Tag: news

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXVII – Redefining Crime

~ tomdolen

*****. “There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men.”
[ Ludwig von Mises ]

This post will BEGIN the long list of “redefinitions” of the Trump DICTATORSHIP, which have begun to CORRUPT American government, American values, American society, American decency.

1] “Trump Pardons Redefine Crime” [ Glenn Thrush; New York Times; 6/1/25 ] – several excerpts follow:

A] “President Donald Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs – using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatize political opponents by labeling them criminals.” [read & THINK on this again]

B]. “Trump has used his pardon power, like nearly every other executive tool in his kit, to assert personal dominance over processes generally, if not always, governed by established ethical and institutional guardrails. He professes to abide by the rue of law but has often shown a willingness to do so only when he defines the rules and laws.”

C]. “”Granting pardons or commuting sentences of public officials or other white-collar criminals convicted of fraud, tax evasion and other breaches of trust is likely to have the effect of normalizing nonviolent crimes,” said Barbara McQuade…”Of course, stealing by fraud is still stealing. It’s just that this is the way rich people do it.”

D] “Another Trump objective: Rewriting the history of the Capitol riot to minimize the actions of his supporters and emphasize the hardship they endured by being prosecuted. He has gone so far as to call some of those who were imprisoned “hostages.”
“Hours after declaring at his inauguration that “the scales of justice will be rebalanced,” Trump granted blanket clemency to around 1,600 rioters, some of them violent, who ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It instantly obliterated the biggest and most logistically complex investigation in the history of the Justice Department and was followed, in short order, by a purge of career prosecutors who obtained convictions.”

E]. “At the time, Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney in Washington who oversaw many of the trials, said the move undermined the rule of law and set a dangerous precedent by removing the main deterrence against future acts of insurrection and violence by would-be rioters.” [read this again & THINK on it. ‘UNDERMINED THE RUE OF LAW.” and future implications. For perspective see how DICTATOR Trump is acting on protests against HIM. ]

F]. “If the Jan. 6 clemency edict was broad, Trump’s recent actions disproportionally favor the powerful, famous, well-connected and wealthy.” [Note: the Constitution says. “..promote the general Welfare..” – just how does pardoning people who killed police officers “..establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility..” ?????]

G]. “These actions follow a systematic effort inside the Justice Department to dismantle units that investigate public corruption, fraud and foreign interference in U.S. businesses and elections.”

*****. “What do I care about the law. Hain’t I got the power?” [ Cornelius Vanderbilt ]

2]. “How a Troubling Trump Pardon Hurt a Major Criminal Inquiry” [ Mischael Schmidt, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Alan Feuer; New York Times; 11/26/23]: “..one commutation stood out…The commutation dealt a substantial blow to an ambitious criminal investigation..” of a person with a history of hurting small business and others.

3] “Trump Says He’ll Stop Health Care Fraudsters. Last Time, He Let Them Walk” [Brett Kelman; The Progressive Populist; 5/1/25]: Trump pardoned a man whose company “defrauded taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars.” Trump commuted a sentence for a health care executive convicted of a “$1.3 billion Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme”; also commuted a doctor serving a 17-year sentence “for defrauding Medicare of $42 million.”

4] “Trump Pardoned Them; Now They’re Helping Him” [ Beth Reinhard, Manuel Roig-Franzia, Clarence Morse; Washington post; 12/3/23 ]: “Never before had a president used his constitutional clemency powers to free or forgive so many people who could be useful to his future political efforts..dozens of recipients..”

5]. “Trump pardons GOP donor convicted of bilking investors” [ Jack Ewing; New York Times; 3/29/25 ]: ‘..Shareholders lost tens of millions of dollars.”

6]. “Judge: Pardons don’t ‘change the truth'” [ News Services; 1/23/25 ]: after Trump’s mass pardons for Jan. 6, 2021 offenders, a federal judge said evidence of Jan 6th is preserved through the “neutral lens” of riot videos, trial transcripts, jury verdicts and judicial opinions.

*****. “Crime is contagious. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.” [ Justice Louis Brandeis ]

[NOTE: Trump hasn’t just redefined crime, he’s also redefined downward standards for government honesty, transparency, corruption, cruelty, stupidity, craziness. If America was a “3rd world” country – we’d be laughing at him and his country. Trump has NOT, will NOT, “Make America Great Again.” He has, statistically, made us weaker. He has degraded America in the eyes of the world. Virtually his every move sincve January 20, 2025 has resulted in discrediting America. Many of hispolicies are making new enemies – often among former friends and allies.
His 2017 tax cut for the obscenely rich blew up the national debt. His effort to make thse tax cuts permanent will add TRILLIONS more on that debt. The interest on that – his – national debt is $1 trillion EVERY YEAR. Economists [REAL ones] say his policies don’t add up. Farmers and business people say his tariffs and economic policies are DIVORCED FROM REALITY.
Trump’s attacks on the “rule of law”. will damage America for years, maybe generations. His attacks on universities will “kill the goose that lays the golden egg.” In his NEED FOR ENEMIES, he has deliberately exacerbated ill will, suspicion, hatreds, and further divided Americans. All this damage is all the more shameful because of the motives behind it: GREED and political advantage. ]

