Tag: politics

The GOP’s Hatred of the Middle Class

~ tomdolen

“Why Republicans want to destroy the hidden link between Middle Class wealth and democratic power” – Thom Hartmann; The Progressive Populist; August, 2025.

*** “The most perfect community is one in which the middle class is in control and outnumbers both of the other classes.” [ Aristotle ]

In this post, as well as in others, and in ANY TRUE account of where 1981-2025 America is NOT the 1947-80 America that WAS a middle class society – by design and policy. Look at the unspun TRUE numbers: wages, incomes, wealth, tax rates, home ownership….
Ask yourself: WHY have economists called the 1947-75 period “the great compression”?
Look at income ratios between CEOs and their employees, 1947-80, versus, 1981-2025.
Ask yourself WHY we’ve gone from [maybe] l billionaire in 1956 to over 900 in 2025?????

KNOW THIS: one big key to 1947-80 middle class prosperity was that American wealth was SHARED – average people made enough, to mostly, have one wage earner. That began to change in the 1970s

For those of YOU who did not live then – think in terms of. THEFT. What the rich have done to YOU is STEAL YOUR SHARE. of America’s wealth. [This has been numerically PROVEN.]

Do YOU have good health insurance? Do YOU have a DEFINED BENEFIT pension? WHY are people in Scandinavian countries annually “THE happiest people on earth’????? What do their countries do for their people that America no longer does for its people????? THE answers for American misery are found in the answers to the above questions. KNOW THIS – what has happened, 1980-2025, IS. NOT. AN. ACCIDENT. KNOW ALSO – the people and groups the FAR RIGHT blames ARE NOT the villains, as their BIG LIES claim.

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

Following are excerpts from Thom Hartmann’s “Modernization Theory: The Key to Understanding the GOP’s Hatred of the Middle Class”; The Progressive Populist; August, 2025:

8] “On the other hand – and here is the GOP’s real goal – if you can do away with or diminish the wealth and political power of the middle class, you can more easily loot the government and act exclusively in the interest of the morbidly rich.” [Note: go to the numbers, 1981-2025. Just one example; WHO were the primary, and intended, beneficiaries of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts – the ones the GOP just made permanent???]

1] “A Pew poll published in late June finds that 59% of Americans say the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that cuts taxes for billionaires and raises them for working-class people “would hurt lower-income people and 51% think it would hurt middle-income people.” [Suppose you took Republican voters out of the poll – THEN what would it say?]

2] They”re correct. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said “the bill will measurably reduce the income and spending power of low-and middle-income people whie giving a $4 trillion gift to the morbidly rich.”

3]. “So, why would Republicans want to further reduce the size and wealth of America’s middle class?….There are two good reasons that answer that question.

4] “the first and simplest is that ever since five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court made it legal for billionaires and big corporations to bribe politicians, the GOP has done the bidding of the morbidly rich to the exclusion of everybody else…….with their Buckley and Bellotti decisions in the late 1970s, laying the foundation for..Ronald Reagan’s war against unions and working people..”

5] “..there’s a larger reason why Donald Trump and the GOP are working so hard to immiserate and impoverish working class Americans. That reason has to do with something called “modernization theory.”….Seymour Martin Lipset, famously wrote: “The more well-to-do a nation, the greater the chances that it will sustain democracy.”

6] “As Barrington Moore noted in his book “Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy”: “No bourgeois [middle class], no democracy.” In 2003, researchers Carles Boix and Susan Stokes found strong evidence that wealthier countries are more likely to be democracies, and once established, democracies are far more stable in richer nations.”

7]. “Similarly, in their book “Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy,’ Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson prove that when economic growth empowers new classes [especially the middle class], those groups will demand political reforms.”

*** “There is class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
[ Warren Buffett ]

9] “…multiple cross-national studies using World Bank income data and Freedom House democracy scores show a strong correlation between per capita income and democratic governance; as people become wealthier they more vigorously demand a small-d democratic political system.”

10] “By 1981, the American middle class was at its peak because of a 74% top personal income tax bracket, a 50% top corporate income tax rate, a strong and healthy social safety net, cheap health care [because hospitals and insurance companies were required to be nonprofits in most states], and free or near-free college.” [ THIS – is what we mean when we say. YOU should look at 1981-2025 America. – and see what was been STOLEN FROM YOU.]

11] “Democracy was also arguably at its peak; for the previous 40 plus years Congress had passed, one after the other, bills that primarily benefitted average working people and the middle class. Voting was easy, women and minorities were empowered, and we led the world in education and innovation.” [ THIS is what has been STOLEN FROM YOU]

12]. “When Reagan came into office in 1981 about a third of American workers had good union jobs, meaning that about two-thirds of all American families lived good middle class lives on a single paycheck….. ˇhat was the year the GOP declared war on working-class people because, in the estimation of the Nixon-and Reagan-era Republicans, our democracy had gotten out of hand…….So, in 1981 the GOP set about dismantling the American middle class with their s0-called Reagan Revolution.”

13]. “Who did this to us?” Republicans and the FAR RIGHT, from Limbaugh, Fox “News”, an Trump blame immigrants, Black people, uppity women, college students, an union bosses !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [ THE REALLY BIG LIE ]

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

14] “The bottom line is ghat the GOP opposes democracy because it interferes with and complicates their very well-paid efforts to suck up to-and legislate on behalf of – the morbidly rich.”

