Author: Greg Snyder

How Waltz is Wrong

by Greg Snyder

On the ABC’s This Week Martha Raddatz asked Mike Waltz this question:

RADDATZ: So Russia could be given the Donbas in addition to hanging onto Crimea even though they invaded Ukraine?

MIKE WALTZ: We have to ask ourselves, is it realistic — are we going to drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil, including Crimea?

The answer is not so simplistic. Plus, it is not really an answer to the question that was asked. There are ethnic Russians, many of whom have lived in the Donbas for more than a generation, many of whom identify more as Ukrainian than Russian even though their everyday language is Russian, who should be given a choice to go back to Russia or remain Ukrainian. The ethnic Russians living in the Donbas have been living, along with their Ukrainian neighbors, with the hell rained down on the Donbas by Russian aggression since the beginning of this war. Ethnic Russians will need to determine their loyalty and either stay in Ukraine as Ukrainians, or return to Russia.

Likewise, there are Russians and Tatars in Crimea who are in the same predicament. Waltz does not even mention or apparently take into account the Tatar voice.

This is a matter that Ukraine and the ethnic Russians and Tatars who consider themselves more Ukrainian than Russian will have to sort out after the sovereignty of Ukraine has been secured. And they will sort it out in a civilized way because they have lived as neighbors for hundreds of years.

Mike Waltz’s answer is too simplistic. It doesn’t take these historic and actual facts into account. Waltz really should do his homework and come to an understanding of Ukraine since he is trying to appear to be a diplomat. A diplomat without knowledge and understanding is not much more than a tool.

What is a General Strike?

by Greg Snyder

A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal.

A general strike action can also be a general boycott of paying taxes until conditions and demands are met. Remember the Boston Tea Party? New Englanders got fed up with King George imposing an onerous tax burden on tea which they eventually reacted to by dumping the taxable good, tea, into Boston Harbor. It was an effective message that they were no longer going to pay taxes for no representation and for being governed but having no say in how they were being governed. Sound familiar?

Our situation here in the United States today is different in that it is not tea being taxed, it is that corporations and the rich are not being taxed. Not fairly. Not nearly enough. That means that wealth inequality has become grotesquely lopsided with the well-healed majority of tax payers who are not millionaires or billionaires regularly and continuously paying the lion’s share of taxes while millionaires and billionaires do not. And that is not sustainable.

Everything that is happening in our politics right now is all about money, power, and control. We are witnessing the take over, remaking, and reforming of our government, which, by the way, is a constitutional democracy, into what the Heritage Foundation via Project 2025, Trump, Musk, Vance, the entire Republican Party, and, now, I can add to the list, a small group of Congressional democrats who are collaborating with the Republicans, want to be a permanent, tax exempt class of millionaires and billionaires and corporations. This would be the conversion of democracy into an oligarchic kleptocracy and authoritarianism. It is essentially an attempt to reestablish a permanent ruling privileged class. However, this time instead of a landed gentry/aristocracy and a king, it would be an oligarchy headed by a wannabe dictator and his servile republican party and corporations which, according to the Supreme Court are people too. But most corporations have never paid taxes the way we “the people” do. Corporations and the rich are essentially exempt from fair taxation. They pay scant taxes if any at all while we, the people, pay taxes at rates that actually hurt us and take away any financial reserves that we may have and prevent us from having savings. But a billionaire will still have and will always have many thousands of millions of dollars in savings. The nouveau oligarchic class wants to have all the power, make all decisions, decide all laws, and create an economy that works for them and only for them. That, of course, would always require a reliable tax base from all of the rest of us so the bills can be paid without inconveniencing those who do not pay their fair share of taxes.

The foolhardiness of this attempted swapping out of our constitutional democracy with a kleptocratic oligarchy and dictatorship, which currently is steaming full speed ahead, is that it is not, and will not become, permanent. This situation is not completed and it probably never will be completed. Americans are proud of their 250 year old constitution and are proud of their many achievements and what they have been able to build as a nation of all cultures, ethnicities, in this wonderful multicultural and socially progressive culture that we have nurtured and grown. They are proud too of the strong global economy that has for many decades been one of the strongest pillars of the global economy which is now under attack by Trump and Musk and their disastrous meddling and destructive actions and policies. Americans, formerly could be and were proud of the fact that they used to stand up for and promote democracy. But the current president embraces fascism and is working very hard to undermine the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine through extortion, bullying, withdrawing and withholding financial and material aid and assistance while kowtowing to and doing the bidding of Putin. And for what? Why does this president cozy up to an aggressor imperialist dictator who has been our enemy since the end of WWII and is an enemy of democracy everywhere? So, now, Americans can not be said to be defending democracy anymore. On that point of pride, the United States has shamefully fallen into the abyss and it will be very hard to climb back out of it.

