*** “Wooden-headedness consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconceived, fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting to wish while not allowing oneself to be confused by the facts.”
[ Double Pulitzer Prize winner; Historian; Barbara Tuchman ]
Donald John Trump has done much damage to America, and the world. Domestically, America MIGHT. be able to repair its democracy. BUT – Trump’s incredible STUPIDITY. of saying that climate change is a “hoax” [ in the face of unprecedented damage]; his arrogant treatment of [former] friendly nations; his coziness with other dictators; his STUPIDITY in saying, thinking, acting as if the United states can successfully enact an “America First” foreign policy may prove to be fatal to the American experiment in democracy.
***. “Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world, we cannot ensure its domestic tranquility, or provide for its common defense, or promote the general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. But joined with other free nations, we can do all this and more.”
[ John F. Kennedy; 35th U.S. President; 7/4/1962 ]
This post presents excerpts from “Trump Is Making America Dispensable” [ Jon finer; New York Times; 7/12/26]. The results of Trump insulting and demeaning other nations; of his ignorant ideological framework; of his tariffs, bullying nations, and now his RECKLESS war on Iran. – will NOT be good for America in any sense. His 8 years as president might well be seen as the beginning of the collapse of America as a world power. America, “thanks” to Trump, is no longer seen with the same affection and respect the world had for us before 2016. Finer reports on what has ALREADY happened, is happening, will happen. YOU are watching the DISASTER unfold……………………..
1] “Three years later, de-risking from predatory superpowers remains the fundamental challenge facing European leaders, but China is no longer the main country of concern: The United States is.”
2] “It is not just Europe backing away from the United States. Leaders of America’s partners in Asia and the Middle East are quietly doing the same. The second Trump administration’s ostentatious corruption, trade conflicts, military adventurism and mercurial artificial intelligence regulation have produced a new moment in international affairs: a nearly global grand strategy of countries distancing themselves from the world’s most powerful nation.”
3]. “For the United States, which has called itself the “indispensable nation” for decades, this represents a sea change. Countries have long sought the protection of America’s mighty military and access to its markets and technology. That in turn has benefited our economy and national security.”
*** “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.” [ Isaiah. 48: 22 ]
4] “..in a world where big countries increasingly weaponize the dependence of small countries, and self-sufficiency is its own form of power, the global de-risking is already hurting Americans at home….The lost war against Iran…contributed to a $132 billion hit to American consumers, according to Moody’s.”
5] “Mr. Trump’s immigration policies are also driving countries away. Four million fewer visitors came to the United States in 2025 than in 2024, an estimated cost of more than $8 billion. America is hemorrhaging future skilled labor as enrollment by international university students dropped 17 percent last fall from the prior year, already costing universities at least an estimated $1 billion, and potentially costing the country hundreds of billions in future revenue.”
6] “The chilling effect is spreading. As Mr. Trump muses about making it a 51st state, Canada has embarked on a “new strategic partnership” with China, opened its market for the first time to 50,000 Chinese electric vehicles and joined a more than $150 billion European defense fund aimed at breaking the dependency on the American defense industry.”
*** “The American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.” [ Will Rogers ]
7] “In East Asia, where Mr. Trump has paused the sale of arms to Taiwan in deference to President Xi Jinping of China, Taipei and allied capitals are recalibrating their relationships. Japan is overhauling its concept of national defense to develop greater offensive strike capabilities. South Korean contractors are displacing American arms sellers around the world.”
8]. “India is deepening commercial ties with Europe, the Middle East and even, grudgingly, China. India is one of a growing number of countries sufficiently worried about reliable access to American frontier A.I. models that it is considering Chinese or domestic alternatives.”
9]. “But nowhere is the push to de-risk from the United States more costly to both sides. – and disadvantageously timed. – than on the continent that coined the phrase. Once unthinkable conversations are underway in European capitals. European officials tell me they are quietly developing plans for responding in the event of a full-blown trade war with America…”
*** “Before we engage ourselves, we must know what we are doing, and once we have engaged ourselves, we must prevail, or the impact will be catastrophic.” [ Henry Kissinger; former U.S. Secretary of State ]
10]. “..the divisions Mr. Trump is causing are different. In 2021, for example, Australia agreed to invest billions of dollars in the U.S. submarine industry, on the promise that new boats would appear near Perth somewhere in the mid-2030s. Fewer countries are willing to make such long-term bets on America anymore…”
11]. “Some costs of the world’s de-risking from America are already hitting home. Others won’t be evident overnight. Allies were right not to join Mr. Trump’s unnecessary Iran fiasco, but our ability to deter future conflicts is weakened by our greater isolation. Lacking a clear alternative partner, most countries will hedge gradually, rather than immediately “decoupling” from the United States.”
*** “…thanks to Donald’s penchant for division, and devastating uncertainty about our country’s future have created a perfect storm of catastrophes that no one is less equipped than my uncle to manage. Doing so would require courage, strength of character, deference to experts, and the confidence to take responsibility and to course correct after admitting mistakes. His ability to control unfavorable situations by lying, spinning, and obfuscating has diminished to the point of impotence in the midst of the tragedies we are currently facing.”
[ Mary L. Trump: “Too Much And never Enough. How My Family Created the World’s most Dangerous Man” ]
*** “Trump’s rash behavior makes his presence in the Oval Office a clear and present danger to the safety and security of not just the American people but the rest of the world, too.”
[ double Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “The Making of Donald Trump” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CCIII. – The Trumpian Tyranny Increases
***”Tyrants forego all respect for humanity in proportion as they are sunk beneath it. Taught to believe themselves of a different species, they really become so, lose their participation with their kind, and in mimicking the god dwindle into the brute.” [ William Hazlitt ]
We are now 17 months into Trump’s second term – the atrocities come almost on a daily basis. The climate of fear in Washington announced by a Republican senator [“We are all afraid”]. Trump perverts the “justice’ system to take revenge on numerous people who only did their jobs pursuing his wrong doings [ “I only need 12,000 votes.”]. It has been said by several people that under Trump “Cruelty is the point.” Upset with protesters, Trump is reported to have asked, “Can’t we just shoot them in the legs?” Some have described the Trump DICTATORSHIP as “a coup.” Trump has surrounded himself with people chosen for their ‘LOYALTY.” A well-known author said of one of those “loyalists”: “X could be one of the figures leading us into a new and violently authoritarian future.” It is well known that a “conservative” think tank provided Trump with a blueprint for his second term – one report found Trump had enacted 53% of that domestic plan. And so VERY much more………………
This post presents excerpts from two articles: “Asylum seekers see same tactics here as in home countries”. [Sonya Funna Evelyn; Minnesota Star Tribune; 6/26/26}. and “A malicious chapter in the history of American justice”. [David French; New York Times; 6/23/26].
***. “Every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” [ Matthew 7: 17-18 ]
1]. “Our clients in Minnesota are primarily asylum-seekers who fled torture. the summer of 2025 they were already warning clinicians that what they were seeing with federal immigration enforcement – masked and armed agents taking people off streets in unmarked vehicles – were the conditions they had seen back in the countries they fled.” [Evelyn: “Asylum seekers…”
2] “..today, as we saw in Minnesota, we are challenged in ways we could not have foreseen back in 1998: The tactics of the most dangerous regimes on Earth are being used on the streets in the U.S. At the same time, the callous withdrawal of American foreign aid funding is resulting in the spread of deadly disease and death; the goodwill benefits of its protective “soft power” gone in an instant.” [Evelyn: ‘asylum seekers..]
