Wins?

Trump's hand picked candidates are winning the primaries but... how do they look in November? That is the question! As you can guess in strong Republican state, they have a strong likelihood of winning in November but what about in Purple sates?

Trump is getting the Republican Party he wants. But can he win in the midterms?

AP News

By  BILL BARROW and STEVE PEOPLES

May 27, 2026

Donald Trump is on a winning streak in Republican primaries, most recently endorsing Ken Paxton ahead of his Tuesday runoff victory over Sen. John Cornyn in Texas.

The president bragged at his Cabinet meeting Wednesday that Paxton’s romp “was a prelude” for success in the November midterms. But Trump’s tightening grip on his party could make it harder to hold back Democratic advances as Republicans face a broader electorate that has soured on his second term and the economy.

The risk is compounded, Republican operatives say, by how cavalier the billionaire president has been in addressing Americans’ financial worries, which have been exacerbated by Trump’s trade roller coaster and his ongoing war against Iran. And the president gave them new material to worry about when he said concerns about November are playing no part in his negotiations with Tehran.

“They thought they were going to out-wait me. You know, ’We’ll out-wait him. He’s got the midterms,” Trump said while surrounded by top administration officials. “I don’t care about the midterms.”

Yeah but... "It is the economy, stupid!" And it is the war the people care about!

Not only are prices higher after Trump’s tariffs and his Iran war, but the president has repeatedly described affordability concerns as a “hoax.”

Trump has mused that increases in gas prices — up more than 50% in the U.S. since Trump and Israel launched attacks on Iran — amount to “peanuts.” He previously said he does not consider Americans’ personal finances “even a little bit” when mulling his options on the war.

All of that comes as Trump badgers Congress to spend $1 billion on his White House ballroom project and allocate $1.8 billion to pay restitution to people who believe they were prosecuted for political purposes — potentially including those who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

It’s a cascade that Republicans in every battleground House district, Senate election or statewide contest will have to navigate in the fall.

And now Trump's adminstration is going to Congress to beg for more money to fight "Trump's War," how do you think the voter will think about paying for a war nobody wanted?

Scoop: Trump's top MAGA advisers gather to plot midterms

Axios

Marc Caputo

July 21, 2026

President Trump's top political advisers inside and outside of the White House are meeting Tuesday afternoon to review polling, their messaging and strategy ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.

Why it matters: Trump's super PAC and the Republican National Committee are sitting on about $530 million, and now his team is figuring out how, when and where to deploy it.

That doesn't include what insiders say is hundreds of millions of dollars more in Trump's dark-money political nonprofit, Securing American Greatness.

The New York Times said, that Trump created what it called a "pardon industry," in which people with White House connections accepted payments from wealthy clients seeking clemency. The Times also highlighted that many beneficiaries were politically connected or wealthy.

Reuters reported...

Days before granting him a pardon in March of last year, President Donald Trump phoned Trevor Milton, an electric-vehicle entrepreneur and Republican donor who was convicted of defrauding investors of more than $660 million.

[...]

Reuters reviewed thousands of records to document a cast of characters involved in pardons or commutations granted by Trump since he returned to the presidency. Using public databases and artificial intelligence to help search, compile and analyze the records, reporters identified many of the recipients, their advocates and Trump administration insiders involved in clemency for more than 1,700 people since January 2025. The review found:

• 96% of Trump’s second-term clemency grants have gone to recipients who didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests. Past presidents on occasion have sidestepped those rules before. But fewer than 1% of those who received clemency during the Biden administration and just 14% of recipients in Trump’s first presidency failed to meet the guidelines.
• Reuters identified 290 advocates, or influencers, who publicly or privately helped secure clemency for 197 recipients. Because some of the advocates worked on behalf of multiple candidates, their efforts at times overlapped, representing 624 different acts of influence. Among the influencers, 73 helped secure more than one pardon or sentence commutation. Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney now in private practice in Utah, has been involved in at least 12 pardons or commutations. Roger Stone, a veteran political consultant and longtime Trump confidant, had a hand in at least five.
• Of the influencers identified by Reuters, at least 110 are known Trump allies. Eleven of those received clemency themselves from Trump during his first term. High-profile advocates and pardon recipients include Stone and Angela Stanton King, a conservative author and campaign advisor to Kennedy before he ditched his 2024 run for the presidency and backed Trump. 
• Six people familiar with recent clemency acts said intermediaries with proven access to Trump’s entourage can charge as much as $2 million for their services. Reuters, however, couldn’t establish how much each advisor it identified had charged for help with a given pardon.

Reuters went on to report,

According to Federal Election Commission records, 10 of the recipients, influencers and companies they ran – including Milton, the EV entrepreneur – donated a total of more than $10 million to Trump-related political coffers, both before and after clemency decisions. Others, including a Florida man convicted of stealing fishing gear used to trap sharks for research, benefitted when political interest groups espoused their causes.

Compared with the past, “there’s nothing other than money, praise, partisanship and relationships that dictates who gets pardons,” said Ty Cobb, a White House counsel during the first Trump administration who is now a private attorney in South Carolina.

So now all that money is making its way into the mid-terms from pardons and other dubious sources.

Pardons For Sale! Inquire Within.

Has Trump family created a new business... pardons. Donate and receive a pardon. It is being questioned by the media and Congress. Trump has refined pardons to an art form and it is raising eyebrows.

Trump Extends Pardons to Companies, Echoing a 17th Century King

Bloomberg

Ava Benny-Morrison

Tue, July 21, 2026

Ryan LaLone received a pardon this month for a conviction tied to tampering with diesel emissions systems. Just as importantly, so did his company.

The twin reprieves from President Donald Trump enabled LaLone to clear his name and erase a $750,000 fine for his Michigan trucking-parts shop. They also made him the beneficiary of an unprecedented expansion of White House clemency power, a move tracing back to England's King Charles II.

Since taking office for the second time, Trump has become the first modern US president to issue pardons for companies, from a Middle America auto supplier to a crypto platform and a media startup. The clemency grants have wiped out almost $200 million in financial penalties, some of which were destined for victims of wrongdoing.

The pardons underscore Trump's broader willingness to blow past the boundaries of executive authority in a second term that has been far less constrained by political and legal norms. He has granted clemency to almost 1,700 people in the past 18 months, far outpacing his predecessors, often benefiting political supporters or people who claim to be victims of legal weaponization.

But were "donations" required? Congress is looking into it.

