TRUMP'S SECOND TERM COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED

History Must Remember: Trump’s Second Term Could Have Been Prevented

As we navigate the ruinous aftermath of Donald Trump’s second term, one critical truth must not be lost to history: this could have been prevented. In late 2023 and early 2024, we proposed a bold but entirely legal option rooted in the Constitution that, had it been taken, might have altered the trajectory of American democracy.

In multiple published articles, we argued that President Biden had the executive authority to declare Donald Trump ineligible to run for president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. This was not some fanciful wish or partisan stunt. It was a reasoned, constitutionally grounded proposal based on the Executive's responsibility under Article II, Section 3, to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” The 14th Amendment, as part of the Constitution, is one of those laws.

Let history record: Biden had the pen. He had the precedent. And he had the opportunity.

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Colorado case, which effectively greenlit Trump’s candidacy, was flawed. It misinterpreted the executive branch's role in enforcing constitutional provisions and ignored historical examples like enforcing school desegregation in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education or upholding civil rights in the face of opposition. The executive branch's power to act in defense of constitutional principles is well established.

We must remember this missed opportunity because the consequences are now undeniable. Everything we foresaw in 2024 has come to pass: the dismantling of democratic institutions, the consolidation of power under a de facto monarch, and the subjugation of the Constitution to the whims of a man who never believed in its principles.

Presidents like Truman, FDR, or JFK would have had the intestinal fortitude to act. But President Biden, despite the warning signs and legal grounding, hesitated. Perhaps it was fear of political backlash. Perhaps it was faith in institutions that no longer function as intended. Either way, that fork in the road was ignored, and we are now living with the result.

Our writings from that period, including “Why Biden Can Declare Trump Ineligible,” laid out the case entirely. They should not be forgotten. They are not just footnotes in a dark chapter of American history. They are the proof that this didn’t have to happen. That the takeover of our republic wasn’t inevitable. That one act of courage could have changed everything.

History will judge what we did and did not do in our hour of need. Let it also remember what might have been done, and who had the power to do it.

William James Spriggs

WE ARE BEYOND POLITICS

The Death of Political Parties: A Nation Beyond Politics

In today’s United States, political parties have become irrelevant. They are not obsolete in form. Parties still exist and hold conventions, raise funds, and nominate candidates, but they are irrelevant in purpose. The defining conflict in America is no longer between Democrats and Republicans. It is between democracy and autocracy. The rest is noise.

The Republican Party is dead. Whatever it once stood for, fiscal conservatism, states’ rights, and law and order are gone. In its place is a personality cult, wholly subservient to one man who lies, bullies, and controls through fear and repetition. The GOP has become the American mirror image of the authoritarian movements of the past, most notably, the rise of Hitler’s fascism in 1930s Germany. Today’s Republican Party has no platform, no vision beyond power, and no room for dissent. It has become the political arm of a dictator-in-waiting, and as such, it must be recognized not as a party but as a threat.

The Democratic Party, by contrast, is not a threat but impotent. Disorganized, timid, and paralyzed by decades of triangulation, it has failed to present a compelling vision of hope and renewal. It remains committed to politics as usual in a time when politics as usual is suicidal. The party has no singular leader capable of galvanizing the public, and there is no unifying message bold enough to match the existential threat we face. It is out of step with the urgency of the moment.

This is not a time for party loyalty. This is not about left or right. This concerns whether the United States will continue to be a democracy or descend into autocracy.

If you believe in freedom, in the rule of law, in the dignity of the individual, in fair elections and peaceful transitions of power, then you are already on one side of this fight. And it is a fight. A bare-knuckled, high-stakes fight against tyranny, corruption, censorship, and the criminalization of truth itself.

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, Stephen Miller, and the rest of the Trump-aligned far-right cabal have declared their intentions: to demolish the constitutional government of the United States and replace it with a system where power is centralized, opposition is punished, and religion replaces law. They do not hide this. They have published it.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain trapped in political tribalism, believing the next election will play out like those of the past. It will not. If there is one at all, the next election will be the last meaningful one if this threat is not met with action.

So stop talking about political parties. Don’t donate to them. Don’t wait for their permission to act. Ask yourself one question:

Do you stand for democracy or dictatorship?

Because that is the only choice left.

If you stand for democracy, then act like it. Get in the streets. Organize. Boycott. Write. Protest. Refuse to be silent. Refuse to be polite. Refuse to accept a future in which America becomes an authoritarian state governed by greed, fear, and God as a weapon.

The time for politics is over.

William James Spriggs

THE WAR FOR REALITY

In Service of the Lie: How a Nation Dismantles Its Own Moral Code

A quiet yet deadly transformation has overtaken America, not through tanks or coups, but through lies. Not ordinary lies told to avoid embarrassment or soften pain. Still, systemic, foundational lies told at the highest levels of power and adopted en masse by millions of Americans who no longer question what they are told. These citizens live in service to the lie, and that allegiance is destroying the very moral fabric of the nation.

The troubling truth is this: those who live in service of the lie will eventually be destroyed by it.

In a healthy democracy, truth is the cornerstone. Morality, our sense of right and wrong, depends entirely on truth. Without it, morality is not just weakened; it is obliterated. In the absence of truth, lies become a currency, and a leader who lies without consequence becomes a prophet to the morally bankrupt.

We now watch in disbelief as millions support a man who lies with impunity, denies facts that are evident to all, and encourages his followers to do the same. He is not a leader in the traditional sense. He is a fiction writer whose stories have captured a disaffected audience seeking absolution, not accountability. He offers them the comfort of falsehood, and they accept it eagerly, casting truth aside as inconvenient, elitist, or unpatriotic.

But there is no patriotism in delusion. There is no integrity in lies.

The most dangerous consequence is not political chaos but the collapse of a shared moral code. Once morality becomes subjective, guided by tribal allegiance rather than principle, there is no longer a common ground on which to build a nation. A society cannot function, much less thrive, if half its people deny reality and the other half is left defending what should be self-evident.

The lie is seductive because it removes responsibility. It tells its followers that nothing matters—not science, evidence, or decency. But the lie exacts a cost: it strips away the capacity to live honorably. Those who serve the lie lose their ability to discern truth, and with it, their claim to any moral high ground.

Truth eventually does prevail. It always does. But when it returns, scorched by denial and dismissed by demagogues, it often finds that the people it could have saved have already sold their souls.

America must choose to restore truth as the central pillar of public life or continue down the path of fiction until nothing is left but moral ash. This is not politics as usual. This is a war for reality itself.

And in such a war, neutrality is complicity.

William James Spriggs

IT'S EQUALITY SINCE 1776

Democracy Is Equality, and That’s What Terrifies the Fascists

From the beginning, democracy was not built on the fantasy that all men and women are the same. We are not equal in strength, intellect, ability, judgment, or education. The founders knew this well. Instead, they envisioned something radical: that despite our differences, we would all be equal in power, equal in the right to shape the laws and institutions that govern us. Equality, in this sense, was the foundation of self-government. It was the core principle behind the Declaration of Independence, later enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

Democracy, then, is not about sameness. It is about shared sovereignty. It declares that "we the people" are the rulers, not kings, popes, billionaires, or CEOs. We agreed to bind ourselves to laws we helped create, enforced by a government that is our servant, not our master. It was the antidote to monarchy, oligarchy, and autocracy, a government of equals.

And that is precisely what the fascists now fear and fight.

