I just finished reading this outstanding book. You have clearly put in writing not only his personal messed up history but how the useful idiot was put in power. More importantly though, you show how we can take active steps to fight back against the enormous amount of cash unleashed because in Citizens United.
I'm looking to purchase additional copies to give to my two sons as well as some like minded friends who don't know what we should be. Marching helps but protecting our vote MUCH more important.
One hopes that, should the opportunity arise (unlikely as that increasingly seems), Democratic “leadership” will abandon their compulsive but ultimately counterproductive traditional inclination to make nice-nice, let bygones be bygones, look forward not backward, and all the other self-destructive, crime enabling bullshit that has delivered us to this point. Exhausting as it may be, ALL of the current administration’s many crimes must be investigated, prosecuted, and punished. We have all the talent we need; let them shine.
I'm all for prosecution of all of the administrations crimes. But first dems have to win midterms. Will we have open and fair midterms? I fear Trump has the power to stop them.
We are in a shitload of trouble, and have been, because despite all of the evidence, past and present and the moves the Republicans have made for November and 2028, despite the fact that this knowledge is public...nothing has been done to stop them, to reset, to invalidate the election on the basis of fraud.
All we have is ex post facto whining and bloviating about we wuz robbed despite the fact that we wuz robbed, Kamala Harris, rushed to the Mic, at 4 pm on Nov 6, while votes were still being counted and conceded., as if she couldn't ait to concede.
Sure a concession can be taken back, but then what does that say about the person and party, and why rush to concede anyway.
Trump never conceded, despite the fact that he overwhelming lost, he claimed the vote was stolen, yet the Democrats rush to the mic to concede.
When they do low we go high, a recipe for losers, there is no moral high ground in losing to fascists.
It is not about picking on anyone. If we are going to win, if we are going to save our freedoms, our Republic we need the Democratic party to grow a fucking pair, and stop acting like pussies.
“In December 2024, I was personally involved in an NSA‑authorized forensic audit of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won—by a wide margin. Trump lost dramatically. There are multiple layers of complexity to this cover‑up, including transnational organized crime syndicates that extend far beyond the United States and our elections. To that point, I work in the human trafficking sector, which intersects with the stolen election(s) and has ties to Trump and Epstein—not to President Biden, Vice President Harris, or Governor Walz, but to the Democrats and other allied interests responsible for burying the audit.”
— Adam Zarnowski, ex-CIA agent and author of Jörmungandr
The Problem with those cases are they are a day late and a dollar short. They are of no effect, too late. Trump was sworn in on Nov 20th, 2025 and has deconstructed the government and the justice system. And those cases will not reverse history.
All this is true. Dems love to educate the public and this is great; however, the message of possible fraudulent behavior is not being pounded on in the media near enough.
People are quick to forget and the pace of wrong doing by Repubs is in overdrive, now. Worse, in my opinion, is the fact that so much of our media is owned by the very people who promote these illegal deeds in the first place. This was and is clearly seen by the sheer factor of how much of our news is saturated with the criminal in chief’s name in contrast to Dem presidents. That was loud and clear in each of the campaigns that continued after he took office.
We don’t need long meandering opinion articles that middle American’s don’t seem to pay attention to. We need the type of articles that spell things out in BIG LETTERS in the heading to get the general public to pay attention to. What we really need is a station like Faux FOX in our corner. An entertainment news station that would bombard the public night and day with both the criminal and possible criminal deeds of the administration. The MAGA crowd listens to this crap night and day. They can recite every lie that they hear about Dem administrations. Why is that? Repetition, sensationalism and big bucks.
Good point about educating the media. The public, that public which votes and supports Trump, is highly resistant to education, and the more you try, the more pissed off they become.
Short, easily digestible sound bites, that appeal to the amygdala,not the ore frontal cortex.
Take the bills that Biden signed, like the IRA and ARA. It was a waste of time and money trying to tell America how they benefited, while the Republicans were telling the same audience, be afraid, be very afraid, "them" people are coming for your job, and your social status
Short poignant sound bites, bumper stickers, and what we will do for you, not what we did.
