Something has changed in America, and pretending otherwise is no longer safe. If a sitting president can deny, delay, or obfuscate 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. Just like in a football game, there has to be an level playing field with the same rules for both teams in order for the true winner to gain the moral highground to take the reigns of government in a democracy.
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 democracy, or prepare a constitutional, collective response. The publishing of said constitutional, collective response should be created now, well ahead of the midterms, so there is no chance of getting caught flat-footed in November.
One possibility is for the Democratic Governors Association — or a similar alliance of state leaders — to announce today that they are standing together to defend free and fair American elections. An Article Five–style pledge — “you come for one, you come for all” — would signal unity and strength. The purpose would be to prevent foul play and its resulting mayhem in November.
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, depends on citizens choosing representatives who argue and negotiate within agreed rules. Authoritarian systems do not operate that way.
The Founders wrote about “self-evident truths” for a reason. Evidence literally means from what is seen; video hides in the word evidence. And today’s polls reveal most Americans feel they have seen enough. With the midterms approaching, the question is not whether citizens should reject results they don’t like; they should not, of course. 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 totally different: that 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 enact their 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.
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.
Why Trump was ideal to help Russia end American Democracy
Knowledge is power. I was blessed with a full scholarship to U of P in 1966 and studied there through 1971. My favorite two courses were Political Science taught by CJ Burnett, and Russian History taught by Alexander Riasanovsky, who was a political refugee from Russia and has written volumes on all things Russian. I got to thinking that had Trump, a fellow student at Penn in 1968, actually studied that Russian history course at Penn, he might not have sought election help from Putin in 2016, or at least, would have been more skeptical about trusting Putin.
This page is a synopsis what Riasanovsky taught. He was one who knew first-hand and explained things we all should understand these days in easy to understand and colorful ways.
Alexander Riasanovsky’s Core Lens on Russia
He taught that Russian history is driven by:
A chronic, urgent desire to “catch up” to a West they both admire and resent.
That creates a duality:
Admiration → desire for Western technology, industry, recognition
Resentment → anxiety, humiliation, jealousy and an imperial reflex to compensate for those inner feelings
He traced this Russian psychology back to Peter the Great:
Under Peter the Great, Russia forced itself into modernity to avoid becoming Europe’s “backward cousin”.
Successes fueled pride, but gaps fueled paranoia.
Putin plays this chord perfectly:
He needs the West as a foil
His legitimacy depends on portraying Russia as standing upto the West
Any Western advantage = personal insult = retaliation
That was the psychology behind the Russian 2016 election interference:
If Russia can’t rise by achievement, it will rise by sabotage.
Russia’s Identity Crisis He Taught Explicitly
He argued Russia has never resolved:
“Are we European?”
“Are we Asian?”
“Or are we a unique civilization destined to dominate both?”
That uncertainty produced nationalism with an inferiority complex. He told students: “Russia is too big to be ignored and too insecure to be trusted.”
If only a certain Penn undergrad had taken notes…
Someone who studied Riasanovsky would’ve learned:
1️⃣ Russia does not make alliances. It makes leverage. 2️⃣ Gratitude spells weakness in Russia — Putin only believes in debt and dominance. 3️⃣ Helping Trump wasn’t friendship — it was a hook. 4️⃣ Once you take the help they offer, you belong to them forever.
Putin doesn’t care who runs America. He cares that he has a hand on the wheel.
During the Cold War of the 50’s, Khrushchev went on record saying, “We will destroy America without firing a single bullet”. Putin 1s Khrushschev’s disciple.
Riasanovsky taught:
“Russia wants the West divided — and itself essential.”
Divide to defeat; 2016 was a masterclass in that Russian doctrine.
If only Trump had been the studying “type” at Penn, he may have thought more clearly about Putin’s real goals in offering him election help. Instead, he continues to serve as a useful idiot in the arsenal of Russia’s stance against America, the West and the East.
…..
After 30 years of the super powers, Russia, China and the USA not detonating nuclear weapons to “test” them, today, Donald Trump declared the USA will immediately resume nuclear testing. There is talk Russia and China will follow.
A Call for States to Unite Against Authoritarianism
Aug 29, 2025
Dear Reader. Trump’s tariff driven inflation is hitting Americans of all stripes right now and is about to escalate in the fall. Runaway inflation creates the perfect climate for expansion of fascism . A happy, secure, well-to-do citizenry has time, money, dreams and no good reasons to turn to fascism to upset their lives. When Hitler took over, Germany was experiencing hyper-inflation. Russia is a financial mess now. The people behind this unconstitutional insurrectionist coup, know these things. They have a big stake in things not going well for the middle class here.
What I worry about is democrats seem singularly focused on recapturing a majority in the House and Senate. I hope it happens, of course. But we’ve given this administration the guns and the purse strings. And I am 100% sure Trump will allowing cheating on the GOP side, and call the outcome a “steal” if he loses.
I spoke with Ted Lieu last night at the Kiwanas Club in Hermosa. He mentioned that the Trump administration is sensitive to public sentiment. They might be. But that won’t affect Trump’s resolve to stay in power. Trump cannot surrender. Putin will release what he has on him the day he is out of power, or betrays Putin. That’s also why he will never fully commit to Ukraine.
This plan to end Trumpism well before the elections is a two-step strategy. Step one is what Ted Lieu suggested: influence public sentiment. Just so you think about this properly, this is what Trump did in the weeks leading up to J6. J6 was Trump’s seminal event to return to power.
Step two is create our seminal event to rally all Americans to take up the cause to end tarifflation. The Boston Tea Party was the seminal event that led to the creation of the United States. A union of thirteen colonies was created based on a written set of rules called the Constitution, which literally means “stand together”. We need an event we can all stand together on. Ending tarifflation is the best candidate for that unity.
All Americans, left and right, can sense this now. And I hope media starts saying “end tarifflation“, because no one can credibly blame tarifflation on Biden. Trump fully owns that meme. That’s the big idea. We brand the financial stress of inflation in such a way that Trump personally owns it all. We sell it, the way Trump sold Build That Wall. But this meme actually helps Americans.
Once the meme spreads, – and these days that does not take but a few days, the governors of blue states with ports should announce they will stop collecting tariffs until such time Trump’s tariffs are voted on by and approved by Congress as it is written in the Constitution.
I have sent this plan to Newsom, Pritzker and Hochul – and now you have it too.
Gavin Newsom,
The U.S. Constitution grants the power to impose and regulate tariffs to the U.S. Congress, not individual states or the President. Trump has violated that law.
States are sovereign powers. State governors can declare emergencies. They can declare that ports of their states will revert to pre-Trump tariff status until such time that Congress votes to approve the tariffs as the constitution says. What can Trump do about that? Send in his goons to collect unlawful taxes, which is what tariffs are? No American will support that spectre.
Tariffs are very unpopular – both sides. The law suit versus tariffs route is way too long a process. The courts are too easily influenced. Tarifflation is a unique meme four our unique times. The idea to stop collecting tariffs until Congress votes on it has not been floated or tested. Its time for fiscal resistance. Its time for blue state governors to put our money where their mouths are.
Red states may even go along. Their citizens don’t like tariffs either and are beginning to feel the pinch. You end Trumpism quickest by ending his popularity with his own voters.
Tarifflation is a meme that can do this. It’s a cyber war. Words are the weapons.
