Reminder: 290 and 67. The 290 represents how many U.S. House of Representatives members it takes to override a presidential veto (all Representatives are up for reelection this year). It takes 67 U.S. Senators to override a presidential veto (35 Senators are up for reelection this year with 22 of those being Republicans—the ones we have to concentrate on the most). These numbers are very important this year at the ballot box because it will take this number of votes to help right this vast ship of a country for all of us, not just the billionaire class.
I wish I didn’t, but everyday I wake up and wonder, “How can you?,” when I think about the 37% of Americans who approve of Trump’s performance as president. What is he doing that a Trump supporter wakes up and thinks, “way to go Mr. President, keep up the good job!” This will most likely be a lifelong wondering even long after he is gone.
Really though, this is a serious question. How can you?
How can you when the tariffs he has placed on country’s, friends and foes, have caused a large increase in the price of the foods we eat every day? Your coffee price has gone up. Your beef price has gone up. Your pasta noodles price has gone up. Your olive oil price has gone up. Your avocados price has gone up. Your sugar price has gone up. And many other normal everyday food prices have increased, which has made feeding our families even harder since our wages have not increased.
How can you when the price of gas has gone up since he started a war with Iran for no apparent reason? Where I live, gas prices are up on average a dollar a gallon. That means when I fill up, I’m now paying $20 more per tank of gas. I know in other areas of the country gas prices have increased even more than $1/gallon. This price increase has made it even harder to stretch our hard earned dollars, with some of us having to decide which bill to pay since we need gas to get to our low-paying jobs, especially in places with no buses to ride.
How can you when he threatens to take over other nations? Trump has taken over Venezuela where no actual threat to national security existed. He has gone to war with Iran with no actual threat to national security (he has told us over and over he had destroyed their uranium, their navy, and their military forces). He has threatened to invade and overthrow our close ally Canada with no actual threat to national security. He has threatened to invade and overthrow our close ally Greenland with no threat to national security. He has threatened to invade and overthrow the small island of Cuba, which is no threat to our national security. He has threatened to invade and overthrow our close ally Mexico for no apparent reason. He has even threatened to invade and overthrow Columbia for whatever reason. He has also attacked many other countries around the world for no real apparent reason or threat to United States. All of this costs us money and increases the national debt, and makes enemies and loss of trust in us around the world.
How can you knowing he has profited from your investments in his crypto and meme coins? He earned almost $700 million alone on meme coin. He made money while your investment is worth mere dollars or less now.
How can you knowing his ICE agents are not only arresting people with no criminal records or who are doing what the law requires to remain in the U.S. or work towards citizenship, and are killing people on the streets of our cities, killing people that they weren’t even after. How can you knowing ICE has killed at least two American citizens, at least one person who had the legal right to work and live in our great county, and killed at least five other people so far of which we are aware, not including those humans who have died in the ICE concentration camps/detention centers?
How can you knowing that Trump’s White House has created concentration camps in which people are being held without due process. Who are being intimidated to sign documents they don’t understand. Who are being deported to foreign countries they didn’t come from nor speak the language. Who are being feed spoiled food containing mold and insects. Who are having medical treatment withheld. Who are being raped by guards.
How can you knowing the Trump White House is separating children from their parents. Holding those children in despicable circumstances. Children who are only months old being brought before judges to plead their cases. Children not even ten years old being placed in zip ties and led away.
How can you knowing Trump’s ICE consistently use excessive force when kidnapping people off the streets with no judicial warrant? Who leave cars running in the middle of the street or homes unlocked and open when detaining people. Who arrest parents while making no plans for those arrested’s children who are in school on who will pick them up and care for them.
How can you knowing his White House is doing everything in its power, and often outside his power, to suppress the right to vote. A White House who is using a database proven to be unreliable when reviewing publicly available data. A White House that is adamant about passing the so called SAVE Act that will severely hinder women, especially married women, and people without very expensive ID requirements, to vote. A White House that is threatening to send National Guards to polling places in November to intimidate people from voting.
How can you when, if you just trust your own eyes to see and your own ears to listen closely, we can all see his mental capacity is greatly diminished, that his health is failing as it does for most over the age of 80, that he falls asleep like most grandfather’s do at his age. Where we can see and hear he is no longer capable of performing his presidential duties.
How can you when he makes statements about not thinking about American’s financial situations, that he doesn’t want to hear about affordability, when so many of us are struggling. How can you when the White House pressures Congress to cut benefits that help so many of our family members like SNAP, TNAF, healthcare, Medicaid, and other programs that help lift so many out of poverty while at the same time cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires?
But, equally important, how can you when he lies about just about anything and everything? With just a quick internet search or just looking at how your own life is right now, that Trump is lying to us. He is lying about gas prices being way down. That the cost of things are way down. That the world loves us. That Russia, China, North Korea, and until recently, Hungary have great leaders because of how they run their countries (with all of the leaders of these countries being dictators).
The November elections where we will vote for all members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 U.S. Senators, along with state and local officials across the country will be here soon. Trump and his White House are doing things that show their extreme desperation when trying to stop as many people from voting as possible. Trump and the White House know over 60% of Americans aren’t happy with how things are going and want change.
The only way to effect change is to vote for good candidates. Candidates that have pledged to work to increase the minimum wage, to hold companies accountable for price gouging in hard times, to end the war in Iran, to increase members of the Supreme Court to bring it back to serving the American people rather than the White House, who hear our pleas for help and will work for what’s best for the American people, not the billionaire class.
It is, as it always has been, up to us to show up in numbers unheard of in any previous election. Our vote numbers must be so high that they can not be contested as meaning anything other than we want better for ourselves.
We have the power, let’s use it!
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