There is a saying, if you have to explain a joke it is not a joke. (That is one that applies to Trump, he recently tried to make a joke but failed, and then tried to explain it)
If you have to explain yourself, it is too late, no one is listening. Dems need to internalize that.
In my lifetime, Gore's loss was the most brazenly corrupt election of all GOP wins. I say that because I was asked to assemble a research team to evaluate Gore's Reinventing Government Program (REGO) - what DOGE should have been. Gore really wanted to govern, not rule. Unlike Trump's DOGE, which was a unanimous failure by all accounts, REGO was a smashing success. Every change in training, policies, and procedures REGO implemented to improve efficiency and effectiveness had a favorable effect on morale. I know that because I surveyed the entire federal workforce for Gore in 1999.
The survey results my team of senior deep-state psychologists presented to the president and his Cabinet were the first-ever assessment of their agencies and offices. It addressed leadership, job satisfaction, career orientation, and perceptions of mission achievement. The Cabinet loved it. OPM Director LaChance decided to make the survey an annual event - the Federal Workforce Viewpoint Survey. The Viewpoint Survey was administered annually until Trump 2.0. Knowing DOGE crushed morale, Trump did not want the adverse publicity - we all know he hates facts.
My point is that if you vote for an administration that truly wants to govern and make things better for Americans, that is what you get. In contrast, if you vote for an administration that wants to run our government like a business, historically you get economic downturns, an increase in the National Debt, and a demoralized workforce - an outcome that seems to delight Republicans.
You're right. In part. However, I was involved in the HHS/SSA variation on the REGO theme and what happened was they arbitrarily added more chiefs, to manage fewer braves, to the point that several or our subgroups unionized for the first time.
The bottom line was the budget. We came up with about a dozen things that would have eliminated duplication in government. Could have recouped a lot of tax money. As an officer of several oganizations, we promoted a Corps Bill and later a Conference Bill that would have saved millions and extrapolatied across 27 agencies maybe billions.
I personallly made a number of suggestions. Still waiting to hear why DOL didn't sue tobacco companies for their contributions to stuff like the Black Lung Trust Funsd or for SSA for recoupment for disability/SSI.
The rubber met the road for my agency during the 2013 sequestrations, when they in effect, laid us off, including our staff, clerks, experts, managers, etc pay based on a phony rationale. .We have never been reimbursed for that.
Many of the things you mentioned were not REGO initiatives. When he took office, the first thing Clinton did was eliminate all first-line supervisors. I was on the job just a few weeks, and lost my 3 branch supervisors - all PhDs (it was a lab after all). That went over like a lead balloon with me, and all my peers.
REGO did not even exist until 1993 and was not really in full swing until 1997. REGO was more about training supervisor and manager leadership techniques and more effective ways to communicate. We asked specifically about REGO initiatives. Things like job and leader satisfaction showed a direct effect from implementing (or not) initiatives.
At SSA we had stuff like "reconfiguation," which took authority FROM judges. No longer gave employee ratings. No longer coiuld controle the flow of cases. It was a disaster.
I attended the hearings at FLRA REGO (Reinventing administrative adjudication) regarding SSA OALJ (ostensobly as an expert witness) although I was a DOL employee. I was simultaneously an officer of the ABA and at one time was a "director" of AALJ, the ALJ unit at SSA that unionized BECAUSE of REGO before I left. https://aalj.org/about-aalj
The law had been that "supervisors" could not unionize, but in its stupidity, SSA removed suupervisory authority. The agency lost the case.
All those surveys were irerelevant for judges. The issue is the parties in our cases. Subject to appeal. At my agency the parties compiled the exhibits, called the wittnesses. Our employees were not involved in adjudication per se. REGO made up "production" as if staff ran the agency.
Parenthetically, at SSA, dozens if not hundereds of cases were appealed to the MSPB regarding PEGO. Virtually none from other agencies.
Sounds like it was a well-intentioned clusterfk. I think it depends on timing and agency. The majority of data were very possitive. Of course, some organizations were in meltdown. For the first time, their agency head knew it. Their Dept Secty knew it. Whether they acted to improve things is still rather contingent on whose in charge.