By ending the collection of Trump’s tariffs and declaring them unconstitutional and illegal until Congress votes on them, you also force the GOP in Congress to cast votes against their own people.
Governors can cease collecting tariffs tomorrow, stating when Congress approves tariffs, they will abide with the all tariffs they approve. That’s a meme that can help in the battle to end Trumpism and save our democracy.
………. end letter to Newsom
There are smarter ways to end Trumpism than waiting for elections that may not be fair or accepted. Key Governors must now step up financially and be willing to organize for financial resistance. They’ll need to form a union, and have one message:
We will not fund democracy’s demise one more day!
……….end tarifflation post
Rejecting ICE without warrants
This masked version of ICE is not popular on either side. They don’t have warrants. They work for an insurrectionist comforter, which Trump became the moment he pardoned convicted insurrectionsists. You dont have to be in the insurrection, to be barred from holding offices in these united states. See Constitution, 14th amendment sec.3 . Many in media know about that, and don’t talk enough about it enough. But democracy’s enemies get it. That’s why Trump is going after Obama. They know this is the legal tree they may likely die on. It’s also why they ban books and want kids to be blind to history. But it all adds to:it’s easier to start the resistance vs Trump as a resistance to ICE.
The justices that ruled J6 was not an insurrection, or that Congress had to vote on the 14th the amendment to enforce it, are also insurrection aiders. The rulings of at least two of nine can be ignored. And their seats should, by rights, be taken from them. Perhaps in due time.
A STATE OF EMERGENCY MUST BE DECLARED IN AUGUST BY GOVERNORS
We need blue state governors to step up now, during summer, when more people are off, and state there is an emergency in their states, and declare they will use all the powers given to state governors to protect their citizens.
With the intention of protecting the peace, and their citizens, and using the 14th sec 3 and emergency power executive orders as legal backup, ICE agents can be met with physical resistance if they come without warrants.
And further, whatever the percentage of the federal budget that ICE is costing the citizens of the dissenting blue states, that same percent the governors can declare to be paid to the states and withheld from the federal government to be used to amp up the state’s defenses and police forces. And they must defend their citizens should the federal government sue. That’s just numbers, – dollars. Not an act of war. But it feels as different was what we are feeling right now about fasicm rising. It feels like democracy fighting back, at last. It should have starfted at “Russia, if you’re listening”. That meant he knew they were.
Ending warrantless ICE can be our seminal political event to end fascism, the way January 6th was to initiute it, and our Boston Tea Party was to end it, or the burning of the German capitol for Hitler, to kick off WW2. Big cycles.
Lesson: New political movements need seminal events.
What’s Trump really going to do if we stop paying for ICE ? Did he worry about what dems would do if he asked people to attack police on J6? He can’t win if he sends the army in vs the police forces of NY, IL, CA, CO, VT, NJ, and any other states that want to start ending this fascist takeover of our country. He can’t win if he actually sends the army in vs the police forces of NY, IL, CA, CO, VT, NJ, and any other states that want to start ending the political cancer that is Trumpism. He loses that game of chicken and Trumpism dies by the dawn’s early light, imo.
And it’s going to get physical anyway, in time. This resistance will not be bloodless. If we are afraid to get hurt, they will find out and use force.
I know Donny. Neither he nor his sons will be there in any conflict zone,so its all good for the Trumps if others end up dead via his orders. And when people see that he is not moved, that becomes his Joey vs Johnny Friendly moment in On the Waterfront. Rachel said to think cinematically. Better now while the people are largely behind ending fascism and many have the summer off.
I would like to see this sort of thing happen this Labor Day weekend too. Filled with speakers and entertainers. At state capitols and online.
Yes. Use the word Liberation. They always use the meme they want the people not to use against them. Citizens United, would be a great name for a new political party right now, but its taken by those who dont want citizens to unite.
A CALL FOR STATE GOVERNORS TO UNITE TO DEFEAT AN AUTHORITARIAN TAKEOVER OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | MAY 2025
The attack on American democracy, initiated in 2016 with foreign enemy assistance, has metastasized into a widespread, coordinated effort to undermine America’s 250-year-old constitutional order. Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican Party continue to push this agenda, and waiting until 2026 or 2028 is no longer a viable option.
The 14th Amendment, Section 3, explicitly bars insurrectionists—and those who aid or comfort them—from holding public office. Yet many current Republican officials in Congress have supported or defended the January 6 insurrection, violating this clause. If we truly value the rule of law, this must be acknowledged and acted upon.
Trump and the GOP have created a machine that cannot afford to lose power; doing so would expose them to legal accountability. Their current strategy involves gutting federal institutions, rigging elections, and ensuring permanent one-party control. This is not speculative—it is unfolding before our eyes.
A Blueprint for Peaceful Resistance
Blue state governors must act now. The path forward doesn’t require civil war, but it does require coordinated and assertive legal and financial resistance.
Step 1: Form a Governors’ Pact States like California, New York, and Illinois should form a constitutional alliance—“States United”—to protect democratic governance, federal workers, and core public institutions.
Step 2: Redirect Taxation with Representation Governors should allow their citizens to redirect financially justified portions of their federal tax contributions to fund state-controlled versions of federal agencies being dismantled or decimated by Trump. This is not tax evasion—it’s a constitutional stand against illegitimate federal authority. If they are concerned about the legality of such a move, they should be reminded that Trump routinely calls certain situations “emergencies” when they are not, and then uses his power to “protect” the people, to do things that harm and will harm US citizens. further, states are also sovereign seats of powers, like the federal government, and their governors swear oaths to protect state citizens.
Step 3: Rehire Fired Federal Agents Create state-based equivalents of agencies like the FBI, DOJ, USAID, and the Department of Education. These agencies can be staffed by professionals purged by the Trump administration. States have the right to protect their citizens and enforce their laws.
Step 4: Limit Federal Overreach Refuse cooperation with ICE and other federal forces acting without court orders or violating constitutional rights. If the federal government attempts to intervene, states must stand united, even if physically, and defend their citizens and sovereignty under the Constitution.
Why Now?
Trumpism thrives on fear and misinformation. Its leaders will not stop until all opposition is silenced. The GOP knows they cannot win fairly, so they are rewriting the rules. We must meet this moment with decisive action—not symbolic gestures and discussions. Waiting for midterms is not a game plan.
This is not about secession. It’s about using the state’s sovereign power to preserve constitutional governance and provide a legal, moral, and operational alternative to authoritarian rule. No one voted for fascism, but that’s what we are getting if we just wait and see. The elections of 2026 will either be rigged, Gerrymandered, or its results simply ignored by this power-crazed Republican party.
Precedent and Urgency
Just as the Boston Tea Party protested taxation without representation, Americans today must oppose being governed by those who have violated the Constitution. January 6 was not just a riot—it was a fascist assault on our republic. The Supreme Court’s refusal to act on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment further erodes its legitimacy. Supreme Court justices are also not exempt from the provisions of the 14th Amendment. Their anti-democratic rulings can be ignored by states on that basis.
Blue states have the people, the economy, and the moral authority. By forming a union of democratic governance, we can create a peaceful but powerful resistance that weakens Trumpism at its core.
Final Thoughts
Trump’s efforts have created a national emergency. It is the largest emergency we have faced since WW2. The longer we wait, the more power Trump’s anti-democratic armed assault gains power. Let red state politicians embrace Trump if they so choose—but blue state governors and congressmen should protect their citizens by respecting and enforcing the constitution as it is written.
