Socialism Is Not Communism

Socialism is not communism (the far-right's boogeyman). It is not a dictatorship like the USSR, where everything is state-owned.

Democratic Socialism is capitalism with social programs where needed, such as Social Security, Universal Healthcare, public utilities, police, fire, highways, roads, the EPA, OSHA, the FAA, the SEC, and public education.

Today's Republicans want a profit-driven, unregulated, unfair, unjust, monopolistic, theocratic, oppressive, fascist corporatocracy where corporations and the wealthy gouge consumers and create an ever-widening income disparity.

Democratic Socialism is not Socialism. It's Capitalism with economic Socialism only where it makes sense. It's not nationalizing anything. Take health care as an example. No hospitals, clinics, medical device manufacturing, etc. are seized. If ownership changes, it's by purchase. Only the financing changes. Single-payer. Taxpayer-funded to spread costs. The US is the only Western industrialized nation without universal health care. Here, millions of people lack health insurance coverage. Health insurance is expensive and has deductibles, co-pays, coverage gaps, yearly or lifetime limits, and capricious coverage denials that call treatments experimental or unneeded, or cite missing preauthorization or undisclosed conditions such as teenage acne.

The SAVE Act currently being debated disenfranchises any woman whose name currently does not match their current name. Any changes, such as those related to marriage, must be documented at the voter's expense. Passports can only be used as proof of eligibility in five northern states. Instances of non-citizen voting are almost nonexistent. Want to cast a provisional vote (convicted felons can legally vote in some states, which can create uncertainty at the polls)? Be prepared to be convicted of voter fraud for casting a provisional vote.

Democratic Progressives are concerned with workers' rights, consumer protections, environmental safeguards, financial protections, an end to predatory loans, a stop to monopolies that eliminate competition, a fair (instead of an unregulated "free" cheaters-always-prosper) market, non-profit justice, and a halt to the gutting of public education.

LGBTQIA? There are many genetic exceptions to simplistic binary XX/XY. An XY individual can develop as female without ever being aware of their condition. There are females who grow a penis at age 12. There are people with both male and female genitalia, and people who have no attraction to either sex. It's a spectrum, not a dichotomy.

Gender-affirming medical surgeries on children are not performed without a critical underlying necessity, and usually involve correcting defects, not sex changes. Transsexuals undergo hormone treatments to make their bodies align more with their innate sense of gender.

Republicans are so concerned about freedom, yet they want to regulate bedroom privacy. 

Roe v. Wade was based on the Right to Privacy. The Ninth Amendment said that rights are not limited to those enumerated in the Constitution, and the 1965 case (Griswold v. Connecticut) specifically referred to the Right to Privacy. However, the Roe v. Wade decision based their ruling on the 14th Amendment. They ruled that abortions are restricted on the basis of which trimester fetal development occurred. Republicans claim that Democrats want unlimited abortions, an absurd belief, rather than a return to Roe v. Wade. Trump's nominees to SCOTUS claimed that Roe v. Wade was settled law, then ruled against it, with Clarence Thomas citing that the Right to Privacy was not a Constitutional right. Many other SCOTUS rulings are based on that Right to Privacy, including interracial marriages (sorry, Clarence).

Your comment says that Democrats:

 *Value all illegals over U.S. citizens.
 *Diversity over merit. 
 *Defend our far-left extreme partisan press.
 *Support putting W.O.K.E. values into the military.
 *Abuse anyone who believes differently.
 *Spend trillions on inefficient green energy science.
 *Apply overbearing regulations and flawed climate change.

I don't know where you get these delusions. Look at the Constitution. Due Process is not limited to citizens. Diversity does not supersede merit. Extreme partisan press? Like Fox News? Ever heard of the First Amendment?

Wokeness:

• Read books and don't burn them
• Embrace science
• Willing to change your mind when new information becomes available
• Understand that most issues are not black and white
• Believe in true equality for all people
• Have empathy
• Embrace cooperation
• Respect others' rights
• Believe culture and the arts have value
• Care for the planet

Equality is not about dumbing down or rewarding everyone. Equality is about fairness (recognizing hard work and not placing obstacles in people's paths), being non-racist, non-discriminatory, non-misogynistic, and non-greedy (workers should share in productivity gains and be paid living wages so they can actually afford consumer spending).

Being patriotic is about deeds, not empty words, slogans, or waving guns. It's about caring for our country and improving it. 

Abuse people whose beliefs differ? Don't like free speech? Have you actually listened to Trump?

Inefficient Green Science? Gee, sorry for wanting clean air, clean water, clean soil, and caring for our planet (there is no Planet B).

Overbearing regulation? As opposed to complete deregulation? Wanting a fair playing field instead of a free playing field?

Flawed climate change? I guess not wanting a massive increase in destructive storms, sea level rise, and mass extinctions is woke?

Remember CRT? Critical Race Theory? It's a law school subject, not a primary or college subject. It's critical in the sense of examination of important points or applications, not criticism. Trying to imply indoctrination of K-12 students is a complete fabrication. It's an attempt to redefine CRT as something evil.

