Joseph Aronesty (2026) Inspired by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776)
Introduction
In January of 1776, a short pamphlet began circulating through the American colonies. It was written not for scholars or statesmen, but for ordinary citizens. Its purpose was simple and radical: to explain, in plain language, why submission to concentrated power was neither natural nor necessary.
The pamphlet was Common Sense, and its author, Thomas Paine, did not argue that King George III was uniquely wicked. Instead, he made a far more unsettling claim—that monarchy itself was a flawed system, and that placing excessive authority in any single individual inevitably corrupted both ruler and ruled.
Nearly two and a half centuries later, the outward forms of power have changed, but the underlying dynamics have not. Titles evolve. Justifications adapt. The language of authority modernizes. Yet the temptation toward autocratic rule—and the willingness of people to accept it—remains a constant of political life.
What follows is not a historical reenactment, nor an argument about personalities. It is a modern restatement of Paine’s central insight: that free societies do not lose their liberty all at once, but by failing to recognize familiar dangers in unfamiliar forms.
Paine wrote to awaken his contemporaries to patterns they were already living through. The purpose here is the same.
On the Nature of Concentrated Power
There is a persistent belief among free people that power, once granted, will restrain itself. Human history offers no support for this belief.
Power does not seek balance. It seeks continuance, expansion, and ultimately immunity from challenge. Democracy dies not because of a moral failing of individuals so much as a predictable feature of absolute authority once it is detached from regular accountability. The problem is not that one person becomes all-powerful, but that many people slowly grow accustomed to absolute power.
The defenders of concentrated power often argue that a strong executive is necessary to protect the nation. Yet history repeatedly shows the opposite: such power rarely protects a people from danger, but very often protects the autocrats from the people.
Personal rule—whether it wears a crown, a uniform, or the language of popular mandate—rests on a simple inversion of responsibility. Citizens are told that judgment is a burden best surrendered. Loyalty is redefined as obedience. Dissent is reframed as weakness, or worse, betrayal.
This is how liberty erodes without being formally abolished. No proclamation announces it. No constitution need be rewritten at first. The shift occurs in tone, in expectation, in what citizens come to tolerate in the name of order. A free people does not wake one morning to discover itself unfree; it arrives there by degrees, persuaded that exceptional power is both necessary and temporary.
At this stage, the question is no longer whether power has overreached, but whether the public has forgotten why limits existed in the first place.
Those who argue that “this time is different” must answer a hard question: different from what? From human nature? From history? From every prior instance in which concentrated power promised stability and delivered submission?
A government of laws depends on citizens who understand that strength lies not in domination, but in restraint. When restraint is abandoned—when power is admired for its force rather than its limits—the transition away from self-government has already begun, whether it is acknowledged or not.
On Why Free People Surrender Their Judgment
The loss of liberty rarely begins with force. It begins with a sense of relief.
Democratic self-government is demanding. It requires attention, disagreement, patience, and the humility to accept that no single voice—including one’s own—is sufficient. In uncertain times, this burden feels heavy. When a confident figure offers certainty in place of complexity, many experience not alarm, but comfort.
This is the first seduction of personal rule within a democracy. People do not abandon freedom because they despise it, but because they are persuaded that freedom has become impractical. They are told that debate is weakness, that disagreement is disorder, and that unity requires obedience. The promise is simple: trust me, and you may rest.
What is surrendered first is not rights, but personal judgment.
Fear plays a central role, but not always in obvious ways. It is not merely fear of enemies, foreign or domestic, but fear of instability, fear of social conflict, fear of economic uncertainty. A population anxious about its footing becomes willing to trade liberty for reassurance, even when said reassurance is largely performative and offers no real relief.
Those who resist this trade are often caricatured as dangerous, radical, unrealistic and disloyal the leader’s cause. In this way, caution and protest are recast as cowardice, and submission as strength.
The most effective autocrats do not demand admiration; they cultivate dependency. They position themselves as indispensable solutions to problems they continuously emphasize and rarely resolve. Each new crisis reinforces the narrative that only extraordinary authority can preserve order, and that ordinary checks are luxuries of a calmer time.
None of this requires the suspension of elections or the abandonment of constitutional language. The words remain. The habits change.
The final psychological shift occurs when people come to believe that resistance is futile—that the trajectory is inevitable, and that adapting is wiser than objecting. At that moment, power no longer needs to coerce. It is sustained by resignation.
And so, a free society depends not on perfect leaders, but on citizens who retain the nerve to think, to question, and to withstand the discomfort of disagreement. When that nerve is lost—when convenience replaces vigilance—no external enemy is required. The erosion is complete from within.
On How Institutions Are Emptied Without Being Overthrown
Free societies often imagine that tyranny arrives by spectacle—tanks in streets, constitutions burned, courts shuttered. In reality, institutions are more commonly hollowed than destroyed.
The outward forms remain. Elections are held. Legislatures convene. Courts issue opinions. Yet their authority is gradually diminished, not by decree, but by disregard. When power is personalized, institutions are tolerated only so long as they comply. When they resist, they are portrayed as illegitimate, corrupt, or obstructive.
Another method of hollowing out a democracy is selective obedience. Rules are praised when they benefit the powerful and dismissed when they restrain them. Enforcement becomes inconsistent. Precedent is ignored. Over time, citizens learn that law is not a standard, but a tool—applied unevenly and explained afterward.
Once this lesson is absorbed, trust in government collapses. Faith in institutions declines, while faith in the authoritarian rises. The public, weary of complexity, begins to see institutions as theater and the individual leader as the only “real” actor.
At this point, institutional failure is not an accident; it becomes evidence used to justify further consolidation of power. The damage itself becomes the argument.
On the Myth That This Is Inevitable
Perhaps the most paralyzing belief in any republic is the belief that decline is unavoidable.
When citizens are repeatedly told that norms are obsolete, that restraint is naïve, and that past standards cannot survive modern pressures, they may come to accept erosion as adaptation. What was once alarming becomes familiar. What was once resisted becomes expected.
Yet history shows that inevitability is often an illusion created by momentum and fatigue. Systems do not collapse because collapse is natural, but because enough people conclude that resistance is useless. The belief that “nothing can be done” becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Those who benefit from concentrated power rely on resignation. It discourages participation without provoking opposition. It replaces outrage with detachment, and engagement with cynicism. A disengaged citizenry is far easier to manage than an angry one.
The most dangerous phrase in a free society is not “this must be done,” but “this cannot be stopped.”
On the Duty of the Citizen in a Free Society
Thomas Paine understood that liberty is not sustained by declarations alone. It is sustained by citizens willing to accept the inconvenience of freedom.
Self-government demands more than periodic consent and voting, It requires continuous attention, the courage to dissent, and the refusal to confuse comfort with stability. It asks citizens to tolerate disagreement and to defend principles even when doing so is socially costly.
Liberty does not depend on optimism, but on memory—the memory that concentrated power has always justified itself as necessary, temporary, and benevolent. A government of the people is a historical exception, not the rule. It survives only so long as citizens remember that order imposed without consent is not democracy, but quiet submission.
A free people need not be perfect. But they must remain awake.
The moment citizens surrender their judgment in exchange for reassurances, they trade a difficult freedom for an easy dependence. History offers many names for this arrangement. None of them describe a democratic republic.
Something has changed in America, and pretending otherwise is no longer safe. If a sitting president can deny, delay, or obstruct the outcome of an election, then democracy itself is in jeopardy. And if one political team claims the right to question or refuse legitimate election results, then the opposing side logically inherits the same right. That is not a threat —it is a consequence.
If Team Trump were to deny, delay, or obfuscate the procedures or results of the 2026 midterm elections, then Team Democracy would face a choice: accept a broken system, or prepare a constitutional, collective response. The publishing of said conditional response should be made well ahead of the midterms.
One possibility is clear. The Democratic Governors Association — or a similar alliance of state leaders — could announce ahead of time that they will stand together to defend free and fair elections. An Article Five–style pledge — “you come for one, you come for all” — would signal unity and deterrence. The purpose would not be confrontation but prevention.
Let me lay out the logic plainly.
Many Americans believe the country is already in a political war — a conflict not of weapons but of institutions, trust, and power. Democracy, once a radical idea, depended on citizens choosing representatives who argued and negotiated within agreed rules. Authoritarian systems do not operate that way.
The Founders wrote about “self-evident truths” for a reason. Evidence comes from what we see. And many Americans feel they have seen enough. With the midterms approaching, the question is not whether citizens should reject legitimate results; they should not. Elections carried out by longstanding rules, with broad participation and lawful procedures, must be accepted regardless of outcome. Americans have done this before. Many disliked prior results, but the system held because people respected the process.
The fear today is different: that future elections may be contested not through law but through power. If attempts are made to delay or undermine the midterms, states should be prepared to respond lawfully and collectively. Governors could announce that, in the event of clear election interference, they would explore emergency powers to protect their citizens and institutions — including reconsidering how and to whom federal tax dollars are paid and managed until constitutional order is restored.
This would not be a declaration of separation, nor the creation of a new country. It would be a conditional safeguard ; a contingency plan meant to preserve constitutional norms if they are threatened.
Such a stance might resonate with many Americans across the political spectrum. Distrust of federal power is not new; it has appeared in movements from the Tea Party to modern progressive coalitions. The idea of states asserting greater autonomy has deep roots in American history.
And here is the strategic point: if citizens know there is a peaceful, organized, constitutional backup plan, attempts to manipulate elections lose much of their power. Deterrence works when the consequences are clear and there is a feeling of reassurance. History shows that would-be strongmen respect strength. Institutions survive only when people are willing to defend them collectively.
This is not a call for chaos or refusal to accept legitimate outcomes. It is a call to prepare calmly, lawfully, and transparently, so that no leader, from any party, can undermine the rules that make democracy possible.
Because if a sitting president can deny or delay the outcome of an election, then democracy itself is already in checkmate; and Americans of every political belief should refuse to accept that future.
A Call for a Union of Governors to Protect Citizens from Federal Overreach
And Continued Resistance
Across the country, people are watching federal power being used in ways that feel increasingly detached from constitutional limits: aggressive immigration enforcement without clear judicial oversight, sweeping tariffs imposed without Congressional approval, and rhetoric that treats political opposition not as fellow citizens, but as enemies.
When force replaces our Constitution, and subdues representation, democracy fails — not all at once, but quietly, via normalization, pressure and time.
This post is not about left versus right. We really are all in this together now. It is about whether our constitutional government will continue to function as it was originally crafted to do.
Waiting for elections may not be enough
Elections matter — but we are seeing blatant attempts to affect the midterms just like they do in Russia and other fascist countries around the world. We need to be fully prepared well ahead of the midterms to survive this. So all tools and strategies need to be on the table. Hoping for the best while preparing for the worst applies when all is at stake, and it is.
Further, elections are not the only safeguards the Constitution provides. The American system of governance was designed with the safeguard of shared sovereignty. States are not subsidiaries of the federal executive. Governors are not required to enforce federal actions that violate their citizens’ constitutional rights. In fact, they have a sworn duty to protect their citizens’ rights.
When executive power exceeds constitutional bounds, the states were meant to act as a stabilizing force, not as silent accomplices.
We have seen the Trump administration is willing to openly lie to the public. January 6th is being framed as a peaceful protest, and peaceful protestors are being called radicals and shot dead.
What will happen if the midterm results are framed as phony or rigged, and our purchased Supreme Court majority rules for the administration? We cannot wait for elections with this administration in power. Just as he has done all his life, Donald Trump cheats in public and buys off the heat. He shows no respect for our Constitution and is even on record saying he would like to end the Constitution.