So, back to the idea of a General Strike. Yes. It is a radical idea for people to stop work and all economic activities that are not for basic survival and to sustain that effort until our set goals have been achieved. It is something that people CAN do if they want to. A boycott of paying taxes can be an effective action that could allow us to make our demands known and put our conditions to the government if it wants us to resume our proper paying of taxes. But it would have to be a mass action and we would have to be able to sustain living under those circumstances for as long as the strike would be needed to achieve our goals. That would be a huge undertaking that would take an enormous amount or planning and preparation. A lot of brainstorming and organization would have to go into it because it would have to be a national mass action. Small and medium sized businesses and their employees could talk through what they could possibly do to engage in the stoppage and how they would financially cover it and survive it for the long haul. Entrepreneurs would have to figure out how they could participate.

What would be our goals for such a general strike? I can think of a few things immediately that I would demand. These are as follow:

Remove the artificial cap on upper levels of income tax for funding Social Security.

Congress needs to return all of the money that it has “borrowed” from the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for unsanctioned wars and expand benefits to recipients.

Congress needs to create Medicare for All.

Congress needs to write a fair tax code that removes exemptions, waivers, subsidies, and which taxes ALL income and wealth progressively and at significantly higher levels than it has for half a century.

Congress needs to re establish the IRS to levels of funding and function that existed in the Biden Administration.

Congress needs to end and remove and all barriers and obstacles to voting by all eligible voters. All gerrymandering needs to be ended. All states need to be required to draw fair voting district maps using non-partisan and independent legislative map makers. Automatic voter registration at 18 years of age for all eligible voters and voting by mail should be available to all voters nationally.

Congress needs to get rid of the electoral college so that one person, one vote, is the way we elect our president which would go a long way to refresh and revitalize democracy itself.

Congress needs to overturn Citizen’s United and get money out of politics. Strict limits on money in politics are long overdue. Congressional lobbying should be limited, regulated, and made completely transparent with freedom of information and public access to all lobbying activities.

Congress needs to enact campaign finance reform and a reformation of politics in general. There should be term limits for all offices. Politics as a career beyond fixed term limits should be prohibted law. Public elections should be turned from the current two year cycles they have become to cycles that last only a few months and are entirely paid for with public financing.

I personally would like to see the addition of a third political party, an independent party, to represent independent voters who do not identify as either democrats or republicans and who have no representation and are effectively shut out of the primaries and are not currently allowed candidates of their own.

Congress needs to institute reform of the Supreme Court to ensure that it is, indeed, once again the highest court in the land which it is purported to be. Violations of ethics, conflict of interest, non recusal in cases of conflict of interest, taking bribes, acting in a political and/or biased and/or prejudicial manner, and any and all other violations of a set of standards that Americans have always up until recently taken for granted that the highest court didn’t just observe, but modeled, need to be remediated. Sadly, with this current Supreme Court those standards have been repeatedly violated and the court has lost the trust and confidence of the American people. Since the Supreme Court has not done so for itself on its own volition, Congress needs to establish rules, guidelines, and standards of behavior for a court that has forgotten that any of those things apply to it. In reform of the Supreme Court there needs to be a mechanism by which justices in violation of such standards can be impeached, prosecuted, and removed from the bench. Bribery and acceptance of “gifts” by Supreme Court Justices or any other judge should once again be made illegal.

Congress needs to establish laws that definitively maintain the executive branch within the parameters set forth for it in the constitution.

Congress needs to establish laws that hold the executive branch to account and remove impunity from all individuals, including the president.

Congress needs to make laws that ensure that the independent agencies of the executive branch remain independent and are protect from abuse of a unitary executive.

Congress needs to reinstall and protect government watch dogs like Inspectors General that actually prevent real fraud and waste unlike Musk’s non-official federal non-entity, DOGE, and ensure that they are independent of a unitary executive. Congress needs to remove Musk, seize everything that he has done and is yet to do, rescind what he and DOGE have done, end his federal contracts, and permanently ban him and other oligarchs and so-called special agents of the executive branch since they are not legitimate federal entities.

This is just a partial wish list. These are just a few of the demands that I would like to make as a participant in a general strike. What would your demands be?

Let’s see how the rest of 2025 goes. For the next tax year perhaps a mass general strike could be something that we as a country should/could consider doing as a way to go forward? Possibly engaging in a general strike next year at tax time would give us time to plan and prepare for it accordingly during this year.

I leave it to you to think about a general strike and tax boycott and whether or not it could work for you.

The Long and Repeating Republican Ultimatum then Democratic Capitulation Tango.

by Greg Snyder

I don’t get it. Republicans can’t or won’t write a budget that will get the votes it needs to pass. They don’t work with democrats. So, they write a CR instead.

