August 21, 2026

With the mid-term elections rapidly approaching in less than three months, Donald Trump is aggressively trying to get the SAVE Act passed. The act will limit access to the ballot box for millions of Americans. He actually held an historic housing bill hostage in his fever dream of rigging the next election. He talks nonstop about rigged elections, which got me to thinking. How could a 78 year old man, who had been impeached twice, convicted on 34 counts of fraud in his business dealings, be credibly accused of courting Russian interference in the 2016 election, be convicted of sexual harassment in the E. Jean Carrol case, be accused of paying off a porn star to cover up an affair and to influence the 2016 election, be credibly charged with stealing classified documents, be accused of election interference in Georgia, and be found guilty of misusing his eponymous foundation and university, be elected President of the United States in 2024 by a majority of the voters? And he was running against a straight, multicultural woman and mother, who was known for prosecuting criminals, and not being one. Would it be unreasonable for me to think that the 2024 Presidential election was rigged? I have no evidence that proves that the election was rigged, but I have a gut feeling that something was wrong. I guess that puts me in the same conspiracy league as Donald Trump.

In the upcoming elections, we have to be very careful that Trump doesn’t monkey around with the ballots. He keeps saying crazy stuff. He said that the ballots in 2020 were obviously a big scam. He has said that he wants to make sure that elections are honest, but he is not sure they can be. “I don’t know that it can be with this whole situation of unsolicited ballots. The ballots are a disaster. The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anyone else. The Democrats. I think this was a scam that the Democrats pulled, and it needs to go before the Supreme Court.” “The Democrats rigged the 2020 election because that was the only way they were going to win. The only way they could have taken this election away from us is if this was a rigged election. There is no way you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating.The only way they could have won was this way. We can’t let that happen again.”

Trump has said that, with universal mail-in voting, the 2020 Presidential election was the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history. “It was a great embarrassment to the United States. Republicans have to vote and we have to make sure that we stop them from cheating because they cheat like dogs. Without voter fraud, we win so easily. They cheat like hell, and cheaters deserve long-term prison sentences.” He claims that Democrats are trying to encourage illegal immigrants to vote, and that’s why they are trying to open the borders to our country. “You could have a case where all of the elections wouldn’t be decided on the evening of November 3rd. These elections could be decided two months later. They could be decided many months later. … You know why? Because lots of things will happen during that period of time, especially when you have tight margins. Lots of things can happen. There’s never been anything like this.”

Hopefully, you agree with me that this is all bat poop, crazy talk. There is not a shred of evidence to support any of these claims and assertions, but Trump persists because too many voters are willing to suspend reality in favor of favoritism. I might be naive, but I don’t believe that many Trump voters believe that the 2020 Presidential election was rigged. However, I do believe that they believe that it is okay to rig the upcoming and future elections in anyway possible because Trump has made them irrationally and deathly afraid of Democrats. The Communists and Socialists are coming to take the jobs that AI cannot. They are this election cycle’s immigrant caravans, who will disappear just like them after the next election. For MAGA, eliminating free and fair elections seems to be a reasonable trade off to keep Democrats out of power.

Democrats don’t need to rig elections. Democrats and Independents vote. The early returns point out that they are coming out in record numbers to register their dissatisfaction. They are mailing in, and walking in. They are standing in long lines. I suspect many Republicans are going to sit this one out so they can claim that the election was rigged.

August 8, 2026

Can you imagine my surprise when I woke up recently to read that I was a Communist? According to our feckless leader, the Democratic Party has been taken over by Communists. Joe McCarthy must be doing cartwheels in his coffin. I knew I was a capitalist. I knew I was a centrist. I even knew, God help me, that I was an atheist. However, I didn’t know that I was a Communist. If Trump can call me a Communist, can I call him a Fascist or a Nazi? I am just asking the question.

I am old enough to remember when Communism was actually a thing. There was the Cold War. There was the Cuban missile crisis. For younger readers (if there are any), who are baseball fans, that is why Red Sox reliever, Aroldis Chapman, is called the Cuban Missile. There was the sight of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe at the United Nations, telling the world that he would bury us. We had the Berlin Wall, and the arms race. We had kitchen diplomacy. We had Sputnik, and the space race.

