As the world pauses for Holocaust Remembrance Day and there's a brief thaw in Minnesota, let's remember what the promise after the World War II: “Never Again.”

There are less than 100K survivors and US World War II veterans still living in the United States to remember so I think it's good to review how it began and where we stand now.

National Socialist Germany

As Netanyahu said in 2015, the Holocaust didn’t start with a desire to kill: “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews.” Bibi was talking about one group, but it was also others such as the Roma, Jehovah’s Witness, political dissidents, homosexuals and other ‘undesirables.’

The first camp was Dachau in 1933. More were built. The problem was, where do you send so many people? The Final Solution wasn't agreed upon until 8 years later in 1941. The estimates for the total number of people range up to 14M (including est. 6M Jews) -- too many to send elsewhere.

“Never Again.”

Palestine and the United States Today

Today there are ~5.6M at risk for removal from Palestine. In the United States between 21M (POTUS) to 100M (DHS) citizens, legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants are at risk for removal. Our first new United States facilities started in 2025. The ICE Amazon Warehouse in Dallas County will only store up to 9,500. That’s 12 to 60+ Amazon-sized warehouses for Tarrant County’s at risk population alone. Our total prisoner population from local jails to federal prisons is the largest in the world, but that’s only 2 Million. We are told projections for removing 10-50 times that.

We agreed on Never Again. In light of that, what is the plan for these 21M to 100M people and what is it going to cost?

Possibly the biggest election of 2026 is going on right now in Texas. If you’re in Fort Worth, Tarrant or Parker County it’s the last day of early voting and election day is January 31st. Leigh Wambsganns is campaigning with close Epstein associate Steve Bannon. Bannon’s favorite quote about the race is “So goes Tarrant County, so goes Texas; so goes Texas, so goes the World.”

Texas native and Air Force Veteran Taylor Rehmet is badly outspent by billionaires and special interest money, but almost won the general election outright. If you’re outside of North Texas, you can still help by talking about the race or visiting https://www.taylorfortx.com/

In researching the Renee Good shooting for the new Receipt Roundup Series, I looked through social media posts by DHS before the surge. Shortly before they announced the Minnesota operation was a surprise—an official post stating “100 Million Deportations.” If you hadn’t heard about that post, you’re far from alone. It only received significant attention over the controversial usage of the artist’s painting without permission. It may help understand the environment in which Renee Good died.

An official post about removing almost thirty percent of the United States population would be something by itself, but that wasn’t the first time I’d seen that number. It was, however, first time seeing it from an official United States government source. I saw the same number was from Tarrant County Republican Chairman Bo French early last summer. Back then, I looked into the numbers and what it’d mean for Fort Worth and Tarrant County beyond what he’d posted—all immigrants since 1965, their children, and their grandchildren.

Grasping Deportation Targets

Besides the Department of Homeland Security’s 100M figure, we have the following projected targets to draw from:

• 7,800: The number of particularly dangerous Special Interest Aliens estimated by the Republican-led House in 2024 to have infiltrated the United States;

• 1.7 Million: The estimated number of immigrant “gotaways” deemed potential threats by the Republican led-house in 2024;

• 2 Million: The estimated number of people in local, state, or federal jails or prisons in the United States as of 2023 (for mathematical comparison only).

• 14 Million: The largest credible figure for people in the United States with some significant immigration status issue as of 2023;

• 21 Million: President Trump’s minimum deportation goal by the end of the 2024 Presidential Campaign;

• 50 Million: The number that a former conservative now Christian Nationalist west Texas leader was adamantly and publicly advocating when our friendship ended in 2025. It translates roughly to the number of foreign born people present in the United States including mostly legal immigrants and citizens; and

• Sixty-five Million: The number referenced by occasional Trump advisor Laura Loomer which is approximately the Hispanic population of the United States.

I think large numbers get thrown out so often that they become hard to understand in practical terms. Broken down locally in simple form, the DHS number is over 650,000 people out of Tarrant County’s 2.3M—or over four times the capacity of Texas Motor Speedway on race day, while 21M locally would be near a sell-out.1 Lost in all of this is that every figure listed includes legal immigrants and the 100M figure is overwhelmingly comprised of United States citizens.

What Does it Mean

In terms of realistic goals, removing roughly 30% of the United States’ population through removal or otherwise would take over 90 years at the reported ICE quota of 3,000 per day. It also would be quite a historic first in terms of prior campaigns in world history that targeted massive populations. Leaving aside both the morality and the logistics,2 let’s focus on the issue that led me to the DHS subject: the untimely death of Renee Good.

If you are wondering why a Minnesota woman would monitor or peacefully oppose ICE activity near her home, consider that she may have taken the government’s stated number seriously—especially when it sent 2,000 well-armed, masked men to her area. Applied to Minneapolis, the DHS 100M post scales to approximately 125,000 people in her city, and the vast majority would be citizens. It’s hard to imagine that anyone in Minneapolis would be left personally untouched.

In hearing people defend ICE on the specifics of her death, there seems to be a belief that it’s madness to peacefully document and defend your neighbors. In a country founded on a belief that rights are God-given and an ethos of “Liberty or Death,” being upset by peaceful opposition seems more radical than believing in Liberty enough to take peaceful action.

I posted the following quote in response to a ’s article on revolutions in cinema and the role of film festivals. It’s one I’ve been think of often since then.

If you are struggling on what you can do personally that matters, there’s a chance to make a national difference this month. The January 31st State Senate runoff has been nationalized by national political figures such as Steve Bannon and the President. The opponent Taylor Rehmet is an Air Force Veteran, F-35 mechanic at Boeing, and native Texan. He almost won the three-way general election outright despite being outspent 20-1 by outside special interest groups.

I have written about it for and have a long brief that all subscribers receive about Fort Worth as a linchpin in the direction of this country. You can read the current draft through this link or any of my articles about it, including Fort Worth Not For Sale.

Paid subscriptions and Amazon Wish List purchases for supplies also help keep my personal efforts going.

On Sunday, I published my first article as a contributor to Common Sense Rebel founded by Ethan Faulkner. Joining his rapidly growing publication is an opportunity with one of the most innovative young minds in America. His The System Switch and companion articles completely changed my view of our country’s framework—and they came from a 30-year-old who doesn’t have a law degree. I’m hoping to provide a complementary voice to his unique insight.

Since November, I’d been focused on leveraging Fort Worth’s unique opportunity to lead the nation in breaking at least half of the system that keeps us trapped—the post-Citizen’s United campaign finance world. Citizen’s United, horrid as it is, is a lazy excuse for accepting this. Citizens still have power, and so do states. The Supreme Court gave us a roadmap that no one’s bothered to follow—that path through that map is coming soon.

For much of last year, I spent my time in arguments with everyone from elected Republican friends to local friends. I won’t call it a waste, but it’s time to move beyond, lay out a course, and see who’s on board to do something about it. Some local Fort Worth activism paused that zealous pursuit, which led me back to basics—and to writing my first article for Ethan’s publication—The Power of “And.” The local relationships and the partnerships with Ethan, his crew, and others such as should be important parts of that.

If this realignment resonates, stay tuned here for more—and read the full “And” piece on Common Sense Rebel. I’ll be publishing more about ways to address campaign finance issues, foreign influence, and at least one other issue as rapidly as possible on .

In the meantime, The Power of “And" is up on Common Sense Rebel. Below is a preview of a social media series that complements the concepts in the article—but doesn’t replace them.

Prequel Article: The Power of “And”

Share

Today I’m announcing a brand new addition to my Substack publication: Resistance Rabbit Tavern Chat. This will be the place for ‘hot takes’ and breaking situations that I haven’t had time to turn into full articles yet—and maybe ever will.

This is a conversation space exclusively for subscribers—kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post questions and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion. For now it’s wide open for all subscribers; if it gets too busy, paid subscribers will get VIP priority.

Inspiration — THE Tavern in Abingdon, Virginia (1779)

The title for the subscriber chat is insprited by my one of my all time favorite taverns and restaurants: THE Tavern in Abingdon, Virginia, founded in 1779. We may not be colonial era revolutionaries, and not able to hang together at The Tavern like them, but thinking about the following figures who likely sat around the Abingdon Tavern talking about regarding the Kings tyranny isn’t a bad frame of mind:

• Col. William Campbell – Washington County militia commander, hero of Kings Mountain, key local wartime leader.

• Arthur Campbell – Influential western Virginia statesman and militia organizer.

• Patrick Henry – Not Abingdon-based, but his influence, family ties, and western involvement made his presence felt in every serious frontier discussion.

• Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell – Patrick Henry’s sister, powerful civic and spiritual force on the frontier.

• Col. William Russell – Veteran frontier commander tied to the Clinch settlements.

• John Sevier – Overmountain leader and future first Governor of Tennessee, deeply connected to the Holston frontier world.

• Isaac Shelby – Kings Mountain hero and future first Governor of Kentucky.

• Evan Shelby – Patriarch of the Shelby frontier leadership family.

• Joseph Martin – Frontier general, Indian agent, and diplomat of the backcountry.

• William Preston – Western Virginia militia and administrative leader.

• Thomas Walker – Explorer, surveyor, and shaper of western boundary policy.

• Daniel Boone – No longer resident, but absolutely part of the same frontier culture and constantly discussed.

• Francis Preston – A rising Southwest Virginia political figure who would soon shape the region’s future.

• John Floyd – Surveyor and frontier military leader tied to western expansion.

• General Andrew Lewis – The Salem hero of the western frontier; Patriot general and commander at the Battle of Point Pleasant, whose leadership, battlefield experience, and influence made him one of the most respected voices in Virginia’s backcountry world.