*****. “Power is okay, and stupidity is usually harmless. Power and stupidity together are dangerous.”

[ Patrick Rothfuss ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXVI – Principles of Stupidity

~ tomdolen

***** “Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.” [ Margaret Atwood ]

This post presents for YOUR consideration David Brooks’ “The Six Principles Of Stupidity” [ New York Times; 2/2/25 ]

1] “Last week the Chinese made incredible gains in artificial intelligence and the Americans made incredible gains in human stupidity. I’m sorry, but I look at the Trump administration’s behavior over the last week and the only word that accurately describes it is: stupid.

2] “I define stupidity as behaving in a way that ignores this question: What would happen next? If somebody comes up to you and says, “I think I’m going to take a hike in a lightning storm with a copper antenna on my head,” stupidity replies, “That sounds like a really great idea!” Stupidity is the tendency to take actions that hurt you and the people around you. The administration produced volleys of stupidity last week.”

3] “..this is my big prediction for this administration: It will churn out a steady stream of stupid policies, and when the consequences of those policies begin tohit Trump’s approval rating, he will flip-flop, diminish or abandon those policies. He loves popularity more than any idea

“But it is still true that we’re going to have to learn a lot about stupidity over the next four years. I’ve distilled what I’ve learned so far into six main principles: “

***** “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
[ Mark Twain ]

4]. “Principle 1: Ideology produces disagreement, but stupidity produces befuddlement…When stupidity is in control, the literature professor Patrick Moreau argues, words become unscrewed “from their relation to reality.””

5]. “Principle 2: Stupidity often inheres in organizations, not individuals. When you create an organization in which one man has all the power and everybody else has to flatter his preconceptions, then stupidity will surely result.”

6] “Principle 3: People who behave stupidly are more dangerous than people who behave maliciously. Evil people at least have some accurate sense of their own self-interest, which might restrain them. Stupidity dares greatly! Stupidity already has all the answers!”

***** “Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.” [ Samuel Johnson ]

7] “Principle 4: People who behave stupidly are unaware of the stupidity of their actions…the Dunning-Kruger effect..is that incompetent people don’t have the skills to recognize their own incompetence…the Hegseth-Gabbert corollary: the Trump administration is attempting to remove civil servants who may or may not be progressive but who have tremendous knowledge in their field of expertise and hire MAGA loyalists who often lack domain knowledge or expertise.”

8]. “Principle 5: Stupidity is nearly impossible to oppose…Because stupid actions do not make sense, they invariably come as a surprise. Reasonable arguments fall on deaf ears. Counter-evidence is brushed aside. Facts are deemed irrelevant.”

9] “Principle 6: The opposite of stupidity is not intelligence, it’s rationality. The psychologist Keith Stanovich defines rationality as the capacity to make decisions that help people achieve their objectives. People in the grip of the populist mind-set tend to be contemptuous of experience, prudence and expertise, helpful components of rationality. It turns out that this can make some populists willing to believe anything – conspiracy theories, folk tales and internet legends; ghat vaccines are harmful to children. they don’t live within a structured body of thought but within a rave party chaos of prejudices.”

***** “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” [ Friedrich Nietzsche ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXV – The Human Toll of Trump’s Aid Cuts

~ tomdolen

***** “A man of Cruelty is God’s enemy.” [ thomas Fuller ]

Please consider the following excerpts from Nicholas Kristof”s “The Human Toll of Trump’s Aid Cuts” [New York times; 6/1/25]:

1] “I see secretary of state Marco Rubio as a good man doing bad things, but perhaps he thinks even worse of me: He recently suggested I was a liar. While testifying before Congress, Rubio claimed..the Trump administration’s dismantling of the United states Agency for International Development had not cost any lives. “No children are dying on my watch,”…broadened his statement to include adults..”

2] “This is ludicrous: the only debate is whether to measure the dead in the thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. So Representative Brad Sherman..challenged Rubio, citing reporting overseas by me and by Reuters of individuals who died as a result of the shutdown of American humanitarian aid….”That’s a lie,” Rubio said. “False.”

3]. “So let me help Rubio with the truth. Meet Evan Anzoo, a 5-year-old boy who was born with H.I.V. in south Sudan…for five years America kept him alive with antiretroviral medicines costing less than 12 cents a day…a program started by President George W. Bush that has saved more than 26 million lives..turned the tide of AIDS around the world and built enormous good wil toward the United States.”

4]. “Then along came President Trump and his freeze on most humanitarian aid…Evan weakened and soon died of an opportunistic infection.”

