Tag: politics

A General Strike in the United States Would Require Massive Organizing

by Greg Snyder

This could be facilitated by Labor Unions, NGOs, Social Service organizations, schools and educational institutions, state and local political offices, various other types of collectives or agencies or non-profits, the independent press, social media, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers to name a few. Education of the public as to what a general strike is would be an absolute necessity in planning for and initiating one.

For Americans, the two most difficult aspects of a general strike are:

1. It requires not working and not participating as much as possible in the economy. Limiting buying to pay mostly for necessities. And,

2. a general strike could take a long time to achieve the stated goals and objectives of the strike. It requires a siege mentality to stick it out and survive. So, people need be prepared to do that. It would require planning and setting up a plan.

A general strike in the United States would not be like other great general strikes in history because it would not involve being confined or defending against violence. It would simply be stopping work, not paying federal taxes, and not buying most things except for necessities. The point is to make it be felt in the economy.

Another thing about a  general strike in the United States is that one of its key objectives would be to demand, and not relent in our demands, until Congress does what we are demanding and gives us a fair tax code that does not favor the rich by giving them a set of benefits in regards to deductions for luxury items like yachts/private jets/show horses, etc, which the rest of us do not have, loopholes, waivers, exemptions, tax cuts, tax havens that allow them to hoard cash in offshore accounts etc., etc. that the rest of us do not have.

A new tax code, one that I am calling a fair tax code, would be a tax code that no longer has benefits that go only to the wealthy that the rest of us do not have. A new tax code that is fair does not reduce taxes on those who do not need tax breaks; it raises them. The rich can certainly pay more taxes without it causing them any real harm in terms of financial or monetary security. After tax increases on them, they will still remain very rich. A fair tax code does not impose high taxes on people who are hurt by them and cannot afford higher taxes. The only taxation that is fair is taxation that taxes according to the ability to pay them. The only justification for tax waivers, tax breaks, and exemptions to paying taxes is to give them to the poor or marginally poor who barely make ends meet because they are the only genuinely needy and deserving people when it comes to tax “relief.”  

The simple rule of thumb for Congress to adhere to when writing a fair tax code is that it has to be uniform and not give one class of people, the rich, benefits that the rest of us do not have or get, and to eliminate benefits that the rich get that the rest of the population do not get. It’s a very simple and unambiguous concept.  

Getting back to the difficulties of Americans living during a general strike:

We would have to accept that a general strike means shutting work down. A strike is always temporary. But it could last for a long time. Employers would know that workers are striking to achieve specific economic and political goals and objectives and that it is not personal. It is a cultural goal and aspiration and need. During the Covid shutdown/slowdown, many businesses had to shut their doors, many permanently. That is a risk. In the undertaking of any major social movement there are always shifts and changes and shocks. But, as it is true with nature when it is no longer being assaulted by damaging activities done to it by people, it can and does re-equilibrate and begin to stabilize and heal itself over time after the event has concluded. That happened with the Covid epidemic. Eventually many businesses reestablished a strong footing post Covid.

Small and medium-sized businesses might be better positioned during a general strike to stay open on a limited basis if the business is one of proving essential needs. But as people will have to reserve and stretch the funds they have for the duration of the strike they will probably not be consuming as much during a strike as they normally do other than on essentials.

An important consideration for the success of a general strike is for it to be a whole community inclusive event. Every individual would have to be involved and I would hope that every business would also consider itself part of the community. As part of a whole community, businesses could do what they can to help people sustain the strike.

Small and medium-sized and possibly even corporate businesses might, in reality, become an ally to a general strike if they can dialog with their employees about a possible return to work at the conclusion of the strike if the businesses can sustain a prolonged stoppage without going out of business altogether. It would save them from having to reestablish business from scratch after the strike. And it could be a bond between employer and employees.

 We know that Americans often have from 3 to 7 career changes in a lifetime. And we saw that after the Covid lockdown and epidemic people returned to work. Sometimes in the same jobs they had before the epidemic. Sometimes in a different career altogether. So, we know that we can do this. Americans already do it anyway as part of the way they live. It’s not preferable to have to start all over in a new career. But it is doable.

Americans must consider coming together in their communities to help and look after one another and to help those who need it. I believe this is what has occurred in past general strikes that have been successful. Come together. Pool resources. Help your neighbors. Be part of a community. Be together in this.

