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The Screaming Moderate

Monarchy or Republic (if we can keep it)

6/11/2025

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We are as close to being an authoritarian-led country as much as a Republic can be that close.

Our county was founded as a republic (as a reminder the definition of republic is:  a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

As you watch President Trump’s actions, though, it’s obvious he’d prefer being a monarch. For example:
  • Under law and precedent, presidents do not send National Guard into an area without a request from state or local leadership.
  • Under law and precedent, presidents do not withhold congressionally passed funds from those it was aimed at helping.
  • Under law and precedent, presidents do not withhold research funding from universities as punishment for policies they disagree with, even if they are right.
  • Presidents don’t typically pardon those convicted of attacking the Congress and plotting and attempting to carry out an insurrection.

President Trump, though, has done all those things (and more). He also has kidnapped a parade that originally was proposed as a small affair to honor the Army’s birthday and made sure it is celebrating his own birthday. It’s the parade he’s dreamed of holding since he was young.

In our country, dreams (and nightmares) can come true.

Look for Trump to deliver his standard partisan speech attacking his perceived enemies on a day set aside to honor our military and those who honorably served our country and Constitution, not our president.

On January 6th, we all watched on television as our Congress was attacked by hundreds of people who wanted to overthrow our government. Not all of them, of course, but a good chunk who later pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes against our country and law enforcement.

President Trump’s reaction – pardon them all, even those who attacked not “just” a symbol of our freedom, but law enforcement who were  trying to protect it. Pardoned. Get out of jail free.

Out of jail and standing back and standing by to help their leader when he calls them next.

That call may come at any moment now.

He already has broken precedent and law by sending National Guard and the Marines into California to quell protest. Are some of those people paid to stir up trouble? Of course they are but most are “simply” protesting Trump’s government’s approach to immigration.

That approach is: Set a quota for daily deportations and meet  it, no matter the methods or the consequences.

Are Americans upset with our immigration policy. Yes, as they should be.

In fact, the Congress -- both parties -- agreed on a bill that would have addressed many of the flaws in our system but that law was stopped in its tracks when Donald J. Trump said: Stop! It doesn’t help my campaign to pass that law and remove a populist issue I can leverage to my advantage.

Thus, the law was not passed. Therefore, our immigration problems grew worse. Now he uses those problems to justify his authoritarian desires.

Want to blame that on Biden? Fine, go for it. Blame doesn’t’ matter to good politicians – solutions to problems matter.  And Biden isn't president anymore. He's history.

Trump though prefers the issue to the solution: The better to appear to be a populist. The better to serve his goals, not the country’s goals.

The language he and his minions use to describe the protests in California is aimed at one thing: establishing what they think is a case for invoking the Insurrection Act. You don’t even need to listen closely – just pay attention to the words. It’s coming.

Only the courts (may) save us.

Trump is threatening that protests at his birthday parade will “be met with very big force.” Protests. That’s part of the fabric of our country, agree with the cause or not – people get to scream and yell and march.

They don’t get to grab equipment away from law enforcement and use it to smash windows of the Congress though. That’s against the law. That may be insurrection. Apparently, a pardonable offense these days.

But that’s what those “tourists” did on Jan. 6 to our Capitol.

Now that Trump has begun to use his powers as commander-in-chief against his own people, what’s to stop him from going even further? He’s already deported people without due process. He’s already paid a foreign leader to house those deported in prisons he couldn’t last until lunch in.

Now, he is deporting illegal immigrants from allied countries and deporting them – but not back to the countries they came from (and who want them) but to Gitmo -- without informing our allies where or who they are.

No president has unilaterally invoked the Insurrection Act against a state’s wishes since Lyndon Johnson did to provide protection for civil rights activists in Alabama in 1965.

But Trump did it just the other day. Inserting himself as a tough guy in a protest that covered a few blocks of Los Angeles. Some of those folks, don’t get me wrong, committed crimes and should be punished. Some of them. Some are just citizens standing up for their neighbors.

Our media tends to knee-jerk react to the politics of all this. California’s governor makes a speech to take political advantage of his state’s tragic recent history to leap ahead of the candidates for 2028, they say. Finally, they tell us someone has taken the lead on taking on Trump.

Personally, I don’t dwell on who should run in 2028.  I’m simply hoping we have a free election in 2028.

It’s not guaranteed.


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He's the "King of the World!"

5/7/2025

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I finally figured out why I haven’t been able to figure out just what Donald J. Trump is doing. I mean, some of the things he gets into have nothing to do with being President of the United States.

