Mike McCready

Tag: Politics

  • Gen X: We Were Supposed to Be Too Sharp for This Sh*t

    Gen X: We Were Supposed to Be Too Sharp for This Sh*t

    There’s a very specific kind of shame in watching a country fall apart and realizing your generation was supposed to stop it.

    We were the skeptical kids. The “don’t fall for it” crowd. We grew up with irony, sarcasm, and a healthy distrust of institutions. We made fun of cults. We rolled our eyes at televangelists. We knew better.

    At least, we thought we did.

    We were the last analog generation—and the first digital one. We knew how to rewind a cassette and reboot a modem. We brought the internet into being, and with it, the promise of better information, smarter systems, and a more connected world.

    We gave the world Google, Amazon, YouTube.

    We gave it Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, the Wu-Tang Clan.

    We built the platforms. Designed the interfaces.

    We were supposed to be the bridge between what was and what could be.

    But now?

    We’re watching the whole thing buckle—and pretending we’re just observers.

    We post memes about how great it was to grow up drinking from hoses, while an entire generation can’t afford rent, let alone a mortgage.

    We forward videos about “the good old days” while Gen Z drowns in debt, climate fear, and medical bills for anxiety disorders they inherited from watching us lose the plot.

    And who’s in charge now?

    Trump. Again.

    President 2.0.

    This time with fewer guardrails, more power, and even less shame.

    And standing right behind him, RFK Jr.—now Secretary of Health—gutting the CDC, firing career scientists, and rebuilding America’s public health policy around gut feelings and internet comment sections.

    We used to point at the USSR and say, “Those poor people don’t get real news—just government propaganda.”

    Now we’ve got half the country cheering for our own state-run media, rage-bait headlines, and “alternative facts,” while willingly ignoring everything they know is true.

    We’re not living in 1984. We’re living in something dumber.

    A self-inflicted propaganda state where people know it’s bullshit—and eat it up anyway.

    And Gen X?

    We were supposed to be immune to this.

    Too jaded. Too sharp. Too allergic to fascism.

    We were supposed to be the firewall.

    But we ghosted.

    No Gen X president because the boomers.

    No major Gen X political movement.

    No defining generational stand.

    We just kept scrolling.

    Kept reposting.

    Kept telling ourselves we were “above it.”

    But the truth is—we’re blowing it.

    We were there when the rot was setting in.

    And we didn’t stop it.

    We let the dumbest grifter of our lifetime sell America a cheap hat and a fake war on reality.

    We watched as housing became a luxury, healthcare became a subscription plan, and truth became a punchline.

    We let RFK Jr. cosplay as a truth-teller while he dismantled actual science.

    And now, with AI about to automate our jobs, scrape our souls, and deepfake us into oblivion, we’re busy sharing memes about the 80s while billionaires plug themselves into immortality servers.

    We were supposed to be the generation that didn’t fall for bs.

    Instead, we’re managing the collapse like theme park actors refusing to break character while the rollercoaster catches fire.

    And yeah, I’m a bit crispy about all of this.

    Not just at Trump. Not just at RFK Jr.

    But at us.

    We were supposed to be too sharp for this sh*t.

    We were supposed to know better.

    We were supposed to do better.

    And if we don’t wake up—right now—history won’t even remember our failure.

    It’ll be too busy documenting the fallout.

    So come on Gen X. It’s time!

  • Trump Fired the Jobs Report Lady. Because the Jobs Report Was Bad.

    Trump Fired the Jobs Report Lady. Because the Jobs Report Was Bad.

    Well, that didn’t take long.

    The July jobs report came in soft—only seventy-three thousand jobs added—and within hours, Donald Trump did what any authoritarian cosplay enthusiast does when reality offends him: he fired the person who reported it.

    Erika McEntarfer, the now-former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was escorted out because she made the grave mistake of… doing her job. She didn’t cook the numbers, she didn’t fudge the data, and she didn’t go rogue. She simply released the same kind of carefully collected employment figures the BLS has been publishing, without scandal, for over a hundred years.

    But this time, the report was politically inconvenient. And in Trump World, truth isn’t just optional—it’s punishable.