Two peaceful, constitutional pressure points
There are two areas where unlawful federal overreach is very visible — and where lawful, non-violent resistance can restore balance quickly.
1. Immigration enforcement without warrants
Border security at the border is popular with most Americans. But federal agents do not have unlimited authority inside states. When arrests or detentions occur by masked men without proper judicial warrants, state governors are within their rights to refuse cooperation and even arrest said ICE agents. This is not obstruction of justice; it is constitutional compliance. Communities are safer when fear is not used as policy. Public safety improves when law enforcement operates transparently and lawfully. It is a governors sworn duty to protect his citizens.
2. Tariffs imposed without Congressional approval
The Constitution gives Congress — not the executive — the power to levy taxes and tariffs. When tariffs are imposed unilaterally, they function as a hidden national sales tax, raising prices for everyone while bypassing representation.
Sovereign state governors can decline to collect tariffs through their ports until Congress approves them as per the Constitution. Prices would fall on goods coming through their ports. One would think that could be good for those state’s citizens.
Citizens in these states would feel the difference with lower prices in real time, and red state citizens would get jealous very quickly. The tariff scam would be exposed in a way that Fox News can’t spin away. Note: As of February 21, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s tariffs were illegal, as if we needed a SCOTUS to decide that. It is clear in the Constitution. And this 150-day exception, we should have no respect for that. After 150 days, Trump can restart the 150 days again. Yep. And he will. So I give no respect for that workaround to tax the public, which is what tariffs are.
Refusing to collect tariffs is plan with teeth. It would get popular so quickly Trump couldn’t stop it and be the party pooper. Will he go to physical war about this money? I doubt it. But if he does, he won’t have public support and it would mean a physical war is happening at midterms anyway. So it’s better to initiate real resistance now. Talk in back rooms, but spring it suddenly.
And like Republicans, worry later about the legality of it all. The Constitution and the public are on our side on tariffs. If Supreme Court justices say no, we can say they are aiding an insurrectionist, hence disqualified to serve hence rule in our states; and it will be true. This is also pocketbook economics citizens in all states will appreciate. It’s populism in an FDR way; and he became a populist because he knew he was up against domestic enemies as well as foreign enemies, just as we are today.
Why this matters right now
Authoritarian systems thrive when people feel powerless and divided. Our enemies abroad has gotten influence here, and they want our population just as subdued as theirs are. Why? Because phones connect the world now, and people all over the world believe their eyes. The existence of well-functiong democracies, where people have a say in how they are governed, taxed and rewarded, makes it harder for autocrats to survive, as they want as little as possible to flow to the people; their prime goal being wealth for the ruling class.
Democracy survives this challenge only when its citizens insist — peacefully, lawfully, and in great numbers — that power flows from the Constitution, not from loyalty to any single leader.
Russia and Hungary do have elections, but their results do not matter. Democratic backsliding rarely ends at the ballot box. Democracy will prevail only when institutions and key agents in our government refuse to participate in illegal, unconstitutional actions. And that includes these tariffs which Trump has lied about. Citizens in all states know tariffs are a tax by now.
The goal is de-escalation, not conflict
This is a call for governors to reclaim their sworn duty to protect their citizens from federal overreach and create some constitutional equilibrium as the founders of our nation intended. This is not a call for violence. It is not a call for chaos. But if our enemies are going this route anyway, we need to prepare ahead of time.
If the unlawful ICE actions stop, street tensions will drop. After the unapproved tariffs stop and the savings passed on to consumers, prices will fall and financial anger will cool. When constitutional law replaces fear, democracy will begin to regain its footing.
America does not need a “strongman” or king. It was formed to get away from that way of governance. It just needs the Constitution to be enforced as written. State power to balance federal overreach is built in to the constitution to protect the consitution. So now, well before midterms, is the time for that governors union.
Why a union of aligned governors is critical right now
Imagine if Tim Walz announced he would no longer allow ICE agents to enter his state, nor be quartered in the state, if they came without warrants to arrest specific people. He would need the power to enforce said action if Trump sent ICE without warrants anyway. But Minnesota is just one state. They were over-powered and outnumbered. If the federal government knew 50% of the states, many of which surround Washington DC, were in a mutual self-defense union much like NATO, Trump would have cause to re-think military actions against Minnesota. There is real strength in unified numbers.
“We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Benjamin Franklin, 1776, as the Constitution was being crafted.
What governors can do today
Blue state governors and any others inclined to resist the debasement of our Constitutional can call each other and form a union. I like to call said union States United, dedicated to protect the member states from federal overreach. Announce said union. The announcement of its creation will be an instantaneous comfort to Americans in all states, blue and red. As we stand today, most US citizens feel there is no one in government to protect them from federal government overreach. Their plan is working because Democrats refuse to call this a war, and are going to gamble our entire existence on the results of an election run by a man who does not admit he lost 2020, which makes him a 3rd term president, looking for four, in his own fantasy. And that’s the only place this man lives folks.
What citizens can do today
Write your governor, online and on paper, and ask where they stand on warrantless federal enforcement. Ask them to form a union with other like minded governors, much like NATO, so that an attack on one is an attack on all.
Ask why your governor why he is collectingtariffs that Congress has not approved and if he will consider refusing to collect tariffs until they are approved by Congress as per the Constitution.
Ask your governor if he believes he has a duty to protect his state’s citizens from the dangers and costs of Trump’s unconstitutional executive actions
Make it clear you will not support your governor is he does nothing to stop tariffs and warrantless arrests.
Continue to protest peacefully.
Share this plea on social media. Get this plea to citizens and governors going viral.
About the author: Joseph Aronesty was a classmate to Donald Trump at Wharton in 1968 and worked in his orbit from 1986-99 in Atlantic City NJ. He has been warning Americans about the danger Trump poses for our country since 2016.
Why Trump was ideal to help Russia end American Democracy
Knowledge is power. I was blessed with a full scholarship to U of P in 1966 and studied there through 1971. My favorite two courses were Political Science taught by CJ Burnett, and Russian History taught by Alexander Riasanovsky, who was a political refugee from Russia and has written volumes on all things Russian. I got to thinking that had Trump, a fellow student at Penn in 1968, actually studied that Russian history course at Penn, he might not have sought election help from Putin in 2016, or at least, would have been more skeptical about trusting Putin.
This page is a synopsis what Riasanovsky taught. He was one who knew first-hand and explained things we all should understand these days in easy to understand and colorful ways.
Alexander Riasanovsky’s Core Lens on Russia
He taught that Russian history is driven by:
A chronic, urgent desire to “catch up” to a West they both admire and resent.
That creates a duality:
Admiration → desire for Western technology, industry, recognition
Resentment → anxiety, humiliation, jealousy and an imperial reflex to compensate for those inner feelings
He traced this Russian psychology back to Peter the Great:
Under Peter the Great, Russia forced itself into modernity to avoid becoming Europe’s “backward cousin”.
Successes fueled pride, but gaps fueled paranoia.
Putin plays this chord perfectly:
He needs the West as a foil
His legitimacy depends on portraying Russia as standing upto the West
Any Western advantage = personal insult = retaliation
That was the psychology behind the Russian 2016 election interference:
If Russia can’t rise by achievement, it will rise by sabotage.
Russia’s Identity Crisis He Taught Explicitly
He argued Russia has never resolved:
“Are we European?”
“Are we Asian?”
“Or are we a unique civilization destined to dominate both?”
That uncertainty produced nationalism with an inferiority complex. He told students: “Russia is too big to be ignored and too insecure to be trusted.”
If only a certain Penn undergrad had taken notes…
Someone who studied Riasanovsky would’ve learned:
1️⃣ Russia does not make alliances. It makes leverage. 2️⃣ Gratitude spells weakness in Russia — Putin only believes in debt and dominance. 3️⃣ Helping Trump wasn’t friendship — it was a hook. 4️⃣ Once you take the help they offer, you belong to them forever.
Putin doesn’t care who runs America. He cares that he has a hand on the wheel.
During the Cold War of the 50’s, Khrushchev went on record saying, “We will destroy America without firing a single bullet”. Putin 1s Khrushschev’s disciple.
Riasanovsky taught:
“Russia wants the West divided — and itself essential.”
Divide to defeat; 2016 was a masterclass in that Russian doctrine.
If only Trump had been the studying “type” at Penn, he may have thought more clearly about Putin’s real goals in offering him election help. Instead, he continues to serve as a useful idiot in the arsenal of Russia’s stance against America, the West and the East.
…..
After 30 years of the super powers, Russia, China and the USA not detonating nuclear weapons to “test” them, today, Donald Trump declared the USA will immediately resume nuclear testing. There is talk Russia and China will follow.
A Call for States to Unite Against Authoritarianism
Aug 29, 2025
Dear Reader. Trump’s tariff driven inflation is hitting Americans of all stripes right now and is about to escalate in the fall. Runaway inflation creates the perfect climate for expansion of fascism . A happy, secure, well-to-do citizenry has time, money, dreams and no good reasons to turn to fascism to upset their lives. When Hitler took over, Germany was experiencing hyper-inflation. Russia is a financial mess now. The people behind this unconstitutional insurrectionist coup, know these things. They have a big stake in things not going well for the middle class here.
What I worry about is democrats seem singularly focused on recapturing a majority in the House and Senate. I hope it happens, of course. But we’ve given this administration the guns and the purse strings. And I am 100% sure Trump will allowing cheating on the GOP side, and call the outcome a “steal” if he loses.
I spoke with Ted Lieu last night at the Kiwanas Club in Hermosa. He mentioned that the Trump administration is sensitive to public sentiment. They might be. But that won’t affect Trump’s resolve to stay in power. Trump cannot surrender. Putin will release what he has on him the day he is out of power, or betrays Putin. That’s also why he will never fully commit to Ukraine.
This plan to end Trumpism well before the elections is a two-step strategy. Step one is what Ted Lieu suggested: influence public sentiment. Just so you think about this properly, this is what Trump did in the weeks leading up to J6. J6 was Trump’s seminal event to return to power.
Step two is create our seminal event to rally all Americans to take up the cause to end tarifflation. The Boston Tea Party was the seminal event that led to the creation of the United States. A union of thirteen colonies was created based on a written set of rules called the Constitution, which literally means “stand together”. We need an event we can all stand together on. Ending tarifflation is the best candidate for that unity.
All Americans, left and right, can sense this now. And I hope media starts saying “end tarifflation“, because no one can credibly blame tarifflation on Biden. Trump fully owns that meme. That’s the big idea. We brand the financial stress of inflation in such a way that Trump personally owns it all. We sell it, the way Trump sold Build That Wall. But this meme actually helps Americans.
Once the meme spreads, – and these days that does not take but a few days, the governors of blue states with ports should announce they will stop collecting tariffs until such time Trump’s tariffs are voted on by and approved by Congress as it is written in the Constitution.
I have sent this plan to Newsom, Pritzker and Hochul – and now you have it too.
Gavin Newsom,
The U.S. Constitution grants the power to impose and regulate tariffs to the U.S. Congress, not individual states or the President. Trump has violated that law.
States are sovereign powers. State governors can declare emergencies. They can declare that ports of their states will revert to pre-Trump tariff status until such time that Congress votes to approve the tariffs as the constitution says. What can Trump do about that? Send in his goons to collect unlawful taxes, which is what tariffs are? No American will support that spectre.