How Trump Has Exploited Pardons and Clemency to Reward Allies and Supporters

ProPublica

by Jeremy Kohler

November 12, 2025

The beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s mercy in his second term have mostly been people with access to the president or his inner circle. Those who have followed the rules set out by the Department of Justice, meanwhile, are still waiting.

[...]

“If you’re a donor or political supporter, you move to the front of the line,” said Jim Hux, a lawyer representing a Missouri man seeking a pardon for tax crimes he committed two decades ago. He said his client has “led a model life” since finishing his sentence and fits the other criteria the Justice Department says it looks for.

Cha Ching!

Martin’s dual role was a sign that pardons had become more overt political weapons. He pledged to scrutinize Biden-era pardons and review what he described as a “weaponized” justice system. After Trump pardoned Scott Jenkins, a sheriff in Virginia and a longtime supporter convicted of taking bribes for political favors, Martin posted on X, “No MAGA left behind.”

NOTUS reported that,

At least one lobbyist-assisted person was successful in securing a Trump pardon: Joseph Schwartz, a former nursing home executive who was sentenced in April 2025 to three years in prison for his role in a $38 million tax-fraud scheme.

[...]

The day before Trump signed Schwartz’s pardon on Nov. 14, Merkava Strategies Corporation’s Josh Nass registered to lobby for Schwartz. Nass reported receiving $100,000 during the fourth quarter for work on “advocacy concerning executive clemency and post-conviction relief, including federal presidential pardon advocacy and subsequent efforts to obtain expedited parole and state-level relief in Arkansas.”

Cha Ching!

The Guardian wrote,

 A New York lobbyist and attorney connected to a presidential pardon issued by Donald Trump in November has been charged with attempting to extort money from a former client and the client’s son over an alleged $500,000 debt.

Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday after being charged in federal court in Brooklyn with attempted Hobbs Act extortion. US justice department prosecutors contend that Nass threatened a client for payment that he claimed he was owed for his services.

Nass is alleged to have provided an unnamed individual with a phone number as well as addresses while instructing the individual to visit the client at his home. It was an effort to intimidate the client into paying up, as prosecutors put it.

A real nice guy...

A Trump-linked firm is lobbying for pardons. Its first client already paid $500,000.

CBS News

By Gabe Kaminsky

June 24, 2026

When President Trump returned to power, a group of his former campaign and administration officials started a federal lobbying practice. Mo Strategies, which has registered an array of corporate clients, is now expanding into the newly lucrative world of pardons.

Business is booming.

The Trump-linked firm has signed on to lobby for the law firm Blessinger Legal in Northern Virginia for "immigration and pardon-related discussions," federal lobbying disclosures in late May show. The engagement has already yielded the firm $500,000 in income, and more work is expected, Marty Obst, president of Mo Strategies, said in an interview.

The Democrats are holding hearings on the corruption... Spokane - Review wrote;

Two Democratic members of Congress on Monday pressed the administration of President Donald Trump to retain communication records related to pardons granted to recipients including an electric-vehicle manufacturer found guilty of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of ​dollars. 

Senator Peter Welch, a Judiciary Committee member from Vermont, and Congressman Dave Min, an Oversight Committee member from California, made the request to determine whether “improper considerations, including quid pro quo ⁠or ‘pay-to-play’ dynamics, may have affected the clemency process,” they wrote in letters to the White House, Justice Department and ‌U.S. Secret Service. 

The two lawmakers, citing coverage by Reuters ​and other media, in the letters reviewed by the news agency said they have been looking into the administration’s clemency efforts, which include pardons and commutations of sentences. They requested that all records be retained for 17 specific clemency recipients, including Trevor ⁠Milton, a businessman who was convicted in relation to a ‌startup he ran touting electric ‌vehicles that never became operational. 

Last week a Reuters investigation found that 96% of Trump’s clemencies this term have gone to candidates, including Milton, ⁠who didn’t meet longstanding Justice Department guidelines for pardons. In response to questions from Reuters, a spokesperson for Milton criticized his conviction and said it had been ‌politically motivated by prosecutors during the ‌administration of President Joe Biden. The spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about the letters from the lawmakers.

You want to bet that they will be stonewalled by the White House? Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut wrote:

Pay to Play: Trump’s Record of Corruption

We are currently witnessing corruption as we have never seen before under President Trump. President Trump ran his campaign promising to fight for working— and middle-class Americans. He said he would bring costs down on Day 1. Instead, he has weaponized the office of the President to enrich himself and his family.

The Appropriations Committee is charged with making sure departments are spending taxpayer dollars wisely and following the law. My office has compiled a list of this gross display of corruption so far. 

Trump’s Get Out of Jail Free Card

Multiple news outlets have reported on the Trump Administration’s practice of receiving pay in exchange for pardons or clemency for millionaire and billionaire criminals, including, for example, Trevor Milton, who was pardoned in March 2025 after pouring nearly $2 million into pro-Trump political committees in 2024.

In another case, Changpeng Zhao the founder of Binance pleaded guilty to money laundering and was subsequently pardoned last October after the company he founded took steps that effectively enriched the Trump family with hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Four large players in the cryptocurrency industry—Robinhood Markets, Coinbase, Ripple, and Kraken—each made donations ranging from $1 to $5 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural fund.  

Then in the early months of the Trump Administration, these companies had Securities and Exchange Commission cases against them dismissed, and the Justice Department disbanded a crypto crimes task force.

Cha Ching!

If there is a buck to make off of the Iran war... the Trump family is right there in line.

Another company called Powerus, backed by President Trump’s two oldest sons, is selling drone interceptors to Persian Gulf countries that are under attack by Iran and thus dependent on the U.S. military that is being led by President Trump.

You know there will be a judgement day for the Trumps but only if we win in November. 

Manipulation

Manipulation!

That is what the Republicans count on.

Definitions:

Communism

noun

1

or Communism

a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism

Note: This doctrine was the official ideology of the Soviet Union.

b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production

c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably

d: communist systems collectively

2

a: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed

b: a theory advocating elimination of private property

Socialism

noun

1

a: any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2

a: a system of society or of group living in which there is no private property

b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3

a: a stage of society in Marxist theory that is transitional between capitalism and communism (see communism sense 2c) and is distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

Do you see the difference?

Trump twists ‘communist’ label in Red Scare-style attacks on Democrats, experts say

Cronkite News.

by Hayli Griffin and Emma Whitney

July 14, 2026

A specter is haunting the country, according to President Donald Trump. 

