I’ve been asked, isn’t this pure idiocy with respect to discontinuing EPA’s ability to fight climate change, isn’t this idiocy to threaten media for publishing the truth, isn’t it idiotic to stop research and development at major universities, isn’t it crazy to threaten law firms for who they have represented, isn’t it nuts to threaten judges as rogue and dishonest, and to threaten former political leaders with  arbitrary investigations?

The answer is no… this is not idiotic!

It is all part of the Autocratic Playbook. They must discredit all but the great leader.  All forms of critical thinking and leadership must be undermined. The Universities, the Legal profession, Science and Research, prior administrations and leadership, the Judicial, even senior military leaders.

Weaponize government against itself to accomplish the transformation to only one source of truth, one source of historical context, one source of law.

All of it will be prosecuted and maintained with fear and favor.

All it takes is the will of Trump and his brain trust to do it, and for good people in leadership to think they can outlast it by going along. Valuing their position and money more than democracy, more than our heritage, more than science and law.

Everyone is for democracy when there is no cost. This is not idiocy, it is a transformation of our form of government at a pace that is astounding, and yet it was predicted and we were told what they (I say they, because it is the authors of Project 2025 who are the planners) had planned for us… but too few believed, too few value democracy.

Saying it is just idiocy is playing into their hands.  We must see the whole picture for what it is.  Re-read Orwell’s 1984 if you want to see where we are going.  Look at Hungary or Russia if you want living examples.  Don’t believe we are exceptional and can avoid this without a fight.  We must fight against a clever foe who has been planning for this for a long time.

Yesterday I heard a guest (Jared Bernstein) on a News program provide this brilliant insight:  “We have a $900B trade deficit with the world – so we start a trade war with tariffs and it results in $7 Trillion loss in the US stock market.  It’s a little like burning your house down because you don’t want to take out the garbage.”

…. couldn’t agree more!

The problem with autocracy is there are no checks and balances against lunacy, and economic suicide.

Yesterday I tried to write something beautiful, I tried to put the ugliness of the world and tragedies of the past week in the rear-view mirror with a brief reflection on the glorious breaking of a new day.

However, today I must explain and implore all of you to think beyond the daily economic challenges, think beyond the stupid statements, and the charged political climate and see what is coming.  We need to look into this abyss and be clear-eyed and purposeful that we are fighting for freedom.

“Liberation day” was not on Wednesday, it was something quite the opposite.  It was a redefining of the world order, it was enslavement. Declaring a trade war on the world has consequences. The farcical equations used have no basis in economics, they are a way to disguise ignorance while creating a world in which everyone must bend a knee to the Orange King.   The intent is not to create jobs, and growth, but to create power.  He is forcing all the world, countries and companies alike to negotiate with him.   This is a power grab.  He doesn’t care who gets hurt as he will never face the voters again (and don’t believe it is because he can’t run again) as he has no plans to give up power.

If you believe companies are going to make decisions to build in the USA, think about the idea of making a decision to disrupt your business for three to five years and spend hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investment.  No CEO is going to make decisions for capital expenditures in an environment that is based on capricious trade costs and when the rule of law is dependent on the interpretations of one man.   China will see this as an opportunity to recenter the world around Asia.  We will become poorer as we lose influence on the rest of the world and bad deals begat worse deals.

The equity markets might recover some, but investors will be moving to other parts of the world, seeking growth.   Looking for friendlier environments, based on the capital premise of logical self-interest and mutual gains and less infected by the blind power grab and capriciousness of the Orange King.

The Economy is set on a course of ruin.
International relationships trashed – our friends are Russia and El Salvador it seems.
Courts Rulings are being ignored by the Orange King, under a guise of National Security.
Large law firms, and the Press are being blungened by a weaponized DOJ.
Universities are being bullied to confirm with a MAGA agenda.
Federal workers are being fired.
Health and Science research is being MAGA-fided.
Vaccine studies are being taken over by conspiracy theorists.
Our National Security team and DOD leadership are being decimated by loyalty tests and anti-DEI raids.

The hits keep coming.

With a flourish of the pen, executive orders are replacing the role of congress. … the last and greatest institution.  We must rely on congress right now.  Congress, our representatives in a representative government is the only obstacle in the way of a Trump taking complete control.  He thinks he has them in his pocket with threats of being primaried, with the threat of Musks millions financing challenges against any who rise up to fight for freedom.

We too are the last and greatest line of defense for our democracy.  We must give our representatives backbone.   We must make our Senators and Representative know that we believe democracy is worth fighting for.  Write to them and go to to town halls and make your voices heard.  Republican Senators and Representatives especially must know that we need them to stand up to Trump.  I write to ours every few days.   I tell them we must not abandon Ukraine, I tell them Veterans need support, I tell them keep DOGE away from our Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.  I tell them we don’t want trade wars, our economy and our retirement savings are important to us.  Take back control of tariffs, as it was before, the domain of congress.   I keep it simple and keep the hits coming.   They must listen to us, we are their only reason to exist.  Tell them do your job!

If they don’t fight for our freedom, then we must replace them in the midterms and pray that it’s not too late.

Fight for Freedom!