Join chat

How to get started

1. Get the Substack app by clicking this link or the button below. New chat threads won’t be sent sent via email, so turn on push notifications so you don’t miss conversation as it happens. You can also access chat on the web.

Get app

2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.

I’ve been slow in posting in an attempt to live out locally the “Practice Corporeal Politics” chapter of Timothy Snyder’s 2017 book On Tyranny. The chapter’s intro applies even more now than when it was written:

“Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in familiar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.”

To the extent this was true in 2017, it’s even more true now. The power that grips us now is fueled and protected by giving our attention and emotions to the algorithmic engines. Those engines keep us distracted. Worse, they keep Americans divided through culture wars and endless fights over benefits and taxation — battles waged entirely within the gig and wage economies — while the capital-class elite remain untouched.

No Free Speech Zone — Tarrant County Commissioners Court

After months of hearing horror stories of the lack of free speech at our local county board meetings, I finally made it to one myself. I had also watched social media clips about the issue, but if I’m going to say or do something about an issue I want to see it for myself. It didn’t take long to see what we’re dealing with because a local Bishop and Marine veteran was silenced and escorted from the meeting within one sentence of his allotted public period.

His 1st offense: He mentioned the prohibition on clapping after the previous speaker. His 2nd offense: Politely objecting when told to “sit down.”

That’s it. No calls to violence or other things that fall outside of free speech, and he was speaking in turn during the allotted time for public comment. Not even any profanity or personal insults — even though both are protected by the 1st Amendment. He was silenced and ejected for the most core protected free speech exercise imaginable — criticizing the lack of free speech.

I also was able to match the depictions by local activists and media of the event to what I observed in person to provide me a baseline for evaluating future events of the same nature — needless to say, some were more fair and accurate than others.

In Person Context - Atmospherics & Baselines

Besides being able to personally experience the behavior, attending in person gave me context that I would have missed from the reports — the general atmosphere and baseline with other speakers. First, while the Bishop was being escorted multiple people held up signs reading “SHAME” which I took as evidence of both pattern and organized opposition in an environment where people had been conditioned to relinquish their right to speak either verbally or expressively.

Second, the very next speaker explicitly criticized the Court’s behavior in a way that exceeded the Bishop, but was allowed to use his full time to talk on the subject before the court without interruption. The difference was jarring, so I asked a local activist about the disparate treatment and learned that the second speaker had been kicked out in a similar manner, but then sued and won over it so he’s allowed to speak freely about it. My gut response as a plaintiff’s lawyer was that we needed to just keep suing them over and over until the budget itself demands constitutional compliance and started asking others about it. Fortunately, Bishop Kirkland quickly filed suit against Judge Tim O’Hare and Tarrant County over the matter. I wish I was the lawyer retained, but given the pattern I imagine there will be other opportunities.

“The Librarians”

That night and for the following two days I attended and/or helped with local resistance efforts. On Tuesday night, I attended the League of Women Voters sponsored screening of “The Librarians” documentary about the efforts of “Moms for Liberty” to ban books at school libraries around the country — especially here in Tarrant County. The auditorium was both full of people and many people that I know from other contexts that I didn’t know were involved in resistance. That in itself was worth attending — both to be encouraged and to link up with people I know who are on the same or similar wavelengths.

People’s Commissioners Court

On the following night, I finally attended the People’s Commissioners Court at the invitations of two local activists, and that room was full too! The level of organization was impressive and better than I’ve seen or expected elsewhere. Besides local citizens, the lawyer representing Bishop Kirkland was there to speak about free speech and the boundaries of the law in public meeting activism. As a personal note, it was good to see a fellow libertarian-minded individual at what is primarily a progressive-attended meeting.

After the main meeting, small groups met to work on action items, and I joined the one about the conditions and deaths at the Tarrant County Jail led by local activist Sabrina Ball. I had previously agreed to make stenciled signs for a related bridge protest so it made sense. As a note about in-person politics, Sabrina and I had previously hashed out a message for the signs, but the group came up with a much better one.

Making Signs

After the enjoyment of the in-person meetings came the “fun” part on Thursday - actually making, or trying to make, the signs in time for a Thursday afternoon bridge protest. I had tried to calculate the time it would take and underestimated it — by a lot. I didn’t get the signs made in time for Thursday afternoon, so now our plan is Monday. Even with an additional order, we need more signs to make a full library for both sides of the I-30 bridge, so there’s a wishlist on Amazon if you’d like to help.

Feeling Hopeless or Angry?

If you’re feeling hopeless, helpless or just downright angry, I’d encourage you to get off your phone or computer and out to local events related to the defense of freedom. There’s so much more going on than the two-times-a-year mass protests, and you don’t even have to hold a sign or otherwise even advertise involvement. You can even just do some arts and crafts at home and that would be a huge help to someone in your community. Besides making a difference, you might also make some amazing friends.

A New York City Billionaire who was a draft dodger, a cheater, a liar, vulgar, and a Clinton pal convinced millions of rural and working class people that he was not only worth their votes, but blind loyalty.

Millions of people are asking not only how that happened, but whether MAGA will learn their lesson. Starting with the Iran strike and then reaching a crescendo with Epstein, many Trump supporters have. Some learned it earlier on January 6th, 2025. Unfortunately, many haven’t.

Fortunately, from the November elections to the recent, shocking historic wins by a Democrat for Miami mayor and a state legislator in a +12 Trump district in Georgia, it’s clear that the numbers and energy are there — for significant electoral change.

An Answer

Trump’s supporters were American human beings who were justifiably angry and fell prey to a basic human frailty and the epitomé of taking an old adage too far — the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Trump had money and celebrity, but that only gave him a small foothold in the 2016 primary field. In the first poll, Trump placed 8th with 5% of likely Republican primary voters. But he had the advantage of lacking ties to the Republican establishment that had let working-class voters down and, more importantly, the knack and the willingness to pick battles with everyone, Republicans included.

He was better than most at picking fights with the Democrats and media institutions that working class Americans hated. Before you judge them for responding to that, just think about how the Clintons sold out to corporate interests and the media hasn’t exactly reported fairly on big ticket items — like corporate power and Israel’s war on Gaza. Their anger was justified, and is even more so now.

On the Republicans, when you hear people say that ‘Trump tells it like it is” or “being honest,” it’s that he was willing to call out Republican failures without any sacred cows.

In return for his sharp attacks on establishment figures, the establishment rewarded Trump’s antics with attacks on him. Instead of destroying him, it triangulated him as THE non-establishment choice against divided Republican field. The incessant attacks also inoculated him because the off-target ones were amplified and then discounted so that the future ones just became “noise” and code for — they just hate Trump — and eventually Trump Derangement Syndrome. Worse, direct attacks on his supporters by people like Lindsay Graham and Hilary Clinton spurred identity fusion between Trump and the people that despised either corrupt Republicans or the Democrat frontrunner.

The Resulting Question

In contrast to 2016, the best strategy for any Democrat seeking to achieve the nomination for a higher office is to mimic Trump’s 2016 psychological strategy. No matter what your policy positions, bio, or donor base, if you can get the President of the United States to attack you right now, you’re going to become a hero.

One of the fundamental effects of MAGA bonding with Trump is that it robbed their vision. As stuff came out in the general election, it no longer moved the needle — not even the Access Hollywood tape with evangelicals.

We should be careful to not lose our vision in 2026. People seeking nominations or our vote in general should still be pushed on substantive issues, and warning flags from the following questions should be noted and addressed to the extent possible:

1. What are signs of their character?

2. What have they accomplished?

3. Besides alignment against Trump and campaign skill, what do they offer?

4. Are they attacking power or fellow citizens?

5. Do they have specific proposals to address the corporate, banking and international elite’s grip?

6. What is their donor history and alignment?

Given the scope and extent of this administration, any electoral enemy of the President should almost certainly be considered an ally, but there is a big difference between an “ally” and a friend. The bigger question than will MAGA learn may end up being — will we learn from MAGA’s mistake?

Don’t Fall for the Illusion of Hope

Beyond not being blinded to a candidate’s weaknesses, we should also not be conditioned to believe that major elections are the singular solution to our country’s problems. I believe that is another mistake that MAGA made when they bought into Trump’s “I Alone Can Fix It” message. We are a government of the people and by the people, but our government is captured by an unaccountable elite. There is a whole lot of work for We the People to do year-round for the foreseeable future.

On the political front, there are critical challenges and opportunities between now and the midterms, and we must seize every possible moment and inflection point now.

The results of midterms don’t apply until over a year from now in January 2027. Having free and fair elections are still in doubt. Having those elections and the actual winners seated is still in doubt.

For right now, we have an election in Fort Worth January 31st; the Tarrant County Commissioners Court is way out of line and so is our jail. To quote Steve Bannon from about this race: “As Tarrant County goes, so goes Texas. As Texas goes, so goes the world.” Taylor Rehmet is running against Bannon’s guest in that video as they hyped up the Fort Worth race.

How ‘bout we kick some tires and light some fires?

Share

Recommended Reading

1. Texas Senate runoff in Tarrant County set for Jan. 31.

2. How Donald Trump Seduced America’s White Working Class (September 10, 2016) Note: This was from when J.D. Vance was a “Never Trumper” who called Trump cultural heroin and “America’s Hitler.”

3. F#$% The Culture War. by .

Trump Derangement Syndrome (“TDS”) is both a weaponized slur and an intentional propaganda side effect, a perfectly manufactured gag used to choke effective dissent. The mechanism behind it is the unrelenting outrage from the current figure in office—whether you love him or hate him.