There are plenty of reasons to engage in a general strike at this time in our history of the United States, when there is so much at risk because of the dangerous government we have.

We risk losing our democracy to a kleptocratic autocrat and his entourage of opportunistic, nihilistic enablers and administration, a very slim sliver of the American population, and the United States could possibly end up as a society of the tiny few “haves” and the vast bulk of the population of “have nots.” Any intelligent and thinking rich person would know that a poor population does not sustain prosperity for the rich or bode well with the continuation of a flourishing economy.

A general strike has to have goals and objectives. There are many causes of alarm and concern that engulf us at this time:

We have a unitary executive president and a Supreme Court that made it possible and put him above the law.

We have a unitary executive president whose immediate goal seems to be to create an army to harass and disappear immigrants without due process and to quell protest and the petitioning of grievances and opposition by citizens, a right guaranteed by the first amendment.

We have a DoJ that has become the personal property of the unitary executive president.

We have a non-ethical, religiously-biased, corporate-owned, partisan and political Supreme Court majority that has made it a habit of degrading the Constitution, the document that they all swore to uphold, protect, and defend who are using their role “to interpret” the Constitution to destroy it.

We have a conservative Supreme Court that is rolling back, eroding, and eliminating voting rights and full voting participation by all eligible voters by allowing states to use many tactics to disenfranchise voters on specious grounds, dismantling human rights, including the right for women to make their own reproductive decisions, allowing gerrymandering, and allowing for the continued degradation and destruction of the Earth’s environment. All in service to corporate and special interests.

We have a tax code that is going to add trillions of dollars to the federal budget to make the rich even richer at the expense of the rest of the population and a president who is illegally imposing tariffs to help pay for the ballooning deficit caused by the engorged enriching of billionaires via the enormous tax cuts to the rich and shifting the cost of tariffs to regular consumers to do so.

We have gross economic inequality that threatens us with real damage economically and culturally.

We have an unjust Justice system.

We have a corporate mainstream legacy media that has dismissed its obligation to be a free and independent press and no longer serves to truthfully inform the population and that serves an increasingly fascist government and moneyed special interests, most especially including their own interests.

This is my own partial individual personal list of concerns that I believe really need to be addressed and dealt with politically and thus my belief that at some point a general strike may become necessary to achieve a list of political goals and objectives.

Given the many areas of grave concern and problems that we as a nation are facing, I believe the list should be an officially endorsed document outlining political goals and objectives that have been arrived at through a consensus of the largest possible number of strike participants. That seems to me the only way to democratically go about carrying out a general strike.

If you are still reading, thank you. I know it’s a lot. Probably too much. But it’s also why so many people are feeling so stressed out and hopeless. But I write this with the hope that something good can come out of it. Possibly many good things can come out of it.

I’ll end with my own short list of goals and objectives that I would like to see the American people be able to achieve to move on to a better future. Most, if not all of these things would require Congress to do them:

  1. Eliminate the unitary executive president with common sense laws that limit the president’s power.
  2. Restore an independent DoJ and make it free of the president’s control. Proscribe the use of National Guard reservists and the US military for illegal or unconstitutional law enforcement activities and for policing American cities when there is no emergency and only if it has been approved by Congress. Require that law enforcement officers not be allowed to wear masks and are required to identify themselves as legitimate law enforcement officers when asked to do so.   Abolish ICE .
  3. Reform the Supreme Court with term limits. Create a Supreme Court code of ethics that is enforced by laws of Congress, not by the court’s own relaxed self-protective half measures. Eliminate life-long terms of employment for justices and institute term limits. (A life-long term of employment was never a good idea and is a guarantee that almost all people do NOT have in almost all work. It’s an outdated convention of privilege that belongs in the trash.) Establish an IA for the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, that can investigate allegations, indict, and prosecute possible violations and has a mechanism to remove judges found guilty of gross misconduct from the bench.  
  4. Make taking gifts and bribes by any judge or elected official an illegal activity like it used to be. Ensure and enforce that elected officials taking bribes and gifts results in termination.
  5. End all stock trading by members of Congress while they are serving as members of Congress.
  6.  End Citizen’s United and get money out of politics.
  7. Limit campaign spending and implement public funding of campaigns. Shorten the duration of political campaigns.
  8. Scrap the current tax code. Congress start fresh and write a new fair tax code. See above.
  9. End gerrymandering. Abolish all currently gerrymandered districts nationwide and require that voting district maps be redrawn by independent map makers who do not use racial or other prejudicial criteria to draw maps.