The majority of citizens within red states are no longer supportive of Trump’s agenda. If we lead with courage and clarity, the people will demand that their interests, not the interests of billionaires and corporations, be supported with their tax dollars. That’s the populist movement that can turn this around so democracy prevails in America.
Joseph Aronesty is an ecom pioneer who shared a class with Donald Trump at Wharton in 1968 and worked in his orbit from 1986-99 in Atlantic City NJ. He has been writing about the danger Trump poses since 1996.
The Dictator Map. A dictator map was first posted at this blog in 2017, when Trump was in Helsinki. It was then I was 100% sure Trump was compromised and who did it. And this is why Trump will never cross Putin and never should have been given a chance to hold any office in the USA.
Written January 8 2025, twelve days to the end of America, as we have known it.
The resistance has failed. Our cowardly president is afraid to go to war with a president-elect allied with Russia and the dictators of the world. The autocrats are out-numbered , so it is not a written alliance. It is the spoken alliance of a few sociopathic men who share the same vision for their own lives; a vision of being at the very top of the monetary chain in a country. It’s a kings dream as well; taxing the middle class to make them relatively poorer than the uber-wealthy, and render their progeny, to be more ignorant and compliant. The majority of the SCOTUS is in on the deal.
Before I knew about the 14th Amendment, sec 3, – which bars insurrectionists or those who aid or comfort them, from holding any office, including any judges or justices who aid and comfort the enemies of democracy, I wrote about the Espionage Act. It is still on the books. Julian Assange was indicted under the Espionage Act. I hold Donald Trump can be arrested under the Espionage Act as well, right up until J20.
Biden is still commander-in-chief today. He can announce a national emergency any day between now and J20, the day the earth will change forever, if he does nothing. It would be nice to hear Jack Smith’s reports, as we were told we would, but whether the Jack Smith report is aired or blocked by DOJ fear, Biden can declare war on our home-grown terrorists, which is essentially what Project 2025 will be.
Biden can broadcast his own version of FDR’s I hate war speech. He can arrest, or sequester Donald Trump for treason. He can say that he deems that Trump’s actions and words have created a national emergency that threatens all Americans. He can state, with constitutional certainty, that the 14th Amendment, sec 3. renders Donald Trump disqualified to serve, even if he was elected. He can “sorry pals” to the GOP, and tell them they should have run a candidate who was eligible to serve.
Right up until J20, Joe Biden can declare war on Trump and those allied with him within our government. Does Joe understand what Trump 2.0 will do to America? Does he think the elections of 2026 will be fair? Does he see how elections work in Russia and Hungary. They don’t. Do MAGA people see how the Russian people live under the thumb of a dictator? They don’t.
Biden can stop Trump from being president via his sworn oath to protect the Constitution and the American people as commander-in-chief. He can ask his DOD to court-martial Trump for keeping and sharing classified documents. That’s also a crime in the actual Espionage Act, copied below. He can say Trump’s current alliance with Putin, as reported in RT media, is an act of treason under The Espionage Act because we are currently in a war with Russia over the fate of Ukraine.
Does Joe Biden realize that cyber war is the only way to war against nuclear powers and that Putin has been at war versus democracy from the election of 2016 when he gave help to his recruited ally?
If Joe won’t do it, he can step down and give Kamala Harris a try, but she’d have to declare she will not seek the presidency or become the president by default. We actually will need a new special election, likely about April 1 of 2025. I believe, once MAGA people hear that, many of them will be okay with this. His cabinet picks and threats have many of his voters scared as well. In April of 2024, 75% of Americans wanted neither Trump nor Biden.
Why the Worst Is Inevitable If Trump 2.0 Is Not Stopped Before J20
Political crimes always escalate quickly when fascists take office. After all, fascism is the union of business and government, where the leaders profit from that relationship. Once the inevitable crimes against “the people” escalate, those involved in those escalated crimes must fight to stay in power forever to hide their crimes, just the way Trump did when he lost in 2020. Our resisters, our Navalny’s, will be tactically silenced because their words represent truth. By 2028, the resistance will be over after getting very bloody.
Perhaps California and key states will unite, secede, and form their own country, which might be the fastest way back to a culturally united America. Survival of the fittest states would work to unite Americans soon after the divide. Americans will have learned their lesson. It would be easier than surviving after we give autocrats military might.
It has occurred to me that Trump probably wants Greenland, so he can have his own Siberia for dems who won't bend the knee. He can't use Alaska. The dems in office will logically become the new "Jews in Nazi Germany", along with brown-skinned people. But he can't gas them. Sure, some will fall out of windows and helicopters, - sending a message. Fear will be instilled in those who just want to survive, which is what most people want and always has been. But there will be so many of resisters. So Greenland is sort of a perfect place to keep millions of the resisters. Gotta keep up with Vlad. After all, Putin replaced Roy Cohn in Trump's ambitious sociopathic brain, as the man to emulate.
January 7th, 2017
On July 27th, 2016, in Doral Florida, Donald Trump said “Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails … you will be mightily rewarded by our press”. I hold that broadcasting an invitation to a known foreign enemy state to influence America’s free and fair elections was a violation of the Espionage and Sedition Act. This is why. It had better have not be okay, or this democracy will not long survive.
Though much of the Espionage Act seems to refer to communication technology we rarely use any more, and focuses on acts committed during war times, the heart and soul of the act applies today’s times. War is not defined in the Constitution and the nature of war has changed since WW1, when the Espionage Act was written into law. Cyber war against countries that have the bomb has replaced wars with bombs.
Putin is the world’s pioneer and the leading expert in cyber war. Cyber warmongers use words as weapons and install loyalists into foreign governments who can get the master the nearly same result he might desire from physical wars. Russian malware called Fancy Bear has been targeting governments and military organizations for years, especially NATO states like France and Germany.
Section 2 of Espionage Act: Link to the full 1918 Espionage Act Five minute read.
Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nationcommunicated, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to, or aids, or induces another to communicate, deliver or transmit, to any foreign government, or to any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, or to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly and document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, note, instrument, appliance, or information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than twenty years.
Tampering with or even affecting free and fair elections, by subverting the will of the American people must be defined as an injury to the US. It is the will of the American people that votes in elections. Citizens are part of our government. In a democracy, they are the most important part of the government. In a fascist country they are the least important members of the government. Citizens rights were the the reason the US Constitution was created – a government of, by and for the people.
Therefore, misinformation via broadcast media or social media cannot be categorized as protected personal free speech for this reason. Misinformation by media must be a crime, just as it is for false claims for any product. Trump asked on national TV for a known enemy to hack his opponent’s computer and release what might be found. He also suggested that person, or any would-be-hacker would be mightily rewarded.
Since Donald Trump invited Russia to hack a presidential candidate’s computer on national TV, I believe he is guilty of espionage. I believe our current commander-in-chief can, and should act immediately, citing the Espionage Act of 1918 and the 14th Amendment sec 3, and his sworn duty to protect Americans and the Constitution and arrest Trump, in the minimum sense of sequestering him with an ankle bracelet. Our commander-in-chief can declare war on those who have meddled in elections or aided insurrectionists. The same people advocate for these two positions. He can say we will have new special elections in April and that Kamala Harris will not run, but neither will anyone who has openly comforted insurrections.
