Mike McCready

Tag: trump

  • 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.

  • To MAGA: Was Voting For Trump the Lesser of Two Evils? Let’s apply some critical thinking together and find out.

    To MAGA: Was Voting For Trump the Lesser of Two Evils? Let’s apply some critical thinking together and find out.

    I keep hearing from some MAGA friends that they’d consider voting for a Democrat if they’d just run a “halfway decent candidate.” That they don’t love Trump, but he’s still the lesser of two evils.

    Let’s take a step back. The lesser evil? Trump?!

    We’re not talking about a normal politician here. We’re talking about someone who:

    • Fired 17 independent inspectors general in his first week back, gutting the people responsible for keeping government corruption in check.

    • Gutted the federal workforce by imposing a hiring freeze and replacing career officials with political loyalists, dismantling expertise across agencies.

    • Abandoning Europe to Russia, signaling that NATO allies should fend for themselves, emboldening Putin’s expansionist ambitions.

    • Allowed China to strengthen its dominance in the Pacific while stripping U.S. influence abroad.

    • Tried to freeze $3 trillion in federal funding, threatening the economy until a judge had to step in and stop him.

    This is not the lesser evil. This is reckless, vindictive, and dangerous.

    The Socialism Scare Tactic

    One of the most common defenses I hear for Trump is that Democrats—Biden, Harris, all of them—are taking America toward socialism or communism. But let’s be real: we already have elements of socialism in our country, and they aren’t the problem.

    • Social Security, created under FDR and strengthened by Republican presidents, is one of the most popular programs in U.S. history.

    • Medicare, signed into law under Democratic leadership but expanded under Republican administrations, ensures seniors don’t go bankrupt from healthcare costs.

    • The G.I. Bill, passed under a Democratic president but championed by conservative lawmakers, helped millions of veterans buy homes and get an education.

    • Interstate highways, police departments, fire departments, public schools—all forms of government-funded programs that people rely on daily, and no one is calling them communism.

    In reality, the U.S. has always been a mixed economy—capitalist at its core, but with government programs that provide a safety net where the free market fails. That’s not socialism; that’s smart policy.

    And if the fear is that Biden or Harris are secretly planning to turn the U.S. into Venezuela, let’s look at actual policies:

    • The stock market rose under Biden. That doesn’t happen in socialist economies.

    • Corporate profits grew under Biden. That doesn’t happen in socialist economies.

    • The private sector added millions of jobs under Biden. Again, not socialism.

    If we’re being honest, the real economic disaster right now isn’t creeping socialism—it’s Trump’s reckless spending, debt ballooning policies, and economic chaos.

    Would Kamala Harris Really Have Been Worse?

    Let’s assume, for a moment, that you don’t like Harris. Maybe you think she’s ineffective, uninspiring, or not the right choice for president. Fine. But would she have been worse than Trump?

    Would she have:

    • Put American democracy in jeopardy?

    • Tried to block government funding to score political points?

    • Torn down U.S. alliances while cozying up to authoritarian regimes?

    • Handed over federal agencies to unqualified cronies?

    No, she wouldn’t have. We may not agree on policies, but we can agree that basic government functioning shouldn’t be at risk every day.

    This Is Bigger Than Policy Disagreements

    This isn’t about loving the Democratic Party. It’s not about being thrilled with Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. This is about the fact that our country is being deliberately weakened—economically, diplomatically, and institutionally—by someone who is putting his own interests above everything else.

    And the worst part? He’s not even hiding it.

    So when I hear people say they’d consider voting for a Democrat but just can’t stomach it, I have to ask—how bad does it have to get? How much more damage do we have to see before we stop pretending that Trump is just another politician?

    This isn’t about left vs. right anymore. It’s about whether or not we still have a functioning democracy when all of this is over.

  • Why MAGA Doesn’t Resemble Yesteryear’s GOP

    Why MAGA Doesn’t Resemble Yesteryear’s GOP

    The Republican Party of 20 years ago? Pro-democracy, pro-international alliances, and definitely NOT an outlier among Western conservatives. Fast forward to today, and the MAGA movement is rewriting the script—big time.

    1️⃣ A New Tribe: MAGA Republicans aren’t just breaking with the left—they’re breaking with the entire Western conservative tradition. Their mindset aligns closer to Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdoğan than to Britain’s Tories or Germany’s CDU.

    2️⃣ Goodbye Global Cooperation: The old GOP was about strong alliances (think Bush and Blair “shoulder to shoulder”). MAGA? Not so much. From pulling military support from allies to shrugging at international norms, Trump’s America plays by different rules.

    3️⃣ Autocracy Over Democracy? The Republican Party once championed democracy. Now, MAGA’s values—authoritarian tendencies, distrust of institutions, and nationalism—are pulling them into a different ideological orbit.

    4️⃣ Economics as a Weapon: Trade wars, economic self-harm, and an “America First” approach that even conservative economists are scratching their heads over—this isn’t Reaganomics.

