Tag: history

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXXI – “The Beacon 0f Democracy Goes Dark”

~ tomdolen


***. “What distinguishes America is not its greater or lesser goodness, but simply the unrivaled power to do that which is good or bad.” [ Mark Frankland; London Observer; 11/6/1977 ]

9] “American culture is n longer synonymous with the aspiration to freedom, but with transactionalism and secrecy; the algorithems that mysteriously what you see, the money collected by anonymous billionaires, the deals that the American president is making with world leaders that benefit himself and maybe others whose names w don’t know. America was always associated with capitalism, business, and markets, but nowadays there’s no pretense hat anyone else will be invited to share the wealth.”

***. “The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind.” [Thomas Paine; Common Sense; 1776]

This post presents excerpts from Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum’s. “The Beacon Of Democracy Goes Dark”. [The Atlantic; November, 2025]. Read it and think. Read it and weep. Read it and pray for America. Read it and share it.

4] “The dramatic shift we have undergone in just a few months – away from a foreign policy based on democratic faith and toward the promotion of a more cynical, more authoritarian, view of the world – has hit these institutions hard. The fact that the Trump administration has tried to shut down all of America’s foreign broadcasters is telling.”

6] “The shift against these traditionally bipartisan institutions, against the belief that Americans should defend and promote democracy around the world, and against the democratic faith itself is part of something broader….Donald Trump appears much happier with dictators than with democratic allies.”

10] “The impact of this change around the world will be profound, far-reaching, and long-lasting. The very existence of American democracy inspired people in every corner of the planet, and the decline of American democracy will have the same effect.”

***. “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” [George Washington; 4/30/1789; First Inaugural Address]

1]. “Americans have promoted democracy just by existing. Human rights and the rule of law are in our founding documents…..In the 20th century, w moved from simply from modeling democratic ideals to spreading and promoting them as a matter of policy…..During the Cold War, we connected words such as freedom and rights…to our national identity.”

2] “After the Second World War, the dream of American freedom and prosperity strengthened what were initially shaky democracies in Western Europe and Asia, including recently defeated West Germany and Japan. Their political and economic success drew others into the fold.”

3]. “..by putting democracy at the center of our international and national identity, we also helped strengthen our own political system.”

5]. “…it remains the target of a small group of conspiracy theorists who have influence in this administration because they have a large following in X or have appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast.”

***. “Trump has no knowledge of the American story and so cannot have any faith in it. He has no understanding of or sympathy for the language of the founders, so he cannot be inspired by it. Since he doesn’t believe American democracy is good, he has no interest in an America that aspires to be a model among nations.” [Anne Applebaum: “Twilight of Democracy”]

7] “Vladimir Putin has banned media that spread “fake news’ – that is, accurate information….Rodrigo Duterte, called Rappler, a famous investigative-reporting site, a “fake news outlet”….In places as varied as Egypt and Myanmar, the fake charge of “fake news” has been used to destroy legitimate journalists.”

8]. “All these changes are part of a larger shift, a revolutionary transformation in the way Americans present themselves to the world, and the way they are therefore perceived by others. The most ubiquitous form of American culture nowadays is…the social media platforms that pump conspiracy theories..”

11]. “More predictable is the impact on americans. If we are no longer a country that aims to make the world better, but a country whose foreign policy is designed to build the wealth of the president or promote the ruling party’s friends, then we have fewer reasons to work together at home. If we promote cynicism abroad, we will become more cynical at home.”

***. “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it…” [Judge Learned Hand]

Of all the damages to America from the cancer of Trumpism. – what we are learning is this: the damage Trumpism has inflicted on the American soul may be the longest lasting, the most devastating, the most crippling. Trump is truly a CANCER. – a cancer that spreads, a cancer that strangles, a cancer that sucks the life out of us. Pray – on YOUR knees – that America manages to recover our soul……………………..

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXX – Undermining, Unraveling, Destroying American Rule of Law.

~ tomdolen


*** “No man is above the law and no man is below the law; nor do we ask anyman’s permission when we require him to obey the law.” [ Theodore Roosevelt; Republican; 26th U.S. President ]

2] “Many judges said the politicization of judges, the Supreme Court’s expanding use of the emergency dockets and sustained criticism from the Trump administration have pushed the courts and democracy to a fragile tipping point – one where cooperation with rulings and adherence to the rule of law can no longer be assumed.”

“RETIRED JUDGES WARN THAT THE RULE OF LAW IS UNRAVELING”
[Brianna Tucker; Washington Post; 11/30/25]

If YOU are a caring, concerned, patriotic American. – this article is a MUST read. It is, unfortunately, NOT the first such reporting to be expressed. Note WHO is talking – retired judges. Legal experts have been expressing dismay and urgent concern that among the damages the Trump DICTATORSHIP has imposed upon America. – a critical, perhaps THE critical sabotage has been a wide-ranging program to DESTROY America’s “Rule of Law,” a fundamental American strength since 1789. Donald John Trump, and his powerful wealthy backers and donors, want American law bent to support their immoral, greedy, reckless, selfish purposes. If YOU don’t understand this – YOU don’t understand the depth and breadth of the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s threat to American law, government, democracy, society, values, freedoms.

