I really am tired of writing about Trump. However, as I allow myself to pay attention to SOME of what’s “coming down the pike,” the thoughts keep swirling through my head and this is where I release them. Just as I said the other day, Trump’s doing what I called “flooding the zone” (with executive orders) in order to get people’s attention to parts of his absurd agenda in a way which allows some of the “stuff” which is the most outrageous (and, their actual targeted “stuff”) to “get through.” For example, Trump pardoned those INSURRECTIONISTS who viciously attacked Capitol and Metropolitan Police Officers. Why would he do this? “We the people” are so outraged we’re already chasing out tails.

So, what are “we” missing? Well, to me I was a bit taken aback by Elon Musk, while speaking at a rally following Trump’s inauguration flashing the Heig Seil salute – if you don’t know you’re history, that’s the NAZI salute. Republicans are suggesting it was an “accident.” Yikes! He did it TWICE! To me, this should be a headline and something run by EVERY member of Congress every time they’re in public to find out if they approve of overt NAZI conduct. It should be a part of EVERY news cast going forward until Musk gets what is coming to him. I suppose I should say that as what SHOULD be coming to him. More on that later.

I’ve been giving the parallels between Trump’s overt conduct and WORDS in relation to that of Adolf Hitler back in the 1930’s for years now. Like, when speaking about “immigrants,” (I have to add we’re ALL immigrants) “They’re poisoning the blood.” (Straight out of Mein Kampf.) Calling your opponents “vermin” – once again, right out of the words spoken by Hitler. So, now we’ve got our unelected co-president actually flashing the hand signal of the NAZI’s. I can guarantee you those NAZI’s interspersed around our country – including some of those pardoned by Trump on “day 1,” know EXACTLY what Musk was doing and welcome it. (“welcome” might not be a strong enough term)

That’s one thing which seems to be flying under the radar (which I would submit is significant) due to so many absurd executive orders designed, and succeeding at, getting “we the people” chasing our tails. Here’s another. During the campaign Trump claimed he had no idea what “Project 2025” is, hadn’t read it, and had no interest in it. Well, like with all the other words coming out of his mouth, he was LYING. I mean, do you really think it was Trump who authored the 200 executive orders he had ready for “day 1?” Of course not. I can virtually guarantee you it was his associates who put together Project 2025 who wrote those orders. Including an arrogant attempt to actually change the constitution regarding “birthright citizenship.” (Will the SCOTUS succumb to this challenge just as they did with “absolute immunity?”)

But, as usual, there’s always more. Russel Vought – one of the key authors of Project 2025 – has been nominated to be director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He will be the one who will be making decisions, the laws be damned, about the money which is appropriated by Congress and where that money goes. Mr. Vought has publicly stated that he can ignore the “Federal Budget and Impoundment Control Act” which says if Congress appropriates funds, the executive must spend the money as directed – for example, like trump did after his “perfect” call with Ukraine President Zelensky when he held up something like $400 MILLION in desperately needed military assistance – in an attempt to extort Zelensky into initiating a bogus “investigation” of Joe Biden. Trump is a serially corrupt person who operates like a mob boss. It’s a blight on America he was elected once again – we SHOULD have figured this out the first time. (Actually, there shouldn’t have been a “first time” – but for Vladimir Putin’s war on the West – and the gullibility of much of America’s voting public)

The abuses are going to be coming “hot and heavy” and, one thing we know, the republicans in Congress live in fear of a mean “tweet” from Trump and are willing to put up with stuff that, simply put, they’re COWARDS. (History will treat them badly) If you’re not part of the cult, this stuff is outrageous. I mean, Trump has already repealed an executive order written by Lyndon Johnson requiring the Federal Government to adhere to practices which do not discriminate against Americans no matter who they are – PERIOD! Apparently, we’re headed back to Jim Crow days!

Trump’s racist self is coming out in one executive order after another – so that it should be no secret – even to his cult members – any more. I mean one of the violent INSURRECTIONISTS was seen on camera flashing the “white power” sign – like the one Stephen Miller flashed during Trump’s first term when doing the “Sunday shows” – and, if you watched the INSURRECTION, you saw the confederate flag in the Capitol building (for the first time) and INSURRECTIONISTS wearing clothing which celebrated their racism. One of his pardoned “J6 hostages” was arrested the next day on Federal gun charges. The dude has a long history of violent FELONIES! Apparently, to Trump, that makes him part of the cohort.

So, why should we be concerned – I know several “democrats” (and, I’ve NEVER been either a democrat or republican) who have simply decided to tune politics out – joining the half of America who know less about OUR politics than people in Europe. This is exactly how fascist dictators take control of democracies. America could end up being the “tip of the spear” if “we the people” don’t demostrate the kind of courage we saw in 2014 in Ukraine. (It’s obvious how Putin feels about democracy – especially right “next door”). I mentioned Musk above flashing the Seig Heil salute (without the “Sieg Heil”) and the reality is Musk is supporting (threatening to use his wealth in the process) the German political party AfD (“Alternative for Germany – Deutschland) which is a far right group considered by many to be a neo-Nazi party. If Musk would flash the Seig Heil Salute in Germany he’d be arrested.

If you watched Trump’s inauguration (I didn’t – but, I’ve seen the photos of it) you saw America’s leading BILLIONAIRES – about $1.2 TRILLION worth of wealth (more than the wealth of something like 90 countries around the world) standing in the first two rows. Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos – the three wealthiest (if you don’t count Putin) in the world standing side by side with their spouses/dates along with Sam Altman (of Open AI), Tim Cook (Apple CEO), Sundar Pichai CEO of Google, (interestingly) Shou Zi Chew CEO of TikTok, Rupert Mudoch (of course), Bernard Arnault (French Billionaire – several luxury brands), Miriam Adelson (widow of Sheldon Adelson), and several others – many from “around the globe.”

The first thing I thought of was – standing behind Trump with big grins on their faces were the purveyors of MOST of the information MOST Americans digest. Is it any wonder people like me are aghast that, for example, the “mainstream media” doesn’t seem too interested in our “co-president” flashing a Nazi salute to Trump’s supporters. I mean, we’re nearly one week in and Trump’s Press Secretary hasn’t even given one Press report from the White House briefing room. Have you heard members of the press complaining about this? Maybe you have, but I haven’t.

Not only are these BILLIONAIRES who are supporting Trump holding a stranglehold on the information MOST Americans receive, but Trump appears to be partnering with Altman (Open AI and ChatGPT) to build huge facilities to put a “charge” into the development of Aritficial Intelligence – which we know was used nefariously in the 2024 election – on Trump’s behalf. This “advancement” in technology is happening rapidly and I don’t think most people (including myself) have any understanding of the potential for misuse by bad actors. My mind isn’t creative enough to figure out all the possibilities, but some of them are clear.

It seems as if now, almost every time you make a phone call to a business (which actually takes phone calls) the phone is answered via artificial intelligence and if you can actually find your way to a PERSON it takes a lot of time and frustration. Often, at least for me, it proves impossible. Or, have you resorted to a “live chat” recently to communicate with an entity on the internet? I find the “Ariticially Intelligent” chat bots to be rather ignorant – or, at least unable to answer whatever my question is. Expect more of this in the future – America’s corporations are doing whatever they can to eliminate jobs. The other option, for example, if you actually get a person, that person is likely in the Philippines – I’ve asked several times and the customer service people (who are very nice) tell me where they’re from. (Do they count as undocumented immigrants?)

So brace yourself for a flood of BILLIONAIRE funded propaganda encouraging “we the people” to be happy with the fascists who are moving in on our government like a bad case of dry rot on a building in a rainy climate. It’s going to be hard to “fix” this. Is there anything we can do? Well, I can’t quit social media because I don’t frequent it (occasionally I get directed to YouTube when trying to find music I’m trying to learn on my guitar) but, you might be able to, for example, move from Xwitter to BlueSky. You could get yourself (and your private information) off of the META applications (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, What’s App, Threads) – if enough people would do that it MIGHT make a dent in their bottom line (That’s what Zuckerberg cares about – he’s trying to be like Musk)

And, speaking of Musk – who I believe is largely responsible for all this – He dropped something like $277 MILLION into Trump’s campaign in the closing months and targeted his 200 MILLION followers with some Putin like misinformation in order to help Trump “win” – boosting his “net worth” by about a HUNDRED billion dollars in just a few weeks. Here’s one way Musk could be sent a clear message. DON’T buy a Tesla if you’re thinking of going “E.V.” (Full disclosure, I’ve been “E.V.” for over 10 years, I’ve never owned a Tesla, and I highly recommend it – if you have a spot for a home charging station)

I am presently driving a Polestar (from Sweden – spinoff from Volvo) and it’s a great car – by far, the best and safest car I’ve ever driven in my 61 tears if driving. I tell people who ask “My Polestar is like a Tesla without the Musk.” And, the new models of the Polestar, which I personally can’t afford, the Polestar 3 and 4 are SUV’s which are simply amazing automobiles. If you’ve looking for an SUV and you’re tired of spending time and money at gas stations I recommend you give it a look. Stay tuned! (It’s going to get a LOT worse before it gets better – and, if too many “progressives” do as my acquaintances who’ve succumbed to apathy, we’re all in trouble. Except of course the fascists)

Final Thought: I keep trying to find information about the wildfires in Southern California and just get rare snippets of the news. However, it appears one of the blazes has picked up “steam” and is threatening more homes and businesses – all the while Trump is laying the groundwork to disband FEMA. Trump really doesn’t want to send Federal aid to California (knowing Gavin Newsome is a prime candidate for the democratic nomination in 2028 – sound familiar?) and,if he somehow manages to end FEMA he’ll, of course, over the long haul, be affecting supporters in the so-called “red states” by far the most – will the American people stand for this?

Trump wants to put conditions on any aid sent to California where well over 1000 people and MANY businesses have lost EVERYTHING. This was one of the “planks” in the 900 or so pages of Project 2025 – get rid of FEMA. And, as stated above, with one of the prime authors of Project 2025 heading up OMB and claiming Trump can order funds authorized by Congress to be impounded despite that clearly being against the law, will he approve funds for North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida for hurricane damage but withhold funds for California – because it’s a “blue state?” To be clear – NOTHING Trump does surprises me anymore. (He’s already grifting BILLIONS and he’s only been in office four days!) Yikes!!!

It will probably take me a few days to pull up the energy to finish this rant, but, today, as I’m reading Trump (on his “first day”) will enact an executive order repealing “birthright citizenship – which, by the way, is embedded in the 14th amendment to our constitution – but, who these days worries about “minor” details – I couldn’t help but wonder about his own circumstances. Is IT just a minor detail?

Trump’s grandfather immigrated from Germany toward the end of the 19th century and arguably came her illegally. He then fathered Fred, Trump’s dad who was a citizen via “birthright citizenship.” Hell, Trump’s grandfather attempted to return to Germany and was booted out because he ventured to America in the first place – but, he wanted back into the “Fatherland.” So, if his grandson, Donald, manages to get “birthright citizenship” repealed for those born to a parent who came here illegally, wouldn’t that mean the Fred Trump would lose his citizenship and by extension, Donald and the rest of the Trump clan? Meaning, of course, that Trump couldn’t be a citizen and, therefore, would be ineligible to be president.

As I said in my previous post – just this morning – my head is spinning with thoughts and my desire to keep writing them down seems to be waning. However, the more I don’t write, the more thoughts accumulate in the swirl which is going through my head. I keep telling myself to just chill out and “let it go.” I’ve stated here one of the remaining items on my bucket list was to live long enough to see Trump thrown in jail, where I believe he belongs – but, at 77 it looks like he’s defeated me just like he’s defeated the American system of juris prudence – for what it’s become.

Here’s another irony from today, at least from my standpoint. Once again, Trump took the oath of office (which everyone knows is only a formality to him – a meaningless one) from John Roberts the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS. I would have to say Roberts is as responsible as anyone for Trump being back in the “White House.” The two main reasons are the Citizen’s United (v Federal Election Commission) and “absolute immunity” rulings – but, it was Roberts who gave the majority opinion in the case which gutted section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and there’s several more where he shown his bonifides as a total pro corporation bias. (Something that’s been part of the court for as far back as I can remember – at least into the 70’s)

For those Americans who despise “democracy” (when the “majority” opposes your viewpoints) Roberts is likely a hero. (Of course, he’s had Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas for the entire time he’s been on the Court) However, I believe this period of history now being created in America is going to be another dark one and Roberts will be sitting at the head table of those who end up in the American history books next to, as I’ve said here numerous times, Benedict Arnold. As you can see, I’m still a believer that “we the people” will somehow recover from this. (Eternal optimist?)

