Tag: news

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXX. – Trump’s Blatant Cruelty Toward Afghans Who Helped America

~ tomdolen

***. “Of all the vices to which human nature is subject, treachery is the most infamous and detestable…The greatest wrongs will not justify it, as it destroys those principles of mutual confidence and security by which only society can subsist.” [ L.M. Stretch ]

Of all the cruelties perpetrated by the Trump DICTATORSHIP, the tragedy of blocking Afghans who risked their lives and families , now waiting, after being promised sanctuary – lives in America. U.S. military vets have organized on their behalf. This will NOT be pleasant reading; but as an American patriot – YOU must read this story – because YOU are the only ones who can save these deserving people. Please contact your political reps. Thank you.
It gets worse. Read “America’s Secret Veterans” – New York Times magazine; 4/23/26. Read about these Afghan men who fought for America. Read about how the CIA “trusted them completely, ” how CIA personnel defend them against the Trump DICTATORSHIP.””

This post presents excerpts from: “In danger, in limbo, and now in fear” [ Megha Rajagopalan, Eileen Sullivan, Zolan Kanno-Youngs; New York Times; 4/23/26]:

10]. “Who is going to fight alongside the U.S. when the U.S.betrays the people who stood alongside us?”

14] “Discussions over the Afghans are separate from the deportation deal, but both are examples of what has become a hallmark of Trump’s immigration strategy: moving people to faraway places, even when those countries have human rights abuses or authoritarian governments.”

2] “The Afghans have been living in limbo in Qatar for more than a year. They were taken there after being evacuated by the United states for their own safety because they supported U.S. forces during the war against the Taliban..”

4] “We think this is just them wanting to send these people back to Afghanistan, where they know they will face certain death. They know the Afghans are not going to accept the DRC,” VanDiver said…”

***. “Promises may get thee friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]

1] “After halting a U.S. resettlement program for Afghans who helped the American war effort, President Donald Trump is in talks to send as many as 1,100 of them to the Congo, which is suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”

3] “More than 600,000 refugees, mostly from the Central African Republic and Rwanda, are currently in Congo…Human rights activists say the country is not equipped to take in more..”

5] “The discussions highlight the long-standing tension between America’s obligation to Afghans, who face grave danger in retaliation for helping U.S. forces during the war, and the Trump administration’s pledge to curtail immigration.”

***. Cunning nad treachery are the offspring of incapacity.” [ Francois de La Rochefoucauld ]

6] “More than 190,000 Afghans who aided the U.S. effort resettled in the U.S. between August 2021 and mid-2025, after passing background checks.”

7] “But a group of more than 1,100 Afghans are being housed in a former U.s. military base in Qatar…The U.S. government brought them here in late 2024 and promised them a path to settlement in the United states if they passed further checks.”

8]. “Qatar was intended as a stopover, but many of the Afghans found themselves in limbo after the Trump administration ended policies that would have enabled them to resettles in the U.S.”

9]. “THry had the expectation that within weeks †hey’d be relocated to the U.S.”..”

*** “Promises are worse than lies. You don’t just make them believe, you make them hope.” [ Marilyn Monroe ]

11]. “Some of the people left at the camp have been fully vetted; others have not, VanDiver said. but Trump’s immigration policies have made it impossible for any of them to come to the United States now.”

12]. “Andrew Sullivan, a military veteran and the executive director of No One Left Behind, a nonprofit group that has been working to resettle Afghans, said some have been deemed ineligible for reasons that have nothing to do with national security. For example, one woman turned 21 and is no long eligible to be included on her father’s visa..”
[NOTE: the cruelty of this is monstrous – what normal human does this???]

13]. “Our belief is that if, if they can pass security vetting, they should be coming to the United States,” Sullivan said…”

***. “Some people break promises for the pleasure of breaking them.” [ William Hazlitt ]

[NOTE: for more perspective on the Corruption and Cruelty of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. – reflect on pardoning 1,600 rioters who tried to overthrow the U.S, government – and killed and injured over 100 police officers. – or admitting dozens of white South Africans alleged to have been “victims” of discrimination [none of whom risked their lives and families to help the U.S. fight a war]. – and refusing the Afghans who DID risk everything.]

*** “Humanitarianism is a link that binds together all Americans…Whenever tragedy or disaster has struck in any corner of the world, the American people has promptly and generously extended its hand of mercy and help. Generosity has never impoverished the giver, it has enriched the lives of those who have practiced it…And the bread we have cast upon the waters has been returned in blessings a hundredfold.”
[ Dwight D. Eisenhower; Republican; 34th U.S. President ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXVIII – Trump’s Contempt for the American People

~ tomdolen

*** “Never since the scandal-ridden administration of Ulysses S. Grant has there been an executive branch as nakedly given over to self-dealing as that of Donald Trump….no family has mixed business interests with public office like the Trumps. The appointment of close family members who are also corporate executives to ill-defined but top-level White House jobs is a first…His daughter Ivanka Trump has also served as an inspiration to dictators around the world.”
[ Sarah Chayes: On Corruption In America” ]

This post presents excerpts from. “Trump Holds the American People in Total Contempt” {Jamelle Bouie; New York Times; 4/26/26}:

1] “To say that President Trump is corrupt is to somehow understate the size, scope and magnitude of his corruption.”

9] “With Trump..the misconduct is the concern. You might even say that his corruption, like his cruelty, is the point.”