The Democratic coalition is ascendant no more

Replying to the following comment:

username Voter ID

Key values of the Demo-Social-Commie Party:   *Yield to DSA, Socialism, and Communism *Raise taxes while providing less to taxpayers  *Support Gender-affirming care incl/surgery for children.  *Abortions from conception to infinity.  *Exclude equal rights in women's sports.  *Oppose voter ID to protect Demo-Social-Commie votes.  *Penalize 88% of U.S. citizenry w/Universal health care for all.  *Resume having no oversight to subsidized housing.  *Believe: We are a nation of immigrants not “citizens.” *Value all illegals over U.S. citizens.  *Diversity over merit.  *Defend our far-left extreme partisan press. *Support putting W.O.K.E. values into the military. *Abuse any who believe different. *Spend billions on inefficient green energy science. *Apply overbearing regulations and flawed climate change. *Be a hypocrite.

SCOTUS Impeachments and The Right To Privacy

To remove federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices, requires impeachment by the House followed by a Senate trial, with a removal from office requiring a 2/3s vote.

We've seen how Republicans view impeachments, so this doesn't look like it will happen.

US Constitution, Article III, Section 1:

"The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,…

It's not just the ethical violations and lies in their confirmation hearings of some of the Justices. It's also the dismantling of established laws.

The 9th Amendment ensures that there are more rights than those in the Bill of Rights. The 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Amendments all concerned the right to privacy from the government. All of those Amendments were also made applicable to States through the 14th Amendment.

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The 9th Amendment:

  Stops assumptions: Prevents the government from claiming that unlisted rights do not exist just because they are not on paper.

  Protects hidden rights: Safeguards fundamental human rights like privacy, travel, or personal choices that are not directly written down.

  Limits power: Keeps the federal government from assuming it has total power over areas not mentioned in the first eight amendments.

Roe v Wade was based on a right to privacy from the government. In his concurring ruling overturning Roe v Wade, Justice Thomas said what the majority ruling danced around, that the Justices were overturning the guarantee of the Right to Privacy.

There are a handful of other laws which are based on the right to privacy which are now in danger.

The right to privacy is at the heart of

 1. The right to marry whomever you choose, be it interracial or same-sex.

 2. (1963) Married couples had a right to privacy when attempting to obtain birth control (a later ruling extended that right to individuals).

 3. Allowing you to homeschool your children or send them to a private or religious school.

 4. HIPPA laws regarding your medical records.

The fix for the Supreme Court may come down to expanding the number of Justices via a Democrat majority in Congress.

Social Security is Self-Funded

Social Security is supposed to be separate by law. Social Security isn't the government's biggest expense. It's not an expense in the federal budget (do people who say it is ever point out Social Security's revenues?). Social Security is self-funded.

Social Security is financed through taxes on workers and interest on the Treasury Bonds held in the Trust Fund.

For employees, half of their taxes are paid through the employer. Those taxes are based on gross income. Paying half via employers makes that part tax-exempt for employees. If companies did not handle half of the contributions, workers would have to pay the full 12.4% in the same way that self-employed people do.

The "employer" contribution is not a company's money; it's a cost of employing someone. If the business doesn't pay, that money rightfully belongs to employees so they can pay Social Security taxes.

The Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund are not instruments of theft. The Trust Fund was built up to handle fewer workers contributing less during the Baby Boomer retirements.

If Social Security redeems a Bond, the Treasury simply sells a Bond to someone else. The National Debt is financed through the sale of Bonds. Who buys them does not matter.

Social Security was supposed to be kept 100% funded for 75 years. Today, it's only fully funded for 6 years. Blame Congress for failing to adjust tax rates and salary caps to keep it funded. Congress has been fully aware of this situation for decades.

The GOP is ideologically opposed to government programs that are non-profit. Wall Street wants a cut, so a "crisis" was manufactured to force privatization.

Stop treating Social Security as a budget expense, and stop trying to say Congress already stole the Trust Fund.

The wealthy pay a minuscule amount to Social Security because of Salary Caps on income subject to those taxes. Raise the caps high enough to address the crisis. Congress created the problem by failing to adjust caps as needed. Make the rich pay their fair share, and blame Congress, not Social Security.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sn292b/

Autocracy Index - It's Worse Than You Think

Letters to my ND US Representative and Senators

If this is your idea of a functioning democracy with three separate but equal branches and more than one political party, I present to you this recent article. I’m hoping this has more of an impact on you than all the various, almost-continuous crises and horrors have. 

---

From the New York Times, May 14, 2026 (same information without graphics)

THE AUTOCRACY INDEX - 12 MARKERS OF DEMOCRATIC EROSION

0 is baseline Democracy for both parties before Trump (flaws included)

10 is a full Autocracy

5: Bypassing the legislature

4: Stifling speech and dissent

5: Persecuting political opponents

2: Defying the courts

5: Declaring false emergencies

2: Using the military at home

6: Vilifying marginalized groups

2:Controlling information

2:Trying to take over universities

6: Creating a cult of personality

7: Using power for personal profit

0: Manipulating the law to stay in power [only Trump?]

Background and methodology: The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that a leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an election and hold power. Once that stage is reached, however, the change is extremely difficult to reverse.