That is my short wishlist of the political goals and objectives that I would propose be included in any officially endorsed declaration for a general strike. But that document could be anything and have as many or as few demands as agreed upon by a consensus of participants.

I have hope for the future. If things get bad enough then possibly the country might need to consider the need to have a general strike. General strikes have been used in the past to make difficult political change possible and have helped their countries move on to a more positive future. So, it’s something to have in mind.

Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors

by Greg Snyder

Trump/Republican “Good News” following Republican passage of The Republican Big Ugly Bill 

Got a cheery (yes, it’s sarcasm) bit of propaganda from the new Social Security Administration under Trump this morning. The day after the Republicans passed the Big Ugly Bill. 

The propaganda told me the good news that Social Security benefits are no longer going to be taxed. If that is true, great. However, the propaganda does NOT mention several very important points:

1. This is the first step in the Republican/Trump plan to eliminate Social Security altogether. 

2. It is appeasement for those already receiving Social Security benefits to help them “look the other way” in the future actions the republicans may take to further decimate the program. 

3. Republicans think they are doing a good service by eliminating this crucially important safety net for their own ludicrous and unknown reasons. They don’t talk about them except to call Social Security socialism or some other such bullshit smear. What Social Security is can be thought of as a retirement bank account that Americans pay into every hour that they work from the time they begin working until they retire. It is an earned investment, not socialism, not fraud. 

4. The truth is that Social Security is not broken and never has been broken. In fact, it has performed spectacularly since its inception. But Republicans and Trump, right now, are trying very hard to destroy and eliminate it permanently. 

5. The truth about Social Security is that it can be easily improved, strengthened, expanded, and made permanently solvent very easily by removing the artificial cap on the upper limit of income that is taxed to pay into the Social Security Trust Fund. That’s it. 

That single easy step would fix the problem of Social Security solvency and give the Social Security Administration the ability to expand benefits and make it a permanent program of retirement for hard working Americans. 

So, the good, cheery bit of propaganda I got from the Social Security Administration this morning, the day after the Republicans passed Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, may be good news if indeed it is true that Social Security benefits will no longer be taxed. But that shouldn’t have happened in the first place anyway because it is double taxation for no good cause or reason. So, stopping double taxation for Social Security for working Americans is only the bare minimum thing that Republicans could have done to help rather than hurt working Americans. And it should be permanent. 

But far better news yet will be when Congress finally fixes the problem of Social Security solvency by taking the very easy, very do-able step of removing the artificial cap on the upper limit of income taxed for it. 

Oh, and it wouldn’t hurt if Congress returned the trillions of dollars that Congress has “borrowed” and promised to pay back from the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for disastrous and unsanctioned wars that didn’t do any good for anything or anyone.

The Public Needs to be Protected

by Greg Snyder

The Fairness Doctrine was defective because it did not protect the public from the propaganda, lies, non-verified/non-fact checked, speculation, opinions, and distortions of truth, smears campaigns, fear-mongering, xenophobia and racism, that is being produced every day by mainstream news media and cable channel “news” shows like Fox News.

The defect of the Fairness Doctrine that was exploited was that its guidelines did not protect the public, but rather mandated that “both sides” of an issue be covered in the news and given equal time before the public. This was abused to create reasonable doubt in the public mind and then used to advance a deleterious libertarian free market ideology and policy agenda by a small group of scientists working for the administrations of republican presidents to obscure the truth of settled science on a number of consequential issues.

“The Merchants of Doubt”, a book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway provides a detailed exposé of how these scientists working for republican administrations attacked settled scientific truths that were not even in question as there was general consensus in the scientific community based on the scientific method, peer reviewed validation, that had already definitively scientifically settled these matters. We are still very much living with this type of media manipulation of facts and reality by a mass corporate media and cable news outlets that today continue to spread propaganda, lies, conspiracy theories, delusional speculations, radically extreme conservative and opinions, hate-mongering and race-baiting xenophobia even though the Fairness Doctrine was stopped by Ronald Reagan’s FCC in 1987.

