Quick Takes (v75): Treat Everyone the Same

According to an article from one of my local news stations, Onondaga County, where I live, has received a renewal of a New York State Department of Health grant to help educate residents on the benefits of a healthy diet and regular exercise.

I'm fine with that; as the article notes, CDC data from 2023 indicates "around 37% of the county's population is obese and around 9-10% have diabetes."   Further, 

The northeastern and southwestern parts of Syracuse both have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the county. They also have the highest rates of physical inactivity.

And, 2022 data shows that around 4% of county residents don't have health insurance, so they're likely not getting the health care and education they'd typically get from a primary care physician. 

Taken together, my area is ripe for this kind of program, and hopefully the money will be spent efficiently and effectively, helping move the dial a bit. 

So what's the post about? Not the grant, but the comments from people inside and outside our community that belittle and denigrate others. Here's a taste:

Talk about throwing good money after bad, ridiculous waste. No amount of money is going to change the food choices of the obese population.

We could do a lot better if we did not allow people to use EBT on fast food, junk foods, soda, etc. A physical should have to be done. People who smoke should not be allowed EBT services.

Put the people that are on EBT etc.. Put them on MREs and watch what happens.

Now, in the overall scheme of things, these aren't half as bad as many comments that typically accompany stories about SNAP recipients or others, some of whom are living at 400% of the federal poverty level and are still eligible for government benefits. 

Bur whenever I see a comment on an article like this, or on MAHA statemenrs from RFK Jr., or Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, or Dr. WhoEver suggesting that folks who get food assistance should have a physical before they can enroll, or not get benefits if they're obese or a smoker, and not be allowed to get soda or snacks, or a steak, or lobster, or even a stupid birthday cake for their child, I think,

OK, let's do this! If we want strict rules for people who receive benefits paid for by us taxpayers, let's be fair and apply them to everyone.

I hope you're aware it'll be a LONG list:

• all federal, state, and local government employees, and their families
• all elected officials, from dogcatchers to governors to senators to the president, and their families
• everyone who receives a government pension, and their families.
• everyone on Social Security, disability, unemployment, and workers' comp
• everyone on Medicare and Medicaid
• everyone in the military, and our veterans, and their families
• everyone who works at any company, college, university, K-12 school, hospital, nursing home, rehab center, charitable organization, foundation, institution, many day care providers, or any other entity that receives government money through a contract, grant, reimbursement program, or bailout, and their families, and
• dairy farmers, crop farmers, and livestock farmers, and their families

This means everyone in law enforcement and their families; your kids' favorite teachers, lunch ladies, coaches, and bus drivers, and their families... It also means anyone who receives a tax benefit, on things like OT, tips, Social Security, mortgage interest, car loan interest, home office expense, 'stuff teachers buy' expenses, mileage reimbursement, property tax write-off, and so on - and their families.

Have you found yourself on the list yet?

Before you know it, almost everyone would be unable to have junk food, soda, lobster, energy drinks, or anything like that without a medical exam, and, (if we channel our conspiracy theorist gremlins), without a household visit; an audit of grocery purchases; a review of corner store, dollar store, bodega and gas station surveillance footage; a complete rmedical history and health insurance claim review; and so on.

And, if you're approved, you'll have a food intake monitor, an exercise monitor, and 24-hour monitoring via cameras in your cupboards, fridge, freezer, and on your stove.

All this, just to make sure you're not abusing your benefits by eating the wrong food and not working out, or treating your child to a birthday cake on the taxpayer's dime.

Is that really what we want? Is this really who we are?

Sunday School 7/19/26: Extra Credit

For your Extra Credit this week, I spent time in the Face the Nation (CBS) classroom, focusing on the election security issues we've been discussing since the FOTUS addressed the nation in a televised and widely streamed chat last week. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) joined Margaret Brennan for a bit; I recapped some of his chat with ABC's Jon Karl in yesterday's Sunday School post. 

Brennan opened this part of the discussion noting that it's "been public for years" that our intelligence folks determined China tried to influence our election by changing what we think, not by hacking or anything like that. She asked Warner, a long-time member of the Senate Intelligence Committee (IC), if it had ever been given any evidence backing up this statement from Trump: 

This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes – and really exposes like levels never thought possible, to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference. 

"Absolutely not," Warner said, adding that the speech was full of "absurdities and falsehoods," and said that "the only election that Trump is concerned about is 2020. That was the election that his administration was in charge of," and that he "forgets or just omits" Russia. He confirmed the IC hasn't received any report from the administration's analysis of the 2024 election.

 After itemizing moves by the administration, including cutting funding for the Cybersecurity Agency (CISA), abandoning the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which allows states to share voter information to help identify duplicate registrations, deceased voters, and so on, and tanking the Election Assistance Committee (EAC), Warner said this:

Why is he doing all these things? I believe it's because Donald Trump intends to interfere in this year's elections. He knows, if there is a free and fair election, his policies will be rejected at record levels.

Brennan asked (twice) what Warner meant by interference. 

Whether that takes - I think that what we just saw was, this was the opening shot, the opening shot of trying to undermine Americans' confidence that their vote will be actually counted and mean something... I fear as well that if he tries to pull something that could potentially - he's not ruled out bringing ICE to the polls. He's not even ruled out the idea of trying to bar certain voting machines.

Brennan then turned to CBS News contributors David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, and Chris Krebs, the former director of CISA during the 2020 election cycle. Notably, Krebs was fired by Trump for saying that the 2020 election was secure, and that's where Brennan started this segment, asking if anything he heard from Trump changed his assessment.

Not - not at all. In fact, I would say that it further bolsters my confidence in the security of the 2020 election, between what has been released, disclosed last week, and all the information and the results of court challenges and other things in the intervening six years.

Brennan, noting that Trump was particularly aggressive towards Krebs, asked him to describe "the Chinese role in the 2020 election." He said there was an "honest debate and discussion" about China's intent across the intelligence community.

But ultimately, when it came out in the intelligence community assessment that was released in the spring of 2021, it was that China had a preference, and that they were not in favor of President Trump, but their efforts were principally limited to influencing the American public, seeking to pay journalists, media. But it was an influence effort...

A method, he said, China has been using since the early- or mid-2000s. It's not new, he said; "they did turn up the heat, and they are still doing it today. He said, "we have a significant and serious counterintelligence and counterespionage problem with China." And, responding to Trump saying folks did not disclose anything to him, "or to anyone else" or to Congress, Krebs offered this:

In January of 2020, there was a National Intelligence Community memorandum about the 2020 election that talked about the vulnerabilities we saw on systems and the work we needed to do there, but it also talked about the intent of adversaries. And there were countless memos after that...a lot of these products were in senior executive and policymakers' binders, their intelligence binders every single day. We used those to get out there and talk to the American people. I wrote an op-ed in September of 2020 for the general public that discussed various threat actors, including China. So, I have a hard time believing that it didn't get up into the Oval.

Brennan, before leaving this topic, said. "As China was described as attempting to influence, it was Iran and Russia, primary actors directly undermining the election in some of those 2020 statements. It sounds like you're saying he didn't read the memo" (emphasis added). Krebs agreed.

Sunday School 7/19/26

 I spent a little time wandering the halls at Sunday School yesterday, and thought I'd recap some of what was going on in ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos classroom. Jon Karl was in the host's chair this week, and spoke first with Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Karl mentioned our attacks in Iran, after the deaths of two service members, and wondered if there was more retaliation planned. 