The TDS “diagnosis” substitutes for an actual response and signals to everyone trapped in the team mentality that they can safely ignore the criticism. Below the surface, however, is the real effect: the occupation of the public mind and the paralysis of effective energy.

The President’s daily outrages are in fact objectively outrageous, but they are also just the latest example of an old, effective tools of distraction and suppression. It’s the Firehose of Falsehood and the Gish Gallop as perfected by a reality TV star. By the time you’ve debunked one falsehood, countless more have flooded the zone. Attempting to keep pace only leads to Learned Helplessness. We mistake the emotional catharsis of rage or adoration for political action, feeling engaged when we are primarily being diverted.

Checking Power Instead of Fact Checking

The true spirit of Revolution Era resistance, exemplified by figures like James Otis, Jr., wasn’t focused on the personality of King George III. It targeted mechanisms of power such as the Writs of Assistance and the Stamp Act—the instruments that robbed free citizens of liberty.

The modern “resistance” over the past decade whether it comes from the left or the right, rarely focuses over principle or mechanisms of power, especially when “their” guy has been in office.

The Epstein Client List and Files are the perfect examples. They have been ignored or covered up by both Team Red and Team Blue Rosters since at least the early 2000s. Many, myself included, ignored it because of who was raising the alarm without investigating the allegation itself. It wasn’t until Elon Musk’s tweet and the President’s wild campaign promise betrayal that the full scope of the scandal became apparent.

Simultaneously with myself and many others awakening, many identifying as Team Red adamantly bought into the ruse that it was a Blue Team Hoax—even though for years they had insisted it was a Blue Team Coverup.

Action Instead of Noise

Calculated, principled, and focused action is the only thing the establishment fears. Trade being deranged for being dangerous . Most decisions are made where the power structure is the weakest—towns, cities, counties, and legislative districts—if politics is your outlet, focus there while using the national picture as orientation and education.

Share

A Way to Act

In Fort Worth, there is a fight is at our doorsteps. The January 31st election could jolt the power structures not only in Texas, but nationally . Taylor Rehmet is an actual organic human that you can meet, get to know him and investigate to see that he’s not captured by any part of the power structure. He won the most votes in November while getting outspent 20-1. The runoff is in 54 days. Get involved today.

is also working on Spring 2026 candidate position demands that are independent of party so that we can know who supports the American people, not the unaccountable system if you’d like to follow along. Subscribing both helps and will keep you up to date on progress.

Today’s Reading Recommendation

For some related reading from who is one of the best young mind’s leading a rebellion against the system: The Political Circus is a Distraction. The Real Story is the Money.

Companion Social Media Post

You can find Resistance Rabbit on most socials as resistancerabbit and on X as resistrabbit. Here is the current draft of the social media companion to today’s article.

Before my 2025 journey, there was both early idealism from high school and college political activities in Virginia. After going to law school, I was quickly disillusioned by both the Bush era and the Texas Republican Party as a whole so I shifted towards a legal career.

During that period, I only had one ray of hope in a national candidate: Marco Rubio, a young legislator in Florida when I first heard of him in 2009. Sixteen years later, he became part of this years events that “radicalized” me, in part, by leaving me no heroes that I feel haven’t betrayed both the country and me personally. This is Rubio part of the story.

Radicalized?

What do I mean by radicalized? I don’t mean I adopting extreme policies or lawlessness. It’s that the sense of betrayal, complicity, and the existential nature of the threat we face has forced me to shed everything that is not essential and also choose which relationships to lean into, which to abandon, and which to turn into foils.

In doing so, I’ve had reexamine every political ideology, party, religious belief, and even our nation’s history in light of the demons and underpinnings that the chaos and corruption of 2025 has exposed. That includes looking at some of the most radical text books out there: the Gospels & the writings of the Founders.

Ultimately, I’ve gone from being just merely disillusioned with the Republican party to realizing that our entire political structure is but an interface for the real power, and the underlying system means us grave harm - fast. This is the story of the early disillusionment and a figure I placed hope in who betrayed his country this year and helped turn me into a ‘radical.’ Even though Marco Rubio isn’t as prominent as some other factors, he’s a significant part of my transition from apathetic to apoplectic.

Texas Turning Point

After the rush of being part of the historic Republican takeover of the Virginia House of Delegates and supporting George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign in Virginia, I moved to Texas for law school assuming that I’d fit right into Texas Republican politics.

While I mainly focused on school, I co-hosted one of the early fundraiser mixers for Greg Abbott’s first attorney general campaign and became friends with his eventual chief of staff Daniel Hodge - a law school classmate. That same year, Republicans won the Texas legislature for the first time in 130 years in an echo of the Commonwealth’s shift.

Then came 2003 and the immediate Republican push to gerrymander Texas congressional districts mid-decade. It struck me as pure power over principle. Further, as the Iraq invasion went on without WMDs and we eyed Afghanistan it became clear that something was amiss beyond just the mistake or lie of certainty in Saddam’s weapons program. Bush and Delay being Texans didn’t help Texas’ political appeal.

Law school opened up both my mind to the law and my connections and opportunities for a legal career that I never expected. So, unfortunately, I just checked out of political participation and tackled the legal profession, but not without some interim hope in politics.

Florida Firebrand Versus the Establishment

In 2009, I started supporting a 38 year old Cuban immigrant taking on popular incumbent Florida governor Charlie Christ to be the Republican Senate candidate. On its face, it seemed he was charging a windmill, but there were signs it could work.

I saw Charlie Christ’s “moderation” as just being another instance of Republicans and Democrats just being slightly right or left leaning versions of the same overspending, overreaching mediocrity. In a wild series of events, he ended up winning a three way race to become Senator and then went on to be in the final three in the 2016 Republican Primary with Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz.

Supporting Trump wasn’t an option and I was also out on Cruz because I didn’t believe him to be genuine in the least based on my Texas exposure to him. During the primary, Rubio was blunt about his assessment of what kind of person and President he would be, comparing him to a “third world strongman” asking the country to put their faith in him alone.

I fully concurred with Rubio’s assessment of Trump and was hopeful that could help curb Trump’s authoritarian instincts in the Senate even if Trump won. Rubio and a host of others largely did keep President Trump in check during the first term.

In the interim between the 2016 election and 2025, Rubio showed flashes of leadership both in the Russia election interference investigation as well his continued principled speeches, including this notable address at 2002’s Conservative Political Action Conference:

“Very few people call themselves Marxists. That’s the criticism when I say that. Oh, but they’re not self described Marxists. Marxists are never self described Marxists.

Go back and read the articles from 1956 and ‘57 and ‘58 when the New York Times sent the reporter to interview, Fidel Castro. He didn’t say I’m a Marxist. You know what those articles said is he was a romantic figure with a big beard and he wears a rosary and he believes in God, and he’s only going to be in power for a year and then he’s going to go off and I don’t know he’s going to have a farm.

That’s what he said. They lie. Marxists lie. And the reason why they lie is because if they told you who they were, you would never let them get where they want to get. And so they lie….

There are now certain things that you’re not allowed to say on a college campus. They won’t give you a permit to speak about it; they certainly wouldn’t hire you to do it.

And so, that’s the first time people really come face to face with that reality. It’s the first time when we’ve seen basically digital mobs descend on people and say let’s let’s destroy this person’s reputation. Let’s take away their livelihood, let’s close down their business, let’s take away their voice because we don’t like the approach of something they said even if it’s totally out of context.”

Marco’s 2025 Marxist Turn

Right before April’s “Liberation Day” and NORRA prompted me into action, I knew something was very wrong I saw Marco Rubio exhibit the very Marxism he’d warned about. A Tuft’s University PhD exchange student was detained by masked agents and whisked away to detention in Louisiana for writing an opinion in the student newspaper. The opinion piece asked the Tuft’s President to adopt a student resolution regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza. That’s it.

Nothing violent, not anything racist — an opinion in a newspaper addressed to the President of the school she paid tuition at. I can’t think of anything more American than what she did and nothing more foreign than what Rubio did.

Worse, Rubio bragged about detentions related to opinions offensive to Israel in a press conference. Even after a scathing judicial opinion, Secretary Rubio not only defended it in Congress, but said he was going to do more. This video summarizes the contrast between Rubio before and after gaining power:

The Radicalization Impact

Coupled with other near simultaneous betrayals, it’s hard to overstate how deeply this not only impacted me, but frightened me for the country. Years of Marco’s speeches were still in my head when I saw his press conference touting what he was doing. The people I was counting on to limit damage from this administration were engaging in their own tyranny. That only left Congress, the Courts, and the People to be the guardrails against what I vividly remember Marco warning about in 2016:

I’ll address other impacts in future articles, but needless to say that combined the course of my life changed this spring. Not everyone can dramatically alter their life due to a politically imposed existential crisis, but everyone’s life will be altered by choice if the country does not act in masse soon.

You can help by sharing this article, becoming a paid subscriber, and following along @resistancerabbit on social media for the coming practical advice on how to be part of charting the country’s future on a daily basis instead of just on election day. I’m excited about coming collaborations with and others.

As a final note, I’d like to thank for the Rubio update which prompted me to finally get this article and the social media companion video that I’ve been meaning to do for months.

Exactly eight months ago I was sitting in this same spot trying to digest the “Liberation Day” Press Conference and settle the uneasy feeling that this was a self-imposed economic Pearl Harbor. I’d double checked the transcripts and the relevant law and even downloaded the United States historical trade tables, but the more I looked the more I was certain it was the end of both American Exceptionalism and Pax Americana if not corrected.

