***. “It may be possible to fight intolerance, stupidity, and fanaticism separately, but when they come together there is no hope.” [ Albert Einstein ]
This post is ONE illustration of the DAILY drumbeat of the consequences coming from the STUPIDITY, CRUELTY, CORRUPTION, CRAZINESS, and, INCOMPETENCE of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. Again, †his case comes from the MONUMENTAL Stupidity of starting and fighting a trade war, among other things, against – of all the nations on this earth: CANADA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are notorious dictatorships, like Russia and China, that SHOULD be opposed wherever possible. But – Trump’s best ‘friends’ are the dictators running these oppressed countries. And. – Trump can NEVER admit that he made a mistake………..
Following are excerpts from. “How A Beloved Canadian Motorcycle Ended Up On The U.S. Import Ban List” { Farah Stockman; New York Times; 10/8/26 ]:
1] “The Can-Am Spyder, a three-wheel roadster popular with riders of a certain age, has inspired festivals and its own national motorcycle club.”
2] “But now this beloved adult trike has become a victim of the Trump administration’s trade war with Canada. On Sept. 29, the Trump administration banned all Canadian-made motorcycles, including the Spyder..”
3] “It makes no sense to me whatsoever,” said Harold Mette, 79, who founded the Spyder Ryders in 2011 after riding traditional motorcycles for about 40 years.”
***. “The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.” [ Aesop ]
4]. “Mette said he was mystified about why his favorite vehicle ended up on the list of banned items. “Quantitatively, in terms of total dollar value of imports and exports, it’s nothing,” he said.”
5]. “The Spyder is just one example of how many products that have become more expensive, or effectively unavailable on both sides of the border..”
6] “In the United States, the costs imposed on Canadian imports have threatened damage to the states and industries that rely on cross-border commerce..”
*** “The most delusional fantasies can be made to masquerade as sanity if you’ve got the political power to reinforce them.” [ Penny Skillman ]
7]. “The Can-Am brand was once a symbol of close ties between the United States and Canada. The first Can-Am bike was built “through a collective effort”. of individuals from Canada and the United States, which led to the name..”
[ NOTE: just a little bit of irony……….. ]
8] “Those close ties have soured since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.” [ NOTE: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou ]
9] “Mette said that even if the ban on Spyders remained in place next year, he would never buy a Slingshot, which he said felt more like a car than a motorcycle. He said his fellow riders would probably buy the Ryder, a smaller version of the Spyder that is made in Mexico..”
***. “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” [ Bertrand Russell ]
{NOTE: Motorcycles may not be important to YOU. – as food and gas. – but that’s THE point of this post. It isn’t just the major cases of Trumpian Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, and INCOMPETENCE. – it IS all these “smaller” things that make the nuts, fools, fanatics, Rasputins, idiots, crazies in the Trump DICTATORSHIP. keep cooking up. – always claiming they will “make America great again,” when in reality, they are MAKING AMERICA WEAKER.]
***. “Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern countries, at least they will steal only bananas.”
[ Mehmet Morat Ildan ]
[NOTE: Some food for thought. For some time, we were posting on the Trump DICTATORSHIP every other day. We HAD to stop doing that. Just the thinking involved was corroding. The reading about, research, and making the Trump DICTATORSHIP posts became unhealthy. We wish for YOU to think on that….think in WHY it became unhealthy…think on WHY it is so very important that some controls are won back to restrain the Trump DICTATORSHIP on November 3, 2026…..think on WHY multiple public opinion polls taken in foreign countries show people in what WERE. friendly countries now show dislike for America after January 20, 2025. My father fought the Nazis in World War II. I know Dad would be VERY upset over what his nation now is……… ].
Tag: history
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. – &. – INCOMPETENCE !!!, CCXXVIII. – Trump Sabotages The Very Idea of Inspectors General
*** “When scrutiny is lacking, tyranny, corruption and man’s baser qualities have a better chance of entering into the public business of any government.” [ Jacob Javits; Republican U.s. senator ]
This post presents an examination of ONE facet of the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s massive CORRUPTION – in this case, the massive PERVERSION of the offices of “Inspector General.” Their major purpose – is to detect and fight corruption, fraud, waste. Following are excerpts from. “Trump Installing His Allies In Offices Of Inspector General”. [ Luke Broadwater; New York Times; 8/20/26 ]:
12]. “This is in some ways unsurprising because this was all right in Project 2025,” says Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee…”They laid out the purge of the civil service and the consolidation of these independent entities within the government under executive power, under the direct executive power, and then they called for a second step, which was to repopulate all these positions with Heritage-trained political stooges.” [NOTE: SERIOUSLY read “Project 2025”]
***. “Never confuse ‘the law’ with justice; the law represents authority and the system. Justice represents integrity and the truth.” [ Gavin Nascimento ]
4]. “During the first year of Trump’s second term, his approach to dealing with federal inspectors general, who are supposed to be apolitical, was to fire them and slash funding for their offices. But since the mass firings, the president has appointed some government watchdogs with overtly political backgrounds. And they have directed their investigations toward allegations of fraud art the state level, instead of targeting the agencies within the administration that they are supposed to scrutinize.” [NOTE: cynical trick: divert attention to states to cover up!!!]
5]. “The president wanted his own IGs,” said Michael J. Missal, who spent nine years as inspector general for the Department of Veterans affairs. “When you have your own IGs, you lose the credibility and integrity of the work.”
6] “The latest example of Trump’s inserting a political actor into a nonpartisan watchdog role occurred amid public furor over the Reflecting Pool fiasco. Alarmed over the Trump administration’s botched repairs of the Reflecting Pool and the president’s attempt to falsely blame the failures on left-wing vandals, Democratic lawmakers urged the Interior Department’s inspector general to investigate. The Trump administration’s response was to insert a right-wing operative to take over the office that would carry out the investigation.” {NOTE: is there any doubt about MASSIVE TRUMP DICTATORSHIP CORRUPTION???? Cover up your own incompetence, & blame innocents you don’t like!!! ]
*** “The Trumpian lie is different. It is the power lie; or the bolly lie. It is the lie of the bigger kid who took your hat and is wearing it – while denying that he took it.” [ Masha Gessen ]
7]. “Dennis Kirk was among the authors of Project 2025, a collection of conservative policy proposals published before the 2024 election. The plan to install Kirk as the Interior Department inspector general sounded alarm bells in the world of government watchdogs and among Democrats on Capitol Hill, and not merely because he could thwart an internal investigation into the Reflecting Pool.”