Tariffs are very unpopular – both sides. The law suit versus tariffs route is way too long a process. The courts are too easily influenced. Tarifflation is a unique meme four our unique times. The idea to stop collecting tariffs until Congress votes on it has not been floated or tested. Its time for fiscal resistance. Its time for blue state governors to put our money where their mouths are.
Red states may even go along. Their citizens don’t like tariffs either and are beginning to feel the pinch. You end Trumpism quickest by ending his popularity with his own voters.
Tarifflation is a meme that can do this. It’s a cyber war. Words are the weapons.
By ending the collection of Trump’s tariffs and declaring them unconstitutional and illegal until Congress votes on them, you also force the GOP in Congress to cast votes against their own people.
Governors can cease collecting tariffs tomorrow, stating when Congress approves tariffs, they will abide with the all tariffs they approve. That’s a meme that can help in the battle to end Trumpism and save our democracy.
………. end letter to Newsom
There are smarter ways to end Trumpism than waiting for elections that may not be fair or accepted. Key Governors must now step up financially and be willing to organize for financial resistance. They’ll need to form a union, and have one message:
We will not fund democracy’s demise one more day!
……….end tarifflation post
Rejecting ICE without warrants
This masked version of ICE is not popular on either side. They don’t have warrants. They work for an insurrectionist comforter, which Trump became the moment he pardoned convicted insurrectionsists. You dont have to be in the insurrection, to be barred from holding offices in these united states. See Constitution, 14th amendment sec.3 . Many in media know about that, and don’t talk enough about it enough. But democracy’s enemies get it. That’s why Trump is going after Obama. They know this is the legal tree they may likely die on. It’s also why they ban books and want kids to be blind to history. But it all adds to:it’s easier to start the resistance vs Trump as a resistance to ICE.
The justices that ruled J6 was not an insurrection, or that Congress had to vote on the 14th the amendment to enforce it, are also insurrection aiders. The rulings of at least two of nine can be ignored. And their seats should, by rights, be taken from them. Perhaps in due time.
A STATE OF EMERGENCY MUST BE DECLARED IN AUGUST BY GOVERNORS
We need blue state governors to step up now, during summer, when more people are off, and state there is an emergency in their states, and declare they will use all the powers given to state governors to protect their citizens.
With the intention of protecting the peace, and their citizens, and using the 14th sec 3 and emergency power executive orders as legal backup, ICE agents can be met with physical resistance if they come without warrants.
And further, whatever the percentage of the federal budget that ICE is costing the citizens of the dissenting blue states, that same percent the governors can declare to be paid to the states and withheld from the federal government to be used to amp up the state’s defenses and police forces. And they must defend their citizens should the federal government sue. That’s just numbers, – dollars. Not an act of war. But it feels as different was what we are feeling right now about fasicm rising. It feels like democracy fighting back, at last. It should have starfted at “Russia, if you’re listening”. That meant he knew they were.
Ending warrantless ICE can be our seminal political event to end fascism, the way January 6th was to initiute it, and our Boston Tea Party was to end it, or the burning of the German capitol for Hitler, to kick off WW2. Big cycles.
Lesson: New political movements need seminal events.
What’s Trump really going to do if we stop paying for ICE ? Did he worry about what dems would do if he asked people to attack police on J6? He can’t win if he sends the army in vs the police forces of NY, IL, CA, CO, VT, NJ, and any other states that want to start ending this fascist takeover of our country. He can’t win if he actually sends the army in vs the police forces of NY, IL, CA, CO, VT, NJ, and any other states that want to start ending the political cancer that is Trumpism. He loses that game of chicken and Trumpism dies by the dawn’s early light, imo.
And it’s going to get physical anyway, in time. This resistance will not be bloodless. If we are afraid to get hurt, they will find out and use force.
I know Donny. Neither he nor his sons will be there in any conflict zone,so its all good for the Trumps if others end up dead via his orders. And when people see that he is not moved, that becomes his Joey vs Johnny Friendly moment in On the Waterfront. Rachel said to think cinematically. Better now while the people are largely behind ending fascism and many have the summer off.
I would like to see this sort of thing happen this Labor Day weekend too. Filled with speakers and entertainers. At state capitols and online.
Yes. Use the word Liberation. They always use the meme they want the people not to use against them. Citizens United, would be a great name for a new political party right now, but its taken by those who dont want citizens to unite.
A CALL FOR STATE GOVERNORS TO UNITE TO DEFEAT AN AUTHORITARIAN TAKEOVER OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | MAY 2025
The attack on American democracy, initiated in 2016 with foreign enemy assistance, has metastasized into a widespread, coordinated effort to undermine America’s 250-year-old constitutional order. Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican Party continue to push this agenda, and waiting until 2026 or 2028 is no longer a viable option.
The 14th Amendment, Section 3, explicitly bars insurrectionists—and those who aid or comfort them—from holding public office. Yet many current Republican officials in Congress have supported or defended the January 6 insurrection, violating this clause. If we truly value the rule of law, this must be acknowledged and acted upon.
Trump and the GOP have created a machine that cannot afford to lose power; doing so would expose them to legal accountability. Their current strategy involves gutting federal institutions, rigging elections, and ensuring permanent one-party control. This is not speculative—it is unfolding before our eyes.
A Blueprint for Peaceful Resistance
Blue state governors must act now. The path forward doesn’t require civil war, but it does require coordinated and assertive legal and financial resistance.
Step 1: Form a Governors’ Pact States like California, New York, and Illinois should form a constitutional alliance—“States United”—to protect democratic governance, federal workers, and core public institutions.
Step 2: Redirect Taxation with Representation Governors should allow their citizens to redirect financially justified portions of their federal tax contributions to fund state-controlled versions of federal agencies being dismantled or decimated by Trump. This is not tax evasion—it’s a constitutional stand against illegitimate federal authority. If they are concerned about the legality of such a move, they should be reminded that Trump routinely calls certain situations “emergencies” when they are not, and then uses his power to “protect” the people, to do things that harm and will harm US citizens. further, states are also sovereign seats of powers, like the federal government, and their governors swear oaths to protect state citizens.
Step 3: Rehire Fired Federal Agents Create state-based equivalents of agencies like the FBI, DOJ, USAID, and the Department of Education. These agencies can be staffed by professionals purged by the Trump administration. States have the right to protect their citizens and enforce their laws.
Step 4: Limit Federal Overreach Refuse cooperation with ICE and other federal forces acting without court orders or violating constitutional rights. If the federal government attempts to intervene, states must stand united, even if physically, and defend their citizens and sovereignty under the Constitution.
Why Now?
Trumpism thrives on fear and misinformation. Its leaders will not stop until all opposition is silenced. The GOP knows they cannot win fairly, so they are rewriting the rules. We must meet this moment with decisive action—not symbolic gestures and discussions. Waiting for midterms is not a game plan.
This is not about secession. It’s about using the state’s sovereign power to preserve constitutional governance and provide a legal, moral, and operational alternative to authoritarian rule. No one voted for fascism, but that’s what we are getting if we just wait and see. The elections of 2026 will either be rigged, Gerrymandered, or its results simply ignored by this power-crazed Republican party.
Precedent and Urgency
Just as the Boston Tea Party protested taxation without representation, Americans today must oppose being governed by those who have violated the Constitution. January 6 was not just a riot—it was a fascist assault on our republic. The Supreme Court’s refusal to act on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment further erodes its legitimacy. Supreme Court justices are also not exempt from the provisions of the 14th Amendment. Their anti-democratic rulings can be ignored by states on that basis.
Blue states have the people, the economy, and the moral authority. By forming a union of democratic governance, we can create a peaceful but powerful resistance that weakens Trumpism at its core.
Final Thoughts
Trump’s efforts have created a national emergency. It is the largest emergency we have faced since WW2. The longer we wait, the more power Trump’s anti-democratic armed assault gains power. Let red state politicians embrace Trump if they so choose—but blue state governors and congressmen should protect their citizens by respecting and enforcing the constitution as it is written.
The majority of citizens within red states are no longer supportive of Trump’s agenda. If we lead with courage and clarity, the people will demand that their interests, not the interests of billionaires and corporations, be supported with their tax dollars. That’s the populist movement that can turn this around so democracy prevails in America.
Joseph Aronesty is an ecom pioneer who shared a class with Donald Trump at Wharton in 1968 and worked in his orbit from 1986-99 in Atlantic City NJ. He has been writing about the danger Trump poses since 1996.
The Dictator Map. A dictator map was first posted at this blog in 2017, when Trump was in Helsinki. It was then I was 100% sure Trump was compromised and who did it. And this is why Trump will never cross Putin and never should have been given a chance to hold any office in the USA.
Link to the Espionage Act Five minute read. Jan 7th, 2017.
Jan. 8 2025, 12 days to the end of America as we know it.
The resistance has failed. Our cowardly president is afraid to go to war with a president-elect allied with Russia and the dictators of the world. It’s not a written alliance. If they wrote it down, they know they are out-numbered. It is spoken an alliance of a few sociopathic men who share the same vision for their own lives; it is a vision of being at the top of the monetary chain in a country. it’s a kings dream as well. A dream of taxing the middle class to make them poor and their children ignorant and compliant.
I have given up on the 14th Amendment. The majority of the SCOTUS is in on the deal. Before I knew about the 14th Amendment, sec 3, – which bars insurrectionists or those who aid or comfort them, from holding any office, including the judges and justices who aid and comfort our traitors.
Biden is commander-in-chief today. He can announce a national emergency the day after this Friday, whether the Jack Smith report is aired or blocked by the SCOTUS. He can declare war on our enemies with his own version of FDR’s I hate war speech. He can arrest , in the sense of sequestering, Donald Trump for treason. He can say that he deems that his actions have created a national emergency by dividing Americans and diluting our focus on the real problems we have to deal with as families, united with common purposes.
Joe Biden can declare war on Trump can those allied with him in our government. Does Joe understand how this will work? Does he think the elections of 2026, the one where the resistance is supposed to retake power, will be fair? Does he see how this works in Russia and Hungary. It doesn’t.
He can stop him from being president with his sworn oath to protect the Constitution and the American people as commander-in-chief. He can say Trump’s current alliance with Putin, as reported in RT media, in an act of treason under The Sedition Act because we are currently in a war with Russia over Ukraine.
If he won’t do it, he can step down and give Kamala Harris a try. But she must also declare she will not seek the presidency or become the president by default. We will need a new special election, likely about April 1 of 2025.
Political crimes always escalate when fascists take office. Our Navalny’s must be silenced.
It has occurred to me that Trump probably wants Greenland, so he can have his own Siberia for dems who won't bend the knee. He can't use Alaska. The dems in office will logically become the new "Jews in Nazi Germany", along with brown-skinned people. But he can't gas them. But, some will fall out of windows and helicopters, - sending a message. Fear will be instilled in those who just want to survive, which is most people and always was. But there are so many of resisters. So Greenland is sort of a perfect place to keep millions of the resisters. Gotta keep up with Vlad. After all, Putin replaced Roy Cohn in Trump's ambitious sociopathic brain, as the man to emulate.
January 7th, 2017
On July 27th, 2016, in Doral Florida, Donald Trump said “Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails … you will be mightily rewarded by our press”. I hold that broadcasting an invitation to a known foreign enemy state to influence America’s free and fair elections was a violation of the Espionage and Sedition Act. This is why. It had better have not be okay, or this democracy will not long survive.