By and large professionals suck as bosses because their training and experience were professional - leadership was just an annoyance or blessing depending on the boss.
Democrats need a counter to the SAVE Act. I propose The Right to Vote and have your Vote Counted Act. Any voter who has any issue to vote should have the right to vote by provisional ballot. We have that right now but I would make one very specific change. Now all the burden is on the voter to cure their issue or the vote is throw out. I would put the burden on the government to prove that the voter committed voter fraud to throw out the vote. The Government already has all the data to prove citizenship or eligibility. The election officials should not have authority to throw out any vote but can only refer them for a criminal investigation. Voter fraud is a crime so it should require a serious investigation. This would target voter fraud instead of the SAVE Act objective of voter suppression. Once and for all we would have clear information on how rare is voter fraud. This should deter Trump and his supporters from making false claims of mass voter fraud.
a. Freedom to Vote Act (S.2747): A comprehensive bill that aimed to set national standards for federal elections, including automatic and same-day voter registration, nationwide access to mail-in voting, at least two weeks of early voting, and making Election Day a federal holiday.
b. John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4/H.R. 14): Focused on restoring and strengthening parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, specifically restoring the "preclearance" mechanism that requires states with a history of voter discrimination to get federal approval before changing voting laws.
Redistricting Reform: Both pieces of legislation aimed to ban partisan gerrymandering and enforce neutral, transparent redistricting standards.
Executive Order 14019: Signed in March 2021, this order directs federal agencies to develop plans to promote voter registration and participation, particularly for historically underserved communities.
Agency Action: Federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of the Interior, are working to increase voter registration opportunities.
Key Obstacles
These legislative efforts have faced significant opposition, failing to achieve the 60 votes required to bypass the Senate filibuster, even with attempts to change filibuster rules to pass them.
Democrats have been unsuccessful because they pushed for two much. My idea is simple force the Republicans to prove voter fraud before any vote can be thrown out. Elections will be secure and accessible.
We all need to get it straight - even if we, the democratic party win by a landslide- there will be no accountability. The new story will be that we will need to move forward to try to rewrite the destruction and deconstruction of our country and systems and that it will take decades (with an S)to do so even under the most ideal of circumstances. And rewriting may take precedent over real Reconstruction of that which was really and purposefully Deconstructed and Destroyed. And we will all think we've done well because HE'S gone.
Nicely laid out. I have long believed that, as much as tRump makes us want to puke, and as many American and Middle-Eastern lives that were lost under GWB, to me the most destructive character in American history was Reagan. Besides destroying the tax system, halving the top rate and cutting corporate and capital tax rates, ballooning the US debt, he set in motion the complete restructuring of the economic system, resulting in the grotesque income and wealth inequality today.
Perhaps even more insidious and long-lasting is the result of what Thom discusses here - the lack of accountability in Iran-Contra affair was, IMHO, the true end of the rule of law in the US. Without that, no issues matter.
But Reagan had that charming, "I trust my grandpa" voice and delivery that soothed and fooled millions of Americans. The reason we hate tRump so much is that he is nasty, hateful, vile, disgusting, and downright annoying. But Reagan did so much more damage.
But don't fret, Reagan apologists. There is still time....
I just finished reading this outstanding book. You have clearly put in writing not only his personal messed up history but how the useful idiot was put in power. More importantly though, you show how we can take active steps to fight back against the enormous amount of cash unleashed because in Citizens United.
I'm looking to purchase additional copies to give to my two sons as well as some like minded friends who don't know what we should be. Marching helps but protecting our vote MUCH more important.
Thank you!
One hopes that, should the opportunity arise (unlikely as that increasingly seems), Democratic “leadership” will abandon their compulsive but ultimately counterproductive traditional inclination to make nice-nice, let bygones be bygones, look forward not backward, and all the other self-destructive, crime enabling bullshit that has delivered us to this point. Exhausting as it may be, ALL of the current administration’s many crimes must be investigated, prosecuted, and punished. We have all the talent we need; let them shine.
