How Poor and Middle Class Wage Earners Subsidize the Wealthy 1%

You pay sales taxes on every eligible purchase; most, every day, purchases are taxed.  The less you earn the higher the percentage of your income is consumed by sales taxes.

You own, or are purchasing, a home (condo, house, adu, etc...) it's not cash unless you sell it, but you pay property taxes on it, every year.

If you own, or are buying, a car (truck, etc...) it's not cash unless you sell it, but you pay taxes on it every year.

If you own stock, equity, in any company...  it's not cash unless you sell it; there are no taxes on that stock till you sell it.

None!

Yet, if you borrow money, up to the entire market value of that stock, there's still no taxes; even as you're cashing in!  

This is how wealthy people accumulate and spend enormous amounts of money with out ever having to pay taxes.  

This, and thousands more pages of tax law, is how poor and middle class people subsidize the rich here in the United States of America.

These are the 1% that own the Republican criminal syndicate (RCS).  Unlike Musk, they hide behind the curtain and pull the strings that control the RCS; control the grifting, pathological liar that was 45, and is now, the 47th president of these United States of America.

45 should have been impeached, convicted and banned from holding any public office, ever again.  See: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.  The self-centered, cowards of the RCS, that should have done this, are terrified of being swept out of office by primary opponents, funded by the money of the wealthy oligarchs hiding behind the curtains; puppet masters of the RCS.

If you voted for these two administrations (45 & 47) then you are the gullible fools that the 1% and the RCS depend upon; conned gratulations!

FAFO...

The elections of 2024 created chaos of enormous proportions in the US government, and caused great anxiety amongst many other nations (especially those that had considered the USA an ally) around the world.  The results happened because, statistically, 9 million fewer people voted in 2024, when compared to the turn out for the 2020 Presidential elections.

Too many Democrats are pointing at one another, in circular firing squad fashion, to assign blame...  Other democrats are saying that we should change this, that or another thing.

Bull Shit!

Three things need to be done, by as close to everybody, as close to all of the time as is possible:  Register (double check) to vote; vote in as close to every election as you can; communicate with your elected officials (courteously, briefly and often).

The Democratic party ain't perfect, because perfect is an unattainable, stretch goal; there has never been anything that could not be improved. The Democrats are the, “big tent,” party in which no one will ever completely agree with anyone else; does not mean tear it down...  Does mean agree, or agree to disagree, and move on.

Major legislation was passed during the Biden administration...

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1143149435/despite-infighting-its-been-a-surprisingly-productive-2-years-for-democrats  

This would have been left in capable hands, to be sustained and improved upon, by a Harris/Walz administration.

There was significant progress in the Biden administration via executive orders...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/biden-laws-passed-priorities-to-get-done-executive-orders/index.html   

This, too, would have fared productively in a Harris/Walz administration.

Then there was the comparison twixt the 45 administration and the Biden administration...

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/04/07/trump-vs-biden-who-got-more-done-on-legislation/   

The US economy was predicted to go into recession after Covid...  It did no such thing.  The US economy recovered fastest amongst the advanced economies of the world; was the envy of all those other national economies.

In point of fact President Bill Clinton mentioned, during his speech at the 2024 Democratic convention, that since the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1989, 51 million jobs have been created in the USA. 50 million were created during Democratic administrations; 1 million jobs created during Republican administrations.  This can be confirmed via: verify.com; Snopes/MSN.com; Politifact.com; ABC News online; gigafact.org; etc...

The gang that can't think straight (when they bother to try), headed by merde l'orange and the DOGEbag incels, is the current administration thanks to almost 10 million voters who couldn't be bothered to show up and vote.  The mess you've created will get cleaned up by those of us who do, almost always show up, at an unfortunately great cost.

FU!

Civil War II Will Be Fought in the Courts, Nationwide.

State and federal legislators: Democrat, Independent and RINO (because they wouldn't join the Republican move to a criminal syndicate);

For God's sake, get off your hands!

45 incited insurrection and enough Republican (in their criminal syndicate) Representatives and Senators turned a blind eye, aiding and abetting insurrection, that we now have merde l'orange 47.  All the above are eligible for Section 3 of the 14th Amendment's boot out of any, and all, public offices; forever.

