Crimes and Punishment

When we vote we do so with the expectation that our candidates will be elected, take an Oath of Office, and represent our collective interests. While the office and the scope of responsibility may vary from local School Board to the Presidency, they have made commitments to us throughout their campaigns, and we (should) hold them to account for those commitments.

The Promises

Trump ran on economic promises to voters. A central point of his campaign was that on day one he promised to end inflation and make America affordable again. Through the massive expansion of drilling, fracking, pipelines, and extraction, he would cut energy prices in half, while eliminating unnecessary climate and environmental protections. He was going to put more net money in every paycheck through large tax cuts for workers. He promised to put a temporary interest cap of 10% on credit card debt. He was going to pressure "the Fed" to reduce interest rates and set a goal of 3% mortgage interest. He was going to eliminate "fraud and abuse" by the government. And he was going to "fight" to protect Medicare and Social Security. And of course, since his first term he has promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with something that will be the envy of every nation in the world -and he announced that he has the "concept of a plan" in September 2024.

He also committed to make us all safer by using all available means to pursue gangs, cartels, and the worst violent undocumented criminals. JD Vance repeatedly said they would "...start with the first million who are the most violent criminals, who are the most aggressive. Get them out of here...". The Republican platform called for the "largest deportation platform in history".

Finally, he would make a call to Putin and end Putin's war on Ukraine on day one, and he would also "bring peace to a tumultuous Middle East".

Doesn't this sound good so far? More net pay, lower credit card bills, more purchase power, affordable home mortgages, and a new, affordable plan for high-quality healthcare. Safer American streets with all those violent criminals in detention centers or deported. Global stability and peace.

The Reality -A Litany of Broken Promises

Less than a year into Trump's second term, every day more people are beginning to understand that Trump's entire campaign was a house of cards built on a foundation of lies constructed so that Trump could remain free of prison for his earlier crimes, he, and his enablers and supporters could enrich themselves through corruption on a massive scale (foreign and domestic), and he could turn the power of the federal government against every perceived enemy, every opponent, and every perceived slight -and not only against individuals. As should be readily apparent, Trump is, and has, pursued news organizations, Federal judges, immigrants, refugees, Democrats, "Blue" states and cities, the academic community, former FBI agents, prosecutors, investigators, and even foreign governments.

In December 2024, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 6.60%. Today it is 6.24%. As we head into Thanksgiving 2025, a traditional meal for a family of four is now $27.62, versus $23.35 last year. Average gasoline prices are up slightly from last year ($3.08/gallon now versus $3.05/gallon in 2024). Today, the average interest rate on a new credit card is 24.04% (which is, mathematically, higher than Trump's campaign promise of 10%).
Trump committed to protect Medicare, however, through his policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations which add significantly to the national debt, Medicare cuts are likely to be triggered automatically in the future.
Despite the promise to detain and deport violent undocumented immigrants, it is clear Homeland Security and ICE have prioritized political theater, brutality, and cruelty -not "violent criminals", "gangs", or "cartels".
As far as the Trump "crackdown" on violent criminals, Trump did issue blanket pardons for the January 6 insurrectionists, authorized a $5 million taxpayer payment to the family of one insurrectionist, and has discussed compensating others for "unfair" prosecutions. Notably, approximately 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the attack, 15 were hospitalized with serious injuries, and one, Brian Sicknick died the day after the attack.
Putin's war on Ukraine continues, unabated.

The Reality -Widespread Corruption

Trump Crypto

Trump’s meme-coin and crypto ventures invite anonymous foreign and corporate money to flow directly into assets that rise and fall based on his own policy announcements. It is, in effect, a modernized pay-to-play system—unregulated, opaque, and tailor-made for bribery disguised as speculation.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-crypto-corruption-abu-dhabi-deal-1235329793/

The Epstein/Trump Ballroom

The privately funded $300 million White House ballroom—financed by corporations, defense contractors, and billionaires—acts as a velvet-roped influence bazaar inside the Executive Mansion. Donors buying naming rights and access are essentially purchasing federal favor and policy outcomes in real time.

