Just a guy 🇺🇸

former Marine, former LEO, and computer geek 😬 Always a Patriot! Love my Country, can’t say as much for my Government. God Bless the USA!! 🚫DM’s 🚫 Sales

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

Well Damn. She got me. I have no argument. 👊

[Conservative Momma @conmomma]

“MAGA Extremists” 👇

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

Not the way I planned on spending my afternoon, but 7,600 comments should not be ignored! Bots, trolls and personal attacks notwithstanding, the critics of yesterday’s post were dominated by a large and vocal contingent who rushed to remind me that there’s “a difference between socialism and communism,” an obvious indication that they didn’t actually read the post.

Shelley Armour writes… “Mike! You know there is a difference between democratic socialism and communism, right?”

Hi, Shelley. Yes, I know there’s a difference, and I understand what the difference is. The larger point, and the fundamental flaw with your comment, is that you seem to believe the candidates within the Democratic Socialist Party are both “democratic and socialist" simply because that’s the name of their club. Well, maybe some of them are. I really couldn’t say. What I can tell you for sure is that more than a few have called for the complete dismantling of capitalism, free markets, representative government, property rights, borders, police, prisons, and the Constitution in general. My post referred to them, as well as a number of elected Democrats who have agreed to campaign on their behalf – including Gavin Newsom, who said, "The Democratic Party must accept the DSA in order to take back the Congress.” His words, not mine.

Tracey Steele writes…“Wow! I cannot believe Mike Rowe said this. He has a huge reach, and he is actually spouting the word “communism” like it’s the 1950s! Wow Wow Wow!”

Wow indeed, Tracey, and thanks for noticing the size of my reach! (Contrary to popular belief, size does matter!) To say it again, I am not the one “spouting” communism or conflating socialists and communists. The word is being “spouted” by members of the DSA who are using it to describe themselves. I am not accusing them; I am quoting them.

John Engles… Hey Rowe, what’s the difference between the Communists who want to run the country and the Nazi/fascist who currently is?

Several differences, John, but the only one relevant to this conversation is the fact that the communists currently running for office have clearly identified themselves as such. They do not dispute or reject the label. They embrace it. It is who they are, who they claim to be, and who they want to be. The president, on the other hand, has never claimed to be a Nazi or a fascist. That doesn’t mean he isn't, but it is worth noting he has rejected the accusation outright. Obviously, you are entitled to that opinion and the right to share it publicly, thanks to our Constitution. Unlike in a fascist, Nazi, or communist regime. (Also worth noting, Nazis and fascists are not the same thing.)

Chris Tomaloff writes… “Kinda like how the political right didn’t shout down the extreme rhetoric coming from their candidates?”

No, Chris, not like that at all. In the video I shared, we saw examples of prominent Democrats saying things like, “We need to elect more communists!” (Cea Weaver, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office.) Mamdani himself literally tweeted, "Each according to their need, each according to their ability." That’s a direct quote from the Communist Manifesto.

But what exactly is the corollary from the right? Are prominent Republicans tweeting, “We need to elect more Nazis! We need to elect more fascists! Eat the poor!” I don’t think so. John Engles may think Trump is fascist and a Nazi, but Trump disagrees, and so do a majority of voters. Communists, on the other hand, say it loud and say it proud. I’m inclined to take them at their word.

Beto Ojeda… “Mike has always leaned to the Trumpian view of things but never states it, so as not to alienate anyone, but we know how to read between the lines. This “communist” talk is McCarthyism 2.0.”

I wasn’t around in the 1950s, Beto, but from what I’ve read, it was indeed a very difficult time to be a communist in this country. Lots of private citizens were dragged before Congress, made to take “loyalty oaths," and blacklisted in their places of work. I can’t justify it or condone it, but I can explain it. We had just fought a hot war against fascism and Nazism and just begun a Cold War against a communist regime. The existence of an organized Communist Party in this country at such a time strained the limits of tolerance. But do you really think we’re less tolerant today than we were seventy-five years ago? Do you really believe my comments about communists who claim to be communists are synonymous with another Red Scare? If you haven’t noticed, Chris, no one in the DSA, including the communists, is being dragged before Congress and made to swear a loyalty oath to the Constitution. Today, a communist in America can run for office…with the endorsement of the governor of California! And the tacit approval of a major political party! Seems to me we’re about as far from McCarthyism as we can get.