Then start the prosecutions based on: Mueller, Smith, Senate Intel and House January 6th committees' reports; GA, AZ, etc... election certification chicanery; stopping CO and ME from controlling access to their own state, 2024 ballots; Review Citizens United and Presidential immunity SCOTUS decisions; forensic auditing of the million dollar (to quarter billion dollar), dark money donors (including: Russian, American and other kleptogarchs) to the Republican criminal syndicate; etc...

There is an enormous amount of, alleged, illegal activity to bring to trial.  Spread the word:

Get Busy, Damn It!!!

Ralph Nader > In the Public Interest > Stay Silent and Stay Powerless Against Trump’s Tyranny

Democratic Party Leaders – Get Tough and Hold Regular Unofficial Congressional Hearings by and for the People!

Mar 16, 2025

Copied, without permission, from Ralph Nader’s official website…

By Ralph Nader

March 14, 2025

There are reasons why influential or knowledgeable Americans are staying silent as the worsening fascist dictatorship of the Trumpsters and Musketeers gets more entrenched by the day. Most of these reasons are simple cover for cowardice.

Start with the once-powerful Bush family dynasty. They despise Trump as he does them. Rich and comfortable George W. Bush is very proud of his Administration’s funding of AIDS medicines saving lives in Africa and elsewhere. Trump, driven by vengeance and megalomania, moved immediately to dismantle this program. Immediate harm commenced to millions of victims in Africa and elsewhere who are reliant on this U.S. assistance (including programs to lessen the health toll on people afflicted by tuberculosis and malaria).

Not a peep from George W. Bush, preoccupied with his landscape painting and perhaps occasional pangs of guilt from his butchery in Iraq. His signal program is going down in flames and he keeps his mouth shut, as he has largely done since the upstart loudmouth Trump ended the Bush family’s power over the Republican Party.

Then there are the Clintons and Obama. They are very rich, and have no political aspirations. Yet, though horrified by what they see Trump doing to the government and its domestic social safety net services they once ruled, mum’s the word.

What are these politicians afraid of as they watch the overthrow of our government and the oncoming police state? Trump, after all, was not elected to become a dictator—declaring war on the American people with his firings and smashing of critical “people’s programs” that benefit liberals and conservatives, red state and blue state residents alike.

Do they fear being discomforted by Trump/Musk unleashing hate and threats against them, and getting tarred by Trump’s tirades and violent incitations? No excuses. Regard for our country must take precedence to help galvanize their own constituencies to resist tyranny and fight for Democracy.

What about Kamala Harris — the hapless loser to Trump in November’s presidential election? She must think she has something to say on behalf of the 75 million people who voted for her or against Trump. Silence! She is perfect bait for Trump’s intimidation tactics. She is afraid to tangle with Trump despite his declining polls, rising inflation, the falling stock market and anti-people budget slashing which is harming her supporters and Trump voters’ economic wellbeing, health and safety.

This phenomenon of going dark is widespread. Regulators and prosecutors who were either fired or quit in advance have not risen to defend their own agencies and departments, if only to elevate the morale of those civil servants remaining behind and under siege.

Why aren’t we hearing from Gary Gensler, former head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), now being dismantled, especially since the SEC is dropping his cases against alleged cryptocurrency crooks?

Why aren’t we hearing much more (she wrote one op-ed) from Samantha Power, the former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under Biden, whose life-saving agency is literally being illegally closed down, but for pending court challenges?

Why aren’t we hearing from Michael Regan, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under Biden about saboteur Lee Zeldin, Trump’s head of EPA, who is now giving green lights to lethal polluters and other environmental destructions?

These and many other former government officials all have their own circles – in some cases, millions of people – who need to hear from them.

They can take some courage of the seven former I.R.S. Commissioners — from Republican and Democratic Administrations — who condemned slicing the I.R.S staff in half and aiding and abetting big time tax evasion by the undertaxed super-rich and giant corporations. I am told that they would be eager to testify, should the Democrats in Congress have the energy to hold unofficial hearings as ranking members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees.

