Tag: politics

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXXII – Sabotaging American Law Enforcement In Order To Deport people

~ tomdolen

*** “When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.” [ Robert Pirsig ]

“Homeland’s Core Missions Disrupted by Deportations”. [New York Times article explaining COSTS TO. AMERICA from the Trumpian anti-immigrant program – 11/16/25: Nicholas Nehamas, Michael Keller, Alexandra Berzon, Hamad Aleazia, Zolan Kanno-Youngs]. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE. Excerpts below:

1]. “The Department of Homeland Security has diverted thousands of federal agents from their normal duties to focus on arresting undocumented immigrants, undermining a wide range of law enforcement operations in response to mounting pressure from President Trump..”

6] “.. federal data shows that many immigrants being arrested do not have criminal records in the United States. Fewer than 40 percent of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement – the D.H.S. law enforcement agency leading the administration’s crackdown – have a criminal conviction…Roughly 8 percent of those arrested had been convicted of violent crime, while about 9 percent had a traffic conviction..”

9]. “Even highly trained specialists have been pulled into immigration work, such as analysts who assist in money laundering and counterterrorism cases and agents who investigate the multibillion-dollar black market for looted antiquities, a source of income for organized crime and terrorist groups.”

12] “D.H.S. keeps being pulled further away from its core missions in protecting the homeland,’ said David Lapan, who served as the department’s press secretary during the first Trump administration. “These distractions could have deadly consequences.”

***. “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

[. Martin Luther King, jr.]

2] “Homeland security agents investigating sexual crimes against children..have been redeployed to the immigrant crackdown for weeks at a time, hampering their pursuit of child predators.”

3] “A natinal security probe into the black market for Iranian oil sold to finance terrorism has been slowed down for months because of the shift to immigration work, allowing tanker ships and money to disappear.

4]. ‘and federal efforts to combat human smuggling and sex trafficking have languished with investigators reassignerd to help staff deportation efforts.”

5] “The changes have extended deep into D.H.S.’s public-safety mission, as the Coast Guard has diverted aircraft to transport immigrants between detention centers and the department’s law enforcement academy has delayed training for many agencies to prioritize new immigration officers.”

*** “The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.” [ Adolf Hitler ]

7] “The pressure to deport more people began almost as soon as Mr. Trump took office. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and architect of mr. Trump’s deportation agenda, holds a regular morning conference call with top government officials to plan and execute the massive operation…..Mr. miller..has at times berated ICE leaders for not arresting enough people..”

8] “The H.S.I. reassignments have occurred in rotations of thousands of agents being redirected to immigration duties for stints ranging from days to months, according to two officials.”

10]. “Other top officials have also felt pressure….Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, joined by Mr. Miller…promised that no job at the department would be safe, including her own, if deportations did not pick up..”

11] “The immigration operation has also pulled in thousands of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and at least four other federal law enforcement agencies, documents show.”

*** “One man with a gun can control a hundred without one.” [. Lenin ]

Then – the article lists specific evidence for six federal law enforcement operations that is being WEAKENED in order to carry out the Trumpian PUBLIC. RELATIONS. CAMPAIGN of arresting immigrants in the daily news:
CHILD EXPLOITATION. ILLICIT IRANIAN OIL. INTELLIGENCE REPORTS LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING COAST GUARD MISSION HUMAN TRAFFICKING. Read to see HOW Trump’s P.R. campaign sabotages overall American security!!!!!!!!!!

*** “[T]yranny and arbitrary power are utterly inconsistent with, and subversive of the very end and design of civil government…” [ Samuel West, 1776 ]


[NOTE: this article is NOT the first to report that emphasis on the PERFORMANCE PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN to show people that Trump’s government is “working hard for you.” The stated goal was to “make America safe’ by deporting “criminals.’ Yet the government’s own data PROVE that “criminals’ are a distinctly SMALL percentage of people deported – in this case, only 8% had a “criminal record.”

Look at ALL the government operations negatively impacted. Just in this report alone – 6 MAJOR security and law enforcement operations weakened, distracted from THEIR CORE FUNCTIONS. Trained experts FORCED to do menial police work. – so YOU could see it.

And this: the major blows to America’s image as a country of “the rule of law,” America as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers, America as a place where immigrants can thrive and CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY, America as a country where people who follow the rules don’t get punished, America as a country where armed thugs DON’T kidnap people off the streets, DON’T mistakenly arrest DISABLED U.S. ARMY veterans……..