*** “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” [ Plutarch ]

Thoughts on Truth; Thoughts On America’s Future

~ tomdolen

***** “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” [ John 8: 32 ]

Some thoughts on America’s future from George Packer’s visit to the Phoenix area. Excerpts from “The Valley,: The Atlantic; July-August, 2024 ]:

“Democracy is..a fragile artifice. It depends less on tradition and law than on the shifting contents of individual skulls – belief, virtue, restraint. It’s durability under natural and human stress is being put to an intense test in the Valley. And because a vision of vanishing now haunts the whole country, Phoenix is a guide to our future.”………..

“If, like almost everything else in American politics, water turns deeply partisan and ideological, contaminated by conspiracy theories and poisoned with memes, then preserving this drought-stricken civilization will get a lot harder, like trying to solve Rubik’s Cube while fending off a swarm of wasps that you might be hallucinating.”…….

*** “We are dominated by the fanatic, whose worst vice is his sincerity.” [ Oscar Wilde ]

“In a place like Maryvale, you realize how righteously stupid the culture wars make both sides. There’s no reason to think that great books and moral education have anything to do with MAGA. There’s no reason reading Virgil should require banning children from changing names. There’s no reason to view Western civilization as simply virtuous or vicious, only as the one that most shaped our democracy. There’s no reason to dumb down humanistic education and expect our society to become more just. If we could do something about the true impediments to the Cortez family’s dreams – if Fabian could earn enough from his backbreaking work for the six of them to live in four rooms instead of two; if insurance could cover treatment for Ericka’s illnesses so she doesn’t have to delay seeing a doctor until her life is threatened; if the local public schools could give their daughters a safe and decent education; if America could allow the family to stop being afraid and live in the sunlight – then by all means let’s get back to fighting over name changes and reading lists.” ……….

*** ” [Our prejudices are] so deeply rooted that we never think of them as prejudices but call them common sense.”
[ George Bernard Shaw ]

“Identity is a pernicious form of political division, because its appeal is based on traits we don’t choose and can’t change. It’s inherently irrational, and therefore likely to lead to violence. Identity politicians – and Trump is one – don’t win elections and arguments about ideas, or by presenting a vision of a world more attractive than their opponent’s. They win by appealing to the solidarity of group identity, which has to be mobilized by whipping up fear and hatred of other groups.” …………..

*** “When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us, power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness.” [ Dale Carnegie ]

“Unlike identities, ideas are open to persuasion, and persuasion depends on understanding and reaching other people. But when partisanship itself becomes a group identity, a tribal affiliation with markers as clear as Jeff Zink’s handgun, dividing us into mutually unintelligible blocs with incompatible realities, then the stakes of every election are existential, and it becomes hard to live together in the same country without killing one another.” …………….

*** “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” [ Martin Luther King, Jr. ]


{Note: ironically – Charlie Kirk is mentioned for ‘the business model” of a speech he delivered……………… ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXI – The COST of Trump’s Policies to America, Now, and In The Future

~ tomdolen

***** “Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.” [ Francis Bacon ]

31] BREAKING NEWS !!!!! – “Trump lifts rules on tax shelters” [Jesse Drucker; New York Times; 9/10/25]: “The Trump administration is quietly dismantling efforts by the IRS to shut down a slew of aggressive tax shelters used by America’s biggest multinational companies and wealthiest people….bowing to pressure from industry groups, right-wing activists and congressional Republicans…The IRS crackdown was projected to raise more than $100 billion over 10 years.” [Note: Read the entire article for more!!! There’ll be NO cameo P.R. photo of Trump holding up some “document” he signed!!! YOU are NOT supposed to know about this. Just like you are NOT supposed to know about Trump’s frolics with Jeffrey Epstein!!!!]

It is quite likely that the Trump DICTATORSHIP has ALREADY caused more damage to America than any previous American government. Below, just from headlines, are SOME examples:

1]”Caught in a Doom Loop Of Thinking “Short-Term…Trump may be able to escape the consequences of his actions; the rest of us cannot” [Ben Rhodes; New York Times; 8/17/25]

2] “International Students See Asian Universities as Refuge…Higher Education in the U.S. is seen as a riskier proposition in the Trump era” [ Lydia DePillis, Jin Yu Young; New York Times; 8/17/25 ]

3]. “On Trade, The World Is Moving On Without Us…A sign of the folly of Trump’s policy is that it has inspired no apparent envy among other nations”. [ New York times Editorial; 9/7/25 ]

4] “EPA aims to scrap key policy on climate…Agency wants to rescind finding that greenhouse gas emissions are a risk”. [ Jake Spring; Washington Post; 7/24/25 ]

5]. “Diluted report on human rights dims America’s beacon’ [ John Rash; Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/16/25 ]: “Never before have the reports gone this far in prioritizing an administration’s political agenda..”

6]. “White House plan undermines the possibility of a fair and responsible AI” [ Mohammed Hosseini; St.Paul Pioneer Press; 8/10/25 ]: “The result is an ecosystem in which public research fuels private profit, reinforcing the dominance of tech giants.”

7]. “The Bill for Trumponomics Is Coming Due…White House policies are leading us to rising inflation and slowing growth”. [ Jared Bernstein, Ryan Cummings; New York Times; 8/10/25 ]

8]. “The Death of the Fourth American Republic…Trump is working in tandem with the Supreme Court” [ Jamelle Bouie; New York Times; 8/10/25 ]

9] “What Trump’s War on the Smithsonian Costs us All” [ David Firestone; New York Times; 8/10/25]: “The Trump administration..has made an aggressive effort to rewrite not only its own history but also that of the United states.”