Banding together is one way of reducing the fear factor. After Trump purged the career military at the Pentagon to put his own “yes men” at the top, five former Secretaries of Defense, who served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, sent a letter to Congress denouncing Trump’s firing of senior military officers and requesting “immediate” House and Senate hearings to “assess the national security implications of Mr. Trump’s dismissals.” Not a chance by the GOP majority there. But they could ask the Democrats to hold UNOFFICIAL HEARINGS as ranking members of the Armed Services Committees!

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker can be one of the prime witnesses at these hearings – he has no fear of speaking his mind against the Trumpsters.

On March 6, 2025, the Washington Bureau Chief of the New York Times, Elisabeth Bumiller, put her rare byline on an urgent report titled, “‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves.”

She writes: “The silence grows louder every day. Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents [one exception is Wesleyan University President Michael Roth] fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.”

To be sure, government employees and other unions are speaking out and suing in federal court. So are national citizen groups like Public Citizen and the Center for Constitutional Rights, though hampered in alerting large audiences by newspapers like the Times rarely reporting their initiatives.

Yes, Ms. Bumiller, pay attention to that aspect of your responsibility. Moreover, the Times’ editorial page (op-ed and editorials) are not adequately reflecting the urgency of her reporting. Nor are her reporters covering the informed outspokenness and actions of civic organizations.

Don’t self-censoring people know that they are helping the Trumpian dread, threat and fear machine get worse? Study Germany and Italy in the nineteen thirties.

The Trump/Musk lawless, cruel, arrogant, dictatorial regime is in our White House. Their police state infrastructure is in place. 

Silence is complicity!

From: The official website of Ralph Nader.


 

Raise the Minimum Wage...

To a living wage, and grow the economy.

If you bump up the minimum wage to an actual, living wage the businesses it effects will try to make it look devastating.  

First, businesses will create ever changing work schedules...  Any business open and operating on a regular, recurring schedule, week to week, should be required to have a regular, recurring work schedule for all their employees.  

Business will cut back on an individual employees work hours as a perceived form of punishment. This will only knee cap the business, because they'll still need the same number of total hours worked to support the normal volume of activity in the store or office.  

These dramatic overreactions will bite businesses in the butt, because they still need to satisfy, or lose, customers.  

When more people can afford to spend money into the economy, the economy will grow and thrive.  There's few, to no, places where one can live in modest comfort with a wage of less than $22 an hour; for at least 40 hours a week.

Business leaders, trying desperately hard to look stupid, will say even the poorest Americans can afford a car. Well, there are very few places in the USA that have sufficient public transit, so folks must have a car to get to work.  Second, most (40% of American families: epi.org; UnitedforALICE.org) are barely making ends meet; can't afford $400 for car maintenance...  Can't afford preventative, standard or emergency, medical care costs either.

The USA is the only OECD country where one can be bankrupted by medical expenses.

When more folks can afford to spend money back into the economy, while saving and investing, the economy will grow and thrive; period.  Only the narcissists and megalomaniacs will be unhappy.

The Road Back From Oligarchy to Democracy...

 The road back from the current oligarchy in the USA should start with the removal of government officials who broke their oath of office to allow 45 to be in the elections of 2024; to become 47.

These officials, Congressional and SCOTUS, paved the way for what should have been impossible; cleared the road for the grifter in chief, and the oligarchs behind the curtain, to move toward an authoritarian United States.

Any current congressional Republicans, or Democrats who voted against both impeachments of 45 should be 14/3 removed from office immediately.

Those who voted against impeachment or conviction for the insurrection of 6 January 2021 should definitely be shown the exit; should already be on the streets.  

SCOTUS justices that expedited the case that blocked CO & ME from exercising their 14/3 authority, to remove 45 from their 2024 primary ballots, are guilty of aiding and abetting insurrection; should be escorted out of office permanently.

The USA, and the rest of the world, deserve better than this...  We need to be able to watch as the USA corrects a serious, "47," mistake. 

 

 

Curbing Electricity Demand

 Moderating Demands on the Electric Grid...

Multiple corporate entities are asking for enormous increases in electricity generation and distribution on the public, municipal, power grid that supplies the entire United States with electricity, in support of data centers that will fulfill processing power requirements for AI and Kleptocurrency.

No.  Don't build it, at least, not yet.