The United States needs a law that protects the public from mass manipulation by the unscrupulous, self-serving corporate and cable media empires that control the airwaves and much of the press. We need a law that requires fact-checking and proscribes the dissemination of non-factual, non-verified, non-vetted information that is speculative or deceptive or manipulative and ideologically or politically based. This new law would require that it is the news source’s responsibility to prove the veracity of the content it disseminates. Speculative and opinion editorial content should all be required to provide disclaimers to alert the public that that is what is being reported, speculations or opinions that are not necessarily factual in nature. So, viewer be warned.

The law that is needed is not the Fairness Doctrine. But rather it would have to be a law to protect the public, not demand equal time on settled matters which, as we now know, can be used to muddy the waters, confuse or scare the public, and create reasonable doubt when there really is no actual reasonable doubt.

The Big Ugly Senate Bill

by Greg Snyder

Trump wants to put more than 250 million acres of public lands up for sale to anyone. And senate republicans have put that into their big ugly bill. They want to make it law.

That is a proposal to make the biggest transfer of national resources in the history of the United States, resources that belong to the people, away from the people and into private pockets and bank accounts. Tax cuts for the rich are bad enough. But senate republicans also want to put this vast chunk of publicly-owned land up for sale to anyone for pennies on the dollar. This would take land that is in trust that belongs to all of us and which is under the stewardship of all Americans and to future generations of Americans and release it for sale. Damn the rest of the population whose land it is and to all future generations of Americans. Senate republicans say that they care about our future. But they are actively seeking to put the future, our future and the future of future generations, up for sale.

If the big ugly senate bill becomes law, not only will the massive tax cuts for the rich increase the deficit by trillions of dollars and slash the social safety net that we depend on, but our public lands will also be put up for sale and could disappear forever. The vast publicly-owned lands that belong to all of us could become private property and be exploited any way new owners would wish and the people would be left with nothing in return. That is a double hit of impoverishment that would certainly make the country that much more destitute.

Most Americans do not approve of what the republicans are trying to do. If the republicans persist and push this bill through, there will be a backlash, not just about this theft of public lands and the deficit-ballooning tax breaks for the rich, but for all of the other malicious and destructive items in the bill as well.

There are things that concerned citizens can do if public lands are put on the auction block:

Monthly reports of sales of public lands identifying the individuals and/or businesses who made purchases can be collected and publicly disseminated.

Talented hackers might be able to find creative ways to reach out and respond to these individuals and businesses and find novel ways to interact with them.

Concerned citizens can reach out to these individuals and businesses with their concerns and questions in emails, texts, social media posts, phone calls and in person in protests like Tesla Protests at Tesla dealerships.

Boycotts of business, as in the Tesla Protests and the backlash to Target’s ridiculous DEI ban, can be initiated.

Boycotting the payment of federal taxes starting in 2026 and lasting however long it takes for Congress to give us what we want. gregleesnyderpdx.com/2025/03/15/w…

gregleesnyderpdx.com/2025/06/16/p… can be an option for protest, our own Project 2026 so to speak.

Mass peaceful protests like the ‘Hands Off’ and ‘No Kings’ protests, and actions of civil disobedience can be a method to demonstrate the mood, opposition, and disapproval of the American people and a way to make our demands known to our elected representatives and the mainstream media that really doesn’t serve the public interest but does well serving special interests.

Americans can always band together in numbers to peacefully protest and petition grievances to our government. Rural protests can be attended by friends and family members from urban centers in states to show support for rural matter as well.

The midterm elections could make all of this moot if enough democrats are elected to take control of Congress away from the republicans. So, it is very important to vote and to vote for democrats.

The rights, freedom, liberty, privacy, safety, security of all Americans are all at risk and being aggressively threatened by Congressional republicans. But American citizens are not powerless or without recourse and remedy to the reckless endangerment and abuses being heaped on them by the republicans in Congress. The list of activities above are just some of the ways that Americans can actively engage themselves in stopping the destructive impulses and activities of the republican party and make the United States a better place. But that will require the participation of a critical mass of concerned American citizens. That means you. Democracy requires participation. If you don’t exercise your civic obligation muscles they atrophy. No one can’t just sit this out. We are all needed on board.

Project 2026 Tax Boycott

by Greg Snyder

In April of 2026, we might all consider not paying our federal taxes and continue to do so until Congress gives the United States a fair and progressive tax code that does not increase taxes on anyone making $150k/year or less and exempts taxation of income on all income of individuals and families at or below the poverty line.

