When I read about/listen to the BILLIONAIRES who’ve lined up behind Trump I often get a bit sick to my stomach. I would completely stop paying attention to what the American people have inflicted upon themselves – except that I have children and grandchildren. Today, it was an article regarding an interview Jeff Bezos gave in New York to, I believe, Andrew Ross Sorkin – I think of the Times. I’m not going to read it again because my stomach can’t take it.
And, of course, in the eyes of someone like Bezos I should, at the ripe old age of 77, go back into teaching and keep my mouth/”pen” shut. (OK, I don’t write with a “pen”) Bezos is “optimistic” about Trump , calling him “calmer” than in his first term. He defended his decision two weeks out from the election to prevent the Washington Post, which he “owns,” from making an endorsement of Kamala Harris – for nearly 50 years, every presidential election the Post has made an endorsement, and, of course, Bezos was the FIRST to congratulate Trump on his “victory.”
One of the things that stuck out to me was Bezos saying the paper isn’t doing well financially right now – maybe his decision to intervene is a large part of the reason. I was among 250,000 subscribers who canceled their subscription after the Bezos decision. In just the first few days. Maybe his plan to make it profitable once again will involve pandering to the MAGA crowd. What a suckup! Just the overview of his comments shows a man who, despite his claims to the contrary, is all about the MONEY. And, I can virtually guarantee you, the Trump/Musk partnership brought Bezos along like a strike of lightning. I mean Bezos’ “Blue Origin” space company is second fiddle to Musk’s “Space X” and, I’m sure, Bezos’ sucking up to Trump is aimed at preventing Musk from, you know, doing something “untoward.”
Musk is winning the “I’m the richest person in the world” from Bezos partly because Bezos apparently had a midlife crisis which caused the dissoloution of his marriage – to a wife who was integrally involved in the success of Amazon.com. By my calculation her 4% stake in Amazon, at its present value would be worth about $84 BILLION. Now, maybe one of the reason she got divorced from Bezos (her name is Mackensie Scott) is her level of philanthropy. She’s been giving her wealth away to non profits since the divorce – but, had they stayed married Bezos might be numero uno. I think he looked at the possibilities of what Musk might do and it made his stomach a bit queezy.
Shortly after Bezos caved to the idea of being OK with America as a fascist state – as long as Trump’s administration “cuts regulations” (so he can make more money? Or, maybe so the government anti-monopoly people would get off his ass? Do you really think he cares one way or the other about the lurid details outlined in Project 2025? I wrote the other day about all the groups who ended up pushing Trump “over the finish line” with me guessing close to zero of them actually had read Project 22025. My guess is Bezos hasn’t read it – or maybe he has and is just playing dumb.
He might be playing dumb because along with Musk and Zuckerberg, and the other American OLIGARCHS – when the economy goes into the dumpster they will all be swooping in to, as I’ve said before, “pick up the scraps.” If you think the corporate ownership of housing – which has been pushing up prices since the last recession – cause by the Bush/Cheney administration – is bad, my prediction is: “You haven’t seen nothing yet.”
In my view, it’s via a lack of messaging ability ALONG WITH the almost yearly – during election years – habit of democrats to be afraid of their own shadows. They don’t have the courage to defend their own fundamental beliefs. Now, I have to admit I was encouraged, from a pragmatic point of view, to see Kamala Harris campaigning with Liz Chaney. Personally, I didn’t find Dick Cheney’s endorsement of Ms. Harris to be of much value at all – in fact, a turnoff to people like me who despised his actions as V.P. back in the “we’re authorizing torture” days of republican “rule.”
I don’t expect people like Bezos to be admitting the reason they aligned themselves behind Trump is for what they will gain via the extension of the so-called “Trump tax cuts” which are due to expire at the end of 2025. Those tax cuts are estimated to peel off another $4+ TRILLION from the wealth of America’s Middle Class MOSTLY into the hands of the OLIGARCHS who have aligned themselves with Trump. (Musk’s “investment” in Trump has already returned a “profit” in the neighborhood of 30 TIMES the $277 MILLION he supposedly “donated” to the campaign.
I doubt Bezos or any of the others consciously understand their alignment with our government is foundational to turning a “democracy” (actually “democratic republic”) into a fascist state. Trust me, the Russians are jumping up and down at what lies ahead in less than 2 months. Do you really believe Putin doesn’t have “Kompromant” on Trump? Or, like me, do you believe the so-called “pee tape” actually exists in the hands of the Kremlin? Here’s my question: Why were the Russians so involved, once again, in helping to get Trump elected. I mean the 80+ bomb threats that showed up at American polling places on election day were traced right back to the Kremlin.