The authoritarian project currently sweeping America, championed by Trump and detailed in Project 2025, is not about policy. It is about power. It is about reestablishing hierarchy where democracy demands equality. It is about returning to a time when a few ruled over many, when race, gender, wealth, or religion conferred political privilege.

The new autocrats don’t believe in equality. They may pay lip service to it, but at their core, they are terrified by the idea that the poor, the immigrant, the Black, the Brown, the female, the queer, the disabled, all are equal stakeholders in this nation. That is why they attack voting rights. That is why they suppress books, muzzle teachers, and dismantle public institutions. That is why they elevate wealth to sacred status and push for a theocracy that claims divine order as justification for inequality.

They are reviving the lie of natural hierarchy, the idea that some are born to rule and others to serve. This lie has been repackaged as "meritocracy," but its essence is as old as feudalism. In their world, we are returning to lords and peasants, white over Black, rich over poor, men over women.

But democracy does not survive in such a hierarchy. It cannot.

We the people is not just a phrase but a declaration of equality. And if we lose that, we lose everything. Democracy dies not just when we stop voting, but when we stop believing that we are all equally entitled to rule ourselves. It dies when we let oligarchs and zealots redefine citizenship as a privilege rather than a birthright.

The current regime is not just anti-democratic. It is anti-equality. It yearns for a return to aristocracy, only this time cloaked in religion, racial superiority, and the unchecked power of capital. It is a monarchy dressed as populism. It is fascism with a smile.

The answer is not to moderate our demands. It is to reaffirm the founding promise: that democracy is equality in action. It is the only system that declares, despite our differences, that every citizen stands on level ground before the law and has an equal say in shaping our collective destiny.

This is not just a political fight. It is a moral one.

William James Spriggs

WAR, NOT POLITICS

This Is Not Politics. This Is War.

Let’s stop calling it politics.
Let’s stop pretending this is another election cycle, another partisan dispute, another red-versus-blue contest with campaign ads and polite disagreements.

This is not politics. This is war.

Not a war with bullets, but a war of truth versus lies.
A war of freedom versus submission.
A war of the Constitution versus the cult.
A war between We the People and the would-be king.

We are no longer debating policy, tax rates, or school budgets. We are fighting for the right to exist as a free people under a democratic charter. That charter, our Constitution, is being burned in plain sight. Its protections are being shredded, its principles mocked, and its balance of power erased.

Trump and his followers have declared it. They no longer pretend to believe in democracy. They no longer feel the need to couch their ambitions. Through Project 2025, they have announced their goal: to erase our republic and replace it with an authoritarian regime, with Trump as its ruler and a coalition of billionaires, religious extremists, and enablers to keep him there.

This is not an exaggeration. This is not a metaphor.
This is real. And it is happening right now.

So no, this is not politics. This is a fight.
And in this fight, there is no middle ground.

You are either with the Constitution or against it.
You are either with democracy or against it.
You are either a citizen or a subject.

And if you are with the Constitution. If you still believe in the Declaration of Independence, in equality before the law, in government by consent of the governed, then you must fight.

Fight not with weapons, but with unyielding will.
Fight in courts, classrooms, boardrooms, statehouses, and your community.
Fight at the ballot box, on the airwaves, in print, and online.
Fight by organizing, protesting, educating, exposing, and voting like your life depends on it—because it does.

There is no normal to return to. There is no neutrality to retreat to.
Trump and his movement have made that impossible.

This is us vs. them, not by choice, but by necessity.
Us: the sovereign citizens of a free republic.
Them: the loyalists to a king who never deserved a crown.

This country was born in rebellion against a monarch. We declared our independence in writing, in blood, and in principle. We said no to tyranny once, and now we must repeat it, with the same urgency, clarity, and unity.

Because if we fail to fight truly, there will be no second chance.

This is not politics. This is history.

Which side are you on?

William James Spriggs

HOW TO REPEAL BBB

Repealing the “Big Beautiful Bill”: Can Democrats Undo the Trump Blueprint in 2029?

Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, a sweeping package of legislative and regulatory changes, was never just policy. It was a statement of dominance: a restructuring of American government, economics, and civil life to cement minority rule by the wealthy and powerful. It was rushed through with unapologetic arrogance, tailored to serve oligarchs, gut public services, roll back civil liberties, and centralize power under a cult of personality.

With the possibility of Democratic control in 2029, the question looms: Can it be undone?

The answer is yes, but not easily, and not all at once. What Trump and his supporters enacted was not a single bill, it was a long-term architecture for autocracy. Dismantling it will take more than a majority vote. It will require discipline, courage, and a strategy that acknowledges the scale of the damage.

1. The Power of Repeal, With Control of Congress and the White House

If Democrats control the House, Senate, and the presidency in 2029, they can introduce new legislation to repeal or replace the provisions in Trump’s bill. But this will only work if they have:

• A working majority in the House,
• At least 50 Senate seats and a Democratic vice president to break ties,
• Or 60 Senate seats to bypass the filibuster.

In other words, they’ll need unity and urgency.

2. Using Budget Reconciliation for Speed

For budget-related provisions, like tax giveaways to billionaires or funding cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Democrats can use budget reconciliation, which allows passage in the Senate with a simple majority. This process helped pass the Affordable Care Act and the Biden American Rescue Plan.

However, reconciliation is limited:

• It can only be used once per budget cycle.
• It must involve items that have a direct budgetary impact.
• It cannot include unrelated policy measures (thanks to the “Byrd Rule”).

So while reconciliation could help reverse Trump’s tax code shifts or restore gutted social funding, it won’t touch regulatory rollbacks or civil service purges.

3. Rolling Back Regulations with the Congressional Review Act (CRA)

If Trump’s government implemented regulations late in his second term, Democrats in 2029 could use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn them quickly with a simple majority. This tool is time-sensitive—only applicable within a 60-legislative-day window of the regulation’s finalization.

But the CRA only applies to regulations, not laws. And once used, it prohibits reissuing a “substantially similar” rule. So while useful, it’s a scalpel, not a sword.

4. Counter-Legislation: Rebuilding, Not Just Repealing

Even if Democrats cannot repeal every part of Trump’s legacy outright, they can counter it with affirmative legislation:

• Restore protections for federal workers,
• Reinstate environmental and civil rights regulations,
• Expand public education and healthcare access,
• Legislate voting rights and democratic reforms.

This won’t simply be about going back to “before Trump.” It must be about going forward, offering a new vision grounded in justice, equality, and democratic renewal.

5. The Real Battle: Political Will

Perhaps the biggest challenge isn’t legal or proceduralists’ political will. Repeal requires Democrats to govern boldly, not timidly. They must abandon the myth of bipartisanship with a party still devoted to authoritarianism and minority rule. They must make the case to the American people that Trump’s bill was not a policy victory but a betrayal of the republic.

They must be willing to say:

“This wasn’t just bad law. It was immoral, undemocratic, and un-American. And we’re not going to live under it.”

If Democrats do win in 2028, the window for repeal will be brief. Trump’s plan was designed to be durable, to lock in power for a generation. Delay is defeat. Half-measures will not be enough.

The moment must be met with clarity and courage.

Because if we’ve learned anything from Project 2025 and Trump’s second term, it’s that autocracy doesn’t fade on its own. It must be dismantled, piece by piece, law by law, lie by lie.

And that begins with the repeal of the Big Beautiful Bill.

William James Spriggs

WE ARE THE SOVEREIGN

We Are the Sovereign: A Republic, Not a Kingdom

There is only one true sovereign in this nation: We the People.

