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Master List: Authoritarian and Anti-Constitutional Actions by Donald Trump (2025)
The last update to this was on May 24, 2025. Let me know if I forget to add to it. This post is a rolling chronicle of executive orders, proclamations, federal memoranda, and allied state-level initiatives that legal scholars, journalists, and watchdog groups have flagged as authoritarian, unconstitutional, or corrosive to democratic norms since President…
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Day 61 – Greatness Is In You – On the Road to Mayor
I wish so much you could see what I’ve seen the last couple weeks. Yellowstone, The Black Hills, The Badlands. These are places that defy explanation. No words or pictures tell the story of actually being here. We are just leaving the Little Bighorn Battlefield area. This is where Custer’s Last Stand occurred. You…
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Day 59 – It’s Not A Personality Contest – On The Road To Mayor
I saw someone on Facebook say they were going to decide who to vote for Akron mayor by looking at things like: Who he is married to. How his kids behave and do in school. Where he grew up. Where he went to school. Where he goes to church. I get it. These things can be…
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Day 58 – Global Village Festival of Greater Akron – On The Road To Mayor
As mayor I will definitely continue this daily storytelling of the journey as mayor. I believe very strongly that elected office is a deep privilege that deserves a deep commitment to the whole community. To that end I believe the mayor’s office has a responsibility of shining a light on all the great things…
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Day 57 – Don’t Vote For A Democrat – On The Road To Mayor
I can’t remember the last time I didn’t vote for a Democrat. There were many elections I just voted down the party line. But for the Akron mayor election I’m telling you this: Don’t vote for a Democrat! About two weeks ago I made up my mind that I was going to endorse a…
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Day 56 – Privilege – On The Road To Mayor
I think you would have to be pretty tone deaf to not feel how lucky you are to get to spend time in places like: Yellowstone National Park Disney World The Outer Banks Naples Florida The Bahamas Hawaii Maybe you have had the opportunity to go to one or more of those places or…
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Day 53 – What Is Freedom To You? – On The Road To Mayor
I got the opportunity, for the first time in my life, to see Mount Rushmore. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt. It’s definitely worth experiencing. Actually, any national monuments are impressive. We’ve recently been over to Washington DC. We took the Capital tour. American monuments almost universally have one theme: Freedom. It is the core ingredient…
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Day 51 – Akron Artillery Fire – On The Road To Mayor
For 15 years of my adult life I’ve worked in marketing. A good marketer knows things like: Your strengths Your weaknesses (a lot about your weaknesses) Your insecurities Your fears Where you shop Where you went to school Where you work What TV shows you watch What websites you visit The food you eat…
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Day 50 – Working Together – On The Road To Mayor
Doesn’t it seem odd to you that politicians can’t work together? Aren’t they the “leaders”? I’m pretty sure I’d get fired from any other job I worked at if I said, “Bob’s idea is completely wrong. In fact. I think Bob is trying to intentionally ruin our company.” The boss would probably say, “Stop…
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Day 48 – Great Responsibility – On The Road To Mayor
It is very easy to blame all the country’s problems on our government officials. And in fairness they never take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. And they never ask us to do anything. The last thing I recall being asked to do was when George Bush told me to go shopping. We can’t…
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Day 47 – Perspective – On The Road To Mayor
I’m writing this from Sparta Wisconsin. It’s about 600 miles from Akron. Last summer Rocky and I put together a plan to do the biggest vacation of our adult lives. We started putting a plan together to go to Yellowstone National Park. We should be in South Dakota tomorrow. We’ll be checking out the Badlands…
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Day 46 – The Voice of the People – On The Road To Mayor
We had a really great talk on Facebook today about what the focus of the campaign should be. A major focus for me is the ages old infrastructure of the 2 party system. We live in the United States of the 2 Party System. They hold all the keys. They make all the rules. …
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Day 45 – Death Panels – On The Road To Mayor
I finished up Mark Maron’s interview of Barack Obama today. Obama was talking about the importance of being succinct in politics. He said that it’s not that people can’t understand the complexity of political situations. It’s that they don’t have time to analyze all the ins and outs of things. He then referenced the…
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Day 44 – Mark Maron with Obama
I’m listening to a podcast with Barack Obama. He did an interview with Mark Maron. Mark is a comedian who does a podcast in his garage. This is interesting on many levels: Garage Comedian Sitting president Podcast Even 6 years ago, when Obama started his presidency, those 4 things coming together would have never…
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Day 43 – PAARI – On The Road To Mayor
There are a lot of drugs being used in Akron. People that don’t use illegal drugs often have a disconnect with people that do use illegal drugs. It’s a pretty silly separation if you think about it. Heroin is often met with shock and a touch of disgust in certain circles in our community. But…
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Day 42 – ConnectHome – On The Road To Mayor