I began reaching out to my long-term friend, mentor, and boss Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, a House subcommittee chairman, with the belief that surely the man who taught me the Constitution in both practice and theory over a multi-year period would rise to the occasion, but 7 days later that question was answered with the party-line vote on the No Rogue Rulings Act which effectively ended judicial relief for violations of even the core freedoms such as speech, freedom, and religion.

Whether it comes from my Appalachian & Cherokee backgrounds or some deep psychological issue that I haven’t found yet, resisting injustice is a natural instinct. Beyond that, the players and subject matter of the rapidly unfolding 2025 horror fell squarely within my academic, professional and life experience expertise. I quickly felt that if my life had any purpose beyond the guardrail saga, it was to be, in the words of the late William F. Buckley, the definition of a conservative in a world that could rationally see conservative as the enemy of all that is good with the world.

I began the and then as outlets communicate my thoughts to anyone who cared to read without the editing or permission structure of traditional media. I added subscription options for those that would like to support the expensive effort of keeping up with an authoritarian government, but intended almost everything to be available freely.

However, I discovered yesterday that the articles were being automatically paywalled over time, so I’ve dropped almost all of them. If you’d care to support my efforts, the two publications are available at different price points.

Removing the paywalls gave me a chance to look back over what I’ve written and I’ve selected what I feel are the foundational articles for those who’d like to catch up on where we sit today and a glimpse of where I think this resistance is going through the eyes of a 29 year old gas station attendant named .

Resistance in Review

Rep. Griffith (R-VA) Must Honor His Oath

The CLEAR Rule of Law publication began when Cardinal News edited my opening salvo regarding tariffs and the NORRA vote directed at Representative Griffith.

MAGA’s Final Orwellian Frontier

By July, the President’s core supporters had fractured in a two step process, first over the Iran involvement, and then - finally for many - the President’s betrayal of his promise to release the Epstein Files. This is probably the article I’ve referenced the most.

Existential Epstein, Part 1

I was slow to latch onto Epstein despite it being clear it divided the base. I believe I was still hanging on to the notion that Americans should care about core constitutional violations enough to resist the President, but inspired me to look deeper and it quickly became clear that the Epstein affair was more than just the President’s Achilles Heel, it’s the thread that could unwind the whole corrupt structure that has robbed us of our future and freedom for decades regardless of who’s in the White House.

MAGA is Dead; Long Live NatCons

While MAGA was entering death throes, my dive into the power structure of this White House revealed that MAGA and the President were merely the battering ram to knockdown the barricades and let something far more sinister in. By fall, this had developed even further.

In 2000, Americans elected George W. Bush President, but in reality received an administration defined by Dick Cheney and the NeoCon ideology and the Patriot Act, Iraq War and Afghanistan War in the aftermath of 9/11. This was around the time I checked out of politics and into my career, and I remember purposefully shelving my disillusionment and desire to dive deeper into what happened — I now wish I’d attacked that feeling dead on, because in 2025, history if rhyming even if not repeating.

It would be inaccurate to blame this administration’s devastating effect on any one domestic or foreign cause, but if one were forced, choosing Israel and Likud Zionism as the culprit is a lens through which almost everything but tariffs and possibly Ukraine make sense. The following could be explained almost all though that paradigm:

• Early Ivy League speech crackdowns and student deportations

• The Iran Strike

• Everything Epstein

• Charlie Kirk’s treatment pre and post assassination

• The post-Charlie MAGA open civil war over Tucker Carlson and the Kirk investigation.

• The reshaping, consolidation, and censorship of our media

• Our potential involvement in Venezueala

Again, Israel is just one part of the equation, but in terms of things that jump off the page in 2025, the New Jersey size nation and it’s unbending American allies seem to be all over it. Following Charlie’s death, the first 50 States 1 Israel conference was held and at least four legislators from every state attended in a trip fully paid for by the Israeli government. If the revolution ends up being against a foreign power, it will be Israel.

The Coming Darkness

It is hard to underestimate the degree to which American media and public discourse has been censored from corporations and institutions as well as self-censorship in the wake of public floggings of people who have dared to speak out on anything touching a nerve in nation of Israel.

TikTok was divested from Chinese ownership at AIPAC’s urging and not many heard the warnings being shouted from those paying attention because, well, our corporate media was already heavily censors. By September, Israel’s capture of TikTok was nearly complete and dozens of accounts have disappeared or gone silent. X is Netanyahu’s current target, and already the app has stopped translating Hebrew because Americans were publicizing diabolical genocidal statements from Israeli officials and individuals.

American Tragedy, Foreigner Propaganda

In terms of history rhyming, 2025 has its own rapid cadence of tragedy, blame, solution, demonization dissent. Charlie Kirk’s assassination was the biggest example, but there have been several including the tragic shooting of two guardsman from West Virginia the day before Thanksgiving.

So far, the American public has resisted the urge to turn on each other in violence. Watching that unfold in the Christian Conservative community in Fort Worth the week after Charlie’s death. Whether our Constitution holds through the midterms and seating of the winners may depend on the ability of the American public to continue holding tight to there better angels and not falling for the White House’s calls for violence.

If you’ve made it this far, please go check out and consider subscribing to either or as a paid member - it would help a lot right now.

Introducing Ethan Faulkner

I met Ethan Faulkner early one morning in a Substack chat where someone used Citizens United and the Patriot Act in the same sentence. That made me shake my head and wonder what he meant, so I asked and received this response:

They seem unrelated at first because one is “national security” and the other is “campaign finance.”

But when you zoom out, Citizens United works as a patch to make it a closed loop system.

The Patriot Act stripped oversight from intelligence and financial surveillance.

Citizens United stripped oversight from political money and influence.

One removed visibility from what the government is doing. The other removed visibility from who is buying it.

Put together, they created the perfect blind spot:

money can move in the dark, and power can be purchased in the dark.

That’s why affordability, prices, and inequality feel untouchable. It’s not a policy disagreement — it’s an architecture problem. - EF (Abridged and edited)

Here is an accompanying article on that point:

Common Sense Rebel

THE SYSTEM SWITCH

Part 3 of The Shadow Arc…

Read more

5 months ago · 141 likes · 20 comments · Ethan Faulkner

Please share or leave a like / comment if nothing else!

Share

DOGE has ended eight months ahead of schedule. The project was sold to the MAGA faithful and general public as a vehicle for government efficiency and operated with almost no Congressional oversight under the control of South African - Canadian - United States triple citizen Elon Musk.

However, we reported earlier, the actual mission of DOGE was to obtain Americans’ data for a privately operated and owned surveillance state while also dismantling the administrative state.

How did DOGE do on the official and the actual missions?

The Official Mission - Cost Savings

Elon Musk’s announced goal for DOGE was at least $1 trillion in cuts, but DOGE ultimately saved only $214 billion minus $21.7 billion in direct expenses and an estimated inflicted costs of $135 billion. Without factoring in already announced rehiring, that’s a net savings of $57.3 billion, or $354 per United States taxpayer.

The Real Mission - Citizen Data Acquisition

In return for $354.04 in savings per person, each American’s data was harvested from multiple government agencies and handed over too private surveillance company Palintir who has received in government contracts so far this year to use that data on American citizens. Besides the data, Palintir has also secured at least $6B in federal contracts as of July.

DOGE collected citizen and resident data from for Palintir from at least the following agencies:

• Internal Revenue Service

• Department of Homeland Security

• Social Security Administration

• Federal Department of Agriculture

• Centers for Disease Control

• National Institutes of Health

• Department of Education

• Office of Personnel Management

Even if you received a “DOGE Check” for the $354.04, would you rip it up to have you privacy back?

Share

The DOGE Plan & Result

DOGE was an ultra-modern Trojan Horse successfully sold to the MAGA base and slipped past Congress and the media (except for Wired) as a way to get Elon Musk’s team access to every government source of data that Palintir couldn’t simply download from their work with the CIA and other government agencies.

Once in place, Big Balls and other DOGE staffers just had to get access to your data before the Courts, media, or the public at large could catch on. They successfully did that, and now a private surveillance company that developed its expertise with the IDF in Gaza now has all of our data to use with ICE and the defense agencies that have been focused inwards April 29, 2025.

We don’t have until 2028. There won’t be actual elections if we wait. We may not have until Fall 2026. Get involved now and spread the word to anyone open minded — the next election in Fort Worth is January 31st, and it’s a huge one that the President himself has made a priority.

Prior DOGE Goals Articles

Official Savings Documentation

Elon Musk’s Grok Data Transfer Answer

The United States government may have much more information about Charlie Kirk’s assassination than they’ve disclosed. A United States Army High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation aircraft flew a mission that reached it’s nadir parallel to the university at an altitude of 5,700 feet 9:16 AM (MDT) on the day of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Return Flight - 12-16 minutes after The Shot

The return flight to the Utah Valley University left Glacier National Park at 11:33 AM (MDT) and descended to a lower cruising altitude 14 minutes before the fatal shot was fired and then began a steeper descent on a path circling Utah Valley University 1 minute after the shot was fired. The lowest altitude of 4,900 feet was at 2:49 PM—16 minutes after the shot.

Plane Details

The plane is a 2023 Bombardier BD-700 (6500) with tail number N1098L is registered to Lasai Aviation II in Manassas, Virginia. It was reported as an ATHENA/HADES program aircraft by an aircraft spotter 816_photos on Instagram in December 2024. The account had an extensive listing of reported findings. My screenshot of the post was 3:30 AM Friday morning, but at time of publication that account is no longer available.

Flight Details and Irregularity

Flight AXEL10 took off from Glacier National Park Airport (GPI) on a direct route to Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) with a final destination of Biggs Army Airfield (BIF) at Fort Bliss, Texas. This is a substantial deviation of the normal flight path between Fort Bliss and Glacier National Park which routes through the northeastern corner of Utah. There were a total of four flights between BIF and GPI on September 9th and 10th—two on the 9th and the two on the 10th.

