Imagine a child with artistic talent who took months of careful construction to build this…
…and then one day some thoughtless, envious bully wrecks it…
…claiming that he could build something that was better, but of course having no talent and no skill, just a self-promoting blowhard, "built" something like this:
This is the current Trump administration in operation, full of as inept, incompetent, corrupt, bigoted, partisan, inhuman, indecent, immoral, unethical and criminal a bunch of power-mad clowns and frauds ever to shame and degrade this country. Naturally there are those—even in the “liberal” media—who want to give Trump and his fascist minions the “benefit of the doubt” and hope that they actually have a “plan,” but if Project 2025 and that “Agenda 47” are the “plan,” then one should at least expect the creators of such plans to have considered the potential downside of governing based on sloganeering and extremist propaganda.
Note that neither 2025 or 47 can legitimately be called “populist.” To listen to puppy-killer Kristi Noem and sociopath Karoline Leavitt talk, the only thing the plebes care about is the mass deportation of those “ugly” brown-skinned people; that’s the “reason” they voted for Trump, they say. But "behind" the scenes, Trump and his minions are busy destroying the house they live in, suggesting to us that they are building it into something “better." Of course the problem is that they are much better at destroying than they are “building.”
So we see that the new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, is just a fossil fuel industry hack whose principle “job” is indiscriminate destruction to maximize industry profits without regard to consequence. That is basically what the goals of the Trump administration are: to fill the pockets of the rich with money they don’t need, while claiming that any program that helps working people and the poor get by is a “waste” of money.
We see that although we know very well that Trump is delaying tariffs on Mexico and Canada again because of stock market drops, he will claim he isn't paying any attention to the financial markets, which we know is another lie, because lying is about the only thing that Trump is “good” at. He even has the audacity to tell us to expect a recession, but blame it on Joe Biden because he’s only trying to “fix” what Biden “broke,” and eventually this country will become “great” again. Sure. Just not under his "leadership."
At the present time, nobody really knows what will result from what Trump and his oligarchic minions are doing, but it likely will not be good, much less "great." We see Mike Johnson whining about the bogey-man of the far-right, George Soros, but he is anti-oligarchic; as an article from the History Channel suggests, what we are seeing today is a return to the Gilded Age, when as
The industrialists of the Gilded Age lived high on the hog, but most of the working class lived below poverty level. As time went on, the income inequality between wealthy and poor became more and more glaring. While the wealthy lived in opulent homes, dined on succulent food and showered their children with gifts, the poor were crammed into filthy tenement apartments, struggled to put a loaf of bread on the table and often accompanied their children to a sweatshop each morning where they faced a 12-hour (or longer) workday. Some moguls used Social Darwinism to justify the inequality between the classes.
Of course ant-DEI is the new coinage for advocating “Social Darwinism.” The Gilded Age was followed by the growth of unionism, but which after WWI was seen as advocating anarchy and communism. There followed a slew of anti-worker Supreme Court decisions and the so-called “American Plan” which as defined here by the Encyclopedia of Chicago was first implemented
During World War I, the United States Steel Corporation branded union organizers in its Chicago mills as “German propagandists” and demanded that steelworkers sign a vow against striking called a “Pledge of Patriotism.” In the postwar period, other vehemently antiunion employers continued to attack unions as un-American, charging that they subverted individualism and were adversarial and inefficient. In 1921 a convention of Midwestern employers meeting in Chicago formally designated the nonunion or “open shop” the “American Plan.”
Implying a linkage between unionism and the Bolshevism of the Red Scare, these American Plan employers pledged that they would neither recognize nor negotiate with union representatives. The most committed refused to purchase materials from unionized vendors or to sell supplies to strikers. A few firms adorned their products with patriotic symbols to indicate that they were made with nonunion labor. After New Deal legislation compelled employers to bargain with unions, the activism of the American Plan subsided.
Today, it's called "Make America Great" and "America First." The confirmation of the new labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, was almost derailed by Republicans because they believed she was pro-union.
