C'mon, Do Something

I've written and discarded this post a few-dozen times. The audience is mostly my family, many of whom skew right (or, "conservative") on the US-political spectrum.

"You probably think this song is about you, don't you?"

I'm mostly trying to call out the systems, and not you specifically. Love you and I'll see you for the wedding/family reunion combo-weekend later this Summer?

America Was Supposed To Be Better

This is not the America that was represented to me growing up, and I reject the premise held by those who support this failure of empathy and roadmap to destruction that is Project 2025.

I walked away from religion because most of the people [in my experience] who claimed to be faithful and/or devout were actually really shitty people that would rather see others suffer than to accept them. They do this to the point of changing the law to match their own religious viewpoints.

Sounds a little like Sharia Law, huh?

That thing you all were so scared of after 9/11?

None of the problems laid out in Project 2025 were caused by:

• immigrants,
• gay, queer, or trans-people,
• the radical left,
• Joe Biden's Weekend At Bernie's presidency,
• or even Obama's tan suit

It's corporate fucking greed.

The Republican Party has embraced it fully, while the Democratic party still tries to mask it. In either case, the rest of us (even the millionaires among us reading this) are actively getting left out.

You are not rich enough to matter! Check out the companies who are seeing massive increases in government contracts (Palantir, Tesla, SpaceX, etc.) while big-tech and other established monopolies continue to create new moats through the lobbying of favorable legislation.

The crumbs you do get are to keep you complacent, while the rest of your communities are starving (symbolically and literally.) Thankfully the economy has been booming recently.

I Am The Radical Left

You often hear conservative media talking about the "Radical Left" and how dangerous they are. I want to explain exactly what that means – from my perspective – because I think it's a bunch of hyperbole that makes it sounds like a horrible thing.

Let's call this my interpretation of the United State's version of the Radical Left (not to further fragment the term.)

• I want my taxes to reduce or eliminate the cost of healthcare, like every other first-world country has managed to do.

I'm a smidge over 40 and haven't had consistent access to medical/dental/eye-care (because these are somehow different things)

• I want some guardrails on capitalism that favor consumers and not corporations (anti-trust/monopoly/competition/favoritism/bribery tips)

We have the illusion of choice when it comes to brands and products. Spend a month or two looking up the parent companies of the stuff you buy at the store and online.

• I want us to embrace our international partners and friends, without exploiting them at the detriment of our market access and economy. Whether deserved or not, we used to be a beacon of innovation, industry, and freedom.

Today, the world is actively moving systems that have historically relied on the United States to more "trustworthy" options (and even currencies.)

• I want to see investment into mass transportation options so that the United States becomes less reliant on personal vehicles for day-to-day travel and expensive flights for longer travel within the States.

The joke about Americans (and especially Mid-westerners) thinking 12-14 hours is drive-able is because we only have the option of driving ourselves or buying a plane ticket. The former is more accessible, especially at lower incomes.

• I want more party representation, less gerrymandering, and rank-choice voting so that when I vote it actually counts, and I can choose my preferred candidate without getting stuck in a partisan primary trap.

It's easy to see why young people aren't convinced voting is as important as we do. Gerrymandering, partisan-primaries, and winner-take-all voting policies lead to predetermined outcomes.

• Campaign finance reform is needed (because corporations are not people.)

The Supreme Court's Citizens United vs. FEC ruling was the tipping point or catalyst (in my opinion) for corporate greed to accelerate across all levels of our government.

• I want strong privacy laws that protect my personal information from data-brokers and ad-tech, and for us to steward internet security. We are letting Europe take the reins on this by fleecing our technical posture.

Systematic dismantling of CISA, US Digital Services, and incurring uncertainty by threatening CVE funding. Plus our data is worth a lot of money and it's unethical to withhold potential revenue from capitalism.

• I want individuals and companies to have actual freedom of speech without worrying about if an American President will issue an Executive Order calling them out by name because he didn't like what they said, who they represented, or what they protected.

Is this the "Freedom of speech" that President Trump and company say they are the champions of? That whole thing is supposed to be protection from the government, but what do I know?

