Imagine a Meeting

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Letter to the Editor: Truth Shouldn’t Be Banned at Public Meetings

Imagine sitting in a public meeting where a man stands before a crowd and spouts falsehoods about Ukraine — and in that same audience sit three people from Ukraine. That’s what happened when Chip Howard addressed the Payson Tea Party, repeating baseless claims that Ukrainians are Nazis and parroting Russian propaganda. Not once did anyone ask the Ukrainians present for their perspective.

The Tea Party meeting became a textbook example of how lies thrive when truth is silenced. People who could clearly see through Howard’s misinformation quietly left, while those eager to hear unchallenged falsehoods stayed behind.

Our country once treated free speech as sacred — at least until the Trump era, when truth itself became the enemy. Nothing undermines free speech more than protecting liars from being questioned. In Payson, the Tea Party has mastered this choreography: dissenting voices are banned, and anyone who dares to challenge conspiracy theories is labeled “disruptive.”

Democracy depends on open dialogue and honest debate. When a public meeting becomes an echo chamber for propaganda, it’s not democracy — it’s indoctrination.

— Mike Fox, Payson

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Trump's Modern Theft Machine

Trump’s Crooked Empire — A Modern Theft Machine

Donald Trump loves to call himself a genius, a dealmaker, a man who built an empire through talent and toughness. But strip away the gold paint and the story looks different. What Trump really built is a crooked empire — one that runs on deception, bribery, and bending the system until it breaks.

The Art of the Steal

For decades, Trump has made a living not by creating value, but by inflating it. He built his name on smoke and mirrors — one value for the taxman, another for the bank, and another for the public. His habit of exaggerating the worth of his properties finally caught up to him in court, when a New York judge ruled that his financial statements were a work of fiction. Trump claimed his apartment was three times its real size and his golf courses were worth whatever number suited him that day. He didn’t build his wealth by making things better — he built it by making lies look believable.

The Hush-Money Hustle

When caught in a scandal, Trump does what he always does — pays to make the truth go away. During the 2016 campaign, he disguised hush money payments to cover up a sex scandal by labeling them as “legal fees.” Those fake entries became the heart of a criminal conviction for falsifying business records. He used his company like a personal piggy bank — one more example of how corruption wasn’t the exception, it was the business model.

Taxes for the Peasants, Loopholes for the King

Trump loves to talk about “draining the swamp,” but he’s the biggest gator in it. For years he bragged about not paying taxes — because he’s “smart.” In reality, it was an elaborate shell game. He claimed enormous business losses so he could avoid paying his fair share. At the same time, he lived lavishly off company perks disguised as expenses — free apartments, tuition for family members, luxury cars. His CFO even went to jail for helping pull off the scam. Trump’s real talent has never been business — it’s been cheating the system and calling it genius.

Family Business, Crooked to the Core

Even the “self-made billionaire” story is another Trump con. He inherited hundreds of millions from his father and used creative bookkeeping to dodge inheritance and gift taxes. The family even set up fake companies to shuffle money around, marking up expenses so they could funnel cash tax-free. The empire was born not from hard work but from loopholes, deception, and greed.

Pay to Play, Trump-Style

When Trump stepped into politics, he didn’t change his habits — he just expanded the market. As president, he blurred every line between public service and private gain. Foreign governments and corporations booked rooms in his hotels and golf resorts, not because they liked the beds, but because they wanted favors. He openly used his office to enrich himself, his family, and his loyalists. Even his closest allies were caught talking deals and taking cash in brown paper bags. It’s no wonder he tried to weaken anti-bribery laws — in Trump’s world, bribery isn’t corruption, it’s just good business.

The New Frontier of Corruption

Now, Trump and his circle have discovered a new playground — cryptocurrency. Untraceable money and zero oversight make it the perfect tool for hiding payoffs and moving cash across borders. Trump’s new embrace of Bitcoin and digital currency isn’t about innovation — it’s about finding a cleaner way to launder influence. It’s the modern version of stealing candy from a child.

The Human Cost

All this isn’t just about one man getting rich. It’s about what happens when corruption becomes normal. When a president can lie, cheat, and bribe his way to billions, the message to every hustler in the country is clear: honesty is for suckers. It poisons trust in government, rigs the market against ordinary people, and turns democracy into a pay-to-play racket.

