My Dumb Vote: Biden 2020

Posted on April 11, 2026 by Jim Blackwood Jr

Photo: Chrisitan Science Monitor

I have a history of making strange votes in presidential elections. John Anderson and Jesse Jackson, I am looking at you. But once I choose, I defend my choice. Thinking deeply about the 2020 election, I have decided I fucked up… badly. I voted for Biden. What is clear to me now is that a second Trump term in 2020 would have been the best thing for America.

At the end of Trump’s first term, we just wanted it all to stop. There, in his basement, staring at screens, was a white-haired man who looked like the grandpa so many of us desired. We wanted the daily barrage of stupidity to let go its grip on America’s soul. We ignored his age and got behind Grandpa Joe. For one term, we would ignore the obvious and embrace sanity. Boy, did we screw up.

Indulge me. What follows is the counter-factual, a world where Donald Trump was reelected in 2020 and what that could have meant for us.

Most important is the long list of things that would not have happened if Trump had won clearly and decisively. There would have been no claim that the election was stolen, and the January 6 insurrection would not have happened. This alone would have been a boon to our election integrity. Try it. Erase January 6th and see what happens to your world. No second impeachment. No Mar a Lago stolen documents case. Those events which enraged and unified the MAGA base would not exist. The great victimization narrative would be gone. And, the banal toady, Mike Pence would have remained vice president. So much for the rise of JD Vance and Marco Rubio. Poof, they stay in the Senate.

Constitutionally, defending the 22nd Amendment to prevent a Trump third term would have been a slam dunk. Instead, we got a Supreme Court ruling creating presidential immunity. Of course, there would have been court cases, but in so many ways defending the 22nd is easier than defending birthright citizenship.

In a second term, Trump would have owned the covid driven economic trash. Do you have any doubt that he and the Republicans on the Hill would have completely messed up a recovery? How much fun for any Democrat in 2024 to hang that around their necks? He also would have had to implement his own agreement to end the war in Afghanistan. The Afghan army would have unraveled again, and my guess is that Trump would have reinforced Bagram Airforce base, creating a new quagmire.

Trump’s loss in 2020 created a new seedbed for institutionalizing MAGA plans and policies. Stephan Miller created a legal non-profit to design every immigration policy we are confronting today. Project 2025 would not exist, and if something like it appeared, it would be late to the game, created on the fly by the Heritage Foundation without the time to vet over 10,000 Trump loyalists to insert into every level of government. Trump’s 2020 cabinet, especially the Pentagon, often contained and opposed him internally. Even if he wanted to create a government more in his image in a second term, it would have been one battle after another and not an immediate clean sweep. And, BTW, with no need for the MAHA voters, there would be no need to elevate RFK and the anti science lunatics. Sound good?

How about no DOGE and Elon Musk? Do you think life would be better today with some regulatory agencies? How about an EPA or USAID? Of course, over 4 more years the MAGA loyalists would have taken over all the departments and agencies, but it is far harder to do that within the system and without the four years they had to create a blueprint for destroying government. And loyalty? Trump came in with the belief that his problems in the first term were all about not having loyalists everywhere. Would he feel the same if he had won in 2020? Or would he have convinced himself that winning alone was balm for any wounds the deep state had given him?

Now, let’s imagine the Democrats in a second Trump term. With no Biden to explode immigration for 2 years, Trump would just be back to building walls. Biden’s incompetence on the southern border gave Stephan Miller a monster to slay. Essentially, the Democrats would be left to build a robust primary process for 2024. Biden would have been demonstrably too old. Kamala, instead of being anointed, would have fallen victim to her political incompetence again, leaving the Democrats with a better candidate to face… who? Mike Pence. Now, there is a dream.

Much of the evil that has been unleashed on America and the world is because of Biden’s victory. We ended up with a more venomous Trump, obsessed with loyalty. MAGA used those 4 years out of power well. They created the authoritarian infrastructure, in waiting for Trump to unleash. They built a killer campaign operation for Trump, then let the Democrats, wedded to a befuddled narcissist Biden, hand them an inferior candidate. I have no faith that the Democrats could have done as well with 4 years to plan a comeback, but they could do themselves less harm out of power.

So, there it is. I didn’t see it then. But now it is clear. I fucked up and supported Biden in 2020. So, in part, this nightmare is on me.

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Love Trap

Posted on February 21, 2026 by Jim Blackwood Jr

One quirk of our move to a small town is that our mail no longer appears in a pile inside our front door. Now, scattered down the street, are what I call mail pods, clusters of mailboxes on poles. I get a daily email telling me if we are getting real mail. Weird that. Walking to the mail pod was my job alone until I needed to create a ritual for my little boy dog Zoom.

Zoom is responsible for two permanent injuries. I have arthritis in my right wrist from thousands of frisbee throws. The little guy, half Border Collie and half Whippet, was genetically designed to chase objects and snatch them out of the air. His powerful back legs easily launched him six feet into the air. Excited at a doorway, barking and whining, he could jump straight up and look me in the eyes. Sally took him for a long walk every morning and I played frisbee with him in the afternoon.

Each day, about 3 PM since I retired, he shoved my hands off my keyboard and demanded we go outside to play. Part of the ritual was him barking at me if I dawdled, then jumping up and down at the door. It was a highlight of both of our days. I loved to see his sighthound instinct make him violently shake the fabric frisbee when he caught it like the rabbit he was bred to hunt.