Decades after the Soviet Union collapsed, Trump is warning Americans that communism is rearing its head domestically, citing gains by self-described democratic socialists in Democratic Party strongholds.

 “America will never be a communist country. Won’t happen,” Trump said in his Fourth of July speech on the National Mall, in one of the dozens of recent references he has made in recent weeks as he paints Democrats as radical in the run-up to the midterm elections.

“It’s like a cancer. You’ve got to cut it out. … Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not going to let it happen,” he said.

In New York City, two democratic socialists, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, won congressional nominations in the June 23 Democratic primaries, as did candidates for seven downballot offices who were backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Do you know why he is doing this?

Because many people mix up, or don’t know, the difference between Socialism and Communism. The word “Communism” strikes fear in many people’s minds… “Duck and cover!” “The Evil Empire!” “The Cuban Missile Crisis!”

Political experts say Trump’s rhetoric may resonate with his supporters but he is stretching the term communist far beyond its true meaning.

“Communism” evokes images of bread lines, gulags and secret police like Stalin-era USSR, Mao-era China or Castro-era Cuba.

But I would say the label applies to Trump! Um… remember the photos of the raids by ICE and CBP, with agents dressed in paramilitary gear? Do you remember the photos of ICE agents dragging out a 70-year-old man in his underwear? I would think that Trump would want to keep those images out of the news when he is calling people “communist”!

BBC News said back during the November 2025 elections: Trump says it’s “communism or common sense” after Democrat Mamdani wins NYC mayoral election. Trump and his allies have also called the Democrats “Marxist” and the “radical left!”

The question is: What is this leading up to?

Trump seems to escalate things, so we have to wonder where he is leading us. Somehow, this all sounds nefarious… as if something evil is behind it.

A Strategic Blunder

Did Trump's legal team just make a misstep? When you sue someone there is what is called "Discovery" where both sides can subpoena records.

Judge rules Trump must hand over records sought by BBC in defamation case

BBC News

Tom Bateman

July 21, 2026

A judge in Florida has ruled President Donald Trump must hand over financial records sought by the BBC as it defends itself in his $10bn (£7.5bn) defamation lawsuit.

The order came during the first hearing in the case, in which the US president is suing the corporation over an episode of Panorama that edited together different sections of his speech on the day of the US Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.

Judge Enjoliqué Lett granted a motion by the BBC's legal team to compel the release of financial records held by the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which he created to manage his businesses while he is president.

The judge's ruling at Tuesday's hearing in Miami can still be appealed.

However, it amounts to a partial success in the BBC's attempt to force Trump to provide evidence for his claim of financial loss due to the Panorama edit.

So that means Trump business records are open for discovery.

Stop & Think.

With abortion and trans healthcare, Republicans are trying to go after citizens of their home state for getting medical care that is illegal in their state, but completely legal where it was performed! How is that legal?

Does that mean if you go to another state to gamble in a casino, your home state can arrest you for gambling? I think not. Does that mean if you go to another state to smoke pot, they can arrest you when you come back—even if you didn't bring any weed back and just smoked it there?

Now stop and think: why do Republicans think it's okay to do this for abortions and trans healthcare?

Here is what they claim: it's a conspiracy because you planned the abortion while still inside their state, where it is illegal. But by that logic, if a senior citizens' group plans a bus trip from a state where gambling is illegal to a state with legal casinos, are they committing a conspiracy, too? Can you imagine if Utah arrested senior citizens for a trip to Las Vegas?

AG: state can prosecute those who help women travel for abortions

Alabama Daily News

AP 

September 3, 2023

Alabama’s attorney general argued in a court filing that the state has the authority to bring conspiracy charges against groups who help women travel to another state for an abortion.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office made the assertion in a Monday motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an abortion assistance fund and others arguing such prosecutions would be unconstitutional. The groups are seeking a legal ruling clarifying that Alabama can’t prosecute people for providing financial, appointment or travel assistance for an Alabama woman to obtain an abortion in another state.

Alabama bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Marshall argued while it’s legal for a woman to travel out of state for an abortion, he suggested groups that help her do so could face prosecution.

You see how they are twisting the law. The person receiving the abortion or trans healthcare isn't directly arrested, but everyone who helped them can be prosecuted for aiding and abetting a felony. That is even more sinister—parents could be arrested just for seeking healthcare for their children.

That is why shield laws, like Connecticut’s, are so important. But you can also see the dangers with Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). In Connecticut, data from these license plate readers could be used to track us. Even though Connecticut law requires a court order to dig through that data, there have been numerous reports that the private companies managing the system have given information to ICE and CBP without a court order.

The U.S. Constitution should offer protection through the Interstate Commerce Clause, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, and the Privileges and Immunities Clause.

Then, of course, if the courts step in and ban states from prosecuting people who travel out of state for healthcare, Republicans will just blame it on an "activist" court. For conservatives, it's a win-win situation.

 

The Best Government Money Can Buy

You know that slush fund of 1776 billion dollars that Trump is trying to create... the Republicans said, "Not so fast!"

Where's our cut?

House Republicans Make Themselves Eligible for Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund, Reject Levin Amendment to Block Payouts to Elected Officials

During a House Appropriations Committee markup, Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49) introduced an amendment to prevent federal elected officials from receiving any money from the U.S. Treasury Judgment Fund in response to the creation of President Trump’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” The amendment was rejected by Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, who voted to allow themselves to receive money from the fund.

Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the establishment of an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of the settlement to end President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS. The Judgment Fund would transfer nearly $1.8 billion to the slush fund to benefit President Trump’s allies, including Senators who believe they were victim to government weaponization and January 6th insurrectionists who attacked U.S. Capitol police officers. The U.S. Attorney General would be responsible for appointing a five-person commission to administer the payouts, and the President can fire the commissioners at any time.

But the Republicans amendment was defeated. They wanted in on the deal.

It Is Getting Tiring

Back in the 1950s, we had "Duck and Cover."

With the rise of the fear of communism, and as always, the Republicans used that fear. The leader of the fear wagon was Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose hatred of anything "communist" was, well, like waving a red flag at a bull.

During the anti-communist fervor of the McCarthy era, we have "In God We Trust" on our currency and "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And now we have a president waving the "Red Flag!" So why now? Why are the Republicans scared? They're scared about the midterm elections, and as a result they are creating their own "Red Scare." The problem is that it is socialism, not communism. However, in the minds of many Republicans, they conflate the two.