That was the defining break with monarchy in 1776. The Declaration of Independence wasn’t just a list of grievances but a revolution of sovereignty. It declared that the government does not derive its power from kings or elites, but from the consent of the governed. And in the Constitution, that idea became law: power flows from the people upward, not from a ruler downward.

We are the sovereign. You. Me. All of us together, not ruled, but self-governing.

But today, we are under siege.
Not from a foreign king.
But from a homegrown pretender to the throne.

Donald Trump and his minions have tried to hijack the sovereignty that belongs to us all. They do not serve the people. They serve only him. They do not represent a republic. They represent a cult. They have pledged not to the Constitution, but to a man. And in doing so, they have betrayed the very foundation of this country.

They act as if Trump is the sovereign, as if he holds the crown, and they are his court. They do not criticize him, question him, or check his power. They submit. They surrender their own agency, duty, and patriotism to stay in his favor.

But that is not American. That is monarchism in disguise.

This is not a clash between right and left, red and blue.
This is a clash between constitutional sovereignty and personal dictatorship.

Trump and his supporters are trying to invent a new sovereignty, one where power is inherited, not earned. One where laws serve rulers, not citizens. One where dissent is punished, and loyalty to a single man replaces loyalty to the republic.

But there is no such sovereignty in America. The only legitimate sovereign recognized by our founding documents, our democratic principles, and the blood shed in their defense is the people.

We are the sovereign. Not Trump. Not Congress. Not the Court.

And because we are the sovereign, we are also the guardians.
It is on us to stop the creeping return of monarchy in red hats and gold towers.
We must remind our fellow citizens that the flag does not belong to a party.
Again, it is on us to declare that this nation belongs to all of us, not to one of us.

We are not subjects.
We are not pawns.
We are not loyalists to a would-be king.

We are citizens of a republic, and we are the sovereign.

Let no one forget it. And let no one take it from us without a fight.

William James Spriggs

TRUMP'S MESSAGE

Trump’s Overreach Wasn’t a Mistake—It Was a Message

Donald Trump has overreached. Again.

He pushed through his so-called "big beautiful" legislative package—an authoritarian wishlist so radical, so transparently biased in favor of the ultra-wealthy, and so openly designed to dismantle the U.S. government, that any rational observer might ask: Why go so far?

Why make it so blatant? Why push so hard, so fast, and with so little effort to disguise the harm being done to working people, democratic institutions, and the very fabric of the Constitution?

The answer is as chilling as it is obvious:
Trump doesn’t believe there will be any honest elections to stop him.
He does not fear losing power.
He does not fear backlash.
He does not fear the people.

Because he does not intend to give the people another meaningful chance to choose.

This overreach is not a strategic misstep; it’s a declaration. Through Project 2025 and its legislative offspring, Trump and his enablers have made it abundantly clear that they are not interested in governing under a democratic system. They want to replace it with a permanent, hereditary, and fully consolidated regime where elections are performative, dissent is punished, and power never changes hands.

Let’s stop pretending this is politics as usual.
This is not the run-up to the next election. This is the run-down of the entire democratic process.

Trump is already behaving like a man with no intention of leaving. And why would he? A captured Supreme Court insulates him, a Congress stuffed with loyalists, a media landscape he manipulates at will, and a security state increasingly complicit in protecting power, not liberty. He has normalized corruption, trivialized cruelty, and, most importantly, proven that he can get away with all of it.

And so he pushes further.
Not because he miscalculated,
But because it’s working.

Democrats, meanwhile, remain locked in a delusion that this is just another dark chapter in American politics and that the next election will be the turning point. But what if there is no real "next election"? What if free and fair voting mechanisms are dismantled or distorted beyond recognition? What if we're already past the tipping point?

Trump has no reason to worry about political fallout. He’s a self-declared king in a system designed for presidents. He’s the head of a dynasty, not a party. And if allowed to continue unchecked, he will name his successor and solidify a generational autocracy that will take decades, if ever, to undo.

The grim truth is this: we are not awaiting an election. We are living through a slow-motion coup. The paperwork has already been filed. The power structures are being reshaped. The laws are being rewritten. The institutions are being hollowed out.

If Democrats continue to behave as if this is business as usual, they will lose not just an election, but also the country.

This is not a call for partisan resistance. It is a call for existential resistance.

Everything, every hard-fought right, every fragile freedom, every meaningful vote- hangs in the balance.

The time for caution is over.
The time for compromise has passed.
The time for action, decisive, organized, and unrelenting, is now.

Because Trump hasn’t just overreached.
He’s shown us the endgame.

And if we don’t respond with the seriousness this moment demands,
That game will be over for all of us.

William James Spriggs

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

  

A DIRGE FOR THE FOURTH

A Funeral Dirge for the Fourth of July

There is no name for what this country has become.

It is not America the Beautiful.
It is not the United States because it is not united.
It is not a republic, a democracy, or a shining city on a hill.

What it resembles now is something darker: a broken nation, run by a self-declared strongman and propped up by an oligarchy of billionaires who ensure that he remains in power. The people, the actual people, are no longer stakeholders. They are pawns. Or worse: they are forgotten.

This is not hyperbole. This is reality.

The once sacred institutions of American democracy, the checks and balances, the civil service, the judiciary, and the free press, have been bent to the will of a man who leads a cult, not a country. There are no “co-equal branches of government” anymore. The executive has swallowed the legislative and intimidated the judiciary. It is government by one man, for the few, at the expense of the many.

Democracy, as we knew it, is gone.
We warned of this in 2024, when Project 2025 was first published, a detailed, unapologetic blueprint for dismantling the republic and rebuilding it as an authoritarian regime cloaked in nationalism and false piety.

Now, in 2025, it is no longer theory. It is a fact.

The government no longer serves the people. It serves the rich-the very rich, the obscenely rich—and no one else. Even the merely wealthy have no power compared to the oligarchs who own the seats of influence, the airwaves, and the halls of power. Meanwhile, the poor, the working class, and the undereducated have no lifeline. Social services are gone. Public education is gutted. Labor rights are vanishing. Healthcare is reserved for those who can afford it, which is to say: the elite.

And who belongs in that elite?
Only those who meet the unspoken, but deeply enforced, requirements of Trump’s America: white, loyal, wealthy, and unquestioning.

Through his weaponized immigration policy, Trump has engineered a racial sorting process under the guise of law and order. He is not enforcing borders. He is enforcing a hierarchy. A racial caste system. A new version of Jim Crow, made more efficient by technology and sealed by propaganda.

The environment? Abandoned.
Innovation? Replaced with slogans.
Science? Silenced.
Faith? Hijacked by the state.

We are not heading toward theocracy. We are already there, just waiting for the curtain to rise fully.

So, what is there to celebrate this Fourth of July?

Fireworks in a graveyard? Flags on a battlefield already lost?
This is not independence. It is subjugation with branding.

Yes, some still fight, those who resist and dream of reclaiming the republic. They are the ones who remember what America could be. But they are no longer fighting to improve it. They are fighting to resurrect it.

America, as we knew it, no longer exists.

And so on this Fourth of July, don’t raise a glass in celebration.
Raise it in mourning.
Not for the America that was perfect, because it never was.
But for the America that once aspired to be better.

Now, that aspiration has been buried beneath the boots of autocracy.
And all we can hear, if we’re honest, is the sound of a funeral dirge.