I argue that inviting a foreign enemy to affect an American election does indeed do harm to the USA; that America is more than just the sum of our communal land, people and resources. The USA is also our way of governance. And the bedrock of our government is free, fair, unhampered, unhacked elections.
An invitation to commit a crime is, and must be a criminal act for the rule of law to prevail in the USA. I’d like to remind people that Charles Manson did not commit murder; he encouraged others go after his perceived enemies, and he got life for doing that when his cult members committed crimes.
Free and fair elections define our democracy. An invitation to hack any political election is therefore, a criminal, seditious act that does real harm to the United States. Should we lose free and fair elections, the USA, and the world, will never be the same. This is not hyperbole.
Your job as a citizen is to contact your representative and Senator, and tell them these words or close to it: (copy paste is fine ) Dear , Representing my will, is your job and responsibility. I want Joe Biden to use his sworn duty to protect the American people and to uphold the US Constitution and its laws, including the Espionage and Sedition and and the 14th Amendment, and arrest Donald Trump for national security reasons and bar him from holding office. I want a new special election with no one permitted to run who has openly aided or comforted insurrectionists.
Ask him to broadcast that he will also bar any in congress who come to the aid of Donald Trump, a traitor and insurrectionist, because they too will be aiding an insurrectionist and traitor, in plain view and that this includes judges and justices. Ask him to say he is cleaning house of any insurrectionists who will not distance themselves from Donald Trump, for the good of the national security.
Thank You for doing your share as a citizen and speak up to your reps. This weekend, we should start publicly protesting the transition of power to a fascist treasonous mob.
In this post below, I also speak about starting the conversation about National Divorce. That’s the other easy way back to a united America. Let the red states have their president. We will select our own. We will share the military costs based on population in the states. Their people will come running back to the real American center, which we know wants not to surrender to fascism.
This autocracy vs. democracy map has been at my blog for seven years. Trump as potus was part of the struggle you see in the map that resembles a RISK board. I do wish others would post a map like this so more people would get a visual on what is at stake. Pretty sure even MAGA people won’t like their lives better in a fasict state.
I just asked CHAT GTP if America will still be a democracy in 2028.
Go ahead. Try it yourself.
It’s not guaranteed that America will remain a functioning democracy in 2028, but it is still within the realm of possibility if the country takes steps to address its most pressing challenges.
“CHAT GTP” 11/16/24
…….
Norm Ornstein has encouraged me top keep fighting. But there’s only so much an online merchant can do. I go back to 1968 with Donnie – Wharton and AC NJ. This cannot end well. There is no going back once we give Trump and gang the guns aka control of military.
From: Joseph Aronesty <joe@wigsalon.com> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2024 9:10 AM To: Norman J. Ornstein <NOrnstein@aei.org>
Political Science 11/18/24
Saying the quiet part in my thoughts to someone who can make a last plea up top easier than I .
Creative military tactics are born inside the imaginations of men dedicated to defend their homeland. Putin was creative. Trump was right. We are stupid. Stupid to let him assume power. But also stupid we let him run for POTUS again.
J6 was a present. We did not prosecute fully Trump or use the 14th to disqualify him or anyone in the GOP. Things are changing this week and can change more, if we make a plan . I feel the war thing being amplified.
Our survival was made easier by Biden koshering our missiles to hit Russia, if he uses that right now as a prelude. Biden now has an excuse to declare we have entered a state of ( cold ) war with Russia over Ukraine’s fate.
He said over my dead body once in the campaign. Well, its time to mean it, or mean something. Not just watch as this cancer takes our country.
Once Biden says we are in a state of war, our president has the right and duty to say something along these lines:
“We are not going to turn our military efforts over to a man who could not say if Ukraine should win the war and stay a free country. I won’t do it for the sake of all the soldiers, including my son Beau, who gave their lives to keep it the America we all want it to be. I have our military leaders and intelligence with me on this. ( He’d better have that support or they are with Trump and Putin and then it is really over. )
I am using the 14th amendment, section 3 to defend our country in this cold war, which is also a cyber war. He reads it aloud to the public and on Fox news too*. ( This should resemble FDR’s I hate war speech. )
This gives me the power to unseat any congresspeople or members of the judiciary who have aided or comforted our enemies in this current war. ( He unseats MTG and GOSAR and enough to make speaker Johnson not the majority immediately. Step 1)
Those enemies include those who have aided or comforted insurrectionists or our enemies in dictatorships. You know who you are. If you try to stop us from prevailing in this war to defend Ukraine, you will be hurting our current military efforts, and we cannot allow that. I have asked to Putin and Zelensky negotiate a peace deal now. I want an end to all this needless bloodshed now. ( Maybe he can get dirt on Trump leaked in a peace deal that Putin likes a bit. Putin makes tapes. )
This is our “we surrender to Putin” moment. I may have to stop trying and go silent if we let this happen. You guys are going to have to hide or be quiet. They are not messing around, and we are.
WE ARE AT WAR
Trump’s turning the country over to our worst people on purpose. Putin started this war in 2016. We must recognize we are at war. I said it eight years ago. You feel it in your bones. This is a rerun for us. We remember what our parents were like who lived through this. Our kids and their kids, do not.
But also, we are up against a man who has done this before, and knows the ropes. There was a Russo-Republican Alliance in 2016. Biden is letting this happen and he does not have to. He has the powers now. Not after J20.
He can call it a crisis. It is. Tell the people we are not going to surrender to Putin. Americans on both sides will have his back.
We must test some balloons right now. These are like the days before the Cuban missile crisis. A standoff and peace deal with Russia is the best outcome, before January 5th too. But Biden must say we are at war. – Cold war. Cyber war. But at war with Putin’s Russia. When Trump blabs about he will make peace, he is in violation of war standards. Act on it, like our dad’s generation did in WW2.
Maybe Biden should negotiate a peace and get release of dirt on Trump. Quietly but for a little better deal for Putin. It’s okay. Time and pressure and whatever Russia gains in the Donbass, it will come back.
Trump said we were very stupid people. He will be right of we do not stop him. The 14th was put there for this. J6 a match made in democracy heaven. The more they fight, the more we unseat them for siding with insurrectionists during a war. And the more we keep releasing Jack Smith evidence.
Jack Smith should actually make parts of his documents public now. Biden should instigate it, and then pardon him. These are the last days of a war with Russia. We will have surrendered if we do not prevent Trump from taking power. There is likely no going back for 30 years. By then the planet is done.
Or we can fight now. But not with these emails. It is time for action. Call for special elections for the unseated. Biden needs the military on his side. Not in the streets. But verbally. We might as well fight this now while we have the power. If Putin retaliates verbally or actually, there are more grounds.
You may have to freeze gas prices. WW2 stuff. Its okay. Its just words.
*leave off the last sentence in the 14th when reading it aloud to the public, about 2/3 in congress may cure. Its confusing even though it’s clear. GOP does not have 2/3 anyway.
This is nearly verbatim from the Nation, by Dan Simon. I have edited it to make it more concise and easier to absorb.
The percentage of American voters who still support Trump is already vastly greater than the percentage of Germans that supported Hitler during his rise to power.