    5️⃣ Shock & Awe Politics: Trump, JD Vance, and their crew operate on a different frequency. What seems disastrous or erratic to traditional Western leaders is just another Tuesday in MAGA-world.

    Bottom line? MAGA isn’t just a more extreme version of the old GOP—it’s something entirely different. If Western democracies don’t recognize this shift, they’ll keep getting blindsided.

    Inspired by: Financial Times article by John Burn-Murdoch

  • When We Accidentally Decided That Authoritarianism Is Okay

    When We Accidentally Decided That Authoritarianism Is Okay

    As a Gen X American, I grew up believing that authoritarian regimes—communism, dictatorships—were the enemies of everything we stood for. The Soviet Union, East Germany, Cuba—those were the cautionary tales. We learned that democracy meant something special: a government of the people, by the people, for the people. That was America’s promise, our core value.

    But today, it feels like that lesson has been forgotten by a worrying number of Americans. Some have become convinced that Democrats have gone so far off track that the only solution is to embrace a different flavor of authoritarianism—a right-wing strongman who promises to restore order by force rather than consensus.

    How did we get here?

    I think it all traces back to when our news media stopped being accountable to truth. The pivotal moment came in 1987, when the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine, a rule that required broadcasters to present controversial issues of public importance in an honest, balanced way. Suddenly, news outlets could openly pick sides, prioritize profits, and turn journalism into entertainment or partisan propaganda.

    Fast forward a few decades, and we have a polarized America, divided not by reality but by the media each side consumes. Many of us no longer agree on basic facts. Once truth is lost, authoritarianism starts looking tempting—especially if it promises to silence the “other side.”

    But history has warned us again and again that authoritarianism never ends well. Not in East Germany. Not in Cuba. Not in the Soviet Union. And certainly not here.

    We need to wake up and remember what we once knew instinctively: democracy isn’t perfect, but it’s infinitely better than the alternative. We have to reclaim the idea that government of the people, by the people, and for the people is still worth fighting for—even if we have to fight for it within our own borders.

  • Why Changing Someone’s Mind About Trump Is So Hard

    Why Changing Someone’s Mind About Trump Is So Hard

    Ever try to change someone’s mind about Trump? Not easy, is it? Feels impossible sometimes. But here’s the thing—it’s not just Trump supporters who struggle with this. We all do.

    Changing your mind isn’t just about facts. If it were, most Trump supporters would have abandoned him the moment he promised to wipe out the national debt and then added trillions to it. Or when he swore Mexico would pay for the wall, and taxpayers ended up footing the bill. Or when he said only the “best people” would work for him, and half of them ended up indicted, testifying against him, or both.

    But facts aren’t enough, because changing your mind isn’t just an intellectual process—it’s an emotional one. And the bigger the belief, the harder it is to let go.

    Now, imagine that belief isn’t just about a policy or a politician, but about who you are as a person.

    That’s what Trump sold. Not just an agenda, but an identity. He told people they weren’t just supporting a candidate—they were saving America. They weren’t just voters, they were patriots, warriors, the last line of defense against corruption and socialism and the deep state.

    And when you believe that deeply, admitting you were wrong isn’t just humbling—it’s devastating. Because if Trump was a fraud, if he was conning them the whole time, what does that say about them?

    That’s why no matter how many times he lies, fails, or even turns on his own people, they hold on. Because letting go feels like losing the fight of their lives.

    But here’s the thing—changing your mind isn’t losing. It’s growth. It doesn’t mean you were stupid. It means you trusted someone who turned out to be unworthy of it. And we’ve all done that.

    At some point, the evidence against Trump will be too overwhelming to ignore. And when that moment comes, I hope people remember that seeing the truth doesn’t make you weak—it makes you free.

  • My Struggle with Stupid People

    My Struggle with Stupid People

    Let’s get something straight right off the bat—I’m not talking about people with below-average IQs. Intelligence isn’t the issue here. Some of the smartest people I’ve met couldn’t change a tire or balance a checkbook to save their lives, and some of the most practical, insightful people I know wouldn’t do well on an IQ test.

    And I don’t hold myself up as some kind of genius. Believe me, I’ve made my share—and probably some of your share—of dumb decisions. Decisions that would make the Three Stooges look like Nobel Prize winners. But here’s the thing: I am not stupid.

    Because stupid isn’t about IQ—it’s about refusing to think critically.

    So, let’s run a quick litmus test for critical thinking:

    When was the last time you heard a better argument than the one you had and thought, ‘Damn… I might be wrong’? If you can’t think of a single time, that’s a red flag.

    Do you ever get new information and just… ignore it? If your instinct is to double down instead of reconsider, congratulations—you’re human. But critical thinkers push past that reflex.

    Here’s where I struggle: I have to work hard to feel empathy for people who have all the information they need to make good voting decisions but still choose to vote against their own interests.

    It’s one thing to be misled. It’s another to be willfully ignorant. And when people keep making choices that actively harm themselves—and the rest of us—it’s hard not to be frustrated.

    The truth is, democracy depends on people actually thinking. And if we can’t do that, we’re in real trouble.