To be specific, President Donald Trump launched a rhetorical “Red Scare” during early July 2026 speeches—notably at Mt. Rushmore and the National Mall—warning that communism is a mortal threat to American liberty and labeling political opponents as communists ahead of the midterm elections. To put Trump’s warnings into hysterical perspective, at a recent spin class, I asked the riders if they had ever heard of the phrase “better dead than red.” Not a single hand went up. Now, for whatever reason, Trump is focusing on history almost as old as the Odyssey.

Merriam-Webster defines Communism as a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production. It is the final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equally. It is a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed. It is a theory advocating the elimination of private property. In practice, in nations like the Soviet Union, a single party runs the government and controls all economic activity.

In Communist countries, the Party worships one man above the Constitution in a cult of personality. The Party demonizes immigrants, and says they poison the blood of the country. The Party calls the press the enemy of the people, and punishes reporters. The Party calls any opposition the enemy within. The Party will deploy its military against its own people. The Party tries to lock up members of Congress for exercising their free speech rights. The Party will do almost anything to remain in power, whether that be by restricting voting rights, fomenting a violent takeover of the government, or interfering in and taking control of elections.

One of the major platforms of the American “Communist” party is to provide universal healthcare. Communists like me believe that healthcare should be a right, and not an entitlement for the wealthy. Here is a list of the “communist” countries that offer universal healthcare in one form or another: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, to prove Trump’s point, the USSR established a fully centralized, state-funded medical system focused on broad public health and preventative care. China operates a public, state-dominated healthcare system that provides near universal coverage to over 95% of its 1.4 billion citizens through a massive national medical insurance network. It runs on a hybrid model combining heavy state planning, public insurance, and market elements. Not to be outdone, North Korea provides universal, free, medical services.

Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, declared in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity that “the Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.” He is leading an aggressive, sweeping administration campaign to redefine and target left-wing activism, protest movements, and progressive groups as forms of “domestic terrorism” and organized political violence. If wanting decent healthcare is a Communist plot, “Workers of the world, unite!”

July 22, 2026

We, the citizens of the United States, recently celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Some of us marked the momentous occasion with backyard barbecues with our family and friends. Others enjoyed local fireworks displays. Others made it all about themselves while simultaneously desecrating the House they lived in. Regardless as to how you marked the moment, it was historic. We declared our independence from a foreign power, who was exercising autocratic control over our every day lives.

However, it took another eleven years to actually enumerate the rights that were expected to accrue to all humans. The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and has been in operation since 1789. Amendments one through ten, known as the Bill of Rights, adopted together in 1791, guarantee fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms. The number of “rights” were fiercely debated by the states before they were eventually pared to ten, and approved. I find it interesting that we do not commemorate the Constitution in the same way we honor the Declaration of Independence even though it is far more important to our commonweal. However, I will leave that to others to debate like Constitutional law professor Barack Hussein Obama and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Jill Lepore.

The twentieth century could be considered the “Age of Human Rights.” With fits and starts, many of the things that we take for granted as Americans have taken hold around the world with some obvious exceptions. Through the UN and other organizations, sovereign countries have ceded authority to international bodies because they could not be trusted to protect human rights within their own borders. However, according to Jose Alvarez, International Law Professor at New York University, “the global human rights regime is now experiencing what many see as its greatest set of challenges since the U.N.’s establishment.”

The backlash to human rights associated with Viktor Orban in Hungary and the far right parties in Germany, France and Italy came to the U.S. in 2016 with Donald Trump’s election. Emboldened by winning the popular vote in 2024, his control over an obsequious Congress, and a hold of the majority of Supreme Court Justices, Donald Trump has taken an axe to the liberal world order that the U.S. helped to create and sustain. He has undermined the rights of women, racial and ethnic minorities, documented and undocumented aliens, asylum seekers and foreign visa-holders, as well as LGBTQ persons through Executive Orders and other administrative actions. If you oppose their actions, they threaten to retaliate against judges, prosecutors, and academics who raise questions about the legality of the administration’s actions. “Much of the criticism directed at Trump’s actions has focused on whether they violate the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Rights advocates have been alarmed by the extent and speed with which Trump appears to be dismantling or incapacitating institutions both at home and abroad.”

Trump has also signaled his intent to withdraw support from the U.N. and its support for human rights efforts around the world through agencies like UNESCO, the World Health Organization, and USAID. Unfortunately and predictably, this trend is permeating throughout the globe. A U.N. report says that “the world is at an historic juncture in which the “age of rights” could well mutate into something vastly different. Some argue that the state (U.S.) most responsible for establishing and funding international human rights is now seeking to undermine the very same at every turn.”