In 1928, the National Socialists—the Nazis—were a negligible, declining party. Out of his disappointment with his party’s electoral ineffectualness that year, Hitler defied conventional wisdom and changed direction, throwing his organizational muscle to the countryside instead of the cities. Two years later, in the parliamentary elections of 1930, the Nazis suddenly emerged as a force with just over 18 percent of the vote. And in 1932 they reached just over 37 percent of the vote nationally, their high-water mark, prompting Hitler to call on President Hindenburg to name him chancellor.
Hindenberg scheduled another parliamentary election instead, and in November of 1932 Hitler’s Nazi party suffered a major reversal, losing 2 million votes by comparison with its results just four months earlier. Then, in a fateful miscalculation, thinking the Nazis were now in a weakened state and thus controllable, Hindenberg proceeded to name Hitler chancellor after all.
Hitler now held sway over the police and the only electronic media of the age—radio.
In February, 1933, the Reichstag, Germany’s parliamentary building, was set on fire. The Reichstag fire became the justification for the arrests en masse of known Communists, including all Communist members of Parliament, clearing away the Nazis’ main adversary.
(This is why Trump calls January 6th a love fest and will declare in a National Holiday, if elected. )
What followed with almost blinding speed was the consolidation of power by Hitler, the building of a war machine, and then the start of Second World War itself. Within just a few months, the Nazis had asserted complete control over industrial output, finance, labor, the military, and politics in Germany.
But the key election was the one that took place on July 31, 1932, when Hitler’s Nazi party secured only 37.3 percent of the national vote. Since only three out of eight voters supported Hitler at that point, one must ask, which Germans voted for Hitler and why?
In the East Prussian town of Thalburg. In April 1930, the Social Democratic Party (the SDP) announced a major rally there on the subject of “Dictatorship or Democracy.” The Nazis announced a counter-rally on the same day at the same time. The local police then prohibited both meetings. With the goal of preventing the SPD rally achieved, the Nazis now announced that their meeting would proceed, only at a new location in a small village just outside of town.
About 2,000 people came out for it, where they saw among other stirring sights a parade of some 800 storm troopers. The local press coverage emphasized how impressed Thalburgers were by the “size and determination” the Nazis displayed.
Two years later, in the election year of 1932, by which time the National Socialists had grown to be a major, albeit minority, force in German national politics, the biggest event of the year in the East Prussia region around Thalburg was a speech by Hitler himself. The Nazi Party arranged for trains to bring people in from all over the region. It was going to be an open-air meeting with seating capacity for 100,000 people, scheduled to begin at 8 in the evening. The seats were all filled by early afternoon. When Hitler’s plane flew overhead just before 8, there was a roar of “Heil!” from the swastika flag– and handkerchief-waving crowd.
There was the impression of a surging movement. But at the time, dues-paying Nazis in Thalburg numbered only 40 souls.
( This reminds me of the Trump rallies and TV coverage. Trump also created the illusion of a surging movement early on. )
The paramilitary Storm Troopers not only provided protection at events but also, traveling from place to place for planned events, bulked up appearances. Since many of the Storm Troopers were unemployed, so the Nazis set up soup kitchens and free breakfast programs, and these locations became natural gathering places for the party’s hardcore enforcers.
Thalburg’s Socialists maintained slogans and methods which had little correspondence with reality. They maintained the façade of a revolutionary party when they were no longer prepared to lead a revolution. They never seriously attempted to mend fences with the middle class and frequently offended bourgeois sensibilities. ( This reminds me of the Democrats, who really never fixed things for the working people, though they talked as if they wanted to. )
The Communists and Socialists mainly served as a threat with which the Nazis could whip up anti-Communist fervor, much as the radical right in America today uses socialism as a pejorative term.
In the decisive July 31, 1932, election, Hitler received exactly 37.3 percent of the overall vote across Germany. He fared less well in the cities, averaging 32.3 percent in urban centers with populations over 100,000. However, in towns with fewer than 25,000 inhabitants he scored better, averaging 41.3 percent of the vote. And in some of the smallest rural communities across Germany, he scored 80 percent or more of the votes, and in several the Nazi vote was 100 percent. The rural groundswell for Hitler included people of all classes and income levels. But what is most striking is how none of the three other major parties managed to present a clear alternative.
Similarly to the unprecedented number of voters here in the 2020 US presidential election, the level of participation in the German vote increased from 1928 to 1932, from 75% to 84% percent in 1932. And everything possible was done during the Weimar years to enfranchise voters in Germany, from having elections on Sundays so as not to compete with work demands, to having ballot drop-offs at convenient locations.
At the same time, there was a shift in these years, generally, away from the traditional liberal and conservative parties, toward the parties of the left on the one hand and on the right, the Nazis, on the other. The threat of the Communists was perceived to be ever greater, even if in reality their influence was decreasing.
One gets the general sense that the major liberal and conservative parties increasingly saw Hitler and his party as a hedge against the left. In other words, the German voters of the upper classes felt that Hitler could appeal to workers who might otherwise align themselves with the Communists. And the establishment parties felt they could control Hitler, make sure he worked for them, and use him as their attack dog who, despite his violent ways (or possibly because of them), was still essentially supportive of the same German Protestant conservative values that they themselves espoused.
( The lesson here is: the biggest threats of a second Trump presidency will come from his supporters, not Trump himself. )
Where did the voters of the Weimar period get their information about the National Socialists? Answer: from newspapers, the mainstream liberal, conservative, business, and other special interest press.
From the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923—which first introduced Hitler and the Nazis to the German people—onward, the press was surprisingly indulgent of Hitler. Something like: Hitler may not always use methods we would agree with, but he has Germany’s best interests at heart, he is passionate, and he says things we agree with even though we might not come out and say them.
(History repeats or rhymes because people do not change much in 100 years. Their toys change, but their passions are pretty much the same.)
Or as one editorial put it on April 3, 1924, following his conviction on charges of treason, Hitler sought a Germany “free from the domination of international Jewry and finance capital, free from…Marxism and bolshevism.” From the outset, Hitler was presented positively across the whole spectrum of conservative and liberal newspapers as a man of action who could “effectively counter the communist threat.”
( The immigrants have replaced the communists as the others in this scenario. )
Many of the mainstream newspapers of Germany—the Fox News, CNN, NBC, Twitter, and Facebook combined of the day—all came to take a friendly attitude toward the National Socialists. They may not have supported them, but they did not condemn them outright either, treating them more as rascals whose heart was in the right place.
As for the violence, the newspapers provided an easy excuse: it was a justified response to the provocations or attacks that had come first from the other side.
The fight for the hearts and minds of Germany’s voters became an unequal one: The Nazis and their supporters conveyed a sense of extreme urgency, whereas the alternatives to the Nazis, including the Communists, social democrats, and traditional conservatives, were not able to present their own cases in ways that were either urgent or even clear.
In Berlin, the highest levels of support for the Nazis came from the upper- and upper-middle-class districts. Hitler’s Nazis commanded some 60 percent of the vote in those districts—nearly twice the national average. The disproportionate support for Hitler came from the well-heeled districts, motivated by their sense that Hitler would be their weapon against Communism; and because the Nazis had also successfully nurtured a covert anti-Semitism among the upper classes. Working class-neighborhoods were split more evenly, not strongly anti-Semitic, though susceptible certainly to the Nazi’s organizing exertions.
It is a point of some irony that the educated upper- and upper-middle-class populations, who react so enthusiastically to the claims of mass-society theories, should themselves have been the victims of a process that they, with such evident disdain, assume to be moving other people.