Following are excerpts from “Retired Judges Warn The Rule of Law is Unraveling”:
4] “All you have to do is look back on what occurred in Nazi Germany,’ said Barbara Pariente, a former chief justice on the Florida Supreme Court. In 1937, judges deemed by the Nazi regime as noncompliant with its laws were replaced, resulting in a overhaul of its judicial system.”

6] “Under Trump, many judges and other legal experts say that dynamic has degraded into unjustified criticism, with the president using social media and public speeches to attack judges who rules against his policies.”

9] “Several former judges called the increase in the Trump administration ignoring, defying or circumventing judicial decisions alarming and warned the trend severely weakens the separation of powers that has defined the United States for more than 200 years”

15]. “What he’s done with universities, what he’s done with law firms, what he’s done with the media…it’s changing our country,” Scheindlin said. “Our civil rights are not being protected, our voting rights, immigration rights, whatever they are, we’re losing them.”

***. “It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.” [ Earl Warren; Chief Justice; U.S. Supreme Court ]

1]. “When the White House blasted a federal judge as “partisan” for dismissing the criminal cases against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James this week, it was an attack that has become common in President Donald Trump’s second term. For many retied federal and state supreme courSocietyt judges, it was another example of the president’s assault on the judiciary and further erosion of the rule of law.”

3] ‘..some of them warn that Trump’s clashes with judges echo how leaders in foreign countries sought to undermine the strength of their courts – from right-wing court reforms in Hungary to attempts by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift power away from the judiciary.”

5]. ‘…warned that the public often fails to see the consequences of a weakened rule of law and diminishing judicial branch until it is too late.”

7] “Although attacks on the judiciary aren’t new, the increased frequency and intensity could drive jurists from the bench earlier than in previous generations, the retired judges say.”

8]. “..threats against federal judges reached near-record levels in Fiscal Year 2025, according to data from the Marshall’s Service.”

10] “For decades, the Justice Department has been expected to function independently from theWhite House to ensure impartial decisions. But since taking office in early February, Attorney General Pam Bondi has….”

11]. “Bondi’s lieutenant, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, characterized the Justice Department’s relationship with the judiciary as an adversarial one at a Federalist Society conference earlier this month. “It is a war..”

12] “Many judges said one of the most harmful shifts away from procedural norms within the judicial branch stems from the Supreme Court’s increasing use of the emergency docket, also known as the “shadow docket.”

13] “The nation’s highest court has issued a historic rate of emergency orders throughout the second Trump administration.”

14] “The shift away from standard procedures in cases creates a trickle-down effect through the court system….lower courts are left scrambling to interpret how those orders may effect cases they are adjudicating.”

*** “The worst tyranny is that of misapplied laws.’ [ Metternich ]

***. “Those who suppress freedom always doso in the name of law and order.” [ John Lindsay ]


Team Right Wing might now be in the final stages of their 50-year campaign to undo the increasing perfection of American democracy, which peaked in the 1947-73 mass middle class prosperity inspired by New Deal programs and progressive court rulings. This was “too much democracy”. for theFAR RIGHT. A key, perhaps THE key, was appointing “conservative judges” beginning with Nixon; furthered by Reagan and Bush I, Bush II. AND – now America is cursed by Trumpism and all of its hangers-on. Many, but not all, “judges” and “justices” appointed by Trump have strong anti-democratic, plutocratic, theocratic leanings, which they have been imposing on YOU, YOUR children, YOUR grandchildren.

*** “You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.” [ Clarence Darrow ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXIX. – The ‘con job” that YOU are paying higher prices on. virtually everything !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~ tomdolen

*** “Anybody who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters, cannot be trusted in large ones either.”
[ Albert Einstein ]

YOUR president, one Donald John Trump, wants YOU to believe that prices YOU ARE PAYING on many/most items, some critical survival items – is in YOUR IMAGINATION !!!!! Trump asserts this is all a big Democratic ‘hoax,” a “con job,” false facts – because the Dems are out to persecute him, even worse, ‘hate America.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*** “Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” [ Adolf Hitler ]

Is this Trump BIG LIE lie number 35,xx1 ????? Or – have people stopped counting ???

For YOUR perspective, YOU might want to check on these headlines:

1]. “How the letter. K. describes the shape of the U.S. economy…The wealthy get richer, the poor struggle more.” [Christopher Rugaber; Associated Press; 12/3/25]. More on this later. YOU might want to research the ECONOMIC. FACTS behind WHY economists have documented this.