*** “There is no king, who, with a sufficient force, is not always ready to make himself absolute.”
[ Thomas Jefferson: 8/13/1786 ]
2] “..the Chicago case is indicative of the fight for justice in the Trump administration. For every high-profile case that goes to the Supreme Court, there are dozens of other, smaller cases in federal courts across the country in which the Trump administration lies, bends the rules, slanders innocent citizens and otherwise abuses the legal system to persecute its political opponents.” [ French: “A malicious chapter…]
8] “..one thing is clear: The federal government has lost the benefit of the doubt. Or, as [judge] Perry said in Chicago, “I do believe deeply in the presumption of regularity and that most government attorneys are doing the best they can to do the right thing. That trust has been broken.”
4] “The indictment was important enough that Todd Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, announced the charges, and they fit perfectly with a MAGA narrative that the real problem on the streets wasn’t with rogue federal officers but with out-of-control leftist activists. – the all-powerful antifa of right-wing fever dreams.” [French]
*** “We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” [ Isaiah 26: 15 ]
5] “Prosecutors..had already handed the judge a redacted copy of the transcripts. In other words, they had blacked out key portions of the proceedings. This prompted the federal judge in the case, April Perry, to require the government to produce unredacted copies and to require any prosecutor “who participated in the decision to redact portions of the grand jury transcripts’ to appear before her in person.” [ French: “A malicious chapter…]
6]. “The unredacted transcripts were damning. The judge found that federal prosecutors had behaved improperly in at least three ways. they’d engaged in the forbidden practice of “vouching,” in which prosecutors essentially tell grand jurors to trust them….Prosecutors had also impermissibly spoken to grand jurors outside the jury room….And finally, prosecutors had dismissed from deliberations those grand jurors who had disagreed with the government’s case….To make matters worse, prosecutors had redacted all this evidence. There was an obvious cover-up.” [French]
7} “Don’t think for a moment that the Trump administration’s corruption and incompetence were confined to that case. The Chicago Sun-Times maintains a database of criminal charges related to Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s immigration immigration crackdown in Chicago, and it’s astounding. Out of more than 30 cases filed so far, two resulted in guilty pleas, five resulted in deferred prosecution agreements [slaps on the wrist], and two are still pending. Twenty-four other cases have failed. Twenty were dismissed. Grand juries refused to indict in at least three, and one resulted in acquittal.” [ French ]
*** “Tyranny is by far the worst of treasons. – The prince who neglects or violates his trust is more a brigand than the robber-chief.” [ Lord Byron ]
1] “NEW: Trump administration takes rare step to quell controversy over prosecutorial misconduct in dropped criminal case against Chicago-area anti-ICE protesters. Feds won’t fight defense demand to pay bill for activist’s legal fees.” Here’s why it’s so notable. In our legal system, prosecutors rarely pay a criminal defendant’s legal fees, even when the government loses the case.. Defendants tend to be reimbursed only when they can prove serious prosecutorial misconduct. It’s even rarer for prosecutors to AGREE to pay those fees. Experienced lawyers will read that tweet and know a single, simple truth. Something very bad went down in Illinois.” [ French ]
3] “On Oct. 23, 2025, a federal grand jury indicted a group of six protesters, including current and former Democratic public officials, charging them with conspiring to ‘injure” a federal officer “in his person or property.” [ French ]
*** “Of all injustice, that is the greatest which goes under the name of law; and of all sorts of tyranny the forcing of the letter of the law against equity, is the most insupportable.” [ Sir Roger L’Estrange ]
[NOTE: Again. – THE test for evaluating the Trump DICTATORSHIP is given YOU in the Preamble: ‘..promote the general Welfare..” YOU tell us; how do Trump DICTATORSHIP policies ‘..promote the general Welfare.., and secure the Blessings of Liberty..” for ordinary Americans, or this country????????? Not in rhetoric – but actual results.]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CCII – The “supreme court” Makes Up More Legal GARBAGE To Empower Trump
***. “Republicans care most about those who will only get richer because of government help. The government is truly broken…and another four years, and heaven forbid not eight years under the Republicans, and our grandchildren will have to build a new government, because the one we have will be unrecognizable and unworkable.”
[ A “lifelong” Republican who knew Bush and Cheney personally, worked in the Nixon White House – specifically gave this quote to John Dean to use as the book’s closing statement in “Broken Government How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches” ]. [NOTE: with every passing day, every asinine “supreme court” decree, virtually every Trump DICTATORSHIP action – YOU are now seeing this fearful prediction come true]
This post will present excerpts from 6/30/26 reactions to yet another Roberts ‘supreme court” UNCONSTITUTIONAL, UNDEMOCRATIC. ruling violating the OBVIOUS intent of the Founding American Generation to create a REAL democracy, one in which Congress, NOT the president was to be the dominate governmental body.
In some better, more rational, more CONSTITUTIONAL. future – the decisions of the CORRUPT Roberts ‘court” will be studies for their LAUGHABLE reasoning, their corruption of clear and obvious Founding Generation intent, words, fears. Having just revolted against a king. – they had NO intention of allowing another king. – the imperial president. – to become a legal tyrant.
