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Government by Monsters
The Trump administration sees the rest of humanity as disposable, as dots in a video game, as objects whose death is entertainment, so long as their own luxury and power are secure.
Mar 09, 2026
Across Iran and the Caribbean, President Donald Trump and his lickspittles delight in killing as if people were expendable scenery, not human beings with loved ones and families. Meanwhile, they ignore the death and destruction their fellow psychopath, Russian President Vladimir Putin, rains down on Ukraine every night.
India and America invite Iran to send an UNARMED ship to the Indian Ocean to participate in military exercises, and Trump and Whiskey Pete decided it would be fun to blow it out of the water, leaving over 100 sailors miles from shore, desperate for a rescue. Instead of saving them, as international law requires, we simply left them to drown.
Whiskey Pete called it “quiet death.” In fact, there was a lot of screaming and sobbing, although the bombers couldn’t hear it from 20,000 feet any more than Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could in his drunken haze.
Just like they blew up a boat in the Caribbean and then, when two fishermen survived clinging to a piece of debris and were desperately waving for help, came back with an illegally unmarked plane and blew them into bits of blood and gristle. Another clear violation of international and American law.
Yeah, trauma. It’s what today’s Republicans love, so long as it happens to other people. It’s their drug of choice.
And then they bombed a girl’s school in Iran, killing at least 160 children, and then lied about it while also humble-bragging that “people will die” in their war of choice. As Stephen Nosferatu Miller gleefully announced after the little girls were slaughtered:
What you’re seeing right now… is a military under President Trump’s leadership that is not fighting politically correct. That isn’t fighting with its hands tied behind its back.
And Hegseth bragged:
No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically-correct wars.
When he was asked about the six American soldiers who were killed because Putin is helping Iran target Americans in the region, his reply was disgusting:
When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad.
These are the ghouls who were delighted—thrilled—when masked Immigration enforcement thugs shot Renee Good in the face and Alex Pretti in the back; they then went on TV, giddy, and smeared them to the world. And killed dozens of people so far this year in their concentration camps while delighting in tearing children from their parents.
Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025 who’s gleefully overseen the firing of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, shattering their lives and families while throwing the American government into crisis, apparently gets an erection thinking of them crying themselves to sleep at night worrying about getting thrown out on the street with their children because they can’t pay the rent:
We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down… We want to put them in trauma.
Yeah, trauma. It’s what today’s Republicans love, so long as it happens to other people. It’s their drug of choice.
Vought and Elon Musk’s massive cuts to the federal workforce to pay for tax cuts for billionaires—in this case, laying off thousands from the National Weather Service—meant that families in Michigan had virtually no warning that tornadoes were bearing down on them this past weekend; three people are now dead and a dozen more in the hospital clinging to life.
Of course they weren’t billionaires, so their lives don’t much matter, right? Like the millions who lost their health insurance when the Big Beautiful Bill redirected Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid revenue to tax cuts for the morbidly rich. Or the pregnant women across red states who are dying at more than twice the rate of women in blue states because of misogynistic GOP anti-abortion laws.
Trump, Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Miller, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, et al. think this sort of thing makes them seem “macho” and “tough.” Nearly 90% of Republican voters agree with them.
What it really does is reveal them as psychopaths, the very human embodiment of evil. If they’d been born in a different time or place, they’d be Ted Bundys or Charles Mansons and their GOP followers would be “good Germans” watching with a smile and a salute as the boxcars roll by.
When those six US service members were killed by Iranian retaliation, Trump refused to remove his $50 souvenir hat (available for sale on his website) or bow his head and shrugged, saying: “Sadly, there will likely be more… That’s the way it is.”
Those soldiers are just suckers and losers, after all; they should have had the good sense of the Trump men to complain about bone spurs or simply flee the country to avoid the draft, like Grandpa Drumpf did when Germany kicked him out for refusing to serve.
My dad’s Republican Party—Dwight D. Eisenhower’s and Mitt Romney’s and John McCain’s Republican Party—is long dead and gone, and in its place is a cult built on grievance, paranoia, white supremacy, and a love for authoritarian strongmen.
