First and foremost I want to thank you for the work you do. You are heroes and deserve every praise and a raise! I'm writing here because I just heard that the National organization of Firefighters for the first time decided not to endorse a presidential candidate. It's understandble when you find your folks are so divided. I get it. But having met Donald Trump up close and personal (story below) I feel the need to speak out. With seven days left until the election, the following is my latest message, hoping to add to the conversation...voting is a privilege and it's vital we get it right...wishing you all good things, always... Recently at Madison Square Garden, Elon Musk arrived on the stage and pointed to his black hat and announced, "I'm not just Maga, I'm dark Gothic Maga"...I'm not sure what that means but it sounds ominous. Elon has been preparing for this election for years...examples below...but first... Lara Trump bragged at the same rally about Donald Trump "rebuilding the ice skating rink in New York City"...that "that's how we do things in the Trump family" she said. She seems to have left out one huge detail in that story...They were eventually fired because the "Trump family" allowed the place to "fall to pieces" and into "disrepair". www.fastcompany.com/90696000/trump-let-this-beloved-ice-rink-fall-to-pieces-a-new-partnership-is-... To me this is indicative of everything Donald Trump touches. On the surface it might look good but if you look deeper... Recently producers on the show The Apprentice have come forward to apologize for helping to create a false image. They share the story of arriving at his office as a possible location for the show and finding a "ratty mildew infested office" instead. They had to create a whole new set...and thus the myth was born. I've heard people say they're voting for Trump because he's so "entertaining"..."He feels like a friend when he's making jokes," one male supporter said. But did you know that Mussolini, the dictator of Italy also made a lot of jokes on his way to destroying his country...people found him very entertaining until he got into power...people stopped laughing after that. We live in an age of disinformation making it hard to know what's true and what's not. Recently Trump stated that "non-citizens are voting", which is not happening. It's a lie. The safeguards in place wouldn't allow that. Politico, considered centrist in it's reporting, not right or left, just reported that "More than a dozen former Trump administration officials this past Friday came out in support of former chief of staff John Kelly, who went on the record to say the former president fits the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator and has no concept of the Constitution". www.politico.com/news/2024/10/25/never-trump-former-officials-back-kelly-warning-00185435 Elizabeth Neumann, a former Homeland Security Officer said recently, "Behind closed doors Trump's worst instincts would frighten the average American. He has no humanity, no decency, no respect for other human beings but instead is willing to toss people aside to achieve his aims. He is very dangerous indeed...If he is elected we are going to end up in a Constitutional crisis." End quote. People say, but he wasn't like that in the first term, that's because there were people around him acting as safeguards. Those people won't be there this time. This time he's surrounded himself with yes men. Trump has long been creating a narrative that if he doesn't win this next election then it has to be stolen. He wants chaos. Let's not give it to him. If you think the last election was stolen, look up TRUMP RIGGED EMMYS. Donald Trump has been yelling "rigged" and "cheating" since he didn't win an Emmy for The Apprentice. Long before he was president. Even the creator of the film 2000 MULES, a film that spread conspiracies that Democrats stole the 2020 election has just issued an apology for lying "and have halted distribution of the film and removed both the film and the book from its platforms". Look it up. One more huge clue folks have been lied to. Even Joe Rogan in his recent interview with Trump pushed back about Donald's election claims..."Are you ever going to present any evidence of this?" Rogan asked. Trump had no answer to that question...because no evidence exists. Did you know that Elon Musk has been secretly paying Stephen Miller tens of millions of dollars FOR YEARS to help finance his rise to power. Did you know that? The Wall Street Journal reported Elon Musk gave $50 million to a Stephen Miller-linked nonprofit in 2022 and filings show they spent $90 million on media contractors... Did you know that Elon grew up in very racist South Africa during apartheid and he still holds racist views to this day? Thus his association with Steven Miller. Even Steven's own family has spoken out against his extreme racist views. Another billionaire is Peter Thiel...This is from Forbes..."Thiel dished out more than $15 million to support JD Vance in 2022...Thiel backed Trump in 2016, but recently told The Atlantic that he regretted it and would be staying out of politics in 2024. That could change with his former employee JD now on the ticket." "Billionaire investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel played a pivotal role in launching J.D. Vance's venture capital career in 2016." So you've got JD bought by Peter Thiel and others. You've got Stephen Miller bought and controlled by Elon. And in the end with flattery from all of them, they'll be controlling Donald Trump. Here's a video that helps explain the history. It's by Frank Schaeffer. His father started the pro-life movement so Frank has been around the block a few times and knows what he's talking about. www.youtube.com/watch?si=YwOGEDEbxHHT37WS&v=U0ASWRXZnRM&feature=youtu.be But all of this, including PROJECT 2025...is just the tip of the iceberg when you realize what Elon and Steven Miller and Peter Thiel have in store. But maybe you agree with them. Even General Mark Milley said this: "“We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator. We don't take an oath to an individual, we take an oath to the Constitution. [Trump] is a wannabe dictator" General Milley warned us. "No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” he continued. "Now I realize he’s a total fascist." I met Donald Trump up close and personal. I share my story in an Op-ed written BEFORE the 2020 election. In it I quote Trump's sister and his niece both telling us exactly what they think of the man. They've both known Donald all their lives. Even Trump admits who he really is at the very end of the piece. He says the quiet part out loud and we should believe him. For millions of Americans Donald Trump is being held up as the Divine Savior, THE CHOSEN ONE. Nothing could be further from the truth. But how did we get here? It's not by accident. It's by design, a plan 45 years in the making. The same people behind The Heritage Foundation and PROJECT 2025...The documentary BAD FAITH explains it all. It's another piece of this disturbing puzzle. So many in Trump's previous administration have been warning us about him, but it seems some of us have forgotten how to listen, how to question and think for themselves, for others self-interest is their main motivation. If you haven't already I hope you'll step out of your silo and become a detective...our very survival as a country depends on it. Steve Bannon, just released from prison was asked what if Trump loses. Steve answered this morning, giving the same answer he gave Trump in 2020..."He should declare victory"....and so it begins... MY STORY....HOW I MET THE REAL DONALD TRUMP madaboutpolitics.com/threads/how-i-met-the-real-donald-trump.98299/