Today, Donald Trump said he “loved the idea” of exiling American citizens to a foreign country—El Salvador, specifically. Let’s be brutally clear about what just happened:

The President of the United States casually suggested reviving one of history’s darkest, most repressive tools—banishment from one’s homeland.

This is not policy talk.

This is not rhetorical flair.

This is the sound of authoritarianism testing the water.

And if your first instinct is to say, “Don’t be a dumbass, he doesn’t mean it,” then congratulations—you’ve just helped him move the line.

The Constitution Says No—For Now

Let’s do what Trump won’t and look at the law:

• The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and no state or federal government can “abridge the privileges or immunities” of that citizenship without due process of law.
• The 5th and 6th Amendments guarantee due process, legal representation, and trial by jury. Exile—without charge, without conviction, without recourse—is a clear violation of these rights.
• And the Expatriation Act of 1868, passed after the Civil War, affirms that “the right of expatriation is a natural and inherent right of all people.” In other words: no government can strip your citizenship and force you to leave unless you choose it.

Trump’s “idea” isn’t just un-American.

It’s blatantly unconstitutional.

And yet, somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

This Isn’t a Joke—It’s a Warning

This isn’t the first time Trump has fantasized about silencing or ejecting dissenters. He’s suggested stripping citizenship from protestors. He’s mused about using military tribunals on civilians. He’s attacked the media as “enemies of the people.”

Now he’s floating deporting citizens—sending them to a country they may have no connection to, no family in, no means to survive in—because he and his sycophants decided some people deserve it.

That’s not tough talk.

That’s not swagger.

That’s tyranny.

And history has seen it before.

• In Stalin’s USSR, exile was the favored tool for erasing dissenters—if you were lucky enough not to be shot.
• In Pinochet’s Chile, critics were “disappeared” or expelled under the guise of national security.
• In Nazi Germany, early stages of repression included stripping people of citizenship and forcing them out of the country.

It always starts with the suggestion.

Then a test case.

Then silence.

Then the door slams shut.

First it will be the worst criminals who are citizens.

Then it will be the editor of whoever is the latest publication dubbed “Fake News.”

Then it will be the protester holding a sign making fun of Trump’s giant orange head.

The Silence Is Deafening in the GOP

Where are the constitutional conservatives the Republican Party is so proud of?

Where are the so-called patriots who always put personal freedom ahead of government control?

Where are the free speech warriors, the civil liberties defenders, the flag-wrapped defenders of liberty?

They’re silent. Or worse—they’re amused.

Because when it’s Trump, it’s not tyranny. It’s “just Trump being Trump.”

They won’t stop him.

They’ll explain it away.

They’ll laugh, and the line will move again.

And the next time he says it, it won’t sound so absurd.

It’ll sound… possible.

Who Will Stop Him?

This is not a game. It’s not satire. It’s not a meme.

This is a man who has already called for terminating the Constitution, already tried to stay in power illegally, already used state violence against protestors, already hoarded classified documents, already demanded loyalty oaths, already celebrated authoritarian regimes abroad.

And now, he’s saying out loud that he likes the idea of exiling his fellow citizens.

So ask yourself—if he does it,

if he signs the order,

if they load the plane,

if the courts hesitate,

if the system blinks—

who will stop him?

In any society that dares to call itself free, one principle must stand above all others: no person shall be punished, deprived, or condemned without fair process.

This is not a procedural technicality. It is not an inconvenience. It is the line between freedom and tyranny, between the rule of law and the rule of men.

Due process is what separates justice from vengeance, order from oppression, and democracy from dictatorship. The erosion of due process—whether through haste, fear, or populist rage—is not a sign of strength. It is the beginning of collapse.

A Foundation Built in Blood and Law

The importance of due process did not emerge by accident. It was forged in the fires of abuse.

In 1215, the barons of England forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, establishing for the first time that even a king could not imprison or punish someone arbitrarily. Clause 39 declared that “no free man shall be seized or imprisoned… except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” It was a radical assertion for its time: that the state could not act as accuser, judge, and executioner all in one.

