I Am Awake

Latest Post

• Stand Up for Nebraska Taxpayers, Not Trump’s Ego
  by Graham C
  September 18, 2025

  Senators Ricketts and Fischer,

  I urge you to stand up for the taxpayers’ dollars and stop wasting money on Donald Trump’s vanity project. This so-called gift from Qatar will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions, possibly more, to retrofit, and none of that cost will ever be recovered. By 2028, the plane is not even staying in service; it is going straight to Trump’s presidential library. That makes this a colossal waste of public funds, and I ask you to stop kneeling to him and start protecting the people who actually pay the bills.

  The retrofit itself will take years, yet Trump is already promising to fly on it by early 2026. That timeline is unrealistic given the massive security, communications, and defense upgrades required. Even worse, the Air Force has admitted that money may be pulled from other critical defense programs such as the Sentinel missile modernization project to pay for this luxury jet. That means real national security priorities are being shortchanged just to indulge one man’s ego.

  This project is nothing more than a vanity purchase that serves Donald Trump, not the American people. You were elected to represent Nebraskans, not to rubber stamp wasteful spending on a plane that will end up in his library by 2028. I ask you to draw the line here, oppose this misuse of taxpayer money, demand real oversight, and show the courage to stand up for fiscal responsibility. Nebraskans deserve leaders who protect their dollars, not ones who bow to a king.
  
  I Approve this Message

  Senator Pete Ricketts Response
  
  Thank you for contacting my office regarding your opinion of President Donald Trump.As you know, on November 6, 2024, President Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States and was sworn into office on January 20, 2025.  President Trump’s second inauguration marks an important turning point in our country.  After four years of open borders, high prices, overregulation, and weakness on the world stage, we are seeing now real leadership in the White House again.  I believe our country’s best days are still ahead of us.  As new policies take effect, I will always be sure to evaluate the interests of Nebraskans.  

  My primary mission as your United States Senator is to make government work with proven Nebraska solutions that are ready for America. To better inform my decision-making, it is important that I hear the ideas, concerns, and opinions of all Nebraskans. I appreciate the time and effort you took to provide input regarding President Trump.

  If you have any other concerns or need help with a federal agency, please do not hesitate to reach out. You can contact my office through the following ways:

  ·       Phone: (202) 224-4224 or (402) 550-8040

  ·       Website: ricketts.senate.gov/contact 

  ·       Kearney Office: 4111 4^thAvenue, Suite 26, Kearney, NE 68845

  ·       Lincoln Office: 1248 ‘O’ Street, Suite 1000, Lincoln, NE 68508

  ·       Omaha Office: 304 N. 168th Circle, Suite 213, Omaha, NE 68118

  ·       Scottsbluff Office: 115 Railway Street, Suite C102, Scottsbluff, NE 69361

  ·       Washington, D.C. Office: 139 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510

  It is an honor to serve as your Senator for the great state of Nebraska.

  Sincerely,
  
  Pete Ricketts
  United States Senator

• The Constitution in the Rough
  by Graham C
  September 18, 2025

  Trump swore to defend it. Instead, he cheats it like his golf game, hugs the flag for the cameras, and pretends no one saw him move the ball.

  

  Donald Trump swore to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” But Trump treats that oath the same way he treats a golf scorecard at Mar-a-Lago: something to be doctored, rewritten, or flat-out cheated on. He lives by “preferred lies,” and he has imported that same habit into governing. He picks up the Constitution, moves it around, and pretends it never landed in the rough in the first place.

  Birthright citizenship? The Fourteenth Amendment makes it clear as day, but Trump does not like where the ball landed. So he picks it up, drops it somewhere else, and calls it constitutional. Equal protection under the law? Too messy; he kicks it out of the bunker and declares victory. Freedom of the press? If NPR or PBS report the truth, he marks the ball, palms it, and tosses it into the pond. Then he waves to the crowd and says, “Hole in one!”

  And the flag. Oh, the theatrics. He hugs it, kisses it, and paws it on stage like a prop from central casting. But when citizens burn that same flag in protest, a right the Supreme Court has protected for decades, he signs an executive order banning it. He will defend the fabric while burning the freedom. He does not love the flag; he loves the photo op.

  But here is the question that should haunt us: why is no one stopping him? Congress has no problem sermonizing about the Constitution on C-SPAN, waving their pocket copies like hymnals. Yet when Trump bulldozes the First or Fourteenth Amendments in plain sight, they fall silent. The courts wag fingers, Trump keeps swinging, and the so-called guardians of liberty become his golf buddies, pretending not to notice while he kicks the ball out of the sand trap.

  And let us not forget the company he kept. This is the same man who once joked that Jeffrey Epstein “liked them young.” The same man photographed alongside a predator he later pretended he barely knew. Yet here he is, dictating morality, policing women’s bodies, and signing orders on who counts as a “real” American. Spare us the lectures. When you have partied with Epstein, you do not get to be America’s moral compass. You forfeited that right the moment you stepped off his plane.

  Now, unbelievably, we are entering the “10th Anniversary of TDS,” Trump Derangement Syndrome. His supporters sneer at critics, insisting anyone who calls out his behavior is “deranged.” But maybe the true derangement is worshipping a man who cheats at golf, hugs the flag while banning protest, and pals around with sex offenders while calling himself a defender of children. That is not patriotism; it is delusion, weaponized.

  The oath of office is not a tee time. You do not get mulligans on civil rights. You do not get a free drop on due process. You do not get to rewrite the First Amendment just because it landed in the rough. Yet Trump has built an entire presidency on “preferred lies,” while the referees, the courts, Congress, and the supposed checks and balances, keep pretending they do not see him moving the ball.

  History will not remember the rallies, the chants, or the “TDS” punchlines. It will remember the hypocrisy. It will remember the Epstein photographs. It will remember a president who promised to defend the Constitution but instead treated it like his golf game: cheated, rewritten, and rigged from the start.

  And when the scorecard is read, Trump will not go down as the man who defended the Constitution. He will go down as the man who hugged the flag while setting the Bill of Rights on fire, Epstein in the background, matches in hand, and his supporters still insisting it was all “par for the course.”

  I Approve this Message