Yes, look, the president’s mission is essential for peace in the Middle East and peace in the world. And that is to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons and to degrade their ability to terrorize their neighbors and the world and global commerce. So, yes, this mission will go on until the mission is done.

Karl repeated that he's asking specifically about retaliation for the deaths of two Americans, and Wright, again, answered a different question.

It’s tragic to lose American lives, but this is a mission that will save countless lives going forward. His focus is on degrading the Iranian ability to terrorize the world, to hold world commerce hostage, as they are doing right now, and to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That is unchanged.

The conversation switched to oil. Wright says we are now "assuring that -- that oil and gas and other products can flow through the Strait of Hormuz, with or without Iranian cooperation" while we continue to "degrade" their military and, at the same time, look for a diplomatic solution.

President Trump wants to end it with a peaceful agreement with Iran, but it takes two parties to do that. If they’re -- if they’re -- if they’re ready to do that, that’s the way it will end. If not, we will continue to assure flow of traffic through the Strait without Iran’s cooperation.

Wright strongly disagreed with Karl's contention that traffic through the Strait was effectively stopped, and tossed out some numbers, saying around 7,000,000 barrels are moving through the waterway and slightly less than that through "bypass pipelines," which he said was 2/3 of what moved through before the war and "dramatically up from where we were" the last time he was on the show back in March. And he said that "almost all the public data" he's seen is wrong, adding that

... we count the volume of oil that goes through. The ship numbers are down more dramatically. But, of course, we’re flowing larger tankers now to keep the world markets as well supplied as we can.

Switching gears, Karl noted the president's stated focus on election security as a "top domestic priority," but questioned why his budget cuts $700M from CISA, the cybersecurity agency. Wright said he "wouldn’t look at the inputs, the money spent. I’d look at the outputs, the quality of United States cybersecurity. That’s never been higher than where it is right now under President Trump."

And then, I guess because it's mandatory to do so, Karl asked whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Wright said, "He was president for four years. Clearly so," and then, when pressed, said, "Look, I'm not an election evaluator, but it sure seems to me like he did."

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was the second interview. Karl opened by asking how the president should respond to the killing of our two service members. 

Well, first of all, I join with all Americans in condolences to these soldiers. Remember, as we think about this five-month war, this is a war of choice. As a member of the Gang of Eight, there was no imminent threat from Iran against America. So, Donald Trump chose to go to war. It took him two weeks to lay out what he thought his goals were going to be.

And then, he ticked through those goals. I'll condense his response:

• Regime change: We got a worse crowd than before. 
• Getting the enriched uranium:  It's still there... 
• Getting rid of Iran’s missile and drone capability. Obviously, we’ve not been successful there.
• The Strait of Hormuz: he sees " no path in the short term how the Strait is going to be settled."

He expressed his frustration on the drone point in particular, including that they're inexpensive in comparison to our using $2.5M missiles to shoot the drones down, and that the president has refused the offer from Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give us the technology to build our own drones.

In the end, here's where Warner landed: 

This war of choice has been a disaster. It has been a disaster militarily. It has been a disaster in terms of how we’re viewed around the world. It has been a disaster to our friends and allies who have questioned whether we will keep our promises. I’m anxious if it takes a classic Donald Trump move, declare victory tomorrow and be done. But the continuation of this war at this pace will be a continuing disaster.

Karl wondered what happens if we do leave; the Iranians are firing at ships in the Strait, and at our bases throughout the region, and asked how we end it. Warner mentioned "diplomacy negotiated by diplomats who actually know what they're doing," an obvious shot at Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, a couple of real estate developers who I think don't even officially work for the government. He pointed to the JCPOA, the Obama deal that Trump ditched, as an example of what worked.

But we're not going to  - I don't believe anyone thinks we're going to bomb Iran into submission. And I sure as heck do not believe that - short of troops on the ground- that there's any meaningful way forward to get out that enriched uranium.

Last question on this topic: does Warner agree with cutting off all funding for the war? He says the Department of Defense will ask for more money, and that we're depleting some of our stockpiles, but he also notes

there is $89B...that DOD is sitting on that has not been allocated to specific programs. There are shortages in the region. DOD, use that money first to replenish our supplies. And if the president wants to continue this war, come to Congress, make his case to the American people and to Congress rather than continuing what I think now is, frankly, an illegal action, because he never went through that process.

Turning to the election and the president's pitch the other night, Karl wondered if "there was anything new" in what the president released. Warner said that, over the last decade as chair or vice-chair of the Intelligence Committee, "there's probably no issue I've been more obsessed about..." In that time, his main concern has been Russia, "far and away" the most prominent foreign country in the game, "usually on behalf of Trump." And,

Iran has been very active as well, usually against Trump. North Korea has been active. China’s got the capabilities, but they’ve been more -- less about which candidate and more like, 'can we just make Americans lose confidence?'

And what about the Chinese getting those 220 million voter records?

Well, listen, I'm much more concerned about the fact that the Chinese hacked into the OPM data a number of years back and got personal information about anybody working in the federal government. I'm more concerned about the fact that they tapped into many insurance companies and have got personal information about all of us.

They have incredible data capabilities. And again, the secretary, respectfully, our cybersecurity activity is CISA. It has worked with the private sector. He's cut it like mad. We have another part of election security, and remarkably, Jon, a lot of this election security apparatus was set up, done under President Trump's first term. They did a good job.

The "another part" of election security he's referring to is the Elections Assistance Commission, from which Trump fired all the Democrats and forced out the Republican commissioners. 

... it works with local registrars, state registrars, making sure we vet voting machines... You know, this guy is not looking for a secure election because if we have a free and fair election, he and his allies are going to get beat historically this fall.

Karl then asked about "this so-called SAVE America Act" and how Dems are opposed to it, and he asked Warner if "requiring photo ID to register to vote" is something they should get behind, based on polling that around 80% of all Americans and 71% of Dems say they favor it. That led to a discussion about what Virginia, where they both live, requires. Ultimately, you show ID to register, you don't need to show ID to vote, and they allow 'affidavit' attestations, which can be challenged. Warner says that constitutes voter ID of one form or another. 

Karl asked again if we should have a national standard requiring ID to be shown. Warner pointed out the irony of what happens now.

If you can show any photo that (w)as government-stamped, it would be fine. Certain states will say, we're going to let you show your NRA gun license, but you can't show your student ID. If you're going to have a set of IDs, let's have it across the board as long as it comes from some official point. But this is not about voter ID. The SAVE Act is about voter disenfranchisement... 

Lisa Murkowski, a host of Republicans, don't want the SAVE Act because they know it's anti-voter... the folks who have mail-in voting, Utah is as Republican a state as anyone. They've done mail-in voting for decades. Donald Trump wants to decrease voter participation and undermine confidence in our system.

I know one thing that would improve people's confidence: if the folks who come into the classrooms actually answered the questions they were asked, and if the people asking the questions focused on what's important. 

Jon Karl did a reasonable job from the host's seat, except for the attempted 'gotcha' he asked Chris Wright about the 2020 election. But neither Wright nor Warner addressed the question of how America should respond to the deaths of Americans in the past few days. In response, an "if it were me, I'd..." would provide information and possibly lead to an interesting follow-up or two.

What would you like to have heard from Wright and/or Warner?  Drop a comment! And if you're interested, you can find my thoughts on Trump's remarks here.

What He Said, and What He Didn't

There was a prime-time gabfest last night, with the president talking about himself, of course, and about our country and others. The gist of it, after he got past the chest-thumping, was that our elections aren't safe and won't be unless Congress passes the SAVE America Act. 