That legacy coursed directly into the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment enshrines it with absolute clarity: “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
The Fourteenth Amendment later extended this protection against state governments, recognizing that liberty without due process is merely license for the powerful to act with impunity.

The Founders understood what we seem to be forgetting: a government that can punish without process can do anything.

The Temptation to Bypass the Law

Across history, authoritarian regimes have begun with one justification: “We need action now! We can’t afford to wait.”

The French Revolution began with cries for liberty, equality, and fraternity—but devolved into the Reign of Terror, where due process was discarded in favor of revolutionary speed. The guillotine didn’t discriminate between tyrants and critics once the machinery of fear took over.

In Nazi Germany, the Reichstag Fire Decree and Enabling Act stripped citizens of legal protections. The judiciary became a weapon, and due process was reduced to a formality before execution. Dissent died, and with it, freedom.

Even in the United States, fear has repeatedly eroded this bedrock principle. Japanese Americans were interned during World War II without hearings, without charges, without cause. The McCarthy era saw lives destroyed by accusation alone. And in the post-9/11 era, we authorized detention without trial, extrajudicial killings, and secret surveillance—all in the name of security.

History shows that once you make exceptions to due process, it ceases to be a principle and becomes a privilege—reserved for the favored, denied to the feared.

The Present Danger: Expediency Over Principle

Today, we hear renewed calls to sidestep due process. Immigrants are too numerous, they say. The system is too slow. Why bother with hearings, with courts, with lawyers? Just deport. Just detain. Just act.

But if we accept that due process is optional for some, we accept that it is optional for all.

And what begins at the border rarely stays there.

The same logic can be—and has been—used to detain protestors, surveil journalists, and strip voting rights. It is only a matter of time before it is turned inward, against whoever the state deems inconvenient.

Due Process Is Not a Barrier—It Is the Bedrock

To some, due process seems like a roadblock—too slow, too complicated, too easy for the guilty to exploit. But this is a shallow view. Due process is not an obstacle to justice; it is the only path to justice that does not end in abuse.

It demands evidence, accountability, transparency. It forces the state to prove its case, not just assert it. And it protects not just the accused, but all of us—from the moment the accusation is made until the final judgment is rendered.

As Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter once wrote:

“The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards.”

Liberty Demands Discipline

A free society is not sustained by emotion, by slogans, or by raw force.w

It is sustained by discipline—the discipline to do things right, even when it’s hard.

Even when we hate the accused. Even when the public demands speed.

Even when it would be easier to just make someone disappear.

Because if we abandon due process for convenience, we will eventually abandon freedom itself.

We cannot afford that. Not now. Not ever.

“You can’t fix stupid.”

It’s a phrase tossed around like it’s wisdom. A verbal shrug. A lazy little eulogy for critical thinking, muttered every time someone does something reckless, ignorant, or proudly misinformed.

And it’s one of the most dangerous ideas in circulation today.

Because here’s the truth:

Yes. You can fix stupid.

That’s what education is for.

That’s what reading is for.

That’s what science, logic, debate, and actual effort are for.

Stupid isn’t a terminal condition. It’s not a genetic curse. It’s not some unchangeable affliction sent from above.

It’s a failure of exposure, discipline, curiosity, and accountability. It’s a failure of not wanting to know anything beyond what you already think you know.

And giving up on it—writing it off like some immutable law of nature—is just cowardice in a snarky disguise.

Stupid Isn’t Fixed by Mockery—It’s Fixed by Work

What’s truly broken isn’t intelligence—it’s willful ignorance, coddled by a culture that tells people it’s okay to confuse confidence for competence. We live in an age where people wear their ignorance like armor, where “doing your own research” means watching a TikTok video, and where the loudest voices are often the least informed.

But that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless.

We have tools.

Education. Real education. Not job training, but learning how to think, how to question, how to filter signal from noise.

Libraries, filled with every idea humanity has recorded.

Peer-reviewed journals, where the best minds test each other until truth emerges, bloody but intact.

Conversations that challenge assumptions instead of coddling them.

Teachers who haven’t given up yet, despite being underpaid, politicized, and drowned in bureaucracy.

If we really believed stupidity was unfixable, we’d shut it all down tomorrow.