One out of every four people living in the U.S. dont have Internet at home. One in four. The White House wants to change this through its new ConnectHome initiative. Its mission: Every child should be given the same opportunity to build a brighter future and to achieve their dreams. This was the very first…
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Day 41 – Change Is Upon Us – On The Road To Mayor
I know people don’t like change. It disrupts our lives. It’s uncomfortable. You never know what will happen on the other side. There’s no reason to change for change sake. But I’m here to tell you: We live in a world full of change. One thing is primarily responsible for this: the Internet. Today…
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Day 40 – Ohio Prison Facts – On The Road To Mayor
I just got back from the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield. We’re spending the weekend camping at the Shelby / Mansfield KOA. The movie Shawshank Redemption was filmed there. Look at this graph from CNN on how much money we spend per inmate versus per student. From here: For FY 2012, the average…
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Day 39 – Nextdoor – On The Road To Mayor
I had a great conversation today with a resident of Cuyahoga Falls. She said that their mayor suggested everyone in Cuyahoga Falls go meet their neighbor. What a great idea! She told two stories where by doing that she and her neighbors were able to counteract two potential criminal scenarios. Working together with your neighbors…
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Day 38 – All Hail Wealthy Donors & Power Mongers! – On The Road To Mayor
Money and politics. This is the great corruption of America. Money buys political favors: You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Find great political power and I guarantee you will find money hovering around it like bees to honey. Politicians need the money so they can flood the market with endless advertisements so they…
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Legalized Squatting & Tent Cities
The International Squaters Symbol Homelessness is a very real problem in Akron. If you have a better way of solving it I’m all ears. But I have an idea: What if prequalified homeless were given the opportunity to move into an abandon house or building? They would agree to stay off drugs. They…
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Day 37 – Competition – On The Road To Mayor
I just got back from Eddie Sipplen‘s fundraiser event. (For the record, those trying to keep me off the ballot, I didn’t donate to him. So you can’t try to corner me as a Republican in Independent’s clothing. I’m definitely not a Republican.) I’ve gotten to spend a bit of time with Eddie. I…
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Plastic Roads
Dutch company, VolkerWessels, has recently come out with a new concept: PlasticRoad. As the Rubber Capital of the World and the Polymer Capital of the World we should be leading this initiative. Akron should be the first city in the world with polymer roads. Here are some features of this road: Can handle -40 degrees Can easily…
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Day 36 – Doubt – On The Road To Mayor
In the drug world there is something called Suicide Tuesday. It typically happens after a wild Saturday night of partying. Tuesday is the day when it all comes crashing down around you. The strongest drug I’ve taken since 2003 is Diet Coke and hot tea (not at the same time, that’s crazy). The drug…
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Day 35 – Auctions – On The Road To Mayor
Based on this blog, you might be surprised to know that I actually run several businesses. SageRock is my bread and butter. It’s a digital marketing agency that my wife, Rocky, and I founded in 1999. We moved SageRock from Medina to Akron about 11 years ago. We ran it out of our house,…
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Day 34 – Getting My Voice – On The Road To Mayor
When I started this journey my position was to give the people of Akron an alternative to the status quo. To the good-old-boy club of Akron Democrats. But saying, “If you don’t like this then we have something else,” isn’t great. Just because it’s different doesn’t make it better. But today I feel much…
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Day 33 – How Can You Be Mayor If You Don’t Know That? – On The Road To Mayor
That was my niece’s response when I asked her if they still made juice boxes. “How can you be mayor if you don’t know if they still make juice boxes?” I get that question every so often about various things. It’s usually in a statement that feels like I’m not smart enough to be…
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Day 32 – Who I WISH Was Running For Mayor – On The Road To Mayor
I’m not sure what I thought other candidates would be like when I got into this race. But I’m pretty sure it’s not what I’m finding. From what I can see, there are 2 types of people that run for mayor: Ego-maniacal, self-righteous narcissists. Lifers. People that made a career out of politics. I guess…
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Day 31 – Getting To Me – On The Road to Akron Mayor
If you’ve been following along you probably know I’ve been spending an increasing amount of time in front of Angel Falls Coffee Shop here in Akron. I spend a couple hours nearly every day standing in front of my truck talking to people. Sometimes I go 2 or 3 times a day. I’ve got…
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The 1000 Business Challenge
As soon as I’m mayor we will begin a challenge to get 1000 new startup businesses in Akron in the first 2 years I am mayor. People will be able to submit their business ideas and then these people will be assigned to business advocates that will help make these into real, fully functioning businesses. …
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State & Federal Mass Transit Funding
We need to look very intensely at what grants and funds are available for mass transit and bike routes. We likely don’t have a lot of extra money in the budget for these things. But there is very likely money available that we could use.
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