the attitude with arnie arnesen the friday edition jan 2
Arnie Arnesen
OPENING THOUGHTS By Ralph Nader, a lawyer and political activist whose 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed, led to the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966. He founded the Public Interest Research Group, the Center for Auto Safety, and Public Citizen. In 2006 The Atlantic Monthly called Nader one of the hundred most influential Americans in history. https://nader.org/2025/12/26/how-some-courageous-super-rich-can-save-our-country-from-trumps-expanding-dictatorship/
There are reportedly about 900 billionaires (probably more) in the U.S. About five percent can be described as enlightened people who know the importance of contributing to organizations that advance justice. They are also appalled by the Trump dictatorship and are not placated simply because he gave them tax cuts, deregulation, and maybe corporate welfare. On their minds is the well-being and freedoms of millions of their fellow Americans, whose lives are being cruelly and viciously wrecked by Trump, as he destroys the federal civil service.
I’ve talked with some of these very rich people (VRP) and heard them say they want to get engaged, so appalled are they by the lawless, egomaniacal, self-enriching, violent plutocrat Trump and his dump. Trump and COMPANY are only going to get MUCH WORSE. What follows are some suggestions on how the VRPs can get underway.
1. Sponsor a massive day of protest demanding the impeachment or resignation of Tyrant Trump. More will turn out than did the seven million Americans marching in hundreds of communities under the “No Kings” banner. – A growing majority of people already want this to happen.
With skilled management and verification, these marchers can be asked to take out their iPhones and contribute what they can to create strong local groups that resist Trump’s ongoing wreckage of our basic social safety net, our regulatory health, safety, and economic protections, and our voting rights against Trumpian planned interference in the 2026 elections. Even with just an average of a $10 contribution, at least $100 million would be raised on the protest day to give Americans daily organized power to focus on the White House’s outlawry, violent actions and thievery. People organizing where they live, work, and raise their families is the first step to reclaiming our democracy.
2. Sponsor a group to counter Trump’s shattering of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), firing thousands of staff responding to calls by middle-class taxpayers, and hundreds of highly skilled accountants and lawyers working on many cases of giant tax evasions by big corporations and the super-rich. Many of these cases have been dropped, and the already starved IRS budget was cut sharply by the Trumpsters.
This project can be ably assisted by seven outspoken former IRS directors from both Parties who have already testified and written open letters warning that the shoe will heavily drop next year, with tens of billions of uncollected dollars adding to the federal deficit and, worse, longer delays for taxpayers’ inquiries. (See, More Tax Breaks For the Wealthy by Jesse Drucker, New York Times, November 10, 2025).
3. Take on the further shredding of our preparedness toward climate violence and “not if, but when” pandemics (see, The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Dr. Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker). This should be an easy one to organize and fund with advocates by the VRP. Trump is boosting oil, gas, and coal (the sources of omnicidal greenhouse gases) while crazily doing whatever he can to depress or stop commercial solar energy and wind energy projects. The project would have the public health and scientific professions as well as the solar industry behind it.
4. This White House project is bold because the VRP know they would be assailed by Tyrant Trump. But the case against his extortion of companies, law firms, and universities, forcing them to engage in bribery if they comply with his unlawful demands, is powerfully grounded. Trump— the Bully-in-Chief—likes to dish out the slander and libel, calling for the impeachment of any judge ruling against his misrule, and naming other critical law enforcers as “deranged,” “crazy,” “communist,” “crooked,” “low IQ,” and and more. A drive to counter these slurs and hurl some back at Trump would drive this thin-skinned Fuhrer to more self-immolating performances, further lowering his dropping polls.
5. A broad-ranging counterforce can cover the largest shutdown of federal agencies and programs in American history. Vastly immobilized from their Congressionally mandated missions are the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Education, and the Agency for International Development. The latter’s illegal abolition is already costing many lives lost overseas, endangering millions of children and adults who are without medicines, food supplements, shelter, and safe drinking water. All kinds of other mandated missions have been cut at CDC, NIH, NOAA (weather research and forecasting), USDA, assistance to people with disabilities, Meals on Wheels, Head Start, AmeriCorps, Medicaid, and food programs for tens of millions of Americans, and much more.
6. There are very-rich corporate and plaintiff tort lawyers who could address the slumber of the 50-state Bar Associations and the American Bar Association. They are supposed to be the First Responders to the destruction of the Rule of Law and our Constitution by the Rule of Raw Power criminal attacks by the Trump regime. Recall Trump’s 2019 declaration, “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as President,” which he is exhibiting every day with his brazen, boasting serial violations and blatant racism.
Waking up the legal profession would receive support from both lawyers who see themselves as Republicans or Democrats. They just need jumpstart leadership – as the lessons of reformist history demonstrate time and time again. (See our letter to the Bar Associations.)
7. Finally, a prostrate GOP-dominated Congress is facilitating or enabling, contrary to their sworn vows to uphold the Constitution and the faithful execution of the laws, the deepening fascist state driven by the White House’s seizure of authority exclusively given to Congress by our Founding Fathers. This project would activate the grassroots, which has been calling for strong action at Town Meetings nationwide.
The Super-Rich are sitting on trillions of dollars of “dead money.” It only takes a few dozen of them to save the Republic with “live money” comprising a fraction of one percent of their assets. Most of them are looking over their shoulder to see who takes the first steps.
Who takes the first steps? Aristotle had the answer over 2000 years ago. He said, “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
Corporate Media Advances Conservative Narrative About Minnesota Fraud As Trump makes racist attacks on Somali immigrants, media giants CBS, Fox, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times parrot claims from a weaponized DOJ and self-interested players. https://prospect.org/2025/12/29/corporate-media-advances-conservative-narrative-minnesota-fraud-somalis/Stephen Miller Is The New Republic’s 2025 Scoundrel of the Year He was counting on a nation of haters. He was wrong. https://newrepublic.com/article/204636/stephen-miller-new-republic-2025-scoundrel-year
The 12 Worst MAGA Monsters of 2025 President Donald Trump’s second administration is a real-life horror show—and these are its most grotesque characters. https://newrepublic.com/series/69/12-worst-trump-maga-monsters-2025
Brett Kavanaugh Is Trying to Walk Back “Kavanaugh Stops.” Too Late. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/brett-kavanaugh-stops-immigration-racial-profiling-ice.html
Kennedy Center renaming prompts a new round of cancellations
How RFK Jr. upended the public health system
China to crack down on AI firms to protect kids BBC
Here’s What the Next Democratic President Must Do on Day 1 You cannot bring a shrimp fork to a knife fight. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/trump-democracy-supreme-court-2028-democrats.html
Dear Jurisprudence: How Democrats Can Fix the Supreme Court in 2029 At the end of 2025, we consider reader questions (and worries) about the years ahead. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/how-to-fix-the-supreme-court-2029-democrats-republicans-trump.html
The Trump administration says it has frozen all childcare payments to Minnesota in the aftermath of allegations of fraud by some in the Somali community. Important: allegations along these lines have existed for years, which has resulted in prosecutions starting with the Biden DOJ.
GOP civil war goes nuclear https://baptistnews.com/article/gop-civil-war-goes-nuclear/
When a postmark no longer tracks mailing Legal and administrative risks in the USPS network redesign https://www.brookings.edu/articles/when-a-postmark-no-longer-tracks-mailing/
D. ARNIE ARNESEN
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Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"