*** “Power must never be trusted without a check.” [ John Adams; Founding Father ]
1]. “In a major expansion of presidential authority, the Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for President Trump to fire independent government regulators despite federal laws meant to protect their jobs.” [ Ann Marimow: “Justices Broaden President’s Sway Over Regulators”; New York Times; 6/30/26 ]
2]. “The court’s 6-to-3 ruling to broadly allow the firings…represented a significant shift in power from congress to the president, and could drastically change the federal government’s structure by giving the president more control over independent agencies.” [ Marimow ]
3] “The case tested whether Mr. Trump could oust Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, simply because she did not align with his agenda, despite a law that says the president can remove commissioners only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” [ Marimow ]
*** “The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.” [ James Madison; Founding Father ]
4]. “Several justices have for years said that they were eager to overturn the 1935 precedent, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, that has protected independent agencies.” [ Marimow ]
[NOTE. we’ve seen this before. – Roberts ‘court” “justices” USING a case to carry out prejudices, NOT support legal precedent and Congressional intent. Under the Constitution. – CONGRESS, not the president, makes laws. AND. – WHY are these agencies called. “independent agencies” ??????? ]
5] “Justice Sonia Sotomayor read a lengthy summary of her dissent from the bench, warning that the decision would unleash chaos. Independent agencies will be “transformed in ways that those who created them never could have expected and actively sought to avoid, fundamentally recalibrating the balance of power in this country…..”It is a power..that neither the people, nor Congress, nor the Constitution bestowed upon him”…” [ Marimow ]
6] “Today’s ruling makes it possible for presidents to fire watchdogs who won’t put politics over principle, and replace them with lap dogs,” Slaughter said. it’s a recipe for corruption. Working families will pay the price.” [ Marimow ]
***. “Checks and balances, limited government. – the genius of our constitutional system is its recognition that no one branch of government alone can be relied on to preserve our freedoms.” President Ronald Reagan; Republican ]
7] “For nearly a century, the Supreme Court has made it difficult for a president to defy the clear text of a law passed by Congress. The court prevented Franklin D. Roosevelt from firing a leader of the Federal Trade Commission in 1935. it stopped the Reagan administration from defying a pollution investigation in 1988. It helped block Barack Obama’s attempt to expand immigration protections in 2016.” [ New York times editorial: “The Supreme court’s Hypocrisy; 6/30/26]
8] “The ruling dismisses longstanding precedent and effectively discards a 112-year-old law that said the president could fire commissioners only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” Mr. Trump can now fire commissioners in regulatory agencies simply because he wants to.” [ Times editorial; 6/30/26 ]
9]. “..the unitary theory ends up being more radical, and more disruptive to the previous understanding of the separation of powers, than its advocates typically acknowledge. there is no question Congress has some authority over regulatory agencies. The Constitution gives the Senate confirmation power for top positions…Chief Justice Roberts says this merely gives the Senate the power to confirm or reject the appointees that the president prefers. but this view throws out nearly a century of practice that congress put in place because it saw bipartisan composition as a strength for agencies.” [ Times editorial; 6/30/26 ]
***. “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.” [ James Madison; Federalist Papers #10, #51 ]
1-] “Central to the success of the American experiment over nearly 250 years has been the balance of powers among the three branches of government. Together, Mr. Trump and this Supreme Court are upsetting that balance. They are deviating from a tradition that has lasted more than a century, in which parts of the government operate with bipartisan leadership removed from everyday partisan politics, as Congress intended.” [ Times editorial; 6/30/2611]
11] “The effect is to sideline Congress, which the authors of the Constitution viewed as the primary branch among equals. The Supreme Court on Monday created a government run by a very small number of people who work at either the Supreme Court or the White House.” [ Times editorial; 6/30/26 ]. [NOTE – just as “Project 2025” and other far-right people have planned – which is why we discuss “your” American government as The Trump DICTATORSHIP ]
*** “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
[ James Madison; Federalist Papers #47 ]
12] “In a tiny corner of the legal world…the March ruling crashed down like a thunderbolt…the Merit Systems Protection Board, whose purpose is to protect federal workers…backed President Trump’s assertion that he has broad authority to reshape the executive branch as he wants. The ruling broke with decades of precedent…it defanged the most effective method of federal workers to challenge their dismissals, and if upheld on appeal could undercut protections for broad swaths of the civil service.” [ Jonah Bromwich, Michael Schmidt, Rebecca Davis O’Brien: “White House Swayed A Board That Protects Workers From Firings”; New York times; 6/30/26 ]. [ NOTE: a DICTATORSHIP gets rid of people who are not “loyal” to the DICTATOR, by ANY means necessary…… Do YOUR homework; WHY was a non-political American civil service created???????????? ]
*** “The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.” [ Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson ]
[NOTE: for PERSPECTIVES. – do YOUR own research of 1787-2005 U.S. legal and Constitutional intent and thought. You can begin with sources listed below. What EVIDENCE do they provide? What are their footnotes? WHY do they call the Roberts ‘court” CORRUPT? Remember THE test, from the Preamble: ‘..to promote the general Welfare..” What have been results of Roberts ‘court” decisions – on guns, on campaign finance, on voting rights, on civil rights, on presidential immunity, etc. – and the effect on America?
– “Raphael Warnock Says the SupremeCourt has Done ‘violence’ to Democracy” [ David Marchese; New York times Magazine; 6/14/26]; “Justices Gut Voting Rights to shield GOP majority – and Their Own Disgrace” [ Joe Conason; The Progressive Populist; June, 2026 ]; “The Scheme. How the right Wing used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court” {Senator Sheldon Whitehorse}; “The Shadow Docket. How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic”. [ Stephen Vladek }; “The Originalism Trap” [ Madiba Dennie ]; “Lawless. How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes”. [ Leah Litman ]; “Without Precedent How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled our Rights”. [Lisa Graves ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CCI. – Trump, Republicans INTENTIONALLY Blow Up U.S. National Debt
*** “..the right’s..overriding mission, at which they’ve succeeded smashingly, is to make sure the rich get richer [and big business bigger], and the most direct, unambiguous, universal way of doing that is by keeping their taxes low, no matter the costs… Fiscal responsibility rhetorically pops back to life for Republicans only when they’re out of power in Washington, and only as an argument for achieving their secondary goals of reducing Social Security and Medicare benefits and preventing any major expansion of health or education or other social programs.”
“Irving Kristol, that mastermind and key promoter of remaking the political economy, had candidly announced this new strategy of the right. – right-wing fiscal recklessness, forcing the left into defensive restraint. – in a Wall Street Journal column back in 1980..” [ Kurt Andersen: “Evil Geniuses ].
This post examines how the Republicans have blown up the U.S. national debt in the last 45 years. It was less than $1 trillion when Reagan was inaugurated. Reagan, Bush, Trump tax cuts have produced a $39 trillion U.S. national debt. According to the U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data system, when Trump was inaugurated January 20, 2017. – the U.s. national debt was $19,944,429,217,107. The IMMORAL Trump tax cuts of 2017 and 2025, plus annual $1 trillion interest payments have DOUBLED YOUR. national debt. The consequences are many…..
***. “The second Vice is Lying, the first is running in Debt.” [ Benjamin Franklin: “Poor Richard’s Almanack” ]. [NOTE: Thus Donald John Trump is. GUILTY of THE top two vices !!!!!!!!!!! – and YOU pay for them.]
This post presents excerpts from: “They Blew Up the Debt, Stalled America’s Future, and Stuck You With the Bill. All to Enrich the Top 1% and Win Elections” [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive Populist; June, 2026 ]:
2]. “This year, America will spend over a trillion dollars just ti pay interest on the current $39 trillion national debt, a debt entirely the result of a 45 year-long GOP scam designed to make the rich richer and elect Republicans, all the while simultaneously screwing Democrats and average working class people.”
9]. “The combined Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts, along with Bush’s two wars add up to more than our current national debt of – $39 trillion. And the only way to fix all this without causing horrible pain for the American people is to undo those three president’s tax cuts and take America back to the tax system we had in 1980.”
10] “..Trump..once bragged: “I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me.”
***. “Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous consciousness of honor.” [ Thomas Paine; 1792 ]
4] “…here’s the “lost opportunity cost”. of what that trillion dollars a year we now pay in interest…on the GOP’s Debt could do for America:
– First, it could guarantee universal childcare and early childhood education nationwide that would free millions of parents to work and start businesses…”
- Second, it could make all public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free, while also wiping out existing federal student loan debt over time.”
– Third, the U.S. could could establish a universal healthcare system or at least a robust public option with zero premiums and minimal out-of-pocket costs, ending medical bankruptcies and improving public health outcomes.”
– Fourth, it could fully fund a national infrastructure modernization program, repairing every deficient bridge in the country, rebuild highways, expand mass transit, and replace aging water systems, including lead pipe removal nationwide.”
– Fifth, a trillion dollars a year could finance a rapid transition to clean energy: building out solar and wind at scale, modernizing the grid, subsidizing home electrification, and accelerating EV infrastructure to catch up with China.”
– Sixth, it could end homelessness in America, with massive savings in healthcare and policing.”
***. “The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.”
[ Andrew Jackson; 7th U.S. President ]
– Seventh, we could provide a guaranteed basic income [ – $500 to $1,000 a month ] to every adult American or a more targeted version for lower- and middle-income households, dramatically reducing poverty.”
