SOME CHANGES I WANT TO SEE

By Ruth A. Sheets

June 11, 2026

When this Trumpian/oligarchical insanity has passed, I would like to see some serious changes to our current government.  Ahead are some of my suggestions.

1. Our full legal code needs to be thoroughly combed.  Laws that oppose human rights (the Comstock Act and others) voted down permanently and discarded.  Then a second combing to dump laws that are too vague and can be interpreted in ways to harm people a group like the Trumplicans can use as a weapon.  Our laws should acknowledge our wonderful diversity and that We the People are the most important factor in our democracy.

2. Immigrants who have lived in this nation for 10 or more years and have worked and contributed should have a path to citizenship that is quick and fair.  This should include the DACA young people.  ICE is abolished and rules set up or a Constitutional amendment that would outlaw the construction of a paramilitary such as ICE and the Border Patrol have become.  All concentration camp prisons are closed permanently and deportations to 3rd countries are totally stopped.  No one is imprisoned without due process.

3. Caring for our planet, cleaning up our environment, and developing renewable/clean energy with support to make it affordable and cheaper than fossil fuels are critical for our planet's survival.  Connections like the Paris Agreement are reinstated and seriously followed and other nations are encouraged to follow them too.

4. No top-level positions in our government can be filled with people who have no experience in the area they are nominated for:  HHS Sec. must be a medical expert and have medical experts under them who actually know what they are doing; a Sec. of Defense must have not only some military experience, but diplomatic and management skills too.

5. The Supreme Court will have 18-20 year term limits at which point they may choose to stay in a lower court.  They will have a code of ethics and be held to it on penalty of suspension, just as lower court judges do.  The Supreme Court will be expanded to 13 (I’ve also heard 15 suggested to expand the number of districts too) one justice for each district court.  A nominee must already be a judge on a lower court and will need approval from at least 3 non-partisan professional legal organizations like the ABA and have a record of fairness in any previous court position.

6. The Federal government and state governments will support elections and pass severe limits on how much money any person, including corporations can contribute to a campaign, less for the narrower the position in territory.  Every single penny donated to a PAC or campaign will be recorded with the name of the person that donated it and no foreign contributions and no “dark” money will be permitted on penalty of the candidate being removed from the ballot if there is evidence the campaign knew of the “donation.”  Automatic voter registration will take place for every American citizen upon reaching age 18.  Incentives will be given for people to vote, perhaps a small tax break that will increase after a significant number of elections.  Vote by mail would be available for everyone who wants it no questions asked.  

7. All gerrymandering for any reason, political, race, religion, etc. will be halted.  Agreed-upon independent groups will design the districts using fair computer algorithms, keeping towns intact when possible. 

8. The minimum wage around the country will be set to go with the cost of living average in each state where possible starting with $18 per hour and gradually moving up to reach $25 in 5 or 6 years.  There will be overtime pay increases too.

9. The entire tax code will be carefully examined by people who understand economics and taxes from both parties and independents, cleaning it up, making it more fair, dumping tax breaks for the very rich who do some shady practices to avoid paying taxes.  Millionaires and Billionaires will pay their fair share of taxes up to 50% for the folks at the very top.  Free online submission of tax forms will be available for anyone who wants to use them.  The tax code needs to be completely overhauled with citizen input at every stage.

10. Public Education is a common good that needs to be expanded and encouraged.  Charter schools should be reincorporated into the regular public school system to make funding fair.  Voucher programs would be gone since they only serve to give rich people more money they don't need to support private and religious schools.  Civics education should begin in Kindergarten and be age appropriate through grade 12.

11. End monopolies in nearly all areas with specific exceptions, some utilities, for example.  Then make sure that no billionaires can own more than 1 media platform and no more than 10 radio or TV stations or newspapers around the country.  Local news coverage should be encouraged with some assistance when needed.  We need good journalism not a pack of oligarchical lies, disinformation, and ignorance to rule our airwaves or computers/phones.

12. Above all, there must be universal healthcare!  No one should have to forgo treatment because they can't afford it.  We have the tech and the ability to make this happen.  Private insurance corporations can be assisted to cover areas other than healthcare.  There are several other nations that have such healthcare programs and we could learn from them how to do it well. 

Probably the first thing we will need to do, though, hard as it will be, we must hold accountable, the people who have caused this chaos, this harm to the people of our communities The targeted could begin with DOGE, the various department secretaries who chose to dismantle needed programs and services without permission, ICE guys on the streets who killed and otherwise harmed people, those who proposed and developed the concentration camp prisons which they allowed to treat people worse than one would treat animals (and no one should be treating animals that badly). 

Trump and his white house toddler pool and the Trump relatives should be first in line for investigation and indictment.  No blanket pardons for these people.  The country needs to know what they have done, to whom, and what they themselves gained financially and otherwise from their efforts. 

So, these are some things I and others have been thinking about and what we need to do.  We must get things started as soon as we can because Republicans have a way of sabotaging every positive thing that Democrats and independents do to make things better.  Repubs screw things up and Dems have to clean up their mess and if they take more than a couple of months to fix something Repubs have screwed up for 4+ years, people vote the party that made the messes back into office.  It is nuts, but just what happens.

We can do this if we have the will and the quality reps and senators in office.  Even if we have to wait until 2028, we can at least get started and let the American people know what we are up to, how they can help, and where they can share their ideas for what they would like to see happen.  As lawyer Joyce Vance always says, “We’re in this together.”