Trump/Kushner Luxury Beachfront Gaza Resorts

**Nothing says luxury vacation like a resort built on top of the bodies of women, children, and families who tried to survive a genocide.**

Trump and Kushner’s proposal to “rebuild” Gaza as a beachfront resort destination, complete with foreign financing and private development, reduces a humanitarian catastrophe to a real-estate opportunity. It blurs the line between U.S. foreign policy and the Trump family’s long-standing habit of monetizing global crisis zones. But sure, they hate us for our "freedom".

Trump Extortion and Tariffs

Tariffs—once a blunt economic tool—have become instruments of presidential extortion, imposed or waived depending on which countries or corporations show loyalty. Instead of supporting American workers, Trump uses trade policy as a pressure device to extract concessions, investments, or political obedience.

The Treasury as "Trump's ATM"

Treasury mechanisms like the Exchange Stabilization Fund are being contorted into bespoke bailout machines for ideological allies abroad and domestic partners at home. Under Trump, public money functions like a private slush fund—opaque, unaccountable, and rewarding those closest to him.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-is-the-exchange-stabilization-fund-and-how-is-it-being-used-in-the-coronavirus-covid-19-crisis/

Insurrectionist payouts
Rather than upholding the rule of law, the administration has directed taxpayer-funded settlements and floated restitution for January 6 offenders. These payouts rewrite the insurrection as heroism while erasing the injuries, trauma, and death inflicted on law enforcement.

GOP Senator payouts
Hidden deep in the bill to reopen the government was a provision authorizing $500,000 in taxpayer-funded “reimbursement” for senators who were investigated in connection with January 6, framed as compensation for supposed legal and reputational harm. In practice, it functions as a quiet reward for loyalists implicated in the effort to overturn the election—using public money to make insurrection-adjacent politicians whole.
Kristi Noem's Private Jets and "Consulting" payments

During the federal shutdown, Noem quietly approved the purchase of two ultra-luxury Gulfstream G700 jets, justified as “operational needs” but used primarily for VIP travel—an extraordinary expense at a moment when federal workers were going without pay.

And that's not all. Investigative reporting reveals she helped steer roughly $200 million in federal contracts to a consulting firm with personal and political ties to her, turning DHS procurement into a vehicle for self-enrichment and patronage rather than public service.
https://www.propublica.org/article/kristi-noem-dhs-ad-campaign-strategy-group

**Abuse of power, cruelty, and corruption. Hard to believe her last name isn't "Trump".**

Trump's DOJ "reimbursement"

In one of the most brazen acts of self-dealing in modern presidential history, Trump has formally demanded $230 million from the Department of Justice as “reimbursement” for the investigations that uncovered his own misconduct—from the Russia probe to the classified-documents case. Rather than treating DOJ as an independent institution, Trump now frames it as a personal debtor, insisting that taxpayers cover the legal and financial fallout of his actions. The move signals his broader view of government: not as a guardian of law, but as an extension of his private finances and grievances.

Kash Patel's girlfriend
Kash Patel used taxpayer-funded government flights for repeated trips to and from Penn State, where his girlfriend lives and works. Instead of serving any legitimate federal purpose, these flights functioned as publicly financed romantic travel—an abuse of government aircraft that mirrors the broader culture of entitlement and personal indulgence within the administration.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/02/fbi-fires-top-official-kash-patel-jet-use
Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who twice pled guilty to lying to the FBI about undercutting U.S. sanctions on Putin’s Russia, is now demanding $50 million from the federal government for the investigation that exposed his own deception. Instead of defending the public’s interest, "Bribe Me" Bondi's DOJ is entertaining a settlement, using our taxpayer money to financially reward one of Trump’s closest loyalists for the legal consequences of his corrupt and criminal actions.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/25/donald-trump-pardons-michael-flynn

Millei/Argentina and the $40 billion

The administration’s $40 billion economic package for Elon Musk's chain saw buddy, Argentina’s President Millei—structured in secrecy through swap lines and private financing guarantees—looks less like diplomacy and more like a political bailout. It benefits hedge funds, Trump-aligned financiers, and a foreign leader whose ideology mirrors Trump’s own.

The Reality -Keep America Distracted from the Epstein/Trump files, the Trump Regime Incompetence, and Widespread Corruption

Each news cycle brings with it a study stream of damning facts and evidence about the deep well of incompetence and corruption offered by this regime.