The U.S Constitution has been amended only 27 times, the last being the Twenty-Seventh Amendment ratified May 7, 1992 which prevents any law that changes the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election of Representatives has occurred. As historian Jill Lepore points out in her most recent book, “We the People,” it has become painfully difficult if not impossible to amend the Constitution in any meaningful way. Because Congress has abdicated its responsibilities to the American people, it has ceded the field to Trump and his activist Supreme Court to slowly erode many of the rights we have taken for granted. In their book “Regime Change,” Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan report on Trump’s attempts to eliminate the right of “habeus corpus.” Habeus corpus is enshrined in Article One of the Constitution. It is a fundamental legal right that allows anyone detained by the government to challenge the legality of their imprisonment. Once it is eliminated, it would apply to documented and undocumented citizens alike.

July 7, 2026

I have recently been overwhelmed by the number of articles addressing Social Security, and their sense of urgency. One was titled “Furman on Social Security: Attention Must Be Paid.” There was an editorial titled “Congress must act now to save Social Security.” A financial website wants me to start planning now for changes to Social Security. One feed tells me that the retirement crisis, like the tornado in “Twister,” is already here. Financial advisor, Terry Savage, whose column appears in the Springfield Republican, asks “What does insolvency mean for Social Security?” Letters to the Editor are debating whether or not to privatize Social Security. Seeing that I have a dog in this fight, I thought it would make sense to investigate what all of the hullabaloo is about.

The Social Security Trustees recently released a report on the systems finances. The numbers didn’t change much. Unless something is done, the Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program will be unable to pay full benefits starting around 2032. Without reforms that adjust the balance between incoming revenue and outgoing benefits, the system may have to cut benefits by as much as 22%.

Several factors have contributed to the potential shortfall. We have more retirees, and they are living longer. The average life expectancy is up 50% since 1940. On the revenue side, the ratio of workers to beneficiaries has fallen from 5:1 to 2.9:1. The Social Security payroll tax of 12.4% applies to less personal income today (83%) than it did in 1983 (90%), arguably due to income inequality. Trump’s anti-immigration policies are making it worse. According to the Trustees’ report, lower immigration will deepen Social Security’s financial hole because many immigrants are working-age adults who would be paying into the system for decades.

Fixing the shortfall is an easy math problem for Economics undergraduates, but it poses a Ph.D-level political problem according to Jason Furman, Harvard Economics Professor and President Barack Obama’s chief economist. The fund’s projected depletion is just the date by which something must be done politically.

Congress and the White House could easily take action to sustain America’s retirement system, but, given the current state of our politics, there is no guarantee that they will. In the past, Congress has always reached a compromise to continue funding Social Security, and changes have been phased in over time.

The Bipartisan Policy Center recommends adjusting benefits and altering the rate of taxation. The amount we pay in payroll taxes is much less than most other rich countries. However, our deficit is larger relative to our economy than any other rich country, and is larger relative to the economy than at any time in our history with a few exceptions. Congress does have options some of which will admittedly be unpopular. Congress could raise the Social Security tax rate from 12.4%. It could end the $184,500 “cap” on payroll taxes. Congress could reduce benefits proportionately so those with higher incomes (from retirement plans, dividends, interest etc.) would see their benefits reduced. Lastly, Washington could print money.

The radicals in the Republican Party have clearly declared war on entitlements, and made drastic tax cuts in order to cut off the oxygen supply to many of these programs. Who can forget “repeal and replace?” By some estimates, approximately ten to fifteen million people will lose medical coverage under the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare and Medicaid because of the OBBB aka One Big Beautiful Bill. Approximately four million recipients have lost their SNAP aka food benefits.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has vowed to make his Zombie-like Congress take a look at Social Security with an eye to cutting benefits. He says that they need to be “adjusted and fixed.” His goal is to hold Social Security hostage on behalf of Republican goals. He has not mentioned anything about increasing revenue streams through reasonable deliberations and compromise. That has been the Republican strategy all along going back to Paul Ryan and earlier. Starve the beast by cutting taxes, plead poverty because of huge deficits, and then cut benefits.