The Real Problem Is Convenience

Saying “you can’t fix stupid” is appealing because it lets us feel superior without being responsible. It turns the other person into a lost cause and ourselves into the enlightened elite. It flatters our frustration. But it doesn’t help.

It doesn’t raise the standard.

It doesn’t uplift anyone.

It doesn’t even aim at change.

It’s a surrender. Dressed in sarcasm.

It’s apathy with a punchline.

And while we laugh, the people who profit off ignorance keep winning.

They love when we give up on each other.

They love when we decide it’s easier to mock than to teach, easier to walk away than to engage.

Because every brain we abandon becomes another vote for their empire of distraction and control.

Fight for Every Mind

You can fix stupid. But it takes time. It takes resources. It takes the courage to care, even when it’s easier to scroll past.

You fight it with facts.

You fight it with empathy.

You fight it by refusing to treat education like a luxury and critical thinking like a partisan issue.

No, you won’t win them all.

But you’ll win some. And those minds, once lit, will light others.

That’s how this works.

That’s how change spreads.

So stop saying “you can’t fix stupid.”

It’s not clever.

It’s not helpful.

And it’s not true.

You can fix it—if you have the spine to try.

THE WHITE HOUSE

OFFICIAL PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION

Liberation Day

Issued this day by the Supreme Negotiator, First of His Name, Donald J. Trump

WHEREAS, the American people have long enjoyed the luxuries of affordable goods, functioning trade relationships, and basic economic literacy;

WHEREAS, such conveniences have been deemed un-American, weak, and entirely too globalist for our current national aesthetic;

WHEREAS, under the bold leadership of Myself, Donald J. Trump—billionaire, tariff wizard, and occasional steak salesman—we have taken decisive action to impose tariffs on foreign goods, thus heroically raising prices on everything from microwaves to mayonnaise;

WHEREAS, these tariffs have successfully liberated billions of dollars from hardworking Americans, transferring those funds to corporate subsidies, offshore accounts, and decorative gold-plated golf carts;

WHEREAS, the American people, though confused, continue to salute and cheer as their wages stagnate and grocery bills balloon, a clear sign that our messaging strategy is still effective;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, 47th President of the United States (and rightful winner of all previous elections), do hereby proclaim this day:

LIBERATION DAY

A celebration of economic hardship in the name of nationalist cosplay,

A tribute to paying more and getting less,

A solemn reminder that in America, the confidence game is now draped in a flag.

Let the people rejoice! Let the markets tremble!

And let the history books—or what’s left of them—remember this as the day America stood tall, opened its wallet, and shouted:

“Thank you, sir. May I pay another?”

Signed with the Sharpie of Liberty,

Donald J. Trump

Self-Certified Genius, Commander-in-Chief of Economic Illiteracy, First Emperor of the Tariff Kingdom, Winner of All Elections (Even the Fake Ones), Patriot-in-Chief of the Grifting States of America

Today, Elon Musk announced he’s stepping down from his role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a vanity project Trump cooked up to give his favorite billionaire something to do besides tank Twitter in real time. Musk strutted out of the post with his usual smugness, claiming he’s “cut a trillion dollars in waste.” Of course, like every inflated Musk promise, he’s only shown $130 billion in supposed savings, and there’s been zero independent auditing. Zero accountability. Zero reality.

And yet, he calls it a win. He’s “declaring victory.”

Because that’s what conmen do when they run out of time or relevance—they pretend they’ve already won.

Anyone who thinks Elon Musk is stepping down because his job is finished is either in on the grift or too lost in hero-worship to see the obvious. This isn’t about government savings. This isn’t about efficiency. This is about ego, image, and control.

And let’s be real: Trump didn’t like sharing the spotlight with a man who actually believes his own hype. That footage of Musk walking onto Air Force One like he belonged there? Like he was co-president? That was the last straw.

Trump doesn’t share oxygen, let alone credit.

A Charlatan in Tech-God Clothing

Let’s be clear about who Elon Musk is:

A charlatan, dressed in a zip-up fleece of pseudo-intellect and self-promotion, whose “brilliance” has been manufactured by marketing departments and meme accounts.