“War Secretary” Hegseth—with his Crusader cross and Dius Vult slogan tattoos—brags that they’ve “only just begun” putting “narco‑terrorists at the bottom of the ocean,” with no interest in who is actually on board the boats they’re striking. After all, they’re not white people and they’re not rich.
This isn’t the language of leaders reluctantly using force as a last resort; it’s the rhetoric of psychopaths who see the rest of humanity as disposable, as dots in a video game, as objects whose death is entertainment, so long as their own luxury and power are secure.
Elon Musk throws a quarter-billion dollars into the 2024 election to put Trump in the White House and in turn is given an opportunity to kill over a million Black and brown children on the other side of the planet by gutting US Agency for International Development. As Bill Gates noted, it was “the richest man in the world killing the poorest children.”
When a college Republican chat room devolved into a Nazi-loving, Black- and Hispanic-loathing festival of hate, conspiracy theories, and Hitler adoration last week it was just another Thursday. Like Musk giving the Nazi salute—twice—at a Trump rally.
My dad’s Republican Party—Dwight D. Eisenhower’s and Mitt Romney’s and John McCain’s Republican Party—is long dead and gone, and in its place is a cult built on grievance, paranoia, white supremacy, and a love for authoritarian strongmen including Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
They delight in death and destruction. They love the language of blood and gore. They’re monsters.
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Is This Winning? Debunking Trump's Delusional, Demeaning State of the Union
Tyrant Trump turned this event into an egomaniacal showbiz spectacle, handing out awards to soldiers, a rescuer of flood victims, a 100-year-old veteran, and others brought in as props of virtues to cover his embedded vices.
Feb 28, 2026
The FANTASY STATE OF DER FÜHRER TRUMP’S speech turned an already pitiful Congress into a TRUMP DUMP of self-adulation, debasing the historic purpose of the annual State of the Union address. President Donald Trump spewed one hour and 48 minutes of nonstop repetition and canned lies about “the golden age” of America, and claimed that in just one year, his presidency has “achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages.” (Standing ovation by his GOP supplicants.)
Trump’s “turnaround” has orchestrated the corporate hijacking of the federal government, its people-protection agencies, and the federal workforce. Each day, he illegally plunges our country further into a deeper, more violent dictatorship. He has shattered our Constitution and serially violated the rule of law he swore to uphold.
Tyrant Trump turned this event into an egomaniacal showbiz spectacle, handing out awards to soldiers, a rescuer of flood victims, a 100-year-old veteran, and others brought in as props of virtues to cover his embedded vices.
Trump’s tirade was his usual grab-bag—full of delusions about his past greatness and illusions about the coming glorious future for Americans. Bereft of shame, he repeats lies that the media have corrected. The Associated Press published a story titled “FACT FOCUS: A Look at Trump’s False and Misleading Claims in His State of the Union Speech” the same night so many lies gushed from his foul MOUTH.
Shuddering with anxiety, dread, and fear are millions of Americans who may lose their Medicaid insurance to help pay for Trump’s tax favors for the Plutocrats. Who are the winners in this scenario?
Despite the media repeatedly correcting the record when Trump slanders his opponents with words perfectly applicable to him, he continues defaming those who challenge his lawless actions and fabricated charges. He sticks to his racist vilifying of impoverished immigrants over our Southern border, ignoring, as do all presidents, our historical backing of dictators and oligarchs who oppress and starve their own people, many of whom become asylum-seekers.
A segment from the State of the Union illustrates how Trump demeaned the seriousness of the assemblage by combining his monstrous juvenile ego with inappropriate frivolity:
Our country is winning again. In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it. People are asking me:
“Please, please, please, Mr. President, we’re winning too much: we can’t take it anymore. We’re not used to winning in our country. Until you came along, we were just always losing, but now we are winning too much.” And I say, “No, no, no, you’re going to win again. You’re going to win big. You’re going to win bigger than ever.” And to prove that point, here with us is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud. The men’s goldmedal Olympic Hockey team, come on in.