2]. “..Trump’s corruption, which is so vast as to be a new phenomenon in American politics. The president and his family have leveraged his office to the tune of nearly $4 billion. They have received hundreds of millions of dollars from a network of branded cryptocurrency assets. Investors include large corporations, foreign nationals and state actors hoping to curry favor with the administration.”

*** “Trump perked up at the mention of bribes and got rather agitated. He told Tillerson he wanted him to help him get rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act…..Looking at Tillerson, Trump said, “I need you to get rid of that law”….”Mr. President,” he said. “I’m not the guy to do that.”….Trump..turned to Stephen Miller….”Stephen, I want you to draft an executive order and repeal that law.” [Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius”]. [NOTE: this is an actual 2017 Oval Office conversation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How much ore do YOU need to know???]

3] “..consider the president’s pardons. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, a crypto firm, was convicted in 2023 fro violating the Bank Secrecy Act. After Trump returned to office, Zhao – whose company donated software to World Liberty Financial so that it could start its own cryptocurrency. – lobbied for a pardon. In October of last year, Trump granted the pardon, raising the possibility that Zhao could recover his court-ordered fines. – $4.3 billion to the U.S. government as punishment for allowing criminal actors to use Binance for a broad array of illicit transactions, including child sex abuse, illegal narcotics and terrorism.”

4]. “Trump’s various projects. – his monuments to himself. – also appear to be little more than state-sanctioned opportunities for graft. The president has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from wealthy donors and large corporations for his proposed ballroom, presidential library and triumphal arch. Tens of millions of dollars marked for the library are unaccounted for..”

5] “Last but far from least is the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the I.R.S., for damages for leaking his tax returns to the public in 2019 and 2020. [NOTE: which Trump promised to do in some speeches!] According to a recent news report, lawyers for the president are in talks with the I.R.S. to settle. This is tantamount to presidential looting of the Treasury, little different than if Trump had stolen the money outright.”

***. “Meanwhile, the big-business strand of America’s emerging kleptocratic network was awarded control of the agencies whose job is to protect the public from the worst effects of those very businesses” profit-seeking practices. The executives – and lobbyists-turned-government-officials went straight to work rewriting the rules in ways designed to maximize the gush of money into their collective coffers, not ease the burdens on ordinary Americans.”
[ Sarah Chayes: “On Corruption In America” ]

6] “Despite the general reputation for graft that pervades the 19th century, it is hard to find anything like the personal corruption of Trump, even among Gilded Age presidents.”

7] “Looking through the 20th century, there is, of course, the administration of Warren G. Harding….Harding himself did not appear to be personally corrupt…”

8] “To walk through subsequent presidents is to get a similar picture. Is there gross misconduct? Yes. After all, Richard Nixon was forced to resign. Was there graft and petty corruption among other higher and lower officers in each administration? Also yes. But do we see anything like the self-dealing and naked personal enrichment of Trump and his family? No, we do not.”

10]. “Trump is a type, one of many figures around the world whose nationalist, patrimonial political movement is little more than a cover.”

***. “..Trump himself..is at once a symptom..of America’s increasingly corrupt system, and an exaggeration of it so extreme as to seem like a grotesque aberration…Trump’s bald use of his office to patronize and promote his businesses. – including raking in ‘kick-ups”. from lower echelons…outstrips anything I have witnessed in a developing country. As does his penchant for surrounding himself with men entwined with foreign criminal networks, and his don-like demand for fealty…Trump has taken mafia government to heights unrivaled in this country’s history.”
[ Sarah Chayes: “On Corruption In America”]. [NOTE: Chayes was “special assistant on corruption to Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; advised David McKiernan and Stanley McChrystal]

[“Trump has taken mafia government to heights unrivaled in this country’s history.” – let that sink in. Read this article in full. Read Chayes” book. Understand her context and experience for things she wrote.]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXVII. – Trump Further Blows Up The U.S. Tax System

~ tomdolen

***. “My megarich friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” [Warren Buffett: “Please Tax Me. I Can Take It”; New York Times; 8/16/2011]

This post BEGINS to examine the CORRUPTION of the U.S. tax system. For much of its existence, the rich, connected, and corporations have sought to cheat on taxes. Like much else in post-1980 America, the corruption of “our” tax system has been driven by far-right ideologues, with much “encouragement” from the rich, and considerable help from a CORRUPT U.S. “supreme court” [legalized bribery]. Republicans are DOCUMENTED to have done most of this. Below are some excerpts of evidence explaining how the tax burden has been shifted on to ordinary citizens.

1] “The Republican tax plan would deliver a major benefit to the top 1 percent of Americans….Despite repeated promises from Republican lawmakers that the plan is designed to provide relief to the middle class, nearly 30 percent of taxpayers with incomes between $50,000 and $150,000 would see a tax increase….Meanwhile, the study found that 80 percent of the tax benefits would accrue to those in the top 12 percent.” [Carolyn Johnson: “Tax analysis: Tump plan gives little to middle”; Washington Post; 9/30/17]

2] “In 2027, 70 percent of middle-income taxpayers will get a tax hike. – but just 8 percent of those making more than $5 million will.” [Mother Jones; March-April, 2018]

3] “A report released March 24 projects that the IRS is set to lose over $500 billion in tax revenue over the next tax season as a result of actions taken by President Donald Trump and his top donor Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency group..” [ “Dispatches”; The Progressive Populist; April 15, 2025 ]

