The Greed Beneath the Gravel

 

How Politicians Profit While Americans Struggle

Introduction

In a nation where millions live paycheck to paycheck, where homelessness is no longer a distant tragedy but a local reality, and where wages stagnate while corporate profits soar—there exists a quiet scandal that rarely makes headlines: politicians profiting from insider trading.

Power and Profit: A Dangerous Mix

Members of Congress have access to sensitive, market-moving information long before the public. From defense contracts to pharmaceutical approvals, their committee meetings and briefings often contain the kind of intelligence Wall Street would pay millions for. And some politicians don’t just sit on this information—they trade on it.

This isn’t speculation. It’s documented. It’s systemic. And it’s largely unpunished.

The STOCK Act: A Toothless Shield

In 2012, Congress passed the STOCK Act, requiring lawmakers to disclose their trades within 45 days. It was hailed as a victory for transparency. But over a decade later, it’s clear the law is more symbolic than effective.

Violations are rampant:

·        Over 60 members of Congress violated the STOCK Act in recent years.

·        Trades worth millions were disclosed months or even years late.

·        Fines? Often just $200, and frequently waived.

There are no bans on trading individual stocks. No meaningful oversight. And no real consequences.

Known Cases, Weak Punishments

Let’s name names:

·        Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA): Up to 6.5 years late reporting trades worth $8.5 million.

·        Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX): Disclosed $17.5 million in trades months late.

·        Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL): Late on 130 trades.

·        Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN): Failed to report 700 trades worth up to $10.9 million.

These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re patterns. And they reveal a culture where greed is normalized, and ethics are optional.

Pump-and-Dump Politics?

While no politician has been formally charged with a pump-and-dump scheme, the behavior of some—like Donald Trump hyping and crashing markets via social media—raises serious questions. When a former president tweets “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” after tanking markets with tariff threats, it’s hard not to see the manipulation.

A Moral Call to Action

This is not just about legality. It’s about morality.

While politicians quietly enrich themselves, teachers work two jobs, veterans sleep on sidewalks, and families ration insulin. The contrast is grotesque. It’s a betrayal of public service. And it’s a symptom of a deeper rot: a political culture that rewards self-interest over service, wealth over wisdom, and greed over governance.

We must demand:

·        A ban on individual stock trading for all elected officials.

·        Real penalties for violations.

·        A renewed commitment to ethical leadership.

Because until we hold power accountable, the suffering of everyday Americans will remain the cost of political luxury.

About the Author

Daryl Horton is a technical and creative writer who is passionate about being creative. He has comprehensive training in business information management, information systems management, and creative and technical writing. Daryl has the knowledge and skills to help organizations optimize their performance and maximize their potential. He spent several years in a Knowledge Management PhD program at Walden University, nearly completing it, but resigned from the program during his dissertation phase to pursue his passion for creativity (http://www.abolitic.com/). Despite his love for creativity, he often finds himself participating in groups where his technical experiences add value.

You can find more information about Daryl Horton on his LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylhorton/.

Resources

STOCK Act Violations and Weak Enforcement

Newsweek: Members of Congress Who May Have Flouted the STOCK Act

Raw Story: 62 Members of Congress Violated STOCK Act

Truthout: Investigation Finds 48 Members Violated STOCK Act

Campaign Legal Center: Complaints Against Seven Members

Insider Trading Scandals Involving Politicians

Wikipedia: 2020 Congressional Insider Trading Scandal

DOJ: Former Congressman Christopher Collins Sentenced

NBC News: Stephen Buyer Sentenced for Insider Trading

Pump-and-Dump Allegations and DOJ Case

DOJ: $214 Million Seized in China Liberal Education Holdings Fraud

FOX 32 Chicago: 7 Indicted in $214M Pump-and-Dump Scheme

Trump’s DJT Stock and Market Manipulation Allegations

Outlook Business: Trump’s ‘Buy Now’ Tweet Sparks Allegations

Firstpost: Allegations of Market Manipulation Amid Tariff Pause

Proposed Reforms: ETHICS Act

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans: ETHICS Act Announcement

Congress.gov: ETHICS Act Bill Text (S.1171)

Campaign Legal Center: ETHICS Act Could End Stock Trading Scandals

How to Win by Losing

 

How to Win by Losing: The U.S. Paradox of Memory and Power

In the United States, the past is not just remembered—it’s curated. Confederate army parades still march under the guise of heritage, while books that illuminate the brutal truths of slavery, systemic racism, and oppression are being pulled from shelves. This contradiction reveals a deeper truth: in America, you can win the narrative by losing the war—if your story serves power.

