Schadenfreude is the emotional experience of pleasure in response to another’s misfortune. It reminds me of the glee with which Anne posted her billboard on Broadway depicting Donald Trump’s mugshot and alluding to the jailtime he would be serving…very soon.
Many good people don’t want to admit to such base emotions, but I must admit to getting a smile on my face when reading about “the hostile takeover of 50501” on multiple reddit threads.
I was always skeptical of the group…no known leadership, claiming to be grassroots, and the one who was originally identified as the founder has disappeared… Who is financing the effort? yadda yadda.
And of course there was the food drive that mysteriously replaced their protest on April 19.
Lo and behold, there’s trouble in paradise and the reddit world is awfully aghast that this worldly stuff is happening in the midst of saving the country from fascism.
It would seem that if Anne or the Grand Junction democrats are promoting these 50501 events, they should be looking into who these people are.
But what do I know? I’m just a MAGA sycophant, as someone here recently called me.
So events aside, what are your thoughts about the events of the last few months, what should be changed, what not, etc. I dont really get any ideas from your comment but would be interested in some thoughts
I made a vow several weeks ago not to reply to comments any more. What seem like reasonable people at first turn into intolerable bullies eventually and I just got sick of it.
But you seem genuine. DON’T DISAPPOINT ME!!!
🙂
I voted for Trump in 2016 primarily because I loathe Clinton. I laughed at a friend who said she was voting for Trump. I didn’t know anything about him but when my chosen candidate, Cruz, bit the dust, I went with Trump. Since I lived in California, it didn’t matter who I voted for.
My loyalty to him then and now is because I think he is genuinely interested in the good of our country. But even more than that is the way the dems and the media have gone after him…they made stuff up that they would never have gone after their own for. I kinda hate them and view Trump as a wounded warrior who won’t give up.
I like DOGE because, although many from both parties have talked about waste and abuse, they’ve done nothing.
I’m definitely not an economist, but I have heard people I respect speak well of tariffs and reducing the trade deficit.
But the best thing he’s done is closed the border. What no one talked about before the election was the astronomical cost of deportation.
I don’t like illegal immigration
I understand why people want to come here, but we can’t tolerate it. I am hoping that when the dust settles, Trump can collaborate with Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico and deliver a fatal blow to the most evil people on earth…the cartels.
It seems there are two tracks for GJ Dem’s: you either jockey for power within the Mesa County Dems, or you try to grow your own social network. Several sites were linked to from Indivisible. Two were local activism groups looking for local money to grow and activate. Those generally used Paypal and a few used Google and Apple wallets as well as Venmo. The other link was to ActBlue, an actual 503(c) non-profit. 50501 does not seem to seek money, though they refer people to local chapters where you can ask organizers how to help donate directly.
Good catch on Reddit. The volume of followers is worth money and power and definitely worth trademark and ownership attacks.
I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and see how John Schwartz is doing. He put up a beautiful page asking people to boycott Amazon this week. But now you must join thepeoplesunionusa.com to get details.
If anyone cares to recall, thePeoplesunionusa.com was created a few months ago to promote economic blackouts against businesses large and small. This has been tried many times, but this time, the founder, John Schwartz got I presume an Associated Press story written up, which made it to all of the mainstream media outlets. John had a gofundme site to … fund it.
John promised total transparency, and I reported its intake of at that time of about $13,000. His outlays were web hosting fees and domain registration, and a few other charges amounting to about $3000. The rest was promised to grow the movement. A month later and after the first Amazon blackout day, the GoFundMe site reached its $125,000 goal. On his website, said this was just the beginning and that is true. He showed $1777,000 in revenue, but he was concerned about the cost of software development of over $100,000 to create a community funding site (that appears to be reduced to $3800 now.) His main expense at that time was trademark monitoring for $2000 per year, and the $4500 that GoFundMe took for commission. I am pretty sure that GoFundMe would display the $52,000 overage if he got funded past his goal. His site added in payment bots, so maybe it came from there.