Things like trying to tell private universities what to teach, how to hire and punishing them by withholding research money that goes to finding cures to diseases, among other remarkable discoveries.

Or, renaming international bodies of water like the Gulf of America or, today, the Gulf of Arabia, by fiat.

How about deciding Canada needs to be our 51st state? Or Greenland needs to be owned by the United States or declaring retaking of the Panama Canal?

How else can the President and his family make millions of dollars by signing real estate agreements in foreign countries, making profits off it while he serves as President? No president has done that before!

Or, displaying his for-sale red heads on the Cabinet table during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet room? No president has ever done, or likely thought of doing that before!

Additionally, no U.S. president has said “I don’t know” when asked if he needs to follow the U.S. Constitution – a document he has sworn an oath to up twice!

No president has sold cars in the White House driveway nor has he ever sold his own crypto from the Oval Office!

No president has extorted business people by threatening to hold up mergers simply to punish them to get improved treatment from the media outlets they own (praise be to “60 Minutes” for its weekly stories on Trump overreach even in the face of its owner caving to Trump’s demands).

In just the last few days he has threatened tariffs on movies made out of the country to supposedly bring film-making back to America, he is threatening to engage in whether college athletes are paid or not, and he has called for the return of Alcatraz, a museum, as a maximum-security prison.

No, my friends, his goal wasn’t to be the President of the United States, his goal is to be the King of the World, and maybe even star in the remake of Titanic.

Nothing else explains the lunacy and over-reaching of his presidency.


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A tariff for you. A tariff for you. A tariff for you.

4/3/2025

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Fact: Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election

Fact: Trump won the popular vote with 49.8%

Fact: Trump won the electoral vote 312-226

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutkin, one of the creators of the Trump Tariff Policy, is all over the airwaves today touting Trump’s huge tariffs on other countries. In those interviews, Lutkin’s logic – in the face of crashing financial markets, stalled business planning and other effects of that policy – said the reason we should believe it’s going to work is to trust “Donald Trump to run the global economy.”

No economic logic, no rationale for the high tariffs, or explanation as to how Trump and his tariff brain trust came to the numbers to assess each country’s exports to us. Just trust Trump to run the global economy.

A few things:

-- Trump’s approval rating is 43%, according to the latest Reuters/Ipso poll that was conducted March 21-23, or about a week before his tariff announcement

-- Once again, he won the popular vote with 49.8% of the vote, which means more than 50% of the country voted for someone else

-- Trump’s record of “running things” isn’t laced with huge successes. Just for a few examples: Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Shuttle, goTrump.com, Trump Mortgage, Trump Vodka. None of those businesses were as complicated to run as the U.S. Government, by the way. Each business failed.

-- His first term in office had some successes but also a massive failure when it came to dealing with the COVID pandemic.

Mr. Lutnick, my point is: He didn’t have majority trust from the country before he announced his tariffs. He doesn't have majority trust now. Imagine what will happen in the next few weeks or months. Trump, who promised a lot of positive things would happen “on Day One,” like reduced grocery prices, lower gas prices, lower interest rates, an end to the Russia-Ukraine war has a lower approval rating in the Ipsos poll than he did before he took office.

These tariffs will raise the price of products and commodities most purchased by Trump’s base of voters. Not to mention the 401ks that millions are depending on to fund their retirements. And, likely, the laying off of thousands of workers, which has already begun.

Because of those tariffs, as I write this (at about 2:15 p.m. April 3), the Dow Jones is down 1,416 points, which is better than the 1600 points it was down about two hours ago, but unlikely to climb out of dramatically negative figures in the next few hours.

Canada already has announced a 25 percent increase in its tariffs in response to the Trump/Lutkin increases. French President Macron has asked companies there to stop investing in the United States.

Trump, rather than resolving many issues early in his presidency (promises made, promises not-yet-kept), has put the world economy on the brink of -- something, but not something positive according to economists across the spectrum.

The best rationale I’ve seen for the high (but not as high as they could have been) Trump Tariffs is that the Administration took the highest tariff a particular country charges us, and halved it. Not exactly highly researched economic data. A better explanation I saw was a not complicated addition/subtraction of our trade deficit with other countries and a percentage applied.

Some say it’s a negotiating tool. Trump has not said that. And it’s gonna be hard to sell that logic when dozens of countries have been slapped with high tariffs, including apparently one island that is home to only penguins. Playing chicken with one country at a time is one  thing, playing it with most of the world is another thing.

