Let’s Make a Deal

I believe that saying what you think without self-censoring in order not to offend someone has never advanced a person’s sense of self. I also believe that people can respectfully disagree on important topics and remain colleagues and friends. Maybe one way to do this is to find commonality before simply discarding the other person. But, these days, that has been lost to righteously choosing a side. It fractures friendships, families, and communities.

Here’s a personal example. I believe in the work that Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Marty Markary, and Dr. Jay Battacharya are doing at HHS. Because I want Americans to be healthy and patients mattering more than profits, I bought a MAHA hat to support the cause. Sadly, where I live, I don’t feel it’s physically safe to wear it; out alone on a walk I might be hassled. How sad that trying to create a healthier population, especially children, is a source of insult and hassle. I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve seen wearing a MAGA hat in my town. Censorship isn’t just about speech.

Throwing caution to the wind and knowing in advance I will most likely lose readers, here goes. I’m stepping into what I believe has become almost as dangerous as slipping into a Florida swamp.

Their Demonstration

Let’s start with the recent “No Kings” demonstrations. Fortunately, it was for the most part peaceful except in Portland, of course. I’m not against demonstrating. I did my share during the Vietnam war and later, but here’s the difference. I wasn’t paid by some billionaire’s dark money to go, I could actually speak coherently to the issue when questioned, and I had a single, clear purpose – to end hopeless wars.

When Adam Swart,* CEO of Crowds on Demand, declined to participate in the No Kings, it’s time to rethink where Americans put their time and energy. He told Fox News Digital that his company has witnessed firsthand how demonstrations can be co-opted by people – both domestic and foreign – “making money off chaos” rather than advancing genuine civic causes. “My concern is that there are forces that actually want to pull America apart. These aren’t left or right actors. They’re people making money off of chaos.”

Feel like moving to Portland?

There are many elements of this Trump administration that I don’t like, but there are also many changes he’s making I heartily approve of: a high-functioning HHS, stopping illegal immigrants at the border and sending them home, and bringing major industry jobs lost by Clinton’s NAFTA back to the U.S. If he can create peace agreements between warring countries all the better.

But I abhor Antifa and the dark money of the Soros’ Open Society Foundation, the Berger Action Fund (via a Swiss billionaire), the Tides Foundation, and the Act Blue donation platform (currently under DOJ investigation for campaign contribution fraud). Their plot, I believe, is to make America ungovernable and allow the globalist technocrats, including the ungodly Bill Gates, to control the world through spying, digital biometrics, censorship, and a new kind of slavery we can’t imagine. The goal of “You will all be renters, that you will own nothing” expressed at Davos is not science fiction.

My Demonstration

I’d call my protest “Where’s Congress?” Representative Tim Burchett from Eastern Tennessee went on the Tucker Carlson* show and spoke enough truth to make me want to start making demo signs. Here’s a bit of what he had to say about Congress.

TC-Question What do we get for a trillion dollars a year to the U.S. Military?

TB-Answer Some contractors get multi-billion-no-bid contracts. And who do you think has bought stock in that company? Members of Congress have two weeks prior notice and a five to six hundred percent return on investment. What taxpayers get is endless wars while needs at home go unattended.

TC-Question What really happens inside Congress’s decision-making process?

TB-Answer Both parties don’t want to upset the apple cart. It would be such a great thing to show America “Hey, we’re going to try to do what’s right for once.” As long as they’re winning, that’s what leadership’s about in both parties; it’s staying in power and self-preservation. Do they know or care how much the public resents us?

Between not reading bills; being under the influence of lobbyists and billionaires; spending more time on campaign funding than legislation; kowtowing to foreign influencers like AIPAC, NGOs, USAID; and personal corruption, it’s hard to not want to throw the bums out – save for a few.

Here are a few solutions Congress could work on: A national, affordable health insurance program (ACA never was an answer, but it made a lot of companies and individuals rich); a reasonable regulation of AI since 1 in 5 high schoolers has a romantic AI relationship or knows someone who does; the regulation of video entities such as Roblox where half of American kids under 16 play in an unregulated playground; a national paper ballot, voting in-person holiday with polling place monitoring. I could go on. . .

What’s happening strikes me as almost 100% upside down. This is what Eduardo Galeano thought about the world in 1998, looking ahead to the millennium, and what he wrote about the “looking glass world.” Sadly, it feels so timely in 2025:

“The looking glass world trains us to view our neighbor as a threat, not a promise. It condemns us to solitude and consoles us with chemical drugs and cybernetic friends. We are sentenced to die of hunger, fear, or boredom – that is, if a stray bullet doesn’t do the job first. The looking glass school teaches us to suffer reality, not change it; to forget the past, not learn from it; to accept the future, not invent it.”

Today’s Looking Glass, Upside Down World

Immigration.  People who entered this country legally (and true asylum seekers) are patiently waiting for citizenship while hordes of illegals receive free housing, food, Antifa protection, fake social security and enriched credit cards. Major corporations love the illegals who will work for less, often off the books, and take the few decent waged jobs left. Could Congress work on an immigration policy? So far, like so many other issues – No. Now we get to wonder whether that long-hauler truck is being driven by someone who can’t speak or read English.

