The 2028 Presidential Election – Questions!

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(A video version of this post can be found at:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc69KO5yC-u/?hl=en    )

As we 8647 either by impeachment (my biggest political hope) or by the 2028 Presidential Election (assuming Trumpy doesn’t completely upend the U.S. Constitution by then) we will be looking to put our 48th President into office.

We need to ask questions. We need to start focusing on those and framing what 2029 will look like. Unless we somehow end up with a Republican version of Trump 2.0, who ever takes the White House has a list of chores I’m not sure many new Presidents have had to face. Lincoln, Truman, Johnson…all took office facing incredible challenges: the divide which led to the Civil War, helping bring WWII to an end, and the continuing escalation of the Vietnam war. But in all, except Lincoln’s situation, the fabric of our nation was largely intact.

Number 48 will have their work cut out to rebuild and reshape the devastation caused by Trump and his administration both domestically and on the world stage.

First, let’s have a quick look at some of what I’m talking about.

The butchery and botched surgery on the part of Elon Musk and DOGE. The severe program changes made to the Department of Education Research, the loss of Justice Department Grants, Medical and Health Research, USAID, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, The Department of Education, and the General Services Administration…just to name a few.

Then there was the wholesale bloodletting of between 260,000 and 350,000 federal employees either through layoffs, firings, early retirement, and hiring freezes according to the Federal News Network and govexec.com. Musk’s target was $2 trillion in savings but according to the DOGE website, it’s achieved $215 billion across 22 agencies. There were 13,440 contract terminations, 15,887 grant terminations, and 264 lease terminations.

The number one agency with the most change is the Department of Health and Human Services led by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (it hurts just typing or saying his name). HHS also covers the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH. I can’t think of another federal agency so directly tied to the literal health of all Americans. Because of RFK’s propaganda regarding vaccines, the coverage rate of childhood MMR has dropped to 92.5% which is less than the 95% rate which would mostly prevent widespread transmission of the disease. That gap might not sound like a lot, but it translates to about 550,000 American children. As proof, measles cases have risen to a level not seen in decades and will likely return to endemic proportions. Other potential risks associated with the program changes at HHS include Whooping Cough, rotavirus, chickenpox, and bacterial infections leading to pneumonia or meningitis.

To round out just the top 5 agency cuts (or what they call savings) are the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Small Business Administration. You can go to doge.gov/savings to see the other 17 on the list.

Oh, then lets look at what will hopefully be renamed – some back to what was.

The Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, the Kennedy Center, the Unites States Institute of Peace, the new Naval Trump-class warships, Southern Blvd. near Mar-a-Lago, the bridge on I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee, Palm Beach International Airport, the planned aircraft carrier CVN-81 to be named the USS Donald J Trump, and the Boeing F-47 AirForce fighter jet, at least 4 possible new species of moth, sea urchins, and an amphibian bearing the moniker “donaldtrumpi”, as in Neopalpa donaldtrumpi – a micro-moth. Lastly, let’s not forget the military installations that had been renamed away from a list of Confederate generals and then put back again.

For number 48 – will there still be the tariffs that are accelerating the rise in daily costs for goods and services, the Iran War causing inflated gas prices, the Trump administrations disdain for NATO, and the disrespect shown toward our northern and southern neighbors? And what about the restoration of unbiased journalism, the tampering with election procedures, protections for LGBTQ and same-sex marriage, unrestricted access to abortion procedures, and the return of Roe v Wade? Not to mention the simple disregard for the Constitution and running around waging war whenever and wherever he likes.

How will number 48 restore trust with our allies and trading partners? What happens if the primary global currency shifts from the U.S. Dollar to the Chinese Yuan? I’ll tell you, interest rates would rise, we’d experience a loss of political power and the financial leverage that comes with it, and our ability to carry such a high amount of debt would be eliminated as the demand for dollars disappears. Our role as the greatest country of the free world would fade to dark.

As Americans, we need to think about these things…starting NOW. We need to look at candidates who have the strength of character, the intelligence, and the intestinal fortitude to tackle the longest list of problems and issues that have ever faced an incoming administration. I am truly hopeful that the mid-term elections this November marks a turn toward enlightenment and begins to reset the stage for restoring American greatness again. MAGA is the lie that never ends, a pestilence that needs its own vaccine.

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Election Campaign Donations – Really?

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(A video version of this post can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcY46DDuxQ8/ 

Have you ever considered how it seems that every election is steered by the amount of money a campaign grosses in order to make a candidate competitive in a race?

To be truthful, I have made contributions to some candidates and political causes – $546 since 2015 to be exact – not a lot, but some. I suppose those tiny donations were, in some way, my attempt to allay the fear that the opposing candidate would somehow make things worse for us if he or she won and that my support might help prevent that from happening. And this is just what I…as an individual…have contributed. There are hundreds of thousands, well…probably millions of other people like me making similar donations.

Then there is the big money – Super PACs, corporations, non-profits, labor unions who all invest vast sums virtually trying to buy whatever political clout they can to support their own objectives and thanks to the 2010 Citizens United versus the Federal Election Commission ruling by the Supreme Court, they’ve been allowed to invest unlimited amounts of money in political advertising. Is it any wonder the rich get richer? They have the resources to extend their influence to buy whatever they like by funneling money, often surreptitiously into the Super PACs.

But should this really be the way elections are decided? Should it be about how much  money is raised and spent on a campaign? Is it fair to allow the wealthy to have that much leverage in seeking what they want? Oh HELL no. But all this isn’t new. Complaints against Citizens United go back quite a ways.