Though much of the Espionage Act seems to refer to communication technology we rarely use any more, and focuses on acts committed during war times, the heart and soul of the act applies today’s times. War is not defined in the Constitution and the nature of war has changed since WW1, when the Espionage Act was written into law. Cyber war against countries that have the bomb has replaced wars with bombs.
Putin is the world’s pioneer and the leading expert in modern cyber war – a war where words are the weapons and installing loyalists into foreign governments can get the master the nearly same result he might desire from physical wars. Russian malware called Fancy Bear has been targeting governments and military organizations for years, especially NATO states like France and Germany.
Section 2 of Espionage Act:
Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nationcommunicated, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to, or aids, or induces another to communicate, deliver or transmit, to any foreign government, or to any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, or to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly and document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, note, instrument, appliance, or information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than twenty years.
Tampering with or even affecting free and fair elections, by subverting the will of the American people must be defined as an injury to the US. It is the will of the American people that votes in elections. Citizens are part of our government. In a democracy, they are the most important part of the government. In a fascist country they are the least important members of the government. Citizens rights were the the reason the US Constitution was created – a government of, by and for the people.
Therefore, misinformation via broadcast media or social media cannot be categorized as protected personal free speech for this reason. Misinformation by media must be a crime, just as it is for false claims for any product. Trump asked on national TV for a known enemy to hack his opponent’s computer and release what might be found. He also suggested that person, or any would-be-hacker would be mightily rewarded.
Since Donald Trump invited Russia to hack a presidential candidate’s computer on national TV, I believe he is guilty of espionage. I believe our current commander-in-chief can, and should act immediately, citing the Espionage Act of 1918, and his duty to protect and arrest Trump, in the minimum sense of sequestering him with an ankle bracelet at least him for an committing an act of sedition or espionage. Our commander-in-chief can declare on those who have meddled in elections or aided insurrectionists. This time around, it’s pretty much the same thing; the same people advocate for these two positions. He can say we will have new special elections in April and that Kamala Harris will not run, but neither will anyone who has openly comforted insurrections.
I argue that inviting a foreign enemy to affect an American election does indeed do harm to the USA; that America is more than just the sum of our communal land, people and resources. The USA is also our way of governance. And the bedrock of our government is free, fair, unhampered, unhacked elections.
An invitation to commit a crime is, and must be a criminal act for the rule of law to prevail in the USA. I’d like to remind people that Charles Manson did not commit murder; he encouraged others go after his perceived enemies, and he got life for doing that when his cult members committed crimes.
Free and fair elections define our democracy. An invitation to hack any political election is therefore, a criminal, seditious act that does real harm to the United States. Should we lose free and fair elections, the USA, and the world, will never be the same.
Contact your representative and Senator, and tell them: Representing my will, is your responsibility. You want Joe Biden to use his sworn duty to protect the American people and to uphold the US Constitution and its laws, including the Espionage and Sedition and and the 14th Amendment, and arrest Donald Trump for national security reasons and bar his from holding office on January 20th.
Ask him to call for a new special election for president. Ask him to say he will also bar any in congress who come to the aid of Donald Trump, a traitor and insurrectionist, because they too will be aiding an insurrectionist and traitor in plain view. Ask him to say that includes judges and justices. Ask him to say he is cleaning house of nay insurrectionists for the good of the national security.
Thank You for doing your share as a citizen and speak up to your reps. I kind of think this weekend we should start publicly protesting the transition of power to a fascist treasonous mob.
In this post below, I also speak about starting the conversation about National Divorce. That’s the other easy way back to a united America. Let the red states have their president. We will select our own. We will share the military costs based on population in the states. Their people will come running back to the real American center, which we know wants not to surrender to fascism.
This autocracy vs. democracy map has been at my blog for seven years. Trump as potus was part of the struggle you see in the map that resembles a RISK board. I do wish others would post a map like this so more people would get a visual on what is at stake. Pretty sure even MAGA people won’t like their lives better in a fasict state.
I just asked CHAT GTP if America will still be a functioning democracy in 2028. Go ahead. Try it yourself.
Chat GTP:It’s not guaranteed that America will remain a perfectly functioning democracy in 2028, but it is still within the realm of possibility if the country takes steps to address its most pressing challenges.
Even artificial intelligence knows we must act now to save our democracy. But all we hear now is surrender to a tyrant who won an election, though he was constitutionally disqualified, by his own words and actions, to hold the office he won – and wait to see if things get better. Better? How?
Donald Trump said he was running against some very stupid people. He is right about that. We will be very stupid people if we let him assume the great powers of the presidency again. And we don’t have to. Nor do we need an insurrection. We have the 14th Amendment of our Constitution to back us.
Under the cover of the 2024 holiday season, we are witnessing the end game of the 2016 Russo-Republican Alliance strategy play out and met with no real resistance. Trump has officially tipped his hand with his cabinet picks. They confirm that he is working to end America, as we know it. There will soon be a ruling class, chosen oligarchs based on their loyalty to Trump, and the rest of us. That’s how it is in China, Russia, Hungary, North Korea and all the countries run by people Trump admires.
Dictators wish the entire planet was one big autocratic, wild free-for-all. And on January 20th, they are getting their wish come true, if we do not stop Trumpism now. And we can. The presidential election of 2024 was a battle in an act of war we permitted to happen under our democratic rules.* It does not have to be our last battle, but that’s what our new rulers will want.
But, not all our rules. We have one rule that Trump and most of his party members violated: the 14th Amendment. Many candidates and current congresspeople are constitutionally disqualified to hold office under the 14th Amendment for having aided or comforted insurrectionists. Some also physically took part in the J6 event.
Joseph Goebbels was the German media czar during World War II. This is what he said about democracies that play by its own rules: “It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provides for its deadly enemies the means by which it can be destroyed.”
While we still have the power, we can and must use this tool written into our constitution during the aftermath of the Civil War, to prevent the enemies of our country from taking away our right to self-govern.
The 14th Amendment, sec 3, declares that no one may hold any office in our government, state, federal, judicial or military having been party to an insurrection, or having aided or given comfort to insurrectionists or the enemies of our country. All Americans should please google 14th Amendment, sec 3.
As tax-paying citizens, it is our constitutional right, and the current president’s sworn constitutional duty, to demand Donald Trump not be sworn into office on J20.
Many of his allies in the current GOP congress, and some of those who were elected, are also barred from holding office. Even Supreme Court members are included in the disqualifying statement of the 14th Amendment. But the most important person to bar from office is the ring leader, would-be dictator, and ally to our country’s foreign enemies, Donald Trump.
Absent of his J6 activity, Donald Trump would have every right to be president. Now, Trump has no constitutional right whatsoever to be president, even if he won the election. It’s as if the GOP ran a candidate who said he was thirty-five years old and we found out he was thirty. The Constitution is very clear about the qualifications to hold any office in the United States.
Why Trump is Constitutionally Barred from Being President
Donald Trump called a mob to Washington DC broadcasting “it would be wild”. We do not need FBI, lawyers, justices, or politicians to tell “we the people“ what we saw that day. There was an attempt to stop the election process, which included breaking into the Capitol and attacking officers, threatening the vice-president and congresspeople – and people ending up dead. Trump did not even try immediately call it off. He watched it on TV for hours, like we did. He said maybe Pence had it coming in so much words.
J6 was clearly an attempt at insurrection. We do not need to examine every curve and motive of this act. It was a bank robbery gone bad, caught on film. Trump’s actions and words on J6 made him constitutionally unqualified to serve in any government office, local, state, federal or judicial at any level.
We have little time. So, it’s now or never. There may not be a way back for the foreseeable future. Putin has held Russia for over twenty years. Hungary is no longer a democracy. Three times, Trump took election help from Putin, our enemy in a live war. For that help, he owes Putin for life. At least, that is how Putin thinks of his relationship with Donald. Putin does not allow people who deal with him to get away. Ask Prigozhin. Oh, we can’t.
If Donald Trump, a person constitutionally barred from holding any office in the USA, takes office on J20, by the end of January, we should know if he will be going into full-on fascist mode. Trump’s personal political opponents were targeted during his candidacy. If he verbally continues with that line of attack, we will know what he intends to do about the “revenge” he made a talking point during his campaign. It’s not a gamble we need to take, but Biden seems to be willing to overlook the 14th Amendment as if it does not exist.
Ask yourself this question: If your family was about to board a plane, and the pilot said there is a small five percent chance the plane would go down, would you let your family board that plane? Do you currently think there is a five percent chance we lose our democracy? Then why are we letting it happen, when we have the 14th to protect us? We are boarding that plane on J20, if we do nothing. AI also seems to think there’s a good chance we become something less than a functioning democracy by 2028.
BLANKET PARDONS FOR REPORTERS AND BLOGGERS
If Biden is not going to fight as if we are at war, then, at the very least, he should issue blanket pardons for all reporters and bloggers who ever wrote anything negative about Donald Trump, the president.
But, this post is not about surrender. It lays out the simple steps we can take now, to ensure we do not risk ending democracy in the USA. after all, oligarchy is what America set out to end when it broke away from the tyranny of King George.
FDR said there is nothing to fear, but fear itself. We have the power now to avoid this fate, if we are not afraid to use it. We must fight while we have the weapon called the 14th Amendment. These politicians have said they intend to destroy the “deep state”, a phrase they invented, and one they do not define. But they are ready to take our women’s rights away. Do you think they will care a whit about silencing dissent after we give them absolute power over us all? Biden saw fit to pardon turkeys, but so far, he has not pardoned the people who will need protection from Trump.
After Trump’s telling cabinet picks, more Americans today would be relieved if Trump were barred from holding office than they were on November 5th. There is even a chance it would be cheered on by the majority of voters on both sides, provided we demand a new special presidential election with no candidates permitted to run who are unqualified by the plain language of the 14th Amendment. That means no Trump.
And it means no Kamala Harris as well, but for a different reason. She did lose. We should not rub it in the faces of those who voted more for no black woman to be POTUS, than for Trump, to place her on the ballot again.
Once in power, the MAGA GOP crimes will naturally escalate to such heights that they will realize they must stay in power to stay out of jail. That’s why Trump could not afford to stop fighting to be president. The increase in government corruption is a certainty under Trump because his ambitious new administration people are given free for all passes, provided they protect the king.
In an April 2024 poll, seventy-five percent of Americans wanted neither Biden nor Trump. And to many, Harris was Biden, inside a female POC body.
An April 2025 special election, with two fresh faces would likely be cheered on by the general public. Trump’s cabinet picks even have many MAGA voters scared, as they should be. Billionaires who can pay off Trump, and loyalists, are getting top posts. MAGA people are figuring out they may have been duped.
To actually accomplish barring Trump from being president via #ENFORCINGTHE14th, we’ll need to do some things.
First.We immediately need vast public support for enforcing the 14th, sec 3. That’s why this manifesto should be submitted to newspapers and media people. Help me do this now. I am easy to reach. Pressure must be put on Biden, Harris and the Democratic Party leaders. They represent us. If we the people have surrendered to Trump and his allies, or are “tired” of fighting, which we should fear the most, our reps have no impetus to push for this.
Second.We need Biden or Garland to call for some of the worst 14th offenders in the House to be unseated, right now. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and a few others, are good starters. This will serve as a test balloon for Trump and SCOTUS members to be barred. Democrats could have the majority in the House now, if we unseat glaring House insurrection comforters. It’s crucial for line of succession too.
If SCOTUS members object, we can start unseating them. It is all constitutional. No one gets hurt. We just pack up their files and send them home and nominate new SCOTUS members.