I say that because Trump and his Project 2025 sycophants are planning that we won’t recover from this and fascism is the future of America. They’ve pulled off the “miracle” Adolf Hitler failed to accomplish. I forget which president/candidate said this (maybe JFK? or what if it was RFK and his son is part of the “takeover?”), and I don’t include Trump, but warning about the danger to America would come from the “enemy within.” Trump has repeated that warning simply because he’s got two tactics – the “Big Lie Theory” and the use of projection – both right out of the Nazi handbook. Well, it appears “we the people,” at least temporarily have succumbed to the “enemy within.”

What is this enemy? Well, once again, I refer you to the Project 2025 handbook, which more and more Americans are going to be learning about in the next two or three months. I have to admit, I only made it through the introduction and the first 100 or so pages, but it had totalitarian written all over it. And, I’m curious to see these first TWO HUNDRED executive orders which are apparently prepared as of the moment Trump is sworn in to version 2.0. I wrote, just this morning, I believe their strategy will be to “flood the zone” with controversial and absurd “orders” causing all us progressives to keep chasing our tails – while they sneak through the ones which pad their pocket books while the rest of us are worried about, well, “birthright citizenship.”

I’ve never accused Trump of being brilliant, other than his ability to look you square in the eye while he’s LYING and not give a hint through his facial expression. He’s so good at LYING that I’m pretty sure he convinces himself to believe his LIES are true after he’s spewed them out a multitude of times. Maybe, as the words roll off his tongue. Classic pathological LIAR! Here’s the three definitions of LIARS according to “Medicine.net:”

There are three main types of liars, which include:

• Natural liars: This is the most common type of liar. Natural liars are people who can lie easily with great skill and success. They don’t believe their own lies, they’re just good at lying.
• Pathological liars: Pathological lying is often a warning sign of antisocial personality disorder (commonly known as a psychopath). A pathological liar is usually considered manipulative, selfish, and cunning.
• Compulsive liars: Compulsive liars bend the truth about everything, large or small. For a compulsive liar, telling the truth is very awkward and uncomfortable, while lying feels right.

They (Medicine.net) add: “When it comes to pathological liars, it is observed that people who have antisocial personality disorder (APD) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) indulge in lying.” I want to say, “I rest my case” – but I have to add: I read the book “Rising Out of Hatred,” by Eli Saslow which documents the journey of Derek Black as he evolved out of the White Nationalist/Supremacist movement in America – i.e. the KKK. His father was, at one time, the “Grand Wizard” of the KKK as was his god father David Duke. After I read the book, this was before Trump’s first election, I did a little research on Black’s family and still remember them referring to Trump as their “vehicle” into the mainstream of American politics. Their followers are a significant part of Trump’s base. To them (as to, I suppose Putin) Trump is a “useful idiot.

I point this out because, after reading that first 100 pages of Project 2025 I got the same feeling. Trump is a true believer, don’t get me wrong, in fascism – based on his actions (as Rachel Maddow says, watch what they do, not what they say) – and, we’re about to get the true Trump and the (what I call the puppet masters) people who published Project 2025 in the first place. I mean, just publishing it was an arrogant act of Hubris – they had to believe very few Americans would actually read it who SHOULD be reading it. Of course, Trump denied any knowledge of what he called “25” during the campaign – of course he did (I reference the definitions above) – so, these 200 or so executive orders being Project 2025 (I’m speculating) like will, according to him, just be a coincidence.

I suggested at the top of this rant that maybe Trump’s move to end “birthright citizenship” could dovetail back to his own citizenchip – but, I’m expecting more serious moves on his part and the question is will there be a push back on all of them? What are they doing when “we the people” are all looking over “here?” What are they doing over “there?” I don’t anticipate that anyone else will draw the line from Trump’s father entering this country illegally, just as few, from what I can tell, have questioned Elon Musk’s allegedly entering America illegally. But, the reality is they are both, to varying degrees “immigrants.” Does Trump’s grandfather get a pass because it was the late 1800’s? (The law Trump is challenging was part of the 14th amendment passed in 1868) Does Elon Musk get a pass because he started invested in a bunch of companies and made a boatload of MONEY? Not from my perspective. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Stay tuned!!!

Final Thought: The thugs who bashed in the heads of Capitol and Metropolitan Police during the INSURRECTION of January 6th, 2021 during Trump’s attempted coup are likely by the time I publish this rant to be back on the streets – and, this time, working as what amounts to Trump’s “brown shirts” – due to Trump’s “blanket pardon” of those CRIMINALS who participated in the coup. Trump apparently equated them to the hostages being held by HAMAS in GAZA at his inauguration. (It shouldn’t surprise anyone I didn’t watch it) So the unbelievable bulls@#t has begun. Plus, all pending J6 cases, from what I understand, have been dismissed by Trump – you read that correctly, Trump has already ordered his Attorney General to do as HE pleases. So much for a “nation of laws.” None of this surprises me. Yikes!!!

Today’s the day all those progressives who lost their focus after Joe Biden bungled his one debate with Trump (and, I maintain the focus should have been on the magnitude of Trump’s LIES, but I digress) and decided the issue of the 2024 election was President Biden’s age and NOT the FACT his opponent was a 34 times convicted FELON, an adjudicated sexual assaulter, a serial Fraudster (according to the Supreme Court of New York – or whatever Judge Engoran’s court is called), and someone backed by the fascists who put together “Project 2025” PLUS a certified “climate denier” will get to see the results. And, it isn’t going to take long.

Here’s what I anticipate the first reactions will be after about a week of watching Project 20225 in action. Democrats will be looking to see who to blame – focused, I’m guessing, first on Biden – for the audacity of being the candidate primary voters chose as the democratic choice for the election (at the ripe old age of 82) and then it will switch to Kamala Harris as if she didn’t do enough to win the election. The focus will be on what didn’t go “right” during Biden’s four years at the helm and NOT what DID go right – which was historic. Hopefully, not too many of them “tune out” of politics and just let Trump have his way with “we the people” but, I’ve been writing for almost 20 years here about the reason I’ve never been a democrat. They STILL don’t seem to understand this is a war for the heart and soul of this nation – and, to me, the heart has been pierced and it’s on “life support.”

Trump and his supporters are going to “flood the zone” with so many executive orders in his first week back at the helm that democrats will find it nearly impossible to keep track of let alone fight back on many of them. Do democrats have enough lawyers? I hope so, I’m actually praying they do, because they’re going to need them. The only hope to stopping Trump from turning America into the new Russia or Hungary will be the courts. And, of course, the key will be whether or not the SCOTUS realizes their folly (ie “absolute immunity”) by the time some of these cases get to their level. Will two of the six right wing justices decide they don’t want to cede THEIR authority to Trump? (Of course, they already kind of have, haven’t they?)

The plan is to purge THOUSANDS of career public servants from one agency after another in order to fill positions with sycophants willing to swear a loyalty to Trump (over the constitution). Trump’s minions (or should I say puppet masters?) are actually planning to simply declare the federal workforce’s unions are no longer – I don’t know what word to use – there? active? In other words the federal workers are going to lose their collective bargaining rights via a Trump decree. Obviously, this is ILLEGAL, but did the SCOTUS give Trump the ability to do this?

I’m guessing those in the federal workforce who have a place to go (meaning a job elsewhere) have either moved on or are seeking other employment – which will, in a sense, accomplish what Trump wants to accomplish without the legal hassle. I can’t help but think of all those union workers around the country who voted for Trump. I’m wondering if they think it won’t/can’t happen to them. Trust me, the people behind Project 2025 (who I have referred to several times here as the puppet masters) would be happy if there wasn’t an active union anywhere in America – they have been attempting to undo as much of the New Deal as they could for years and now it’s time for a “feast.” For example, why do you think Bezos is sucking up to Trump?

I don’t know a single person who I suggested should read Project 2025 who actually did – I might have missed someone – and, I’m not sure how many Americans heard Elon Musk’s interview with Trump on Xwitter where Trump heaped praise on Musk for FIRING workers who might want to organize. But, the attack on the unions is just part of what we can expect. Trump will be attempting to undo as much of President Biden’s successes as he can get away with by “flooding the zone.” I’ve heard there will be something like 200 executive orders in just the first couple of days. As I’ve said before, this next few months should be interesting.

I haven’t had the energy to keep writing, but there’s so much to write about, now it’s hard to keep my thoughts straight. How much should “we the people” worry about all the “tech BILLIONAIRES” buying up houses in the Washington D.C. area? Personally, I’m not all that surprised, but I’m definitely REALLY concerned. We’re talking about a small circle of OLIGARCHS (let’s call them what they are – and OBTW in President Biden’s final address to the nation he laid out a warning about exactly what’s happening) who play a HUGE part in the flood of mis/disinformation (the so-called “alternative facts”) which have permeated America like dry rot which has been ignored.

These OLIGARCHS (or BILLIONAIRES, take your pick) have one thing in common – they know exactly where “their bread is buttered” and they know how to manipulate Trump. You see, Trump is all about the money. He see’s the actual “richest person in the world” (Vladimir Putin) and how he’s used OLIGARCHS to entrench his POWER and WEALTH and, it should be obvious by now, Trump looks at Putin as if Putin is his “daddy.” Trump desperately wants to be like Putin. And, the OLIGARCHS fully understand by them giving Trump what he wants (massive amounts of MONEY) they will get what they want (massive amounts of MONEY). I hope you understand where that leaves those of us who are considered the “ants in the anthill.”

Regarding Trump attempting to undo President Biden’s successes, I don’t anticipate he’ll be able to undo the signature parts of Biden’s four years in office. Like the infrastructure bill and the Chips and Science Act – but, I fully expect Trump to – along the lines of republicans in Congress who voted AGAINST these achievements – take full credit for the projects which they reach completion during the next four years. It takes time for projects like rebuilding bridges and roads and putting up manufacturing facilities for them to be completed – and, the next four years should be full of projects being completed as a result of legislation enacted under President Biden’s watch. I guarantee you Trump will be the one “cutting the ribbons.”

What about, for example, health care? Trump, in his campaign, once again pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Will he be able to get away with doing this? Do you really believe he’s got something better to replace it with – like, say, Bernie Sander’s idea of “Medicare for all?” Or some kind of single payer health care system like most advanced countries in the world? I highly doubt it – what he has is a “concept.” I really don’t think Trump, Musk, Ramaswamy, and the others give a rip about those in America who struggle to afford even low cost health insurance. (Or people like me, on Medicare)

Republicans believe purging the federal bureaucracy of THOUSANDS of career public servants will be “draining the swamp.” Trump has succeeded in convincing his “low information voters” that people like Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Altman, Cook, and the long list of BILLIONAIRES latching on to the “Trump train” aren’t swampy. These are the people who’ve been pilfering America’s tax code of TRILLIONS over the past 40+ years and want even more. While the rest of us were trying to stay afloat during Trump’s pandemic Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and the rest of them saw their wealth explode almost exponentially. But, with these people, there’s NEVER enough.

And, true to Trump form, while the rest of us are looking at one or two outrageous (like the seemingly MOST outrageus of the outrageous stuff) proposals or actions there will be “stuff” flying under the radar which is the real objective of America’s 47th president. For all intents and purposes, for example, there is no longer an emoluments clause in the constitution. That went out with Trump 1.0. I mean, the last report I read was Trump had gathered OVER $250 MILLION just for the inauguration. The inauguration lasts ONE day. (OK, they’ll be partying for a few – while they’re sneaking in all the executive orders) When all is said and done, that will be “small potatoes.”

Admittedly, all of this is depressing to people like me who’ve spent their lives paying attention to politics and accepting when our choices don’t “make it” life will still go on as normal. That changed 30 – 40 years ago and, to me, democrats still don’t get it. As if it happened yesterday, I remember Newt Gingrich putting in place what may go down as the origins of this – as Karl Rove dreamed it up – “permanent republican majority.” Of course, they have NO majority – and, they know it – so their solution to that problem is to purge voters via voter suppression tactics. Republicans adopted “the end justifies the means” as a strategy as far back as I can remember – certainly back to the 1970’s. This seems to prove the “Big Lie Theory” works.

