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.
By 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.
Paine’s genius lay in his restraint. He did not rely on personal attacks or partisan loyalty. He appealed to reason, history, and human nature. His aim was not to inflame, but to prepare: to help Americans recognize patterns of power they might otherwise accept out of habit, fear, or fatigue.
The authority of the crown, Paine argued, depended less on force than on consent—consent given gradually, often unconsciously, in exchange for promises of stability and protection. Once citizens surrendered their judgment, resistance became not only difficult, but unthinkable.
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 personal 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. Power does not seek balance. It seeks continuance, expansion, and ultimately immunity from challenge. This eventuality is not so much a moral failing of individuals as a predictable feature of 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 the all-powerful.
In every age, those who seek extraordinary authority insist that the times demand it. Crisis becomes their justification. Disorder becomes their evidence. Conditions of instability are permitted—and sometimes encouraged—to argue that ordinary limits can no longer apply. What begins as a temporary measure soon hardens into habit, and habit, once accepted, becomes doctrine.
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 itself 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.
But power granted in exception is rarely surrendered voluntarily. Once a single figure becomes the symbol of national strength, any limit placed upon that figure is portrayed as a threat to the nation itself. Institutions designed to restrain authority are dismissed as obstacles. Laws are treated as inconveniences. Norms are mocked as naïve.
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.
The great error is not trusting leaders, but trusting them too much—trusting them with powers that no individual, however well-intentioned, can safely hold. Free societies are not preserved by faith in men, but by suspicion of unchecked authority. That suspicion is not cynicism; it is civic maturity.
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 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 judgment.
Once citizens accept that independent thinking is divisive or dangerous, they begin to outsource discernment. Assertions are valued over evidence. Confidence is mistaken for competence. Repetition replaces proof. The language of strength becomes more persuasive than the substance of truth.
At this stage, loyalty undergoes a quiet transformation. It no longer means fidelity to shared principles or constitutional limits, but allegiance to a person who claims to embody them. To question the individual is presented as an attack on the nation itself. This confusion—between country and ruler—has undone republics before, always with popular consent.
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 uncertainty. A population anxious about its footing becomes willing to trade liberty for reassurance, even when the reassurance is largely performative.
Those who resist this trade are often caricatured. They are labeled unrealistic, disloyal, or dangerous. In this way, caution is recast as cowardice, and submission as strength.
Another psychological comfort soon follows: identity. When political loyalty becomes personal, it also becomes tribal. Agreement signals belonging. Dissent risks exclusion. In such an environment, many suppress private doubts rather than endure public isolation. Silence multiplies, and the appearance of unanimity grows—not because conviction is universal, but because dissent has become costly.
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.
Over time, citizens who once insisted on limits begin to argue against them. Safeguards are dismissed as outdated. Independent institutions are accused of obstruction. The rule of law is reframed as an impediment to decisive action. What once protected liberty is now portrayed as its enemy.
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.
Yet history suggests a different lesson: that resignation, more than rebellion, is what entrenches personal rule.
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.
This tactic is effective because it reframes accountability as interference. Laws are no longer the expression of collective will, but impediments imposed by distant or unaccountable forces. Independent judgment is recast as sabotage. Expertise is treated as arrogance. In this environment, the erosion of institutional authority appears not as an attack on democracy, but as its defense.
Another method of hollowing 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 collapses asymmetrically. Faith in institutions declines, while faith in personal authority 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.
This sense of inevitability is carefully cultivated. Each broken convention is framed as a necessary response to unprecedented conditions. Each expansion of power is justified as an exception. The accumulation of exceptions is rarely acknowledged, and their permanence quietly assumed.
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. 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.
The responsibility of the citizen is not to idolize institutions, but to insist that they function as intended. Nor is it to place faith in individuals who promise relief from democratic strain. The strain is the point. It is evidence that power remains contested and accountable.
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.
Send this letter to Republicans in Goverment in your state.
Amplify this letter . Post it in editorial news. On social media. Any way you can.
Dear Congressman ___________,
I am writing as a deeply concerned constituent. Much of what I am seeing and hearing from President Trump in his second term has shaken my confidence that our government is acting in the best interests of American families.
The President speaks about tariffs as if Americans do not pay for them. But we do — through higher grocery prices, higher household costs, and increasing financial strain. He ran on making life better at home. For many of us, life is not better, either economically or in terms of community safety.
I support lawful immigration enforcement and the removal of individuals who pose a real danger. What I do not support is profiling people based on accent or appearance, or policies that undermine basic due process. I am a Republican, and I am not a racist. These actions do not reflect American values.
I am also deeply troubled by the continued lack of transparency around the Epstein matter, and by repeated statements from the President that contradict publicly available facts. Trust in leadership depends on honesty, and that trust is eroding rapidly.
Foreign policy statements and actions have added to my concern. Talk of acquiring Greenland, strained relations with NATO allies, and unexplained financial dealings abroad project instability rather than strength. America is less respected internationally than it was, and that has real consequences for our security.
I believe our country is heading toward either severe political backlash in the midterms or a broader constitutional crisis. Neither outcome is good for the Republican Party or for the nation.
One action I have imagined is to use the 25th Amendment and install JD Vance before midterm campaigning begins. Just say based on a year of what Trump has said and done in his first year of 2.0 we deem Donald Trump is no longer fit to lead our great nation, our military and be our commander-in-chief. Call it dementia if you must. As I see it, it comes down to finding a way to reign Trump in – or replacing him.
I am asking you to take seriously the constitutional responsibilities of checks and balances. The world is becoming more dangerous, not safer, and our leadership should be reducing risk, not amplifying it. I want a future where my children, my neighbors, and yours are safer and more secure.
If meaningful steps are not taken to rein in these actions, I cannot continue to support candidates who refuse to uphold constitutional norms. I believe many Americans — across party lines — feel the same way.
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.
If you don’t understand how Vladimir Putin dismantled Russia’s democracy in his first 24 months in office, you won’t understand how democracies erode anywhere — including here at home. What happened in Russia didn’t start with tanks, riots, or a military takeover. It began with paperwork. It began with “reforms.” It began with things that looked technical, boring, maybe even reasonable.
Russia in the 1990s was messy, corrupt, chaotic… but it was a democracy. Elections were real. Governors were elected. The press was noisy and often critical. Independent television networks investigated the Kremlin. Oligarchs funded opposition parties. Courts sometimes ruled against the president.
All of that ended shockingly fast, and almost nobody realized it until it was too late.
Step 1: Control the Story
Putin’s first move was not economic or military — it was informational. He moved to seize NTV, the only major independent national television network. Using Gazprom as the battering ram, the Kremlin took over the board, installed loyalists, and drove critical journalists into exile.
( Trump’s version of this is to align with FOX News and other media outlets. He has a loyal oligarchs, Larry and david Ellison, buying up the major media companies. Trump uses the same meme Putin used, “fake news”. He did not make that up. I have always said, “Trump is taking dictator lessons from Vladimir Putin. Some say Orban, but Orban is a desciple of Putin.”
Donald Trump had no historical knowledge of Russia when he ran for president in 2016. He was a game show host, casino owner, real estate trader, and a white-collar criminal, looking to get richer. Putin was the richest and most powerful person on the planet in 2016. He still may be that, because i tis certain that Putin has Trump compromised by taping the election-help vs. Hillary Clinton conversations, KGB style. Remember, the translator’s notes were destroyed by Trump after his Helsinki meeting in 2017. He knew he had to cover his traitorous tracks. )
With that quiet corporate takeover, Russia no longer had a national platform capable of scrutinizing power. For most Russians, reality itself now came through a Kremlin-approved lens. Once the state controls what citizens see, everything else becomes easier.
The effect on everyday Russians has not been good. Russia’s economy is under significant strain, facing high inflation, labor shortages, weakening currency, and increased taxes. Most Russians struggle with costs and high inflation, peaking over 10% in early 2025. Central Bank rates are at 21%, slowing growth and keeping prices elevated. The Russian economy suffers from labor shortages and falling behind technologically.
Step 2: Break Federalism
In his first year, Putin created seven “federal districts” headed by presidential envoys — essentially political commissars — who could overrule elected governors. Soon after, he gained the authority to dismiss governors outright.
The message was simple: regional power is tolerated only if it aligns with the president’s agenda. Sound familiar? (This is why governor’s powers and sovereign state power is so important to preserve in the USA.)
Democracy works when power is shared. Putin ended that in a single legislative stroke.
Step 3: Turn the Upper House Into a Rubber Stamp
Originally, the Russian Federation Council was made up of governors and regional legislative heads who were elected and accountable. Putin replaced them with appointed representatives, loyal to him alone not to Russian voters.
