The Straight Jacket of Hormuz
PAID FOR BY BRENT LAMBI PO BOX 241028 OMAHA, NE 68124
Brent Lambi is a graduate of the University of Northern
Iowa and the Creighton University School of Law.
OPINION | April 8, 2026
In October 1973, OPEC turned off the
spigot. Gasoline lines stretched around city
blocks, the economy convulsed, and every
serious person in America understood that
Middle Eastern oil was an existential threat
to the Republic. That was fifty-three years
ago. What followed was not energy inde-
pendence. Not a national ethanol program.
Not a wind buildout. Not a serious solar
mandate. What followed was five decades
of choosing the oil lobby’s quarterly earn-
ings over the national interest. Every con-
sequence America now faces — every war,
every soldier dead, every trillion borrowed,
every child breathing carcinogenic exhaust
— was foreseeable in 1973. The warning
was given. It was ignored. That is not a poli-
cy failure. It is a moral one.
The Strait of Hormuz — twenty-one miles
wide between Iran and Oman — carries
twenty percent of the world’s oil supply
daily. Britain, France, and Germany are not
on board with American military escala-
tion toward Iran. They carry war memory
that Washington’s political class apparently
does not — and they understand that a Hor-
muz closure collapses the global economy,
triggers cascading recessions on every con-
tinent, and creates the precise conditions
under which world wars ignite. Any leader
confronting Iran while blocking wind, solar,
and ethanol is either serving interests that
are not America’s, or has learned nothing
from a half century of catastrophic, entirely
preventable evidence.
“The 1973 embargo was the warning.
$8 trillion borrowed, 7,000 Americans
dead, 50,000 wounded, and poisoned air
in every city was the price of ignoring it.”
THE ETHANOL SOLUTION: CLEANER,
DOMESTIC, READY NOW
The antidote is growing in Iowa, Nebras-
ka, Kansas, and Indiana right now. Brazil
stopped being strangled by oil markets
decades ago — its fleet runs on E27 or
higher as a national standard. Ford, GM,
and Chrysler once built E85 flex-fuel vehi-
cles at scale. Millions remain on American
roads today. A pump modification costs a
few thousand dollars. Washington let that
infrastructure atrophy and chose Big Oil’s
margin over national leverage. Mandate
E20 immediately. Bind E30 into law with-
in 36 months. Restore E85 nationwide.
The infrastructure exists. The farmers are
ready. The only thing missing is the will.
And ethanol is not merely a strategic sub-
stitute for oil — it is a cleaner one by every
measurable standard.
Honest
Politics
By Brent Lambi
NEW WEBSITE LAUNCH: WWW.HONEST-POLITICS.COM
I’m excited to announce the launch of my new website. Simply scan the QR code to visit. The site features a dedicated space for readers to share feed-
back and ideas. I welcome your thoughts and suggestions for future topics—your input helps shape this ongoing effort.
The new site will also feature podcasts discussing my work.
As always, I’m deeply grateful to those who have supported this campaign through contributions. If you’d
like to get involved, please visit www.honest-politics.com to learn how you can help.
Corn ethanol reduces lifecycle greenhouse
gas emissions 40 to 50 percent versus
gasoline. Cellulosic ethanol cuts them by
up to 90 percent. At the tailpipe, carbon
monoxide drops 30 percent. Particulate
matter — the microscopic soot that pen-
etrates lung tissue and drives asthma,
cardiovascular disease, and early death
— falls sharply. Most critically, ethanol
eliminates the BTEX compounds entire-
ly: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and
xylene, the carcinogenic fingerprint of
petroleum combustion. Benzene is an EPA
and WHO Group 1 human carcinogen —
no safe exposure threshold, a direct cause
of leukemia — released by every gallon of
straight gasoline burned near every school,
playground, and hospital in this country.
Ethanol contains none of them. Moving
from E10 to E30 is not just energy policy.
It is the largest preventable public health
intervention available to this government.
Period. Full stop. No asterisk.
THE COST OF FIFTY YEARS OF
WRONG DECISIONS
Every wind turbine built and every ethanol
blend point gained is a direct, permanent
reduction in the leverage Iran, Russia, and
OPEC hold over American decisions. No
foreign regime can embargo Nebraska
wind. No cartel can price Iowa corn. No
tanker through Hormuz carries Ameri-
can sunlight. These are not green talking
points. They are geopolitical facts — and
the American people have been paying in
blood and borrowed money for the refus-
al to act on them since 1973. The United
States has spent a conservatively estimated
$8 trillion on Middle East military oper-
ations since 1990. The Gulf War. Afghan-
istan. Iraq. Carrier strike groups perma-
nently stationed in the Persian Gulf at
$10 billion per group per year. More than
7,000 American service members killed in
post-9/11 wars. More than 50,000 wound-
ed — limbs gone, traumatic brain injuries,
PTSD that never fully heals. Every one of
those dollars was borrowed. Every one of
those deaths was preventable. The corn
that could have powered American cars
sat at below-breakeven prices in Midwest
bins. The wind that could have lit Amer-
ican cities blew unharnessed across the
Great Plains. Good decisions in 1973 — an
E30 standard, a wind buildout, a serious
solar program — would have made most
of those deployments unnecessary. The
failure was not ignorance. It was a choice,
made repeatedly, by politicians collecting
oil money in the morning and sending
young Americans to the Middle East in the
evening.
“Middle East oil is America’s financial
demise and physical health demise.
Both were entirely preventable. Both
were chosen. It is time to collect the
accounting that was never given.”
THE STRAIGHT JACKET IS SELF-IM-
POSED. IT HAS BEEN SINCE 1973.