I removed the chest-thumping, in the interest of everyone's sanity, and added commentary; you know I can't help myself, and if you didn't want commentary, you wouldn't be here.

But we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair and honest elections. You have to trust your country because, if there can be no trust, there can be no greatness.

And that's very simple — no trust, no greatness. For many years I've called for bold, swift and decisive action to protect the integrity of America's elections. And, of course, he's called the 2020 election rigged zillions of times. In fact, he said even months before the 2020 election that the only way he could lose was if it was rigged; he did lose, so it must have been rigged. And he's said that basically every election where anyone he endorses doesn't win is rigged. They are all rigged; just ask him! Every American deserves to know that, when they cast their vote, that vote will be counted accurately in a system, (and, despite my best efforts, a good number of people still believe that's the case) and that is to make that system secure. One where cheating and interference are not just difficult, but virtually impossible. Unfortunately, the system we have today falls catastrophically short of that standard. That is absolutely not true. Even the Heritage Foundation's data says so. Tonight, I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. 'Shocking vulnerabilities' and verified 'cheating and interference' are vastly different things. 

This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes, like levels never thought possible, to hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference. Just as disturbingly, this vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you, the American people — our beautiful, our great American people. I wonder, does that include 'the enemy from within (Dems like Adam Schiff), and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries," the haters and losers, the Dumocrats, and all the other terms he's used to disparage anyone who doesn't agree with him? 

But that all changes right now. The documents we will release starting tonight have been gathered by the White House Government Transparency Task Force, a great group of people, along with the staff of the president's Intelligence Advisory Board, supported by our top intelligence agency chiefs who have all personally reviewed the findings we are presenting this evening and fully confirmed their authenticity.

You can see these documents for yourself at whitehouse.gov, that's whitehouse.gov, go check it out. Our purpose in disclosing this information is not to weaken confidence in elections, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly, and that's what we're doing. Um, no, that's not what's happening. You're identifying potential vulnerabilities, but you don't address them with your signature solution.

The documents cover five major areas of concern. First, they show that, over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files. American voter data is readily available for a variety of reasons. 

That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening.  No evidence of nefariousness was presented. This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China assigned a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project. The information may present an 'election security nightmare,' but it is readily available in most states. And no evidence was presented that a security lapse or breach occured.

Compounding the travesty, the second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the Deep State — a very, very famous group of people, in many cases (and I can't WAIT to see who these famous people are! —  in our intelligence agency, worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China's sinister election meddling, covering it up from both the president and the American people like nobody thought was possible.

US spy agencies began learning about the compromise of voter registration files in 2020, when they discovered that tens of millions of voter data — think of that, tens of millions of voters’ data — in 18 states have been bought, stolen or hacked by China. Yet those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden. Bought, stolen, or hacked - which is it? And if it was obtained illegally, why no threat or warning to President Xi Jinping? Maybe some new tariffs like the ones he's threatened to place on Canada for their border-hopping wildfire smoke?

They did not disclose to me as president or to anyone else. As widely reported at the time, he was notoriously uninterested in briefings and didn't even read his President's Daily Brief. Was this information hidden, or wasn't it on the list of things he liked to hear about? And to the best of our knowledge, they did not inform Congress. In fact, all they kept saying is, this is the most secure election in the history of our country — a standard, very pat line that was divvied out to say. And dozens of audits, performed by Rs and Ds alike, in states red, blue, and purple, have uncovered no significant fraud in the 2020, 2022, or 2024 elections.

The cover-up of this colossal security breach is even more disturbing in light of the additional information showing that China engaged in other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign. And at the same time, Russia Russia Russia was trying to influence our election to ensure that Trump won; that wasn't mentioned during his remarks, but it's supported by the evidence.

They did not want — and they just didn't want it. They fought like hell not to have it, Donald Trump to win, and for good reason. As the documents we are releasing show, CIA reporting explicitly stated, and I quote, in mid-2018, the Chinese Communist Party's policy was to leverage all domestic and foreign elements that were opposed to the US president in an effort to reduce the US president's votes and make him resign or prevent his reelection. Is this a good time to mention the US government's efforts to influence elections in other countries, such as sending the Vice President to Hungary to personally urge voters to keep Viktor Orban in office? Or efforts by Rudy Giuliani and others to get Ukrainians to dig up dirt on Joe Biden?

Isn't that nice? Also, in mid-2018, China was working to influence the results of the US midterm elections and later the results of the 2020 presidential election itself. Separately, in mid-2019, the Chinese government's strategy against the United States was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the US president.

They wanted to just make you sound like your president wasn't so hot, when actually your president has done a great job. His approval ratings tell a different story... And they did everything possible to do exactly that. Going on this document says, and this is by the CIA, the strategy included efforts to use Chinese contacts with big US companies to influence US business leaders to turn against the president of the United States of America. It would be hard to imagine this working; he maintained very strong support from business leaders throughout his first term.

The Chinese government sought to identify US journalists who had reported negatively on the US president and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him, as many as they could and they didn't care what they said. The Chinese government wanted the US president to lose the next election. You probably don't know this, but sometimes, I seek an hourglass figure...  While the Chinese may have wanted to see more negative stories about Trump (as if there weren't enough of them flying around already), there's no confirmation they were successful in this alleged effort, just like there's no evidence I've been successful in my mission.

And the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them. Charged them billions and billions of dollars' worth of tariffs and built the strongest military anywhere in the world. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world. These are exact quotes from the CIA reporting. The name of the person doing the quote is now under review, but it gets even worse.

Raw intelligence obtained by the FBI in 2020, yet buried by rogue bureaucrats, stated that China's activities even included an attempt to manufacture illegal ballots for Joe Biden. Documents show that during this period, dozens of significant CIA and NSA reports about China's election targeting were kept out of the presidential briefing. Raw intelligence, experts will tell you, is notoriously unreliable and often isn't shared until it can be validated.

These were briefings I would get almost every day; everything was kept out that was of importance. One email among intelligence analysts admitted that they had, quote, deliberately massaged the presidential daily briefing to withhold information regarding Chinese activities related to the election. Another official inside the FBI wrote that she was running, quote, a shadow government, unquote, to keep intelligence about China's election meddling from becoming known and to keep it away from the honorable press. This is explained by Fox News, including that "The documents, however, do not establish Trump's broader allegation of a politically motivated conspiracy." Rather, it was a difference of opinion on intelligence matters.

Other officials who witnessed such efforts perceived the motivations to be blatantly political. Recently, we found significant numbers of burn bags information, and this is a group of bags that were used to destroy information, given by President Barack Hussein Obama to be burned, it was supposed to be burned. I have no idea what this even means, other than that three-name guy continues to live rent-free in the FOTUS' head.

These bags were supposed to be at a different level by different people, incinerated and checked, but it never happened. Maybe we got lucky. We believe this was not done on purpose, but rather through gross incompetence of the people that were supposed to burn the bags. But the findings are stunning.

Today, I'm asking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden. To fire those involved in the cover up and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against these people. It would be appropriate to investigate whether any crimes were committed; can we expect that the people in charge of those areas during Trump's first term will be among those investigated? And, of course, we don't have a DNI, and the guy who's been nominated has no intelligence experience. The qualifications of the FBI director are highly suspect as well, but yes, let's give it our best shot.