The 12 benchmarks in this editorial offer a way to understand how much Mr. Trump is eroding American democracy. The categories are based on interviews with legal scholars, political scientists, historians, and other democracy experts. The ratings come from the New York Times editorial board. In our 0-to-10 scales, zero represents roughly where the United States, flawed though it was, had been under presidents of both parties prior to Mr. Trump. Ten represents the condition in a true authoritarian state.

Moving even one notch toward autocracy is a worrisome sign.

---

From:

Keith B Wilson, Age 69, on Social Security

Sent by Mail to:

Julie Fedorchak, R-ND, U.S. House

John Hoeven, R-ND, U.S. Senate

Kevin Cramer, R-ND, U.S. Senate

Letter to Trygve Hammer, ND Democrat candidate for U.S. House re Social Security

STOP Congress from adjusting Social Security benefits and retirement ages!!!

Social Security funding is a manufactured crisis. Instead of fixing the revenue problem, Republicans keep trying to adjust expenses. 40+ years of underfunding to force privatization was a deliberate choice. And Democrats let it happen.

Here's a thought. Congress broke it, so Congress must fix it. Not with a hairbrained, corrupt plan to lower or cap benefits or raise retirement ages. Try fixing the revenue side of the equation. Social Security is supposed to be fully funded for 75 years. What has Congress done? Allowed full funding to fall to only 6 years. Didn't our representatives swear an oath to the Constitution?

Stop punishing beneficiaries. Let's raise the caps on incomes subject to Social Security enough to fix THEIR mess. Not the payroll tax rates. The caps on income. Let the RICH pay 12.4% on a greater share of their gross income. Enough to expand the benefits that Republicans have purposely screwed with. Enough to change the retirement age back to 65. People in their 60s experience a second period of rapid aging (the first occurs in their 40s). Why should old people be forced to work sicker and weaker than they've ever been?

Quick notes:

Social Security is not the government’s biggest expense. SOCIAL SECURITY IS SELF-FUNDED and is supposed to be separate by law (but those surpluses made budgets look better). Surpluses have been deposited into the Trust Fund through the purchase of interest-bearing Treasury Bonds. Congress did not steal from Social Security. The Treasury sells bonds to finance the National Debt. If Social Security redeems bonds, the Treasury will simply sell bonds to someone else. Bonds are not instruments of theft.

Plus, the Trust Fund was built up to finance baby boomer retirements during the period when there would be fewer workers paying payroll taxes. The Trust Fund was expected to be drawn down. Fewer workers were planned for. Drawing from the Trust Fund does not mean Social Security is in the red.

As far as companies contributing 6.2% to Social Security, that is a cost of doing business. If companies didn’t pay, the money would rightfully go to workers directly so that they could pay the full 12.4% (same as self-employed). It’s not company money. It’s a way to make that 6.2% tax-free for workers (and less of a shock regarding payroll deductions).

I’ve been writing to my representatives about this mess since at least 2011. It would be nice if Democrats could get a greater understanding of the facts. Hopefully, you can do better!

Sincerely, 

Keith Bryan Wilson
wilsonkeith962@gmail.com

Social Security is in a Manufactured Crisis

A letter to my North Dakota US House and Senate representatives.

For the last 40 years, the GOP has underfunded Social Security, so now the 75-year full funding is down to 10 years! Payroll tax adjustments and taxable salary caps have not kept revenues in line with expenses. 

What have Republicans advocated and enacted? Benefit cuts and the raising of retirement ages! All part of the plan to eventually privatize Social Security (and a return to the time of poorhouses). 

Survivors' benefits and disability coverage? In the for-profit marketplace? 20% overhead instead of 2%. You continue sabotaging the most successful anti-poverty program ever. Because of GREED. Because you are ideologically opposed to programs that don't generate a profit.

Here's a thought. You broke it, so you fix it. Not with a hairbrained, corrupt plan to cap benefits (more on that below). Try fixing the revenue side of the equation. 

Let's raise the caps on incomes subject to Social Security enough to fix YOUR mess. Enough to expand benefits that you have purposely screwed with. Enough to change the retirement age back to 65, so old people aren't being forced to work sicker and weaker than they've ever been. People in their 60s go through a second period of rapid aging (the first occurs in their 40s).

Oh, and company execs who think their half of Social Security tax payments are theirs? That's BS! It's the cost of employing people. Eliminate that, and they damn well better be prepared to give that money to workers so they can pay the full 12.4% tax themselves, the same way self-employed people do. Out of their no longer tax-exempt 6.2% pay increase, of course.

I don't want to hear any more excuses and lies. Social Security is separate by law! You call Social Security the federal budget's biggest expense. It's SELF-FUNDED! It's not a budget expense at all! Social Security contributes not one dime to federal budget deficits or the National Debt. 

Those interest-bearing guaranteed Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund were bought with surplus revenues. If Social Security didn't buy them, the Treasury would have had to sell them to someone else to cover its borrowing. Social Security, with its almost $3 trillion Trust Fund (to fund Baby Boomer retirements), is not broke. 