Think about the aggregated amount of money sitting around waiting to be spent on ads that denigrate an opponent. Instead of a candidate or their supporting Super PAC telling us what they propose, what they stand for, what they want to accomplish if elected, most ads seem to ignore that in favor of telling us how awful someone else is – often by telling half-truths, or in some cases, outright lies. We are bombarded with endless commercials often ending with the words “I approve this message”. We get endless texts and emails. We have to drive through intersections littered with posters that never seem to be removed.

Every four to six years there are campaigns: 435 U.S. house of representatives, 100 senators, a president and vice president – that’s just the Federal level; 50 state governors, roughly 7,383 state legislators – and every one of these candidates try to raise millions of dollars to fight their opponents.

And recently, June 30, 2026 in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6 to 3 ruling eliminated the Federal limits on how much money a political party can spend for presidential and congressional campaigns. Justice Bret Kavanaugh, delivering the court’s opinion stated that the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act’s limits violate the First Amendment. He said, and I quote, “In short, Congress’s original justification for the limits on political-party coordinated expenditures is entirely inadequate under the First Amendment.” Mind you before that ruling, the FECA’s limits allowed for up to $4m on a senate campaign, $130,000 for a House candidate, and over $32M for a Presidential Candidate. The First Amendment also played a big part in the Citizens United ruling. I guess the First Amendment doesn’t come cheap.

Here’s a simple idea – how much better would it be if every candidate for every office posted their voting record, if applicable, along with their platform of what they hope to achieve on their own website. For God’s sake, who doesn’t have a website these days? Use the damn things. If the press did their job and made everyone aware of who was running for what position, then everyone would have the opportunity to read for themselves what each candidate is about and make a decision on whom to vote for. I read a posting yesterday that, in Texas, Greg Abbott’s “war chest” stands at $67.4 million. That’s one candidate for a re-election as governor.

So, let’s use round numbers. Let’s say in that in every four to six year period there are 10,000 campaigns and each campaign spends $2,000, even $3,000 for a well-constructed, comprehensive candidate website – that’s $20 or $30 million in total, less than half of one candidates war chest. There are billions of dollars out there trying to sway elections. Don’t you think there are better ways to spend that money? You know The Constitution, that document which governs how things should run in this country. As a reminder, it opens with “We The People”. It does not open with “We the Super PACS”.

Just one more example of American insanity.

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The Bible – A Moral Standard for Today?

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(A video version of this post can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcQ9HdvOLrS/?hl=en)

The Bible, a term derived from the Greek ta biblia meaning “the books”, is often claimed as the world’s all-time bestseller. It’s become noun for any reference material that supports Christian ideals. The Old Testament portion is generally a collection of four genres: law or the Pentateuch, history, wisdom, and the prophets – both major and minor. Did Moses write the Pentateuch? Doubtful. The Documentary Hypothesis suggests the Pentateuch is actually a blending of four different sources of material written over a five hundred year period starting about a thousand years before Christ. Many of the other books are attributed to the Minor Prophets who claimed either inspiration from God or hearing his words directly. Today, if an author claimed to have written something as dictated directly from God, he’d be branded a lunatic, so I’m curious how the Bible gets a free pass. The bible we reference today has chapters and verses (that which foments the ease of quotability of passages), but they are only editorial additions that date back to the 13th and 16th centuries. To fully understand the evolution of the Bible we have today from the early collections of the Tanakh (to the Septuagint to the Torah, one would need to combine the talents of a scholar, a detective, and a puzzlist.

But the issue which concerns me is the staunch reliance on using it as the standard by which we measure our moral code. Certainly, the world has no lack of poor moralistic behavior, but to be guided by a series of texts that were drafted by unknown authors from thousands of years ago doesn’t strongly support much credibility especially if we acknowledge how heavily male-centric the documents are. More to the point, the moral fabric of our society is more complicated and diverse thant it was in past millennia, and it fluctuates. For example: there has always been homosexuality, at various points in history it was more acceptable than at other times, but it’s been around. Several hundred years ago it was acceptable for an older man to marry a girl just past puberty as she was now physically able to provide heirs. Today, that same man would be recognized as a pedophile. People surely had issues with gender identification, but probably just had to live with it. Psychology dates to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, but it didn’t become a science until the 19th century. Our greater understanding of human complexity because of it alone should antiquate the Bible as a governing source of moral standards.

Still, the most egregious use of the Bible is the cherry-picking of quotes as a basis for taking the upper hand in an argument. You know what I mean – all those people who open a sentence by saying: the Bible says…or according to the Bible…I love the scene from season 2, episode 3 of The West Wing in which President Bartlet demonstrates how ridiculous it is to cherry-pick by displaying the inconsistencies of the Old Testament that systematically condemns our modern way of life. Check it out on Netflix.

Then we have the New Testament, the Gospels attributed (doubtfully) to the words of the apostles and the letters (epistles) from Paul, James, Peter, and John. These are given nearly divine significance because of their personal association with Jesus, well, except Paul, he never met him. If anything from the bible should be used as the foundation for moralistic behavior, it might be the teachings credited to Jesus, or more appropriately Yeshua; at least he taught acceptance and love toward ALL. In fact, if you even ignore the belief that Jesus was incarnate from God and just listen to what he had to say, the teachings offer an amazing amount of guidance. All the Christian mutterings in the news today seem to fly in the face of everything Jesus stood for just as Republican policies regarding immigration, DEI, ICE operations, and being anti-WOKE do. Most Christians wouldn’t relate to what Jesus stood for if they were slapped in the head with a copy of the Beatitudes.

As for the bible itself, as far as I’m concerned you can toss it in the garbage along with the Torah and the Koran.

Simply replace it all with the Golden Rule – that covers a lot of ground all by itself because it transcends all religions, civilizations, and societies.

From Yeshua – Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you… John 14:27

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