Yet concealing China's meddling was only the beginning. The third set of documents we are releasing proves that for many years, Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, including electronic voting machines and ballot counting systems, dishonest, almost all. Hold please, while I put on my seatbelt for this part: our election infrastructure itself is 'dishonest'?

They're vulnerable and they're easily compromised and people within our government knew that. Tonight, we're publishing a series of previously classified US intelligence community assessments and other reports proving that our government has long known these machines are extremely exposed to attack. As one assessment states, we judge that the United States' adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, as well as non-state groups have the capability to compromise US election infrastructure. If that's true, we should certainly try everything we can to limit that ability.

That's unquote but that's some statement, isn't it, made by supposedly great patriots of our country? LOL! The people who support his allegations are "supposedly great patriots of our country?" The document goes on to further state that, quote, we assess that centralized election-related data repositories, such as voter registration databases, poll books, and other official election websites are most vulnerable to exploitation, and adversaries could use this access to these systems to disrupt election processes within the United States of America. Centralized election-related data repositories are bad? Aren't the FOTUS and his minions demanding that states turn over all their voter information to the federal government, which would actually put it in a 'centralized election-related data repository' rather than allowing the states to control their own data? Aren't they threatening to withhold Congressionally apportioned funds from states that don't comply?

Tonight, we're releasing all of those findings and spanning from January 2020 to June 2026. This is a cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy. Many people have questioned whether it could actually be possible to electronically manipulate vote totals or change election results on these terrible machines.

Today, we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the corrupt Maduro regime in Venezuela, and that's exactly what happened, conspiring to digitally rig their own country's elections in 2020. And that's what they did. This reporting included precise details about methods to regime develop, to digitally alter vote totals in ways that could not be detected, even with an audit, no matter how deep they went. Reporting suggests Maduro simply ignored what the machines showed and announced totals that differed from those recorded. This is more about a person acting badly than an 'election infrastructure' failure. And we have our own example of this happening right here in the US, right? "I just need to find 11,780 votes," the most memorable line from Trump's call with Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State, in which he sought to overturn the state's results.

This intelligence underscores why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own system can never, ever be hacked or compromised like it was in the past. Was it? Where's the evidence? Venezuela is not America (yet, anyway). The fourth set of documents reveals that even when significant evidence of fraud has been detected, it has been buried and covered up. Among the disclosures tonight are FBI files detailing evidence of alleged fraud by a large-scale voter registration operation in Michigan.

In 2020, Michigan State Police raided a Democrat Get Out the Vote Organization, corrupt group in Muskegon, and were so concerned by what they found. They were just so concerned, they couldn't believe it, actually, that they contacted the FBI in Detroit. The documents state that some canvassers admitted to FBI agents that they signed voter registration forms in other people's names, submitted fraudulent registration for people who did not exist, and received gift cards tied to the number of applications that they produced. Fraudulent voter registration is illegal in every state in America. Multiple investigations found no evidence that any fraudulent voter registrations were submitted or that any fraudulent votes were cast.

In other words, it was pay, play and cheat. The FBI agents working on the case believe that crimes were committed, yet the Biden Department of Justice slow-walked the investigation and killed it. Actually, the Trump DOJ killed the investigation in September 2025, finding "no criminal violation or a priority threat to national security." Tonight, I'm asking the FBI director to ensure that the matter is fully investigated and to work with the Department of Justice to prosecute those responsible for any crimes.

Finally, to reveal just how vulnerable our elections continue to be, we are releasing the results of a stunning investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public records, they identified approximately 278,000 alleged non-citizens who are registered to vote in federal elections. 

Since Democrat states refuse to share their voter files the real number is actually much higher than that. Right - because there are allegations of non-citizens being registered to vote, there must be many more of them, because math... You know, like drug prices being 600%, 800%, or even 1500% lower under the current administration. Yet even this limited analysis found more than a quarter of a million foreigners illegally registered to vote. Put together, these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it. It is not defensible. Where is the data showing how many of them voted? Where is the proof that these people are all non-citizens?  Those are both important questions, the latter particularly so, because the Department of Homeland Security's SAVE database is inaccurate,

Hundreds of millions of US voter files are in the hands of foreign governments. Our machines and ballot counting systems are exposed to hacking and manipulation and corruption. China and other countries have been trying to meddle in our elections. Evidence of fraud has been buried. Hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and dead people are listed and active on the voter rolls. Repeating these statements doesn't make them true, and the risk of tampering or other vulnerabilities does not mean that those vulnerabilities have been or will be exploited.

And yet we still have elections with no voter ID (this is false; even if voter ID is not required at the polling place, it is required to register, and signature verification is a valid form of ID - and frankly, harder to fake than an ID - just ask an under-age drinker), no proof of citizenship, and tens of millions of ballots floating aimlessly through the mail (Yes, aimlessly being potmarked hours away from the local post office where they're mailed, for example.) As one example of the insanity, California's recent election for mayor of LA and governor, was held on June 2nd, long time ago, but it was just completed a few days ago, on July 10th. Think of that, much more than one month.

Took a month to count the votes. I wonder what they were doing. They counted in-person votes; they recieved over 8,423,000 ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and recieved timely per state law; they validated the signatures on the outside of the ballot with the signature on file BEFORE the ballots were opened; they mailed notices to anyone with a signature mismatch that there was an issue and provided details on how to 'cure' their ballot within ten days; they reviewed everytihng related to the cured ballots, then opened the ones that were attested to as being correct, and counted them. In short, they followed the law, and made sure that every legitimate vote was counted, which is what is supposed to happen. This is worse than any third-world country. There's no third-world country that has elections like we have. Right - they just make stuff up, or demand that people lie for them.

In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about, because of the fact that they don't like the topic, because they know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. Yep - all the third-world leaders claim the press is against them, is an enemy of the people, and is fake news. Which is why the networks you're upset with all streamed the broadcast for anyone who wanted to watch. 

They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. What? They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. Huh? They can't have a great country um..? and that's true; you can't have a great country without free and fair elections. We have those here in America, and we have laws to prosecute people who try to get around the laws. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. "Fraud like this" meaning the fake news you hate but love to criticize, denigrate, lie about, and sue, deciding to stream you rather than broadcast you? How is that fraud?  They use our public multibillion dollar in value airways for absolutely no money. Other than license fees, application fees, purchasing a station fees, and/or the FCC public auction fees... plus the cost of selling their souls to keep on the good side of whichever bully is in charge in DC.

They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting. Does that include fact-checking? They pay nothing for multi-billion dollar assets. Great damage has been done to our country. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost. Actually, the American people's trust was stolen... This cannot be allowed to continue. The person who has single-handedly done more damage to American trust in our elections? Donald J. Trump, who has convinced people that the Democrats are so smart they could rig a presidential election but didn't bother to rig any races on the ballot. Donald J. Trump, who, knowingly on a recorded line, asked someone to find him just enough votes to win, and didn't care that he was being recorded. Donald J. Trump, he of the January 6th insurrection, who loved the people that were there, chanting to hang his vice president.

Every American, whether you're a Republican, Democrat, independent or otherwise, should be able to agree that we deserve the most secure, honest, and fair election system anywhere in the world. Secure elections should be a partisan — really, should just, we should be together Democrats, Republicans, independents, everybody, and it should not be a partisan issue. It's not a partisan issue - we all want free and fair elections, and as far as any investigations have shown, for the most part we have them. Every state has laws to deal with various types of election fraud, and people are caught and prosecuted for violations - Democrats and Republicans alike. That is as it should be. And as far as anyone has determined, there is NO evidence of fraud sufficient to influence an election. 