This is original reporting and there will be more reporting from Ghilsaine Maxwell’s minimum security today as well as updates on this story. Trying to keep up with the United States Government’s increasingly desperate to coverup the Epstein pedophile ring is both expensive and a full time job. There is no compensation for this except support from readers of this and .

In follow up to how DOGE stole the data of all Americans, the smash of the DOGE “smash and grab” plan is just as critical to the Dark Enlightenment purpose. If this sounds nuts, it did to me when I first heard the term this spring, so much so that I didn’t revisit it until Elon’s Grok volunteered the response. As we saw with the Kirk assassination suspect’s cartridge engravings, memes have power and that power includes the ability to come to life despite their plausible deniability and unbelievable level of absurdity when you’re told about it.

One fundamental point to remember is that DOGE is not dead, it’s just past the loud stage and on to the surgical stage with Project 2025 architect Russell Vought at the helm. The “kind” view of Russell Vought’s goal in doing something so destructive and unpopular is that he hopes to destroy the administrative state so thoroughly that the next administration can’t rebuild it. That comes from Erick Erickson who I interacted with a decent amount on RedState when in the College Republicans. The much darker view is that the National Conservatives do not plan to have free and fair elections or relinquish power by any other means than by force.

In interests of time and because getting it directly from Elon’s AI app lends some credibility, here’s what I received in response to “How does DOGE fit into the Dark Enlightenment besides data collection for Palantir?”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, aligns with Dark Enlightenment (also known as neoreactionary or NRx) ideology in several ways that go beyond its data-related initiatives. The Dark Enlightenment is an anti-democratic philosophy that critiques modern liberal democracy as inefficient, egalitarian, and prone to decay, advocating instead for hierarchical, authoritarian structures often modeled on corporations or monarchies ruled by competent elites—thinkers like Curtis Yarvin (Mencius Moldbug) envision “CEO-kings” or sovereign executives who bypass bureaucratic inertia and democratic checks to impose order and progress.

DOGE operationalizes this by treating the federal government as a bloated, underperforming corporation in need of ruthless streamlining. Musk and Ramaswamy have proposed firing up to 75% of the federal workforce—echoing Yarvin’s “RAGE” (Retire All Government Employees) strategy to gut the administrative state and rebuild it under centralized, tech-driven control, rendering traditional branches of government ceremonial. This isn’t mere cost-cutting; it’s a philosophical assault on the “Cathedral” (NRx term for the interlocking media, academia, and bureaucracy that perpetuates democratic egalitarianism), aiming to install a “unitaryf executive” with plenary powers.

Key figures bridge DOGE to NRx circles: Musk has echoed neoreactionary themes in his critiques of “woke” bureaucracy and calls for tech-led governance, while Ramaswamy’s writings on corporate sovereignty align with Yarvin’s vision of “patchwork” governance—fragmenting the state into competing, efficient enclaves run like startups. DOGE’s recruitment of young, ideologically aligned “zoomers” (tech-savvy Gen Z operatives with NRx sympathies) to infiltrate agencies further embodies this, creating a shadow network to neutralize opposition and enforce top-down reforms without congressional oversight.

In essence, DOGE advances NRx by accelerating the erosion of democratic norms in favor of technocratic feudalism, where efficiency trumps accountability and elite innovators hold unchecked power—potentially paving the way for a “Night of the Long Knives” style purge of the old guard. Critics see this as a “neo-reactionary coup,” but proponents view it as necessary to rescue a failing system.

Share

Complete List of Sources

• https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2025/3/23/dark-enlightenment-tech-oligarch-ideology-doge
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
• https://www.vox.com/2016/4/18/11434098/alt-right-explained
• https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/elon-musk-doge-government-efficiency/682346/
• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/25/elon-musk-doge-dark-enlightenment
• https://newrepublic.com/article/182940/elon-musk-doge-trump-technocracy
• https://www.salon.com/2025/04/15/the-dark-enlightenment-behind-elon-musks-doge-agenda/
• https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/28/doge-musk-ramaswamy-technocracy-00123456
• https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/2024/12/03/inefficient-and-reckless-why-doge-could-be-so-dangerous/
• https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-dark-enlightenment-the-tech-oligarch-ideology-driving-doge-s-destruction/ar-BB1kpuqF
• https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2025/03/12/what-is-the-department-of-government-efficiency-or-doge
• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/doge-trump-musk-ramaswamy-b2512345.html
• https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2025/01/20/establishing-and-implementing-the-presidents-department-of-government-efficiency/
• https://www.congress.gov/118/crs-reports/IN12493/CRS-Report-IN12493.pdf
• https://www.cato.org/white-paper/cato-institute-report-department-government-efficiency-doge
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Government_Efficiency
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Department-of-Government-Efficiency
• https://opgguides.com/doge-department-of-government-efficiency-guide/
• https://sustainabletechpartner.com/2025/06/16/doge-timeline-government-layoffs-efficiency-technology-goals/
• https://mashable.com/article/department-of-government-efficiency-doge-elon-musk-explained
• https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/02/10/what-is-doge-exploring-initiatives-creation-legality-purpose/
• https://www.doge.gov/work
• https://reason.com/2025/03/01/elon-musks-doge-and-the-neoreactionary-agenda/
• https://www.currentaffairs.org/2025/04/the-dark-enlightenment-and-the-tech-oligarchs/
• https://jacobin.com/2025/03/elon-musk-doge-trump-neoreaction
• https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/02/doge-and-the-promise-of-technocratic-reform/
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/03/20/elon-musk-doge-federal-workforce-cuts/
• https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/doge-musk-trump-technocracy/
• https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-02-15/elon-musk-s-doge-is-a-technocrat-s-dream-and-a-democrat-s-nightmare
• https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/03/10/the-rise-of-doge-and-its-technocratic-vision
• https://www.propublica.org/article/doge-elon-musk-transparency-lawsuits
• https://www.axios.com/2025/04/05/doge-musk-ramaswamy-federal-agency-overhaul
• https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/25/doge-and-the-dark-enlightenment-connection/
• https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/elon-musk-doge-dark-enlightenment/
• https://www.theverge.com/2025/03/30/elon-musk-doge-technocracy-explained
• https://www.slate.com/technology/2025/04/10/doge-musk-trump-dark-enlightenment
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/4axw3p/elon-musk-doge-neoreactionary-roots
• https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-doge-dark-enlightenment/
• https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/doge-and-the-neoreactionary-temptation/682450/
• https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/elon-musk-doge-and-the-technocratic-revolution
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/tech/2025/03/15/elon-musk-doge-and-the-neoreactionary-vision/
• https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/22/elon-musk-doge-technocracy-government-efficiency.html
• https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65678901
• https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-doge-federal-overhaul-2025-03-18/
• https://www.ft.com/content/doge-musk-trump-technocratic-agenda
• https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-doge-dark-enlightenment-2025-03-27
• https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-03-30/elon-musk-doge-technocracy
• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-doge-dark-enlightenment_n_12345678
• https://www.theintercept.com/2025/04/01/doge-musk-trump-neoreactionary-agenda/
• https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/10/elon-musk-doge-technocracy
• https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/25/elon-musk-doge-and-the-technocratic-revolution
• https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2025/4/15/dark-enlightenment-doge-musk-trump

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was pitched and embraced as a tool for government efficiency, but a careful watch of what it actually did paints a much different picture. Elon Musk’s own AI system Grok tells us that it was part of a design to capture American’s data from the government for Palantir. This is all a part of the Dark Enlightenment which is commonly represented in politics by the black MAGA hats. It is embraced by Elon Musk as well as monarchist Curtis Yarvin & the transhumanist, antichrist obsessed, billionaire who owns Palantir.

DOGE’s sharing of data was something I ‘knew’ was happening and had happened based on the structure and players along, and my and other’s previous career experience working with people associated with Palantir. However, the amount of research needed to make that accusation without just relying on corporate media and independent writers would have been intense.

I try to avoid any direct AI input in my writing, but, in this case, I find it it essential because Elon Musk’s own technology reveals what one of at least two purposes and results of DOGE. I think it’s important to document it in real time, because Musk has repeatedly changed the Grok model for political purposes.

Tonight, I asked Elon Musk’s Grok this simple question, and the results were more revealing than I expected: “Did Elon share DOGE data with Peter Thiel?” This is the introductory summary:

Yes, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has shared or integrated government data with Peter Thiel through Thiel’s company, Palantir Technologies, as part of broader efforts to centralize federal databases for efficiency, surveillance, and policy implementation. This collaboration stems from their long-standing professional ties (co-founders of PayPal) and shared political influence in the Trump administration, where DOGE accessed sensitive datasets from agencies like the IRS, Treasury, Office of Personnel Management, and immigration records before feeding them into Palantir’s data-mining systems.

DOGE & The Dark Enlightenment

While the data sharing summary was much more direct than I expected, the explanation of the purpose and plan for DOGE was not something that I expected Elon’s technology to state so explicitly. The following was the final bullet point in Grok’s answer:

Personnel Overlap: DOGE recruited from Thiel’s network, including Palantir alumni like Akash Bobba and Anthony Jancso, facilitating indirect data flows through shared staff. This “stuffing” of DOGE with Thiel-aligned lieutenants underscores coordinated influence without formal chain-of-command.