11] “Within the inspector general community, the nomination of Kirk is considered a pivot beyond merely cutting those agencies. Now, former inspectors general say, they are being politicized. Kirk was a former advisor to Tulsi Gabbard when she served as the director of national intelligence, and a staff member at the conservative Heritage foundation.”
***. “It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.” [ Chief Justice Earl Warren ]
8]. “Missal was one of at least 20 inspectors general who were fired or demoted by Trump in the first six months of the president’s second term. The mass purge, which was accompanied by staff reductions of up to 30% in some offices, resulted in inspectors general offices without permanent leaders and a culture of fear that workers could be fired for doing their jobs.” [NOTE: this PATTERN is common throughout Washington, as a Republican Senator remarked; “We are all afraid.” ]
9] “..as Trump fills some of the positions, he has selected people with political backgrounds, and they have made it the mission of their organization to look outside the Trump administration fro fraud and wrongdoing.” [NOTE: this is the WEAPONIZATION of “Your” government AGAINST YOU ]
10] “Inspectors general, by law, are tasked with preventing and detecting fraud, waste and abuse related to their agency, while promoting efficiency in agency programs and operations. While they are located inside respective federal agencies, they are designed to act independently and in a nonpartisan manner.” {NOTE: their proper mission is EXACTLY what the Trump DICTATORSHIP does NOT want.}
***. “dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact they foster idiocy.” { Jorge Luis Borges ]
{Note: We have now given YOU 228 examples of why the Trump DICTATORSHIP is Stupid, Cruel, Corrupt, Crazy, and INCOMPETENT. The posts have been based on commentary made in reaction to something undemocratic, unConstitutional; something corrupt, cruel, stupid, incompetent that Trump has already done. The Pulitzer Prize winners, experts, law professionals, people from his own government, etc. are. NOT. making stuff up. They don’t need to. On virtually a daily basis, the Trump DICTATORSHIP violates. THE. test of any American government, written in the Constitution’s Preamble: it fails to “..promote the general Welfare..” of the American people. In 20 months of a four year term, the Trump DICTATORSHIP is already THE most corrupt and destructive in ALL. American history. If we are lucky, on January 20, 2029 – we MAY still have a DEMOCRACY.” But – even there – the damage Trump has done to the American soul, to our system of governing, to our financial health, to our physical health, to the health of planet earth, to our international reputation – may NOT be repairable.
So – what are YOU going to do that helps America recover????? ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. – &. – INCOMPETENCE !!!, CCXXVII – “Iran war is a master class in squandering credibility”
***. “I believe it is among nations as with individuals,, that the party taking advantage of the distressed of another will lose infinitely more i the opinion of mankind, and in subsequent events, than he will gain by the stroke of the moment.”
[ George Washington; 7/28/1791. ]
This post presents excerpts from “Iran war is a master class in squandering credibility”. [. Fareed Zakaria; Washington Post Weekly; 8/23/26]. Read this article, please. Understand a basic truth of the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s effect on American standing in the world: Trump has drastically. LOWERED faith in the United States around the world. – by his rhetoric and his actions. Multiple public opinion polls taken in countries – which USED TO BE. our friends and allies confirm this. YOUR safety is now threatened. If America were to become involved in a war with one of THE most powerful nations. – how many countries would help us????? America is. LOSING. CREDIBILITY because of Donald John Trump.
The reputation and record the United States built, 1945-2015, has been severely damaged by the Trump DICTATORSHIP. Look no further than Trump’s STPUID and reckless assault on Canada – THE single most STUPID foreign affairs BLUNDER in. all. 1775 – 2026 American history. This article is but ONE example of how the Trump DICTATORSHIP. has damaged America’s standing in the world.
10]. “During the Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy sent former secretary of state Dean Acheson to Paris to brief Charles de Gaulle on the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Acheson brought reconnaissance photographs to prove the case. De Gaulle, hardly an American supplicant, waved them away. He said he did not need the evidence. The word of the president of the United States was enough. That scene is unimaginable today.”
[ NOTE: it is “unimaginable today” BECAUSE of Donald John Trump ]
***. “Credibility is a leader’s currency. With it, he or she is solvent. Without it, he or she is bankrupt.”
[. John C. Maxwell. ]
1]. “Earlier this month, a minor geopolitical earthquake shook the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Turkey. – two nations that have been openly hostile toward one another for much of the last decade. – pledged to go to war i each other’s defense…… So what brought them together? President Donald Trump. – or rather the two countries’ diminishing faith in him and his word.”
2]. “The iran war has been a master class in how to squander credibility. Recall both received security commitments from Trump only last year.”
3] “But Trump’s word is a solid with his counterparts abroad as it was with his bankers in New York.”
***. “Without character, there is no credibility; and without credibility, there is no trust.” [ Warren Bennis ]
4] “The world has learned to treat his Truth Social announcements as a mix of fact and fiction, like some of the AI – generated videos he posts.”
5]. “The same pattern is visible in Europe. In may, the Pentagon announced that 5,000 American troops would leave Germany, and Trump suggested more cuts were coming. The Pentagon then scrapped a planned deployment of roughly 4,000 troops to Poland. Sometimes he threatens not to defend Europe against Russia; other times he says he will.” [ NOTE: WHY does Trump almost always favor Russia????? ]
6] “for eight decades, the U.s. built up something as powerful as aircraft carriers and squadrons of F-35s: credibility. Allies believed American commitments would endure from one administration to the next. Adversaries understood that American threats, while sometimes exaggerated, carried real weight.”