– Eighth, it could expand Social Security and Medicare benefits significantly – raising monthly checks, lowering the retirement age, or both – while shoring up the system’s long-term solvency.”
– Ninth, the U.S. could also fund universal paid family and medical leave, so no one ever again has to go to work sick or choose between a paycheck and caring for a newborn or a sick relative.”
– Tenth, it could dramatically increase teacher pay, reducing class sizes, modernizing school facilities, and providing universal free school meals.”
– Eleventh, it could launch a large-scale affordable housing initiative, building millions of. units, stabilizing rents, and helping first-time buyers with down payments.”
– Twelfth, it could rebuild and expand public health infrastructure, including pandemic preparedness, local health departments, research funding, and domestic manufacturing of critical medicines and supplies.”
*** “As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible.” [ George Washington; September 17, 1796 ]
1] “Republicans in May proposed an appropriations bill that will allocate a billion dollars to pay for Donald Trump’s Golden Epstein Dance Hall [ a.k.a. “Ballroom”]. Every penny of it will be borrowed and we’ll be paying interest on that money for the rest of our lifetimes unless something dramatic changes.”
3]. ‘..by 2030, Fortune magazine reports, we’ll. be paying $2 trillion in interest at the current rate of burn, as Republicans add more and more items to the national debt every day.”
5]. “And even after doing several of…[the 12 things mentioned above in #4 ]…at once, there’d still be room for things like universal broadband, modernizing the postal system, expanding national parks and conservation efforts, and funding scientific research at levels that could accelerate breakthroughs in everything from cancer to renewables to clean water.”
***. “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” [ Thomas Jefferson; 7/12/1816 ]
6] “It all started in the 1970s when Republican strategist Jude Wanniski noted that Republicans were viewed as Grinches while Democrats. – who’d brought the people the minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, free college, and dozens of other popular programs – were viewed as Santas. His solution was twofold: have Republicans become the “tax cut Santas”. while forcing Democrats to “shoot their own Santa” in the face by cutting back on those gift-like programs.”
7] “The Two Santas scheme has two parts: “When a Republican is in the White House, spend money like a drunken sailor, running up the debt as hard and fast as possible. All this deficit spending…produces “good times”. by stimulating the economy like crazy, making Americans think Republicans are good with economics when in fact they’re only good at spending borrowed money. “When a Democrat is in the White House, start screaming about the debt and how ‘our children will have to pay for this!!!” to force that president and the Democrats in Congress to “shoot’ their own social programs by cutting them back, producing hard times and reducing the deficits.” [NOTE: hw many people voted for Trump – saying he was “a good businessman”!!!!!!!!!!!]
8]. “To justify all this deficit spending, Wanniski invented a term “supply-side economics,” arguing that tax cuts for the morbidly rich would pay for themselves as wealth “trickled down” to average working people, and Art Laffer handily supplied a “curve” that seemed technical and scientific. The media lapped it up. It was all, of course, bullsh*t…”
*** “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. But we can’t have both.” [ Supreme court Justice Louis Brandeis ]
[NOTE: do the research!!! – get the REAL, un-spun NUMBERS. – on income distribution, especially 1947-73; on the average top marginal rates, 1933-1980. – cut in half by Reagan, bush, Trump. We don’t have record numbers of billionaires by accident !!!!!!!!!!! We don’t have a $39 trillion U.s. national debt by accident !!!!!!!!! We don’t have large numbers of potential U.S. blue collar workers unemployed in crafts their fathers were !!!!!!! WE don’t write these posts – all 201 of them – for fun. We want you, Mr. and Mrs. American – to begin to learn the truth.
Bottom line: the unprecedented mass blue and white collar American prosperity – HAS. BEEN. DELIBERATELY. SABOTAGED. AND STOLEN. AWAY. – by the greedy top 1%, by the Far Right, by the Republican Party. Do your own research. The intent is recorded, the programs – G.I.Bill, Social Security, etc. – are recorded. Trump is simply, hopefully, the final conclusion of this decades long PLANNED. THEFT. Trump is now destroying much of the basis for a real democratic society – one that cares about its citizens. Trump is destroying YOUR democratic government right before your eyes – much of this programed by “Project 2025” – itself a project of the Far Right.
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness
*** “In a president, character is everything.” [ Peggy Noonan; Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan ]
From January 20, 2025 to June 17, 2026 – this site posted 200 times on the Trump DICTATORSHIP. We are slowing down – summer vacation, etc.
BUT –
THE primary reason is this: in doing our research, compiling our 200 posts – the Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. – is beginning to corrode us mentally. Being exposed to Trump’s personality, rhetoric, actions, policies, above all his LIES. – is corrosive. It is depressing to see an American president say and do these things as intensively as we have. To make our posts – we did research for perspective on who and what Donald Trump is. – compared to other presidents; compared to what American politics and society considered “normal”; compared to what normal Americans consider to be decent, considerate, fair.
*** “A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.” { Mark Twain ]
We have repeatedly said this: judging Any president or American government actions. – apply this test: The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution: “We the People…a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty..”
ANY U.s. government action, policy, law – that DOES NOT achieve these objectives is – Unconstitutional, UnAmerican, destructive, and corrosive to American liberty, society, government.
The Eisenhower freeway system passes the test. The Trump tax cuts for the rich of 2017 and 2025 DO NOT. Because, among other things: they FAIL to ‘..promote the general Welfare..” Few, if any, Trump actions have done so.
***. “There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men.”
[ Ludwig von Mises ]
Donald John Trump is THE anti-George Washington; THE anti-Abraham Lincoln; THE anti-Dwight D. Eisenhower. Not because we say so – but because the EVIDENCE, the plain public record says this. No objective American can say Trump’s character and actions are even close to these three men. using public records. – few observers, with a straight face, can say Donald John Trump is close to many of the previous 40 other U.S. presidents.
***. “Openly monetizing the presidency is a true Trump innovation….Mr. Trump’s scheming will define him and his family…All that will be left is his reputation. Mr. Trump has made that synonymous with corruption forever.”
[ Noah Schachtman; New York times; 5/24/26 ]
No other American president has ever been accused of openly fomenting an insurrection to stop an election. No other American president made a reported fortune of $1-4 billion in just a few months in office. No other American president created, allowed ‘a pardon industry” that freed many convicted of serious white collar crimes. No other American president routinely insulted and demeaned American citizens so publicly. No other American president has LIED. so often. – over 30,000 in one term; is anybody counting 2021-2026 Trump fabrications?