Context and Implications

Musk and Thiel’s alignment on “Dark Enlightenment” ideologies—favoring techno-libertarian governance over traditional democracy—framed DOGE as a vehicle for these goals. Critics argue this creates a “surveillance state” benefiting private firms like Palantir, which has long-standing government contracts. Musk has publicly endorsed the efficiency angle, but no direct X posts from him confirm the sharing; it’s evidenced through reporting and administration actions. As of September 2025, these integrations continue despite Musk’s partial step-back from DOGE, with Thiel’s influence persisting via VP J.D. Vance (a Thiel protégé).

Given how DOGE attacked things that likely cost the taxpayers money instead of saving money and there are reports of how MUCH it may have cost us, the data collection purpose seems to match my and my colleague’s suspicions as one of two primary purposes. The other suspected purpose, consistent with Project 2025, is to cripple government agencies so they cannot easily be rebuilt by a future White House and Congress.

I’ve included the full response as well as screenshots below for further reading and for documentation in a world where the answers could be changed or data scrubbed overnight.

Full Answer:

Yes, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has shared or integrated government data with Peter Thiel through Thiel’s company, Palantir Technologies, as part of broader efforts to centralize federal databases for efficiency, surveillance, and policy implementation. This collaboration stems from their long-standing professional ties (co-founders of PayPal) and shared political influence in the Trump administration, where DOGE accessed sensitive datasets from agencies like the IRS, Treasury, Office of Personnel Management, and immigration records before feeding them into Palantir’s data-mining systems.

Key Details on the Data Sharing

    •    Palantir’s Role in DOGE Projects: DOGE, led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, partnered with Palantir to build a “master database” aggregating cross-referenced data on Americans, including tax records, immigration files, and personal information from federal agencies. This was enabled by a $30 million contract with ICE for real-time migrant tracking and expanded to broader surveillance tools. Palantir’s software acts as an “operating system” for government data centralization, directly building on DOGE’s data aggregation efforts.

    •    Specific Examples:

    ◦    IRS Data Project: DOGE collaborated with Palantir on a “mega API” for the IRS, allowing seamless access and analysis of taxpayer data to identify fraud and waste.

    ◦    Immigration and Surveillance Database: DOGE scraped personal data from multiple agencies, which was then handed to Palantir for a centralized system to track immigrants and citizens, raising privacy concerns.

    ◦    Broader Federal Access: DOGE teams, including young engineers with ties to Musk and Thiel, gained entry to agencies like USAID, Medicare, and the Education Department, routing data through AI tools before integration with Palantir.

    •    Personnel Overlap: DOGE recruited from Thiel’s network, including Palantir alumni like Akash Bobba and Anthony Jancso, facilitating indirect data flows through shared staff. This “stuffing” of DOGE with Thiel-aligned lieutenants underscores coordinated influence without formal chain-of-command.

Context and Implications

Musk and Thiel’s alignment on “Dark Enlightenment” ideologies—favoring techno-libertarian governance over traditional democracy—framed DOGE as a vehicle for these goals. Critics argue this creates a “surveillance state” benefiting private firms like Palantir, which has long-standing government contracts. Musk has publicly endorsed the efficiency angle, but no direct X posts from him confirm the sharing; it’s evidenced through reporting and administration actions. As of September 2025, these integrations continue despite Musk’s partial step-back from DOGE, with Thiel’s influence persisting via VP J.D. Vance (a Thiel protégé).

WHITE HOUSE (RR) — Still beset by a Republican Congressman and some of his base still demanding declassification the Epstein files, the President turns into a tried and true patriotic call to arms—flag burning.

Rallies in 2025 have been refreshingly free of American flag burnings. Instead, they’ve been quite full of proud displays of Americana and on point references to the Constitution. The only effective national red meat propaganda instances have been the repeatedly used, tightly cropped photos and video clips of one repeat felon waiving a Mexican flag on top of a burning Waymo car.

With Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) scheduling a press conference at the Capitol with Epstein victims on September 3rd, the President desperately needs some new way to paint supporters of the Constitution, and someone clearly had a great idea ready to go: Issue an doubly-illegal and unconstitutional order that there’s zero doubt will result in some propaganda footage.

The Constitutional Double-Tap

The President’s order manages to offend the Constitutional order in two different ways. First, the President created a crime and a prescribed punishment by executive order. Only Congress can pass new criminal laws, and a law about flag burning wasn’t even coming up in the queue.

Second, the President banned something that’s likely unconstitutional to ban anyway no matter the wording: burning the flag. The technical reasons on why that’s a First Amendment violation don’t seem as important as the why. The First Amendment was adopted to enshrine a right already naturally belonging to human beings — the right to express themselves.

Without the ability to express ourselves authentically, we are not free. If everyone’s opinions were popular, then not only would society be boring, but there’d be no need for an ironclad protection against restrictions. The government only ever tries to suppress speech it does NOT like, and generally that speech is also not popular with the governed populace either.

This is a Provocative, Not a Reaction

Over the last year the President has sued the media for correctly calling him a rapist. He also sic’d the Secret Service on retired FBI Director James Comey for posting seashells forming the completely innocuous number “8647” and likely personally sent the FBI after retired former cabinet member John Bolton for publishing a book revealing the President’s conduct during one of the impeachment scandals as well as being a continuing thorn in his side since then.

In terms of this one, not only were there not widespread or even significant flag burnings happening, but the President is facing a double-edged threat with community around Texas A&M’s campus unhappy and actively protesting Ghislaine Maxwell being coddled in their backyard, and probably more ominously the upcoming September 3rd Massie press conference with Epstein victims.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and there’s nothing that will rally reflexive patriotism than the imagery of people burning American flags, especially if he can get someone from a targeted minority population on camera doing it.

Simultaneously, the President had to know that the normally right-leaning and patriotic groups would react even more strongly than the left-leaning to this outrageous orders—Veterans, Conservatives & Libertarians.

The President has already received both. Conservatives on social media made posts like the below, and a multiple-decade veteran burned a flag in one of the most respectful ways possible right in front of the White House and was promptly arrested.

Share

Thoughts on How to Respond

My first thought is the most obvious: don’t react and just go burn a flag because it’s the natural, patriotic response to tyranny. The President signed rage bait, and if we fall for it, it will set back efforts that are showing promise in resisting this President. This is an exchange I had this afternoon with someone who was irate and wanted to go live on social media burning a flag:

Beyond and maybe even before that I’m not going to do it because it would be personally painful for me to do. I love this country and it’s flag regardless of the current person sitting behind the Resolute Desk.

Here are a combination of suggestions I’ve read and thoughts I’ve had on how to channel the natural, patriotic reaction to defy tyranny:

1. Double down on whatever your current resistance efforts are. In my case that’s highlighting Ghislaine Maxwell’s pampering with our Governor’s implicit consent and perhaps taxpayer subsidization while working on fall campaign proposals related to masked agents.

2. Double down on speech that has received an authoritarian reaction from the President such as posting “8647” or saying he’s a proven rapist—better yet anything and everything Epstein related.

3. If you’re really fixated on the flag burning order itself, consider some alternatives; here are a few ideas I’ve had or co-opted and adopted:

   1. Create a cartoon that integrates the suggestion that this is just another Epstein distraction. — DONE — You’re reading it.

   2. Create an AI video that somehow illustrates that the President is really the one burning the flag here (h/t ) — DONE — See below even though it’s not perfect. Feel free to use.

   3. Burn a confederate or Trump flag. Find and pick any flag burning hash tags that are trending and try to get it into the viral-sphere. He will REALLY hate that, and if he comments on it or retaliates that would be a most excellent situation. It would have the #ClintonBodyCount effect in Trump’s 2019 tweet that sent the Epstein conspiracies viral and still echoes to this day. If I could get one, a Trump 2028 would seem to be the most ideal, on point messaging.

   4. Hold a flag burning with veterans that follows the Flag Code on how to properly dispose of a United States flag that has been damaged or dishonored.

Share

Thank you for reading this far. I could use your help continuing to do this, including with the expenses to report on Ghislaine Maxwell and the coming campaign proposals for . Just sharing this article and getting a free subscription helps! Beyond that, a paid subscription or send me some body cam/harness equipment that would not only help report, but likely would be helpful to my personal safety.

— Resistance Rabbit

Notes:

1. In Virginia, it appears a Chris LaCivita-style hit with a racist sign mixed with a LGBTQ message was effective locally.

BRYAN, TEXAS (RR) — Immediately following convicted sex trafficker Ghilsaine Maxwell’s immunity guaranteed interview with Trump’s personal defense attorney, Madam Maxwell was transferred two ranked female prison on the list of “Best Federal Prisons to Serve Time” in Bryan, Texas. Bryan happens to be right next door to Texas A&M where students are returning to campus this weekend. The local community, as you may imagine, is not exactly thrilled.

As I testified for in the Texas Senate, President Trump turned to Texas to Epstein-proof himself with five more seats after four Republicans went on record demanding the release of the Epstein files. Texas seems to be going further than redistricting to protect the President by allowing a child trafficker and groomer to be kept in a college community work release facility.

As described in MAGA’s Final Orwellian Frontier, anyone willing to actively support the President at this point in the timeline is likely willing to do anything. Defectors refusing to assist in covering up the Epstein-Maxwell network may also refuse other unreasonable demands—such as refusing to seat mid-term winners or refusing to certify the 2028 election results from states with mail-in ballots that the President demanded halted last week.

Local Group Protests—Tactical Units Respond

Last weekend the local Brazos Valley Community Coalition marched from central Bryan to the prison camp in a nearby neighborhood. According to sources, the prison itself went on lockdown during the protest, and tactical officers deployed in a squad wedge formation with either AR-15s or M-16s with magazines inserted and rounds chambered as well as non-lethal weaponry such as pepper ball guns. A military veteran described it to me as an ‘aggressive defensive posture” that was intended to intimidate.

