Avarice – New Christian Faith, Best SCOTUS JUSTICES Money Has, Bidenomics-Inconvenient Facts, Civility, Principles, Decorum, Deficit, Debt & Other GOP Hits, Dept. of Government INeffiency, FEIGNED OUTRAGE VS DIGNITY, GUILTY-12 JURORS, 1 FELON, Hypocrisy’s Finest Hour, Ignorant Voting Consequences, Let Them Eat Cake!, Misplaced Blame Game, Musk’s Wall of Fake Receipts, Political Prostitution, Project 2025, Project 2025 Enabling Lawmaker, PROJECT 2025, ZIKLAG & TREASON, Shock and Awe…, Smirking Mike Johnson, Social Insecurity (GOP’s Lie), State of DISunion Address, SUBSIDIZING THEOCRACY, The Accusatory Perpetrator, The REAL Enemy Within…, Trump ’25-Make America Corrupt, TRUMP’S PROJECT2025 DENIAL, Trump’s Rigged Election, Trump’s Third Reich 2.0, Trump/Vance Neo-Nazi Bromance, Unintended Consequences, VOTER APATHY 2024, Voter Motivations, Voters: DUI or Asleep??, What’s One More Felony?, What’ve You Done For Me Lately
“They’re eating the dogs…they’re eating the cats…” “they’re animals…” they’re rapist, murderers and drug dealers…” and according to Vance when asked about why Trump and him were amplifying messages that were proven false or outrageously exaggerated, Vance said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do…” He admitted to fabricating/sensationalizing stories for media attention AND that he would continue to do it, and 33 million voters cast their votes normalizing those lies KNOWINGLY.
And it is not just those 33 million who voted to embrace lies KNOWINGLY. It is the mind-boggling fact that Blacks, Latinos, and women made up a large percentage of that 33 million even while he disparaged them repeatedly on the campaign trail. Latinos in particular were and still are, a favorite target of the Trump-Vance attack with claims that they are gang members and the worst of the worst criminals- rapist, murderers, and drug cartel members. So when ICE was dispatched to round up Latinos under the guise of their being here illegally and conducting illegal activities and belonging to a notorious drug cartel and then shipped to a concentration camp in El Salvadore with NO due process, no phone calls, no proof that they were either illegally here or doing ANYTHING remotely illegal, AND in violation of a court order to NOT send anybody out without the courts reviewing proof of alleged offenses, the lies compounded by the administration and doubling down on their mission to do what 33 million voters wanted them to do, according to Trump. But is that true? When a LEGALLY DOCUMENTED, ASYLUM SEEKER, working as a hair stylist and who happened to be gay with a NON GANG RELATED TATOO like millions of Americans have in todays inked society, was KIDNAPPED by ICE, unable to argue his case in court, shoved and slapped and forced to remain silent, shipped to El Salvadore’s concentration camp that U.S. Taxpayers are paying for, was stripped of all clothing with no care given to his belongings, just heaped into a garbage bag comingled with the hundreds of heavily inked gang members’ clothing and disposed of, his head shaved, and then his being placed into a cell with those same gang members… hundreds per cell with metal bed frames with no mattresses to sleep on, was witnessed by a Newsweek reporter being abused while he pleaded with them that he wasn’t in a gang… the question of whether THAT is what those 33 million people REALLY voted for kept resurfacing. Until I read some of the inane, heartless, and predominantly ignorant comments on the deportation efforts and Trump’s thumbing his nose at the courts. The cheering of ignoramuses to this brutality has revealed the core evil of this ordeal. Like a Jerry Springer show audience cheering the abnormality and depravity of humanity’s worst, these MAGA cultists are the byproduct of a societal devolution that has slowly eroded the former social contract based in empathy and compassion and formed this new, low-brow, hate-filled voting block that purports to be patriot based while abandoning every cherished principle embodied in our Constitution, from free speech, to freedom of religion, to search and seizure and cruel & unusual punishment prohibitions and unbridled government actions, to presumption of innocence, to a person’s right to a trial and so much more.