Checks and balances require independence. Putin quietly erased it.
Today, Trump is effectively the Speaker of the House. No one seems to have the patriotic focus to challenge him.
Step 4: Rebuild the Security State
Putin surrounded himself with former KGB and FSB officers, expanding surveillance powers and re-politicizing the police. These “siloviki” became the backbone of his regime: a loyal, disciplined, unelected class with institutional muscle. Sound familiar?
Democracy can survive a run of bad politicians. It cannot survive an intelligence apparatus aligned with a single man’s agenda.
Step 5: Neutralize Economic Rivals
Putin gathered the oligarchs and offered a deal: Stay out of politics, or lose everything. MBS did the same thing. Trump helped MBS locate and round up the Saudi oligarchs as his first foreign act in 2017. Our FBI knew where they were all hiding. Trump 1.0’s first foreign destination was to Saudi Arabia, and he still calls MBS “a great guy” even though he killed an american journalist, something Trump brushed off at “stuff happens”.
Most of the Russian oligarchs folded. The ones who didn’t — Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky — were exiled or stripped of their assets. This was the elimination of independent financial power. Without competing power centers, political competition withers.
Step 6: Engineer a Dominant Party
Putin built United Russia, the machinery that would later dominate every national election. It was designed not to inspire loyalty but to enforce it. A democracy without competitive parties is just a ceremonial exercise.
(Trump rails jail the democrats and has asked for the execution of our Generals and potential candidates like Senator Kelly and Eric Swalwell. He calls is retribution, but it’s the Putin way to take over a large democratic country.)
Step 7: Rewrite Election Rules
Russian elections didn’t disappear — they were simply redesigned. Small parties were squeezed out by new technical requirements. Candidate registration became a weapon. The Central Election Commission fell under presidential influence.
Everything looked legal. Everything looked procedural. But slowly, the ballot box became a controlled environment.
We will see how our midterm elections of 2026 go. But Trump will certainly try to fix them, and if his GOP party loses, they will deny they were fair, and perhaps not “seat” the winning candidates, the way they did to the Arizona representative, Adelita Grijalva.
The Lessons to Learn from the Russian and Hungarian fasicst takeovers
Russia’s democracy did not die because Putin was especially bold. It died because he was subtle.
Putin didn’t destroy institutions. He captured them, the way Trump has captured the CDC and BOE.
Putin didn’t outlaw opposition. He starved them out.
He didn’t cancel elections. He fixed them.
And the world — including the Russian people — kept waiting for a dramatic moment, some unmistakable sign of authoritarian takeover. It never came. The end arrived through a thousand bureaucratic cuts.
Democracies rarely die in one night. They die quietly, procedurally, in full view.
Why This Matters for America
The United States is not Russia. Our institutions are older, stronger, more resilient. But they are not invincible. Every democracy is vulnerable to the same pattern:
media capture
politicized law enforcement
weakened courts
attacks on independent governors
parties hollowed out into loyalty machines
elections rewritten through “legal adjustments”
The methods are subtle everywhere, because subtlety works.
If there’s a single lesson from Putin’s first two years, it’s this:
The moment to defend a democracy is before the crisis is obvious. After that, the slide is much harder to stop.
America’s strength has always been that its people do not sleepwalk through history. We debate. We argue. We shout. We vote. We hold the line.
Maybe that’s what holding on to love for a country actually means: caring enough to notice the early signs — and caring enough to act before the damage becomes irreversible.
My song to save America is waiting for an artist to make this patriotic meme of love for the real American democracy go front and center in our pop culture. We need a few rallying songs to keep ourselves inwardly aligned and resolved to not allow this country to go fascist. If you know people in our military at any level, make sure they know not to follow illegal orders.
Tariffs are Congress’s job. By treating tariffs as presidential orders, Trump is imposing a “King’s Tax” on every American. That tax falls hardest on working families, who spend a larger share of their income on necessities and imported goods. Trump ran on lowering prices. Now, with his tarrifflation, consumer prices are higher than ever before. Tariffs are not just bad economics — they are unconstitutional, if not approved by Congress.
This is how democracies fall: leaders bypass checks and balances and concentrate power into the executive branch. That’s how Putin did it in Russia; Trump is trying to do the same thing here. He thinks because he won an election he can break the rules, which are the foundation of a democracy. We need to collectively say “no” to tariffs as a people, even if Congress and the courts won’t do this.
The response to these tariffs should be be large, public and sharp. The tactic is to force him to show his real hand to us all on TV and media as well. Put him in a position where he either accepts Congress’s role or acts like a king. Either way, Americans will see the truth.
Blue state governors can and should band together and refuse to enforce Trump’s tariffs at the state level until they are approved by Congress. The Constitution states: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” People understand that plain language. Amplify and campaign on “no tariffs without Congressional approval”. Be like Nike and “just do it”.
Whoever starts this plan and created this seminal event, has a good chance of becoming the heroic next president of the new reborn United States. Democrats who wonder why their party is doing so poorly should take away: it’s because theyare not protecting their constituents from Trumpism. So start. Start right away. What have you got to lose?
Senators can and should challenge these tariffs in court. They must frame the fight clearly: “Tariffs are the people’s business. There is no emergency that necessitates the added burden that tariffs are imposing on all Americans. Congress represents the people and the Constitution protects the citizenry. Tariffs should be neither collected nor paid until Congress approves them, as it is written. We will not respect a Supreme Court if it aids or comforts insurrectionists as per 14th, sec 3″.
Governors, in particular, have the power to declare what is clearly a real emergency: we have a president who seems oblivious to the pain he is causing, on many levels, to American citizens, and their loved ones.
We need to create a seminal event, much like January 6th was for MAGA, but based on the Constitution, and its abuse by a would-be king. That day could be dubbed “the day a union of governors stood up to Trump and simply refused to do his bidding –or, the day Trump’s illegal tariffs died in the USA. That day, according to polls, will be cheered on by the vast majority of Americans. When Trump reacts like a grade-schooler or a dictator, or both, which is a certainty, it will also be remembered as the day Trumpism died in America.
If we are afraid to take chances, if we are afraid to be as outrageous as Trump is, we cannot win. If we are afraid to fight, and even die for this cause, which is the cause of our children as well, we cannot win. We might as well get started now.
Waiting for election results is not a plan when one party does not care about the rules. We have the chance to unify the country against Trumpism now. Americans on all sides are unified on this topic of tariffs. Announce that tariffs are not going to be collected in blue states until Congress approves them. It wont cost a penny, and it will be very popular, not only in blue states as well. Gove Trump a week to take them all down. Set a date, and stick to it. We are in a war, act like we know it.
1/7/26 Today a citizen, Renee Nicole Good , was killed in Minnesota in her car, trying not to get detained by ICE. She was no danger to ICE. You can watch the clip. Of course, Trump is lying about it. Always this way, since college, where I first knew him. See clip at Trump’s Untruths Social site:
This will not stop until Trump is removed from office by popular demand. It does not have to wait for 2028. We won’t last that long. Below is the way out.
Once again, I plead with the governors of blue states and any red states that want to honor the true miracle of America – to form a union – and refuse to allow ICE agents in their states without warrants, and refuse to collect tariffs in their ports until Congress approves tariffs . Those two actions ( not words ) will end Trumpism in two weeks. How? Popular demand. We will all notice together the prices dropping by refusing to collect tariffs, and the peace in our streets, and no one will want to go back.
…..
In Des Moines, Iowa, on July 3, 2025, Donald Trump said “I hate them” in reference to Democrats. During his speech, he said Democrats did not vote for his “Big Beautiful Bill” because “they hate Trump” and added, “I hate them, too”.
For the record, Democrats did not vote for his bill because it does very little to help average working-class Americans, and favors the uber-wealthy. But with the words, “I hate Democrats” Donald Trump officially declared war on the Democratic Party which represents 53.5%* of the registered voters in the USA. (*Gallup poll June 2025) That means Trump has declared war on 53.5% of American citizens of voting age and more like 2 out of 3 if you count children.
Why we must now declare war vs. Trumpism, and strategies to keep it a cold war, is what follows. First some history.
Before 1776, ruling kings had been the standard way to govern countries for the previous 5000 years. Some kingdoms and autocracies autocracies have done well for its citizens, but they have been rare. Most exaggerate and perpetuate wealth gaps. They all create tiered societies wherein only those who are loyal to “the king” or dictator can move up the social ladder. For the vast majority living under autocratic rule, life becomes harder. The middle and lower classes are subjugated, thrown under. That’s why kings called their citizens, subjects.