As for my desire not to alienate anyone, I suppose I am guilty of that. I run a foundation that is open to people of all political beliefs, and we’ve assisted lots of Americans who lean to the left. I also know for a fact that many Democrats have supported mikeroweWORKS historically, and I have no desire to run them off. But do you really have to “read between the lines” to understand where I’m coming from?

True, I’ve never endorsed a candidate or publicly encouraged people to vote. But I’ve been very transparent about the fact that I’m a registered Independent who favors policies and programs that often align with conservative principles. Obviously, I would not characterize those conservative principles as “Trumpian,” because a) they were around long before him, b) Trump is not a conservative, and c) I do not agree with or support everything the President says and does. So, is it possible, Beto, that your accusation is rooted in the fact that I have never publicly denounced the president to your satisfaction? Is it possible you think I'm a Trumper, simply because I've never called him a fascist, or a Nazi, or a liar, or a conman, or a traitor, or whatever else you believe him to be?

Gretchen Seipp… Mike, the fact that you still act as though you’re not political after all this time is a bit ridiculous. I still support your work and foundation because I believe in it, but the folksy act has worn thin.

Aw, shucks, Gretchen. Folksy? Lil' ole me?
Honestly, how am I acting as if I am “not political?” This entire conversation is the very definition of “political.”

Christopher Pugh… I would have voted for Mike Rowe and Freddie a few years ago before he went full-on MAGA, and I’m all in favor of his project, but it’s pretty clear the political direction that he’s moved in and the money trail that has influenced it.

It’s Freddy, not Freddie. (I don’t much care, but he’s a terrier and particular about such things.) As for the “full-on MAGA” moniker, is there something I did specifically to earn that designation? Is there some kind of general definition you can share? Or, are you coming from the same place as Beto? Is calling me “Full-On MAGA" your way of saying that I’ve failed to condemn Trump to your satisfaction?

For the record, MRW is supported by liberals and conservatives alike. I have no idea what “money trail” you are referring to. Also, regarding my personal politics, think about the implications of what I wrote. I said that the Democrats have been given a gift – an opportunity to appear reasonable by speaking the truth to their own party, just as Bill Maher has done. All they have to do is distance themselves from candidates who have called for the complete dismantlement of our Constitution. All they have to do is say, “Hold on, comrade. Our tent is not that big. We respect your right to hate America, but we don’t want you in our party, and we will not support your candidacy.”

If they say that, I think a lot of Independents would see them as they see John Fetterman, who has, in the eyes of many voters, become the most “rational” Democrat currently in office. If they don’t – if they actually welcome communist candidates into their party – then I’m afraid the Democrats, by default, will offer the American people a very simple choice in November – a party that disavows communism vs. a party that doesn’t. I think such a choice would be very positive for Republicans because I don’t think most Americans want to align themselves with a Democratic Party that welcomes communists. The question for you, Chris, is why would a “Full-On MAGA” like me encourage Democrats to act in a way that would disadvantage the Republican Party? And the answer is simple – it’s because I support the existence of a Democratic Party that believes America is still a fundamentally good place.

I think there’s a lot of room for improvement in our country, and I believe the best way to realize those improvements is for Democrats and Republicans to have continuous, robust and public debate about all the issues. But if one of those parties is affirmatively determined to transform our democratic republic into a communist state, then we’re no longer debating the various ways to make our country better; we’re debating the merits of destroying it. And really, what’s the point of tolerating that?

America is already a big tent, filled with hundreds of millions of people with wildly differing views and lots of political parties that represent those views. We’ve got the Green Party, the American Freedom Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Constitution Party, and of course, the Communist Party USA, as well as the Democratic Socialist Party. America’s tent is so big, we can even tolerate fringe parties like the KKK, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and so forth. Why then, does Gavin Newsom want to make room in the Democratic tent for socialists and communists? There’s only one reason, and he’s already spelled it out for us – he believes the Democrats need them to win back the Congress. I think it’s a bad bet for the Democrats and for America. And if a prominent Republican reached out to the KKK with the same “big tent” offer, you’d better believe my vote would be in play.