I was thinking about the march we are on toward autocratic rule and dominance of oligarchies with a diminishment of the institutions of government, the scattering to the winds of the free press, and the pending attack on others as we move from stated isolationist objectives to imperial expansion…

Sure, Americans voted to move away from the status quo… we expressed a “need” to shake things up.   We voted against bloated institutions and the expressed wisdom of those more educated than ourselves, we decided that we are the Americans of the 1950s, with our I exceptionalism in tact, our conservative values preserved… and yet I wonder how the resulting diminished government, failing free press, tariffs, and conflicts with nearly everyone will square the circle for Americans?

I have no doubt, that Trump and his minions, as they celebrate their presumed mandate, will think they have the support to change our system of government, to change information flow, to muck with our reputation in the world, and ultimately impinge upon the ideals we have long held of ourselves.   As they overplay their hand, how will this set with Americans who have known a working government, no matter its flaws, have known the freedom of vote, and representative government, who have relished fair play and equal opportunity?

Americans believe their country has been a force for good in the world, no matter our mistakes.  As a nation of immigrants we have always had a warm heart for those in need and the downtrodden (well not always and not so much),

I think there will be a backlash.  I don’t believe we are like the beaten down and weak Germans of 1934, or the Hungarians of 2010, when Orban won his second, “for life” round in the role of Prime Minister, or for that matter we are unlike the Russians of the 2000’s ready for Putin’s strongman rule.  No, we have a vibrant economy, regardless of the price of eggs.  We have a long tradition of freedom.  We remain unconquered and are not vulnerable as other societies were… no, we will not allow our institutions, our free press and our voting rights to be trampled upon.

We will wake up and realize we are going in the wrong direction and the disruptor in chief will be disrupted.  The midterm elections will be a chance to say, hey wait a minute, this is not going as we expected.  Then the battle for years 3 and 4 will be a battle for our future.  Americans will win, must win.  The pendulum will swing back toward the middle… the far right satiated they won the imagined war against wokeness (whatever the heck that is) and the far left will be satisfied with the survival of democracy.

I imagine we will be nostalgic for George W… Bush that is.

Count on overplayed hands to bring us back to the middle.  I choose optimism as the second Trump administration begins this week.  I choose optimism that the extremists will go too far causing a backlash.  I choose optimism that Americans will start seeing they really did mean what they were saying.  Americans will bring us back to the sensible middle.  I am choosing optimism… for the alternative is freaking ugly.

God Bless America!
… please!

His observation, is right on, the only difference between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and Trump’s musing that he wouldn’t rule out force taking over Greenland is if it were to happen it would be the same, but over a lot quicker…

Some say they were better off under Trump than Biden, they say that the test “were you better off four years ago?”  favors Trump because of the price of eggs… REALLY??   But do you remember the mismanaged COVID response which lead to more than 1.1 million deaths of Americans?

Do you realize COVID was worse than it needed to be because of Trump?  In fact, with similar cultures and population our death rate per 100,000 population was 2.5x that of Canada?  (Source- John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center)

Do you realize the US economy today has 2.1% Inflation, Wage growth is 4.1% and GDP is 4.95% year over year… easily the strongest economy in the world?

Do you realize how women’s rights have been degraded by Trump’s three Supreme Court picks?   There are 21 states where woman cannot get life-saving reproductive care, due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.  How many bleed-out deaths of young women are needed to reach you?

Do you realize a much needed conservative bill was put forward to fund dramatic improvements in border security this year and Trump had it killed because it would undermine the wedge issue he needed?

If this is not enough, consider character – A serial liar, convicted felon, a sexual molester, a fraudster and failed businessman (6 bankruptcies) who appeals to white nationalist vs. a successful prosecutor and state attorney general who spent her entire career in service to the people.  Who would you prefer?

And what of the future based on what both are saying…

If you think that autocracies are dangerous and they take freedom from their citizens, then Harris is your only choice.   If you are the preferred candidate by fascists, maybe it is because they can relate to you, and Trump is a fascist (definition: a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition – The Enemy Within, remember?)

If you think the DOJ should operate independent of the Administration, then Harris is your choice.

If you know that Jan 6. 2021 was an attempt at a violent insurrection with the purpose of keeping Trump in office, your only patriotic choice is Harris.

If you believe a growing opportunity-based economy is better than an Oligarchy then Harris is your choice.  If a Harris’ growth economy is good for America (and the world) then you must know that wide use of tariffs and the costs of detaining and deporting 11 Million people will put our economy in a severe depression.  Your only logical choice is Harris.

What more is there to talk about?  Were you really better 4 years ago??? Will you have a chance of being better in 4 more years???

My calendar told me today that tomorrow is “Indigenous Peoples Day”… so I looked up a definition of Indigenous Peoples.  Of course I know the intention, however,  I found the United Nations has no specific definition, but rather a multi-page paper to describe the apparently undefinable.  I guess, as I see it, they are peoples who descended from peoples who arrived before the peoples who arrived later.  And then view themselves as natives, as we then view ourselves as civil members of the society for which we claim ownership.   Because we defined it as so, and those others coming after us are immigrants which  most of us were at one time, and which are distinguishable, I suppose, from most recent migrants… at least for the purpose of conserving some cultural heritage which we supplanted over the top of some previous peoples and their heritage.

There does seem to be some truth to the notion that the winners of conflict and migration and supplantion write the history, and define thus the place for all of us.  So tomorrow, cheers to the peoples who came before the peoples before us… and their culture which we continue to supplant… I guess they deserve a day!

Maybe those defined as migrants and refugees will get a day sometime in the future?