Oligarchy is rule by one man and his chosen businessmen. Oligarchy is what Donald Trump is in the process of executing right in front of our own eyes. He admires men like Putin, MBS, and Xi because they get what they want. That has always been Donald Trump’s goal: to get what he wants. Whether it was women, money or power, that has been the life of Donald Trump since I knew him at age twenty at Wharton.
I chose the subject word executioner, because Donald Trump is not educated enough to be the architect of this plan to end American democracy. But, because he is heartless and willing to do or say anything to get his way, he is an ideal executioner of this plan, which began in foreign autocracies many years ago.
The road map to supplant democracy with autocracy in not new. It has been paved by other dictators in recent history. Germany was a democracy in 1932. More recently, Putin took Russia, a country that recently had become a democracy, back to an autocracy, which it had pre-1917 and back to the Middle Ages.
Look at this world map . If America succumbs turns red towards fascism, the rest of the world has no chance of staying democratic. The fascists will have the planet. That’s been the goal, especially since 1996, when the internet made instant communication between peoples across the planet much easier. Fascists don’t want their subjects aware how things fare a little better for citizens in democracies.
In 2016, before being chosen to be the GOP candidate, Donald Trump was just a businessman. But he had been in contact with Russia years before during his Miss World contests. In June of 2016, right after he was the Republican candidate, he said” Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you find the missing Hillary Clinton tapes.” That means he knew they were listening. There was no reason to bring up Russia at that point, unless he knew Russia was going to be a player in the election. And in the 2016 presidential election, Russia was, at the very least, a substantial player in social media campaigns designed to convince Americans that Hillary was evil, and a pedophile – of all things.
In 2016, Putin sold Trump on the idea of becoming the first king of America. Donald had no clue where to begin that potentially very dangerous journey. But Vladimir Putin had done it before, and in the largest country on Earth.
Putin was a disciple of Khrushchev. In the fifties Cold War Era, Nikita Khrushchev said, “we will defeat the United States without firing a single bullet.” When Obama did not indict Trump for asking for foreign help in our most sacred institution, our elections, foreign interference in elections became normalized. Obama, like Biden, grossly underestimated how determined Russia was to defeat the USA.
Donald Trump openly admired Putin and indeed got Russian election help. He owes Putin for life now. Putin makes sure Trump knows he would never have become president without his help. You’ll never see Trump cross Putin on Ukraine, or anything. Connect the dots. Trump is the side of the dictators for life now, whether he likes it or not. This all sums to the undeniable conclusion that we have a traitor in the White House who must do Putin’s bidding.
Take a good lo0k at that map again. The dictators and monarchs have the majority of the land and the majority of the people. Those in power can change the laws of democracy and we have a traitor to democracy as commander-in-chief. In effect, we have already lost this war. If we proceed as if all is normal, our democracy will be pronounced dead after midterms 2026. Democracy is not the favorite to survive this disease.
So now we must commit to a war against the Trump “regime” to regain our democracy. If we are afraid to fight back, if we are afraid to die for this cause, the planet’s five-thousand years of autocratic rule will resume.
I’d like you to listen to this YouTube from 2017, which you may have seen on the news. Putin is at a hockey game, about to go on the ice. A reporter asks why Trump fired James Comey. Putin answers in effect, “he is just following the laws of his country”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1NKWYepioA
That’s how fascists pull it off when they are successful at taking over a country. It’s not done with guns. Certainly not at first. They say they are “following the laws”. Once they get enoough laws on their side, they can and will proceed a little further down the military autocratic road.
Being a traitor to democracy is worse than being a traitor in a war. In a war, democracy is what we are fighting to preserve. Trump is already dismantling the agencies that keep our citizens and children safe from human predators and nature’s wrath. Germany banned their fascists from holding office post WW2, and they cited the American constitution, while doing so. The blue states should do the same now.
The fascist goal is to make life harder for every citizen in America who is not part of the oligarchy. If people who are not okay with that don’t speak up and practice peaceful civil disobedience, democracy’s demise is inevitable. If our state governors do not band together and declare we are at war with this iteration of Republican Party and protect its citizens from unconstitutional executive orders, Trumpism will prevail. Waiting or hoping for elections is a fool’s game.
Today Pritzker seemed disappointed he did not get all fifty state governors to support Illinois over Trumpism. He needs to start thinking in terms of creating a second sovereign power until these MAGA nationalists are removed, en masse, from their seats, as per the 14th sec 3. We need a new temporary union of states that refuse to blindly follow Trump’s orders.
These fascists will never willingly surrender power. Their crimes are too large now. They fear reprisal if they lose power now, and rightly so. Citizens cannot challenge this power alone. It’s too easy for them to be whisked away, or sued, like you see happening to Adam Schiff, Leticia James and many others.
State governors have sovereign power. If governors will declare we at war with the fascists in our government, they can declare an emergency, and order, for example, that Trump’s tariffs not be collected in their ports until such time that the Congress votes on the tariffs, in accordance with the Constitution. They could declare the fourteenth renders the entire Republican side of our government unconstitutional and set up a union of states and a temporary new government to run our agencies the way they are supposed to run, and even divert enough taxes that their citizens pay to the federal government to fund such agencies.
And that union has begun. The West Coast Health Alliance formed by California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii was just created to issue unified health guidance that is grounded in science. I’d rename it the American Health Alliance and get Pritzker, Hochul and any other states that want health care run by scientists. not politicians, on board.
Then the only step left would be to ask their citizens, who are nationally 80% of board with scientists to run health care, to reduce their tax payments to the federal government by the percentage of the federal budget we spend on health, and also state they will defend their citizens from any suits or actions from the federal government regarding that underpayment. If 80% of Americans want scientists in charge of health care, not politicians, and Trump continues to place non-doctors like RFK Jr. as the stewards of their health care, that is not democratic representational government. That is funding the enemy.
Are governors beginning to talk quietly about a corruption-free new government? The talk of it alone, would be healthy. Maybe some on the fringes of the right would begin to think they don’t like how Trump is steering our government if they see states willing to financially divorce from the union.
Then, agency by agency, we can claw back our government until we can vote out the insurrectionists and traitors aligned with the dictators in the world who want Americans dead, without firing a single bullet.
Trump’s Tariffs Create The Seminal Event to Unify the Country
Campaigning for elections and waiting for election results is fine, but it’s not a war plan. We need to create a seminal event that unifies the country. It’s not Epstein. The country is united on justice for Epstein, but it’s not a pocketbook issue. Tariffs act like a sales tax on everyone. It affects the uber-wealthy the least. The first battle cry of American democracy was “taxation without representation is tyranny”. The desire to get government to serve us as a reward for being taxed is in the American DNA.
People will soon be feeling what I call tarifflation. It is inflation made worse by Trump’s tariffs. I am paying them myself in my own business. I believe the other proper strategy is for governors of CA, IL and NY to declare their ports will not collect these unconstitutionally enacted tariffs until such time as they are voted on in Congress.
If this were to happen, play out Trump’s predictable reaction in your mind. You will conclude, this action would create a seminal event, “the day Trump’s tariffs ended in blue states“, that logically ends with all the people unified against Trumpism. Trump will kneejerk respond and try to use ICE agents to collect tariffs. When the 80% of Americans see him trying that, even once, he is done, and so is Trumpism nation-wide.
Trump will take this bait and quickly. I cannot claim to know what tariffs are doing for Trump personally. He’s probably getting paid off left and right by countries and businesses. That is his style of being. So not collecting tariffs hits him in his Achilles Heel, his wallet. He won’t wait a day to send in his goons to collect tariffs. We need all Americans to see the specter of Trump using troops to raise their grocery prices.
We are in a war without bombs. We have been in that space since 2016. When Putin sent emissaries to the GOP Convention in 2016, an alliance was formed based on mutual interests, the Russo-Republican Alliance of 2016 . That is democracy’s real enemy. Donald Trump is not its architect; he is its executioner. This enemy’s weapons are words, executive orders and actions; not guns and bombs. We’d best get into that game now, as we are losing the funds and muscle to defeat this alliance every day we sit on the sidelines and pretend the demise of America is not unwinding in front of our eyes.
It’s not as if this is new. Trump has been trying to end democracy, as per his boss, Vladimir Putin, since “Russia if you’re listening.” When Trump took election help from a fascist, he became a fascist for life. There is no going back on that.
For nine years, I’ve been speaking out—loudly and consistently—about the threat Donald Trump poses to American democracy and the free world.
But credit should be given where it’s due. Iran has never demonstrated the responsibility required to possess nuclear weapons, and firm action was needed. A significant portion of global instability stems from Iran-backed terrorism. So in this case—good job. Good decoy. Good on listening to your generals. And good on not making it all about yourself, Donnie.