Michael Tillman… When are you going to throw your hat into the ring, Mr. Rowe?

Ha! When it no longer fits my head!

[I love Tesla 🔋🚀 @JC70769]

"A guy looked at my airplane the other day and said I wonder how many people I could have fed for the price of that airplane...

I replied I am not sure, it fed a lot of families at the Dassault factory where it was built. I’m sure it fed a bunch of families that rolled the aluminum at the Alcoa factory. It surely fed a lot of people at the Honeywell factory where the experts built the turbines. It fed a whole company for a few weeks when I had them build me a new interior. It feeds the families of the linemen that fuel it.

That’s the difference between capitalism and a welfare mentality. When you buy something, you put money in people's pockets, and give them dignity for their skills.

When you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of their dignity and self worth.

Capitalism is freely giving your money in exchange for something of value.

Socialism is taking your money against your will and shoving something down your throat that you never asked for."

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

@janninereid1 Yes, yes, yes

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

@KCPayTreeIt Truth!

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

This is just nuts.

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 UPDATE: This Fort Worth TX police officer is facing mass demands to be FIRED after she issued a citation warning to a Christian preacher for "OFFENSIVE SPEECH"

This is AMERICA, not Europe!

She straight up claimed: "If someone is offended by your talking, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"

The man, a retired cop, fires back: "That is a constitutional violation!"

Officer: "If they're offended—"

Man: "I don't CARE if they're offended."

Officer: "OK, we'll right you a TICKET!"

OUTRAGEOUS!

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

Love this! Happy Birthday America!!

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

@janninereid1 An unfortunate truth.

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

“When we decide our emotional reaction is the truth, curiosity disappears. Humility disappears. Patience disappears. We stop trying to understand. We stop listening. We stop seeing things as they truly are.
So instead of mistaking feelings for facts, let’s pause. Let’s get curious. Let’s be humble. Let’s be patient. Because the way we feel about something in the moment is rarely, if ever, fact.”

[End Wokeness @EndWokeness]

It must suck to have to pretend to be mad at this

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

This kid is on 🔥 Good for him!

[Formula 1 @F1]

The winning feeling never gets old! 🥳

Kimi Antonelli wins in Monaco after an impressive drive 👏

#F1 #MonacoGP

[Gary M @gman5180]

Strange world we live in, right? 🤔
I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime....I couldn't even imagine it!

[Danny Deraney @DannyDeraney]

Every year, I share this video of French caretakers who take sand from Omaha Beach in Normandy, and scrub them into the letters to give them the gold coloring.

They do this for all 9,386 US soldiers who died.

France also gave us this land as American soil. #MemorialDayWeekend

[ESPN F1 @ESPNF1]

The first F1 driver to convert his first three poles into wins.

Kimi Antonelli 🙇

[Dustin @r0ck3t23]

Cathie Wood just named the contradiction nobody wants to touch.

She compared Elon Musk to Thomas Edison.

Not as praise. As a pattern.

Wood: “I think he’s the Thomas Edison of our age… he wants to do the right thing to transform the lot of most of humanity.”

The media sees a reckless billionaire setting fires.

Wood sees the only person in the room building anything at all.

The gap between those two readings tells you everything about who controls the narrative.

Start with Tesla.

Wood: “Tesla was an environmental move, which I think a lot of people attacking his cars… they’ve forgotten.”

He built the exact machine environmentalists spent thirty years begging for.

Didn’t lobby for it. Didn’t write a whitepaper. Built it.

Forced every major automaker on Earth to abandon the combustion engine.

Then the second he won, the same movement made him the enemy.

Because the establishment never wanted the problem solved. They wanted the problem funded. And those are two very different things.

A solved problem kills the committee. Kills the nonprofit. Kills the careers built on managing the crisis instead of ending it.

Musk ended it. And they have never forgiven him.

SpaceX looks like an escape hatch if you never read past the headline.

Which is exactly what the press counts on.

Wood: “What we learn about material science and technologies… is going to help us here on Earth as well.”

