I quit my subscription to the Washington Post when Jeff Bezos overruled his paper’s editorial board blocking them from endorsing Kamala Harris. This, of course, was followed by Bezos kissing up to Trump from the day of the election until, well, now. So, it wasn’t surprising to me when I read a headline (the only thing I can read without giving them my money once again – which I originally did to support investigative journalism) about the Post demonstrating surprise at (f)Elon Musk continually posting racist stuff on his Xwitter platform suggesting he might be a “white nationalist.” Apparently, the Post wasn’t paying attention when Musk was throwing Sieg Heil’s at Trump’s inauguration party. It seems obvious to me the “tech Oligarchs” – Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Thiel, the Ellisons, Page, Brin, Altman, Sook (Nextar), Smith (Sinclair), the oil billionaires (Koch, Woods, and ???) – are more dangerous than Trump.
Yes, Trump is DAMAGING the foundational institutions of America, he’s destroying our relationships with our traditional allies, and he’s cultivating CORRUPTION the likes which America has NEVER seen – but the American OLIGARCHS are going to be around long after Trump (and me) are pushing up daisies. These OLIGARCHS have unlimited funds and they’ve figure out the surest way to keep their wealth expanding (they are insatiable) is by gaining control of the so-called “mainstream media.” Trump is coordinating with these right wing media moguls who keep buying up more and more of the “stuff” we the people put into our heads.
Musk owns Xwitter, Zuckerberg Meta (Facebook, Instagram, What’s App), Ellison controls CBS, TikTok (with Murdoch), and soon CNN, Page, Brin, Altman (and others) are pushing “AI” down the throats of humanity, and Thiel is making a fortune via government contracts spying on “we the people.” Yes, the DAMAGE Trump is doing to the traditional institutions and norms of our democratic republic will take a generation to recover from (if that’s possible) but these OLIGARCHS will be getting richer and richer unless “we the people” can somehow elect leaders who realize the DAMAGE they are causing and take action to mitigate it. And, yes, I’m talking about taxing them like it was the 1950’s again (they and their republican cheerleaders (SCOTUS) seem to want to take us back to those days). If you’re too young to remember, the top tax bracket back then was 90% over what would likely amount to something in the tens of millions in today’s dollars.
Should they threaten that they would leave the country, well I’d say, “don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you.” And, tell them to take their corporations with them. We’d all be a lot better off without the social media moguls who are totally focused on making more money. Take Musk for example. His “donation investment” of close to $300 MILLION in order to get Trump elected proved to be one of the great “investments” of all time. His net worth has TRIPLED since he was able to shed the government intrusions into his businesses via “DOGE.” The accomplishment of “DOGE” wasn’t reducing our annual deficit, it was reducing regulations he (and Bezos, and the other OLIGARCHS) didn’t like. Plus, of course, Musk torpedoed USAID leading to around a MILLION people in Africa dying because of the cut off of medicine and food. As Bill Gates put it, the “world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children.”
I started this a couple weeks ago and just haven’t had the motivation to write despite the fact the frustration of what I continue to observe coming from Trump 2.0’s reign on America continues to rise. I realized from the start those of us who are paying attention and believe in the constitution which has guided America for 250 years will be (and are) “chasing our tails” trying to keep up with the CORRUPTION coming from the “White House,” sycophantic business “leaders,” and, of course, Trump’s “crime family.” It’s been widely reported Trump’s net worth has increased by over $4 BILLION since taking office. And, his sons and son-in-law are knee deep in all the grifting as well. America’s standing in the world is tanking by the day.
I try as best as I can to keep up with what is happening in Ukraine. Here’s what is apparent to me. Trump is aligned with Vladimir Putin while MOST of America is aligned with Ukraine. Especially people like me who studied history in college – even though that was many years ago in my lifetime. But, the parallels between Putin (and Trump) toward Hitler and the Third Reich are not difficult to see. Putin has “said out loud” he wants to recreate the former Soviet Union. That means Ukraine is just the first step in that process. Joe Biden, MOST of the European Union, and the UK clearly recognized this. Biden was the leader in pulling NATO together to provide aid to Ukraine allowing them to defend themselves from the Russian invasion.