10]. “Trump is Letting TIKTOK [And China] Win…The president’s disregard for federal law is a gift to the world’s most powerful authoritarian government” [ New York Times Editorial; 8/10/25 ]

*** “[The tyrant] is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” [ Plato ]

11] “America Is Turning Into a Doddering Giant Hooked On Oil…Smothering the electric vehicle industry is economic idiocy”. [ Robinson Meyer; New York Times; 8/10/25 ]

12]. “Federal DOJ twists attorney ethics into misconduct” [ Rob Doar; Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/11/25 ]

13]. “Appeals court grants DOGE access to American’s sensitive data”. [ Zach Montague; New York Times; 8/13/25]: – A Trump judge and a Bush II judge are the 2-1 majority !!!!!!!!!!!!

14]. “Good for Nvidia shareholders, maybe, But Bad for America” [ Washington Post; 8/17/25 ]

15]. “Defunding science? Penny wise and pound stupid…Weakening America” [ Steven Furianetto; Los Angeles Times; 8/17/25 ]

16] “The cost of Trump’s tariffs is finally coming into focus”. [ Ernie Tedeschi; St.Paul Pioneer Press; 8/24/25 ]

17] “the White House Is Undoing 80 Years of American Greatness…Gutting health and science research squanders the nation’s legacy of innovation”. [ Garrett Graff; New York Times; 8/17/25 ]

18] “Complaint says Social security data at risk…DOGE exposed details, Whistleblower says”. [ Nicholas Nehamas; New York Times; 8/27/25 ]

19]. “A Fed loyal to Trump would cost borrowers”. [ Christopher Rugaber; Assoc. Press; 8/1/25 ]: ‘..the result would likely be higher inflation and, over time, higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages, car loans, and business loans.”

20] “Trump’s Budget Will Devastate Health Care for Rural Families Like Mine…The So-called “Big Beautiful Bill” will throw millions of Americans off Medicaid and put hundreds of rural hospitals at risk of closing” [ Ta’kyla Bates; The Progressive Populist; August, 2025 ]

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

21] “PFAS change may cost taxpayers billions…EPA proposal on “forever chemicals’ would shift cleanup costs away from the polluters”. [ Hiroko Tabuchi; New York Times; 8/29/25 ]

22]. ‘If economic storm hits, the severity is uncertain…The fiscal data has turned darker amid tariffs, spending cuts”. [ Lydia DePillis; New York Times; 8/24/25 ]

23] “World Scientists look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Reel From Trump Cuts…America is at risk of losing its long-standing pre-eminence” [ James Glanz; new York Times; 6/1/25 ]

24]. “Trump’s policy changes are making us more susceptible to terrorists…He’s taking law enforcements, assets and funding off the counterterrorism beat, and putting them at ICE’s disposal to track down immigrants.” [ Ben Weisbuch, Phil McGovern; Minnesota Star Tribune; 6/26/25 ]

25]. “Trump’s FBI Has Made America LessSafe…The White House’s political witch hunt is compromising the bureau’s effectiveness.” [ New York Times Editorial; 7/6/25 ]

26]. “Cuts Are Harming Disaster Readiness…Trump, GOP weaken research, resources, as climate change adds fuel to storms.” [ Lisa Friedman, Maxine Joselaw, Coral Davenport, Megan Mineiro; New York Times; 7/14/25 ]

27] “We are witnessing the suicide of a superpower”. [ Max Boot; Washington Post Weekly; 6/8/25 ]: “..[Trump] is doing grave and possibly irreparable damage to the real source of U.S. strength..declaring war on science, and the casualty will be the U.S. economy.”

28]. “Rivals rise as Trump dismantles Voice of America….As the U.S. lets go of its global megaphone, other powers celebrate, and seize the opportunity’. [ Tiffany Hsu; New York Times; 6/29/25 ]

29]. “Nuclear Site Grew After Trump’s Moves…some say demolished gear wouldn’t have existed if Obama’s deal hadn’t been scuttled” [ William Broad, Ronen Bergman; New York Times; 6/29/25 ]

30]. “Project 2026. Trump’s Plan To Hijack The Next Election”. [ Ari Berman; Mother Jones; September-October, 2025 ]: “Nationalizing voter suppression….Silencing Trump’s enemies….Dismantling efforts to prevent election interference….Targeting Democratic officials….Weaponizing the Justice Department….State-level voter suppression and election subversion….Trump-dominated courts gutting voting rights….Gerrymandering the states….Blocking election certification.”

*** Trump; “I have an Article II, where i have the right to do whatever i want as president.” [ George Will; ‘Dismal marks, only two months in” Washington post Weekly; 3/23/25 ]


[Note; read this list again – knowing it is only a SMALL part of the vast damage Trump is doing to America; a SMALL part of the damage he intends to do in the future – carrying out “Project 2025” s wish list

Trump’s presidency is going to cost YOU, YOUR children – in MANY ways besides money. And this before a REALLY BIG ONE: We did not mention Trump’s immoral 2017 tax cuts, which HIS Congress just made permanent. Beside being responsible for about 25% of YOUR national debt – there are all the CUTS required to pay for it – to health, education, safety net, Medicare and Medicaid, park rangers, airport safety, weather reporting…..

Trump is grievously damaging America’s reputation around the world; drastically cutting away at America’s “soft power”. around the world. YOUR children WILL pay for this.

YOU might ponder; king Louis XV of France once said: ‘After me, the deluge.” he was right – revolution, beheadings. followed him. What follows King Donald I ?????????????