Privatization is not the answer President George W. Bush tried and failed to do that in his second term. Social Security is a guarantee. Self-directed accounts are no guarantee as we have seen from multiple market meltdowns, and Trump’s meme coin Ponzi scheme. Accounts run by money managers pose the same risks, and present enormous conflicts of interest. Until we can get politics out of the equation, Social Security will continue to be an issue. Until we can get a reasonable compromise, to paraphrase actor Charlton Heston, the government will have to take away Social Security from our “cold, dead hands.”

June 17, 2026

Attention K-Mart shoppers. We have a clean up on aisle 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

What do you do when a President has made a mess of just about everything? Fortunately, history can be a guide through the healing process. Unfortunately, the clean up will consume a lot of the time and resources of the next duly elected Democratic administration, but, as someone once unartfully said, “It is what it is,” unless, of course, “It isn’t.”

D-Trumpification will involve ridding our society, our culture, our press, our economy, our judiciary, and our politics of the stain of Trump and his MAGA ideology.

For starters, we would need put back into jail all of the January 6th rioters, who were convicted of crimes. We would have to reassess all of Trump’s pardons for evidence of conflicts of interest, bribery, and corruption. Administration officials like Secretary Pete Hegseth, who ordered extra-judicial assassinations of defenseless boats in the Caribbean, would have to face justice. Government officials like Todd Blanche, Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who are guilty of covering up the Epstein files, would also have to face justice. Military officials guilty of blowing up Iranian school children should face military tribunals for war crimes.

Trump officials guilty of taking bribes, trading on inside information, or otherwise profiting from major conflicts of interest should be next on the list. This would include the Trump children. Anyone who has significantly increased their personal net worth at the expense of the American tax payer should face scrutiny. Lesser offenders guilty of just carrying out the orders of their superiors should be fired, placed on probation, fined, or restricted from certain jobs. All of the attorneys in the Department of Justice, who weaponized the legal system and filed frivolous lawsuits suits against Trump’s supposed enemies, people like James Comey, Leticia James, Jerome Powell, John Bolton, E. Jean Carroll, and now Gavin Newsom, should be disbarred. Sympathizers like the board members of the John F. Kennedy Fine Arts Center or Trump appointments to the Federal Reserve should be forced to resign. Others should be dismissed.

Beyond legal remedies, D-Trumpification needs to involve the erasure, elimination, and expungement of all vestiges of the regime. This would include, but not be limited to, the $250 bill, Trump’s photo on visas, the Arch, the ballroom, the White House patio, Trump’s image on the DOJ building, the “American Flag blue” of the Reflecting Pool, the Trump golf course in D.C., the Garden of Heroes, all of the gold leaf graffiti in the White House, the Trump-class battleship, and any public funds for the Trump library. There should be a clawback of funds for all of the unnecessary trips Trump has taken to Mar-a-Lago. The Qatari jet should be impounded. Trump’s image should be expunged from all government buildings including the Presidential portrait gallery in the White House. I will let Disney make its own decision regarding the Hall of Presidents.

Culturally, we need to go back through all of the government websites, documents, and publications that have been scrubbed of references to slavery, climate change, and the like. All exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution need to be restored to pre-Trump content. Any changes made to CDC recommendations need to be reversed.The Gulf of Mexico should once again be the Gulf of Mexico, and the Department of Defense should be the Department of Defense.

The legitimate press needs to be reinstated at both the White House and the Department of Defense. The government should reimburse any institution or company that was blackmailed into making payments to the Trump administration. This would include law firms, universities, and companies with business before the federal government.

Demilitarization would include slashing the bloated military budget back to pre-Trump levels. The same should be done with the budget for ICE. ICE officials should be prosecuted for official misconduct. Any military officer deploying troops to American cities should be courtmartialed.

Lastly, the next administration needs to take a hard look at the over concentration of power in the executive branch and the President. The use of Executive Orders needs to be curtailed. The Supreme Court decision granting the President almost unlimited power and immunity needs to be reversed. If the Supreme Court refuses to do this, Congress needs to look at age and term limits. Presidential pardon power needs to be eliminated. Trump’s tax returns should be subject to legitimate audits.

As a guide, Hungary has been taking steps to eliminating any vestiges of former autocratic President Viktor Orban. Hungary has been:

Restoring democratic checks and balances and reversing systemic gerrymandering. 

