Watching Plant Sex in the Woods

Learning about our world one plant at a time~

Hey, What the Fuck Are We Doing?

A Plea From an American Laborer

TLDR:

  1. The Background
    • The Trump admin is consolidating power into the executive and ignoring the separation of powers.
    • Legitimate Nazi sentiments and white-power associates have accrued in our government.
    • Our government is being restructured into authoritarianism.
    • Checks and balances are failing and risk failing completely soon.
  2. What the Fuck Should We Do?
    • General strike. Sign your card and prepare.
    • Purchase little but the necessary items for survival.
    • Pay no taxes, file no taxes until representation is restored.
  3. Resources List

Table of Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Preamble
  3. The Background
  4. What the Fuck Should We Do?
  5. The Plea,
  6. Resources List
  7. Citations

Introduction

Normally, I write education posts on plant biology and related sciences, but the recent degradation of our nation’s mores and rule of law has pushed me to take a change of pace; science as we know it cannot meaningfully exist in authoritarian regimes. I am going to start this out by being forthright with you; I will tell you all of my potential associations and biases before I begin my plea. I do this to show conflicts of interests but also, to hopefully humanize myself to you. Following this introduction will be a suitable diatribe. I implore you to conquer our doom-scrolling, echo-chamber nature and read this through entirely, even if it is to dunk on me.

I, Lily Rice, grew up in a small village in Southwest Ohio, where my laborer parents had built a life. Both lacking college education, they wanted a more educated future for their children. So, like many millennials and gen z’ers I completed a bachelor’s of science in biology with a focus in botany. Before I left to college I disavowed my Christian upbringing, realizing that I disagreed with the story, but not many of the morals, which are not unique to Christianity. I became an atheist, a humanist, a skeptic. Soon after, a long simmering brouhaha about my identity came to a head when I admitted to a friend that I sometimes wished I was born a woman. Yes, I am transgender. After college, I have struggled to integrate myself into the field of botany for several reasons, but I have nonetheless persevered. Before moving to Nevada to pursue field work, I spent 3 years performing tree work in NE Ohio. I am a registered Democrat, although it would be more accurate to call myself a Democratic Socialist. I have been married for 5 years to my wife, and with that, I think I have told you enough about me.

Preamble

There are many citizens within our country who are able to put their head down, go to work every every day, suffer the abuses of daily life, make their daily impoverished wage, and allow the political machinations to float pass them without a critical thought. Throughout my 27 years, I’ve heard “my vote does not matter,” or “it’s all rigged anyways,” and “it doesn’t impact me in any way so why should I care,” from all sides. It is exactly this sentiment that has gotten us to such a dire state. We have allowed the bread and circuses of our daily lives to distract us from political action. If you think that I am being hyperbolic, then I ask you to identify a large conglomerate of Americans who are content with the current situation of the United States; left, right, center, or independent it seems that the lower and middle classes- that is if you can consider them to still exist as conceived in the 1950s’ gilded notions of socioeconomic status- are struggling and malcontent. This matter should be unifying, but it is not. We are as divided of a nation as we ever have been, and in this crisis we have allowed desperation to become a tool of authoritarianism. This is not the first time this has happened in humanity’s history, nor will it be the last. However, we are not too far down the rabbit-hole; we still have the opportunity to stiffen our limbs and thrash our way back out of the hole to see the sky once again. If this all sounds like the rantings and ravings of a ‘libtard’ to you, I ask for you to set aside your biases as I have for one moment and critically analyze the evidence and sentiment I am divulging to you. The following paragraphs are a call for unity with sections separated for each side in our political landscape, arguing why we should be concerned, and a potential solution for it all at the end. In a manner perfectly suited for Watching Plant Sex in the Woods, prepare for a lengthy breakdown, yet dear reader, soldier on.

The Background

Donald J. Trump, 45th and 47th president of the USA, and his current administration is a threat to democracy and our constitutional republic. For a country that so regularly propagandizes the importance of our constitution, our media and congressional representatives seem to be downplaying egregious abuses of it. I am not an expert on constitutional law, nor am I a lawyer, nor am I a politician, but I do possess an analytical mind capable of breaking down information from experts. Allow me to explain the concerning breakage of the rule of law with a few examples.

1. The Supreme Court and Executive Order: “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies”

The first example is quite possibly the most concerning and should be a clarion call for every American who values living in a free and fair society. On 1 July, 2024, the supreme court issued a 6-3 ruling stating, “the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.” (Supreme Court, 2024). This seems at first glance to be not concerning, but the opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts makes this decision disconcerting. What constitutes non-official actions of the executive? Roberts writes, “The immunity the Court has recognized therefore extends to the “outer perimeter” of the President’s official responsibilities, covering actions so long as they are “not manifestly or palpably beyond [his] authority,” and “In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives.” (Supreme Court, 2024). So from this ruling, the SC gave Trump – as well as any other president – carte blanche immunity from any criminal charges performed as the executive for official acts, without defining strictly what may constitute an unofficial act. At this time I will remind you that this case involved Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, and threats to replace his own Attorney General if he did not comply.