Today I looked, and all the transparency terms had changed. Now you must join the community to see financial statements. This will prevent hackers and scrapers (like me) from doing bad things. If you join, you will have to dig deep in the chat rooms and their threeads to find anything about financial disclosures. If you bookmark it, your’e good to go, but it is like burrying disclosure in a tina Peters comments thread.
By the way, The terms and conditions at joining were almost nothing, and did not discourage me from copying anything. They do not protect your identity, your data, and your payment details .. especially if you send a check instead of paypal. They also do not include GDPR disclosures which could cost him up to $5000 per day, or 6% of global revenue(which ever greater… I guess $5000/day for him, but billions if it is Apple, Meta, or Google) if prosecuted.
Stay with me because I want to finish my rant. What do you get from your transparent donation? It is hard to say. An extra $20 will get you a t-shirt.
But really, John wants you to help build a future for you!
SO, for $1800 per year, you can start your own local chapter! And you get 20 t-shirts in the startup kit! I am not sure if he charges a royalty or override.
I can sleep better at night knowing there are people out there willing to fight for the noble cause against corruption and capitalism.
One more thing, the website has a strange name. I wouldn’t have chosen it. There was other more established sites like that name, but I can’t remember all of them. One, however, is thepeopleunion.com. It is at least a non-profit and may be doing legitimate work for voting aggregation. Maybe this one came later, and is actually taking a ride on John. I guess business is booming for trademark infringement lawyers.
Okay, below is the paste. God bless America
He decided to incorporate as a for-profit LLC.
Budget Disclosure
The People’s Union USA
Senior Member
142 posts
ThePeoplesUnionUSA
Apr 01
Edited
To everyone who’s stands with this movement, contributed, and believed in what we’re building, thank you.
From this point forward, we will no longer be publicly displaying the financial overview or total funds raised on the main website.
That information has now been moved here inside the private forum,
where it belongs.
Why?
Security. With the amount of traffic we’ve been getting and the growing attention this movement is drawing, we’re not about to give any reason for hackers or bad actors to try anything slick. This isn’t paranoia, it’s common sense. We’re protecting what you helped build.
Second, this information isn’t for the public. It’s for you. the ones who support it, fund it, and keep it alive. The ones who have shown up, stood strong, and stayed aligned with what we’re doing. You deserve to know where we stand and what we’re working with. So from here on out, this thread will serve as the place to check back for updates to view whenever you’d like to take a look.
Future Use of Contributions
(Updated for transparency and long-term planning)
As we move forward, all contributions will be used to continue building this movement into something powerful, lasting, and protected. That includes:
• Updating and maintaining the website and forum, keeping them functional, secure, and able to support our growing national community
• Hiring individuals for outreach, operations, legal support, research, and coordination as we expand
• Marketing and promotion to raise awareness, increase visibility, and grow the network of people standing with us
• Legal structuring and protection for long-term sustainability and to ensure that The People’s Union USA cannot be silenced or dismantled
Any funds allocated for merchandise production will always be fully replenished from profits. That means contributions remain focused on fueling the mission and building real infrastructure.
I will also be allocating six months of payroll up front. This allows for financial stability and ensures that the core of this movement keeps moving forward.
Additionally, around 30 to 35 percent of net contributions will need to be reserved for taxes to keep everything in proper legal standing.
The entire next year of website and forum expenses will also be pre-funded.
This way, the platform we are all building together is never at risk.
And this is exactly why your contributions, chapter development, and merchandise support matter so much. We are building something bigger than a movement.
We are laying the foundation for a new way forward, and that takes planning, protection, and people.
We’re not just reacting, we are organizing.
We’re not just resisting, we are rebuilding.
Thank you for being part of this with me.