Conclusion

Trump’s empire isn’t built on brilliance — it’s built on fraud. He’s turned greed into a brand and corruption into a lifestyle. And the tragedy is that millions still cheer for the show, mistaking the con man for the king. America doesn’t need another golden tower or digital scam. It needs honesty, decency, and the courage to call out the thief who has been stealing from all of us in plain sight.

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Fleecing the Flock

The Eternal Con: From Holy Hustlers to Trumpian Tricksters

(By The National Association for the Advancement of Humanity)

It’s an old story — clever people bilking the gullible. The oldest con in history is religion itself. “Send your money and save your soul,” the TV preachers cry, as they smile into the camera from their multimillion-dollar mansions. They sell invisible miracles and heavenly timeshares while the faithful scrape by, convinced that a donation buys a front-row seat in paradise.

The formula is timeless: Sell fantasy. Promise salvation. Collect cash.

Enter Donald Trump — the modern-day messiah of the con. He’s taken the oldest grift in the book and turned it into a political movement. “Make America Great Again” is just the latest version of “Pay me, and you’ll go to heaven.” The slogans are the same; only the currency has changed.

While Trump bathes himself in gold leaf and self-praise, his followers are left holding the bag — poorer, sicker, and dumber. The man who claims to be the voice of the people has mastered the art of robbing them blind. He gives tax breaks to billionaires while gutting healthcare for working families. He waves a Bible he’s never read while dismantling education and promoting ignorance through a carnival of home-school myths and religious propaganda mills.

And what’s next on the grifter’s wish list? Your Social Security check. As he lounges in his marble-plated fantasy palace, Trump dreams of turning the Social Security system — the one millions rely on to survive — into another jackpot for Wall Street cronies.

Meanwhile, his followers cheer, blinded by the glitter and the showmanship, convinced the man draped in gold is their savior.

The truth is simple: Trump isn’t making America great — he’s making it a gold-plated shithouse.

The tragedy is that people still believe the salesman. They always have. From the snake-oil preacher to the fake billionaire prophet, it’s the same gospel of greed: “Trust me, and I’ll save you.”

Maybe someday America will stop worshiping its con men. Until then, the rest of us must keep shouting the truth — that patriotism isn’t blind devotion to a hustler, and faith in humanity means learning to see through the lies.

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Any Diversion from Epstein

The Great Orange Distraction Act

The orange rodent is desperate to keep people’s minds off the Epstein files. Maybe bomb Venezuela, maybe invade Chicago — whatever works. Classic playbook: when the heat’s on, point somewhere else and yell, “Look over there!” It’s the old magician’s trick — divert, distract, deceive. And once again, the Hoopleheads fall for it.

This isn’t new. Every autocrat from Caesar to Putin mastered the art of distraction. Bread and circuses, fear and fireworks — anything to keep the crowd from asking real questions. Trump just modernized it with Twitter rants, conspiracy memes, and Fox News megaphones. The show must go on, and he’s the master of misdirection.

While America argues about caravans that never existed, bathrooms that aren’t under attack, and libraries filled with “dangerous books,” the billionaires raid the treasury. The orange rodent has always been a front man for the real grifters — the ones who cash in while the peasants wave flags and scream at immigrants.

The Epstein files are radioactive. They threaten to expose not just perversion, but the rot at the top — the merger of money, sex, and power that rules modern America. So of course the distraction campaign is on full throttle. Keep the Hoopleheads busy chasing shadows while the truth is buried under another “emergency.”

The National Association for the Advancement of Humanity believes that awareness is the antidote. The more we expose the manipulation, the less power the con men have. The first step toward reclaiming democracy is recognizing when the magician waves his left hand — it’s the right hand you should be watching.

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The Greedy Bastards are going to kill us

Never Enough: The Billionaires and the AI Boom

There’s one rule the billionaires live by — never enough. No matter how much they have, they need more. More power, more profit, more control.

Now the new buzzword is Artificial Intelligence. The tech giants and their billionaire disciples are calling it “the next revolution.” So what?