This is a familiar repeating pattern. They stuff the CR with provisions to allow them to try to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security at a later date. They expect democrats to cave to the CR. The senate democrats could have stopped the CR by declaring it DOA prior to it being forwarded to the senate from the house. But Chuck Schumer did not do that. He could have stated that the poison pill CR would go nowhere and demanded that the Republicans go back and write a budget that they could send that would pass. But he did not do that. Schumer could have insisted on a budget, a fair budget, that does not make the cuts the republicans are trying to get away with making that are deeply unpopular with voters and the public in general. Senate democrats, with Chuck Schumer as their leader, say they will do all they can to protect Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security and not allow cuts to those programs. Yet they will probably vote for cloture on the CR with no effort to prevent the malware in the CR that would be a back door for the republicans attempting cuts later. Is the democratic promise to protect these social programs just a joke or are they simply too lazy or afraid to try to break the pattern of ultimatum and capitulation because its such a long-standing habit?

Is it all just meaningless rhetoric and what they think makes for good optics? Will Senate democrats ever have a leader who would be able to lead them on a journey of change that we need as a country and stop the familiar behaviors of worrying and hand wringing and actually adopt the principle to force needed changes? This stagnation and lack of courage to force necessary changes indicates to me that leadership is feeble and perhaps needs to retire and allow younger, more energetic leadership to take the reins.

It’s a very familiar repeating pattern: Republicans can’t write a budget that will pass so they write what they call “a clean CR” and stuff it with what they want as a clever way to attempt to do the real damage that they want to do at a latter date without, of course, disclosing that to their constituents or the public at large. They do this because they are cowards. But it gives them a back door and gets their job of serving their paymasters done. So, the republicans set up their ultimatum for the democrats. The choices the republicans give the democrats are: either vote for the CR to keep the government open and give them what they want which will enable them to later go back to doing the real damage, or close the government down, which would encourage Trump to use the stalemate to his advantage.

This very familiar repeating pattern of ultimatum and capitulation is very old, very dysfunctional, very unproductive, and perpetuates the stasis of governance. It sure would be nice if both parties could actually start getting things done once again. But that can’t happen until they stop playing the political/partisan game of war game they have engaged in for half a century.

Republican Carnage and Wreckage

by Greg Snyder


In the most recent census of 2020, the population of the United States was 331,449,281 people.

Since the inauguration of Trump on January 20th, the country has been experiencing the threat or actual loss of retirement savings, personal identification, personal safety, well-being and security, jobs, education, the USPS, the VA, a healthy economy, health and healthcare, a healthy environment, human rights, diversity, national security, our republic of democratic government and the constitution, the potential for a crypto apocalypse, general instability. And this is just a partial list of the disastrous actions, executive orders, and policies that the Trump administration has issued and which continue to come from Trump. Every day he brings us another or several new horrors and potential disasters. The strong economy that the Biden administration left us with as of January 20, 2025 has been maimed, debilitated, and made vulnerable. The familiar corruption, cronyism, deal-making and pay-to-play system of Trump has reappeared but in a much more vile and malicious form this time. The retribution, threats, intimidation tactics have come back and this time are endorsed and reinforced by Trump’s cabinet picks and his accomplices, the entire republican party. Inflation has come roaring back. The stock market has tanked. Trump has sadistically abandoned Ukraine and betrayed our long-standing allies to curry favor with our enemy, Putin. Trump has filled his cabinet and surrounded himself with a host of advisors with very likely certifiably mentally ill individuals. Mental illness almost seems to be a requirement to work in the Trump administration.

The group that is responsible for doing all of this to all of us is a minuscule number of people compared to the 331,449,281 people in the population. And they are easily named: Trump, Vance, Musk, Trump’s cabinet and inner circle of advisors, 218 house republicans, and 53 republican senators. It is this president and his vice president, the 15 member cabinet, and the (approx.) couple dozen close personal advisors to Trump, this group of approximately 310 people (out of 331,449,281 people) who are doing all of this serious damage to all the rest of us. Republican elected officials at the state level who fall into lockstep with them also add to the still small sliver of the population that is burdening the entire population with this injurious behavior. State level republicans add a significant number to this small number relative to the population as a whole. But altogether, the 310 plus the group of state elected republicans working in lockstep are, compared to the population as a whole, a tiny sliver of the entire population but are hugely disproportionately destructive. It is this small group that is inflicting this injury on the rest of us.

This is a small enough group that it could easily be accommodated in a small for profit maximum security prison.

The United States came into existence as a sovereign nation when it threw off the yoke of George III of England. The country rejected being ruled by a king and his aristocracy. Americans have always taken pride in this act of self actualization that led it to becoming a free and independent sovereign nation. Trump, his oligarch cronies, his mentally ill cabinet and advisors, and the entire republican party, whether they individually are russian assets, white christian nationalists, insurrectionists, and/or sadists and haters want the American people to forget about their proud origin of throwing off a despotic king and their subsequent formation of a constitutional democracy. They are attempting to rewrite history and come out of it as victors and the new king and aristocracy, or in this case, the new American dictator and his kleptocratic oligarchy. I do not think he/they will succeed. The American people are waking up to this reality and, I believe, are slowly coming to their senses about it and will find a way to quash this affliction and will, eventually, come out stronger for it.