Let it ring, not as surrender, but as a warning.
The republic will not come from pageantry if it is to be reborn.
It will come from resistance.

William James Spriggs

 

YOU DON'T MATTER

You Don’t Matter: The Truth Behind Trump’s Legislative Wrecking Ball

At this very moment, Congress is voting on what Donald Trump is proudly calling his “big, beautiful” legislative package, a sweeping, calculated disaster cloaked in patriotic language and populist theater. But beneath the surface, it is nothing less than a brutal betrayal of the American people.

You don’t matter.
Not if you’re working-class.
Not if you rely on public healthcare.
Not if you’re raising children, caring for an aging parent, or just trying to get by.
You. Do. Not. Matter.

This legislation, crafted by the Heritage Foundation, backed by billionaires, and rubber-stamped by sycophants, is not policy. It is plunder. It is a roadmap for locking in the privileges of the wealthy elite while gutting what little is left of the American social contract. If passed, these laws and changes will outlive Trump’s presidency and become embedded in the country's legal infrastructure, extremely difficult to reverse, and nearly impossible to repair.

Here’s what’s really in the package:

• Tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, permanent and deep
• Drastic reductions to Medicaid and Social Security
• Elimination of environmental regulations that protect your air and water
• Expanded religious exemptions to allow discrimination under the guise of faith
• A complete dismantling of the federal workforce, replacing civil servants with loyalists
• Defunding of public schools while redirecting funds to elite private institutions

And what do you get?

Maybe, maybe, a temporary bump in your paycheck that will vanish with the next price hike. Perhaps a vague promise of “freedom” while your local hospital shuts its doors. Maybe a job program that pays less than your bills requires and has no benefits.

If you are a MAGA supporter, this part is for you.
Even you don’t matter.

This legislation does not serve you. It will not help your town, your school, or your child. It will not save your job, reduce your rent, or lower your prescription costs. It only helps the rich stay rich, and get richer still. And you are simply the disposable fuel powering their engine.

This is the ultimate “thank you” from the man you’ve supported for years:
You don’t matter.
Your loyalty is irrelevant.
Your needs are a nuisance.

This is no longer about the party. It’s about survival. It’s about calling this moment what it is: an economic war on working people, dressed in a flag and fed to you on cable news as victory.

It is time to say no to all of it.
No to being used.
No to being silenced.
No to being lied to while your life gets harder, your care gets worse, and your dignity disappears.

This legislation must be fought piece by piece, exposed, and rejected. For what it is: a cruel monument to greed, passed on the backs of the forgotten. Of you.

Because, as long as Trump is in power, the message is the same:
You don’t matter.

But if we rise together, and vote, protest, and organize.
We can make sure they hear us.
And we can change the message to:
We matter. All of us.

William James Spriggs

 

TRUMP'S WAR ON AMERICA

The Great Immigration Myth: Trump’s War on Diversity Is a War on America Itself

Donald Trump built his entire political career on a lie, the Great Immigration Myth: that immigrants are criminals, parasites, and threats to the American way of life. From the moment he descended his golden escalator in 2015, he launched a campaign not just against illegal immigration, but against non-white humanity itself. His goal was never to fix a broken system. His goal was always to make America white again.

Let’s be clear: there is no immigration crisis in the sense that Trump and his followers portray. What exists is a policy failure, one that could be remedied through the systems and laws we already have, if only they were supported, funded, and administered with compassion and common sense.

What is needed is:

• Expanded resources for legal processing and asylum review
• Safe, humane housing for those waiting for hearings
• A functional, well-funded pathway to citizenship for long-term residents
• Sensible vetting and security—not walls and bans
• And above all, legislation based on law and logic, not fear and hate

But instead of fixing the system, Trump is weaponizing it.
Instead of solving immigration, he is criminalizing it.
Instead of upholding the values of the Constitution, he is resurrecting the language of racial cleansing.

Yes, racial cleansing. Because that’s what happens when you deliberately paint one group of people as inferior, dangerous, and unwelcome, that’s what happens when you call immigrants “animals,” “vermin,” and “invaders.” That’s what happens when you build detention camps, separate families, and deport people who’ve lived here peacefully for decades. And if he has his way, it may not stop at deportation. History shows us where this path leads, chillingly reminiscent of the 1930s.

Make no mistake: immigration is not America’s problem. It is its solution.

We need people to come here to work, study, contribute, and lead. America’s economy depends on it, our universities thrive on it, and our population growth requires it. Without immigration, the American experiment slowly dies.

What Trump is selling is not protection, it’s regression. It is the desperate gasp of a dying ideology: that whiteness equals power, and diversity equals threat. But this ideology is not only immoral, it is dangerous, unsustainable, and economically suicidal.

If America is to survive and thrive in the 21st century, it must do so as a multiracial, multilingual, multicultural democracy. That is our strength, that is our identity, and that is what Trump fears most.

So let’s be honest about what his immigration crusade is:
Not a border policy.
Not a crime strategy.
Not national security.

It is a white nationalist project masquerading as patriotism. It is racial panic dressed in red, white, and blue. It rejects everything America could become, and once aspired to be.

Trump is not solving a crisis.
He is the crisis.

And the only moral, democratic, and patriotic response is to reject this lie completely—and to rebuild a system where immigrants are not feared, but welcomed. Where the Statue of Liberty still means something. Where America is not whitened, but enlightened.

Because in the end, immigration won’t destroy America. It just might save it.

William James Spriggs

THE GREAT LIE IS ABOUT COLOR

The Great Lie Isn’t About Crime, It’s About Color

Donald Trump’s anti-immigration campaign has never been about crime. It has always been about color. The myth that immigrants, mainly migrants from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, are criminal threats is a political ruse, a tool of manipulation dressed up as national security. But peel back the curtain, and the truth is clear: this is not about making America great again. It’s about making America white again.

Let’s start with the facts:
Numerous studies, by the Cato Institute, the American Immigration Council, and even government sources, consistently show that immigrants, both legal and undocumented, commit crimes at lower rates than native-born U.S. citizens. There is no statistical justification for singling out immigrants as a criminal class. And yet, Trump’s rhetoric continues to focus obsessively on “bad hombres,” “rapists,” and “animals.” The only purpose of this language is to dehumanize. To vilify. To divide.

And to justify expulsion.

Because what Trump and his followers truly fear is not lawlessness, but demographic change. The shift in America’s racial and cultural makeup threatens their imagined past, a past where whiteness meant power, privilege, and dominance. And so they wage a war against immigration under the pretense of law and order.

But here’s the greatest irony of all:
America needs immigrants more than ever.

The very people Trump demonizes are essential to the country’s economic vitality. Migrant labor drives agriculture, construction, caregiving, hospitality, and countless other industries. These workers aren’t taking jobs, they’re doing the jobs no one else will do. They are not a burden on America’s future; they are its foundation.

They come here not to harm, but to build.
They seek not to exploit, but to escape exploitation.
They flee violence, poverty, and oppression, often in countries destabilized by American policy, and in return, they bring hope, resilience, and an unmatched work ethic.

And yet Trump clings to his escalator lie, the one he told on day one: that he would “rid the country of criminals.” But if he genuinely cared about crime, he would focus on where it statistically exists. If he applied the same standard to white citizens that he applies to migrants, he’d be calling for mass deportations from his rallies.

But of course, he won’t because this was never about crime.
It’s about color.
It’s about control.
It’s about fear.

And it’s a lie that must be called what it is: xenophobic, racist, and un-American.

