To me, it’s not difficult to understand what Trump, and his puppet masters, are doing with all the SUDDEN actions which kind of unearth the minds of leaders around the world PLUS “we the people” trying to keep up. I believe this is what I’ll call the “shiny object” theory of governing. Trump and the authors of Project 2025 (they’re easy to forget in this atmosphere) have a goal of turning the U.S. into a fascist nation by, in essence, destroying the traditional fabric of the nation. So, while Trump has EVERYONE’S attention on the crashing stock market – the DOGEshits are still busy kneecapping the Social Security administration and virtually every other government department EXCEPT the one with the MOST “fraud, waste, and abuse” – the Department of Defense.

The republican Congress appears to be all in on undermining Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security – where MOST of the federal budget resides – although, for good measure, the republicans are also planning to eliminate SNAP (food stamps) and other programs aimed at us normal Americans. Their plan, which has been poorly disguised, is to cut enough from these programs – they refer to as “entitlements” – plus to raise enough from his tariffs to offset a $5 TRILLION tax cut MOSTLY for those in the “top 1%” of America’s earners and, of course, his corporate friends. Right now, most people are focused on the stock market.

So, our so-called “liberal media” is not focused on the destruction of USAID (and, the lives being lost as the result), the elimination of the Department of Education (and, all the low income schools, plus their students, which will be affected), all the scientists who’ve been fired at the CDC, the FDA, and NIH, the people fired at the IRS (so that BILLIONAIRES will no longer need to worry about being audited), the EPA, and I could go on and on. The DOGEshits have even invaded the National Institute of Peace – which is not a government entity – they needed Federal Marshalls and DC Police to get in the doors so they could force the employees out the door. And, on top of all this, we’re no longer talking about “Signalgate.” What that means is Trump’s cabinet members are likely continuing to ILLEGALLY communicate via insecure aps in violation of the Federal Records Act.

Every day there’s going to be something else – and, “we the people” are doing exactly what I predicted before Trump 2.0 was officially underway – “chasing our tails.” Today, while the stock market was responding to what people like me knew would happen – in just a matter of days – as disaster lurked Trump “paused” MOST of the so-called “reciprocal tariffs” for 90 days. That’s kind of like their (Trump’s et al) plan to dismiss corruption charges against New York’s Mayor Eric Adams “without prejudice” – allowing them to re-file them if Adams didn’t kneel to their orders. (The judge dismissed the charges “with prejudice” so that they may NOT be re-filed) So, now, Trump can threaten to put the tariffs back in place based on – well, who knows?

Today’s “shiny object” – other than Trump’s “pausing” SOME of the tariffs (the tariffs are still in place – just not as severe) is that Trump actually signed two executive orders aimed at two members of his former administration, Miles Talor (aka “anonymous”) and Chris Krebs, ordering the “Justice Department” to initiate “investigations” of both of these men. I said that correctly, Trump is ORDERING who the “Justice Department” is to be investigating. This is beyond outrageous! Chris Krebs is an expert in cybersecurity who made sure the 2020 election was FAIR. That was his “fault.” Trump called Miles Taylor a “traitor” – I’m not kidding. The man who attempted a coup d’etat on America’s government (i.e. a TRAITOR) loosely throwing that word (traitor) around so that “we the people” forget who the TRAITOR actually is.

My father was in the Army during WW ii and he was a lifelong republican. When I watch what Trump is up to I don’t think it would have been difficult to convince him that Trump is inflicting exactly what Hitler was attempting to “inflict” on America – but, Trump is so much closer to succeeding. He’s got the 170 or so authors of Project 2025 filling out executive orders for him to sign which makes things easy for him – allowing him to get two or three rounds of golf in each week. So, Trump is now “going after” individuals PLUS his attacks on law firms and universities – sadly, some of them capitulating. Capitulation, by the way, has been proved by HISTORY as the WRONG answer.

Long ago I wrote that when the Justice Department becomes unreliable this country is in BIG danger. Well, that day is here (it has been since last November 5th). The Supreme Court has given Trump unimaginable – and, to me, unconstitutional – POWER and Trump is pushing it to the limit. (Was there any question he would do so?) The top three “leaders” of the Justice Department are/were Trump’s personal lawyers – unthinkable at any other time in American history. And, now Trump is ordering the Department to go after selected individuals from his first administration who displeased him. But, the stock market……

There are so many parts of America that are simply “chugging” along as if everything is normal – and, some of them are “places” I could easily choose to “reside.” I have always been either involved in or a “fan” of various sports. I have a love of baseball and basketball, for example – and, it’s very easy to allow myself to get emerged in following my favorite teams. For some reason, I’ve always (well, since the late 1990’s) followed the stock market – so the “wild swings” of the past week have captured my interest as well as MANY others. It’s too easy to concentrate on my fantasy baseball team than what is happening to the country I’ve loved for the 77 years of my life. (Well, I don’t think I actually “loved” this country until I was a teenager – I remember crying with my classmates as school was dismissed because JFK had been murdered) I say that because I recognize how easy it is for Trump to cause me – and MILLIONS of others to “miss” what he’s doing which is the MOST important “stuff” for “we the people” to see. (and participate in the fight against it)

For example, two issues that are resulting in the actual loss of life directly related to Trump policies are the destruction of USAID (I’ve written about this several times now) and the ILLEGAL invasion of Ukraine by Trump’s idol Vladimir Putin. People who depended on the food and medicine from America they had received through USAID and were almost instantaneously cut off by the DOGEshits have been dying in numbers I don’t know – but ANY child dying because of this egregious action is too many. And, of course, the courageous people of Ukraine are taking on unnecessary losses because of America’s betrayal under Trump (Trump attempting once again to EXTORT Volodymyr Zelenskyy while kissing up to Putin) – which if we had a Congress with ANY “balls” would have already resulted in IMPEACHMENT #3. These things are being part of the “news” in America now seemingly ONLY on the fringes.