My question is, will it take another revolution to get there?


Republican Carnage and Wreckage

by Greg Snyder


In the most recent census of 2020, the population of the United States was 331,449,281 people.

Since the inauguration of Trump on January 20th, the country has been experiencing the threat or actual loss of retirement savings, personal identification, personal safety, well-being and security, jobs, education, the USPS, the VA, a healthy economy, health and healthcare, a healthy environment, human rights, diversity, national security, our republic of democratic government and the constitution, the potential for a crypto apocalypse, general instability. And this is just a partial list of the disastrous actions, executive orders, and policies that the Trump administration has issued and which continue to come from Trump. Every day he brings us another or several new horrors and potential disasters. The strong economy that the Biden administration left us with as of January 20, 2025 has been maimed, debilitated, and made vulnerable. The familiar corruption, cronyism, deal-making and pay-to-play system of Trump has reappeared but in a much more vile and malicious form this time. The retribution, threats, intimidation tactics have come back and this time are endorsed and reinforced by Trump’s cabinet picks and his accomplices, the entire republican party. Inflation has come roaring back. The stock market has tanked. Trump has sadistically abandoned Ukraine and betrayed our long-standing allies to curry favor with our enemy, Putin. Trump has filled his cabinet and surrounded himself with a host of advisors with very likely certifiably mentally ill individuals. Mental illness almost seems to be a requirement to work in the Trump administration.

The group that is responsible for doing all of this to all of us is a minuscule number of people compared to the 331,449,281 people in the population. And they are easily named: Trump, Vance, Musk, Trump’s cabinet and inner circle of advisors, 218 house republicans, and 53 republican senators. It is this president and his vice president, the 15 member cabinet, and the (approx.) couple dozen close personal advisors to Trump, this group of approximately 310 people (out of 331,449,281 people) who are doing all of this serious damage to all the rest of us. Republican elected officials at the state level who fall into lockstep with them also add to the still small sliver of the population that is burdening the entire population with this injurious behavior. State level republicans add a significant number to this small number relative to the population as a whole. But altogether, the 310 plus the group of state elected republicans working in lockstep are, compared to the population as a whole, a tiny sliver of the entire population but are hugely disproportionately destructive. It is this small group that is inflicting this injury on the rest of us.

This is a small enough group that it could easily be accommodated in a small for profit maximum security prison.

The United States came into existence as a sovereign nation when it threw off the yoke of George III of England. The country rejected being ruled by a king and his aristocracy. Americans have always taken pride in this act of self actualization that led it to becoming a free and independent sovereign nation. Trump, his oligarch cronies, his mentally ill cabinet and advisors, and the entire republican party, whether they individually are russian assets, white christian nationalists, insurrectionists, and/or sadists and haters want the American people to forget about their proud origin of throwing off a despotic king and their subsequent formation of a constitutional democracy. They are attempting to rewrite history and come out of it as victors and the new king and aristocracy, or in this case, the new American dictator and his kleptocratic oligarchy. I do not think he/they will succeed. The American people are waking up to this reality and, I believe, are slowly coming to their senses about it and will find a way to quash this affliction and will, eventually, come out stronger for it.

My question is, will it take another revolution to get there?


My Father was a Patriot.

by Greg Snyder

He survived WW2 and the two ships that he was on when they were sunk in the South Pacific. His father was also a career military officer for his entire life. My father had a deep sense of fairness, of honor, and he loved this country. As a career military officer my father swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend that Constitution of the United States, even to death if necessary.

My father died at age 84 in 2004. He was a lifelong republican even though there were times when he disagreed with the direction that his party took. I miss him very much and I always will. But I am thankful that he is not alive now, in 2025, to see the disrespect and the ferocious violations thatare being committed against the Constitution by Trump, Musk, the entire Republican party, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, and the media, all to prop up the fascism of one person, Trump.

My father believed fervently in the necessity of fighting fascism during the second world war. I believe that it would have completely broken his heart to see the way in which Trump is now attempting to establish himself as the fascist supreme leader of the United States. Trump’s activity would have enraged my father as it does us now. I believe that Trump would have forced my father to drop his party loyalty to the republican party in disgust for its complicity in the attack on our constitutional republic.

Trump is only able to do what he is doing because he has the support that he has. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the billionaire class controls the republican party. Republicans control Congress and the White House, and, arguably, the Supreme Court. Republicans have the slimmest majority possible in Congress, yet they have control of Congress. Under these conditions the United States currently has no checks and balances, and there are no longer three functional branches of government. Only the executive branch of the federal government appears to be functional at this time. And it is functional only in a destructive, deconstructionist, fascist methodology and agenda. The conservative Supreme Court, instead of being impartial, instead of being apolitical, the Supreme Court is re ”interpreting” and instead of protecting our Constitution, is actively engaged in deconstructing it. So, yes, there has been a coup.