***. “In times of crisis, credibility is an American president’s most valuable currency.” [ Anthony Blinken ]
7]. “..there was a broad presumption that the U.S. was a predictable actor and that the president’s words meant something.”
8] “Trump treats promises and threats as if he is playing a grand game of bluff. But unpredictability is a very different thing in an alliance than in a real estate negotiation. If allies cannot know whether troops will arrive or leave, whether tariffs will rise or fall, whether an agreement signed today will survive until tomorrow, they do not become more obedient. They become more independent.”
9]. “Countries are building insurance policies. Denmark chose the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defense system rather than the American Patriot. Canada is reconsidering its F-35 purchases. European governments are investing heavily in their own arms industries. South Korea has become the second-largest seller of arms to European NATO countries and is helping supply the Gulf’s air defense with systems cheaper than Patriots………..None of these moves by itself amounts to a rupture with Washington. but together, they show a deepening loss of faith in America’s word.”
***. “Trust is built on credibility, and credibility comes from acting in other’s interests before your own.”
[ Stephen Denny ]
{NOTE: The above is just ONE. example. “Your” president, Donald John Trump, has SEVERELY undermined YOUR security in a few months of his second term. he has made the world. FAR. more dangerous. he has – by his rhetoric and actions. – begun to isolate America. – because he has. STUPIDLY. attacked the 1945-2015 alliance system that won World War II, that won the Cold War, that largely kept the peace, that helped build an interconnected world wide trade system. The Trump DICTATORSHIP has NOT “made America great again.” He has done the reverse. – weakened YOUR country in virtually EVERY way possible. His policies have benefitted Russia, benefitted China, will now benefit Iran. Major question for YOU: is Donald John Trump. the REAL “Manchurian Candidate”??? What “kompromat” does Putin have on Trump? THE two most important tests for the democratic fate of the world are Ukraine and Taiwan. What has the Trump DICTATORSHIP done to make sure they aren’t conquered by Russia and China??? ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. – &. – INCOMPETENCE !, CCXXVI. – Trump’s Effort to Control Speech and Information
***. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
[ Theodore Roosevelt; Republican; 26th U.S. President ]
This post presents excerpts from “A Sweeping Effort To Stifle Free Speech”. [ Jim Rutenberg, Maggie Haberman; New York Times; 9/13/26 ]. Read the entire article for full appreciation of the gravity of this threat to American democracy, please.
5] “Mr. Trump has been candid about his aim: to inflict pain, even if it was fleeting. After bringing a failed libel suit against a former Times reporter Timothy L. O’Brien, whose book Mr. Trump “TrumpNation”. estimated Mr. Trump to be worth far less than he claimed, the president gloated about forcing the publisher to spend money. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about,” he said.” [NOTE: run this around in your mind]
6]. “Mr. Trump’s team is unapologetic about its goal of achieving firmer control of the national information environment. – what Mr. Cheung, the communications director, has dubbed in a social media post, “Full Spectrum Dominance.”
2]. “Driven by personal pique, fury over leaks and a determination to shape the political narrative to his advantage, Mr. Trump is deploying the might of the federal government and filing lawsuits. – targeting not just journalists and liberal critics, but also comedians and talk show hosts, and the corporate entities behind them……… Free speech advocates say the president’s intent is apparent: to punish, intimidate and silence dissenters….”There’s not a week that goes by where they’re not taking a new step to curtail press freedom in the country…..”
***. “For if men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.”
[ George Washington; 3/15/1783 ]
3] “Reporters Without Borders maintains an index that tracks press freedom in 180 countries, clocking governmental threats, subpoenas and the vindictive use of regulations against journalists. The United States now ranks at its lowest since the organization started the index in 2002. – 64th, just above Panama and just below Botswana. The trend is the same at similar indexes kept by the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the V-Dem Institute of Sweden.”
10] “Government efforts to subpoena journalists and chill their reporting through threats are at the highest level since trhe foundation started tracking incidents in 2017.”
11] “..as a private citizen, Mr. Trump has filed lawsuits against a wide range of targets including The Guardian newspaper, the journalist Bob Woodward and the Pulitzer Prize board. – legal battles often financed by his donor-funded political action committee.”
***. “The first thing dictators do is finish free press to establish censorship. There is no doubt that a free press is the first enemy of dictatorship.” [ Fidel Castro ]
12] “Many of the moves have also drawn stern rebukes from judges….Judge William b. Porter chastised the government….a judge worried that allowing the suit to proceed could have “a massive, chilling effect.” After a judge harshly questioned government lawyers…..Judge Paul Friedman..”Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation’s security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech.”
4] “Now the administration is breaking new ground in stifling dissent with personal lawsuits and novel uses of executive power…with implications that extend far beyond Mr. trump’s presidency. “We live in a different world under this administration because the threats are so grave…”
1] “The Justice Department has sent F.B.I. agents to reporter’s homes to serve subpoenas…The Pentagon has fired the editor and publisher of its traditionally independent newspaper….Regulatory agencies are using their powers to pressure media over their content……]
*** “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.” [ Edward R. Murrow ]
7] 16 paragraphs are devoted to the actions of Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Republican state attorneys general and their persecution and prosecution of media companies they didn’t like. They used ‘YOUR’ government’s power of investigation and filing charges to harass, intimidate, and silence ANY media that dared oppose the Trump DICTATORSHIP.
8]. “..[Brendan Carr]..has bent the F.C.C. to the president’s will..”
9] 12 paragraphs are devoted to discussing “Mr. Trump’s animus against ABC..” The Trump DICTATORSHIP uses government powers to conduct investigations, follow “equal time rules,” started “an early review of the federal licenses that ABC stations need to operate” [ NEVER done before ], demands for documents, etc.
*** “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thougthcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it.” [ George Orwell: “1984” ]
For perspective – The Trump DICTATORSHIP escalates its war on TRUTH… Presented below are excerpts from “White House Enforces Ban On 3 Outlets”. [ Michael Grynbaum, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Benjamin Mullin; New York Times; 9/20/26]:
1]. “Journalists from CNN, MSNOW and Politico had their badges confiscated…a stark escalation in President Trump’s ever-expanding battles with news media..”