***** “The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the wicked closes his eyes to them.” { Proverbs 28:27 ]

5] “If Rubio needs further reminder of the human toll, I also met a little girl named Achol Deng, 8, who likewise died when she lost access to antiretrovirals because of the U.S.A.I.D. freeze….It was Elon Musk who first insisted that “no one has died.” Now Rubio has doubled down.”

6] “..American aid overall still saved about one life every 10 seconds, based on estimates by the Center for Global Development.”

7] “An ‘impact counter” developed by an economist estimates about 300,000 people have died so far from the reductions in American assistance, two-thirds of them children. The death toll is said to be rising at a rate of 103 per hour.

8] “I’m not sure it’s actually that high, partly because I’ve seen some laid-off health workers continue to work without pay…And it takes time for children to weaken and die…nobody knows the true number…the flat denial of any deaths at all is preposterous.”

*****. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.” [ John 13:34 ]

9] Rubio chooses not to make the argument that I believe is Trump’s true position: We want tax cuts {disproportionally benefitting the rich}, so we need to cut funds in the budget from people who are so marginalized that they can’t even complain. So Evan and Achol died.

*****. “The point is you can’t be too greedy.” [ Donald John Trump ]

10] “To deny the reality of dying children not only insults the memory of children starving to death in Sudan and Yemen and Afghanistan; It also insults the intelligence of Americans.”

*****. “Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation.” [ Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ]

[Note: so there you have the essence of one Donald J. Trump: deliberate CRUELTY so billionaires don’t have to pay proportionate taxes on their immense, obscene, wealth. And, it is KNOWN. people are dying because of this. How does this “Make America Great Again” ?????]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXIV – Reverse Robin Hood

~ tomdolen

*****. “An unjust law is ni law at all.” [ St. Augustine ]

!!!!!!!!! K.I.S.S. !!!!!!!!!! – Just look at one part of Trump’s “Beautiful Big Bill” – to see the CRUELTY and CORRUPTION of Trump’s agenda

1] “..here’s what this bill does in the real world: It cuts taxes mostly for rich people. It cuts Medicaid and food stamps. Republicans are also allowing some Obamacare subsidies to expire. And so the estimate is that between all this, 13 million people will lose health insurance.

***** “The love of money is the root of all evil.” [ I Timothy 6:10 ]

2] “It’s also grimly exact. The bill has $1.1 trillion in tax cuts for people who make more than $500,000 a year. And it has $1.1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. It is a straight transfer from people who cannot afford food and medical care to people who can afford to fly first class.”

***** “Woe to them that make unjust laws.” [ Isaiah. 10:1 ]

3] “I’ve been a policy journalist for more than 20 years… I cannot remember a more cruel or irresponsible piece of domestic legislation that has been seriously proposed.” { Items 1, 2, 3 al from: Ezra Klein: “Trump’s Big Budget Bomb”; New York times; 5/25/25 }

[NOTE: Read items 1, 2, 3 above. AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN. This is the ENTIRE Trump agenda, or perhaps the “Project 2025” agenda, or perhaps the billionaire’s agenda – probably all three. GREED, CRUELTY, CORRUPTION. In stark terms: the top 1-3% wins and the lower 97% loses – that’s YOU, your children, your neighbors, your friends, America’s future.]

*****. “..essentially all..economic gains of the last 20 years have gone to a tiny sliver of the wealthiest Americans, and that’s not by accident…It’s by design. the wealthy have paid for the ability to stand at the drawing board and plan out big parts of the economy so..the whole thing works out particularly well for them.” [ Morris Pearl, Erica Payne & The Patriotic Millionaires: “Tax The Rich! NOTE: read this book for FACTS on why & how the GREEDY super rich are screwing the lower 95-97% legally ]

In addition to raising the national debt [which will be used as an excuse to screw the bottom 95-97%], gutting government [which protects YOU from the rich], making enemies all over the world, seriously weakening America – there’s this: Trump’s absolute CONTEMPT for YOU, the average American citizen.
No American president who believed in “democracy,” and enacting policies that ‘..promote the general Welfare.. [Constitution’s Preamble]. would demand Congress pass such a bill, and then have the arrogance to call such a travesty “A Big Beautiful Bill.”

[NOTE: do your own factual research: compare 1947-73 America to l98l-2025 America. Research tax laws, wealth, income, attitudes, policies, intent of policies. America has never been perfect – but in 1947-73, by INTENT, we did approach it. the – the rich struck back, greed took over. America is a much harsher, crueler, hateful, mistrusting country. BECAUSE – we used to think “we all do better when we all do better.” Donald Trump , the people around him, the POWER BEHIND HIM – are a cancer on America. things will NOT get better un†il “Trumpism” is ended. ]

The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXIII – DOGE’s Stolen Data

~ tomdolen

*** “The point is you can’t be too greedy.” [ Donald J. Trump: “The Art of the Deal” ]

This post provides some excerpts from: “The Department of Government Efficiency Is a Lie – And It Might Destroy Us All” [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive populist; 5/15/25 ]

1]. “America is under siege, but not by foreign armies or rogue terrorists, the threat is coming from inside the house: unelected billionaires who are quietly hijacking our democratic institutions from within.”…..
“This isn’t cheap or even ordinary corruption: †his is the sort of thing that happens in Third World countries….It’s the sort of corruption that destroys democracies from the inside out.”…..