*** “Trump has taken mafia government to heights unrivaled in this country’s history.”
[ Sarah Chayes: “On corruption In America” ]
Some recent illustrations of Trump’s corrosive effect on America, headlines alone:
1] “How Trump Weighed suspending a Legal Right” [ Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan; New York Times; 6/18/26]
2] “Trump Escalates Push On voter ID”. [ Michael Gold, Dustin Wolf; New York Times; 6/18/26 ]
3] “True to Form, President Unsettles G7 Summit”. [ Mark Landler; New York Times; 6/18/26 ]
4]. “U.S. Pays $765 Million to Not Build 4 Wind Farms” [ Brad Plumer; New York Times; 6/18/26 ]
5]. “Protester says he was beaten, shackled for days”. [ Alan Feuer; New York Times; 6/20/26 ]
6] “Meloni says Trump ‘fabricated’ claim”. [ Nicole Winfield; Associated Press; 6/20/26 ]
7] “Flu sickens 160 at Air force base after end of vaccine mandate” [ Greg Jaffe, Maggie Haberman; New York Times; 6/20/26 ]
[ NOTE: this happens almost EVERY day during the Trump DICTATORSHIP !!! ]
*** “Most of Trump’s failings can be explained by a simple truth: He cared more about himself than the country.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winners Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker: “I Alone Can Fix It” ]
YOU can help SAVE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. – on November 3, 2026. – vote against EVERY. Republican running for Congress. – just this one time, please. YOU do not want to experience an unrestrained, unaccountable. TRUMP. DICTATORSHIP. for two more years. YOUR democracy just might end if YOU don’t act…………
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CC. – “Trump Just Took Us Somewhere The Country Had Never Been Before…a dark new realm of presidential corruption”
***. “We can never truly know..[Trump’s]. character, but we can examine and assess it based on his actions…This is why I focused on Donald Trump’s obsession with money and the trappings of wealth, and his many comments about women not as equals, but objects, their value measured in particular by the size of their busts and the length of their legs, not the size of their hearts or how far their minds reach. It is also why so much of this book is about Trump’s many complex and little-known with criminals – a vast assortment of con artists, mobsters and mob associates, swindlers, and other unsavory characters, including a major drug dealer he went to bat for.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “The Making Of Donald Trump” ]
This post presents excerpts from “Trump Just Took Us Somewhere The Country Had Never Been Before” [ Noah Shachtman: New York Times; 5/24/26 ]. We also present statements by Pulitzer Prize winners, relatives, close observers about Donald John Trump. Ethical behavior and empathy for others have never been his strong suit. YOU should not be surprised that Trump is brazenly engaging in obvious corruption. Close observers tell YOU he’s engaged in morally-challenged behavior before.
5] “Just in terms of sheer dollars, this is the most corrupt action in American history,” says Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department special counsel…”This may be the most infamous thing that Donald Trump does beyond Jan. 6, 2021.”
14] “…Mr. Trump’s scheming will define him and his family. When he leaves office, the Trump name will most likely be stripped from the Kennedy Center. The challenge coins he’s affixed to the White House doors will no doubt be stripped away. his ‘enhancements” to the Oval office may eventually be remodeled away. All that will be left is his reputation. Mr. Trump has made that synonymous with corruption forever.”
7] “..openly monetizing the presidency is a true Trump innovation. You have to go back at least a hundred years, to the administration of Warren harding or Ulysses Grant, to find anything remotely similar. And no one ever accused Harding of minting memecoins. “This isn’t the ‘honest graft’ of Tammany Hall – corruption as the price paid for public improvement,” The Time’s Jamelle Bouie wrote. “It is petty theft.”
12] “If political violence committed in the president’s name is not only tolerated but actively rewarded, it could take this already bleak timeline somewhere much, much darker.’
***. ‘..Donald, who understands nothing about history, constitutional principles, geopolitics, diplomacy [ or anything else, really ] and was never pressed to demonstrate such knowledge, has evaluated all of this country’s alliances, and all of our social programs, solely through the prism of money, just as his father taught him to do…In the midst of obscene plenty, one person, using all of the levers of power and taking every advantage at his disposal, would benefit himself and, conditionally, his immediate family, his cronies, and his sycophants; for the rest, there would never be enough to go around, which was exactly how my grandfather ran our family.”
[ Mary L. Trump: “Too Much And Never Enough” ]
1]. “President Trump has been thinking a lot about his place in history. That’s one of the reasons…he’s paying so little attention to his plummeting popularity and so much attention to remodeling Washington in his own image. But there’s no arch high enough, no ballroom gilded enough, to distract from the mountain of corruption he’s constructing.”
2]. “The president may wish to be considered in the same class as Napoleon or Alexander the Great, but he is in danger of turning himself into the next Mobutu Sese Seko or Suharto: a kleptocrat remembered not for his ideas and not for his power but for his greed.”
3] “Mr. Trump has devoted a large portion of his second term to enriching himself and his family with foreign and private funds…But until recently, there was no evidence that his most brazen capers involving taking actively, from you and me. That changed when he, two of his sons and the Trump family business sued the government for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns.”
4] “Trump supporters convicted of crimes connected to the Jan. 6 riot could get large spoonfuls. But the Trump clan looks to be the biggest beneficiaries of all: As part of the settlement, the U.S. government would be barred from prosecuting or further auditing the Trumps or their family businesses for any potential misconduct preceding the agreement. That would save the Trumps from penalties that some estimate could reach $100 million or beyond. More than that, it could functionally put the family beyond the reach of the law in these tax cases…”forever.”” [NOTE: read this again – forgiven for misconduct, now and “forever.” Wouldn’t YOU like to have this?????]
***. “[Trump]..routinely staked out positions on issues that violated the law and that ran counter to what career law enforcement, intelligence, military, and economic officials believed was right. Even more mysteriously, at times Trump appeared to favor positions that benefitted America’s geopolitical adversaries, like Russia, more than the United States… McGahn had spent hours laying out what the president did and said behind closed doors as he sought to maintain control over the Russia investigation.. how the president insisted on having a loyalist oversee the investigation..the true reasons the president had for firing the FBI director, James Comey..told them that Trump wanted Mueller out.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner Michael S. Schmidt: ‘Donald Trump V. The United States” ]
6] “Mr. Trump is the defining political figure of the past decade. But despite his enormous influence, he’s had relatively few legacy-making accomplishments….He’s bullied specific schools instead of remaking the educational system and cut bargains with drug retailers instead of recasting the U.S. government’s relationship with Big Pharma….[So far, only Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court appointments and their warped decisions have amounted to truly historical changes.]”
8]. “Mr. Trump has already pardoned convicted criminals after receiving donations on their behalf…Trump cronies…brought up .case over a round of golf with the president.”
9]. “This new slush fund – set up with minimal guardrails, not even a definition of what constitutes “weaponization”..Just think what people might be willing to do to get this money, and what Mr. Trump might get in return. This fund would institutionalize that ethical disaster…This would make cronyism an official function of the federal government, a U.S. Agency for Corruption.”
*** “Trump’s dozens of pardons are just one of several moves by the administration indicating a newly permissive environment for white collar crime.” [ Jeffrey Toobin: “The Pardon Brokers…How The Trump Administration Turned Clemency Into A Lucrative Cottage Industry”; New York Times Magazine; May 31, 2026 ]
***. “..the lucrative pardon industry that has emerged around mr. Trump. It is based in part on the proposition that paying the right person to deliver a message tailored to mr. Trump’s politics of grievances is more important than demonstrating remorse or a likelihood of recidivism.” [ Kenneth P.Vogel: “Pardon Industry Offers the Rich A Path to Trump”; New York Times; 3/8/26 ]
10]. “The primary risk is that this money is going to be used to fund paramilitary organizations that are loyal to the president,” Mr. Ballou said. “Financial support for violence – that is going to be the most important thing, and it’s fundamentally new and different from, say, the Qatari jet.”
11]. “THe self-described “American terrorist” Andrew Paul Johnson was convicted of his role in the Capitol riot, pardoned by Mr. Trump and subsequently found guilty of molesting two children. To silence his victims, he is said to have promised them a share of the millions he said he was about to get from the federal government for being a “Jan. 6-er.”