Our Constitution has been our framework, our structure and discipline for going on 250 years. It has been our inspiration and guardian. Will our Constitution survive the current assault against it by Trump and the tiny minority of billionaires that he represents? Will our constitutional republic survive their all-out attack?

Is the love that Americans have traditionally had for our Constitution going to be enough for the more than 330 million of us to rally around it and protect and preserve it from those officers at the highest levels of government who are currently engaged in trying to make it irrelevant and meaningless? The only way that can be done is to work starting at the grassroots level and moving up to a nationally organized endeavor, forming a coalition and united community to do just that. It will take all of us, from people who do not usually participate in civic responsibilities to highly competent professionals with excellent organizational skills and problem-solving expertise to lead the country back onto its former path if we are going to continue to have a constitution that is of, for, and by the people.

Trump’s governing is a mess. His cabinet nominees and appointed officials are bizarrely unconventional, unqualified, and are uniquely dangerous and will put the country to great harm. And they are being rubber-stamped by a republican-controlled senate that does not take its role of advice and consent seriously. Trump is not ruling by law but by executive order, which is not law, many of his executive orders are being challenged and will continue to be challenged as to their and legality and legitimacy in courts. One thing is certain: Ruling by executive order is not ruling by law. Only Congress can make laws. The president only gets to sign them or reject them. But he can’t make them. Executive orders are not laws.

In the first Trump term the country depended on there being “some adults in the room” to not allow Trump to totally crash and burn the country down. This time around Trump is disposing of as many of the adults in the room as he can get away with getting rid of in order to replace them with sycophants who will do as he says. Will Trump’s sycophant replacements have any lines or boundaries beyond which they will be principled enough to refuse and/or redirect the horrendous impulses and illegal actions that Trump is known to commit on a frequent basis? That remains to be seen. But, the fact is, these sycophants will likely be the only adults left in the room unless Trump’s recent firings and purges are found to be illegal and the victims restored to their previous positions.

Will Trump attempt to establish martial law and martial rule? Will he, with his new white Christian nationalist supremacist Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, use the military and all the resources of the DoD and the Pentagon to establish martial law similar to the police states that exist in Putin’sRussia and Kim Jung Un’s North Korea? Will Trump attempt to use local law enforcement to corral and suppress first amendment protests in cities and towns across the country? Will Trump use mercenaries, militias, private contractors and hate groups to provoke civil unrest and use violence and intimidation against Americans exercising their first amendment rights to protest and petition for change and to badger and intimidate Congress to do what he wants? Will the rank and file go along with it? Will the military and law enforcement go along with it?

Up until Trump, the United States has not been threatened by or directly experienced an avowed fascist leader like Germany and South Korea and Ukraine have all experienced. Those countries have all experienced fascism directly and have suffered the consequences and the long and painful rehabilitation that was required to recover from them. Ukraine is currently fighting for its own sovereignty against the aggression of Russia. Germany is currently having mass protests against the extreme right wing political party that has been recently encouraged by Trump’s co-leader, Musk.South Korea recently forced its president out of office and indicted him for obstructing justice, manipulating the electoral process, and attempting to establish martial law. All three of these countries are currently actively involved in fighting fascism. The world is waking up to taking a more active role in fighting fascism. These countries know first-hand how dangerous and destructive fascism is and how long it takes to recover from it. Will the people of the United States have to go through a long and painful process of oppression by fascism before restoration of our democracy and our constitutional republic is possible? As a country, we could understand the problem and solve it. It’s an option. It’s a choice.

There is hope. Whatever you can do on an individual basis, talk to people, get involved, become part of a community mobilized against fascism, to protect our constitution andrepublic, do it. Be engaged. Don’t sit it out.

Are Our Elections Truly Free and Fair?

by Greg Snyder

I am a citizen. I vote. I am a registered democrat. But I do not vote based strictly on party. Nor do I have an allegiance to party over country. I am not partisan. I do believe in inclusive, whole community-based politics based on cooperation, discussion, compromise and progressive ideas and policies that help people and improve our lives. I do believe that politics should be representative of ALL the people, not just a few. There are people who would label me as socialist or communist or woke or liberal or whatever. I am not threatened by those labels because I don’t fall prey to gaslighting and political manipulation. I’m done with them. I know these labels never honestly describe a person. Whenever these labels are used to describe anyone who has similar beliefs that are inclusive and based on representative democracy, they are an over-simplified generalization and rhetoric that is used to persuade (gaslight) the gullible, ignorant, fearful, and vulnerable in order that they believe the worst things about the person being labelled. This turns us against each other. It is very corrosive. These labels reduce the person to a cliché and oversimplify him or her and don’t really say anything at all that is true about that person. I think this applies to all the people who are accused of and attacked using this type of labelling or name calling.