Venezuela
Trump and his alcoholic Fox "News" host Defense Secretary Pete "Kegsbreath" have illegally attacked boats in international waters while hinting at military strikes on Venezuela. "Wagging the Dog" is a proven method to turn media attention away from the Epstein/Trump/Maxwell child abuse and sex trafficking scandal and only costs a few hundred million of our taxpayer dollars to support a carrier group and the lives of about 80 people, so far.
The Pardons

**The "Peaceful" January 6, 2021 "Tourists"**

By issuing a blanket pardoning of January 6 offenders and labeling them “patriots,” Trump uses spectacle to overshadow the gravity of the attack and to reinforce loyalty among the most extreme elements of his base. Some of the pardoned "patriots" have gone on to subsequent crimes. Now Trump has turned to pardoning those convicted of fraud, corruption, and other crimes.

DOGE "rebate" checks and formerly secure data
Trump sold the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as a silver bullet against “waste, fraud, and abuse,” promising that his new tech-driven office would root out redundancy, shrink bureaucracy, and send “DOGE rebate checks” back to grateful taxpayers. In the campaign fantasy, DOGE would scour every agency budget, claw back billions in misspent funds, and magically pay for tax cuts, tariffs, and military buildups without touching Medicare or Social Security.

In practice, DOGE hasn’t cut waste; it has created it. The much-touted “rebate checks” turned out to be little more than political mailers and gimmick payments tied to tariffs and loyalty metrics, not any demonstrable savings. There is no credible evidence that DOGE has produced net reductions in federal spending; instead, it has spawned new contracts, new patronage jobs, and yet another layer of opaque, unaccountable bureaucracy.
Worst of all, DOGE’s push to “integrate” and “modernize” government systems has blown holes in what used to be secure federal networks and citizen data vaults. By rushing out under-tested platforms and handing massive data-integration contracts to politically connected firms, DOGE has exposed previously protected government systems and the personal data of millions of Americans—tax records, benefit files, immigration histories, even health information—to breaches, scraping, and misuse. The only real thing DOGE has efficiently delivered is a backdoor into our public infrastructure and private lives, all under the banner of “efficiency.”

**Peter Thiel and Palantir. Making Zuckerberg, Facebook, and Cambridge Analytica look like a child's play.**

Tariff "rebate" checks
Trump's idiotic "TACO" tariff strategy which was supposed to magically reduce taxes (mostly for wealthy donors) while paying down national debt have been a complete failure. They have contributed to inflation, worsening cost of living and affordability to the point where the criminal elect is now reducing tariffs in hopes that it will stabilize consumer prices. He has now said we'll all be getting $2,000 tariff rebate checks. Of course, Mexico will pay for "the wall" and we'll be getting our DOGE "rebate" checks soon too. Anyone want to buy a bridge in Brooklyn?
Eliminate Oversight -the Trump Purge of Inspector Generals
Trump has fired or frozen out the very Inspectors General tasked with policing federal misconduct, replacing watchdogs with loyal operatives—or leaving the posts deliberately vacant. By dismantling these oversight offices, he has turned entire agencies into blind zones where corruption goes uninvestigated, ethics violations are ignored, and any scrutiny of his allies is stopped before it can even begin.
Bags of Our Taxpayer Funds!

In a 2024 FBI undercover sting, Tom Homan (now Trump’s “border czar”) was recorded accepting a bag containing $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen who wanted "help" getting future border-security contracts in a second Trump administration. The FBI and DOJ opened a bribery probe, but once Trump returned to office the investigation was abruptly shut down by Trump-appointed Kash and Carry Patel, and AG Pam "Bribe Me" Bondi, who declared there was “no credible evidence of wrongdoing.”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/tom-homan-and-the-case-of-the-missing-fifty-thousand

The Trump/Johnson Shutdown

**The Criminal Elect (L), Mike Johnson, Pedophile Protector (R)**

The administration and House leadership engineered a federal shutdown used to delay the release of the Epstein/Trump/Maxwell child abuse and sex trafficking scandal files, justify personnel purges, weaken oversight functions, and accelerate the illegal destruction of the East Wing and construction of the $300 million golden Epstein/Trump Ballroom at the White House. The chaos provides cover for deeper structural damage.