Building the computer systems that fuel AI will double the nation’s electricity demand. So what, you ask? Think of the pollution. Think of the new power plants, the extra carbon, the higher bills. The same folks who can’t afford a new car or a decent home will be footing the electric tab for the billionaires’ next toy.

AI isn’t just about smarter machines — it’s about who owns the future. Every new “innovation” that promises efficiency also threatens to replace workers, hollow out livelihoods, and push the middle class further toward extinction. Progress, yes — but always at a price.

The real danger isn’t just economic. It’s political. Once AI lands in the hands of a dictator like Trump — watch out. The same algorithms that write poetry can also write your profile, track your movements, and silence your voice. AI gives tyranny eyes, ears, and memory.

Already, Iran uses facial recognition to identify and punish dissenters. It’s coming here soon — under the polished label of “law and order.” Don’t be fooled. The tools that can liberate humanity can also enslave it.

So before we worship at the altar of artificial intelligence, maybe we should ask — who’s really in control? The people, or the billionaires who never have enough?

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Acknowledging the Dictatorship

A Different Tone at Donuts with Democrats

The gathering at Donuts with Democrats this week carried a noticeably different tone — one that felt more urgent, more aware, and more united. Attendance was strong, and for the first time in a while, the conversation wasn’t just about political differences or upcoming elections. It was about survival — the survival of democracy itself.

Many who spoke acknowledged the uncomfortable truth: we are living under the shadow of a growing dictatorship. What once seemed like hyperbole is now playing out in real time. People compared Trump’s methods to the Nazi playbook — the vilification of the press, the demonization of political opponents, the rewriting of history, and the normalization of violence as a political tool. These are not distant echoes of the past; they are tactics being deployed before our eyes.

What’s changing is the public mood. There was a deep sense of awakening in the room — a recognition that silence is no longer an option. One speaker put it plainly: “If we don’t stand up now, we may not have another chance.” Others spoke of the creeping chill settling over civil dissent — how voices of opposition are being threatened, journalists attacked, judges intimidated, and institutions bent to one man’s will.

Yet, even amid the concern, there was a spark of determination. The gathering wasn’t about despair — it was about resolve. The sense that ordinary citizens, gathering in a small-town coffee shop on a Saturday morning, could still be the front line of democracy. People left with a clearer purpose: to speak, to organize, and to resist the slow normalization of authoritarianism in America.

It’s not too late — but it’s later than we think.

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Just plain evil

The Age of Normalized Evil

By the National Association for the Advancement of Humanity

Trump has ushered in a new era of moral collapse — an age where decency is mocked, truth is optional, and cruelty has become a political strategy. We’ve all seen it at the national level: the sneer, the lie, the smirk that says, “I can get away with anything.” But what’s truly frightening is how this poison has seeped into every small town in America — even here in Payson.

Our own “Three Stooges” on the town council — Steve Otto, Jim Ferris, and Charlie Bell — have become local disciples of the Trump gospel: deny, divide, and destroy. Their latest stunt? Trying to kill a swimming pool project that could bring joy, safety, and opportunity to our young people — all so they can posture as heroes before their MAGA fan club.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just politics. It’s the worship of ego over empathy, of arrogance over service. These men are so drunk on their own self-importance that they would rather rob a generation of children of a pool than admit that progress sometimes requires courage.

Across America, Trump has shown people how to replace conscience with conspiracy, how to trade compassion for contempt. He built a movement on resentment, and in small towns like ours, that resentment finds easy targets — the librarian, the teacher, the coach, the kid who just wants a safe place to swim.

Evil doesn’t arrive wearing horns. It arrives in nice shirts, smiling for the cameras, saying it’s just “fiscal responsibility.” But behind that smile is a sneer — a sneer that says the future doesn’t matter, that truth doesn’t matter, that children don’t matter.

The National Association for the Advancement of Humanity believes that progress is morality. When a community builds something that serves its people — especially its young — it’s not just a project; it’s a declaration of who we are.

Payson must choose whether it will follow the politics of spite or the path of decency. The Malibu pool isn’t just a swimming pool. It’s a test — a test of whether our community still believes in building something good together.

Let’s prove that humanity still matters.

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