As your constituent, and someone whose only income is Social Security, I’m here to warn you of a new scheme hatched by millionaires and billionaires to trick you into further cutting Social Security. They call it a "Six Figure Limit" proposal that would cap Social Security benefits at $50,000 per person. This scheme, backed by Wall Street billionaires, would not keep pace with inflation—gradually transforming Social Security from an earned benefit into a poverty-level program that hurts younger generations most of all, while billionaire elites hoard even more wealth. That's assuming the program has not yet been privatized.

The real solution is not cutting middle-class benefits, but making billionaires pay their fair share. Social Security should be expanded to reflect the rising costs seniors face, not undermined to protect corporate profits and tax loopholes.

I demand that you reject any proposal to cap Social Security benefits and instead support legislation that expands Social Security by requiring the wealthy to pay in at the same rate as the rest of us, enough to fix your manufactured crisis. 

It's called Social Responsibility. There has to be a balance between Social Responsibility and Individual Responsibility. I know that's anathema to Republicans. Grow up.

To Kevin Cramer, ND Senator

 To Kevin Cramer, ND Senator

4/10/2026

The SAVE Act is a flawed solution to a non-existent problem. Why don't you look at the actual facts about the miniscule rate of non-citizen voting before enacting voter suppression legislation.

Disenfranchising up to 20 million women voters.

Your solution requires women to provide copies of birth certificates along with documentation of any name changes, including a change because of marriage. This is time and money designed to be required of likely Democrat voters.

May I ask why someone was convicted of voter fraud for casting a provisional ballot--a ballot explicitly designed to not count the ballot unless any issues (such as can a former felon in that state vote) are resolved?

Dead people voting? Because of outdated software, some missing birthdates in old data sets still had default data entered which then got translated to showing that people were 150 years old. This was cited as PROOF that dead people were voting.

Your party leader made up stories of bus-loads of illegal immigrants voting, some of whom would go out, put on a fake mustache, and go back in and cast another ballot. There are already procedures in place to prevent such nonsense.

And mail-in ballots? Trump's first-term Postmaster General sabotaged mail-sorting machines to delay mail-in ballots. And now Trump wants to eliminate mail-in voting. Some precincts have every ballot as mail-in. I used mail-in because of a disability in a district that eventually changed to all mail-in voting.

Limiting voting machines and locations to create lines that are so long that they prevent people voting in time. Purging voter rolls. Publishing materials with wrong voting dates. Fake ballot drop-off boxes. A demand that elections be run federally. All voter suppression ploys. 

Did you know that before the 2020 election, Trump said that after most voting machine ballots were counted, and before mail-in votes were tallied (taking longer because they don't get counted until election day), he would declare victory (the Red Mirage) and then cry fraud when the totals turned against him? This was before the election!

The SAVE Act is just another in a long line of cheating to win elections.

So, no, your response doesn't fit reality. Look at the data. Look at what you're demanding of voters. Look at the cheating you just voted for.

By the way, how's the National Debt reduction going? 

How's the demonizing of LGBT+ going? Passages in the Bible about pedophilia being mistranslated to be about homosexuality makes it easier, doesn't it? 

Your religion concerns your behavior. Pretending it extends to everyone else is delusional. Try using scientific findings. I bet you don't know that XY individuals can have female bodies because of known genetic defects? Sex and gender are spectrums. They are not limited by a single binary gene on one single chromosome. I'm pushing 70 and even I know better.

Letter to My Rep, Gays, Ideology, and HR 7661

 Letter to Julie Fedorchak, US House Representative for North Dakota, 3/23/2026

REJECT HR 7661: Stop the National Assault on Public Education, and Other Observations

Gay kids read hundreds of books about straight kids, and remain gay. But you're afraid if Daniel reads one book about gay kids, he's going to wake up tomorrow and ask Brad to the prom. 

Your religion governs your behavior. Not mine. If you think the Old Testament laws should apply, why don't you advocate white slavery and eschew the wearing of jewelry?

I thought Republicans were all about freedom. Right. The freedom to go without unpolluted food, air, water, and soil. The freedom to work two or three jobs to earn a living. The freedom to have someone else decide which books you can read. The freedom to go bankrupt because of medical bills. The freedom from scientific truths. The freedom to die when an abortion could have saved one's life. The freedom to not be able to marry the consenting adult that you love. The freedom to not be able to bargain collectively with fellow workers at one's job. The freedom to be deported without due process by people who write and execute their own "administrative" warrants. The freedom to helplessly witness the GOP enabling a racist, misogynistic, vitriolic dictator who wants to abolish the Constitution as he rewrites history.

The GOP advocates the abandonment of any Social Responsibility in favor of a cynical ideology of Personal Responsibility, instead of a balance between them.

If you like ruthless authoritarian governments with unaccountable, murderous secret police and loss of individual rights, why don't you move to Russia or North Korea?

Lastly, I am writing to demand that you vote NO on HR 7661. This legislation is a dangerous, nationalized vehicle for book banning that threatens the very existence of our public school system.

By weaponizing federal funding, HR 7661 attempts to blackmail schools into adopting the bigoted, reactionary dogma of groups like "Moms for Liberty." This bill effectively erases LGBTQ+ students and replaces professional educational standards with partisan indoctrination. It is a financial hit job designed to starve schools that refuse to comply with extremist censorship.