4] “Trump administration to slash IRS staffing in half” …..”a significant cut that could jeopardize the agency’s ability to complete its basic mission of collecting taxes….while corporations and rich Americans may face less scrutiny from the thinly staffed tax agency.” [Andrew Duehren; New York Times; 3/5/25]

***. “The only reason God put Republicans on earth is to cut taxes.” [President of Club for Growth Stephen Moore; “Realtime with Bill Maher”; HBO; 4/25/ 2003]

5]. “The Trump administration claims gutting federal agencies will save money, but cutting the IRS means the government collects less taxes….Economic studies have shown that for every dollar spent by the IRS, the agency returns between $5 and $12….A 2024 report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the IRS found savings of $13,000 for every additional hour spent auditing the tax returns of very wealthy taxpayers..” The LB&I division, which has “the highest return on investment” was disproportionally going to be cut. [Andy Kroll: “How DOGE’s Cuts to the IRS Threaten to Cost More Than DOGE Will Ever Save”; The Progressive Populist; April 1, 2025]

6] “Emails Reveal Top IRS Lawyer Warned Trump Firings Were a “FRAUD” on the Courts”. [Andy Kroll; The Progressive Populist; April 15, 2025]

7] “The turn away from audits of big partnerships is part of the IRS’s broader chaos, which has been accompanied by a slew of tax giveaways to industry in Trump’s new term. Big companies are benefitting from the gutting of regulations and the agency is pulling back from a crackdown on various shelters.” [ Jesse Drucker” “Push to audit private equity and venture capital falters”; New York Times; 1/1/26 ]

***. “Taxes: Making sure that the poor and middle-class pay their fair share of corporate handouts. “Tax Relief: “Relieving major corporations of any tax burden whatsoever so that they may reinvest their earnings in larger compensation packages for their CEO’s.” { “The Real Republican Dictionary” ]

8] “A team of academic economists and IRS researchers in 2021 found that the top 1% of U.S. income earners fail to report more than 20% of their earnings to the IRS.” [ Fatima Hussein: “IRS touts audits of rich tax dodgers”; Associated Press; 7/15/23 ]

9] ‘..a new study finds that at least 55 of America’s largest companies paid no U.S. taxes last year on billions of dollars in profits….Many also received millions of dollars in tax rebates.” [ Patrica Cohen: “At least 55 firms paid no U.s. taxes in 2020’; New York Times; 9/4/21 ]

10] “Firms move HQ overseas then exploit tax loophole”. [ Steven D. Solomon; New York Times; 2/15/16 ]

***. “Nothing is more important in the face of war than cutting taxes.” [ Republican Rep. Tom Delay; 3/12/2003 ]

11]. !!!!!!!! READ. THIS – AND GET ANGRY. “The United states is losing approximately $1 trillion in unpaid taxes every year, Charles Rettig, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, estimated Tuesday, arguing that the agency lacks the resources to catch tax cheats….Most of the unpaid taxes are the result of evasion by the wealthy and large corporations, Rettig said.” [ Alan Rappeport; New York Times; 4/14/ 21 ]. [NOTE; this is the yearly debt interest payment !!!!! ]

12]. “Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the IRS hopes to increase audit rates on wealthy individuals to 2011 levels, before congressional Republicans slashed its budget for five consecutive years.” [ Jacob Bogage: “IRS aims for more audits of rich”; Washington Post Weekly; 4/9/23 ]

13]. “IRS to cut estate examiners. Bush administration to fire 157 lawyers, 17 others who audit wealthiest filers” [ David Cay Johnston; New York Times; 7/23/2006 ]

***. “The tax system is becoming a tool to turn the American dream of prosperity and reward for hard work into an impossible goal for tens of millions of Americans and into a nightmare for many others. Our tax system is being used to create a nation with fewer stable jobs and less secure retirement income. The tax system is being used by the rich, through their allies in Congress, to shift risks off themselves and unto everyone else. And perhaps worst of all, our tax system now forces most Americans to subsidize the lifestyles of the very rich, who enjoy the benefits of our democracy without paying their fair share of its price.” [ Double Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “Perfectly Legal” ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXV. – Trump Blows Up The National Debt

~ tomdolen


** “To contract new debts is not the way to pay old debts.” { George Washington ]

The U.S. national debt for 1789 – 1980, when Ronald Reagan became president was less than $1 trillion. America had paid for the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, recovery from the 1930’s Great Depression, built the Eisenhower freeway system, gone to the moon, instituted Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and much more.

This post begins to examine how Republicans blew up the national debt deliberately, disarmed the IRS, lowered taxes on the rich. The record is statistically clear, and, like much else, the Trump DICTATORSHIP made the national debt crisis much worse. – and. – of course, lied about it.
Below are some beginning excerpts, laying out the FACTS for YOU:

1] “..74 percent of the debt was run up under the last three Republican presidents and..no Republican president since Dwight Eisenhower ever submitted a balanced budget to Congress.” { economist Edward Lotterman: “Cynicism and self-delusion will bankrupt this nation”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 4/23/09 ]

2] “The tax cuts championed by President Donald Trump are helping push the nation toward an unprecedented level of debt, heightening the risk of another financial crisis, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”
[ Evan Halper: “Tax cuts accelerate U.S. toward a debt crisis”; Los Angeles Times; 6/27/18]

