24 Comments

Picture this: It’s 2026. Or 2028. You’re hiding in a corner, in an alley, in your basement in Anywhere, America. You’re hungry, almost starving. Your house isn’t your own anymore. You don’t understand. You liked what Trump said. He was going to get rid of the foreigners, the deviants, the non-believers. You voted for him, for Christ’s sake. How could this happen – to you? You were one of his people.

Wait, did you hear that? Got to run, got to find somewhere else to hide.

Expand full comment

The better a government program works, the more the TrumpMusk monster wants to break it.

Expand full comment

Republican dumpster, fire burn the Constitution and Make America Grim Again

Expand full comment

This is the Golden Age to which Trump refers. Great for super wealthy. Not great for workers - no rights - and poor.

Expand full comment

IKR?! Great for oligarchs, terrible for the rest of us.

Expand full comment

I want your book! Please let me know when it’s available.

Expand full comment

Hi Trish! There’s a digital version here that you can get right now. https://payhip.com/b/M16ZL

Our printer is a little overwhelmed atm but I’ll let everyone know when the paperback is back in stock.

Expand full comment

Remember: everything tRump touches dies

Expand full comment

Plus FDR fought the Nazis! He protected democracy here and abroad. Now we have a fascist administration dismantling it, here and abroad. It is more than just the Executive branch. The Legislative branch is enabling and collaborating.

We must stay united in our fight against this fascist takeover.

Expand full comment

To give a sense of the degree of emergency, between Roosevelt’s election, November of 1932, and his inauguration, March of 1933, half the banks in the United States went out of business. You’ll notice above, this happened without deposit insurance, which came later in ‘33. An unregulated financial system can collapse in days, but continues to be the fantasy of every banker.

Expand full comment

And yet, here we are, nearly a century later, with the same Wall Street grifters still dreaming of a world where they can gamble recklessly, privatize the profits, and socialize the losses. The 2008 crash should have been our wake-up call, but instead, they got bailed out while everyday people got foreclosure notices.

An unregulated financial system will collapse—not if, but when—and every time, it’s the working class left holding the bag. The real question is: when it happens again, will we get another New Deal… or just another round of corporate welfare?

Expand full comment

American financial institutions gamble willfully because history, since the Reagan administration, has taught them that there are no consequences for their bad behavior. Quite the contrary, the federal government, regardless of political party, and in ‘08 even our central bank, fell all over themselves to bale them out, fearing “consequences” for financial markets. Ironically, finance itself has a name for that. Moral hazard. Incentivized undesirable behavior.

Expand full comment

He used network radio and delivered his famous fireside chats. Four Freedoms. Google it quick.

Expand full comment

Yes! AND he was accessible and charismatic. He could speak to everyday people, and he did, all the time.

Expand full comment

The first thing to do is to communicate with the administration like speaking with a recalcitrant mule. Can’t really hit them in the head with a baseball bat, but you can get their attention by engaging in a noisy, national purchasing strike that requires not supporting any national retailer or grocer for at least one day.

Then, by engaging in a series of similar noisy purchasing strikes aimed at particular retailers and grocers, both nationally and regionally.

And, participate in a very noisy general national strike where everyone walks off the job everywhere for one day, except in mission critical occupations like direct healthcare and local public transportation services. If everyone carries signs and sit in the streets everywhere, who can stop them? No airline flights, no food purchases, no anything purchases. Cancel all streaming services for a week. Read books from a public library.

Deluge all elected officials with I’m mad as hell phone calls, emails, letters, telegrams and personal visits to their main and local offices. Use every form of social media to inundate those folks from the president down to the lowest peon in the stack, including Musk and people in all of his companies.

Somewhere in all of this a charismatic leader will emerge to lead the People’s charge.

Expand full comment

Oh, now this is the kind of energy we need—strategic, targeted, and just disruptive enough to make the powers that be sweat.

A well-organized national purchasing strike is exactly the kind of pressure that makes the establishment take notice—because if there’s one thing they actually listen to, it’s lost profits. That’s why the February 28th purchasing strike is so critical. One day of no spending at national retailers? That’s a warning shot. Then comes the March 15th shutdown, where we take it a step further—no work, no shopping, no business as usual. That’s when they’ll start to feel the ground shift under them.