~ J
If you prefer to mail your donations, please send check or money order to:
The People’s Union USA
PO Box 38
Ringwood, Illinois
60072
Total Donations Received: $127,216.95
Breakdown of Expenses as of 3/18/25
~ Website Domain & Hosting: $485.00 (Yearly)
~ Website Email Service: $216.00 (Yearly)
~ Domain Broker $119
~ Legal Fee’s $3500
~ Net / .Info purchase: $373.64 ( 5years)
~ Website Security: $32.09 (Yearly)
~ GoFundMe Fees: $4,457.97
~ Post Office Box: $89.00 (Yearly)
~ Trademark Monitoring: $1776.00 (Yearly)
~ USPTO Filing – $450
~ Business Filing with the State – $255.53
~ Graphic Designing – $1677.99
~ A/V Development – $3,534.92
~ Site Upgrades/Community – $3800.00 (Yearly)
~ Rebranding Logo – $1400
~ Postal Printer / Supplies $139.00
~ Marketing $788.89**
– total Spent so far: $23,095.03
– Balance $104,121.92
Bottom line…these people are filling a need. They know that there a millions of disgruntled Democrats who are just itching to “make a difference” and they have convinced them to give up their Saturdays and apparently, their money as well.
Without being conspiratoral, I would say this is being coordinated from way above and was planned well before the election. Two people I know of are Marc Elias and Norm Eisen.
As well as the street protests, they have inspired a lot of young leftist lawyers to sue the Trump administration for all matter of things because they know this gums up the works…very shrewd.
But I have to ask…to what end? They obviously hate Trump and have dedicated themselves to going after him but they are offering nothing and their followers are pretty brainless.
You have mocked my reference to the “summer of love”. I was referring to statements by the mayor of Seattle who allowed her city downtown to be taken over by drug addled thugs, during the George Flloyd riots.
PS. The “Vaccines Cause Adults” T shirt is the winner by a mile.
Schadenfreude is the emotional experience of pleasure in response to another’s misfortune. It reminds me of the glee with which Anne posted her billboard on Broadway depicting Donald Trump’s mugshot and alluding to the jailtime he would be serving…very soon.
Many good people don’t want to admit to such base emotions, but I must admit to getting a smile on my face when reading about “the hostile takeover of 50501” on multiple reddit threads.
I was always skeptical of the group…no known leadership, claiming to be grassroots, and the one who was originally identified as the founder has disappeared… Who is financing the effort? yadda yadda.
And of course there was the food drive that mysteriously replaced their protest on April 19.
Lo and behold, there’s trouble in paradise and the reddit world is awfully aghast that this worldly stuff is happening in the midst of saving the country from fascism.
It would seem that if Anne or the Grand Junction democrats are promoting these 50501 events, they should be looking into who these people are.
But what do I know? I’m just a MAGA sycophant, as someone here recently called me.
So events aside, what are your thoughts about the events of the last few months, what should be changed, what not, etc. I dont really get any ideas from your comment but would be interested in some thoughts
I made a vow several weeks ago not to reply to comments any more. What seem like reasonable people at first turn into intolerable bullies eventually and I just got sick of it.
But you seem genuine. DON’T DISAPPOINT ME!!!
🙂
I voted for Trump in 2016 primarily because I loathe Clinton. I laughed at a friend who said she was voting for Trump. I didn’t know anything about him but when my chosen candidate, Cruz, bit the dust, I went with Trump. Since I lived in California, it didn’t matter who I voted for.
My loyalty to him then and now is because I think he is genuinely interested in the good of our country. But even more than that is the way the dems and the media have gone after him…they made stuff up that they would never have gone after their own for. I kinda hate them and view Trump as a wounded warrior who won’t give up.
I like DOGE because, although many from both parties have talked about waste and abuse, they’ve done nothing.
I’m definitely not an economist, but I have heard people I respect speak well of tariffs and reducing the trade deficit.
But the best thing he’s done is closed the border. What no one talked about before the election was the astronomical cost of deportation.
I don’t like illegal immigration
I understand why people want to come here, but we can’t tolerate it. I am hoping that when the dust settles, Trump can collaborate with Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico and deliver a fatal blow to the most evil people on earth…the cartels.
PS. you wondered about “what should be changed?”