Flash forward to today, 18 February, 2025, where the White House issued another executive order, “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.” Again, this sounds rosy from the outside, but reading the actual text reveals a broadening of the executive branch’s power, a theme that will continue in my other examples. For those of you who are for small government, this should be of grave importance. Shrinking the size of other branches and institutions to move that power into the executive does not shrink the actual size of government, but gives one portion more power and overreach. The EO states that “The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch,” and that such executive agencies considered in this EO includes the once independent Federal Elections Commission.

As a reminder, per the powers granted by Article 3 section 1 of the constitution, it is the judiciary’s sole power to interpret the laws, not the executive, whose power is in enforcing the laws. For a reminder on how the separation of powers works in our constitutional republic, I suggest checking out this informative and timeless video. As a final reminder before the wrap-up of this example, Trump has appointed 1/3 of the current SCOTUS justices. Whether or not there is an explicit collusion between the SCOTUS and the executive, this is a clear example of the weakening of our checks and balances and expanding the powers of the executive. A future where campaign finance laws are at the whim of the executive, or any law can be “interpreted” to benefit a specific group is not unrealistic; in fact is explicitly legal within the SCOTUS decision. If the EPA wants to enforce the clean air and water acts to restrict companies from dumping industrial waste into our communities, then the executive could “interpret” the acts to not be within the jurisdiction of the EPA to enforce it. If that seems non-sensical, that is because it is.

Previously, in writing this section, I concluded with the previous statement. Unfortunately, after a second look I realized that I missed a key component of the EO, “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.” Per the EO, it establishes the director of the OMB, that is the Office of Management and Budget, as the overseer of independent government agencies, which all independent agencies will have to report to, who then confers with the President. Furthermore, it states that the Director of the OMB through this EO shall, “…adjust such agencies… to advance the President’s policies and priorities.” Previously, these independent agencies were insulated from the direct control of the executive so that the whims of the president could not upend their actions. A check to prevent a ‘kingly’ executive. That appears to be no more. For your reference, some independent agencies are: the Social Security Administration, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau. If at this point you are wondering who the Director of the OMB is, then allow me to inform you, it is Russell Vought, a co-author of Project 2025. In project 2025 he wrote a chapter on expanding the power and authority of the executive (PBS, 2025). Specifically, giving the president the power to cut funding without congressional approval, giving the president authority to use the military in times of civil unrest, and for the president to have greater control over the justice department (PBS, 2025). Combine those sentiments with that of former Fox ‘News’ host and now Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who has said in relation to the lethality of our soldiers, “international law and human rights are a hindrance to U.S. warfighters” (The Hill, 2025). Chilling, and not something we should get accustomed to. We were warned about the authoritarian components of Project 2025, and it is indeed coming to pass.

2. DOGE, Trump, and the Power of the Purse.

As many of you are likely aware, the Trump administration has created a new department titled the, “Department of Government Efficiency,” ‘headed’ by none other than Elon Musk. A department founded by the apparent ‘mandate’ of cleaning out corruption and increasing transparency. While it sounds rosy, unfortunately it seems that this lofty aspiration is muddled in the same opaque swamp that it is trying to eliminate.

According to Reuters (2025), Musk’s companies have at minimum $22 billion dollars in government contracts, though the number cannot be fully estimated since some contracts are classified. To put someone in control of deciding what funding is necessary, unnecessary, or fraudulent with billions of dollars at stake is a clear conflict of interest. We made President Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm in a blind trust to prevent a potential conflict of interest, for Pete’s sake. In addition, Musk and the companies he is the CEO of are currently in 25 lawsuits and criminal investigations (Mercury, 2024). I will speak on Musk’s other egregious conflict of interest at a later time. Despite these clear conflicts, he is tasked with ‘rooting out corruption’. Before I continue, let me state that, as sure as the sun rises every day, there is blatant corruption and misuse of funds within the federal government. I will point to the Pentagon failing its 7th audit in a row (Econofact, 2024) (The Hill, 2024) and the congressional insider trading scandal of 2020 (Forbes, 2020). The fact that corruption exists is not pretense to hand over congressional spending power to the richest person on the Earth, Elon Musk, especially considering the conflicts of interest. Nonetheless, I will continue the argument and hopefully you will agree.

To begin, I will take you back to the beginnings of DOGE. On 5 September 2024, Trump announced to the Economic Club of New York that, if elected, he would create a new government commission to conduct an audit on the U.S. government’s spending and it would be headed by Elon Musk; Musk stated, “No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.” (The Guardian, 2024). Flash forward to Trump’s first day back in office, where his EO, “Establishing and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency“,” outlined that the department shall be led by the USDS (formally named US Digital Services, now renamed US DOGE Services in that EO) administrator and report directly to the White House Chief of Staff. According to Trump’s own words and the perception of both the government and public, Musk was the leader. But, according to the White House in a legal filing responding to a lawsuit by several state Attorney Generals, Musk is not involved as an employee or leader in the DOGE, but instead an advisor to the president (NPR, 2025). This is also despite the infamous interview with Musk and Trump at the resolute desk where Trump was asked if there was anything that Musk could not touch, where Trump stated, “I’ll tell him to go here, go there, he does it. He’s got a very capable group of people.” (CBS, 2024). So, according to Trump and Musk, Musk is heading DOGE’s efforts, but is not actually an employee nor the leader of it, but still works with a “capable group of people,” to oversee DOGE’s budget cuts. There has yet to be an actual USDS admin named. Prior to the lawsuit Musk was the de facto leader of DOGE, afterwards, he is not involved. *Frustrated editors note: Trump stated last night, 19/2/25, after I finished writing this section, that, actually, Musk is the head of DOGE, contradicting the White House’s legal filing saying that, “I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge” (Reuters, 2025).*