Project 2025 anticipates this is the administration which will be able to either undo or eliminate that pesky thing known as our constitution. For example, Trump is planning to repeal “birthright citizenship” via an executive order. Now, birthright citizenship is embedded in the constitution as part of the 14th amendment, but after the SCOTUS giving Trump “absolute immunity” and stalling that case to guarantee Trump wouldn’t face charges for his attempted coup until after the election, nothing is guaranteed. But, they (the court) will have to be even MORE creative to support this action by Trump. However, we saw in the Colorado case where Trump was blocked from the ballot this court can easily jump through hoops to please dear leader.

If you’re still with me, what I’m trying to say here is that while the democrats are laying blame – or trying to figure out who to blame – for all I just wrote about (and, a lot more – remember Trump is going to “flood the zone”) – to me, the answer to why Trump is about to take the oath of office (he may have already done so by the time I finish this – with his fingers crossed of course – is he even capable of taking an oath to anything but himself?) lies in two “tranches:” One, Trump and the republicans succeeded in a public relations agenda – mis/disinformation – which actually caused democrats to lose focus on what was important in the election – DEFEATING Trump! Regardless of Biden’s age. The winner of the election was always going to be Biden or Trump.

Second, and likely a key part of that first “tranche” was the role Elon Musk played (I mean he spent over $275 MILLION, by all accounts, in the final two or three months of the campaign PLUS manipulated Xwitter – he has something like 200 MILLION followers) along with Putin and other fascist dictators around the globe who wanted Trump back in the “White House.” If you think it’s just Putin who was flooding social media with LIES for Trump read Seth Abramson’s “Proof of Conspiracy” regarding Trump’s first “win.” Democrats simply don’t know how to fool people on Social Media. I mean, for example, why do you think Trump is now a supporter of TikTok? (Other than someone giving him a bunch of MONEY) My guess is, either Musk or Zuckerberg will buy it – I have no idea how that would work, but…..

There seems to be a saying for everything. I’ll end this rant with this: “Democrats are playing checkers, Trump and republicans are playing three dimensional chess.”

Final Thought: If you know anything about “ADHD” you would understand that someone blessed with that “gift?” (Me) would have trouble keeping things straight in his/her mind under normal circumstances. Well, I’m here to tell you, these circumstances aren’t “normal” and I really hope they don’t become “normal.” (And, my mind is spinning – exactly where Trump wants it) Trump is going to begin his challenge to our constitution right away and I have no idea how he’ll proceed if the courts intervene on behalf of “we the people.” When the streets are filled with protestors will he really order the military to intervene and “shoot them in the legs?” And, will Pete Hegseth (get over it, he’s GOING to be Sec. Defense) comply? (hint: Of course he will)

Is Kash Patel – and, he’s going to be director of the FBI – really going to go after those on Trump’s “enemies list” (a long one at that) – of course he is. For those of you who don’t remember J. Edgar Hoover – check your history books. Trump is attempting to “turn back the clock” to the 1950’s. If you’re not familiar with Joseph McCarthy, read your history books. And, of course, you probably know a bit about Adolf Hitler but, if you read about him closer you’ll see the parallels with Trump – a second generation German – for whatever that matters. Trump’s first wife, Ivana (buried on one of his golf courses – I’m not kidding) claimed Trump kept a copy of Hitler’s speeches at his bedside (for his evening reading, I suppose). The parallels with Hitler are eerie. The “S@#t’s in the process of hitting the fan! Buckle up and Stay tuned…. (And, please, don’t give up!)

Yeah! The Department of Justice FINALLY was able to release Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s attempted coup d’etat and, I have to say, I’m planning to read every page of it. However, as President Biden’s term in office winds down we’re seeing another example of what I believe will be remembered as a failed tenure as Attorney General by Merrick Garland. And, I have to add, he definitely means well and seems to go well beyond any expectations of showing “fairness.” The problem is, for the past FOUR years he’s been dealing with Donald Trump who I consider to be a wannabe mob boss. The two have obviously been playing from different rule books.

At this point, one more thing I have to add: I’ve been writing here since around 2008 about how the republicans and democrats have, for years, been playing by different “rule books.” I believe this is why Trump is so embraced by the republican faithful. He is willing to LIE about everything. He can look his adoring fans straight in their faces and spin one “yarn” after another without the slightest “give away” from his expression. Trump is the most prolific LIAR I’ve ever seen in my lifetime who has managed to show success in national politics where LYING is considered routine by many. And, it’s not even close.

So, why my frustration with Mr. Garland? Well, if you’ve been reading any of my rants over the past four years you know I figured out early on in Garland’s tenure he was unwilling to even INVESTIGATE Trump for his attempted coup. The excuse? (maybe?) There were so many of the minions to prosecute – the DOJ had never had a CRIMINAL proceeding with so many (alleged) criminals. Two cases of Seditious Conspiracy with members of the “Oathkeepers” (the most ridiculous name I can imagine – these were a group of former members of our military) and the “Proud Boys” (I’m still trying to figure out what they could possibly be “proud” of) – these are the most egregious crimes on the books – and every one of them is expecting to be pardoned by Trump. (Do you believe as I do Trump may have an important reason to pardon these thugs? Like maybe they have a lot to say if he doesn’t?)

I’ve stated here several times Garland didn’t want to investigate Trump because it would be divisive – and, of course he was correct. The problem is he waited until the Select Committee on January 6th published their report and held public meetings which made Trump’s (alleged) guilt seem obvious to even begin the process. He was two years late. As a former Appeals Court Judge Mr. Garland certainly should have known about all the “tricks” Trump’s legal team would pull in order to stall the proceedings – although, I believe no one but the judges Trump appointed to the SCOTUS understood how his hair brained “absolute immunity” claim would be the “vehicle” which would give the court their chance to “gum up” the proceedings making certain “we the people” wouldn’t find out whether or not a jury would agree with Smith’s indictment before the election.

In a sense you could see how Mr. Garland was correct from the standpoint some suggest it was the prosecutions of Trump which spurred on many in his base. However, to me, the real problem was the TWO years wasted while the A.G. dragged his feet. Had the investigation started when it should have Trump would have faced accountability for his (alleged) CRIMES well before the 2024 election. Even the SCOTUS wouldn’t have been able to stall it out – and, Judge Aileen Cannon’s ridiculous reasoning for throwing out the Classified Documents case would have been overturned by the 11th circuit Court of Appeals. (It reversed her three times after all) – and, OBTW – I believe Judge Cannon will be appointed to the SCOTUS by Trump as soon as there’s an opening.

Attorney General Garland has, as I’m typing this, only a few days left in office – technically 6 if you count the weekend. Here’s another source of my frustration with him – and that’s the other Smith report which likely will never see the light of day (I pray that I’m wrong). It’s held up because, apparently, when Judge Cannon dismissed the case the dismissal didn’t apply to Trump’s minions who were charged as co-conspirators in the scheme to hide the STOLEN documents from the Justice Department. The Judge blocked the release of Mr. Smith’s report on this case because of the pending charges against these two lackeys. (I could look up their names, but I’ll leave that to you) As opposed to dismissing the charges against them so the report could be made public, it appears that’s NOT going to happen (until, of course, Trump – LIES – as he’s taking the oath of office with his “fingers crossed” – an oath he considers a joke).

This is classic Merrick Garland playing by the book – or, as the saying goes he’s playing checkers while Trump and the republicans are playing three dimensional chess. Another possibility here is Joe Biden could intervene. He could pardon the two defendants and order the report made public. As much as I consider Biden a great president, I believe he’s also too much “by the book” to do this – despite the importance of “we the people” seeing the report which was financed by our tax dollars. Keep in mind, there were something like eleven folders labled “Classified Top Secret” which were empty. Did Smith figure out where the documents from those folders went – or even what they were? “We the people” SHOULD know the truth in this regard. Also, did Trump share any of the Top Secret messages with any of our adversaries? (And, of course, I’m thinking mainly of Vladimir Putin and Xi jinping)

For heaven’s sake, the Classified documents report regarding the investigation of Joe Biden was published as was the transcript of his interview with the special counsel. I mean, Trump didn’t sit for an interview as he was contemptuously trying to keep the documents and hiding their existence from the DOJ. Hell, the republicans in the House even attempted to get the audio from which the transcript was scribed. As the saying goes “come on man!”

Merrick Garland will be retiring to the history books after this week and my guess is his term won’t be looked upon favorably. (this will be “bi-partisan) No question he’s an honorable man – and, I admire that. However, the times called for someone who understood how grave the “moment” was/is for our democratic republic. The voters have a right/obligation to choose our leaders, but the TRUTH about them should not be hidden from the public due to timid occupants of our most cherished institutions. No doubt Mr. Garland’s intention was to restore respect for maybe the most important institution in our government, the Justice Department, but the end result is it will now crater into an even worse place than where it was when he took office.

Of course, the Justice Department (which includes the FBI) should be non-partisan. It WASN’T during Trump’s first term, but compared to his second term, I’m predicting the first term will appear to be like the ideal. The list of people publicly known who are going to be leading the DOJ and the FBI is almost SHOCKING. The only reason it isn’t, to me, is because Trump is doing exactly what I anticipated, especially after reading “Project 2025” – a document which hasn’t been mentioned in the public domain much since the election, but which will end up being the final “roadmap” into the republican party turning America into a fascist nation. (What Karl Rove called the “permanent republican majority”) And, trust me, those who put that plan together are EXPECTING Trump to follow it. Plus, the SCOTUS seems to be on board with the plan as well. To me, the day of the inauguration will be maybe the saddest day, as an American citizen who enlisted in the Marines in 1967 (Only to be medically discharged due to a football injury to my knee – and, I didn’t claim to have “bone spurs”), in my lifetime.

Yes, the voters have spoken, but the methods used by the republicans to (trick) convince many of them to vote for Trump will always gnaw at my gut. For example, I’m presently reading a book focused on how social media has been a large part of the assault on “truth” in our political discourse. Platforms like Facebook, Xwitter, YouTube, and Instagram (full disclosure, I don’t use them – well, I do listen to classical guitar music on YouTube) set their algorithms to almost ignore “truth” but, instead focus on whatever draws in users to log in more often and when there to spend more “screen time” on the platform. Misinformation and disinformation are staples of these platforms.

It’s gotten to the point where the tech BILLIONAIRES are lining up next to Trump claiming they believe his next administration is going to be more mellow than the first one. It appears they are almost as removed from “truth” as Trump. The obvious example is Elon Musk who spent over a QUARTER BILLION dollars and actively used his social media platform to help (along with Putin, MBS, Netanyahu and others) get Trump elected. Their interest in MONEY exceeds their interest in preserving America’s democratic republic. Many of Trump’s supporters despise “democracy” but, I can only speculate on Trump’s BILLIONAIRES. What they seem to despise is TAXES.

Musk, recently proved what incredible means he would use to LIE about his own “prowess.” My son is an expert “gamer” and the other day he came to me and showed me (someone who’s never gotten into video games) how Musk was LYING about being in the top TWENTY of gamers in the U.S. (world?) – he was on the Joe Rogan podcast claiming he was in the top twenty in the (world?) in a very popular game. My son then showed me how ABSURD this was and two “gamers” who really are among the world’s best methodically proved that Musk was a LIAR (who, other than someone desperate for attention, would LIE in a public setting about video games?). They showed that his claims were absurd and he (again, I don’t understand all this) had a “surrogate” playing for him using his account.

Now, I’m no fan of Musk – at one time I wanted to be as I’m someone who’s been driving an electric car for over 10 years and has a solar “power plant” on the roof of my property – but, stooping to LIE about video games when you’re trying to be America’s “shadow president?” That seems STUPID to me, but I’ve seen the “receipts.” There’s also Mark Zuckerberg who’s been apologizing for all the garbage that permeates his platform (much of it from the Russians and other foreign bad “actors”) for years – to Congress, only to recently throw in the towel and say Facebook will now try to be like Xwitter in moderating content – which means NOT moderating content.

But, as usual with republicans, there’s always more. Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong are in the process of taking the knee to Trump and making the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times now two major publications which can’t be trusted – along with 90% of the rest of America’s “mainstream media.” Add to that, and this one worries me a lot, Sam Altman, the CEO of “Open AI” which publishes “ChatGBT” has also taken the “knee” to Trump. My son, mentioned above, is periodically taking university classes and has told me, of late, the professors are requiring written tests to be taken in class with the writing done “by hand.” Can’t use a laptop. Why? Because so many students are CHEATING by using AI to do their writing. Yikes!