2]. “And make no mistake: this is not some crackpot theory. Shortly after DOGE operatives created accounts inside the NLRB system, a login attempt came from a Russian IP address using one of those accounts..”…..

3] “What’s being looted here isn’t just random bureaucratic files. We’re talking about the private information of whistleblowers, union organizers, witnesses in federal cases, proprietary corporate data, and labor rights enforcement strategies. Including complaints and complainants against Elon Musk’s companies.”

*** “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” [. Honore de Balzac ]

4] “In other words, the raw materials for dismantling organized labor in America – and for targeting, harassing, or discrediting anyone trying to stand up to corporate power, including Elon Musk’s multiple efforts to stop or break unionization attempts in his own companies.”
“This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s the naked truth, verified by a growing number of insiders and corroborated by NPR, which reports that at least 11 government officials and staffers have confirmed their fears about DOGE’s data exfiltration campaign.”

5]. “Here’s the conflict of interest that should make every American’s hair stand on end: Elon Musk’s companies – Tesla, SpaceX and X – were themselves under investigation by the NLRB for alleged labor violations. At least until musk’s underlings fired the people investigating him and his companies.”

*** “There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. the wrong comes when riches possess men.” [Billy Graham]

6]. “And if the information DOGE extracted gets used in court – or even leaked selectively – it could permanently tilt the scales of justice in favor of Musk and his corporate cronies

7]. “But it gets worse. Much worse. According to longtime employees within the Department of Labor and other agencies, the DOGE teams aren’t seasoned experts or trained cybersecurity professionals. They’re “new arrivals,” many of them with no vetting, no security clearance, and no relevant experience. Some have even worked with criminal hackers, and another reportedly runs a website based in Russia.”
“Yet they were granted sweeping access to some of the most sensitive data systems in the federal government. It’s a digital coup executed not by hackers, but by political loyalists and tech-bro mercenaries handed the keys to the kingdom by billionaire benefactors.”

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

8]. “This is how authoritarianism functions in the 21st century. It doesn’t need a dictator in a military uniform when it has billionaires in boardrooms, access to surveillance technology, and cronies embedded deep within the machinery of government. It replaces accountability with loyalty. It replaces oversight with secrecy.

9] “This isn’t just about controlling government agencies and the courts, it’s about creating a culture of fear so pervasive that no one dares to challenge power. Workers won’t organize. Regulators won’t enforce. Whistleblowers won’t come forward. Democracy withers not with a bang, but with a whimper of silence and complicity.”

***** “Social control is best managed through fear.” [ Michael Crichton ]

***** “If you want to control someone, all you have to do is make them feel afraid.” [ Paulo Coelho ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXII – Possible Trump Dementia

~ tomdolen

This post is about one thing: Donald J. Trump’s mental fitness. We start with “Mental health professionals sound the alarm”. [ Sabrina Haake; Progressive Populist; 5/15/25]: “A petition is currently circulating among psychiatrists and other mental health professionals about Trump’s cognitive impairment. The petition was begun by Dr. John Gartner, former faculty member of Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Over 3000 psychiatrists have signed the petition, concluding that Trump has probable dementia. To reach their conclusion, they reviewed recordings of his speech patterns over a nine year period. [Gartner reviewed records dating back through the 1980s]. They note Trump’s shrunken vocabulary, misuse and mispronunciation of words, and that Trump often breaks now in the middle of sentences to digress into inappropriate ramblings.”

“They write, “Donald Trump is showing unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia, based on his public behavior and informant reports that show progressive deterioration in memory, thinking ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills…. his vocabulary is impoverished, he often has difficulty finishing a thought, sentence or even a word. Typical of dementia patients he perseverates and overuses superlatives and filler words…” Their concern supersedes their competing professional duty of neutrality; it also outweighs concerns about diagnosing someone without conducting an in-person assessment known as the “Goldwater rule.”

“Wall Street apparently agrees. Analysts at the notoriously conservative Wall Street Journal wrote, following the tariffs, that another Trump impeachment is “already in the bag.” Calling Trump’s tariffs stunt “neurotic,” a WSJ op-ed said Trump, clearly divorced from reality, had “fabricated a gratuitously ambitious mission to meet his misguided sense of importance…. Nobody in Mr. Trump’s orbit actually shares his belief in the magical efficacy of tariffs because it makes sense only in a world that doesn’t exist, where other countries don’t retaliate.” About Trump’s dissociation from reality, the op-ed noted that “no consensus or even significant coalition exists for trying to force into existence a new American “golden age” with tariffs, which is like asking a chicken to give live birth to a lioness. [Trump] invented this mission out of his own confused intuition.”