Trump attacks Democrats as ‘godless communists’ in test of midterms message

President seizes on wins by Mamdani-backed candidates to warn darkly of threat to ‘traditional American way of life’

The Guardian

David Smith in Washington

Fri 26 Jun 2026

Donald Trump has previewed a Republican strategy for the midterm elections, seizing on a progressive sweep in New York to portray Democrats as “godless communists” who pose an existential threat to the nation.

The US president, who was a child during the “red scare”, seized on wins by democratic socialists backed by the mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, to stoke fears that the Democratic party has embraced extremism that could lead to the violent persecution of Christians.

On Friday, Trump was addressing religious conservatives at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton hotel – his first appearance there since April, when he was rushed off stage after an assassination attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

He focused on Tuesday’s Democratic primary election results in New York, where three leftwing candidates endorsed by Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who is the city’s first Muslim mayor, upset incumbent or establishment rivals.

[...]

Preaching to a religious right audience, Trump emphasised: “All communists are godless. They do not believe in God … These ruthless communists attack all religions, but in particular Christianity. They always do. They’re after Christianity more than any other religion.” Trump noted the US military had intervened in Nigeria to save Christian populations who had been persecuted. Nigeria is not a communist country.

Is Trump pulling out the old Mein Kampf playbook? 

• Demonize minorities ✓
• Blame the Communists ✓
• Wave the religious flag ✓

PolitiFact writes,

What Trump’s communism claims miss about Democrats and democratic socialists

Marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, President Donald Trump gave a July Fourth speech about “freedom’s triumph over tyranny, liberty’s conquest over oppression, and the enduring victory of the American spirit.”

Then he turned his attention to communism.

“Communism is a loser and it always will be,” the president said in his late-night address on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not gonna let it happen.”

In the days leading up to the event, he said Democrats are communists.

The Democratic Party is “becoming a communist party,” Trump said June 26 at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. “These are not social Dumocrats, these are hardcore, godless communists. They’re godless communists.”

Hmm... I wonder what page that is on in Mein Kampf?

This isn’t a new line of attack for Trump and Republicans; they have previously falsely labeled Democrats as communists, including former Vice President Kamala Harris.

He keeps bring it up and MAGA and Christian Nationalist base gobble it right up! The Cato Institute reported that,

Capitalism (52%) is viewed somewhat more favorably than socialism (37%). However, people are evenly divided on socialism, with equal shares who are favorable and unfavorable. Gen Z stands out with more who are supportive of socialism (53%) than capitalism (45%). The survey found the “Democratic Socialist” label can both help and harm a candidate about equally. While 39% said they’d be more likely to vote for a Democratic Socialist candidate, 40% said they’d be less likely, and 22% weren’t sure either way. Democrats (61%) and Gen Z (51%) reported they’d be likely to vote for a candidate with the Democratic Socialist label.

You know what... voters are starting to see that Trump's way, and the Republicans' way, is the way of a new Bolshevik Party—the party of the elites.

The question is: Do voters elect a candidate to serve them, or to serve the party's elites?

I Hate This But It Has To Be Told

We told you so. We told you that the Republicans would come after you next. Well...

RFK Jr. rolls back rule protecting LGBTQ+ kids in foster care from hostile parents

The Biden-era policy that would have protected queer kids in the child welfare system, advocates say.

The Advocate

Christopher Wiggins

Jul 15, 2026

President Donald Trump’s administration has formally stripped away federal protections for LGBTQ+ children in foster care, a move that former officials, advocates, and foster youth themselves say will make life harder for young people already facing some of the highest levels of rejection, instability, and trauma in the child welfare system.

Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services published the rescission Tuesday, eliminating a Biden-era rule that had been designed to help ensure that LGBTQ+ foster children could be placed in supportive homes, seek relief from hostile placements, and be protected from dangerous so-called “conversion therapy” and retaliation.

Hey, welcome the club!

“LGBTQI+ youth in the foster care system are unquestionably some of the most vulnerable parts of our community and one of the parts of the community that really needs our help the most,” Shanker said. “When they rescinded this rule, it does not change the needs of the youth in the foster care system who still need these protections.”

Here in Connecticut we might be protected, we have to wait and see what the courts have to say.

The Congressional Equality Caucus had this to say,

“Every child in foster care—including LGBTQI+ children—deserves a safe home, which is exactly what the Biden Administration sought to accomplish with this rule,” said Rep. Mark Takano, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “Rescinding this rule without putting forward an alternative to protect LGBTQI+ foster children puts children at risk, plain and simple. I’m thankful to the leadership of Equality Caucus Co-Chair Angie Craig in this fight—together, we’re going to keep working to protect young LGBTQI+ children in foster care from harassment and abuse."

“The ‘party of family values’ strikes again and their relentless attacks on LGBTQ+ youth continue,” said Rep. Angie Craig, Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “The Trump Administration’s decision to rescind this rule with no clear alternative is yet another disgraceful attack on LGBTQ+ foster youth and on families across this country. As an adoptive mother myself, I won’t stop fighting to ensure that foster youth have the chance to land in a safe and supportive home.”

The Trump adminstration does not care about the children, they care about getting elected!

This is not the end. They will not stop until marriage equality is over turned, they will not stop until we are all back in the closet and coming out will be a crime.

Milliseconds

That is all it takes... a fraction of a second to make millions or lose millions in the stock market and other commodities markets. How would you like to know before anyone else what Trump is going to do? Like announcing a ceasefire with Iran.

Well, now you can with this amazing limited offer for the measly sum of $100,000!

Trump Media pitched $100,000 monthly fee for fastest feed of US president's posts, sources say 

Reuters

By Anirban Sen, Jaspreet Singh and Courtney Rozen

July 17, 2026

Summary

• Trump Media has also pitched $60,000 monthly three-year plan, people familiar with the matter said
• Truth API will deliver posts from 10 influential accounts faster than for regular push notifications
• Trump's trust holds about 114.75 million TMTG shares, or roughly 41% of outstanding stock, filings showed

Donald Trump's social ​media company has discussed charging Wall Street traders and investment firms as much as $100,000 a month for faster access to the U.S. president's posts on his Truth Social ‌platform, according to people familiar with the matter.

[...]

TMTG on Thursday unveiled a paid-for, licensed data feed called "Truth API" to provide banks and trading firms the fastest access to posts from the 10 most influential Truth Social accounts, but did not ​give any pricing details.