Even right-wing voices, like the principled radio host Erick Erickson are scrutinizing the president. Erickson called the tariffs “one of the largest tax increases on Americans and done by fiat. Just wow.”

It’s important to note that Erickson correctly pegged the tariffs as a tax increase on Americans, because we will pay for those tariffs, as we did when the Hawley-Smoot tariffs were adopted last century, as we did when the first Trump term imposed tariffs on other countries.

By the way, that 250 percent tariff Trump claims Canada charges us on dairy products? Trump negotiated that tariff the last time he was President. It was part of the USMCA (United States, Mexico, Canada) trade agreement he signed. And, that 250 percent is only charged after the U.S. exports more than a certain amount of goods to our northern neighbors. If we reach that amount, the agreed to tariff kicks in. So far, we have never met the limit, thus never been charged the tax.

Of all the significant actions Trump has taken so far, the vast majority are Executive Orders, not legislation passed by Congress.

Executive Orders, if upheld if challenged in the courts, are only good until the next President is elected. Evidenced by Trump’s show of negating many Biden Executive Orders.

Trump’s deportation policies too are being carried out by Executive Order, many of which are being challenged in the courts literally as we speak. The President apparently is counting on the fact that he appointed three of the Supreme Court judges to translate into victories for him when and if cases reach the highest court. Not a sure thing.

And we haven’t even mentioned yet Elon Musk has ordered the firing of tens of thousands of federal employees without much due process if any. Plus, he is winding down agencies and programs passed by Congress, meaning Congress should be approving their eliminations. But the Too Afraid of Trump Caucus in both houses of Congress isn’t pushing back on him.

Meantime, Trump also is keeping his promises of “retribution” as he goes after federal departments, judges, universities, political opponents and others he deems are his enemies. He is weaponizing the government to go after those he claimed weaponized the government against him.

If the prior Administration unlawfully went after Trump, it should have been stopped and shouldn’t have gotten away with it. But the courts backed it up. Laws were followed and processes were followed.

Fair is fair but when the law is concerned, the law is the law.


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He's making an offer we must refuse.

3/24/2025

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Are we on the road to fascism? Losing our democracy?

Maybe.

One thing for sure, though, we are experiencing a wanna-be mob boss as President.

Having grown up in the real estate/construction business in New York City and mentored early on by Roy Cohn, who advised Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and was infamous for his mob-like style, Trump was exposed to the thuggish approach of management early in his career.

Examples of his mob-like behavior?

Oppose him in a political campaign? Revenge! See Adam Kinsinger, Liz Cheney. Or any other Republican he quickly dubs a RINO (Republican in Name Only).

Betray him by serving as an appointee and carrying out his policies against dangerous countries. Then being fired or resigning in protest. Then being targeted by those countries you attacked on his behalf, having your life threatened by them. Then see your protection detail removed by Trump as your punishment for defending his policy? See former NSC Advisor John Bolton, targeted for assassination by Iran.

Warn the country about the dangers of COVID while serving as his pandemic advisor, saving millions of lives in the process? Take away the security needed to protect him against potentially violent Trump supporters and erase his name from government departments. See. Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Not move fast enough when he points the finger at you for allowing protests on your campus? Take away funding. See Columbia University.

Want to expand U.S. territory? Say you are going to annex/seize/invade an ally. Hello Greenland, Canada.

Want to turn long-time friends into adversaries? Lay tariffs on them. The more the better. Pound them into submission. Hello Mexico, Canada.

Anyway, you get the idea.

His foreign policy is transactional, that’s why he seeks so many “thank yous” from other countries when he defends them against attacks on their democracies. He views helping other countries as a “favor.”  You can almost hear Marlon Brando’s Godfather voice coming from his lips.

He doesn’t see that help as accruing to the United States’ world leadership, he sees it as a debt to be collected.

Columbia University does have issues on its campus involving anti-Semitism but is withholding a private university’s funding the way to deal with it, stopping important research? Should Columbia have caved and made the deal they did rather than fight it when sitting on a $15 billion endowment; beaten into submission by the bully rather than dealing with its own campus issues?

Or the Paul, Weiss law firm. The firm caved to Trump rather than do what a top white-shoe law firm does – litigate. Take the President to court and challenge his illegal order to remove your security clearances and access to federal agencies because he doesn’t like who your firm represents. It’s not like the firm can’t afford the fight. In the last year it generated more than $2.6 billion in fees and worked on $359 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions.

If he can make universities and law firms with that kind of financial clout kowtow to him, who can’t he bring to their knees with threats and illegal “punishments?”

