This is getting REALLY serious! Trump is not only attacking “we the people” with our own troops, planning to take over Venezuela to pilfer their natural resources as if they belong to the U.S., and planning some kind of (fake) invasion of Greenland (he’s also suggested Colombia, Mexico, and Canada are in his “crosshairs”), but for his idol Vladimir Putin he’s hell bent on destroying NATO, which is even worse. All of this is right out of the “what do you want from me” book written to Putin. Trump is a TRAITOR to the U.S. and people like me just have to sit here and watch (and, of course, type) because there’s not much we can do about it. (I have to wonder what the “kompromat” Putin has on Trump)
Yes, participating in the protests – for me, likely the next “no Kings” protest, is all aimed at encouraging us progressives and, now, our conservative and independent brethren who oppose fascism to gear up for a massive turnout in the November election. But, that’s ten plus months away – if we still have elections then – and the DAMAGE Trump is inflicting on “we the people” – let alone others around the globe who believe in self governance – is mounting so fast my prediction is it will take AT LEAST a generation for the U.S. to recover from this – if that even ends up happening. (I’m still holding out hope we’ll continue to govern ourselves via elections and enough people will repudiate FASCISM that there will be an historic “blue wave” in November.)
The Europeans are sending troops into Greenland to defend it from the U.S. and now they’re talking about their “Sell American bazooka” that will allow them to hit the U.S. where it will hurt the most. Apparently Europe holds the most American Treasury bills – something like $8 TRILLION worth – that they can sell which would cause the American economy a lot of grief. I don’t claim to understand all the ramifications should they choose to do that, but from what I’ve read it would be significant. All in all, my gut tells me Trump is going to destroy the dollar as being the World’s main currency before he’s finished. (IMPEACHED?) I believe he’s setting up China – wittingly or unwittingly – to be the World’s economic leader and number one “Super Power.”
We’ve already seen the Canadians making deals with China in order to bypass having to deal with Trump. The Canadians have a lot of that (dirty) oil Trump is so engrossed with in Venezuela and, it seems, now most of that oil will be going to China. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of oil. I’ve gone out of my way to remove it from my existence as much as possible. I live in the Pacific Northwest where electric energy is supplied by the great Columbia River and myself and my wife have been driving electric cars for over 10 years. We put 32 solar panels up on our southern facing outbuildings over 10 years ago and have produced over 10,000 kwt. of electricity since. But I know oil is still a major resource to the economy and Trump has gone off the rails for the oil BILLIONAIRES. However, as usual, there’s (always – with republicans) more.
American BILLIONAIRES are in a mad scramble to see who the first TRILLIONAIRE will be. (f)Elon Musk has managed to coerce a TRILLION dollar pay package over the next ten years out of Tesla (and, by the way, while I drive an electric car I refuse to drive a Tesla) – dependent on how much he can jack up their share price and he’s in the “catbird’s seat” as of now. But, there’s a flock of BILLIONAIRES in hot pursuit. Disgusting Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Tim Cook, and a bunch more, are all sucking up to Trump in order to speed up their ascent on the TRILLIONAIRE status. These BILLIONAIRES (and others I can’t name off the top of my head) are all willing to sacrifice America’s self governance for their own riches. And, keep in mind, they are expert at squeezing as many dollars as they can out of the American taxpayers – all the while claiming they’re doing us all a favor.
Well, from my perspective – and, for starters – Social Media is where the rot began to spread around the world – but, especially in the U.S. (maybe because that’s where I live) – at a exponentially increasing rate. Nations have figured out how to interfere in other nations business using FAKE (I’m talking about the real “FAKE”) accounts on platforms like Facebook, Xwitter, TikTok, Instagram, and other Social Media platforms. The BILLIONAIRE owners of the platforms program their “algorithms” in order to encourage people to spend as much time as possible on their site by funneling targeted propaganda to their computer screens. They don’t bother to filter FAKE Russian accounts, for example. This makes them RICHER and RICHER. (And, of course, I’m talking about the BILLIONAIRES)
I’ve read a couple books about Facebook and Zuckerberg, written by insiders, that confirms he’s a pompous BILLIONAIRE who can’t seem to make enough money. He showed his true self when Trump won the 2024 election by pulling attempts at filtering god awful stuff so he could be more like Musk. It’s disgusting. And, Bezos began kissing up to Trump within hours of the election results. The whole bunch of them started doing what they know makes Trump “tick” by funneling MILLIONS of dollars Trump’s way before he took the oath of office. Now, with Ellison getting the “green light” to takeover CBS and TikTok (with Rupert Murdoch) our media is almost completely controlled by these BILLIONAIRE (in my opinion) scum bags.