IBM has made advances in fiber interconnectivity, within AI's data centers, that will significantly reduce the overall need for electricity...  This, and other operating efficiencies that are in the pipeline, will reduce the need for said massive increases in electricity production and distribution.  Full fledged power development for huge data centers needs to be restricted till technology advances do, what they have always done, reduce the size and power requirements of the instruments used in this, the information age.

Kleptocurrency (a.k.a., cryptocurrency; not by me) is also asking for others to provide them with enormous amounts of new electric power generation and distribution.

No! Not ever.

Kleptocurrency is designed to evade the reporting and regulatory environs that are required for actual currency (a.k.a., here as: legal tender).  The only function that kleptocurrency serves is criminal, and therefore should not be allowed to draw power from public, municipal grids; should not be allowed to create it's own power via nuclear means and methods.

Converting the entire country and, indeed, the whole world, to the use of renewable electricity is already taxing the facilities of said power generation and distribution physical plant.  

Don't add more unjustifiable stress. 

Unregulated Capitalism is Feudalism...

To return to properly regulated capitalism, we need:

A return to Democracy from the current oligarchy, that's attempting to transition to an authoritarian regime;

To make that change we need a congress that isn't controlled by the Republican, criminal syndicate.  Then, and only then, can legislation to end, make as close to impossible to recreate, Citizens United, literally, come to pass.

Then we must re-institute tax codes, higher taxes on significant wealth, that existed from the late 1940s through the 1970s;

Change back from what the well purchased Reagan administration, serving their wealthy oligarchs, did when taxes were reduced and tax shelters were created, as if tax reductions weren't enough;

Return to trust busting that Teddy Roosevelt's and FDR's administrations introduced... As Lina Khan had done during her term as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, aided by Jonathan Kanter when he was Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

You know, the things that only Democrats will do when properly pressured by the voters.

Who Let the Doge Out?

 It's great to hear MSNBC's hosts, including former Republicans like Michael Steele and Nicolle Wallace, using their bully pulpit to inform viewers that we have already gone from Democracy to oligarchy, courtesy of the Citizens United vs. the FEC SCOTUS decision.  

We are now transitioning to an authoritarian regime courtesy of the wealthy oligarchs, aristocrat wannabes, who have leveraged Citizens United to do all the damage to Democracy that's possible from said oligarchy.

However:

FAFO is in process;

See the lyrics to: FAFO, A Government Carol (from the blog of  BlueBoomerHD);

See also: RICO Republicans (from the blog of BlueBoomerHD as well);

COBOL flustered the Dogebag incels, because it's a mainframe programming language developed in the late 1950s and early 60s; their grandparents used it in mainframe based data centers.  They never realized that they'd need to understand that sort of old timey thing.  If you really want to see the eyes roll back, in the head of a Millennial or Gen Z programmer, talk about flowcharts;

The reason the Dogebag incels thought someone from 1875 was getting Social Security payments was because they've accessed test and development systems only.  The aforementioned systems use deceased persons so that it is nearly impossible to accidentally, or purposely, get the different computing environs mixed up.

Joe knew on election day that the government needed to be locked down, because the 45 administration; the book, “Project 2025;” and MAGAts that couldn't keep quiet... Let everybody know what was coming.

Lower level staff at various federal agencies were made aware, and given the ability to run interference, because the first priority of the incoming 47 administration was to install toadies in the leadership roles of all executive agencies.

A mess is being made by the 47 administration that is, mostly, being contained while evidence of criminal behavior is collected; charges to come (see: RICO Republicans, above).

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

A Few Thoughts for Younger Voters...

 Living indoors is far more expensive than it should be; than it has been within my own lifetime.

Why?

Because in 1999 the last of the Glass-Steagall Act (G-S A) was repealed.  G-S A separated risky investments from (regulated to be) safer investments.  Wall Street was able to kill off the Savings and Loan Financial Services Industry (S&L). People got modest interest on savings placed in an S&L branch bank, and that money was made available to people, as a lower than average rate mortgage, for home (house and condo) buyers.  A home was a place where you lived.  Now, a home is an investment... A place where you make money/profit.  Housing inventory has been removed from the market, by large investors, to increase profit by manipulating supply.