And, notice, please, that whether it’s Trump’s side or the law firm or Columbia’s side, the bottom line is – money. Or, when it comes to his political foes -- power. The law firm didn’t fight because they would lose clients. The university didn’t fight because it didn’t want to lose $400 million in grants. The Republicans in Congress for the most part don't oppose him in fear of losing their seats.

He’s already brought a successful law firm to its knees and now is ordering his attorney general to crack down on any law firm that files what he calls “frivolous laws suits” against his government. Trump being the King of Frivolous Lawsuits, by the way.

He already has brought the Republicans in Congress to their knees. They can’t (won’t) do their Constitutional obligation of oversight anymore.

He learned from his first term that he needs Trump loyalists as his appointees. So, he controls the Executive and the Legislative branches. No one around to tell him no.

Now, he’s taking on the judicial branch. So far, it’s holding – especially with Chief Justice John Roberts’ statement last week that didn’t mention Trump but the President clearly was the target.

Trump is now challenging and demanding the removal of Judge James Boasberg who is hearing the case involving the Administration’s deportation of people without providing the due process they are guaranteed under the Constitution.

Do Boasberg or those who oppose the lack of due process want to see hardened criminal, illegal immigrants living in our communities? Of course not!

But they do want to see the evidence that they are criminals. Are most of those deported and sent to that El Salvadoran prison gang members? Probably. But show us the evidence. It should be provided before they are imprisoned in another country’s prison with a reputation for brutal treatment, and the likelihood they'll never get out.

Due process is there to protect the innocent and you can bet that among those deported, there were mistakes made and innocents are now sitting in that dangerous prison. If that means, for example, that 98 hardened criminals were put away for every two innocent people...is that okay with you?

That's why we  have due process. To prevent that from happening.

If the Administration can detain and deport people without due process, they can move on to do that to others.

That’s not what America is.

We are the land of freedom and Constitutional rights.

Not omertà.


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Show us the money, receipts, proof -- anything to back up your work

3/17/2025

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President Trump says he is doing exactly what he said he’d do during his campaign to re-capture the Oval Office.

Fact check: This is mostly true.

But, for those who voted for Trump, did you elect him to do everything he said he’d do – from deporting possible legal immigrants to investigating and possibly throwing his perceived enemies in jail to, without seeming reason, firing federal employees providing important services to the taxpayers to starting a trade war? He did say he'd do those things.

Or, did you elect him to lower prices, inflation, and (further) secure the border?

You tell me, you voted for him.

Remember Trump saying he’d never read the Project 2025 roadmap that the Heritage Foundation wrote as a blueprint for Trump’s second term? It is a report that contains the most Draconian proposals possible and is an ultra-conservative’s dream of what a new U.S. government can be? I believe Trump when he said he never read it.

But I don’t believe he never thought he’d follow that roadmap.

Don’t think he is? Paul Dans was the chief architect of that report. When Dans’ draft became a political liability for Trump’s campaign, Dans was sent to campaign purgatory so Trump could get as much distance as possible between  the two of them.

Now Dans has told Politico, “It’s actually way beyond my wildest dreams … the way that they’ve been able to move and upset the orthodoxy, and at the same time really capture the imagination of the people, I think portends a great four years.”

You tell me if what he says is what you voted for.

I get that prices were high during the last administration, and they remain high today. I get that lowering them can’t be done overnight, despite what Trump promised on his campaign.

But did you vote for Trump to ignore court orders? Did you vote for secret signings of the enemies act as a reason to throw people out of the country without due process? Did you vote that disabled people not get access to events? Did you vote that a group of talented, hardworking kids who are musicians have their dreams dashed of playing a concert in Washington with their idols because of the DEI ban (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhwS06U1SnA)

Is that what you voted for?

Trust me, I get a lot of why MAGA followers are angry. They’re tired of not being heard, of feeling passed over – and they aren’t wrong. I don't as much understand why swing voters moved toward Trump. 

But did you vote to toss people out of the country without a fair hearing? I get that “criminals, murderers” and others have cheated their way into the U.S. And they are wrong to have to have done that.  And, of course, they should follow our laws to get in legally.

But are those the people we’re throwing out? I honestly don’t know because the government isn’t telling us. Instead, it’s signing secret orders behind closed doors, only disclosing them publicly when found out.

I can’t believe that’s what you voted for. That is not the American way.

Did you vote to have the richest man in the world – Elon Musk – use the same techniques he used in his companies to right-size the U.S. government?

Trust me, when he was doing that to Twitter and costing himself money, that was fine with me. He can run his companies however he chooses.