For years now I’ve pointed out a fundamental requirement for FASCISM is a government/corporate partnership and we’ve seen the full evolution of that in the United States. This will NOT be an easy “partnership” to break. When we’re talking about the above mentioned BILLIONAIRES we’re talking about HUNDREDS of Billions each. Musk unloaded about $300 MILLION in the 2024 election to push Trump over the “finish line” so he could flash his Sieg Hiels at the inauguration and keep in mind that’s like chump change to “we the people.” His wealth DOUBLED within a few months of Trump LYING about his oath of office (with all the BILLIONAIRES crowding onto each other while trying to get as close to Trump as they could – maybe to be in the pictures?) – and that would be something like $200 BILLION in about six months.
As you can see, Musk has set the standard with these RICH people as to how profitable it can be for them to make “donations” to American politics. And, thanks to our current CORRUPT right wing Supreme Court there’s no limit on how much these people can spend. So, despite the fact it appears there’s a giant “blue wave” headed our way in November, just picture all these BILLIONAIRES spending HUNDREDS of MILLIONS (each) in order to prevent us peons (meaning “we the people”) from taking over Congress and having actual POWER over our government (once again) AND the BILLIONAIRE class.
They’ve (the BILLIONAIRES) pilfered something like $40 TRILLION from America’s taxpayers since the day Ronald Reagan took office and put the strategy behind Lewis Powell’s famous 1972 memo to the Chamber of Commerce into full effect. This creeping right wing move toward FASCISM started way back then – before MOST Americans of voting age were out of diapers. And, our education system (full disclosure: I’m a retired teacher) has failed miserably in teaching our high school age children about civics and recent American History. I say that as one who went to High School in the 1960’s and I had at least a fundamental grasp of how our government works by the time I graduated from High School – and, I was more into sports than high achieving as a student.
Things changed with Reagan, got worse under Bush/Cheney and now, here we are. It’s incomprehensible to me how “we the people” could have been suckered into voting Trump back into office. After all, he attempted a coup after his first reign on America. He stole some of the most highly sensitive Top Secret government files – some allegedly relating to our nuclear capability – and stored them where virtually any half-wit of a foreign spy could access them (I mean, in a bathroom!) – and, then refused to return them including by LYING to Justice Department officials about whether or not he had them. He FORCED the DOJ to execute a search warrant of his property in Florida to retain them. And, of course, he has other properties which likely have files to this day.
The lack of respect for the rule of law by republicans has grown with each administration since Nixon and Watergate. (It was Nixon who appointed the aforementioned Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court) With Reagan it was the Iran-Contra “affair” where something like 20 of his top aides ended up in prison. Reagan’s administration “secretly” sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund “rebels” in Nicaragua with the express purpose of overthrowing Nicaragua’s “communist” government. (Now, we just go in, kill a bunch of people, and arrest the leader) Unfortunately for Reagan and his sycophants, Congress had passed an “amendment” (the Boland amendment) specifically prohibiting the CIA and Reagan’s administration from interfering in the “affairs” of the nations in our Southern Hemisphere. The two people not charged in Iran/Contra were Reagan and his VP George HW Bush – both into it up to their eyeballs. Once again suggesting our top leaders are “above the law.”
Then came Bush/Cheney and many more Americans are aware of their oil driven incompetence. It was Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld et al who managed to use the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center to justify an ILLEGAL invasion of Iraq back in 2003. But as I always say – and, with republicans, there always is MORE – the FACT “we the people” were not treated as “liberators” in Iraq led to a prolonged military escapade where thousands of American troops were killed or wounded and roughly half of Iraq’s people were driven from their homes with several hundred thousand perishing. Plus, Bush and Cheney decided if they decided someone was an “enemy combatant” they were not bound by the Geneva Conventions and were OK with authorizing TORTURE. (I’ve complained about this for 20 years and it’s gotten me nowhere) I did point out when President Obama said “we’re going to look forward instead of back” – therefore failing to hold Bush/Cheney and the rest of those who participated in TORTURE accountable – “it’s going to get worse next time.”