His far-right flirtations are no accident. His obsession with “free speech” begins and ends with protecting people who already have platforms and power. His authoritarian leanings aren’t a glitch in the code—they’re the feature.

He’s not cutting waste.

He’s cutting oversight.

He’s not reforming government.

He’s testing how much power a billionaire can wield with a meme and a handshake.

And worst of all, he believes that democracy is something you can manipulate with a sweepstakes entry and a smile. His idea of civic engagement looks like a promotional giveaway—Win a Free Cybertruck and a Tax Cut! All razzle-dazzle. No substance. Just the illusion of progress delivered like a Tesla pre-order: overhyped, delayed, and missing the promised features.

The Cult of Victory Without Proof

Elon Musk declares victory in the same way Trump does: loudly, prematurely, and without a shred of verification.

And why not? The people who follow them don’t demand receipts—they demand performance. They want to feel like they’re winning, even if the scoreboard is completely imaginary.

What’s terrifying isn’t that Musk is leaving DOGE—what’s terrifying is that he was ever put in charge of anything involving public money or democratic systems to begin with.

This wasn’t governance: It was a beta test for oligarchy.

And now that the test is done, Musk gets to walk away unscathed, uncensored, and unaccountable.

Just like every other tech messiah before him.

Don’t Call It a Win—Call It What It Is

This isn’t a victory lap.

It’s an exit strategy.

It’s a magician walking off stage before someone notices the wires.

Musk is stepping down, not because the job is done, but because the grift has peaked.

The money’s been moved. The headlines have been written. The public has been distracted.

And Trump—being Trump—was never going to let another conman stand on his stage and soak up the applause.

Elon Musk didn’t fix anything. He didn’t save a trillion dollars.

He just made it easier to believe that saving democracy is a job for billionaires instead of citizens.

And if we let that myth keep growing, we deserve every fraud and flameout that follows.

Once upon a time, a fact was a fact. A lie was a lie. And calling someone out for corruption, fraud, or authoritarian lunacy was at least the beginning of a conversation.

But now? Now we live in the age of the magic incantation—a spell cast with two words that instantly erase accountability, deflect truth, and keep the flock hypnotized while their shepherd walks them straight into the fire:

“Fake news.”

That’s it. That’s the spell. No need to explain. No need to refute. No need to engage. Just say “fake news,” and presto—the truth disappears, reality is suspended, and the naked emperor gets to parade through the streets while his followers ooh and ahh at the jiggle of his power.

This is not just delusion. It’s not just ignorance. It’s a willful, weaponized rejection of reality—and it’s working.

The Death of Truth by Catchphrase

“Fake news” used to mean something. It referred to actual disinformation, the kind crafted in troll farms and designed to manipulate. But Trump—like any good snake oil peddler—took the phrase, slapped it on anything he didn’t like, and handed it to his followers like a get-out-of-thinking-free card.

Caught lying?

Fake news.

Caught abusing power?

Fake news.

Caught inciting violence, cheating taxes, hoarding classified documents, or trying to overturn an election?

You already know the answer.

He doesn’t have to disprove anything. He just has to say it’s false.

And his supporters—bless their Kool-Aid-soaked hearts—nod along, as if that two-word chant has divine authority. As if it’s not the most transparent cop-out in modern political history.

This is what happens when we treat facts and opinions as interchangeable.

When reality becomes a buffet and everyone gets to choose their own version.

And when someone comes along who understands how to exploit that weakness with confidence, volume, and repetition—you get Trump. And worse, you get what follows him.

The Emperor Has No Fucking Clothes—And They’re Applauding His Fat Ass

Let’s be perfectly clear: Donald Trump is naked.

Not just morally. Not just legally.

Philosophically. Ethically. Intellectually. Spiritually. Naked.

Every time he opens his mouth, he strips away more integrity from the office he once held. Every lie, every tantrum, every grotesque lie-soaked rally is another glimpse of a man so devoid of shame that he might as well be mooning democracy itself.

And his followers?

They love it.

They don’t care that he’s bare-assed and bloated with ego.

They don’t care that he’s spitting on the Constitution while wrapping himself in a flag.

They don’t care that every accusation is a confession, and every defense is a dodge.