The History Channel noted that “Even though U.S. Steel, the country’s largest employer, saw its profits double between 1924 and 1929, workers didn't receive a single general wage increase”—indicative of the fact that behind the façade of the “Roaring Twenties,” the Great Depression was biding its time, waiting for the right moment to strike. “Production” may have been “up” to drive the economy, but it was only a matter of time when the reality that most consumers were too poor to buy the “surplus” would catch up.
This is quite different than what is driving up inflation—that there isn’t enough product to purchase. That is why Trump’s unnecessary and foolish tariffs are doubly harmful to no purpose but to serve his own bullying nature: prices are high because there is not enough “stock,” yet he proposes to drive up prices to either force retailers to further reduce stock, or add an additional “tax” to products to drive up prices.
This is the America that Trump and his MAGA in and out of Congress are creating, one where we knew what benefits government provided, to one where one is left wondering who the government now “serves”—meaning billionaires and bigots, just like in the real “old” days.
Who is to blame for this, besides the MAGA faithful and their blind allegiance to their own stupidity? While Fox News—Maria Bartiromo in particular—continues its blissfully fact-free “reporting” to keep its stupid viewership stupid, Chief Justice John Roberts must now consider the fact that his “legacy” may occupy the same hall as Roger Taney (Dred Scott) and Melville Fuller (Plessy and Lochner).
Overturning Roe v. Wade that no one ever thought would be is one thing, but Citizens United opened the door to rule by an oligarchy of billionaires (a “class” that the bogeyman of the far-right, George Soros, does not belong to), and the Trump immunity ruling that was solely designed to aid one man, were ill-thought out and clearly unconstitutional. Combined, those two decisions could be used by the unscrupulous and megalomaniacal to turn a democratic republic into a fascist dictatorship if the legislative branch willingly gave-up its power as we are seeing with this Republican Congress, which bends over backwards to accommodate Trump’s crimes against the Constitution and democratic governance.
The Roberts Court allowed this to happen by making decisions without regard to their effects, which is the definition of hyper-partisan stupidity. The Roberts Court opened the floodgates for the rich and powerful to use “populist” propaganda to con working people to look one way (say against immigrants; note that Trump claimed that he was focusing on violent criminals but now families with children are being rounded up in detention centers again) while behind their backs they are doing whatever they can to widen the divide between rich and poor (because of “Social Darwinism”).
In his farewell address before leaving office, President George Washington warned that
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
That is exactly who Trump is and how he gained power, whether or not he is actually intelligent enough to do so by “plan” or just by his nature. As we recall, the state of Colorado intended on banning Trump from its presidential ballot because he violated the 14th Amendment’s “disqualification” clause:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
But the Roberts Court essentially ruled that the disqualification clause did not apply in the case of a sitting president at the time (it didn’t rule if “immunity” applied the those in Congress, however, which those who engaged in election lies could be accused of aiding and abetting insurrection), which not only defied the Constitution, but rendered farcical the far-rights’ claim to “originalism.” Pointedly, the Roberts Court simply made a partisan—rather than Constitutional—decision, and now the country is paying for that mistake.
Not only does that decision provide immunity from criminal acts by Trump specifically, but by giving immunity to those acting on his orders or behalf is creating a country governed by lawless fascists. Roberts may have belatedly realized his profound errors by convincing one other far-right justice to “assist” him in baby steps to correct his mistakes, and assume that Trump and his minions like Elon Musk would respect court rulings.
But as we see in the USAID decision that the Trump administration is de facto ignoring, it may already be too late to stop Trump, since he will do as he pleases as long as there is no effective way to stop him or his thugs physically, such as being arrested, since the U.S. Marshals Service has been politicized, as we saw them support the unlawful invasion of the African Develop Foundation in which the employees actively tried to bar DOGE members and the new “head” from shutting down the agency as they had already done the Inter-American Foundation, which was a pathetic “answer” to China's “road and belt” initiative in Latin America, which Trump is threatened countries receiving it with tariffs—basically big stick “diplomacy” without even a nibble of a carrot.