I am not an expert in computer technology. I am not writing this to impugn the makers of the computers that the states use to conduct elections. I am simply asking some questions because I have questions. It is very strange indeed trying to send a message like this out into the ether without any solid chance that it will be received by anyone with the type of expertise I hope exists. My sending this message out is kind of like the messages on plaques that have been put onto some of the space crafts that have been sent on long journeys out into space. They are of strange markings, the meaning of which it is hoped will be understood by some alien races out there in space. I am writing this note with the hope that maybe it will be seen by some people who have ideas on how to restore trust and ensure transparency for those of us who have trust issues. I hope to find people with knowledge of computer technology and people who know how to implement remedies for problems in politics. But also, and more importantly, I am writing this for the people of the United States who vote with the hope that the voting systems they are using are trustworthy and are not being manipulated to cheat and skew election results. I am not proposing any conspiracy theories here. I am just asking some questions. I am not paranoid. But I do have some questions. If anyone reacts to my asking these questions with accusations that this is a political attack, they need not be so reactionary. If any of the questions I am asking are uncomfortable or objectionable, why is that? There is nothing to fear in questions if they can only serve to clarify. Clear and truthful answers only dispel distrust and refusing to answer questions or ignoring them or evading them only shows that underneath it there is the possibility of something that is wrong and may need correction.

So, after 575 words of disclosure and setting up the questions I have, I’ll ask those questions:

These questions are for people who know how election computers work, how they are programmed, and how they are made secure and how hacking them is prevented.

Can the voting machine computers be made to change or flip votes that have been entered into them?

Can changing or flipping votes be prevented? In other word, can voting machines be made so that vote changing and flipping cannot occur?

Can voting machines be reprogrammed by local officials employing their own IT experts to change or flip votes after they have been bought by a state from their manufacturer?

Is there a way to verify that votes have not been changed or flipped? Is there a permanent hard copy record of the vote that cannot be covered up, erased, or removed that can prove that a voting machine’s programming has not been or has been modified?

Is an audit done after every election to verify that there was no tampering or modification done to voting machines? Can there be a federal election law that requires that such an audit is done after every election to ensure transparency that the vote was conducted free of any modification to the voting machines as part of the certification of the election results?  

These questions are for the Secretaries of State in all the states:

Are your voting machines examined before and after each election to ensure that they have not been tampered with and are the results of those examinations archived and made available to the public?

Do you administer audits of the elections before you certify and make public the results of the elections? Are the results of your audits available to the public?

These questions are for our federal, state and local elected officials:

If they are not already in place in your state, in addition to voting in person, would you consider implementing voting by mail, expanded early voting, making provisional ballots available, automatic registration of all eligible voters through the DMV for example, and verification and auditing of voting tabulation machines before and after each election to ensure their safety and the validity and integrity of the vote?

Trump has promised that “Don’t worry. You won’t have to vote ever again” as one of his campaign promises. Yes, there are a winner and a loser in every election. But all voters should feel that they can trust that their votes will be fairly counted and have assurances that this in fact takes place. With our politics being as polarized as they are, it is very easy for regular people to have distrust for election results that do not make sense to them. If voting were made more transparent and security measures are taken to guarantee a truly free and fair election has taken place and that the entire process is entirely transparent and a matter of public record that is available publicly, it would be a great relief to voters who have some suspicions that we as voters have not been given the assurances that we need that our vote is safe and secure. A few simple fixes to our election process would help to restore some trust in the notion that we do, indeed,  truly have free and fair elections.  

Contemporary Expectations

by Greg Snyder

Al Capone probably didn’t expect to be arrested and prosecuted for tax evasion. He probably knew that he was committing crimes and that he could be held accountable for them. Al Capone, back then, probably didn’t doubt that if he were ever caught in illegal actions for which there was evidence that could send him to jail that he would be sent to jail. And that’s what happened. He was sent to jail on the evidence against him. Al Capone probably would never have expected that if he were arrested, charged, prosecuted, went to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to prison, that he would walk away from it a free man. And that’s what happened. He went to jail.

Since the arrest and incarceration of Al Capone, white collar criminals have become increasingly more emboldened. Today, the hubris and arrogance of white collar criminals who have been arrested, indicted, and taken to trial, especially from the 1980s on, have accompanied them as these criminals have adopted a very different set of expectations. Unlike Al Capone, for the most part, many of them don’t worry about the possibility that they might be convicted and sent to jail. They have the expectation that the trials against them will not successfully convict them. In fact, many of them expect to be acquitted and walk away as free and unfettered men. They simply hire a team of lawyers who devise clever ways to twist law and on that basis get them acquitted, even when there is sufficient evidence against them. They have come to truly appreciate the tiered justice system that places a much higher bar to convict them and make their convictions stick. This is not true for the more ordinary, less professional and less wealthy defendants in the criminal justice system who can’t afford to hire a small legion of high-priced lawyers to get them off the hook.

In the decades since the 1980s, the ostentation of corporate malfeasance has often gone rewarded rather than punished when prestigious law firms defended cases that to the observing public seemed to be culpable by the evidence that was made public and also by public opinion, especially in many of the most scandalous white collar cases that were litigated not just in court rooms, but also in the media. There have been, of course, some high-profile white collar crime court cases that did in fact convict. But it seems that justice in many other cases seemingly did not prevail when the verdict was an acquittal.