Do not allow federal policy to destroy the lives of American children. Support intellectual freedom and vote against this overreach.

Letter To My House Representative

Letter to Julie Fedorchak, North Dakota House Representative, 1/17/2025:

Trump said, “I may do that for Greenland too. I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that."

Tariffs are strictly a function of the House, as are appropriations. It is Congress' job to legislate.

The president's job is to execute the laws passed by Congress. Usurping Congress' role is unconstitutional. Trump had his chance to veto their legislation; he can't change his mind down the road.

Stephen Miller, the Deputy Chief of Staff and the architect of separation of families at the border (how many children were never returned?) is assisting Trump in following the Nazi playbook. Look it up.

When are you going to impeach this would-be dictator and saddle us with his VP?

Gestapo in our streets, retribution and the demonizing of anyone who opposes his views, attacks on Blue States, constant threats and insults, the sowing of chaos and terror and despair and misery, throwing out due process and the freedom of the press and religion, malicious prosecutions, acts of war, war crimes, imperial acts of aggression against other nations, blackmailing of Zelensky, whitewashing history, imposition of religious ideas of binary gender, halting cancer and other research, crippling of agencies that serve the public. That's just a small list of Trump's warped actions.

America has had progress set back decades and generations. Clinton was impeached because of a bj, and you don't think there are sufficient grounds to impeach Trump? Do your job!

The Big BS Bill of 2025

To Michelle Fischbach (R-MN7):

(Subject Category: Law) 

As a Minnesota District constituent, I urge you to vote NO on the so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ and to encourage all of your colleagues to do the same. We should be helping people get health insurance, not kicking 17 million off. We should ensure families have enough to eat, not yanking food out of their mouths. And we should make sure that millionaires and billionaires stop taking more than their fair share, not giving them even more riches.

And there are so many other massive problems with this bill. Stop enabling the lunatics in the White House. Stop the gutting of the middle class and the consumers that businesses rely on. 

Crippling Social Security (the biggest single senior anti-poverty program that has operated successfully for 90 years and which is separate by law from the federal budget, adding not one dime to the National Debt), firing hundreds of thousands of essential federal workers, throwing tens of thousands of veterans out of work, and trashing the EPA, USAID, National Park Service, IRS, DOJ, FEMA, the VA, CDC, Education, Civil Rights, and many other departments. The new Secret Police (ICE). Attacking the rule of law, individual judges, law firms, attorneys, and members of Congress. The wholesale exposure of citizens' private data. The direct taxation of consumers with levies on imports (it's levies on exports that are paid by foreign entities!). 

Stop the fascist takeover and the gutting of the Constitution that you swore an Oath to defend (the Constitution, not the wannabe dictator and authoritarian felon in the White House). You are supposed to strike a balance between the needs of business and those of individuals. Not turn this country into a banana republic. 

Thank you,

Keith Wilson

Wendell, MN (Minnesota's 7th Congressional District) 

Vote NO on the GENIUS Act

 To: MN senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar

I urge you to vote NO on the GENIUS Act.

One of the schemes I've read about is to replace the Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund with cryptocurrency, with the added bonus that it can't be redeemed for 20 years. That money was put aside to handle the shortages due to baby boomer retirements. Trashing it means that only 80% of benefits can be paid. 

The GOP keeps trying to cut benefits and raise retirement ages instead of adjusting SocSec tax rates and salary caps. Social Security is currently only 100% funded for 10 years instead of the 75-year full funding it's supposed to have (it's a manufactured crisis). Their crypto scheme would drop full funding to zero years.

I’m a Wendell, Minnesota resident. It's a town of 167 people. I’m retired and my only income is Social Security. Trump and the GOP are in the process of destroying Social Security because, one, they don't make any profit from it, and two, companies think their 6.2% Social Security tax contribution on behalf of employees is their money. (Try getting employers to give it to employees so that workers could pay the full 12.4% tax.)

This “genius” bill would legitimize and deregulate private “stablecoins,” effectively giving corporations, tech billionaires, and even Donald Trump the power to mint their own currencies. 

The GENIUS Act gives the Crypto Industry exactly what they want: Bank powers, without bank rules. It lets corporations create private currencies, overlooks existential risk to our financial system, and even includes a loophole to bypass U.S. law by allowing for registering overseas first.

If it passed, the bill would strip away financial safeguards we all rely on.

The GENIUS Act is not about financial innovation, it is about creating a system ripe for crypto scams. 

Stop this reckless bill. Vote NO. 

Sincerely,

 

Keith Wilson

2025 Budget Reconciliation Bill plus Republican Offenses

 To Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach (MN-07),

This week, the House of Representatives passed their budget reconciliation bill, a hodgepodge of policies that would kick 13.7 million people off their health insurance and give millionaires and billionaires trillions in tax breaks. You voted for this and claimed that your constituents, in no uncertain terms, wanted the 2017 tax cuts to be permanent. How much did you tell them they would get (and lose) compared to what the wealthy would gain? Or did you just tell them what they would get?

If this bill passes the Senate, it would be the largest Medicaid cut AND the largest tax cut for the wealthy in history. Then, as it goes into effect, it would trigger the largest across-the-board Medicare cut in history, too.