Time is cruel to athletes. The parts wear out. The difference with a dog is that they never complain. Every joyful instinct is the same.  Time can leave humans grumbling and complaining about losing a step and giving up much loved physical hobbies. Dogs merely adapt and never lose their joy. At about 10 years old, Zoom had clearly lost a step. He didn’t fly as high or demand endless throws. I called an earlier halt to our frisbee or ball sessions as I learned to read his fatigue. One day, after a couple of dozen tosses, Zoom snatched the disc from the air, shook it, then dropped it at his feet. He put his front paws on the toy and turned to stare at me. He was telling me he was done now.

Day after day, the same joy for him catching and me watching, but the number of throws got fewer and fewer. He’d stand on his toy, and I’d yell, “Are you done now?” Zoom would pick up the disc, chest out, tail wagging high; he would carry his frisbee to its home in the garage and drop it on the ground for me to put it away.

This summer, the number of throws dwindled to a handful. The vet said his once powerful hips were worn out and arthritic. The dramatic chase was now a series of bunny hops with his rear legs. Dogs will do things to please you, even when they are in pain. I had to create a new afternoon ritual for us. One day, when he demanded we go play, I said, “Let’s get the mail!” with excitement that mirrored his. He barked and whined at the door, and away we went down the block and across the street to the mailbox pod. The old boy now loved to sniff and mark as much as he loved to chase. “Let’s get the mail,” was his new happy phrase.

Long ago trained to never touch a street without permission, nor pay any attention to anyone but me, Zoom was mostly flawless off leash. But now, his hearing was going too. I could no longer control him with a click or a whistle. Fortunately, every verbal command was linked to a hand gesture, so now it was my job to keep his eyes on me. As always, it was my job to look for cars to keep him safe. One day a neighbor parked a trailer in front of the mailbox pod. Zoom was waiting at the curb, and I had to take a step out to look up the street for cars. He took my movement as ‘go now.’ A car was coming. I reached down to grab him, and he darted back under my feet, causing me to face plant on the street, badly injuring my knee. And that is the second injury Zoom gave me. My aching knee and sore wrist will always be there to remind me of the little boy.

We both adapted. Same time. Same joy. Same ritual. Only now, a leash to cross the street. Funny thing about our ritual is that there were many days I knew there was no mail to pick up. Still, I didn’t change our routine. Mail or no, he barked at me at the door, and we went to pick up the mail. I am not sure why, fidelity to the process maybe, but I opened the empty mailbox so he could see that I did my job too. I think it mattered to him.

Weeks into the new ritual, upon returning to the garage, Zoom didn’t go right to the hallway door. He walked to the shelves that held his frisbees, looked up at them, then back at me. I asked, “Really? Are you serious?” He was. I pulled down his favorite, a ratty disc with holes in it from his violent whips and shakes.

Like he always did, he backed in front of me, staring at the disc in my hand as I walked down the driveway to the front yard. Then, as we had done thousands of times, I said, “Go!”  He didn’t go very far, and my job was to gently float his toy into his earthbound mouth. I missed the first time, but he didn’t stand on it and brought it back. “Okay, if you insist. Go!” Shorter run, and he just missed it. He brought it back and dropped it at my feet.

I could see he had only one more throw in him. I knew this was our last chance for a perfect throw. “Go!” Shorter still. The frisbee fell perfectly into his mouth, and he gave it a shake. Then he did something he never did. He carried his toy to the door and wanted to go inside. I let him in, and he trotted proudly to find Sally. “I think he wants you to know he caught his friz,” I told her. The three of us celebrated together with whoops and hugs. He never chased his frisbee again, and it stayed on his bed where he sometimes used it as a pillow.

There was one last trip to get the mail before Zoom had to leave us. With all the same joy and commotion, he demanded that we go. There was no mail that day. We moved slowly, and I opened the box for him to see. Now, I understand I was creating a trap for myself by building the new mailbox ritual for Zoom and me. I hadn’t thought it through. There will still be mail to get. I take the short walk, sometimes in tears, using the same now unnecessary pattern. Down the street, stop at his favorite bushes, straight across the street to the boxes and straight back. Only now, I don’t go when I know there is no mail.

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Fucking Bitch

Posted on January 12, 2026 by Jim Blackwood Jr

MAGA is now killing mothers to keep us safe. Back in July, I wrote that the creation of an “Army of the Interior” was the point of the Big Beautiful Bill. We are there. The accelerationists are now running the White House.

An accelerationist is someone who believes that existing social, political, or economic systems should be pushed to intensify or break down faster, rather than be reformed gradually—on the theory that speeding up crises will force a radical transformation or collapse that leads to a new system.

I believe the conversation in Stephen Miller’s office went something like this:

Miller: You aren’t moving fast enough. How many of your agents can you gather in one place.

Noem: My people tell me we could muster 3,000, maybe more if we pulled them to one place. But we are everywhere now, why would we do that?

Miller: Kristi, you are fucking missing the big picture. We had to pull the National Guard back because of a few liberal judges. Assholes… What we really need is to deploy the regular army.

Noem: How?

Miller: We need the videos that will allow the President to use the Insurrection Act, and we need it before the next election so we can do it everywhere.

Noem: But where do you want them?

Miller: Minneapolis. Those fucking communists burned the city down once. They will do it again if we push them hard.

Noem: I can give the orders today.

Miller: No pussies allowed. Tell your boys the gloves are off. Grab as many illegals as you can, but the fight is with those Antifa radicals. Punch them in the nose, and we will get troops in right away.

Noem: Done.

Right now in Minneapolis, the occupying army numbers 3,000 or more. They outnumber local law enforcement by about 5 to 1. (Keep in mind. Today is as small as the Army of the Interior will ever be.) The occupiers are not law enforcement. CPB and ICE are paramilitary organizations with only the slightest affinity for the US Constitution. The occupying internal army is the action arm of our newly crowned dictator. The murder of Renee Nicole Good was not the first, and it won’t be the last. The entire game now is violence, intimidation and submission. Compare these two statements:

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has broken his silence on the growing nationwide protests, labeling demonstrators as “rioters” and “terrorists” in a televised address Sunday night. He called for security forces to respond with “decisive” action.