The Russians, once again, were filling as much social media space as they could on Xwitter and Facebook, and, I’m sure other social media platforms. I mean it’s bad enough witnessing an “American” TV network owned by an Australian who’s more interested in young ladies than his business which spews right wing hate (i.e. bullshit), but to have autocrats around the world helping to funnel actual “fake news” via any and all “avenues” of the social media world. And, are these foreign entities sending money to Trump? You’d have to be one of America’s “uneducated voters” to believe otherwise.
Speaking of America’s “uneducated voters” – as a retired Middle School teacher – I was “aghast” at the report saying over half of America’s voting public has an eqivalent education of 6th grade, or less. To me, that’s in large part due to the so-called “No Child Left Behind” initiative of the Bush/Cheney era. I was teaching back then and I referred to it as “Many Children Left Behind.” That legislation actually FORCED schools to focus on standardized testing out of a sense of survival. Me, working in a high poverty school, seeing tests made up by White university educators using words and language my students didn’t/couldn’t understand. Causing many of them to drop out of High School.
I worked in, as I just said, a high poverty school and remember what that legislation did to our curriculum. Far less “project based” learning and more attempts to prepare students to be successful on the standardized tests. It certainly, at a minimum, made learning less fun. And, as someone who expected my students to make an effort to succeed, I, on two or three occasions, suggested students who were “lost” should do the sixth grade again only to be rebuffed by the district administration. Too expensive?
In every instance where I failed to have a student held back I watched that student’s lack of success all the way through High School until they decided to drop out. IN other words, students were pushed through the system without even making an effort to succeed. Schools were forced to adapt to the reality of the standardized testing (standardized to who?) in order to avoid being labeled a “failing school” and facing possible closure.
Failing to “get through” to students like that was difficult for me to “handle.” Early in my career, at a staff meeting, we listened to a school counselor who advised those of us who were fairly new to teaching that “you won’t succeed with every student” and, if you don’t learn how to deal with that reality, you’ll likely “Burn out” in just a few years. And, like in any profession, with experience comes a level of expertise. At least for me, I realized that as the years accumulated I became a better teacher. (Also, I refused to focus on getting my students to “pass the tests”)
But “half the American voting public with a sixth grade or less level of education?” That really bothers me – as a former sixth grade teacher. However, I know several of my peers – from my high school back in the 1960’s who have admitted to me they haven’t read a book since high school – in some instances, except the Bible. Most of the people I know, in my age group, won’t read a book if I give it to them and absolutely don’t want to talk about politics. The people I know who watch Fox “news” actually get angry if you attempt to understand their thought process. I’m talking about so-called “Baby boomers.”
And, it’s my generation who are responsible for Trump. We are the ones who’ve benefited the most from the ability to enter America’s Middle Class – yet we’re willing to leave to our children and grandchildren a country which doesn’t resemble the nation we grew up in. Basically, what’s happening – or going to be happening – is the throwing away of 250 years of self rule. I truly hope I’m wrong about that because I don’t expect to be around to see what’s left standing after Trump finishes his “retribution.” And, keep in mind, he’s like an organized “crime boss.” He could care less about what’s standing when he’s finished – which hopefully will be in four years (or sooner if “we the people” somehow succeed in voting in enough democrats to actually get him impeached (AGAIN) and convicted (the third time). Yes, I “get” that’s very unlikely.
Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg are far from the only OLIGARCHS who are lining up behind Trump. Do you really believe Elon Musk spent between $200 and $300 MILLION to help Trump get elected to help “we the people?” Maybe what it will take to break the cult hold Trump has on MILLIONS of Americans will be for him to succeed in his Project 2025. It really does remind me of the “Robber Baron” days which led to the “Great Depression.” That,, of course, will be unpleasant for us all (well, except the OLIGARCHS) but it might “wake up” some of the MAGA faithful. I mean if they voted for Trump based on the price of “eggs” as the saying goes, “they ain’t seen nothin yet.” (What are all the baby boomers going to think when Trump et al goes after Social Security and Medicare?)
For example, if the Trump administration actually attempts to “round up” the 12 MILLION undocumented members of oiur society – a group of people who are, mostly, a hard working part of the communities where they live – a group of people who pay a lot of taxes and don’t get much in return – a group of people who work in many jobs which would go unfilled without them – a group of “essential workers” – then the “you know what” will be hitting the “fan.” The cost to our economy will be in the MANY BILLIONS of dollars.