To me, that’s not the scariest part. I’ve worried since I first started to get an (elementary) understanding of AI about how it could be used nefariously in the political world – by the people who believe “the end justifies the means” – a tactic which I believe is high in the “rulebook” of republicans. (Naturally, this type of CHEATING is now available to just about anyone – that means “bipartisan”) Those involved in the development of AI include Altman, Musk, Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Microsoft, Apple, and just about any entity that’s integrally involved in the “tech revolution.” The end objective: More tech, less people – when it comes to the workforce. And, likely less available trustworthy information for the rest of us.

This rant has evolved to this point because I see all these “tech gurus” migrating toward Trump as a consequence of AG Garland and the DOJ dragging their feet in the prosecution of the alleged CRIMES of Donald Trump. Keeping in mind, several of his surrogates were also likely to, ultimately, have been indicted had Mr. Smith been able to bring Trump’s CRIMINAL allegations to trial. I believe there were SIX “unindicted co-conspirators” in the case emanating from the attempted coup. (And, I believe, a large number of others involved in the “fake electors” scheme) The Garland Justice department, anyway you “slice” it, will be remembered as enabling the re-election of Trump. The least Mr. Garland can do for “we the people” is find a way to get the Stolen documents report made public.

Final Thought: When I’m honest with myself, I’m tired of writing about Trump. This next “go round” is going to be much more absurd than the first one. Trump is the master at getting his “enemies” to end up “chasing their own tails” as they attempt to report on what he and his administration is up to. Trust me, any claims about his violation of the emoluments clause of the constitution, this time, will won’t even generate a yawn. His LYING of course is already “baked in” and will likely be WORSE. The DAMAGE he will do to our cherished institutions and to our “rule of law” and to our relationship with our current allies is likely unimaginable. And, to the process of “free and fair elections?” As I listen to democrats and progressive pundits I think many of them feel like it’s going to be “business as usual.” Well, I certainly hope they’re correct.

Definition: Capitulation

1. The act of surrendering or giving up.”Lack of food and ammunition forced the capitulation of the rebels.”
2. A document containing the terms of surrender.
3. An enumeration of the main parts of a subject; a summary.

The reason I’m thinking of the word “capitulation” tonight (and it’s late – I’ll have to finish the thought later – is because the level of my horror as I watch the country I love descend into what can only be defined (by me) as hell. I just see one person/entity after another, in essence, bowing down to Trump. There seems to be a flood of capitulation – i.e. surrender – to the evil Trump is flooding America with. And, the leading “actors” in this “deplorable” play are a bunch of billionaires.

For years I’ve been pointing out the foundation of fascism is a “government/corporate partnership.” This has been an evolving issue in America since the early 1970’s with Lewis Powell’s infamous “memo” to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce laying out the scheme we’re seeing in what may be the “final act” as our incoming president elect has aligned himself with a group of groveling billionaires and has created an atmosphere of intimidation for those who would ignore him. (whew, that’s a mouthful)

The list is long and growing and I’ll obviously not get to all of them in this post. Oh, where to start? I guess, the first place I’ll go is Jack Smith. And, I’ve kind of cooled off on this one, but I believed he SHOULDN’T have dismissed the charges against Trump, forcing Trump to order his Attorney General to do the dirty work. However, now as I watch the (latest) soap opera of the Trump fiasco, I’m realizing had Smith followed my instincts his report would NEVER have been made public. As it stands, apparently it’s going to be released in the next week – unless, somehow the SCOTUS steps in and messes things up (AGAIN). The ideal outcome, for me, would have been the charges held in abeyance – until Trump would be out of office in 2029. I have forgiven Smith for – well, it appears, doing the “right” thing.

Next: Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI, announced he would be resigning at the end of President Biden’s administration on January 20th. This one bothered me along the same lines as my initial reaction to Mr. Smith. However, I’ve yet to discover any reason to change my mind on this one. I believe Wray SHOULD have forced Trump to fire him. He could only be fired for cause, so it would have been interesting to find out what reason Trump would have made up in order to get his own lackey in charge of the nation’s top law enforcement bureau.

Next: Poor old Elon Musk felt as if President Biden and the democrats were “mean” to him. Regulating things like his social media platform – OK, trying to regulate it. Apparently, the $15 BILLION or so in government contracts weren’t enough for him. I mean, this man has an insatiable urge for MONEY. That became painfully (from my viewpoint) apparent when he dropped a “cool” $275+ MILLION, along with who knows how much mis/disinformation on his Xwitter platform in order to get Trump elected. Since the election estimates are Musk’s fortune has expanded by well OVER $100 BILLION. I must admit, nice work if you can get it. But, at what cost for the rest of us?

Next: Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong of the Washington Post and LA Times respectively. Clearly, they looked at their own self interests and decided to intervene in the editorial sections of the Newspapers they OWN. Both men blocked their editorial departments from endorsing Kamala Harris. Now, do I believe had they not done so she would have prevailed – absolutely not. Their influence was miniscule compared to Musk. But, sympolically, it was just another reminder that America’s “mainstream media” is a for profit enterprise and is controlled by charlatans who are more similar to Trump than many of us would like to think. Bezos was the FIRST to congratulare Trump on his “win” and, from what I’ve heard they’ve both “donated” “seven figures” for the inauguration – which, now, is apparently up to $200 MILLION (for one day).

This list wouldn’t be complete (I know, I said it would be incomplete) without Mark Zuckerberg. If you’ve read much about Facebook (and now Meta) you know, as I’ve come to the conclusion, that Zuckerberg is all about the money flowing in from his platforms. I say that as “plural” because if some entity threatens Zuckergerg’s “empire” he simply buys it up – making sure he can avoid the competition. And, sure enough, mean Joe Biden – well the FTC in his administration – had filed an anti-trust suit with the idea of breaking Meta up. Not surprisingly, Zuckerberg – supposedly a democrat – was on his knees at Mar a Lago shortly after the election and, you guessed it, a “cool” MILLION for the inauguration. (fact: There were other prominent – former – democratic donors in Silicon Valley who really – it seems – want those “Trump tax cuts” extended – or maybe they just go with the “winner”)

I have to add: If you’ve read about the former Cambridge Analytica – affiliated with Steve Bannon, Richard Spencer, and Jared Kushner – you know about how easy it was for them to pilfer the personal data of something like 57 MILLION Americans back in 2015-2016 out of Facebook’s “waiting arms.” They organized this data allowing for TARGETED mis/disinformation by the Trump campaign in 2016 (what I call the real “fake news”) along with the Russians – who they shared this data – and, according to Seth Abramson in “Proof of Conspiracy,” also shared with the Saudi’s, the Emerati’s, the Israeli’s, and the Egyptians (I might have forgot someone – I am 77 after all) who were all trying to accomplish the same thing with the same ill gotten data – getting Trump elected – and, of course, it worked. I don’t have any doubt it worked again in 2024 – although Musk and Zuckerberg opening up their platforms (willingly) to the “stuff” coming from these authoritarian, fascist countries who HATE America’s democratic republic was/is problematic. (To say the least)

Back to Capitulation: I’ll just add a couple names I’m not that familiar with, but it will make clear the “thing” that is happening – which is we are just a few days from being in a fascist reality. Sam Altman is the CEO of “Open AI” which, I believe is the company behind “ChatGPT” (disclosure, I know little to nothing of AI – quite honestly the possibilities scare me – other than what my son has shared – he took a university class in “AI”). I understood Altman to be a democratic donor but, apparently, he’s seen the light and, sure enough, another “cool” MILLION for Trump’s inauguration. What’s the saying, can’t beat em, join em. And, you can count on this: Trump and his minions will ABUSE AI.

I know what you’re thinking, and you’re absolutely correct. BILLIONAIRES buying politicians is BAD no matter which party or candidate they’re donating to. I do have to say the net worth of BILLIONAIRES like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Altman, Larry Ellison, and a BUNCH of others has skyrocketed since Biden took office. What’s not to like. But, I’ll say it once more – the fact America has turned into an OLIGARCHY is disastrous no matter who occupies the “Oval Office.” It should be clear how they responded to a President working from “the bottom up.” How do we get this money out of politics? I’m just a retired sixth grade teacher, I have no idea. What I do know – we MUST figure this out – if it’s not already too late.

I’ve been writing about this for MANY years, as I mentioned above – the foundation of a fascist society is a corporate/government partnership. It appears to me we’re there and the “swamp” Trump is always talking about will soon be the members of his cabinet and his closest advisors. (Remember, Trump works with LIES and PROJECTION – the tactics of the Third Reich) And the BILLIONAIRE class is demonstrating they’re good with “whatever” as long as they can continue getting even RICHER. Democrats have claimed they only take money from small donors, but there’s lots of evidence some of these BILLIONAIRES who are now lining up behind Trump have funneled a LOT of their largess in the direction of democratic politicians in the past. As many I know are saying, “the system is broken.”

Here’s the problem to me – the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump couldn’t be more stark. And, as I’m beginning to understand some of the underhanded ways people are able to share information I’m realizing more and more how serious the problem is “we the people” are facing. One thing I know is it won’t get fixed by people who decide to become apathetic. I watch Los Angeles on fire and it make my stomach feel queezy thinking “we the people” just put a “climate denier” into the “White House.” If I wasn’t pretty much immobile I’d participate in the Women’s march on January 18th. Lot’s of people I know (old white people) are talking about what country they’re going to relocate to. The next couple of years will be very interestingg, and likely for me, very taxing. With the number of influencial people CAPITULATING to Trump, it seems to me, the challenge is much greater than most of us can even imagine. Remember, if you fall into apathy you’re capitulating. Stay tuned…..

Final Thought: Prior to the Washington Post (I canceled my subscription after Bezos overruled his Editorial board), the LA Times, and Facebook (they opened up the platform to whatever ugly stuff will get the most views and screen time – worse than before Trump was running again – disclaimer, I don’t do Facebook, Xwitter, or any of them) aligned themselves with Trump our “liberal media” was owned by something in excess of 90% by conservative, for profit, corporations. I’ve heard, for example, that Comcast is going to spin off MSNBC – who knows what that means? But, when one “faction” has control of the Courts, the Congress, The “White House,” and the “fourth Estate” the THREAT to our democratic republic is real. This is the exact scenario our founders were attempting to prevent with their brilliant plan of “checks and balances.” Over the past 40 years, the democrats have allowed republicans to slowly gain a stranglehold on ALL the levers of government. They don’t seem to understand what’s at stake. Reminds me of when Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government we had and his response was “A republic – if you can keep it.” To me, Donald Trump has already inflicted more damage on our republic than Hitler did back in the 1930’s and 40’s. We still have a republic – will we be willing to do enough to keep it?

The more that continues to come out regarding the INSURRECTION of January 6th, 2021 the more I’m reminded of Trump during his debate with President Biden where he said of the Proud Boys, “Stand back and stand by.” He will soon pardon those “Proud Boys” who were CONVICTED of maybe the MOST serious crime on America’s “books” – SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY. If you’re not familiar with that – it means attempting to overthrow our government. And, of course, Trump allegedly instigated that INSURRECTION, but was spared his turn in front of a jury, curiously, by America’s voting public.

I’ve been somewhat leaning toward tuning out the sources I have relied upon over the past few years, MSNBC, the Washington Post – which I canceled when Bezos intervened in the 2024 election, the New York Times – which I canceled a couple years ago when I finally got fed up with their “both sidsing” America’s politics, and every place else I feel has been trying to discover “what went wrong” in the recent republican “victory.”

To me, the answer to what went wrong can be summarized in a couple names: Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin. Oh yes, I have to add, the last report I read about America’s voting public was not at all complimentary. It suggested a majority of America’s voting public has an equivalent education of sixth grade or less. Well, I was a sixth grade teacher for over 20 years, winding down my career, and I took that one rather hard. But, when I thought about it, I would have to say – politically, I can see the conclusion of the study.