“Scores of universities have also published papers concluding ..Trump has dementia… Even ..Steve Bannon thought Donald Trump had dementia, and campaigned covertly to remove him from office via the 25th amendment….A simple Google search for “Trump has dementia” identifies hundreds of articles from think tanks, universities and MSM outlets like The New York Times, reporting on Trump’s cognitive decline and the concern it presents among mental health professionals.”

Read this again!!!!! Think WHO said it, WHAT they said….. Then consider previous concerns:

2]. “McConnell was shocked that Trump won in 2016. He told Tackett, “The big problem is…[he]. has every characteristic you would not want a president to have. Not very smart, irascible, nasty.” [Jean P. Bordewich: “Icarus of the Senate”; Washington Monthly; Jan/Feb/Mar, 2025]

3]. “111 former GOP officials call Trump ‘unfit to serve'” [Peter Baker; New York Times; 9/19/24]: Trump had demonstrated “dangerous qualities.”

4] “Security leaders endorse Harris”. [Maggie Astor; New York Times; 9/23/24]: “More than 700 current and former national security and military leaders endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris…arguing only she had the temperament and values needed to serve as commander in chief.”

5] “The Trump Testimonials: The Case Against Him, From His Own People”. {New York Times Editorial Board; 10/6/24]: “Scores of people who know him well, including 91 listed here, have raised alarms about his character and fitness for office.. Some have spoken out at the expense of their own careers or political interests.”

6]. “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” the general told Woodward. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person in this country.” [Ruby Cramer: “Trump is ‘fascist to the core,’ Milley says”; Washington post; 10/13/24]

7] “Trump praised Hitler, Kelly says..Ex-chief of staff says his former boss meets the definition of a fascist.” [Dan Merica; Associated Press; 10/24/24]

8] “Ex-Trump aides back Kelly’s warning..They say Trump wants “unchecked power” [Tim Balk; New York Times; 10/26/24]: “Thirteen former Trump administration officials released an open letter Friday amplifying warnings from John Kelly..that the former president would rule like a dictator if returned to office…”This is who Donald Trump is,” wrote the 13, all ‘life-long Republicans,” …The letter said its signers had “witnessed, up close and personal, how Donald Trump operates and what he is capable of.”

9]. “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump..37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President…Updated And Expanded With New Essays” [ Bandy lee, editor; Thomas Dunne Books; 2019]

The evidence is clear, and overwhelming: Trump is unfit to be president. About 900 people who viewed him up close, many life-long Republicans. came to an unescapable conclusion: Trump is mentally unfit, and may already be in early stage dementia. Joe Biden was disqualified because of questions about his mental abilities.

The Trump DICTATORSHIP Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXI – Long Term Damage to Health and Science

~ tomdolen

***** “Where there is no vision, the people suffer.” [ Proverbs. 29:18 ]

As the STUPIDITY, and DESTRUCTIVENESS of Trump policies becomes more evident, Americans are beginning to speak out. Here are just four examples of how Trump policies do NOT. “..promote the general Welfare..”, now, and even worse, for OUR future, which Trump is sabotaging. All of this being done to provide tax cuts for billionaires.

1]. “Economists: Trump science policies pose long-term risk…They say U.S. could lose edge by cutting federal support for research” [Ben Casselman; New York Times; 4/1/25]: “..ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about, and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research.”………
“To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, and leave Americans..poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead.. “Universities are tremendously important engines of innovation.. This is really killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”

*** “If you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on this earth.”
[ Roberto Clemente ]

2]. “EPA set to end power plant emissions limits”. [Tobi Raji; Washington Post; 5/26/25]: “In its draft, tghre agency argued..carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or climate change..” [!!!!!!!!NOTE: power plants WERE responsible for about 25% of U.S. greenhouse emissions in 2022!!!!! – did the Trump administration flunk high school math & science?]

*****. “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” [ Lenin ]

3] “Public health system has been eroded by HHS cuts” [Laura Ungar, Michelle Smith; Associated Press; 6/1/25]: “Americans are losing a vast array of people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy…State and local health departments…are being hollowed out…The Trump administration is cutting health spending on an unprecedented scale…at a time when the nation faces the deadliest measles outbreak..rising whooping cough cases and the risk bird flu could spread widely among people. The moves reflect a shift..Americans may not fully realize, away from the very idea of public health..one of the most critical responsibilities of government..”