3] “The amount of corporate taxes collected by the federal government has plunged to historically low levels in the first sic months of the year, pushing up the federal budget deficit much faster than economists predicted. The reason is President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.” [ Jim Tankersley: “New tax law does a number on the debt”; New York Times; 7/29/18 ]

4]. “Trump also insisted that a new round of tax cuts would lower the debt. – a claim disputed by most mainstream economists, and undermined by the actual budgetary effects of the tax cut he signed into law..” [ Jeff Stein: “Trump’s budget ideas don’t add up”; Washington Post; 9/8/24 ]

5]. “..the eight Clinton years had the fastest average growth in inflation-adjusted GDP since the 1960s, a rate nearly twice as high as over the 23 years since. We threw that sustainability away with tax cuts in 2001, 2003 and 2007.”
[ economist Edward Lotterman: “Wanted: Political cover for the inevitable”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 10/13/24 ]

***. “Thanks to the half-revolution adopted in July 1981, more than a trillion dollars has already been needlessly added to our national debt. – a burden that will plague us indefinitely. Our national savings has been squandered to pay for a tax cut we could not afford…borrowed enormous amounts of foreign capital…the U.S. economy will most surely grow much more slowly. By turning ourselves into a debtor nation for the first time since World War I, we have sacrificed future living standards.” [ David Stockman: “The Triumph of Politics”. – he was Reagan”s budget director!!!!! ]

6] The 2017 Trump tax cuts added $2.5 trillion to the national debt by 2024 analysis. They now represent 6-8% of the current 2026 debt. If they are made permanent, the cost could increase by another $4 trillion over the next ten years.
[ Internet – 4/29/26. some estimates are for a much higher debt from Trump’s tax cuts. ]

7]. “..Donald Trump’s proposal to further reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% would make the bottom half of the nation’s income distribution poorer while boosting the fortunes of those at the very top, according to analysis published Oct. 3 by economists at American University.” [ Dispatches; The Progressive Populist; November l, 2024 ]

8]. “Suply-side cultists and Republicans had forecast gloom and doom from the Bush and Clinton tax increases, but the result was the last real prosperity our nation has had.” [ economist Edward Lotterman: “Deficits matter; more than elections”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 7/8/24 ]

9} “Trump cuts force cities to scramble. Minn. communities rethink infrastructure projects amid uncertain federal funding”. [ Sydney Kashiwagi; Minnesota Star Tribune; 4/7/25 ]

10] “How the GOP may pay for the tax cuts”. [ Jacob Bogage; Washington post Weekly; 1/5/25 ]: “Nonpartisan scorekeepers project that Trump’s campaign platform would add up to $15 trillion to future borrowing [the national debt]” Listed below are are “10 policies that Trump and Republicans have floated..” NOTICE WHO GETS HURT AND WHO DOESN’T GET HURT!!!!! “Impose new tariffs. Repeal clean energy programs. Cut ‘unauthorized’ programs. Cancel student loan forgiveness. Eliminate the Education Department. Cut food stamp benefits. Impose Medicaid work requirements. Withhold anti-obesity drugs. End child tax credit for noncitizens Cut IRS funding [NOTE: cutting IRS funding will acyually cost more than it would save !!!]

*** “Having added to the national debt, the wealthy are now funding initiatives that decry the deficit and call for cuts in programs that provide safety nets for middle-class Americans such as Social Security and Medicare.” [ Double Pulitzer Prize winners Donald Barlett & James Steele: “The Betrayal of The American Dream” ]

{NOTE; and then. – this. – the interest on the Republican created national debt. – $1 trillion WASTED. paying the interest on the national debt EVERY. year. Because. – instead of properly and fairly taxing the rich and corporations. – we’re borrowing it. Much more on the failure, the CORRUPTION, of not fairly taxing them will be in post CLXXVI on the Trump DICTATORSHIP. ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXII – Donald Trump’s “Psychotic State”

~ tomdolen

*** ‘people who don’t believe evil exists have clearly never encountered a psychopath, sociopath or narcissist.”
[ Morgan McKean ]

There have been multiple attempts to evaluate Donald John Trump as a human being. Bandy Lee’s. “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”. provided analysis of “37 psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts”. [2017, 2019]. Then other mental health experts analyzed Trump’s speech patterns over a fairly long period of years. Omarosa Manigault Newman, in Trump’s presence for 15 years, wrote “Unhinged,” discussing the ways he changed “mentally and physically.” Mary Trump, Trump’s niece and a trained clinical psychologist, wrote. “Too Much and Never Enough.” Adam Gabbatt, in the Guardian, wrote. “Is Trump Mentally OK?,” providing a long list of 25 specific examples of Trump’s ‘unusual behavior in 2025,” some quite startling.

This post presents excerpts from: “Trump Is Turning America Into A Psychotic State” [ Jonathan Rauch, Peter Wehner; New York Times; 4/12/26]:

12] “Institutional psychosis is ultimately self-defeating and unsustainable. Reality checks will return because reality always asserts itself. But severe damage will have been done, damage that may take a generation or more to repair.
As the Trump era winds down, the country may relearn something that never should have been forgotten. Institutions need to be reformed, not destroyed; governing well requires skill and careful attention to detail rather than leaders acting on impulse and ignorance; and character and mental stability matter perhaps most of all.”

2] “The issue is that the administration as a whole lacks a consistent attachment to reality and the ability to organize its thinking coherently. Mr. Trump’s grandiosity, impulsivity, inconsistency and outright breaks with reality have become state policy.”