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LX – Armed Soldiers On American Streets

~ tomdolen

***** “any excuse will serve a tyrant.” [ Aesop ]


This post consists of excerpts from “Patrol that haunts me more was in Dupont Circle,” by Command Sgt. Major Eric Chastain; originally written for the Los Angeles Times; September, 2025.

1] “I know the look of an armed patrol. I’ve seen it in Baghdad, in Syria – in streets where fear ruled and peace was fragile. I never expected to see that same look on the subway in our own capital.

2] Chastain sees National Guard troops, talks with one. “I reminded him that the most important weapon a soldier carries in a city like this isn’t on his hip – it’s the trust of the people around him.”

3] Dupont Circle is “..a crossroads of international ideas and local community life. to see armed soldiers patrolling there is to see force imposed on a place built for conversation, exchange and civic trust.

4] Chastain “..spent nearly five years..on operations in the Middle East. through it all , what unsettled me in those places was the fragility of trust between armed patrols and the civilians around them – the uneasy sense that one spark could undo any tenuous stability. I never expected to feel that same fear, not for myself, but for our society, while riding the D.C. Metro.”

5] “What I saw last week didn’t resemble the disciplined Army I know. That should unsettle us.”

6]. “Asking them to police a city is unfair – to them, and to the people they’re supposed to serve. This is not what the Guard was built for. Its mission is to respond to disasters….not to serve as an armed show of force on city streets.”

7] “What was once extraordinary is quietly being treated as routine. ˇhat should alarm us all. The sight of soldiers with weapons patrolling D.C. and Los Angeles streets should feel jarring. Because once we accept it as normal, we begin to accept the very thing our military has always fought against – the idea that legitimacy comes from the barrel of a gun.”

8] “..my greatest worry is that by placing young soldiers in impossible positions, we are undermining the very trust between society and service members that holds our democracy together.”


***. “The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.” [ Dionysius ]

The August 27, 2025 Minneapolis church shooting – some thoughts……..

~ tomdolen

1] “A boy identified only as Victor laid on top of 10-year-old Weston Halsne during the Annunciation shooting. Victor was shot protecting his friend.
“That also means Victor has done more to protect a child during a school shooting than all the members of Congress elected in the last 30 years.” [ Jeremy powers; Minnesota Star Tribune “letter”; 8/29/25]

2] “It’s not about the ideology.
“It’s not about mental health.
“It’s not about video games.
“It’s not about social media.
“It’s not about the pronouns.
“It’s not about left or right.
“It’s not about freedom.
“It’s about the leading cause of death amoung children and adolescents in this country.
“It’s about the mass destruction that can be caused by anyone, anywhere, anytime for any reason at all.
“It’s about guns.” [John Neerland; Minnesota Star Tribune “letter”; 8/29/25]

3]. “New Zealand did something…Less than a month after the attack, Parliament voted 119-1 to introduce a nationwide ban on semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles.”…………….

“The U.K. did something….By the next year, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns and semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. the U.K.hasn’t had a school shooting since.

“Norway did something…While Norway already had strict gun laws, they passed a ban on semi-automatic weapons in 2018, which went into effect in 2021.” [Maggie Kelly: “America grieves again and again. Other countries act.”; Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/29/25]

4] Amendment II: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Read ALL of the discussion among Founding Fathers on the Second Amendment – most importantly, WHY, they passed it.

5] James Madison’s original Second Amendment proposal contained this: an exemption from military service for those religiously scrupulous about bearing arms. It was left out of the shortened words adopted.
OBVIOUSLY – the Second Amendment was. INTENDED. to be about a GOVERNMENT military force – in 1787-91 – made up of private citizens. America now has this. It’s known as THE. NATIONAL. GUARD.

6] Get a professional English teacher to explain the rules of grammar on interpreting a sentence. the TRUE MEANING of a sentence takes into account ALL words in it. Amendment II has three sections: “A well regulated Militia.” “…the security of a free State”. ‘the right of people to keep and bear Arms.”
Obviously – people have Arms, in order to join a Militia, to protect the security of a free State. Obviously – if the “people’ aren’t in a Militia – they don’t need Arms. Which is what other, more rational and civilized nations have done

7]. CORRUPTION of the Second Amendment – was done by the CORRUPT Roberts ‘court” in 2008. they magically discovered a “meaning” that had eluded previous state and federal courts for over 200 years in numerous rulings, including multiple Supreme Court rulings.

8]. is America a “civilized’ nation. – IF – somebody, for reasons all his own – can obtain a MILITARY weapon – and then proceed to shoot up a school, a church, a store, a night club, etc. AND – our reaction is only to pray, make speeches, grieve by ourselves…. – BUT. REFUSE. to do THE. ONE THING THAT WILL STOP THS CARNAGE. – ban the weapons that do the killing and maiming????? We are not “free” – our children live in fear of being shot at school, are forced to do “live shooter drills.” We live in far for ONE REASON – some crazed person will kill us, with a gun.

It is time to elect people who WILL pass strict gun laws – like New Zealand, UK, Norway have done. PERIOD.

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LVIII – Four Minnesota and Two Wisconsin Republican Congress Critters Disgrace Themselves and America

~ tomdolen

Perhaps YOU missed it – but in July, 2025, 6 Republican Congress Critters felt compelled to send a letter to Canada”s American ambassador – complaining that Canadian wildfire smoke was affecting the lives of American citizens, and criticizing Canada’s forest-management policies !!!!! NOT making this up !!! They really did it !!!

