Why every era ruled by the morbidly rich ends the same way: corruption, collapse, and ordinary people paying the bill.... One of the greatest gifts Donald Trump and the thirteen billionaires he pulled into his administration have given America is the reminder, finally and once and for all, that just because somebody is rich doesn't mean they're smart. Particularly if they inherited their starting capital from daddy, like Trump and Musk both did. Wealth in this country has become so intertwined with our mythologies of genius, destiny, and merit that we've ended up elevating into near-sainthood (and electing to high office) some of the least thoughtful, least competent, and least self-aware people ever to walk a boardroom floor. It's a dangerous confusion, and one with deep roots.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. —Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938 message to Congress As Louise and I watched Trump descend that golden escalator in 2015, we felt what millions of Americans did: disbelief, followed by dismissal. Surely this reality TV showman, this serial bankrupt, this carnival barker would quickly fade. Yet as the years passed and my radio listeners increasingly reflected his worldview back to me, I confronted a haunting truth: Donald Trump didn’t happen by accident. He wasn’t, as so many have suggested (particularly Democrats) just some political anomaly or a weird, media-driven glitch in American democracy. He was, instead, the inevitable product of political structures meticulously constructed by morbidly rich ideologues and the fossil fuel industry over decades; all systems designed to concentrate power in the executive branch, weaponize the historic grievances that have haunted American politics for three centuries, and systematically dismantle the democratic guardrails that, up until now, have kept us a free nation.

And if Donald Trump approved or encouraged these actions, then impeachment and criminal referral are not optional: they're required to defend the rule of law... Shocking as this moment is, none of us should pretend we weren't warned. When Donald Trump installed Pete Hegseth — a television provocateur whose public record is soaked in belligerence, booze, and culture-war performance — as America's Defense Secretary, the world could see exactly where it was headed. Still, nothing prepared us for today's Washington Post's revelation that Hegseth personally ordered U.S. forces to "kill everybody" on a small wooden boat off the coast of Trinidad on September 2.

Science proves that daily appreciation can dismantle stress, amplify joy, and create lasting mental wealth... Practicing daily gratitude is a habit I picked up from my spiritual mentor, Gottfried Müller; when Louise and I took a long hike through the trails of Forest Park here in Portland yesterday, for example, we stopped a few times to look around at the forest and just notice what an amazing world we live in and then to say "thank you" to all the life around us. Every day, when we take our daily walk, we do this. Sometimes it's our amazement at the clouds or the geese or the river or just the fact that we're alive. I think of what my parents or my deceased brother would give for just a few minutes of what I'm experiencing and it fills me with awe and appreciation. And I'm so grateful to you for reading and sharing my writings. You've helped built a real and meaningful community both here on Substack and on the radio/TV. Thank you! I always suspected that this daily practice of gratitude helped keep me sane in these insane times, but now I've discovered there's actual science behind the mental health impacts of it.