Markus Simmons

@HeyitsMarkus . My ink took 60 hrs. 4 sessions. 15-20 hr sessions at a time. #NoPainNoGain

Ron DeSantis explains why the GOP "screaming socialism" doesn't work anymore: "Young people have a very positive view of socialism compared to capitalism. The question is, why is that? Some of it is the education in our universities. But I think a big part of that is, what they're comparing is not free enterprise versus socialism. What they're comparing is how government gets involved in business, and you have crony capitalism. The best kind of indirect supporters of socialism are some of these corporatist republicans who propagate these crony policies. The average person is seeing that and saying, 'Wait a minute, you're trying to bend the government to funnel benefits to this corporation or that industry. What about having a competitive market? ... Young people really aren't seeing that. They're seeing just a handful of companies that have an outsized influence on our economy and on our society"

I've been in politics for a quarter century. It's hard to express how staggering it is to see a conversation like this on corporate US media. The Morning Joe panel gobsmacked by the directness of @AbdulElSayed's points. (clip via @DropSiteNews)

Look at our side vs theirs. We are not the same.

You’re locked inside a movie theater for 24 hours. You can only watch movies starring one actor the entire time. Whose filmography are you choosing?

The MS Secretary of State used expired Experian data to "clean up" the voter rolls, inactivating many eligible Mississippi voters who then voted by affidavit ballot. Just anecdotally, I heard stories about it being a mess, especially in DeSoto County mississippitoday.org/2026/11…

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us." Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were: 1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.) In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you. The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.

ok good job now pass popular bills and dare trump to veto them. here’s a starter set (all poll at 85% or higher): - require hospitals to fully disclose costs before providing care. - require background checks for all gun sales, including private sales. - ban financial companies from selling customers’ personal data. - require an enforceable supreme court ethics code. - ban members of congress from trading individual stocks. - prohibit former members of congress from becoming lobbyists for five years. - prevent hospitals from charging more than doctors’ offices for identical outpatient services. - establish a voluntary program helping employers provide paid family and medical leave. - require publicly distributed AI deepfakes to be labeled as AI-generated. - cap prescription drug prices based on prices in other developed countries. - prohibit hospital facility fees for outpatient clinic services and telehealth visits. - require organizations spending on federal elections to disclose major donors and identify sponsors of online political ads.

It’s November 7, 2028. You step into the voting booth and these are your 15 choices for the 48th President of the United States. Who gets your vote?