Meanwhile, who is doing Trump’s dirty work? One of the “ironies” of the Trump workforce is that it frankly can be defined as “reverse-DEI,” to give mainly white people who are unfit, unqualified and uneducated in their new positions the power to completely unravel civil society simply because they are partisan fanatics who do whatever will please Trump—nothing more or less than the Führerprinzip form of “governance” in Nazi Germany.
Tulsi Gabbard may be the most disturbing of Trump’s own version of DEI hiring, since her pro-Russia views pose not only a threat to the security of this country, but the attempt to prevent even the gathering of intelligence to that effect demonstrates something akin to treason.
This isn’t “old news,” and Republicans still voted to confirm her as Director of National Intelligence. Gabbard’s ex-aides claimed that when she was a representative in Congress report that she regularly consumed Russian media propaganda. ABC News reported that “Gabbard regularly read and shared articles from RT (formerly Russia Today), a state-run media outlet, even after being advised that RT wasn’t a credible source.” She also “sent a memo to her staff with her views on foreign policy, blaming the U.S. and NATO for provoking Russia and complaining about America’s “hostility towards Putin.”
Gabbard’s DEI hiring is also evident in the fact of her bizarre religious beliefs that many have suggested was reason to question her mental facilities. Gabbard is a member of the cult group Science of Identity Foundation; her devotion to its “guru” Chris Butler is said to be “deep and intense” and explains some her bizarre ideological changes from anti-war proponent to pro-Russia war fanatic. According to the Honolulu Civil Beat
Stephen Kent, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Alberta, said those who have defected from the Science of Identity Foundation and been willing to speak out have called Butler an authoritarian, narcissistic leader and described troubling experiences, including verbal abuse, sleep and food deprivation and children being forced to listen to lectures that are “deeply homophobic and sometimes sexually graphic.” Followers bow to altars of Butler and treat objects that he’s touched or leftover scraps of food as holy relics. If they leave they often find themselves ostracized by the group, including friends and family.
Gabbard’s cultish conspiracy theories were even reported by Military.com:
Former U.S. representative and current Army Reserve officer Tulsi Gabbard, known for controversial positions that have often been supportive of Russian interests, was accused Sunday of pushing a "treasonous lie" by Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, after her latest social media video promoted a debunked theory about biolabs in Ukraine.
In the video, which was posted to Gabbard's TikTok and other social media accounts, the former congresswoman mischaracterized U.S. support for several dozen former Soviet biolabs in Ukraine, falsely implying that the labs work with diseases like COVID-19 and that the Biden administration had been "trying to cover this up."
Now who exactly is being “defended” here? Who does Trump expect to be your “pal” as a “patriotic” American? Vladimir Putin? Here are some comments I wrote in previous posts:
Under Putin’s “leadership,” more innocent civilians have been killed by incompetent Russian security forces than by the supposed terrorists in the country—such as in the 2002 Moscow theatre and 2004 Beslan school hostage crises. Suspicions that the 1999 apartment complex bombings which killed 300 people were in fact planned and carried out by Russian FSB (the successor to the KGB) agents in order to persuade the public to support another war in Chechnya may not have been mere conspiracy fodder.
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I have mentioned that while Putin has used the propaganda tool of accusing the Ukrainians of being “Nazis,” in fact he himself has been using the tactics of the Nazis to justify and carry out his wars. Why should we doubt that Putin was willing to kill even Russian civilians as the “inevitable” cost of justifying a war in Chechnya by launching false flag bombings, one of which was admitted as such after FSB agents were caught red-handed planting explosive devices in an apartment building—which it claimed was to “test” the response of security forces, the latter of which had already proven itself willing (or incompetent enough) to kill Russian civilians in such operations, like slaughtering most of the hens just to get to the fox.
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But what happened in September of 1999 was a different matter altogether. In Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk there was a string of apartment bombings, in which nearly 300 people were killed and over 600 injured. This was all blamed on Chechen separatist guerillas, who were in fact active in Russia for many years and were a convenient target of Putin at the time.