Attacking Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, North Carolina
Trump stokes conflict with Democratic-leaning cities and states, deploying troops, withholding funds, and launching politically motivated investigations. These fights are designed to generate culture-war headlines while masking crime, corruption, and Trump failures.
The War on Academic Freedom
Federal agencies are pressuring universities, restricting grants, and attacking research institutions deemed insufficiently supportive of the administration. This assault on academic independence diverts attention from collapsing federal competence.
The War on Law Firms
Law firms representing investigators, journalists, or political opponents face targeted harassment and administrative retaliation. It’s an intimidation tactic meant to erode legal representation for those challenging the administration.
The War on DEI
All diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government have been dismantled, replaced by rhetoric portraying equality initiatives as un-American. This is red meat for the MAGA base and another distraction from Trump crimes, corruption, and failures.
The War on Unions
Millions of federal workers have had their collective-bargaining rights gutted, and private-sector unions are being attacked through regulation and enforcement decisions. Targeting workers' wages and benefits drives more profit to executives and institutional investors happy to "invest" through political donations and lobbying because they know their investment will pay massive dividends.
The War on Federal Workers
Agencies are being hollowed out, career civil servants purged, and loyalty oaths floated as employment conditions. These moves aim to replace expertise with obedience while shifting public anger toward “bureaucrats.”
No Disaster Relief for You!
The administration has stalled or denied disaster assistance to Democratic-leaning states, using relief funds as political leverage. This tactic punishes millions of Americans to score partisan points.
The Trump Cabinet
The Cabinet is stacked with loyalists lacking basic subject-matter competence—from health officials who oppose vaccines to an Education Secretary who cannot explain core curriculum concepts. The spectacle of incompetence itself is a smokescreen for systematic corruption.

When Trump spoke previously about "draining the swamp" he was really talking about draining the U.S. Treasury.

The Treasury is our national economic reserve comprised of your taxpayer money, our retirement security, the wealth of our nation. When we vote (or don't vote) we elect and elevate people to elected office. A President elevates an executive team -comprising his or her Cabinet. It should be staffed by subject matter experts on economics, diplomatic strategy, defense, security, resource management, education, public health, transportation, agriculture, ethics, equality, and justice.

In the current Administration the only qualification appears to be absolute loyalty to Trump. Current Cabinet members joined the Administration having been Fox "News" hosts, alcoholics, ethics-challenged, incompetent, and unqualified.

From a Health and Human Services Secretary attacking vaccines as preventable diseases roar back, to an Education Secretary unable to tell steak sauce from artificial intelligence; from an Attorney General defined by bribery and favoritism, to a Homeland Security chief shadowed by abuse-of-power scandals, to a Director of National Intelligence questioned for her sympathy toward Putin—the rot is not confined to Trump. It is the operating system of this administration: corruption as policy, incompetence as qualification, and cruelty as governing philosophy.

This Trump cabal, unleashed by the Roberts "Supreme" Court, has methodically weakened the United States—undermining our credibility in global trade, climate negotiations, and defense alliances; draining national reserves while loading the country with staggering debt; and leaving a trail of suffering and death at home and abroad. With almost no dissent, the GOP-controlled Congress has acted not as a check on presidential power but as a protective shield, enabling this administration to operate without constitutional oversight and accelerating the erosion of the democratic system they swore to defend.

**The Roberts "Supreme" Court has failed democracy and the rule of law. At least some of them have received luxury travel and fabulous cash prizes!**

Through the rising tide of “No Kings” rallies, national boycotts, general strikes, and every lawful mechanism available to a free people, we must defend the vulnerable and confront the illegality and cruelty of this regime. We must ignite a sustained, unyielding movement—one that demands justice, equality, and democracy, and one strong enough to overcome every act of suppression, intimidation, or electoral sabotage deployed against us.

And as we reclaim our future, we must not be lulled into forgetting. Democracies die when crimes against the nation go unanswered. Those who attacked our institutions, looted the public trust, enabled and participated in the insurrection, or sought to overturn a lawful election must face full criminal prosecution, asset forfeiture, and lasting civic accountability. We must defend the vulnerable, uphold the rule of law, and use every constitutional tool, including Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, to ensure that no insurrectionist or enabler of tyranny ever holds power again.

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