Because he gives them the only thing they really want: permission to be just like him.

Loud. Entitled. Wrong—and proud of it.

And when confronted, when asked to explain, when forced to look at the wreckage left in their wake, they simply sneer:

“Fake news.”

The Real Danger: It’s Not Just Trump—It’s the Spell

Trump is a symptom. The disease is epistemic rot—the collapse of a shared reality. And “fake news” is the virus’s most elegant delivery mechanism.

We now live in a country where:

• Objective truth is up for negotiation.

• Experts are dismissed as elitist.

• Journalism is treated as propaganda, and propaganda as truth.

• And the loudest voice in the room gets to rewrite reality, as long as it ends with the phrase “fake news.”

It’s not just Trump’s followers who are caught in this spell—it’s the nation.

Break the Spell or Be Ruled by Delusion

There is no reasoning with someone who treats facts like feelings and truth like an inconvenience. There is no debate when one side believes they can shout “fake news” and reality folds to their will. That’s not democracy. That’s not discourse.

That’s a cult.

And unless we drag this country back to a place where words mean something, where facts matter, and where a naked emperor is called what he is—a delusional fraud with a bloated ego and an adoring, brainwashed mob—then we will lose not just the truth, but the ability to ever find it again.

The next time someone waves off corruption, crime, or cruelty with “fake news,” remember:

It’s not a rebuttal. It’s a confession.

And Trump’s flock of sycophants stare at the lies, eyes wide and vacant, cooing like cultists as he waddles through the wreckage, their applause echoing off the emperor’s fat, sagging ass like a jackboot cadence call for the brainwashed.

Ask anyone in this country whether the United States could become a totalitarian regime and you’ll hear the same answer:

“Not here.”

We’re the land of the free. We’re the guardians of democracy. We have checks and balances, free elections, a Constitution. That sort of thing happens in banana republics and history books—not in America.

And that’s exactly how it happens.

Because tyranny doesn’t walk through the front door in jackboots—it slips in the back, wearing a flag pin.

It doesn’t declare itself in year one—it builds, administration by administration, until the institutions designed to stop it are so hollowed out that it no longer needs to ask permission.

This is the slow American tyranny—not sudden, but inevitable.

And we are closer than anyone wants to admit.

The Reagan Era: Planting the Seed of Distrust

Let’s begin with the holy icon of conservative America: Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s presidency marked a turning point—not because he declared war on democracy, but because he began a long campaign of dismantling trust in government.

He famously said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

That line became gospel. What followed was a calculated undermining of regulatory bodies, workers’ rights, and federal oversight. Government was no longer seen as a tool of the people—it was an enemy to be feared.

The result? A disempowered public and an empowered elite.

A citizenry taught to distrust the very institutions designed to protect them.

It was the perfect environment for future authoritarians.

The W Years: Security Over Liberty

After 9/11, President George W. Bush gave us the Patriot Act, mass surveillance, indefinite detention, and a war waged on lies. The public, terrified and grieving, went along. Civil liberties were sacrificed for the illusion of safety. Dissent was labeled unpatriotic.

We accepted a permanent state of emergency, where the government could spy, detain, and kill in the name of national security. We normalized unitary executive theory, paving the way for a presidency that no longer answered to Congress or the courts.

This wasn’t tyranny yet—but it was the blueprint.

The Obama Era: Hope, But No Reckoning

Barack Obama ran on change and won. But he did not undo the surveillance state. He did not prosecute the architects of torture or the financiers of collapse. Instead, he normalized the tools of unchecked power—using drones to kill citizens without trial and expanding executive authority while speaking eloquently of restraint.

Worse still, he failed to rebuild trust in institutions.

And in that vacuum, rage and paranoia festered.

Fox News, birtherism, the Tea Party—the fire was lit under Obama’s feet, and the Left barely noticed the far-right organizing for the future.

Obama didn’t bring tyranny.

But he left the doors unlocked.

The First Trump Administration: Laughing All the Way to Collapse

Donald Trump didn’t have to build authoritarian infrastructure.

He inherited it.

All he had to do was use it—and use it he did.