2]. “As shoppers seek lower prices, Walmart sales rise.” [Jordyn Holman; New York Times; 11/21/25]. Think on this quote: “Higher income shoppers are continuing to shop at Walmart, a sign they are also looking to save money where they can.” The wealthy shopping at Walmart !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3]. “Consumers’ Pain Motivates Trump To Act on Prices….Affordability Effort….Offering New Policies and Messaging as Tariffs Sap Wage Gains”. [Alan Rappeport; New York Times; 11/16/25] !!!!! Trump needs to come out with – new messaging!!!! – i.e. – high prices are really a “hoax,” a ‘con job” !!!!!!!! He won’t help YOU – he just wants YOU to think that he really cares !!!!!!!!! Believe that, and I have this bridge to sell………

4]. “Trump calls affordability concerns ‘a con job’… “It doesn’t mean anything to anybody,’ he says, blames Biden” [Erica Green; New York Times; 12/3/25]. “Trump called the issues of affordability a “fake narrative” and ‘con job’ created by Democrats to dupe the public.” !!!!! SO – when YOU shop. – the higher prices YOU ARE PAYING – are a “fake narrative” – it’s all in your mind!!!!! YOUR credit card bill lies – you didn’t really pay that much!!!!! Does ANYTHING more accurately portray Trump’s CONTEMPT for ordinary Americans – like YOU ????????????/

5] “Survey shows shoppers have less jingle…half say it’s harder to buy the gifts they want.” [Josh Boak, Amelia Thomson-Deveaux; Associated Press; 12/13/25]. “About 4 in 10 are dipping into their savings more than at other times….Roughly 9 in 10 U.S. adults, 87%, say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for groceries…” SO – there must be a lot of really stupid American adults, right? They’ve been “duped” by those sneaky, diabolical Democrats into THINKING they’re paying more, but not really paying more. – because they fell victim to the Dem’s “con job” !!!!!

*** “There are certain persons for whom pure truth is a poison.” [ Andre Maurois ]

YOU might want to read, just a little, of Pulitzer Prize winner Maggie Haberman’s. “definitive biography” of one Donald John Trump: ‘Confidence Man…The Making Of Donald Trump And The Breaking Of America”. [get the updated version through the 2024 election]

Before reading “Confidence Man”. – YOU might want to think. – WHY – did a Pulitzer Prize winner title a Trump biography. “confidence Man” ?????????? Just WHAT does she know?????

OR –
YOU could have already read Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston’s “It’s Even Worse ThanYou Think…What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America”

OR. –
YOU could research. WHY – some people have said Trump makes up numbers that sound good…………..

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXVIII – “How Billionaires Took Over Americn Politics”

~ tomdolen


*** “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.” [ Justice Louis Brandeis ]

This post is intended to begin to open YOUR eyes to the magnitude of political influence amassed by America’s wealthiest people. It is expressed in tax code corruption, in laws not enforced, in laws written by and for the rich, in ‘supreme court” rulings like “citizens United,” and much more.

Following are some excerpts from “How Billionaires Took Over American Politics”. [Beth Reinhard, Naftali Bendavid, Clarence Morse, Aaron Schaffer; Washington Post Weekly; 11/23/25]. If YOU care about America, American society, American government, American justice – this is a MUST read.

1] “In an era defined by major political divisions and massive wealth accumulation for the richest Americans, billionaires are spending unprecedented amounts on U.S. politics…leading to a record-breaking surge of donations by the ultrarich in 2024. Since 2000, political giving by the wealthiest 100 Americans to federal elections has gone up almost 140 times..”

3] “..in three landmark decisions, starting with 2010’s Citizens United vs FEC, federal courts gutted post-Watergate campaign restrictions, clearing the way for donors to contribute unlimited money to elections. As a result, U.S. politicians are more dependent on the largesse of the billionaire class than ever before, giving one-four-hundreth of 1% of Americans extraordinary influence over which politicians and policies succeed…driving up campaign costs and eroding public confidence in American democracy.”

9] “..at least 17 billionaires, collectively worth more than $1 trillion, claimed coveted seats in the Capitol Rotunda – a historic concentration of wealth that seemed to herald a new class of American oligarchs, there to celebrate a president known for publicly rewarding his allies and punishing his opponents…..”It was so striking and so out in the open that the rich people are running the country”…….”

11] “..under Trump, the first billionaire president, the ultrawealthy have set up shop inside the corridors of government more openly than ever before…Trump’s Cabinet is the wealthiest in U.S. history..”

***. “Of all the forms of tyranny the least attractive and most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.” [ Theodore Roosevelt, Republican 26th U.S. President ]

2] “Over the past quarter-century, political, legal and economic changes have reshaped the relationship between wealth and political power in America. Economists say wealth is now more concentrated at the very top than at any time since the Gilded Age.”