So it should come as no surprise that when Trump and Vance ambushed a TRUE leader in the Oval Office (Ukraine’s President Zelensky) over the his lack of appreciation (despite the fact that he had previously thanked America, the workers in a Pennsylvania weapons armory, Congress, and Trump REPEATEDLY), or the issue of his wearing a commemorative shirt given to him by a child in Ukraine instead of suit and tie in the Oval Office (yet Elon Musk wears a ball cap and tee shirt with his toddler picking his nose and wiping his snot on the historic Resolute Desk which taxpayers had to pay to be refinished because Trump got skeeved out over it), the lies about who started the war that the entire WORLD knows was Putin invading a sovereign nation of Ukraine like they did with Crimea just a few years back, and more lies about the president of Ukraine being a dictator even though he was elected by a massive landslide election, and then more lies about the Ukrainian President not wanting peace when all he asked for were assurances that any peace deal comes with terms that will not just be words on a piece of paper but actually enforceable by Ukraine and the US in exchange for giving up half of their mineral rights. Not too much to ask for when you know the history of Putin’s repeated violations of every treaty and ceasefire ever negotiated with him, as Trump recently found out when Trump proudly announced a PARTIAL ceasefire that he claimed to have brokered with Ukraine and Putin which would have stopped the bombings of energy plants but Putin violated mere hours after the “ceasefire” was entered into. While we are talking about Putin’s lack of adherence to any signed agreements (just like Trump), perhaps a review of the pertinent history might be in order.
The year was 1991 and the world had just witnessed the collapse of the U.S.S.R. In its wake came the emergence of 15 independent nations. One of them, Ukraine, held the THIRD LARGEST stockpile of nuclear weapons IN THE WORLD, thanks to the hasty retreat of Russia. Three years later, the democratic state of Ukraine agreed to surrender its nuclear arsenal in return for protections against aggression and assurances of protection from same. Who were the signatories on what became known as the Budapest Memorandum? None other than Russia, Britain, and the United States of America.
In 2014, Putin began violating the Budapest Memorandum by attacking Ukraine, surreptitiously at first, using plain clothed soldiers to infiltrate border towns in Ukraine and use disinformation and misinformation techniques to sew resentment (similar to the tactic now employed here at home).
For the next 10 years, Putin would enter into no less than TWENTY-FIVE (25) cease fires with Ukraine. Each one was violated by Putin within minutes or hours after signing. Putin, Like Trump, has ZERO respect for honoring agreements and has demonstrated that time and time again. When you have that background information, it becomes painfully obvious that Trump will NEVER get Putin to actually stand by an agreement. In Trumps last foray into supposedly getting Putin to agree to NOT bomb energy facilities, it took Putin all of a few hours to violate the Trump agreement. He fired several ballistic missiles and 150 drones all over Ukraine, knocking out power, killing civilians, and damaging two hospitals. So much for Trump’s claim that he could get Putin to stop on day one or even BEFORE Trump was sworn in. We are in Day 65 of Trump’s presidency and still no ceasefire, but Trump HAS given Putin plenty of opportunity to take Ukraine…denying them intelligence reports on Russian troops, cutting off aid, embarrassing America on the world stage trying to condescend to Zelensky. Imagine, having the audacity to attack a leader and a war hero who fights alongside his men, not from an office. This from a multiple time draft dodger with bone spurs and a VP whose closest action in war was to shoot his camera.
So should America provide aid to Ukraine? That depends on your own set of ethics. Are you the type to enter into a deal and then renege on that deal when it becomes uncomfortable for you to live up to the terms YOU agreed to??? Are you the type that waves the American flag and screams of our might from every mountaintop only to cower and hide when our might is needed somewhere? Are you the type of person who sees an injustice being inflicted by a bully on a more vulnerable person and quickly look elsewhere so as not to be called upon to right the wrong? If you answered yes to ANY of those questions, then congratulations! You are officially a Trumpster. A MAGA Acolyte without a scintilla of ethical stature. You, my friend, can count yourself as blessed by the billionaires running this country. Yes, they may even let you into their private club…if only to lick their boots and clean their toilets.