This – a prime indicator of the Trump era STUPIDITY, CRUELTY, CRAZINESS. What else, besides ‘proving” to their FAR RIGHT voters that they’re “fighting for them” ?, would they insult the ambassador of America’s historic number one friend in the world ???????

***. “Fools are more dangerous than rogues.” [ George Bernard Shaw ]

It gets worse, as “letters-to-the-editor” pointed out:
— there are currently 12 wildfires burning in U.S. states; 2 national parks had to evacuate staff and visitors [M.J.; 7/15/25; Minnesota star Tribune]
– “the real cause is climate change” – higher temperatures, reduced snowpack, more combustible fuels, linger fire season. Suggesting better policies is “ludicrous” – most Canadian wildfires are in remote areas of vast boreal forest, far from firefighting infrastructure. ˇhese same people voted for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” – which cut tax-incentives aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions. since 1750, the U.S. produced about 24% of CO2 emissions, Canada about 2%. [ S.H. 7/15/25; Minnesota Star Tribune]
– our Minnesota- Wisconsin Republicans “must have already forgotten where the wind was blowing when St. Louis County was burning up this spring” and the resulting smoke over Canada. {Jill Burcum: “That Wildfire smoke blows both ways”; 7/16/25; Minnesota star Tribune}

Not content with July’s letter – Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Wisconsin Republicans signed. ANOTHER. letter in August, 2025, berating Canada for how its handling of fires ruined the summer tourist season!!! One Minnesota Republican filed a complaint with the U.S. EPA. and. the International Joint Commission – to investigate Canada’s handling of its fires !!!

A University of British Columbia forest ecologist noted that “70 years of fire suppression” in both the U.S. and Canada “is what allowed so much fuel to stockpile on the forest ground.” WE BOTH cut down mature trees to maximize profit -and left the rest – much of which is burning…..
Trump’s tariffs have made fire equipment 30% more expensive in Canada. An $850,000 truck of 3 years ago now costs. $1.4-$1.5 million. [Kristopher Tigue: “Smoke ignites more cross-border tension”; 8/16/25; Minnesota Star Tribune]

THEN – there’s TRUST. “Replacing agreements is one thing. Replacing trust is another. And that’s at risk with Trump’s economic and geopolitical aggression.” [John Rash: “Trump risks U.S. and Minnesota’s key relationship with Canada”. 5/8/25; Minnesota Star Tribune]. [NOTE: this was written two months before the infamous Congressional Republican’s July and August “complaint” letters.]

TRUST – for about 150 years, the U.S. and Canada had the world’s most peaceful and TRUSTFUL border in the world. There was a library between Vermont and Quebec which straddles the border. Crazy Trumpsters wanted Canadians to go through U.S. customs to enter. THEIR. library. One angry Canadian punched out an entrance on the Canadian side to thwart that bit of STUPIDITY-CRUELTY-CRAZINESS by YOUR government. There is an “International Peace Garden”. “that honors the long friendship between Canada and the United States’. that straddles the North Dakota-Manitoba border, established in 1932. There have been joint governmental buildings housing Canadian and American government departments along the u.S.-Canada border. Historic. TRUST.

***. “When we begin to build walls of prejudice, hatred, pride, and self-indulgence around ourselves we are more surely imprisoned than any prisoner behind concrete walls and iron bars.” [ Mother angelica ]

People may forget, even forgive. STUPIDITY, CRUELTY, CRAZINESS. – BUT. – they are unlikely to forget, unlikely to forgive HOW. YOU. TREATED. THEM. the REAL enemies of freedom and democracy are Russia and China. – NOT. countries, formerly friendly and “allies.” An intelligent American government would know this, act accordingly. – and. NOT alienate countries like Canada that are needed to combat the REAL enemies of democracy – Russia and China. Which also totally ignores how much genuine affection there HAS been – before Trump – between Canadians and Americans.

***** to Canadian readers, citizens – please consider this to be a public apology from Americans horrified by our mistreatment of Canada. Myself, my family, friends – all made many trips to Canada. there are NO better people on this earth than the Canadians we met on those trips, from the 1950s forward. I am sorry……..

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LVI – Trump’s DICTATORSHIP is Created Right Before YOUR Eyes

~ tomdolen

***** “When the rights of any individual or group are chipped away, the freedom of all erodes.” [Earl Warren]

Look around YOU, at daily headlines!!! American freedoms, YOUR freedoms, are being chipped away – issue after issue, group after group. If YOU don’t fit the “Trump vision” of what “loyal” American is – YOU are a candidate for legal action against YOU.

In how many ways is the Trump administration trying to censor information, to rewrite American history? – changing signs in national parks, changing ow the Smithsonian operates, deleting information from government websites, attacking universities, dictating PUBLIC school curriculum, attacking journalists, attacking judges………..

1] Read Jason Stanley’s. “Erasing History…How Fascists…Rewrite…The Past…To control…The Future.” Or – read “1984,”

Or – study how Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, Communist China….have done this in REAL LIFE.



*** “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” [Harry Truman, U.S. President]





People in 2025 America. ARE living in fear – many different categories for different reasons. THAT has been an ANNOUNCED goal of the Trump administration.