Mars was never the exit.

It is the lab.

Build under conditions so brutal that every breakthrough changes what is possible back home.

You learn to keep a human alive in a frozen irradiated vacuum.

Fixing an energy grid on a temperate planet becomes arithmetic.

He is not running from the cradle.

He is stress-testing the technology that preserves it.

But that story doesn’t sell ads. Doesn’t move polling numbers. So they bury it under hit pieces and congressional theater and call it journalism.

Most people who reach his level stop building and start protecting what they have.

They buy senators. They buy newspapers. They buy silence.

Musk keeps picking the hardest unsolved problems on the planet and running straight at them.

That is what terrifies the establishment.

Not that he might fail.

That he might succeed without them. Without their funding. Without their approval. Without anything they can hold over his head.

A man they cannot buy is a man they cannot control.

So they do the only thing they have left.

They send the media after him.

Every legacy outlet runs the same playbook. Strip the context. Clip the quote. Frame the motive. Let the algorithm do the rest.

It has worked on every builder before him.

It will not work on this one.

They will spend their careers trying to tear him down.

He will spend his building the thing that saves them anyway.

The stones always come from inside the walls.

[Toni @ToniLL22]

I love this. 👇
To the person who wrote this, thank you for sharing what so many of us think of our President.♥️🇺🇸

Mr. President,
⠀
I don’t know if you’ll ever read this. Probably not. But I’m writing it anyway because my wife and I talk about this all the time, and somebody needs to say it out loud.
⠀
We can’t wait for the day you’re no longer President.
⠀
Not because we’re tired of you. The opposite. Because you deserve to go home. You deserve quiet mornings. You deserve to sit on your own porch without the weight of 330 million people sitting on your shoulders. You deserve your family back. You deserve peace.
⠀
You didn’t have to do any of this.
⠀
You had the money.
You had the name.
You had the life most men only dream about.
You could’ve spent the rest of your days golfing, traveling, watching your grandkids grow up.
⠀
Instead you stepped into a fire that nearly cost you everything.
⠀
They mocked you. They sued you. They raided your home. They tried to bankrupt you. They tried to lock you up. They dragged your wife and kids through the mud. They put a bullet through your ear and you got up with your fist in the air and kept going.
⠀
For what?
⠀
For us. Regular people. Truck drivers. Welders. Waitresses. Roughnecks. Farmers. Single moms working two jobs. Grandparents on a fixed income watching the country they built get handed away.
⠀
You didn’t owe us a thing. And you gave us everything.
⠀
You risked your name. Your legacy. Your safety. Your family’s safety. Your brand. Your freedom. All of it. So this country could have one more shot at being what it was supposed to be.
⠀
And the truth nobody wants to admit?
⠀
We didn’t deserve a President like you.
⠀
A nation this divided, this ungrateful, this asleep at the wheel didn’t earn a man willing to bleed for it. But God sent you anyway. And I’ll thank Him for that until the day I die. 🙏
⠀
So when the day finally comes that you walk away from that desk, I hope you sleep good. I hope your wife laughs again without looking over her shoulder. I hope your kids breathe easy. I hope you golf till the sun goes down and nobody bothers you for nothing.
⠀
You earned every bit of it.
⠀
Thank you, Mr. President. From a truck driver in Texas who prays for you often.
⠀
God bless you. God bless your family. And God bless the United States of America. 🇺🇸

[Dustin @r0ck3t23]

Elon Musk just described the most sophisticated theft operation in American history.

Not a heist. A system.

Your tax dollars leave Washington.

They enter a non-governmental organization. The government. With different letterhead.

Musk: “Obviously if it’s a government-funded non-governmental organization, it’s just the government.”

They cross a border.

American law stops following them.

They pass through three more entities in three more countries.

They come home.

Different pocket. Clean hands. Perfect crime.

Musk: “The government can send money to an NGO that is then no longer governed by the laws of the United States.”

Now run the math.

Congressional salary. $200,000.

Average net worth of a longtime member of Congress. North of $20 million.

Musk: “There are a lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress. I just can’t connect the dots of how they got $20 million earning $200,000 a year. Nobody can explain that.”