It’s true Barack Obama’s administration was relying on sanctions to get Putin to pull out of his “takeover” of Crimea and the Donbass region of Ukraine in 2014 in response to Ukraine’s push for “democracy” and cleaning up government CORRUPTION. Biden increased American aid to Ukraine when it became obvious Russia wanted control of the entire country. Unfortunately, in my view, that aid was focused on defending Ukraine from the Russians and didn’t include the offensive weapons they needed to push the Russians out. I felt from the day Russia made the push toward Kyiv it was time to make the people of Russia feel the pain of this war – initiated by Putin. Remember, it started in 2014. (Trump actually referred to Putin’s push into Ukraine, in the first few days, as “genius.”)
So, now, Trump has pushed “we the people” into Iran not having a clue what he’s doing and with not the slightest idea of how to get out. He knows if he just declares “victory” and pulls America’s troops and ships out of the area he’ll be even more of a laughing stock around the world than he already is. But, my thoughts continue to be focused on the DAMAGE Trump is causing. Up until Netanyahu talked him into joining Israel in bombing Iran I felt MOST of the DAMAGE being caused by Trump was to America. However, the Iranians understand Trump’s vulnerability likely better than Trump himself and now we’re talking about the world’s economy. If it collapses it will be Trump’s “legacy.” I predicted when Trump first took office it would take him about six months to torpedo America’s economy – I admitted I was wrong – and then modified my prediction to one year.
A year has passed, and thanks to the so-called “magnificent 7” – corporations, outwardly it appears America’s economy is “booming.” The big Tech corporations are spending money by the BILLIONS in a push to prop up the “AI” boom – which, to me, is “evil,” by the way – so that helps to make things look good (on Wall Street) – but the 60% of Americans living from paycheck to paycheck aren’t feeling so good. Virtually ALL public opinion polls express negativity regarding the economy (and virtually every other aspect of Trump’s administration) so, I’m feeling the “tanking” could be on the horizon. However, with the blockade of the Straight of Hormuz, we’re now talking about the world’s economy.
From my observation point, Trump’s STUPIDITY is leading to “making China great,” and causing a lot of residual pain around the world because of the blockade of the Straight. Keep in mind, Trump will NEVER concede he made a mistake. He’s so full of hubris that he’s hanging his photo on government buildings, he’s putting his name on everything from money to ships (including American passports). Trump’s narcissism is off the charts. Speaking of China I read some interesting “stuff” the other day regarding all the multi-MILLION dollar bombs Trump/Hegseth have unfurled on Iran.
These bombs require specific minerals in order to construct them. They are precision “implements of destruction” and apparently America has depleted its stockpile of these weapons by about half. So, who do “we the people” depend on to replenish these weapons? You guessed right – it’s CHINA. From what I read (I can’t remember the names of the minerals) China exports roughly 95% of these minerals – sometimes referred as “rare earths.”
If you remember, Trump made a deal with Volodymyr Zelensky regarding Ukraine’s “rare earths” – that apparently are very abundant – but it appears Russia’s troops control much of the land where these “rare earths” exist. I have no idea how this relates to Trump being a “turn coat” regarding Ukraine and siding with Putin but what seems certain is that the U.S. will be counting on China to export these minerals in order to replenish the stockpile of these “weapons of war.” (These “rare earths” are critical elements in much more than bombs – like, for example, EV’s – Electric Vehicles)
Speaking of EV’s, China is surpassing America in the car building push for the change to Electric Cars. I’ve been driving either a “plug in hybrid” electric car (Chevrolet Volt) or a full electric car (first a Polestar and now a Ford Mach E Mustang) since 2014. I really don’t miss buying gas. The Chinese car company “BYD” is, from my viewpoint, building the best cars in the world, mostly EV’s (with some HEV’s – hybrids). They are unable to sell them in the U.S. because of the tariffs because American car companies just would be unable to compete with them. The volume of BYD’s cars selling across Asia and now in parts of Europe far surpasses Tesla’s in the EV “genre.”
While Trump is causing America to fall farther and farther behind in the area of clean energy compared to the rest of the world (especially China) by the day. His refusal to understand the “climate crisis” is a dereliction of duty. There are coastal areas in the U.S. which are being threatened by the rise of oceans caused by the melting of the polar ice caps. He got lucky last year because there were fewer “natural disasters” than normal in the U.S. but I suspect the Hurricane season, this year, will make up for it. Who knows maybe Mar a Lago will be hit with a major Hurricane. Even that would probably not get Trump’s attention. Our attention should be focused on his CORRUPTION and the GREED of his sycophantic OLIGARCHS. Still chasing my “tail.” Stay tuned!!!