    Let’s pause for a second to explain what the BLS actually is. It’s not a partisan think tank. It’s not the communications arm of the DNC. It’s a statistical agency, filled with career economists and data nerds who live for things like seasonal adjustments and response rates. The BLS is where accuracy goes to get its shoes dirty.

    And yes, they revise the numbers—they always have. The initial jobs report is based on partial survey responses. As more data trickles in—especially from late-reporting firms and federal agencies—the numbers get updated. This happens every month. It’s not fraud. It’s not bias. It’s just… math. But try explaining “statistical methodology” to a guy who thinks windmills cause cancer.

    Here’s the real danger: this isn’t just about one firing. It’s about trust. The kind of trust that global markets, rating agencies, and foreign debt holders depend on when they decide whether to keep parking trillions in U.S. Treasuries. They’re not doing that out of charity. They’re doing it because they believe U.S. institutions are solid. Apolitical. Professional. Uncorrupted by whoever happens to be yelling on television that day.

    But if we start firing data officials every time a chart slopes the wrong way, we’re not a stable country anymore. We’re a banana republic in a red baseball cap.

    The BLS has survived wars, recessions, financial crises, and even past Republican administrations that knew better than to meddle with the scorekeeper. But now? Now we’re here—treating unemployment figures like fake news and gutting statistical integrity because the numbers don’t flatter the guy in the gold elevator.

    What happens next? Do we rehire her if next month’s numbers are better? Do we demand she “find” more jobs next time? Do we just stop counting altogether and replace the report with vibes?

    This isn’t funny. But I’m laughing anyway, because that’s what you do when the country starts playing Russian roulette with its credibility.

    We don’t have to agree on the right economic policy. But we have to agree that facts are still allowed to exist.

    Because if we lose that, it’s not just the jobs report that gets revised downward. It’s our future.

  • From Beacon to Bully: America’s New Foreign Policy

    From Beacon to Bully: America’s New Foreign Policy

    There was a time when American leadership meant something more than military might or economic muscle. It meant moral weight. A compass. At our best, we didn’t just throw our power around—we tried to stand for something.

    That version of America—the one that championed democracy, human rights, and the rule of law—is fading fast. What’s replacing it is colder. Meaner. And much more transactional.

    We used to build alliances. Now we issue ultimatums.
    We used to welcome the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. Now we fast-track visas for white South Africans and detain brown migrants in outsourced Central American prisons.
    We once told autocrats they couldn’t jail dissidents without consequences. Now we tell them we admire their strength—and ask for cheaper oil.

    And when the world asks what happened, the answer is simple: America stopped leading with its values. We started leading with threats. With muscle. With grievance.

    We became the kind of country that guts its diplomatic corps in the middle of a global crisis. That fires 1,300 career foreign service professionals in a single week, like they’re office temps, not the architects of American influence abroad.

    And the man carrying out that purge? Marco Rubio.

    Yes, that Marco Rubio. The same one who once gave eloquent speeches about human dignity and moral clarity. The son of Cuban immigrants who defended foreign aid, democracy promotion, and immigration reform. The rising star who called Donald Trump a “con artist” for demonizing the very people Rubio claimed to represent.

    Today, that man is dismantling the very institutions he once praised. He’s torched USAID, shuttered human rights programs, defunded diplomatic broadcasting, pulled the U.S. out of UNESCO, and labeled peaceful protesters “lunatics.” He’s implemented social media surveillance for visa applicants, fast-tracked refugee status for the far-right’s pet narratives, and signed deals with authoritarian regimes to incarcerate migrants off-site.

    In short, he’s become a blunt instrument for Trump’s foreign policy—one that replaces values with vengeance, and diplomacy with dominance.

    It’s not that America’s interests have changed. It’s that we’ve stopped pretending they’re tied to our ideals. Human rights only matter when they serve us. Democracy is optional. And if you’re a dictator with oil or leverage, congratulations—you’re invited to the table.

    Rubio didn’t start this trend. But he’s riding it hard. Because somewhere along the line, ambition replaced principle. The man who once wept talking about immigrant families now uses the word “invasion.” The man who warned against tyrants now enables them. The boyish idealist who once seemed like the future of a better GOP now exists to prove it never really existed.