“Good attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.Her actions were an act of domestic terrorism.” Kristi Noem.

Authoritarians define all opposition as terrorism. Those ICE and CBP agents, even if they are not MAGA personally, have all been propagandized to believe they are confronting an existential threat. People want to kill you, so protect yourself. They don’t see a human in front of them. My friends. We are now the enemy. If Trump could, like the Ayatollah, he would kill hundreds.

We now know via his father that the murderer is conservative and Christian. He is MAGA to the core. Having shot an unarmed woman three times in the face, the first words he uttered were, Fucking Bitch. She was not a person to him. In fact, the being a woman may have sparked his anger even more. No one can defy the MAGA man, especially a woman.

He walked to her car to confirm his kill, then walked back to the ICE SUVs, waving his finger in the air, telling his fellow paramilitaries to start the engines so they could make their escape. Good’s dog was still in the back seat of her car. Police, actual law enforcement, secure the shooting scene. These are not cops. His action is that of a soldier who killed an enemy. His aspect in the video was calm, confident and without a hint of remorse. I wonder, were there high fives in the SUV as they drove away from the dead woman?

There is no Republican Party; only MAGA exists now. It is immoral and hungry. In the next months, the accelerationists will pull every lever of power to merge power, and most importantly, control the midterm elections. So far, the Americans in the streets have been smart, not giving Miller and the fascists what they want. We all must stay focused on two things: taking care of our immigrant neighbors and winning the midterms. Nothing else matters. Not silly minor battles over words among the Democrats or arm wrestling over the ideology of our candidates. The only thing that counts for a candidate is: Can they win in their district? Everything is about power. OUR equally ruthless acquisition of power. Win first, then plan the American Nuremberg Trials.

There is a phrase that keeps spinning in my head: HOLD FAST. It is an old command yelled to sailors in the rigging of a storm-tossed ship. Friends, we are in a storm and the gale is rising. HOLD FAST

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We Scare Them: NO KINGS

Posted on October 16, 2025 by Jim Blackwood Jr

They are afraid of us. There is no other way to explain the insane MAGA talking points — we hate America and are Antifa terrorists all being paid by a mystery billionaire. The American people, in the millions, on the streets on 10/18, will shake the dictator and his fascist enablers to their core.

Right now, the forces of liberal democracy and decency are losing the battle for America. All three pillars of our constitutional balance of power design are compromised. Congress, under the MAGA thumb, is castrated and afraid to assume its Article I mandate. The dictator is inventing powers with no checks, no balances. The Right’s 50-year plan to install federalist Quislings in the courts is mostly in place. The Supreme Court is a rubber stamp for expanding executive power. We must give the authoritarians and Christian nationalists credit. They have been working toward this moment for decades. The rise of Trump and the complete collapse of the Democratic Party are the lucky circumstances that merely used the nascent authoritarian infrastructure.

Thugs and brownshirts in masks are just beginning their reign of terror. The Democrats’ failure on immigration gave the fascists the opening they needed to build the Army of the Interior, a feature of every authoritarian regime. The endless infusion of your taxes to build out this internal terror infrastructure is only beginning to come online. For every outrage you see in your social media feed, know that this is as weak as they will ever be. This is the moment to put our counterrevolution into the streets. They know this and are afraid.

It’s our turn now. Across the world, popular uprisings have been an essential feature in taking down dictators and fascists. I think especially of the brave people of Ukraine and the relentless thousands who occupied Maidan Nezalezhnosti or Independence Square, the central town square of Kyiv. The dictatorship, with Russia’s overt support, was deeply entrenched and the heroic, relentless protests brought down the evil regime. And today, Ukrainians are dying to hold a newborn democracy. They don’t have our 250-year tradition of liberal democracy. But it’s the newness of the idea of freedom that empowers their fight. Maybe we got lazy and forgot that the American experiment, from its founding, was a precarious choice. Now that we are on the verge of losing our democracy, can we revive the steadfastness that the baby democracy in Ukraine has embraced?

To the streets. What we have now is the undeniable power of millions of Americans across the country. We MUST practice non-violence because the fascists are dying to create a broader imaginary emergency. Pause with that idea. Their emergency is Americans using their First Amendment rights. That is not strength. That is weakness. At some point, the thrashing MAGA regime with increase the violence. This has always been true when dictators fall. Stay brave. Those spasms are the thrashing of a dying beast.

You don’t need a sign, don’t have to march. The power of this movement is in the simple act of being present and pumping millions of pictures out on social media. Small towns, big cities, a country road — anywhere. Our standing up will shatter the confidence of the royal court of the fascist wannabe king. WE are what is inevitable, not them. Don’t wait for the midterms and vote. Vote now with your feet.

See you on 10/18.

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NO KINGS: One Message. One Fight.

Posted on August 8, 2025 by Jim Blackwood Jr

I have been obsessed with political messaging since I was a child.

Great messages win.

“Nixon’s the One” beat “Come Home America”

“We Shall Overcome” beat “State’s Rights”

It’s the Economy Stupid” beat “A Proud Tradition.”

“Yes We Can.” beat “Country First”

“Right to Life” beat “Choice”

Make America Great Again” Well, that killed us… twice.

When I worked in City Hall, my boss, Nick Fish, and I were fanatics about always knowing your clear message. In campaigns and governing, the message is the thing. When the public forgets the policy, the vote, the promise, they will remember the message or slogan. Entire campaigns have been won and lost on the message. Do you remember Kamala Harris’ message? Nope. But you damn sure know what MAGA and the red hat mean.