However, not all was as it seemed at first glance. A few days after the attacks it was reported that a resident of an apartment building in Ryazan had “inadvertently” averted a bombing in that city as well when he notified local police of the “suspicious” behavior by two men carrying sacks into the basement. Upon arrival, police found sacks of white powder, in which a timing device and a detonator were discovered armed and ready to ignite an explosion. The bomb was disarmed, and further investigation discovered that it was constructed from material used by the Russian military.
But there was more to suggest that this was a “false flag” operation. A Russian telephone operator claimed to have overheard a conversation between two men who warned each other to “get out of town” fast. Police discovered that on one end of the line the call was from an office of the Russian intelligence agency, the FSB. Thus the “rumor” was that this was a “false flag” event to drum-up support for war against Chechnya. The anger generated by these “suspicions” was such that FSB director Nikolai Patrushev felt obliged to publically issue a statement admitting that the bombs were planted by FSB agents in Ryazan, but only as a “test” of the response by security forces. Nobody believed this “explanation,” and it certainly didn’t “explain” the bombings in the other cities, which Chechen rebels did not admit responsibility for.
By the way, Patrushev had just replaced Putin as head of the FSB, when Boris Yeltsin installed Putin as "prime minister" and personal selection to replace him as president. There can be little doubt that Putin was personally involved in this affair.
In the 2002 theater and the 2004 Beslan school hostage cases, most of the Russian civilians who were killed were by the actions of Russian security forces; 80 percent of the hostages in Beslan were killed by “random” fire from Russian security, which one observer called “a chilling portrait of the Russian leadership and its total disregard for human life.”
And we are supposed to believe that former KGB operative Putin himself wasn’t “aware” of these operations, let alone had taken part in planning them?
Everyone but Trump and Gabbard knows that the “mysterious” killings of opponents of Putin were not “coincidental” 2. Here is a list of likely assassinations of not just political opponents, but in some cases their family members to make the killings appear “random” 3 since Putin first became “president.” Here 4 is another list of “mysterious” deaths that have befallen Putin critics since the start of the Ukraine invasion.
Yet we live in a world where a dictator/serial killer is still regarded as someone who must be treated with “kid gloves” and “respect”—or at least by Trump, because—what did he say? Like himself, Putin went through a “phony witch hunt”? Well, we know what Putin was accused of was real 6 , but from one professional liar to another, what would you expect to hear?
What else is happening in the world today? The Guardian is reporting that Romania’s highest court “has upheld a decision to ban presidential election frontrunner Călin Georgescu from standing in a rerun of the vote in May, sparking protest in Bucharest and leaving the country’s far-right parties four days to find a candidate. Georgescu, an anti-EU, Moscow-friendly populist, surged from almost nowhere to win the first round of the country’s presidential election last year, but the result was annulled by Romania’s top court because of suspected Russian interference.”
Of course Elon Musk and JD Vance came to his immediate defense, and while there is some legal “issues" about the banning of Georgescu, he has technically broken Romanian law since “promotion of fascist leaders and Nazi, racist or xenophobic symbols are banned under Romanian law and carry a prison sentence,” and his claim that he has spent no money campaigning makes one wonder who paid for that avalanche of TikTok videos that have overwhelmed social media in Romania; of course it isn’t Russia—why would Putin want to see a pro-Russia, anti-EU, anti-NATO and anti-Ukraine president in Romania to help him reintegrate it into his Russian “empire”?
Meanwhile, a human rights organization called CIVICUS has put the U.S. on its “watch list.” A press release states that “The Trump Administration seems hellbent on dismantling the system of checks and balances which are the pillars of a democratic society. Restrictive Executive Orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the Administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal. We urge the United States to uphold the rule of law and respect constitutional and international human rights norms. Americans across the political spectrum are appalled by the undemocratic actions of the current Administration.”
Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly, here on the right with the rest of Trump’s press department’s “deep team” to give him deep wet dreams both psychologically and otherwise…
…issued this declaration: “This is nonsense: President Trump is leading the most transparent administration in history.” Well, yes, but is it such a great idea to make so “transparent” its undemocratic, unconstitutional, unlawful and anti-free speech actions?
Of course there is her “boss,” Leavitt, who recently referred to “liberal” journalists as “assholes” on a far-right podcast. We are told her comments were “made in jest,” but her behavior during press conferences says otherwise. Leavitt, who like her own boss has trouble with “hard” questions, has welcomed “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House," meaning far-right media repeating her lies and conspiracies.
And while I’m at it, let’s talk about the far-right’s sudden interest in “anti-Semitism.” In regard to Jews in this country, we are talking about a protected class against any criticism—even if it isn’t even about the Jewish population in this country, but the actions of Israel. We are talking about a country that is itself complicit in the attack that occurred last October. Israeli military and intelligence agencies knew in advance the arms being supplied to Hamas and when an attack was going to occur, yet seemingly purposely allowed themselves to be misled as to the scale of the attack.
Did Israeli officials want to allow an attack that would likely kill a “few” Israelis to justify a leveling of Gaza with the intent of removing Hamas while killing tens of thousands of civilians, including children? What other explanation is there? And people are supposed to be silent about that, or be accused of anti-Semitism?
Trump is such a hypocrite about this. Protestors on college campuses haven’t committed terrorist acts against Jews or defaced synagogues. Who has done that? White supremacist groups who by and large are Trump supporters. The ADL points out that one of these groups, the “Goyim Defense League, (GDL) is a small network of virulently anti-Semitic provocateurs” whose aim is to expel all Jews from this country. Here 1 we find a list of white supremacists and their organizations with anti-Semitic beliefs and goals who actively support Trump.
Yet who is being targeted for “anti-Semitism”? At Columbia University, anyone who is “critical of Israel.” People like Mahmoud Khalil, a green-holder and graduate student at the school, who served as the “lead negotiator” between the school and protesters. Khalil was arrested in a Gestapo-style raid by ICE agents at his apartment after his eight-month-pregnant U.S. citizen wife was threatened with arrest herself. This thinly-disguised attack on free speech is being “justified”—well, we just said it—by any criticism by Israel by anyone the Trump administration believes is “deportable.”
I mean, Trump or ICE can’t do anything against a U.S. citizen who criticizes Israel; the “irony,” of course, is that Trump has nothing to say about his far-right extremist supporters for whom Jews are the principle “enemy” of this country.
David Duke, of course, has a particularly “interesting” history that goes beyond his anti-Semitism. In 2010, Russian authorities merely considered it “malicious hooliganism” when a homemade bomb exploded outside a Russian synagogue; neo-Nazi Duke also lived in Russia for a time promoting his book “The Ultimate Supremacism: My Awakening on the Jewish Question.” According to the ADL, “In Duke’s eyes, Russia presents an unmatched opportunity to help protect the longevity of the white race, since he predicts that ‘racially aware’ parties could achieve political influence there. He believes that Russia’s ‘sense of racial understanding’ will unleash a trend internationally.”
However, save for committed anti-Semites, Russians, when they noticed him at all, found Duke’s presence to be an embarrassment, as did the Czechs in 2009, when Duke was kicked out of the Czech Republic for "denying or approving of the Nazi genocide and other Nazi crimes" and "promotion of movements seeking suppression of human rights," according to one Czech media source.
Of course Trump will claim that he doesn’t want the support of anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, but enough of what he says about and acts against non-whites (under the guise of anti-DEI) and immigrants convinces them that it is only a “cover” and that “deep down” they know he is “with them”—as do many of those who are not blind, deaf and dumb.
This is the country we live in now, thanks to one political party that has shown an inability to govern save in acts of destruction, for which sadistic action and words is considered “normal” political discourse (just ask Lauren Boebert) and cruelty is the “point” in the MAGAverse—and those like Trump and Stephen Miller are more than happy to fill plates with heaping helpings of it, with second and third helpings if they want it.
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