The latest battle, apparently worthy of a government shutdown, is paying for their healthcare when many Americans can barely afford their insurance premiums, deductibles and copays. We stay in crap jobs for the offered crumbs of health insurance and social security for when, if ever, we can retire. In many parts of the U.S. workers paying into the system won’t live long enough to “enjoy” the paltry sum they will receive – and pay taxes on twice.

The Congressional Budget Office confirms this: Illegal aliens were issued Social Security numbers by the Biden–Harris administration:

• 270,425 in 2021

• 590,193 in 2022

• 964,163 in 2023

• 2,095,247 in 2024 = a whopping 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid using false Social Security cards. As a reminder, federal law generally limits Medicaid services for undocumented immigrants to emergency and pregnancy-related care.

Bribery and Corruption.  I have watched several Senate hearings where Secretary Kennedy was “questioned.” He was called “loathsome” by Sen. Maria Cantwell to his face and both Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren shouted at him while enjoying big pharma funding. His crime? Trying to make pharmaceutical companies accountable by adequately testing products, and turning the corrupt FDA, CDC, and other health agencies into working for the American people, not big business.

Obamacare. In 2010 a family of 4 spent $13,000/year in premiums with a $3,000 deductible. Now, in 2025, the same family of 4 has a $35,000/year in premiums with a $6,000 deductible. The result: what is being called “functionally uninsured patients.” They have insurance but often face a $5,000 charge before their first dollar of coverage. Who benefits?  There are now 7 insurance companies that are in the Fortune 500. Meanwhile, approximately 100 million Americans (about 41%) have medical debt, which includes past-due bills, ongoing payments, and loans to cover medical expenses. This debt is disproportionately higher for minority groups, people with low incomes, and the uninsured. 

What do the people want? A large majority, including many Democrats, voted for the following: Put the interests of the American people first, close the borders, end our perpetual wars, bring back real jobs, end globalization that has enriched a few while leaving millions behind, and ensure the constitutional right of Americans who are being driven from work or social standing for speaking out and for what they believe.

What are we getting? Supplying the military weapons to the genocidal Netanyahu and having him at the White House often. Same for Zelensky who comes with his billion-dollar begging bowl, cutting a “supportive” deal with Argentina to import their beef while American cattle growers and small chemical-free beef growers go broke and are stuck in red tape without the FDA stamp on their products. Bombing Iran for whatever reason – why not march against that?

Here at home, Trump has focused on Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky) who does not accept AIPAC or any other major funders’ money. Trump wants Massie out and is backing someone funded by several billionaires creating a massive anti-Massie campaign. Why? Because Massie consistently says No to more money to Ukraine and Israel, No to increasing the $38 trillion debt, and for speaking out, i.e. representing his constituents. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was uninvited to a Senate reception recently – Trump at his most petty. Same issue, he won’t increase the debt even though he has a reasonable plan to bring it down. Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and a handful of others take their title “Representative” seriously and receive death threats for it. The majority just go along, forgetting they work for their constituents; not Raytheon, Boeing, Pfizer, et al.

It’s fairly early days, but anyone who has followed the ability of presidents to create change knows that their first year in office, especially before midterm elections, is crucial to making their promises to Americans manifest. I wish him the best and hope that what is really a uni-party system will collapse under its own corrupt weight, and that whatever you call it – the deep state or the blob – will be exposed for their role in making sure that America is never great again and always under their control.

*A note about Adam Swart’s Crowds on Demand. I looked at his website and found this: “We create movements from the ground up. You can request a quote with budgets from $20,000 up to $1 million+. If you need an audience for a speech, concert, store opening, or any other event, we can fill the room with a crowd.” Note: these are most often paid crowds using professional signs, costumes, and transportation. Need some extra money? Sign on with Crowds on Demand or the George Soros funded Antifa patriots and you might be able to quit your dull, boring job.

*A note about Tucker Carlson. He has taken several very brave stands during the past year. I subscribe to his podcast and enjoy most of his shows. His focus is finding the truth and since the American people have been lied to, at least since JFK’s assassination to this very day, I am grateful for new information and a dose of reality. His interview with Rep. Tim Burchett was definitely well worth the nominal cost of subscribing. Here is a quote from a recent show – hardly the words of someone to hate: “Our advice to these groups is simple: take a step back, clear your eyes, and try to get a fresh perspective. Just because you loathe Trump doesn’t mean anything the man ever does warrants impeachment, a prison sentence, or a TikTok rant you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see. Being obsessed with Israel doesn’t mean everything those who disagree say is a dig at Jewish people. Insisting that race is the world’s most important thing doesn’t mean the rest of us think so, too.” He’s paying a high personal price for seeking the truth.

Photo credits: Make a deal – claudio–schwartz, Alligator – matthew essmann.