He weaponized the DOJ, defied congressional subpoenas, attacked the press, and surrounded himself with cronies and sycophants. He dangled pardons to allies and called for prosecutions of opponents. He normalized lies so thoroughly that truth became a partisan issue.

And when he lost an election, he tried to end democracy altogether.

It wasn’t subtle.

It was loud, proud, and televised.

And it was met with shrugs.

Why?

Because still, even then, millions said:

“It can’t happen here.”

Joe Biden Looked The Other Way

Let’s not pretend the Biden administration is some heroic break in the chain. While Biden spoke the language of democracy, he did little to reverse the machinery of authoritarianism left behind. The surveillance state remained intact. Whistleblowers were still punished. Executive power? Bloated. And when the opportunity came to truly hold the architects of the January 6 violence accountable—to draw a hard line against authoritarian rot—he flinched. In trying to “restore normalcy,” Biden too often preserved the very structures that made Trump possible, leaving the next tyrant with the same loaded weapon—just waiting to be fired again.

The Second Trump Administration: The Crown Returns

Trumps return to power came with no “adults in the room.” There are no clear guardrails within the Executive Branch. This time, the plan is open: purge the civil service, weaponize the military, gut the courts, crush dissent, and rule through loyalists alone.

Project 2025 is not a conspiracy theory—it’s a playbook, written by the Heritage Foundation and embraced by Trump’s inner circle. They don’t want a republic.

They want a strongman state, cloaked in flags and prayer, powered by vengeance. They want subservience, flattery and a country of sheep. The first Trump administration created a culture of stupidity and pride in denying science, critical thinking and rational discourse. He managed to divide us, each side hating the other and sure they are the righteous ones…and now our country is ripe for the totalitarianism Trump so deeply admires.

They don’t even hide it anymore.

The Next Administration: Redemption or Final Descent

What happens next may be our last choice. Because once tyranny consolidates, it rarely loosens its grip.

There will be no dramatic explosion of democracy. There will be only the quiet suffocation of it.

Will the next administration—whoever leads it—reverse the erosion? Will our next president restore due process, free speech, press freedom, institutional integrity?

Or will they continue to look the other way, happy to inherit unchecked power, convinced that they are the good guys and don’t need restraints? Will they continue embracing oligarchy and elitism at the expense of the rest of us?

Every day from now until November 2028 is critical. Activate yourself. Make noise, raise issues loudly and often, don’t let these bastards take away our country and replace it with anything even close to fascism and the stench of tyranny.

This is not about Republicans and Democrats. This is not about division. This is the time to be an American that JFK or FDR, Lincoln or Jefferson would recognize. This is the time to listen to George Washington’s warnings about splitting into parties and not thinking for yourselves.

Right now, as you read this: this is the moment.

The most dangerous thought we can have right now is the one we’ve been told our entire lives:

“It can’t happen here.”

Because it can.

Because it is happening.

And unless we act like it, believe it, and fight like hell to stop it—

it will.

In a recent string of statements, several Fox News personalities have argued that due process is simply too hard when it comes to deporting immigrants. It’s too slow, too cumbersome, too inconvenient. We’re told that judges and hearings and rights are “luxuries” we can’t afford. That when it comes to undocumented people, we should just expel first and ask questions never.

Let that sink in.

We are now publicly debating whether or not people should have a right to defend themselves before the government strips them of everything. And for what? For political points? For ratings? For applause lines at rallies?

No.

When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.

Due Process Is Not a Technicality—It’s the Core of Liberty

Due process isn’t red tape. It isn’t a loophole to be closed. It’s not some bureaucratic indulgence we can toss aside when it’s politically expedient. It is the line between order and tyranny, justice and abuse. The idea that no person—no person—should be punished, detained, or deported by the government without the chance to be heard, to defend themselves, and to demand the evidence against them.

And if that sounds like too much work, then you are unfit to speak about freedom.

Because if you can justify shredding due process for one group, you’ve already accepted that it’s optional for all groups.

When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.

This Isn’t Just About Immigrants—It’s About You

It starts with immigrants because that’s the easy sell. Because it’s always easy to erode rights from the people you’ve dehumanized, from those without power, from the ones your audience is primed to fear. But once due process is eroded for them, it’s not long before it’s you who’s being judged unworthy of it.