That “next time” took exactly 8 years. For some reason “we the people” decided a stable economy and what some referred to as “no drama Obama” was not in America’s best interests and we elected an alleged mob oriented carnival barker as our President. And, of course, I’m talking about “dozing” Donald Trump. Trump’s first go round was about all America could take. Our allies were in disbelief we would actually elect someone like him to the “White House.” (Of course, with 3 MILLION less votes than his opponent – the quirk to our democratic republic) Trump 1.0 was bad, he violated many laws with impunity, he attacked our free press, he (allegedly) took money from sources we’ll likely never know about and he was defeated by (at that time) the oldest person ever to win the American election for president – by OVER 7 MILLION votes. (Of course, he broke the record as the OLDEST elected president four years later after 34 FELONY convictions! And, of course, there were something like an addition 50 FELONIES alleged. Go figure!)
Now, it’s “Katy bar the door” time in American politics. Trump has reportedly enriched himself by about 3 BILLION dollars, just in the first year of Trump 2.0. Additionally, the number of laws he, or people in his administration, have broken – or just ignored because HIS Justice Department “aint” going to enforce them – is almost impossible to keep up with. For example, it’s Trump’s DOJ which has the Epstein files, Congress (almost unanimously) passed a bill forcing them to be made public by DECEMBER 19th of LAST year and, still, something like 99% of them remain hidden from public view. Now we all know why, but this is just one example of how Trump is thumbing his nose at our laws (or, should I say “flipping off” “we the people”)
Trump is trampling on our laws (and international laws – ie MURDERING a couple hundred Venezuelans and kidnapping their president – to get to their oil) at a rate which is hard to keep up with. In fact, that has been their strategy all along – to, right out in the open – with that sycophantic DOJ – be breaking one law after another so that what small percentage of our media is paying attention is, in essence, “chasing their tails.” What is shocking today causes us to lose track of what was shocking yesterday. And, on top of all that, Trump and the GOP have adopted the propaganda tactics of the Nazi’s of the Third Reich in order to convince “we the people” what we see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears is not believable. They TELL us what is BELIEVABLE! And, if we don’t believe Trump he’s prepared to send our OWN troops into our OWN cities to help us understand what we’re supposed to believe. To me, this is, well, unbelievable – but, unfortunately I’m seeing it with my own eyes. Yikes!!!
Final Thought: One of the primary targets of “strongmen” who have their sights set on destroying democracies is education. While I retired from teaching (Middle School) in 2014 I still remember to this day the “No Child Left Behind” legislation passed by George W Bush back around the same time he LIED us into Iraq. At the time, I told anyone who would listen this was simply a further attempt by right wing republicans to destroy the American Public Education System. They’ve been working to further that (deplorable) goal ever since and now, in Trump 2.0, they’ve for all intents and purposes raised the ante by destroying the U.S. Department of Education. As (I think) I mentioned above it’s going to take a generation to overcome the DAMAGE Trump and his Project 2025 fascist puppet masters are doing to America and what they’re doing to Public Education will be one of the more challenging aspects of that endeavor.
Not only has Trump “dumped” the Department of Education he’s managed to strong arm several of our more prestigious Universities – and, these Universities were the envy of people around the world – into “bending the knee” to him and his right wing thugs. Columbia, Harvard, Brown, and, by some reports, over 100 American universities and Colleges have “bowed” to his threats agreeing to things like eliminating “DEI” (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and “CRT” (Critical Race Theory) from the curriculum. I have to say, I didn’t know what CRT was when I was teaching, although I guess I taught it – because I taught about REAL American History to my 6th grade students. And, while “DEI” wasn’t a “thing” back then – I was fully in support of our school hiring teachers our students could “identify” with. We had students from MANY backgrounds and countries and, in my view, we had too many “White” teachers. (Although I was always thankful to be one of them)
After “No Child Left Behind” the number of low socio-economic students who failed to graduate from High School went up dramatically. Giving students with limited vocabulary skills standardized tests created at some “elite” university wasn’t, in my view, a good plan. In fact, it turned out to be a road to failure for many of these students – students who had skills not represented by these tests. I was talking to my son this morning and pointed out my belief many of these students who dropped out of High School in the ensuing years joined the military because that was their only option (or so the ones I’ve talked to have told me) and now I’m speculating ICE is drawing many of these High School dropouts onto their force – which is attacking America. And, many of those former students have been convinced by Social Media “immigrants” are the reason they have so much difficulty finding a good job. It’s become American against American – the exact goal of Trump and Project 2025. If you have an education you’re an “elite.” (Although, virtually EVERY member of Trump’s administration who say sh*t like that have been to America’s best universities) Lord help us!! Stay tuned…..
As usual, my one or two paragraph “plan” got carried away. If you are one of the rare (bots 🙂 who’ve read this far, my apologies!