And then, one after another, the traditional conservative parties—including the Center Party, which had kept itself aloof from any sign of support for Hitler and his National Socialists for over a decade—began in the late 1920s and early ’30s, as the worldwide economic depression took its toll, to form alliances with the Nazis.
These alliances were characterized above all by a wishing away of the undisguised violence, including the murders of political opponents, the destruction of the property of despised groups, and other tactics, despite their being transparently visible.
And so it was that the Center Party finally capitulated to an alliance with the Nazis in March of 1933, an alliance of Catholics with Protestants, giving Hitler his first majority, which in turn allowed him to assume dictatorial powers. In a word, there came to be, if not a consensus, then at least irresistible momentum around the idea that what Germany needed wasn’t a democracy so much as a strong leader, a Führer.
Hitler is named chancellor on January 30, 1933, cements control in the March 5 elections, and secures dictatorial powers under the Enabling Act passed on March 23. Once he has been installed fully in power, among the first things he does is to outlaw the Communists and cripple the Social Democrats. At the same time, the bourgeois parties are dissolved, and the paramilitaries are consolidated.
Military expenditures increase during the 1930s by 2,000 percent. Taxes on business skyrocket, essentially doubling from 20 percent in 1934 to 40 percent in 1939, and caps are placed on profits from stocks and bonds, and interest rates. In all, state control is total and the country is put completely into war machine mode.
The greatest danger with a movement like the one embodied by Hitler’s militant Nazis does not stem from the movement itself, always a minority, but rather within the larger society and its halfhearted disavowal of the Nazis, together with a kind of secret brainwashing of the educated and well-off middle class that is vulnerable precisely because they think they aren’t.
The Nazis came to power because they had enough support from almost every demographic group, and not strenuous enough opposition from any demographic or gatekeeping group. And if your heart is sinking because of how familiar that sounds, I feel the same way.
We need to remind ourselves that in fighting for democracy what we are fighting for isn’t to have an administration that is better than Trump’s.
It’s only worth fighting for if the fight is for a future in which all people really are treated equitably, and with natural respect; where all people are entitled to a basic standard of living that includes universal health care; where we make peace also with the natural world around us and stabilize or reverse global warming and ecological despoliation; and where no one is homeless or hungry.
Unless these are the things we’re fighting for, it’s a losing battle.
These are the lessons of Hitler, and also the lessons of Trump.
The Coming of the Third Reich”, p. 451 . Joseph Goebbels, Nazi media czar: It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provides its deadly enemies with the means to destroy it.
If you have missed Trump speaking to his Christian base, late July 2024, the above takes a minute.
Fellow Americans of good faith on both sides,
Joe Biden got a lot of work done for the American people in his 3.5 years as president. Here are some of his top accomplishments.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: rebuilding our nation’s roads and bridges, upgrading public transit, cleaning up pollution, and providing high-speed internet to every American.
The CHIPS Act: Bringing back manufacturing from overseas and creating better-paying union jobs here at home.
The Inflation Reduction Act: Legislation brought down costs for families via lower prescription drug prices, and historic investments in American clean energy jobs and manufacturing. Those who vote for Republicans, please take note: every Republican in Congress voted against it. Look it up.
Protecting Reproductive Rights: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and strip a constitutional right from the American people, executive orders were issued to preserve access to reproductive care and protect the right to travel across state lines to receive care.
Historic Climate Action: America rejoined the Paris Climate Accords on Biden’s first day in office. Biden delivered historic investments in clean energy and understands that scientists, not businessmen, need to make these decisions.
Student Debt Relief: Biden understands many colleges have become predatory businesses. He cancelled of billions in student loan debt for millions of Americans, in spite of Republican opposition to help our youth.
The Affordable Care Act: Millions of Americans are saving $800 per year on their health insurance and 4-in-5 Americans can find coverage for $10 a month or less through the ACA.
Changed our Failed Approach on Marijuana: Biden pardoned all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, removing a burden to employment, housing, and educational opportunities for thousands of Americans.
Joe Biden’s Failures Also Count
Joe Biden did not unite Americans, and he totally failed to prosecute the enemies of our democracy. I have always felt that had Biden prosecuted Trump with vigor, he would have won the hearts of centrists. Now, because of those failures, we are forced to win an election which is is already a bit rigged for the smaller, predominantly Republican states via the electoral college. It’s tails we lose the way America has functioned for the last 250 years and heads we win the right to keep fighting – unless we win three chambers. Then we really can fix all this. Overall, this is not a good gamble. We have much more to lose than win. How did we get here?
The Cyber War of 2016
Since, Russia if your listening in June 2016, we have been at war with Vladimir Putin and the autocrats of the world. This is a new kind of war. It is not waged with bullets or bombs. Our enemies know they cannot beat the USA with conventional warfare. This is a war of words, laws and media control: cyber war. The world has never seen a war like this. I wrote about this in 2019, here.
Since the Supreme Court seems to have been purchased by the democracy enders, America is the betting line underdog to survive another 100 days. Think about how crazy that is. We have spilled blood to create and defend this country at least five times: The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, The Civil War, and the two World Wars. We have been victorious every time. Today, the American democracy is the betting underdog to survive another three to six months, and the aggressor shot no bullets.
Such is cyber war. Such is Putin’s genius. If he gets what he wants, a fascist America that is Russia’s ally, he will be remembered as the greatest general of all time – the G.O.A.T. of dictators. Putin wins if the GOP wins control of two of three chambers in the United States in three months. The alliance he made in 2016 at the GOP convention is for life. Maybe the GOP did not think about the long-term consequences of making a deal with Putin to help win an election. It’s too late to turn back now.
The 14th Amendment Failure by AG Garland
The American Constitution clearly states that no one who takes part in an insurrection attempt, or aids or comforts those that have taken part in such an attempt, shall not hold office. This was ignored by Biden’s AG, Merritt Garland, who thought it proper to ask the Supreme Court if what is written should be taken seriously. However, at least two members of said court have comforted insurrectionists themselves. They are also not allowed to be in our government. So how can they have a say? It’s like asking a thief to rule in his own case. Grland’s failure to get ahead of this problem is why we are where we are today.
October Surprises Are Coming
Joe Biden does not need to worry about running again. He did say at least once, that he would not let Trump be president – over his dead body. This is an excerpt transcript from a Biden speech given in Detroit, July 12th, 2024.
Look, he says, if he loses, there will be a “bloodbath” when he loses. And the United States Supreme Court said there’s virtually no limit on the power of a president. Trump said if he wins, he’ll be a dictator on day one. He means it, folks. We’re not going to let that happen. Over my dead body will it happen.
That last sentence was the first time in eight years I heard a Democrat in government allude to the stark fact that we are currently at war with the MAGA Republican Party.
I don’t know what kind of October surprises are coming this year. My guess is when it is clear that Trump/Vance will lose to Harris, Trump will start dog whistling for violence against her. The word “fight” is deemed kosher in political speech, but to many in Trump’s base, it means act out with violence. And that is not legal protected speech. Consider what the effective fascist Goebbels said at this point.
Trump just leaked out, as he often does, that they have it all “fixed” and plan to win the election even if they lose both the popular and electoral vote.
War is not defined in the Constitution. The nature of war has changed. Our conventional weapons are now too dangerous to use. But the goals of war are the same as they have always been: to take things away from sovereign countries. The booty can be territory which is the most typical reason wars start; but it can also be endingthe way their perceived enemies function. That is exactly what Project 2025 promises to do. In the body politic metaphor, the election of Donald Trump can be a fatal cancer for democracy, as we know it.