If we are to reclaim the moral compass of this nation, we must reject the poisonous idea that whiteness defines Americanness. We must elevate truth over myth, statistics over slogans, and shared humanity over shallow hatred.

Immigrants are not our enemies.
They are our neighbors, coworkers, caregivers, and future.

Let’s make America just again.
And leave the bigotry behind. Where it belongs.

William James Spriggs

TRUMP'S FATAL FLAW

Overreach and Opportunity: Why It’s Time for Democrats to Embrace the Sanders Platform

Donald Trump and his enablers have made a fatal error. In their arrogant rush to seize total control of the U.S. government, they overplayed their hand. Project 2025, crafted by the Heritage Foundation and carried forward by operatives like Stephen Miller, was supposed to be the blueprint for a gradual erosion of democracy. Instead, it reads like a confession of authoritarian ambition.

And that’s the only good thing about it.

Had they been smarter, they would have hidden their plans behind layers of policy-speak and slow procedural change. They would have taken the long road, incrementally replacing civil servants with loyalists, quietly undermining independent agencies, and stealthily fusing church with state. However, subtlety has never been Trump’s strength. In his world, power must be loud, fast, and unrepentant. And so, Project 2025 was published, not leaked, not inferred, but declared.

Now, the American people are staring tyranny in the face. And while many are still rubbing their eyes, unsure of what they’re seeing, a critical mass is beginning to awaken.

This is not a moment for politics as usual.

The Democratic Party cannot continue campaigning on modest reforms, vague slogans, or bipartisan nostalgia. That kind of incrementalism brought us to this cliff. It will not lead us back. Instead, Democrats must seize this moment to redefine themselves, and perhaps even rename themselves around a bold, moral, and transformative agenda.

And that agenda already exists. Bernie Sanders has been articulating it for decades.

This is the time for democratic socialism, not as an abstract ideal, but as a living, breathing political movement. One that prioritizes working people over Wall Street, universal healthcare over corporate profit, climate justice over fossil fuel subsidies, and expanded public ownership over privatization and greed.

Project 2025 is a blueprint for oligarchy.
Project 2029 must be a blueprint for shared power, economic democracy, and moral government.

What Trump and his allies offer is rule by the few, for the few. The correct, and only, response is a government by the many, for the many. A politics rooted not in appeasement, but in principle, not in polling, but in justice.

The opportunity is now. Not in 2028. Not after another round of cautious compromise. Now.

The Democrats must stop playing defense and start leading a movement. They must become the unapologetic voice of working people, the marginalized, and those who believe the American experiment is not dead but in desperate need of rescue.

Trump has made his intentions clear. So should we.

And if the Democratic Party cannot rise to meet this moment, then perhaps it’s time for a new party that can.

William James Spriggs

WE WERE NOT HERE

We Were Not Here

We were not here.
No mark remains, no echo rings.
In the vast halls of the universe.
Our atoms scatter, past or future, 
Never now.

The moment just passed does not exist.
The moment to come is unborn.
And this moment?
Already fading,
Dissolving
As we try to name it.

We live between illusions,
Held in place by breath and memory,
Make-believing that presence is real.
But it is not.
We are not.

Particles playing roles,
Stories in dust,
We vanish even as we speak.

And perhaps,
Just perhaps,
That is enough.

To vanish beautifully.
To exist without permanence.
To love, to ache, to reach,
And leave no need
For how or why.

William James Spriggs

HAMBURGER OR STEAK

From Hamburgers to Steak: What It Will Take for Democrats to Win in 2028

Suppose the Democratic Party hopes to regain government control in 2029 and put forth the bold vision of Project 2029, a future grounded in justice, equity, and economic democracy. In that case, it must stop nibbling around the edges of progress and finally serve the main course: a socialist agenda that excites, inspires, and mobilizes.

For decades, Democrats have played a cautious game offering modest proposals, trimmed-down reforms, and half-hearted resistance to Republican extremism. They've promised a slightly better version of the status quo: a more affordable healthcare plan, a tax tweak, a plea for unity everywhere. But in an age of profound inequality, rising authoritarianism, and environmental catastrophe, the status quo is no longer an option. You don’t beat a wildfire with a garden hose.

The lesson was made clear in a recent local race in New York City, where a socialist-backed candidate defeated the mainstream Democratic pick in the primary. The race was small, but the signal was strong: there is a growing hunger on the left for real, structural change, not cosmetic reforms. And when candidates embrace that message unapologetically. They can win.

The Democratic Party must recognize that its most passionate, energetic base is not in the middle of the road. It is in the core socialist contingent, young voters, working people, climate activists, progressives of every stripe, who believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege; that housing should be for people, not profit; that billionaires should not exist in a nation where children go hungry.

This group may be small now, but it has one thing moderates don’t: a vision. And vision spreads.

Bernie Sanders proved this when he electrified millions, not by moderating his views, but by embracing them fully and fearlessly. Crowds didn’t come because he was safe. They came because he was bold. They came because he offered steak, not a better hamburger.

The Democrats must now decide: Do they continue to triangulate, compromise, and sell incremental change to a nation on fire? Or do they finally embrace the ideals that can rescue democracy and rebuild America from the ground up?

Winning in 2028 will require more than beating the Republicans at their own game. It will require changing the game entirely.

That means:

• Embracing democratic socialism as a legitimate and necessary force for justice.
• Promoting candidates who speak, passionately, and radically about what working people deserve.
• Building coalitions from the ground up, not just with donors and lobbyists, but with teachers, nurses, organizers, and the disillusioned.
• Rejecting the notion that boldness is political suicide. On the contrary, it may be the only lifeline left.

The American people aren’t hungry for better slogans. They’re hungry for a moral movement. A reason to believe again. A reason to fight.

The Democrats have a choice: serve the steak, or be left behind in the drive-thru line.

WilliamJames Spriggs

WHERE KINDNESS GROWS

WHERE KINDNESS LIVES

In halls where golden years grow dim,
And time walks slow with aching limb,
There shines a quiet, steadfast light,
A few good souls who make things right.

They do not boast, they wear no crown,
They do not seek the world’s renown.
But when you stumble, lost or low,
They’re there, just gently saying, “Hello.”

Wayne, who smiles with eyes that see,
Maria’s calm serenity,
Reggy's song, and Sharon’s grace,
Tony’s heart and Donna’s pace.

They walk these halls with open hearts,
And play the most essential parts.
They ask not what, but how you are,
They notice silence from afar.

They weather storms we cannot tame,
Still greet each sunrise just the same.
Their empathy, a healing thread,
That stitches hope where it has bled.

No spotlight shines upon their way,
No trophy shelf, no grand display,
But every act, each selfless deed,
Is how they plant a kinder seed.

They share, they lift, they lead without
A single whispered word of doubt.
No medals earned, no thanks required,
Their simple goodness never tired.

If all the world could learn their art,
To ask, to care, to hold a heart,
Then even age would feel less cold,
And life, less heavy to behold.

So here’s to them, the quiet few,
Who carry us when days feel blue.
They light the path, they smooth the climb,
The saints of our ungrateful time.

