction arrived 42 Years late.

Think that’s hyperbole? Consider this: In his first term, media documented that the Felon-in-Chief told more than 35,000 lies. And he has only accelerated his assault on the truth in the years since.

The propaganda began (ironically) in 1984 when Rush Limbaugh began spewing rightwing lies and half-truths on his syndicated radio show followed by imitators such as Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Dennis Prager and Bill O’Reilly. Their success led to the founding of TV propaganda outlets such as Fox News Channel, NewsMax, OAN, and now CBS News. In addition, we have Breitbart, Meta and X to spread the lies.

As for mass surveillance, it has increased over the past several decades to help law enforcement track criminals and terrorists. But, under the Trump regime, it has grown to track the entire population with more than 70,000 Automatic License Plate Reader cameras that can map the movements of vehicles. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to track cellphones using Stingray/IMSI simulated cell towers. AI is being used to sweep social media using RAVEn. Drones and helicopters are used to track immigrants and who knows who else.

Facial recognition using the technology of Mobile Fortify and Clearview AI is being used by ICE to identify immigrants and to intimidate citizens. As I’ve written before, Elon Musk’s DOGE has compromised your personal data at the regime’s request. And Peter Thiel’s Palantir is in the process of consolidating all federal databases making it easy for anyone in the regime to invade your privacy as never before. The regime is even in the process of collecting voter data which can be used to compromise free and fair elections.

After the megalomaniac in the Oval Office has deported millions of people of color and permanently rigged elections so only his allies can win, what comes next? He has already compromised the courts, subjugated Congress, and willfully violated the Constitution. Will he be satisfied with total power and complete control? Will he continue to rebuild Washington, DC and splash his name on every building and entity of note? Will his desire to corruptly use his office to add billions more to his personal fortune ever be satiated? Will he be content to exact legal and monetary retribution against his perceived enemies?

Or will he need to see his political enemies punished in some sort of twisted version of the Hunger Games?

The New Surveillance And Police State.

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In recent years, the Republican Party and MAGA have constantly cried “Freedom”, believing that Democratic presidents were out to take away their liberty. But ironically, the people they voted for are the ones who are actually suspending the Constitution and taking away our freedoms.

Starting by suspending due process for immigrants, the Trump regime has quickly moved to attack the freedoms of citizens. It has attacked the First Amendment guarantees of free speech in government agencies, universities, and the media. It has violated the Fourth Amendment preventing unreasonable search and seizures, the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, and the 14th Amendment that gives citizenship to all those born in the United States, leading to a case that is now before SCOTUS.

The regime has initiated numerous attacks on the 15th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote. Numerous individuals in the regime have openly discussed repealing the 19th Amendment, which gives women the right to vote. In addition, the regime has repeatedly discussed violating the 22nd amendment limiting all presidents, including Trump, to two terms.

And the regime is clearly only getting started.

Billionaire Peter Theil and his Palantir data mining company have helped construct a master government database of all US citizens enabled by the company’s numerous government contracts and Trump’s Executive Order to eliminate information silos. And the creation of the database and the accompanying surveillance network is happening faster than legislators can recognize the threat, let alone craft legislation to control it.

So, all of your personal data, including financial records, tax records, and medical records are all in one place, quickly accessible to anyone with clearance. And since the Trump regime has ordered states to turn over voting records, the database will likely include your party affiliation, political donations and voting history.

Additionally, Homeland Security and ICE are using more than 70,000 LPR (License Plate Reader) cameras to monitor the movements of undocumented immigrants. Of course, the cameras also allow the government to track movements of ordinary citizens, with the FBI and DHS using AI to sort through tips and social media to determine what they believe to be “threats.”

And the entire domestic surveillance network is shielded from oversight by “national security” exemptions.

At the same time, the regime is rapidly increasing the number of masked and armed ICE agents to roughly 30,000. It has also increased ICE’s budget for weapons by $71 million, a 700 percent increase.

But that shouldn’t worry us. We all trust that the Trump regime won’t use its database, cameras and secret police for political purposes, or to interfere with the liberties of American citizens. Right? Right? Right???

How Project 2025 Is Destroying America.

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Remember Project 2025? You know, the plan that Trump denied any knowledge of during the campaign despite previously praising its authors by saying, “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do…”

Not surprisingly, many of its authors have been awarded key roles within the White House and government agencies. Indeed, Russell Vaught the key architect of the plan is now Washington’s most powerful man as director of the Office of Management and Budget. And, under his guidance, the Trump regime is radically changing (aka destroying) the federal government.