2. Purging loyalists from state institutions.

3. Uprooting oligarchic cronyism.

4. Re-engaging with Europe and NATO

As we try to move forward and away from Trumpism, the challenge of D-Trumpifying will take time. Destruction of laws, norms, and guardrails happened quickly, but trying to put the genie back in the bottle without triggering a complete rule-of-law crisis of its own will be a delicate tightrope for the new government.

June 2, 2026

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton

Before I catalog the vast amount of corruption that is endemic to the Trump administration, which is exhausting, and I get accused again of having Deranged Trump Syndrome, I am going to give to my friends on the right Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma. Clearly, had his last name been Smith or Jones, he wouldn’t have made it into the boardroom. Even though several Republican led Congressional committees couldn’t find anything that Joe Biden had done wrong, it wasn’t a good look. Hunter Biden pulled down a salary, and Joe Biden gained nothing. With the benefit of hindsight, I think you might find this “scheme” quaint for its lack of size, originality, and illegality.

And while we are it, let’s deal with the other gorilla in the room. Nancy Pelosi’s household disclosed roughly $59 million in trades over three years. The trades, executed by her husband, did extremely well. President Donald Trump disclosed up to $750 million in trades in 90 days. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics released Trump’s personal financial activity from January through March 2026. The reports document more than 3,600 individual securities transactions in 90 days — roughly 40 to 60 trades per market day. Trades included many companies that Trump had either personal dealings with or were subject to government influence, companies like Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Amazon, Meta and Paramount.

The “Trump slush fund,” officially called the Anti-Weaponization Fund, is a $1.8 billion taxpayer-backed pool of money. It was established through a settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve President Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. The fund is designed to provide payouts to individuals who claim they were victims of political persecution or overreach by the federal government, specifically under the Biden and Obama administrations. Concerns have been raised that the money will be used to reward political allies, such as the January 6 rioters. Former Vice President Mike Pence and others have called the fund “deeply offensive,” while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has described it as a “corrupt scheme”. The White House recently signaled a retreat on its “anti-weaponization” fund. A federal judge directed the government to temporarily halt work on the nearly $1.8 billion fund, and the Justice Department said it would abide by the order. Trump said he would not give up his immunity from IRS audits.

Donald Trump and his family have amassed hundreds of millions in cash and billions in paper wealth from their crypto venture, World Liberty Financial (WLF). Donald Trump’s entry into cryptocurrency through his personal $TRUMP meme coin and his family-run crypto platform World Liberty Financial (WLF) has drawn heavy criticism from ethics watchdogs, congressional investigators, and legal scholars, who characterize these ventures as unprecedented vehicles for presidential self-dealing, pay-to-play politics, and foreign influence.

Retail investors saw the value of the token collapse by roughly 90% from its all-time high, losing billions collectively. In May 2025, Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia golf club for the top 220 holders of the $TRUMP coin, who spent an average of $1.8 million each to qualify. Foreign nationals, who are legally barred from contributing to U.S. political campaigns, bought massive amounts of the token to effectively buy goodwill and access to the Trump administration.

Chinese-born crypto billionaire Justin Sun invested $75 million into World Liberty Financial. Shortly after, the SEC abruptly paused its multi-year civil fraud investigation against Sun, and Sun was subsequently granted a spot at Trump’s exclusive investor dinner. A fund backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) purchased a 49% stake in a WLF-affiliated venture, funneling $187 million to the Trump family. WLF partnered with Binance to facilitate a $2 billion investment via its stablecoin, despite Binance having previously pleaded guilty to U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions violations involving Iran.

Trump used his executive powers to boost his personal portfolio. Trump announced the creation of a U.S. Strategic Crypto Reserve. This policy declaration immediately caused market surges in the exact crypto assets held by WLF and Trump insiders. Trump dissolved Biden-era crypto enforcement task forces, effectively shutting down investigations into the very marketplace he was actively profiting from.

Trump abuses the use of executive clemency. He routinely pardons political allies, wealthy donors, and controversial figures in exchange for financial or political support. I have made my opinion known about the ballroom in a previous column. There is not enough space to discuss Trump watches. Now I ask, who is deranged?

May 17, 2026

In the famous words of Ronald Reagan, “There you go again.” Once again, a Republican President is leaving a mess for a Democrat to clean up.