We must treat this like a war, because what Trump has done is a war against the American way. And democracy’s enemies are not all domestic. Being engaged in a war with Russia through Ukraine, makes it easier for a president to do things to protect our country.
I’d also like to suggest Jack Smith should just release or leak evidence he has on Trump. If Mueller held anything back, he should as well. (Sadly, it looks like Jack Smith surrendered on 11.25 as well.) That should only amplify the need to act now. There’s no help coming past J20.
Third. We cannot be afraid of our SCOTUS. The importance of a Supreme Court majority was well understood by Putin, who owns his courts and Donald admires that. The Helsinki translator notes Trump being ripped up was a big tell. Trump quickly got three justices on his side, in preparation for what we are seeing now.
Women’s rights? Out the window. Separation of church and state? This Supreme Court is on the side of fascism and oligarchy. Pay them, and they do your bidding.
The Supreme Court super majority served like a move made early in a chess game. The goal being to seal the fate of the opposing king during the end game. However, if justices are on Trump’s side, they are also aiding an insurrectionist and subject to disqualification.
That is the attitude we must have. We need not fear the SCOTUS. The 14th does not say SCOTUS members are immune. It says no one shall hold any office under the United States if they even comforted an insurrectionist or the enemies of our country. It is plain language.
Justice Clarence Thomas is most vulnerable justice. He lives with a known insurrection planner. He comforts her every day. He has taken bribes from wealthy GOP donors. He needs to be told he will also be unseated via the 14th if he objects to the current administration using the 14th to remove insurrection comforters from our government.
No one needs to get hurt. The Sergeant-of-arms locks his files, removes them from his offices, Biden nominates a new justice. For unseated congresspeople, our current president just calls for special elections to replace them with candidates who are not on public record of beininsurrection supporters.
Fourth. We must openly discuss and prepare for the possibility of a national divorce. It’s possible the plan will not work, even though if implemented with the resolve that Project 2025 seems to have, I don’t see why it would fail.
In that case, the governors of Blue States must be ready to say they will not be ruled in any way – including by federal taxation – by an insurrectionist allied with Russia.
We should start serious discussions on splitting into two American tactically allied countries, bound by trade and travel agreements both protected by one military. Both countries pay a military protection and common infrastructure tax of about seventeen percent. Seventeen percent of budget is close to the amount we pay for military and infrastructure now. The rest of taxes are paid to the individual states. Since, red states rely more than blue states on federal funds, the citizens in red states will come crying back in a few years. This may actually be the fastest way back to a truly United States, if we allow Trump to be POTUS. Just say we want nothing to do with a president who organized an insurrection, and be done with it.
We cannot feel forced to accept the craziness of another four years of Trumpism. There is no telling it will just be four years. This discussion of a two-state will serve to temper the craziness of the GOP. If they cross hard lines, we implement the divorce. We are sort of culturally divided anyway. Maybe it’s best, for a while.
Joe Biden: You are still the commander-in-chief. Do so some commanding for god’s sake. You don’t have to go to battle with a gun and a helmet like our brave fathers did in 1943. Your tools are the Constitution you have sworn to protect, your resolve to defend democracy and the American people you profess to love, and your spoken words.
My father taught me the difference between men is primarily the words they speak. The nothing burger we have heard from you, post-election, feels like you have given up on democracy.
Are you afraid that the Republican Party will do the same thing if you bar Trump from being president? Spoiler alert. They are doing it anyway.
Republican voters and independent brothers and sisters: Today, Trump said he will be putting tariffs on Mexico and Canada on day one. That will cause the cost of mushrooms and avocados go up. He has chosen relatives with no experience to be ambassadors. He has billionaires as allies. Have you figured out yet, that Donald trump does not care about us. I knew him since age eighteen at Wharton. He never cared about others. Trump is do into his own self that as a billionaire he hardly ever gave money to charities. He speaks well of the dictators, Putin, Kim and others, who brutally kill their own citizens should they speak out. And worst of all, Trump accepted election help from Russia, three times. He now owes Putin for that help. Putin’s mission has always been to destroy America, and make it be more like Russia. I say no, thanks.
Joe Biden: The Supreme Court is not checkmate, unless you think it is. Do you want to be remembered as the cowardly, meek president who surrendered democracy to fascists? The plans in this post, along with what you know having been on the inside of government all your life, are all you need to save the American democracy. You said you would not surrender to Trumpism “over my dead body”. Is that body already dead, sir? If so, step down and give your VP a chance to defend this country.
We the people demand that you bar Trump from holding office, in accordance with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, and call for a new special presidential election in April, with no insurrection aiders or comforters allowed on the ballot as per the Constitution. Become a real commander-in-chief, the way FDR was, and you potentially will go from being the last, and therefore worst, president of the original United States, to one of its greatest commanders-in-chief. We are at war, sir. You seemed to know that. Act like a war president then, for god’s sake.
We The People: Tell your representatives to #EnforceThe14thNow. Start this conversation, today! That is how the ball starts rolling in a representative democracy. Talk to MAGA voters and independents as well. Tell them a new special election can be with two fresh faces. Call into talk shows. Organize #ENFORCETHE14TH protests. Use that hashtag. Trump has tipped his fascist bent agenda with his cabinet picks. The time is now, while we can without risking our lives, to resist Trumpism. Christmas can wait.
Our beautiful American women: Are you ready to surrender your bodily autonomy to a party that nominates rapists and racists to wield power over you? The holidays may be sidetracking you. But this is not the time to pretend all is well and holly jolly. We need to hear from you now about using the 14th to bar disqualified humans from holding office. It can happen, but only if we all speak up now! Use #EnforceThe 14thNow as a hashtag in all your SM posts. It’s not too late to resist Trumpism. The January 20th surrendering democracy date only happens. if we let it happen without using the 14th.
Thank You all and may God bless the American spirit.
Citizen-private first-class in the cyber war we have been in
12/13/24 :
PREPARE TO BE RULED IN THE NEW UNTIED STATES OF TRUMPLANDIA
We lost the popular vote. That tells me that more than 50% of our countrymen have succumbed the cancer of Trumpism. In a human body, 20% cancer cells is way too much to bear. The situation for our body politic is dire, to say the least. Hitler had 25% less people behind him on his day one, than Trump does now. (source: Dan Simon‘s brilliant piece )
Losing the popular vote will give these fascists the chutzpah to say they can do whatever they want. The alliances that those who don’t wish to be ruled by a fascist elite mob should be making right now are not with dems, but with the people who voted for Trump. Many are beginning to see they made a mistake. It’s no small percentage of people. I speak to many Trump voters who already know he’s not going to do much of anything to help them in their own lives.
Do some Google searching about Google searches. Things could change. We need someone brave enough to start the ball rolling. It cannot be Harris, of course. I wonder why it is not Jack Smith, sometimes.
Where have you gone, Jack Smith? A nation turns its weary eyes to you.
Jack Smith seemed like the guy who was not afraid to go on the offensive versus Trump. Did they get to him too? Doesn’t feel like anytime someone wants to uncover the real political truth, they suddenly surrender as if they were never that serious to begin with? That’s what makes people think all politics is dirty, and just back away from it all.
So I’d like to add Jack Smith to my list of cop-outs if he does not fully release all he knows about Trump’s crimes for his New Years Resolution. I wish Jack Smith find the courage of Michael Cohen, and just do what is right. Where is our Joe DiMaggio?
I am a mere citizen who had some contact with Trump in my younger days, but that was enough to inform me that 100% Donnie has been compromised by his intellectual superior, Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump simply does not have the kind of soul that can get close to another man with more power that he has, and not want to learn how to attain that power himself. His role model used to be his father, now it’s dictators, – not that there was that much of a difference. Why? With no allegiance to anyone but self, Trump’s life is empty without the adventurous scenes he creates in his mind. He was ripe for the picking.
I am sure Smith knows Trump has been compromised. We cannot have a compromised US president. There is too much to lose here. Smith can do a lot to start the ball rolling to save this country before it is too late. If J6 began their insurrection, J20 is their victory day. Do not surrender in advance.
And can someone open a government hot-line for MAGA voters who have been already turned off by Trump’s cabinet picks which includes sex traffickers ex-cons and relatives, – and sometimes the ex-cons are relatives? These people can be talked back into reality, especially after the cabinets picks. I called for this in June, but it fell of deaf ears. Everything we ever needed to keep America a free country has been posted in my blogs since 2016. I am not surrendering. But I will get off Twitter soon. Resistance is going to have to go underground soon. It’s not a good sign.
Putin’s war vs democracy began in 2016 with help to get Trump elected. His plan is working, – not only here, but now in Hungary, and today Trudeau said her would step down in Canada. Country by country, Putin is getting his way to become autocrat of the world. This will not end well.
The Coming of the Third Reich”, p. 451 . Joseph Goebbels, Nazi media czar: It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provides its deadly enemies with the means to destroy it.
If you have missed Trump speaking to his Christian base, late July 2024, the above takes a minute.
Fellow Americans of good faith on both sides,
Joe Biden got a lot of work done for the American people in his 3.5 years as president. Here are some of his top accomplishments.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: rebuilding our nation’s roads and bridges, upgrading public transit, cleaning up pollution, and providing high-speed internet to every American.
The CHIPS Act: Bringing back manufacturing from overseas and creating better-paying union jobs here at home.
The Inflation Reduction Act: Legislation brought down costs for families via lower prescription drug prices, and historic investments in American clean energy jobs and manufacturing. Those who vote for Republicans, please take note: every Republican in Congress voted against it. Look it up.
Protecting Reproductive Rights: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and strip a constitutional right from the American people, executive orders were issued to preserve access to reproductive care and protect the right to travel across state lines to receive care.
Historic Climate Action: America rejoined the Paris Climate Accords on Biden’s first day in office. Biden delivered historic investments in clean energy and understands that scientists, not businessmen, need to make these decisions.
Student Debt Relief: Biden understands many colleges have become predatory businesses. He cancelled of billions in student loan debt for millions of Americans, in spite of Republican opposition to help our youth.
The Affordable Care Act: Millions of Americans are saving $800 per year on their health insurance and 4-in-5 Americans can find coverage for $10 a month or less through the ACA.
Changed our Failed Approach on Marijuana: Biden pardoned all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, removing a burden to employment, housing, and educational opportunities for thousands of Americans.
Joe Biden’s Failures Also Count
Joe Biden did not unite Americans, and he totally failed to prosecute the enemies of our democracy. I have always felt that had Biden prosecuted Trump with vigor, he would have won the hearts of centrists. Now, because of those failures, we are forced to win an election which is is already a bit rigged for the smaller, predominantly Republican states via the electoral college. It’s tails we lose the way America has functioned for the last 250 years and heads we win the right to keep fighting – unless we win three chambers. Then we really can fix all this. Overall, this is not a good gamble. We have much more to lose than win. How did we get here?
The Cyber War of 2016
Since, Russia if your listening in June 2016, we have been at war with Vladimir Putin and the autocrats of the world. This is a new kind of war. It is not waged with bullets or bombs. Our enemies know they cannot beat the USA with conventional warfare. This is a war of words, laws and media control: cyber war. The world has never seen a war like this. I wrote about this in 2019, here.
Since the Supreme Court seems to have been purchased by the democracy enders, America is the betting line underdog to survive another 100 days. Think about how crazy that is. We have spilled blood to create and defend this country at least five times: The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, The Civil War, and the two World Wars. We have been victorious every time. Today, the American democracy is the betting underdog to survive another three to six months, and the aggressor shot no bullets.