    And look—he’s not alone. Plenty of politicians lose themselves chasing power. But Rubio’s transformation is more than personal. It’s symbolic.

    Because if even he couldn’t hold the line—if even someone who spoke so fluently about America’s promise could be seduced into bulldozing it—then we’re not just dealing with a few bad actors.

    We’re dealing with a culture shift.

    We’ve stopped asking, “What’s right?” and started asking, “What can we get away with?”

    We’ve stopped inspiring the world—and started threatening it.

    And unless we course-correct soon, the country that once lit the way for others may find itself not just feared—but forgotten.

  • The Tulsi Diversion: A Case Study in Gullibility

    The Tulsi Diversion: A Case Study in Gullibility

    Let’s talk about how weak-minded you have to be to fall for Tulsi Gabbard’s latest stunt—a breathless declaration that the entire Russia investigation was a “hoax,” complete with a memo she declassified like it’s the Rosetta Stone of victimhood.

    Except it’s not. It’s theater.

    And for anyone paying attention over the last eight years, it’s also nonsense.

    Let’s do what Tulsi and her followers refuse to do: look at the actual facts.

    The Mueller Report—the result of a two-year investigation led by a lifelong Republican, by the way—found that:

    • Russia interfered “in sweeping and systematic fashion” in the 2016 election.
    • The Russian government’s goal was to help Trump and hurt Clinton.
    • The Trump campaign welcomed the interference and, in multiple cases, had contact with Russian operatives.
    • Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, handed over internal polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, a man the FBI identified as having ties to Russian intelligence.
    • Trump himself tried to obstruct the investigation on multiple occasions—ten, to be exact. Mueller didn’t charge him only because a sitting president couldn’t be indicted under DOJ guidelines.

    Then came the Senate Intelligence Committee report—and let’s be clear here: this wasn’t the Democrats’ spin.

    It was a bipartisan investigation led by Republican Senator Richard Burr. It ran for over three years, produced more than 1,000 pages of findings, and concluded—unanimously—that Russia did, in fact, interfere in the 2016 election and that Trump associates posed counterintelligence threats.

    You don’t have to love Hillary Clinton. You don’t have to love the FBI. But you do have to completely ignore all evidence—and I mean every shred of documented reality—to believe Tulsi Gabbard’s narrative.

    She’s not uncovering some hidden truth. She’s throwing a smoke bomb into the room so no one notices the fire.

    It’s no coincidence this memo dropped just as Trump faces backlash for allegedly burying the Epstein files. When in doubt, blame Obama. Distract. Project. Repeat.

    Tulsi isn’t exposing a crime. She’s providing cover for one.

    So if you find yourself nodding along with this latest fever dream, maybe ask yourself: how many lies have you been fed—and how many more are you willing to swallow just to keep your illusions intact?

    Because this isn’t about justice. It’s about erasure. It’s about rewriting history to protect a man who’s never faced accountability in his life.

    And Tulsi Gabbard is just the latest volunteer in the cleanup crew.

  • After Late-Stage Capitalism: Where Do We Go From Here?

    After Late-Stage Capitalism: Where Do We Go From Here?

    You don’t need a PhD in economics to feel that something’s off.

    Groceries cost more, jobs feel more fragile, housing looks like a luxury product, and half the tech CEOs sound like they’re pitching a video game plot instead of running real-world companies. Meanwhile, billionaires are racing each other to space while your rent races you into a corner.

    This is what people mean when they talk about late-stage capitalism. It’s not an end date on a calendar. It’s a mood. A vibe. A phase in the life cycle of an economic system that feels increasingly disconnected from reality.

    So What Is Late-Stage Capitalism, Really?

    It’s the point in a system’s evolution where:

    • Markets are no longer free, just engineered
    • Wages stagnate while productivity and profits soar
    • Basic needs become “subscription services”
    • Work is precarious, but shareholders are thrilled
    • Governments serve markets instead of citizens
    • Every crisis gets monetized—healthcare, climate, war, education

    It’s Uber drivers with master’s degrees. Teachers driving DoorDash. People crowdfunding insulin while the stock market hits record highs. It’s burnout, hustle, and “grindset” culture masquerading as freedom. It’s a society that treats rest like laziness and wealth like morality.