He then meandered on and on about the team’s play.
One of Trump’s favorite epithets perfectly applies to him: “A ‘deranged’ distractor,” trivializing the plight of half of the American people who are losing ground in the desperate struggle to escape poverty in the world’s richest country, controlled by the few over the many.
These include 25 million American workers held down by Trump’s refusal to push for raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour. The United States has the lowest minimum wage in the Western world. Is this Winning?
Tens of millions of Americans are at risk of losing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance (formerly known as food stamps), whose budget was cut by Trump and GOP legislation last year to help pay for his tax cuts for the already under-taxed super rich and big corporations. Are these people Winning?
Elon Musk’s Tesla corporation made $5.7 billion in US profits last year and paid ZERO federal income tax. One Tesla worker alone sends more tax dollars to the US Treasury than did the Tesla corporation and probably its boss. Musk was the architect of the illegal, criminal, Trumpian DOGE rampage that closed or strip-mined federal agencies mandated to protect the health, safety, and economic rights of American consumers and workers. Is letting corporate polluters, corporate crooks, and huge tax evaders wreak havoc on America Winning?
Shuddering with anxiety, dread, and fear are millions of Americans who may lose their Medicaid insurance to help pay for Trump’s tax favors for the Plutocrats. Who are the winners in this scenario?
Are the elderly losing their Meals on Wheels winners? Are the little children losing Head Start winners? Are the scientists shut out by Trump from working to prepare our country for coming pandemics and the rising violence of climate disruption winning? Remember, NBC reported that in 2020, “President Donald Trump accused Democrats of ‘politicizing’ the deadly coronavirus during a campaign rally here on Friday, claiming that the outbreak is ‘their new hoax’ as he continued to downplay the risk in the US.” Trump has repeatedly downplayed the impact of Covid-19. No one wins when a President ignores serious outbreaks of viruses and contagious diseases, resulting in tens of thousands of preventable fatalities.
The Congressional GOP knew ahead of time of Trump’s “circus barker” performance. As the hosts, they could have urged him to provide a serious and truthful presentation of the State of the Union and saved his presentation of wandering, egotistical commentary and lies for a political rally. Instead, they gave him or the people he mentioned several standing ovations, shouting “USA, USA, USA.” Tragically, the GOP majority in Congress is rubber-stamping Trump’s policies and allowing him to weaken our domestic defenses against economic, environmental, and health threats in ways we have never seen before.
When co-belligerent Trump got to the Israeli genocide of hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinian babies, children, women, and men, he focused on the recovery of the remaining bodies of the Israeli hostages under the rubble. He made no mention of the tens of thousands of Gazans violently killed by US weapons, whose bodies are still under the rubble, and who were not recovered for burial.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues with impunity to break the ceasefire violently because Trump fears what Netanyahu may have on him in Israeli intelligence files.
It was past 11:00 pm ET when the 12-minute Democratic response was delivered by the new Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger. She accused Trump in strong, succinct language of corruption at the highest levels of Trump’s regime and of making life for the people harder, more expensive, and fearful.
What the governor failed to do was make the affirmative case for an authentic Democratic Party COMPACT FOR AMERICA, answering the venerable question: “Whose Side Are You On?” She could have said the Democrats stand for a living wage, Medicare for all, restoring taxes on the super rich, an authentic child tax credit cutting child poverty in half, cracking down on corporate crooks stealing big time from consumers and workers, and transitioning from a bloated military budget of a fossil-fueled Empire to building public works and installing renewable energy for communities across the land.
Once again, the Democrats blew an opportunity to persuade voters that the Democratic party is going TO STAND FOR THE PEOPLE in the critical November election.
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Blueprint For Solidarity: Community Organizations Build the Public Good
In the shadow of federal failure, there’s a hopeful truth emerging in cities and states across our country: When communities act in solidarity, they can reclaim government and transform it to serve the people.
Feb 27, 2026
Our government should make life better for all people. Local and federal elected leaders should ensure we all have enough to eat, a roof over our heads, the opportunity to learn and grow, and access to care when needed.