I would like Trump to speak more clearly. He kinda drives me crazy a lot.
So I have read your post again and now am wondering if you were asking about the demonstrations. Sorry for my rant about Trump.
I think these people are being led around by the nose. By the looks of it, they are mostly old hippies reminiscing about the good old days.
I doubt any of them know much about what they are against and I doubt any of them could give an off the cuff definition of fascism.
They are doing what they are told and apparently are having fun, so they should carry on.. and not forget their sunscreen!
It seems there are two tracks for GJ Dem’s: you either jockey for power within the Mesa County Dems, or you try to grow your own social network. Several sites were linked to from Indivisible. Two were local activism groups looking for local money to grow and activate. Those generally used Paypal and a few used Google and Apple wallets as well as Venmo. The other link was to ActBlue, an actual 503(c) non-profit. 50501 does not seem to seek money, though they refer people to local chapters where you can ask organizers how to help donate directly.
Good catch on Reddit. The volume of followers is worth money and power and definitely worth trademark and ownership attacks.
I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and see how John Schwartz is doing. He put up a beautiful page asking people to boycott Amazon this week. But now you must join thepeoplesunionusa.com to get details.
If anyone cares to recall, thePeoplesunionusa.com was created a few months ago to promote economic blackouts against businesses large and small. This has been tried many times, but this time, the founder, John Schwartz got I presume an Associated Press story written up, which made it to all of the mainstream media outlets. John had a gofundme site to … fund it.
John promised total transparency, and I reported its intake of at that time of about $13,000. His outlays were web hosting fees and domain registration, and a few other charges amounting to about $3000. The rest was promised to grow the movement. A month later and after the first Amazon blackout day, the GoFundMe site reached its $125,000 goal. On his website, said this was just the beginning and that is true. He showed $1777,000 in revenue, but he was concerned about the cost of software development of over $100,000 to create a community funding site (that appears to be reduced to $3800 now.) His main expense at that time was trademark monitoring for $2000 per year, and the $4500 that GoFundMe took for commission. I am pretty sure that GoFundMe would display the $52,000 overage if he got funded past his goal. His site added in payment bots, so maybe it came from there.
Today I looked, and all the transparency terms had changed. Now you must join the community to see financial statements. This will prevent hackers and scrapers (like me) from doing bad things. If you join, you will have to dig deep in the chat rooms and their threeads to find anything about financial disclosures. If you bookmark it, your’e good to go, but it is like burrying disclosure in a tina Peters comments thread.
By the way, The terms and conditions at joining were almost nothing, and did not discourage me from copying anything. They do not protect your identity, your data, and your payment details .. especially if you send a check instead of paypal. They also do not include GDPR disclosures which could cost him up to $5000 per day, or 6% of global revenue(which ever greater… I guess $5000/day for him, but billions if it is Apple, Meta, or Google) if prosecuted.
Stay with me because I want to finish my rant. What do you get from your transparent donation? It is hard to say. An extra $20 will get you a t-shirt.
But really, John wants you to help build a future for you!
SO, for $1800 per year, you can start your own local chapter! And you get 20 t-shirts in the startup kit! I am not sure if he charges a royalty or override.
I can sleep better at night knowing there are people out there willing to fight for the noble cause against corruption and capitalism.
One more thing, the website has a strange name. I wouldn’t have chosen it. There was other more established sites like that name, but I can’t remember all of them. One, however, is thepeopleunion.com. It is at least a non-profit and may be doing legitimate work for voting aggregation. Maybe this one came later, and is actually taking a ride on John. I guess business is booming for trademark infringement lawyers.
Okay, below is the paste. God bless America
He decided to incorporate as a for-profit LLC.
Budget Disclosure
The People’s Union USA
Senior Member
142 posts
ThePeoplesUnionUSA
Apr 01
Edited
To everyone who’s stands with this movement, contributed, and believed in what we’re building, thank you.
From this point forward, we will no longer be publicly displaying the financial overview or total funds raised on the main website.