Such is cyber war. Such is Putin’s genius. If he gets what he wants, a fascist America that is Russia’s ally, he will be remembered as the greatest general of all time – the G.O.A.T. of dictators. Putin wins if the GOP wins control of two of three chambers in the United States in three months. The alliance he made in 2016 at the GOP convention is for life. Maybe the GOP did not think about the long-term consequences of making a deal with Putin to help win an election. It’s too late to turn back now.
The 14th Amendment Failure by AG Garland
The American Constitution clearly states that no one who takes part in an insurrection attempt, or aids or comforts those that have taken part in such an attempt, shall not hold office. This was ignored by Biden’s AG, Merritt Garland, who thought it proper to ask the Supreme Court if what is written should be taken seriously. However, at least two members of said court have comforted insurrectionists themselves. They are also not allowed to be in our government. So how can they have a say? It’s like asking a thief to rule in his own case. Grland’s failure to get ahead of this problem is why we are where we are today.
October Surprises Are Coming
Joe Biden does not need to worry about running again. He did say at least once, that he would not let Trump be president – over his dead body. This is an excerpt transcript from a Biden speech given in Detroit, July 12th, 2024.
Look, he says, if he loses, there will be a “bloodbath” when he loses. And the United States Supreme Court said there’s virtually no limit on the power of a president. Trump said if he wins, he’ll be a dictator on day one. He means it, folks. We’re not going to let that happen. Over my dead body will it happen.
That last sentence was the first time in eight years I heard a Democrat in government allude to the stark fact that we are currently at war with the MAGA Republican Party.
I don’t know what kind of October surprises are coming this year. My guess is when it is clear that Trump/Vance will lose to Harris, Trump will start dog whistling for violence against her. The word “fight” is deemed kosher in political speech, but to many in Trump’s base, it means act out with violence. And that is not legal protected speech. Consider what the effective fascist Goebbels said at this point.
Trump just leaked out, as he often does, that they have it all “fixed” and plan to win the election even if they lose both the popular and electoral vote.
War is not defined in the Constitution. The nature of war has changed. Our conventional weapons are now too dangerous to use. But the goals of war are the same as they have always been: to take things away from sovereign countries. The booty can be territory which is the most typical reason wars start; but it can also be endingthe way their perceived enemies function. That is exactly what Project 2025 promises to do. In the body politic metaphor, the election of Donald Trump can be a fatal cancer for democracy, as we know it.
The Cyber War of 2016: The Final Showdown
Sadly, it is not only Putin we are fighting. An alliance between Russia and the Republican party was formed at the 2016 GOP Convention. Sanctions against Russian oligarchs with US holding were taken out the the Republican party’s platform after that alliance. This is the elephant in the room. Once you make a deal with Putin, you are allied for life. He does not allow people to walk away and stay alive. And Putin always gets dirt on his allies- taped recordings – which explains why the GOP never disowned Trump or Putin. They have been compromised for eighy years,
I hope Joe Biden meant “over my dead body” when he said he won’t let Trump be president. I hope he has the resolve to use the 14th and his commander in chief powers to protect America as it is currently constituted, and vanquish its enemies, should whatever “fix” Trump spoke of rear its head. I hope the DOJ and FBI are monitoring Trump’s electronic communications right now because whatever our enemies are planning they are talking about it right now. But Biden’s FBI is probably not doing this. They have yet to show me they know how to recognize and fight domestic fascism.
We have no idea what top secrets have been shared with Putin.The FBI should not be monitoring Trump’s communciations after he said ” we have it so fixed“. Who are his partners in said fix? I have even thought that the prisoner exchange was done now, because Putin knows something very serious is about to happen and it wouldn’t be possible in the near future. And after 911, did not the government get the right to spy on us all? So why not Trump?
Trump Cannot Be Allowed to Become POTUS Again
In essence, the GOP is running someone who is not even qualified to be president via the 14th amendment. That is their foolishness. Even if he wins, Trump cannot be allowed to be president again. Then the United States of America will have lost the Cyber War of 2016 and it will never, in our lifteimes, be a country that offers ample freedom and opportunity for its citizens.
I do not know what kind of October surprises are coming, but they are coming. I hope Joe Biden meant “over my dead body” when he said it. That would mean that if it is necessary, Biden is willing to go to war versus Trumpism at last.
This simple plan, put into action, can save the United States from what is now projected as a risk of falling prey to fascism should Trumpism prevail. This race will be women vs men, in a way Barbie vs Oppenehimer. But there are plenty of men who identify with saving our democracy. The question is will there be more women standing by their “man” who are sold on to taking America backwards in time, than men who are brave and smart enough to embrace the future.
So here we are, fellow Americans. We are in a domestic war, but there are no bombs. It’s a cyber war. Putin’s genius really. He knew he could never beat the USA with bombs. The weapons of his cyber war arewords.
And with three weeks left it is coming down to a few states and therein – their men versus their women. Sad, but very true. It’s coming out in the press now. Obama spoke of it today. I called this Barbie vs Oppenheimer months ago.
This post was a lot longer a year ago, but I am paring it down to its bare structure because there is no time left for complicated processes. Women are the largest class of people that are polling for Harris now.
The newest Pew Research poll found found 51% of male registered voters supporting Trump, and 43% supporting Harris. Among female registered voters, that is effectively reversed: 52% of female registered voters support Harris, while 43% support Trump.
Why Women United?
Women United starts with women because they have a natural bond this election season due to the GOP removing women’s rights constitutionally guaranteed for fifty years by the Roe v Wade SCOTUS decision. But we are open to dedicated men as well, of course. *Men Welcome is a super important part of the brand. We want to unite all Americans, men and women, of course. Women United is not racist or sexist. It is a place for real patriotism to awaken from its long slumber here in America.
There are women’s groups in most cities of a decent size. College towns are also ideal. I have reached out to a few of these groups and gotten positive feedback. Indivisible is a perfect nationwide organization to deploy this strategy by next Tuesday nationwide. I will make my efforts here in Los Angeles. Swing state reader, reach out to your local Indivisible chapter with this idea.
SAVE DEMOCRACY TUESDAY NIGHT MIXERS
That’s right. Throw a party. Strewn the walls with pictures of Trump and Putin and some of his worst quotes. Sparsely add some Kamala ads on the walls. The idea is to scare people. Kid you not. That’s what they are doing for the wrong reasons. But – it is a party. Hire a band. Alcohol is a good idea if its legal. If not cater it lightly with sexy food. We need men to align with women and nothing does that like a mixer.
At some point a speaker reads for no more that two minutes. Maybe once an hour. A three to four hour event. And then invite them to come back next Tuesday. On that Tuesday you can give them some chores or assignments but still have a band or DJ and make it fun. The banner reads Women United to Save American Democracy – men welcome. The women will be the honey that attracts men voters to see the light about Trumpism. I don’t think you have to tell them what to say. They know. But they are encouraged to talk to men about why they want to preserve their bodily autonomy. Men, especially young men, could stand the education. But, keep it fun. Be joyous warriors.
nd in line.
Our Potential Allies in this War
The people we need to reach in this war of words are Republican centrists, independents, and Democratic voters who may lost their enthusiasm for Biden.
The main focus of “Women United” is to find ways to convince men, regardless of their past party affiliation, that this time they need to vote to support their local women. Since the GOP alliance can always brand truth as “fake news”, the re-orientation program must come from the mouths of their own people.
And yes, we’ll have to show the MAGA and centrist GOP voters that we are not vermin. We’ll have to be likeable to them. Is that so hard? I don’t think so. It certainly beats what the WW2 generation had to do to save this democracy.
Women* United to Save American Democracy – *Men Welcome is designed as a cannot lose project. It should function as a Green Bay sweep in its own right. Our enemies can see it coming, but they can do nothing to stop it.
Supporting Logic: All Politics is Local
We recommend the tools be created on about an 8th grade level. A historical synopsis of the miracle of American democracy in posters on the walls is a good idea too. Start with the Boston Tea Party.
Why Women United?
Women United starts with women because they have a natural bond this election season due to the GOP removing women’s rights constitutionally guaranteed for fifty years by the Roe v Wade SCOTUS decision. But we are open to dedicated men as well, of course. *Men Welcome is a super important part of the brand. We want to unite all Americans, men and women, of course. Women United is not racist or sexist. It is a place for real patriotism to awaken from its long slumber here in America.
There are women’s groups in most cities of a decent size. College towns are also ideal. We have reached out to a few of these groups and gotten positive feedback. We’d like to see if we can get a commitment from a few groups in each of the swing states.
There are 438 womens’s groups that just marched, January of 2024. They need to be contacted and asked to see if they would be okay for advocating for small d democracy this year by having three Save Democracy Mixers. The fourth one is voting day, and then those groups are united on November 5th and can do much good. Focus should be on swing states first, then red states, then purple cities in blue states.
Why the Reorientation Must Come from Local Influencers
The line between truth lies has been blurred for media. The fake news meme may have started with Russian propaganda during the 2016 election, but is still with us … and growing. AI is not making this any easier. However, it will be harder for husbands, sons, boyfriends, associates, and friends to categorize words as “fake news” when those words are coming from people they know and respect in their own towns. MAGA people are by nature followers – sycophants. They were easily influenced by right-wing media and Trump’s lies. That means they are more malleable than Democrats. We can take advantage of that.
Trump was caught on a hot mic saying “they only know what we tell them”. Finding a way to tell Republican voters something else to know or believe in may be more effective on Republican voters than Democrats and Independents.
Qualifications For Holding Office Must Be Part of the Education
A majority of GOP voters still believe Trump won the 2020 election. For that reason, Women United cannot be a Democratic or Republican endeavor. Kamala is framed as pro-Democracy , pro people first, pro country over party – even over the Democratic party.
The enemies of democracy don’t expect such creativity and energy this election season. But if this project evolves from written words and thoughts into action and it spreads through red states, they are checkmated. The fake news meme that has worked so well for “trumpism” for the last seven years will have met its match via love, education, and reorientation. It’s time teach old-fashioned civics and history to rural America and spread some real truth and light.
Branding the Struggle
*Build That Wall was nothing more than selling or branding. Branding seeks to create a vision fused with a few words that are hard to forget. Branding works like a song – words and music together are easy to remember. Words and tunes alone? They are soon forgotten. Strategic branding is something the enemies of democracy do very well. We can do better at this. Sales has been my life’s work.
Deployment Strategy – Seven Swing States
In the ideal version of democracy, the majority should have their collective will represented in Congress. We do have to contend with the Electoral College which does not function as a true democracy, and creates the space for a few key “swing states” have more power than the rest of the country. Women United can fix inequity, and many other pressing issues, but first we must save the functioning of our democracy. Without a functioning democracy nothing good will get done for any of us.
Seven states that need Women United chapters the most are in purple
Wilkes-Barre 44,000, Altoona 44,000, State College 41,000
My sense is that this list can be refocused and shortened a bit by using a filter based on preaching less to the choir. We’ll need to focus more in cities where the anticipated margin of loss to Trump is currently is between 1% and 10% and where the anticipated margin of victory by Biden is between 1% and 5%. The most important groups to enroll with be the first in each of the swing states.
The Tutorial Installation – rough draft
The walls of Women United field offices all tell the story of democracy. That story starts with the causes of the Revolutionary War, some words on King George, (who has been compared to Donald Trump) and the colonists resistance to King George’s taxes and tyranny.