The key is mass participation and making sure people know what we’re doing and why. Otherwise, they’ll just see a slow sales day instead of a movement. Messaging, outreach, and timing are everything—we’ve got to make them feel the pinch and make sure they know exactly where it’s coming from.

So yes, I’m all in on this! #Feb28Strike #March15Shutdown

Expand full comment

It’s Chris Murphy. He has been showing up. Also, see the Atlantic article/interview of him August 2024. Chrism Murphy for 2028, if we get the chance

Expand full comment

Donald Trump's top federal prosecutor in Washington has launched a probe into potential threats by Democratic lawmakers against Elon Musk. Ed Martin set up 'Operation Whirlwind' to investigate comments about public officials.

Those being targeted with 'letters of inquiry' already include Senator Chuck Schumer and California congressman Robert Garcia.

Expand full comment

Why are all the IRS agents being fired? Because your taxes will now be based on an AI algorithm set up by DOGE. DOGE will scrape all the vast data sets they are acquiring to build your “tax profile”. Much like the Chinese social credit model, credits or debits to your profile will be as the examples below:

Male +10, Female 0, White +31, Black -20, Latino -30, Asian 0, Native American -10, Lives in a blue city -25, lives in a red state +40, has ever applied for food stamps or other federal benefits -50, any college -15, in a “suspect” profession such as teaching, medicine, science, or the arts -50, registered member of an approved Christian church +30, Jewish 0, Muslim -25, any other religion -20, number of disparaging social media posts about Donald Trump or Elon Musk (points taken depending on number and type), likes of disparaging posts (same); social media posts praising Trump or Musk (awarded accordingly), etc.

Expand full comment

Apparently, that's what Mark Anressen has suggested for Americans future. They are pretty well interested in bank runs and a full out purge as citizens go ham and they sit in military protected installations.

Expand full comment

I live in Tennessee and I will attest to the fact that our electricity has doubled since trump has taken office, I honestly didn’t know that musk was dealing with our TVA until today, I’m not far from Nashville and near the local TVA here. I’m going to do some digging. We’re suffering in Tennessee, this state has adopted more of project 2025 than any other state in America. And they’re not finished. We’re wanting to leave. Unfortunately we can’t, our son, 46, just suffered an ischemic stroke because he had no health insurance. He’s a diabetic who takes insulin, a cancer survivor who needs regular testing, and suffers from high blood pressure and denied Medicaid, he works every day or did until February 24,2025. People we can’t let this continue, people are dying because of a country that has placed monetary gain over human life

Expand full comment

Peggy Lee sang “Ain’t We Got Fun” - ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’ - for the oligarchs, the Roaring Twenties is back and it’s 1928, the year before Black Friday and the stock market crash. And the White House wants to bring the SEC under its purview….

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Feb 19
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

He had the support of (most of) congress. Business did try to stage a coup https://open.substack.com/pub/theicarian/p/the-1934-business-plot-to-overthrow

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Feb 19
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

FDR had traction because the country was in freefall. The Great Depression had people literally starving, and the old ways weren’t cutting it. But here’s the key—there was an organized, pissed-off working class. Labor unions, socialists, and everyday folks were out in the streets, demanding action. Strikes, protests, even the threat of full-on revolt made the New Deal not just a good idea but a necessary one for those in power who wanted to avoid a more radical outcome.

So why did Congress support him? Well, some truly believed in reform, but others just saw the writing on the wall—when millions of people are out of work and starting to talk revolution, even the most pro-business politicians start getting nervous. And yes, campaign finance looked different then—big business had power, but it wasn’t the limitless, Citizens United-style cash flood we see today.

Now, could it happen again? If things get bad enough? Maybe. But only if people get organized. Bread lines alone don’t guarantee change—just look at how much suffering we’ve already seen without real systemic reform. The key is pressure, movement-building, and making damn sure the people in power fear the alternative if they don’t act.

So the real question isn’t just “will a New New Deal happen?”—it’s who’s gonna fight for it?

Expand full comment