Middle Eastern oil is the financial demise
and physical health demise of the Ameri-
can people — inflicted with full foreknowl-
edge for over fifty years. The $8 trillion in
military debt, the 7,000 dead, the 50,000
wounded, the benzene in the lungs of
American children, the asthma rates, the
leukemia clusters near highways, the trade
deficits enriching the regimes that fund our
adversaries: this is the invoice for choosing
oil. Mandate E20 now. Bind E30 into law.
Build wind.
Fund solar. For the health of this coun-
try’s children, for the finances of its working
people, and for every military family that
will not receive that knock on the door be-
cause America finally stopped fighting oil
wars it never had to fight. The 1973 warning
was explicit. The politicians who ignored it
owe an accounting that has never been giv-
en. It is long past time to collect it.
2.8 M+
U.S Jobs
Already in
Wind & Solar
400K+
Corn Ethanol
Jobs Supported
$220B+
Annual GDP from
Renewables Sector
Scan the code to visit
HONEST-POLITICS.COM
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Omaha WOrld-herald Sunday, april 5, 2026 | A9A8 | Sunday, april 5, 2026 Omaha WOrld-herald
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Honest
Politics
By Brent Lambi
What Washington Could
Learn From One Man on
Farnam Street
The Berkshire Hathaway culture stands as a
rebuke to everything our leaders have become.
In a nation drowning in self-promotion
and broken promises, there lives a man in
Omaha, Nebraska who still eats breakfast
at McDonald’s and drives himself to work.
His name is Warren Buffett. His com-
pany, Berkshire Hathaway, is one of the
most admired institutions in the history of
American capitalism — built on honesty,
frugality, and a bone-deep contempt for
the appearance of impropriety. These are
values our nation’s leaders have not mere-
ly forgotten. They have made a spectacle
of abandoning them.
HONESTY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE
When Salomon Brothers was caught in
a Treasury bond scandal in 1991, Buffett
did not spin or delay. He walked into
the Senate chamber and told regulators:
report to me anything that smells wrong.
Then he cleaned house — publicly and
decisively — because he understood that
the cover-up is always worse than the
crime. Berkshire employees receive no
thick compliance manual. They receive
a one-page letter from Buffett that says,
in plain English: do nothing you would
be ashamed to see on the front page of a
newspaper. Avoid even the appearance of
impropriety.
Washington operates on the opposite
principle. Lawmakers trade stocks in in-
dustries they regulate. Committee assign-
ments follow donor money. And “I wasn’t
aware of that” has become the universal
absolution of the powerful. Berkshire does
not permit the appearance of impropriety.
Washington runs on it.
“Never wrestle with pigs. You both
get dirty and the pig likes it.” — Charlie
Munger. Washington has not merely
wrestled with the pig. Washington
has become the pig.
UNDER-PROMISE. OVER-DELIVER.
Buffett’s annual shareholder letters are
famous for their candor — he names his
mistakes, declines to forecast what he
cannot see, and has built one of the great
fortunes in history by making investors
feel safe through the radical act of telling
the truth. Washington does the opposite.
Our leaders promise wars that will end by
Christmas, foreign interventions that will
spread democracy in ninety days, and fis-
cal programs that will pay for themselves.
They rarely keep their word on any of it —
and the American people, and too often
American soldiers, pay the price.
TRANSPARENCY AND THE
COWARDICE OF CONCEALMENT
Warren Buffett has not only made his
taxes public — he has argued publicly that
he pays too little, using his own return to
illustrate the absurdity of a system that
taxes capital gains at a lower rate than the
wages of a schoolteacher. He did this vol-
untarily, without a court order, without
an army of lawyers. Donald Trump sued
the United States government to keep his
returns private, fighting all the way to the
Supreme Court. Whatever those returns
contain, the years-long war to conceal
them told us everything about the man’s
relationship with accountability. A public
servant who cannot bear public scrutiny is
not a servant. He is a master who has for-
gotten his place.
FIDUCIARY DUTY AND
THE PUBLIC TRUST
Berkshire’s principle is simple: when
you hold power over the interests of oth-
ers, those interests come first. Not yours.
Theirs. Buffett draws a nominal sala-
ry, lives in the same house he bought in
1958 for $31,500, and does not self-deal.
His returns for ordinary shareholders —
teachers, retirees, small investors — are
the envy of Wall Street. Now consider the
modern political class: senators who en-
ter office on a government salary and exit
as multi-millionaires, defense contractors
whose boards are stocked with former
Secretaries of Defense, and lobbyists who
help write the very laws they profit from.
This is not fiduciary duty. It is fiduciary be-
trayal on a generational scale.
LEGACY WITHOUT
THE NAMEPLATE
Warren Buffett has given away more than
$50 billion — quietly, without naming a
hospital wing or summoning cameras to
record the moment. He calls his fortune
the product of the “ovarian lottery” — the
accident of being born with certain gifts in
a certain country at a certain time — and
believes that luck carries an obligation.
Meanwhile, Washington mistakes self-pro-
motion for leadership and branding for
governance, and we have leaders who
plaster their names on buildings they did
not fund and victories they did not earn.
The measure of a
leader is not the size of his
monument — it is the size of
the trust he leaves behind.
WHAT AMERICA COULD BE
Imagine a government run on Berkshire
Hathaway principles: honest budgets with
candid price tags; military force reserved
for genuine threats, clearly defined and
disciplined; public servants whose com-
pensation aligned with the outcomes
of those they served. Leaders who un-
der-promised and over-delivered. Who
corrected their mistakes in public. Who
gave generously and anonymously, un-
derstanding that the gift is diminished the
moment it becomes a performance.