The move would be the company's first step into data licensing, opening up a new revenue stream, although it drew immediate criticism from Democrats.

U.S. Senator Ron ​Wyden of Oregon, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said it would financially benefit the Trump family and "make Wall Street traders rich."

Just think what you could do if you knew that Trump was going to announce a ceasefire. You could go out and buy oil futures... what a killing you could make.

CNN reports that,

Whether President Donald Trump and those around him are corruptly enriching themselves during his second term is a matter of personal judgment. Many Americans seem to think the president at least is.

But what is incontrovertible is that he and his team are doing almost nothing to disabuse people of that notion. Indeed, they seem to be increasingly leaning in on the idea that Trump can do whatever he wants — and that apparent conflicts of interest just don't matter.

Thursday was a case in point for how in-your-face this dynamic has become, with several stories about potentially profiting from the presidency, or proximity to it.

• The first was a CNN investigation finding Trump has used his Truth Social account to promote more than 20 companies just days after buying stock in those same companies. He sometimes even announced government action that would benefit the companies.
• The second was that, for the first time, we got details on a White House aide potentially engaging in insider trading using prediction markets. Trump's teleprompter operator made more than $90,000 by betting on what Trump would say in speeches and at events, according to a source. The news follows months of suspiciously well-timed trades making big money ahead of major Trump moves.
• And the third — the pièce de resistance, which effectively combines the above bits of potential corruption — is that Trump's business is now going to let Wall Street firms pay to get quicker access to his Truth Social posts and try to make more money trading on them.
  

As you can imagine, this is creating a lot of controversy!

Trump has also hamstrung regulatory agencies by firing agency leaders, removing inspectors general (watchdogs), and reducing staffing and enforcement.

The Trump administration is turning into one of the most corrupt administrations in history!

Things That I’ve Noticed Once I Transitioned

I started this list over twenty years ago, when I first transitioned. I thought I would discover endless differences between men and women. Instead, after all these years, I only have two things that really stand out.

First and for most: My god they talk in the bathrooms!

Second. Men are macho. I've noticed that many men seem to communicate through competition, confidence, and posturing. “Me Caveman! Ugh!”

Women, on the other hand, often seem more cerebral and relational in the way they interact.

One way I've come to think about it is that men often compete to win a mate, while women are more likely to present or "preen" themselves.  Women are nurturing, men are competitive.

But you  know what else it says… in over twenty years I haven’t seen that much difference between the genders. I think that is the amazing part! We are more alike than different.

t is how far you are on the spectrum that matters. Super macho men can go too far, as we see with Hegseth. When everything becomes a competition, that is when it crosses the line.

The Parallels

You are starting to see articles about.

Or a paragraph or two in a news story.

The hints are there... Trump's War

The Vietnam War... the endless war.

He promised it. In 10 days after the initial U.S. strikes on February 28—Trump said the war was "very complete, pretty much" we won!

A 132 days later Trump's announces that... overnight U.S. planes completed an eighth consecutive night of airstrikes against Iran, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases, coastal air defenses, and drone storage sites. The overnight escalation followed an Iranian drone and missile attack in Jordan that killed two U.S. service members.

The endless war parallels are there,

Spot The Differences!

[Essay]

The color of their skin.

A wheelchair.

A white cane.

Some differences are immediately visible, and because we can see them, we rarely question whether they exist. Yet many aspects of a person's identity leave no obvious physical clue. Because there is no visible marker, some people assume that being transgender is simply a choice rather than a natural part of who someone is.

And like all forms of discrimination it separates them into “the others” they are “not like us” once people are seen as "the others"—different, unfamiliar, or somehow less authentic. The result is the same: distance replaces empathy, suspicion replaces understanding, and prejudice becomes easier to justify.

During the 1930s in Germany… the Jews, the Roma, the disabled, the gays and us, the trans people were all persecuted because they were different.

Now we are, many of the same laws passed back in the 30s are now being passed against the trans community. History shows that discrimination rarely begins with violence. It begins with language, with suspicion, with laws that single out one group as different, and with the belief that some people deserve fewer rights than others. Trump has used 'transgender insanity,' 'men masquerading as women,' and other terms meant to dehumanize us.

The problem lies in the people. In their prejudices. Those prejudices can be encouraged, exploited, and molded by those seeking power. Once fear takes hold, it becomes easier to convince ordinary people that "the others" are responsible for society's problems, and easier still to accept discrimination against them.

But the problem with all this, is that it is easily recognized. People are against undocumented immigrants. But now they are seeing the brutality they are saying, “Wait not so fast? What’s going on here?”

The same thing is happening with trans people. In Kansas they took back all the trans drivers licenses out of ~2,024,000 there were only ~1,700 trans people. And people stopped and thought, “Why is this a problem.” When people in Connecticut learned that only about dozen out of ~100,000 high school student-athletes in Connecticut who participate in sports each year about a dozen are trans.

People are starting to question all these anti-trans laws.

Look at all the times we came to a vote on referendums… in the Massachusetts 2018 referendum (Question 3) we won! And in Anchorage, Alaska (2018) we won! But now a new crop of questions is showing up on ballots. In Arizona, Colorado, and in Washington we are once again on the ballot… will prejudices win out? Or will the voters see it for what it is, an attempt to marginalize an already marginalized community?

[/Essay]

Cuckoo Award: A Trifecta

Can you believe it, the Republicans are racking up the Cuckoo Awards this month. The newest is for butting into the affairs of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

GOP rep Ben Cline introduces bill to bar biological men from joining Daughters of the American Revolution

Virginia Republican says DAR abandoned founding principles by rejecting motion to bar transgender applicants

By Rachel del Guidice 

Fox News

July 15, 2026

A House Republican is introducing legislation that would require the Daughters of the American Revolution to limit membership to biological women, saying the historic organization's congressional charter should reflect its original mission after the group adopted a policy interpreted as allowing transgender applicants.

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., introduced the Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act on Wednesday.

"The DAR has a longstanding tradition of celebrating and empowering women who represent the exceptional heritage of the birth of our Nation," Cline said in a statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital.

Not the economy. Not the Iran war. Not the cost of food. Not the cost of gas. But trans people in the DAR is the #1 issue in the United States today. So with that in mind, Congressman Cline is hereby awarded the coveted Cuckoo Award.