11] “America and its allies have dealt with a lot of presidential imperfections and failings, but there is no precedent or even category for the institutional psychosis displayed by the second Trump administration. Precisely because the psychotic state is so unpredictable, setting up systems to manage it will not work.”

5] “Incoherence is not incidental in this administration; it is the administration’s modus operandi. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency caused chaos in federal agencies by sacking, then sometimes rehiring employees without any evident rationale. – and without making a serious dent in government spending. Mr. Trump flipped from “no more wars”. to waging war…using and threatening military force..seemingly every other month.”

***. “Emotionally he remains the thirteen-year-old troublemaker his father sent off to a military academy..Being stuck in the awkward year between childhood and maturity for nearly six decades..has twisted Trump’s personality and explains much of his narcissism..” [Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Imagine”]

1]. “It has been clear for a long time that President Trump is a person with a disorganized mind and a disordered personality. What the past few months and especially the past few weeks have brought into focus is how his pathologies have cascaded downward and outward through his administration. They have become institutionalized.The reason the administration so often does not act coherently is that it cannot.”

3] “It is the Iran war that has most vividly demonstrated the scope of the problem. In this conflict, the most potent antagonist has been the administration’s own incoherence. The Trump administration chose to wage a war without deciding on its aims, mapping out a strategy, planning for contingencies or even being able to explain itself. The goal was regime change. – until it wasn’t. The demand was unconditional surrender. – until it wasn’t. Deadlines were issued and then erased. Threats of total destruction were made and then pulled back.”

4] “THe administration might have been readier had it not chopped back the State Department’s Middle East desk, gotten rid of its oil and gas experts and eliminated its dedicated Iran office. the administration handicapped its own National Security council by firing staff members, some at the behest of a conspiracy-minded internet personality, and undercutting its independence.” [Note: this is often called ‘shooting yourself in the foot” !!!!]

*** Dictionary and thesaurus definitions of ‘psychotic”: “insane, mad, psychopathic, crazy, schizophrenic, maniacal, unbalanced, unhinged, mentally unsound, bereft of reason, deluded, disordered, nutty, screwy, half-cocked, unglued, not playing with a full deck…” [NOTE: this is what the above paragraphs – and much more, discuss and imply when t hey discuss Trump’s mind, and that of those around him.]

6] “Normal administrations set up policy processes that assemble evidence from varied sources, collate viewpoints and priorities across multiple agencies and ensure rational deliberation before options reach the president. one of us served in three Republican administrations and participated as interagency reviews took place in a cabinet department, in an executive agency and the White House itself. a single line in a presidential foreign policy statement might require the input of 20 or more people..” [in a “normal administration’..”

7] “The policy review process can be tortuous and sometimes mistaken. It can’t substitute for wide presidential judgment. But it is vital. It asks hard questions and assesses competing arguments. It ensures expert input in specific domains, anticipates how policies may ramify and prepares for contingencies. In all those ways, the systematic review of policy amounts to an institutional mind; a cognitive process that organizes the government’s deliberations to keep them rational and anchored in reality.” [NOTE: does a Psychotic State” operate rationally???]

8]. “In Mr. Trump’s second term, those functions still exist, but they can be disrupted, circumvented or just plain abandoned at any moment on the say-so of the president and his senior officials. In that respect, the Trump administration is mindless….irrational processes produce inexplicable outcomes, and that is what we have seen, again and again. The only rhyme or reason is the principle that Mr. Trump proclaimed when explaining his policy toward Cuba: “I think I can do anything I want with it.” That is the principle by which his administration governs.”

***. “Whatever big crisis comes, the one thing we know is that Donald Trump lacks the deep knowledge, critical thinking skills, emotional maturity and ability to separate sound advice from nonsense that are needed in a crisis.”
[Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “The making of Donald Trump”]

9] “..until a coherent policy process is restored under a chief executive who understands the need for it, we should expect geysers of mindlessness to keep erupting in unforeseeable ways and places.”

10] “As one of us has argued, he is a patrimonialist. – a leader who believes the state is his personal property. And both of us have said that his administration displays the hallmarks of fascism. Ultimately, however, institutional psychosis defies rational categories. Predicting this administration’s behavior is impossible under any framework. And if Mr. Trump becomes more desperate as he grows more unpopular, the danger only increases.”

*** “People should not vote for ANY Republican because they’re dangerous, dishonest, and self-serving…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 the Republicans, and our grandchildren will have to build a new government, because the one we have will be unrecognizable and unworkable.” [NOTE: these words were spoken by a “lifelong Republican’ who knew G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney personally. He spoke anonymously because one of his sons had an important nonpolitical government post “and we both know that Republicans will seek revenge wherever they can find it.” it is the closing quote in John W. Dean’s. “Broken Government,” published in 2007. It was the last of three books Dean wrote about the corruption of government by Republicans.”

***. [NOTE: The United States is now one year into the 5th year of the 8 years under Republicans that this man feared.We have 3 years more of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. Under “Project 2025” guidance, Trump and his “Project 2025′ Rasputins ARE destroying the American system of democratic government. – as the man predicted. – making YOUR American government “unrecognizable and unworkable.” AND. – YOUR children and grandchildren WILL have to build a new government that works ‘of the people, by the people, for the people”. – OR American democracy WILL. “perish from the earth.” ]. [ What are. YOU. going to do ????? ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXI. – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous War Leader, V

~ tomdolen

***. “Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.”
[ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ]

this post is the 5th in a series examining the conduct of Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States. Many have concluded Trump has serious mental issues. In 2017 and 2019, 37 psychiatrists and mental health experts expressed alarm in “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” Several years later, another group examined Trump’s speech patterns over a multi-year span. – expressed alarm. Even if Trump is “norma,” there is NO debate he is THE anti-George Washington. Now, he has embroiled America, the Middle East, the world in a war of choice. And, of course, he has already told numerous lies and falsehoods.