We now find ourselves in a new world, much like the one after 9/11. If Trump plays this moment wisely, he’ll pull ICE agents off the streets, stop manufacturing domestic enemies, and begin preparing the homeland for real threats—such as potential attacks from Iranian-backed terrorist networks, possibly even on U.S. soil.
If he can pivot away from his anti-democratic, anti-immigrant, anti-classic-American rhetoric and adopt a “one nation, working together” message, Americans will notice. Only then can the political divide that’s been paralyzing our country begin to heal. And only then can the greatness he so often speaks of emerge organically—because true national greatness can’t be forced. It grows from unity and shared purpose.
Donald Trump has a chance—this very week—to evolve. But if he starts taking personal credit for this mission, as though he masterminded it himself, and keeps belittling Joe Biden (who likely would have listened to the same generals), it will be clear he’s still more interested in division than unity. That mindset only makes it easier for our enemies to succeed—and pushes America closer to a dangerous precipice.
So the question remains: Can Donald Trump evolve as a president, or even as an actor playing the role of a president—into a unifier? Maybe. Maybe he’s tired of being the Divider-in-Chief. Maybe he’s starting to think about his legacy, as any mature mortal should.
I sincerely hope so. We all want to get back to our lives and feel confident that our democracy—and our country—are in steady, caring hands.
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.
Trump Defiance to Court Orders Marks a Shot Across the Bow
The war on American democracy, first attempted in 2016 by a man who got election help from our country’s mortal enemy, Vladimir Putin, is on and metastatic now.
We don’t have time to wait and see what happens in 2026 and 2028 now. Trump’s laws and orders must be rejected. All of them. The 14th sec 3, says no insurectionists can hold any governmental office, even military and judicial. And 51% of our government’s office holders are insurrectionists in that all the current Republicans in Congress aid and comfort insurrectionists. The 14th sec 3 is written into the Constitution, just as clearly as the First Amendment. And we must remain a nation of laws, or we truly have nothing.
So we cannot stand by and watch this sick, mad would-be king destroy our country, its economy and its history, without real resistance, legal and physical. It’s going to have to come down to a physical showdown. Donnie has no quit button. We cannot gamble and wait for 2026. We will have to deal withthe insurrectionists even if we win in 2026 and 2028. Might as well start now.
The GOP have a war room, and they are working on ending real elections here right now. It is the only way they can get away with their crimes, which are now so large they know they cannot risk losing power ever again.
The easy way is to for blue state governors to form a pact and temporarily secede from the union, financially and legally. That means federal taxes start going only to the states. What can they do versus a union of California, New York, Illinois, Indianapolis, Colorado, Washington, New Mexico, Maine, Hawaii and any others that want to pay no tariffs though their ports, or let ICE agents mess with their citizens sense of security? Get physical? I don’t think so.
I wrote a way out manifesto of sorts at the bottom of this infinite scroll format. Check it out. This map from over a year ago would be very different now.
I also wonder why there is no musical concert dedicated to preserving democracy. Top artists can convene and sing their best songs about hope, love, and resisting our oppressors. This should be like the Summer of ’69 here. Engaging and enrolling our youth is super important. Many sat it out in 2024.
Dems and Media Are Enabling Trump’s Gestapo
April 5th, 2025. Hands Off protest Saturday. Many did their share with posters and voices today. But these are my thoughts on this tariff war Trump started Wednesday. These tariffs are all about money for Donnie and his team of high value paid supporters and con men. Trump’s self-created tariff war will cost the average family $4000 a year. Let’s estimate that’s for an average family of four. So Trump’s tariffs will be a tax of $1000 per person, man, woman and child, per year. There are 350 million Americans, so this is roughly a piggy bank of 350 billion dollars a year coming into the US treasury from US citizens. That is a tax, people. TARIFF, TAX and TAKE are historically related words.
Hey guess what? The tariffs are going away. Thanks to the protests. Keep it up.
T BTW . Laura Loomer just asked Trump to fire the National Security Agency, a 30 year military man. She said it should be done because these people are loyal to the Constitution, and not Trump. I think Laura is phishing for a job in national security herself.
This cannot end well. If you voted for Trump, it’s time to say you made a mistake, and you will not support him, his administration or his party members ever again. I’d be happy to say Kamala Harris was not ideal. Can our MAGA brothers and sisters start saying maybe they are done with Trump’s “agenda”? It will affect them most. But no one will be spared in a global recession, left, right, or center.
April 2nd, 2025. Liberation Day. Wisconsin elects a Democratic Justice, in spite of Elon Musk’s million spent. People are saying Cory Booker is the super hero we need. He certainly did his part and more. But the only super hero that can save us is all of us acting with unity, boycotting everything Trump touches; boycotting the billionaire businesses that align with Trump, making him be seen as a poison. It can happen, if we raise our voices.
Step one is to openly declare and recognize we are at war with the Republican Party and their authoritarian allies abroad. Step two is to cite the 14th Amendment and declare that no one in government who aided or comforted insurrectionists has any authority to be in office, hence their words, orders and laws have no validity. Step three is to refuse to admit ICE agents and DOGE agents in their states without court orders. Yes, that means resisting them with force, if need be. When the Federal government brings military power to the states, which is coming, whether we do nothing but wait for the 2026 midterms, or fight back now, we need to have the spine and force to say “no, you have no juridicion in this state because you supported an insurrectionist as per the 14th Amendment’. And if they cite the SCOTUS pooh poohing the 14th, as they have done, we must say, they also have two insurrection supporters in their fold, so current Supreme Court rulings mean nothing in the blue states that have united in opposition to Trump and his allies.
We must internalize that we are at war. This war will come to blows eventually, because nothing, not even elections lost, will stop this criminal president and his GOP party. They will never willingly surrender power. The GOP have also gone so far that now this entire GOP is in that boat Trump created that must run at full throttle to stay in power and avoid prosecution.
March 30th, 2025: It’s good to see resistance, not only from the democrats but from Republicans. Trump and Musk are not popular. But nothing will change until state Governors unite and simply refuse to allow ICE AGENTS and DOGE into their states without court orders.
It has come to the point that federal taxes should be paid to the states to fund the branches of government the Trump is illegally dismantling. Blue state governors have to unite on that issue and protect their citizens from legal or punitive actions by this illegal administration.
MARCH 8, 2025: This is a link to one of my first posts exposing Trump as a traitor. It shows the DICTATOR MAP, and explains why dictators want to end all democracies, and to do so they need the USA to switch sides. Donnie is trying his best to please his boss, Vladimir Putin. His base is starting to catch on as they see their government dismantled with no benefits accruing to the US people. Of course, dictators want a struggling middle class – too busy and broke to fight back. There is a map in this post that all should see. The struggle is much more like the board game RISK than people realize.
Play out the political chess game to end democracy. Trump has made nearly all the moves so far. Trump’s motives are clearly not beneficial to America, its history, its way of governance for 250 years, or the Ameican people. And he’s upside down because they know it.
The pace of change is so quick and almost panicked. Many believe Trump is breaking the economy on purpose. Why? If tariffs drive the cost of goods up, and unemployment trends up, the result is a depression where businesses and consumers both suffer. At that point, Trump can tell the same lie that Castro told Cubans. Castro said he would give the businesses to the people, in a sort of communistic way. It was a lie. Cuba went fascist. Same in Hungary. That’s the real way tis can happen. Cookie cutter cyber war government takeover.
Trump’s hinted at this phony communistic scheme once already. He says he’ll save money with DOGE by ending federal jobs and share the wealth with Americans. But when companies fail and people cannot afford essentials, he and his billionaire buddies will force industry to sell out to Trump and his allies by using that lie. It all works because the companies are public companies, and beholden to their stock holders. But I believe that will be the lie that breaks Trump’s hold on the MAGA base. Big business is bigger than MAGA. I believe a quasi-Scarface last act is coming. I hope its not a cyber attack. But its very likely. Cyber wars end when they get physical, – like a grid or national banking system going down.
Having said that, this is not a game. This is serious. This will be the last act in effectuating Trump’s mission to end the United States. Think chess moves ahead. They are.
Please. If you have not read this post before, pass it on. Wrap your head around it. It’s sloppy. But we are cattle in the pen, Jews in the ghettos, if we just continue to have Oscars, watch TV and welcome baseball. We are at war, Americans. Act like you know it. Our foreign enemies and their opportunistic domestic allies know they are at war with democracy. Democracy is ruining their take the world plans.
MARCH 1, 2025: The Zelensky debacle, broadcasted world-wide, embarrases America and the Americans who voted for him. House Speaker Mike Johnson says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have to resign following a heated exchange in the Oval Office last week.