President Reagan, an avowed deficit hawk, promulgated policies that led to significant deficit spending, with the national debt nearly tripling from $997 billion to 2.85 trillion, making the US a debtor nation. While promising a balanced budget, deficits were driven by large tax cuts and increased military spending, and were not offset by the expected economic boom promised by “Trickle Down” economics. In1997, President Clinton reached an agreement with Republicans aimed at balancing the budget. The deal produced a budget surplus of $69 billion in 1998, which peaked at $236 billion in 2000, allowing for a reduction in the national debt. The combination of tax hikes on high earners in 1993 and capital gains cuts in 1997, along with spending restraints, led to economic expansion, and a booming stock market.

Following a familiar Republican playbook, President George W. Bush enacted tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, which were major measures aimed at stimulating the economy, reducing income taxes for all earners, cutting capital gains/dividend taxes, and doubling the child tax credit. As a result, Bush oversaw a significant increase in the federal deficit, transitioning from a projected Clinton surplus to a $1.4 trillion deficit by fiscal year 2009. Bush left office during one of the greatest financial meltdowns in U.S. history, handing his successor, Barack Obama, an unprecedented financial disaster, and an unwieldy federal deficit.

Obama was forced to address the mess that Bush left him. The Obama stimulus package was approximately $800 billion designed to combat the Great Recession. It aimed to save/create millions of jobs, provide tax relief, and invest in infrastructure, education, and healthcare. The bill was passed with minimal Republican support, drawing criticism over its cost and effectiveness. Republicans criticized the cost of the bill, and also had the unmitigated gall to criticize the tepid recovery and the relatively weak economic growth. This set the stage for Trump’s election, and his “American Carnage” inauguration speech.

In a deja vu moment, and showing an inability to learn from recent history, Republicans, despite a strong economy, immediately enacted another tax cut for the wealthy and corporations. The federal budget deficit increased significantly, rising from roughly $585 billion in FY2016 to nearly a $1 trillion in 2019. Despite that, real GDP grew at an average annual rate of roughly 2.3% to 2.5% before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp contraction, which was only slightly higher than the final years of the Obama administration. Trump left his successor with the mishandling of the COVID epidemic, and another Republican economic recession.

President Biden, apparently learning the lessons from the Obama years, decided to go big or go home. Biden’s key economic pillars included massive public investment in infrastructure, clean energy, and semiconductor manufacturing, alongside strengthening the social safety net, increasing worker power, and raising taxes on corporations and high-income earners via the American Rescue Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS, and the Inflation Reduction Act. According to the Center for Public Policy and Research, “Biden turned around an economy in shambles due to the pandemic, and handed off an economy that was the envy of the world.” However, Biden was criticized for too much stimulus and rising inflation, which gave rise to Trump 2.0.

Now we have the Iran mess created by Donald Trump. Per The New York Times, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year. The Pentagon has used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles at more than $4 million a piece, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike, ground-based missiles, leaving inventories worrisomely low, according to internal Defense Department estimates and congressional officials. The drawdowns have left us less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China. Officials say that it may take years, well past the time that Trump leaves office, to rebuild our inventories.

In summary, Reagan left massive, tax-cut induced deficits for Clinton; Clinton left a budget surplus for Bush; Bush left even more tax-cut induced deficits and a Great Recession for Obama; Obama left a solid economy for Trump; Trump left a a pandemic and a recession for Biden; Biden left a healthy economy for Trump; and now Trump is leaving a depleted military for his successor. It’s time to take the keys away from the Republican Party.

April 29, 2026

Trump put his ballroom back in play after claiming that it was the only way to keep Presidents safe from the hostile, left-wing, fake media and Communist, violence-endorsing, gun-hating Democrats at future White House Correspondents’ Dinners. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is still saying not so fast, and a federal judge has stopped the construction pending Congressional approval, but the ballroom seems as inevitable as death and taxes.

In the spirit of the Parthenon built by the Athenians in 432 BCE as a monument to the gods, and Versailles built by Louis XIV, the Sun King, circa 1710, Trump is building what will be a historical and everlasting monument to his own ego and vanity. The New York Times called it “unscrutinized.” Architecture critics say it should be stopped as an offense to good taste. The problem becomes what do you with a 90,000 square foot edifice complex once it is built. Even though it should be razed, it’s seems like that would be a waste of the hundreds of millions of dollars that billionaires looking for favors have poured into it. Here are some possible appropriate uses for the space.