Out of the box, the organizers of the advocacy group Indivisible stumbled upon the simple message: NO KINGS, I was excited. Simple. Clear. Fits on a hat, a sign, a hand-drawn poster. It has historical and patriotic meaning. The sub-messaging anyone could do under the No Kings slogan was endless. I, and 2 other neighbors, still have those signs up in front of our homes.

Out for a walk last week, I saw new neighbors moving in and walked up to introduce myself. I tried to tell them I lived around the corner, and they looked confused. Finally, I said, “It’s the house with the No Kings sign in the front yard.” They both lit up and smiled. “No Kings,” said the gentleman. “We like that sign,” said the daughter. We shook hands and had an immediate bond.

On the day of the No Kings national rally, millions of people across America took to the streets under that banner in big cities and small towns. They took that slogan and made their own variations on the theme. It was invigorating and unifying. So, what did the progressive leadership do with all that energy? What did they do with that message? NOT A DAMN THING.

The resistance movement froze like Bambi in the headlights and moved on to new rallies with different messages. Attendance collapsed. They sucked the energy out of the movement by slicing up the opposition to the new dictatorship into discrete causes, all worthy of attention and already forgotten. The left’s genetic desire to include a diverse base is the deadly flaw.

Look what happened to the historic and powerful Rainbow Flag. Now, it’s covered with multicolor chevrons that dilute the power. They had the perfect, universally known symbol and turned it into an identitarian mess. Kind of like HBO becoming MAX and now, realizing the mistake, changing back to HBO. Capitalists are dumb too. To win, and only winning and power count, the left must suppress the desire to please everyone. Hard, I know, but we are at war with MAGA, and they are as focused as assassins with our country sighted in their scopes.

My plea is simple. When you have a winner, a single symbol or message that works, for all our sakes, stay with it. Encourage people to improvise on specific issues under that common banner. Make it simple for people who don’t want to carve up their advocacy. Post one thought, carry one sign: NO KINGS.

This morning, I did my usual dive into the news and realized that we may have already lost the war to save our liberal democracy. Today is 200 days into the MAGA dictatorship, and the losses are all around us. Then I read this new Andrew Sullivan piece, and he said the same thing. Still this afternoon, I feel liberated. I enjoy being a guerrilla fighter underdog. You should too.

Here is my dream. On election day, November 4, the Democrats are going to win crushing victories in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. Count on it. My dream is that on Friday of that week we all go into the streets in a national strike to drive home the wins with the message: NO KINGS. We are coming for you.

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JD Vance Told Us: The Police State Is the Point

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Jim Blackwood Jr
MacArthur Park Photo WDSU

MacArthur Park, Los Angeles Photo WDSU

“Everything else—the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration.” Vice President, JD Vance.

You probably didn’t see that tweet. But I did—and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. It may be the most honest and dangerous thing anyone said about the MAGA budget bill Trump signed on July 4th.

America can survive another dumb tax cut. The damage to Medicaid will be real and heartbreaking, but for most people, it’ll happen quietly, invisibly. The deficit? Just one more can kick toward the cliff, waiting for the next president—Republican or Democrat—to finish the crash. But J.D. dropped a truth bomb. This wasn’t just a budget bill. It was about power. It was about building a permanent internal army, one that answers only to the president. A force that can be aimed inward, not at enemies abroad—but at us.

Every authoritarian regime builds an internally focused army. Consider:

  • China (Xi Jinping): Ministry of State Security – 110,000 to 800,000 operatives
  • North Korea (Kim Jong-un): State Security Department – possibly 100,000+
  • Russia (Putin): FSB – ~200,000 agents + 2,000 elite officers
  • Iran (Khamenei): MOIS + IRGC – ~30,000 + 200,000 LE/security agents
  • Egypt (el-Sisi): NSA – ~200,000 agents

These forces report to one man. They operate black sites, prisons, and torture chambers. What J.D. Vance is saying—intentionally or not—is that America is building its own version of the East German Stasi or the Nazi Gestapo, and everything else is “immaterial.”

In America, our internal army comes disguised as immigration enforcement. The new MAGA bill funnels $170 billion to the Department of Homeland Security—making immigration departments larger than the entire U.S. Marine Corps, and more expensive than Israel’s entire defense budget. ICE alone receives $30 billion. And here’s the trick: the $46 billion earmarked for “the wall” is completely fungible. They can spend it on anything. They are anticipating 10,000 new soldiers with loyalty to Trump being the primary vetting.

In MAGA-speak, every undocumented immigrant is a criminal. So, when Stephen Miller says, “We’re going after criminals,” what he really means is everybody. First, it’s “illegals,” then green card holders, then naturalized citizens. Those are American citizens. And if them—why not journalists? Protesters? Judges? You? Authoritarian internal armies don’t disappear when the job is “done.” They grow, adapt and find new enemies. Vance told us what’s coming. Believe him.

Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol wrote:

“Immigration is an area where the U.S. President can exercise virtually unchecked legal coercive power, especially if backed by a Supreme Court majority and a corrupted Department of Justice. … much of this windfall to be used for graft with private contractors Trump patronizes, but lots of it to hire street agents willing to mask themselves and do whatever they are told against resident and fellow American citizens. The Miller-Trumpites are not interested in only rounding up undocumented immigrants.”