4] “Donations are not the only path to power for the ultrawealthy; following Trump’s lead, some billionaires are parlaying their financial clout into public office. At least 44 of the 902 U.S. billionaires on Forbes magazine’s 2025 list, or their spouses, have been elected or appointed to state or federal office in the past 10 years..”

5] “America’s 902 billionaires are collectively worth more than $6.7 trillion, the most wealth ever amassed by the nation’s ultrarich… A little more than a decade ago, there were half as many billionaires in the U.S., with a total worth estimated at $2.6 trillion when adjusted for inflation.”

*** “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
[ Benito Mussolini ]

6]. “Overall, billionaires have rallied behind Trump’s Republican Party. More than 80% of the federal campaign spending by the 100 wealthiest Americans went to Republicans…Trump himself raised 15 times as much from the 100 richest Americans in 2024 than he did during his first presidential campaign, in 2016.”

7] “..over the past half-decade, many of tech’s wealthiest titans rebelled against the Biden administration’s criticism and policing of their industry…”

8] “When Trump first ran for office in 2016, he pitched himself as someone whose personal fortune made him uncorruptible. [ stop laughing !!!], and he promised to break the power of elites in Washington and “drain the swamp.” [stop laughing, you’re going to hurt yourself !!!]

***. “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of 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 – yes – THE. Adam Smith. ]

10] “Billionaires didn’t acquire their influence in D.C. overnight. President Bill Clinton aggressively courted Wall Street, then signed a sweeping financial deregulation and a trade deal strongly backed by wealthy Americans. President George W. Bush also relied heavily on affluent donors, then pushed through tax cuts that benefited the rich, as well as the Troubled Asset Relief Program to bail out big banks. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first presidential candidate in the post-Watergate era to reject public campaign financing and instead raising huge sums from private donors.”

12] ‘..Trump has championed a deregulation and tax cut agenda that is bringing huge benefits to wealthy Americans..DOGE..slashed the regulatory state that polices – and infuriates – billionaires, along with their business activities. The IRS has lost thousands of workers, which cripples efforts to pursue tax cheats…The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created to ensure that financial institutions treat their customers fairly, is on its deathbed. .Trump’s main legislative achievement, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, locked in lower tax rates for corporations and allowed the children of the super-rich to inherit $15 million tax-free, while cutting Medicaid programs that benefit the poor and the elderly.”

***. “You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They’re too damn greedy.”
[ Herbert Hoover, Republican. 31st U.S. President ]

A future post will concern material from “Tax The Rich!” [ Morris Pearl, Erica Payne and The Patriotic Millionaires]. It will feature “Tax Tricks,” “Corporate Tricks<” Tax Lies. We leave YOU with this quote to chew on:
“According to the study [Martin Gilens], not a single policy supported by the majority of voters but opposed by the rich and the business community ended up being passed into law.”

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXV – Nursing is No Longer Classified As a “Professional Degree” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~ tomdolen


*** “Where there is no knowledge, ignorance calls itself knowledge.” [ George Bernard Shaw ]

YOU can’t make this stuff up !!!!!!!!! Nurses don’t need education and training ????????

Does the Trump DICTATORSHIP have a “Department of Fools” ??? – who regularly churn out stupidity ???

Around November 20, 2025 – multiple news media reported something like this: “The Trump administration has announced that nursing is no longer classified as a “professional degree.”

SO – when YOU go to the dentist – do YOU want just anybody off the street poking around in YOUR mouth???????

Look up ‘hygienist” – the I-net says: “a licensed healthcare professional..” Read more and YOU find this involves a 2-4 year educational program. Do YOU think that states think that might be a good idea ??????

Look up “nurse’ – the I-net says: “a licensed healthcare professional..” Read more and YOU find this involves several years; 3 years for a registered nurse.

World Book Encyclopedia has a 4-page article on “Nursing,” including information on education required.

When YOU go in for surgery of any type – do YOU want just anybody off the street working with the dentist or surgeon?????????

Classroom work: student nurses study such subjects as anatomy, chemistry, nutrition, pharmacology, physiology, and sociology, as well as the fundamentals of nursing care.” SO – under the Trump DICTATORSHIP – does this mean nurses working on YOU no longer have to do this ?????????????

“Operating room nurses assist surgeons during operations. These nurses must react INSTANTLY AND ACCURATELY. to the surgeons’ request for operating instruments. SO – under the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s. “wisdom” we can put just anybody into the operating room ??????????


Face the FACTS – we in America are now “governed’ by FOOLS, ideological. IDIOTS, good-looking. LIARS, CORRUPT tax-cutters fro the already obscenely rich. YOU are witnessing, on virtually a daily basis, an advanced ‘democracy”. based on math and science slide into “Banana Republic” stupidity, craziness, cruelty, and above all massive and unending CORRUPTION.