2] “First amendment experts condemned Mr. Trump’s ban as unconstitutional and said it was unlikely to survive a court challenge.”
3]. “Legal experts said that Mr. Trump’s news media ban was unlikely to survive a court challenge, because the president explicitly connected his decision to ban CNN, Politico and MSNOW to the content of their reporting. That’s “textbook viewpoint discrimination”…”
***. “Truth is the most important thing. That’s why we should ration it.” [ Lenin ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. – &. – INCOMPETENCE !!!, CCXXIV. – Social Security: Ordinary Americans. – vs. – THE RICH
***. “Essentially all the economic gains of the last twenty years have gone to a tiny sliver of the wealthiest Americans…It’ s by design. The wealthy have paid for the ability to stand at the drawing board and plan out big parts of the economy so that the whole thing works particularly well for them.”
[ Morris Pearl, Erica Payne: “Tax The Ricg!; 2021 ]
Let’s keep this simple on Social Security funding: THIS is the choice: Either ALL ordinary Americans, by 2032, will lose $440. EVERY. month on their Social Security checks. – OR. – “We” eliminate the Social Security tax cap of $184,500. Which currently means that Percy Moneybags, III, only pays Social Security tax on his FIRST. $184,500. – ALL ELSE. – millions, billions is NOT. taxed. [assuming his crafty tax people don’t use loopholes as well!!!!!]
WHY? The theory is this: Taxing Percy Moneybags, III on his income over $184,500 would be “unfair”. – because he doesn’t get any value out of living in America – with police, fire, courts protecting his wealth; underpaid U.S. military men and women guarding his wealth with their lives; he gets no benefit from U.S. highways, etc., etc.!!!!!! Percy owes NOTHING to the over 1 million American soldiers already dead, the several millions of soldiers wounded; gets no benefit from the millions of workers injured and killed from building America. – in short, Percy Moneybags, III owes. NOTHING. to America – he did it “all by himself” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is one word that describes this kind of arrogant thinking: BULLSHIT !!!!!!!!!!! Another is. CORRUPTION – this is what Percy’s lobbyists paid for.
It has been known since at least 2010 that THE. most ‘American,” most democratic, most FAIR, Social Security solution is this: Eliminate the earnings cap, no change to benefits – then, a 116% solution. [ “Let’s start with the easy part”; Timothy Taylor; Minnesota Star Tribune; 11/21/2010 ]. Taylor was NOT the first to say this!!!
***. “Woe to them that make unjust laws.” [ Isaiah 10: 1 ]
For further perspective: If Joe Sixpack graduates high school, works 18-68, makes $50,000 every year. – his. LIFETIME EARNINGS. would be. $2.5 million. If Suzie Sorority graduates college, works 22-68, makes $100,000 every year. – her LIFETIME EARNINGS would be $4.6 million. Percy Moneybags, III, many/most millionaires, billionaires, make that in ONE year, often n a few months!!!
SO. – WHY. is there any debate over what is the right thing, the American thing, the fairest thing, is ELIMINATING an ARTIFICIAL “cap’ on Social Security taxes?????????? Answer: CORRUPTION.
The fix: YOU tell “your”. Representative, ‘your”. Senator. – you vote to ELIMINATE the Social Security income tax cap. – OR. – I. vote against you. PERIOD.
***. “The law should be equal for all, whether it rewards or punishes, whether it protects or restrains.”
[ Thomas Paine; 1792 ]
More perspective: “… income inequality in the United states rose far more rapidly than economists expected. Earnings for the top 6 percent “rose much faster than the overall average,” Mr. Goss said. In 1983, the Social Security payroll tax was imposed on 90 percent of the country’s wage income. [. Why not 100%? ]. Now with taxable wages capped at $168,6000, only about 82.5 percent of the nations wage income is taxed for Social Security, he said. The cap would need to be raised above $300,000 to get us back to the 90 percent coverage of the Reagan administration.”
[ “Fixing Social Security is Doable, If Lawmakers Act”; New York Times; 6/2/2024 ]
[NOTE: What. ISN’T discussed. – non-wage earnings. Why not tax. ALL. income – from stock, from corporate bonuses, etc. Why not tax all the WallStreet exemptions, etc. ?????????? ].
[ Answer. – CORRUPTION. ]
Note that a president. – Reagan. – got involved. Why isn’t “our” current president. – Donald John Trump, pushing for a fair, democratic solution. – one THAT WOULD. – “Make America Great Again” ????????????
This isn’t rocket science. – “We”. just tax the rich like we tax. YOU………………..
This is YOUR clue: if. “we” ARE living in a REAL “democracy,” “we”. eliminate the Social Security income tax cap. If. ‘we’. are living in a plutocracy. – we don’t. PERIOD.
Why isn’t. “your”. president threatening Congress to get this done ???????????????
***. “The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.” [ Justice Robert Jackson ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. – &. – INCOMPETENCE !!!, CCXXIII. – “LifevWas Impossible, and Then It Got Worse”
***. “The children who go to bed hungry in a Harlem slum or a West Virginia mining town are not be deprived because no food can be found to give them; they are going to bed hungry because, despite all our miracles of invention and production, we have not yet fond a way to make the necessities of life available to all of our citizens. – including those whose failure is not lack of personal industry or initiative, but only an unwise choice of parents.”
[ Senator J. William Fulbright; 1964 ]
This post presents excerpts from “Life Was Impossible, and Then It Got Worse”. [ Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 8/2/26 ]: “Millions of Americans struggle today in sometimes unimaginable ways.”
4] “..this pain across America is now magnified by President Trump’s cuts in food stamps, Medicaid, mental health funding for children, pregnancy prevention initiatives and other social programs, as well as by rising gas and food prices.”
6] “A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that two-thirds of Americans consider groceries unaffordable.”