    In short: it’s the moment when the system stops pretending it’s for everyone.

    So What Comes Next?

    That’s the question. And we’re all going to have to answer it—whether we want to or not. Because systems don’t last forever. They evolve. They collapse. They mutate. Or, sometimes, they’re dragged kicking and screaming into something new.

    Here are five directions we might be headed:

    1. State Capitalism

    Same market, new driver.

    In this version, governments take a more active role—not to help you, but to strategically control markets. Think China’s model: heavy surveillance, controlled growth, and national champions in tech and energy. Markets are tools, not ideals.

    Upside: Infrastructure might actually get built.
    Downside: Dissent gets a lot more expensive.

    2. Technocratic Feudalism

    You’ll own nothing—and still pay monthly fees.

    Imagine a future where democracy erodes, but Amazon has great customer service. Where mega-corporations are the de facto governments, and your social credit score determines what you can access.

    Think: smart homes, dumb laws, and “Terms of Service” that rule your life.

    Upside: Efficiency. Innovation. Personalized everything.
    Downside: No exit button. No real power.

    3. Eco-Social Capitalism

    Capitalism with a conscience—and a carbon cap.

    This is the idealists’ version: a restructured economy that prioritizes sustainability, equity, and long-term thinking. Maybe we get universal basic income. Maybe we regulate tech. Maybe we stop treating the planet like an ATM.

    Upside: Human dignity. Ecological survival.
    Downside: Short-term disruption. Lots of angry billionaires.

    4. Decentralized Utopia

    Crypto, co-ops, and code-based governance.

    This one’s for the web3 dreamers. Power moves from central institutions to decentralized networks. DAOs replace corporations. You vote with tokens, earn through participation, and store your wealth outside the banks.

    Upside: Radical autonomy and transparency.
    Downside: Scams, fragmentation, and the occasional rug pull.

    5. Collapse or Authoritarianism

    When the lights flicker and the flags get darker.

    Not the feel-good option, but one we can’t ignore. If inequality keeps widening, climate shocks intensify, and trust erodes further, we could see the rise of hard borders, strongmen, and failing institutions.

    Upside: None.
    Downside: All of them.

    What Do You Want to Come Next?

    This isn’t just an academic exercise. What comes after late-stage capitalism depends on us. On the stories we tell, the systems we build, and the power we choose to either accept or reject.

    You don’t have to be a policy wonk to start imagining alternatives. You just have to look at the world around you and ask: Is this working? And if it’s not, what would?

    Because the next chapter is being written right now—by corporations, by governments, by you, and by me. And the question isn’t just what comes next.

    It’s who gets to decide.

  • The Dog That Caught the Car

    The Dog That Caught the Car

    You know the stories.

    The Russia hoax.
    The 2020 election fraud.
    The Biden “autopen scandal.”
    The Epstein deep-state ring.
    COVID conspiracies.
    The Benghazi “cover-up.”
    The laptop. The raid. The pedophile cabal.
    The “real criminals” behind Jan 6.

    MAGA world has been screaming about these things for years.
    Outrage. Investigations. Meme-laced sermons about how the deep state would all be brought to justice once the right people were in charge.

    Well… they’re in charge now.

    Trump is back in power.
    The DOJ is his.
    Kash Patel is making moves.
    Dan Bongino is on the inside.
    Congress is red. The courts are rigged. The machine is theirs.

    So—serious question—where are the arrests?

    We were told for years that these weren’t just political differences—they were crimes.
    High crimes. Historic crimes. Crimes against the nation, the children, the Constitution, and probably the guy live-streaming from his truck in the Wendy’s parking lot.

    And now? Nothing.

    Hear me out. Could it be—just maybe—that none of it was ever real?
    That the conspiracy was the point?
    That it was always just a sales pitch dressed in patriot drag?

    Here’s the part that stings:
    If you’re still on board with Trump after all this, you’re in one of two camps.