On to the meat of DOGE: the spending cuts. There is a DOGE website that you can go to, that as of now serves as the main source of communication on what is being cut. What is missing is why any of these contracts, grants, etc. are being cut. Many of the cuts have to do with DEI initiatives or foreign aid, other cuts I will return to later. What is there are the FPDS (Federal Procurement Data System) links to the funding on their “Wall of Receipts.” The data here was already publicly available information.

On the same page you can see the top 10 savings by agency (although no monetary value is tabulated for you) claimed by DOGE. As of 19/2/25, DOGE has claimed $55 billion of savings and you can check their math by looking at their receipts. The only problem is they have lied, or at least are not showing all of their data.

If you add up all of the receipts listed under “savings” you get a total of $8,670,189,297, and that is being generous with them for the 17 line items that state “see FPDS,” where I directly copied and pasted the FPDS data for total contract value, assuming that to be the full savings. I know this because I calculated it myself, and so can you. But if you don’t want to do math or take my word for it, other reporters have corroborated this egregious nearly $46 billion clerical error (if that can even be said with a straight face) (USA Today, 2025). Furthermore, in another ‘whoopsie’ by the DOGE team, an early claim by the Trump administration about $50 million in condoms sent to Hamas from press secretary Karoline Leavitt- later doubled to $100 million, and claimed to be used in bomb making by Trump- was walked back by Elon Musk in the infamous oval office interview after confronted on the lack of evidence (CNN, 2025) (Al Jazeera, 2025). Musk was quoted on this matter saying that “some of the things that I say will be incorrect, and should be corrected.” I could go on.

So, aside from the lack of evidence on why the spending is “fraudulent” or “unnecessary,” what else needs said here? Well, remember the conflicts of interest I stated earlier? It is time to discuss why conflicts of interest such as those need to be taken seriously in government positions. Many of the actions taken by DOGE and Trump towards federal agencies have direct benefits for Musk. I recommend you critically analyze the fact sheet by House Judiciary Committee member, Jamie Raskin, found here, which cites the actions taken by DOGE and Musk’s conflicts. I won’t go into detail myself here since the work was already done for us, but a prominent example is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There are over 300 complaints about Tesla to the CFPB, and on 26 November 2024, Musk tweeted, “Delete CFPB,” and since then the headquarters has been shuttered (Raskin, 2025).

With all of this in mind, I ask you, are Musk and his team of unexperienced auditors (who I didn’t even discuss, but boy there are some awful things there. See here for one member who held an image-sharing site for “edgy” URLs like “child-porn.store”) the right people to audit the spending of the government? Is it rational for audits of the claimed $55 billion for fraud and waste to take a month when the people performing it have no experience as auditors? Is it rational for the person apparently not leading, but advising the budget cuts to have serious conflicts of interest? Is it rational for a department founded on government spending transparency to lack true transparency itself?

If that is not enough to convince you I bring you to the main crux of the argument: the executive does not have the constitutionally vested power to claw funding back given by congress, which does hold the power of the purse. According to Article I, Section 9, Clause 7, otherwise known as the appropriations clause, “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” This is a distinct power given to the legislative branch which the executive is trying to usurp. If you need further aid in understanding this separation of powers I suggest watching this informative and timeless video.

Finally, I bring you to this image, which I find highly hypocritical and frustratingly funny. Taken directly from the DOGE website, this image claims an “unconstitutionality index” of 18.5, which is apparantly a ratio of agency rules per 1 law created in Congress. For one, what the everloving fuck does that actually tell you? Would the fact that all corporations have more internal rules than congressional laws give you a similar shock? No, why would it? Each agency has their own restrictions and guidelines that they must perform. It isn’t like each congressional law outlines exactly every case example for clairvoyance for every agency, that would be insane. Second, unelected bureaucrats are awful, huh? Is that not by definition what Musk and DOGE is, a government advisor not elected by the public at large? Third, why are agency rules made not by congress unconstitutional? Where in the constitution does it claim agencies cannot make internal rules? Lastly, this metric has stayed relatively the same over the timeline presented, so what in the hell is the point of graphing it by metric of time? Absolutely useless data.

Apologies, I am not done yet. After my third edit I looked at this stupid, misleading chart again and noticed something. It appears that the number of rules made by agencies is actually decreasing in their data set, so I wanted to see if there was actually a trend. After painstakingly copying everything over into a data sheet, charting it, and running regression analysis I got the chart below:

Huh, it appears that indeed the agency regulations has been decreasing in their data set, with approximately 60% of the data fitting the trend. Whereas the made-up metric of UI has stayed consistently random, making this, again, a useless fucking metric that tells us nothing. Expert obfuscation and outrage bait Elon, you fuckwaffle.