The Bryan Police Department was also called. They didn’t make the protestors leave, but made sure they stayed in legally permitted zones such as the sidewalk and on the road rather than in people’s yards. Due to the The Bryan Police Department officers were professional and even helped give one protester a ride back to the march starting point when she became overheated in the Texas sun.

Below is coverage of the event from a local station, but it also received significant ripple coverage from outlets such as MeidasTouch, now the number one podcast in America after toppling Joe Rogan.

Tactical Duo Interrupts Reading Historical Marker

Having missed the protest, I decided to take a look at the facility and a historical marker was the first thing to catch my eye. While the amount of history I’ve forgotten is substantial, the things I never knew is even larger. In this case I had never heard of the Allen Military Academy that was the original school now serving as Federal Prison Camp Bryan. While I was reading more about the school on my phone, two gentleman in tactical gear pulled up, one got out and asked me to leave.

Are Texans Paying for Maxwell’s Security?

He was professional and the exchange was a bit humorous to me and I think him, but I regret not being more aggressive and asking his name, agency and badge number for a very specific reason: I don’t think these are federal officers from the Bureau of Prisons or any other federal agency. Community sources tell me that tactical security was brought in specifically for the event, and former legislative contacts tell me that any tactical units at her prison are almost certainly Texas military, such as Operation Lone Star. Here is a close crop of inside the perimeter tactical security personnel provided to me by a protester with different agency identification that looks more consistent with at least one federal group despite the non-standard headgear.

Given the completely non-standard intervention of tactical officers from merely reading the historical marker, I decided that this place needed some solid first amendment reporting activity. I parked in the neighborhood and walked the entire perimeter. The video of the walk-around can be found on the Resistance Rabbit YouTube channel, but the walk yielded more of interest than just perimeter documentation.

During the walk, I talked to a lady sitting on her front porch across from the back of the prison who didn’t even know Madam Maxwell was there. On the final edge of the property before the sign, I came across a parked car with a man with professional long-range camera equipment inside. He turned out to be a photographer with with a major national outlet and also very informative. He had been on-location for three weeks at that point.

Post-Maxwell: FPC Bryan & Neighborhood Privacy Modifications

From both personal observation and talking with him, the FPC Bryan is installing privacy screens around the pictures to shield activities from public view. Given that it was converted from a private school to a federal prison in 1988, houses a variety of celebrity inmates including Elizabeth Holmes and Real Housewives star Jen Shah, modifying the prison immediately after Madam Maxwell’s arrival seems significant. I was still able to get some footage of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos frame on her daily walk and learned that her partner has set up a Theranos-like company that has raised significant capital while she’s been incarcerated. You can see the edge of the progress of the privacy fencing on the left side of the Elizabeth Holmes video below:

Policy Changes

Besides the privacy modifications and aggressive security posture, the prison has generally become first amendment un-friendly in other ways. One inmate’s husband had the audacity to talk to a reporter about the fact that the inmates do not like having a sexual predator housed in a minimum-security prison designed for paper & process criminals and that inmate was promptly transferred to a higher security prison in the Houston area. This is not normal to say the least. That event and other changes has also been reported in the mainstream press.

Neighborhood Effects

A local citizen reported to me that her transfer has also had a negative effect on the neighborhood surrounding the prison. According to them the neighborhood is low-income, majority minority and was already over-policed. Having Maxwell in the neighborhood has made the over-policing issue worse however, because now there are heavily armed security patrols both day and night to protect the perimeter for Maxwell, and I’m told that they have at times been harassing residents over minor issues to ‘fill there time’ since there haven’t been any actual or attempted security breaches.

In an event that there’s no known connection to Maxwell over, there was gunfire exchanged by people in the neighborhood shortly after her arrival. I had seen the mainstream media reporting that there had been some fire either returned or initiated from inside the prison. What someone with significant presence and connections in the neighborhood related to me I have not seen reported. He stated the prison guard fired seven shots through a chainlink fence hitting two vehicles and one person. The range he estimated was 40 yards inside the perimeter fence and 20-30 yards on the other side of the fence and ricochets from the fence likely contributed to the inaccuracy.

Continuing Coverage

I remain in continuing communications with sources in Bryan and intend to go back to document and investigate again today. Quite simply, I haven’t seen a situation more in need of first amendment activity than this one and it is perfectly aligned with the purpose of this publication.

I could use your help. Subscriptions to go directly in the gas tank at this point. I also have Venmo, Zelle and other ways to donate that include the Amazon Wishlist. Bodycam equipment would be quite helpful with this and the upcoming protest and ICE recruitment and enforcement activities in Fort Worth. Footage and exposure is not only a defense against tyranny for the country, it’s also a personal safety issue for everyone either resisting or covering those resisting.

AUSTIN (RR) — Texas Governor Abbott announced new legislation changing the state flag to one more correctly reflect his posture towards the President. The Governor dismisses concerns that he merely rolled over for the President on redistricting: “That wasn’t a one time concession, this is intentional position change that reflects Texas has matured past its rebellious preteen years into the age where we know what every teen girl in Epstein’s orbit knew: what Daddy wants, Daddy gets.” The new flag pays homage to Texas’ defiant roots by co-opting the design of the Gonzales Flag handmade by Texas revolutionaries who refused to surrender their town’s cannon to Mexican forces after General Santa Anna suspended the Constitution and declared himself dictator.

Senate redistricting leaders Phil King (R-Weatherford) and Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) were selected to co-sponsor the bill as a reward for their time pretending to listen to scores of Texans testifying in committee with outdated pleas such as “honor your oaths,” “no taxation without representation,” and the “rule of law.” However, in keeping with his reputation for integrity, Senator King did insist on also changing the state motto to the “Lone Spluge State” as well. “I felt ‘Lone Star State’ should be modernized to accurately reflect our new posture towards the President in general,” Senator King said, “while also reflecting the current President’s inability to perform from the historical record.”

Sources say that Senator King, being the legal scholar he is, consulted the record and judicial opinion in Carroll II in which the judge said that Mr. Trump committed rape only in the ordinary meaning of the word because the jury merely found that Mr. Trump raped her with his hands. The New York Penal Code requires penile penetration, therefore the judge said Mr. Trump did not raper her under New York law.

Many people say Mr. Trump only digitally raped Mrs. Carroll because he can’t get hard due to his widely reported adderall and cocaine habits combined with old age. One Capitol staffer emerging from a cloak room told us “The President isn’t exactly shooting ropes if you know what I mean” before catching himself and saying “this is on background, right?”

We didn’t consult Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick for this one due to a lack of relevance, but because one of his staff pulled a favor from my Austin days, we’ll include the first sentence of a written statement the submitted by email: “Hemp is dangerous and is killing the children—THE CHILDREN.”

Former Dr. Anthony Fauci’s covid-era colleague and current Texas State Representative Brian Edward Harrison (R-Midlothian) said “What I love about the flag is how it converts the Governor’s perceived disability into a strength. God knows the President will appreciate those wheels steadying him during the extended effort it’ll take. I’m afraid he’s lost a stroke or two even just since our COVID and DEI office partnerships.”

At least one GOP party official cheered the news. Bo French, the chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party told us “Federalism and states rights are commie speak. American Truth is submit to daddy.”

Attorney General Paxton was unable to be reached for comment due to an voice that was not his wife’s answering his phone. The gender of the person answering has been withheld because we protect those who assume the position—the unelected ones anyway. At press time, Senator Brandon Creighton had still not updated his website to change “Let Texas Run Texas” to a more appropriate phrase. Also, Senator Phil King’s website still has his top issue as “The Role of Government” with it’s dutiful 10th Amendment reference that no doubt endeared him to conservatives.

- @resistancerabbit

Share

Reader note: For the fascists and those otherwise not literary educated, this article is satire. No actual events or quotes are intended to be taken as real, but the links are interesting.

Current Investigative Agenda: Are Texas taxpayers paying for the Maxwell end of the Epstein cover-up? Was there a deal made between the Governor and President? What agency is the man below guarding Madam Maxwell’s work release facility from?

Real Life Republican Web Presences:

I joined a small group of local resistance activists on a pedestrian bridge near my house in Fort Worth Friday morning at 7AM. They display oversized messages on the overpass for rush hour commuters every Tuesday. Friday it in coordination with the Be Brave With Us Campaign by Visibility Brigade. I didn’t know any of the people and wasn’t really there to join, so I just decided to show up and report on it. You never know how just showing up with a camera and a microphone is going to go, but you learn about about people in moments like this that’s hard to replicate in any other way. I loved what I learned Friday.

There are a number of local MAGA figures who wear their service on their sleeve and project that supporting the President no matter what defines patriotism. Ken Shimamato in the video is the third local veteran I’ve found this month being vocal in different ways in defense of the United States Constitution. The last thing he said to me today was “Thank you for being here, brother. Because you’re here, this really happened.”

I also met a older gentleman who’s been holding about sign about Trump on the busiest non-highway in my neighborhood seemingly every day, for months. He seemed like a character from Facebook post, but meeting him and hearing the absolute heartbreak about feeling like he was losing his country and Constitution was both moving and inspiring. The organizer Sabrina Ball is the head of the resistance group Indivisible 12 for my congressional district. Here’s the full vide, but there’s more below:

Rallies, Unexpected Protests & Surprise Hearings - Oh My!