The Confederacy lost the Civil War, but its symbols persist. Statues stand tall, flags fly, and reenactments unfold with fanfare. These displays are defended as cultural heritage, even though they glorify a regime built on the enslavement of Black people. Meanwhile, books that challenge this sanitized version of history—books by Black authors, books about racism, books that tell the truth—are being banned in schools and libraries.

This is not just historical amnesia. It’s strategic forgetting.

Contrast this with Germany, where Nazi symbols are outlawed and Holocaust education is mandatory. Germany’s stance is clear: never again. The past is confronted, not celebrated. The pain is acknowledged, not erased.

Imagine if Germany allowed Nazi parades while banning books about the Holocaust. The world would recoil. Yet in the U.S., this paradox is reality.

How did we get here?

The answer lies in how power shapes memory. Confederate symbols persist because they serve a narrative that resists accountability. Book bans thrive because truth threatens that narrative. The result is a nation where oppression is commemorated, but resistance is censored.

This is how you win by losing: you lose the war, but you win the story. You lose the moral ground, but you win the cultural space. You lose the battle for justice, but you win the right to define what justice means.

If we are to move forward, we must reject this false victory. We must confront the full weight of our history—not just the parts that comfort us, but the parts that challenge us. Because real victory doesn’t come from forgetting. It comes from remembering—and reckoning.

About the Author

Daryl Horton is a technical and creative writer who is passionate about being creative. He has comprehensive training in business information management, information systems management, and creative and technical writing. Daryl has the knowledge and skills to help organizations optimize their performance and maximize their potential. He spent several years in a Knowledge Management PhD program at Walden University, nearly completing it, but resigned from the program during his dissertation phase to pursue his passion for creativity (http://www.abolitic.com/). Despite his love for creativity, he often finds himself participating in groups where his technical experiences add value.

You can find more information about Daryl Horton on his LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylhorton/.

Reimagine Ethics

 

Reimagine Ethics in a World Obsessed with Winning

Ethics has been taught for centuries, yet society continues to reward success without conscience. From sports and entertainment to corporate leadership, we glorify those who accumulate wealth and visibility, while undervaluing the people who sustain our communities—caregivers, educators, laborers, and public servants. This imbalance reveals a deeper failure: ethics, as traditionally taught, has not disrupted the systems that reward exploitation and neglect. To make ethics meaningful, we must reimagine it—not as a set of abstract rules, but as a lived practice rooted in justice, empathy, and service. Ethics education must center the invisible, challenge the myth of meritocracy, and redefine success as contribution, not status. Only then can ethics become a force for transformation in a world that desperately needs it.

Manifesto for Reimagining Ethics Education

Preamble

In a world where success is glamorized, wealth is worshipped, and power is protected, ethics must evolve. It must no longer be a passive reflection of ideals but an active force for justice, equity, and transformation. This manifesto calls for a radical reimagining of ethics education—one that empowers the many, not just the successful few.

Principles

1.      Ethics Must Be Lived, Not Lectured

Ethics education must move beyond theory. It must be embodied in practice, rooted in community, and responsive to real-world dilemmas.

2.      Center the Invisible

We must elevate the voices and labor of those who sustain society—caregivers, educators, laborers, and healers. Their moral contributions must be recognized, valued, and taught.

3.      Expose the Myth of Meritocracy

Ethics must confront the false narrative that success is always earned. It must reveal how systems of privilege, exclusion, and inherited advantage shape outcomes.

4.      Teach Ethical Disobedience

Students must be equipped to challenge unjust norms, question authority, and resist systems that harm. Ethics must include civil disobedience, moral courage, and collective action.

5.      Integrate Ethics Across All Disciplines

Ethics is not a silo. It belongs in science, business, law, art, and technology. Every field must grapple with its moral impact.

6.      Measure Ethical Impact, Not Just Achievement

We must develop new metrics—ones that assess empathy, justice, and civic engagement. Success must be redefined.

7.      Reframe Success as Service

True success is not accumulation—it is contribution. Ethics must teach that dignity lies in service, not status.