11]. “..the age group most likely to live in poverty. – by far — is children, particularly children 2 years old and under; and they can’t be accused of fraud, laziness or personal irresponsibility. Yes, many of them end up making bad choices, but we fail them before they fail us.”
*** “Jesus said to him, “If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.” [ Matthew 19: 21 ]
1] “..[Trinity]..Johnson, 44, survives by selling blood plasma twice a week. she had $3.78 in her checking account, one cent in her savings account to keep it open, and sic pennies in her piggy bank.”
2]. “She dwells in an America that many of us might have trouble imagining. For five years she staved off homelessness only by staying in the home of a man who was not a romantic partner but who took advantage of her vulnerability, she said, by regularly demanding sex.”
3]. “Food stamps, $298 a month, sustain her, but they can’t be used for toilet paper or feminine hygiene products. So she searches for them at church-run pantries – lifelines in much of America.”
5]. “Republicans are also imposing tougher work requirements for benefits; this is reasonable in theory, but in practice such requirements have proved costly and end up mostly just driving people into poverty.”
***. “Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress, but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.” [ Chief Justice Earl Warren ]
7] “I asked Goodman what message she would have for Trump as the cuts and work requirements he ordered ripple across the land. “You do not know what you’re doing to people who are struggling to live,’ she said. “You got money in the bank. You don’t know how it feels to struggle. Live in my shoes for one day. You wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
8]. “Nationwide, some 1.5 million children have lost food stamps under Trump’s crackdown over the last year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.”
9]. “THe push to cut benefits for struggling Americans is partly rooted in a desire to trim federal spending, but that’s hard to square with the expense of the Iran war, as well as the subsidies for private planes and tax cuts for the wealthiest. It’s also based on a perception that the “undeserving poor” are exploiting the system.” [NOTE: SO…in Donald John Trump’s mythical America – there are NO, NONE, ZERO. – “undeserving rich”???????????]
10] “As of 2019, according to ProPublica, the place in America with the highest percentage of tax audits was not a haven of billionaires but rather Humphrys county, Miss., with a majority Black population and a median household income then of roughly $26,000.” [ NOTE: THIS is a major summary of Trump’s policies. ]
***. “Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness, it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable and others extremely difficult.” [ Samuel Johnson; 12/7/1782 ]
12] “Trump initially proposed eliminating Head Start, the federal program with bipartisan support that serves those vulnerable children in poverty. He later backed off that idea, but congressional investigators found that his administration illegally withheld $12 billion from the program for several months, causing great hardship.”
13] “It’s understandable that many working-class Americans feel betrayed….One reason for the complacency is that the problems…are often invisible. Americans may see a homeless person shooting drugs, but they won’t see the arc of hopelessness that began with, say, foster care. – which at it’s worse is a government system of child abuse.”
14] “Some of Williams’s earliest memories are of men sexually assaulting her, perhaps when she was 3 or 4. Her mother was a prostitute with addictions, she said, and at age 6 she saw her younger sister killed and was then put in foster care.”
15]. “..if we want to talk about lack of responsibility, we also have to have a conversation about our collective lack of responsibility, about the way we treat some kids as throwaways. – or the way we’re now taking food stamps from 1.5 million children.”
***. “Poverty is not merely the lack of adequate financial resources. It entails a more profound kind kind of deprivation, a denial of full participation in the economic, social, and political life of society and the inability to influence decisions that affect one’s life. It means being powerless in a way that assaults not only one’s pocketbook but also one’s fundamental human dignity.” [ National Conference of Catholic Bishops; 1986 ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness – &. – INCOMPETENCE!!!, CCXXII – The Corrupt FBI Job Interview!!!
*** “Dictators cause the world’s worst problems. All the collapsed states, and all the devastated economies. All the vapid cases of corruption, grand theft, and naked plunder of the treasury are caused by dictators leaving in their wake trails of wanton destruction, horrendous carnage and human debris.” [ George Ayittey ]
This post presents most of the corrupt FBI job interview printed on pages 16-17 of Devlin Barrett’s “The Department of Revenge.” Read this VERY carefully. – THIS is how “your” government, during the Trump DICTATORSHIP, operates. It is ONE. example of the WEAPONIZATION. of America’s “Justice Department.” [ NOTE: Devlin Barrett was won THREE. Pulitzer Prizes for his work. ]
1]. “Driscoll had gotten a heads-up from other FBI officials, including Paul Abbate, the acting director, that he and Robert Kissane, the senior counterterrorism official in the FBI’s New York office, were being considered for temporary roles at FBI headquarters, though it was unclear what the roles were exactly.”
2]. “Ingrassia’s first call with Driscoll, on the Friday before Trump’s inauguration, did not go well. Ingrassia asked two relatively straightforward questions about the organizational structure of the FBI and about threats to the United States. Then he asked Driscoll whom he had voted for. Offended, Driscoll refused to answer, and said asking those kind of questions were a violation of federal law. – specifically, the Hatch Act.”
3] “Ingrassia then asked if Driscoll agreed that the FBI agents who had “stormed” Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago should be held “accountable” for what they’d done. No, Driscoll replied, because they were doing their job based on a properly premised investigation and a warrant approved by a judge.”
*** “The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.”
[ Georges Bernanos ]
4] “Ingrassia then asked when Driscoll had started supporting President Trump. Shocked that he had even been asked the question, Driscoll refused to answer. Like all FBI agents and Justice Department career employees, he had been trained, tested, hired, and promoted in a culture that sought to studiously avoid brining politics into their work.”
5]. “A core principle of federal civil service people did not carry their political baggage into work decisions. In such large organizations, there were some people who violated the rules and some people who tried to bend them, but the overwhelming majority of Justice Department employees followed them and understood that they existed for good reason. Generations of law enforcement officials had sought to make a professional class of government lawyers and investigators, a work culture that demanded high standards not just in court or at crime scenes, but in every facet of their work. None of that seemed to matter to Ingrassia.”