This post presents excerpts from: “Americans Deserve The Truth About Iran” [ New York Times Editorial; 3/22/26 ]:

10] “Whatever short-term gain mr. Trump thinks he is getting by lying about the war in Iran is far exceeded by the cost, for him, the country and the world.”

3] “..lying about war is uniquely corrosive. When a president signals that the truth does not matter in wartime, he encourages his cabinet and his generals to mislead the country and one another about how the war is going. He creates a culture in which deadly mistakes and even war crimes can become more common. He makes it harder to win by hiding the realities of conflict and by making allies wary of joining the fight. Ultimately, her undermines American values and interests.”

9]. “Lies about war also make it harder to achieve victory: The more one spreads falsehoods, the less one feels obligated to face reality. In one respect, Americans understand that their leaders’ refusal to confront the truth in Iraq and Vietnam led to strategic errors. This pattern is repeating. Before Mr. Trump began this war, he brushed aside warnings from his top military advisor that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz to traffic it does not approve. The global economy is now dealing with the consequences of his overconfidence.”

4] “There is a reasonable debate to have about the wisdom of this war. Iran’s murderous government does indeed present a threat. – to its own people, to its region and to global stability. Mr. Trump could make a fact-based argument for confronting the regime now, especially to prevent it from menacing its neighbors and, above all, from developing a nuclear weapon…. Mr. Trump is not making it. Instead, he has lied about the reasons for the war and about its progress, an an apparent attempt to disguise his poor planning and the war’s questionable basis.”

***. “The first casualty of war is truth.” { Aeschylus ]

1] “From his first announcement of the attack on Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump has issued a stream of falsehoods about the war..”

2] “Lying is standard behavior for Mr. Trump, of course. His political career began with a lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace, and he has lied about his business, his wealth, his inauguration crowd size, his defeat in the 2020 election and so much more. A CNN tally of Mr. Trump’s falsehoods during one part of his first term found that he averaged eight false claims per day.”

5]. “the president was only minutes into his Feb. 28 announcement of the start of the conflict when he offered an obviously contradictory rationale for it….The lies have continued since then.”

*** “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” [ Adolf Hitler ]

6]. “he has also asserted that “nobody” believed Iran would retaliate by attacking Arab countries. On Monday, he said that “no, the greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit” neighboring countries. In truth, some experts had warned of precisely this scenario.”

7]. “In another instance, Mr. Trump has used false information to continue his alarming penchant to portray people who contradict him as un-American.”

8]. “A shocking falsehood came on March 7, when Mr. Trump claimed in his typically offhand way that a strike on an elementary school in the town of Minab in †he first hours of war “was done by Iran.” …The U.S. military has conducted an investigation and preliminarily concluded taht an American missile mistakenly hit the school.”

***. “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 ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLVIII. – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous. War leader, II

~ tomdolen

***. “The statement that war is a continuation of policy by other means has become a catch-phrase and is therefore dangerous. We can say with equal truth: War is bankruptcy of policy.” [ German General Hans Von Seeckt ]

This post is the second in a series examining the conduct of one Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States. As has been said many times: he is a deeply flawed person; seems to operate on whims, grudges, delusions, LIES. It has been said he is UNFIT to be president – by serious observers citing examples, not wild assertions. He IS the anti-George Washington. the anti-Abraham Lincoln.

***. “I now know that wars do not end wars.” [ Henry Ford ]

This post presents excerpts from: “President Donald Trump is an incompetent commander in chief” [ Stephen Young; New York Times; 3/27/26 ]:

10] “As far as I can tell, given Clausewitz’s criteria for winning a war, Donald Trump doesn’t, and can’t, pass muster as a commander in chief.”

2] ‘Clausewitz’s famous [because it’s true] law of war is that “war is a mere continuation of politics by other means.” To ignore politics in waging war is to lose. Does Trump know that?”

8] “Most important..is the human element brought to the fight by the commander. A commander must have determination, but if that determination hardens into blind self-confidence, it becomes a liability rather than a strength. The commander who is too self-assured or conceited becomes dangerous because he stops questioning his own assumptions. in war, where uncertainty dominates, this leads to performative decisions that don’t adapt to reality.”

5] “It seems Trump never read Clausewitz. He was, after all, a draft dodger refusing to serve his country in Vietnam.”

9] “Most importantly, Clausewitz advised, the mind of the commander must be free to think while not being captured by prejudice. For Clausewitz such freedom of the mind is indispensable if the commander is to dominate events, not to be overpowered by them.”

*** “Perhaps the most central characteristic of authentic leadership is the relinquishing of the impulse to dominate others.” [ David Cooper ]

1]. “After four weeks as a wartime commander in chief, Donald Trump now wants to pull his burning chestnuts out of the fire. Why. – the war not going as he has foreseen? The Iranian theocrats not willing to give in?”

3]. “What does Trump know of the hearts and minds of his Iranian enemy, or of the Iranian people in general? After four weeks of intensive bombing, the killing of dozens of religiously driven leaders and the straits of Hormuz being closed against his wishes, how close is our president to victory?”