    Camp 1: You always knew it was a lie. You helped tell it. You were fine with bending the truth to manipulate people into voting for your guy. That’s not fighting for truth. That’s fighting for your team—Fox News style—truth optional.

    Camp 2: You got suckered. Fooled by Camp 1. You genuinely believed the lies. That’s not your fault—but it becomes your fault if you keep believing them now.

    There is no third option.

    Because the dog caught the car. The power is his. The levers are in reach. And the arrests?
    They’re not coming.

    Because the truth never needed them.

    Only the lie did.

  • The Amazing Donald Trump

    The Amazing Donald Trump

    For Independence Day, I’m going to talk about the amazing things about Donald Trump. Now, “amazing” is one of those words. It’s usually used as a positive. But in reality it just means something amazes you, and that’s where I’m coming from today.

    Trumps is… kind of amazing. And so are my friends who remain loyal to him.

    No, seriously. You’ve got to hand it to him—what he’s pulled off is something no politician in my lifetime has managed. The guy took over an entire political party and convinced its memebers to completely change their values. That’s not easy.

    He got the party of Reagan to dump free markets and start rooting for tariffs like they’d just discovered Lenin.

    He got the law-and-order crowd to throw their arms around a convicted felon—and not just any felon, but one who encouraged his fans to beat up cops while waving Blue Lives Matter flags. You can’t make that up. And I know many of his followers think the justice system was weaponized against him, and getting them to believe THAT is another weak-mind bender.

    He got “family values” voters to shrug off hush money payments to a porn star—while his wife was home with their newborn—because hey, at least he’s not Biden?

    He got millions of women to vote for him after he publicly bragged about grabbing them like a broken claw machine.

    He got the “Epstein was a deep-state op” crowd to look at the one guy who was literally in the photos, on the plane, at the parties, and say, “Nah, he’s clean.”

    He got evangelicals—people who once lost their minds over Obama wearing a tan suit—to go all-in for a man who couldn’t name a single Bible verse and probably thinks Leviticus is a cologne.

    And now, after years of branding every Democrat a warmonger, he’s got MAGA influencers practically begging for war in the Middle East, because this time it’s their guy saying so.

    But he’s not a salesman. A salesman gives you something—cheap steaks, an ugly hat, a framed certificate for your timeshare in hell. Trump? Trump takes. He takes your money, your dignity, your critical thinking—and leaves you with a bumper sticker and a court date.

    What did he actually deliver?

    A wall? Nope.

    Mexico paying for it? Nope.

    Obamacare repealed? Nope.

    Muslim ban? Not really.

    Budget balanced? Not even close.

    National debt reduced? Ha.

    Cheaper groceries? Come on.

    Foreign wars ended? Insert laugh track.

    Did he “Make America Great Again”?

    Or just turn it into an international punch line?

    And here’s the part that really messes with me—the part that genuinely breaks my heart: I know people. Smart people. Kind people. People I care about. Some of them are still on board. They think Biden was destroying America while Trump actually does it before their eyes.

    It didn’t happen all at once. It never does. It was a slow, creeping thing. Like the boiling frog—you don’t realize how far you’ve slipped until the water’s already at a rolling boil and someone’s telling you to blame the deep state for the heat.

    And maybe you don’t want to admit it. Maybe it’s too hard to say, “Yeah… I got conned.” I get that. But that’s what happened. You didn’t vote for a movement. You bought into a scam.

    And Trump? He’s not done. Conmen don’t stop until there’s nothing left to take.

    If this offends you, by all means—let me have it. But before you do, ask yourself:

    What exactly are you still defending?

  • No One Believes Trump Anymore—And the World’s Acting Like It

    No One Believes Trump Anymore—And the World’s Acting Like It

    Last night, Israel struck deep into Iran—over the quiet objections of the White House. Think about that for a second.

    It was a direct rejection of Donald Trump’s promise to negotiate a new peace framework with Iran. Netanyahu didn’t just doubt Trump’s ability to get it done—he didn’t even think it was worth pretending anymore. He moved without permission, and without Trump.

    This is what it looks like when the world stops believing the U.S. president has any real pull.