***** “Health is the first of all liberties.” [ Henri Amiel ]
***** “Health..is the first and greatest of all blessings.” [ Lord Chesterfield ]
***** “Health is by far the most important element in human happiness.” [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]
***** “The first wealth is health.” [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

4] “Funding Cuts Are a ‘Gut Punch’ for STEM Research” [Katrina Miller; New York Times; 5/25/25]: “STEM education resarch focuses on improving how students, from preschool to university, are trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics….Experts in thre field saw the grant cancellations as part of a broader attack on education….it often took a decade or more of training for scientists to meaningfully contribute to cutting-edge programs. “Reducing the quality of the training can’t possibly be good for society,’ he said.” [ QUESTION: WHY would a modern, advanced, civilized society need citizens trained in science, technology, engineering and math. – OR – is there ANY. LOGICAL. REASON. why such a nation would NOT want these people?????????????????????????? ]

*****. “Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.” [ Goethe ]

[NOTE: We have a manilla envelope bulging with similar Trump STUPIDITIES on health alone from his first 4 months. And – remember WHY. Trump wants to make cuts in health, education, science. – to pay for billionaire’s tax cuts!!!!!!! How does damaging America’s public health system, and its training of scientists and engineers. “Make America Great Again” ???????????? America became a super power because of 20th century public health, public education, advances in science, engineering, math. YOU live better, longer, healthier because of those investments.]

*****. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” [ George Santayana ]

The Trump-Msk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXX – The DOGE Regulation Rollback. FRAUD

~ tomdolen

!!!!! STOP !!!!! – Before going further – ask YOURSELF – what are the government functions that DOGE
did. NOT. investigate – Defense Department?, Going to Mars?, corporate subsidies,
subsidies to rich farmers – some living in cities!!! – versus real “Mom & Pop” farmers?,
interests that benefit Trump donors?……………

***. “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.” [ Henry Clay, 5/16/1829 ]

1] “DOGE promotes..purported savings on an “Agency Deregulation Leadersboard…But many of those regulatory reversals will actually pile more costs on to individual Americans in the form of higher bank fees, electric and water bills, and health insurance payments, according to experts and government analyses.” [NOTE: average American households saved $576 on water and gas bills due to appliance efficiency standards in 2024]

2] “But several experts, upon reviewing the DOGE website and the notices in the Federal Register that it links to, said many of DOGE’s numbers appeared to be plucked from nowhere.” [!!! – ‘plucked from nowhere” !!!!! ]

3] “An earlier Times analysis of DOGE’s related “Wall of Receipts” – which shows purported savings to federal spending through staff reductions, lease cancellations and terminated contracts – found that the math that could back up those checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes.” [NOTE: thus revealing that “our” so-called “efficiency experts” are themselves INCOMPETENT !!!!!!!!!!]

4]. “The misleading claims come as the Trump administration has begun a push for mass deregulation of the American economy, with plans to rapidly undo hundreds of rules on clean air and water, food safety, labor protections, finance, health care, telecommunications and more.” [NOTE: – read this again – how will this “..promote the general Welfare..”??? – do YOU benefit from this or – do Trump’s rich business donors ?????]

5]. “Mrs. Dudley, the former regulatory chief of the George W. Bush administration, said she tasked one of her graduate students at the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center to spend days trying to decipher how DOGE came up with the $1.9 billion figure, but the student came up empty-handed.”

“I don’t understand how anyone thinking this through could account for that claim of savings…They’re not doing their homework, and they’re not showing their work.” [ items 1-5 from: Coral Davenport, Stacy Cowley: “Costs for Americans Rise Despite Claims by DOGE”; New York Times; 6/1/2025 ]

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

6]. “About 40% of DOGE contract cuts save nothing…Government’s own data show a lot of the money has already been spent”. [ Ryan foley; Associated Press; 2/26/25 ]

7]. “Musk offers no proof for sweeping claims” [ Maggie Haberman, Theodore Schleifer, Zolan Kanno-Youngs; New York Times; 2/12/25 ]: Musk: “We are actually trying to be as transparent as possible…I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.” “In reality, Musk’s team is operating in deep secrecy, surprising federal employees by descending upon agencies and accessing sensitive data systems.”

8]. “DOGE’s only public ledger is riddled with mistakes”. [ Aatishi Bhatia, Emily Badger, David Fahrenthold, Josh Katz; New York Times; 2/23/25 ]: “But the math that could back up these checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes…its slapdash accounting adds to a pattern of recklessness by the group…” [NOTE: in one case, DOGE claimed $232 million in savings, actual savings were $560,000 !!!!! ]

9]. DOGE Savings Could Be Offset By Firing Costs”. [ Elizabeth Williamson; New York Times; 4/27/25 ]: The Partnership for Public Service said: “..firings, re-hirings, lost productivity, and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost over $135 billion in 2025.” Then there is the cost of defending 200 lawsuits and appeals related to Trump’s agenda. “Not only is Musk vastly over inflating the money he has saved, he is not accounting for the exponentially larger waste that he is creating..”