The 1980s in the United States saw the beginning of the contemporary trend of selfishness, hoarding, and ruthlessness that have come to be the aspirations of a new corporate and political culture. Greed is good became a national mantra. Hoarding glorified. Celebrity worship took off and has become one of the most consuming pastimes of America. This has helped to create an atmosphere in which white collar crime has almost developed a cult following. It has somehow become the stuff of the new American myth of power and wealth and privilege. It has become the new patriotism. It has taken on the mantle of the All American. It has dangerously inflated hubris and arrogance almost to a bursting point. It has also occurred with such frequency and predictability that it no longer catches the public off guard or causes consternation at how badly unjust the system seems to have become. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

All of these trends, combined with the Citizens United ruling by the conservative John Roberts Supreme Court have helped to give rise to an expansion of a small economic class of ultra wealthy individuals and families that used to work behind-the-scenes but has overtaken American politics. Conservative think tanks like The Cato Institute and The American Heritage Foundation, families like the Waltons, Mercers, Mellons, Kochs, De Vos, etc., individuals like Musk, Thiel, Buffet, Bezos, Zuckerberg, etc., while not being criminals arrested and taken to trial, may have tangentially benefitted from the media success of white collar criminals who have successfully evaded conviction. As a social class, if any social class has benefited at all from this miscarriage of justice, this is it.

Hands off of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

by Greg Snyder

Wall Street and the Republican Party have been attempting to defund, weaken, and dismantle these social programs for decades. They now have Trump as an ally to try to wipe out those programs. They call these programs entitlements and claim that they are the cause of the federal deficit which is a lie.

Another lie is that Wall Street, the Republican Party, and Trump do not state that these programs are paid for by Americans through a payroll tax that they pay for every hour they work for their entire working lives. American workers have paid for these programs. It is their money that they have paid into the Social Security Trust fund through the taxes that they have paid their entire working lives. It is a lie when Republicans make claims that imply that these programs are some kind of communist or socialist plot. These programs are a social safety net for retirement. It is a lie to imply that American workers have not worked and paid for every cent that they have paid in income taxes that go directly into these funds and that it is not their money. That is the most insulting lie of all.

Social Security itself is not part of the federal budget. It is its own self-sustaing fund and is only strained financially and under threat of insolvency because it has a cap on the upper levels of income to generate revenue. It is a lie when someone implies that the funding of Social Security and Medicare is part of the federal budget. Those funds are funded by worker contributions in the form of the income taxes they pay for their entire working lives.

The problem with insolvency of Social Security is only a problem that exists because all income above $176,100 is not taxed. In other words, a person who makes more than that income is not taxed for any additional income above that amount. That is about 15% of tax payers. That means that, for example, a person who has an income of $5 million is not taxed for social security above $176,100. Approximately 15% of the population has an income of more than $176,000.00 a year and are not taxed on any more than the first $176,100.00 of that income. There is an easy two-part fix that would solve the problem of insolvency of Social Security. New taxes on upper levels of income which can be done in a progressive way so that as income increases, so does the tax rate. This incremental increase in taxes could be fair and not be a burden to all tax brackets but it would also ensure that the upper levels of income are fairly taxed as the lower levels of income are and have always been taxed. Since Ronald Reagan cut income taxes for the wealthy from 70% to 28% in the 1980s, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid have all experienced financial strain by insufficient generation of revenue and that financial strain is what puts stress on the economy, not the programs themselves. The second part of solving the insolvency of Social Security is that Congress must repay the more than a trillion dollars it has “borrowed” from the Social Security Trust fund to pay for wars that Congress neglected to find other ways to pay for other than to “borrow” money from Social Security and promise to pay back. Congress needs to pay its IOUs to the Social Security Trust Fund.

Millions of Americans who have paid into Social Security and Medicare all their working lives depend solely on these programs to have a very modest income and healthcare in their retirement years. Congressional Republicans want to take that away from them. The Republican Party does not care about what happens to people when they have nothing and are left destitute. The Republican Party apparently does not care when these people may starve, not have enough money to pay for a place to live, and get sick and die because they have no income or healthcare.

All working Americans deserve a dignified retirement. They have worked hard for it for their entire lives. Congress needs to keep its hands off of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid except for making them solvent and increasing benefits so that they more closely match what is needed to keep up with the actual cost of living. If Congress threatens to tamper with these programs, it will have to deal with the response.

Is Private Equity Benevolent or a Conundrum or Both?

by Greg Snyder

Is Private Equity Benevolent or a Conundrum or both? What is Private Equity?

Approximately 6.5 percent of the American economy, based on the limited concept of GDP, is in private equity. That is 6.5% of the $29.35 trillion dollars, the current GDP, or, $1.90775 trillion dollars.