    Europe’s Not Waiting Either

    Across the Atlantic, European leaders have authorized Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons inside Russian territory. That’s a massive policy shift—one that would normally require careful alignment with Washington.

    But there’s no alignment. Because there’s no trust. Trump said he alone could end the war in Ukraine. NATO waited a while for that offer to play out and decided they’d rather take their chances without him.

    Putin Is Publicly Mocking Him—and He Doesn’t Even Notice

    Russian state television aired nude photos of Melania Trump as part of a grotesque propaganda stunt. A few years ago, that would’ve triggered diplomatic retaliation. Under Trump 2.0? Crickets.

    Either he doesn’t realize he’s being mocked, or he doesn’t care. Maybe he still thinks Putin respects him. Maybe he’s just afraid to break up with his last remaining bromance. Whatever the case, the message from Moscow couldn’t be clearer: we don’t respect you.

    Markets Are Screaming It, Too

    Gold is on a rocket ride—not because the economy is overheating, but because confidence in Trump’s economic leadership is melting like a popsicle in Mar-a-Lago. His trade policies shift by the hour. His tariffs are threats without timelines. His “art of the deal” these days seems to be: promise big, deliver nothing, move on.

    He said he’d sign 90 trade deals in 90 days. We’re on day 70-something. So far, we’ve got two vague “frameworks.” That’s political lingo for: everyone smiled politely and agreed to get back to each other. Someday.

    DOGE Was Supposed to Be the Fix—It’s a Punchline Now

    The Department of Government Efficiency was Trump’s shiny new hammer to smash waste and fraud. Musk was going to run it. Budgets were going to shrink. Swamps were going to drain.

    Instead, the whole thing is collapsing under its own irony. Cuts that were supposed to save money are actually costing money. Programs got slashed only to be reinstated under lawsuits or emergency exceptions. And Musk? He’s out. He quit DOGE, slammed the spending bill, and said he’s done being a political shield for broken promises.

    The Musk Breakup Says It All

    Trump once claimed Elon Musk would be a key partner in reshaping government. Now he’s threatening to revoke Tesla and SpaceX contracts, and Musk is saying—on record—that Trump can’t be trusted to manage a budget, let alone a country.

    It’s one thing to lose your enemies. But when you start losing your allies, your enablers, and your billionaire yes-men? That’s when the walls start closing in.

    The Big Picture: Nobody Thinks He Can Do the Job

    Israel ignored him. Europe bypassed him. Putin humiliates him. Musk walked. Gold’s spiking. Trade deals are MIA. And the big-budget reforms that were supposed to show “Trump means business” have turned into another bloated mess.

    This isn’t strength. This isn’t strategy. This is what weak leadership looks like on a global stage. It’s not that the world is in chaos despite Trump—it’s that the world no longer sees him as someone worth coordinating with at all.

    He promised to bring peace, prosperity, and power back to America. What we’ve got instead is confusion, rejection, and gold at $3,400.

  • I Tried to Stay Quiet. But Apparently We’re Doing Tanks Now.

    I Tried to Stay Quiet. But Apparently We’re Doing Tanks Now.

    (originally posted on my Facebook page)

    I’ve been taking a break from posting on here. You’re welcome.

    It’s been nice, honestly. Less doomscrolling, fewer arguments with people I went to high school with, and a brief, beautiful window where I could pretend that maybe things were just… normal. But then I saw the day getting closer: Trump is throwing himself a military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue this weekend.

    Yes. Tanks. Planes. Flags. The whole third-world-dictator aesthetic. And I figured, alright—time to crawl out of the bunker and say a thing.

    The excuse is that it’s the Army’s 250th birthday, which is technically true. But it also happens to be Trump’s 79th birthday. So… yeah. It’s less “honoring the troops” and more “celebrating Dear Leader with flyovers and a cake shaped like Trump Tower.”

    But hey, if you’ve ever looked at D.C. and thought, “What this place really needs is a little more North Korea,” your moment has arrived.

    And just to make the timing extra bleak, this is happening one week after Trump sent the National Guard into Los Angeles—over the objections of California’s governor. First time that’s happened in sixty years. Back then, it was LBJ sending troops to protect civil rights marchers. This time, it’s Trump sending troops to protect… his reputation. From protesters.