I know several people my age (I’m 77) who are college graduates – from a long time ago – who, when I ask them questions about politics, have NO answers – no reasoning behind their political beliefs – and, I’m mainly talking about people who I know who voted for Trump. To a person, they have NO idea what’s coming – no interest in even gaining a rudimentary understanding of Project 2025. And, with one – who’s a “devout Christian” when I brought up Trump’s history of sexual assault, serial fraud, adultery, and pathological LYING he quickly said, well, what about Clinton? Another acquaintance, who was a dentist in his working life, responded to the same question with, “What about JFK?”

So, in my circle of old people, virtually every Trump supporter justifies their vote for him because of something which happened years ago – apparently making it all right. As I’ve said here numerous times it’s the Christians who bother me the most when they are making that deflection. Sadly, some of them are absolutely fine with getting rid of our “democracy.” They don’t like the reality of having to “compromise” with others in order to create legislation which is best for the common good. They want Bibles in schools along with the Ten Commandments (no response when I ask them to apply the Ten Commandments to Trump), they want taxpayer money paying for religious schools, several could care less about how many women are DYING due to abortion bans, and they believe the January 6th INSURRECTIONISTS were “peaceful protesters.”

That all being said, I firmly believe the answer to why Kamala Harris is not the president-elect is due to Elon Musk funneling – by the last accounts I’ve read – OVER $275 MILLION into Trump’s campaign in the closing couple of months. That included his access to one of the main social media apps where he spewed untold number of LIES to his 200 MILLION followers. He was clearly violating election law by holding his “lotteries” offering $1 MILLION per day for anyone who would sign his “petition” supposedly aimed at the 1st and 2nd amendments. His target audience was young(ish) people in the swing states which Trump managed to “win” by a percentage point or two.

Additionally, it’s been reported Musk was offering $47 for every signature his “suckers” managed to get to sign the “petition.” I’ve read several accounts of people who are still waiting for their money after getting enough signatures, in some instances, to feel Musk owes them in the thousands. This was Musk’s back door (slimy) way of tricking who knows how many people who weren’t paying attention to the issues to simply vote for Trump – because, well, maybe they wanted to be like Elon. (Personally, the thought makes me gag – but, that’s just me)

But, true to form, there was more than just Elon sticking his nose into the election – and, of course, anyone paying attention KNEW this was happening – we just didn’t know to what extent. The Russians had created – according to recent sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department – over 100 separate websites where their identity was cleverly disguised and they were funneling the same kind of mis/disinformation which affected the first Trump “win.” Of course, especially with Trump in the “White House” we’ll NEVER know the full extent of how both Putin and Musk affected the election – but, I watched – just as I did in 2016 the polls swing toward Trump over the last three weeks of the campaign and I was not at all surprised at the end result. Disappointed, yes. Surprised, NO.

So, now we’re going to get to watch as Trump attempts to keep the “best economy in the world” from tanking on his watch. If it does, I guarantee you he’ll blame Joe Biden as he does with everything else. How is his base going to respond if the price of eggs doesn’t come down? Or, is he really going to place tariffs on virtually everything coming into the United States? What will that do to prices? According to the economists I’ve listened to/read it’ would likely spike inflation. Would his cult members be OK with that? And, what if Musk and Ramaswamy (two immigrants) go after Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as they’ve hinted. How would his base of old white people feel about that? “Get rid of ‘Obamacare’?” How many of the 30 – 40 MILLION Americans who’d lose their health insurance are Trump voters?

And, as usual, there’s always more. Trump based his campaign on the promise to deport America’s “undocumented workers” – he believes something like18 MILLION. The claim is they’re taking jobs “real” Americans should have. (Like working in the fields and for farmers, working in meat packing companies, cleaning Hotel rooms, and other “essential” jobs) But, what about those foreign workers who actually DO take jobs away from Americans – those who gain H-1B visas to work in places like Amazon, Apple, Google, Tesla, Meta, Microsoft, and other “high tech” outfits? (And, don’t forget, Trump, himself, employs H-1B “immigrants.”) Why, because – first, they’re CHEAP labor and second – they MUST “do as they’re told” – meaning work more hours and keep their mouths shut, or they “go back.” – that’s my take anyway. Kind of like “indentured servants.”

How are Trump’s supporters going to respond if his administration is actually successful in deporting MILLIONS of hard working people from this country – who, basically, pay taxes without being eligilble for the benefits of being an America taxpayer. And, will raiding farms in California or other places leading to a shortage in food in the grocery stores and, therefore, even HIGHER prices (like for eggs) will Trump’s base mind? Of course, as I said above, Trump will blame it on Biden. I mean, he blamed Biden for the guy from Texas who committed the act of terror in New Orleans on January 1st, so why would we expect any different when prices go up? And, Trump’s cult members already believe he tells the truth so……………?

Final Thought: If you’ve seen any of the cartoons or AI generated images of Musk holding the puppet strings which are tied to Trump, do you think Trump will just go along with Musk acting as if he’s NOW the “most powerful person in the world?” My take on Trump is he doesn’t really like sharing the “limelight.” I mean Musk is busy sticking his nose into politics in the UK, Germany, Canada, and (I believe) France. These European countries are working to pass laws holding social media companies accountable for the damage their platforms do to, especially, young people. Musk has hinted he will spend $100 MILLION in the UK in order to defeat those who would threaten his Xwitter app – even though, I believe, it’s illegal for foreign money to intervene in UK elections. Musk is pushing the same right wing fascist garbage coming from Steve Bannon, but they could be on a “collision course” over Musk’s self serving views on H-1B immigration. The s@#t’s going to be hitting the fan sooner rather than later – just a couple of weeks from when I’m writing this and, it should be interesting. Stay tuned………

In case you’re one of the members of Trump’s cult and you actually believe January 6th, 2021 was a peaceful walk through the Capitol as ordinary visitors I would challenge you to click HERE. Watch the entire video – and then think about it – Trump is going to pardon the most vile of the group.

The War on Wisdom: How the GOP Made Smart Uncool

Why Republicans Fear Critical Thinking, Science, and Equality.

Thom HartmannDec 30

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“Those who control the present, control the past; and those who
control the past control the future.” —George Orwell, 1984

From outlawing the polio vaccine to ignoring the scientific consensus on gender dysphoria to refusing to wear masks in hospitals to trying to strip evolution and science from our schools, stupid has become fashionable in today’s GOP.

When Republican politicians want to score points, they criticize their opponents as having had “elite” educations; the GOP’s war against Ivy League colleges was particularly evident during the student protests of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. Congressional Republican inquisitors voices’ dripped with scorn and contempt as they grilled university presidents.

It wasn’t always this way.

I remember when the USSR launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth. It was the fall of 1957, I was six years old, and my dad and I watched it arc over our house from our back yard one clear October night. My best friend’s father, a ham radio operator, let us listen on his shortwave radio to the “beep beep beep” it was emitting when it was over North America. I’d never seen my dad so rattled.

That dramatic technological achievement lit a major fire under the Eisenhower administration and Congress. In his January 27, 1958 State of the Union address, Republican President Eisenhower pointed to Sputnik and demanded Congress fund a dramatic transformation of America’s educational system:

“With this kind of all-inclusive campaign, I have no doubt that we can create the intellectual capital we need for the years ahead, invest it in the right places–and do all this, not as regimented pawns, but as free men and women!”

In less than a year Congress wrote and passed the National Defense Education Act that poured piles of money into our public schools and rolled out programs for gifted kids.

I was lucky enough to be enrolled in one of those in 1959: by the time I left elementary school I was functioning at high school and college levels in math, science, and English. I’d had two years of foreign language and two years of experimental music instruction. IQ tests were all the rage: mine was 141 and my best friend, Terry, was 142, something he never let me forget.

Most all of those programs died over the following decades as a result of Reagan’s war on public education, which began with his bringing private religious school moguls like Jerry Falwell and bigots like Bill Bennett into the White House.

Repudiating Eisenhower’s embrace of public education, Reagan put Bennett in charge of the Department of Education, which Reagan had campaigned on shutting down altogether. Bennett is probably best known for defending his proclamation that:

“If you wanted to reduce crime you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every Black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”

Much like Bennett back in the day, the catch phrase among white supremacists and their fellow travelers today is that “Western Civilization” is either under attack or at risk because we teach history, tolerance, and critical thinking skills in our public schools, which are often racially integrated. The answer, Republicans will tell you, is to defund our public schools.

When Reagan was elected in 1980, the federal share of total education spending in America was 12 percent; when he left office in disgrace in 1989 amid “Iran/Contra” rumors he’d cut a deal with the Iranians to keep the American hostages to screw Jimmy Carter, that share had collapsed to a mere 6 percent. (It’s 3 percent today.)

Reagan also wanted to amend the Constitution to allow mandatory school prayer, and unsuccessfully proposed a national tax credit — a sort of tax-system-based national voucher system — that parents could use to send their kids to religious schools like Falwell’s.

Reagan made anti-intellectualism a political weapon, repeatedly criticizing colleges and professors throughout his political career. When asked why he’d taken a meat-axe to higher education and was pricing college out of the reach of most Americans, he said that college students were “too liberal” and America “should not subsidize intellectual curiosity.”

Four days before the Kent State Massacre of May 5, 1970, Governor Reagan called students protesting the Vietnam war across America “brats,” “freaks” and “cowardly fascists,” adding, as The New York Times noted at the time, “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with. No more appeasement!”

Before Reagan became president, states paid 65 percent of the costs of colleges, and federal aid covered another 15 or so percent, leaving students to cover the remaining 20 percent with their tuition payments.

That’s how it works in many developed nations; in most northern European countries college is not only free, but the government pays students a stipend to cover books and rent.

Here in America, though, the numbers are pretty much reversed from pre-1980, with students now covering about 80 percent of the costs. Thus the need for student loans here in the USA.

Ever since Reagan’s presidency, the core of Republican positions on public education have been five-fold:

1. Let white students attend schools that are islands of white privilege where they don’t have to confront the true racial history of America,
2. Use public money to support private, for-profit, and religious schools that can accomplish this (and cycle some of that money back to Republican politicians),
3. Destroy public schools’ teachers’ unions,
4. End the teaching of science, critical thinking, evolution, and sex ed, and,
5. Bring fundamentalist Christianity into the classroom.

Earlier this year, Republican Senator Marco Rubio called America’s public school system a “cesspool of Marxist indoctrination.”

“Dangerous academic constructs like critical race theory and radical gender theory are being forced on elementary school children,” Rubio wrote for the American Conservative magazine, adding, “We need to ensure no federal funding is ever used to promote these radical ideas in schools.”

Instead, multiple Republican-controlled states are now actively gutting their public schools with statewide voucher programs, and instituting mandatory bible instruction or posting of the Ten Commandments. Book bans and panics around queer kids using bathrooms or playing sports are the new wedge issues.

There is no more powerful urge we humans can experience than to protect and defend our children. For most people it beats hunger, sex, and money. So if you’re a politician looking for an issue to motivate voters, just tell them their children are under attack. It’s cynical, but effective.

In an interview for Semafor, Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid it out:

“I tell the story often — I get asked ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is [American Federation of Teachers President] Randi Weingarten. It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids…”

Just a few months ago, Donald Trump laid out his plan to deal with the “major problem” America is facing. That problem, he said, is:

“[W]e have ‘pink-haired communists teaching our kids.’”

Turning the Constitution upside down and arguing the Founders intended to protect teaching schoolchildren religion, Trump elaborated, arguing that mixing religion, politics, and education was the intention of that document:

“The Marxism being preached in our schools is also totally hostile to Judeo-Christian teachings, and in many ways it’s resembling an established new religion. We can’t let that happen. For this reason, my administration will aggressively pursue intentional violations to the establishment clause and the free exercise clause of the Constitution.”

As Jonathan Chait wrote for New York magazine:

“More ominously, at every level of government, Republicans have begun to act on these beliefs. Over the past three years, legislators in 28 states have passed at least 71 bills controlling what teachers and students can say and do at school. A wave of library purges, subject-matter restrictions, and potential legal threats against educators has followed.”

George W. Bush followed the trend, bragging about his pathetic performance in college at Yale’s 2001 commencement:

“To those of you who received honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students I say, you, too, can be president of the United States!”

Similarly, JD Vance gave a speech in 2021 titled Universities Are The Enemy.

This isn’t the first time elected officials have used public education as a political weapon. In 1844, 25 people died and over 100 were severely injured in riots in Philadelphia over whether there should be daily Bible readings in that city’s schools. Two churches and several city blocks of homes were burned to the ground.