When involved in individual business investments, private equity capital is invested into a target company either by an investment management company (private equity firm),
a venture capital fund, a hedge fund, or an “angel” investor, a wealthy individual who invests personal money in early-stage companies. Angel investors expect to take ownership positions in the companies they buy into because their capital is unsecured—they have no claim on the company’s assets. There are 11,218 Private Equity, Hedge Funds & Investment Vehicles businesses in the US as of 2023, a decline of -2.2% from 2022. There are as many “Angel” investors in the market as there are people wealthy enough to buy into the industry. The fact that private security investors have no claim on the company’s assets should be viewed as a red flag and as a potential cause of negative events that may occur after private equity acquires businesses as a result of predatory acquisitions and subsequent practices. Each category of investor in PE has specific financial goals, management preferences, and investment strategies for profiting from their investments. Private equity provides working capital to the target company to finance the expansion of the company with the development of new products and services, restructuring of operations, management, and formal control and ownership of the company.

Private equity remains a major driver of economic growth by supporting small businesses and paying high wages to millions of workers that private equity-backed businesses employ. In 2022, private equity directly generated $1.7 trillion of GDP in the U.S., approximately 6.5% of GDP for that year.

The four main areas within private equity are venture capital, growth equity, buyouts, and distressed or special situations investing. Each area focuses on different stages of a company’s lifecycle and investment strategy, from early-stage startups to mature businesses needing turnaround strategies.

Private equity, when it is not involved in predatory practices, can help companies grow, saves local jobs, and boosts the retirement savings of millions of Americans. The caveat is that predatory practices create significant risks for workers, businesses, and the economy.

Public companies bought by private equity management firms are approximately 10 times more likely to go bankrupt than a control group subject to the same market forces. That’s largely because of how PE firms purchase companies. PE investors, typically wealthy individuals or institutional investors, often fund their acquisitions by taking out large loans. Frequently, about 70% of the money that PE investors use to buy a company will come from loans—allowing them to only pay 30% from their own funds. The acquired company then becomes responsible for paying off this debt. This is called a “leveraged buyout.”

In some cases, PE acquisition can help revive struggling businesses by bringing in new leadership or needed capital. However, the high debt levels associated with leveraged buyouts can raise substantial risks. For example, if revenues from the acquired company are not enough to pay off its debts, it can go bankrupt, which in turn leads to job loss and loss of the services that the company provided to the economy. Even if the acquired company does not fall into bankruptcy, PE firms typically seek to raise short-term revenue, in many cases through drastic cost-cutting measures like layoffs—which come at the direct expense of the company’s workers. The PE firm will then be able to place the acquired company back on the market and sell it to new buyers at a higher price. This is what is called a “buy, strip and flip” business model. PE acquisitions are not public companies and are exempt from publicly disclosing information about their operations, risks, finances, and liabilities—making it difficult to evaluate their performance and possible risks to the broader economy.

Private equity-owned businesses are concentrated in lower-wage industries, impacting job stability and pay for workers. When private equity is involved in predatorial activities it may not be creating more jobs and may, in fact, be working against, not improving or expanding the American economy for workers and companies involved in the transaction or for the economy.

Who benefits from private equity? By providing capital, operational knowledge, and strategic support, private equity can help lower middle market economy businesses thrive. Private equity (PE) has long been a driving force in the financial world, but its influence on the lower middle market economy in the United States is particularly noteworthy. However, predatory practices create significant risks for workers, businesses, and the economy. Private equity-owned businesses are concentrated in lower-wage industries, impacting job stability and pay for workers. Private equity’s growth in the health care sector negatively impacts Americans’ well-being. Private equity growth is also contributing to higher prices for food and other essentials. Research shows that New Mexico is at the highest risk of exploitation by private equity. Congressional Democrats are taking on private equity’s harmful practices, fighting for Americans’ health care, and ensuring wealthy CEOs pay their fair share. This endeavor is not being joined in by Congressional Republicans. While Trump’s policies supported private equity in a hands-off relationship with the industry, the Biden-Harris administration has worked to hold these companies accountable for the American people. My prediction for the four upcoming years of Trump’s second term in office is that the country will experience an increase in predatorial private equity business activities and that there may well be negative impacts and consequences on commerce, American companies and their workers and on the economy.

It has frequently been claimed by industry spokespersons that private equity-owned businesses create more jobs than they destroy, though the academic research paints a much more ambiguous picture. Even when private equity is good capitalism, it isn’t necessarily good for society.

Safeguards and regulations and some changes in the laws that regulate private equity can be made which could mitigate the negative impacts of predatorial practices by private equity and reduce the risks it poses to the economy.

Here are some of the things that can be done to protect and provide for a more stable economy:

Make private equity executives legally liable for the damage they cause.

Stop looting that enriches PE executives at the expense of workers, communities, and businesses.

Close tax loopholes and change rules that encourage predatory financial activities.

Protect workers if employers go bankrupt.

Require PE firms to be fair and transparent to investors in disclosing costs and returns.