This is corruption on a massive scale. How much in campaign contributions did you get? How many attack ads against your Democrat opponents were paid for by wealthy PACs supposedly not connected to your campaign?

Republicans are big on “Individual Responsibility” and 0% for “Social Responsibility.” And this bill is just more of the same. Gutting of the EPA, the Education Department, USAID, the IRS, and more. Let’s get back to the days of rivers catching on fire.

A few of the recent actions of Republicans:

• Deportation and Detention of Student Protesters and Foreign Scholars.

• Denial of Due Process and sending people to foreign prisons.

• Executive Actions Targeting Colleges and Universities.

• Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms.

• Stripping Power from Independent Regulatory Agencies.

• DOGE Access to Government Payment Systems.

• Executive Order Freezing Federal Grant Funding--affecting public health, education, small businesses, infrastructure projects, and funding for everything from infrastructure projects to lifesaving medical research at St. Jude, UTHSC, and other institutions. Killing cancer research? Really?

• Executive Order Ending Birthright Citizenship.

• Illegal mass termination of probationary federal employees. That should help efficiency.

• Termination of employment for 80,000 Veterans.

• Trashing the Social Security System as part of the decades-long effort to privatize it (read: profits). A program running for 89 years that has been instrumental in cutting senior poverty and ending poorhouses. What happens to SSI, Disability, and survivors’ benefits? It’s not just retirement. Note that Social Security is not part of the Federal Budget and the National Debt. Cutting benefits and raising retirement ages do not impact either.

• Letting the Executive Branch illegally assume duties specifically allocated to Congress.

• Arrest and intimidation of members of the Judicial Branch (coequal with Congress and the Executive branches).

• Publicly insulting and trashing visiting Foreign heads of State

This doesn’t even touch on Congressional insider trading (that sent Martha Stewart to prison).

An Update from Rep. Michelle Fischbach

Tracking the Trump Administration's Harmful Executive Actions

Keith Wilson, retired

Resident of Minnesota’s 7th district

525 Dybdal Street

Wendell, MN  56590-0123

Rep. Fischbach sides with Trump and Russia

Trump's lies and incompetence don't inspire confidence. Wake up and serve your constituents, not the chaos-causing oligarchs. It's bad enough that the people who write the laws exempt themselves from prohibitions against insider trading.

One of us is in denial of reality. Do you think Trump's hatchet to the federal government and his plans to privatize (make it for-profit) benefit us? 

How about his plans to gut Social Security (with a 50-year low in employee numbers), starting with firing employees and cutting regional offices? He's already fired government inspectors that were focused on fraud and waste. 

For decades, Republicans have refused to meaningfully adjust the revenue side of Social Security, instead focusing on cutting benefits and raising retirement ages. You think those people care about us? Do you think they care that they have reduced Social Security's 100% 75-year solvency down to 100% 10-year solvency over the last 40 years? 

No, Republicans want us suffering under private for-profit retirement, survivor, and disability plans that are subject to mismanagement, theft, fraud, brokerage firm bankruptcies, and denials of coverage. Think 20% overhead (same as for-profit health insurance) instead of the 2% overhead the Social Security program currently has. 

Did anyone take responsibility when Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme collapsed (that the SEC was repeatedly warned about)? For years, firms lied to their customers about where they were investing their funds, telling them the make-believe investments (by Madoff) were what they invested their retirement funds in. A Ponzi scheme, just like they are telling us what Social Security is. 

Republicans want to eliminate the matching corporate Social Security tax contributions. They think it's their money. They are not about to give that money to us workers so that we can pay the full 12.4% rate on 100% of our net income. Right now, half of Social Security tax contributions are tax-exempt for employees. 

No, Republicans want to gut revenues to speed up their Social Security manufactured crisis. How about if we instead raise or eliminate the salary cap? Won't that make it fairer? It's not like Republicans are going to change capital gains tax rates or hedge-fund tax rates or eliminate corporate subsidies or the corrupt insider-trading.

And how about Trump's cryptocurrency plans? He wants the federal government to invest in them, allegedly with a 20-year minimum no-sell clause. Would he use the Social Security Trust Fund for the investments? You know, the money that's supposed to help cover Baby Boomer retirements.

At this point, anything goes for our Felon-In-Chief. Including siding with Russia and blackmailing Ukraine (rare-earth metals).

Wake up.

A letter to Representative (MN-7) Michelle Fischbach for her gushing praise of Trump's plans.

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Alito's Sharp Legal Mind

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, cited Sir Matthew Hale as one of the “eminent common-law authorities.” Alito cites him to show how abortion was viewed historically not as a right, but as a criminal act.

Hale wrote about abortion in the late 1600s, but cites no precedents for his claims because there were none. Hale also believed in witches and personally sentenced three women to death (before the Salem Witch Trials) for that crime. He had a very dim view of women, considering them useless, feeble-minded, squanderers of estates, and who occupied themselves with makeup, fashions, and gossip. 

Hale was somewhat of an extremist even in his own time, holding some views that were regarded as anachronistic. This is the eminent authority on abortion that Alito uses to justify his own opinions.