 

Not All Religions Are The Same

Said this over and over, don't paint all religions with a broad brush. There are those who have our backs.

United Methodist conference to move meeting out of Idaho, citing LGBTQ+, immigrant safety concerns

Oregon-Idaho Conference will either move to Oregon or be held virtually in 2027 after members’ vote

Idaho Capital Sun

By Micah Yip

July 16, 2026

Citing dangers to LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities, the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church voted last month to move next year’s annual conference out of Idaho.

At this year’s annual conference — a meeting where representatives from Oregon and southern Idaho United Methodist churches gather to vote on and make decisions — held at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, the Rev. Heather Riggs of Montavilla United Methodist in Portland brought a motion to the floor to change the location of next year’s conference.

Dozens of clergy and laity gave public comment, arguing why they believed the event should remain in Idaho or move to Oregon in 2027. The vote was close, but the end result was that the conference would either move to Oregon or be held virtually.

This is the result of Idaho's bigoty, I hope other organizations shy away from states that are non-affirming. 

Captain Queeg

Who remembers the USS Caine? Who remembers Captain Queeg? Who remembers the "strawberries" incident?

A relatively minor theft—the disappearance of strawberries intended for the officers' dessert—became the focus of an exhaustive investigation. Captain Queeg grew convinced that the crew was lying and conspiring against him, turning a small matter into a major inquiry. In The Caine Mutiny, that episode foreshadows larger questions about his judgment and leadership.

Now consider the episode involving Trump's repeated claims about a long "gash" in the White House reflecting pool—described at various times as 150 feet, then 200 feet, then 300 feet, allegedly made with a box cutter.

Is there possible any similarities there?

---

I am not the only one drawing parrillas;

Trump Makes Bonkers Claim About Reflecting Pool Damage

The president keeps complaining about alleged vandals destroying the pool. But the evidence suggests a different cause.

Sarah Ewall-Wice

The Daily Beast

Jul. 17 2026 

President Donald Trump returned to ranting about alleged vandals destroying the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Friday, despite the mounting evidence that the issues were caused by errors made during his renovation attempt.

Hot off his rambling primetime address about “election integrity,” the president, 80, took to Truth Social on Friday morning to complain about the botched Reflecting Pool with further unsubstantiated claims.

“The Reflecting Pool, so badly damaged by Deranged Vandals, has been emptied as the massive slash gets repaired,” Trump wrote. “We got it through the great July Fourth Weekend. What kind of animals would do such a thing? We are looking for a Vandal Proof material, but such a thing should not have been necessary.”

The president went on to declare, “The Scum in Court will hopefully be prosecuted to the MAX.”

Captain Queeg?

Another Cuckoo Award!

Oh... this is a good one! He wants to sanction Canada smoke.

GOP senator to introduce bill to sanction Canada over wildfire smoke

The Hill

by Alexander Bolton

07/16/26

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), a close Trump ally, announced Thursday that he will introduce legislation to sanction Canada and Canadian officials over the huge wildfires that have poured smoke and haze across the United States, creating hazardous air-quality conditions.

“I’ll be introducing a bill next week to sanction Canada and the responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity,” Moreno posted on social media.

Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!

And he is not alone!

Four Republican members of the House wrote an angry letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, blasting his government for not doing more to prevent the crisis.

The Cuckoo Award is given to the four of them... for this hairbrained bill! 

Saturday 9!

Saturday 9: Kung Fu Fighting (1974)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. 

1) Have you ever taken a martial arts class? 

Nope, and I never had a desire to learn.

2) In this song, Carl Edwards sings about funky Chinatown. Many cities – including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Vancouver, London and Antwerp – have a Chinatown. Have you ever visited Chinatown?

New York when I was knee high to a grasshopper. And drove through Chinatown in San Francisco.

3) Many Chinese restaurants give out fortune cookies. Can you recall one of your fortunes?

No, I was probably around ten when I to New York’s Chinatown.

4) This week's featured artist, Carl Edwards, was born in Jamaica, spent his childhood in the US, and relocated to England. Have you ever lived abroad? 

Nope, I don’t care to.

5) In 1974 he became the first Jamaican to have a #1 hit in the US with this song. Have you been to Jamaica?

Nope. (A lot of “Nope’s” in today’s answers )

6) When this week's song was on the charts, ABC TV had a hit with the show Kung Fu. Today it's available to stream. Were you a fan?

Yeah… sadly. It was a really dumb show. And racism. Why didn't they use an Asian, the show was popular when Bruce Lee was making all of his moives.

7) Also in 1974, the FIFA World Cup was played in West Germany. Have you been following the FIFA World Cup this year?

No, but my niece and nephews went to one in New Jersey.

8) Two of 1974's most popular toys were popular with adults, too. Would you prefer a Rubik's Cube or a Magic 8 Ball?

The Magic 8 Ball, I could never do the Rubik’s Cube, it was so frustrating!

9) Random question: Have you ever cut someone else's hair?

Nope… like I said a lot of “nope” today.

---

I am up at the cottage and as usual the first time opening up for the season is always an adventure.

First… my cottage was inhabited when I got there. By squirrels. I know the guy. I bet you that it is the same squirrel that was eyeing the vent last fall.

The work I had done over the winter looks good. But there is one minor problem, the kitchen lights don’t work. Could Mr. Squirrel be the culprit?

I forgot to prop open the refrigerator doors and it got molding inside, it two hours to clean it.

The four hour drive did my back in. So my car is still packed. I am unloading the wicker basket and boxes a little at a time. But I did get my beach and dump pass. I went to the wrong window to pick it up and the guy was very gruff when he told me the other window… didn’t I see the sign “Pass Pick-Up”

Um, no. there were three women outside there talking and I can’t see any signs.

Has The Groundwork Been Laid?

Was last night's speech the groundwork for claims in November—acting as a pretext to justify using federal force, the military, or law enforcement to interfere with the upcoming 2026 midterm elections?

I am not the only one to question that. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware said:

“Tonight’s address from President Trump was a tantrum of sinister innuendo, conspiracy theories, and misdirection. Americans who tuned in tonight heard no new concrete or proven claims about foreign interference in our elections. There is unanimous agreement within the intelligence community that foreign adversaries did not succeed in interfering with the vote in the 2020 election. President Trump and his allies have filed dozens of lawsuits, launched countless investigations, and even sparked an insurrection to try to find voter fraud in the 2020 election. They have failed to do so every single time because none exists.