3. Reduction in Force & Loyal Staff

Another effort undertaken by the Trump administration, tangential to DOGE, is the mass layoff of federal employees across agencies. While the mass-firing of federal employees is legal depending on the method taken, and some are less-than-legal, I will take a different path here. The blind firing of federal staff removes safety nets and makes our agencies less effective, which directly harms your local communities.

The perception I hear from those in agreeance with Trump is that unelected bureaucrats are corrupt and directly harming the public at large. I’d like to disillusion this prevailing viewpoint if this is one you hold. There are federal employees in every state who are dedicated in their efforts to improve the lives and environments of which they live in. I know this because I worked with the U.S. Forest Service in Reno, NV, and because I have known others in my life. These positions are not easy to enter, are highly competitive, and often do not come with great pay or benefits. These positions are subject to annual pay freezes at Christmas time if congress cannot agree on a budget. These positions provide benefits back to our nation directly in ways you might not imagine. Forest Service staff maintain the health of our lands, manage sustainable use of resources so that they do not run out for ranchers, miners, etc., and staff keep native populations of plants, animals, and fungi from dwindling towards extinction. Department of Health employees track developing diseases and research cures for ailments that have plagued mankind. Currently, the avian flu, H5N1, is decimating bird populations, which is causing egg prices to increase, and terrifyingly crossing over to mammals (CDC, 2025). This is risking a potential human outbreak and another pandemic. If you didn’t like the first pandemic in your lifetime, I guarantee you will not like it again. My wife is a librarian, which is a vital service that provides resources to communities such as take-home internet, resume and career-aid, passports, and education. The employees at the National Labor Relations Board enforce laws on corporations that break your rights as a laborer. Each agency has direct examples in which they enrich our lives that we take for granted because we don’t see them directly until it affects us.

If you are money-minded, the indiscriminate axing of federal workers can directly impact your local economy. For example, according to Pew, “…the Postal Service by itself would, if it were a private business, rank among the 10 largest private-sector employers, ahead of industry rivals UPS and FedEx.” (Louisiana Illuminator, 2025). Senator Collins and Shaheen have stated that, “In our states, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) has nearly eight thousand civilian employees, creating more than $1.5 billion in annual economic impact in surrounding communities” (Louisiana Illuminator, 2025). More than this, mass layoffs cripple families who are trying to make a living and support their themselves, especially in a time when it can take months to find another job, especially as a skilled laborer. If you are one of the people in our country blinded by rage, whether you feel righteous and justified or not, and think it won’t hurt you, it will. It is just a matter of time before it is your families’ heads on the executioner’s block.

As a final note on this section, the federal buyouts, dubbed the “fork in the road,” sent to federal employees speaks on several pillars for the restructured workforce (Lawfare, 2025). The first of high concern is the return to office mandate, which would uproot the lives of families performing work in other towns, counties, hell, even states which didn’t require being in a distinct office. This forceful uprooting can have a devastating effect on local economies, as detailed earlier, and roadways, causing an increase in traffic in areas where the federal offices are located. The second pillar of major concern here is the fourth which states that, “employees should be “reliable,” “loyal,” and “trustworthy”.” Once again language on the surface that does not seem concerning, but on a second glance hides a subtle pretext. We do not want federal employees to be loyal yes-men to the executive. To put this in context, if a President were to order an unlawful decree, we would want the employees to stand up to our laws, not the President. This is yet another example of a concerning turn towards authoritarianism- a government filled with spineless yes-men.

4. Climate Change and the War on Science

I wish, as I have wished for every election in my lifetime, that this example was higher on the priority list for Americans. Climate change has always been my greatest cause for concern and the recent past has me feeling like Leonardo DiCaprio in Don’t Look Up, a satire?? about climate change and our current American situation surrounding it. According to the Pew Research Center (2024), American support in 2024 for actions to fight climate change is highly favorable, with actions like taxing corporations for their carbon emissions receiving 68% support. Hell, Pew (2024) found in another survey that 76% of Americans polled expressed a “great deal or fair amount of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests.” Yet, year after year, election after election, climate change is low on the priority list. in 2024, 37% of polled voters said that given the choice they would prefer to vote for a candidate in which action on climate change is a priority (Yale, 2024). I know, you can’t really trust polling data, but the fact of the matter is our electorate continuously votes in people who have made no meaningful action on climate change, and our government is failing us. 2024 was the first year in which we passed 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond the pre-industrial average.

I will not debate the validity of climate change here. I am sick and tired of it. Scientists are sick and tired of it. It has been analyzed, debated, retested- hell we’ve known about carbon’s impact on the climate since the 1860s (NASA, 2025)- and confirmed, and confirmed, and confirmed again.