Nobody is supposed to.

This machine ran untouched for decades for one reason. Human limitation.

A forensic team cannot trace ten thousand wire transfers across fifty global jurisdictions at once.

The corruption does not hide in darkness.

It hides in volume.

They built a labyrinth so deliberately complex that the sheer weight of it collapses every investigation before it starts.

Paper buries paper. Bureaucracy absorbs inquiry.

The entire architecture was engineered to exhaust you.

Then artificial intelligence arrived.

AI does not get tired.

It cannot be bought.

It does not lose the thread at wire transfer 4,000.

You give it the entire global ledger. It maps every node, every transfer, every shell entity, every offshore NGO across every jurisdiction. Not in weeks. In hours.

It finds the signal inside the noise.

It flags the pattern.

It traces a dollar from a D.C. appropriation to a Cayman shell to a congressional portfolio in the time it takes a human auditor to find his parking spot.

The labyrinth was built to defeat human eyes.

It is defenseless against a machine that reads the entire maze at once.

This is why the establishment is not just annoyed by DOGE.

They are terrified.

Musk: “We’re going to try to figure it out and stop it.”

He did not arrive in Washington to trim budgets.

He arrived with supercomputing, AI audit systems, and a mandate to map the full financial architecture of the federal government.

For the first time in history, the complexity that protected the corruption is the very thing that will expose it.

Every shell entity is a signature.

Every routing pattern is a fingerprint.

Every congressman who walked in earning $200,000 and walked out worth $20 million is now a variable in an equation that will be solved.

The swamp was never impenetrable.

It was just too big for human hands.

It was never built for this.

[Just a guy 🇺🇸 @narcotech]

Truth!

[Not the Bee @Not_the_Bee]

We vote for Republicans but apparently we aren’t represented by anybody. Failing to pass the SAVE Act is the most disgraceful inaction I’ve ever seen from a political party.

[Sue Knows Best @sues86453]

Pay attention now!

Joe legal works in construction, has a Social Security number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted.

Jose illegal also works in construction has no Social Security number and makes $15.00 per hour cash, under the table.

Ready?... now pay attention....

Joe legal: $25.00 per hour × 40 hours = $1,000.00 per week or $52,000.00 per year. Now, take 31% away for State and Federal taxes. Joe legal now has $31,231.00.

Jose illegal: $15.00 an hour × 40 hours = $600.00 per week or $31,200.00 per year. Jose illegal pays no taxes. Jose illegal now has $31,200.00.

Joe legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Joe legal now has $24,031.00.

Jose illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the State and local clinics and emergency hospitals at a cost of $0.00 per year. Jose illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or welfare. Joe legal spends $500.00 per month for food or $6,000.00 per year. Joe legal now has $18,031.00.

Jose illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps, WIC and welfare. Jose illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe legal pays rent of 1,200.00 per month or $14,400.00 per year. Joe legal now has $9,631.00.

Jose illegal receives $500.00 per month Federal rent subsidy. Jose illegal pays out that $500.00 per month or $6,000.00 per year. Jose illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe legal pays $200.00 per month or $2,400.00 per year for car insurance. Some of that is uninsured motorist insurance. Joe legal now has $7,231.00.

Jose illegal says, "We don't need no stinkin' insurance."... and still has $31,000.00.

Joe legal has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline.. etc.

Jose illegal has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline and what he sends out of the country every month....

Joe legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work.

Jose illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family.

Joe legal's and Jose illegal's children both attend the same elementary school.

Joe legal pays for his children's lunches while...

Jose illegal's children get a government-sponsored lunch.

Jose illegal's children have an after school ESL program.

Joe legal's children go home.

Now, when they reach college age...

Joe legal's kids may not get into a State school and may not qualify for scholarships, grants or other tuition help, even though Joe has been paying for State schools through his taxes, while...

Jose illegal's kids go to the, 'head of the class' because they are a minority.

Joe legal and Jose illegal both benefit from the same police and fire services, but Joe paid for them and Jose did not.

Do you get it, now?

If we vote for or support any politician that supports illegal aliens,... we are part of the problem.

Its way PAST time to take a stand for America and Americans!