2] Remember this – there were at least 6 major badges in Auschwitz: red for “politicals,” green for “criminals,” pink for homosexuals, black for “anti-socials,” purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses, yellow for Jews. [Peter Padfield; “Himmler”]

The Trump administration has now DONE what it said a previous administration did: WEAPONIZE the federal government AGAINST the American people. Look at what and WHO is favored, NOT attacked or persecuted. THEN – look at what or WHO IS attacked or persecuted. Things that support average Americans like YOU are attacked – grants to build infrastructure, support public education, support science; student loans [this recall process could ripple through the economy]; a rational and fair tax structure; the dispensing of critical information [weather, economic data]; crippled and withheld; changing voting rules, practices, laws;…and much more…………

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

3] CORRUPTING the 2026 congressional elections !!!!!!!!!!!! – Right in YOUR face !!!!!!!!!
A] Trump DEMANDED that Texas re-do its congressional election districts in order to FIND ways to CREATE 5 safe Republican seats – and, of course, Texas Republicans followed their marching orders from Der Leader. So now – either Democrats accept this corruption. – or. – they fight back. – producing a “race to the bottom”. -which threatens American democracy.
B} Read daily headlines of this Trump-ordered CORRUPTION – “Trump to target mail-in voting’ [Dylan Wells; Washington Post; 8/19/25]: “…Trump in a series of misleading statements….another sign Trump is trying to alter the rules around voting….falsely claiming….widespread fraud….The Constitution does not allow the president to direct states what to do, as Trump falsely claimed….he has used the method himself..” [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
C] Read “Project 2026…Trump’s Plan To Hijack The Next Election” [Ari Berman: Mother Jones; September-October, 2025}
D}. Research “gerrymander” – since 1812 recognized as a CORRUPT election maneuver – and, of course, ther CORRUPT Roberts “court” refused to rule it out !!!!!!!!!!

Read and listen to daily headlines on REAL mainstream news, U.S. and foreign. Donald Trump and the Rasputins around him, many from “Project 2025,” are carrying out the long-range plans of the FAR RIGHT – read how they planned it:
– “Evil Geniuses” [Kurt Andersen]; “The Conspiracy To End America” [Stuart Stevens]; “Democracy In Chains [Nancy MacLean]; “Dark Money” [Jane Mayer]: “Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plan To Control American Elections” [David Daley]; “Vigilante Nation” {Jon Michaels, David Knoll]; “On Tyranny” [Timothy Snyder]; “How Fascism Works” [Jason Stanley]; “Twilight of Democracy” [Anne Applebaum]

*** “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. but we can’t have both.” [Justice Lous Brandeis]

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

True, real, American democracy now hangs by an increasingly threatened narrow thread. – what are YOU going to do to protect YOUR freedom – and that of YOUR children and of YOUR grandchildren ????????????

*** “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” [Dante Alighieri]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LV – Making Up “Enemies” That “Only I”. Can Save YOU From!

~ tomdolen

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

Donald Trump NEEDS “enemies.” He desperately needs to find ‘enemies” – so “Only I”. can save YOU from “them.” Times, places, villains, “reasons” change – the formula does not. Find an “enemy”; cook up some “rationale”; be the “strong man on horseback”. who rides in to “save” America.

Consider Trump’s most recent episode: “saving” Washington, D.C. from “caravans of mass youth” rampaging city streets. And: “Our capital city has been overtaken by vilent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.”

Trump’s “solution?” – Call in the military. Send in National Guard troops, FBI agents, U.S. marshals, D.E.A agents, Alcohol,Tobacco,Firearms & Explosives agents and other agents. Are these people ALL trained to police American streets? NOT HARDLY !!!!!!!!!! Is putting these people on D.C. streets going to hurt American national security in the areas from which their expertise is, and, they’re now pulled away from? YES !!!!!!!!!! – as numerous people have already testified.

***** “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor –
with the cry of grave national emergency.” [ General Douglas MacArthur, 1957 ]

Consider information on these issues from the following excerpts:
A] “Trump send Guard into D.C.” [Josh Boak, David Klepper; Associated Press; 8/12/25]
1]. “…activating 800 members of the National Guard in the hopes of reducing crime, even as city officials stressec crime is already falling in the nation’s capital.”
2] “..push his tough-on-crime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime.”
3]. “The president dismissed the idea Washington needed to enlarge its 3,500-officer police force, even as he seeks to have more armed personnel going through the city with the goal of reducing crime.” [!!! But – that would be too logical, and, more importantly, would not be “good TV’ !!!!!!!!]
4]. “While Trump has portrayed himself as a friend to law enforcement and enjoyed the political backing from many of their groups, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the deadly Jan.6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.”

*** “The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.” [Andre Gide]

5] “…the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.”

6 “Trump has emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go, and he did not give details..”

***** “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.” [ Aristotle ]

B] “Trump Proclaims Federal Control Of The D.C. Police” [Katie Rogers; New York Times; 8/12/25]
1] “..Mr. Trump painted Washington as an urban hellscape, repurposing some of the incendiary language he has used to describe conditions on the southern border. Mr. Trump has railed against crime in urban, largely liberal cities for decades…’
2] “There are practical questions about how Mr. Trump’s plans would be carried out…Federal officials were still working out many of the operational details…”
3] “Mr. Trump’s remarks seemed largely aimed at rewriting history and the reality of crime in Washington. Soon after he took office, mr. Trump pardoned hundreds of rioters…”
4] “.. in summer. 2020, Mr. Trump deployed more than 5,000 National Guard troops to Washington to crack down on mostly peaceful demonstrators pushing for racial justice…widely seen as a debacle.” [ Would it be correct to say that under a Trump regime – it matters WHO you are when you demonstrating???]