The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 didn’t provoke riots, but was a major event in the history of public education. Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was charged and convicted of the crime of teaching evolution. Mississippi and Arkansas joined Tennessee in passing laws making such instruction a crime that stood until the 1967 repeal of the Butler Act.

While Republicans across the country successfully rode a wave of white outrage about Critical Race Theory in November’s election, polls suggest the issue is really only meaningful to a fragment of the American electorate: an anti-science “Christian” subset of white Republican voters.

The annual PRRI American Values Survey found:

“Americans overwhelmingly favor teaching children history that includes both the good and bad aspects of our history so that they can learn from the past, versus refraining from teaching aspects of history that could make them feel uncomfortable or guilty about what their ancestors did in the past (92% vs. 5%).

“There are no substantial partisan differences, though Republicans favor excluding aspects of history slightly more (7%) than Democrats and Independents (both 4%). There are few differences across religious traditions or demographics. This consensus holds up across different levels of exposure to critical race theory: 92% of those who have heard a lot about critical race theory, 94% of those who have heard a little, and 93% of those who have heard nothing about it state that we should teach children the good and bad of history.”

Nonetheless, they note:

“[A] majority of Republicans (54%), compared with 27% of independents and only 7% of Democrats, believe that teachers and librarians are indoctrinating children.”

America spent $794.7 billion on primary education last year. For-profit private schools and megachurches that run schools look at that pile of money and drool. Republicans are committed to delivering as much of it to them as possible, regardless of the damage it does to our nation’s kids.

Their strategy for privatizing our public schools is pretty straightforward, and echoes the plan of action Republicans are using right now to replace real Medicare with the privatized Medicare Advantage scam.

First, they falsely claim that they’ll deliver a better product at a lower cost. In the education realm, we see this with Florida and several other Red states now offering vouchers that can be used at private or religious schools to every student in the state.

(Nearly 2,300 private schools in Florida accept vouchers, but “69 percent are unaccredited, 58 percent are religious, and nearly one-third are for-profit.”)

As more and more students use the vouchers to flee public schools, the public schools sink into deeper and deeper financial troubles. Those cut the quality of teaching and upkeep of the school buildings, causing even more students to use the vouchers.

Because the vouchers never cover the full cost of private school tuition (typically they pay for half to two-thirds), the truly poor can’t use them: the result is the public school system becomes ghettoized, leading to even more flight by middle- and upper-class (mostly white) people.  

Once the public schools are dead and the state has transitioned entirely to private schools, the state will claim budget problems and begin to dial back the amounts available for vouchers. (The same will happen with Medicare Advantage once real Medicare is dead.)

This will widen the relationship between the educational and wealth divides; the racial and class cleavage will become so great that the state will have effectively gone back to a “separate but equal” educational system. Which, of course, is the GOP’s goal and has been since 1954.

Republicans are generally convinced — and surveys show they’re right — that when people have a good, well-rounded education they will vote for Democrats, who explicitly value science and egalitarian social values.

Thus, keeping our kids ignorant and destroying one of America’s largest unions, all while helping their education and religion industry friends get rich, is a complete win-win.

Much of this battle is playing out in state houses around the country, but there’s a huge and well-funded effort to take control of local school boards as well.

Driving this ethos with a constant flood of anti-intellectual, anti-science propaganda are an army of rightwing podcasters, YouTubers, hate radio hosts, and the billionaire-owned Fox “News” network (among others). They argue, essentially, that “stupid is the new smart.”

Barely coherent politicians like Tommy Tuberville and Marjorie Taylor Greene are their heroes. Donald Trump, who still refuses to release his grades, is their avatar. Bob Kennedy is their avenging angel. And people with college educations — and teachers/professors — are their enemies.

Bottom line: the Republican war on public education and science is real, and if we want to stop it we must get involved. Show up for your local school board meetings and, if you have the time and ability, run for a position on the board.

Lobby your state legislators and support pro-science and pro-education politicians. It’s time to make smart cool again!

Our children’s and grandchildren’s futures are literally at stake.

The Hartmann Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my daily work on behalf of America, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I must add: I spent the final 23 years of my working life as a sixth grade teacher and I had no idea what the right wing politicians were talking about in referencing “critical race theory.” I assumed it meant don’t actually teach history. I’m old enough to have experienced an early education where exactly what Mr. Hartmann is talking about above was real. I remember my anger as I came to realize how I had been “programmed” – exactly what republicans want to take us back to – as I struggled with the Civil Rights movement and the Viet Nam war. Mr. Hartmann, who actually lives close to me (I believe he’s in Portland, Oregon – right across the Columbia River from where I live) is one of my intellectual heroes. It grieves my heart as I witness the culmination of the republican attack on education during my lifetime – as teacher, I still remember my dismay when GW Bush got his so-called “no child left behind” bill passed through Congress. At the time I referred to it as the “Lots of children left behind” and, sadly, I believe I was correct. The final straw will be when they close the Department of Education – further causing “the least of these” (In the words of Christ) to have the republican’s intended result – to take away opportunity for the children who are born to “low socio-economic” parents!

My tired old eyes won’t allow me to read as much history as Thom Hartmann – or express my thoughts as he so admiringly does. His Substack is, to me, the best!

Merry Christmas! (From Mr. Hartmann)

The GOP-caused fiscal disaster and government shutdown has been postponed until March, but in the meantime, House Republicans have laid out their vision for the future of America.

In a budget document they released last year, anticipating this very moment, the legislators proposed dramatic $9 trillion cuts to Social Security, food stamps, aid to women and children, Medicare and Medicaid, along a new round of tax cuts for America’s billionaires. Their argument is that we need to “balance the budget now!”

This is the classic Two Santas strategy that the GOP has been running ever since 1981. In addition to showing the hypocrisy and depravity of these politicians who are happy to live on the largesse of rightwing billionaires but see no benefit in feeding hungry children, it also shows that Jude Wanniski’s grand plan, adopted by Reagan in 1981, is alive and well.

It’s no accident or coincidence that the threat of a failure to pay the nation’s bills or fund an upcoming year constantly happens when Republicans control the House of Representatives.

You could even call it a conspiracy: there’s an amazing backstory — with a unique name — here. And it all started with a guy named Jude Wanniski, who literally transformed Republican Party politics with a plan that the American mainstream media, astonishingly, continues to ignore.

Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary:

To set up its foundation, Wanniski’s “Two Santas” strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes on the rich, all to intentionally run up the US debt as far and as fast as possible. 

They started this during the Reagan presidency and tripled down on it during the presidencies of Bush and Trump with massive tax cuts for billionaires and increases in spending across-the-board.

Those massive tax cuts and that uncontrolled spending during four Republican presidencies produced three results:

1. They stimulated the economy with a sort of sugar high, making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy;
2. They raised the national debt dramatically (it’s at $36 trillion today, all of which tracks back to Reagan’s, Bush Jr.’s, and Trump’s massive tax cuts and Bush’s two illegal off-the-books wars);
3. And they made people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Clauses.” 

Then comes part two of the one-two punch: when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “you must cut spending to solve the crisis!”

The “debt crisis,” that is, that they themselves created with their massive tax cuts and wild spending.

Do whatever it takes, the “Two Santas” strategy goes. Tie up legislation, deny a quorum, filibuster, shut down the government, whatever.

Which is why, following Wanniski’s script, Republicans were squealing about the national debt and saying they will refuse to fund the government, possibly crashing the US economy on Biden’s watch. 

And, once again, the media covered it as a “Debt Crisis!” rather than what it really is: a cynical political and media strategy devised by Republicans in the 1970s, fine-tuned in the 1980s, and since then rolled out every time a Democrat is in the White House. 

Politically, it’s a brilliant strategy that was hatched by a fellow most people have never heard of: Jude Wanniski.

Republican strategist Wanniski first proposed his Two Santa Clauses strategy in The Wall Street Journal in 1974, after Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace and the future of the Republican Party was so dim that books and articles were widely suggesting the GOP was about to go the way of the Whigs. 

There was genuine despair across the GOP, particularly when Jerry Ford couldn’t even beat an unknown peanut farmer from rural Georgia for the presidency. 

Wanniski argued back then that Republicans weren’t losing so many elections just because of Nixon’s corruption, but mostly because the Democrats had been viewed since the New Deal of the 1930s as the “Santa Claus party.”

On the other hand, the GOP, he said, was widely seen as the “party of Scrooge” because ever since the 1930s they’d publicly opposed everything from Social Security and Medicare to unemployment insurance and food stamps. 

The Democrats, he noted, had gotten to play Santa Claus for decades when they passed out Social Security and unemployment checks — both programs of FDR’s Democratic New Deal — as well as their “big government” projects like roads, bridges, schools, and highways that gave a healthy union paycheck to workers and made our country shine. 

Even worse, Democrats kept raising taxes on businesses and rich people to pay for all that “free stuff” — and Democrats’ 91% top tax rates on the morbidly rich didn’t have any negative effect at all on working people (wages were steadily going up until the Reagan Revolution, in fact).

It all added, Wanniski theorized, to the public perception that the Democrats were the true party of Santa Claus, using taxes on the morbidly rich to fund programs for the poor and the working class.

Americans loved the Democrats back then. And every time Republicans railed against these programs, they lost elections.

Therefore, Wanniski concluded, the GOP had to become a Santa Claus party, too. 

But because Republicans hated the idea of helping working people, they had to come up with a new way to convince average voters that the GOP, too, had the Santa spirit.  But what? 

“Tax cuts!” said Wanniski. 

To make this work, the Republicans would first have to turn the classical world of economics — which had operated on a simple demand-driven equation for seven thousand years — on its head. (Everybody then understood that demand — “working-class wages” — drove economies because working people spent most of the money they earn in the marketplace, producing “demand” for factory-output goods and services.)

To lay the ground for Two Santa Clauses, in 1974 Wanniski invented a new phrase — “Supply-Side Economics” — and claimed the reason economies grew and became robust wasn’t because people had good union jobs and thus enough money to buy things (“demand”) but, instead, because business made things (“supply”) available for sale, thus tantalizing people to part with their money. 

The more products (supply) there were in the stores, he said, the faster the economy would grow. And the more money we gave rich people and their corporations (via tax cuts) the more stuff (supply) they’d generously produce for us to think about buying.

At a glance, this 1981 move by the Reagan Republicans to cut taxes while increasing spending seems irrational, cynical, and counterproductive. It certainly defies classic understandings of economics.  But when you consider Jude Wanniski’s playbook, it makes complete sense.

To help, Arthur Laffer took that equation a step further with the famous “Laffer Curve” napkin scribble he shared with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld over lunch. Not only was supply-side a rational concept, Laffer suggested, but as taxes went down, revenue to the government would magically go up! 

Neither concept made any sense — and time and our $36 trillion national debt have proven both to be colossal idiocies — but if Americans would buy into it all, they offered the Republican Party a way out of the wilderness.

Ronald Reagan was the first national Republican politician to fully embrace the Two Santa Clauses strategy. 

He told the American people straight-out that if he could cut taxes on rich people and businesses, those “job creators” (then a newly-invented Republican phrase) would use their extra money to “build new factories” so all that new stuff “supplying” the economy would produce faster economic growth. 

George HW Bush — like most Republicans in 1980 who hadn’t read Wanniski’s piece in The Wall Street Journal — was initially horrified. Ronald Reagan was proposing “Voodoo Economics,” said Bush in the primary campaign, and Wanniski’s supply-side and Laffer’s tax-cut theories would throw the nation into debt while producing nothing to benefit average Americans.

But Wanniski had done his homework, selling “Voodoo” supply-side economics to the wealthy elders and influencers of the Republican Party. 

Democrats, Wanniski told the GOP, had been “Santa Clauses” since 1933 by giving people things. From union jobs to food stamps, new schools to Social Security, the American people loved the “toys” and “free stuff” the Democratic Santas brought every year, as well as the growing economy the increasing union wages and social programs produced in middle class hands.

But Republicans could stimulate the economy by throwing trillions at defense contractors, oil companies, and other fat-cat donor industries, Jude’s theory went: spending could actually increase without negative repercussions because that money would “trickle down” to workers from the billionaires and corporate CEOs buying new yachts and building new mansions.

Plus, Republicans could be double Santa Clauses by cutting people’s taxes! 