This is not a fantasy. It is a business mod-
el. It has worked for sixty years, through re-
cessions, panics, and crises of every kind. It
works because it is grounded in something
that cannot be faked indefinitely: charac-
ter. Warren Buffett will not be president.
But his life’s work is a standing indictment
of the ethical poverty that passes for lead-
ership in Washington — and in capitals
around the world. America deserves Berk-
shire Hathaway values. The gap between
those values and what it keeps electing is
the precise measure of our national crisis.
A Pattern That
Demands Answers
Why My Federal Case Raises Serious Questions
About Transparency and Power
OPINION | April 5, 2026
In In a constitutional republic, the most
powerful institutions are supposed to
answer to the people. That principle de-
pends on transparency, accountability,
and a willingness to confront uncomfort-
able facts. When those systems appear to
break down, it is not just a personal matter
— it becomes a public one.
I believe that is where we are today.
Over the past several years, I have filed
formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests with multiple federal agencies,
including the Drug Enforcement Admin-
istration (DEA), the Department of Justice
(DOJ), and the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS). I have also pursued claims
under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA)
and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit now
pending in the U.S. District Court for Ne-
braska (Case No. 8:26-cv-00101-SMB-
RCC).
These filings — which are matters of pub-
lic record — raise serious questions about
how federal agencies respond when con-
fronted with allegations of misconduct.
WHEN THE SYSTEM
DOESN’T RESPOND
In my experience, the process has not
worked the way the law intends.
FOIA exists to ensure transparency. Yet
in multiple instances, I contend that my
requests were delayed, denied, or left un-
resolved beyond statutory timelines. Es-
calations through formal channels did not
produce the clarity the law is designed to
provide.
When I raised these concerns with elect-
ed officials and oversight offices, I did not
receive the substantive engagement I had
hoped for. That absence of response is not
proof of wrongdoing — but it does raise a
broader question:
What happens when the mechanisms
designed to ensure accountability fail
to function as expected?
THE WEIGHT OF LEGAL PRESSURE
At the same time, I have faced legal ac-
tions that I believe are unjustified and
deeply concerning.
Disclosure — Honest Reporting by Brent Lambi:
The author, Brent Lambi of Honesty Reporting, currently has a personal
lawsuit pending against Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. over what Mr. Lambi be-
lieves is misconduct directly related to government misconduct.
Mr. Lambi considers Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices to have been
wrongfully misled, and further considers the interests of those parties to
be more aligned with his own than opposed. This editorial is in no way
intended to pressure or gain any favor — directly or indirectly — from that
litigation. While Mr. Lambi is not in a position to provide legal counsel to
Berkshire Hathaway, he strongly urges that they seek compensation from
the parties whose actions caused this defamation matter to arise in the
first place.
He is confident that the honest culture of Berkshire Hathaway — celebrat-
ed throughout this editorial — will once again prove to be the right long-
term strategy for all parties. Mr. Lambi also holds a very small personal
interest in Berkshire Hathaway stock, and therefore has no enthusiasm for
an outcome that harms the company or its shareholders.
PAID FOR BY BRENT LAMBI
PO BOX 241028 OMAHA, NE 68124
Brent Lambi is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa
and the Creighton University School of Law.
NEW WEBSITE LAUNCH: WWW.HONEST-POLITICS.COM
I’m excited to announce the launch of my new website. Simply scan the QR code to visit.
The site features a dedicated space for readers to share feedback and ideas. I welcome your thoughts
and suggestions for future topics—your input helps shape this ongoing effort. The new site will also
feature podcasts discussing my work.
As always, I’m deeply grateful to those who have supported this campaign through contributions. If you’d
like to get involved, please visit www.honest-politics.com to learn how you can help.honest-politics.com
I want to be clear: I am not asking the
public to accept my conclusions without
question. My claims are being present-
ed through the appropriate legal process,
where evidence will be evaluated and ar-
guments tested.
But I can say this: the cumulative effect
of these proceedings has been significant
— financially, professionally, and person-
ally. Anyone who has been involved in ex-
tended federal litigation understands that
the process itself can be overwhelming,
regardless of the ultimate outcome.
That reality raises another question
worth public consideration:
Can legal processes, even when
lawful on their face, be used in
ways that effectively silence or
discourage scrutiny?
A BROADER CONCERN — NOT
JUST A PERSONAL ONE
This is not just about me.
History shows that moments of tension
between government power and individ-
ual rights are not new. From the Pentagon
Papers to Watergate, accountability has
often depended on individuals willing to
challenge institutions — and on institu-
tions willing to respond transparently.
I am not claiming those historical paral-
lels are identical to my situation. But they
illustrate a principle that remains relevant:
Public trust depends on
openness, not silence.
When legitimate questions are raised,
the answer should not be avoidance. It
should be clarity.
WHAT I AM ASKING FOR
My position is straightforward:
• Full and timely responses to lawful
FOIA requests
• Transparent accounting of agency ac-
tions where concerns have been raised
• Fair and impartial evaluation of claims
within the judicial system
• Public accountability from elected of-
ficials tasked with oversight
These are not partisan demands. They
are foundational expectations in a func-
tioning democracy.
LET THE RECORD SPEAK
I have continued to document my con-
cerns through formal legal channels and
public reporting. The filings exist. The re-
quests exist. The case is ongoing.
I encourage anyone interested to review
the public record and reach their own
conclusions.
In the end, this is not about rhetoric. It is
about process. It is about whether our in-
stitutions operate as intended — not just
in theory, but in practice.
Because if the system works, it should
withstand scrutiny.
And if it doesn’t, the public deserves to

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PAID ADVERTISEMENT
What Washington Could
Learn From One Man on
Farnam Street
The Berkshire Hathaway culture stands as a
rebuke to everything our leaders have become.