The Cyber War of 2016: The Final Showdown
Sadly, it is not only Putin we are fighting. An alliance between Russia and the Republican party was formed at the 2016 GOP Convention. Sanctions against Russian oligarchs with US holding were taken out the the Republican party’s platform after that alliance. This is the elephant in the room. Once you make a deal with Putin, you are allied for life. He does not allow people to walk away and stay alive. And Putin always gets dirt on his allies- taped recordings – which explains why the GOP never disowned Trump or Putin. They have been compromised for eighy years,
I hope Joe Biden meant “over my dead body” when he said he won’t let Trump be president. I hope he has the resolve to use the 14th and his commander in chief powers to protect America as it is currently constituted, and vanquish its enemies, should whatever “fix” Trump spoke of rear its head. I hope the DOJ and FBI are monitoring Trump’s electronic communications right now because whatever our enemies are planning they are talking about it right now. But Biden’s FBI is probably not doing this. They have yet to show me they know how to recognize and fight domestic fascism.
We have no idea what top secrets have been shared with Putin.The FBI should not be monitoring Trump’s communciations after he said ” we have it so fixed“. Who are his partners in said fix? I have even thought that the prisoner exchange was done now, because Putin knows something very serious is about to happen and it wouldn’t be possible in the near future. And after 911, did not the government get the right to spy on us all? So why not Trump?
Trump Cannot Be Allowed to Become POTUS Again
In essence, the GOP is running someone who is not even qualified to be president via the 14th amendment. That is their foolishness. Even if he wins, Trump cannot be allowed to be president again. Then the United States of America will have lost the Cyber War of 2016 and it will never, in our lifteimes, be a country that offers ample freedom and opportunity for its citizens.
I do not know what kind of October surprises are coming, but they are coming. I hope Joe Biden meant “over my dead body” when he said it. That would mean that if it is necessary, Biden is willing to go to war versus Trumpism at last.
75% of all Americans think both are too old to serve as president
42% of independents think neither will make a good president
This is not about the debate. Joe Biden has not been popular with the majority of Americans for a while, and presidential elections have become more of popularity contests than capability contests, sadly. But that is reality. Biden did not rid us of the threat of Trumpism. You can blame AG Garland, but he was hired and allowed to stay on board even though, had he acted faster, Trump could have been convicted sentenced for the January 6th and documents case by now. And Garland is still there. The buck stops with Joe. I believe this is underlying reason Joe is not more popular with Democrats. Americans do not feel safe.
The Origins of the Cyber War We Are In
We have been at war with members of the Russo-Republican Alliance that occurred at the GOP convention in 2016 when it was decided that the Republican Party would not press for sanctions against Russians oligarchs known to have US investments, in return for election help in the form of an army of Russian bloggers and digital newsmakers.
The alliance strategy worked. It created the needed boost to get Trump over the finish line and elected. Trump now owes Putin for life for that election help. He has been compromised and is still Putin’s loyal disciple. The alliance’s involved leaders in the GOP are also allied for life; that includes many in Congress today. Both sides of that alliance equation are trying to end this country’s way of governing, representative democracy.
Why? Money. They prefer fascism because it’s very lucrative for criminally-minded politicians. They can legalize stealing. They are a nasty, determined group. The rank and file of the MAGA movement have bought the Big Lie hook, line and sinker. Many actually think “the left” is their personal enemy. They are in battle mode, standing back, but standing by their dear leader. Trump is way more popular with his party than Biden is with the dems. It is thought today that Trump is the favorite to win in November.
Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro both very popular Governors of Purple States – MI and PA
Trump recently said: Biden is not getting out, he is more popular than Gavin Newsom. Trump really wants to run against Biden/Harris or Harris. Why? He believes he can beat them. They are the enemy he knows. His media focus has been to spew hate for Biden, Harris and even Obama for years. It is a racist campaign of course, but it has been effective. Trump won’t be able to sell this level of hate for a more centrist ticket in just a few months. He also knows 75% of Americans thinking they are both too old and ageism is a real thing in the USA. Neither candidate can’t beat a younger smart centrist ticket. That should tell us all we need to know.
The Party or Our Country?
The Democratic “party” is a big ship. It generally turns slowly and mainly moves forward propelled by the momentum of yesterday. There is talk of giving Kamala Harris her shot, without any thought to whether she can beat Trump. With democracy on the line, and given the current level of racism in the USA, I would not run a black/Asian woman from California for president this critical year. She is capable of course. But not popular in middle America; sort of like HRC that way. Tactically, it is an error. If we survive this year, it will be fine soon.
The brilliant John Fugelsang blurted out that he loved Joe Biden and wished he had run and not Hillary on July 10th. He quipped, “maybe, some of the misogynists in the right would have voted for Joe”. I agreed. But why is that still not true of racists on the right for Harris? It is, of course.
It is sad still we have so many misogynists ( or people who think a woman’s place is only in the home ) and racists, but we must face reality. I personally think Americans are ready to evolve, but first we have to get through this election, be victorious and fully prosecute the traitors to our way of governance, within our government – or this internal fight will continue.
About Democracy’s Enemies
Trump sees the polls. He wants nothing to change. Leaving this ticket to save democracy is a bit like not changing the medicine or environment for cancer and expecting it to stop. Trumpism worked like a cancer, because that is the way to defeat any complex organsism or body politic. It starts with a single cell. The defenses don’t recognize the cell as dangerous. It gets a foothold. It metastasizes. We are at stage four now, and we feel that pressure at last. We have to be smart. It is a beatable cancer. It may be up to all of us. That is where we are, “folks”.
The sole focus of the Republican Party is to win by any and all means possible. The focus of the Democratic party has generally been to help people. But dems will also need to win or they wont be able to help anyone. Why is this race is even close -a convicted felon and wanna-be dictator versus a president with a good heart- and the dictator is winning? In America? We should and could be up by at least by 10% with the right ticket. The math is easy and obvious. 75% want neither, but the race is even in numbers. That means 1/3 of those who want neither are settling for a ticket they did not want. That’s the 75% we campaign to. The rest are baked in. Let’s see if Biden can convince those who want neither.
Trump has figured out that Biden/Harris is the easiest candidate to beat. Here is one reason no one is talking about.
It is Harder to Hate New Candidates
The hate for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has been cultivated on right-wing media for a long time. There is not enough time for the GOP to pivot the focus of that “Biden/Harris hate” to other candidates and have that hate or disrespect’s amplitude loom as large as it does today in the souls of right-wing media consumers. Hate for Biden and Harris is a prime motivator for many Americans to vote GOP.
Shake It Up
Charlie Sykes sort of said it. Taylor Swift sang about it. Shake it up. It’s how you fight cancer too. I know from personal experience. You change the environment for the cancer and your medicines. The cancer likes things to stay the same. So does Trump. He is even saying it. He wants to run against Biden or Harris because he believes he can beat them. It was way too close last time – 70,000 votes. Running against a convicted felon, we should be way up now. So what is our best startegy to ensure we prevail?