The bottom line here is people like Bezos could care less about anything besides their own bottom lines – or in Bezos case the bottom line of the company he vacated the role of CEO a few years back but continues to make him one of the richest (number two) people in the world. He can “sweet talk” about his “optimism” for Trump’s administration all he wants, but I ain’t “buying it.” I’m 77 and I’d really like to focus on other things besides politics at this point in my life. But, I don’t anticipate I’ll be able to do that because what “we the people” did on November 5th is so antithetical to everything I’ve learned in my lifetime. I feel compelled to be part of the “resistance.”
The democrats abandoned the best president in my lifetime in Joe Biden. I’m making a lot of predictions here – many of them dire (and, in all honesty, I hope I’m wrong) – but, my guess is the “fruit” of Biden’s greatest successes will begin to arrive in the first year of Trump’s administration and Trump will take credit for those successes and his cult following will believe him. Plus, the so-called “liberal media” has been so one sided in it’s willingness to – in the M.O. of Fox “news” – fair and balanced that we just had an election where the FACT one of the candidates was a 34 times FELON and it wasn’t hardly even an issue.
The FACT hurricanes, wildfires, and other weather events – like each year becoming the “hottest” year on record wasn’t enough to make the Climate Crisis even an issue – so “we the people” voted in a died in the wool Climate Crisis denier – a person who publicly offered a quid pro quo to oil executives in exchange for a BILLION dollar “donation” to his campaign. One of the candidates was responsible for a right wing SCOTUS which will torment America’s younger voters for their lifetime – with the likelihood it’s going to get much worse before it gets better – and, somehow, the issue of the court wasn’t a key part of the campaign – obviously, in my view, it should have been a MAJOR issue in Ms. Harris’ campaign.
Final Thought; But, would those who just didn’t want a woman as president, have listened had those (Climate, the Court) arguments been made. PLUS, the “Musk total” is still being tabulated, but as of the last count I saw, he forked out over $277 MILLION into Trump’s campaign plus varying campaigns of republicans running for Congress. Kind of makes George Soros seem like a peon. As I’ve written before, young people, women, and Hispanics swung significantly during the last couple weeks of the campaign to Trump. I have maintained Ms. Harris failed to respond to the “transgender surgeries in prison ad” which Trump’s campaign spent $29 MILLION on in the closing weeks of the campaign. I saw it at least a half dozen times (I’m not in a swing state)A and kept waiting for Ms. Harris to point out the “issue” originated in Trump’s first term. A great example of the power of LYING – er misinformation. It’s as if the democrats and republicans are playing by two different rule books.
I’ve been pointing out here for nearly 20 years that if the democrats continue to fail to realize this political battle is a “war” – then they will continue to be, ultimately, the losers in the long run. Al Gore didn’t fight the egregious Court declaring Bush/Cheney the victors in 2000, Barack Obama said “we’re going to look forward instead of back” regarding the TORTURE publicly authorized by GW Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and others – which a court in SPAIN wanted to prosecute. I wasn’t the only one saying the next abuser of our legal system would be worse, and, sure enough, along comes Trump. Now, it’s Trump with the anti-democratic fascist group behind Project 2025 and we’re about to get a view of what Karl Rove referred to as “the permanent republican ‘majority,'” – of course, which is no “majority” at all and will be even less of one going forward. Yikes!!! God help us!
A couple things: First, don’t forget the SCOTUS, in essence, created an “imperial presidency” – specific for Trump. (Part of the fascist takeover or our government – which “we the people” voted into office.) Second: I read an account of Joe Biden’s accomplishments in the “Daily Kos” and I couldn’t help but think of why weren’t they “touted” more during the campaign. The list is long and reminds me, once again, of why I’ve NEVER been a democrat. They seem afraid to “tout” their own successes:
“Joe Biden became President and, following the liberal Democratic blueprint he lowered the cost of medications, expanded overtime guarantees, prevented discriminatory mortgage lending, cracked down on “junk fees” and overdraft charges, bolstered rural economies by directing agencies to promote competition and take on monopolies, penalized college programs that trap students in debt, put $50 billion toward subsidizing microchip production in the U.S., allocated $1.2 trillion into the nation’s infrastructure, took the number of uninsured Americans to an all-time low, added about 15 million jobs, raised the wealth of ordinary families to a record $156.2 trillion, and had by the end of his term income increases outpacing price inflation. That’s just some of what he did specifically for the middle class and omits his record on foreign affairs and climate change. Nevertheless, John Doe (i.e. independent voter who’s benefited from Biden’s agenda) again held his nose and voted for Trump because—the price of eggs.” I’ll say it again, Lord help us!