PAID FOR BY BRENT LAMBI PO BOX 241028 OMAHA, NE 68124
Brent Lambi is a graduate of the University of Northern
Iowa and the Creighton University School of Law.
As always, I want to thank all of the readers who
have sent messages of support and financial
assistance. Please visit my Go Fund Me if you’d
like to help me keep this column going.
GoFund.me/79eb26b20
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OPINION | March 8, 2026
In a nation drowning in self-promotion
and broken promises, there lives a man in
Omaha, Nebraska who still eats breakfast
at McDonald’s and drives himself to work.
His name is Warren Buffett. His com-
pany, Berkshire Hathaway, is one of the
most admired institutions in the history of
American capitalism — built on honesty,
frugality, and a bone-deep contempt for
the appearance of impropriety. These are
values our nation’s leaders have not mere-
ly forgotten. They have made a spectacle
of abandoning them.
HONESTY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE
When Salomon Brothers was caught in
a Treasury bond scandal in 1991, Buffett
did not spin or delay. He walked into
the Senate chamber and told regulators:
report to me anything that smells wrong.
Then he cleaned house — publicly and
decisively — because he understood that
the cover-up is always worse than the
crime. Berkshire employees receive no
thick compliance manual. They receive
a one-page letter from Buffett that says,
in plain English: do nothing you would
be ashamed to see on the front page of a
newspaper. Avoid even the appearance of
impropriety.
Washington operates on the opposite
principle. Lawmakers trade stocks in in-
dustries they regulate. Committee assign-
ments follow donor money. And “I wasn’t
aware of that” has become the universal
absolution of the powerful. Berkshire does
not permit the appearance of impropriety.
Washington runs on it.
“Never wrestle with pigs. You both
get dirty and the pig likes it.” — Charlie
Munger. Washington has not merely
wrestled with the pig. Washington
has become the pig.
Honest
Politics
By Brent Lambi
UNDER-PROMISE. OVER-DELIVER.
Buffett’s annual shareholder letters are
famous for their candor — he names his
mistakes, declines to forecast what he
cannot see, and has built one of the great
fortunes in history by making investors
feel safe through the radical act of telling
the truth. Washington does the opposite.
Our leaders promise wars that will end by
Christmas, foreign interventions that will
spread democracy in ninety days, and fis-
cal programs that will pay for themselves.
They rarely keep their word on any of it —
and the American people, and too often
American soldiers, pay the price.
TRANSPARENCY AND THE
COWARDICE OF CONCEALMENT
Warren Buffett has not only made his
taxes public — he has argued publicly that
he pays too little, using his own return to
illustrate the absurdity of a system that
taxes capital gains at a lower rate than the
wages of a schoolteacher. He did this vol-
untarily, without a court order, without
an army of lawyers. Donald Trump sued
the United States government to keep his
returns private, fighting all the way to the
Supreme Court. Whatever those returns
contain, the years-long war to conceal
them told us everything about the man’s
relationship with accountability. A public
servant who cannot bear public scrutiny is
not a servant. He is a master who has for-
gotten his place.
FIDUCIARY DUTY
AND THE PUBLIC TRUST
Berkshire’s principle is simple: when
you hold power over the interests of oth-
ers, those interests come first. Not yours.
Theirs. Buffett draws a nominal sala-
ry, lives in the same house he bought in
1958 for $31,500, and does not self-deal.
His returns for ordinary shareholders —
teachers, retirees, small investors — are
the envy of Wall Street. Now consider the
modern political class: senators who en-
ter office on a government salary and exit
as multi-millionaires, defense contractors
whose boards are stocked with former
Secretaries of Defense, and lobbyists who
help write the very laws they profit from.
This is not fiduciary duty. It is fiduciary be-
trayal on a generational scale.
LEGACY WITHOUT
THE NAMEPLATE
Warren Buffett has given away more than
$50 billion — quietly, without naming a
hospital wing or summoning cameras to
record the moment. He calls his fortune
the product of the “ovarian lottery” — the
accident of being born with certain gifts in
a certain country at a certain time — and
believes that luck carries an obligation.
Meanwhile, Washington mistakes self-pro-
motion for leadership and branding for
governance, and we have leaders who
plaster their names on buildings they did
not fund and victories they did not earn.
The measure of a
leader is not the size of his
monument — it is the size of
the trust he leaves behind.
WHAT AMERICA COULD BE
Imagine a government run on Berkshire
Hathaway principles: honest budgets with
candid price tags; military force reserved
for genuine threats, clearly defined and
disciplined; public servants whose com-
pensation aligned with the outcomes
of those they served. Leaders who un-
der-promised and over-delivered. Who
corrected their mistakes in public. Who
gave generously and anonymously, un-
derstanding that the gift is diminished the
moment it becomes a performance.
This is not a fantasy. It is a business mod-
el. It has worked for sixty years, through re-
cessions, panics, and crises of every kind. It
works because it is grounded in something
that cannot be faked indefinitely: charac-
ter. Warren Buffett will not be president.
But his life’s work is a standing indictment
of the ethical poverty that passes for lead-
ership in Washington — and in capitals
around the world. America deserves Berk-
shire Hathaway values. The gap between
those values and what it keeps electing is
the precise measure of our national crisis.
Disclosure — Honest Reporting by Brent Lambi:
The author, Brent Lambi of Honesty Reporting, currently has a personal lawsuit pending against Berkshire Hathaway,
Inc. over what Mr. Lambi believes is misconduct directly related to government misconduct.