6] “He asked Driscoll if he had voted for a Democrat in the last five elections. Driscoll refused to answer. With that, Ingrassia cut the interview short. The whole exchange had been bizarre. An aggressive young Trump staffer with no law enforcement or even White House experience had grilled a veteran FBI agent with a series of highly inappropriate questions about his political loyalty. Driscoll found it alarming and insulting.”
7]. “Later that night, Bove called Driscoll and told him he had “failed” the interview. Driscoll, Ingrassia had told others, was not “based out” enough. – not willing to declare his allegiance to the president’s agenda. Bove still wanted Driscoll in the job and told him he had worked to “flip” Ingrassia’s negative review.”
***. “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” [ Montesquieu ]
[NOTE: consider the following for perspective: “Donald Trump has brought a very different approach to presidential politics, one that has corrupted our traditional expectation of public service that benefits the people….Trump’s approach to power during his second term has also made him resemble something else. – a mob boss.”
[ Former U.S. Attorney; law professor; Barbara McQuade: “the Fix” ]
***. “The U.S.S.R. was a totalitarian state in which judges and prosecutors were controlled by the ruling party. The result was injustice, oppression and corruption.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. – & – INCOMPETENCE1, CCXX – Republicans Help Rich Steal Over $70 Trillion From The Working Class
*** “The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loves to paint..but is conceived and ordered..in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.” [ C. S. Lewis ]
This post presents excerpts from “It’s Worse Than You Think for The Middle Class”. [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive Populist; September, 2026 ]:
13] “This is what Republicans do, and have been doing since Nixon’s era; move wealth from working class people into the money bins of the morbidly rich. The Rand corporation says it is now over $70 trillion that the rich have stolen from the working class.”
***. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” [ Wendell Phillips ]
1]. “As a result of FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society “socialist” programs, about two-thirds of American families were in the middle class with a single paycheck by 1973 as reported by The New York Times; today that number could be as low as a third of us, depending on your definitions.”
2]. “Pew..uses the definition of middle class as people falling in the middle of the bell-curve of income distribution. By that definition, Pew says 61% of Americans lived in middle-income households in 1971 and by 2023 that had declined to 5l% of us.. This skewing of statistics is driven in large part by a few thousand American families, particularly the morbidly rich billionaire class.”
3]. “But does being “in the middle of the income distribution curve” mean that people in the “middle’ today. – even if it’s a smaller percentage of Americans. – enjoy the same “middle class” lifestyle and opportunities as they did at the beginning of the Reagan Revolution?”
4] “This is where it gets sticky. If, instead of defining the middle class as those people in the middle of the income distribution you defined it by what that income buys, an entirely different picture emerges.”
***. “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, if which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” [. Adam Smith. – Yes!!! – THAT. Adam Smith ]
5] “..former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in his 1991 book. “The Work of Nations”: “America has been the first nation in history in which the majority of its citizens considered themselves middle class… For three decades after World War II, America created the largest middle class the world had ever seen.” [NOTE: for YOU – THE question now must be: What Happened? The filthy rich did NOT want this sharing of America’s wealth to continue. – so they ended it]
6] “Two years ago, The Washington Post surveyed Americans about what the middle class meant to them and who they thought was in it. The paper found broad agreement among the majority of Americans who say you’re only in the middle class if you have: -A secure job [93%]. -The ability to save for the future [91%]. -The ability to afford a $1,000 emergency [90%]. -The ability to pay all bills on time without worry [90%]. – Comprehensive health insurance [89%] -The ability to retire securely [87%]. -A job with paid sick leave [73%]. -The time and money for vacations [67%]. -Own your own home [60%]. “
7]. “By that definition, the Post found: “Just over a third of Americans met all six..markers of a middle-class lifestyle. While about 9 in 10 Americans had health insurance, only three-quarters had health insurance and a steady job. With each added measure of financial security, more Americans slipped away from the middle-class ideal.”
8] “Using the ..[Federal Reserve Bank}… Survey of Consumer Finances, The Post’s authors doubled down on their assertion that the number of Americans today in the middle class is even lower than the 41% to 47% stat that I’ve been citing: “Since 2017, the earliest year of comparable data, BETWEEN 32 and 40 percent of Americans met all six measures…”
***. “We are no longer the democracy we once were. We have become a plutocracy.. In 2011, AdAge..declared the era of mass affluence over in America.. “Simply put, a small plutocracy of wealthy elites drives a larger and larger share of total consumer spending.” [ Double Pulitzer Prize winners Donald Barlett & James Steele: “The Betrayal of The American Dream” ]
9]. “The Brookings Institution also talks about various definitions of the middle class, one of them arguing it encompasses: – stable employment. -home ownership. -retirement savings. -ability to weather emergencies -intergenerational mobility. Depending on the selected definition and using the Fed’s numbers, Brookings calculates that between 23% and 48% of households would count as being in the middle class today.”
10]. “..the Fed poits out that just defining the middle class by a family’s position within the income distribution curve can be confusing and even deceptive. Their Survey of Consumer finances and wealth surveys show that a family can earn a “middle income” but still have: -no emergency savings. -no retirement savings -little or no home equity. -heavy debt. Which is probably why Pew’s earlier work using Federal Reserve data showed that median middle-income family wealth fell dramatically after the Bush Crash of 2008 and has remained far below what previous generations accumulated ever since.” [NOTE: is it just a coincidence that tragedies that have befallen American seem to happen during Republican presidencies?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!]
11] “…the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OCED] defines the middle class much as I do, by economic resilience, asking whether families can: -withstand financial shocks. -accumulate wealth. -afford housing. -educate their children. – retire securely. Their conclusion was straightforward: many households traditionally labeled ‘middle income”. no longer enjoy the security once associated with being in the American middle class…..also the conclusion of 71% of Americans….”
12] “…simply consider Reagan’s war on unions, his slashing top income tax rates for corporations and the morbidly rich, and the Republican party’s 45-year all-out attack on programs that support the bottom half of Americans. These GOP policies have ripped the guts out of average American families’ ability to have. – even with two full-time paychecks. – the lifestyle that the majority of Americans enjoyed with a single paycheck in 1981 when Reagan was sworn into office.”