We’ve already seen the outlines of what this looks like:

An Iranian woman, quietly living in the U.S. for 40 years, taken from her garden. A man with three sons in the Marine Corps, detained at a work site. In Los Angeles, Monday (Fox News embedded), masked and heavily armed officers—some on horseback—conducting a coordinated sweep of MacArthur Park. They made no arrests. When confronted by the Los Angeles mayor, Border Patrol leadership said they did it to prove they could go anywhere, anytime.

It’s not about protecting Americans. It’s about setting the terms of obedience.

My family, proudly, has 5 generations of law enforcement. I spent eight years as a public safety liaison to a city commissioner, working to keep Portland inside the Joint Terrorism Task Force. The essence of good law enforcement is a strong desire to do public service. However, there is always a dark current in some of law enforcement, a frustration that because they live the front lines, they know best. Civilian authority and that pesky constitution are unwelcome limits. You see it in Border Patrol leadership interviews. They are gleeful they “finally get to do their job.” Behind many of those menacing masks are smiles. Not because they’re proud to serve, but because they feel unleashed.

Authoritarians understand how to manipulate the culture of law enforcement. They’ve done it repeatedly. The Netflix documentary “Ordinary Men” examines how the Nazis turned everyday German police officers into roving death squads—the Einsatzgruppen. Many weren’t soldiers. They were civil police. The regime exploited their unit cohesion, their separation from civilian life, and their training to follow orders without question. 

That may sound extreme, but history is full of examples—from Serbia to Syria—where the line between policing and brutality dissolves under authoritarian rule.

Let me be clear: Biden and the Democrats left the door wide open for all of this. Remember 2016? Democratic candidates lining up on stage, raising their hands for “open borders.” I can only imagine the glee Stephen Miller must have felt. Democrats gave the far-right exactly the justification they needed. Americans believe in borders. Always have. Democratic leadership, bowing to the fringe left, forgot that.

Today, there is an authoritarian infrastructure inside the executive and legislative branches. Trump’s personal bigotry isn’t the point—it is merely a tool. I’ve read the academic philosophers of the MAGA right. They don’t see liberals as opponents. They see us as existential enemies. And they’re disciplined. Relentless. Strategic.

What we are confronting is not a political problem; it’s a moral collapse. That’s what makes it so dangerous.

MAGA leadership can no longer tell the difference between truth and lies. The Republican Party, as an institution, is gone. Its leaders fear their own base. Trump is running wild, and he’s winning. And yet—there is still hope. Millions of Americans who voted for Trump are feeling uncomfortable and we can make that feeling grow.

The Democratic gerontocracy is lost in their wilderness of consultant talking points. They seem to be stuck in the old paradigm of waiting for their next turn. The reactionary left wants to re-fight a culture war. The courts are lost. The Republican Senate majority is locked for two more cycles.

That leaves us with one last opportunity: Take back the House in 2026. If Democratic leaders, all of us, aren’t waking up every day working toward a House majority, then the American experiment—250 years in the making—is over. The fight is now. Democratic leaders need to think like a guerilla force, constantly probing for weaknesses in the MAGA defenses. Nobody really cares if they are good at making long speeches on the floor of congress visible only on CSPAN.

Here’s where we start: Democratic members of Congress—majority or not—have the legal right to inspect ICE detention centers. They need to invoke that right. Loudly. Publicly. Every damn day. If they’re denied entry, make that denial the story. Every day. These are black sites. Concentration camps. Exposed, these are places that would offend most Americans.

Sunshine is our weapon.

Call and write your representatives. Demand they do their job. Demand they expose what’s being done in our name. Tell them to form oversight strike teams and go to every ICE holding building and camp in the country. Make the revulsion you feel universal.

This is a long fight. As shocking as it may be, MAGA is just getting started. The Project 2025 checklist is not nearly complete. But we win this one battle at a time.

See you at the next protest.

Solidarity.

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We All Live In Trump’s Brain

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Jim Blackwood Jr

Under the great comb-over weave, there is no policy. No economy. No separation of powers. There is no republic or federalism. There is no religion or science. No justice. No education or compassion. There is only pathology. 

Oh, our lives go on in families and small communities. Babies arrive. People die. Dogs smile and crows squawk. Little things and big ones seem much like before. But the whole, that essential flawed nation, forever seeking renewal under 250-year-old aspirations, has no existence apart from the rotting mind of one man. We are all living in Trump’s brain. 

My Proof:

Asked on Wednesday how he would decide on any further exemptions, Mr. Trump said: “Instinctively, more than anything else. I mean, you almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct, I think, than anything else.”

Trump claimed: “I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal.”

Mocking the pleas of foreign leaders, he parodied: “Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir!”

Definition: Megalomania — a delusional mental illness that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur.

The president has a hole in his being that he knows, to his core, can be filled with the love of others and the exercise of singular power. Nothing else matters. He is incapable of compassion or empathy. Starving hundreds of thousands in Africa gets no more attention than deciding on his blue or red tie in the morning. Crashing the world economy has no victims but him. Facts, data, charts, graphs are only useful if his courtiers can contort them to fit his most recent thought. 

We have known this for years, but for me the tariff episode and those quotes from his 2-hour speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee two days ago erased any self-delusion that systems and rationality, of any sort, will save us from Trump’s decaying mind. 

Look closely at the words. This man has at his fingertips the vastest information processing power in the world. ANY question can be answered in minutes based on some of the best minds in the world. But that isn’t necessary. Look at the simplicity of his formulation, “can’t take a pencil to paper.” When is the last time you sharpened a number 2 yellow pencil? He says the word “computer” as if an object appeared in front of him from a red smoke cloud. 