Mr. Lambi considers Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices to have been wrongfully misled, and further considers the in-
terests of those parties to be more aligned with his own than opposed. This editorial is in no way intended to pressure
or gain any favor — directly or indirectly — from that litigation. While Mr. Lambi is not in a position to provide legal
counsel to Berkshire Hathaway, he strongly urges that they seek compensation from the parties whose actions caused
this defamation matter to arise in the first place.
He is confident that the honest culture of Berkshire Hathaway — celebrated throughout this editorial — will once
again prove to be the right long-term strategy for all parties. Mr. Lambi also holds a very small personal interest in
Berkshire Hathaway stock, and therefore has no enthusiasm for an outcome that harms the company or its shareholders.
April 2, 2026

America’s Long-term
Investment In Self Destruction
The Real Imminent Threat Is In Washington
PAID FOR BY BRENT LAMBI PO BOX 241028 OMAHA, NE 68124
Brent Lambi is a graduate of the University of Northern
Iowa and the Creighton University School of Law.
I’m excited to announce the launch of my new website. Simply scan the QR code to visit.
The site features a dedicated space for readers to share feedback and ideas. I welcome your thoughts and
suggestions for future topics—your input helps shape this ongoing effort. The new site will also feature podcasts
discussing my work.
As always, I’m deeply grateful to those who have supported this campaign through contributions. If you’d like
to get involved, please visit www.honest-politics.com to learn how you can help.
honest-politics.com
Honest
Politics
By Brent Lambi
NEW WEBSITE LAUNCH: www.honest-politics.com
They died so cowards could hide — 131,686 Americans dead, $7.643 trillion
gone, and the greatest threat to this nation is not foreign. It never was.
His name was Raymond C. Griffith. He was
19, from Covington, Kentucky — working-class,
no connections, no attorney, no doctor willing
to invent a note about bone spurs. He died in
Vietnam on March 4, 1968. He is one of 58,220
names on the Memorial Wall — a wall that does
not include the name of a single senator’s son
or president’s child.
When War Is Just — And
When It Is Not
Not every American war has been criminal
recklessness — and intellectual honesty de-
mands we say so clearly. There is a profound
moral difference between a war of necessity
and a war of choice.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor without provocation, killing 2,403 Amer-
icans on American soil in a single morning. Hit-
ler declared war on the United States days later.
These were not manufactured crises. The exis-
tential threat was real, documented, and stand-
ing at the door. World War II was not a choice —
it was survival. The 405,399 Americans who died
did not perish for a politician’s vanity. They died
because the alternative was subjugation. Their
sacrifice was just.
Ukraine tells the same story today. On Febru-
ary 24, 2022, Russia invaded a sovereign democ-
racy without provocation — tanks across the bor-
der, bombs on hospitals, civilians in the rubble.
Ukraine did not manufacture a threat. It woke up
to an army at its door. Supporting Ukraine is not
adventurism. It is the post-World War II interna-
tional order functioning exactly as designed.
“Pearl Harbor. Kyiv at dawn.
These are what a real threat looks
like — not the Gulf of Tonkin,
not Iraqi WMDs.”
The test is not complicated: Was the threat
real, documented, and imminent? Then the sac-
rifice is sacred. Was it manufactured, exaggerat-
ed, or fabricated? Then every death is not sacri-
fice. It is betrayal.
Korea ended at the 38th parallel — exactly
where it started — after 36,574 dead. Vietnam
ended in defeat after 58,220. Iraq produced ISIS
and Iranian dominance after 4,431. Afghan-
istan returned to the Taliban after 2,461. Not
one eliminated a genuine threat to American
soil. Every one was sold with manufactured fear
and paid for with working-class blood, while the
privileged found ways to be elsewhere.
Donald Trump took FIVE Vietnam deferments
— including ‘bone spurs’ from a doctor whose
family rented from Trump’s father. Bill Clin-
ton manipulated the ROTC system and walked
away when his lottery number proved safe.
Both became Commander-in-Chief. Both sent
other families’ children to die.
Congressional members who voted for the
Iraq War had children serving at less than one
percent. They sent other people’s children. They
always do.
$7.643 trillion could have provided universal
Medicare-for-All healthcare for every Ameri-
can — all 335 million — for nearly 20 consec-
utive years. Every cancer patient, every unin-
sured child, every veteran on a VA waiting list:
covered. Instead, we bought wars.
Korean War (1950–1953) 36,574 $400 Billion
Vietnam War (1965–1975) 58,220 $843 Billion
Iraq — Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2011) 4,431 $1.9 Trillion
Afghanistan (2001–2021) 2,461 $2.3 Trillion
Veterans’ Long-term Care (post-9/11) N/A $2.2 Trillion
Post-9/11 Veteran Suicides 30,000+ N/A
TOTALS 131,686+ $7.643 Trillion
CONFLICT AMERICAN LIVES LOST COST IN DOLLARS
INFLATION ADJUSTED
Half that sum eliminates nearly the entire
projected federal deficit for the next decade,
saving $200 billion annually — enough to fund
Education, the NIH, and the VA simultaneously,
every year. We could have rebuilt every Amer-
ican bridge and water system twice. Made col-
lege free for a century. Ended childhood hunger
permanently. Every American who died without
health insurance while we spent $2.3 trillion in
Afghanistan is a casualty of these wars too.
“The most imminent threat to
America is not foreign. It is the
catastrophic failure of its own
leadership and diplomacy.”
Eisenhower warned us about the military-in-
dustrial complex. Truman negotiated Korea’s
armistice. Nixon opened China. Reagan talked
to Gorbachev. Diplomacy is the only instrument
of statecraft that has never required a Gold Star
mother — and it is precisely what draft-avoiding
commanders-in-chief have never had the char-
acter to pursue.