Far from making America great, it’s destroying the very fabric of our nation as surely as Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House. For example, here are some of the things the Trump regime has done by implementing Project 2025:

  • To ferret out alleged “widespread” waste and abuse, the Trump regime created DOGE, an unelected and unvetted group of twenty somethings who broke laws and violated the Constitution by firing government employees, shutting down numerous agencies, and blocking congressionally approved funding. Even more concerning, they allegedly downloaded the personal information of millions of Americans.
  • Church membership has been falling, so it is imposing Christianity into public schools and workplaces.
  • The rate of births among white Americans has dropped, so it calls for banning all abortions and using the Comstock Act to prevent the delivery of abortion drugs to individuals. It also calls for ending ACA funding of contraceptives.
  • Women and minorities have been gaining rights and positions of authority, so it is attacking DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs to keep them in their place. And to keep women in the home, it calls for ending subsidized day care and, instead, funding at-home daycare payments.
  • To push MAGA’s pro-birth ideology, it prohibited USAID from funding “sexual reproductive health and reproductive rights” and “gender equality” programs. As a result, the regime intends to incinerate nearly $10 million worth of taxpayer-purchased contraceptives.
  • Most highly educated voters support Democrats, so it’s attacking public K-12 education and universities. It is also eliminating the Department of Education.
  • Scientists support many Democratic goals like addressing the climate crisis, so it’s attacking science by defunding agencies like the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It has also withdrawn from the Paris Accords on Climate Change and canceled at least 130 climate and clean energy contracts.
  • The academic freedom of public and private universities permits professors to teach subject matter that is counter to the MAGA ideology, so it is using government contracts as leverage to eliminate DEI and other “woke” policies.
  • MAGA was furious over vaccine and mask mandates during the pandemic. So, Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization and, following Project 2025, he blocked much of the funding for National Institutes for Health and the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC has been decimated leaving us largely unprepared for the next health crisis.
  • Publicly supported independent media pose a threat to autocracy by presenting the unbiased truth, so it rescinded all federal funding for NPR and PBS.
  • The authors of Project 2025 believe we spend too much on foreign aid. So, it all but eliminated USAID and programs such as international disaster aid, food aid and family planning.
  • The Trump crime family has created its own highly speculative cryptocurrencies, so it has reduced regulations by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
  • Corporations have been restricted and held accountable for environmental abuses, so it calls for repealing many of the regulations and lessening protections for vulnerable species.
  • There has been recent growth in worker wages which has reduced corporate profits, so it is attacking labor unions and increases in minimum wages. It’s also increasing unemployment levels through tariffs and other means.
  • Renewables have been quickly replacing fossil fuels, so it calls for replacing incentives for renewables with even more incentives for oil, gas and (choke) coal.
  • The percentages of black and brown minorities have been increasing, so it has expanded ICE and CBP to detain and deport millions of Latinos and blacks. It has also deployed military to help guard our borders.
  • To ensure future MAGA control, it has encouraged MAGA-controlled states to implement extreme gerrymandering and to rig elections by changing voting laws.
  • Schools, museums and other institutions have increased our citizens’ understanding of the nation’s past excesses, such as ethnic cleansing, slavery, and Jim Crow, so it is banning books and rewriting history.
  • It recognizes that nonpartisan federal employees restrain authoritarian power, so it is firing thousands of government workers and replacing them with MAGA loyalists.
  • Government watchdogs, such as Inspectors General, impose ethical standards that restrain corruption, so they have been fired and replaced with loyalists.
  • Trump was furious at attempts to hold him accountable for crimes. So, longtime employees of the Department of Justice and FBI were fired to better weaponize the system against his investigators, prosecutors and political opponents.
  • An independent Congress and judiciary act as restraints to the executive branch, so the regime has taken control of Congress and SCOTUS to cede power to the executive branch.
  • The Constitution is the last barrier to autocracy, so it is simply ignoring it.

MAGA: Making America Go Away

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Far from making America great, the MAGA movement is making it unrecognizable. Indeed, it no longer resembles the vision of our forefathers.

Instead of embracing the nation’s motto: e pluribus unum (out of many, one), MAGA has divided us. In MAGA’s America, immigrants are vermin, political rivals are demonic, and news media are enemies of the people.

MAGA’s America is no longer a constitutional republic consisting of three distinct branches of government. The legislative has abdicated its powers to the executive. And the land’s highest court has given immunity to the executive for its illegal acts. His Royal Pain-in-the-Ass now controls most of the federal government, including the DOD, DOJ, and the FBI. And he is attempting to take over the last independent agency standing – the Federal Reserve.