Alito wrote, “Two treatises by Sir Matthew Hale likewise described abortion of a quick child who died in the womb as a ‘great crime’ and a ‘great misprision.’” Even before quickening (when movement is detected, usually between the 16th and 18th week), Hale believed an abortion could qualify as homicide if the woman died as a result, and Alito quotes Hale on this.

I'm not sure how much, if any, of this draft made it into the Supreme Court's final decision overturning Roe v. Wade. But the draft itself is damning enough. Alito cites Hale as an authority. A judge from the 1600s who sentenced women to death for witchcraft, who had scathing views of the nature of women, and who wrote legal treatises with opinions pulled out of thin air.

https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-roe-wade-alito-scotus-hale, May 6, 2022

Deists, Not Christians

The Founding Fathers were Deists, not Christians. They fought against state-sponsored religion (especially The Church of England). Nowhere in The Constitution is there anything about Christianity, Jesus, sins, an afterlife, etc. 

Freedom of Religion is in the Bill of Rights. You are allowed your religion. You are not allowed to impose it on others. 

You want a theocracy? There are plenty of Fascist, autocratic, theocratic countries you can move to. You want to ban books? Go there. You want a preacher standing between a person and their doctor? Go there. You want to execute people for not following YOUR religious beliefs? Go there. 

You want to worship an antiChrist? Go there. You want to invade peaceful countries and spread lies as justification? Go there. You want to arrest and try opposition leaders who have not had evidence presented to and indictments issued from Grand Juries? Go there. 

You want to lie about scientists proving that zygotes or fetuses are human just after conception? (Hint: they proved that zygotes and fetuses have human DNA. Not that they were people.) Argue and shove your religion down your fellow "Christian" brethren's throats; I'm sure all the myriad of other Christian sects will choose to follow YOUR beliefs. 

Take your Christian Nationalists out behind your Churches and hold barbeques with them and listen to them endorse a lying, cheating, con artist who mangles sentences, gets basic facts wrong, mispronounces words, and claims he can hear one fact about a subject and suddenly be the world's smartest man on that subject. (He said, "That's the way my whatever works," while pointing to his head.)

Go ahead, we are waiting.

Taking Money From The Pockets Of The Rich?

Individual Responsibility is acceptable, but there also needs to be Social Responsibility.

If people are not paid living wages, they end up needing government assistance. That means taxpayer funds are subsidizing wages. And that is corporate welfare.

Infrastructure is a Social Responsibility.

Companies don't like paying an equal portion of Social Security because they think it is their money. In reality, it is the cost of employing someone. Social Security taxes are 12.4%, whether paid by the self-employed or by splitting costs between employees and employers. Splitting means employees have other taxes taken only on half the 12.4%. Do you think if companies did not have to pay ½, employees' pay would increase so they could pay the 12.4%?

How about universal healthcare? The US system is third-world and profit-driven. A deductible of $6,000? 20-50% co-pays? How many have insurance they can't afford to use? Single-payer is not socializing healthcare. Hospitals, clinics, and labs wouldn't be nationalized. It's like car insurance—spreading the costs by having a bigger pool paying in.

40 years of trickle-down and a refusal to adjust rates have left Social Security with a 10-year solvency instead of 75 years. It's a manufactured crisis. 

Greed—the refusal of people to give employees any of the rewards for productivity increases. It's class warfare on the middle- and lower-classes by the wealthy and their corporations.

People are not asking to take money out of your pockets. They are asking for their fair share up front so they don't have to beg for assistance.

Human Gender Is Not Binary

Original Facebook comment by me in a post by Kat Carlson concerning the disrespectful comments about the LGBTQ+ community:

A response to my comment:

The response by Culture Guard that I displayed was, as reiterated in its first paragraph, to a comment about "sexual species," not specifically humans. However, the reply does go on to explain how a binary view of "human" sexuality is absurd. Thus, I do think there is a point. Culture Guard is not just comparing insects to humans. They are explaining how chromosomes and genetics work.

Not just one gene on one chromosome determines gender or sexual identity. There are multiple factors at play. Some people are asexual wholly or partly—their sexual attraction is lessened or absent. Some are attracted to both genders. There are people born with both male and female sexual organs. Some girls grow a penis at age 12.

Do you still think gender is binary? Male or female?  Point out which gene on what chromosome is on or off that would make gender binary in human beings.

It is a spectrum. It's not just genitalia that makes one male or female. Each person has different levels of estrogen and testosterone. And there are trillions of neurons in our brains, and those connections influence sexuality and attraction.

There are multiple ways genital development can go wrong, including in the formation of sensory nerves. Culture Guide’s reply covered human X and Y chromosomes and how unusual things can happen. How many genes on just those two chromosomes have a part to play in our sexual identities?

And it's not just genes that are involved. Add in epigenetics. The epigenome surrounding DNA has control over whether genes are ON or OFF. It's like software that runs on the genetic DNA hardware.

Did you know that estrogen and testosterone have their own little arms race via the duplication of genes that create the hormones? That they essentially compete to outproduce each other? 