If no meaningful action on climate change occurs, people will die, communities will be shattered, governments will collapse. A changing climate means less stable weather systems, less reliable rainfalls, plunging polar vortices, increased intensity of storms. It means crops will fail. People will starve. Wars will be fought over food, over water, over land, over resources. Communities of people will have to leave the areas that become uninhabitable around them. If you are someone whose main priority was immigration, then you are woefully unprepared for the mass migration of people that climate change will cause; it may even be you and your family who is forced to move and beseech the kindness of strangers in a foreign area, and for your sake I hope they are empathetic to the plight you once ignored. All of the petty political squabbling that we are torturing ourselves over now, turning our nation inside out, will.not.matter. Our problems will become quickly growing out of control, and they already are. For those of you so blinded by the concept of money, the World Economic Forum (2023) estimates the cost of just the damage- nothing on combating it- caused by climate change by 2050 to be between 1.7-3.1 trillion dollars per year. Remember, science is conservative in its estimates by design and climate change is advancing faster than expected.

All of this is to say that the Trump administration has made it a priority to “end the climate change hoax,” as well as wage a war on the institution of science. I will admit, the ivory tower of academia has many faults plaguing it currently, but axing the one methodology which let’s us illuminate the darkness and take one step closer towards objective reality is to abandon truth entirely. So, let me breakdown exactly what has myself, and other scientists both scared and outraged.

In Trump’s EO, “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements,” Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, an international agreement to try and reduce carbon emissions and keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, over a 20 year average. This EO also pulled us out of any other international agreement to combat climate change. The intent of this is obvious: to back out of our agreements and put the pedal to the metal on fossil fuels, an outdated energy technology which pollutes our air and water, is becoming increasingly scarce, and is no longer the cheapest form energy production (IRENA, 2022). Trump has continued this attack in research and agency policies as well. Mentions of climate change were removed from government websites (The Independent, 2025) and Trump froze funding to research that involves the “green new deal,” (NPR, 2025), and ideas related to it.

Trump’s attack on science is not limited to just climate change. Research across scientific fields have been impacted by the attempt to freeze federal grants, putting their research in limbo. The National Institute of Health which researches cures and treatments to diseases, such as cancer, for the American public were one of the institutions originally impacted (NBC, 2025). The federal grant freeze was paused following a lawsuit for the time being (NBC, 2025), but the Trump administration has signaled that it is ready to ignore court rulings in a tweet (X post, whatever) by JD Vance, stating that, “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” (X, 2025). Another constitutional crisis if this hellish reality comes to pass. Only time will tell now.

5. Nazi Sentiments and Associations

I know this section will get a lot of flack from some readers, but in the words of one of Musk’s many estranged children, Vivian Wilson, “let’s call a spade a fucking spade,” (Threads, 2025). To contextualize this quote, during the inauguration of Donald Trump, Elon Musk gave a speech where he made two sieg heils, the salute used by the German Nazi party. If you haven’t seen it you can watch a clip of that part of the speech here, (PBS, 2025), and a salute comparison with verified Nazis here. This of course should be a five alarm fire for a nation that previously beat the tar out of Nazis in the last World War, but I guess that is the nation we have become. Elon Musk is not the only member in the current administration with Nazi/white supremacist ties, and if this isn’t enough to convince you, let’s dive into this a little bit before tackling this section. I highly recommend a great breakdown of Elon Musk’s Nazi associations by fellow Ohio State grad, Cody Johnston on Some More News. Aside from Elon Musk, Donald Trump has expressed sentiments and performed actions that eerily mirror Nazi and white power sentiments.

*Editor’s note, 21/2/25: There was another prominent right-wing politician who made a Sieg Heil at a Republican event, this time at CPAC, (Dorn, 2025). You know him, you hate him, Steve Bannon. You can watch a clip of it here. Let me reiterate, this is definitively, no questions asked, the infamous Nazi salute. It is ridiculous and intellectually dishonest to argue otherwise. Anyone who gives these people the benefit of the doubt, saying that they were, “waving,” is normalizing this behavior. No one but Nazis makes that gesture. To shred any further doubt, a German- you know, the country where this salute is banned, and the salute was popularized, because of Nazism- newspaper unequivocally stated what these ‘hand-gestures’ are, “A Hitler Salute is a Hitler Salute is a Hitler Salute” (Mastrangelo, 2025)*

Trump has previously denied a claim from his former wife, Ivana Trump, that he kept Adolf Hitler’s book, “Mein Kampf,” on his bedside table, (The Independent, 2023) and this could be a slanderous falsehood since there is no physical evidence to verify the claim. But, in the interests of calling a spade a fucking spade, let’s look at some of what Trump has said, the actions he has performed, and the associations he has garnered.

  • In response to an interview statement on the Charlottesville Neo-Nazi marchers starting the violence, Trump said, “…you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides” (Politifact, 2017).
  • At a rally in Waterloo, Iowa, Trump stated that immigrants are, “destroying the blood of our country, they’re destroying the fabric of our country” (PBS, 2023).
  • He was endorsed by Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke (PBS, 2023).
  • After feigning ignorance on who the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group, are during the first presidential debate of 2019 against Joe Biden, Trump told the group to, “Stand back and stand by” (PBS, 2023).
  • Trump commuted sentences of over 1,000 rioters involved in the January 6 sedition attempt, including prominent Proud Boys and Oath Keepers (CNN, 2025), known white-supremacist groups.

Not to mention Trump repeatedly admiring other authoritarian leaders like Erdoğan or Kim Jong Un, or stating that he wishes he had Hitler’s generals. I could go on.