And this fact: immigrants are doing work Americans refuse to do. There are MULTIPLE reports from farmers and industry owners who gave up hiring native-born Americans for their jobs 10-15 years ago. Immigrants are working in nursing homes, in schools, in construction, in factories THAT ENABLE AMERICA TO FUNCTION. How does deporting these low-paid, hard-working people ‘..promote the general Welfare..” ???????????????

*** “Doctrines are the most fearful tyrants to which men ever are subject because doctrines get inside of a mans own reason and betray him against himself.” [ William Graham Sumner ]

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

~ tomdolen


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXX – “Could Trump tamper with ..[Epstein].. files?”

~ tomdolen

YES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

This post deals with “the Epstein files.” The primary source is Michael Wilner’s “Could Trump tamper with files?” [Los Angeles Times; ll/20/25]; excerpts follow:
1] “..Donald Trump summoned his lawyer in 2022 for a fateful conversation. A folder had been compiled with 38 documents that should have been returned to the federal government. but Trump had other ideas. Making a plucking motion, Trump suggested his attorney, Evan Corcoran, remove the most incriminating material. “Why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room, and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out,” Corcoran memorialized in a series of notes that surfaced during criminal proceedings.”

2]. “But caveats in the bill could provide Trump and Bondi with loopholes to keep records related to the president concealed.” [ how much YOU willing to bet these loopholes just might get used??????!!!!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!]

3] “Because DOJ possesses and controls the files, it is far from certain that a vote to disclose ‘the Epstein files’ will include documents pertaining to Donald Trump,” said Barbara McQuade..”

4] “Already, this past spring, FBI Director Kash Patel directed a Freedom of Information team to work with hundreds of agents to comb through the entire trove of files from the investigation, and directed them to redact references to Trump..”

5]. “Multiple federal laws bar anyone, including the president or those around him, from destroying or altering material contained in the Epstein files, including various federal record-keeping laws and criminal statutes. But that doesn’t mean that Trump or his cronies won’t consider trying,” said Norm Eisen..”

Given Trump’s 60-year track record of lying, denying, doing anything to win – do YOU really think that with his virtual dictatorial control of the U.S. government – he won’t find some way to make sure his name is not associated with any of Epstein’s crimes in a way that could seriously hurt him??????????? How gullible are YOU???


Is THIS. Trump’s biggest scam of all time?????

Is THIS a. SET-UP – whereby after Trump’s declared. “innocent”. – he and his cult followers mount a HUGE. P.R. campaign decreeing how Democrats, “Libs,” “people who hate America” – have now been exposed as having conducted. a. big. “HOAX”! a. big. “Witch Hunt,” etc. ???????!!!!!!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!!!!

Will it be official when people like Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly kiss his feet? And all the other MAGA Republicans in Congress apologize and kiss his feet? All part of the planned SET. UP ??????

If they needed it – HIS people in DOJ now have 30 more days to remove, cover up, redact…….any damaging mention of Donald Trump from the Epstein files.

BUT – what if “everything” is NOT in ‘the Epstein files” ?????????

1]. The Associated Press reported on July 10, 2019: “Epstein’s personal address book, copies of which have been included in legal filings, lists multiple numbers connecting Trump, his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, as well as Trump’s butler, exec. assistant and security staff.” YOU might be interested that on July 9, 2019, Trump said “I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. i wasn’t a fan.” [ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ]

2] A Facebook post of December 15, 2017, related material from a 2016 lawsuit that ended four days prior to the 2016 elections. The narrator was Frances Flynn Thorson – reading material from the lawsuit filing – testimony, under perjury oath, from a woman – “Exhibit B Witness Testimony.” The woman testified she worked for Epstein in the 1990s as a “recruiter.” She provided a specific address for parties in New York city. Two 13-year old girls were victims. She said she personally witnessed two men rape them.
[YOU might want to do some research…………..]

3] On September 28, 2010 – Turkish police raided the yacht of a Trump business associate, charging him with runing a prostitution ring of young girls for various businessmen. Trump subsequently denied knowing Tevfik Arif ‘very well.”

4] The Associated Press reported on December 5, 2018 this story: “Sex offender settles lawsuit, averting accusers’ testimony.” Involved was a special, SEALED, deal……..YOU might want to check out WHO is involved and not involved…..Maybe ask WHY the deal????????? ……………

5]. On November 20, 2025 – Bloomberg News reported that in 2023 Deutsche Bank AG paid $75 million to settle a lawsuit with Epstein victims; JPMorgan settled “a similar case” in 2023 for $250 million…………….