  

DUST IN THE WIND

 I clI close my eyes

Only for a moment and the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes with curiosity

Dust in the wind
All they are is dust in the wind

Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
Oh, oh

Now don't hang on
Nothin' lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away
And all your money won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
(All we are is dust in the wind)

Dust in the wind
(Everything is dust in the wind)
Everything is dust in the wind
(In the wind)

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Kerry Livgren

Dust in the Wind lyrics © Emi Blackwood Music Inc., Don Kirshner Music

Kansas – Dust in the Wind Lyrics

THE FORGOTTEN VIRTUE

The Forgotten Virtue: Empathy

In the long arc of evolution, our survival has depended on far more than strength or cunning. We have endured and flourished not because we were the fastest or fiercest but because we could understand one another. Empathy, our intuitive ability to feel the world through another’s eyes, is embedded in our DNA. It is not just a moral ideal; it is a biological imperative.

Had we not evolved the ability to care, share, defer, and cooperate, we would have destroyed each other millennia ago. The capacity to avoid unnecessary harm to choose understanding over violence, restraint over theft, and compassion over cruelty is the bedrock of civilization. It is what allowed our ancestors to build tribes, then towns, then nations. And yet, in modern America and much of the developed world, empathy has gone missing.

We now live in an age where self-interest is elevated to virtue, greed is mistaken for strength, cruelty is cheered as honesty, and compassion is dismissed as weakness. In this distorted worldview, empathy is no longer a shared instinct  but a foreign concept rarely practiced and almost never taught. No institution in America treats empathy as essential, from our schools to our boardrooms to our houses of worship. And yet, it is the one virtue that could save us all.

We must correct this course urgently.

Empathy must no longer be left to chance or childhood whim. It must become an intellectual discipline, a civic requirement, and a cultural cornerstone. We must teach it in classrooms, practice it in politics, reinforce it in business, and live it in our daily lives because empathy is not just about being nice. It is about being wise. It is about recognizing that my survival depends on yours, that my dignity is bound up in yours.

If we hope to preserve democracy, we must first rediscover our moral compass, and morality begins with empathy. Without it, capitalism runs riot, religion becomes a tool of judgment rather than love, and the fragile bonds of civil society dissolve into tribal chaos. But with empathy, we can temper our markets, humanize our policies, and reconnect our fractured communities.

Empathy is not a soft skill. It is a survival skill. And it must be treated with the urgency of a nation on the brink because that is where we are. The ancient wisdom of the Golden Rule Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is not a quaint saying. It is a strategic imperative. It is time to breathe life back into it.

Because without empathy, there is no morality.
Without morality, there is no society.
And without society, there is no future.

William James Spriggs

WE WERE HERE FIRST

WE WERE HERE FIRST

There is no enduring custom in America to honor our elders. No rite, no reverence, no rule. Instead, a grotesque reversal of roles has crept into our culture, one in which the children have appointed themselves as the parents and the elders are cast as helpless dependents in need of scolding, managing, or babysitting.

This is not just misguided. It is insulting. It is an abomination.

To be old in America is to be condescended to. The language used is soft, sing-song, and patronizing as if we were toddlers who needed their shoes tied and their meals cut. The tone is one of pity. The advice is unsolicited and often absurd. The universal assumption is that aging robs you of intellect, insight, independence, and basic human worth.

Let’s be clear: this is a myth.

Most elders are not suffering from cognitive collapse. Many remain sharp, witty, thoughtful, and fully engaged with the world around them. More importantly, we bring to the table something our critics lack. We have lived, built, endured, lost, loved, raised families, led careers, and shaped the very systems in which today’s “advisors” operate.

To those who treat us as simple-minded burdens to manage, ask yourselves: have you published books? Commanded troops? Run businesses? Drafted legislation? Healed patients? Represented clients in court? Fought for civil rights? Changed lives?

Because we have, and we did it before you were born.

This ageism masquerading as concern is often nothing more than fear and ignorance in disguise. It allows the young to feel superior for a moment while conveniently ignoring the fact that their parents and grandparents paved the roads they now drive on, literally and figuratively. They forget that we’re the ones who paid for their education, carried their worries, and absorbed their tantrums with the patience they now lack.

So here is a radical suggestion: turn the tables back. It’s time we remind the younger generation that wisdom does not shrink with age. It accumulates. Respect is not optional. It is earned, and we have earned it in full. Guidance, when it comes from those who’ve lived through war, depression, love, loss, and change, is not to be mocked. It is to be sought out and treasured.

Children of America: you may hold the car keys now, but we built the road. A little humility would serve you well. And a lot more respect is overdue.

We are not your children.
We are your elders.
Start acting like it.

William James Spriggs

MICHAEL

A Journey for Michael

From your Great-Grandfather

Michael,
You have been invited,
Not by chance, but by love,
To join us on this long and wondrous journey.
We will not hand you a map.
The path is yours to find,
As we each have found our own.

Some of us have marked the trail behind us
With stories, thoughts, and memories.
You may read them,
And perhaps they will whisper some truth,
But they are not your truth.
They are footprints in sand,
Not stones in your road.

What you must do
Is walk into the mystery,
Face the challenge,
And let it sharpen your mind,
Nourish your soul,
And shape your own wisdom.

We walk beside you,
Not to guide your every step,
But to bear the weight of your doubt
When your shoulders are tired.
Lean on us,
Draw strength from our love.

But never, never surrender
Your independence of thought.
Be bold.
Be curious.
Be critical.
Be kind.

And in doing so,
You will make the contribution
We all hope for,
A light in the darkness,
A voice that matters,
A life that honors the journey.

With all my heart,
I send you forward.
Go well.

 

POSSE COMITATUS

Trump Violatees The Posse Comitatus Act

In an era of rising authoritarian behavior from the executive branch, it’s critical that the American people reacquaint themselves with one of the most important, yet often overlooked, guardrails of our democracy: the Posse Comitatus Act. Initially passed in 1878, this law is more than a relic of Reconstruction. It is a bulwark against the rise of domestic militarism. And today, its principles are being pushed to the breaking point.

How It Came About: The Shadow of Reconstruction

The Posse Comitatus Act was born out of the post-Civil War era. After the Union's victory, federal troops remained in the South to enforce civil rights and oversee Reconstruction. While necessary to protect the newly freed Black population, white Southern Democrats bristled at the presence of Northern troops. By 1877, as part of the so-called “Compromise of 1877,” federal troops were withdrawn in exchange for resolving the contested presidential election of Rutherford B. Hayes.

In 1878, Southern legislators, now re-empowered, pushed through the Posse Comitatus Act to ensure that federal troops could never again be used as a domestic police force without explicit authorization from Congress.

What the Law Says

The core of the law is deceptively simple:

"Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined or imprisoned." (18 U.S. Code § 1385)

The military cannot be used as a domestic police force unless Congress specifically authorizes it.

The law applies directly to the Army and Air Force, and by policy (through Department of Defense directives), it also constrains the Navy and Marine Corps. The National Guard is exempt only when operating under the authority of a state governor, not the President.

What It's All About: Preserving Civil Liberties

The Act protects the separation between military and civil authority. It reflects a foundational principle of our democracy: that the armed forces should not be used against the American people.

This is not a mere formality. Around the world, the use of military force against civilians is a hallmark of autocracy. Democracies rely on civil law enforcement, answerable to elected leaders and the Constitution, to enforce domestic order. Once that wall is breached, the military becomes a tool not of national defense but of internal domination.

How It Applies Today: Trump’s Authoritarian Drift

In 2025, that wall is cracking. Trump’s deployment of Marines, National Guard troops, and even special forces in cities like Los Angeles ostensibly to enforce immigration law or quell “unrest” is a profound violation of both the spirit and the likely letter of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Congress does not authorize these actions. They are not requests from state governors. They are unilateral presidential commands that place military boots on American soil, performing domestic enforcement duties best left to police and federal civil agencies.