It should cause to unite us, not to divide us. This should be a cause, we should be united, not divided. In light of the brand new and irrefutable information, I have revealed tonight my administration is in the process of notifying the states whose election data was compromised by the People's Republic of China and many others. Again, nothing has shown that the information was compromised, or even that enough information was obtained to allow it to be compromised.

We will be working closely to mitigate any harm and we're taking swift action to ensure that sensitive voter data is better protected so we can never be bought, we can never be hacked, and we can never watch a stolen election again. That does NOT mean that all voter data should be provided to the Federal Government. One person who should know, at least as well as anyone, is the FOTUS, whose tax information was stolen and shared, along with the data of over 405,000 other individual and corporate taxpayers. Also, the voter information of everyone receiving a mail-in ballot certainly should NOT be shared with the US Postal Service, either.

Tomorrow, the Secretary of Homeland Security will hold a briefing to outline his department's recent work confirming cyber vulnerabilities in our electronic voting systems.

They are bad. We're in the process of informing governors, Senators and members of Congress of potential issues in their states. If you look at voting today, it's in such bad shape in so many states, and we are committing to fix it and we're also committing to be working with those states and local jurisdictions to help them fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections. Oh, the irony! This is the guy who just fired the Election Assistance Commission folks, the leaders of the very federal agency charged with assisting states with election security, after previously getting rid of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. You can't make this stuff up.

We have very important elections coming up. We want those elections to be honest. I've also ordered DHS to notify every state about noncitizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately. But most importantly, addressing this alleged crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the SAVE America Act. How easy is that to do, unless you want to cheat. This is an absurd comment.

The only reason you wouldn't do it is you want to cheat because your policies are so bad, and your candidates are so pathetic that you can't get away or can't get elected any other way. Actually, those are the very reasons why a president would demand Texas redraw its Congressional districts off-cycle to gain him five more seats. And it's why other red states jumped on the redistricting bandwagon to curry favor with him. And why blue states foolishly fell for it, too. This landmark bill requires that all voters must show photo voter ID. How simple is that? Could I have your photo, please? Photo voter ID. He knows that is not what the bill asks for, and pretending that's all it is? It's a bald-faced lie. All voters must provide proof of citizenship. 

Are you a citizen of our country, please? And hopefully there will be no corrupt mail-in ballots, which, if you watched California and so many other places, mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt. Again, California ensured that the mailed-in ballots were NOT corrupt. So, you would have no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel if you're going away on business or vacation. And what about you? Which of those reasons applied to your mailed-in vote in Florida's primary?

These reforms are urgently needed to stop the vulnerabilities that I've mentioned. He knows, everyone in DC knows, and anyone that has read the SAVE America Act knows that the bill does NOTHING to address voting machine vulnerabilities, foreign attempts to influence how Americans vote or who our candidates are, attempts to influece the press to report in a specific way about a candidate, individuals who make bad choices to earn bonuses or get gift cards, people who ignore actual vote tallies and use their own made-up numbers, people who try to get others to change vote totals, people who don't include things when they brief their bosses, selling or sharing voter data, or networks that don't put evyerthing the president wants on the air. To all Americans, I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call your Representatives in the House and Senate and demand that they pass the SAVE America Act without delay. Together, we will restore faith and confidence in our country, and we will be bigger, better and stronger than ever before. The bill will NOT restore faith and confidence in our country, or in our elections, 

Thank you. God bless you. God bless our great military. And God bless America. Thank you very much. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO MY COMMENTS.

Wondering on Wednesday 7/15/26

 

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Today I learned (from reporting by The Guardian) that Secretary of Manly Manliness, Defense, and War Pete Hegseth is "authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members," to ensure they "have the right testosterone levels to operate at (their) absolute best.” 

As we know, the modern battlefield is brutal and unrelenting,” he added. “It requires and demands maximum psychological and mental readiness, and by addressing these health markers early, we’re keeping you on the leading edge of lethality, and giving you the same level of support that you give this nation – the absolute best.”

The plan will require "warfighters" who are at least 30 years old to have the test as part of their regular health assessment; folks younger than 30 who are, um, 'T-curious' can also participate. His announcement video says that treatment for those with low levels is optional, but I can't help wondering what'll happen the first time someone says 'no thanks' to the T tea, or however they treat it. 

And if you had to guess if there were any other members of the 'Make America' hat letters administration who know anything about this, I wonder if you'd be surprised to learn that RFK, Jr. has talked about getting testosterone injections as part of his "anti-aging' regimen? 

Nah... didn't think so.

Remember all the folks getting doxxed, or censured, or even fired for expressing opinions after the murder of Charlie Kirk? Well, it seems that some folks who got caught up in the "Don't Speak Ill of Charlie" mania are getting their just rewards.

According to The Hill and others, the Sunshine State must make a sizeable payment to a biologist at a state agency.

Brittney Brown lost her job at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in September after reposting a message to her private Instagram account claiming Kirk did not care about children being shot in their classrooms. 

The post read: “The whales are deeply saddened to hear about the shooting of Charlie Kirk, haha just kidding, they care exactly as much as Charlie Kirk cared about children being shot in their classrooms, which is to say not at all.”

Her repost of someone else's words was seen by "popular conservatives" on social media, which, according to her lawsuit, cost Brown her job. The settlement requires Florida to pay a total of $485,000 to cover the loss of her job, back pay, and legal fees. 

And it turns out Brown is not alone. A retired law enforcement officer in Tennessee was paid $850,000 after being jailed - for more than a month - after sharing a post about Kirk on social media. And a teacher's union has filed a lawsuit against Texas for investigating teachers who shared comments about Kirk online. 

And, with the passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who had a long career and left plenty for people on both sides of the proverbial aisle to be grumpy about, I'm wondering how folks will be treated if they post their honest opinions about him on social media? 

Will they fall victim to the massive cancel culture machine that the FOTUS himself has promoted for years, and which was perfected by those "popular conservatives" on social media? Or will they get a pass and be allowed to say what they want without being reported to their employer, their church, their golf league, and the rest?

Last but not least, here are some of the remarks the FOTUS made when talking about experimental medications and the 'right to try' them. Here's what he said about one unnamed drug:

We've taken people that were dead. We had a person given the last rites - gone; the kids were crying and everything - and started him on this drug. And the person became better. It works.

The wondering here is rampant, as you might imagine, and honestly, some of what I'm thinking would probably get me in trouble with some agency or other, in DC, or Kentucky, or Iran, or... 

Anyway: what's on your wondering mind tonight? Drop a comment!

Quick Takes (v74): What I'd Ask Todd Blanche

Todd Blanche, a key FOTUS personal attorney (FPA) and current acting Attorney General of the US, is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today as it considers his nomination to lose the 'acting' tag and assume the AG role for real.

I expect he'll get many questions about the Epstein files; that's fine. After all, his predecessor (and fellow FPA) Pam Bondi said all things Epstein were in his portfolio.  And, as we all know, the one thing our highly partisan DC politicians can agree on is that all publicity is good, and asking Epstein questions will guarantee them the attention they crave.

Me? With very few exceptions, I'm much less interested in questions about Epstein (I'll tell you why in another post) than I am in hearing him differentiate his work as an FPA from his work in the DOJ. Here's what I'm interested in as far as Epstein goes:

• The Federal Bureau of Prisons maintains strict rules that generally disqualify sex offenders from serving time in white-collar-crime type 'prison camps. Do you agree with those rules, yes or no?