I'm all for prosecution of all of the administrations crimes. But first dems have to win midterms. Will we have open and fair midterms? I fear Trump has the power to stop them.
Maybe if you'd say a few words of ENCOURAGEMENT.....
I’d like to think that history and their oaths are all the encouragement they need.
We are in a shitload of trouble, and have been, because despite all of the evidence, past and present and the moves the Republicans have made for November and 2028, despite the fact that this knowledge is public...nothing has been done to stop them, to reset, to invalidate the election on the basis of fraud.
All we have is ex post facto whining and bloviating about we wuz robbed despite the fact that we wuz robbed, Kamala Harris, rushed to the Mic, at 4 pm on Nov 6, while votes were still being counted and conceded., as if she couldn't ait to concede.
Sure a concession can be taken back, but then what does that say about the person and party, and why rush to concede anyway.
Trump never conceded, despite the fact that he overwhelming lost, he claimed the vote was stolen, yet the Democrats rush to the mic to concede.
When they do low we go high, a recipe for losers, there is no moral high ground in losing to fascists.
When are you going to pick on Republicans?
Pa. Court Docket. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71883352/election-truth-alliance-v-schmidt/
It is not about picking on anyone. If we are going to win, if we are going to save our freedoms, our Republic we need the Democratic party to grow a fucking pair, and stop acting like pussies.
Daniel, An amazing dive into the morass of our "Justice" system.
Can you summarize these cases for the laity?
I can''t discern your humor outright..
It's only one case....Election Truth Alliance v. SCHMIDT (1:25-cv-00329)
District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania.
There are others. Alleged Voter Fraud in Georgia—by Elon Musk
The state board of elections found Musk’s PAC sent prefilled ballot applications.
https://newrepublic.com/post/206857/georgia-voter-fraud-elon-musk
I keep posting:
“In December 2024, I was personally involved in an NSA‑authorized forensic audit of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won—by a wide margin. Trump lost dramatically. There are multiple layers of complexity to this cover‑up, including transnational organized crime syndicates that extend far beyond the United States and our elections. To that point, I work in the human trafficking sector, which intersects with the stolen election(s) and has ties to Trump and Epstein—not to President Biden, Vice President Harris, or Governor Walz, but to the Democrats and other allied interests responsible for burying the audit.”
— Adam Zarnowski, ex-CIA agent and author of Jörmungandr
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/ex-cia-whistleblower-the-nsa-audited
I don't know how credible it is, but needs to be investigated. https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/its-time-to-remove-the-regime-the
The Problem with those cases are they are a day late and a dollar short. They are of no effect, too late. Trump was sworn in on Nov 20th, 2025 and has deconstructed the government and the justice system. And those cases will not reverse history.
All this is true. Dems love to educate the public and this is great; however, the message of possible fraudulent behavior is not being pounded on in the media near enough.
People are quick to forget and the pace of wrong doing by Repubs is in overdrive, now. Worse, in my opinion, is the fact that so much of our media is owned by the very people who promote these illegal deeds in the first place. This was and is clearly seen by the sheer factor of how much of our news is saturated with the criminal in chief’s name in contrast to Dem presidents. That was loud and clear in each of the campaigns that continued after he took office.
We don’t need long meandering opinion articles that middle American’s don’t seem to pay attention to. We need the type of articles that spell things out in BIG LETTERS in the heading to get the general public to pay attention to. What we really need is a station like Faux FOX in our corner. An entertainment news station that would bombard the public night and day with both the criminal and possible criminal deeds of the administration. The MAGA crowd listens to this crap night and day. They can recite every lie that they hear about Dem administrations. Why is that? Repetition, sensationalism and big bucks.
All true G P, all true.
Good point about educating the media. The public, that public which votes and supports Trump, is highly resistant to education, and the more you try, the more pissed off they become.
Short, easily digestible sound bites, that appeal to the amygdala,not the ore frontal cortex.
Take the bills that Biden signed, like the IRA and ARA. It was a waste of time and money trying to tell America how they benefited, while the Republicans were telling the same audience, be afraid, be very afraid, "them" people are coming for your job, and your social status
Short poignant sound bites, bumper stickers, and what we will do for you, not what we did.