Trump’s defenders may argue that the Insurrection Act, a limited statutory exception to Posse Comitatus, gives him cover. However, that law requires actual insurrection or civil disorder that obstructs law enforcement. There is no such condition in Los Angeles or elsewhere. Peaceful protests and sanctuary policies are not insurrections. They are expressions of democracy, not threats to it.

Why This Is Dangerous and What Must Be Done

This is not just a legal matter. It is a moral and constitutional crisis. When military force is used against civilians or elected officials, as we recently saw with the handcuffing of Senator Alex Padilla, the republic is on fire.

The courts must recognize that Trump’s domestic deployments violate longstanding legal protections. But even if the judiciary fails in its duty, the court of public opinion must not. Americans must demand a return to lawful governance and reject the normalization of martial force in civic life.

The Law Is Clear, and So Is the Danger

The Posse Comitatus Act was passed to prevent precisely what Trump is now doing: using the military to police the American people and crush political dissent. Its origins are rooted in a warning we should heed today. Military power belongs on the battlefield, not in the streets of our cities.

Trump's actions are not merely ill-advised. They are illegal. And if we do not stop him now through the courts, through Congress, or through the power of organized public resistance. We may soon find that the democracy we once relied on has quietly slipped into something else entirely.

William James Spriggs

TRUMP'S PURE RACISM

Trump’s War on Immigration Is a War on Color

It may sound like a cliché by now, but that doesn’t make it any less accurate: Donald Trump’s anti-immigration campaign is, at its core, a campaign of racism. It is not about national security. It is not about jobs. It is not about the rule of law. It is, and always has been, about one thing: purging America of people who are not white.

“Make America Great Again” was never a call to progress. It was a siren for regression to a time when whiteness reigned unchallenged, unquestioned, and uninterrupted by the color, culture, and voices of the rest of the world. When Trump talks about an “invasion,” he doesn’t mean Canadians. When he rants about crime, he isn’t referencing Russian oligarchs or European cartels. He means brown people. Black people. Asian people. Anyone not like him is white, male, rich, and cruel.

From day one, his entire political persona was launched on the back of birtherism, the racist lie that Barack Obama, a Black man, was not legitimately American. Since then, he has only doubled down:

• Calling Mexicans “rapists” and “criminals” in his campaign announcement.
• Separating children from their families at the border, warehousing them in cages.
• Banning Muslims from entering the country purely for their religion and origin.
• Ending DACA and TPS, programs that protect young immigrants and refugees from disaster.
• Slashing legal immigration, not just illegal, because even the lawful presence of non-white people is too much for his white nationalist vision.

Let’s not pretend there’s some deeper strategy here. There isn’t. Trump would burn down the entire economy if it meant reducing the number of people of color in this country. He knows we rely on immigrants at every level: doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers, field workers, caregivers, builders, and cleaners. But he doesn’t care. If the work stops, let it stop—as long as it stops being done by people who don’t look like him.

This is not nationalism. It is not patriotism. It is plain old American racism, reborn with a red hat and a louder microphone. The “nation” he wants to defend is not the nation of laws, liberty, or equal opportunity. It is the nation of Jim Crow, of whites-only signs, of “good old days” that were hell for most of humanity.

Trump doesn’t just hate immigrants. He fears them. Every immigrant who thrives, who builds a life, who rises to leadership disproves his entire worldview that only white men should rule. He cannot tolerate that reality. So he lies, he scapegoats, and he unleashes policies that are as cruel as they are calculated.

We must not let the fatigue of repetition dull the truth. This is racism weaponized through policy. It is government used as a tool for ethnic cleansing by attrition, deportation by design, detention by deterrent, and denial of humanity by decree.

And yes, we must keep saying it. Over and over and over. Because silence is complicity. And the moment we stop naming this evil for what it is, we’ve allowed it to win.

Let’s be clear: Trump’s agenda isn’t about “immigration.” It’s about white supremacy dressed in bureaucratic language and violence. He enriches himself at the top and cleanses the bottom of anyone not like him.

It’s not a dog whistle anymore. It’s a siren.

William James Spriggs

TRUMP'S NEW LOW

Trump’s Latest Escalation: Handcuffing a U.S. Senator

In a shocking display of overreach, President Trump’s federal apparatus just sank to an unprecedented new low. At a press conference yesterday in Los Angeles, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem presided over security agents who forcibly threw California Senator Alex Padilla to the ground, handcuffed him, and removed him from a public briefing despite his identity as a sitting U.S. senator actively performing oversight on federal activities. 

Video footage leaves no room for doubt: Padilla identifies himself, “I am Senator Alex Padilla,” before being wrestled down and handcuffed. DHS officials later claimed the senator failed to identify himself and “lunged,” though this is directly contradicted by visual evidence. 

A New Low in Authoritarian Tactics

This was no minor procedural mishap. It was a deliberate intimidation tactic. Governor Gavin Newsom called the incident “outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful,” and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the scene as “sickening,” a move more characteristic of autocracies than democracies.

Padilla responded with measured clarity:

“If this is how this administration responds to a senator … imagine what they are doing nationwide.” 

He underscores a profound truth: this isn’t just symbolic theater. If a duly elected senator can be treated like a violent criminal, what hope is there for ordinary citizens, immigrant workers, protesters, and reporters who encounter federal forces every day?

Context: Militarizing Domestic Politics

This incident took place amid an aggressive federal campaign, bringing National Guard troops and Marines into Los Angeles to enforce immigration policy. Many view it as an escalating authoritarian trend by the Trump administration: silencing dissent, stamping out alternative voices, and instrumentalizing violence to maintain power. 

Why This Crosses the Line

• Violation of democratic norms: A senator performing legitimate oversight should never be treated like a criminal.
• Precedent for wider repression: If elected leaders can be subdued for mere questioning, imagine the chilling effect on everyday dissent.
• Open invitation to abuse: DHS’s actions signal to lower-ranking officials that force is acceptable, even recommended, against protest and scrutiny.

Time to Act: Impeachment Isn’t Hyperbole

This isn’t hyperbole. It’s evidence of a systemic decay in respect for governance, rights, and institutions. Congress must stop treating this as politics as usual. The federal government is weaponizing its power and must be held accountable. Impeachment is no longer rhetorical, it is necessary. This administration has exhibited ruthlessness and disregard for the Constitution, surpassing prior recklessness.

William James Spriggs

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

 

ODE TO JIM

ODE TO JIM

He waters the roses, aligns every stem,
Snips with precision the florist’s condemned.
He hums as he trims, with his plastic shears bright,
While wisdom around him dims out of sight.

He jests with a wink, calls his act “a delight,”
Though the sharpest among us just wince at the sight.
He clowns for applause from the newly confused,
While the clear-minded elders sit mildly amused.

He rules with a binder and colorful charts,
With forms signed in triplicate, be still our hearts!
Security, joy, and welfare, you see,
Are footnotes beneath his phony decree.

Speak up with ideas, suggestions, or grace,
He'll smile like sunshine and put you in place.
“Now, now,” he will say, “just don’t get upset,”
As he looks down his nose to impose your regret.

He lies when he must, then shrugs when he's caught,
Says, “I don’t recall,” though he clearly ought.
And when facts are laid bare and his words unspool,
He gaslights with flair from the Bureaucrat’s School.