But if you give a damn about your fellow humans… if you are unwilling to normalize the cruelty and stupidity of the Orange fecal stain on the fabric of our great Democracy… if you subscribe to the notion that an attack on one of us is an attack on ALL of us, then there might be hope for America yet.
Putin has made it clear that he wants the USSR back together. That means invading those 15 independent democracies around eastern Europe and subjecting them to Putin’s will. He will then own many of the metals and minerals the world needs for manufacturing computer chips and other high-tech goods, not to mention the Uranium deposits for nuclear weapons. There is a reason we should never let Ukraine fall into Putin’s hands. It’s called SELF-PRESERVATION. Just because the vast number of average Americans don’t know their geo-political history and related geology does not mean we should give Putin the keys to our own destruction.
Unfortunately, Trump, like so many of his (lack of) Intelligence officers who feel it’s ok to discuss top secret military bombing plans on unsecured chat channels while inviting the editor of the news outlet to sit in and listen “accidently” cannot understand the complexities of international relations. Trump is transactional. 100%. EVERYTHING, from his marriages to his failed businesses and bankruptcies, screams transaction. This is why it is impossible for this guy to understand ANYTHING that is not a quid pro quo transaction.
This can be plainly seen in his tariff fiasco with our friends. Trump claims that the world needs the US and that we need to level the playing field. The U.S. GDP is larger than almost ALL of the western European countries’ GDP COMBINED. If you want to know the REAL reason why America pays more into NATO than the other countries, it’s simple math. If you ask for 1% of GDP to go to NATO, and country “A” has a GDP of $10 million, 1% equals $100,000. But Country “B” has a GDP of $20 Million so their tab is $200,000, and America has a GDP of $1 Billion, 1% of THAT number is $100 Million. EVERYONE pays the same percentage of GDP, but that ACTUAL DOLLAR AMOUNT will ALWAYS be different as a function of their GDP, the math and the percentage used.
But here, Trump again fails to fully explain…probably out of ignorance, but if not ignorance, then an outright deliberate deception. Trump’s tariffs will kill farmers, hurt manufacturers in the US and reduce our trade footprint in the world as countries look elsewhere to get there goods instead of relying on a fickle America with on again, off again tariffs and a bully president. China already canceled their soy contracts with American farmers, taking tens of billions of dollars away and placing their orders with Brazil instead. Even if we remove the tariffs, China has found a different source of grain, so those contracts are gone for good. Thank you, Trump. That’s not a successful strategy. It has and will continue to cause long term pain for the U.S.
But it doesn’t stop there. Trump has managed to piss off almost every one of our European allies to the point that they are talking about giving America EXACTLY what we are demanding from the world…ISOLATION. Here’s a look at what isolation from European markets will look like if Europe decides to treat America with the same contempt we are showing them right now:
Germany holds $84 Billion in Auto exports which would translate to the shuttering of 376 BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen dealerships in the U.S. Those dealerships employ Americans, sales people, mechanics, receptionists, etc. The result? American layoffs.
France would withdraw $97 Billion in aviation contracts disrupting Boeing’s supply chain and causing massive layoffs.
Britain would freeze $174 Billion in financial services, crippling many US Defense operations reliant on those financial services.
Meta would lose 210 Million users in Europe.
Google would lose 446 Million users.
Microsoft Cloud Services would consequently collapse.
89K terminated contracts
Apples would lose $42 million in iPhone sales in Europe
Italy would close 7 major US bases causing the Pentagon to scramble to find strategic command centers in arena OTHER than the US for our own safety.
Germany would close Rammstein Air Force Base, a strategic hub for our air support.
Romania would block missile defense systems
The dollar would crash against the Euro making goods from Spain cost Americans 227% more.
And those are just a filet of what isolationism does to American interests. There are so many facets and nuances that I haven’t even BEGUN to think about. So next time you here Trump and his mouthpieces spreading BS about our European allies and how they need us more than we need them, remember this… for better or worse, our existence is tied to theirs as heavily as theirs is to ours.