Call to Action

We call on educators, institutions, communities, and individuals to:

·        Redesign curricula to reflect these principles.

·        Create spaces for ethical dialogue and dissent.

·        Support those who live ethically, even when it costs them.

·        Challenge systems that reward exploitation and neglect.

 

Fractured Ballot

Framed through the combined lenses of Thomas Sowell, Noam Chomsky, and Milton Friedman, the 2025 election results reveal a critical misstep rooted not simply in frustration with established elites – as Sowell suggests – but in a profound failure to engage with consequentialist realism. Driven by a potent cocktail of emotional responses and a rejection of pragmatic strategy, voters, according to Chomsky, often prioritized tactical harm-reduction over informed engagement, inadvertently bolstering the very outcome they sought to avoid. Simultaneously, the allure of disruption, as Friedman observed, led many to embrace a boldness that ultimately destabilized established systems, misjudging the unpredictable nature of markets and global forces.  Ultimately, this confluence – an electorate prioritizing feeling over analysis, idealism over strategic coalition-building, and disruptive impulses over cautious assessment – created a fertile ground for the rise of authoritarian tendencies, demonstrating a dangerous disconnect between expressed desires and the long-term consequences of electing a leader lacking institutional understanding and driven by policies that fundamentally undermined democratic safeguards.

When Unity is a Threat

 

In a time when public trust is eroding and unpopular decisions mount, the preservation of power increasingly relies on division rather than unity. By selectively awarding lucrative contracts to favored groups—often funded by gutting federal programs or displacing others—leadership manufactures economic loyalty while deepening resentment. Aligning with influencers ensures that curated narratives drown out dissent, turning public discourse into a performance of consent. And by appeasing one marginalized group through the targeting or deportation of another, the administration exploits fear and prejudice to fracture potential coalitions. These tactics, though cloaked in modern language, echo centuries-old strategies designed to keep the majority fragmented, distracted, and disempowered—ensuring that the true source of their hardship remains obscured.

The Art of Division 

In halls of power, where silence buys time,
A whisper becomes policy, cloaked in design.
They carve the nation not by need, but by scheme,
Feeding one hand while the other bleeds unseen.

Contracts fall like rain on the chosen few,
Funded by the jobs of those they undo.
Programs gutted, safety nets torn,
While the hungry are told to weather the storm.

Voices once loud now echo through screens,
Influencers crowned as the new kings and queens.
Truth is a script, rehearsed and refined,
While dissent is drowned in a well-curated mind.

And when unrest stirs in the belly of the land,
They point to the stranger with a trembling hand.
Deport the dreamer, cage the plea,
To calm the fears of the angry and free.

But this is no new play, no novel deceit—
It’s the same old mask with a modern beat.
Divide the poor, distract the wise,
So no one sees where the true power lies.

Co-written with Microsoft Copilot

DEI

DEI

Whose building this is, I think I know.
This company belongs to my CEO.
He will not see me sitting here,
As he delivers the annual report.

My family and friends must think it queer
For me to still be working here
With people who think themselves elite
And care so little about their peers.

They look at me with such distaste
And act as if there's some mistake.
I try to introduce myself
But my hand they will not even shake.

Their souls are cold, dark, and deep,
They aim to prevent inclusivity,
But I could never accept defeat,
Knowing the purpose of diversity.

Note:

I've used my creative license with Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," which you can read at the following link: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Revising History to Fit Agendas

Description

How do you convince the world that Satan does not exist? Hire a revisionist. 

There are two ways to use revisionist history: one refines history and the other produces fiction.

Revisionist Historians are often individuals or groups that engage in the positive uses of revisionist history, as they aim to correct inaccuracies, highlight marginalized perspectives, and provide a more nuanced understanding of historical events. Their work can lead to a deeper appreciation of the complexities of history and promote social justice by acknowledging the experiences of those who have been overlooked or misrepresented.

On the other hand, Revisionists are often individuals or groups that engage in nefarious uses of revisionist history. This includes distorting historical facts to serve a particular ideological agenda, which can perpetuate harmful stereotypes or justify discriminatory practices. Such revisionism is often criticized for being dishonest or manipulative, as it seeks to reshape history in a way that supports specific narratives rather than seeking truth.

#revisionisthistory #revisionist #revisionisthistorian #abolitic #socialjustice #activism

Justice for Sonya Massey

 

This is America

 

This is America,

Home of mass hysteria,

Where life is inferior,

And guns, we got plethora.