Ask YOURSELF – what type of. FOOLS. would even think about saying nursing is no longer a professional healthcare profession????? WhenYOU were born, how many nurses were involved in YOUR healthcare??? WHO makes hospitals function????? WHO cleans YOUR teeth in order to prevent cavities???????

THIS – is an obvious illustration of the type of “thinking” now going on in the Trump DICTATORSHIP. Now, please, judge EVERY Trump DICTATORSHIP action, policy, announcement, rhetoric. with this STUPIDITY in YOUR mind. Re-examine EVERY Trump action since January 20, 2025, in this light.

The Trump DICTATORSHIP is populated with FOOLS, LIARS, INCOMPETENTS……..

***. “I play to people’s fantasies.” [ Donald John Trump: “The Art of the Deal” ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXIV – “Trump’s Rap Sheet vs. the People”

~ tomdolen


*** “The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop. He says so himself all the time. [ David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winner: “It’s Even Worse Than It looks” ]

1] “Donald Trump’s conquering of the country is complete. The blows he’s inflicted on American democracy will take a lifetime to heal.” [ Jamie Stiehm: “Trump’s Rap Sheet vs. the People”; The Progressive Populist; September, 2025 ] Excerpts follow on specifics:
– “The president fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief, a woman, for a poor jobs and growth report. That is a death knell – or a deep chill – for honest government officials.
– “He shut the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, headed by a woman.
– “He’ll no longer enforce pollution laws, giving fossil fuels open season.”
– “He fired the Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a woman admiral.”
– “He decimated the federal workforce.”
– “He slashed climate and weather national services as the air gets hotter, floods rise faster, blazews burn longer, and hurricanes cause havoc. Hes threatened to curb the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
– “His volatile tariffs are hurting consumer prices and jarring the world trade system, creating uncertainty.”
– “Trump compelled the Senate to confirm his criminal defense lawyer, Emil Bove, to the federal bench, 50-49.”
– “He’s taking away health care for at least 11 million people. [ after the 2026 midterms ].”
– “He fired the librarian of Congress, a Black woman, and the Kennedy Center president, a woman – in overnight emails.”
– “He dismantled our helping hand around the world, the U.S. Agency for International Development.” [our foreign enemies LOVE this!!!!!]
– “He’s seizing federal funds from top universities.” [ this damage will unfold over years ]
– “The mainstream media bends over backwards, mainly in legal payoffs, to pacify his rage.” [too much truth]
– “He’s abducting residents with no criminal record.”
– “Trump’s Supreme Court stripped a constitutional right – reproductive rights – away from citizens for the first time in history.”

*** “If Fascism came to America, it would be on a program of Americanism.” [ Huey P. Long ]

2] For perspective, consider these charges from “The Declaration of Independence”. against King George III:

– “He has refused his Assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.”
– “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice..”
– “He has made judges dependent on his Will alone..”
– “He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.”
– “He has affected to render the Military independent and superior to the Civil Power.”
– “He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution..”
– “For cutting off our trade with all Parts of the World. – for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury; for transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offenses..”
– “He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of His Protection and waging War against us.”
– “He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us..”
– “In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free people.”

*** “Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the People.” [ U.S. Representative, Senator, Secretary of State. – Henry Clay ]

[NOTE: What’s the practical difference between King George III, and King Donald I ??? George ruled by “divine right”; Donald rules by “Project 2025,” says God’s protecting him.. George was surrounded by rich nobles. Donald is surrounded by rich billionaires
King Donald I talks about “my judges,” “my generals,” “my Justice Department,” ‘my legislators.” King Donald I’s best foreign friends are dictators; he just pardoned an ex-leader convicted of smuggling “tons’ of cocaine into America. King Donald I attacks, persecutes, prosecutes ANY person or group telling the truth about him – what kings and dictators do.
YOU tell me – when Congresspeople say “we’re all afraid”; when the acknowledged goals of Trumpian rhetoric and actions are FEAR and CRUELTY – what’s the practical difference between King George III and King Donald I ???? ]

*** “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and 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, Founder, 4th U.S. President]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXIII – Trump As Bully In Chief

~ tomdolen

***. “You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.”
[Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U. S. President, World War ii Commanding General ]

“In social media posts near midnight on thanksgiving, [Trump] threatened to strip citizenship from naturalized migrants “who undermine domestic tranquility.” [“Shooting sets Trump on angry path”; Shawn McCreesh; New York Times; 11/29/25]

Stop laughing! Think hard – is there ANYBODY in the United States of America, who, since 2015, has dome more to “undermine domestic tranquility” than Donald John Trump ???????