13] “The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bars the government from paying ‘any debt or obligation incurred in aid or insurrection or rebellion against the United States,” which would appear to bar payments to people who attacked the Capitol in an effort to overturn an election.”
*** “The characteristics of Trump’s leadership, blazingly evident through the first three years of his presidency, had deadly ramifications in his final year. he displayed his ignorance, his rash temper, his pettiness and pique, his malice and cruelty, his utter absence of empathy, his narcissism, his transgressive personality, his disloyalty, his sense of victimhood, his addiction to television, his suspicion and silencing of experts, and his deception and lies. Each trait thwarted the response of the world’s most powerful nation to a lethal threat….Most of Trump’s failings can be explained by a simple truth: He cared more about himself than the country.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winners Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker: “I Alone Can Fix it” ]
[ NOTE: read this again – SLOWLY – and remember, this all occurred when, during Trump’s first term, he was “restrained’ by patriotic advisors and others from doing numerous illegal and dangerous and destructive things. Now – in his second term – Trump is deliberately surrounded by loyalists and Project 2025 authors. That largely explains the Trump DICTATORSHIP. ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXIX. – Trump, Republicans, Put America in Financial Peril
***. “A sound economy is a sound understanding brought into action. It is calculation realized; it is the doctrine of proportion reduced to practice; it is foreseeing contingencies and providing against them; it is expecting contingencies and being prepared for them.” [ Hannah More ]
This post BEGINS to examine how the American economy, which was fairly sound in 2000. – IS NOT in 2006. We BEGIN to examine reasons WHY. We begin to examine Edward Lotterman’s question: “..why did we throw it away?” That answer begins in 1981. The U.S. national debt was LESS than $1 trillion. President Reagan nearly TRIPLED it. – and laid the framework for future national debt problems: Reagan cut the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28%; plus there are other tax maneuvers by which the rich escape taxation. We’ve gone from the most equal to THE most unequal income distribution. – and that might be “our” biggest problem: America no longer shares income as it did from 1947-73, during the U.S. middle class STATISTICAL golden age. Greed and selfishness has its costs….
Read and THINK on the following excerpts from: “Ah, the good old days of balanced budgets” [ Edward Lotterman; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 6/7/26 ]: “..understand how adversely our nation’s economy has turned in the past three decades.”
12] “We had a balanced budget as late as 2001 but we passed four tax cuts. There is no foreseeable chance those will be undone. We had deregulated banking and Wall Street and got the 2007 financial meltdown as one result. Timid regulation designed to correct that was passed, but was erased once control of the White House passed.” [ He just told YOU one reason how & why Republicans are GUILTY of sabotaging YOUR financial future. ]
9]. “Countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Norway with incomes near that of the U.S. spend $9,000 to $10000. Note that all these countries have longer life expectancies and better health indicators in several regards than we do. [ WHY are Scandinavians every year “the happiest people on earth”? ]
5] “A key problem was in the assumption that the fraction on income subject to FICA, long about 85% of total income, would stay the same. The problem was that we were going through a radical transformation of our economy to one in which most of the increase in income would be in the form of interest, dividends and, especially capital gains…None of this income that was driving the growth was subject to FICA.”
6] “Given the special ‘step-up basis” treatment of capital gains held until death and increasing legal craftiness in keeping funds off-shore or in multi-generational trusts, a high percentage of this wealth was never hit by income taxes either.” [ WHY NOT??? Are YOU seeing CORRUPTION in action here ??? ]
***. “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities, that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.” [ Adam Smith: “The Wealth of Nations” ]
1] “..compared with our most pressing problems today, U.S. federal finances were on a solid footing. The national debt in June 2000 was $3.495 trillion…As a proportion of the value of all national output, the debt was at 34.1%, the lowest level since 1985. Compare those figures to the $31.2 trillion, and 100% of GDP, that hit this past February.”
2] ‘..there were problems lurking underneath the surface. Some were demographic. Some were changes in the structure of the U.S. economy. Some were a change in the dynamics of U.S. politics. Some were were changes in the international order. Some of these were our own fault or failings and some completely outside our control.”
3] “a bipartisan panel appointed by President Ronald Reagan did an admirable job overall of renovating Social Security, although a key reform they made would instead turn into a ticking time bomb that is exploding now.”
4] “THe FICA tax on earnings for the old age, survivors and disability sections of Social Security had been raised periodically…The commission stepped that up to 12.4% of income by 1990. It has stayed at that level for 36 years even as the demographic and economic assumptions on which the commission based its decisions did not hold up.”
***. “I need to pay higher taxes. I’ve paid, in absolute, more taxes over ten billion [dollars], than anyone else, but, you know, the government should require people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes.” [ Bill Gates Then – consider billionaire Warren Buffett’s statement that his secretary pays taxes at a higher rate than he does….. ]
7] ‘..while the trust fund for eventual old age retirement grew, it did not do so rapidly enough to cover inflation-adjusted payments to baby boomers…A relatively modest increase in FICA rates 30 years ago, or a re-definition back then of what income was subject to FICA, would have solved the problem, but politically, Democrats had been burned repeatedly by GOP charges that they always wanted to raise tax rates.” [ Double Good for Repubs – they win elections, they protect their rich donors from tax increases !!!!! ]
8] “Total spending on health care, including households, employers and government, totaled 8.9% of GDP in 1980. It was nearing 10% when the 1984 Social Security reforms stair-stepped the Medicare portion of FICA to 2.9% of earnings by 1990 – where it has stayed ever since…But in 2000, few anticipated this increase would approach $15,000 per capita and 18% of GDP by 2025. Such growth in U.S. costs has outrun levels in other industrialized nations that average about $6,000 per capita and 9.3″ of GDP.” [. SO – WHAT do THEY do that “WE” do not do ??? ]
10]. “Also lying latent was a decline in the bipartisan functioning of Congress. In the 1990s, there was genuine deliberation across party lines on most issues and confirmations.” [ Then – tribal conformity and “no compromise with the libs” steadily increased; tribalism; Trumpism; Repubs scorched earth political warfare in Congress, etc. ]
*** “After the 1994 victories, GOP Congressional leaders implemented a series of measures to institutionalize partisan warfare…conservatives had succeeded in shattering bipartisanship and cooperation in Congress..” [Geoffrey Kabaservice: “Rule And Ruin” ]
11] “Riegele Neal, a key banking deregulation act in 1993…The 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that abolished most New Deal-era limits on Wall street institutions….these financial deregulatory bills…were negative in setting the stage for the financial sector debacle that would unfold in 2007-2009..”