Still, at least according to Trump and his ilk, imposing tariffs “levels the playing field” and encourages manufacturing at home. The fact is that it does neither. In fact, even Ronald Reagan, in his radio address on April 25, 1987, succinctly and eloquently made a strong case AGAINST tariffs saying that they tend to hurt the middle class, stagnate innovation in factories and ultimately cost jobs. But Trumps actions, like most of his executive orders, are not truly designed to fix genuine problems or offer any kind of help for average Americans. Trump is ALWAYS transactional. There is NOTHING he does that will not benefit him in some way.
For example, imposing tariffs on China to “level the playing field” as Trump claimed repeatedly, had one major effect, and it was NOT to level the playing field. You see, like a good magician, the key is to keep your attention focused in one direction while the “magic” is happening in the other direction. In the case of China tariffs, the REAL magic was getting China to cancel BILLIONS of dollars in soy contracts with American farmers, essentially bankrupting many of them. What does THAT do, you might ask? It puts the farmers in a distressed selling market where billionaires like Trump can by thousands of acres of land for pennies on the dollar and then lease the land for drilling, developing, or simply hoarding since the billionaires know how cornering the market on a limited supply item like land can allow them to sell it at an outrageous price down the road.
Another benefit to Trump and his billionaire buddies is that even the threat of tariffs has an adverse impact on the stock market. For example, the stock market as of 2 weeks ago (March 10th), has lost $4 TRILLION under Trump. That number is staggering for middle America’s 401k’s and American workers’ pension funds, but it is an economic boom for the billionaires with money and stocks to leverage to short the markets (options trading) which essentially are “bets” that the market will go up or go down. When you have the clown in the office currently there, betting on a downturn (especially in key sectors that rely on trade with Mexico, Canada or China), it’s a sure thing! The Billionaires keep making billions more on the backs of workers’ 401k’s. That is what Trump meant when he said you would need to feel some pain to usher in his golden age… he just didn’t explain that ALL the pain would be yours and all the GOLD would be his and his billionaire buddies.
And lastly, let’s not forget that Trump, unlike every President before him, has refused to give up his ties to his businesses and is even actively involved in developing 19 new Trump-branded projects in eight foreign countries. The developments that are underway (being planned, constructed, sold and delivered to buyers) will nearly triple the number of Trump properties operating abroad. These developers will seek subcontractors, buyers and permits from the government, creating massive conflicts of interest for Trump, as he weighs American foreign policy against his own financial incentives. Will tariffs be to influence or even the knowledge that he MIGHT use tariffs possibly influence a country’s dealing with Trump’s business, providing tax incentives for him or clearing construction or acquisition hurdles for him? The potential for conflict-of-interest ethics violations become acutely evident immediately. His properties already enjoy massive profits from his entertaining of foreign dignitaries at his Resorts. Add to that his golf outings every weekend which, to date, have consumed 25% of his time at a cost of nearly $20 million in only his first 2 months in office. We still have 46 more months to go. Where’s DOGE??? The cost will be Half a Billion dollars by the end of his term at that rate… surpassing the recreational cost of any President.
Ignorance at the polls has consequences and that has led us here. It will take intelligence at the polls and a LOT of activism to undo this mess. The activism part is the hardest because we have to get those 35 million eligible voters motivated to get off their rumps and be heard at the polls. Had they voted, we would arguably not be dealing with Trump. The Voter suppression movement needs to be addressed with laws that require purges to be done with more advance knowledge to allow time for legal challenges to adjudicated and resolved BEFORE election day instead of disenfranchising millions of voters who just “happened to be” Democrats. These are not insurmountable, but they require leaders that will make tough decisions…unlike Jon Fetterman and Chuck Schumer who gave in to the Republican agenda claiming they had to do it s the country would not be shut down. Bill Clinton did it for 2 weeks…the longest shut down in history when Newt Gingrich had his Contract on America trying to cut social programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and many other programs to help those most vulnerable among us. The nation survived and in fact, flourished and the GOP bore the brunt and the blame of that … just as they would have now. So the Schumer, Fettermen and 8 other Senators who betrayed their constituents and tried to feebly justify their treachery need to go and be replaced with REAL leaders.