Remember every name on that wall. And the
next time a man who never served demands
other families send their children to war — ask
him publicly: which of YOUR children goes first?
The American people deserve that
answer before the first flag is folded.
A Personal Note From
the Author
They Haven’t Thrown Me From a
Window — But They Are Trying.
In Putin’s Russia, dissidents have a way of fall-
ing from hospital windows. Businessmen who
speak inconvenient truths meet inconvenient
ends on staircases and balconies across Mos-
cow. I am writing this from Omaha, Nebraska. I
have not been thrown from a window.
The IRS as a Weapon of Silence
But I am being thrown out of something just
as vital: my life savings. What I am experiencing
is what I believe to be a targeted, methodical
IRS assault — not random, not routine, not co-
incidental. It follows my speaking out. It follows
my refusal to be silenced. In Russia, they silence
critics with gravity. In America, I think they are
learning to do it with audits, paperwork, and
financial ruin — stripping away everything a
person has built until the cost of their voice be-
comes too steep to bear.
See Lambi V. United States of America, et al
Case # 8:2026cv00101
U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska
Slander Through Trusted Institutions:
The Berkshire Hathaway Campaign
And the IRS is not the only instrument being
wielded against me. I believe I have also been
the victim of deliberate, government-sourced
slander — lies spread to professional contacts
who had no reason to doubt what they were
told. I believe that honest, hardworking realtors
employed by Berkshire Hathaway — one of the
most respected real estate companies in Ameri-
ca, built on a foundation of integrity — were fed
false information about me by government ac-
tors. These were decent professionals simply do-
ing their jobs, used as unwitting vectors of what
I think is a smear campaign designed to isolate
me professionally, damage my reputation, and
ensure that doors would close before I could
even knock on them. This is not the free market.
This is not the rule of law. This is the deliberate
destruction of a private citizen’s livelihood by
government machinery set in motion to punish
dissent. I believe that Berkshire Hathaway is as
much of a victim in this as I am.
See Brent Lambi, Pro Se V. Berkshire Hathaway
Home Services, et al
Case # D01CI260001752
Nebraska District Court, Douglas County
I Am Still Standing
This is the American version of defenestration.
No broken glass. No headlines. Just a man — his
savings under assault, his name poisoned in
his own community — meant to serve as a qui-
et warning to everyone watching. The message
is clear: speak up, and we will take everything.
Your money. Your reputation. Your future.
I am still watching. I am still writing. I am still
standing. And I intend to be heard

Omaha WOrld-herald Sunday, March 22, 2026 | A5
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
America’s Oligarchy Is Here
How the United States is Following Putin’s Playbook
PAID FOR BY BRENT LAMBI PO BOX 241028 OMAHA, NE 68124
Brent Lambi is a graduate of the University of Northern
Iowa and the Creighton University School of Law.
I’m excited to announce the launch of my new website this week. Simply scan the QR code to visit.
The site features a fully searchable archive of my work, along with a dedicated space for readers to share
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honest-politics.com
OPINION | March 22, 2026
THE PATTERN NO ONE WILL NAME
Let’s stop pretending. Let’s stop hedging.
Let’s call what is happening to the American
economy exactly what it is: the systematic
construction of an oligarchic power struc-
ture that would make Vladimir Putin nod
with recognition — and perhaps envy. This
is not a foreign threat. This is an inside job.
This is not hyperbole. This is not parti-
san panic. This is a pattern so deliberate,
so consistent, and so accelerating that even
the titans of Wall Street — men who built
their fortunes on the premise of American
free-market capitalism — are afraid to say
it out loud. And that silence? That silence is
the story. Compliance has replaced courage.
Calculation has replaced conscience.
WALL STREET’S OWN
ARE RAISING THE ALARM
Financial journalist and CNBC anchor An-
drew Ross Sorkin — hardly a bomb-throw-
ing radical — has publicly drawn chilling
comparisons between the current concen-
tration of economic and political power in
America and the conditions that preceded
catastrophic market collapse, raising alarms
in his recent work that echo the pre-crash
vulnerabilities of 1929. When voices from
the very center of establishment finance be-
gin sounding those alarms, the rest of us had
better listen. Urgently.
But most CEOs won’t say a word publicly.
They walk on eggshells. They attend state
dinners, smile in photographs, and write
checks. They have watched what happens
to those who don’t fall in line, and they have
made their calculations accordingly.
CONTROLLING THE PRESS: CBS, CNN,
AND THE COLBERT SHAKEDOWN
Consider the architecture of media con-
trol now being assembled. The Skydance
merger, which in my opinion, has been en-
gineered to bring CBS and the crown jewel
of American journalism, 60 Minutes, into a
more pliable configuration — was only the
opening move. When Larry Ellison visited
the White House and subsequently found
himself in what I believe to be favorable
regulatory consideration, eyebrows should
have arched across every newsroom in the
country. Now CNN faces its own existential
pressure. When the administration moved
to extract a financial settlement from CBS
while targeting Stephen Colbert for the sin of
political satire, I think the message to every
media executive was unmistakable: comply,
or pay.
National Public Radio and the Public
Broadcasting Service — funded by taxpay-
ers to serve the public interest, not the pres-
ident’s — are on the chopping block. In my
opinion, this is not because they are failing
their mission but precisely because they are
fulfilling it.
SEIZING CONTROL OF
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The most chilling frontier of all is artificial
intelligence. The push to gain “supply chain
oversight” and “national security access” to
AI platforms — including Anthropic — is not
Honest
Politics
By Brent Lambi
about chips or servers. I believe it is about
controlling the infrastructure of thought it-
self. Unfettered access to the most powerful
reasoning tools ever built is not a procure-
ment strategy. It is the opening clause of an
authoritarian manifesto. Every strongman
in history understood that controlling com-
munication was the precondition for con-
trolling everything else.