13] “Birth rates have plummeted. The cut-off of immigration..reduced the number of working-age people that will be available to produce and contribute for baby boomers who retire.” [ REpubs sabotage, again ]
14]. “The Trump administration wants an increase in defense spending unheard of since the Civil War.” [ NOTE: money that will NOT be available to deal with various American economic, social, infrastructure, etc. problems. Bedside the question of WHICH weapons will be purchased – more corruption? Cheap drones, anyone??? ]
***. “Like Gingrich, McConnell had found a serious flaw in the code of American democracy. our distinctive political system gives an antigovernment party with a willingness to cripple government an enormous edge…they made government less functional..” [ Jacob Hacker, Paul Pierson: “American Amnesia…How The War on Government Led People To Forget What Made America Prosper” ]. [ NOTE: to understand what Repubs have done to YOUR democracy – read this book ]
Donald Trump continues the Republican war on government. – firing 322,000 workers, crippling agencies that discipline business; defunding government by obscenely cutting taxes on the rich and corporations. [ those who have benefited most since 1981 ]; and deliberately running up the u.S. national debt – which WILL provoke a crisis. – which Repubs WILL attempt to use to cut YOUR benefits. Check the NUMBERS. – which party has enacted policies and laws to benefit the rich and corporations ??? WHO cut top marginal tax rates??? WHO has attempted to cripple the I.R.S. ???]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXVIII. – Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts Endanger America
*** “We must never forget that international friendship is achieved through rumors ignored, propaganda challenged and exposed, through patient loyalty to those who have proved themselves worthy of it; through help freely given, where help is needed and merited…Peace is more a product of our day-to-day living than of a spectacular program, intermittently executed.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower; Republican; 34th U.S. President ]
This post BEGINS to discuss the consequences, the DAMAGE, the DANGER, the STUPIDITY, the Cruelty – of Donald Trump’s cuts to American foreign aid around the world. Begin with a partial list of aid cooperation programs America started, has joined: Agency for International Development, Alliance for Progress, Asian Development Bank, Developing Country, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Development Association, Marshall Plan, Peace Corps, UNESCO, World Health Organization.
WHY did America do this, and much more? Partly for humanitarian reasons; partly because it was in OUR self-interest to help others. – thus maintaining peace, often creating markets for American products. Intelligent people knew American “soft power” was a key to American prosperity. People respected America for being generous. – they looked upon America favorably…..
Because of GREED, selfishness, not taxing the rich, and whatever else percolates in Donald Trump’s mind – and possibly “Project 2025” mandates. – his DICTATORSHIP’s policies will COST AMERICA MUCH, in many ways…
Presented below are SOME costs from Trump’s international Stupidity and Ignorance:
A]. “When Trump and Musk slashed aid they left us vulnerable, too”. [Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 6/8/26 ]:
1] “After Elon Musk “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chopper,”…he and President Donald Trump ridiculed American humanitarian aid as, in effect, woke nonsense. Yet in reality American humanitarian aid not only saved one life every 10 seconds but was also safeguarding the world from epidemics.”
2]. “..in three ways, Trump’s assault on global health has left us in a worse position to combat Ebola…The first failing was the destruction of USAID…..The second failing ..was its hostility to the World Health Organization….The third failing is simply the administration’s disregard for public health and lack of preparation.”
***. “Whoever has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, and has no pity on him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love merely in word, neither in speech, but in deed and truth.” [ I John 3: 17-18 ]
3]. “I don’t think there is any way that this outbreak would have been missed for so long if all those programs were still at full strength and the USAID mission team was still there.”
4]. “With Ebola, time is lives,” Dr. Tom Frieden..”
5]. “Trump not only withdrew the United States from the WHO, but his administration also reportedly barred some U.S. health officials even from communicating with counterparts there.” [ So – ignorance is going to keep America healthy?}
***. “In public affairs, stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.” [ Woodrow Wilson; 28th U.S. President ]
6] “The Trump administration also left positions for disease preparedness vacant. It cut funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is helping develop a vaccine for this strain of Ebola.”
7] “The fecklessness of Washington officials, recklessly cutting programs they don’t understand, contrasts with the raw courage of doctors, nurses, aid workers and burial teams in places like Congo who are risking their lives and making do without adequate supplies to stop this outbreak.”
8] “The USAID cuts were lethal: I’ve documented how we let children die from malaria for want of $2 mosquito bed nets or from starvation because we couldn’t be bothered to provide 50-cent packets of peanut paste. A Boston University researcher estimates that the aid cuts have already cost more than 750,000 lives worldwide.”
*** “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.” [ John 13: 34 ]
B] “Cuts to Foreign Aid Are Trump’s Most Lethal Policy”. [ Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 9/20/25 ]:
1] “..the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development will cost taxpayers $6.4 billion over two years…the subject of earlier reporting by Bloomberg Government, said the money is necessary to manage “litigation, claims, residual payments and closeout activities. That’s enough money to save more than one million children’s lives.”
2]. “..the Trump administration is sitting on huge stockpiles of R.U.T.F. purchased under the Biden administration…300,000 cases in warehouses of Mana Nutrition…and 185,535 more cases sit in the warehouse of another manufacturer, Edesia Nutrition, in Rhode Island, where we pay to store it….storage costs that amount to more than $600,000 so far…rather than rush it to children like Fred who may die for want of it..”
*** “WE may well be unable to afford to be the world’s policeman, but neither can we afford to fail to live up to the responsibilities that the accidents of a bountiful land and a beneficient fate have placed upon us.”
[ General William Westmoreland ]
C] “Trump’s Aid Cuts Kill More Christians Than Jihadists Do” [ Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 11/9/25 ]:
1] “A radical theme of Jesus’ teachings, as the scholar Bart Ehrman notes in..”Love Thy Stranger,” was his emphasis on empathy for all people, including strangers outside one’s circle.”
***. “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.” [ Fredrich von Schiller ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXVII – “How the A.I. Oligarchy Devoured America”
***. “The term oligarchy traditionally has been seen as the rule of a selfish few over a whole community.”
[ World Book Encyclopedia ]
Technology can be “good”, or it can be “bad,” depending on how it is used, and, WHO controls it. This post presents excerpts from. “Empire Builders”. [ Tim Murphy; Mother Jones; May-June, 2026 ]:
3] “The AI boom has ushered oligarchy onto a new plane by uniting the monopolistic ambitions of the world’s richest men with the nationalist ambitions of their political champions. In the process, it has sparked a reckoning..across the political spectrum, over the demand for resources and tax dollars and over what kind of future we might build….The data centers have, in a sense, transformed opaque structures of inequality and power into literal ones. Oligarchy is now more than an idea; it is a place. Across the country, the empire builders of AI have sold themselves as the gateway to the future you’ve always dreamed of, and the solution to the problems they helped bring about.”
10] “The amount of power needed to keep the data center boom going is astounding. An analysis by Accenture projected that by 2030, energy demand for data centers would be equivalent to that of the entire country of Canada, and trhe industry’s share of global emissions could jump elevenfold. Another study projected that data center use would account for roughly 12 percent of all U.S. energy consumption in that same time frame, up threefold from the start of the boom.”
*** “If Republican leaders are willing to enable Trump’s autocratic enthusiasms in return for oligarchy, American democracy will die.” [ Heather Cox Richardson ]
7] “..the conversations that AI proponents are having in public right now tell a simpler and less idealistic story: The people who claim to be building the future traded the dream of democratic abundance for a strongman who will make them money In September, a few dozen tech luminaries gathered at the White House to promote first lady Melania Trump’s initiative to encourage children to use AI. The ulterior motive for the summit came into focus…when the president called on the AI moguls one by one to say a few words about their work.
“I just wanted to say thank you, said OpenAI President Greg Brockman, for the administration’s “optimism.” “Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president – it’s a very refreshing change,” said Altman…..Bill Gates…..Microsoft’s Satya Nadella…..Apple’s Tim Cook…..a lesser autocrat might have kept off camera but that Trump found value in showing the world. The AI executives offered him ballroom donations, settlement checks, and legitimacy. He offered them deals, deregulation, and deference. It was important that everyone understand the arrangement.”
