There is the America, populated by his corporate and Twenty First Century Fortune 500 Gilded Age seeking supporters who deserve every privilege and perk the United States has to offer, including massive tax cut benefits, environmental deregulation, and profit increases from rising oil prices.
Then there is everyone else, including those individuals who, despite the record from his first term, were suckered into voting for him, who Trump feels should just be happy with the crumbs from his fiscal policies and should blindly believe all the lies he is saying about solving the affordability crisis and winning in Iran.
Trump's lying and hypocrisy in his two Americas mindset manifest itself in the recent special election for a state house seat where his residence, Mar-a-Lago, is located.
Saying voting by mail should be banned because of his repeatedly discredited claims that the process creates massive chances for voter fraud, Mr. Trump voted in this special election...wait for it...by mail.
This is the second time Trump, who called mail-in voting "mail-in cheating," has voted by sending in his ballot, since he made Mar-a-Lago his official residence.
In an exchange with PBS reporter Liz Landers at his cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr. Trump justified his hypocrisy by saying:
"You know why. Because I'm President of the United States, and because of the fact that I'm President of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida because I felt I should be here..."
When pressed by Landers that he has spent time, mostly golfing, while TSA workers went without pay and members of his military were getting injured or dying fighting his war of choice in Iran, at his Florida home, and could have voted early in person, Trump evaded in his response:
"That's right, and I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn't be there and because I had a lot of different things."
Trump then pointed out all the provisions in the voter-suppressing SAVE Act that would allow mail-in voting, such as being away, a member of the military, traveling on business, suffering a disability, or illness.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who is fighting the Trump regime's attempts to interfere with the 2026 elections and access state voter rolls, released a satirical video with the Secretary musing about Trump's hypocrisy with the musical lyrics "Let's be honest. Let's be real" playing in the background.
Better words could not have been said.
It should be noted that the Democrat, Emily Gregory, did win the special election on Trump's home turf.
It was a seat that went for the Republican candidate by 19 points in 2024.
A Blue Wave may be coming this fall.
People need to get out and vote.
And they should be able to do it like hypocritical Donald Trump has done numerous times.
"This ismodern-day slaverysupported by a failing immigration system and an administration that is not interested in fixing it."
"They don't care if people die. I think they're encouraging itin a way, by neglecting so many people and refusing to give them the care they need when they're in such severe pain."
A detainee, Emmanuel Damas, who needlessly died from a toothache after ICE and CoreCivic officials allowed his condition to morph to a point where he had a bulge"the size of a potato"and could not sleep at night.
Other detainees described the medical team at the Florence Detention Center with just one word:"Fatal."
"I met with my constituent, Arbella Yaddy Rodriguez Marquez (at the Eloy Detention Center), who has leukemia and has alsoendured severe medical negligence at the hands of ICE. The only positive news that I can report there is that Yaddy is getting better medication since our advocacy and she can now walk with the help of a walker again.
The ligaments in her arms and her legs are still feeling theimpacts of months of medical neglect. Outside doctors are still testing her for a variety of conditions,such as lupus, lymphedema, leukemia, and arthritis.One alarming detail that is new is that she's grown small dark spots all over her back and stomach."
"Dirty clothes at the facility."
"Medical neglect"where none of the staff"has a heart"and"don't care."
"Detainees have to fight for ice that they let melt because that is their only source of filtered water."
"A 26-year-old Armenian man we spoke to has beenwaiting for over a year for dental care.He has a tooth infection and could very well be the next Emmanuel Damas."
"46-year-old Felipe. who has lived and paid taxes in Phoenix for more than 20 years.He has no criminal record, and this administration will not offer him any pathways for legal work. And today, he's still an undocumented worker, but working for a U.S. prison at two dollars an hour. But he doesn't deserve drinking water?"
"...An Iranian asylum seeker todaywho fled here with his daughter during Iran's 2022 protest movement.He's terrified of being sent back to Iran, where he could be killed by the regime, but described being treated as quote animals in ice custody..."
"A young LGBTQ plus Russian man who said he'd been threatened with rape if he didn't sign self-deportation papers."
These are the words of Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari, who traveled to both the Florence and Eloy Detention Centers-American Concentration Camps on March 20.
During her two trips, Representative Ansari and her team interviewed many detainees, all of them not guilty of any serious crime, who reported on inhumane conditions at these facilities.
In her postings, the Congresswoman said:
"These private prison companies are making record profits,billions of dollars, and they're expanding across the country. Already, there's been over 40 deaths since the second Trump administration has taken office..."
"The Trump administration only cares about making private prison companies richer.Just this week, it was reported that Corey Lewandowski, the top aide for outgoing DHS Secretary Kristine Noem, sought payments from companies seeking contracts with the Department of Homeland Security."