This week and weekend already had a full schedule of resistance activity with the seemingly most important event being Saturday’s Move Texas rally at the Austin Capitol about Texas’ sham mid-decade redistricting process. However, a funny thing happened on the way into a pretty coherent weekend schedule. A community group in Bryan, Texas announced a protest against Madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s improper transfer to their small town where she’s being kept in a deluxe minimum security prison and possibly qualifies for work release. That seems more where the attention should be than Austin and also like it needs people more than the crowd that will likely be in Austin.

• Today — Leave Fort Worth by 7:30 AM to make the 10AM-3PM Hearing. A CLEAR member from New Braunfels is driving up while I’m driving down grabbing sign making signs on the way.

• Sunday — in what should be shocking news, the Texas Senate posted a calendar for Sunday that includes probably the last hearing for citizens to be able to testify to the Senate Redistricting Committee. The seat for my Senate District 9 in Fort Worth has been empty since June and the election is not until November. People that would love to testify can’t go. I won’t miss it for the WORLD, and I’ll be more prepared on content, emotional precision, and timing.

• Monday — Hearing content and outreach day. For the first hearing, I posted the full length Senate video with chapters for each speaker and, besides sharing on social media, I reached out to every person who testified with their own specific video. That was very effective I believe.

• Tuesday — I’m interviewing the Democrat candidate for Fort Worth Senate District 9’s special election, Taylor Rehmet.

• Wednesday — a local pastor and I are going to the ICE recruiting facility to hand out Constitutions, Bill of Rights and tracts on Biblical passages related to immigration while interviewing anyone who will agree on camera.

Doing this Together

On togetherness, besides all of the people sending encouraging notes, I want to thank what’s turned out to be the most passionate and supportive group that I work on these issues—nurses. I literally cannot afford these trips and I received an unexpected Zelle from a nurse just south of Fort Worth that will go a long way to covering the gas for one of them. Another is leaving New Braunfels at 7AM today to join the protest at Maxwell’s club fed.

If you’d like to help Substack subscriptions, Zelle/Venmo donations, and Amazon wishlist items really help. The traditional kick off for campaign season is Labor Day and we’re already at a late October pace. Speed is their tool, but that speed also creates chaos and potentially fatal mistakes. I’m here to be ready to pounce—there’s no passive, casual observer path to stay there. Help is appreciated.

United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ran Cantor Fitzgerald for 30 years before having the honor of being appointed by President Trump to be United States Secretary of Commerce and help architect the “Liberation Day” tariffs regime that has roiled markets, torn up free trade agreements, and managed to find a new way for the government to exorbitantly tax us without our approval — well, new since the 1930s at least.

Being granted this great honor came with a price, however. Mr. Lutnick had to give up control of his beloved financial service company. Following the President’s lead, he turned Cantor Fitzgerald to his two sons, Kyle and Brandon thus freeing him of any ethical conflicts — under 2025 MAGA rules anyway. As Speaker Johnson obviously believes, as long as we can the corruption it’s not a problem in the halls of Congress.

Meanwhile, conservatives like former Virginia Governor George Allen and libertarians like Scalia School of Law Professor Ilya Somin have been successfully fighting the tariff regime in court. The United States Court of International Trade has unanimously ruled the tariffs illegal and the en banc appeal of the ruling is set to be heard by the Federal Circuit at the end of the month.

While this legal battle plays out and Papa Lutnick cheerleads, his sons running his firm seems to be offering several hundred million in bets on whether tariffs are as illegal as the legal community and Constitutional scholars say they are.

Full story at Wired.com:

In 2015, the original Resistance started sometime between the golden escalator descent and the end of the fall debates. Our generation’s P.T. Barnum ran as a Republican, and many conservatives saw it not as a threat 2016 Republican chances — but to the Republic itself. In January, the National Review published an “Against Trump” issue feature a who’s who of conservative thinkers, including Thomas Sowell, Glenn Beck, Brent Bozell, Erick Erickson, Bill Kristol and Cal Thomas.

Warnings From Current Complicit Conservatives

Before he was a best-selling author, an Appalachian conservative named J.D. Vance said that Trump was “cultural heroin” and that he alternated between thinking he was Nixon or “America’s Hitler.” In March of 2016 on CNN, current Secretary of State Marco Rubio more precisely and prophetically predicted “a third world strongman” — unless “our Republic completely crumbles.”

Now, as you know, J.D. Vance is Vice President and Marco Rubio is Secretary of State. I don’t believe their opinions of the President have changed, but they clearly came to value power more than principal.

Others that saw the threat, like my mentor Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, endorsed Trump in 2016 because of two things from my perspective: (1) a district visit by Mike Pence during the campaign and (2) a fundamental fear of losing the Supreme Court for a generation. However, as I’ve seen with everyone who cast aside their concerns and endorsed or otherwise supported Trump, once they did the original reasons didn’t matter any more. For example, Rep. Griffith was just as strong of a supporter after the President turned on Vice President Pence and the Constitution in January 2021. And Griffith is even a more prominent supporter of the President now in 2025 that the President has openly flaunted a unanimous Supreme Court on due process.

A Note on 2016

A pastor and former College Republican colleague of mine often points out his belief that if the 2016 primary field had consolidated before Super Tuesday, then Donald Trump would just be a footnote in political history. I would add that if conservatives had trusted their view of Trump and consolidated to oppose him, then he may have been footnote as well, just a longer one. In 2016 it wasn’t conceivable to enough conservatives that we would elect Sen. Clinton over a Republican, even one many of us saw as “America’s Hitler.” I wasn’t a “Never Trumper” because I’ve learned that saying “never” backfires, but I also didn’t commit myself to long term opposition. However, now that he’s both President and has a secret police force with the reality is both long term commitment is necessary, and, harder, we cannot defeat this American fascism with just those who align with our specific ideology.

Where Did the Other Conservatives Go

Not all conservatives “bent the knee.” Some were forced out, either early on like Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) or this year like Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). I think other private citizen conservatives might be in a similar situation to me. During the first term, the litany of outrageous statements and attempted actions was too draining on both time and personal relationships to continue objecting to them all.

Also, institutional guardrails both kept the President in check and I optimistically hoped that would hold true in 2025. I never voted for Trump, but it wasn’t until watching the April 2nd “Liberation Day” Press Conference and the lack of elected Republican outrage that I began to realize how perilous of a state the Republican was in. I had tuned it out and grown resigned to living through another term without any objective reason their would be safeguards left the second time.

Looking around, I’ve still found no elected Republican taking a hard-line, principled stand against the President except on occasional issues. While I’m grateful for Thomas Massie and occasionally Rand Paul, voting against the President on individual issues is not enough when our whole experiment in an Constitutional Republic is at stake. As far as prominent Republicans not in office, former Governor Senator George Allen’s (R-Va) are notable in both efficacy and rarity.

Citizen Conservatives Role Now

Shortly following “Liberation Day” I decided that if no elected conservatives were speaking up for the Constitution and the Rule of Law, then citizens must. And, even though I’m a terrible public speaker and swore off politics in my 20s, I decided that if no one else I knew in my area was loud, I had to be. I don’t think that I should be leading, but I’m hoping that just being out here doing all that I can will help other, more capable leaders to stand up. If you’re a conservative or libertarian reading this, I hope you’ll join existing efforts or start your own. Bill Kristol’s statement from the 2016 National Review article was true then and even more urgent now:

“William F. Buckley Jr. proclaimed, in the founding statement of this journal, that conservatism ‘stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.’ Hasn’t Donald Trump always been a man inclined to go along — indeed, impatient to get along — with history?

….In sum: Isn’t Trumpism a two-bit Caesarism of a kind that American conservatives have always disdained? Isn’t the task of conservatives today to stand athwart Trumpism, yelling Stop?”

I believe it is our task, but also those of everyone else patriotic and able bodied. If we had been united internally or with, gasp, Democrats in 2016, or 2020, or 2024 we likely wouldn’t be here now. Well over half of 340 million Americans aren’t happy with this President or his agenda — a President that has never received 50% of the popular vote and denied Project 2025 during the campaign.

It’s time for not only elected Republicans to hear that Conservatives are uniting against this regime and agenda, but for the angry independents, new voters, and yes, even the democrats and far left to hear that we are with them on the side of the Constitution, the rule of law, and basic human dignity. Nature and politics abhor a vacuum, if conservatives (and Christians) don’t lead, the void will be filled completely by the left — including the Communist left.

“Resistance Rabbit” & CLEAR Rule of Law

This leads to the name “Resistance Rabbit” and the inspiring name-sake James Otis, Jr. The rabbit as a resistance figure was inspired by my friend Shawn’s Corridor Rabbit publication. I didn’t name the original Resistance Rabbit until I decided to get a tattoo to make my identifiable opposition to tyranny irreversible. Tattoos need a name, and I went with James Otis, Jr because he was a lawyer who first coined the phrase “taxation without representation is tyranny” well over a decade before the Boston Tea Party. He also wasn’t as effective of a leader as the actual founders — not many even know who he was. However, John Adams said that one of Otis’s early 1760s courtroom speeches gave birth to the “child Independence.” We already have independence, but I hope to draw inspiration from his work.

Resistance Rabbit is intended as a running political cartoon alternating with up-to-date reporting on both tyranny and the resistance to it. It’s the second project I started after “Liberation Day” after and its CLEAR Impeachment project. Whereas CLEAR Rule of Law’s posts and purpose is intended to be more long term, polished, and thought provoking, my hope is that Resistance Rabbit is more like running resistance reporting that regularly publishes with updates of varying length and substance. While this may be optimistic, I’m also hoping it’s of a finite length and we can get to rebuilding the Republic instead of resisting its destruction.

If you’re out there resisting, keep it up and get louder if possible. I hope you’ll get in contact with me or others — community helped fuel the rise of MAGA and community is necessary to get past it as well.