What is real patriotism?
“On this July 4 — the 250th anniversary of the start of this country — many people, including the current occupant of the Oval Office, believe that celebrating America means waving the flag or standing for the national anthem or shouting, ‘America First.’ That’s not what real patriotism is.” It means paying taxes proportional to your wealth… It means paying your workers a living wage so they can thrive… It means fully reckoning with how racial oppression and white supremacy have shaped this nation, not whitewashing our history and ignoring racism’s continuing legacy.”
“Real patriotism means protecting American democracy and our form of government,
not trying to overturn an election that was upheld by 60 federal courts and the Supreme Court, or lying about election fraud when it barely exists. Real patriotism means not flooding our politics with big money, so the voices of the people can be heard… And it means putting the interests of our country over partisanship.”
Read the full article by Robert Reich here.
Follow the Money: Immigrants are a net financial asset
According to the National Immigration Law Center, …”last summer’s reconciliation bill already gave the Trump administration $170 billion to spend on their cruel mass detention and deportation schemes — and that’s just until 2029. To put that in perspective: In order to spend this much money within the timeframe, it’s like spending $116.4 million every single day.
There is a direct line from how our government chooses to spend our tax dollars to our shared quality of life. If members of Congress wanted to prioritize health care, food security, and livable wages, they could. The issue isn’t money; it’s political will.
In fact, DHS’s $170 billion could fund:
- Medicaid coverage for six million children and four million adults for four years
- SNAP benefits for 18.7 million people for four years
- Nearly 400,000 livable-wage jobs for four years — enough to support families with a single parent and two kids”
On June 8, 2026, Congress allocated another $70 billion to DHS. This would fund:
- Medicaid coverage for 8.5 million children and four million adults for four years
- SNAP benefits for 26.4 million people for four years
- Nearly 565,000 livable-wage jobs for four years — enough to support families with a single parent and two kids
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that:
- The 2025 reconciliation law increased projected deficits by about $4.7 trillion over ten years (including economic and debt-service effects).
- Administrative immigration actions added roughly $0.5 trillion more to projected deficits over the same period.
Now consider this: CATO, a nonpartisan and independent public policy research organization published an analysis that the Trump administration’s actions have decreased the income immigrants bring to the US Treasury at the same time that enforcement actions have increased the deficit.
Find Your Courage
This is a letter that a resident of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, wrote to her Republican representatives:
I am not writing as a partisan — I am writing as an American who is deeply alarmed by a pattern of events that I believe demands your attention, your courage, and your voice.
I will be direct with you.
(On May 18, 2026) the Trump administration finalized a $1.776 billion settlement in which the President — through his own Department of Justice — negotiated a payout with himself, creating an unaccountable fund with no congressional authorization, no transparency requirements, and no meaningful oversight. The money comes from the Treasury’s Judgment Fund. The commission overseeing it can be fired by the President at will. It can award money to January 6 defendants and to Trump-connected entities with zero public disclosure.
Legal scholars across the political spectrum have called this a likely violation of the Domestic Emoluments Clause, the separation of powers, and the constitutional principle that only Congress holds the power of the purse. As the federal judge overseeing the case herself noted, it was rushed through specifically to avoid judicial scrutiny.
“This is not a partisan issue. It is a constitutional one.”
But it does not stand alone. In recent months we have witnessed:
— The systematic firing of experienced military leadership — including the Army Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Chief of Naval Operations — and their replacement with political loyalists, in the middle of an active war with Iran that was launched without congressional authorization.
— A war that has closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting roughly 20% of global oil supply, with no clear strategy, no exit plan, and no vote by the representatives of the American people.
— A visit to Beijing in which the President made significant concessions to China — including reversing his own administration’s ban on Chinese farmland purchases — with nothing concrete secured in return, while China’s leadership publicly signaled American decline.
— An Iran that has now formally proposed a bounty on the President’s life, creating a threat environment unlike anything in modern American history.
I understand the political pressures you face. I understand that breaking with a president of your own party carries real costs.
“History, however, is unambiguous about what it thinks of legislators who chose silence and self-preservation over constitutional duty at moments like this one.
History is also unambiguous about what it thinks of those who found their courage.”
I am not asking you to become a Democrat. I am asking you to be a Republican in the tradition of Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Reagan — men who understood that the Constitution is not a partisan document, that the military serves the people and not a person, that the public treasury belongs to all Americans, and that the rule of law is the foundation upon which everything else rests.
The 2026 midterms are approaching. Seventy percent of independents — the voters who decide competitive elections — disapprove of this administration’s direction. The voters of North Carolina, including those right here on the Outer Banks, are watching. They are watching who stood up, and who looked away.