Trump not only keeps company with people who espouse white supremacist views, he also defends these groups and says sentiments that mirror Nazi rhetoric. Sure, it is possible that Trump is as ignorant as he claims to be on these matters, but it does not matter either way. As long as our government is echoing views of the most heinous criminals of the modern era, the effect is the same. To allow these sentiments to promulgate in our society is to flirt with the same fate, repeat history, and be doomed to never learn from our mistakes. To wrap up this section, I bring you to an example near and dear to me, the erasure of transgender people, as I am one of them.

As Judith Butler has claimed in their book, “Who’s Afraid of Gender?” the ideological fight on the Christian right against self-determinism in gender is based on a philosophical phantasm; not founded on a critical critique of gender theory, but instead a refusal in preference to the upholding of their patriarchal Christian “natural law.” We are seeing the effects of such fearful phantasms utilized in American politics. Trump, as well as many prominent right-leaning candidates, campaigned on the fear and vilification of transgender people. Bernie Moreno, the republican senate candidate for Ohio, my home state, ran campaign ads saying Sherrod Brown was for, “they/them.” Kamala Harris received similar attack ads. It has never been easy to be queer, nor trans, nor any form of non-normative person in the United States, but the last election cycle has raised this to a fever-pitch. We have been called “groomers,” “pedophiles,” and “freaks;” people on the right have said that we are better off dead; and now the executive, legislative, and judiciary have wielded their powers to erode the securities and healthcare of us. So many people have jumped onto the bandwagon of ire that encircles us, but how many have actually had a knowing conversation with us? How many know our struggles? How many know how gender dysphoria impacts us psychologically? How many know our aspirations? So many presume to know us without having a single iota of experience with us. I have aspired to become a field botanist for many years now, and a biologist since even longer. Transness was always a secondary trait to me. I don’t like writing about this; it feels inauthentic. I have always preferred to have people come to know me by my character and my actions, and then divulge my transness so that their preconceived notions are not what they think of when the idea of transness comes up again, I prefer the idea of human to come first. I would not be writing this if the problem was just bigots calling me a faggot; it is much more insidious than that.

As previously mentioned, the current administration has aimed its power against my community, in an executive order called, “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Trump decreed there to be two incontrovertible sexes, man and woman, a laughable edict; a gender binary that is so immutable that it needs to be federally declared. If you are not versed in biology, Trump’s statement may seem obvious, but the reality that most Americans do not understand is that life and reproduction is more complex than they could dream of. There are clownfish whose members can undergo a rapid, biological, sex change (and they are not the only animal to do so) (Parker et al, 2022). There are many species that only require a female member to reproduce, for example the invasive marbled crayfish (Martin et al, 2010). Schizophyllum commune, a common wood-rot fungus, has mating types (similar to sexes in fungi) in the range of 15,000-30,000 (Kothe, 1996). Humans have many variations of sex development and combinations of sex chromosomes such as some body cells having different combinations of sex chromosomes, and XO, XXX, XXY, etc. sex-chromosome combinations, respectively (Claire Ainsworth & Nature magazine, 2018) (MedlinePlus, n.d.). Lastly, per the EO’s definition, female is defined as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.” Which I shall remind you at this point, every single human on Earth at conception starts morphologically as female and doesn’t differentiate to the male body plan until week 6, thanks to the SRY-gene on the Y-chromosome (Rey, Josso, and Racine, 2020) If the SRY gene fails to activate during development, you will fail to form male sex characteristics, despite having XY chromosomes. Let me ask you, if you have a uterus, egg cells, and enlarged breast-tissue, but have XY chromosomes, what are you?

Notwithstanding the prior information, it is insulting to insinuate that gender is immutable when the popular candidates in the right have undergone gender-affirming care and wear gender affirming clothing and makeup; Musk has had hair plugs installed or taken drugs to regrow head hair, Trump constantly tans himself to maintain his self-image, and Ron DeSantis wears shoes to make himself look taller.

To end my diatribe on the “trans debate,” I want to highlight the other concerning laws and actions the Trump administration has taken. The first example is an extension of the previously mentioned EO, whose regulations extend to government issued paperwork. This means the previously legal right for people to change their gender marker to match their identity is now illegal, and any new paperwork must match the sex issued on their birth certificate when born. This has caused massive confusion and several trans individuals to both have their previously requested documentation, like passports, denied to them as well as their documentation used in getting the new passports held without return (the 19th, 2025) (ACLU, 2025). Hopefully, one or the other is returned, but for now this is the frightening reality that trans people may face; their documentation is taken and never returned, with no way to legally leave the country if necessary. The second example comes from the Trump administration’s attack on information pertaining to the LGBTQ community. Information about LGBTQ people across federal websites was removed, including health information on the CDC (PBS, 2025), and the word ‘transgender’ was removed from the Stonewall National Monument website, a key site for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. in which transgender people were involved (NPR, 2025). Additionally, research on LGBTQ issues had their funding pulled and, in one case, a NIH-funded cancer research had their funding pulled for including the term, “gender” (Jacobs, 2025). These actions ring an eerie resemblance to the decimation of the Institute for Sexual Science, in Berlin, Germany in 1933, where Nazis raided the building, burned the research and belongings, and destroyed the building (Magnus-Hirschfeld, 2025).