But not the U.S. government.

You and I own the U.S. government, not Musk.

He's like a bull(shit) in a china shop.

The U.S. government is not a business that is run on profit and loss. The government provides, or is supposed to provide, services necessary to run a fair society. Hard to make a profit doing that though it certainly can be run more efficiently.

Is there waste, fraud and abuse in the government? Of course, there is. But it doesn’t run in the trillions of dollars as Musk claims. If that was the case, don’t you think a bunch of other presidents – of both parties – would have found that “easy money” to cut long ago?

The current administration throws around words like corruption, crooked – please, just show us the proof of where it exists. I’m sure it does but show us the proof so we know. I learned long ago not to fully trust what some people say to me.  

So -- just show us the money and where it’s being wasted. Show us! Don’t claim it’s being wasted, prove it. Show enough respect to we the people that you trust us to see the truth.

If it is the truth.

 
 

 
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IF you wanted to be a dictator, you could ...

2/22/2025

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If, and I stress “if,” one wanted to turn America’s world-leading democracy into a dictatorship or an autocracy over a short period of time, you might consider the following plan of attack:

  • Put loyalists in charge of the intelligence services, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the military
  • Fire the inspectors general who are responsible for identifying waste, fraud and abuse in your Administration
  • Fire the top lawyers in your military who administer the military code of justice and prosecute and defend U.S. service members in military court
  • Get out of jail any of your strongest supporters, who already have proven they will take up arms to fight for you
  • Blow up the global alliance of like-minded democracies who have protected the world against dictators for 80 years, banding together militarily if necessary to stop the spread of despots
  • Get in bed with the worst, murderous dictator in the world who has wanted nothing more than to break up the primary alliance against him and destroying your own country
  • Lie to get elected, promising the working people a tax cut, all the while planning to give that tax cut only to the wealthiest in your kingdom
  • Deny any knowledge of your sponsors' written and publicized plan to make over the country’s government from Day One and then follow that blueprint to its letter
  • Take over one of the country’s leading, non-partisan arts institutions to control the type of art it offers to the public, one that only reflects your wishes
  • Hand over the huge project of reducing the federal budget and organization to the richest man in the world who leads companies regulated by that same federal government and trust him to do the right things
  • Lobby, from Day One, for serving beyond the Constitution’s allowed limit
  • Lead the effort to rip apart the Constitution which you swore an oath to defend
  • Use schoolyard insults against a U.S. ally who is trying to fight off a Russian dictator whose goal is to destroy his country and the United States of America
  • Claim to be cutting waste, fraud and abuse but instead eliminate programs voted into law by a duly elected Congress, programs you simply disagree with
  • Instill fear into anyone in your own party who dares to say anything that disputes you
  • Put out official White House documents that state “Long Live the King,” referring to yourself
  • Blackmail a country who is fighting off the United States primary enemy into handing over their rare earth minerals in return for your military support
  • Limit the media’s access to the President because it doesn’t use the language you prefer

And, if you can get that done all within the first 100 days of your rule  ..

 Voila!

 

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Most bizarre performance in an Oval Office in history - envelope please

2/12/2025

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The 30 minutes or so of performance by leading actor Elon Musk and barely supporting actor President Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office yesterday – as Musk babbled about all that he is doing as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was the most bizarre the Oval Office has ever hosted.

The richest man in the world “explained” all that he is doing in his volunteer job to slash the federal budget by (not billions, not $500 billion, as was stated along the way) $1 trillion (!!!!) in a single year by stopping 150 year-old Social Security recipients from collecting their checks, to $50 million in condoms being given to the Taliban (oops, not really. He’s not perfect, mistakes will be made as he slashes spending), all while being as “transparent as possible,” according to Mr. Musk, “a special government employee,” which means he doesn’t have to release his personal information to see if there might be – no, there couldn’t be anyway, he’s Mr. Transparency! (he said so!) – conflicts of interest.

All that, and more, without producing a shred of evidence, without turning over to authorities the alleged crooks and civil servants they accused of breaking laws, without offering to testify before Congress, under oath about all they have found in their mere days of investigating the federal budget. 

Oh, and “deleting,” as Musk put it, regulatory agencies that are, among other things, legally obligated to check up on potential irregularities by people (like Musk) who are operating in regulated areas.

That’s a lot in 30 minutes! And, all that playing into already perceived realities of millions of Americans who likely have never heard of the alphabet soup of agencies Mr. Musk is closing and think all government is made up of crooks trying to steal their tax dollars.  