No, for the president, his “instinct” is the ultimate arbiter of every decision. His two victories (thank you Democrats) and surviving a bullet have only reinforced the narcissistic surety that his every thought is truth. He is the divinely anointed king. I just finished the terrific book “Fight” about the 2024 campaigns. His campaign, now White House, team knows they can never change his mind, but occasionally, over time, they can erode his thinking to a different conclusion. They are all Cromwell in service of Henry VIII. Their heads, one day, will roll too. 

The impending crash of the international order and economy is the best thing that Trump has ever done… for Trump. At long last, he has proven that he, alone, is the world’s essential man. He was joyful saying “kissing my ass” followed by acting out, begging and submission. This is everything he ever wanted, and yet, watching clips from the 2-hour sycophancy that is his cabinet meeting, he seems to go through the motions. The 78-year-old man is tired and all the slobbering over him is not having the vital palliative effect. Even his cabinet seems baffled. After all, all this obedience and narrow focus love is what he requires… isn’t it?

Because I am that guy, I also just read “Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future,” by Patrick Deneen. It’s graduate school dry, but I wanted to understand the philosophical essence that is driving the most dangerous Trump artifacts, the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society courtiers who created and are now enacting Project 2025. These are smart, committed people who have been preparing for this moment for decades. The Democrats, god rest their souls, don’t have any apparatus that approaches their single-minded, detailed planning.

I won’t bother going into the reasons for Project 2025 from the book. You can see the results in your daily doom scroll. What is most interesting is how they view Trump. In 300 pages, he is barely mentioned. They needed two tools for their plan, a populist revolt (thank you NAFTA and Woke overreach), and a demagogue to capture all the rage. Clearly, for them, Trump was merely an ‘as good as any’ option. Trump is a tool, a step needed to change society and overthrow the Enlightenment constitutional core that has sustained America since the founding. Trump is not the plan. He can’t be. They fear his erratic nature because they are rational. However, if a mentally ill old man births regime change, then so be it. The fact he is ancient is the icing on the cake. The plan will outlive the puppet. 

I went to the Tesla takedown and will continue to take part in rallies not dominated by the progressive fringe. It was heartening. I mean that literally. Waving at smiling people in passing cars was good for my heart. I can’t recommend this sort of action enough. Beware, I am sure that when the numbers are in the millions, as they need to be, Trump will take actions he has learned from dictators everywhere. Don’t let that stop you. 

But in the end, I am even more convinced that my original solution is the only way out. Constructive Nihilism is how we put down this rabid, wasted brain dog. The courts will not save us. Trump long ago mastered the judicial branch. The Republican party is dead. There are no good Republicans, only MAGA. They crave power like I do late night french fries after a club show. They are terrorized. As much as Trump scares us, he scares them more.

Sorry. I have no ponies to give. This will only end through pain. We had our chance to stop Trump, and Biden ripped it away from us. The more widely Trump’s empty soul vacuums up people’s lives, the better for us. The rich soil of rebirth builds layers in what Trump lays to waste. 

Take care of yourselves. Be active. And… wait like a guerilla army of insurgents watching for the first signs of weakness in the enemy. Yea, we are at war now because they are with us and we have no choice.

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This Week May End Constitutional America

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Jim Blackwood Jr

The constitutional crisis is here. Most Americans do not know what that means, so let me break it down. For 250 years, what has made America special is that we don’t pledge allegiance to a place or a person, we pledge to a document. The Constitution. All our elected officials swear an oath to uphold that document. Our army pledges to defend that document. It is the one idea that has kept us from the despotism that has plagued the rest of the world. This week, that’s right, this week the fiber of our Constitution could be torn apart by the act of one man, Donald Trump. This is how it will happen.

The founders were careful to write checks and balances into our national plan by having three co-equal branches of government: The Executive, Congress and Courts. The theory that has worked until now is that should any of the three try to take too much power, then one, or both, of the other branches will step in to thwart the power grab. In all cases, the power of only one can stand against the excess of any two other branches. Right now, we are in utter imbalance.

The Congress has been ceded power to the presidency for decades. Why? It makes their lives easier. The less they handle, the better their chances of offending no voters and getting reelected. But even with that dynamic, Congress has remained stubborn about it fundamental powers. No more. The new Republican Congress has abdicated its oversight powers in favor of fealty to President Trump. As an example, the president has no power to end agencies created by congress, but as Trump/Elon run wild, congress says nothing. In fact, they are more likely to line-up behind the executive.

Elon Musk, acting for Trump, has triggered the crisis that will break America. Many people were relieved when the courts issued temporary restraining orders (TRO) to halt the illegal work of DOGE. But for Trump, this is exactly what he needed. The TRO, and any subsequent court orders, are the lever he needs to finally, and fully, remove the executive branch from constitutional control. This morning, both Elon and VP Vance have said that the courts have no power over the executive. They simply don’t recognize the Article III branch of government. What is most frightening is that they may have the power to ignore all court orders. How does that happen?

It is an oddity of our system that the courts depend upon the executive to enforce their orders. It works like this. If Musk/Trump defy a court order and continue DOGE access to computer systems, then the court will say that they are in contempt of court and order the US Marshall Service (USMS) to enforce the order. Here’s where it all breaks down. Even though marshals have sworn to defend the constitution, they are part of the Justice Department under Trump AG Pam Bondi, who has will do anything Trump says. Even if the individual marshals attempt to do their job, they are likely to be removed by a series of Trump loyalist bosses. Once the first order is rendered dead, the entire system of justice collapses. It doesn’t matter if the order comes from the Supreme Court. If there is no one to enforce the order then there is no order. We have entered a lawless state where the constitution no longer applies and one branch, the executive, Donald Trump, has absolute power. At that moment of that first defiance, America is a dictatorship.