History does not whisper here—it screams. When rights become conditional, they always shrink inward, until only the powerful are protected and the rest of us are subjects, not citizens.

So when Fox News nods along to the idea that it’s “too hard” to provide hearings before deporting people, they aren’t talking about national security. They’re talking about normalizing authoritarianism.

And they’re doing it with a smile.

When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.

The Constitution Does Not Come with an Exception Clause for Ratings

The Constitution doesn’t say “liberty and justice for all, unless it’s inconvenient.” It doesn’t say “equal protection, unless the person looks like they crossed a border.” The protections of due process apply to everyone on U.S. soil for a reason—because a government that can act without constraint against one person can do it to any person.

Today, it’s an undocumented immigrant.

Tomorrow, it’s a protester.

The day after, it’s you.

When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.

If the Process Is Hard, Fix the System—Don’t Burn the Constitution

If the immigration courts are overwhelmed, if the system is backlogged and broken, reform it. Fund it. Staff it. Modernize it. But do not pretend that the solution is to simply eliminate the guardrails that keep government power in check.

Doing so doesn’t make us stronger. It doesn’t make us safer.

It just makes us more vulnerable to the next person in power who decides that you are the next group not worth the trouble.

Because once due process becomes optional, it becomes extinct.

And when you take due process from one, you take it from us all.

This is a message for anyone who gets invited to a group Signal chat by a government official.

Congratulations. You’ve just been drafted into a situation that can end your career, compromise national security, and possibly get you subpoenaed.

Do not click “accept.”

Do not pretend that “end-to-end encryption” makes it okay.

We regret to inform you that Signal may be secure, but the people using it are not.

If You’re Not Cleared, Get the Hell Out

Let’s review:

In a recent real-world case of national clownery, Trump administration officials created a Signal chat to discuss a live military strike on the Houthis. The kind of thing that should happen in a secure room, with clearances and oversight and some semblance of professional responsibility.

But instead, they texted it. In a group chat. With emojis.

With a reporter from The Atlantic accidentally included.

Dumbasses.

Let’s say that again: a journalist—a civilian with no clearance and no role in military planning—was looped into a discussion about an upcoming U.S. strike.

Not by mistake of the app.

By mistake of the people running your government.

So, if you get that ping—“Mike added you to ‘Yemen Strike Planning’”—don’t smile. Don’t respond. Don’t type “lol.”

Put the phone down and walk away.

This Isn’t Transparency. It’s Incompetence Dressed in Denim and Flag Pins.

This is the kind of thing that happens when people who think governing is performance art get their hands on real power.

They believe Signal is a safe space for plotting.

They believe secrecy and seriousness are for suckers.

They believe your participation makes you part of the “in” crowd—until you’re the one holding the bag when it all goes sideways.

And guess what? When it does go sideways, they won’t remember adding you.

They won’t remember the message.

They won’t remember anything.

Just ask Donald Trump, who responded to questions about this exact incident with a blank-faced, “I don’t know anything about it.”

Or ask Tulsi Gabbard if she was in the chat (she won’t answer) or if they talked about Yemen (she won’t remember) or if any discussing of targets was detailed (she will not recall).

Let’s Review: Basic Rules for Modern Political Survival

1. If your government pals invite you to a Signal chat, ask yourself: Is this legal, ethical, or smart? The answer is probably “none of the above.”

2. If you’re not cleared for the topic, assume you’re the liability.

3. If you’re the one creating the chat? Turn yourself in. Resign immediately. You’re not ready for power and responsibility.

4. If the phrase “this won’t leak” is uttered, prepare to be on the front page.

So if someone in government invites you to a Signal chat about military strikes or foreign policy secrets, understand what’s really happening: you’re being dragged into a clown car with a fuel tank strapped to the roof.

These aren’t master strategists. These are reckless amateurs with security clearances, texting war plans like they’re gossiping at brunch. And if you, a civilian with a functioning brain, choose to climb into that chat—you’re not joining the resistance. You’re volunteering to be the patsy when it all goes to hell.

Don’t be their useful idiot.

Don’t join the group.

Let the clowns burn down their own tent.