6] Before the FBI took back about 40 boxes of presidential records Trump ILLEGALLY had in Florida – what do YOU think the chances are “somebody” might have removed evidence incriminating Trump for who knows what????????? Just saying, maybe……………

7] Epstein emails released [11/13/25]: “a person whom the Democrats identified as a victim of his, whose name was redacted in the email, ‘spent hours in my house with”. Trump.

8] Trump’s PATTERN of misogyny, demeaning comments to women – the latest, ll/14/25: ‘Quiet, Piggy”

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXIX – Trumpian Economic Policies Make Depression More Likely

~ tomdolen


*** “Wooden-headedness consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconceived, fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting to wish while not allowing oneself to be confused by the facts.”
[ historian. Barbara Tuchman ]

Watch YOUR wallet, YOUR job, YOUR home, America’s financial stability.

First: read two articles: Thom Hartmann’s “The Coming Republican Depression: How the GOP Turned. America Into a Powder Keg, and Is About to Light the Match” [The Progressive Populist, September, 2025], and Colby Smith and Stacy Cowley’s “Critics see risk in Fed cuts to oversight” [ New York Times, November 19, 2025].

Second; Pray. And hope patriotic American officials will overcome Trumpian stupidity and corruption.

Consider these excerpts from Thom Hartmann’s “The Coming Republican Depression:
1]. “Republicans may be fixing to crash the economy again – Republican presidents oversaw 10 of the last 11 recessions and the Republican Great Depression – and they’re doing it to satisfy the greed of the billionaires they serve…..in 1929, Republican deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, financial speculation, and an all-out assault on labor exploded into the Republican Great Depression. Today, every one of the fuse lines that set off those explosions is once again being laid by a Republican president and Party…They are actively destabilizing the pillars of our economy, undermining our democracy, and gutting the social contract that has held us together for nearly a century.”

2]. “We are now living under a Republican president whose party has:
– Repeatedly held the full faith and credit of the United States in debt ceiling standoffs designed to force cruel cuts to programs that serve ordinary people;
– Demanded the Fed lower interest rates in a way that could push the nation into an inflationary spiral even as wages stagnate and housing becomes unaffordable for the bottom 90%;
– Pushed for an end of regulations on banks, fossil fuel companies, tech monopolies, and Wall street speculators, even as their recklessness increases systematic risk;
– Championed massive tax cuts for billionaires and multinational corporations, ballooning the deficit while cutting benefits and raising taxes on working people;
– Enabled trade wars and supply chain disruptions while cutting support for green manufacturing and public investment
– Promoted and made billions from crypto;
– And perhaps most grotesquely, embraced an open authoritarianism and white nationalism, eroding the rule of law and the very stability on which economic confidence depends.
Every one of these moves destabilizes the foundation of modern prosperity. And every one of them echoes the warning signs of past collapses.”

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

Consider these excerpts from Smith and Cowley’s. “Critics see risk in Fed cuts…”:

1] “..a list of directives for Fed examiners and supervisory staff across the country that significantly curtailed how closely they scrutinized lenders. It followed a host of changes made by Michelle W. Bowman [Trump appointee]..”
2] “current and former policy-makers and legal experts were already worried hat those changes would encourage exactly the kind of risk-taking that could sow the seeds for the next crisis….hat supervisors will be less equipped to spot such a crisis in advance, risking deeper damage to the economy.”
3]. “The memo also outlined changes that sought to limit the oversight power of two groups created by the Fed’s board after the 2008 financial crisis.” [stupidity, ideology, corruption?????]
4] “The Fed is not the only financial regulator undergoing upheaval to align with the Trump administration’s vision. The president wants more sway over how the central bank and other independent institutions, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, oversee Wall Street.” [dictators do NOT want anybody to have ANY independence – their “vision’ is control]
5] “Another regulator, thre Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…has already been gutted.” [their ‘crime”? – they forced banks and other lenders to give back $20 billion to people like YOU!!! – we can’t have that!!!]

*** “The more lies are told, the more important it becomes for the liars to justify themselves by deep moral commitments to high-sounding objectives that mask the pursuit of money and power.” [ Bertram Gross ]

[NOTE: ask YOURSELF; Why do we have financial regulations? is it because we “hate banks and bankers”? is it because we’re jealous of rich people? Perhaps it’s because the world track record since at least the 1700s has DOCUMENTED the proclivity of “financial wizards,’ Wall Street, the banking industry of multiple countries, to take risks that blow up – and lead to destructive financial crises – of which 1929-41 is only the most documented for causes, suffering, results [like World War II].]