Let’s be clear, read Project 2025, this was always the plan. The new framers are steadfast believers in the unitary executive. Trump’s appointees to the courts are vetted to support this theory which states that the president has powers that are superior to the other two branches of government. So, America, enjoy the super bowl. Keep an eye on the prices of those eggs. We are, at most,days from finding out if America is still America. And, when Trump does what he has said he will do, as they say when the final whistle is blown: ballgame!

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Trump 47: Chaos is Our Friend

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Jim Blackwood Jr

I can’t look away. Trump is back and for my mental health, I would be better off digging a bunker in my backyard by hand, then crawling into it with a bottle of pinot noir. As a political normie, one who loves the noble experiment in liberal democracy and occasionally flies the stars and stripes next to my garage door, I am fearful that all the guardrails are now gone. A well-oiled team of authoritarian adjacent apparatchiks will join Trump’s malfeasance and blundering stupidity in this second term. Hell, the arrogant pricks published the plan of how they will dismantle our state. While Trump will be the headline, the real threat is, as is almost always the case, the true believers whose names you and I may never know. However, given what is coming (multiply your worst case by 10), I have a plan and you will not like it.

First define the terms:

Constructive: Serving a useful purpose; tending to build up.

Nihilism: The rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.

That’s right. I am going to approach Trump 47 as a constructive nihilist. Hear me out.

Because Biden and the Democrats ignored the voters, MAGA is now in charge. They have all three branches of government. I don’t believe Americans were fooled or are vile morons for supporting MAGA. I believe the data shows that in a change election; they were not offered a change. The MAGA victory resulted from Democratic hubris. But here’s the good news: Trump and MAGA oversee EVERYTHING. At noon on Monday, there is no hiding behind the Democrats. Pottery Barn rules. When they break it, they own it.

This is also why I want Trump to get all his cabinet picks. We need the most refined and potent form of MAGA on the front lines. They need to follow all Trump orders and Democrats, weak as they are, need to stay out of the way. The key to successful Constructive Nihilism posits that the American people have to suffer. MAGA voters, Democratic voters, no one can be exempt from the results of the malign forces that are about to be unleashed. It must be so bad that people yearn for the humble bureaucratic public servant. In essence, MAGA must make government great again.

No matter what the opposition to MAGA does, there will be casualties. Constructive Nihilism makes every loss a victory. We play the long game now. All eyes need to be on the 2026 and 2028 elections. To take down MAGA we need measles outbreaks across the country that kill children. We need endless videos of sprawling migrant concentration camps and American troops standing on the border. More crying children as their parents are hauled away. Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block to secure tax breaks for the wealthy. Shut down every clean energy project and ramp up carbon extraction with hopefully worse air quality in our cities. Tariffs everywhere. Crash the economy. Shut down more rural hospitals, especially in red states. Show endless pictures of celebrating oligarchs at the White House. Make our water less clean, our drugs less reliable, our press less free. And most importantly, the Democratic opposition needs to track every Trump campaign promise and, on a daily basis, remind America about failures to meet those promises.

The awful things are coming anyhow, so why not embrace and exploit them to take down MAGA. Make American Miserable Again. Here’s the good news. The actual window for this damage is 2 years. Ignore the Trump bluster about running again. He has to say that because he knows on 1/20/25 he is a lame duck. Worse yet, for Trump, about the time of the midterms, an internecine war will erupt in the Republican Party as ambitious acolytes fire up campaigns to replace him. This will drive him nuts and there isn’t a damn thing he can do about it. Ambition is the one true drug of politicians. Enough damage will have been done in 2 years that new wave MAGA will have to throw shade on the aging despot to claim they are now the change America needs.

All of this seems an odd philosophy for a student of Zen. Yea, I can see that. Where is the compassion for others? I believe the path to a better future comes by embracing and exploiting the pain. This is a political war. Like the American founders did, I have been studying the ancient Roman Republic and its fall. Madison and Jefferson had almost no historical models for a representative democracy, so looked at Rome’s failures to design their constitutional safeguards. It has worked for 250 years, admittedly a long in the tooth test. But my read also tells me that there were several points in the collapse of the Roman Republic where defenders were timid and bargained for power, made deals with the devil to save the republic. Those defenders ended up hung on crosses or beheaded or bleeding out in their own bathtubs with a knife in their hand. If we are to save our republic, we need to be as clear-eyed and ruthless as our opposition. One founder, Thomas Paine was a fanatic for democracy and freedom. He wrote, “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country.”

It’s past time to purge the cautious and the politically correct from the Democratic Party. Dump the old folks and promote a new generation of leadership steeped in the last decade of MAGA vileness. You can read my call to Democrats here. MAGA is not designed to govern. It only thrives as outside anger. When in power, these fanatics will overreach repeatedly. Constructive Nihilism is an ugly philosophy for an ugly time. Exploit every horror so we can retire the concept in 4 years.

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Trump? It’s the Democrats, Stupid

Posted on November 9, 2024 by Jim Blackwood Jr

Maybe the best thing for America is that Trump crushed the Democrats hopes and dreams on Tuesday. When America needed a genuine opposition party to stand against the march of populist authoritarians, the Democrats responded with… well… nothing. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I sent the Harris campaign money, got the hat, put up the sign and hoped. But by looking at the Times county by county map, I realized by 6:30 PM that Harris was toast. Trump ran up 2 to 10% margins over the 2020 Biden numbers. In the end, Harris did not beat the Biden 2020 vote totals in ANY county.