Final Thought: As you can see, it’s difficult to keep up with all the STUPIDITY and the CORRUPTION. I’ll end with a bit of nostalgia. Maybe you remember the fuss the republican party (and Trump – likely at his direction) made over the $5 MILLION Joe Biden’s son (Hunter) received from a Ukrainian company he was part of the “board” back in Trump’s 1.0. Trump, in his finest projection mode, used that to label Biden and his son as the “Biden crime family.” Unfortunately, the democrats failed miserably to fight this nonsense back in the universe of “public opinion.” Well, now we really have a “crime family” at the head of America’s government and the comparison to Biden is not even close. I’ll try to be as succinct as I can.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has managed to pull several BILLIONS dollars out of the investment funds of Arab countries in the Middle East. The first $2 BILLION coming from Saudi Arabia and an unknown (to me) amount coming from the UAE (United Arab Emerites), Qatar, and maybe others. Now, Kushner is part of the American real estate duo leading the “negotiations” with Iran to end the “war.” (Trump is referring to the war as something else to avoid America’s “War Powers Act”) An aside to suggest why the Iranians might not trust Kushner (and Steven Witkoff) were engaged in negotiations – which were referred to as productive by a mediator – right before Iran’s leaders were wiped out in the first stages of America’s and Israel’s attack. In essence, they set up the Iranians and that’s probably – OK, obviously – difficult to forget.
While involved in these negotiations it’s been reported Kushner has also been pushing to get another $5 BILLION or so out of these Arab countries (who would like nothing better than for Trump to follow through on his threats of genocide to Iran). Does that appear to you to be a conflict of interest on Kushner’s part? For that matter, on Trump’s part? Because he (Trump) has pilfered BILLIONS from these Arab “allies” as well. I refer you back to all the fuss Trump made over Hunter Biden’s $5 MILLION payday in Ukraine. A payday that was undoubtedly because of who is father is – but compare that to Kushner and the lack of questions he’s had to face and the lack of negative publicity. BILLIONS because of who HIS father is! Democrats just aren’t very good in the field of messaging.
And, I haven’t even mentioned Trump’s two sons who have been traversing the world making huge profit off of their familial connection to Trump. Not only that, but it’s now being reported that the Trump boys are “investing” in corporations related to the area of “defense” and “somehow” gaining government contracts for these businesses. The Trump administration has given new meaning to the term “swamp.” Don Jr. is connected to the gambling outfit, “Polymarket” where people bet on “predictions.” People have made MILLIONS betting on some of Trump’s decisions – insider trading?
Hopefully, by November the members of Trump’s CULT will realize they are being scammed by a world class Con Man and, for at least one election (hopefully more) vote AGAINST republicans. I’ve been writing for close to twenty years here with the focus being MY “fever dream” that American voters would vote this version of the republican party into the History books – right next to Trump and Benedict Arnold. (With apologies to Mr. Arnold because I don’t believe he had 34 FELONY convictions) If “we the people” fail to have a massive response to Trump’s CORRUPTION at the polls in November we’re screwed! Yikes!!!
Sorry, I have to add: The recent SCOTUS ruling putting the finishing touches on their dismantling of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) has set off scrambling by the former Confederate States to rig their elections so that Black and Brown people will lose any representation. (A return to Jim Crow? facilitated by the SCOTUS?) Louisiana’s 2026 primaries were already started – as far as the voting – thousands of early votes had been cast via mail in votes and absentee votes – and, one day after the SCOTUS’ decision the governor “paused” the election so that Louisiana’s legislature could redraw their “maps” supposedly to break up the two majority Black districts making sure their Congressional representation is “all White.” (36% of Louisianans are Black)
Several people are suggesting this is a precursor to Trump’s plans to “rig” the 2026 Mid Terms. I’ve been saying I’ll believe the mid-term elections will go on when I see it happening. Trump knows what he’s in store for if he is unable to interfere/block November’s elections. How will Trump interfere? How will democrats respond if he tries to cancel the mid-terms? Food for thought! OMG!!!