FEAR AND EVIL IN TRUMPLANDIA

 By Ruth A. Sheets

June 3, 2026

I like responding to comments on my several threads.  One commenter said that people are trying to be a bit better because of some of the ridiculous, even appalling things this current Trumpian regime (my term) has been doing.  This was my response.

 I do hope you are right about people wanting to do better, but it seems EVIL like that displayed by Trump and his white house toddler pool is not easy to stop.  They get their hooks into so many places and people who then feel they must be loyal to the hookers.

 They proceed by proving their moral compass doesn't exist or is in the shop being repaired  (maybe permanently).  Integrity is an unnecessary burden.  Kindness just gets in the way.

 Trump and his toddler pool can’t make their takeover on their own; they have to get media involved so they can pass the message on and forge the chain that ends up giving power to people who do not deserve it, people who promote fear in ways I consider evil.

 The target of Trump and his “friends is not what one might expect since he is a racist, misogynistic fool.  His target, white men.  He knew there are a lot of scared white people who have been groomed over time to believe they are the ones being treated badly by those people, the ones who don’t look like them.  They were and are angry and often afraid.  They needed to be seen by people in power as the put-upon guys being abused by the people who are just cheating; they’re “welfare queens” and “affirmative action hires.”

 Donald Trump was just the guy they wanted for their salvation.  Now they are desperately clinging to Trump, an ignoramus with dementia because they bought the message that Trump would save them from the libs, the woke who have “done them wrong,” that they are being replaced by those people, you know, the ones that don’t look like them. 

 I suspect those scared white folks don’t really have a clue what replacement would mean for them, but it doesn’t matter.  There is a whole cadre of folks out here, willing to plant seeds of something that sounds horrible, and the imaginations of the scared are off and running and there is no opportunity in their minds to stop and actually consider the implications, the fact that they are being used.  Why should they wonder about what that means?  Why would they want to know that for decades, Donald Trump has been one of the masters of the con, and he and his buddies are conning them, conning all of us. 

 Trump is a rich white man as are most members of the white house toddler pool (a bunch of whiny white people, mostly men who complain, blame, insult with the goal of intimidating and silencing their targets), afraid someone will find out that they might not be the brightest bulbs in any string.  Being rich, white, and male are the only requirements for those scared white folks to guarantee their superiority.  They have been convinced nothing can be worse than being “replaced” by those people!

 The real problem,  they don’t want to notice that they and all of us are already targets of the rich white males in power.  Those rich white men want us all to be replaced by AI machines on the job, rather than messy people/workers those rich corporate masters don’t want to deal with.  Those humans  might demand higher taxes on the rich, better wages, more caring behavior on the part of the corporations, more integrity, stopping their cheating.  The folks in power are not willing to give these up, so everyone suffers, including those scared white residents of Trumplandia.  The rich white men in power don't even think of them except when they need their votes and can lie their way into the hearts of Wwhiteland. 

 Black, Hispanic, native American, LGBTQ, and other groups are aware of how those in power feel about them and are working on ways to stop the onslaught.  Scared white folks think they are safe from this Trumpian/rich guy insanity, and will someday be those rich white guys themselves  (they won't).  Their dreams make them “work” to keep those who care for nothing and no one in power, hoping they will get rewarded for giving up any integrity they might have had. 

 For Trump, his toddler pool, and the oligarchs, those scared white people exist only in November every even year when they can be handily used to vote to keep the uncaring, money and power addicts in charge.  It would be great if we could get the scared white folks to look at their racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, xenophobia to see the damage it is doing to them and their families, while they are being told they are keeping those people in their place.  The people they target have done nothing to harm them while the members of Trump’s toddler pool have done a lot of harm. 

 Right now,  scared white folks think they have truth on their side, sure everyone not like them is evil, trying to steal from them (getting a free ride), all the things the evil-rich in charge keep feeding them, their banquet of lies.  Unfortunately, their religious leaders often reinforce that, identifying Trump as “god’s messenger” (not likely).   

How do we reach people who are too scared to even begin to look at their lives and what they are doing and agreeing to?  I think any approach needs to be from many different angles depending who is being addressed.

• Listen more than speaking.  A lot of Trumplandia is used to being told what to do and not listened to
• Say things like (and mean them), I understand your position.  Have you thought that:  you are helping to pay for a war you did not agree to-  that is raising gas prices a lot; really, tariffs are taxes on us, you too, not the countries the products and services are from; immigrants are your neighbors and do a lot of the work you and I most likely wouldn’t do and are not skilled at. 
• Ask people, what is it within your faith that makes it acceptable to starve, abuse, and imprison innocent people, to pollute our air and water, allow the rich folks to dictate what happens to the rest of us;  ignore global warming when it is God who is the creator?  What role does love have in your life as a Christian or Jew?
• What do you think your taxes should pay for?  Who should decide?
• Are you familiar with our Constitution?  Would you like a copy (give them a pocket Constitution if they would like one.) 

I think you get the idea.  Accusing the scared folks will not make any points.  I suspect many of them know they are being used and feel the anger of knowing that.  Bringing them to a place where they can start to see how they “are being used” by their “heroes,” without saying those words can make a positive, maybe even freeing difference for them and for us all.

 This is complicated and will take effort on our part, but it can work.  It’s worth a try!