Instead, Congress cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and nearly $200 billion from food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), while committing a staggering $85 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This administration has chosen to fund fear over food, detention over dignity, and the interests of billionaires over the well-being of working people.
In the shadow of this federal failure, there’s a hopeful truth emerging in cities and states across our country: When communities act in solidarity, they can reclaim government and transform it to serve the people.
This is evident in the work of countless community organizations, including Chicago-based Equity and Transformation (EAT). EAT creates space for working people across race and language to take action to advance collective worker safety and justice.
Housing, public transportation, public schools, healthcare, and food are the foundations of a dignified life, and must be guaranteed for all.
Thanks in large part to EAT’s community organizing, Cook County has established permanent funding for guaranteed income. This vital work can serve as a protective non-carceral form of community support that addresses some of the economic harm and exclusion EAT’s members face. Especially for communities disproportionately harmed by the violence of policing, a basic guaranteed income can provide material stability that helps ensure essential needs, healthcare, housing, and food are not trade-offs, and that acts as a buffer against criminalization and the trauma of overpolicing.
Now, EAT is scaling its Cook County win, leading a statewide campaign for a permanent guaranteed income program that would support all SNAP-eligible households. The Illinois Future Fund Act would direct 25% of cannabis tax revenue toward direct cash assistance of $500 per month to SNAP-eligible residents in communities disproportionately impacted by decades of drug war policing. If passed, this legislation would be a step toward progress and show Illinois's commitment to using public resources to make people’s lives better.
A Blueprint for a Government That Works for All of Us
We are clear about what's at stake at this moment and what leaders are being asked to do. Leaders of community organizing groups are being asked to meet the pressing needs of their members as services and benefits are cut, fight government overreach as police and ICE target their neighbors, and continue demonstrating that solidarity is central to building the country we want.
Marguerite Casey Foundation is committed to staying in lockstep with grant recipients like EAT and remaining clear about the role of funders supporting grassroots leadership as their communities create a new blueprint for how the government should work.
So, how can we scale this solidarity through the work of community organizing groups and ensure policy choices improve the lives of residents?
1. Create a universe of public goods that belong to all of us. Housing, public transportation, public schools, healthcare, and food are the foundations of a dignified life, and must be guaranteed for all. We have seen global proof that access to public goods reduces poverty and precarity. It’s time our public dollars are used for the public good across our country.
2. Hold corporations and lawmakers that are exploiting our communities accountable. Those who make policies that starve our schools, close our hospitals, and detain our loved ones always find another billion dollars for corporate subsidies and surveillance giveaways. We must create penalties for those who are stealing from the poorest and whose fortunes are built on systems of harm.
3. Continuously practice a politics of solidarity. For Marguerite Casey Foundation, acting in solidarity means using our endowment to surge funds to frontline groups like EAT. Philanthropy’s resources are meant for moments like this. For EAT, it means organizing not just for services but for the power to define and deliver on solutions.
How to Help Build Solidarity Through Community Organizing
If you are a funder, building real solidarity means moving beyond transactional grantmaking. Funders must support bold and creative actions, not only by funding larger efforts but by standing with our partners when they take risks to protect their communities. Solidarity also requires us to bring more than money to the table. We should leverage all of our resources, from our extensive networks to our role as institutional investors, and be intentional about activating those assets in ways that generate momentum to meet the urgency of this moment.
If you are a nonprofit leader, ask for what you need and refuse to settle. Urge funders to meet this moment with courage and capital to fuel the bold experimentation needed. Can they give more, commit to multiyear grants, frontload payments, reduce reporting hurdles, provide no-interest loans, or organize pooled funds with their colleagues in philanthropy to raise the resources needed to fully fund your initiatives?
And if you’re not a funder or nonprofit leader, find an organization to support with your money, time, and talent.
Local organizations building community power are mapping a new way forward in these dark times. They are proving that the government can and must keep its promise to improve people’s lives—to be a means to collective thriving. Nonprofits, funders, and community members, acting in solidarity, can make this promise real.
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