There is a saying, if you have to explain a joke it is not a joke. (That is one that applies to Trump, he recently tried to make a joke but failed, and then tried to explain it)
If you have to explain yourself, it is too late, no one is listening. Dems need to internalize that.
In my lifetime, Gore's loss was the most brazenly corrupt election of all GOP wins. I say that because I was asked to assemble a research team to evaluate Gore's Reinventing Government Program (REGO) - what DOGE should have been. Gore really wanted to govern, not rule. Unlike Trump's DOGE, which was a unanimous failure by all accounts, REGO was a smashing success. Every change in training, policies, and procedures REGO implemented to improve efficiency and effectiveness had a favorable effect on morale. I know that because I surveyed the entire federal workforce for Gore in 1999.
The survey results my team of senior deep-state psychologists presented to the president and his Cabinet were the first-ever assessment of their agencies and offices. It addressed leadership, job satisfaction, career orientation, and perceptions of mission achievement. The Cabinet loved it. OPM Director LaChance decided to make the survey an annual event - the Federal Workforce Viewpoint Survey. The Viewpoint Survey was administered annually until Trump 2.0. Knowing DOGE crushed morale, Trump did not want the adverse publicity - we all know he hates facts.
My point is that if you vote for an administration that truly wants to govern and make things better for Americans, that is what you get. In contrast, if you vote for an administration that wants to run our government like a business, historically you get economic downturns, an increase in the National Debt, and a demoralized workforce - an outcome that seems to delight Republicans.
You're right. In part. However, I was involved in the HHS/SSA variation on the REGO theme and what happened was they arbitrarily added more chiefs, to manage fewer braves, to the point that several or our subgroups unionized for the first time.
The bottom line was the budget. We came up with about a dozen things that would have eliminated duplication in government. Could have recouped a lot of tax money. As an officer of several oganizations, we promoted a Corps Bill and later a Conference Bill that would have saved millions and extrapolatied across 27 agencies maybe billions.
I personallly made a number of suggestions. Still waiting to hear why DOL didn't sue tobacco companies for their contributions to stuff like the Black Lung Trust Funsd or for SSA for recoupment for disability/SSI.
The rubber met the road for my agency during the 2013 sequestrations, when they in effect, laid us off, including our staff, clerks, experts, managers, etc pay based on a phony rationale. .We have never been reimbursed for that.
Many of the things you mentioned were not REGO initiatives. When he took office, the first thing Clinton did was eliminate all first-line supervisors. I was on the job just a few weeks, and lost my 3 branch supervisors - all PhDs (it was a lab after all). That went over like a lead balloon with me, and all my peers.
REGO did not even exist until 1993 and was not really in full swing until 1997. REGO was more about training supervisor and manager leadership techniques and more effective ways to communicate. We asked specifically about REGO initiatives. Things like job and leader satisfaction showed a direct effect from implementing (or not) initiatives.
At SSA we had stuff like "reconfiguation," which took authority FROM judges. No longer gave employee ratings. No longer coiuld controle the flow of cases. It was a disaster.
I attended the hearings at FLRA REGO (Reinventing administrative adjudication) regarding SSA OALJ (ostensobly as an expert witness) although I was a DOL employee. I was simultaneously an officer of the ABA and at one time was a "director" of AALJ, the ALJ unit at SSA that unionized BECAUSE of REGO before I left. https://aalj.org/about-aalj
The law had been that "supervisors" could not unionize, but in its stupidity, SSA removed suupervisory authority. The agency lost the case.
At the same time, we had jurisdiction over stuff like labor managemnt. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/olms/compliance-assistance/fact-sheet/lmrda
All those surveys were irerelevant for judges. The issue is the parties in our cases. Subject to appeal. At my agency the parties compiled the exhibits, called the wittnesses. Our employees were not involved in adjudication per se. REGO made up "production" as if staff ran the agency.
Parenthetically, at SSA, dozens if not hundereds of cases were appealed to the MSPB regarding PEGO. Virtually none from other agencies.