***** “There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be trust no man living with the
power to endanger the public liberty.” [ John Adams ]

C] “Military Is Again Pulled Into a Domestic Concern”. [ Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper; New York Times; 8/12/25]
1] “.. the latest example of how the president has used the military to advance domestic policy priorities…Already this year, Mr. Trump has deployed some 10,000 active-duty troops to the southwest U.S,. border to choke off the flow of drugs as well as migrants, and 4,700 National guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests..”
2] “Mr. Trump last month secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations.
3]. “The U.S. military responds quickly to executive directives. for that reason, it is a preferred institution for a president who presents himself as tough on crime, undocumented immigrants, drugs, “woke” culture and other perceived domestic enemies.’
4] “Mr. Trump’s directive deploying National Guard troops to Washington ‘is a fraught one because it will seem partisan from the go,’ said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University. “The military does not train for normal police beat-walking missions,’ Mr. Feaver said..”
5]. “This is part of a pattern where the administration is using and appropriating military resources for nonmilitary domestic goals,” said Carrie A. Lee, the former chair of the department of national security and strategy at the Army War College.”
6]. “During Mr. Trump’s first term, Pentagon and military leaders cautioned him against using troops to shoot racial justice protesters in the legs, as former aides have said he suggested.” [looks like, to Trump, it DOES matter WHO you are when you “protest” – trashing the U.S. Capitol would be forgiven, racial justice would NOT]
7] “…members of the California National Guard said the deployment to Los Angeles had eroded morale…Guard officials also expressed concerns that the deployment would hurt re-enlistment.”

Would an administration noted for being vengeful, partisan, ideological, be sending armed American military into cities – be doing that ONLY in Democratic-run cities, in “blue’ states??? have, are, any SIGNIFICANT raids occurred in Republican-run cities and states??? Just asking………..

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

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LIV – Eliminating ANY Bad News to Cover Up Incompetence

~ tomdolen

***** “Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” [Alice in Wonderland]

Nothing illustrates the. STUPIDITY, CRUELTY, CORRUPTION, CRAZINESS, INCOMPETENCE of the Trump DICTATORSHIP than the recent firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics leader. No fact-based, competent. administration would be this stupid and incompetent. Dear people; America is very quickly becoming a kleptocratic “Banana Republic.” Right before your eyes.

Consider REAL. WORLD. FACTS – as reported in these three articles:
1] “Why the Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly revises jobs data” [Ben Casselman; New York Times; 8/10/25]
2] “In Trump we trust, at our own peril” [Edward Lotterman; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 8/10/25]
3]. “Numbers Don’t Lie. Can We Keep It That Way?” [Jeff Sommer; New York Times; 8/10/25]

***** “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.” [Alexandre Dumas]

A] “Why the Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly revises jobs data”
1] “To the economists and investors who obsessively scrutinize the employment numbers, revisions are normal – an inevitable if sometimes frustrating part of trying to measure a $30 trillion economy.”
2]. “Trump claimed without evidence that McEntarfer had “rigged” the numbers to hurt him politically.”
3]. “Economists across the political spectrum decried McEntarfer’s firing, and dismissed the notion that she would, or could, meddle with the monthly jobs figures.”
4]. “The challenges facing the agency, they added, long predated McEntarfer’s leadership and will be difficult for her successor to address without increased funding. Instead, the Trump administration has proposed further cuts to the agency’s budget.” [ Trump. stupidity, incompetence. illustrated, PROVED !!!!!!! ]
5] “The average revision during Trump’s first six months in office is almost identical to the average during the four years of the Biden administration.

B] “In Trump we trust, at our own peril” [Edward Lotterman; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 8/10/25]
1] “..President Donald Trump’s lying about the validity of the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s job numbers released and then firing its very capable commissioner.
2]. “..in great part because he and minions like Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic council, keep doubling down, the damage may be broader, longer-lasting, and perhaps irreversible. However, few voters or members of the Republican party seem to appreciate the gravity of what is happening.”
3] “Start with some simple facts and contradictions: 1. Trump wants lower interest rates, especially on politically critical ones like mortgages. 2. Trump wants to claim a booming economy with high employment and output….Therefore, Trump cannot have both 1 and 2 at the same time.”
4] “What is even more frustrating is that Trump is too obtuse to see how his lack of self-control is sabotaging his own goals
5] “..the crux of the problem: Trump says the trusted numbers can’t be trusted, so he creates a situation where everyone knows the numbers can’t be trusted.”

***** “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” [ Confucius ]

C]. “Numbers Don’t Lie. Can We Keep it that Way?” [Jeff Sommer; New York Times; 8/10/25]
1]. “Imagine living in a country where you can’t trust the government’s numbers. I don’t have to imagine it. I spent time in China and the Soviet Union in the 1980s….U.S. official data isn’t tainted like this, but it may be heading there. President Trump didn’t like the numbers he was seeing in the latest government jobs report. So he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics..”
2]. “THe furor over statistics comes at a critical moment for the economy. So much is changing that we need to know where the economy is heading. MNr. Trump has cast doubt on ther official data precisely when we need it most.”
3]. “If anyone tampered with the data, Ms. Groshen said, “we’d hear from whistleblowers, and employees would resign.” We’d know about it.”
4] “Rather accept that his own policies may have been responsible for the negative economic picture, the president attacked the bureau, saying the agency’s ‘numbers were RIGGED..”..”
5]. “In fact, a review by Bespoke Investment Group of the bureau’s jobs reports over several presidential election cycles since 1998 shows that it has been impartial.”
6] “There are reasons to be worried about data integrity beyond Mr. Trump’s assault on the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Science statistics have been vanishing from government websites…Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has disbanded expert advisory committees devoted to improving the quality of data on inflation, employment and gross domestic product. Funding of statistical agencies has been cut.” [Alice in Wonderland in action!!!!!!!!!!]