• You interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison, for nine hours. Shortly after, she was transferred to a prison camp in Texas, putting her closer to family members. Her transfer appears to go against the rules.

Yes or no, did you promise her a transfer in return for her testimony?

Yes or no, did you ask that she be transferred or considered for transfer?

Yes or no, did you approve her transfer?  If you didn't approve her transfer, who did?

• How many other convicted sex offenders has the DOJ transferred to be closer to their family members?  Were you involved in any of those decisions?

• Yes or no, did you make any promises to Maxwell for her testimony?

• Yes or no, did you have any discussions with the FOTUS in advance of your interview with her? If yes, what was the nature of those discussions?

• Yes or no, have you been involved in any discussions regarding a potential pardon for Maxwell? 

Other questions I'd love to have answered, regarding the FOTUS lawsuit against the IRS:

• Generally speaking, in your current role as Acting AG, who is your client, the United States or the president?

• Do you believe there is enough separation between the president as an individual and the president as head of the Executive Branch - and your boss - that a lawsuit such as his against the IRS can meet the requirement that the plaintiff and defendant must be truly different parties?

Based on your answer to the 'who is your client' question, do you believe it was appropriate to be personally involved in settling the president's IRS lawsuit, yes or no?

Why did you not wait until the Courts determined the legitimacy of the lawsuit before proposing the settlement you did? 

Did you believe, or do you believe, that the fund you proposed to award taxpayer money to people not involved in the settled lawsuit was in the best interests of the United States?

Did you believe, or do you believe, that barring the IRS from completing any open audits, or opening any new audits on taxes filed before May 2026, was in the best interests of the United States?

Would you have approved either settlement provision with any other taxpayers?

• When the president's taxes were leaked by an IRS employee, how many other individual or corporate taxpayers also had their information released - was it hundreds of people? Thousands of people? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

Not counting corporate taxpayers, how many of those whose taxes were released, including the president, sued the IRS for the unauthorized disclosure?

How many of those who sued were successful?

And how much money, on average, did each receive as a result?

How many of those suits were you personally involved in?

• Yes or no, are you aware of The Judgment Fund, established by Congress in 1956, to pay people who have successfully sued the government and been awarded a monetary judgment? 

Since that Fund already exists, and doesn't place any cap on payments, why was it necessary to create a special fund as part of the deal with the president?

You have said that the DOJ will not be moving ahead with the so-called 'Anti-Weaponization Fund,' but you've refused to put that in writing. Why is that?

Yes or no, is it your intention to use The Judgment Fund to handle payments to the alleged 'weaponization' victims?   

 If that is the intention, yes or no, will you require that the alleged victims follow the process and obtain a court judgment before releasing any funds?

I would not waste more than a few seconds thanking him for appearing before the Committee before diving into this list, and I'd likely have to reclaim the couple of minutes of my time he would have wasted in his efforts not to answer me. 

And then, hopefully I'd be turning it over to a colleague who'd ask different questions, so the American people can see and hear for themselves how awful a choice he is for this position.

What would you want to ask him? Drop a comment! 

Sidebar: OrangeVerse (LXV)

As I mentioned in Friday's OrangeVerse, the president spent time during his July 4th speech recognizing some American heroes and honoring different American flags with relevance to the heroic acts or the times during which the acts occured. Here are his comments.

The Civil War

Few heroes remind us of these truths more than William Carney, who escaped slavery to become a Union soldier in the Civil War, which was a very big, big deal at the time.

On the front lines of battle he saw a comrade struck down by enemy fire while carrying the Stars and Stripes. And Sergeant Carney dove to the ground to keep the flag from touching the mud. He didn't want to have it touch the ground. He didn't want to have it touch the mud. He wanted it to be perfect.

He raised it high above the field and was shot four times. They thought he was gone, but he kept moving forward. He loved our country. He loved our flag before he returned to camp and announced, "Boys, the old flag never touched the ground."

And he became the first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. He got the Congressional Medal of Honor, and he was the first African American, and he was some man. They've written stories about him. He was something special.

The Vietnam War

With us tonight to celebrate this forward march of freedom is another Medal of Honor recipient, Colonel Paris Davis, whose courage won eternal glory in Vietnam. He helped lead a surprise attack on 100 enemy combatants. They said he was finished. His whole group was finished, and despite multiple life-threatening wounds saved the lives of his fellow soldiers.

And this evening he stands to salute the only flag of its kind, the one that was draped over the casket of President Abraham Lincoln in Independence Hall. Thank you very much, Greg.

He looks better than I do. He looks great, and he's brave. Because of heroes like these, our flag will always be a symbol of liberty and justice for all. Colonel Davis, thank you very much. Great man. Great man. Thank you.

The Wild Wild West

American grit, boldness and daring forged heroes like Davy Crockett, Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley, Teddy Roosevelt and the legend of the Wild West, Buffalo Bill Cody.

These were great, powerful people whose incredible grandchildren happen to be with us tonight, and they stand alongside one of the first American flags ever to fly over our expanding nation. It was carried West just as Lewis and Clark began their journey in 1803.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Great to have you. Great to have you to honor this audacious and indomitable soul of America.

Historic American Flags

We also have the first flag ever to fly over one of the greatest architectural feats of all time, a thing called the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the most beautiful bridges anywhere in the world built a long time ago.

To its right, the banner that flew atop our flagship after America's Navy sank the Spanish fleet to the bottom of the Manila Bay, one of the greatest naval victories in history. Much like our recent victory by sinking the entire Iranian Navy, 159 ships to the bottom of the sea, all done in just a moment's time. Happened very quickly. We have the greatest military anywhere in the world.

And next to it, we also have the flag that was given to that immortable, just a fantastic immortal Rough Rider, the one and only, and I was at the museum the other day at its opening, Theodore Roosevelt, when he returned triumphant from Cuba, printed with the words, "Welcome home, Colonel Roosevelt." It was a victory of San Juan Hill. He was a great gentleman.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor 

Ken Schubring was 19 years old when he survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After enemy planes sank ships like the USS Arizona, he resolved that he would help America strike back and win. He wanted them to strike back and win.

Flying B-29s in the Pacific, Ken fought from the first day to the very last. He was in the war right from the first day, and he went to the last day, and all the way to the enemy's... And he went to the last day and all the way to the enemy's unconditional surrender. We got an unconditional surrender. He was there at 104 years old and looking really good. Captain Schubring is here tonight and he is saluting the flag that went down with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor, but was raised back up with the help of some unbelievable American patriots. It's a symbol of American defiance, please. Thank you Captain. Thank you, Captain.

Great job. Thank you very much. You have very good genes. That's his son. His son's going to be around a long time. Thank you very much, Captain. 

World War II 

On D-Day in World War II, Navy Lieutenant Arthur Rose commanded 36 landing craft as part of the largest naval armada in history. Recalling that site he wrote home to his parents. What a country we are at 107 years old. Lieutenant Rose is here to salute one of our nation's most prized possessions. The flag that flew aboard the first landing craft on D-Day and led the first Americans onto the beaches of Normandy to liberate Europe and defeat Nazi fascism forever. Lieutenant Rose, you are an inspiration to this beautiful crowd and we thank you very much. Amazing man. 107. It's 107. 