I'm a Boomer who is a few years (<5 years) from owning my house, but will not downsize because the aforementioned inventory manipulation means it will cost me more to move to a smaller home, on a smaller lot.

If regulation returns then artificial supply reductions will no longer cause higher profit margins: supply increases; prices drop. More of you younger consumers will be able to afford/own a home. Wall Street, and well purchased politicians, will fight this tooth and claw...

Your move.

Federal, and some states (like my home state of Texas), still have (for 15 years) a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and limits on overtime (no time and a half) wages.  That's a living wage absolutely nowhere, and I almost never use the concept of, "absolutes."

https://stephenwyman.substack.com/p/democrats-and-the-economy

Minimum wage needs to be, at least (see the cost of living on east and west coasts), tripled quickly.  The minimum wage should soon be doubled again and track inflation thereafter.

If you think Wall Street, and company, whined about S&Ls just wait till you hear them scream about how increased wages (and benefits) will create enormous rates of inflation and destroy the economy...  It's BS, because when more people can afford to do more than just live indoors and eat (y'know save and invest, also) the economy, customer base, grows (find the studies that prove that, they're out there, and you'll need 'em).

BTW, there's research out there, quite a bit of it, about how and why the USA has the most expensive, by a lot, and the least effective health care amongst the OECD nations of the world.  The reason we do so poorly, at such a high price, is for profit health care and for profit health insurance, also; medical bankruptcy happens in none of the other OECD countries.

https://stephenwyman.substack.com/p/voting-in-your-own-best-interest

There's only one party that can be convinced to do what's needed, and that's the Democrats.

https://stephenwyman.substack.com/p/why-vote-for-democrats

Regulated capitalism is the only way to make it possible for as close to everyone to prosper (live in reasonable comfort and security)...  My wife and I, along with quite a few other Boomers (the ones who didn't splurge, because they could), are living proof.

https://stephenwyman.substack.com/p/why-government-not-business-provides

Once again: Your move.

I'll help where I can, if you'll let some old timers participate.

https://stephenwyman.substack.com/p/recommended-reading

Just a bit of perspective, and suggested reading...

Xenophobia Explained

 It is important to remember in Germany, the USA and every where on the Earth where you find people: no hominids, then humans, evolved where they live now, unless you live in a specific region in Africa.  Second, the genetic difference between any two human beings is 0.5% of their individual genomes.  

Therefore, all the immigration problems, everywhere, occur when any group arrives in a new place and declares that nobody else needs be allowed in, because, "we're here."

We all need to recognize xenophobia as the enormous problem that it is, always has been, and engage the intelligence, that too many people are prone to denying, to work out a solution that will to be acceptable to a majority, because it will never be acceptable to everybody.

Working with the AfD, and their ilk, in Germany will always be as problematic as is working with the white nationalists in these United States of America. You need not take it from this WASP.  My ancestors arrived in the Americas about 400 years ago and (mostly) have not closed the door behind ourselves.

Working with others is always going to be working with someone who is very much like you; see the last sentence of the first paragraph.  If that doesn't make sense to you, you are the problem.

RICO the Republican Criminal Syndicate

Does this look, and smell (try not to step in it), of RICO activities being committed by Republican, government officials?

 

Massive amounts of evidence have accumulated in: FL, VA, GA, AZ, NY; Mueller, Smith, Senate Intelligence Committee reports, etc... This evidence details the voluntary transition of the Republican party to a criminal syndicate headed by the felon and pathological liar, who is the grifter-in-chief. The syndicate discards oath of office, rule of law and US Constitution whenever it is not convenient to adhere to the aforementioned documents.

Let the RICO prosecution of said syndicate begin.