A/B Testinga New Ticket
Imagine a new ticket. I imagined the Whitmer / Shapiro ticket even though those two are not discussing running or running. But I chose them because each is a very popular Governor in a “purple” state. We should be open to other imagined tickets. Josh Shapiro has a 61% approval rate and it nearly twice has high as Biden’s approval in Pennsylvania. Gretchen Whitmer has a 56% approval rating in a purple state and is a very popular governor. These people know how to appeal to both sides. That is something neither Biden nor Trump have been able to do so far. Trump won’t try if he wins. If Biden could have united the country, we would know that by now. If either ticket wins, it’s either nothing changes or it’s a turn for the worse.
And that is the most important thing folks. It’s not the war in Ukraine or Israel – or even our many internal wars over the border, women’s rights, gun and envi policies, etc. The two warring political parties monster has to come to an end if America is to survive. It is even how we got this terrible Supreme Court, is it not?
We need to forge a potential politcal ticket that appeals to both sides. Both sides can be happy to vote for the same ticket, or no Americans are going to get what they really want whoever wins. We’ll sink further down, making only one man happy – Vladimir Putin, who started this all.
The first thing that has to happen is the new ticket needs to be imagined and the candidates engaged and enrolled. Without that step, we are getting nowhere slow. We can test that imagined ticket with polling data, and AI before it is widelly announced. It is incumbent upon us to see what ticket could do 10% better than the Biden-Harris ticket. It seems to me, not to try is to gamble with bad odds with the entire history of the USA.
I will end with, if we do this and Biden-Harris is still the best ticket, we of course will support that ticket vigorously. There is another option I’d like to suggest.
Biden should fire Garland tomorrow for his failure to move quickly and let this Trumpism cancer fester. Why was Kevin Roberts allowed to say “The revolution will be bloodless, if the left allows it” and not be arrested on the spot by our AG for threatenning all of us with a bloody war? I think Biden’s polls will go up if he replaces Garland and shows he knows how to shake it up and fight Trumpism. We all know Trump knew how to fire people for the wrong reasons; Biden could show he can fire someone for the right reasons.
Keeping Kamala On The Ticket and In The War Does At Least Five Things
I suggest Kamala should be the AG and replace Garland. Trumpism needs prosecuting and elimination if the country is to survive.
I think this new ticket would win in a landslide. Trump has almost no way to foster hate for it. He’s been a hate monger since the Central Park Five. And that’s how he maintains support.
1. Gives the 75% on both sides who think Trump and Biden are too old or not right for the job a ticket to vote for. Unifies the country that way.
2. Appeals to centrists and independants, with it’s Mid-Western slant. Gets us Pennsylania and Michigan, keys to a victory in Roevember.
3.Garland is gone. Puts Lady Justice in the hands of the now First Lady, where she can do more than a VP anyway. Kamala was an AG, and will prosecute Trumpism vigorously.
4. Heals the American political divide.
5. Turns the page.
Hold On To Love, America. We can make it through this long dark night.
Thanks and weigh in.
JosephAronestyATgmail.com
PS.
I just asked CHAT GTP about the Whitmer Shapiro ticket. The response was optimistic:
A Gretchen Whitmer – Josh Shapiro ticket could indeed present an interesting dynamic in a hypothetical matchup against Donald Trump. Here are some factors to consider:
Gretchen Whitmer’s Appeal: As the governor of Michigan, a key swing state, Gretchen Whitmer has garnered attention for her handling of issues like healthcare and infrastructure. Her experience in state governance and potential appeal to Midwestern voters could be advantageous in a national campaign.
Josh Shapiro’s Profile: As the previous Attorney General and now Governor another crucial swing state, Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro has built a reputation for consumer protection and legal advocacy. His experience in law enforcement and his political profile within Pennsylvania could bolster the ticket’s appeal in the Rust Belt and beyond.
… as we have known her since at least the Civil War.
People. I don’t want elaborate on why “Russia, if your listening” cannot be treated like there’s nothing wrong with enrolling active foreign enemies as allies in US presidential elections. That was the first shot across the bow in the Cyber War of 2016 which blossomed into getting a traitor to democracy into the White House. And it was brilliant. Trump says something to announce a Russo-Republican alliance to see if there is a reaction. If the administration treats it as all’s fair in love, war and politics, – they know they can keep ramping it up. And they have. We have done little to stop them.
Estimating how far Putin and his ally Donald Trump will go to end democracy should be easy. Look at what Putin is doing in the Ukraine an dhas done to his polltical rivals. He’s not afraid to kill people to get his way. Putin’s another one of those ” I don’t really care, do you?” presidents.
There’s no point is trying to school the Biden administration on how to deal with a seemingly manicial foreign president. So far, they’re not listening to me – and many others. Putin is a KGB-trained master strategist. It would be naive to think Vladimir Putin has not recorded strategy sessions with Donald Trump and his inner circle. Therefore, the smart US citizen’s assumption should be that Trump has been compromised and is an ally of the same man the USA is currently fighting against in Ukraine. We are at war with Putin. And we know Trump and the GOP are his allies. Why that does not mean we are at war with Trump and the GOP is beyond me.
The relationship with the GOP predates the formal aliiance with Donald Trump. There were Russian emmisaries at the 2016 GOP convention. Once again, assume those who made deals with Russians have been taped and rewarded. The reward was Putin conducted a relentless media attack versus Hillary Clinton, his sworn enemy, and it worked.
Are not allies of our enemies on the battlefield traitors any more? I recall in WW2 that’s how it was. But it’s a different kind if war now: cyber war. The goals are the same as in WW2: end democracy and rule the planet. But there are no bombs this time. That is Putin’s genius. I wrote about it here. Trump and his allies have declared war and are engaged in an active battle versus our democracy – and our women. Joe Biden has not declared war back.
Joe Biden should declare war againt any person, party or organization, foreign or domestic, that seeks to corrupt or sow distrust in our sacred elections. In war, we arrest perpetrators for their crimes aginst the USA immediately.There are no delays for trials. They cannot be afforded. Keeping traitors to democracy jailed at least until the election is over is the opposite of blocking the wheels of justice for traitors in all of Donald Trump’s trials. They take actions – we do not. Democracy’s enemies are winning. Leaving the war up to the electorate is not smart. This is heads the war goes on, tails we lose democracy.
I know the democrats in power have read Project 2025. They know what is coming our way if we give this Russo-Republican Alliance access to our government. Any politician who still says the last election was rigged, even though sixty courts found no evidence of could have their powers taken away if Biden declares we ar at war as framed in bold above. Biden also needs to investigate the top Republicans who spoke with Putin’s emmisaries early in 2016. If not done, he’s underestimating how far these people will go to get their way. Trump is not kidding when he says this is their last chance to take America. Trump and his allies know that much. The next few months are also our last chance to save democracy.
These people were fine with Hang Mike Pence. They will sleep like babies while planning Bump Off Biden. They’re doing in now in their own way by riling up hate against democrats. And who knows what goes on behind closed doors? Trump believes he can beat Kamala. It’s the only reason I think Biden should have someone who can beat Trump as his VP.
Enough said? Never enough. If declaring war against those who would attack or foster distrust in our elections were treated as the acts of treason that they are, none of this would ever have happened.
Joseph Goebbels: “The big joke on democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the tools to enable its own destruction.”
Joe Biden: Declare war on any person, organization, or government official who uses words that attack or seed distrust in our sacred elections. That includes Fox News and social media.Then it’s all good. Just don’t relax until the threat is truly put to rest.
THE ENGLISH CODE 