Uh, that is until those folks who are on disability begin to see their benefits cut, and wish they were among those who, as Trump said, sign a three-month contract with the government yet seem to keep getting checks for 20 years!!! All without the government ever auditing those accounts, or the Internal Revenue Service catching those millions of dollars they “earned” for doing nothing.

What a country!

Like the investigations into Trump’s behavior toward Russia or attempting to steal the 2020 election by causing an insurrection, the system is rigged!!!! People are being paid billions by the government for doing – nothing!!!

Look, sure there is waste, fraud and abuse in the government – that’s a reason those Inspectors General were created in every department to keep a watch for the fraud and waste. Oh, wait. Those are the folks Trump laid off a week or so ago, so no one is really watching for that anymore.

OK, but that's a reason the Legislative Branch was created to have oversight over the Executive. Oh, wait, the Speaker of the House has said he has no problem with it.

So, thank you, South Africa, for Elon Musk!! Another (white) immigrant who is saving our country from ourselves!!!

Oh, about that young man who bragged about being a “racist before it was popular” on social media? He worked for Musk at DOGE, after careers at two Musk-owned companies. He’s 25.  He was fired for his tweets. There is justice.

Oh, wait, he’s being rehired because as Musk put it,  "To err is human, to forgive divine.” Even a racist braggadocio.

For the record, his name is Marko Elez, so you can follow his no doubt still rising career and be aware of where he is all the time (no, I don’t say that so he can be harassed or threatened, just so we can all be  following his no-doubt further successes along his way to Musk-dom).

The appearance by Musk, with (by the way) the President of the United States, came because of allegations Musk is acting with unchecked power and no accountability.

His standing alongside the Resolute Desk should give us confidence that he is now accountable.

And if you don’t believe that, you can follow the DOGE account on X, as he suggested, to see the accountability in 244 characters or less. Yay for technology!!!

We also should feel better now that Trump, who fortunately had that nose surgery so his schnoz wouldn’t grow every time he told a lie, has said he will, of course, follow court rulings but he will appeal, as is his right, if he thinks it’s appropriate.

Uh, but what happens when you run out of places to appeal, though?

Trump and his acolytes claim that by eliminating the federal government (in large measure) he is simply doing what he campaigned to do.

But while he did say some of that, most of us remember him promising primarily to stop illegal immigration and make America affordable again (OK, I made up that phrase, but the President is free to use it if he wants. Just, it won’t fit easily on those $40 hats he sells).

Also, let’s remember that when Musk’s role initially was announced by Trump months ago, he was to head an outside government advisory group that would make recommendations on how to reduce government spending. Not an inside-the government entity led by a “non-government employee” who now apparently has walk-in rights to see files not supposed to be seen by people without the proper clearances and put people on leave on the spot.

But, that’s being picky, I guess.


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Performance Art Worthy of No Awards

2/5/2025

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After the first two years of the second Trump administration, uh, I mean after a little over two weeks of the second Trump Administration, we are learning even more about the President’s Shock and Awwww approach to governing. It’s fast. It’s everywhere

And most of it is performance art.

How else to explain the wide and questionable tactics being used by co-President, I mean, the unelected, not vetted oligarch Elon Musk and his Kiddie Korps that make up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which is working on eliminating departments at breakneck speed and questionable legality; the Senate confirmation of Cabinet member after Cabinet member whose loyalty is, first, to Trump, not the U.S. Constitution to whom they swear an oath; the proposed acquisitions of Greenland, the Panama Canal, the Gulf of Mexico and the previously named Gaza Strip, now to become to the, well, Riviera of the Middle East, and, well, you get the picture.

And it's largely painted with smoke and mirrors.

Look at his primary foreign policy: Tariffs.

He first used them against our continental neighbors and allies, Mexico and Canada. The leaders of both countries won delays in the tariffs by (sort of) agreeing to certain things (they've mostly already done) and a further negotiation.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaun quickly agreed, on a call with Trump, to sending 10,000 national guard troops to the border. Fact is, Mexico already has 10,000 troops stationed at the border. That was done last year after pressure form the Biden Administration, a move which helped drive down the arrests of migrants to four-year lows.

She is letting Trump claim credit for it, so a “win” for the new President. 

With Canada, the President “won” a concession when Canada said it would create a $1.3 billion border plan. That plan was announced on Dec. 18, six weeks before Trump announced his tariffs. And about the same amount of time before he took office.

Again, Trump is taking and being given credit for the “concession.”