Acually, it is the opposite. Trump, Vance and Johnson should step down after the clown show they put with Zelensky. No respectful leader should ever visit with Trump again. And they may not. Oh sure, the dictators will be kocking at the White House door soon enough, but those treasonous meetings will be all behind closed doors.
Europe is certainly getting the Ukraine mineral deal now. They are organizing for it right now. Britain is ON BOARD for nuclear help. They have given up on the USA until this dunce and his sycophants are out of office. And so has the rest of the free world.
The American dollar will tank. Inflation will become worse here than it is in Europe, which will experience a revival. And of course, we will be closer to WW3 under Trump because that guy actually believes if he has to die, it’s okay of the rest of the world dies with him.
The movie in Donnie’s mind, which we have all been forced to watch for the last eight years, mainly due to not recognizing the enemies in our midst in governnment and media, ends two ways: with Trump as the hero, or with Trump riding the nuclear bomb to blow the world up, yelling yipee-i-oh, like in the last scene of It’s a Mad Mad World.
Again, I ask all people of good will to read my post on the easiest solution for the United States. I call it STATES UNITED. Resistance starts with you, and then the governors and state power. There’s plenty of that if we organize and insist.
I ask people who voted for Trump to publicly admit they may have made a mistake – unless of course, they are okay with losing their “social security” – and I mean that in the literal sense, of feeling secure as a society.
………..
Everything the new Trump/DOGE administration is doing, without exception, has been designed to make things worse for all Americans because Russia’s goal is to destroy America since about 1956. Donald Trump is negating the efforts of the greatest generation quickly. Who closes the Consumer Protection Agency? The enemies of everyday Americans, that’s who. All because we don’t see bombs, does not mean we are not at war. We are. We are losing fast. But it does not have to be that way. Action before April 15 is needed. I am revealing a subtle plan to end Trumpism in 60 days.
The visual meme below was branded in 2017 at the Helsinki summit. The Supreme Court is the the ultimate protection that Donald Trump and his dictator friends are relying on. That means part of any successful counter cyber war effort must insist that certain rulings of this Supreme Court not be respected. This alone will prove we mean business. That requires governors take charge and create laws that instruct their citizens to pay for the services that Trump and DOGE are ending out of taxes previously paid the the federal government. The meme can be “taxation without representation is thievery”.
The firing of FBI agents; the firing of federal employees; the ending of aid to our allies, while stating that Russia is no longer the enemy; the lack of attention to public health, the mere threat of tariffs, all are killing the US economy, raising inflation and making it clear Trump does not care about Americans and is working to fulfill our enemies agenda.
America’s enemies now have a man who they have compromised. We must assume Trump has been taped during his traitorous discussions with dictators. Think like the greatest generation had to people. This means Trump must do what Putin wants to keep the full truth about the depth of his compromat from coming out. In general, Trump will now do anything to keep the full truth from going public, because he knows, if the full truth came, out he will be branded as a traitor, even among his supporters.
I will be adding the latest entries at the top of this post, and bolddating them. Trump is stumbling our country into a fascist oligarcy, like they have in Hungary and Russia. Those new to my post may want to read this by dated posts from the bottom up.
In January of 2017, I warned my readers and representatives that treason was afoot at Russia if you’re listening. Below is our last best hope to stave off complete surrender via force. It is coming, – like a stage four cancer, if we continue to just talk, hoping for 2016, without launching a pro-active plan as radical as our domestic enemies are rolling out right now.
2/18 What is Donald Trump’s Greatest Strength, and How Do We Take It Away?
Tonight Rachel Maddow proved she gets how to fight Trumpism . I sent her this email:
Political science. Someone finally said it. Where is our political science war room? The GOP has one. It may be in Russia, but some mastermind is chess moves ahead of the dems in strategy. It’s good you started the political science discussion tonight. More on this thought line is sorely needed.
Trump’s biggest strength is his ability convince his base that he speaks the truth, cares about his them, and is working to make things better for them. Selling that lie is Trump’s “Sampson’s hair”.
What could make the people who voted for Trump not like him? What news event can be created by political scientists with good intentions that could amplify the sentiment that Donald Trump is not to be trusted?
Large political changes always come down to a confrontation or shootout. It can be a physical showdown, but usually many people die in those. I prefer this cyber counter attack to be a transactional showdown. If done right, it can end Trumpism in sixty days. Hitler undid Germany’s democracy in just under two months. Fascicts move fast, grab offices. and then, think “what are they going to do to stop us?”
Suppose the governors of blue states formed a union to hire the fired FBI agents. The federal government can’t tell a state not to hire people to keep their citizens safe. Well, they could say that, but it won’t land well with most people in any states, including red states.
How do we pay for this “States United” line in the sand, called the State’s United Bureau of Investigation? It comes down to a transactional adjustment to the states united tax policies. They write in that .6% of any tax payer’s federal tax is to be sent to the state, not the Federal Government, for the state’s treasury to be paid to staff a constitutionally legitimate bureaus of investigations. That’s what the federal government spends on the FBI – .6% of the budget. So it is legit. No double taxation. The blue states don’t want to be protected b Kash Patel, an insurrectionist loyal to a traitorous Jefferson Davis of our times. And they do not have to.
And then, the States United warrant that they will protect and defend any citizen who, having made that .6% payment to the state, and withheld it from the Federal government, and is subsequently sued or subpoenaed by the federal government. What can Trump’s feds do about an entire state withholding .6% of their taxes to pay for needed protection? Not much. The states united can protect them from all law suits by the govenment and from abeing arrested, and they can’t sue 50 million households in California, New York and Illinois.
What states form this union? Basically, it will be the blue states. First should be the big blue states of California, New York and Illinois. Those three alone are nearly 30% of the country. Colorado will join next. Think of them like the original colonies. Before you know it, Trumpism will be financially dead and then dead in reality.
The people of America will wake up and see through Trumpism, as soon as they see hope that it can be defeated. We must create an event to give the people hope and the hope we inspire empowers people to speak out without fear.
Hitler rallied his movement with a fire in the German Congress. Trump’s J6 event was the tip of the spear for his fascist movement. We need to create a moment of total resistance, in a way like J6, but not violent – on principle and finances. That moment will inspire a movement to fight the domestic enemies we see in our government – all of whom are disqualified by the 14th Amendment to hold any government, military or judicial office. Hiring the FBI agents can be such a moment.
Going along won’t work. Legalise is way too slow. We need to grab the hearts of dems and Trump voters, and I think hiring the fired in the FBI is a good place to start. Everybody knows we need good people in our Bureaus of Investigation, and not people loyal to a would-be king.
2/18 Donald Trump Seems to be Trying To End the Russia-Ukraine War without Ukraine at the Table.
Today Thom Hartmann wrote : Why are so many Republican politicians and their friends adopting and promoting openly Nazi symbols and slogans?
Is it a shout-out to the hardcore racists and haters that make up the GOP’s base? Or a proclamation that the end-goal of Republican governance is the destruction of American democracy, perhaps in deference to Vladimir Putin? How about it’s being an attempt to scare people old or well-educated enough to remember or know what Nazism inevitably leads to?
And why are America’s mainstream media so unwilling to even report on, much less discuss, all the Nazi and neo-Nazi references surrounding Trump and today’s captive Republicans?
I just want to remind my readers that this was apparent to me in June of 2016, when Trump said “Russia, if you’re listening”. It was ignored by Obama, his AG, Holder, HRC and Biden. That was the easest moment to detect and brand Trump’s movement as a political cancer and that a real political science mastermind, Vladimir Putin, was calling the shots.
So it should come as no surprise that Putin is meeting with Trump again. Be assured, Putin is chess moves ahead. He probably already has our nuclear secrets. The USA is over folks. 1776-2024. Nice run.
However the the States United are not yet conquered, unless the states accept that we must “endure” four years of a party that is constitutionally disqualified to serve via the 14th sec 3 and don’t fight back creatively. They can’t be afraid to break some eggs. The enemy certainly is not.
It’s time for blue state governors to form a union. Their citizens will cheer this on. So will many in red states. Americans are scared and they should be. We must reject everything the GOP is trying to do as if it has no effect at all in the states that voted against Trump and have governors willing to fight this cyber war. California. New York. Illinois. Colorado. It’s time to state the entire GOP is barred from having any effect in the states that hold the 14th was violated. It’s time to declare that it’s not only Trump that is barred from holding office, but every politician, justice or judge that has supported, aided or comforted Trump’s movement. It’s time now to form this union and tell ICE they are not allowed in their states. without search warrants. It’s time to hire the fired FBI agents and form our own FBI.
This GOP party will not allow the 2026 election to be fair. This is our last chance. Newsome. Pritzger. Houchul. Start this today.