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, a tax passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act believing it violated their right as Englishmen to “no taxation without representation”, that is, to be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a foreign parliament in which they were not represented.
The lesson of the Boston Tea Party will engage middle-of-the-road Republicans as well as Democrats. America was born with proud intentions. Ironically, Americans today still lack a Congress that truly represents their needs and not the needs of big business. The parallel to today’s times is there and worth pointing out. Women’s United seeks to restore pride in American democracy.
The next installation can be about the Constitution as it was formed and the amendments that evolved over time, highlighting the Bill of Rights and specific amendments. The National Constitution Center covers the US Constitution nicely. We can select the amendments to focus on. I think we start with the first amendment, and focus on the 14th after the Civil War. But we leave the constitution all out there for the curious. People need education on US history to become free thinkers able to recognize how poor a choice Donald Trump would be for president. Women’s United does not tell people who to vote for or against. We seek to make the right path become self-evident.
Since this is about saving democracy, focusing on amendments that concern voting rights seems proper. Since the Civil War, many constitutional amendments address voting, but there are specific amendments written to prohibit denying the vote to some people once the vote is extended to others.
Field Offices Must Remain Bipartisan
It is also important to declare this effort is neither Democratic nor Republican; it must be American. The division between the parties is what keeps the people of America feeling like we are in a cyber war with our brothers and sisters in other states. If we can undo the undercurrent of national division – fear of the other – and restore pride in American democracy there will be no inner space for Trumpism to exist within the hearts of our citizenry. Older people remember fascisim had not quarter in the American soul until the 80s. Is not that feeling of division and fear of others really the cause of our fascist Trumpism problem?
Right now, a large percentage of Republicans are okay with what Trump did on January 6th including hanging Mike Pence for not “doing his job” to end the peaceful transfer of power, according to Trump’s speech that day. The qualification for holding office in the USA 14th Amendment is that no elected official can be in an insurrection or aid or comfort those that are. So Women United is okay with Republicans as long as they renounce January 6th, the Big Lie and Stop the Steal. If that comes off as partisan, so be it.
The belief in many GOP voters that “the left” is their enemy, is what needs to change. But we can’t do it by using distant media. It’s not going to penetrate those who live in information silos. We should know this after eight years of right wing media chanting fake news. We need to re-orient Americans attitude to its government up close and personal, one person at a time, and start a sort of chain reaction – a reverse metastatic cancer -a metatstatic healing!
The idea is to help our Republican friends and neighbors find new candidates in their midst who are conservative but not insurrectionists. There are plenty. They just have no place to convene and air their thoughts because Trump, the salesaman, leaves no oxygen for their transformations. Enroll Republican centrists to convene with Women United. They will become America’s best allies in the effort to save democracy.
“It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed.”
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister
The First Fascist
We are fighting a fascist organization but most people don’t know fascism’s history. A brief history of fascism is actually necessary. Mussolini is historically referred to as the first fascist. Mussolini Trailer on this page is worth a watch. Rachel Maddow’s new book, Prequel, relays some interesting American history on our US industrialists aligning with the Europe’s fascist movements. It’s worth making sure people know what Mussolini did to his own people if they protested any part of his agenda. I’d like to have movie night. There are some great WW2 movies worth group watch. The new movie Amsterdam was panned butit depicted the danger we are in today very well.
Long before Putin posed bare-chested in snow, Mussolini created this “look”.
German fascism began with Hitler trying to adapt what Mussolini had created. Hitler was a huge fan of Mussolini, even trying to get an autographed picture.
Civil Rights Era and the 1960s. It wiil be wise to cover the freedoms that were gained during the Civil Rights movement during Johnson’s presidency – and here is very okay to mention Roe v Wade. The right to vote was also very clearly defined and Jim Crow was officially a crminal action after the Civil Rights Act. . The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing.
an example of news on the walls of the installations
The Trump Era
Even though we are non-partisan, we do recognize the criminal and treasonous activity of Donald Trump. Trump is why we need to save democracy. So our stance is not that we don’t want Republicans, we just don’t want Republicans who align with a coup to overturn the will of the majority and install a fascist back into the White House.
Trump is about to make his announcement that Mexicans are bringing rapists
The installation can have snippets from videos of Trump’s campaign speeches: the Mexicans are bring rapists ( ironic advise from a known convicted serial rapist ) and including Russia if you’re listening and other gems from his rallies. There’s no shortage of material:Trump’s inauguration speech, the firing of Comey, Helsinki, two impechments and the obstruction by Bill Barr during his impeachments, the firing of Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, Helsinki, Trump’s covid vaccine success derailing when he learned covid was killing more people in Blue states. The installation culminates with January 6th, and current campaign snippets about poisoning the blood of our country and Project 2025.
Activity at the Field Offices – The Original Gripe of Conservative America
Being part of a democracy has to evolve to become more than just showing up to vote. Women’s United field offices need to be engaging and/or a bit fun to attend. Field office managers need to report to a central core group. We need to get people to start believing they can affect their governments decisions and laws. Honestly, this is the original gripe of people in flyover country, is it not? They feel abandoned by their government. Spoiler alert, so do many on the left. It does feel like nothing we can do will change how government treats us. Many Americans are resigned to sub-par treatment in many arenas of life, including quality of food and air, housing, education, healthcare, decent pay, cost of living and paying more taxes percentage-wise than billionaire overlords.( I don’t like that billionaires pay less tax percentagewise than I do. )
We have eight months to make a dent. Besides the get out the vote effort which amplifes in the last 60 days, we have six months to discuss and I think mock vote on the issues that concern all Americans. People should walk away from these reorientation courses masked as Women United For Democracy * Men Welcome feeling empowered and enthusaistic about making real changes in the next presidential term. The changes needed most are on what can be called out top ten issues.
Income Inequality and Tax Fairness. The Border. Health Care Affordability. Right to Choose. Gun Violence. Education Affordablity. Climate Science. The Electoral College. Corruption in Government, including legal corruption like corporate lobbying, voter discrimination and Gerrymandering, the Supreme Court. There’s ten right there. This list can be amended of course.
Suppose we invite experts to lecture – perhaps from a single source – like a huge zoom. The Big Zoom seems like an idea. A set time, and we all watch a 20 minute lecture or debate on any of the top subjects. Then we talk about what we heard for an hour. Then we mock vote for the solutions the way we see them on the first Tuesday of every month. Chapters record their voting as indelible records for how each chapter saw best to solve the issues facing America.
Finally, field offices ask their reps in Congress to come to a meeting and ask that they vote in Congress the way the majority in their field office ask them to vote. They present the results of their mock voting; they ask that their representatives re-present their ideas to Congress. That seems to be what represent means, to re-present what has already been presented. So let’s do some solution presenting ourselves Americans, and stop relying of representatives to tell us how to think or vote.
This way the local chapters get a feeling when their representative is in politics just for their own self interests. They can shop for a better candidate for their needs if they sense that. All politics is local underpins this entire strategy.
Maybe there has to be some music, movies and guest speakers at these field office some nights.We may be able to get some really top iconic people, like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to address the field office members across the nation in one fell swoop.
Sounds like a dream. But this can all happen in 2024 if we just start. We need to literally enlist in this cyber war and be soldiers in this cyber war. And if we make this happen, we will have saved our democracy by ourselves, without politcians, and a great new era of American pride and acheivement will begin.
end post …
PS.
Once one allies with Putin, they must remain loyal for life. If you think otherwise, ask Prigozhin on that. Oh yeah, you can’t.
Joseph Aronesty
PPS. PS. Some new improved version of this autocracy vs democracy map, which has been at my blog since Helsinki, should be part of the “kit”. Many people don’t know what autocracy really means. But a ten-year-old with no prior knoweledge of world geography gets the struggle when they first see a RISK board.
About the author:
Joseph Aronesty is the 75-year-old son of a WW2 vet, an ecom pioneer with passion for songwriting and word history and author of a book on the history of language. “I’ve had a blessed life due to the sacrifices of those WW2 vets and I’ll be damned ( actually, we all will be damned ) if we just give it all away to con artists.”
Mr. Aronesty was classmate to Donnie Trump in 1968 at Wharton , worked in Trump’s business associate orbit from 86-99 in AC NJ. He has wriiten over 1100 pages on Trumpism starting at “Russia, if you’re listening” which he still feels should disqualify a candidate to run for president because it asks an enemy state to take a part in our sacred American elections.
75% of all Americans think both are too old to serve as president
42% of independents think neither will make a good president
This is not about the debate. Joe Biden has not been popular with the majority of Americans for a while, and presidential elections have become more of popularity contests than capability contests, sadly. But that is reality. Biden did not rid us of the threat of Trumpism. You can blame AG Garland, but he was hired and allowed to stay on board even though, had he acted faster, Trump could have been convicted sentenced for the January 6th and documents case by now. And Garland is still there. The buck stops with Joe. I believe this is underlying reason Joe is not more popular with Democrats. Americans do not feel safe.
The Origins of the Cyber War We Are In
We have been at war with members of the Russo-Republican Alliance that occurred at the GOP convention in 2016 when it was decided that the Republican Party would not press for sanctions against Russians oligarchs known to have US investments, in return for election help in the form of an army of Russian bloggers and digital newsmakers.
The alliance strategy worked. It created the needed boost to get Trump over the finish line and elected. Trump now owes Putin for life for that election help. He has been compromised and is still Putin’s loyal disciple. The alliance’s involved leaders in the GOP are also allied for life; that includes many in Congress today. Both sides of that alliance equation are trying to end this country’s way of governing, representative democracy.
Why? Money. They prefer fascism because it’s very lucrative for criminally-minded politicians. They can legalize stealing. They are a nasty, determined group. The rank and file of the MAGA movement have bought the Big Lie hook, line and sinker. Many actually think “the left” is their personal enemy. They are in battle mode, standing back, but standing by their dear leader. Trump is way more popular with his party than Biden is with the dems. It is thought today that Trump is the favorite to win in November.
Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro both very popular Governors of Purple States – MI and PA
Trump recently said: Biden is not getting out, he is more popular than Gavin Newsom. Trump really wants to run against Biden/Harris or Harris. Why? He believes he can beat them. They are the enemy he knows. His media focus has been to spew hate for Biden, Harris and even Obama for years. It is a racist campaign of course, but it has been effective. Trump won’t be able to sell this level of hate for a more centrist ticket in just a few months. He also knows 75% of Americans thinking they are both too old and ageism is a real thing in the USA. Neither candidate can’t beat a younger smart centrist ticket. That should tell us all we need to know.
The Party or Our Country?
The Democratic “party” is a big ship. It generally turns slowly and mainly moves forward propelled by the momentum of yesterday. There is talk of giving Kamala Harris her shot, without any thought to whether she can beat Trump. With democracy on the line, and given the current level of racism in the USA, I would not run a black/Asian woman from California for president this critical year. She is capable of course. But not popular in middle America; sort of like HRC that way. Tactically, it is an error. If we survive this year, it will be fine soon.
The brilliant John Fugelsang blurted out that he loved Joe Biden and wished he had run and not Hillary on July 10th. He quipped, “maybe, some of the misogynists in the right would have voted for Joe”. I agreed. But why is that still not true of racists on the right for Harris? It is, of course.
It is sad still we have so many misogynists ( or people who think a woman’s place is only in the home ) and racists, but we must face reality. I personally think Americans are ready to evolve, but first we have to get through this election, be victorious and fully prosecute the traitors to our way of governance, within our government – or this internal fight will continue.