• I want the government to have to obtain warrants for my personal information, and not just be able to buy it commercially without one.

"Do your own research" and read about Flock or Locate X.

• I think we should revisit the capital-gains tax at some point, but I don't want an all-out Boomer Rebellion so let's just wait them out.

This is mostly a joke, but I do think capital gains needs looked at. Younger generations often don't have investments to realize gains on anyhow.

• I don't want your religion to be forced on me (unless I can also make you honor my religion.) That's why I am a member of and support The Satanic Temple's efforts.

Sorry, mom. The Catholic church didn't live up to what you taught me it represented.

• I want our tax system to empower companies to reinvest their profits back into the company and its employees, and not unload them into shareholder's pockets.

Make America Great Again by outlawing stock buybacks!

A Taxing Tangent

A quick tangent about taxes, the CBO, and how both parties try and game the system! I can't take our representatives seriously anymore:

To make the 2017 bill comply with Senate budget rules, lawmakers needed to offset the cost. So they added future tax hikes that wouldn’t kick in right away, wouldn’t provoke immediate backlash from businesses, and could, in theory, be quietly repealed later.

The article continues:

The delayed change to Section 174 — from immediate expensing of R&D to mandatory amortization, meaning that companies must spread the deduction out in smaller chunks over five or even 15-year periods — was that kind of provision. It didn’t start affecting the budget until 2022, but it helped the TCJA appear “deficit neutral” over the 10-year window used for legislative scoring.

This change effectively means that if I could afford to pay myself a salary, I would have to amortize it over 5 years instead of expensing it. That makes it extremely difficult for small companies (like me) to build novel software (and teams).

Imagine if you were stupid enough to give away your software for free.

Yes, I know there are nuances with how software is taxed when it's classified as an asset (of which I generally support.) But this change seems heavily based on how software was designed and utilized 10-20 years ago and can more easily be absorbed by larger, established companies.

Why You Should Become A Radical Leftist

Things I'm not okay with, and I don't think reasonable American's should be either:

• Federalization of the National Guard, and deployment of US Armed Forces against rallies and protests on US soil against the wishes of local government.
• Accepting a half-billion dollar airplane from Qatar. (Foreign-government security nightmares aside, is it even smart to accept Boeing planes anyways?)
• Ignoring or subverting due-process in the name of immigration enforcement.
• Ignoring court-orders from all levels of the judicial system.
• Publicly toying with the idea of suspending habeas corpus and broadly classifying those you dislike as enemies of the state.
• The government using it's official capacity to bully individuals and companies for what should be protected speech.
• Destroying the systems that helps millions of Americans and their families get by the rich continue to get...let me check...richer!
• Horrible OPSEC and inability to follow normal security practices necessary for communicating highly privileged information. "We are currently clean on OPSEC" – Pete
• Too many people doing things that are close to Nazi stuff. Salutes, databases, re-classifying norms, creating enemies?

The Republican Party has represented itself as fiscally responsible and small-government focused, but I can't see how that's the true of any modern political party in the United States.

It's more personally rewarding to take advantage of corporate speech (which is money, remember Citizens United?)

Showing Up For Yourselves

Today, Saturday, June 14th, 2025, a number of coordinated events are planned throughout the United States centered around the rejection of President Trump's policies – and especially the way those policies have been implemented.

These events are being referred to as the NO KINGS Nationwide Day of Defiance. They are planned, peaceful protests protected by our First Amendment Right to Assembly and Petition.

Regardless, you still need to understand that this right is not unlimited.

Demonstrations and Free Speech

Protestors! You have every right to: Peacefully assemble to exercise your First Amendment right to protest. Protest in “public forums” such as streets, sidewalks, and parks. But private property

ACLU of Ohio

There is no better way to celebrate and honor the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army than to stand-up to to the very thing they were created to fight: a king and his monarchy.

I invite you to find a local event and attend. Even Pope Leo XIV is getting involved by holding an event at the same time of the parade.

So, c'mon, do something.