“Unfortunately, these lies are no longer about one election President Trump lost six years ago. Since retaking the White House, President Trump has moved National Guard troops into our cities, repeatedly floated the possibility of deploying ICE agents at polling locations, and said the Postal Service won’t deliver mail-in ballots in states that don’t turn over sensitive information to his administration. Tonight’s speech is his latest effort to exert partisan control over the 2026 elections because he knows Republicans can’t win on their own record. 

“Should President Trump try to interfere in November’s election through illegal, un-American means, I believe he will fail. I will support every effort to defend our democracy, and I will not stop working to ensure every eligible vote will be counted.”

Congressman García said about the speech;

“Tonight’s unhinged speech is the beginning of Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2026 midterm election and to smear and criminalize noncitizens. This is what our insecure, delusional President does: if he doesn’t like the outcome of an election, he does everything in his power to subvert it. While these debunked claims by Trump and his cronies may seem laughable, they are a dire threat to democracy in America. The January 6th insurrection showed the country and the world that Republicans in Congress lack the spine to stand up to Trump’s authoritarianism. Now is the time for communities nationwide to mobilize against a federal takeover of elections, ICE at polling sites, and Trump’s pathetic lies. Whether through filing lawsuits, educating voters, volunteering at polling sites, holding the media accountable, or other tactics, we all have a role to play in preserving our right to vote in the face of Trump’s ongoing assault on democracy.”

The BBC News wrote;

Democrats, meanwhile, accused Trump of attempting to sow doubts about the security of the upcoming November midterms which will decide control of Congress for the remainder of his presidency.

"Let's be clear - in America, voters choose their leaders, not the other way around," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on social media after the speech.

"Democrats will fight like hell to make sure every American voter can cast their ballot freely, without obstruction or interference from Donald Trump," he added.

Looking at Trump’s track record, I think they may be right... He is laying the groundwork for calling out the troops, even though doing so is strictly against the law.

• Federal Criminal Statutes (Title 18), 18 U.S.C. § 592 (Troops at Polls): This statute makes it a federal crime—punishable by up to five years in prison—for any civil, military, or naval officer of the United States to order, bring, or keep troops or "armed men" at any polling place during an election.
• 18 U.S.C. § 593 (Interference by Armed Forces): This statute makes it a federal crime for any member of the U.S. military to use force, threats, intimidation, or advice to prevent any qualified voter from casting their ballot, or to interfere with an election officer performing their duties.
• 18 U.S.C. § 595 (Interference by Administrative Employees): This law prohibits any person employed in an administrative position by the federal government (which includes federal law enforcement agencies like ICE, the FBI, or DHS) from using their official authority to interfere with or affect a federal election.

But as we have seen in the past, Trump is willing to act and ignore the law. We also have the Posse Comitatus Act, which expressly limits the federal government's ability to use military personnel for domestic law enforcement.

In an Ipsos/Reuters poll, 69% of respondents said they were "very or somewhat concerned" about attempts to overturn official election results. Notice that it doesn’t say people are worried about standard election interference, but rather about overturning the election itself!

Fraud isn’t the only concern that Americans have about elections, though. In fact, all three polls found that more people are worried about disenfranchisement than fraud. In the Ipsos/Reuters poll, 57% said they were very or somewhat concerned about eligible voters being prevented from voting, and 44% of respondents to the YouGov/CBS News poll identified that as a major problem. And according to Marist, 58% of adults think it’s likely that many people will show up to vote in 2026 and be told they’re not eligible.

If nothing else, the consensus among political analysts, election experts, and lawmakers is that Trump’s speech last night has only served to increase anxiety and deepen divisions regarding the security and integrity of the upcoming elections.

[/Editorial]

Is Big Brother Now A Private Company

I'm heading up to the Cape today... so it is prewritten blogs today!

---

So, have the feds handed over their "Big Brother" surveillance to private companies?

Silent Watchers: The rise of Connecticut’s police camera network

Insider Investigator

Katherine Revello

July 12, 2026

Connecticut has the highest per capita rate of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras in New England and across other northeastern states, including New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

According to DeFlock, Connecticut ranks twenty-fifth overall for the number of per capita cameras in the state, averaging roughly 1.78 cameras per 10,000 residents. 

Those cameras are maintained by a variety of police departments and private businesses and use artificial intelligence to take pictures of and ‘read’ the license plate and make and model characteristics of every vehicle that goes past. The cameras can be either mounted to roadside infrastructure, like a pole or traffic light, or in the dashboard of a police car.

Every plate read is dumped into a massive database law enforcement can search and check against various crime hotlists. The majority of the data collected and stored is not connected to a crime and is never searched for or viewed by police before it’s purged from the system, often after a 30-day retention period.

That database involves the entire Flock network. As the quote notes, "Every plate read is dumped into a massive database law enforcement can search and check against various crime hotlists." But the problem is that there are errors in this database. Basically, these are warrantless searches!

The Electronic Freedom Foundation writes;

Imagine driving to get your nails done with your family and all of a sudden, you are pulled over by police officers for allegedly driving a stolen car. You are dragged out of the car and detained at gun point. So are your daughter, sister, and nieces. The police handcuff your family, even the children, and force everyone to lie face-down on the pavement, before eventually realizing that they made a mistake. This happened to Brittney Gilliam and her family on a warm Sunday in Aurora, Colorado, in August 2020.

And the error? The police officers who pulled them over were relying on information generated by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). These are high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems that automatically capture all license plate numbers that come into view, upload them to a central server, and compare them to a “hot list” of vehicles sought by police. The ALPR system told the police that Gilliam’s car had the same license plate number as a stolen vehicle. But the stolen vehicle was a motorcycle with Montana plates, while Gilliam’s vehicle was an SUV with Colorado plates.

Couple that with gun-happy ICE agents, and it spells disaster!

Police over-reliance on ALPR systems is also a problem. Detroit police knew that the vehicle used in a shooting was a Dodge Charger. Officers then used ALPR cameras to find the license plate numbers of all Dodge Chargers in the area around the time. One such car, observed fully two miles away from the shooting, was owned by Isoke Robinson.  Police arrived at her house and handcuffed her, placed her 2-year old son in the back of their patrol car, and impounded her car for three weeks. None of the officers even bothered to check her car’s fog lights, though the vehicle used for the  shooting had a missing fog light.