***. “…arguably, the most important economic trend in the United States over the past couple of generations has been the ever-more-distinct sorting of Americans into winners and losers, and the slow hollowing of the middle class.” [ Don Peck, in Rick Wartzman: “the End of Loyalty” ]
*** [NOTE: think in terms of THEFT; America, because of FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great society, from 1947 – 73. – HAD the envy of the world. – a society in which about two-thirds of american families were considered “middle class”. with a SINGLE paycheck. In 2026. – somewhere between 30-50% of Americans are NOW considered “middle class’. – and. – many/most of them do it with TWO paychecks. THIS is the context for the Rand corporation saying America’s rich have stolen over $70 trillion from the American working class.]
***. “You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. they’re too damn greedy.”
[Herbert Hoover; Republican; 31st U.S. President]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. – &. INCOMPETENCE!, CCXIX – “Trump’s Election Meddling Erodes Our Democracy”
***. “..If Nixon had had the character of President Eisenhower..this scandal [Watergate break-in and cover-up] would never have happened…I hope no political party will ever stoop so low as to embrace the likes of..Nixon again.”
[. Federal District Court Judge John J. Siraca ]
This post presents excerpts from “Trump’s Election Meddling Erodes Our Democracy”. [ New York Times “Editorial”; 8/23/26]:
5] “Background and methodology: The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that a leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an election and hold power. Once that stage is reached, the change is extremely difficult to reverse. The 12 benchmarks in this editorial offer a way to understand how much Mr. Trump is eroding American democracy.”
4] “The president is prioritizing his own interests over the national interest.”
***. “If you begin to consider yourself solely responsible to a political party, you’re half way to a dictatorship.”
[ Clement Attlee ]
1] “The surest sign of democratic collapse is the unwillingness of an elected political party to leave office. The party rewrites laws and changes election rules to prevent its opponents from gaining power. The shift often starts slowly, but can ultimately end in autocracy.”
2] “President Trump has taken worrisome steps down this path since returning to office in January 2025. He has directed Republican-run states to enact newly gerrymandered maps to increase the chances that Republicans maintain control of Congress even if they receive fewer overall votes this. He has tried to pass legislation that could keep many eligible voters from voting. And he has sent signals that he may use the power of the federal government to disallow legitimate ballots this fall. On July 16, mr. trump took the remarkable step of giving a prime-time White House address devoted to lies and misleading statements about voter fraud.”
3] “Together, Mr. Trump’s actions have left constitutional scholars and democracy experts anxious about this year’s midterm elections. They wonder if the Trump administration may use false pretenses to send federal agents to Democratic-leaning areas to intimidate people and suppress voting.”
*** “In dictatorships you need courage to fight evil; in the free world you need courage to see evil.”
[ Natan Sharansky ]
“THE. AUTOCRACY. INDEX 12 Markers of Democratic Erosion”
1]. “Manipulating the law to stay in power”. [ 3 / 10 ] “Modern authoritarian takeovers often start not with a military coup, but with an elected leader who uses powers of the office to consolidate authority. The Trump administration has: 2025 – 7 things – “Fired the Federal Election commission chair after she investigated President Trump’s campaigns.” 2026 – 7 things – “Threatened to arrest uncooperative local election officials.”
2] “stifling speech and dissent” [ 4 / 10 ]. “Authoritarians abuse the powers of the office to make political opposition difficult, if not impossible. The Trump administration: 2025 – 5 things – “attempted to suppress protests in Democratic-run cities.” 2026 – 4 things – “Demanded the identities of critics of ICE from social media companies.”
3]. “Persecuting political opponents” 5 / 10 ]. “Autocrats use the immense power of enforcement as a political tool, often starting spurious investigations and prosecutions of perceived enemies while protecting and rewarding loyalists. The Trump administration: 2025 – 11 things – “Issued executive orders punishing law firms that represented his critics.” 2026. – 7 things – “Oversaw a de facto pardon industry open to wealthy supporters.”
***. “The true essence of a dictatorship is in fact not its regularity but its unpredictability and caprice; those who live under it must never be able to relax, must never be quite sure if they have followed the rules correctly or not.”
[ Christopher Hitchens ]
4]. “Bypassing the legislature”. [ 5 / 10 ]. “To push a democracy toward autocracy, the leader often finds ways to sideline the legislature. Without congressional approval, the Trump administration: 2025. – 7 things – “shrank and closed agencies created by Congress.” 2026. – 5 things. – “Refused to enforce anti-money-laundering laws.”
5] “Using the military at home. [ 2 / 10 ]. “Autocratic leaders frequently use the military on their own soil to flex their might and serve their political agendas. The Trump administration”. 2025. – 4 things – “Fired top officials for lacking personal fealty to Mr. Trump.” 2026. – 1 thing. – “Escalated the use of militarized force to enact its immigration agenda.”
6] “Defying the courts” [ 2 / 10 ]. “Would-be authoritarians recognize that courts can keep them from consolidating power, and they take steps to weaken or bypass judges. The Trump administration: 2025. – 4 things – “Defied a court order to restore funding for Medicaid and other services.” 2026. – 6 things. – “Told Republican officials to crack down on “rogue judges that are criminals.”
***. “Fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalin’s dictatorship.” { George Kennan }
7] “Declaring false emergencies” [ 5 /10 ]. “Autocrats often curtail democracy by declaring an emergency and arguing that the threat requires them to exercise unusual degrees of power. The Trump administration: 2025. – 5 things – “Declared an energy emergency to deregulate fossil fuels.” 2026. – 2 things – “Declared a national emergency to cut off fuel to Cuba.”
8]. “Vilifying marginalized groups.” [ 6 / 10 ]. “Authoritarians tend to demean minority groups and portray them as threats, providing further justification for amassing power. The Trump administration: 2025 – 8 things. – “Fired women and people of color from government leadership posts.” 2026. – 3 things – “Denigrated prominent Muslim Americans as “jihadists.”