About Democracy’s Enemies
Trump sees the polls. He wants nothing to change. Leaving this ticket to save democracy is a bit like not changing the medicine or environment for cancer and expecting it to stop. Trumpism worked like a cancer, because that is the way to defeat any complex organsism or body politic. It starts with a single cell. The defenses don’t recognize the cell as dangerous. It gets a foothold. It metastasizes. We are at stage four now, and we feel that pressure at last. We have to be smart. It is a beatable cancer. It may be up to all of us. That is where we are, “folks”.
The sole focus of the Republican Party is to win by any and all means possible. The focus of the Democratic party has generally been to help people. But dems will also need to win or they wont be able to help anyone. Why is this race is even close -a convicted felon and wanna-be dictator versus a president with a good heart- and the dictator is winning? In America? We should and could be up by at least by 10% with the right ticket. The math is easy and obvious. 75% want neither, but the race is even in numbers. That means 1/3 of those who want neither are settling for a ticket they did not want. That’s the 75% we campaign to. The rest are baked in. Let’s see if Biden can convince those who want neither.
Trump has figured out that Biden/Harris is the easiest candidate to beat. Here is one reason no one is talking about.
It is Harder to Hate New Candidates
The hate for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has been cultivated on right-wing media for a long time. There is not enough time for the GOP to pivot the focus of that “Biden/Harris hate” to other candidates and have that hate or disrespect’s amplitude loom as large as it does today in the souls of right-wing media consumers. Hate for Biden and Harris is a prime motivator for many Americans to vote GOP.
Shake It Up
Charlie Sykes sort of said it. Taylor Swift sang about it. Shake it up. It’s how you fight cancer too. I know from personal experience. You change the environment for the cancer and your medicines. The cancer likes things to stay the same. So does Trump. He is even saying it. He wants to run against Biden or Harris because he believes he can beat them. It was way too close last time – 70,000 votes. Running against a convicted felon, we should be way up now. So what is our best startegy to ensure we prevail?
A/B Testinga New Ticket
Imagine a new ticket. I imagined the Whitmer / Shapiro ticket even though those two are not discussing running or running. But I chose them because each is a very popular Governor in a “purple” state. We should be open to other imagined tickets. Josh Shapiro has a 61% approval rate and it nearly twice has high as Biden’s approval in Pennsylvania. Gretchen Whitmer has a 56% approval rating in a purple state and is a very popular governor. These people know how to appeal to both sides. That is something neither Biden nor Trump have been able to do so far. Trump won’t try if he wins. If Biden could have united the country, we would know that by now. If either ticket wins, it’s either nothing changes or it’s a turn for the worse.
And that is the most important thing folks. It’s not the war in Ukraine or Israel – or even our many internal wars over the border, women’s rights, gun and envi policies, etc. The two warring political parties monster has to come to an end if America is to survive. It is even how we got this terrible Supreme Court, is it not?
We need to forge a potential politcal ticket that appeals to both sides. Both sides can be happy to vote for the same ticket, or no Americans are going to get what they really want whoever wins. We’ll sink further down, making only one man happy – Vladimir Putin, who started this all.
The first thing that has to happen is the new ticket needs to be imagined and the candidates engaged and enrolled. Without that step, we are getting nowhere slow. We can test that imagined ticket with polling data, and AI before it is widelly announced. It is incumbent upon us to see what ticket could do 10% better than the Biden-Harris ticket. It seems to me, not to try is to gamble with bad odds with the entire history of the USA.
I will end with, if we do this and Biden-Harris is still the best ticket, we of course will support that ticket vigorously. There is another option I’d like to suggest.
Biden should fire Garland tomorrow for his failure to move quickly and let this Trumpism cancer fester. Why was Kevin Roberts allowed to say “The revolution will be bloodless, if the left allows it” and not be arrested on the spot by our AG for threatenning all of us with a bloody war? I think Biden’s polls will go up if he replaces Garland and shows he knows how to shake it up and fight Trumpism. We all know Trump knew how to fire people for the wrong reasons; Biden could show he can fire someone for the right reasons.
Keeping Kamala On The Ticket and In The War Does At Least Five Things
I suggest Kamala should be the AG and replace Garland. Trumpism needs prosecuting and elimination if the country is to survive.
I think this new ticket would win in a landslide. Trump has almost no way to foster hate for it. He’s been a hate monger since the Central Park Five. And that’s how he maintains support.
1. Gives the 75% on both sides who think Trump and Biden are too old or not right for the job a ticket to vote for. Unifies the country that way.
2. Appeals to centrists and independants, with it’s Mid-Western slant. Gets us Pennsylania and Michigan, keys to a victory in Roevember.
3.Garland is gone. Puts Lady Justice in the hands of the now First Lady, where she can do more than a VP anyway. Kamala was an AG, and will prosecute Trumpism vigorously.
4. Heals the American political divide.
5. Turns the page.
Hold On To Love, America. We can make it through this long dark night.
Thanks and weigh in.
JosephAronestyATgmail.com
PS.
I just asked CHAT GTP about the Whitmer Shapiro ticket. The response was optimistic:
A Gretchen Whitmer – Josh Shapiro ticket could indeed present an interesting dynamic in a hypothetical matchup against Donald Trump. Here are some factors to consider:
Gretchen Whitmer’s Appeal: As the governor of Michigan, a key swing state, Gretchen Whitmer has garnered attention for her handling of issues like healthcare and infrastructure. Her experience in state governance and potential appeal to Midwestern voters could be advantageous in a national campaign.
Josh Shapiro’s Profile: As the previous Attorney General and now Governor another crucial swing state, Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro has built a reputation for consumer protection and legal advocacy. His experience in law enforcement and his political profile within Pennsylvania could bolster the ticket’s appeal in the Rust Belt and beyond.
I got to thinking about the most notorious leaders in today’s dictatorships: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, King and Mohammed bin Salmon of Saudi Arabia, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, and China’s Xi Jinping. Not one of them are stupid enough to be caught saying I grab women by the p*ssy because I’m a star and they let me do it. Trump’s total lack of class or dignity stands alone, even among despots. Sometimes his immature verbal potty mouth is touted by media as an attribute for his “fans”.
Access Hollywood was arguably the biggest gaff in presidential election history and it bounced off Trump like water off a duck’s back. People began to say in flyover over country they liked this locker room talk stuff – so it was a good thing for Trump. But that’s too easy. There is more to understand. Sloughing it off on Trump’s garish style truly misses the mark.
Americans have endured eight years of Republicans fighting with Democrats during our first not-pure-white president’s terms; then four years of a president who never thought a day in his life about serving anyone but his own self; then covid; then inflation, finally leaving us with high interest rates in a nation with too many debtors. Americans have gripes. Both sides. And to make matters worse, all of these crises are left to be dealt with by a seemingly intentional do-nothing Congress.
This is why the flyover country developed an appetite for a guy like Trump in the first place. It was not about trash talk and Trump’s divisive American vs. American hate speech. Many people were just weary and sick of the people in Washington DC for years of ignoring their needs and taxing them in so many ways, while giving back the bare minimum.
The vampires in DC are skimming our common wealth. It is corruption. That was the first gripe of middle America. It is still a valid gripe. The meme is: all politicians are corrupt so what is the difference? We hear of the Big Lie. Well this is the Big Gripe. It stretches back to the Reagan meme that the government is the enemy. It is why Biden does not get credit for being a better man and president than Trump.
And the corruption exists on both sides. We all know politicians – no need to mention names – whose family members reap benefits from advance knowledge of government dealings. That is corruption, and to make it legal is to day its is okay to be corrupt and that fuels an appetite for a new kind of politician – which Biden is not. Trump, in many ways, just does the quiet part of corruption out loud. In some ways, it’s less sneaky than what Biden does.
We have endured about forty years of government officials governing by the greed is good mantra. MAGA folks were unified in one thing; hating the people in our government, and the way government treats them. They wanted something that felt like change. Trump gave them that hope. But he had four years to drain the swamp, and instead it just got swampier.
Polls tell us the Democrats want change too. I do.I was one of the first to recognize Trump was allied with Russia because I knew him from AC NJ, and there was a Russian mob component active there in that “carney” town in the 80s. He fell in love with Putin during the Miss World pageants in Moscow. Everyone who knew him knew that. Atlantic City is a small town. Everyone knew what Donnie was up to.
2024 presents voters with the starkest contrast between two agendas since the Civil War. Biden is trying to preserve the functioning of the institution of free and fair elections – of people deciding who should make the laws we all must agree to live by. Trump is fighting for his life to stay out of jail, and says he will create an agenda to run America a new way. But most Americans know he is running to keep himself and his family out of jail for life.
I stand with the MAGA people on their complaint that we need a change. Most Americans do. My big gripe against the “establishment” is interest rates. Contrary to the FED, high rates will not curb inflation this time around. This is not the 70s. In the 70s people had almost no credit card debt. Credit cards were relatively new back then. Many owned their homes with VA loans post WW2.
This time, higher rates are raising financial pressure on working people by causing higher prices. The price of money, in a nation that is living week to week, causes the inflation high rates are advertised to curb. High rates favor those that have the money to lend. Landlords must raise rents to pay off their loans; and mortgages and college loan costs take up much more of a family’s income these days. It feels like a plot to destroy the middle class to me. Same thing the new American oligarchs will do if we elect Trump. Soon, banks will be foreclosing on properties due to these high rates.
SO yea, I have my gripes against the way the US government favors corporations over working people. That however does not cloud my assessment of Donald Trump. I know him too well to believe he cares about anyone but himself.
Economic justice should count as much as criminal justice; in fact more so because criminal behavior involves a small percentage of Americans, while economic justice involves us all. So, equal justice under the law is basically a lie. The word tax is a form of the word take. If a billionaire pays a lower tax rate than a working person, how is that equal justice under the law?
It’s not the institutions themselves that Americans disrespect. No one is going around saying free and fair elections is a bad idea. What we are all saying is that the people in government don’t work for us much anymore. And the the voices of the fully honest politicans are drowned out by the chorus of corruption that has existed in DC since anyone living can remember.
We know there is a better way. It starts with ending corruption. It does not start with making a president immune from criminal prosecution. The way out of this mess is to make Americans proud of the people in their government again. That begins with qualifications for holding office being upped and careful vetting of any candidates financial ties and past work ethics and experience. That cannot begin with a more authoritarian government.
We must never forget one of Trump’s first acts as president was to lower corporate taxes, which forces working people to shoulder a larger percentage of the expense to run a government.
Biden can function fine as the gateway to a new America. Unlike Trump, he knows he is mortal and takes pride in trying to turn the wheels of government over to a new generation. Then it will be up to the new generation to fix what is broken for working people in this country.
I do think Biden needs to grow a pair, as they say. Leaving Merrick Garland in as AG is something no real Americans respect. He’s done a lousy job prosecuting government corruption. Trump will not be tried for the crimes against this country before Novemeber. The biggest crime in US history was filmed live on January 6th. If the man Biden has in the position to see justice done for that crime cannot bring about a trial in three years, he needed to be fired. I ask all people who love this country to find a way to complian loudly about Merricak Garland staying on as our AG.
Trump knew how to fire people at least. Yes, for the wrong reasons, but he knew how to do it. Biden seems not to be able to fire anybody for the right reasons. All we can do now is hope the sheer unchristian ugliness of the Trump, his alies – domestic and foreign, and the spewing of their hateful, vengeful, divisive words will get Americans to wake up when it counts the most, in November.
THE ENGLISH CODE 