4] “For Clausewitz the heart and soul of politics is will and morale. You wein when your enemy loses the will to continue, falls into an irresistible collapse of morale, just throws in the towel. So, Clausewitz says, the art of war is how to bring about such a collapse of will. In short, politics.”

6]. “Clausewitz defined war as an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will. Thus, we must proportion our efforts to the enemy’s powers of resistance. So our efforts must be proportional to the enemy’s will. – weapons and tactics which do not degrade the enemy’s will cannot win a war.”

7] “Thus, the Chinese master of the art of war, Sun Tzu, taught: first of all, study your enemy. He wrote simply: “[W]hat is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.” Bombs can’t do that. They only target enemy combatants and weapons systems. A conviction that bombing could ever be a war-winning strategy is an illusion.”

*** “One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.” [ Napoleon ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLIV – Affordability. – Trump Lies About, Contributes To It, II

~ tomdolen

*** “Future historians will record the volatility of the president’s decision-making, as well as the internal struggles of a government for4ced to grapple with it. They will write that his advisors came to find him unfit for the job. He couldn’t focus on governing, and he was prone to abuses of power, from ill-conceived schemes to punish his political rivals to a propensity for undermining vital American institutions. They will document how officials considered drastic. – some might say desperate. – measures to warn the American people.” [ Anonymous: “A Warning” ]. [NOTE: this book, written in 2019, was a warning to America about Donald John Trump – and the damage he already was doing]

This post is volume two on Trump’s contributions to, and lies about, his own policies and rhetoric for the “affordability” struggles most Americans face. As post CLIV noted, Trump will likely have NO empathy for their struggles. – as he seldom has ANY empathy for ANYBODY outside a small circle [ like billionaires!!!]. He will likely spend the next 7 months trying to sell. YOU on the FRAUD. that he has no responsibility for YOUR. struggles, and, trying to convince YOU. it doesn’t exist, or – is a “hoax” made up by “the enemies of the people” – news media, economists, statisticians – all of whom look at. REAL. numbers, listen to REAL. ordinary people – like YOU.

This post examines three major “affordability” crises: health care, housing, chuld care:

Health Care
A]. “One-third of Americans – an estimated 82 million people – say they are making sacrifices, including skipping meals or driving less, to pay for care….people also said they had delayed making major changes to their lives, like hacing a child or retiring..” [Reed Abelson: “Medical costs are squeezing Americans”; New York Times; 3/13/26]
B] “Over the past five years, the price of health coverage for an employee’s family has risen 26 percent, to $27,000 annually….About 32 percent of Americans said they were “very worried” about health care bills.” [Peter Whoriskey: “Americans’ top worry is now the cost of health care”; Washington Post Weekly; 2/1/26]
C] “We don’t talk about it much, but the numbers tell the story plain: about four in 10 adults in America carry medical or dental debt, and rural folks are more likely to struggle with it than people living in urban areas. Research shows medical problems and bills are among the leading contributors to personal bankruptcy…. Other nations have made different choices about how to care for their people..” [Andrew Tate: “The Cost of Care in the Land of Plenty”; The Progressive Populist; January, 2026]

Housing
D]. “President Trump’s proposed housing policies would put hundreds of thousands of Americans out on the streets.” [Farrah Hassen: “It’s Not only the White House Getting Demolished. Trump’s Gutting Affordable Housing”; The Progressive Populist; December, 2025]
E] “Home prices have risen more than 50 percent since the start of the pandemic. About a third of American households now spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing….The core of the problem is simple: Too much money chasing too few homes.” [Note; the solution is known: built more homes]. [Ezra Klein: “Our Housing Crisis, in One Chart”; New York Times; 1/30/25]
F} “I don’t want to drive housing prices down,” ..[Trump].. said. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their own homes.”….Economists across the ideological spectrum have diagnosed the United states with an acute housing shortage ghat has raised home prices and rents. The remedy, they argue, is to focus on policies that increase the supply of housing..” [Connor Dougherty: “Trump Is Seeking To Drive Up Housing Prices”; New York Times; 2/9/26]
G] “ICE Surge Drags Down Home Construction”. [Dee Depass; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/10/26]: “Twin Cities homebuilders are falling behind schedule as the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota has fueled a shortage of roofing, drywall and other construction workers..”
H] YOU can also rad; “Homewreckers”. [Aaron Glantz]: “a shocking investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern day robber barons – among them Donald Trump and his inner circle – who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working class and middle class.”

Child Care
I]. “Nationally, the cost of child care now significantly outpaces inflation, rising 8% since June 2024, compared with a 4% increase in general inflation……New York Times/Siena University polling, which found that affordability concerns are largely about the costs of family life….In most states, the average price of child care is even higher than in-state college tuition.” [Asmaa Elkeurti, Claire Cain Miller: “For Many, Child Care Seems less Affordable Than Ever”; New York Times; 3/22/26]

*** “Trump lacks the emotional stability, knowledge, critical-thinking skills, and judgment to be commander-in-chief…..Even by the standards of the incurious George W. Bush, Trump is appallingly ignorant….More surprising than Trump’s lack of knowledge of geopolitics is his ignorance of economics, the field in which he was given a bachelor’s degree..” [ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]

***. “In a president, character is everything.” [ Peggy Noonan ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLIII – ‘Melania’ the Movie As A Bribe?