MAGA’s America no longer serves as a beacon for immigrants. Instead, it locks immigrants (both legal and undocumented) in gulags and separates families. Instead of governing by the rule of law, MAGA’s America pardons criminals and imprisons the law-abiding. And instead of using our nation’s wealth to help the poor and needy, MAGA uses it to fill the bank accounts of Dear Leader and his billionaire friends.

MAGA’s America has shown contempt for the Constitution, defying our most cherished principles of freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of unreasonable searches and seizures.  MAGA has even suspended the right to due process for citizens and non-citizens alike. And thanks to SCOTUS, the ICEstapo is now free to stop and detain any brown or black person on the mere possibility that they are undocumented.

Instead of fighting fascists as our fathers and grandfathers did, MAGA’s America sends armed and masked gangs into the streets to spread terror.

Most worrisome of all, the MAGA movement is intent on limiting the right to vote. SCOTUS has already all but repealed the Voting Rights Act, which has led to extreme gerrymandering in the South. In many states, they have made it difficult to obtain voter IDs. They have tried to ban early voting, mail-in ballots, and electronic voting. Instead of encouraging citizens to vote in free and fair elections that are the hallmark of democracies, they strive to make voting more difficult in order to seize and maintain power.

This is no longer the America of your grandparents. Or of the Founders. In fact, it is only one or two steps away from total dictatorship – the kingdom of Trump.

Is it any wonder, many of the French now want us to return the Statue of Liberty, saying that America no longer represents the values that led France to gift it to the U.S. in the first place?

Dear Media: Stop Saying That Everything Trump Does Is Unprecedented.

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To the contrary, we’ve seen it all before – in countries like Russia, China, North Korea, Hungary, Turkey, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany to name a few. That’s because Trump is quite literally following the dictator’s playbook. That playbook goes something like this:

  1. You get elected to office any way possible. In 2016, Trump was helped by lies, an extensive propaganda network and foreign interference. In 2024, he was also aided by the opponents’ missteps.
  2. You expand your executive power by threatening members of Congress into compliance, by firing those who question orders, and by threatening to withhold congressionally approved funding to federal institutions in defiance of the Constitution.
  3. You replace nonpartisan government employees with loyalists and threaten others. In just 8 months, Trump pushed nearly 200,000 workers out of government agencies. And his entire cabinet consists of loyalists who constantly praise him.
  4. You challenge institutions and ignore long-standing traditions and norms. Trump has politicized every aspect of government and society. He punished any entity that supported DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). He withheld funding for USAID, WHO, and NIH, as well as research grants from academic institutions he considers liberal and those who refused to crackdown on Palestinian supporters exercising their right of free speech.
  5. You create fear and declare emergencies in defiance of the constitutional right to free assembly. In the wake of massive arrests in LA by masked and armed ICE agents, Trump illegally federalized the National Guard and deployed Marines onto the streets of the city.
  6. You openly defy the Constitution and the courts. Trump has signed Executive Orders that defy Article 1 of the Constitution, as well as the Emoluments Clause and the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments. He has also entertained the idea of violating the Nineteenth and Twentieth Amendments. And he has openly defied court orders, calling the courts “out of control.”
  7. You take control of law enforcement and create your own loyal militia. Trump’s loyal Attorney General and FBI director have politicized their agencies and opened investigations into Trump’s rivals as retribution. And the Secretary of Homeland Security and acting director of ICE have created the nation’s largest police force willing to arrest and confine both documented and undocumented immigrants, even U.S. citizens.
  8. You attack the media, the freedom of press and freedom of speech. Since he first announced his intent to run for president, Trump has labeled independent news organizations as “fake news.” He has vilified them as “enemies of the people” and filed enormous frivolous lawsuits against them. Additionally, he and his FCC chair have threatened networks and media owners resulting in the cancelation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
  9. You take control of the courts. Through the actions of Mitch McConnell and his appointments, Trump gained firm control of SCOTUS, which has given him immunity. His openly biased appointees now control at least two appellate courts and a large number of federal courts. And he has more than three years to further debase them.
  10. You vilify and threaten your opponents. Trump has long demeaned his rivals with childish nicknames. He blamed the murder of Charlie Kirk on “the left,” threatening to name liberal groups, including the Democratic Party, as terrorist organizations. And he demands that his DOJ investigate and convict all those who prosecuted him for his crimes and impeachments.
  11. You use your control of government to enrich yourself. In his previous term, Trump used his position to make millions from the very agency protecting him by constantly vacationing at his own resorts and charging the Secret Service inflated prices for its agents’ rooms. He’s continued that this term but expanded his greed by accepting a $400 million airplane from Qatar and a $2 billion UAE investment in his family’s cryptocurrency in exchange for access to our most advanced computer chips.
  12. You take over the education system by telling schools what they may and may not teach in order to control future generations. Trump has forced schools to rewrite history, to ban books with LGBTQ references, and to eliminate DEI programs in order to obtain federal funding. And his administration is now demanding that all schools include Charlie Kirk’s conservative Turning Point USA chapters.
  13. You take over the financial system. Not satisfied with control over Congress, SCOTUS and most government agencies. Trump is actively trying to take control of the independent Federal Reserve by attempting to fire one of its governors. If he succeeds, there will be nothing to prevent his manipulation of federal investments and currency.
  14. You rig or suspend elections. Now that Trump has control of the government, he is attempting to retain his power by rigging the midterm congressional elections through extreme redistricting of multiple red states. At the same time, he is trying to block or limit early voting, mail-in ballots, and the use of electronic voting machines. Failing that, he may try to suspend the elections or use ICE to block polling centers.
  15. Finally, you proclaim yourself “president for life” and suspend all freedoms. If you think that’s unlikely, consider the admiration Trump expressed after Xi was named China’s president for life.