"I'm working on new legislation as we speak to investigate and to stop this astounding corruption.The Trump administration is wasting billions of your taxpayer dollars torturing and killing innocent people in the process. Meanwhile, Americans cannot afford housing, health care, or child care.
But instead of funding any of these things, Donald Trump and Republicans ripped away Medicaid from millions of Americans and handed $75 billion to ICE. DHS and ICE cannot and should not expand in Arizona, period. Every time I visit these detention facilities, it brings me to tears.
It's sickening, it's traumatizing, and it is deeply, deeply anti-American."
Representative Ansari is right.
What is going on in these American Concentration camps should send a shiver down the spine of every American.
People are suffering while Mr. Trump and his allies in the private prison industry are profiting off the suffering of innocent people.
These are children, women, and men who have not committed any major crime and whose only offense in the minds of Mr. Trump and Judenrat Stephen Miller is their country of origin. No one sees illegal immigrants whose visas have expired from Canada or European nations being placed in these camps.
This is not the America we were taught to revere and admire, and the creatures that support this Nazi-type agenda have no business being in elected office.
To quote Dr. McCoy from Star Trek: The Motion Picture: "What the hell kind of strategy is this?"
Not wanting to see a blood bath at the polls on election day, thanks to the wrath of voters disenchanted with his policies, including his war of choice against Iran, resulting in higher gas prices at the pump, Donald Trump and his Know Nothing regimehave relaxed some oil sanctions on...wait for it...Iran.
Earlier in the month, Mr. Trumprelaxed oil sanctionson Russia, the country whose leadership is trying to take over Ukraine and is giving intelligence information to...wait for it again...Iran to use against us.
At first glance, these moves do not seem to come from a great thinker and military mind.
"...How little success the Trump administration has achieved in calming global markets rattled by the American-Israeli military campaign against Iran, forcing it to turn to a measure that could benefit its adversary. Brent crude, the international benchmark, settled at $112 a barrel on Friday, a roughly 54 percent increase since the conflict began."
"As the cost of oil continues to soar, the Treasury Department on Friday lifted sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian crude already loaded onto vessels, which the Trump administration says will help ease prices — but which is also likely to provide revenue for Iran’s war effort...the action was met with bewilderment by many lawmakers and analysts, who said it will provide the Iranian regime a cash infusion as it actively tries to kill U.S. soldiers on the battlefield."
Again, what the hell kind of strategy is this? By giving aid and comfort to the enemy you started a war against, and that is currently shooting at you with apparently no reciprocal move from the Iranians.
Trump's war of choice against Iran has been nothing but one stupid move after another.
First, there was no legitimate reason to start this war. Iran posed no imminent threat.
Then, when they decided to go unto the breach without consulting N.A.T.O. allies or telling the American People, Mr. Trump's military plan did not include immediately securing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which 20 percent of the world's oil traffic passes. Now Iran has control of the area.
Good thinking, Donald.
Trump continually says he has won the war.
To paraphrase Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, who said,when he visitedBerlin and German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop in October 1940 and heard claims that Britain was defeated, "then whose bombs (drones) are falling outside?"
Now he is relaxing sanctions on the very nation that just last month, he said, posed an imminent threat to the United States.
This should not be surprising.
This is the same Donald Trump who has ceded the clean energy market to another adversary, China, and who is besties with Russia's Putin, the leader who is, again, giving intelligence to Iran to use against the United States and trying to absorb Ukraine.
He is not a stable genius.
He is a dumb shit-moron who is making this country weaker and less safe.
He is everything America's enemies could have wanted in the Oval Office.
With health care inflation rising and the Trump Administration doing everything it can to undo Obamacare/the Affordable Care Act, like taking away government subsidies from people who use it to get medical attention they can afford, Democrats, when they return to power, need to offer solutions that will guarantee Americans never have to fear losing their health care again.
Many Democratic and Progressive Activists support Medicare for All, which would, in theory, reduce overall health costs for the American People, improve their medical care, and guarantee access.
Another idea, grounded in political realism, offered by the Center-Left-Pragmatic Progressive Think Tank Third Way,is to guarantee allAmericans a Health Care Bill of Rights that builds on the successes of Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance, the Prescription Drug Benefit, and the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.
In their rationale for this Health Care Bill of Rights, Third Party Health Policy Advisors Gaby Hartney and David Kendall wrote:
"We are not going to throw out the baby with the bathwater. American health care has a lot of positives: life-saving innovations, amazing doctors and nurses, and high standards for care. But it also is full of glitches, gaps, and infuriating costs and complexities, which Republican budget cuts have made worse. As a result, we’re paying more and getting less:
Hospital prices are soaring without improving health care for patients.2
Workers spend 12 million hours each week dealing with health insurance problems.3
Wait times to get an appointment are growing longer; patients must wait an average of more than two months to see a specialist about painful arthritis.4
Groundbreaking therapies can cure chronic diseases like sickle cell, but the costs are prohibitive.5
One hundred million Americans have medical debt.6
Medical offices still use fax machines to exchange medical records.7
The health care billing system is simply a nightmare for everyone. To pay a doctor’s bill, employees and employers have to navigate multiple sources of funds like flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts.8
Over the last generation, the government has regularly stepped in to address issues within our health care system and put in place better protections. Because Democrats fought for Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act, people have health insurance when they can’t get it through a job or in retirement. Thanks to limits on surprise health care bills—a bipartisan effort—patients don’t have to worry about high priced bills for out-of-network care with in-network providers (except for ambulance rides, of all things).Now, there is an urgent need for government to step in again and address the next generation of issues with a sweeping Health Care Bill of Rights."