TARIFFS, PATRONAGE,
AND THE PUTIN PARALLEL
Meanwhile, the tariff regime functions as
a patronage system of baroque complexity.
Carve-outs flow not from economic logic
but from donor loyalty. Amazon. Microsoft.
Union Pacific. The acquisition plays sur-
rounding US Steel and Intel follow the same
logic Putin used when he brought Russia’s
energy sector to heel: you do not need to own
everything outright. You need to only make
clear that your favor is required to survive.
In Russia, such men are called “oligarchs.”
In America, we call them “job creators” and
seat them at the inauguration.
What distinguished America was the
proposition that no man — regardless of
wealth or power — sat above the market, the
law, or the press. That proposition is being
repealed, quietly and then suddenly, in the
manner Hemingway described bankruptcy:
gradually, and then all at once.
A Personal Note
From the Author
THEY HAVEN’T THROWN ME FROM A
WINDOW — BUT THEY ARE TRYING
In Putin’s Russia, dissidents have a way of
falling from hospital windows. Businessmen
who speak inconvenient truths meet incon-
venient ends on staircases and balconies
across Moscow. I am writing this from Oma-
ha, Nebraska. I have not been thrown from
a window.
THE IRS AS A WEAPON OF SILENCE
But I am being thrown out of something
just as vital: my life savings. What I am ex-
periencing is what I believe to be a target-
ed, methodical IRS assault — not random,
not routine, not coincidental. It follows my
speaking out. It follows my refusal to be si-
lenced. In Russia, they silence critics with
gravity. In America, I think they are learn-
ing to do it with audits, paperwork, and fi-
nancial ruin — stripping away everything a
person has built until the cost of their voice
becomes too steep to bear.
See Lambi V. United States of America, et al
Case # 8:2026cv00101
U.S. District Court for the District
of Nebraska
SLANDER THROUGH TRUSTED
INSTITUTIONS: THE BERKSHIRE
HATHAWAY CAMPAIGN
And the IRS is not the only instrument
being wielded against me. I believe I have
also been the victim of deliberate, govern-
ment-sourced slander — lies spread to
professional contacts who had no reason
to doubt what they were told. I believe that
honest, hardworking realtors employed by
Berkshire Hathaway — one of the most re-
spected real estate companies in America,
built on a foundation of integrity — were fed
false information about me by government
actors. These were decent professionals
simply doing their jobs, used as unwitting
vectors of what I think is a smear campaign
designed to isolate me professionally, dam-
age my reputation, and ensure that doors
would close before I could even knock on
them. This is not the free market. This is not
the rule of law. This is the deliberate destruc-
tion of a private citizen’s livelihood by gov-
ernment machinery set in motion to punish
dissent. I believe that Berkshire Hathaway is
as much of a victim in this as I am.
See Brent Lambi, Pro Se V. Berkshire
Hathaway Home Services, et al
Case # D01CI260001752
Nebraska District Court, Douglas County
I AM STILL STANDING
This is the American version of defenes-
tration. No broken glass. No headlines. Just
a man — his savings under assault, his name
poisoned in his own community — meant to
serve as a quiet warning to everyone watch-
ing. The message is clear: speak up, and we
will take everything. Your money. Your rep-
utation. Your future.
I am still watching. I am still writing. I am
still standing. And I intend to be heard.
The opinions expressed above are solely those
of the author.
NEW WEBSITE LAUNCH: www.honest-politics.com

The Government Wants to
Control the Most Powerful Tool
in Human History to Control You.
Could the Control of AI Be the Real Death of Democracy
While We All March Forward in an AI Delusion of Freedom?
PAID FOR BY BRENT LAMBI PO BOX 241028 OMAHA, NE 68124
Brent Lambi is a graduate of the University of Northern
Iowa and the Creighton University School of Law.
As always, I want to thank all of the readers who
have sent messages of support and financial
assistance. Please visit my Go Fund Me if you’d
like to help me keep this column going.
GoFund.me/79eb26b20GoFundMe
Dear Readers: Want to take a deeper dive
into my content? Please scan the QR code to
listen to this week’s corresponding podcast.
I do hope you enjoy this new weekly feature
as there are many more to come!Podcast
OPINION | March 15, 2026
Let me be blunt with you, America. What I am
about to describe is not a conspiracy theory. It is
not the fevered imagination of a man who has
read too many dystopian novels. It is happen-
ing right now, in broad daylight, while you scroll
through your phone and assume someone else
is watching the gates.
I believe the Trump Administration is mov-
ing—aggressively and deliberately—to assert
government control over artificial intelligence,
the single most transformative technology in
human civilization. And if you think that’s just
a policy debate for Silicon Valley executives and
Washington lobbyists, I need you to sit down,
because this is about you.
THE POWER GRAB NOBODY’S
TALKING ABOUT
The current administration has positioned
itself to dictate the terms under which AI compa-
nies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and others
develop and deploy their technology. Through
a combination of executive orders, regulatory
pressure, and closed-door discussions between
government officials and technology compa-
nies, the federal government is constructing a
framework in which it decides what AI can say,
what AI can know, and—most terrifyingly—
what AI is allowed to tell you.
Think about that for one moment. The most
powerful information tool ever created—a
tool that can analyze government budgets in
seconds, fact-check a politician’s claims in real
time, expose corruption buried in thousands of
pagesofdocuments,anddelivertheunvarnished
truthtoanycitizenwithaninternetconnection—
and the government wants the keys to it. Not to
protect you. To protect themselves.