***. “Dictators are the popes of nationalism.” [ Aldous Huxley ]

“Gov. Walz knows how bullies operate.” [ Jennifer Brooks; Minnesota Star Tribune; 11/29/25]:
1] “Trump’s words and deeds – the time he mocked a reporter with with a physical disability; the times in recent weeks that he called women “stupid,” “ugly,” and “piggy” – tend to get shrugged off as Trump being Trump.”
“This is not both-sidesism,” Walz said. “This is clearly one side – Donald Trump – hat is clearly trying to divide this country and thinks that it’s beneficial to him, politically.”

2] “There’s a pattern to Trump’s holiday greetings: Subject. + verb +. insult.”

***. “It is the old practice of despots to use part of the people to keep the rest in order.”
[. Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President; 1798 ]

3] “Trump’s tradition of wrapping holiday greetings around insults dates back at least to Memorial Day. 2015: “I would like to wish everyone, including all haters and losers [ of which, sadly, there are many ] a truly happy and enjoyable Memorial Day!” “Mother’s Day? “Happy Mother’s Day to ALL, in particular the Mothers, Wives and Lovers of the Radical Left Fascists, Marists, and Communists who are doing everything within their power to destroy and obliterate our once great Country.” “Christmas. 2024: “Go To Hell!”

4] “People who do things like this, you don’t associate with,’ Walz said. “I really wish America would start to understand that this has nothing to do with conservative tax policy, it has nothing to do with climate change. “It has everything to do with – at heart – just being cruel,’ he added. “The cruelty is at the center of the agenda.”

*** “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” [ Thumper, 1942, Disney’s “Bambi” movie ]

*** “No circumstances can repair a defect of character.” [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

***. “The best index to a person’s character is [a] how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and [b] how he treats people who can’t fight back.” [ Abigail Van Buren; 5/16/ 1974 ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXI – Trumpism is. UNDERMINING what is REALITY, what DID make America great

~ tomdolen


***. “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” [ Abraham Lincoln, 1837 ]

The murderer of America, as a great nation, as a society – is Donald John Trump. The STUPIDITY and DESTRUCTIVENESS of his rhetoric, his actions, his policies is. UNMATCHED in American history. He just might be the real. “Manchurian Candidate,” or, perhaps, “the useful idiot.”
Ponder the thoughts below:

This post – “America’s Formula for Greatness Is Under Threat” – is inspired by Nicholas Kristof’s 11/16/25 New York Times article of that title. Excerpts follow:

1] “What’s the secret formula that has made the United States the dominant superpower in the world today? I’d point to three fundamental ingredients, each of which is now being weakened. When I think of the historical legacies of our generation and of President Trump, I wonder if they will be less about the political battles in the headlines and more about the slow shriveling of America’s global standing. Patriotism is less about waving flags and more about defending these three that over two centuries have made America pre-eminent:

A] A commitment to education at every level, resulting in global leadership in science and technology.

1] “America became the world’s leading nation largely because of its emphasis beginning in the 19th century on mass education….later, American research universities became global leaders and nurtured technology hubs….American excellence in science drives economic competitiveness and well-being. Yet Trump is winding down mRNA vaccine programs that are full of promise for tackling cancer and has slashed investments in medical research.

B] An inclination toward free markets and free trade, supported by the rule of law.

1]. “Trump has systematically chipped away at some of the underpinnings of a market economy. Markets thrive with prudent fiscal and monetary management, yet his tax cuts lead to a soaring national debt even as he tries to crush the independence of the Federal Reserve. Corruption is a bane of capitalism, yet his family has seemed to use the presidency as a A.T.M.”

2] “And the rule of la?….Trump has periodically defied lower courts and used the Department of Justice to punish his political opponents. Mark l. Wolf, a federal judge appointed by President Reagan..[resigned]…to be able to speak openly about the Trump administration’s “assault on the rule of law” and the way that it poses an “existential threat to democracy.”

C] Immigration and the absorption of some of the brightest minds from around the world.

1]. “..Four of the Magnificent Seven tech companies are led by immigrants, and 46 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children..”

AGAIN – if doubtful of this commentary – we refer YOU to the Constitution’s Preamble and the goals of the Founders: “..Union..Justice..Tranquility….promote the general Welfare..secure the Blessings of Liberty..” Few, if ANY, Trump policies, actions, and most of all his hateful rhetoric pass the Founder’s test. BUT. – YOU don’t need to believe me. – read comments from around the world on the STUPIDITY and the DESTRUCTIVENESS of Trump’s policies, actions, rhetoric. Her has routinely offended former friends and allies – symbolized by Canada. Trump has, single-handedly, managed to sabotage a 200 year friendship UNMATCHED. anywhere in the world with Canada.
He is sabotaging the security of Europe by giving Vladimir Putin whatever he wants – a point Europeans are now openly saying and working to offset.
America won World War II and the Cold War. – because w had friends and allies. THE threats to world peace, democracy, stability. – are. Russia and China. Trump is sabotaging America’s ability to have the NEEDED support to combat the threats of Russia and China

Trump is sabotaging. YOUR present, future, economic security by ‘giving away the farm” to his main friends – America’s and the world’s. billionaires. His 2017 and 2025 tax cuts are THE single most destructive attack in American government’s ability to finance NECESSARY functions. America now has a record number of billionaires. Trump’s 2017 tax cut for them is responsible for 25% of our, YOUR, ballooning national debt. Making PERMANENT his 2017 tax cut for the obscenely rich. – will soon be used to cut YOUR Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid benefits. [that YOU worked for].