REAL RESISTANCE THAT OUR DOMESTIC ENEMIES CANNOT STOP, STARTS HERE >
2/12/2025 Democratic Leaders Will Soon Be Trump’s Navalnys
Blue State Governors – Start Hiring the Federal Agents and Civil Servants Trump is Firing!
2/10/2025Blue State governors need to be able to declare victory over Trumpism in the states that want no part of Trumpism. Let the states that voted for Trump, keep Donnie, Musk and his band on marauding Musketeers. Let the red state centrists worry that the blue states are about to abandon them! If MAGA people did not feel empowered to hate dems, they would have the time to focus on how little Trumpism does for them. Smoke and mirrors.
Let the red states have the president and policies they voted for, but let the blue states have their own agendas and policies. It can be done without breaking up. Just let the states pay for their own agencies and let the tax dollars that went to the federal government to cover said closed or assaulted agencies, go to all the states. More state taxes, less federal taxes. Everyone can get their way. Red state citizens will sooner learn they made poor choices, than if left to stew in Trump’s pot of hate for four more years.
It starts with one issue, just as it did with the Boston Tea Party in 1773. That protest was against the Tea Act of 1773, which taxed tea imported from the East India Company. The colonists believed the tax was an example of “taxation without representation”. That act became the iconic symbol of American independence and protest.
What I am about to say next is hard to configure so it lands softly. Donald Trump’s January 6th event is to MAGA people what the Boston Tea Act was to the colonists. In that one way, it was genius – evil genius, but genius. The problem is, it was unconstitutional as the 14th Amendment states clearly that no one who took place in J6, or supported those that did, or even “comforted” insurrectionists, cannot hold any government office in the USA. The SCOTUS members that ignored the constitution all lost their status as justices onthe day they issued thier rulings that J6 was not an insurrection, and comforted the actual insurrectionists we all saw on that day, including Trump. SO the only way out, for now, is to declare we will not respect the authority of any government officials who back Trump.
There is still an opportunity for the governors of blue states to form a union, just as the colonists did, and insist they do not recognize any member of the Republican Party who supports Donnie Trump as actual office holders. That renders everything the GOP says, and actions they or Trump take, as words and actions of mere citizens with no authority in our constitutional government. January 6th is a gift to democrats, but so far, they have failed to unwrap the present. They seem to be afraid to unwrap that present. And, by the way, the Germans did exactly what I described above to the Nazi party members, and many cited the US Constitution in their arguments.
Republicans in Congress are not respecting what American courts or the constitution says. Fortunately, there is neither a need nor reason to waste time getting all legal on the Republicans. Their incompetence is creating opportunities to fight back, but only if we can popularize our cause because of these “events”.
The firing of tens of thousands of long-trusted public agents presents another January 6th present for those who prefer a country based on laws and justice for all. There are twenty-two states suing the Trump Administration over ending the NIH to the detriment of their citizens. The union has already begun. Just take it further.
Agents at the NHI, FBI, USAID, the DOE are out of work, making America less safe. The governors of states that don’t like Trump’s firing of American federal employees who were doing their jobs to keep us all safer, heathier and smarter, can re-hire these agents and form their own State run Bureau of Investigations, Departments of Health and Education and USAID Departments? They can! So thats not really a break up, is it? It’s a financial and govermental distancing from the party that we deem to be insurrection comforters. They cannot deny they are insurrection supporters. Their president just pardoned insurrectionists. That’s beyond comforting. That’s basically enrolling them in your personal vendetta. And if the SCOTUS disagrees, they can also state they don’t recognize two or three justices because they also comfort insurrectionsists by their prior rulings.
If the agents could afford to work for free, there would be no reason for the next step in the ending of Trumpism. But agents are people, and they have survival needs, just as we all do. So they will need to be funded. That I am suggesting is for state governors to pardon any citizens who deduct certain allowed percentages from their April 15 tax reform, to pay for the agents that Trump is firing to come and work in the blue states.
I did some math. its not a very large percentage. USAID was .6% of the budget. The FBI closer to .2%. The US Department of Education spent 268 Billion in 2024 which was about 3.7 % of the federal government’s total spending. This made it the sixth highest-funded federal agency. The National Institute of Health (NIH) has a budget of 48 Billion.
Elon Musk can afford to pay the workers at all those four institutions for a full year, and still be worth over 200 billion.
All five of these necessary institutions could be funded by states making a laws that allow their citizens to deduct 5% from their federal taxes to pay for these institutions to stay open – and protect them if their citizens get sued, or arrested for follwing their states laws and guidance. The blue states’ police forces will not allow such arrests and their courts will not honor red state subpoenas on matters of deducting federal taxes to pay for these needed institutions.
And that pretty much does it.What can they do? MAGA will be just as handicapped as we seem to be now with such an out-of-the-box response to our country’s constittional crises. We can say, go ahead, enforce it back to Trump.
it will never come to bullets sent back our way, just as it did not come down to bullets send the way of J6 protestors and insurrectionists. Once they back down on violence, the fight reaches its climax, the dovorce is announced – not along party lines – but along the lines of hiring those they are firing and keeping our country running.
By 2026, this could become very poular with people on all sides of the American political spectrum. Let s start something they don’t expect – something the world does not expect, but quietly wishes it would happen. Start this conversation and then do something big. Yes. Big, the way j6 was, I guess. But for the right reason. To save our democracy.
2/8/2025 Last night I called into John Fugelsang’s Tell Me Everything radio show. John is a fierce fighter for the causes of the actual citizens of the USA, regardless of party affiliation. I spoke about my two-state solution, and he countered with the USA is like a Siamese twin with two bodies but one heart, so it cannot be separated and survive. I had to reflect on that metaphor. I concluded some partial break up is the fastest and surest way back to one united country. This is what I came up with.
The break up can be issue-to-issue, step-by-step, or on-demand. In fact, I now think that’s the better way, so let me explain by example.
Let’s take the latest issue of USAID. Right now there are thousands of workers who were doing good things for others in foreign countries, who lost their jobs. A union of governors declare they will pay them to stay on their jobs and continue their good work. How they pay the workers becomes the issue.
The budget of USAID is 50 billion. In fiscal year 2024, the US federal government spent 6.75 trillion, which was more than it collected in revenue. This resulted in a deficit of $1.8 trillion. So we spent 8.5 trillion. The math is that we spent .06% of our tax dollars on helping other countries, about half of 1%.
The union of states declares that .06% of tax their citizens tax dollars due April 15 be withheld for the federal government taxes, and be paid to the states who disburse it to the US AID workers. That same formula is then used to sustain whatever agencies Trump’s gang of government destroyers seek to break up or restructure with loyalists, which we deem to be both unconstitutional and unsafe. That keeps a real FBI going in blue states ( not an FBI where the agents are loyal to Trump.) Those displaced by Trump’s purge get immediately re-hired by the states to protect their states alone, and that group of united states.
The red states can keep the loyalists. Their citizens wont like it. They will wise up fast and Trumpism will die within a few months. The elections on 2026 will a landslide so large they can’t rig it. It comes down to states declaring they will defend their citizens in court if they withhold the % of taxes needed to keep the agencies that Trump is closing or restructuring with loyalists. Or them saying, go ahead “try to enforce it” . We won’t allow your police in our states.
“Taxation without representation is tyranny” was a slogan used by American Colonists to protest British Rule before the American Revolution. It expressed the colonists’ belief that being taxed by a government they didn’t have a say in was unconstitutional. Americans on both sides understand this. Government is all about how to spend tax dollars. So this is how we fight back, for real.
And that pretty much does it.What can they do? MAGA will be just as handicapped as we seem to be now with such an out-of-the-box response to our country’s constittional crises. We can say, go ahead, enforce it back to Trump.
it will never come to bullets sent back our way, just as it did not come down to bullets send the way of J6 protestors and insurrectionists. Once they back down on violence, the fight reaches its climax, the dovorce is announced – not along party lines – but along the lines of hiring those they are firing and keeping our country running.
And you know? by 2026, that could become very poular with people on all sides of the American political spectrum. let s start something they don’t expect – something the world does not expect, but quietly wishes it would happen. Start this conversation and then do something big. Yes. Big, the way j6 was, I guess. But for the right reason. To save our democracy.
2/8/2025 Last night I called into John Fugelsang’s Tell Me Everything radio show. John is a fierce fighter for the causes of the actual citizens of the USA, regardless of party affiliation. I spoke about my two-state solution, and he countered with the USA is like a Siamese twin with two bodies but one heart, so it cannot be separated and survive. I had to reflect on that metaphor. I concluded some partial break up is the fastest and surest way back to one united country. This is what I came up with.