On Iwo Jima in the Pacific, the Marines faced some of the most brutal combat in the history of warfare. They shed their blood for every inch of mountain that they reached. And when they reached the summit and raised the Stars and Stripes for all to see, it was so special to everybody there. Everybody there and everybody watching. They couldn't believe it. It wasn't supposed to happen. With us today is one of the last survivors of that battle, 101-year-old Marine Corporal Don Graves.

And he's here to salute that famous flag he saw rise in the glory of Iwo Jima 81 years ago and you've all seen that flag many times.

The War on Communism 

Tonight, we proudly thank veterans of the war on communism, including Marine Corporal Pat Finn and Private First Class Rudy Meekins, who fought at the famed Battle of Chosen Reservoir in Korea. That was a rough one. Thank you. Pat fought in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

He had five against him and he was one. And as you can see, he's around to talk about it. And Rudy was wounded four times but never stopped shooting and he never stopped moving forward. And also with us is veteran Sonny Ray, who fought heroically against an enemy force 10 times his unit's size and earned a tremendously deserved Silver Star. 

Tonight, they salute one of the very first 50-star flags to fly above the field of battle. This was about the beginning of the 50. And right next to it is one of the last flags from Checkpoint Charlie, very famous place on the Berlin Wall, where American freedom finally brought communism crashing down to an end. Thank you so much. You are really very special.

Thank you. Thank you very much. The Stars and Stripes cast the hammer and sickle into oblivion before and we will do it again if necessary. I don't think it's going to be necessary. I think people have learned. They've learned what to do and how to handle it and we are going to handle it very well. So, gentlemen, I want to thank you very much. Amazing people. Amazing men. Thank you. How about that, huh? Isn't that great? What an honor it is to be with them. Think of it, 107. That's up there, but hopefully, he's got 20 good years left. Through the generations, Americans have never stopped striving to lift humanity to new heights.

Flight and Space 

In 1903, the Wright Brothers from Ohio fulfilled the age-old dream of mankind to fly. That's right. They're from Ohio. Great state. And within 66 years of inventing the airplane, Americans planted our flag on the moon. Just three months ago, we sent American astronauts back to the far side of the moon, and this time, they flew further from Earth than anyone has ever flown before. And here they are. So, tonight we're joined by that crew of NASA, Artemis. You know the crew, everybody. Artemis II and everybody watched. Isn't that amazing? They became very famous. Everybody watched. I was watching, I don't know what it was, that one got the attention of everybody.

And along with the last man to walk on the moon, Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmidt. Thank you, Jack. You look like you could be with them, Jack. You look very good. You look very good, Jack. Thank you very much. What a job. Everybody was watching. I was with a group of people that normally wouldn't be watching and we're having a big dinner and they all said, "We want to turn on. We want to watch Artemis II." A lot of people said, "What is that?" By the end of the evening they knew it was amazing. And along with Jared, where is Jared? He's so great. He's running NASA. What a job he's done. So, I want to thank you all. Thank you very much. Great job.

So, these champions of flight stand this evening beside the flag flown on the Wright Brothers' airplane piloted by Orville Wright. It's the exact flag. Very historic. And they are honored to be here. They told me today they were really amazed to be here with that flag. That's a very special flag if you're in the world of flying aircraft. So, congratulations to everybody. Fantastic job. Very proud of you. And I have a special gift for these patriots this morning on America's 250th birthday. A new flag was flown above the United States Capitol. And tonight I presented to you to soon be planted by American astronauts on their upcoming return to the moon.

And in addition to that, I gave them and all of the great heroes that you saw up on stage tonight and a few others that couldn't quite make the stage. I gave them a very special medal from the White House. So, it's an honor.

Families of the Fallen 

We are honored to be joined by 11 Gold Star family members, the Gold Star Family. That is one of the great tributes. It's one of the great honors.

A tough honor. There's nothing tougher than that, but these are amazing people. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Come on up. They went through a lot. Thank you very much. And that special person is looking up there and looking down at mom and dad, husband, wife, but they're looking down with great pride. You know that. You know that. And we want to thank you for being here. Thank you very much. And we have medals for you backstage. I brought them. I thought I'd be handing them out about two hours ago, three hours ago, but we're going to be backstage and we have beautiful medals for you, for your family from the White House. Thank you very much everybody. We love you.

The Star-Spangled Banner 

In 1944, a mother and her daughter huddled in their house in Nazi-occupied Belgium and prayed desperately for their country to be freed. They wanted freed. As they waited, they found scraps of fabric and stitched together a homemade American flag. It's beautiful, but homemade. On the day they were finally liberated, and that's what the word is, liberated. They gave it to an American soldier as a gift. 

Little did they know that that soldier's great-grandfather was none other than the author of our Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key. And tonight, the next generation of the Key family is with us. Thank you very much, please. Thank you. Major Kyle Key has spent 23 years in the US Army, highly respected. And this evening he proudly salutes the old flag that was made by the Belgian woman so beautifully and who knew that America means hope and freedom.

What do you think of his team's approach to his America at 250 speech, to have the historic flags on display and to attach them to specific people or teams of people?  I think it's one of the better things they've put together, in part because it kept his rambling and the famous 'weave' to a minimuim on a night when it was importatn to do that. 

Oh sure, it's possible that the bobbing and weaving was limited by the lateness of the hour, the size of the crowd after the weather delay, and the fact that almost everyone there was more interested in the fireworks than the speech, but that he and his handlers rose to the occasion is a good thing.  

OrangeVerse (LXV): America's 250th Birthday

The weather-delayed main event on July 4th in DC was the detonation and launch of some 850,000 fireworks, the most bigly fireworks display (for entertainment purposes, anyway) in our nation's 250 years, maybe longer. 

Preceding that? A speech by the FOTUS; fortunately, the weather not only delayed his appearance, but shortened it to an almost tolerable 40 minutes, compared to the threatened dictator-like hours-long ramble.

Trump's speech featured heroes, patriotic imagery, and villains. The heroes, which I'll feature in a Sidebar, were impressive. The patriotism and the villains are where I found the poetry. Note that these are all his words, but not all of his words - it's not a transcript. Rather, it's my re-punctuated capture of his main themes.  

Free Verse, 250 Years in the Making

This country is the home of freedom. 

This is the land of liberty, 

and this is a flag

 that's the banner of the most extraordinary, 

most exceptional, most incredible nation 

ever to exist on the face of the earth.

 

And we're doing better now than 

we've ever done before.

No people have done more good, 

shown more courage, 

made more progress, 

righted more injustice or 

achieved more greatness 

than you, 

the American people.

For 250 years, the United 

States of America has been 

the hope, the promise, the light, and the glory 

among all of the 

nations of the world. 

All over the world 

they try and be like us. 

Nobody can be like us. 

Here on our National Mall, we're celebrating 

freedom's triumph over tyranny, 

liberty's conquest over oppression

 and the enduring victory of 

the American spirit 

from the July 4th, 1776 to July 4th, 2026. 

Big dates. That's big dates. Two big ones.

And tonight our country

is stronger, freer, richer, safer, 

and prouder than ever before.

But it all started 

with the miracle of history that lives 

forever in the heart of every single patriot.

In Philadelphia, our founding fathers 

summoned the courage of giants 

and the wisdom of centuries 

to boldly proclaim these timeless truths. 

They declared that all men are created equal.

That they are endowed with sacred, 

unalienable rights by the hand of our creator.

And that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

In signing their names to the roster of freedom, 

those 56 patriots put everything at risk, 

stepped onto the stage of destiny and 

seized a victory for the ages. 

And that's what it was. 

And this is an evening for the ages, 

I believe. This is something very special. 