Sounds like it was a well-intentioned clusterfk. I think it depends on timing and agency. The majority of data were very possitive. Of course, some organizations were in meltdown. For the first time, their agency head knew it. Their Dept Secty knew it. Whether they acted to improve things is still rather contingent on whose in charge.
By and large professionals suck as bosses because their training and experience were professional - leadership was just an annoyance or blessing depending on the boss.
How do we get this book into the current American zeitgeist? Get it on NYT Best sellers?
At Least, the Big Time Dems should be screaming this from the rooftops!
The DNC should have their own "Project 2026" to use all this and FIGHT BACK!
Thank you Major Thom!
I love the Bowie reference!
The Right to Vote & have it Counted
Democrats need a counter to the SAVE Act. I propose The Right to Vote and have your Vote Counted Act. Any voter who has any issue to vote should have the right to vote by provisional ballot. We have that right now but I would make one very specific change. Now all the burden is on the voter to cure their issue or the vote is throw out. I would put the burden on the government to prove that the voter committed voter fraud to throw out the vote. The Government already has all the data to prove citizenship or eligibility. The election officials should not have authority to throw out any vote but can only refer them for a criminal investigation. Voter fraud is a crime so it should require a serious investigation. This would target voter fraud instead of the SAVE Act objective of voter suppression. Once and for all we would have clear information on how rare is voter fraud. This should deter Trump and his supporters from making false claims of mass voter fraud.
1. Saw you on the Zoom yeasterday.
2. I posted this previously.
Key Legislative Proposals Supported by Biden
a. Freedom to Vote Act (S.2747): A comprehensive bill that aimed to set national standards for federal elections, including automatic and same-day voter registration, nationwide access to mail-in voting, at least two weeks of early voting, and making Election Day a federal holiday.
b. John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4/H.R. 14): Focused on restoring and strengthening parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, specifically restoring the "preclearance" mechanism that requires states with a history of voter discrimination to get federal approval before changing voting laws.
Redistricting Reform: Both pieces of legislation aimed to ban partisan gerrymandering and enforce neutral, transparent redistricting standards.
Congress.gov
Executive Actions
Executive Order 14019: Signed in March 2021, this order directs federal agencies to develop plans to promote voter registration and participation, particularly for historically underserved communities.
Agency Action: Federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of the Interior, are working to increase voter registration opportunities.
Key Obstacles
These legislative efforts have faced significant opposition, failing to achieve the 60 votes required to bypass the Senate filibuster, even with attempts to change filibuster rules to pass them.
Democrats have been unsuccessful because they pushed for two much. My idea is simple force the Republicans to prove voter fraud before any vote can be thrown out. Elections will be secure and accessible.
Hi, Thom:
Thank you for this excellent posting. The are so timely and important. Thanks
for your welcome to Substack. John
Agreed. What is it about today's Republicans being blatantly undemocratic? Will they change? I once voted Republican. Never again!
We all need to get it straight - even if we, the democratic party win by a landslide- there will be no accountability. The new story will be that we will need to move forward to try to rewrite the destruction and deconstruction of our country and systems and that it will take decades (with an S)to do so even under the most ideal of circumstances. And rewriting may take precedent over real Reconstruction of that which was really and purposefully Deconstructed and Destroyed. And we will all think we've done well because HE'S gone.
Nicely laid out. I have long believed that, as much as tRump makes us want to puke, and as many American and Middle-Eastern lives that were lost under GWB, to me the most destructive character in American history was Reagan. Besides destroying the tax system, halving the top rate and cutting corporate and capital tax rates, ballooning the US debt, he set in motion the complete restructuring of the economic system, resulting in the grotesque income and wealth inequality today.
Perhaps even more insidious and long-lasting is the result of what Thom discusses here - the lack of accountability in Iran-Contra affair was, IMHO, the true end of the rule of law in the US. Without that, no issues matter.
But Reagan had that charming, "I trust my grandpa" voice and delivery that soothed and fooled millions of Americans. The reason we hate tRump so much is that he is nasty, hateful, vile, disgusting, and downright annoying. But Reagan did so much more damage.
But don't fret, Reagan apologists. There is still time....