*** “This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs: When he first appears, he is a protector.” [Plato]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXVIII – Being Vague So. The Trump DICTATORSHIP. Can. Write. Its. Own. Rules

~ tomdolen

***. “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed before they are promulgated, or undergo.such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be to-morrow.” [ James Madison, Founding Father, 4th U.S. President – 1788 ]

This post presents excerpts from Matthew Purdy’s “The Fog of Trump” [New York Times Magazine; 11/16/25]. READ. THE ENTIRE. ARTICLE!!! It describes how the Trump DICTATORSHIP is INTENTIONALLY vague so it can apply government power against. YOU. – if YOU make Trump unhappy.

2] “..Trump is creating a system of rules and punishments all his own. And when those rules are vaguely defined – unlike, say a speed limit or even compex financial regulations – there is no assurance that anyone can be safely outside the zone of violation. Therefore, there is no telling who might be found out of bounds next and what punishment might be imposed.”

5]. “Vagueness has been seen as antithetical to due process and the rule of law since the earliest days of American democracy…. Vagueness thrived in the dark corner of anti-vagrancy laws. Under the post-Civil War Black Codes, the authorities arrested and sometimes effectively re-enslaved Black people…A hundred years later, vagrancy laws allowed police to detain people for such broadly defined crimes as “wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object……In 1972, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the concept that laws could be “void for vagueness”…the law furnished “a convenient tool for ‘harsh and discriminatory enforcement by local prosecuting officials, against particular groups deemed to merit their displeasure.'”

3] “Vagueness breeds trepidation, perhaps the desired result. “We want you to fear,’ Steve Bannon, a former Trump aide and prominent cheerleader, said last year, anticipating a second term. Tom Ginsburg, an international law professor at the University of Chicago who has written about the decline of democracies around the world, says inducing worry is effective. “You get a lot of anticipatory compliance, which is cheap. And vagueness is part of the tool kit.”

***. “I do not see why men should not be just as cruel as nature.” [ Adolf Hitler ]

1] “..[Judge Young]..said diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in particular were set up as “some sort of boogeyman” in Trump’s executive orders, with “no operative definition.” Administration officials, he concluded, “decided they are going to ‘eradicate’ something that they cannot define.” Federal District Court judges across the country and across the political spectrum…have echoed Young’s critique, faulting the administration for using broadly cast executive orders and policies to justify “arbitrary and capricious” actions…..But vagueness has become fundamental to the way Trump operates.”

4] “Fear can seep in anywhere…its depth is perhaps best measured in more ordinary spaces, like middle school classrooms. Valerie Wolfson, the 2024 New Hampshire history teacher of the year, is wrestling with a federal order accusing all schools of “indoctrinating” students about racism…it remains a quandary for Wolfson, whose post-Civil War curriculum includes Reconstruction, the rise of the K.K.K. and the Jim Crow era. “I do not know how I could discuss them without creating a risk of being accused of presenting a narrative of the United States as racist”..”

*** “Every tyrant who ever lived has believed in freedom – for himself.” { Elbert Hubbard ]

7]. “For decades, the United States has held itself out to the world as the paragon of ‘laws not men” governance. During the first Trump administration, as vague laws aimed at suppressing dissent spread in Eastern Europe and beyond, the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, issued a statement underscoring that tradition. The statement, titled “Authoritarian Regimes’ Unclear Laws make Anyone a Suspect,” distinguished between vague laws used by authoritarians and American laws designed to guard against arbitrary power……Today, the ruling of some American judges critical of Trump administration policies echo the language in that statement.” [ Irony, anyone !!!!! ]

8]. “Trump did not hide that he was seeking revenge, nor was it lost on the judges. In the case of another law firm, WilmerHale, Judge Richard J. Leon, a George W. Bush nominee, said he agreed with the firm’s assertion that the executive order left “no doubt that WilmerHale is being punished because it has represented some of the president’s political opponents and advanced positions with which he disagrees.” “The order essentially leaves it to WilmerHale to predict which causes and which attorneys the president personally dislikes and then steer clear of those causes and attorneys,’ he wrote. “This chilling effect triggers serious vagueness concerns.”