This is bigger than if we didn't have the lightning blaring. 

We had lightning blaring, but this is bigger. 

Little more inconvenient, but it's bigger. 

I think in its own way 

it's more beautiful.

From the beginning, 

we were a nation that lived 

by the motto victory or death, 

and live free or die.

One out of every 100 

Americans gave their lives 

in the fight for independence 

to remind us of who these heroes were 

and what they gave us.

 These are the real flags.

These are flags that have seen a lot. 

These were the Stars and Stripes 

that flew triumphant when the British waved 

the white flag of surrender at Yorktown. 

That was a big surrender. 

Nobody thought that was possible.

They were the greatest power of the world,

and they surrendered, and that was the beginning.

Ever since, the entire world has been on notice

 that Americans will never let anyone 

take our freedom away. 

Won't happen.

And all these talks 

from the communists, 

they haven't got a chance. 

Not even a chance.

We don't want 

communists 

in our country.

Never worked, 

and it never will work. 

Americans must never forget 

that we are a historic and

 heroic people with a 

heroic spirit and a 

heroic purpose 

on this beautiful 

earth of ours.

We are 

made 

of the 

courage 

and the fire 

and the flesh 

and the blood 

of the best and 

the bravest people

this world has ever 

produced. 

Our founders not only won 

our liberty, they secured it 

with the most righteous 

political document

 ever conceived. It's called the 

Constitution of the United States. 

Very special.

And it's 

because of their 

genius that we remain

 the finest people on the planet 

after 250 years.

Unlike so many 

others in the world, 

in this country, 

we have freedom of speech, 

freedom of religion, 

equal justice under the law, 

although I wasn't treated that well, 

but we won't get into that.

 And the right to keep and bear arms. 

And for the almost six years 

that I was president,

I guarded very, 

very powerfully 

your Second Amendment, 

and they didn't do a thing to it, 

and it was not easy. 

But we guard your 

Second Amendment. 

We guard it very, very 

strongly and cautiously.

Across the generations 

Americans have 

fought, 

bled 

and 

died 

not just to secure 

those rights, 

but to expand them 

to citizens 

of every 

race, 

religion, 

color 

and creed 

because we 

are one people. 

We are 

one family.

And as our 

Declaration of Independence 

tells us, we are all made 

in the image of 

one Almighty God.

And a communist 

will never say that. 

Americans expanded

the blessings of freedom, 

and we have never stopped expanding 

our ambitions and our dreams. 

We had the American dream. 

We never had the American dream, 

however, like we have it right now. 

The American dream is 

back, very strong, 

beautiful.

Our rise

 to being the world's strongest 

and most powerful nation was no accident 

of history. We rebuilt our military in my first term. 

We use it a little bit in our... Well, actually, I should say 

third term, but I won't do that 

because I don't want any controversy.

But we use it and 

we've had tremendous success. 

You look at Venezuela,

 you look at Iran, 

we wiped it out, 

wiped out their military.

Americans 

crossed the Great Plains, 

scaled the Rockies, we just tamed 

the wilderness and conquered the frontier 

and built the empire, it's called the Empire of Liberty. 

We laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, 

those beautiful skyscrapers and dug out the Panama Canal, 

considered the eighth wonder of the world, 

which everyone said was an impossible thing to do. 

And by the way, 38,000 Americans died to

give us one of the greatest engineering feats of all time

 the Panama Canal.

This was the unstoppable spirit that created the world's

most powerful industries and built 

the strongest military anyone had ever seen. 

And today, it is stronger and more powerful than

 it ever was before.

Americans won the West and built

the modern world because America 

is a nation of winners. 

And today our country is winning again, 

and we're winning like never before.

America is back,

 and we want to 

keep America great. 

And we will do so by approving the Save America Act, 

which means all voters must show voter ID. 

All voters must provide a little thing called proof of citizenship.

And there will be no mail-in ballots, 

except for illness, disability, 

military deployment or travel.

And you won't have 

cheating on the elections anymore. 

It's very simple. 

Together, 

we are also reasserting the truth

that American strength and power is not 

something to be ashamed of. It is something that we 

are very, very proud of. This country has been

 the greatest force for peace 

and justice on earth. 

In the last century, we defeated tyrants, 

demolished evil and saved freedom again and again and again.

So, ladies and gentlemen,

these are the fighters and the banners 

of the greatest generation. 

They are the greatest generation. 

I hate to admit that, but they are. 

They saved the world and they made 

America very, very proud. 

We are very proud of you here us all. 

And after we vanquished fascism, 

Americans stood against the evil of communism in the Cold War. 

And as I said last night at the beautiful Mount Rushmore,

what a beautiful place where 

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt loomed 

over my shoulder as I spoke.

 America will never be a communist country. 

Won't happen. Communism is a loser and it always will be.

The communist system is

the opposite of the American system

 and the communist system has never worked. 

Our warriors did not fight communism 

on battlefields across the world only to have that menace 

rear its ugly head right back here in America. 

We're not going to let it happen. 

We like to stop a threat like that immediately 

and before it begins. 

It's like a cancer. 

You got to cut it out. You got to cut it out fast. 

Congratulations and thank you

for being here very much. 

And from the now safe and beautiful capital of Washington. 

Think of it. Washington DC, our capital. 

Our capital is now safe, gleaming and beautiful again. 

It's safe again.

Went from a very unsafe place two years ago 

to one of the safest cities in the country 

and one of the most beautiful 

to the gleaming waters of the Gulf of America.

 

There is no challenge Americans cannot overcome. 

There is no place we cannot go. 

There is no goal we cannot reach and 

there is nothing that Americans cannot do. 

And we're proving that right now. 

Our stock market is the strongest it's ever been. 

We have $19.2 trillion being invested in our country, 

which is six times more than ever happened before. 

We're building more factories in the United States t

han ever before. Everyone's 401(k)s 

are at the highest number they've ever been.

And more people are working today in the United States 

than any time in the history of our country. 

But in this country, 

we can achieve the wildest 

and most impossible dreams. 

And no dream in history

 is bigger or more incredible 

than the one that started on July 4th, 1776. 

The war for independence was launched

 by minutemen, farmers, blacksmens, tradesmen 

who took up their muskets against

 the mightiest army on earth, 

most powerful army and 

unbeatable army until they met us. 

No one made them do it. 

They fought because they knew 

that a free people must have a free country over 250 years. 

The world has seen the great empires, vast kingdoms, 

mighty nations and terrible tyrants. 

They came and they went. 

But after two and a half centuries, 

this American republic still stands tall and strong 

and we love each other. 

That show tonight, you heard it was over and what happened? 

You came back. 

And this American flag still waves 

proud and free and beautiful. 

We have thrived and flourished 

because our founders were great. 

Our cause was just 

our people are brave. 

Our culture is exceptional 

and our destiny is written 

by God. 

And as we can see here tonight,
after 250 years, the spirit of 1776 still lives within us all. 

It still roars in the hearts of our nation's capital.

It still burns in the heart of every patriot,

thunders through every city and town and

 it still lights the entire world 

with the glow of American liberty. 

And there is nothing like that. 

At 250 years old, we may be the oldest 

constitutional republic on earth, 

but our country is just getting started 

because the best is yet to come. 

On this 250th 4th of July

we declared just as they did 

two and a half centuries ago 

that for our country and for our children 

and for the cause of liberty, 

we are going to take our country to new levels,

to levels not reached. 

We're going to make it bigger, better, stronger, 

and we're going to love it even more.