11] “A study by two Harvard Law School researchers found that consumers would end up paying billions to underwrite tech companies’ power infrastructure – to say nothing of billions of dollars in tax breaks. A CNBC analyst found 16 states doled out $6 billion worth of tax breaks over the last five years. In New Jersey, the AI expansion drove a 22 percent hike in electric rates year over year.”
***. “When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny.”
[ John Adams; Founding Father; 2nd U.S. President ]
1] “But the thing about building a data center this big you cannot simply build a data center – you must build a whole world to go with it. You need three new power plants and transmission lines to connect them to the grid. You need hundreds of millions of gallons of water and miles of pipes. You must pave roads and build new ones, clear fields and build ponds. You need a port to bring in gravel and dirt from wherever you can get it. You need stoplights and sheriff’s deputies and laundromats. You need thousands of workers and places to house them – executive lodging, cheap motels, and man camps with movie theaters and gyms.”
2]. “If the economic story of the last two decades was the consolidation of wealth and power in Silicon Valley, the story of the last few years is what tech billionaires want to do with it. Since the summer of 2024, America’s richest men have been on a building spree with few precedents in recent history. The scale of the investment…is so vast that proponents have turned to previous eras of reckless extraction and technological advancement to describe it. Energy Secretary Chris Wright called it “Manhattan Project 2.”
4]. “But at one Google site in The Dalles..an offer of $260 million in incentives and a third of the city’s 2024 water supply had resulted in just 200 full-time jobs – many of them off site. The same narratives pop up again and again. Communities are essentially given a choice: Approve it fast or watch some other town reap the rewards – and miss out on future investments..”
***. “..if the U.S. had remained as equitable as it was in 1975 for the next forty-three years therough 2018, the bottom 90 percent of Americans would have earned an extra $47 trillion. Instead that money went to people already at the top, who use that money, among other things, to influence the political system and to hoard real estate.”
[ Alec Karakatsanis ]. [NOTE – think on this. THIS is part of the THEFT the top 15 has done. ]
5] “The rise of the American oligarchy happened slowly and then all at once…you’d see a steady upward slope from Clinton-era deregulation to bush-era tax cuts to Obama-era techno-optimism and on through Trump’s first term. Then it spiked. Between 2000 and 2020, as tech monopolies consolidated power, the share of the nation’s wealth held by the top 0.00001 percent roughly doubled. By the end of 2025, it had nearly doubled again. it is no longer novel or even particularly accurate to note that the richest Americans control a greater share of resources than theydid during the Gilded Age..”
6] “The American oligarchy is an AI oligarchy. The world’s six richest men as of early March were all actively involved in AI development…There are 10 trillion-dollar companies, and nine of them are in AI.”
8]. “The implicit promise of the AI revolution is that all the things made worse by AI will eventually be fixed by AI. Some oligarchs are even pitching AI as a solution to the problems oligarchy has helped bring about.”
*** “To bring about government by oligarchy, masquerading as democracy, it is fundamentally essential that practically all authority and control be centralized in our Federal government…The individual sovereignty of our states must first be destroyed.” [ Franklin D. Roosevelt; 32nd U.S. President ]
9] “Whereas Russia’s kleptocrats started off in extractive mineral industries and then branched out into tech and finance, American’s oligarchs made their fortunes online before pivoting to natural resources.”
12] “All this dirty energy means that, as with public health, oligarchy is slowing our progress on climate…[Trump’s]..agencies are rolling back clean air regulations…the increased power use by the AI industry would produce about $20 billion in public health damages by 2028.”
13]. “The Colossus of Memphis sends a signal about what the oligarchy is that all the whirring servers of the world can’t drown out – shimmering hot air, a reckless consolidation of power, a new extractive machine built on the foundations of old ones.”
*** “Oligarchies, throughout history, have always thought more of their own advantage than that of the rest of the community. It was revolt against the selfishness of past political oligarchies that produced the liberal movement in favor of democracy, and it was the revolt against economic oligarchies that produced socialism.”
[ Bertrand Russell ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXVI. – Trump’s Ideological Tests for YOUR Government’s Grants
*** “In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, Russell Vought..described his work crafting legal justifications so military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions. He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country… Another priority, according to Vought, was to “defund” certain independent federal agencies and demonize career civil servants..” [Molly Redden, Andy Kroll, ProPublica; Nick Surgey, Documented: “‘Put Them in Trauma’: Inside a key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda”; The Progressive Populist; December 1, 2024 ]
This post presents excerpts from. “Billions in grants could depend on political test….White House would block funding if plans don’t align with Trump”; Tony Romm; New York Times; 6/3/26 ]:
7] “The proposal was only the latest attempt by the Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell T. Vought, to exert power over federal funding. The preamble to its sprawling new blueprint reaffirmed Vought’s view that much of the government’s ledger is riddled with spending that is wasteful, “divisive” or “woke.”
4] “The government could not issue grants to projects or groups that…”promote anti-American values”..”
9] “.. the administration has stalled or blocked aid for child care, disaster preparedness, green energy, education, food stamps, foreign assistance, mental health, public broadcasting, research and transportation infrastructure….In cases that date back to the early, disruptive days of the Department of Government Efficiency, judges have found that many of Trump’s actions have violated the law.”
***. “In papers and legal memos, Vought and his associates have articulated a vast array of dubious maneuvers to remake American democracy…Their plans to remove checks and balances and challenge long-established constraints on executive overreach, if realized, would unleash a Trump presidency battle-tested to turn gripe into policy.” [Isabella Dias: “The Architect…Trump wants to be King, Russ Vought has a Plan to Make It Happen”; Mother Jones; November-December, 2024 ]
1] “The White House is seeking to exert more control over billions of dollars in annual government grants, aiming to restrict a vast swath of funding – in health, housing, science and transportation. – so that it primarily serves the purposes and organizations politically aligned with President Donald Trump.”
2]. “..its proposal amounts to a major escalation in its attempt to reimagine the nation’s spending, even as Congress and the courts continue to rebuke the president for abusing such powers.”
3]. “If finalized, it would require all federal grants to be approved by the president’s political appointees, who must ensure that the money would “demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities.”
***. “.. Vought nurtures a far more expansive. – and alarming. – ambition: to institute a new governing paradigm predicated on unrestrained presidential authority. With Vought as the architect, Trump could take his “dictator” on “day one” aspirations beyond words..” [Isabella Dias: “The Architect”; Mother Jones; November-December, 2024]
5]. “Restrictions echo the string of executive orders that Trump signed shortly after returning to office, many of which have been challenged or blocked in court. This time, however, the White House has pursued its restrictions by proposing a regulation…The result could be applied far more broadly, and perhaps in ways that are harder to fight legally or undo later..”
6]. “In exchange for federal assistance, researchers would face limits on the subjects that they can explore, the foreign labs with which they collaborate and even the conferences at which they can appear.”
8]. “Trump has frequently disregarded the instructions of Congress anyway..”
*** “During the first five months of the 2016 GOP primaries, the New York Times was so struck by Trump’s demagogic rhetoric they gathered and analyzed “every public utterance” by him, some 95,000 words. They retained historians, psychologists, and political scientists to review the material, and the experts concluded it echoed “some of the [worst] demagogues of the past century.” [ John W. Dean, bob Altemeyer: “Authoritarian Nightmare… Trump and His Followers” ]
With Justice For All 
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