For working people, the tax cuts would only be a small token — a few hundred dollars a year at the most — but Republicans would heavily market them to the media and in political advertising. And the tax cuts for the rich, which weren’t to be discussed in public, would amount to trillions of dollars, part of which they knew would be recycled back to the GOP as campaign contributions from the morbidly rich beneficiaries of those tax cuts. 

There was no way, Wanniski said, that the Democrats could ever win again.

Every time a Democrat was in the White House, they’d be forced into the role of Santa-killers if they acted responsibly by raising taxes; or, even better, they’d be machine-gunning Santa by cutting spending on their own social programs.

Either one would lose them elections, and if Republicans executed the strategy right, they could force Democrats to do both!

Reagan took the federal budget deficit from under a trillion dollars when he was elected in 1980 to almost three trillion by 1988, and back then a dollar could buy far more than it buys today.

Republicans embraced Wanniski’s theory with such gusto that Presidents Reagan and George HW Bush ran up more debt in twelve years than every president in history up until that time — from George Washington to Jimmy Carter — combined. 

Surely this would both “starve the beast” of the American government and force the Democrats to make the politically suicidal move of becoming deficit hawks. 

Bill Clinton, the first Democrat they blindsided with Two Santas, had run on an FDR-like platform of a “New Covenant” with the American people that would strengthen the institutions of the New Deal, re-empower labor, and institute a national single-payer health care system. 

A few weeks before his inauguration, however, Wanniski-insiders Alan Greenspan, Larry Sommers, and Goldman Sachs co-chairman Robert Rubin famously sat Clinton down and told him the facts of life: Reagan and Bush had run up such a huge deficit that he was going to have to both raise taxes and cut the size of government programs for the working class and poor.

Clinton buckled under the threat of a government shutdown: he raised taxes, balanced the budget, and cut numerous social programs. He declared an “end to welfare as we know it” and, in his second inaugural address, an “end to the era of big government.”

Clinton shot Santa Claus, and the result was an explosion of Republican wins across the country as GOP politicians campaigned on a “Republican Santa” platform of supply-side tax cuts and pork-rich spending increases.

Democrats had controlled the House of Representatives in almost every single year since the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s, but with Newt Gingrich rigorously enforcing Wanniski’s Two Santa Clauses strategy with brutal threats to shut down the government, they finally took it over in the middle of Clinton’s presidency.

State after state turned red, and the Republican Party rose to take over, in less than a decade, every single lever of power in the federal government, from the Supreme Court to Congress to the White House.

Newt had done his job in the House of Representatives. Looking at the wreckage of the Democratic Party all around Clinton in 1999, Wanniski wrote a gloating memo that said, in part:

“We of course should be indebted to Art Laffer for all time for his Curve… But as the primary political theoretician of the supply-side camp, I began arguing for the ‘Two Santa Claus Theory’ in 1974. If the Democrats are going to play Santa Claus by promoting more spending, the Republicans can never beat them by promoting less spending. They have to promise tax cuts…”

Ed Crane, then-president of the Koch-funded Libertarian CATO Institute, noted in a memo that year:

“When Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich, Vin Weber, Connie Mack and the rest discovered Jude Wanniski and Art Laffer, they thought they’d died and gone to heaven. In supply-side economics they found a philosophy that gave them a free pass out of the debate over the proper role of government. … That’s why you rarely, if ever, heard Kemp or Gingrich call for spending cuts, much less the elimination of programs and departments.”

Two Santa Clauses had fully seized the GOP mainstream.

Never again would Republicans worry about the debt or deficit when they were in office; but they knew well how to scream hysterically about it and hook in the economically naïve media as soon as Democrats again took power.

When Jude Wanniski died, George Gilder celebrated the Reagan/Bush adoption of his Two Santas “Voodoo Economics” scheme — then still considered irrational by mainstream economists — in a Wall Street Journal eulogy:

“Unbound by zero-sum economics, Jude forged the golden gift of a profound and passionate argument that the establishments of the mold must finally give way to the powers of the mind. … He audaciously defied all the Buffetteers of the trade gap, the moldy figs of the Phillips Curve, the chic traders in money and principle, even the stultifying pillows of the Nobel Prize.”

Republicans got what they wanted from Wanniski’s work. Using the “fiscal responsibility” argument — essentially Two Santas in drag — Republicans have forced two Democratic presidents, and tried to try to force a third, to gut-shoot the Democratic Santa established by FDR.

Using this strategy, Republicans held power for forty years, transferred over $50 trillion from working class families into the money bins of the top one percent, and cut organized labor’s representation in the workplace from around a third of workers when Reagan came into office to around 8 percent of the non-governmental workforce today.

Think back to Ronald Reagan, who more than tripled the US debt from a mere $800 billion to $2.6 trillion in his 8 years. That spending produced a massive stimulus to the economy, and the biggest non-wartime increase in America’s national debt in all of our history until Trump.

There was nary a peep from Republicans about that 218% increase in our debt; they were just fine with it and to this day claim Reagan presided over a “great” economy.

When five rightwingers on the Supreme Court gave the White House to George W. Bush in 2000, he immediately reverted to Wanniski’s “Two Santa” strategy and again nearly doubled the national debt, adding several trillion in borrowed money to pay for his two tax cuts for billionaires, and tossing in two unfunded wars for good measure, which also added at least (long term) another $8 trillion.  

There was not a whisper about that debt from any high-profile in-the-know Republicans; in fact, Dick Cheney — who knew Wanniski personally — famously said, amplifying Wanniski’s strategy:

“Reagan proved deficits don’t matter. We won the midterms. This is our due.”

Bush and Cheney’s tax cuts for the rich raised the debt by 86% to over $10 trillion (and additional trillions in war debt that wasn’t be put on the books until Obama entered office, so it looked like it was his).

Then came Democratic President Barack Obama, and suddenly the GOP was hysterical about the debt again. 

So much so that they convinced a sitting Democratic president to propose a cut to Social Security (the “chained CPI”). Obama nearly shot the Democrats’ biggest Santa Claus, just like Wanniski predicted, until outrage from the Democratic base stopped him. And then we got the “sequester” out of it: a freeze on Democratic spending and political power along with automatic cuts to social programs if certain terms weren’t adhered to. It was a successful hostage-taking exercise that is still largely in place.

Next, Donald Trump raised our national debt by over $8 trillion, and the GOP funded the government without a peep every year for the first three years of his administration, and then suspended the debt ceiling altogether for 2020 (so, if Biden won, he’d have to justify raising the debt ceiling for 2 years’ worth of deficits, making it even more politically painful).

And last Friday, Republicans again tried using the renewal of government funding for fiscal year 2025 to drop their Two Santas bomb right onto President Joe Biden’s head. After all, it worked against Clinton and Obama and the media never caught on. Why wouldn’t they use it again?

And if the GOP’s failure to fund the government crashes the economy, all the better. Republicans can just blame Biden: it’ll give Trump a great bragging point and make it easier for him and Congress to pass a new tax cut for billionaires!

Americans deserve to know how we’ve been manipulated, and by whom. Sadly, although I and others (it’s even detailed on Wikipedia!) have been calling out Wanniski’s scheme for decades, none of the national media have ever seriously examined this 40+ year GOP strategy.

Hopefully when they write obituaries for Trump’s effort last week to raise the debt ceiling, and revisit this scam in March, Democratic politicians and our media will, finally, call the GOP out on Wanniski’s and Reagan’s Two Santa Clauses scam and let Americans know how they’ve been conned for over 40 years.

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For years I’ve been trying to get SOMEONE in the “mainstream media” to pick up on the reality Donald Trump and the republicans are following the “path” of the Third Reich back in 1930’s Germany in their regaining POWER in the United States of America. Hitler devised a “strategy” of the “Big Lie Theory” and “Projection” in their propaganda scheme to take over the German government just as Trump has used the same scheme to gain control of America’s government over 90 years later. Reminds me of the saying, “Those who refuse to learn history are destined to repeat it.”

The corruption of the first Trump administration will become the CORRUPTION of the second “go round” on steroids. There just is never any let up in the LYING and the PROJECTION coming from Trump and the republicans. I keep, for example, hearing republicans referring to Joe Biden the as head of the “Biden crime family.” Coming from the party which supports a 34 times (found guilty) FELON whose son-in-law pulled close to THREE BILLION dollars out of the Middle East ($2 BILLION from Saudi Arabia) – money those in charge of the Saudi Investment fund wanted to deny, but was authorized by Muhammed bin Salman (MBS) and has returned virtually NOTHING to those Middle East countries supplying the funds.

Trump, himself, is alleged to have gained MILLIONS off his office in his first term, amounts some are suggesting will be significantly MORE this time around. Apparently, the IRS has not (after 8 years) finished the audit of Trump’s taxes and, under normal circumstances, Trump’s foreign entanglements would prevent him from getting a security clearance. After all, he not only attempted to steal some of the country’s most sensitive top secret documents, but he continually refused to return them causing a multi-pronged indictment which included charges he violated the Espionage Act. And, yet, the American people chose to put him back in the “White House” – once again instead of a much more qualified WOMAN. People in Europe are wondering what on earth has gone wrong in America.

I’ve pointed this out here at least a couple times, while democrats are in a state of confusion wondering “what went wrong,” they just haven’t, at least from what I’ve seen, come to the reality of how much POWER Elon Musk has by virtue of his BILLIONS of dollars in “fun money” and over 200 MILLION Social Media followers on his own platform which has become a cesspool of Nazi sympathisers since he took over. Musk infused over $275 MILLION into Trump’s (and the republicans’) campaigns, including his vote buying scheme throughout the so-called “swing states.”

If you’ve read any of Project 2025 you would possibly understand why I’ve been pointing out Trump is going to be the “puppet” and those OLIGARCHS involved in preparing Project 2025 will be the puppeteers. Well, we haven’t even made it to January 20th, 2025 and Trump is already showing how vulnerable he is. It’s like make him a compliment or give him money and he’ll go along with whatever. He has no moral compass and, I’m certain, is still giving the sighs of relief winning the election has done to the MANY felony charges he was facing up to the day of the election. I’m not sure Trump gives a s@#t about anything moving forward – other than skimming as many “emoluments” as he can from the next four years.

So, the next four years are going to leave many people (presumably like me) trying to figure out who really is in charge in the “White House.” Those responsible for Project 2025, I’m fairly certain, are going to be operating in the “shadows.” However, it appears Elon Musk REALLY likes being in the limelight. In fact, there are many who are already calling Musk the actual president and Trump his vice president. In the torpedoing of the “Continuing Resolution” which was agreed upon by both parties in an attempt to avoid a “Christmas” government shutdown Trump had to make a desperate play in order to make it look like he was actually the one doing the “torpedoing”

I have to wonder, how long will Trump put up with Musk appearing to be the actual “president elect?” In the past Trump’s need to ALWAYS be the center of attention has caused people to be jettisoned – for doing far less than Musk has already done. I mean, now House republicans are suggesting Elon Musk to be the next Speaker of the House. What will MAGA land think of that? Once again, Trump is “draining the swamp” by surrounding himself by a bunch of BILLIONAIRES. Will that go over well with all those union workers who voted for Trump?

And, of course, there’s – as there always is – always more with republicans. Trying to move into the space now occupied by Musk is none other than Jeff Bezos. And, sure enough, right on cue Amazon Truck drivers have gone on strike and Bezos will attempt to “break the union.” I’m sure he’s already found some non-union (“scabs”) workers to fill in for those who walked out. In that regard Bezos and Musk are like “blood brothers.”

However, don’t get anything wrong about all the chaos which is now going on in D.C. Trump and the “puppet masters” will do whatever they can to bypass this thing they absolutely dislike, the U.S. Constitution. Trump (and those behind Project 2025) have every intention of turning this nation into a fascist state. Musk is becoming a problem in the sense he’s taking the limelight away from Trump, but you have to understand Musk is the person who turned his “silver spoon” into one made of gold. He entered the U.S. as what amounts to an illegal immigrant and, likely, made false statements when applying for U.S. citizenship. He’s a South African who grew up during apartheid – and, it appears would like to saddle “we the people” with his preferred type of government.

This will get complicated as we see this ambition by similar narcissists who are already fighting for the headlines come to a head. Can Trump, at this point, torpedo Musk? Knowing it was largely due to Musk’s MONEY which put him in the “White House.” Is Trump willing to risk pissing off Musk’s 200 MILLION Social Media followers? Has Trump been masterfully backed into a corner, with no way out, by Elon Musk? Will the American people stand for a bunch of OVERT BILLIONAIRES actually running the country – when they still envision the make believe “swamp” being drained.