Trump has succeeded in getting his appeasement of Putin to be “old news” – not “fake news.” And, to me, this capitulation is MUCH more serious than the wacky reaction of Wall Street to Trump’s “scandal a day” way of governing. Now, don’t get me wrong here – I do NOT consider Trump to be a “smart” person – other than he knows how to align himself with whoever it is that will make him richer. Therefore, you see out front Elon Musk and his DOGEshits while in the background you DON’T see – but, they are orchestrating things – Russel Vought and the rest of the Project 2025 team. Trump is signing the executive orders, making the occasional STUPID public statements, and playing golf as much as he can. I won’t say he hates America, I’ll just say, from my viewpoint point, he doesn’t give a s@#t about America.

And, after you work your way through a couple hundred pages of Project 2025 you quickly realize the authors of that “manifesto” really don’t like America’s constitutional form of government – and, they’ve made a plan to end it. I put links in my posts to the document “Project 2025 – Manifesto of the next conservative administration” several times, but the final time I was forced to give my email address (stupidly I did it) which was then passed on to the email lists of (what seems like) every republican seeking office – most significantly Trump. Therefore, I stopped putting up that link – but, I still recommend people get and read that document. They (meaning the authors – a bunch of rich executives from various industries and occupations) are “knee deep” into succeeding at destroying the America we’ve known. If they end up pulling off their plan it will be because “we the people” weren’t paying close enough attention. Wild stock market swings appear to get a lot of attention but there’s little reference to Project 2025.

The antidote to all this would be republicans in Congress acting as if their oath to the constitution was more important to them than the threat by Musk/Trump to destroy that very constitution. (I refer you to Musk’s Sieg Hiels at Trump’s inauguration celebration) Nixon was BAD, but he was stopped by the republicans in his own party. Sadly, the republicans in today’s Congress are an incredible bunch of COWARDS – who care only about keeping their “gigs.” Honestly, they make me just as sick, if not more, than Trump – who was indirectly referred to as a “moron” by his co-president.

Final Thought: One thing I haven’t written much about, but which I’ve thought a lot about, is how democrats are putting their hopes on the 2026 mid term elections. And, I have to add – I have a lot of hope they’re correct. But, here’s the rub – I believe if Trump and his puppet masters have their way their either won’t be a 2026 election or they’ll figure out a way to suppress enough democratic leaning voters that it will be an election Vladimir Putin could be proud of – if you get my drift. Trump actually promised a group (I believe it was a “Christian” group) of his voters that if they elected him in 2024 they wouldn’t have to vote anymore. Here’s exactly what he said: “Get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore.” Yikes!!!

Here’s another thing I’ve been wondering about – a lot. So, it appears the republicans (and Trump and the puppet masters) may succeed in undermining Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. (plus SNAP – food stamps) It appears their plan is to defund Medicaid and SNAP in their “very large” reconciliation budget legislation. This will affect MILLIONS of Americans – mostly very young or very old. Plus, it appears their strategy to get rid of Social Security and Medicare is to weaken them from the inside until they “collapse.” Obviously, this will affect MILLIONS more – mostly old people like me.

If they succeed, I’m guessing the ANGER will be elevated even more than it is now – there’ll be lots of protests – likely making Trump think: “Now’s the time for martial law.” I certainly hope these thoughts are just a product of my active mind – but, I have done a lot of reading regarding Trump and these people behind the scenes who I believe are “pulling the strings.” It seems to me the foundation of the Project 2025 agenda has been set – and, MOST of “we the people” still have no idea what it is. Remember, right wing republicans in America have opposed the programs they always refer to as “entitlements” (ie Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) since their inceptions. It appears to me, they FINALLY feel they will be able to destroy them. The end result – should they succeed – is very scary to me (not only because I’m collecting my Social Security and Medicare benefit at the age o 77) because of what it will do to our nation.

If you missed it, (f)Elon Musk referred to Social Security as the biggest “Ponzi scheme” of all times – that while the CEO of corporations built on our government’s largess. His auto business has a price to earnings ratio approximately 20 times higher than, for example, General Motors. With significantly lower earnings per share. I’m no economist, but that seems to me to be a “house of cards.” My point here is Musk has no need of Social Security, but he does have his sights set on the MASSIVE tax cuts republicans will ram through Congress once again. (just like they’ve done in every administration since Reagan – except HW Bush) “Rince and Repeat” – this happens every time Americans vote a republican into the “White House.” (They just might succeed in their “fever dream” of undermining Social Security this time around) Stay tuned……