That information has now been moved here inside the private forum,
where it belongs.
Why?
Security. With the amount of traffic we’ve been getting and the growing attention this movement is drawing, we’re not about to give any reason for hackers or bad actors to try anything slick. This isn’t paranoia, it’s common sense. We’re protecting what you helped build.
Second, this information isn’t for the public. It’s for you. the ones who support it, fund it, and keep it alive. The ones who have shown up, stood strong, and stayed aligned with what we’re doing. You deserve to know where we stand and what we’re working with. So from here on out, this thread will serve as the place to check back for updates to view whenever you’d like to take a look.
Future Use of Contributions
(Updated for transparency and long-term planning)
As we move forward, all contributions will be used to continue building this movement into something powerful, lasting, and protected. That includes:
• Updating and maintaining the website and forum, keeping them functional, secure, and able to support our growing national community
• Hiring individuals for outreach, operations, legal support, research, and coordination as we expand
• Marketing and promotion to raise awareness, increase visibility, and grow the network of people standing with us
• Legal structuring and protection for long-term sustainability and to ensure that The People’s Union USA cannot be silenced or dismantled
Any funds allocated for merchandise production will always be fully replenished from profits. That means contributions remain focused on fueling the mission and building real infrastructure.
I will also be allocating six months of payroll up front. This allows for financial stability and ensures that the core of this movement keeps moving forward.
Additionally, around 30 to 35 percent of net contributions will need to be reserved for taxes to keep everything in proper legal standing.
The entire next year of website and forum expenses will also be pre-funded.
This way, the platform we are all building together is never at risk.
And this is exactly why your contributions, chapter development, and merchandise support matter so much. We are building something bigger than a movement.
We are laying the foundation for a new way forward, and that takes planning, protection, and people.
We’re not just reacting, we are organizing.
We’re not just resisting, we are rebuilding.
Thank you for being part of this with me.
~ J
If you prefer to mail your donations, please send check or money order to:
The People’s Union USA
PO Box 38
Ringwood, Illinois
60072
Total Donations Received: $127,216.95
Breakdown of Expenses as of 3/18/25
~ Website Domain & Hosting: $485.00 (Yearly)
~ Website Email Service: $216.00 (Yearly)
~ Domain Broker $119
~ Legal Fee’s $3500
~ Net / .Info purchase: $373.64 ( 5years)
~ Website Security: $32.09 (Yearly)
~ GoFundMe Fees: $4,457.97
~ Post Office Box: $89.00 (Yearly)
~ Trademark Monitoring: $1776.00 (Yearly)
~ USPTO Filing – $450
~ Business Filing with the State – $255.53
~ Graphic Designing – $1677.99
~ A/V Development – $3,534.92
~ Site Upgrades/Community – $3800.00 (Yearly)
~ Rebranding Logo – $1400
~ Postal Printer / Supplies $139.00
~ Marketing $788.89**
– total Spent so far: $23,095.03
– Balance $104,121.92
– Organizational Funds Allocation $40,000
– Business/Website/Forum Allocation $
+ Future Fund Allocation: $64,121.92
– Tax Allocation for 2025 (EST 35%) $
JS
Bottom line…these people are filling a need. They know that there a millions of disgruntled Democrats who are just itching to “make a difference” and they have convinced them to give up their Saturdays and apparently, their money as well.
Without being conspiratoral, I would say this is being coordinated from way above and was planned well before the election. Two people I know of are Marc Elias and Norm Eisen.
As well as the street protests, they have inspired a lot of young leftist lawyers to sue the Trump administration for all matter of things because they know this gums up the works…very shrewd.
But I have to ask…to what end? They obviously hate Trump and have dedicated themselves to going after him but they are offering nothing and their followers are pretty brainless.
You have mocked my reference to the “summer of love”. I was referring to statements by the mayor of Seattle who allowed her city downtown to be taken over by drug addled thugs, during the George Flloyd riots.
That is really what is on offer here…total chaos.