Officers have also abused ALPR databases to obtain information for their own personal gain, for example, to stalk an ex-wife. Sadly, officer abuse of police databases is a recurring problem.

In my town there are twelve reported cameras.

The Institute for Justice also found problems with the data.

But those machine errors account for about one-third of the mistakes in the cases IJ identified. The rest involved human error, with officers entering wrong information into the system or misinterpreting what the ALPR data says.

Last year in San Diego, for instance, officers were searching for a red Alfa Romeo connected to an attempted carjacking. The officers didn’t have a plate and were instead relying on Flock’s “vehicle signature” technology, which captures detailed characteristics of individual cars like make, model, and color. 

The Flock system gave them a positive hit on a superficially matching car—but it was a totally different red Alfa Romeo, located five miles away from the crime at the time it occurred. Officers nevertheless arrested all three of the car’s occupants. One passenger spent nearly a month behind bars during the holidays before officers realized their error and set him free. 

People lives are at stake... there can be no false reporting!

People's lives are at stake—there can be no false reporting!

Also, there have been a number of cases where the police used the data to track ex-girlfriends. The Institute for Justice in another article reported;

An ongoing review of media reports and public records by the Institute for Justice has identified at least 24 cases nationwide of officers allegedly abusing ALPR data this way, with the bulk of those incidents happening since 2024. Nearly all of these officers were criminally charged and lost their jobs, either by resigning or getting fired. 

Flock Safety and other ALPR providers emphasize that they have internal safeguards to prevent this kind of misuse. But only a few of the 24 analyzed cases were initially discovered through internal investigations, according to media reports. Most incidents came to light only after victims reported the officers’ behavior to the police, typically in the context of a broader stalking allegation. 

“The fundamental problem with these systems is that they place private information about people’s movements over time in the hands of every officer,” said Michael Soyfer, an Institute for Justice attorney who is representing residents of San Jose and Norfolk in lawsuits challenging their cities’ ALPR surveillance networks. “Without the constitutional safeguard of a warrant requirement, that predictably allows officers to abuse their access to these systems for things like stalking romantic partners.” 

In an article in the Courthouse News they write;

In a lawsuit, two California drivers have accused tech company Flock Safety of violating state law by allowing out-of-state and federal agencies to access information captured by its automated license-plate recognition (ALPR) cameras.

“Flock has created an Orwellian mass-surveillance infrastructure that is practically impossible to avoid, particularly for anyone operating a vehicle in the towns and cities across this country where Flock has installed its cameras,” the drivers say in their complaint, filed Thursday in state court in San Francisco.

“Flock attempts to evade responsibility and shift liability for its violations by pointing fingers at its own customers,” they claim. “But Flock cannot rely on weaponized incompetence when its obligations under California law are crystal clear.”

They go on to write that various police agencies go around the law by search the databases at the request of ICE and CPB.

The Mountain View Police Department, the plaintiffs say, discovered only recently that federal agencies accessed its cameras’ data through a nationwide search tool. They say this feature was enabled without the police department’s permission or knowledge.

In recent months, the cities of Santa Cruz, Richmond, Mountain View and Los Altos Hills all shut down Flock cameras or terminated their contracts, according to the drivers.

Last October, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the city of El Cajon over its refusal to comply with state law prohibiting the sharing of license plate data with federal and out-of-state law enforcement agencies.

Here in Connecticut they tried to pass a law but it never made it to the floor of the legislature last session. In the bill HB 5449: AN ACT CONCERNING AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READER SYSTEMS, and it states...

108 (5) Unless authorized pursuant to section 29-6d of the general

109 statutes, collect automated license plate reader data on the premises or

110 within a distance established by the Police Officer Standards and

111 Training Council pursuant to section 2 of this act, of a reproductive or

112 sexual health facility, as defined in section 42-515 of the general statutes,

113 that primarily provides gender-affirming health care services or a

114 nonprofit or community organization that primarily serves immigrant

115 communities, excluding any property under federal jurisdiction,

116 provided such facility or organization notified the Police Officer

117 Standards and Training Council of such facility's or organization's

118 location;

You have to wonder if this is ultimately just a clever way to bypass the Fourth Amendment. After all, it is no longer the government directly collecting your personal data—it is a private company doing the legwork, which then sells access right back to government agencies. When private corporations build massive, unregulated tracking databases that police departments simply "subscribe" to, it creates a dangerous constitutional gray area.

These are, indeed, the new shades of Big Brother.

I Promise You A Rose Garden

[Essay]

The ads are starting!

The primary is August 11.

"Are you tired of do-nothing Democrats? Well, I promise..."

That is how a political ad starts. The candidate promises to bring change to Washington or Hartford.

I'm not going to vote for him. Why? Because of the attack ads. What I want to hear is not what they are against. I think we are all against high food prices, high electric rates, and crime. I want to know how they are going to curb those problems.

But they never explain how. As they say, "The devil is in the details." How are they going to cut electric rates? Every candidate in the U.S. promises to lower electric rates. Don't you think other politicians have been trying to do that? But here is a secret: it can't simply be done. Rate increases are driven by the price of fuel and by the cost of state-mandated repairs after major disasters.

Last week, we had a local disaster when a line of thunderstorms moved through. The utility crews did a fantastic job. But during emergencies, they are often paid double time or more, and many work close to 80 hours in a week. So you have a choice: weeks without power, or an all-out effort to restore power with cost taking a back seat. Then we complain when the utilities want to recover those costs.

We got where we are today because modern political ads have become little more than attack ads. Not one politician seems willing to tell you what they actually want to do, or even whether they have a real plan.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. It takes work. To write this blog, I read dozens of news sources and look for information from both sides.

The economy and the cost of living are the number one issues. Candidates on both sides say they are going to fight inflation. But very few explain how. We have seen how Trump says he plans to do it: by cutting business taxes, rolling back environmental regulations, and allowing mergers, all of which he claims will help bring down inflation.

Politicians have also promised to bring down healthcare costs. Trump said he would make the healthcare system more affordable and said he had concepts for reforms. But he never explained how. Yet healthcare costs remain the highest in the world.

Elections on both sides of the aisle have become exercises in promising voters the sky and delivering... crap.

For many voters, it is all about party loyalty. Others want substance, and when they don't get it, they end up voting the party line anyway.

We are spiraling downward, and many people don't seem to care. They don't demand honesty, and they end up with the government they get.

They say the number one issue is the economy, yet they keep voting for the same party they believe is holding them back.

[/Essay]