    You know, real freedom-loving stuff.

    And the executive order he used to do it? Doesn’t even name LA. Doesn’t have to. It’s written vaguely enough to let him send troops anywhere that doesn’t clap on the one and three.

    So no, this isn’t just about Los Angeles. This is a test balloon. See how far he can go, how many people shrug, and how many cameras he can get pointed at himself while the Constitution quietly wheezes in the background.

    And I know how this sounds. I really do. If you had told me ten years ago I’d be writing about a U.S. president using the military to intimidate his own population, I’d have assumed I’d finally lost the plot and was living in an asylum somewhere yelling at soup cans. But here we are.

    ICE is already ramping up raids. The deportation push is real. The mass roundups? They’re not a scare tactic. They’re part of the plan. Trump’s asking for $185 billion for immigration enforcement—which is more than the UK and France spend on their entire militaries. That’s not border security. That’s infrastructure for authoritarianism.

    Stephen Miller—who still looks like he was carved out of cold deli meat—is already talking about deporting 3,000 people a day.

    The thing that makes this moment so dangerous is how normal it all feels now. A few years ago, something like this would’ve sparked national outrage. Now it’s just another Tuesday. Another broken norm. Another test to see what we’ll tolerate. And spoiler: it’s a lot.

    Democrats are out here debating whether it’s too “alarmist” to use the word fascism, while Republicans are busy making sure they’re not the next ones to get publicly humiliated by Trump’s Truth Social posts. At this point, he could replace the Lincoln Memorial with a sculpture of his meme coin and they’d all show up to applaud.

    Anyway. I didn’t want to break my non-posting streak for this. I was trying to keep the blood pressure in a manageable range and pretend the world was just weird, not dark. But the tanks are coming. The flags are flying. The script is writing itself. And if we’re not careful, we’ll look up four days from now and realize we just watched the next chapter of American decline roll down the street while we argued about gas prices.

    Happy almost-birthday, Mr. President. Hope your little party goes great. I’ll be over here, quietly panic-Googling “how to spot the early signs of soft authoritarianism” like a normal person.

  • Defending Democracy: Our Moment to Act

    Defending Democracy: Our Moment to Act

    It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of what is nothing less than a coup against the Constitution—but we must not falter. Every generation faces a defining moment, a call to defend the great American experiment. We don’t get to choose when, but we do choose how we rise. Now is our time.

    These are dark days. Neighbors, friends, and loved ones have been swept up in a movement that thrives on resentment, division, and cruelty. We see bigotry not just tolerated but celebrated. This has always been part of America’s struggle, but we once shamed it into the shadows and called upon the better angels of our nature. Now, with permission from Trump and his politics of grievance, it flies proudly in the open. The Republican Party has been hijacked—not by conservatives of principle, but by those who seek to dismantle democracy itself. Their goal is clear: autocratic breakthrough. The moment they overcome our democratic guardrails, the point of no return will be crossed.

    We are witnessing firsthand just how important it was to vote. This crisis exists because not enough of us turned out. Not enough of us took this threat seriously. We allowed it to be sane-washed—a tactic where extremism is repackaged as reasonable, where authoritarianism is softened with careful language, making it easier for people to dismiss the danger. They even twist logic to justify abhorrent behavior. But the consequences of that mistake are now undeniable.

    Our job is simple: we cannot let this continue. We must stand firm, push back, and force hatred back into the margins of history where it belongs.

    But resistance alone is not enough. We must engage. It starts with showing up—joining protests in person and online, flooding Congress with calls and emails, demanding that they rein in this administration. Call: (202) 224-3121 and follow the instructions. We must be prepared to stand up for what’s right and, crucially, to welcome traditional Republicans into our fold as we unite for the common cause of saving our Constitution.

    America has never fully lived up to its ideals, but we have always moved forward. A more perfect union is built not by ignoring our failures, but by striving to correct them. Progress has never been easy, but history proves it is always possible.

    This fight will not be won overnight, but it will be won. If we stand together, if we refuse to yield to despair, if we meet this moment with courage and conviction—we will prevail.