Included in the Ten Health Care Bill of Rights put forth by Third Way are:
Cap costs for everyone.
End medical debt
Choose your own doctor
Provide a simple Health Dividend Account
End health care deserts.
Ban junk insurance.
Stop hospital price gouging
Provide a single health record
Streamline medical bills.
Ban all surprise bills
Concluding their position paper, Hartney and Kendall wrote:
"Thankfully, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. That signature law provides a strong foundation to build on, which presents an extraordinary opportunity for Democrats to unite behind an effort that speaks to what the public wants to see—and that is not chock full of high costs like single payer. That’s why a Health Care Bill of Rights fits the moment, guaranteeing that health care is affordable and easy for every American."
Kaitlyn Perez, Third Way Deputy Director of Communications, along with Economic Policy Vice President Gabe Horwitz, also released a social media video explaining their Health Care Bill of Rights proposal, saying:
Kaitlyn Perez:"Affordable health care is a key ticket to a middle-class life,but since 2000, health care costs have more than tripled, and the average price of a family plan has more than quadrupled. Amid these high deductibles and unexpected costs, more than 100 million people, including one in six middle-class families, struggle with medical debt. And as of 2021, the American people owed more than 220 billion in medical bills.
American health care has a lot of positives. Amazing doctors and nurses, high standards for care, and life-saving innovations. But it also has a lot of gaps, glitches, inconsistencies, high costs, all of which were made worse by Republican budget cuts.
That's why our next president needs to call for a health care bill of rights, guaranteeing that health care is easy and affordable for every American.Here's Gabe Horwitz, SVP of our economic program, to tell you more.
Gabe Horwitz: "Over the last generation, government has routinely stepped in to fix issues in our health care system.
Most recently, that was with the Affordable Care Act. That law is popular,it gives us a great foundation on which to build, and it's not shock full of high costs like Medicare for All. A health care bill of rights would build on the Affordable Care Act and create a set of guarantees for people.
Things like ending medical debt, capping costs no matter where you get your insurance, allowing patients to see any doctor they wanted, stopping hospitals from price gouging, and creating one health record for everybody.
Kaitlyn Perez:"They're just half the tenants that we list in our memo. With these alone, millions of Americans will have the burden of debt lifted from their shoulders, be able to more readily access care, and stress less about the care that they want to receive."
When asked by the Blog for Arizona why Mr. Horwitz claimed Medicare for All, despite two independent studies (one fromPublic Citzienand the other fromDuane Morris,would be more costly for Americans than their proposal for a Health Care Bill of Rights, Third Way Senior Communications Director Kate deGruyter provided thebelow organizational response, grounded in political reality and what is likely to pass a Congress where Democrats will, in all likelihood, not have a supermajority:
"On its face, single payer would cost less overall simply because the legislation says it would.The bill dictates a 40% cut in providers’ pay from what they currently receive from private health plans. That generates about two-thirds of its overall savings. But let’s be real: Congress is unlikely to make such a large cut and sustain it under intense lobbying pressure from hospitals, physicians, and all other providers and facilities. Instead, single payer would create new cost pressures by making every health care dollar a matter of public debate. Providers would argue that funding their care above all else is critical for patients’ health. Congress and the Administration are simply not well-positioned to say no.
Single-payer is often portrayed as a better value, but that ignores the problem of higher taxes. Single payer would require new revenue equal to double the current level of federal income and corporate taxes to offset a massive shift of spending from private bank accounts to the US Treasury.
The quality of coverage under single payer would depend primarily on the amount of taxes the government could raise.The $17.5 trillion in revenue (over ten years) to pay for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s single payer bill would include an 11.5% tax on the income of workers (4% paid by employees on income above $29,000 and 7.5% paid by employers, which most economists believe would come out of the employee’s paycheck).9Getting Congress to raise taxes to adequately fund coverage without higher deficits is anything but simple or guaranteed."
On the two studies showing that Medicare for All would better reduce costs, deGruyter commented:
"Just want to reemphasize that Medicare for All raises costs significantly for taxpayers. But it is not the only way to cut costs in health care.Most of those savings studies, like those cited, come from reducing prices for medical care, which T