***** “It’s hard to believe anyone would vote for me. People must really be stupid.” [ Donald John Trump ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LIII – Trump Sabotages America by Destroying Truth and Trust

~ tomdolen

***** “To this day, the lies, misrepresentations, and fabrications that are the sum total of who my uncle is are perpetrated by the Republican Party and white evangelical Christians.” [Mary Trump: “Too Much and Never Enough”]

As Trump’s niece relates, Trump grew up being allowed to lie; often creates his own reality. Those “alternate facts” were one thing in his business career, they are quite another when this flawed person is again president of the United States. Below are just four recent examples of how Trump’s war on truth sabotages America, at home and abroad.

A]. “In Trump’s World, Wild Numbers Are Real If He Says They Are” [Naftali Bendavid; Washington Post; 8/3/25]
1]. “president Donald Trump made a promise..for Republican lawmakers that was as impossible as it was specific: He would drive down drug prices by as much as 1,500%…A price cannot drop by more than 100%..”
2]. “The cost of gasoline had fallen to $1.99 a gallon in five states, he said; according to AAA, it was more than $3 in every state..”
3]. “Businesses had invested $16 trillion in America in the past four months, he added; the entire U.S. economy last year was worth less than $30 trillion.”
!!!!! – these three Trump lies were all said at ONE sitting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4]. “He uses statistics less as a factual statement of, ‘Here is what the best data says,” and more as rhetorical construct to sell an idea….He will choose a statistic based on what he thinks he can credibly say..” [Robert Rowland, University of Kansas communication professor]. [MEANING – how BIG a lie he can tell]

***** “Donald has always been able to get away with making blanket statements {“I know more about [fill in the blank] than anybody…he’s been allowed to riff about nuclear weapons, trade with China, and other things about which he knows nothing..” [ Mary Trump: “Too Much and Never Enough”]

B} “Trump erodes trust by firing labor-data official” [John Rash: Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/5/25]
1]. “Rather than reflect on employer uncertainty from policy prescriptions he’d implemented…Trump took to social media to claim the jb numbers were “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.” The president, predictably, offered no evidence, because there is nine.”
2]. “Firing the labor statistician delivering the data is akin to breaking the thermometer because of a heat wave. Which..is what the administration is also doing regarding global warming..”
3]. “the latest episode was “a sad and tragic day. This ws a country, until last Friday, which consistently provided the highest quality statistics.. This firing signals to me that we are well on our way to becoming a country where the government is not to be trusted, statistics are not to be trusted, nobody is to be trusted.” [ University of Minnesota economics professor V.V. Chari]
4]. “..Publisher’s Weekly reported that during inauguration week last January, sales of “1984” increased 192%..While another Orwellian warning, “Animal Farm,” rose 136%..readers turning to Orwell’s classic novels to better understand current events.”
5]. “The current event Chari fears? “We are becoming a dictatorship in might quick time.”

***** “From his childhood..to his early forays into the New York real estate world and high society until today, Donald’s aberrant behavior has been consistently normalized by others.” [Mary Trump; “Too Much and Never Enough”]

C]. “Park signs about Indian history at risk” [Dee DePass; Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/5/25]
1]. “Federal officials are reviewing whether to remove books and signs with historical references to the harsh treatment of Native Americans from Minnesota’s national park sites.”
2]. Signs in national parks “..asked visitors to alert the government “of any signs or other information that are negative about either the past or living Americans” in support of Trump’s executive order called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” [!!! as in “1984,” Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany !!!!! – as in WHO. decides?????}
3] A resistance campaign, “Save our signs’. has so far acquired over 3,000 photos from the public to be used after Trump is gone – and truth returns. [ as in slaves did NOT “enjoy” slavery ]

***** “It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.” [Joseph Goebbels]

D] “Trump’s trade deman: Pledge money or get higher tariffs” [Alan Rappeport; New York Times; 8/5/25]
1] “President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have turned into a play for cold, hard cash as he tries to leverage U.S. economic power to cajole other nations to make multi-billion dollar investments to maintain access to America’s market.”
2]. “To trade experts..raise the question of whether Trump is negotiating with trading partners or trade hostages. “This is no doubt a global shakedown of sorts,” said Scott Lincicome {of the} Cato Institute.”
3]. There are many questions about what “commitments” mean. “Donald Trump is a gifted storyteller, and I think when his counterparts recognize this, they can play to it,’ Ames said. “If you’re negotiating with a narcissist, you look for ways to make them feel like they’ve won.” [Chinese “commitments” to buy American farm products in Trump’s first term “were never met.”]

*****”A lie once told remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” [Joseph Goebbels]

e]. “In Trump’s world {lies} are standard operating procedure. When lies are repeated, they have the effect of shutting down critical thinking – people turn a blind eye to the lie and to the truth. When a once respected and trusted sources of news are called fake or the enemy of the people, people are put into a double bind. They are discouraged from trying to reality check – they might even feel it is a betrayal to their allegiance to Trump to try to do so.” [Steven Hassan: “The Cult Of Trump”; Free Press; 2019]

***** “Trust is the foundation of leadership.” [Colin Powell]
***** “The object of the superior mind is truth.” [Confucius]
***** “Trust is the glue that holds government together.” [Gerald Ford]