There is absolutely nothing unprecedented by these actions. Every known dictator has resorted to them in one way or another. The only thing unprecedented is that no one has previously tried, let alone succeeded, in executing them here.

The Don.

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That’s a title that has long been used to refer to the head of a mafia family – someone who is ruthless, obsessed with power and willing to use any means to obtain it, including violence.

And it can, quite rightly, be used to describe the felon in the White House.

Not only has he been found guilty of 34 felony counts, as well as sexual assault and defamation. His family organization was found guilty of running a fraudulent charity and a fraudulent university. Further, he was almost certainly saved from conviction of mishandling the nation’s secrets and of inciting an insurrection only through delay and his reelection.

This is a man whose parents were members of the KKK and who was mentored by Roy Cohn, chief counsel for the disgraced Sen. Joseph McCarthy and mob lawyer for mafia figures like Tony Salerno, Carmine Galante, John Gotti and Mario Gigante. He long palled around with crime figures, not the least of which were Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. He also worked with the mafia to build many of his projects in New York and New Jersey.

So, he clearly knows how mob bosses work, and he has embraced those habits in both his business and political lives. And now that he has again taken up residence in the White House, he is operating the government as his own personal crime syndicate.

Think the tariffs are intended to balance trade deficits? Think again. They are merely part of a mafioso-style shakedown of foreign countries in exchange for personal profits and gifts. Almost before the Capitol staff cleaned the grounds following his inauguration, he and his ethically challenged sons were in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE to close trade deals initiated by the Biden administration. But the real reason for their visit was personal – to cash in on multimillion deals for Trump hotels, Trump golf resorts and Trump bitcoin. As a side deal, he even accepted the gift of a $40 million jet from Qatar.

And that was only the start.

By threatening and imposing draconian tariffs on every other nation in the world, Trump began what amounts to a protection racket. (“That’s a nice little economy you have going there. It would be a shame to see something happen to it.”) The idea is to force other nations into submitting to a contract for Trump hotels or Trump golf resorts. A prime example is the Don’s deal with Vietnam. After imposing a 46 percent tariff on Vietnamese goods, he lowered the tariff to 20 percent in exchange for a $1.5 billion Trump golf resort.

Sure, the deal is in violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. Sure, it means that you will pay 20 percent more for Vietnamese made goods. But you are only collateral damage. America…er…Trump first.

The Don is eagerly awaiting similar deals with other countries, which will almost certainly result in rising inflation and higher costs for you. But the Don is not working for you. As always, he only cares about himself. The New Yorker estimates that Trump and his family will collect more than $3.4 billion in such ill-gotten gains by the end of his second term. (I believe that to be a highly conservative estimate.)

Meanwhile, it’s you who will pay for the Don’s largess. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the economy is already dramatically slowing – a fact the Don doesn’t want you to know – and recent reports show that the producer price index, which measures the cost for wholesalers, rose nearly one percent last month. And, compared to a year ago, wholesale prices are up 3.3 percent!

Most of those price increases have yet to be passed on to consumers like you and me.

There’s more. Like every other crime boss, the Don is all about gaining and exerting power. He has already made Congress subservient to his whims. He already controls the majority of seats on the Supreme Court and a number of Appeals Courts. He controls a vast propaganda network. His cult also controls governorships and legislatures throughout the South and other portions of the no-longer-United-States. And he’s trying to exert that power to redistrict congressional seats and change voting laws to ensure that MAGA will control future elections.

The Don is also using his consiglieres and their soldiers in a blatant attempt to take over the streets of our cities to intimidate ordinary citizens and suppress dissent. He even has the world’s most powerful military at his disposal. A fact that must make all of the world’s other Dons envious.