The break up can be issue-to-issue, step-by-step, or on-demand. In fact, I now think that’s the better way, so let me explain by example.
Let’s take the latest issue of USAID. Right now there are thousands of workers who were doing good things for others in foreign countries, who lost their jobs. A union of governors declare they will pay them to stay on their jobs and continue their good work. How they pay the workers becomes the issue.
The budget of USAID is 50 billion. In fiscal year 2024, the US federal government spent 6.75 trillion, which was more than it collected in revenue. This resulted in a deficit of $1.8 trillion. So we spent 8.5 trillion. The math is that we spent .06% of our tax dollars on helping other countries, about half of 1%.
The union of states declares that .06% of tax their citizens tax dollars due April 15 be withheld for the federal government taxes, and be paid to the states who disburse it to the US AID workers. That same formula is then used to sustain whatever agencies Trump’s gang of government destroyers seek to break up or restructure with loyalists, which we deem to be both unconstitutional and unsafe. That keeps a real FBI going in blue states ( not an FBI where the agents are loyal to Trump.) Those displaced by Trump’s purge get immediately re-hired by the states to protect their states alone, and that group of united states.
The red states can keep the loyalists. Their citizens wont like it. They will wise up fast and Trumpism will die within a few months. The elections on 2026 will a landslide so large they can’t rig it. It comes down to states declaring they will defend their citizens in court if they withhold the % of taxes needed to keep the agencies that Trump is closing or restructuring with loyalists. Or them saying, go ahead “try to enforce it” . We won’t allow your police in our states.
“Taxation without representation is tyranny” was a slogan used by American Colonists to protest British Rule before the American Revolution. It expressed the colonists’ belief that being taxed by a government they didn’t have a say in was unconstitutional. Americans on both sides understand this. Government is all about how to spend tax dollars. So this is how we fight back for real.
Trump will, by force destroy America. It is his mission now, whether he wants it or not, because he took election aid from Putin, and so did the GOP. They are all constitutionally disqualified to serve via their support of the J6 insurrection.
If the dems don’t have to nerve to do a full break up, then break up on the issues that matter most to them. This may result in law suits, but they are coming anyway. In the end, blue states need to be able to say: “fine, you keep your Trump as president, Trump loyalists and DOGE teenagers. We’re going to keep the professionals in security hired and engaged for our own state’s security, in national defense, foreign aid, teachers, and whatever the jobs may be.
I am 100% sure this will result in the citizens of the red states waking up and realizing they are being misled and lied to much quicker than going the full fascist/nazi route, which is where this is heading very quickly if we don’t get creative in the ways I am outlining. The firing of the head of the Federal Election Committee should re-enforce what I have been saying: the elections of 2026 will not be allowed to be fair. The GOP is a gang of criminals now. All of them. They know they are supporting the end of our country as it has been for the last 250 years. They are in too deep and cannot back away.
We are already in a Civil War. Dems just don’t know ityet.
The surest way out is to start the fight, by a union of governors ordering their citizens to stop paying taxes to Trump’s government on the taxation without representation meme and refusing to cooperate with ICE agents. It worked in 1770’s for the same basic reasons it would work today. The red states need the blue states more than the other way around. Go to the last post for more inspiration on this strategy. The discussion of this is critical. It can’t be only the right that shoots memes across the bow.
Elon Musk’s fork in the roadis the turn to authoritarianism. That movement is traitorous, and they know it. They have already broken laws and commited crimes ( at least against the current Constitution) and cannot turn back. They would fear scrutiny on their crimes, if the dems ever get back in power, and they always will. So they cannot allow this. That’s why they are gathering information.
Therefore, this cannot resolve with an election because they cannot afford to lose. Just like Putin, they cannot let elections ever be fair ever again. Therein lays the treason to our founding principles. Those outraged in media and politics will be punished and banished. That’s why they are gathering information on US citizens right now. I can’t say this enough. They can leak read only data. A crooked AG and IRS can put people in jail without real evidence.
We need a union of governors. I am blue in the face from saying this. There must be a physical resistance, and that should be tomorrow, before their CIA and FBI people get confirmed any more. Their motives are clear. They will be turning off CNN and MSNBC and anyone who says “nasty” thing about Trump. We will have many Navalny’s here. No one will be safe.
Are Americans Like Dodo Birds?
( This widely known historical account is basically from Wikipedia ) The last sighting of the now extinct dodo bird was in 1662.The dodo bird lived in isolation on an island in the East Indian Ocean near Madagascar. They had no predators nor did they recognize humans as predators when sailors began to visit that island in the 1600’s. The inability to recognize enemies, coupled with the inability to fly, made the dodo and their eggs easy prey for sailors and the animals they brought with them.
We don’t want US history to record this: The last widely accepted sighting of an American democracy was in 2024. Americans at that time were collectively unable to recognize Trumpism as a traitorous enemy with its focus on the destruction of the democratic party and democracy itself in order to hold on to power forever by force for generations.
So wake up Americans – on both sides! ( Whatever “both sides” means. I don’t see two sides in our hospitals or grocery stores. Do you?)
This is the last chance we are going to get save what began here in 1776.
2/6/25 After lying to America about project 2025, Donald Trump and his Republican minions voted to install Russell Vought as head of the budget in the Congress. It’s an attempt to rob the majority of Americans of any representation in their government on the issues they care about most, for success and/or survival of their familes. Taxation without representation was the foundation for the movement to create for this country in 1776. Ben Franklin would not approve of the power grab we are witnessing today. But he would not be surprised. He actually warned us. Look it up.
2/3/25 Trump announces a trade war with Mexico and Canada. The market crashes. Bitcoin crashes. When Trump hears the outcry from the public and realizes that he was lowering the value of his own BTC and meme coins, Donnie calls it off. The market restored. He and Musk take a profit because they knew ahead of time. It’s like knowing the outcome of the Super Bowl, before it happens. There will be more false announcements.
Now Trump’s pretending he did it all to get drugs off the streets. What would get drugs off the streets would be to offer our youngsters a real shot at a life. And btw, the kids that OD the most are rich spoiled kids in GOP states. But he does not want to do make things better for people because creating wealth and opportunity is the last thing Trump and his billionaire buddies, here and in Russia, do for anyone who is not financially allied.
This is not a president. This is a would-be king acting entitled, like a king. Freedom or a kingdom? It’s time to choose. But freedom came first. It’s why the word first resembles free. FR People knew when the word free was created, that before they were conquered, they were more free to steer and enjoy their own lives. Freedom and kingdom are opposite words. It’s time to choose.
1/31/24Trump pauses MLK Day and Federal Holidays that mark celebrations of minority causes. Then he announced tariffs to start or increase Monday. Trump’s tariffs will increase the cost of living for all Americans, but particularly for his voters. This will be felt next week, and the stock market is reacting already. I just got out totally.
Clearly, Trump is on a mission to destroy America. Should it come as a surprise? No. Ask yourself this: do you think you can ask for election help from a dictator who murders his political opposition, Vladimir Putin, and then walk away without repaying him? Do you think Putin is a friend to Americans, and our 250 year-old democracy? It follows that Trump and his allies are traitors to our country, and we have given them immense power. But as a union of independent states, we can refuse to accept the results of an election that does not comply with the 14th.
1/29/24 What Trump did today, by trying to create a universe wherein projects that “do not align” with his fascist agenda do not get funded, is his way of saying blue states will not be treated the same as red states. After all, the red states usually align with Trump’s agenda, ( sometimes not) while the blue states rarely align.
Blue States must distance themselves from Trump’s federal government ASAP.
It would be one thing if we were living in an age wherein American’s personal economy is on solid foundation, as it was in the 1950s, – but we are not. No need to prove that. We know that in our bones.
But not only are US citizens under financial pressure, the US treasury is as well, with record debt. The money pie is only so big and Trump has promised to pay off his billionaire donor class. He’s not making more pie. So Trump’s plan must be to take from the democratic states and given to the red states that voted for him. If his base suffers the same as or more than the blue states, Trump and the GOP are done in 2026. They already know that.
And that means that the entire GOP must remain loyal to Trump, not to save his neck, but to save their own necks during the 2026 elections. The GOP simply cannot allow democrats to take back power, – and they will not. ( Google Joseph Goebbel on democracy. I have wriiten it too many times. ) The 2026 elections will be as rigged as the vote for Pete Hegeseth was.
Therefore, the quicker we stop allowing federal troops to enter into blue states to carry on business that their voters do not approve of, the better. Someone has to show some spine. A blue state governor or senator, or an alliance of said statesmen, must be formed. A firewall. They must refuse to acknowledge Trump is president due to the 14th which clearly says he is not legitimate. And that two members of the court are also not legitimate for the same reasons: supporting, aiding, pardoning or comforting insurrectionists has no place in power in a legitimate United States. They are as disqualified as an eight-year old brat holding the POTUS office.