How about that "water valve" in California? Acting on an order from Washington, the Army Corps of Engineers allowed water to flow down river channels for three days, into the network of engineered waterways that fan out among farm fields in the Joaquin Valley. 

Thing is that water typically is sent to the Valley and its farmers in the summer. That release of water, when agriculture doesn’t require it, means the growers likely will have less water when they do need it.

The release was intended to make a political statement – to demonstrate that Trump has the authority to order federal dams or pumps to send more water as he directs. Bravo!

Another thing is that water released form those dams typically does not reach the Los Angeles area, which instead depends on supplies from the aqueducts of the State Water Project on the other side of the valley.

So, that water would  have done nothing to help firefighters battling the LA fires. They literally were doing everything they could with everything available to stop the unprecedented fires.

By the way, the Joaquin Valley is about 360 miles from LA.

But, Trump can say (and believe) he “turned  on the valve” as he (over) simply said California’s leaders should have done.

We’re skipping over for the moment Mr. Musk’s manhandling of the federal government, using tactics he applied when he took over Twitter too. A difference is, Twitter is about making money.

The U.S. Government is about providing services and protection to its people. Something Mr. Musk knows, and cares, nothing about.

There is no profit motive in the U.S. Government because that isn’t the goal, the goal is to protect and provide services to people, not line anyone’s pocket with profits. This is what over-wealthy people like Trump and Musk will never understand.

Their goal is to make money. Not provide services people need to live.

And they do not understand the difference because, well, empathy.

Trust me, we lived without Twitter/X before they existed, we’ll live when they die.

Moving to Gaza, Trump stood with the leader of Israel, both of whom should be focused on maintaining the ceasefire, and the release of hostages. Instead, Trump proposed a real estate project.

First, he said he’d move the Palestinians out of Gaza to an unnamed country (none of which have said they’d take them). There are millions of Palestinians who would take untold time to move – if they even wanted to move!

By the way, moving them is against international law but if Trump and his people are not afraid of U.S. law, why should they let “foreign law” stand in their way?

So, just to track Trump’s promises in this regard: he promised not to get U.S. military involved in more wars (but so far, he hinted at military missions to take over Panama’s Canal, Greenland and, now Gaza).

Second, he said he wanted to cut back on sending aid to other countries but it would take trillions to clean up and build his Riviera in Gaza.  

Trump has always wanted to win the Nobel Prize, but this isn't going to get him there.

Since I started writing this, about an hour ago, the White House press secretary backed the White House away from the whole Gaza Redevelopment Project. Just another failed Trump building project.

Another dumb idea from this two-week old Administration.

In this case, very bad performance art.
 
Worthy of neither a Nobel nor an Oscar.


0 Comments

Don’t stand back and stand by

1/25/2025

2 Comments

 

​What do ‘we’ do not just to make it through four more years of President Trump but to protect our democracy that so many of us want to see survive? 

I’m convinced one ‘answer’ is not to tune out what’s happening. That may protect you from the truth but it does nothing to change it. 

In his first week in office Trump is clearly showing he means to do what he promised: get revenge against his perceived enemies, destroy the career government that protects us from a president’s worst instincts, and guides new political appointees on what they can and cannot do, and grab more power than our Constitution gives our President. 

And what about those egg prices?


(Fact is, there’s not much a president can do about egg prices. And he knows it. By the way, folks, it’s not so much inflation that’s causing the increase in egg prices, it’s the bird flu. But that’s another post.)

The fact is the President is pretty transparent. And he’s not alone. You don’t turn out dozens of executive orders in a few days; arrange deportation raids in hours. His people have been preparing for months. And if you compare Project 2025 to his orders, it pretty much matches up. 

In spite of him saying he wouldn’t follow that far-right master plan. 

Firings, deporting immigrants (can you tell me which are the alleged murderers? He hasn’t), winning support for cabinet members who aren’t qualified, setting us up for a return of increasing inflation (the primary reason I thought he was elected).
 
It’s all right in front of our eyes. You ignore it at your country's peril.

To my Trump-loving friends, there's noting in this post for you, unless you’re open to seeing what’s going on. And if you do 'oh yeah but about' or say I don't understand what real change is…

… Trust me, I do.

You can’t gaslight me any better than he can. 

And what we're witnessing is real change that puts our Constitution in peril, and that is tearing down the wall between church and state. It might be the beginning of the end. I didn’t want to believe it but I believe I may be watching it.