Instead of paying federal taxes as is normal in April of 2026 and beyond, due to the current unjust political taxation as it is currently established and implemented, we could instead have our taxes prepared and filed as usual and all penalties for non-payment of taxes during the boycott are waived until Congress produces a new progressive and fair tax code, and pay only state taxes but not pay federal taxes until the following demands are met:

A new tax code that ends tax breaks for the rich and adds additional tax brackets to tax ALL upper levels of income.

Restores IRS funding, staffing, and functioning to Biden administration levels.

Fair and progressive taxation on all corporate income and the elimination of exemptions, waivers, exceptions with enforcement penalties for non-payment of taxes.

Automatic auditing and taxation of all overseas tax haven accounts and closing all loopholes and preferential treatment of expatriated wealth.

A one time inheritance tax as proposed by Elizabeth Warren.

A tax on all securities and stock transactions.

A review of all federal subsidies and the elimination of all subsidies to profitable corporations.

Convert federal subsidies in the Farm Bill that pay for monoculture crops and use it to pay for Restorative Agricultural farming/ranching which would also greatly mitigate climate change and greatly improve a carbon sink back into our soil.

Give it some thought. A tax boycott might be able to help us get Congress to do what it has needed to do for a long time: Give us a fair and progressive tax code.

3,000 Against 263,000,000

by Greg Snyder

There are around 2,500 billionaires now. They own the 273 Republicans in both houses of Congress and 6 of the Supreme Court Justices.

But we are 340 million people. There are more of us than there are of them.

Our constitutional democracy was created for “We, the people.” Not for a delusional, sociopathic, mentally sick wannabeking or dictator and his aristocracy (oligarchy) and their political lackeys.

77 million people voted for what we are all experiencing currently. Hopefully, some of them are beginning to understand that they willingly fell for being conned and voted accordingly and now, as a result, they are being injured by a thousand little cuts to their income, their standard of living, their retirement, their rights, their constitution, their laws, their justice system, their currency, their safety, security and well-being. All of those things are now being assaulted head on by the Trump administration.

It’s not just the people who voted for him and the chaos that he has brought with him who are suffering and will be made to suffer much more in ways that they never could have conceived as even possible as time advances. Their vote for Trump is forcing ALL OF US to go through this horrible nightmare. We are all suffering as a result.

People, good people, do not do that to themselves, their friends, their family, their community, and their nation. They need to understand that for themselves and figure out the reasons and causes that led them on a path that took them so far away from our values as a nation. No one of us can do that for them. It will have to be a personal moment of reflection that brings them to their own understanding if it’s going to happen at all.

I suspect that somehow the 2024 vote that brought Trump to office for a second term could have been manipulated to give Trump those “11.7 votes” that he needed to push a win across the finish line. I believe some interesting information is beginning to surface now about how the vote in some states may have possibly been manipulated to limit the vote of democrats in those states. I am not proposing a conspiracy theory, but a strong suspicion based on data that needs to be either verified or found to be false. However, if states themselves do not do the forensic investigations that would be needed to fully understand this, it will not be done and the truth will remain hidden.

Getting back to my original point at the beginning of this essay:

There are about 2,500 billionaires now and they own the 273 Republicans in both houses of Congress and 6 of the Supreme Court justices.

But, We, the people, number 340 million people, minus the 77 million people who fell for the con and cannot be relied upon to do the right thing and stand up to save the country until they themselves have come to that on their own. I wish that they would and hope that they do join with the rest of us.

So, until they do that, that leaves 263 million Americans who can reliably, if they want to do so, fight back. Fight Trump. That is millions more people than the fewer than 3,000 billionaires and their republican sycophants and tools thatapparently want everything all to themselves and nothing for everyone else. That is millions of people to fight Trump’s inner circle and cabinet. Fight the oligarchs. And fight the sick insanity that has occupied the entire executive branch of our federal government. That is enough people to shake up these offenders who have all lost their minds and deeply offended and injured the American people.

So, the time for standing up and making our voices and demands be heard and implemented is not over yet. Not with the first of the mass national protests that occurred on May 5, 2025. Actions will undoubtedly still be necessary for some time to come.

But I have confidence and hope that the people will prevail. They can if that is what they want. It takes consent to be governed. It takes good governance to merit consent. That’s what we need to stand up for.

Come together. Join hands. It’s going to be a long march.

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.