On The Off Chance . . . November 21, 2025 . . . you haven’t seen it: The Mark Kelly, et al, video that Trump considers sedition, punishable by death (90 seconds).* . . . you think he’s advancing our interests with his latest proposal to end the Ukraine war (“on Day One”): Timothy Snyder’s Five Reasons the US should not help Russia subjugate Ukraine (4 minutes).* . . . you don’t know what he’s done to farmers: Export-killing trade wars, rising equipment and fertilizer costs, huge increases in health care costs (27% of farmers rely on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance), impending rural hospital closures. . . . you know someone who’s thinking of joining ICE: Borderland Talk with Jenn Budd . . . Often times, [the young people] who are about to hear me speak come up and introduce themselves. They are interested in joining ICE, CBP and Border Patrol. The pay is outstanding, the benefits are incredible. You start at about $50k a year and can be earning over $100k in three years. You do not have to have a college degree or even a high school diploma as a high school equivalency is enough. No work experience, no prior military required. You can have prior arrests for DUIs and even sexual assault, and they will still hire you. For many, it is difficult to say no. Most think they know what these agencies are and claim that ICE, CBP and Border Patrol were once honorable. It is only Trump who has made them so corrupt and brutal. This makes me smile like the way I smile at a little child who believes Santa Claus is real. I always start out with a bit about myself. I joined in June of 1995 and rose to the rank of Senior Patrol Agent, and so on. . . . But all of that was a long time ago. So, I bring it forward to today, and show the slides of todays agents who are raping, sexually assaulting, strangulating, using their rank to force female agents into sex, sexually abusing children, producing child pornography, smuggling migrants, smuggling drugs and even trafficking children into sex. I show how Border Patrol agents commit more violent crimes than the migrants they arrest. I show how Trump’s policies created crises after crises on the southern border and how the right-wing media has sold Americans on a fake invasion that was caused by the feds simply refusing to process anyone. I show how people are still crossing today but that the agencies are lying and the media is not covering it. I leave them with the fact that these agencies see their agents arrested five times more than other law enforcement agents, that the Border Patrol has more suicides than any other agency. And then I raise my hands and show them how deformed they are from my own attempt. I beg them to not [enlist] because it will leave them destroyed. Their children will hate them, their families will disown them. They will lose their marriages and they will look in the mirror one day and not recognize themselves. . . . Recently, I have ended with making it clear that these agencies have violated their oath to the Constitution . . . They must be abolished. People say I am brave for making these speeches. You should know that it terrifies me and emotionally drains me to do them. But I have to do them, because I don’t see anyone else willing to. These young adults are where the agencies go to recruit. If all they know is the post 9/11 propaganda, they will enter these agencies and repeat history. I cannot live with that. . . . you can help: Now is the time to fund the Democratic infrastructure that all our 8,000+ candidates will rely on next fall. Have a great weekend! *Thanks to Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles for pointing me to these links. I try to read him every day.