10]. “DOGE can’t find Social Security fraud… In recent years, less than 1% of payments deemed improper”. [ Todd Frankel, Hannah Natanson; Washington Post; 3/25/25 ]: Musk claimed 20 million Americans over age 100 receive Social Security checks – the agency found 1,294 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11] !!!!! Read “DOGE falls far short of budget goal”. [ David Fahrenthold, Jeremy Singer-Vine; New York Times; 4/14/25 ] – for. LAUGHTER !!!!!!!!!!!!! at the unbelievable. INCOMPETENCE. of DOGE – claiming savings for a contract canceled when Biden was president; claiming saved $1.75 billion for. $0 savings; claiming savings for a “contract that did not exist.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And more !

*** “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most do.” [ Dale Carnegie ]

[ NOTE: no laughing matter – the cost of all this craziness, damage, chaos, error, incompetence – Americans like YOU will suffer, and many will die. We will soon post here what the Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP is doing to cripple and dismantle American health care – in the name of “saving money.”

Keep in mind one simple thing: all this is being done to save money for billionaires and others in the top 1-3%. Defunding the IRS gives the game away – because an underfunded IRS can’t enforce tax laws – as the IRS has ALREADY testified. – it can’t get the $1 trillion a year in evaded taxes. – most of which will be by the top 1-3% and the corporations they own or control. Speak up or YOU will continue to get hurt.

The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXIX – The New Know-Nothings

~ tomdolen

*** “When the Know-nothings get control, it will read, all men are created equal except Negroes and foreigners
and Catholics. When it comes to this I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense
of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of
hypocrisy.” [ Abraham Lincoln, 8/24/1855 ]

1]. “Other civilizations have experienced moments like this…Mysticism and occultism spread rapidly in the dying days of the Russian empire…Rasputin, a peasant holy man..claimed..he had magical healing powers..eventually became a political advisor to the Czar…many Russians were convinced..dark forces..were secretly in control of the country.”
“Replace “dark forces” with “deep state.”…For Americans, the merger of pseudo-spirituality with politics represents a departure from some of our deepest principles: that logic and reason lead to good government; that fact-based debate leads to good policy; that governance prospers in sunlight; and that the political order inheres in rules and processes, not mystical charisma. The supporters of the New Obscurantism have also broken with the ideals of America’s Founders..” [ Anne Applebaum: “The New Rasputins”; The Atlantic; February, 2025 ]

*** “..it was the witch craze that produced the witch and not, as has been traditionally argued, the figure
of the witch that stimulated hunting.” [ Leland Estes ]

{NOTE: In addition to all the other damage Trump has inflicted on American democracy, American government, American society, American decency – Trump wishes to become the Culture Czar!!!!!, to become YOUR “Big Brother”!!!, who knows all about every thing!!!!!!!!! The person who doesn’t read, who gets his “information” from media sources KNOWN and DOCUMENTED to push lies they themselves don’t believe!!! THIS person is now going to decide what is good and true and proper for 330 million Americans!!!!!!!!!! }

2]. “President Trump is not known as a student of history…[but]…keenly understands the power of history…has moved forcefully to advance his vision of it – and to reshape federal cultural institutions…moving to challenge or seize control of history-related federal cultural institutions..” [ Jennifer Schuessler: “Trump Puts His Spin on 250 Years of U.S. History, to Historians’ Dismay”; New York Times; 4/20/25 ]

*** “Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.'” [ George Orwell” “1984” ]

3] “Okla. to teach ’20 election theories..New school standards promote conspiracies and misinformation” [ Sean Murphy; Associated Press; 5/18/25 ] [Note: the New Know-Nothings and Rasputins are, unfortunately, not confined to Washington, D.C. Think about the magnitude of this: an American state proposes to teach KNOWN, lies to its children as part of their “education.” Is this a form of a “re-education” camp? What is the cost to American democracy of this?]

*** “Erasing history helps authoritarians because doing so allows them to misrepresent it as a single story…[it is]..
especially true of..fascism, which seeks to divide populations into “us” and them..”

[. Jason Stanley: “Erasing history.. How Fascists Rewrite The Past To Control The Future” ]

4] “..Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday he may bar government scientists from publishing in the world’s leading medical journals…the latest Trump administration’s attacks on scientific institutions.” [Niha Masih, Amy Wang, Leah Sun: “RFKJR. may bar scientists from top medical journals”; Washington Post; 5/29/25 ]

*** “The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be
accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings
in the real world – and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this
end – is being destroyed.” [ Hannah Arendt ]

5]. “..Trump..has leveraged control of foreign enrollments to press his demands with American colleges…The uncertainty raised by the suspension of the visa appointments will do further damage to the U.S. reputation as a destination country…”Undermining their ability to study here is self-defeating. With these actions, the United States will alienate the very minds that fuel its success.” [ Annie Ma: “Visa rule adds to scrutiny of international students”; Associated Press; 5/29/25 ]