Trump sent in ICE to clean up the streets of Washington, D.C., but what do you with the thousands of criminals they rounded up? Let’s repurpose the Trump Ballroom (TB) into the Trump Immigration Detention Center (TIDCDC.) Rather than building detention centers in remote parts of the United States, the Department of Homeland Insecurity could probably squeeze 10,000 or more detainees into the TIDCDC.

Trump is constantly complaining about what a Democratic hell hole Washington, D.C. is. Homelessness is a problem. There are approximately five thousand homeless people in D.C. Despite recent federal efforts to clear encampments, homelessness remains a persistent issue with a high concentration among Black residents. We could turn the Trump Ballroom into the Trump Shelter for the Homeless (TSH.) It could also double as a walk-in drug clinic for all of the fentanyl addicts in D.C.

Or maybe it could be a school for the disabled like the people Trump likes to make fun of. You know, for people like Serge Kovaleski, the reporter who has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that causes joint contractures, affecting the movement of his right arm and hand. Or for people dealing with dyslexia like Governor Gavin Newsom of California, who Trump likes to call “Newscum.” Clever. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities, but not for my president. I think a president should not have learning disabilities.”

Or it could be used to help veterans, who have been injured in war like the ones Trump famously wants out of the frame. Trump may hate these ideas, but it might earn him the much-coveted Nobel Peace Prize from the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee. Pope Leo XIV might even confer sainthood on him.

Rather than putting the Trump Library in a bathroom in Mar-a-Lago, we could turn the Trump Ballroom into an actual public library, and call it the Trump Library (TL.) All of the books that Trump has read could have their own special shelf. The library would be free of any books referencing slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, freedom marches, the Civil Rights Act, DEI, or Barack Obama. Another good use for the space would be to create a museum of all of the great Americans that Trump has defamed…John McCain, Robert Mueller, any number of Supreme Court Justices, Obama, Clinton, Bush, Carter, Comey, Powell. And all of the women that he has insulted and abused… Hillary Clinton, Stormy Daniels, E. Jean Carroll, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Carly Fiorina, Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley, Megyn Kelly, Mika Brzezinski, Katy Tur, Arianna Huffington, Maureen Dowd, Kaitlan Collins, Rosie O’Donnell, Heidi Cruz, Cher and Kim Kardashian among others.

Being the religious guy that he is, I don’t think Trump would object if we turned the Trump Ballroom into the Trump Christian Nationalist Mega Church (TCNMC.) Jerry Falwell, Jr. may be still looking for work after his sex scandal at Liberty University. Trump could get on his knees everyday, and thank god and the Supreme Court that he wasn’t in jail.

The TB could be a multi-purpose facility occupied by Planned Parenthood, PBS/NPR, and USAID. Lastly, it could be a home for wayward young girls where Trump could keep an eye on them from the Lincoln bedroom.

April 23, 2026

Here are some sayings that I have fashioned over the years.

Life is like a pebble in a turbulent stream. It starts out rough, but smooths out over time.

It is what it is unless it isn’t.

Great minds think alike. Greater minds think independently.

When in doubt, go out. Even if there is no doubt, still go out.

Golf is a good life spoiled.

Don’t count on the hare stopping.

Shoot first and ask questions later is protected by the Second Amendment.

It takes two plus a dance teacher to tango.

If two is company, and three is a crowd, what the hell is four?

It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

Greater fools have theories?

When the going gets tough, men still don’t ask for directions.

If records are made to be broken, what about iPods?

All that glitters is not gold, but I’ll still take the gold.

I think animal testing should be left up to local school boards.

Politics is too important to be left to people.

Going to the dogs? You should be so lucky.

Looking at a menu online is like learning the sex of your baby before birth.

If you flatulate with headphones on, does it make a sound?

Every time you fail, you are one step closer to slitting your wrists.

I am a Latin lover, but nobody understands me.

You can seize the day as long as you leave me the night.

Creativity is the dreams you remember.

Before getting a tattoo, go to a fine arts museum to see what art really looks like.

Plagiarism is the sincerest form of floutery.

Perfection takes way too much time.

It takes a lot of hard work to be a genius.

Never look at a menu until you have finished your first drink.

If it wasn’t for the weather, Florida would have no reason to exist.

The rules of golf are difficult to understand, but easy to ignore.

I was dreaming about blackjack so my wife hit me.

If you want a friend, get a friend. Don’t get a dog.

It’s almost impossible to be original and be on the internet.