9]. “Controlling information” [ 2 / 10 ]. “Authoritarians suppress inconvenient truths by manipulating government information and controlling news media. The Trump administration: 2025. – 8 things. – “Stopped the collection of climate data.” 2026. – 5 things. – “Subpoenaed journalists who reported on the administration.”
***. “Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.” [ Bruce Colville ]
10] “Trying to take over universities”. [ 2 / 10 ] “Authoritarians often repress universities, recognizing that they are hotbeds of independent thought and political dissent. The Trump administration: 2025. – 4 things. – “Revoked hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding on spurious grounds.” 2026 – 1 thing. – “Continued to pressure universities to comply with demands.”
11] “Creating a cult of personality” [ 6 / 10 ] “Emperors and kings glorify themselves by festooning the nation with their names and images. The Trump administration: 2025 – 8 things – memecoin, banners, parade, Gold Card, merch, renamed, new battleship class, &,&,&…………….. 2026. – 6 things. – Trump sig on “our” money, king meme, Jesus Christ meme, $1 Trump coin, Trump passports, Trump arch in D.C., ……….
12] “Using power for personal profit” [ 7 / 10 ] “Authoritarians often turn the government into a self-enrichment machine, creating a culture of unabashed corruption. Mr. Trump and his family have: 2025. – 7 things. – private D.C. club, foreign real estate projects, $400 million jet, $100 million in corporate payments, demanded government pay him $230 million, pardon rich friend………….. 2026. – 5 things. – “Disregarded conflicts of interest…”..nobody cared.”
***. “If you don’t know the difference between dictatorship and leadership then you got to go back to a fifth grade civics class.” [ Tim Kaine ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness – & INCOMPETENCE, CCXVIII – Trump Attacks Anybodt Telling TRUTH, Anybody Trying To Hold Him Accountable
*** “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested in power, pure power. Power is not a means, it is an end. One plots not to establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
[ George Orwell: ‘1984″ ]
tis post presents excerpts from John Rash’s “Despite pressure, White House correspondents persevere” [Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/1/26]. Consider this one, very public exhibit, of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. – the absolute INTOLERANCE for. ANY. criticism, ANY. opposition, and most of all – absolute HATRED. for. ANY. attempt to find TRUTH, absolute HATRED. for. ANYBODY telling. truth, on. ANYTHING. – including the weather!
***. “Truth is the most precious thing. that’s why we should ration it.” [ Lenin ]
1] “But Trump did not rise to his title. Instead, he rambled and ranted for over an hour to often stunned silence – even from sycophantic Cabinet and congressional allies interspersed among the correspondents – delivering jarring, juvenile insults to journalists, celebrities and politicians he doesn’t like. Or hates, as he said himself, bluntly blurting: “I hate some people.”
2] “Actually, lots of people, as he made apparent in his speech. Including, but not limited to..Joe Biden..Gavin Newsom and J.b. Pritzker..Chuck Schumer, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez..Adam Schiff..Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, Jane Fonda…Kaitlin Collins…”
3]. “…the president’s core mission regarding the news media is clear…”Just last week..Trump’s lawyers were in court in Miami in a lawsuit against the BBC to punish them for their coverage…in Tampa in a lawsuit against the New York Times..because they didn’t like our coverage,’ Baker said. referring to an important story about security vulnerabilities of the new Qatari-gifted [grifted to critics] presidential plane…Justice Department lawyers were in court in New York, trying to subpoena my colleagues for reporting truthful information.”
***. “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” [ Adolf Hitler ]
4]. “..Trump’s scores of lawsuits and threats. – some from him individually, some from institutions like the Federal Communications Commission. – dim the beacon of free speech America used to shine to the world.” [NOTE; as “our” president, Trump can use YOUR tax dollars to carry out his anti-free speech attacks!!! ]
5]. “Every president has had difficulty with the press, going back probably to George Washington,’ said Jane Kirtley, professor emerita at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications…”in terms of the kind of overt hostility that’s being directed against the press, the many lawsuits that President Trump has brought, his rhetoric, his threats against journalists, calling journalists traitors and accusing them of treason. – this level of rhetoric I have never heard..”
6]. “The subpoenas Baker referred to were hastily withdrawn after a judge demanded to know why federal prosecutors had issued them just two days after the story was published instead of making them the final step in an investigation, as is typically the case.”
***. “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” [ Harry Truman; 33rd U.S. President ]
7]. “..a message has been sent, particularly to reporters who might not work for the New York Times and might not have that kind of legal firepower and retainer, of what might happen to them if they report something that upsets the president.”
8] “The Time’s story of the presidential jet “directly served the public interests of national security..”, said Stern…”it’s a perfect example of how investigative journalism, often based on confidential sources who come forward because they’ve wrongdoing and think they’re doing a public sevice by exposing it. – how that bolsters national security, not hinders it.”
9]. “But the difference is that while other presidents at times did take actions that we saw as infringing on our First Amendment rights and that we objected to, we’ve never seen a president who did it on such a sustained, expansive and really very intimidating manner.”
***. “And if all others accepted the lie, which the Party imposed. – if all records told the same tale. – then the lie passed into history and becomes the truth.” [ George Orwell: ‘1984″ ]
[NOTE: America stands in danger of losing its First Amendment freedoms. – by not using them. Read “Use It Or Lose It”. [Adrienne LaFrance; The Atlantic; July, 2026]:
1]. “Trump, gifted showman that he is, understands that insulted citizens on camera is a tactic that serves his interests. it distracts people from the fact that he hasn’t answered the question.”
2] “Power doesn’t like to be checked.”
3] “The cause of freedom has advanced only because of those who have been willing to stand up against government overreach.”
4] “Although every American is entitled to exercise the right of free press. No one is entitled to be trusted or believed. – that you have to earn.”
***. “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” [ Elie Wiesel ]
*** “The history of liberty is the history of resistance.” [ Woodrow Wilson; 28th U.S. President ]
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