What can we do? I’ll tell you what we can’t do:

Don't turn our backs. Don't turn off or stop reading legacy news. Turn off your damn phone and live in the real world. Get off X, or anything Musk or Zuckerberg have editorial control over if you can’t see through the disinformation. 

Don't take a break. Dont  avert your eyes.

 It's happening right now. 


Senate  Republicans, the vast majority are falling in line. They confirmed Pete Hegseth, who we hope won’t break his promise to not drink while serving and protecting  us. They’ll probably confirm the others. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley, who has served way too long (he’s 91), thinks he’s seen it all but we will see just how addled his brain is when we see if he allows Trump to break the law by firing most of the government’s top watchdogs without alerting Congress in advance, as he’s already avoided doing. 


And, he’s not exempt from that law. Grassley for years has been the inspectors general protector. Will he be now that they are being eliminated, even the ones Trump appointed in his previous term?

The Republicans in the House already are doing the investigations Trump wants into January 6. Helping him rewrite what we all saw with our own eyes. Trump’s already pardoned or commuted the sentences of his personal militia from their crimes on January 6. They are standing back and standing by now. Again.

And free to attack our Constitution. Again. 

Our constitutional guardrails are crumbling, right before our eyes as the President’s supporters cheer him on. The slice of the electorate that gave him this win - swing voters - didn’t elect him to do the things he’s doing. I guess they didn’t believe him when he promised it during the campaign. 

I wish I knew how to stop it. All I can come up with is we the people have to stop it. We still live in a democracy. We still can tell our elected officials what to do. Too many of our elected officials listen to Trump as he gaslights us all. 

But, under our Constitution, they answer to us, not him. 

When I consider how we stop it, I keep coming back to those guardrails. 
He’s breaking down the congressional guardrail. He’s breaking down the protections the people have within the executive branch. 

He’s already packed the Supreme Court. Will they tge Court continue to follow his lead? And he’s trying to pack the rest of the federal judiciary with his people. 

The guardrail he can’t ‘fix’ is we the people. Raise your voices. Call  your congressional representatives. Don’t ignore what’s in front of your eyes. 

He’s been in office days, and it already feels like years with his deluge of actions and executive orders. 

His win was not even close to a landslide. January 6 did happen, with his leadership. 

Please don’t tune out.  It’s happening right now. 

2 Comments

Day One as a strongman

1/21/2025

8 Comments

 
Did Donald Trump intentionally forget to put his hand on the Bible when being sworn in, or was the Bible back a couple rows where Elon Musk, the fascist-saluting richest man in the world, sat?

Musk later gave that Hitler-invoking salute twice during a speech at the Capital One Arena where 10s of thousands of Trump’s most ardent grassroots supporters waited for Trump to speak. 

Later, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of basically everyone charged for their role in the January 6th attack on our Capitol. Among them, people convicted not only of attacking law enforcement, spreading feces on the walls of the Capitol, flaunting their law-breaking audacity to literally sit in seats designated for government leaders and, most disgustingly, commuted sentences for people found guilty of sedition - those who planned the January 6 effort to block the election that was won by his predecessor.

I’m no fan of the myriad of pardons President Biden handed out in his last days in office.  Pardoning people convicted of drug crimes that, today, don’t exist seems fair to me.  I understand why he pardoned Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and others who haven’t been charged with crimes - but it sets a horrible precedent. Imagine our democracy exists four years from now and Trump, if he leaves office, uses the same logic for people he wants to avoid being charged or spending millions defending themselves. Shit show doesn’t cover it. 

Even Trump’s seemingly top advisors -  Vice President Vance and First Lady Melania Trump - advised not to pardon those who committed violence.  But Trump obviously wanted to ensure his private militia isn’t locked up if he needs them again. 

Heidi Beiruch, co-founder of the non-profit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said those who received pardons and commutations, ”…are emboldened. They’re back, and I think it means that their ranks are going to grow, and we’re going to see them involved in all kinds of pro-Trump and other white supremacist activity and their slate has been cleaned.”

Day One was full of Trump talking, lying, celebrating. His new rich thanks to the Internet friends have come to heel. Given the opportunity, as has been his won’t, to compliment Russian Dictator Putin, he didn’t.  
​

He seemed confident in not complimenting him. A good thing.  But the worry is it was because he, too, feels (overly) emboldened by his comeback.

Back on the key reason he was elected — the economy — he also signed an executive order commanding his Cabinet members to find ways to bring down costs for all Americans. Interestingly Trump’s people did not share details. 

That may be because if Cabinet departments had that ability, within our free market system, maybe other presidents would have done it before. ​
8 Comments
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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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