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know most of the questions.

Mens sana in corpore insano.

Golf is like a bad marriage. It breaks your heart, and takes all your money.

I killed two birds with one stone, and got arrested.

If it’s so damn easy, why can’t I make a pie?

The acorn doesn’t fall far from the apple tree.

A rolling stoner gathers moss.

Step on my foot, and my mouth opens.

A bird in the hand is very messy.

I just got caught in the “likability” trap. It can be spelled two ways.

Photoshopped pictures are fauxtography.

Two lefts don’t make a right.

Outer space is over my head.

If the shoe fits, buy another pair.

April 17, 2026

Much like the Trump’s administration’s undeclared war against Iran, the Republican Party and the members of the radical right have been waging a long time, undeclared war against science. It is not totally clear when the war started, but some observers trace it to the infamous Scopes “Monkey” Trial. The Scopes Trial of 1925 was a legal case in which a high school teacher was accused of teaching human evolution in Tennessee. The trial set progressives, who believed evolution could be consistent with religion, against fundamentalists, who believed the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge. Famed criminal attorney Clarence Darrow argued the case, which was overturned on a technicality. Regardless, the battle was joined, and continues to this day in one form or another.

For some unknown reason, the MAGA right is openly hostile to science. Trump and his followers are applying a chokehold to academic research. Trump’s attacks on universities like Harvard are well-documented. His point of leverage is federal funding of research grants where the federal government and research universities had shared a productive partnership for decades. Per Nobel laureate and economist, Paul Krugman, large numbers of existing grants have been frozen or terminated, especially in the study of infectious diseases. The United States is already lagging both China and Europe in the publication of articles in highly ranked scientific journals. This, when combined with the sharp drop in visas issued to foreign students who play a direct role in research, are doing immediate damage, and there will be lasting damage well past the time that Trump’s term in office is over.

Climate change may be the most serious scientific issue facing the United States and the world, yet Trump is still saying “burn, baby, burn” and let’s dig for more “beautiful coal.” One of his first acts as President 1.0 was to pull us out of the the Paris Agreement, which had been negotiated by the Obama administration. He withdrew again in 2025 after the Biden administration rejoined in 2021. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 195 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on December 12, 2015. As of January 27, 2026, there were 194 parties to the Paris Agreement. It’s goal is to hold the overall increase in global temperatures to 2 degrees centigrade or below.

The second Trump administration has aggressively rolled back federal clean energy support, aiming to hinder wind, solar, and electric vehicle projects through regulatory hurdles, funding cancellations, and massive payouts to terminate offshore wind leases. The administration prioritizes fossil fuel, particularly natural gas and coal, while eliminating tax credits for renewables. 

The administration has initiated a near-complete shutdown of new offshore wind projects. They have made drastic funding cuts at the EPA and the DOE for clean energy programs. They have instituted a nearly complete moratorium on new solar and wind projects. Federal support is being redirected toward expanding oil, gas, and coal even as AI data center demand for energy grows. States are trying to fill the gap, but it’s an uphill battle. Trump’s policies are projected to increase electricity costs and increase air pollution at the same time that he is driving up the cost of oil with his war in Iran.

China is the world’s largest producer and installer of renewable energy, exceeding 2.34 TW of installed capacity by end-2025, with wind and solar driving rapid growth. China accounted for over 30% of global clean energy investment in 2024, spending roughly $625 billion. China dominates the global electric vehicle (EV) market through massive, state-supported, AI-driven automation, with BYD overtaking rivals as a top producer with over $230 billion in government subsidies.

In 2025, Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. His father must be rolling over in his grave. His Wikipedia page lists him a “conspiracy theorist” and “anti-vaccine activist.” Critics and health experts have described Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership of HHS as a “wrecking ball” for the U.S. healthcare system. Kennedy oversaw the firing of approximately 10,000 employees across key agencies. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices reversed long-standing recommendations for the Hepatitis B birth shot and declined to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. He canceled billions in scientific research grants, including $500 million for mRNA vaccine development. He used the official CDC website to promote debunked links between vaccines and autism, while also pushing unproven connections between Tylenol and autism. His tenure has coincided with major measles outbreaks in states like Texas and South Carolina.

To put a cherry on the cake, science education under the Trump administration has made efforts to change curricula, targeting topics like climate change and evolution. Trump is drafting your children and grandchildren to help wage his war on science.