~ tomdolen


*** United States Constitution: Article II, Section 4: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, a Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

This post presents an argument that Donald John Trump should, again, be impeached; this time for Bribery. The argument by Robert Reich: “‘Melania’: The Movie. The Bribe. The Shame.” [The Progressive Populist, march, 2026]. Excerpts below:

1] “My purpose today is …to talk about its real excuse – allowing Jeff Bezos to give a big fat bribe to the president of the United States.

5] “..Ted Hope, who was instrumental in starting Amazon’s film division, wondered aloud to The New York Times, “How can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe? How can that not be the case?”

*** “Corrupt influence is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; it loads us more than millions of debt; takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most vulnerable parts of our constitution.” [ Edmund Burke ]

2] “Why would Bezos bribe him? Please. Bezos…owns Amazon and many other businesses that depend on the whms of the sociopath in the Oval Office.”

3]. “Friends, when the history of this sordid period of America is written – assuming it’s not written by historians trying to curry favor with a future fascist regime – I hope the leaders of American business are condemned to the hellfire they deserve for helping destroy American democracy.”

*** “By corruption, the early generations meant excessive private interests influencing the exercise of public power. An Act was corrupt when private power was used to influence public power for private ends….A person was corrupt when they use public power for private ends. There was no way for government to work without virtue, and “no substitute for good men in office.” [ Zephyr Teachout: “Corruption in America” ]

4] “Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, will have pride in place here ..[Hell].., after spending a quarter of a billion dollars getting Trump elected….But jeff Brezos, with his $75 million bribe of Trump, will deserve a special place in the innermost ring of hell.”

6]. “If America still had a Department of Justice, Bezos would be indicted fro bribery of a public official pursuant to 18 U.S. Code @ 201, which criminalizes offering or giving anything of value to a public official with the intent to influence their official actions.”

***. “…there is no way to access infinite wealth without rigging the system. No one becomes a billionaire honestly.”
[ Sarah Chayes: “On corruption In America” ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CL. – “A Blank Check For Brutality”

~ tomdolen

*** “Men with power have an extraordinary capacity to convince themselves that what they do conincides with what society needs done for its [own] good.” Raymond Vernon ]

This post presents excerpts from “Return of The Big Stick…..Hoe Donald Trump’s Embrace of ‘Realism’ is Becoming a Blank Check for Brutality”. [ Linda Kinstler; New York Times Magazine; 1/25/26 ]:

10] “..for Trump, the threats posed at home and abroad are seemingly the same, and so is his response. Armed government agents have arrested and killed U.S. citizens as part of Trump’s immigration policies; the federal government has strong-armed universities into accepting its agenda by withholding research funding; the Federal Communications Commission uses mergers as leverage to influence media coverage.”

11] “The second Trump administration may very well mark the start of a violent global age of Machtpolitik. “Trump is different than all of his predecessors because of his contempt for international law and international institutions,” Mearsheimer said …past presidents…correctly understood that those laws and institutions were in America’s interest..”

9] “For Porter, it is not realism that defines the Trump era but rather its “corrupt cousin,” Machtpolitik, which pursues power for its own sake and is defined by a “sort of violent exhilaration of destruction, nihilism and vengeance.” Trump’s penchant for theatrics and bombast, his obsession with status and his use of power to enrich himself and his family – all these are characteristic elements of his darker ideology….”By losing all restraints, you destroy yourself, Porter said.”

*** “Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.” [ Frank Herbert ]

1] “President Trump’s aide Stephen Miller blithely articulated the outlook that has taken hold of the White House. “We live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” Miller said. “These are iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

2] “That National Security Strategy, released in early December, gave a name to one of the organizing principles supposedly governing the administration’s foreign. policy: ‘flexible realism.”

3] “The realist school of foreign policy is rooted in the belief that the world is fundamentally ungovernable and that politics comes down to power.”

***. “Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of our own choosing.” [ George Orwell: “1984” ]

4]. “While the varied strains of realism are plentiful and sometimes contradictory, the Trump administration is channeling one of the crudest forms….By invoking realism to justify their actions abroad, Trump and his associates are treating it as an alibi for a distinctly American imperialism, a pretext for belligerence.”

5] “There are iron laws of world politics that they don’t understand,” said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. “Realism is all about realizing that in a competitive world, you want to be smart and go for genuine strategic advantage, not just pointless displays of power.”

6] “Critically. 20th-century realists accepted that all power is necessarily bound by constraint, hemmed in by the limitations of geography, politics and human nature. To lose sight of this is to risk slipping into much darker territory.”

*** “My power depends on my glory, and my glory on my victory. My power would fall apart were I not to support it with new glory and new victories. Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest alone can maintain me.” [Napoleon]

7]. “For Walt and other realist thinkers, Trump’s aggressive and chaotic actions on the world stage – his antagonism of U.S. allies, threats of territorial conquest and assertions that the U.S. is not afraid of putting “boots on the ground”. – undermine any claim he could make to practicing a realist foreign policy.”

8] “The incoherence of Trump’s foreign policy is explicitly memorialized in the National Security Strategy.” [Which is criticized in point #9 above]

12]. “Trump and his deputies have revealed how profoundly they disdain the norms of global governance and demonstrated their willingness to use force to get what they want. On Jan. 9, the president signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from dozens of international organizations.”

*** “In public affairs, stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.” [ Woodrow Wilson; 28th U.S. President ]