I am respectfully asking you to:
1. Publicly call for a congressional investigation into the IRS settlement and the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
2. Demand a congressional vote authorizing — or ending — the Iran war, as the Constitution requires.
3. Oppose the continued politicization of military leadership during active combat operations.
4. Support judicial independence as the remaining functional check on executive overreach.
You took an oath to the Constitution, not to any individual. This is the moment that oath was written for.
I would welcome the opportunity to speak with your office directly. Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Respectfully and with genuine hope,
Toni Greene
A Moral Compass
When the traveling Vietnam Wall came to the Outer Banks, the trailer displayed artifacts which had been left at the wall. One had a photo of a high school kid wearing his crimson and gold school sweater. He had his life in front of him. His name was Guido (Guy) Farinaro. Virtually everyone at his Catholic high school went on to college. Guy did not. His family immigrated from Italy, and he wanted to give back to the country which took them in.
He joined the Marines. After surviving the Tet offensive in Hue, his platoon was now down to fourteen men and on their 3rd platoon leader in two weeks. In a nameless rice paddy, a sniper killed Guy. The new platoon leader was about to call in artillery on the hamlet where the shot came from.. A young sergeant eyed the officer with a look that said, “Think about it.” He did not call in the strike. He said that was a life changing moment for him.
Years later on his last day of active duty, he went to the Wall. He stuck an index card next to Guy’s name. On it were four stars and he wrote, “These are your stars, not mine, with love your platoon leader.”That officer was General Peter Pace, the head of the Joint Chiefs under Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. General Pace has visited Chaminade High School a number of times since. He has said he keeps coming back because he wants to understand where people like Guido come from. And each time he impresses on the students there that it was Guy’s death which forged his Moral Compass. When you are in tough times you need your Moral Compass.
“What does it mean to be a patriotic veteran?”
It is the same for all of us. On Memorial Day, I will think of my classmate, Guy, and my grandkids. He did not want to be a hero. He just wanted to thank our country.
I will think of what Lincoln said, “It is for us, the living, to be here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us…that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
I will think of Peter Pace and his Moral Compass. And I will strive along and beside my fellow Americans to live up to Guy’s sacrifice.
by a Thankful Patriot
Integrity
I was 11 years old in 1954 and lived with my grandfather, a retired carpenter 70 years old. Hie Social Security was probably about $25 per month. He had a milk cow for sale. A man he knew asked about the cow. My grandfather told him the cow was sold but not yet delivered. The man offered my grandfather $25 more than he had received for the cow. My grandfather said to him, “I told you I have sold the cow.” 72 years later I still remember that day.
“My grandfather was true to his word. Our country needs more people like him.”
by a Principled Patriot
What Keeps Me Up at Night
It’s not the price of gas or groceries that rattle me these days. It’s the vitriol, the hate.
Throughout our nation’s history, we’ve seen what hate looks like. It divides people across gender, religion, and race, and it stokes anger. Instead of spending time on solutions to everyday problems, people seek revenge on whoever or whatever is deemed hateful, and that does not solve anything. The result? Misplaced blame, chaos, and violence.
“Stoking hate is political strategy, and we need to stop feeding the fire.”
The one thru-line I’ve seen played over and over again is how the ultra-rich and powerful keep everyone else angry at each other while they enjoy their mansions, yachts, and galas. Christians are angry at whoever is waging the War on Christmas, whites are angry at black people for benefiting from affirmative action, and middle-class people are angry at “lazy poor people” who get food stamps on their tax dollar. People hate immigrants and Jews for no reason at all or purely manufactured reasons.
Keeping the general population angry and distracted while the rich get richer, using their money to rule the world, is intentional. Stoking hate is a political strategy, and the sooner we all realize it, stop playing the game, and band together, the better off we will be.
Sleep Deprived Patriot
The Day After Mother’s Day
On Mother’s Day, we lavish our mothers (and daughters and grandmothers) with sweets, fragrances, fancy cards, and dining out. Yesterday I enjoyed gardening in the sunny (and still mosquito free) weather, chatting with my children, scrolling through texts from friends and family. Nothing was commercialized, and I was feeling immensely grateful for the bounty of love coming my way.
And then today…
I read this article in The Guardian about all the mothers nationwide who are uniting to love and defend other people’s children. They weren’t just romanticizing about that delicious newborn smell or taking prom pics or planning summer vacations. They were spontaneously uniting in Minneapolis to deliver food to families who were afraid to leave their homes, to take children they had never met before to and from school, to alert their neighbors to imminent raids, and to even use their bodies to protect strangers who were being targeted.
“I see every child like I see my children and I think about their mothers having to see them suffer,” Accurso said. “It breaks me.”
This is just a tiny snapshot of what mothers across America are doing to honor and strengthen families nationwide. They are encouraging mothers to run for office and advocate for family-focused policies such as paid leave, childcare support, and maternal health care reforms. They are so much more than caregivers for their own families. They are influential political organizers working tirelessly to reshape public policy.
Read more about these mothers here.
by a Caring Patriot