Fiercely Independent

Most Americans support term limits for Congress, so why don’t we have them?

The answer goes back to a 1995 Supreme Court decision that made congressional term limits far harder to enact than most people realize.

But there’s another constitutional question worth examining.

The 22nd Amendment says no person can be elected president more than twice. It does not explicitly say a person cannot serve as president more than twice.

With Donald Trump continuing to raise the possibility of a third term, that distinction matters.

Chris breaks down congressional term limits, presidential term limits, age limits, and why changing any of them may be far more complicated than voters think.

What do you think?

Should Congress have term limits?
Should there be an age limit for presidents and members of Congress?

When does a political argument become an appeal to fear?

In this week’s Spot the Spin, Chris examines Stephen Miller’s rhetoric about immigration and Democratic socialists to show how emotional language can take the place of evidence.

Whatever your politics, two questions can help you spot the tactic:
• What exactly are you being told to believe?
• What evidence did they give you to prove it?

Feeling strongly about something doesn’t make it true. Question the claim. Look for the proof.

Subscribe to Fiercely Independent for more Spot the Spin.

Stay fierce. Stay independent.

#FiercelyIndependent #SpotTheSpin #StephenMiller #MediaLiteracy #CriticalThinking

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has built a reputation for breaking with his party. But this isn’t about whether he’s a Democrat, a Republican in disguise, or anything in between.

It’s about whether he’s doing the job.

Reports say Fetterman resisted meetings with Pennsylvania veterans, questioned why he needed to meet with representatives from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, balked at attending the funeral of three Pennsylvania police officers, and posted one of the Senate’s worst voting attendance records.

Committee work. Constituent meetings. Hearings. Votes. These aren’t glamorous parts of being a senator, but they are part of the job.

So the question is simple: Does John Fetterman still want to be a U.S. Senator?

For treating the job like it’s optional, John Fetterman gets This Week’s Worst.

What do you think? Fair criticism, or is Fetterman being judged too harshly?

Stay fierce. Stay independent.

President Trump says every adult American could receive a $5,000 “Trump dividend” if Republicans keep control of the House and Senate this November.

But where would that money actually come from?

With the national debt already approaching $40 trillion, a $5,000 payment to American adults could cost more than $1 trillion. And that raises a bigger question:

Is this sound economic policy, or are voters being offered $5,000 for their vote?

Chris looks at the promise, previous dividend proposals that never materialized, the potential impact on the debt and inflation, and the question every independent voter should be asking:

Who ultimately pays the bill?

Stay fierce. Stay independent.

Can police search everything on your phone just because they’ve arrested you and taken possession of it?

In this episode of Know This!, Chris breaks down the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Riley v. California and the important distinction between police taking your phone and actually searching what’s inside it.

We cover when police generally need a warrant, when consent or an emergency can change the rules, and what you should do if an officer asks to search your phone.

Know your rights. Know the limits. Know This!

Subscribe to Fiercely Independent for clear, nonpartisan breakdowns of the laws, court decisions, and political issues that affect you.

What if everything someone told you was technically true, but they still got you to believe something false?

That’s selective framing, and it’s one of the most effective ways politicians, pundits, the media, and social media can shape the way we see an issue.

In this episode of Spot the Spin, Chris looks at President Trump’s recent claims about violence in Chicago and compares one violent weekend with the broader homicide data.

The individual statistics were real. But what happens when you widen the frame?

The lesson goes far beyond Chicago: whenever you’re shown a shocking statistic, ask what it’s being compared to, what time period is being used, and what information might have been left out.

Sometimes misinformation isn’t about telling you something false.

Sometimes it’s about making sure you never see the bigger picture.

Stay fierce. Stay independent.

Donald Trump may not be on the ballot this November, but his agenda is.

If control of Congress changes, so does the balance of power. A new majority could investigate ICE operations, demand answers about the war with Iran, scrutinize alleged corruption, enforce the release of the Epstein files, restrict spending, and block Trump’s nominees.

This election is about more than individual candidates. It could determine whether Congress continues supporting the status quo or finally reasserts itself as a co-equal branch of government.

Stay fierce. Stay independent.

Six months into the war with Iran, the United States is still fighting, Congress has failed to meaningfully intervene, and Americans are paying the price.

Before the first airstrikes, negotiations were reportedly making progress and the Strait of Hormuz was open. The administration had also claimed Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated just eight months earlier. So why did another war become necessary, what is the goal now, and when does it end?

Chris examines the decisions that brought America here, the human and economic costs, and the accountability voters should demand in November.

Stay fierce. Stay independent.

President Trump posted an AI-generated video depicting an American military attack that never happened. The explanation was that he was “sending a message.”

But when government officials use artificial intelligence to create realistic footage of fictional events, how can the public distinguish fact from propaganda?

As AI-generated imagery becomes more convincing and government messaging becomes increasingly intertwined with social media, the real question is no longer whether we can be fooled. It’s how we will know when what we’re seeing is real.

Stay fierce. Stay independent.

#ArtificialIntelligence #AIMisinformation #Trump #MediaLiteracy #GovernmentTransparency #FiercelyIndependent

Would 73 studies be enough to convince you something is true? Health Secretary RFK Jr. claims 73 studies link Tylenol use in pregnancy to autism — but is that actually extraordinary evidence, or just a big number? In this episode of Spot the Spin, Chris breaks down Carl Sagan's famous standard — "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" — and applies it to the current Tylenol/acetaminophen-autism controversy, including the large Danish study RFK Jr. dismissed as "garbage." Learn how to tell the difference between correlation and causation, and why the quantity of evidence matters less than its quality.

Follow Fiercely Independent for more media literacy breakdowns, every Monday.

#SpotTheSpin #SaganStandard #MediaLiteracy #FactCheck #CriticalThinking #RFKJr #Tylenol #Acetaminophen #PublicHealth #FierclyIndependent #CarlSagan #HealthMisinformation