Opinion

The devastation embedded in the Trump-Republicans big bad budget bill for lower income families has been a drum that I’ve been beating for weeks now, but as it nears the finish line additional impacts are becoming clear. This bill has become a “whose on first, what’s on second” house of horrors. Like many other initiatives of this administration, most of its consequences are intended when it comes to its war on the poor, minorities, women, and others, but some are even surprising its fanboys, like the former Trump BBF Elon Musk, and not at all because of deficits. Ideology, not common sense or basic prudence is now running the government.

US REP JAMIE RASKIN & THE ATTACK ON US DEMOCRACY & ECOLOGY

We begin GREEP Zoom #229 with citations for “The Choreography of War” by our Poet Laureate MIMI GERMAN, whose latest poem is compacted into a brilliant three lines.

Green Party Presidential nominee HOWIE HAWKINS discusses the nitty-gritties of Ranked Choice Voting & instant runoff.

The great MARIANNE WILLIAMSON gives us a brief hello & a promise to come visit us again soon.

Beyond Nuclear’s KEVIN KAMPS reminds us about how powerful is the rise of renewables worldwide along with the demise of nuke power.

Co-host MIKE HERSH gives us a stellar introduction for US REP JAMIE RASKIN.

Rep. Raskin provides a brief excursion into the dire damage being done to our electoral system through the widespread assault on the Voting Rights Act, emphasizing the powerful impact of the No Kings Day marches..

The great RAY MCCLENDON of the Georgia-based Communities United for Justice connects with Rep. Raskin, sharing concerns about the mass disenfranchisement being imposed on the national electorate.

Many factors explain the demise of earlier civilizations, but not one collapsed as a result of deliberate decisions by a top political leader who wanders about destroying the pillars of his country’s greatness. Donald J, Trump, however, does so—endangering not only the United States but also U,S. allies and others previously inspired by America’s example.        

The United States has long suffered from many of the challenges that brought down earlier political systems—from Uruk in Mesopotamia to Mayan Chichén Itza to the USSR. These problems included myopic leadership, rich-poor enmity, widespread corruption; racial and religious conflict, environmental abuse, overextension and unnecessary warring—all made worse by inflation and deficit spending.

This article will focus on the reason the American people cannot have nice things. The obvious reason is that military is spending more than America can afford. The idea that the budget deficit can be decreased while military spending increases is simply ludicrous.

The American people are desperate for financial relief. During the last election cycle, they were told that one candidate would relieve their struggles by bringing down the cost of eggs. The other candidate pretended that the economy was in good hands, and the population should ignore the cost to themselves of American support of genocide in Israel and the cost of the proxy war against Russia (via Ukraine). The candidate known for lying even promised to balance the Federal budget.

In 1776, Thomas Paine set a revolutionary tone rejecting the King: "But where, say some, is the King of America? … as far as we approve of monarchy… in America the law is king."

The American Revolution replaced the authority of a sovereign with the authority of a written Constitution and a people who govern themselves. Paine's vision was the bedrock of the American Revolution, a declaration that no person — not a king, not a president, not a general — would stand above the law.

Today, nearly 250 years later, that vision is dimming, not because the words have faded, but because the institutions meant to uphold them have withered. And at the heart of this erosion is a truth too many fear to speak: we are witnessing the collapse of the implicit moral principles of the Declaration, the American promise of liberty under law.

The conduct of America’s current chief executive recalls the cadence of the usurpations of George III, iterated in the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence. We have arrived at a George III moment.

July 4, 2025, a People’s Declaration