We must call for a new special presidential election, and disqualify any candidates to serve in this new union who have backed the head insurrectionist, or his allies. Other parties are fine. Cheney is fine. We take all our seated congressmen with us convene elsewhere. And we offer to split the payments to the DOD, and if they refuse, we will create our own DOD. California is a powerhouse by itself.
1/18/25/ We all hear Donald Trump broadcasting things that will not likely happen: buying Greenland, ending birthright citizenship, annexing Canada, invading Panama, etc. But he does have a strategy. It gets people talking about Trump, his brand. In his carnival-barker mind, any advertising is good advertising, and certainly when it’s free. Read on >
I hear dems, MSNBC and CNN making believe their idle chatter alone with get decent Americans to vote Trumpism out in 2026. But I say look to Hungary, where I have known some hard-working people there for twenty five years. They have elections, but it does not matter who you vote for- Orban and his people win. One Hungarian woman I know who helped produce the Oscar-winning movie Midsommar told me “it was amazing how quickly everyone’s spirit was broken. Orban quickly controlled the media, purse strings and police, just like Hiter did. But did not go the route of rounding up and persecuting Jews. People were still afraid to speak up. And now, there is no way back that we can even envision. So we do not even try. We have our lives to live. Things are tough enough without speaking out against Orban.
What makes Americans think are different than Hungarians or Russians?
Tonight, Trump’s Senate voted to confirm a recovering alcoholic to be America’s Secretary of Defense. Trump can’t be thinking that was the best man for the job. So what is he thinking? We should know the answer. It is as obvious as J6 was an insurrection attempt and not a peaceful protest. Trump prefers someone unqualified and with baggage, because that is the type of person that has nowhere else to go. Trump can control him. Fox News also seeks to hire the less qualified newscasters because the Murdochs want to control the message. Billionaires don’t want to hire people who can think for themselves. That’s the take away. That way they get their agenda.
I really cannot stomach another two years of Democrats asking for money, blah blah on TV, and spinning their wheels defending our democracy in the courts. I can already tell 2026 won’t likely go any better than the Hegeseth nomination. Until I hear a better plan that can work, and not rely on 2026 elections, I won’t support anything but a two-state solution. I think this is the only way, or at least it is the surest way back to a united America.
The main problem is, and has been since 2016: the GOP has declared war on the US constitution, citizens’s rights, equal justice onder the law, women’s rights and the right to pursue happiness in the manner on chooses, immigrants and more. They have declared war on America as we have known it. And Democrats have neither declared war back nor even recognized that we are at war.
Biden also could have declared war any GOP who even “comforted ” insurrrectionists. It would have been more legal than much of what Trump is doing today, one week into his presidency. Biden made no bold moves because someone convinced him he would lose at the SCOTUS level, as they made it clear they would not defend the 14th. But Biden did not need the SCOTUS. Two justices, Thomas and Alito, also comforted insurrectionists. He could have arrested them in the name of national security, just like Trump is doing to brown people who are found without citizenship papers.
So why can’t Trump be president of the Red States, and someone else be president of the Blue States? Blue States can announce a special election and elect their own president. They can also tell their people to stop paying taxes to “Trumplandia” or “America Red, and then the blue states get all their consitutents tax money. They could form a pact. They could pay the military for protection or self protect. California makes the greatest percent of the weaponry anyway.
I’d like to hear serious media people and politicians, who want to keep America a democracy, start talking about a two-state solution for the United States. If it sounds outlandish, all the better.
A serious conversation about a national divorce would serve as guardrails against the most severe actions and crimes by Trump and his oligarchal allies within red states. That is one main goal of crafting such a pact, – to create barriers for would-be fascists. The other is creating hope. You can’t win an argument in our current congress. It’s purchased by Trump and company.
Even if a national divorce, did not come to pass, the conversation itself would be a major plus in the war versus fascism.
This is not hindsight. Many reporters, and political scientists, warned Biden to declare war on what appeared to be Russian interference in our 2016 elections, welcomed by a candidate and a political party. When Biden and Obama allowed that to go unchallenged, they opened the floodgates to oligarchy. Germany in 1945 immediately declared no member of the Nazi party could even be in their government again. I’d say no Trump supporter can be in the new America blue country, whatever we call it.
Most everyday Americans now know we have become divided as a nation. Our unique citizens divided syndrome has always been here on some level. But, we have never had a president who led an insurrection and calls decent tax-paying Americans who don’t respect him “enemies of the state”. Trump is a divider, not a uniter. He cannot be allowed to run the USA because he does not intend to do good for its people and he has never intended to do good for other people.
And so, the United States cannot function well under Trumpism unless blue states suck up and go along with him. I hope that is not going to happen.
We must learn from history faster than Trump can roll out executive orders. Therefore, we have no choice but to start the conversation about a national divorce. The purpose of this post is to start a conversation as means of regain political power. It’s not easy to heal a broken marriage. But that is what we are dealing with today: “the Untied States of America” .
Trump has already pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization. This does not represent the blue states. More than 50% of Americans want most of the things the blue state voters want. We have a mandate on most of the policies. And team blue was bamboozled by the Electoral College, the two senators per state thing, and SCOTUS games. We can do better and I do not think we can afford to wait. The climate and health issues won’t wait for sure.
Talking Points for the Conversation
The far west and northeast states are blue. The rest of the USA is pretty much red, except for Georgia, which is split very closely. My sense is that each country, say America Blue and America Red, votes for their own presidents, Houses and Congresses. Both the new country’s constitutions start the same. Nothing changes for citizens on day one. There can be no interstate taxes. Freedom to travel is guaranteed. If each country’s federal constitution and state laws change, that is when things change for citizens. People still vote to have their own presidents every four years. There can even be a other parties in the elections.
The logical states to start this strategic conversation are California, Illinois and New York. The governors of those states should immediately form abreak glass in case of emergency pact. Public letters should be sent to the governors of states that voted for Biden to help stimulate the pact. It does not have to be enacted unless Trump crosses the line with an action blue states deem a bridge too far. Bu the is already doing that every day. Do we really want Pete Hegeseth in charge of the our blue states defense? We can do better.
I won’t pretend to know all the actions Trump could order, which should be deemed grounds for divorce. ICE raids that don’t insist that immigrants who have not committed crimes against US citizens before deporting them, could be a bridge too far. Others might include: Refusing to help citizens stricken with national disasters. Going after his political enemies, who have committed no crimes. Invading Greenland or the Panama Canal. Lowering taxes on billionaires without also lowering taxes on everyday people in the same ratio.
So a two state solution is the safest, smartest way to get the country back together again. Declare Trump is not a legitimate President due to the 14th. Declare the SCOTUS is not a legitimate SCOTUS because two of its members have comforted insurrectionists. Declare the blue states have formed a union and will not obey the wishes of Donald Trump, and neither will their citizens be asked to pay taxes to a fascist. Declare blue states collect their own taxes, and pay for their own defenses, roads, etc. Freedom to pass people and products from country to country without borders is a given.
Let Trump rule the red states. Let’s see if they like his way of governing. If they do, they can keep him and his family as their lords as long as they like. My sense it that they will be back in two years, not four.
The Fastest Way Back to Making Up is Breaking Up
There is far more wealth in the blue states than the red states. If we had a national divorce, it’s the people in the red states that would come crying back out of necessity. Every two years, reps would get a chance to run on what color they align with, and every six years, same for senators. And of course, America Blue welcomes back Red States but with the proviso than the 14th amendment, sec 3, be enforced in their states, and that no insurrection supporters be allowed to ron for or hold any office, executive, judicial, federal or within their state legislatures – exactly how it is written. That becomes our deal breaker for admission into America Blue.
Today red states are still hopeful Trump will care about them But not caring about others is the Trump family motto. They will know soon. And hispolls are sinking. That started the moment he was sworn in btw.
The big idea is to let Darwinian survival of the fittest states thrive, so that states that are not doing as well for their citizens are forced to learn better ways, or get voted out. This makes a lot more sense than what we have now. Let Trump states experience pure Trumpsim for two years and see how they like who they voted for. The conversation itself would be very healing. The more serious, and the more controversial, the better.
I prepared this graph from non-partisan government statistics. Blue states produce 10% more than red states. We have them financially. Let them have Trump. We don’t have to accept him as our president. He is constitutionaly disqualified. This is different than Bush v Gore. This is democracy vs autocracy and it began at Russia if you’re listening.
THE ENGLISH CODE 