I've watched every State Of The Union Address since I can remember. Watching last night's address my emotions ranged from sadness, to shock and anger.

Shock comes from what I've seen coming is now here. Last night Trumpers formally declared war against us.

The anger was mainly at the Democrats. Why didn't they show solidarity with Rep. Al Green, D-Texas? Green bravely stood up for what he believed in and was subsequently removed from the chamber.

Democrat Al Green removed from House after interrupting, heckling Trump

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was removed from the House chamber where President Trump was giving his address to a joint session of Congress after the congressman heckled the president early in his speec…

The HillSarah Fortinsky

I kept waiting for more Democrats to follow Green's lead, stand up and be counted. It didn't happen. They just sat there while Trump insulted, berated, and attacked them. A few of them finally walked out and later revealed their "Resist" t-shirts. T-shirts? Really? The best the Democrats can do is print t-shirts? Democrats brought butter knives to a gun battle.

It was infuriating to watch a few Democrats stand and clap during Trump's announcement. Trumpers have zero intention of working with Democrats. Any effort from Democrats to work with Trump normalizes him. Instead, Democrats should be opposing Trump at every step. Maybe those who stood and clapped are following John Fetterman (D-PA) and joining the other side? Why else would they do it?

Watching Trump's announcement was the final signal that our country is now under authoritarian rule, and, Trumpers have formally declared war against Americans.

Ralph Nader on Trump’s Address: “Declaration of War” Against U.S. Public

President Donald Trump delivered the longest presidential address to a joint session of Congress in modern history Tuesday night, laying out his vision for the next four years as he defended his many executive actions to dismantle large portions of the federal government. For an hour and 40 minutes, Trump repeatedly lied and exaggerated his accomplishments and his opponents’ failures, deploying racist and dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, LGBTQ people and his critics. Trump heaped praise on billionaire Elon Musk and his efforts to slash entire government agencies. The speech was “a declaration of war against the American people, including Trump voters, in favor of the super-rich and the giant corporations,” says Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate.

Democracy Now!

The takeover and war formally announced last night is a plan that's been executed to near perfection going back to the early 1900's, culminating with the landmark Citizens United case. Two excellent sources are Jane Mayer's seminal book, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right and David Sirota's Master Plan podcast series. Mayer's book is a page turner, taking the reader back to the roots of the takeover, the early 1900's. Sirota's Master Plan podcast is both entertaining and informative - it picks up the takeover in the early 70's.

Dark Money: Jane Mayer on How the Koch Bros. & Billionaire Allies Funded the Rise of the Far Right

Democrats and Republicans are expected to spend about $1 billion getting their 2016 nominee elected. There’s a third group that will spend almost as much. It’s not a political party, and it doesn’t have any candidates. It’s the right-wing political network backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David Koch, expected to spend nearly $900 million in 2016. The Kochs’ 2016 plans come as part of an effort to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to conservative candidates and causes over the last four decades. The story of the Koch brothers and an allied group of billionaire donors is told in a new book by New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer, “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.” Mayer traces how the Kochs and other billionaires have leveraged their business empires to shape the political system in the mold of their right-wing agenda.

Democracy Now!

Master Plan - The Lever

An investigative podcast series exposing the 50-year plot to legalize corruption in America.

The LeverThe Lever

Central to their plan weren't protests. No. It was winning local and federal elections. Republicans bribed, cheated, and gerrymandered. They won elections by hook or by crook. Now they control us. They'll try to keep control by any means possible.

Last night was evidently clear that Trump's policies are for oligarchs, not us. He's tearing down all that America once was, crashing our country into a brick wall. It's a train wreck.

Americans will lose jobs, savings, equity, and more. Trump is going to get rid of the EPA, corporations will be able to poison the ground at will. If "drill baby drill" does happen, it'll lead to more contamination and fuel the climate crisis. If the factories are built they'll be full of robots, not people. SCOTUS will undoubtedly overturn Obergefull v. Hodges, ending gay marriage. LGBTQ rights will be gone. Trump's Executive Order 14161, titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats” signed on Jan. 20, 2025, and Executive Order 14188, titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” signed on Jan. 29, 2025 are an attack on free speech.

What follows next is admittedly tinfoil hat on. It brings me no pleasure to write. But the signs are all there.

I think Trump wants to cause a train wreck.

The Trump administration is firing anyone who'll tell Trump no, getting rid of judges who aren't Trump loyalists. He's got the SCOTUS in his pocket. He's got the military in his pocket.

At or about the time of the train wreck, Trump will start a war in the Middle East. He's setting it up now - telling Palestinians he's taking their land. Once war starts he'll use the old "you're either with us or against us" pitch (think Iraq War) and martial his brownshirts (think a couple million J6ers) to fight against the civil unrest. The brownshirts will be given orders to create a Reichstag fire like event and make it look like the left was to blame. Then Trump will call in the military against us and blame us for it. Millions will believe him.

Tinfoil hat off.

The only path out of this is winning state and federal elections. Anything else such as protests or printing t-shirts is a waste of effort.

The call to action is for we the people to exert our power by organizing town hall meetings in Colorado and hopefully nationwide where Democratic congressional representatives are summoned to answer questions and are held accountable. Our Democratic congressional representatives will get the message that if they don't do what constituents want, we're going to vote against them. 

What do we want our Democratic representatives to do? How 'bout FDR's New Deal, brought current.

1. A good paying job, good education, good and affordable housing
2. Clean and healthy environment - clean air, food, and water
3. Medicare For All
4. The Open Web
5. Free markets
6. Publicly funded elections
7. Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
8. Economic protection during sickness, accident, old age, or unemployment
9. Department of Peace
10. Legalize Marijuana

How do we get there? How does this citizens group form? Step 1 is not logging onto to X or Meta. Step 2 is getting to town hall meetings where we invest time, money, or both in each other.

It's an incredibly simple plan but it's also incredibly hard.

It's hard because we're hooked on screens and today's social networks - X and Meta. X and Meta are the epitome of enshittified apps. Logging on means being slammed with algo posts designed to inflame or hook us. A bombardment of posts with a zillion likes (so they must be right!), most of which are sock puppets. Group think happens. We end up going down a rabbit holes, hours go by. We convinced ourselves that voting doesn't matter, all politicians are bad, it's hopeless, and a bunch of other lies concocted to keep us comfortably numb. Or, we fell into the hashtag activism trap: bought a t-shirt, joined a zoom call, gave money to some worthless cause and then got spammed, or posted something that no one outside our tiny bubble reads. We went to a protest. Oh gawd, not other fucking protest. All that happened was nothing. We were kept from what really matters, organizing IRL. Exactly that Trumpism wants.

And it's hard because meeting each other IRL, knocking on neighbors doors and calling friends is sort of uncomfortable for a lot of us now.

This is it people. We're either going to say goodbye to America and live under autocratic and theocratic rule, or get out there and start the hard work necessary to win the fight. It's not gonna happen overnight, it's not sexy. But if we keep at it, we'll win.

I hope to see you at Colorado town hall meetings.