And, I’ll end this with a quick look at the pathetically cowardly Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House – for now. Here’s a little history less for anyone interested. Appeasement NEVER works. It didn’t work for Neville Chamberlain back in the 1930’s, it won’t work with Trump via Vladimir Putin, and also, it appears Trump is appeasing Musk (and others) and that won’t work. (In the interest of bipartisanship, it didn’t work for Joe Biden in appeasing Bibi Netanyahu regarding the Israeli’s WAR CRIMES in GAZA.)

The American government is going to be a combination of a “clown show” and, for the first time in my lifetime, going over the edge toward a government which operates outside the parameters of the Constitution. Those behind Project 2025 have been pushing in that direction for years and, what’s not clear to me is whether Musk will make it harder for them to do this. And, as I’ve mentioned here, will Trump be able to cede the spotlight to Musk? Keep in mind, the “razor thin” majority republicans hold in the House will be even THINNER in the next Congress. Considering Matt Gaetz resigned and two members have been nominated to Trump’s cabinet, they have about ONE vote to spare in passing anything. I have to do this: I told you so! Trump is going to be the PUPPET. I just didn’t consider Elon Musk would be one of the PUPPETEERS!

Final Thought: Musk wants to remove ALL (or as much as he can) government assistance to who Jesus referred to as “the least of these.” Here’s some of what the republicans pulled from the Continuing Resolution which reached bipartisan agreement before Musk torpedoed it. (Remember, he threatened ANY republican who voted for it with a Musk supported primary challenger) Here’s some of what Musk didn’t like: Money for research on child cancer, a provision to criminalize using AI to create “pornographic” images, other provisions designed to reduce the cost of health care and prescription drugs, a provision for the federal government to transfer the property where the OLD RFK stadium is located to the D.C. government so it can be re-developed, a provision to rebuild the bridge in Baltimore destroyed last year by a container ship, disaster relief for hurricane and wild fire victims, a provision to prevent (people like Musk) American investment and sharing of technology in China, and, of course, a PAY RAISE for members of Congress among other things.

Today, I listened to maybe the most disingenuous politician EVER, JD Vance attempting to convince (likely Fox viewers) people the ensuing government shutdown is the fault of democrats. Of course, republicans have been in charge of the House for two years and the ONLY legislation of any merit passed during that time has been passed with the votes coming from democrats. That will CONTINUE to be the case. How STUPID do these republicans feel “we the people” are? Well, based on the words coming from the mouth of JD Vance it’s extremely STUPID. Hell, the republicans couldn’t even pass the bill supported by Musk and Trump – 38 republicans voted against it. (Is that the fault of democrats?) And, keep in mind, while they’re trying to rush this bill through, a two thirds vote is required for passage. Naturally, that means passing a bill requires democrats’ votes.

And, get a load of this: Trump, who just a few months ago was encouraging republicans to take America over the edge of economic reality by refusing to raise the “debt ceiling” during Biden’s administration – similar to him blowing up the immigration bill put together by the Senate’s most conservative republican member – so he (Trump) could have a campaign issue – the people be damned. So, true to Trump’s form, he’s insisting any Continuing Resolution includes a suspension of the debt ceiling or removal of it all together – why do you think that? OK, I’ll tell you why. Trump has plans to blow up the national debt even MORE than he did the first time. As ALWAYS happens during republican administrations (since Reagan) there’s going to be a new “tax cut for the rich.” This one will be on top of extending the last tax cut for the rich. Trump won’t be president for over a month and, yet, he’s reminding us of his INCOMPETENCE. Yikes!!! Stay tuned!!

I’m 77 years old and I’ve spent (almost) every day of my life in the United States of America. Over the years I’ve come to cherish the reality I’ve been living in a country where “freedom” is foundational. (OK, that “reality” has been evolving) Yet, with the Donald Trump’s Assault on this nation some very troubling “realities” are emerging. The one I’m presently focused (and, almost depressed by) on is the bipartisan cowardice we’re seeing in our “leaders” back in Washington D.C. in the face of Trump’s impending second reign on this nation.

Let me explain. I first want to start with Jack Smith, the supposed “nose to the grindstone” type of prosecutor who has doggedly pursued justice in regard to Trump’s attempted coup d’etat and his STEALING some of our nation’s most secret documents – some of which are still missing – and sharing them with who knows who.

As an aside – do you think Trump could possibly have been tempted to share those MISSING documents with others? Remember, it’s been reported Trump had at least 7 phone conversations with Vladimir Putin during the Biden administration. Suggesting that’s illegal (Logan Act: Any citizen of the  United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both) would at this point be laughable – because Trump has been granted a king’s authority by our suspect SCOTUS – Trump will NEVER face accountability for his criminal conduct unless Alvin Bragg and the New York justice system awaits his removal from office. If you’ve watched Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, you’ll allow me to think Trump will attempt to NEVER be removed from office – even when he gets to the point of drooling while he’s presenting “we the people” another “word salad.”

Back to my point. Why am I placing Jack Smith into this bevy of “leaders” who are caving in the face of Trump’s “victory” in the 2024 election? Well, to me, the FACT Smith has had the indictments – returned from Grand Juries – dismissed because Trump will soon be president once again is pure cowardice. Mr. Smith, in my view, SHOULD have forced Trump to cause his Attorney General – whoever that end’s up being – to dismiss the cases. It is really irking me as I watch all these people back there refusing to stand up to this “deplorable” president elect. He’s not even in office yet.

Of course, Merrick Garland is likely right in the middle of that decision by Mr. Smith. I mean, it’s obvious the Justice Department would NEVER have investigated Trump had Mr. Garland’s timidity prevailed. Clearly the Select Committee on the January 6th INSURRECTION forced his hand. They made Trump’s criminal conduct “clear as a bell.” So, was it Garland who ordered Smith to move to dismiss these charges? Likely, but will we ever know? As a “booby prize” maybe Garland will be so “courageous” as to allow Smith’s report to be made public. Don’t hold your breath!

When it comes to American politics, there’s always more. Now we have Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI, showing his true Washington D.C. colors. Trump has made public his plans to nominate (the uniquely unqualifed) Kash Patel – he the author of “children’s books” about him and “King Donald” – to be the next head of the FBI. Patel’s plans are to fire what amounts to the “head” (meaning the leadership) of the FBi and “weaponize” the FBI to “go after” Trump’s “enemies.” Now, just give that a bit of J Edgar Hoover thought. He also wants to end the FBI’s counter intelligence division. Not very “intelligent.”

So, Mr. Wray is going to make doing this easy for Trump by resigning at the end of Biden’s term as president. Here we go again – just like Smith, Wray is refusing to make Trump FIRE him – which can only be done for “cause.” FBI directors have 10 year terms in an effort to prevent “politics” from polluting the institution. Apparently, Wray is tired/afraid of the MAGA “forces” doxxing him or something. From my perspective, evidence of Trump’s criminal conduct SHOULD be “memorialized” so that these cases could be pursued once he’s out of office. But, hell no, not with the cowards who seem to have permeated our nation’s highest offices. I can guarantee you, Wray and the FBI are not doing this. Here’s the reality: Our president-elect is a common CRIMINAL (according to the jury in Manhattan)

I’m listening to democratic leaders in Congress talking as if these are normal times – that they’ll try to find ways to go along with Trump’s agenda. For God’s sake, have they not read Project 2025? I keep saying this is why I’ve NEVER been a democrat. Now, don’t get me totally wrong – based on the prevailing definitions, I’m clearly a liberal. But, I’ve been saying for years (at least 20 years) democrats need to understand there is a war going on for the soul of this nation. Biden “gets it” but the democratic party abandoned him and now, in many circles, they’re blaming him for Trump being the president in 2025. They need to look in the mirror!

Democrats didn’t have the guts to run on ALL the successes of Biden’s administration – successes Trump will soon be taking credit for (and, democrats will sit idly by while he does it) and now, I’ve seen more than one of them suggesting Biden should pardon Trump. John Fedderman had the gall to suggest Biden pardon Trump for the 34 FELONIES he’s been CONVICTED of in Manhattan. Well, thankfully, Biden CAN’T pardon Trump for those because they are “state” crimes NOT “federal” crimes. And, let me re-emphasize, they’re CRIMES – brought by a Grand Jury – and CONVICTIONS – by a unanimous “jury of Trump’s peers.”

Obviously, MILLIONS of Americans are willing to look the other way from Trump’s “mob boss” type of criminal activity, but I’m not one of them. And, of course, it’s going to get worse thanks to the right wing SCOTUS “we the people” have allowed ourselves to be “saddled” with. But, these instances of Smith and Wray simply abandoning what SHOULD be forced upon Trump and SHOULD force him to ILLEGALLY make Smith’s indictments and Wray’s term as FBI director “go away” don’t “scream” courage. Robert Mueller, at least, “memorialized” Trump’s alleged OBSTRUCTION of his investigation so that it could be prosecuted at a later date should we have had an Attorney General with a spine. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re correct. The republicans are lining up to kiss Trump’s ass – but we’ve known for YEARS they are a bunch of hypocritical cowards!

I’m not even sure if I view this, anymore, as the threat to the rule of law I viewed even after Trump’s “re-election” became a reality. The rule of law in America is about to be obliterated along the follwing lines – “rule of law for me but not for thee.” (Of course, if you’re an African American you’re probably thinking “welcome to my world.”) I’ve listed in the archives the number of “groups” of Americans who “swung” Trump’s way in the face of the BOMBARDMENT on Social Media by Elon Musk in the last three or so weeks of the campaign and, sadly, many of them will be among the most affected by the “stuff” Trump (and Musk) and the republicans have in mind for “we the people.” Rest assured, Musk and the other OLIGARCHS won’t be affected. They are planning to GUT Social Security and Medicare – for starters.

Final Thought: The worst part of all this, to me, is the parallels to the rising of the Third Reich in 1930’s Germany. (Remember, Trump is a second generation German immigrant) His “base” is largely made up of Evangelical “Christians” who, in my view, have “sold their soul to the devil.” It’s vitually impossible for one of them to convince me Trump is “from God.” If he is, then he’s the Anti-Christ. I need to read Revelations once again! Occasionally, I have a former republican friend who I used to meet for breakfast on a regular basis who, at first, acknowledged what a despicable person Trump is, but like most of the republicans in the cult, once Trump had the nomination back in 2016, he “jumped in” with both feet.

Our relationship lived on until the COVID pandemic closed down the restaurant we would meet at – he ended up referring to COVID as “the flu” despite 4000 Americans per day DYING largely due to Trump’s incompetence. Occasionally, he comments here using a tacky German fake name referring to me as being “radical.” To him, Trump apparently is “normal.” The LYING, the CHEATING, the ADULTERY, the sexual ASSAULT, the covetnous (yes, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Viktor Orban), the brazen idolatry, etc. etc. None of this matters to my former friend or to so many of the “Christians” supporting Trump.

I mean MANY of those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 beating the Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers with varying degrees of weapons – injuring over 140 of them (four would be dead within a week or two) some to the extent they were unable to return to work, call themselves “Christians.” Are they “Old Testament” Christians who believe they’re in a “holy war?” Give me a break! Apparently, (and my former friend actually said this to me) they just don’t believe in our “democracy.”

The republican party has slowly put a “noose” around our system of government – led by groups like the Koch Brothers – (now brother) original members of the John Birch Society – who’ve been scheming for years to bring this outcome which threatens the very fabric of our society. (They call it the “permanent republican majority”) Will republicans in Congress grow a spine? Don’t count on it – in fact you can count on this – they’ll go along with anything which keeps them in power. (Trump’s “goon squad” – which now includes Musk – will challenge any republican who doesn’t do as he/she’s told – example, Joni Ernst’s vote for Pete Hegseth) And, keep in mind, the “goon squad” will soon include the January 6th CRIMINALS who are going to be pardoned on Trump’s first day in office. The Proud Boy CRIMINALS who not only attempted a coup but who bashed in the heads of Police Officers as they did it.

Speaking of “courage,” I read reports today that Mark Zuckerberg is now funneling MONEY to Trump’s “transition team.” Go figure! I rest my case. Stay tuned…..