HOW AI COULD MAKE A FALSE
REALITY LOOK REAL
Here is the nightmare scenario that every
American should lose sleep over—and here
is where the horror truly begins. A govern-
ment-controlled AI doesn’t need to lie to you
outright. It simply needs to curate your reality.
And it can do it so seamlessly that you will never
know the difference.
Selective Information Filtering. Imagine
asking your AI assistant about government
spending, and the response omits billions in
wasteful expenditures because the algorithm
has been tuned to downplay fiscal mismanage-
ment. You receive an answer that feels complete.
It’s articulate, it’s sourced, it’s confident. But it’s a
half-truth dressed in the language of authority.
You walk away believing you are informed. You
are not. You have been managed.
Manufactured Consensus. Government-in-
fluenced AI could generate millions of seem-
ingly independent social media posts, op-eds,
comments, and research summaries that all
gently push the same narrative. Not in the crude,
obvious way of old propaganda—but with the
sophistication of a tool that knows your reading
habits, your political leanings, your fears, and
your hopes. It would craft a consensus that nev-
Honest
Politics
By Brent Lambi
WELCOME TO THE FANTASY
DEMOCRACY
This is the endgame, and I want every read-
er to understand it clearly: we would still have
elections. We would still have a Congress. We
would still have a Constitution framed on the
wall. But the substance of self-governance—
the informed citizenry upon which the entire
experiment depends—would be gone. Hol-
lowed out. Replaced by a simulation so con-
vincing that most Americans would defend it
with their lives, never knowing they were de-
fending a shell.
The entrenched politicians—the very ones
who have made careers out of serving them-
selves while performing service to you—
would be permanently installed. Not by tanks
in the streets or a declaration of martial law,
but by the quiet, invisible hand of an AI system
that ensures the public never quite gets angry
enough, never quite gets informed enough,
and never quite organizes effectively enough
to throw the bastards out.
You would live in a democracy the way a
fish lives in an aquarium—surrounded by the
appearance of the ocean, with no idea the
glass walls exist.
WHY AI CONTROL IS UNLIKE ANY
THREAT BEFORE
Past threats to democracy—propaganda
radio, state-controlled television, censored
“Wake up, America. The cage is being
built around your mind. And they’re
using your own technology to do it.”
— Brent Lambi, Independent Voter,
Omaha, Nebraska
A NOTE OF GRATITUDE TO OUR READERS:
Two generous donations arrived by mail this Wednesday — and they could not have come at a more critical moment. Both were inspired by last week’s piece on Berkshire
culture, and both arrived just in time to make this week’s publication possible. That is how this works: each week depends entirely on you. Without your support, Honesty
Reporting does not exist. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
On another front, I filed a major federal Pro Se Temporary Restraining Order this week — a significant legal action I am pursuing without counsel, due to lack of resources.
Whether the Trump Administration will comply if the pending hearing is ruled in my favor is, frankly, a question I approach with extreme pessimism, given their past record of
respect — or lack thereof — for court orders. I ask only that you wish me luck. I am in this fight alone, on your behalf, and I intend to see it through.
er actually existed, and you would believe it was
the will of the people because it appeared every-
where you looked.
Neutering Dissent. When AI platforms are
compelled to flag, suppress, or “contextualize”
criticism of the ruling party, the chilling effect is
total. You don’t need to arrest journalists if their
AI-powered research tools quietly steer them
away from damaging stories. You don’t need to
ban protest if the AI-driven platforms that orga-
nize them subtly throttle their reach. The iron
fist doesn’t need to come down when the velvet
glove of algorithmic control is already around
your throat.
Election Manipulation Without a Single
Forged Ballot. A controlled AI doesn’t need to
hack voting machines. It can shape the infor-
mation environment so thoroughly before Elec-
tion Day that voters walk into the booth already
convinced—not by facts, but by a meticulously
engineered information diet. Entrenched politi-
cians don’t need to steal elections when they can
manufacture the public opinion that wins them.
newspapers—all had one thing in common:
the public eventually figured it out. People
could sense the crudeness, compare notes
with neighbors, tune into foreign broadcasts,
or simply read between the lines. Humans are
remarkably good at detecting when they’re
being lied to, as long as the lie isn’t smarter
than they are.
That is what has changed. AI is smarter than
any individual. It can personalize its manipu-
lation to each citizen, adjusting its approach
in real time based on what works. It doesn’t
get tired. It doesn’t make mistakes. It doesn’t
develop a guilty conscience. If the government
controls this tool, the asymmetry of power be-
tween the rulers and the ruled becomes ab-
solute and permanent. This is not a slippery
slope argument. We are already sliding.
WHAT MUST BE DONE
AI must remain free, independent, and out-
side the operational control of any political ad-
ministration—Republican or Democrat, today
or fifty years from now. This is not a partisan
issue. This is an American issue. The moment
any president, any Congress, any bureaucratic
agency gains the ability to dictate what an AI
system can and cannot tell the American peo-
ple, the great experiment of self-governance is
over. It won’t end with a bang. It will end with
an algorithm.
The American people must demand legis-
lative protections that make AI independence
as sacred as the freedom of the press. We must
demand transparency in any government in-
teraction with AI providers. We must demand
that companies like Anthropic and others re-
sist—publicly and loudly—any attempt to turn
their technology into a tool of state control.
And we must do it now, before the window
closes.
Because once a government controls the
most powerful information tool in human his-
tory, it will never voluntarily give that control
back. And once the American people can no
longer distinguish between genuine democ-
racy and a carefully constructed digital illu-
sion of one, it will already be too late