 

This is soil,

Where blood boils,

Water, thicker than oil,

Psychologically wound like coils.

 

This is the place,

Where you get erased,

Virological debates,

And politically defaced.

 

 

I'm so cool like whoa

FDA all in your bowl,

Control your menstrual flow

So new birthrates be real slow.

 

 

This is America.

Abolition

The Promises of War

The Promises of War

So,

We kill each other

Then what?

Utopia?

References

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, November 12). Red Summer. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:21, December 29, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Summer&oldid=925837384

The Real World

The Real World

What the real world look like?

What the real world look like,

Anybody?

I said, what the real world look like brother?

What the real world look like.

The real world looks like

Spanish speaking children in big American courts defending their humanity

White judge, white sheriff, white reporter, white interpreter, white clerk, white plaintiff,

but not one black, brown, or beige body other than the defendant

the little child defendant,

Defending their unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

What the real world look like brother

The real world looks like

actresses, white actresses, white women putting on an act

as fingers pound three numbers that use to bring help

but are now used to deliver terrorist acts.

What we want the real world to look like is blue serving and protecting

But the real world is, blue screaming "whose streets, our streets"

Protesting protesters who protest against acts of hate and inhumanity

While allowing protesters of hate and inhumanity to march,

Torches in one hand,

Firearms in the other, chanting

"You will not replace us!"

"Blood and soil!"

What the real world look like,

Anybody?

I said, what the real world look like brother?

What the real world look like.

The real world looks like

A country of people celebrating adoption of the Declaration of Independence

While ranking 52 of 167 on the global slavery index

The real world looks like

The most advanced country skilled at advancing

Advancing everything from the rates of inequality to the rates of incarceration

The real world looks like

A country with the science to create life-saving medicines

And the foresight to place these medicines out of the reach of the people

What the real world look like?

A place of over-industrialization

Of high infant mortality

A place where the most educated low-wage workers often find themselves unemployed

A place where people continue to increase their calorie intake and gun ownership

The real world looks like lips that condemn militarized countries while hands export more weapons in exchange for monetary gain and control through continued destabilization

What the real world look like?

If you have to ask yourself,

You haven't been watching

You haven't been listening

You haven't been living, connected to what's really going on.

Police Code of Silence

Police Code of Silence Facts Revealed

The National Institute of Ethics has concluded the most extensive research ever conducted on the police Code of Silence. Between February, 1999 and June, 2000, 3,714 officers and academy recruits from forty-two different states were asked to participate in the study by the Institute. One aspect of the research determined the views of academy recruits, while the other identified officers who had taken part in the code, then asked why and how it occurred. These findings mark the first time law enforcement has ever been able to learn the truth about this crucial problem. The significance of this knowledge is that if we can learn how to effectively control the Code of Silence, serious corruption cannot exist because many people become aware of a scandal as it expands.

Facts About Academy Recruits

Twenty-five basic law enforcement academies from 16 states took part in the research by administering and collecting 1,016 confidential questionnaires completed by academy recruits. The findings included that:

• 79% said that a law enforcement Code of Silence exists and is fairly common throughout the nation.
• 52% said that the fact a Code of Silence exists doesn’t really bother them.
• 24% said the Code of Silence is more justified when excessive force involves a citizen who’s abusive.
• 46% said they would not tell on another officer for having sex on duty.
• 23% said they wouldn’t tell on another cop for regularly smoking marijuana off duty.

Read More at Source: Police Code of Silence Facts Revealed

Defining Activism

Defining Activism

“Activism is quite simply taking action to effect social change; this can occur in a myriad of ways and in a variety of forms. Often it is concerned with ‘how to change the world’ through social, political, economic or environmental change. This can be led by individuals but is often done collectively through social movements."

Source: Introduction to Activism - Permanent Culture Now

Become an Activist

The Reasons for Becoming an Activist are Many

“With the sole exception of black Americans in the post-reconstruction era, no other generation has been so deprived of its constitutional rights and civil liberties. No other generation of young males has been sent to prison in such numbers for such minor offenses. And few generations of the young have been so consistently treated as a social problem rather than as a cause of joy and hope. Except for blacks in the post-reconstruction era – no other generation has been so deliberately cheated of so much.”

Source: Becoming And Being An Activist | PopularResistance.Org