*** “The tyrant confuses those he can’t convince, corrupts those he can’t confuse, and crushes those he can’t corrupt.” [Anonymous]

{NOTE: a reminder – this site has often said. – THE TEST. – of any president, of any American government is this: from the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution: “We the People…more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility….promote the general Welfare..” We have now provided 78. examples of WHY the Trump DICTATORSHIP is a threat to American democracy, American national security, America itself – because it has, usually deliberately, FAILED to provide Union, Tranquility, Justice, promote the general Welfare. As bad as the first Trump administration was, the 2025-2029 Trump DICTATORSHIP is a PLANNED assault on all hat America became, 1933-73, because. “Project 2025,” written by far right reactionaries – many of its major authors hold positions of power in Trump’s administration are working to implement that infamous plan. Their goal; make America a plutocratic theocracy. They’ve had numerous successes already. THE QUESTION: What are YOU going to do to protect YOUR family?????????????? ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXV – “Americans go hungry while Trump parties like Gatsby”

~ tomdolen


***. “Just tell your readers that you have a source who knows a lot about the Republican Party from long experience, that he knows all the key movers and shakers, and he has a bit of advice: people should not vote for ANY Republican, because they’re dangerous, dishonest, and self-serving… I have come to realize the Democrats really do care about people who most need help from the government; Republicans care most about those who will only get richer because of government help. The government is truly broken, particularly in dealing with national security, and another four years, and heaven forbid not eight years, under Republicans, and our grandchildren will have to build a new government, because the one we have will be unrecognizable and unworkable.” [commentary “by a lifelong Republican…who voted for Bush and Cheney twice, because he knows them both personally,” in John W. Dean’s “Broken Government…How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches}

{NOTE: America did NOT listen – and we have now had 4 years, 9 months of Republican rule this man FEARED. AND – from daily headlines, the Trump DICTATORSHIP. IS working to make American government, America itself, “unrecognizable and unworkable.” ]

This post presents excerpts from Ka Vang’s. “Americans go hungry while Trump parties like Gatsby” [ St. Paul Pioneer Press; 11/6/25 ]:

1] “President Donald Trump threw a “Great Gatsby” party this past weekend at Mar-a-Lago while millions of Americans lost their snap benefits. It’s one thing to eat cake and drink champagne while others starve; it’s another to rent a jazz band, pour champagne into a tower, and rub it in our faces while calling it presidential leadership.”

2] “Trump’s Gatsby soiree was his Marie Antoinette let-the-eat-cake moment, except the cake was gold-leafed, the cavier imported, and the guest list limited to people who don’t know the price of a gallon of milk.”

3] “Meanwhile, the SNAP program – born in the 1960s as a bipartisan way to ensure Americans didn’t starve in one of the richest countries on Earth – was being gutted. SNAP isn’t charity. It’s the reason millions of children, seniors and working parents eat.”

*** “Wherever there is lost the consciousness that every man is an object of concern for us just because he is a man, civilization and morals are shaken, and the advance to fully developed inhumanity is only a question of time.”
[. Albert Schweitzer ]

4] “With the payments cut off amid the federal government shutdown, many families across Minnesota are going down to one meal a day. The Trump party didn’t just ignore them. It mocked them with every bottle of $500 champagne that could’ve fed a family of four for a week.”

5]. “I keep picturing Trump dancing with Melania in a designer sequined gown, pretending to be Gatsby and Daisy, when really they’re more like Edgar Allen Poe’s Prince Prospero and his courtiers in “The Masque of the Red Death.”

6] “On Monday, Trump’s administration said it will partially fund SNAP for November, but only after two judges issued rulings requiring the government to keep the nation’s largest food aid program running. It didn’t feed hungry families out of compassion; it was forced to do it.”

7]. “And in real life – and in books – the party always ends when the people outside get tired of starving. Just ask Marie Antoinette and Jay Gatsby how their parties ended.”

*** “There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. Tere will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy…..Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face – forever.” [ George Orwell: “1984” ]

{NOTE: The Trump DICTATORSHIP story is on of CONTEMPT. While there is chaos in airports and 42 million Americans worry about their next meal. – “your” president is playing golf. While 300 million live paycheck-to-paycheck. – “your” president DEMANDED. hat his. IMMORAL 2017 tax cut for billionaires be made permanent. The boot that is stomping on human, non-billionaire faces, FOREVER, is worn by Donald John Trump, who views America democracy, the rule of law, and YOU – with CONTEMPT. ]

{Note: If YOU have ANY doubt about what a truly rotten, selfish, dishonest, damaging, antidemocratic ‘person” Donald John Trump really. IS. – read just a part of any of the following books written by Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporters:
– “It’s Even Worse Than You ThinK – David Cay Johnston
– “Confidence Man”. – Maggie Haberman [“The Making of Donald Trump and The Breaking of America”]
– “Injustice” – Carol Leonnig, Aaron Davis [ how Trump has DESTROYED ‘the rule of law’}