Should we do an analysis of peoples' complete genomes and use our limited understanding to tell them that they are either "normal" or are an abomination? Should we tell people that who they are is illegal and wrong? That's my opinion as to why religion and those who use their faith to govern their personal lives should have nothing bad to say about sexuality and who adults are allowed to love in consensual relationships.

Did you know that the texts in the Bible about homosexuality are deliberate mistranslations by people with an agenda? The original translations referred to pedophilia as being forbidden, not same-sex relations.

And what of the modern obsession with banning “gender-affirming” care for minors being somehow wrong? Do treatments that were developed for cis (straight) children being used in cases of gender dysphoria render all such care suspect whether the recipient is straight or on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum? Such care usually does not involve hormone treatments, and very rarely is surgery necessary. Note that surgical interventions also include correction or reconstruction of the genitals or breasts of straight children, whether the problem was due to birth defects, accidents, or puberty onset problems (such as a need for male breast reductions).

A binary view of gender and sexuality? How absurd.

Liberal World Order?

My response to a very old video with problems that have already been solved.

Biden inherited the mess; he didn't create it. And I hardly think Biden would ever claim that we are entering a "new liberal world order." That is just stupid. This is just misinformation and fear-mongering.

What would this new liberal order look like? Universal Healthcare without bankruptcies like most Western nations already have? Free higher education? Living wages? An independent judicial system that is not dependent on fines and court fees?

How about ending Debtor's Prison (criminal contempt of court when you can't pay what collection agencies demand)?

Fewer for-profit charter schools that teach whatever they want by people without any teaching credentials to students handpicked to exclude difficult (less-profitable) children? The charter system that leaves public schools with increased expenses with a budget that pays a set amount per pupil, now with fewer students?

How about that liberal idea of clean water, air, and soil?

Things like not making optional the upgrades needed to change the civil-war era braking systems on freight trains so more communities are not wiped off the map in preventable tragedies?

How about that liberal notion of letting people be themselves instead of trying to cram them into an inaccurate binary gender classification system?

An end to the sacrosanct modern revision of the Second Amendment so AR-15s are not in the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. (The militia referred to in the actual wording of the Second Amendment is today's National Guard.)

All of this gets lost when liberalism is defined by guns (Stand-Your-Ground, no restrictions), religion (freedom only for Christians), and abortion (the Fourteenth Amendment that underpins so many other rights having been declared irrelevant by today's Supreme Court).

Where does the third K go when spelling Kentucky?

Video: Time is short, the choice is yours

Kennedy After-hours Floor Speech

A bizarre after-hours floor speech to an empty chamber by Senator John Neely Kennedy (R-LA)

https://www.facebook.com/TheScoop.Politics/videos/566119378981569/

My reaction?

OMG. Biden is responsible for inflation across the whole world! He's arranged for companies to have record profits while okaying their price gouging! He is ensuring companies keep subsidies and tax breaks even as they rake in the money!

Shame on Biden for blocking those leaky pipelines that would bring toxic tar sands from Canada to be refined here and sold abroad. He should have encouraged Canada to allow pipelines to cross their country to Canadian refineries on the western coast. Wasn't it clever of him to let refineries process Canadian oil just when our capacity to process our own oil dropped with those refinery fires? And the 5-year process of bringing back online refineries that were idled during the pandemic? Well, Biden must have arranged that during the Trump years.

High food prices? That has nothing to do with record profits by Tysen and others. Let's keep blaming the import shipping crisis.

And now we have those nasty people at the EPA burdening our suffering corporations with unnecessary paperwork. The Supreme Court gutting EPA's ability to regulate must have had no impact. Clean air, water, and soil? We don't need that wishy-washy feel-good liberal tree-hugging here in the land of unregulated capitalism!

I am curious how long ago this speech was given to the empty chamber during the record-speeches-for-constituencies portion of the day. Gas prices have since gone way back down. Ooh, Let's blame Biden for lower gas prices at the pump!

Me thinks this joker is blowing smoke up people's skirts. But what do I know? 😁

A strange new version of the Second Amendment

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

A sneak attack on the Second Amendment?

"Well governed armed forces, which are vital to provide security and protection to the independent State, shall not disobey the natural right of a person to bear arms."

This reinterpretation (rephrasing) turns the Second Amendment on its head. It says that 'well governed armed forces…shall not disobey the natural right…'

Not only does it separate the militia clause from possession of guns, it tries to say that armed forces cannot interfere with individual ownership of weapons.

Although the article later goes on to say that rights are conditional and limited, it does nothing to correct the subservient role of armed forces, be they local, state or national.

It also completely disregards the meaning and intent of the original phrasing of the Second Amendment. It's akin to the truncated version the NRA displays on its headquarters and preaches to the public and to Congress.

Too many people don't even know there is a militia clause, and if they do, they disregard it as being irrelevant in modern times.

The radicals who took over the NRA leadership in the 70s have achieved their objectives. The NRA itself has gone from an organization that promotes training and responsible gun ownership to an organization that espouses an absolute right of any citizen to own any weapon they want anywhere they want. Even Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia did not advocate such a position.

Since the text of the article will rarely accompany this new version of the Second Amendment, it's a disingenuous and dangerous rewording.

14 Main Pros and Cons of the Right to Bear Arms