As a final warning for an impending authoritarian regime, after talking with the president of El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a deal where the US would send individuals of any nationality to El Salvador where they would take them and put them in their prisons, including American citizens (AP, 2025). The quote from Rubio stated violent American criminals, for clarity, but do not let this fool you; if our nation is willing to illegally deport American citizens to be jailed in a foreign nation, no American is safe. Political dissidents, or any American accused, not just tried, of a federal crime could find themselves in a foreign prison with no legal recourse.

What the Fuck Should We Do?

I hope by the end of all of the evidence presented above, you are as aghast and concerned as I am. We are in not only a constitutional crisis, but national conscious crisis of major proportions. If we, the citizenry, do nothing, we are allowing the laws and mores of our nation to slide into authoritarianism. Even if the similarities in action and sentiment to Nazi regimes do not play out, do we want the social safety nets we have fought to maintain torn away, our worker’s rights degraded, and the wealthiest people in the nation to only get wealthier while the poorest become even poorer, always at a razor’s edge of decimation? I haven’t even mentioned all of the other psychotic suggestions that this administration has suggested, from invading Greenland and Canada based upon Manifest Destiny, bombing Mexico with drones, pulling out of NATO, supporting Russia in the war in Ukraine, ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and building resorts there, ICE confusing indigenous people for illegal immigrants, and on, and on, and on. Trump’s tactic, like many right-wing ideologues in debates, relies on throwing out a lot of information in a short amount of time to overwhelm their opponent and keep them from mounting any serious defense. It is critical that you stay properly whelmed to mount an effective resistance. You should be outraged by what is happening; instead of falling to fear, utilize your righteous anger. So, when it seems our checks and balances are failing us, and our courts and representatives are ineffective in mounting a defense that results in meaningful change, what is our recourse? How can we possibly mount a defense?

I suggest nothing short of a worker’s revolt. To utilize our overwhelming numbers and economic force to bring our government to its knees will show that the current actions are unacceptable, that we will not give our system of governance over to authoritarians. I do not presume myself to be the expert on political revolutions. This document should hopefully spark dialogue. That being said, I have several recommendations:

What
  • General strike. No labor other than essential services like healthcare, fire response, etc. Go to the link above to sign your dedication card, a strike will occur once 11 million individuals have signed on.
  • Halt unnecessary spending. Purchase nothing other than the essentials like food, water, and medicine.
  • Pay no taxes, file no taxes.
  • Spread the word, build community, and convince those on the fence to join.
    • This can also aid in halting excess spending by focusing on community trade and support.
How
  • Get organized. Right now the 50501 protests are happening in every state, and splinter organizations have popped up too. We need a unified front; together these groups are strong, separate they can be fractured and weakened. This movement can grow until the public, the news, and the government can no longer ignore it.
  • Talk to people. On social media, in person; your friends your family; your work, or complete strangers, bring people on the fence over to the people’s side.
  • Reduce time doom-scrolling on social media. We know it worsens our mood and leaves us feeling a husk afterwards. In addition social media is rife with mis- and disinformation. Websites owned by Musk and Zuckerberg will be used to counteract our movement and sow division. Do not rely on outside information on sites like Facebook, X, Threads, or Instagram. Instead, focus on helping your community and letting your community help you.
  • Prepare. Stock up on shelf-stable food, water, and essentials. General strikes may last a long time. Before and during the strike, look for the helpers. There will be people who for whatever reason are unable to strike with us, but are happy to provide food, aid, and/or shelter.
  • Exercise your fundamental rights to speech, protest, assembly, and armament, while we still have them. Create no violence; media and the government will try and spin this as an insurrection or a violent mob across the states. On the contrary, we are Americans as the founding fathers designed, utilizing our rights to throw off the shackles of an oppressive government. If violence is brought to us, we must stand strong together and work to quell the fighting before it spins out of control. In these instances, we need to control the narrative.
Why
  • Our government and our economy relies on the constant expenditure and labor of its citizenry. We are the money producing members of our economy; without us, it all halts. Our leaders are currently the wealthiest of us and depend on us keeping our heads down, going to work every day, and spending our money to feel an ounce of dopamine. This keeps us from engaging. I hear so many people say that they would like to join the protests but, “I work,” but, “I’ve got bills to pay,” etc. They cannot be excuses anymore. If we all strike together, we can take their tactics of flooding the zone and turn it back on them. Alone, they can wield the tools of our economy to penalize us, together, there are too many to punish.
  • We give no taxes to kings. It was that way when our country was founded and it shall be that way now. No taxation without representation.
  • Finally, if we do nothing now, it will only get harder and more difficult to wrench control back from authoritarians. They will consolidate power and hope will dwindle. We must strike while the iron is hot.
If successful
  • If this movement is successful in its aspirations, then we must be prepared for what comes after. Political revolutions when poorly planned can leave a power-vacuum in which an even worse group can seize control. Any government that follows must be agreed upon, and any leaders must be carefully vetted. With this consideration I have several demands I think many Americans can agree upon. These need to be discussed and agreed upon prior to the Trump administration’s removal, even if they look wholly different than my suggestions.
  1. Complete removal from government anyone associated with Project 2025, the Trump administration, and their edicts. This includes members of the courts who ceded unconstitutional power to the executive. This may include members of congress who capitulated power to Trump, but removing elected representatives doesn’t scream fair and free. This last point should be discussed.
  2. Impose term limits in congress and the judiciary. This must be a fine line, as we do need politicians and judges who are capable at creating and reviewing legislation.
  3. Remove the problem of moneyed interests from government.
    • Repealing Citizens United which has allowed those with excessive wealth to buy politicians and shape the government to benefit the already wealthy.
    • Impose more restrictions on members of congress for stock trading. Add enforceable penalties for violations, such as immediate removal from congress if caught doing insider trading.
    • The cost of living in D.C. and maintaining a home in their representative state is so high that it prevents many Americans from serving. In addition, the cost to run as a candidate is prohibitive for many Americans. Campaign timelines could be shortened to alleviate part of the problem.
      • Blind elections can also alleviate the campaign costs, as ‘campaigning’ would require individuals to outline their priorities, policies, and stances rather than becoming a popularity contest.
  4. Increase public political participation.
    • Make federal and state voting days holidays. For essential workers, carve out guaranteed time off to participate in voting.
    • Include in the House of Representatives a significant number of randomly selected citizens to serve a mandatory 2 year term. Their household salary should be matched and adjusted for living in the D.C. area and they should be given the option to serve remotely, so they can choose to stay in their community. The random sampling effort will ensure that the voices of the citizenry are not ignored in consideration of legislature.
  5. Reduce tribalism with representation in the government.
    • Implement ranked-choice voting in federal elections so that ideological preference is more accurately represented. I would like state elections to implement this as well, but barring a constitutional amendment I fear claims of government overreach if this is pushed.
    • Work to separate the political party system as it exists. Many Americans complain about the “sportiness” of Republicans vs. Democrats. So many issues that are publicly popular never get implemented because of tribal elections. I do not know how to implement a change to the party system; perhaps candidates should be listed by their top 3 policy beliefs in media and any attempts to create “sporty” branding outlawed for politicians. Blind elections, again, could be a solution to this, but I am open to other ideas.
  6. Independent government auditors.
    • Many Americans feel as if our government is spending our taxpayer money poorly; it would be wise to use this to our advantage. If taxpayers can be audited for fraud, why is our gov’t exempt? I suggest an independent group of auditors who review spending for legitimate sources of fraud, without the ability to list ideological spending as fraud. What spending congress approves is not fraudulent unless the approved spending is misappropriated. This group would also need to be appropriately vetted and changed regularly. This process should occur possibly every 2-4 years.

