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Commentary | Notes from a Vermont Activist by Nancy Braus: the politics of retribution.Three news items of the past week, May 10-17, seem of a piece with Donald Trump’s very disturbed, very un-Christian, and destructive governing-adjacent behavior: government by retribution.Bill Cassidy lost his Louisiana primary for reelection to his seat in the Senate.Jared Polis, governor of Colorado and a true sell-out Democrat, pardoned the election corrupting criminal Tina Peters.And in a true first, the spineless Republicans in the Congress appear poised to steal $1.7 billion, from the already massive budget hole they have dug, to grift to Donald Trump as a slush fund to reward the thugs who came close to succeeding in committing an insurrection on Jan.All three of these acts, while not directly related, are further sending the United States down the rabbit hole of becoming the most corrupt nation in the history of the world - not because other countries haven’t got a serious corruption problem, but because the sheer size and amount of money and power being funneled to the Trump Crime family is unprecedented, and therefore Trump and the inner circle have infinite resources to reward the loyal and destroy those with any spine at all.Bill Cassidy is an object lesson in how not to make your own experience and belief system your guide, and instead what happens when you decide to violate everything you have worked for to appease Donald Trump.In 2021, Cassidy made the irredeemable mistake of voting with the Democrats to convict an insurrectionist of incitement of an insurrection, as well as not endorsing him for the general election in 2024.Before entering the Senate, Cassidy had founded a free community health and dental clinic in Baton Rouge for the working uninsured.Importantly, he also led an effort to vaccinate thousands of area children against Hepatitis B.And yet, in February of 2025, I guess Dr.Cassidy underestimated Trump’s true capacity for vindictiveness.He may have thought that if he made a floor speech (that he probably did not even believe himself), citing RFK Jr.’s insistence regarding vaccines that he “just wants good science and to ensure safety.But on this topic, the science is good, the science is credible.Vaccines save lives...Kennedy ...reached out seeking to reassure me regarding their commitment to protecting the public health benefit of vaccination” ...that would be enough to mollify Trump.And with that, Cassidy destroyed his personal legacy in order to kiss up to Trump, gave the medically untrained, ignorant lying RFK Jr.the deciding vote to empower him to take a wrecking ball to the public health system.And we are all living with the truth of RFK Jr.’s vaccine appointments and policy.And Trump never forgives - so he got a sycophant who appears brain-dead to primary Cassidy out of his Senate seat.Yet another example of how giving an inch to Trump is always a bad idea.Because now Dr.Bill Cassidy returns to Louisiana defeated, and having enabled the very communicable diseases he fought to come roaring back.Kind of Shakespearean.Donald Trump was angry.He was unable to pardon every one of his 2020 election corrupting criminals from prison, because at least one particularly nasty actor, Tina Peters, had the audacity to be convicted in the state of Colorado, and until the Supreme Court gives Donny the supreme power to pardon state criminals, he was powerless.Unless you are a believer in whatever slop the Dear Leader posts on Lies Social, Tina Peters committed a serious crime.She was a county clerk, and she arranged for a Trump supporting techie to access the voting system in Mesa County, with all the passwords in order to enable control of the votes.She was convicted of 4 felonies and 3 misdemeanors and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison.In yet another of an infinite number of Democratic sellout moves during this seemingly endless Trump term, Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, used some completely bogus excuse of free speech to free this election criminal, claiming her sentence was ‘harsh.’ Because enabling rigged elections is a crime that deserves a slap on the wrist.Colorado Democrats are enraged, but it appears Trump may have been in retribution mode, withholding funds for needed clean water to the Republican congressional district of the odious Lauren Boebert - and she is stating openly that she hopes the pardon will free up these funds!No quid pro quo here.And watch for Tina Peters all over Faux News and other state media.Third, a “settlement": Donald Trump sued the IRS, which he controls, for $10 billion for allegedly leaking his tax returns and damaging his stellar reputation (believe it or not!) Note: every other president since Nixon has freely allowed the public to see their tax returns.In possibly the most egregious act of self dealing in history, he plans to settle his own lawsuit with $1.7 billion of our tax dollars paying him a slush fund to reward the thugs that broke into the Capitol, damaged property, injured Capitol police, and attempted to halt a legitimate process of election certification.And here is another mind boggling detail, adding insult to injury, from the New York Times, May 15: “The Justice Department is modeling the program, in part, on a landmark $760 million settlement fund the Obama administration created to compensate Native American farmers and ranchers who were deprived access to federal subsidies for decades, one of those people said.Payments in that settlement came from the Judgment Fund, an uncapped pot of money that does not require congressional approval to make payments and is maintained by the Treasury Department.” Because the Mad King continues to attempt to rewrite history, because he is mad that these paragons of virtue were forced to be inconvenienced by that nasty criminal justice system, Trump needs to let us know he has the power to make these violent felons into heroes.This is no way to run a country - and these three shining examples are a minuscule fraction of the many ways Trump is avenging anyone who has slighted him in reality, or even in his dementia ridden imagination.Americans really need to wake up: business as usual means Trump and his inner circle get everything, we get nothing.Stop supporting this system.Buy nothing unnecessary from corporate America, boycott every large company you are able that supports the regime, speak up, organize, stand up to Trump’s gestapo.The 2026 election without a serious organized defense will be meaningless - get involved in your community’s election apparatus, support the organizations like the Brennan Center, the ACLU, and the NAACP- groups are working for election fairness and integrity.And last, only support Democrats who do better than Jared Polis, who always stand up for justice.