For the last three months, as part of the Trump administration’s unauthorized bombing campaign in the Caribbean and Pacific, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered, and the military has carried out, the intentional killing of at least 87 unarmed people in tiny boats who posed no immediate threat to our country Hegseth has also been found to have put American troops at risk by his reckless handling of classified information.  For these egregious crimes, unless he immediately resigns, he must be impeached.

On November 26, a vetted Afghan asylee, who’d worked with CIA forces in Afghanistan for a decade, shot two National Guard members deployed in D.C. in violation of a court order. In response, Trump immediately halted all asylum decisions, suspended all Afghan immigration requests, and paused migration from all Third World countries—turning this isolated incident into a national crisis that could only be cured by “remigration,” a Nazi-era term long used by white nationalists as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing. 

Trump’s calls for the execution of Members of Congress whose only crime was reminding service members that military law requires them to follow legal, but not illegal, orders are reprehensible and require the immediate commencement of impeachment proceedings. The members Trump wants punished are, instead, providing an important service and deserve our thanks.

Trump is declining mentally. He sleeps through meetings, can’t remember Hakeem Jeffries’ name, and claims to have stopped non-existent conflicts between “Cambodia and Armenia” (4,000 miles apart), “Azerbaijan and Albania” (meaning Armenia), and “Pakistan and Iran” (meaning India). Where is the legacy media in all this? Does media consolidation in the hands of a few billionaires undermine a democracy whose government might vote to tax billionaires? 

The American people deserve leaders who can deliver results and are willing to stand up to Trump’s bullying, not leaders, like Schumer and Durbin who, because they fold instead, must be replaced. Democrats must stop rewarding bad-faith tactics with political victories, since every time we give in, it teaches them that cruelty works. Please hold firm—protecting healthcare, defending workers, and refusing to reopen the government on a foundation of lies.

This shutdown is now tied with the one in Trump’s first term for the longest government shutdown in American history. MAGA Republicans who control the White House and both houses of Congress, want people to suffer and even starve, as they try to resurrect pre-New Deal America. That Trump threw a lavish Gatsby-themed party at his private Florida golf resort for his billionaire buddies just hours before SNAP benefits—he improperly claimed the government couldn’t cover—ceased shows us all which Americans he truly values.

The US is now executing people on the high seas whom Trump’s labelled “enemy combatants” without a declaration of war, input from Congress, or evidence they pose a threat to the US. He is also positioning warships, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, planes, and thousands of troops off Venezuela’s coast. Congress must put a stop to this illegal, unconstitutional behavior, that also violates international law—starting with passage of the pending War Powers Resolution.

We must not be cowed by the threats of an increasingly authoritarian administration. Engage in economic boycotts. Recognize that protest matters.  Hound ICE. Record their actions. Push your representatives to inform their constituencies. And remember that no fascist regime can succeed without the compliance of its own citizens.

Last Saturday, 8+ million patriotic Americans turned out in every Congressional district to peacefully protest against Trump’s unconstitutional, authoritarian, un-American agenda—strengthening Democrats’ commitment to hold out for a continuing resolution that permanently extends the extremely popular ACA tax credits and blocks Trump’s illegal budget cuts. It is well past time for Republicans to seek a bipartisan solution to this stalemate.

Why would the US government use $20 billion in taxpayer funds to bail out Argentina, a right-wing government with a decades-long history of corruption and fiscal mismanagement, when it’s unwilling to use these funds to benefit the American people ? To protect Treasury Secretary Bessert’s billionaire hedge-fund buddies, of course. Congress must put an end to this crony capitalism scam now.