The Plea,

For those opposed:

If you are vehemently opposed to the information and ideas I have presented, I must admit that I am surprised that you are still here; kudos to you on reading something fully that you disagree with. We need more of that in our country. Ideas should not be disregarded at face value but critically, and skeptically critiqued. I do not presume by this point to be able to change your mind if nothing above did. The last thing I’ll say to you, dear reader, is that if there is a single, quiet doubt in your mind that Trump and Project 2025 do not have your best interests in mind, then follow that to its logical end. It is never bad to change your mind, and if a liberal gives you shit for being fooled by a con-man, fuck them, welcome to the fight.

For those on the fence:

If you have read through this in its entirety and you have qualms but are not sure whether you agree; or, if this is the first time hearing this information and cannot believe it to be true; or, if you are not sure that political revolution is necessary then I suggest you keep your mind open. Watch intently the coming months and the claims coming from both sides. Critically analyze the claims coming from the Trump administration and ask yourself whether they are trying to seize power and, if the resistance has your best interests in mind. If you were in the camp of hearing this info for the first time, I suggest becoming more politically aware; you don’t even need to become politically active. Whether you like it or not, politics does impact you, your friends, and your family, and staying ignorant to it helps no one but those trying to harm you. To leave you, I will put Trump’s recent tweet below. Ask yourself, are you okay with a president who calls themself King, even in jest?

For those in agreeance:

Our institutions have failed us. Many of us expected our checks and balances to uphold and for each side to respect the rule of law, but this was not the case. Whether or not you think the election was rigged, or whether you think congress will impeach Trump again and remove him this time, it matters not. Authoritarians will not cede power through legal means. They will change the laws to benefit them; our only recourse now is to fight before the day in which all rule of law is but a memory.

I have thought for a long time about the issues in our country and had many brilliant discussions with people from farmers in NE Ohio, to ex-marines in Reno, NV, and a prevailing issue that has come up again and again is that our country lacks a national, unifying fabric. We are a large country, with varied peoples, and varied identities. How can we all agree on something? It wasn’t until I wrote this plea that the answer came to me; so obvious that its in our anthems, our songs, and our international actions. Our desire to be free. So, let us once again go headlong into our future and secure our freedoms as Americans and help the others see that our true national fabric is at stake. I fear if we do not succeed generations shall pass before it is known again, if that is, at all.

Resources List:

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One response to “Hey, What the Fuck Are We Doing?”

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    Anonymous

    Yep. All of this.

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