For almost 2 years, about 70% of Americans said they did not Biden to run for a second term. His approval rating hovered below Trump. Biden’s hubris and narcissism lost this election before it began. His staff hid his infirmity. He lied to America. Yesterday, it was revealed that as early as last January his internal polling said he would lose by 400 Electoral votes and his staff was badmouthing Kamala to reporters on background. America spoke and arrogant Democrats ignored it. And when, at the debate, he showed he could not run, he waited another month then anointed Harris. Here’s the cold, hard truth. If a hotly contested primary process had resulted in a younger male candidate, Trump would not be the president-elect. I can hear the yelling at me now….

Already, Democrats are blaming the loss on racism and misogyny. I don’t doubt there are maybe 3 points in the final totals that may reflect long held American beliefs. Let me repeat that LONG HELD AMERICAN BELIEFS. You don’t have to like American attitudes about a female president. But if your party says Trump is a fascist, then you damn sure better take that issue off the table. Running a woman was a mistake. I am a cold-hearted old political hack and I never give the enemy a running start. In fact, I have long held that the first woman elected president in America will be a Republican. Yup, ala Maggie Thatcher. It’s the Nixon goes to China of gender politics. Win first. Change opinions later.

My lifetime worst president is Gerald Ford because he cut a deal to pardon Nixon. (BTW, if we had tried Nixon, the current Supreme Court would have had no basis to declare presidential immunity.) Now Biden joins Ford on my lowest ring of presidential hell.

Care to guess what the most effective, most run, Trump commercials were? Yup, the trans adds. Those ads disgusted Democrats as hateful. News flash, those ads were not about trans people, they were about fairness. Given their rising rents, that a criminal gets transitioning surgery free was insane to most Americans. Penises in girl’s locker rooms was disgusting. Trans girls in boys’ bodies beating biological girls in sports was simply unfair. The Trump campaign didn’t have to run against ‘woke.’ They only needed this one signifier to demonstrate that something was deeply wrong, utterly unfair, about Kamala and Democrats. It worked.

What the left doesn’t understand is that most Americans do not hate trans people. If you started the entire conversation about gender dysphoria from a different place, they would be on your side.

Try this: We all know that some people have a condition that tells them they are in the wrong body. It isn’t a choice. This is painful for them at first and makes other people uncomfortable. But we can agree that we don’t want to have people in pain all the time. What can we all do to help make their lives easier?

Instead, the academic left has declared that trans boys and girls are actual boys and girls. This is the radical construct of critical gender theory shoved down people’s throats. I said over a year that this issue alone would kill the Democrats in the election, and guess what, it did.

Why didn’t the Democratic party fight back on the Trump commercials? I heard Rick Wilson from the Lincoln Project say that they expected the Republican trans attack and brought Democrats an ad package to counter the hit. Democratic leadership rejected the offer. They said people don’t care about that issue. And there it is, the elite Democratic party at work. Broad swaths of America feel like Democrats only punch down. Donald Trump became their champion because he called bullshit. Admit it, the inherent disdain for blue collar America reeks from Democrats. From Hillary’s ‘deplorables’ to Biden’s ‘garbage’ the voters got the message loud and clear.

How many Americans can define the word fascist? Can you? Even when General Kelly told the reporter he thought Trump was one, he had to read the Webster’s definition to clarify what he meant. Yet, the Harris campaign ran on that for almost 3 weeks. In focus groups run by the Bulwark, participants were not sure what authoritarian meant, let alone fascist. Democrats design their messages for other college educated Democrats.

Harris never came up with a simple message to describe Trump’s tariffs. Imagine if the messaging geniuses at the Harris campaign had said this:

I like to watch Sunday football on a big TV. I bet you do too. So, Walmart or Costco has a good sale on a 72 inch beauty and you go down to pick it up on sale for 800 bucks. Except when you get there the Trump tariffs have gone in effect and now it costs $960.  “Hey, what happened?” you as the clerk.  “Tariffs,” she says. “But China has to pay those.” “No, the TV maker pays, so does the shipper and to pay me the same salary, the price has to go up. I hate it too, but there isn’t any choice”.

See how simple that is. No economics lecture. Just tell people straightforward stories. If the Democrats don’t take this as a lesson, they are done.

I know that people on the left are yelling at Trump voters. How could you!!?? Well, here is the one the Democrats didn’t expect. Trump has assembled an economically diverse, multi-ethnic coalition anchored by the American working class. Yea, those are the Trump voters. Sure that are MAGA lunatics, as surely as there a progressive Hamas lovers. Extremes gonna extreme. But Trump’s new coalition is exactly who Democrats claim they want. The arrogance of coastal academic elites sitting around talking about poor people or the brown wave that was going to save them has come home to roost. Identity is not predictive and people shoved into identity holes will rebel.

What now?

Democrats are now fully a traditional parliamentary opposition party. Powerless to stop the government. Opposition is about pouncing on every misstep of the government. It requires cold hearted unity of purpose and messaging. It requires political operatives who are natural born killers. No, they can’t duplicate the media bubble that the right has, but they can pierce it repeatedly. And no, the Democrats don’t have to go further left. Bernie lost twice. Two members of the ‘squad’ lost in primaries. Harris had the right idea with a new center coalition but there was no way in hell a California liberal could sell that. Democrats have an impressive bench in the states. The phoenix must rise from there, not DC

There will be casualties to Trumpism. I ache for the brave people of Ukraine who lose citizens every day to a fascist, Putin. But in opposition, your job is to catalogue and publicize every MAGA victim, every day. Hammer away and get ready for the 2026 midterms where the battlefield is more friendly.

I hope MAGA takes the House. I want the public to see unmitigated Trump. He won it fair and square. This is his time. Let him destroy enough government for Americans to demand more government. And, for god’s sake, stop talking to Americans like they are all from another planet.


In other words, stop being THIS accursed current Democratic Party. Wake the fuck up!

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