*** “Stupidity makes you dangerous – to yourself and everyone around you.” [ Jennifer Lee Carrell ]

6]. “To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, and leave Americans..poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead. “Universities are tremendously important engines of innovation.”…”This is really killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” [ Ben Casselman: “Economists: Trump science policies post long-term risk”; New York Times; 4/1/25 ]

***. “Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.” [ Friederich Nietzsche ]

{ NOTE: THINK !!!!! Education and scientific advances are what made America great and strong and free. The Trump crew cares not. They are determined to impose THEUIR prejudices, ignorance, stupidity and craziness on America. History, experience, evidence tells us that if they succeed – YOU nad. YOUR. children will pay the price. Freedoms of thought, speech, creativity. were what drew people from around the world to America. An ignorant, bitter, greedy, vengeful LIAR – Trump – has the ability to destroy virtually everything that for over 230 years made America the envy of the world. Speak up. NOW – or it will happen.]

!!! One more thing: “president Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday evening promising to eliminate “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution’s museums..” Question One would be; has Trump EVER been in any of the Smithsonian museums, or ANY museums, the Library of Congress, or ANY other serious place of learning????? THINK on the bitter irony of this. If Thomas Jefferson had said this, we might wonder hat had disturbed him that he would issue such a order. Trump, and the POWER behind him are deadly serious about rewriting factual American history and culture into their own ignorant and bigoted version.

The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. XXVIII – Crippling Efforts to Support Antismoking!!!

~ tomdolen

*** “When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When Somebody Up there – a monarch
a dictator, a Pope, a legislator – so decrees.” [ Jessica Mitford ]

YOU tell me, after reading excerpts from this article: “Trump budget cuts hobble efforts to support antismoking education?” [ Christina Jewett; New York Times; 5/18/25 ]

1] “Experts on tobacco control said the Trump administration’s funding cuts would set back a quarter-century of public health efforts that have driven the smoking rate to a record low and saved lives and billions of dollars in health care spending.”

2]. “The decimation of antismoking work follows a year of lavish campaign donations to tobacco and e-cigarette companies to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans..”

*** “You cannot serve God and money.” [ Matthew 6:24 ]

3] “At the Food and Drug Administration, officials fired many staff members who levied fines on retailers that sold tobacco to minors or marketed illicit vapes. Some scientists who were experts in addiction and toxicology lost their jobs. The agency also fired the team that wrote proposals to ban menthol cigarettes and to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, efforts the Trump administration has abandoned. Most staff members who review new tobacco products for approval kept their jobs.” [!!!!!!!!!!]

*** “Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.” [ Terry Pratchatt ]

4]. “Kennedy has made chronic disease his top priority, taking aim at artificial colors in food and unproven theories about vaccines. Yet decades of data show that smoking is a top driver of cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death.”

5] “We”re at an inflection point,” said Mitch Zeller, a former director of the FDA’s tobacco center. He likened the cutbacks to “kneecapping” the agencies’ mission.”

*** “Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in th liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”
[ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

6] “The tobacco industry, meanwhile, has heavily supported Republican politicians and introduced new products. In 2024, Reynolds American, which makes Newport cigarettes and Vuse vapes, gave $10 million to PACs supporting Trump and $4.6 million to support Republican leaders in Congress.”

“Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes and NJOY vapes, contributed $6.4 million to congressional Republicans and $1 million to the Trump inaugural committee. Breeze Smoke, a vape company, and the Vapor Technology Association each contributed at least $1 million to the inauguration.”

[ NOTE: This is part of a PATTERN. See the following stories:
– ” Biggest Donors Expect Returns On Investment…Moguls look to Lifting of Regulations” [ Eric Lipton; New York Times; 11/7/24 }: Among other things, it mentions “The to-do list for President-elect Donald J. Trump from M.A., the venture capital billionaire..” {!!! – a “to-do list” for a president ???????? ]
– “Trump asks Big Oil for $1 B, vows to undo climate rules”. [ Josh Dawsey, Maxine Joselow; Washington Post; 5/10/24 ]: “Trump’s response stunned several of the executives..according to people with knowledge of the meeting…he has turned to the industry to help shape his environmental agenda…”

SO – is this corruption, is it “quid pro quo,” is it “freedom of speech,” is it legalized bribery, is it “good lobbying,” is it “democratic government in action,” ????? YOU. tell. me…..

*** “Corruption is never an individual act. It always involves groups of people bound by one fundamental rule of
association: an exchange of favors.” [ Roberto da Matta ]

How is this going to “benefit” OUR children??? Is this going to make OUR children healthier??? Would YOU want YOUR child to know about the risks of smoking???

*** “I am not sure how many “sins” I would recognize in the world. Some would surely be defused by changed circumstances. But I can imagine none that is more irredeemably sinful than the betrayal, the exploitation, of the young by those who should care for them.” [ Elizabeth Janeway ]