Senate, bi-partisan, Intel Committee report on Russian interference confirms that the presidential campaigns of 2016 (hindered Democratic and assisted for Republicans) were, indeed, hacked by the Russians: crickets;

Mueller Report documents confirm that there were, at least, 10 counts of obstruction of justice by the Republicans involved in the 2016 presidential campaigns: crickets;

The government of Ukraine was asked to interfere in the 2020 presidential election campaign to get funding, already approved by Congress, released to the Ukrainian war effort.  President impeached, but not convicted, for Ukrainian funds being illegally withheld: crickets;


45 incited insurrection culminating in a violent attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021...  President impeached, but not convicted, for his involvement in the insurrection (which would have prohibited him from running for, or holding, any public/government office ever again): crickets;

45 took home government documents that were still the property of the United States and belonged in the National Archives of the USA.  The documents were transported illegally and stored within 45's property/properties, moved and hidden when their return was requested.  The federal government was forced to recover them using legally obtained, search warrants.  The court case around the document theft and potential espionage (improperly shared docs of a classified nature) was slow walked by a 45 appointed judge so that the case could not be concluded before 47 was sworn in to office: crickets;

SCOTUS Justice Alito flew flags at his properties that signified support for the insurrection at the US Capitol: crickets;

SCOTUS Justice Thomas took undeclared money and gifts from very wealthy persons who would have business before the court. Thomas should have, and did not, abstain from said cases: crickets;

SCOTUS Justice Thomas' wife was an active participant in the run-up to the insurrection at the US Capitol: crickets;

Thiel presented a well purchased person as a Republican candidate for Vice President in the elections (primaries and general) of 2024, so that the oligarchs would have a puppet in the White House should a 78 year old, 47th President be unable to finish the term: crickets;

SCOTUS majority expedites a case that blocks, at least, CO and ME from controlling access to each of the state's own primary ballots (prohibiting, via 14/3 Constitutional authority, 45 from running to be the 47th President): crickets;

SCOTUS majority expedites a ruling that the 45th President was immune from, not subject to, the rule of law. 46th President did not avail himself of the assumption that the ruling extended to his time in office.  47th President immediately operates as if the precedent does, in fact, still apply: crickets;

While 47 distracts with wildly unlikely ideas and executive orders, there were more executive orders, derived from (written by the authors of), “Project 2025,” (Orwell's, “1984,” made real) that were also being signed: crickets;

The signs of RICO inspired illegal, oath violating, and/or unconstitutional, Republican activity abound.

What are the federal government's Inspector Generals and/or the Department of Justice going to do about it?

Showing Those, Who Aided and Abetted Insurrection, the Exit.

The USA is in the throes of oligarchy, spiraling towards aristocracy, because the Republicans, in choosing to become a criminal syndicate, allowed 45 to be able to become 47; impeached and convicted 45 prevents the possibility of the 47 catastrophe.

The wealthy oligarchs needed 45/47 because they aren't able to do much of anything for themselves, except keep, for themselves, the money they don't pay in taxes, or employee wages and benefits.  However, they can buy primary candidates to oppose uncooperative legislators, and bribe SCOTUS justices in support of the grifter in chief.

Oligarchs and 45/47 are bullies... A bully is someone who talks a big game, but has an entourage of gullible goofs that mindlessly carry out the bully's wishes.  Goofs get into trouble for doing what the bully can't/wouldn't do for him/her self.

Are any of you: Elizabeth Warren, Jasmine Crockett, Mark Elias, Eric Holder, etc... able to start the process involved in dismissals from public office, based on 14/3 disqualification parameters, for  legislators and  justices who have aided and abetted the insurrectionist in chief?

If the legislators that voted against impeaching or convicting 45 are appropriately shown the exit, will there still be a quorum capable of doing the business of Congress?

If the SCOTUS Justices that disallowed the states of ME and CO the ability to control their own states' ballots (remove 45 from said ballots) are also, appropriately, ushered out the door... Will SCOTUS be able to function properly?

There's the exit!

 

The Inauguration Has Been Postponed Indefinitely...

14/3 (Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution) specifies how one might be absolved (...Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability) but not who might charge someone with participation in insurrection.

45 did get impeached for inciting insurrection, but was not convicted; did not get enough votes to, “remove such disability.”

Does Trump slide, again, on a technicality?

Does the DOJ/AG create the path to another method for holding a body responsible for following, or not, their oath to protect and defend the US Constitution?

If there are no consequences for involvement in insurrection, this time, the precedent becomes, “repeat as often as one thinks it might be helpful to evade oath, law and Constitution.“

45, Congress and SCOTUS participated in the insurrection of 2020 and '21.

Trump should never be inaugurated again. Nor should he ever be allowed to hold any public office ever again. Contact: Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, etc.. if a refund is requested.