He’s baffled by those who once ran the world,
Whose names once made senators fidget and swirl.
To him, we are gentle, soft clay to be shaped,
Our pasts overwritten, our brilliance erased.

Yet give him a tulip, a hydrangea blue,
And watch him go manic with ribbon and glue.
There, in his kingdom of petals and stems,
He reigns with the power of mid-level gems.

So here’s to the man with the childish tone,
Whose castle is flowers in the twilight zone.
He may condescend, deceive, and deflect,
But we know a fool by his pretentious effect.

And though he may strut with a puffed-up chest,
The wise here will smile, and quietly jest.
For titles mean little, and flair even less,
For his elders shake off his attempt to impress.

WJS

ROBBERY IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

Trump’s Legislation is Robbery in Broad Daylight

Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” legislative agenda has nothing to do with beauty, fairness, or public service. It is not about strengthening America, defending freedom, or helping struggling families. Strip away the slogans, the flags, and the reality show bluster, and what remains is simple, shameful theft: robbing the poor to pay the rich.

This is no exaggeration. The language embedded in these bills, crafted behind closed doors by lobbyists and grifters, is carefully designed to deceive, but the effect is unmistakable. Cuts to food assistance, healthcare subsidies, Social Security protections, and housing programs all hit the working poor, the elderly, the disabled, and the voiceless. Meanwhile, tax breaks, regulatory rollbacks, and sweetheart deals flow freely to billionaires, oil conglomerates, private equity firms, and the Trump family.

There is no effort to hide the grift. Trump has made himself the face of the very legislation that enriches him. His name is synonymous with self-dealing. This man once used a charity to buy portraits of himself and stashed away millions while pretending to be a blue-collar messiah. Now, with the power of the government in his grasp, he is looting it in full view.

Let’s call this what it is: class war from the top down. This isn’t about fiscal conservatism. It’s not about efficiency, liberty, or small government. It’s about greed. Cold, hungry, bottomless greed. It’s about the insatiable desire of the already rich to squeeze the rest of the nation until there’s nothing left to take.

What’s especially grotesque is how this legislative looting is wrapped in the language of populism. Trump and his enablers claim to represent “the forgotten man.” But no man is more forgotten in this regime than the minimum-wage worker, the single mother, the retired veteran, and the chronically ill, all sacrificed so that a handful of elites can hoard more than they will ever need.

This is not just a policy failure. It is a moral one. A democracy cannot survive when its government becomes a tool for legalized theft. When laws are written not to protect the people but to plunder them, we no longer have a republic; we have a racket.

Make no mistake: if this legislation becomes the law of the land, people will suffer. Some will die. That is not hyperbole. When health insurance disappears, food aid dries up, and housing becomes unaffordable, the consequences are not theoretical. They are deadly. And Trump, in his towering narcissism, sees that not as a tragedy but as tribute.

This is what his “beautiful” legislation stands for: the brutal economics of cruelty. We must stand against it. Loudly. Relentlessly. Before the theft becomes irreversible, the rich write the final chapter of the American experiment, one in which they alone survive, and the rest are left to count the cost.

William James Spriggs

TRUMPTY DUMPTY

Trumpty Dumpty

Trumpty Dumpty sat on the bluff,
Crowned in gold, swollen with puff.
He built his perch on whispered lies,
On broken oaths and hollow cries.

The crowd below, enchanted, blind,
Fed his myth and warped their mind.
They hailed his climb with zeal and rage,
Scrawled his name on every page.

But truth is granite, not just breath,
And fraud invites a slower death.
Cracks beneath his throne did creep,
Old debts stirred in the nation's sleep.

Then came the tremble, soft but grim,
The wall betrayed the weight of him.
No scaffold built of rage and spin
Could hold the hollow shell within.

Trumpty Dumpty fell from grace,
A crater carved in freedom's face.
And all the king’s horses,
And all the king’s men,
Could not reforge the fraud again.

 

CHIEF HYPOCRITE

Chief Hypocrite: Donald Trump’s Cynical Exploitation of the U.S. Military

Donald Trump is not a commander-in-chief. He is a hypocrite-in-chief, and his relationship with the military is a grotesque display of political opportunism, narcissism, and fraud. A man who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War with flimsy medical excuses now struts about like a wartime general, summoning military forces to salute him, not the flag or the Constitution.

It would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.

A History of Contempt

Trump’s disdain for those who serve has been documented for years. He famously ridiculed Senator John McCain, saying, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” This wasn’t a slip of the tongue. It was a window into Trump’s hollow soul, where empathy has no place, and honor is measured not by sacrifice but by ego-stroking adoration.

He referred to fallen American soldiers as “suckers” and “losers,” according to multiple credible reports, including those from The Atlantic. He skipped visits to military cemeteries in Europe because it might mess up his hair. He has denigrated Gold Star families, disabled veterans, and wounded warriors, mocking, dismissing, and using them as political props only when convenient.

This is not a man who honors the military. This is a man who uses the military.

From Dodging to Dominating

Trump’s draft deferments during Vietnam, five of them, one allegedly for “bone spurs,” were the first chapter in his lifelong avoidance of service. He has never risked anything for this country. Yet now, he wraps himself in the flag, flanked by Marines, implying that he alone represents strength, order, and patriotism.

What he represents is a perverse form of militarized narcissism.

He does not view the military as a sacred institution. He views it as a stage prop, an extension of his ego, and a tool for his authoritarian ambitions. Whether it’s demanding military parades, calling in troops for photo ops, or allegedly summoning Marines in Los Angeles for domestic intimidation, Trump’s use of the armed forces is not about defense—it’s about domination.

He sees himself not as a servant of the republic but as a king, entitled to the loyalty of “his” military.

Marines for the Monarch

The latest incident involving the deployment of Marines in Los Angeles has raised deep alarm. This is not for security reasons or strategy. Still, because it fits a pattern: Trump seems increasingly willing to blur the line between civilian command and military allegiance, between the republic and his personal rule.

When he parades military might as if it were his birthright, the message is chillingly clear: the Constitution is optional, and the military is his to command, not to protect the country, but to protect him.

This is not patriotism. It is proto-fascism.

The Cult of Military Worship For One Man

Real leaders honor the troops by respecting their sacrifice, listening to their generals, and keeping their missions grounded in constitutional values. Trump does none of this. He purged military leadership when they disagreed with him, encouraged political generals, and undermined the very principle of civilian control of the military, a cornerstone of American democracy.

And now, like every would-be autocrat before him, he seeks to cloak himself in military symbolism to intimidate rather than to inspire.

His base sees the uniform and salutes him. But the rest of us see something else: a coward who never served, masquerading as a warrior, the ultimate betrayal of every true patriot who ever put their life on the line for this country.

The Danger Ahead

Let us be clear: the U.S. military does not owe its allegiance to Donald Trump. It swears an oath to the Constitution of the United States, and that oath is being tested now more than ever.

If Trump continues to exploit the armed forces for his gain, then every American who believes in civilian rule, democratic values, and the rule of law must speak up.

Because if the military becomes his instrument of enforcement, then democracy will have no defense left.

Final Word

History will not be kind to Donald Trump. It will not remember him as a warrior or a statesman. It will remember him as a chief hypocrite who used soldiers for pageantry demeaned their sacrifices, and tried to crown himself king on the backs of the people he once called losers.

It is the duty of every veteran, every citizen, and every person who still believes in the republic to say what must be said:

You, Mr. Trump, are no commander. You are a coward cloaked in stars and stripes you never earned.

William James Spriggs