*** “Being ignorant is not so much Shame, as being unwilling to learn.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]

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

~ tomdolen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXVII – Trump. GIVES More. Tax. Breaks to. Obscenely. Rich. Donors. and Friends – YOUR. Food. Costs. Go. Up!!!!!!!!!!

~ tomdolen

*** You can’t make this stuff up!!! – Day After Day – same headlines: Trump’s Craven Corruption and the increasing SUFFERING of ordinary [non- top 1%] people – like YOU. Review these reports:

– “Wealthy getting more tax breaks”. [ Jesse Drucker; New York Times; 11/7/25 ]
– “CEO’s Are Getting Richer. Everyone Else Is Falling Behind”. [ Sarah Anderson; The Progressive Populist; Oct., 2025]
– “At McDonald’s, low-income customers aren’t likin” it” { Jaclyn Peiser; Washington Post Weekly; 11/9/25 ]
– “The Undeclared Class War”. [ Wayne O’Leary; The Progressive Populist; August, 2025 ]
– “Our ‘inflation diet’ Is Starving Junk Food Sales”. [ Brooks Johnson; Minnesota Star Tribune; 10/27/25 ]

*** “The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.”
[ Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. President ]

I. “Wealthy getting more tax breaks”
1] “With little public scrutiny, the Trump administration is handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to some of the country’s most profitable companies and wealthiest investors.” [NOTE: WHY??????}
2]. “The primary target: The administration is rapidly gutting a 2022 law intended to ensure that a sliver of the country’s most profitable corporations pay at least some federal income tax.” [NOTE: WHY?????]

3]. “These breaks come in addition to the roughly $4 trillion package of tax cuts that President Donald Trump signed into law in July. The legislation passed entirely by Republicans, heavily benefits businesses and the ultrawealthy. It is projected to add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit ands came with steep cuts to health care for the elderly and food stamps for the poorest Americans.” [NOTE: read this again – this is the very definition of corruption and cruelty]

4] “The alternative minimum tax isn’t the administration’s only effort to roll back taxes on large businesses and wealthy individuals. Last month, the Treasury granted a new tax relief to foreign investors in U.S. real estate. In August, they withdrew regulations to prevent multinationals from avoiding taxes by claiming duplicate losses in multiple countries at once. And, as The New York Times previously reported, the Treasury and IRS have rolled back a crackdown on an aggressive tax shelter used by big companies…” [READ THUIS AGAIN – corruption anyone?]

***. “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
[ John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. President ]

5]. “The Treasury’s actions are probably contributing hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal deficit, tax experts said. That is on top of what the agency did during the first Trump administration..”

6] “Big companies effectively keep two sets of books – one for investors and another for the IRS. The profits they report to the IRS permit various deductions that can bring a firm’s tax rate far below the 21% corporate tax rate.”

7] “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed into law in July provided well over $1 trillion in relief for big companies when they calculate their income tax bills….. As a result, the regular tax bills of many businesses drop so sharply – below 15% – that that they could be newly subject to the alternative minimum tax.” [NOTE: faer not!!!!! – “lobbying’ took care of that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

*** “Do you decree righteousness, you rulers? Do you judge the people fairly? No, in your hearts you devise wickedness; your hands deal out violence on the land.” [ Psalm 47: 8 ]

II. “CEO’s Are Getting Richer. Everyone Else Is Falling Behind”
1] “CEO’s of the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median wages – a group I call the ‘Low-Wage 100″ – have enjoyed skyrocketing pay over the past six years. As a group, these CEO’s now earn 632 times more than their median employees, I found in a new report for the Institute for Policy Studies. Their pay has risen nearly 35 percent since 2019 in absolute terms, While their median worker pay hasn’t even kept up with the U.S. inflation rate.” [ Greed? ]

2]. “It’s not for lack of cash. Between 2019 and 2024, these firms spent a combined $644 billion on stock buybacks. This once-illegal financial maneuver artificially inflates the value of a company’s stock – and with it, CEO pay. Even the most inept executives can rake in vast fortunes through this scam. Every dollar spent on buybacks represents a dollar not spent on workers. [. GREED, anyone????? ]

3] “The tradeoffs can be downright staggering. At Lowe’s..every one of their 273,000 employees could’ve gotten an annual $28,456 bonus over the past six years with the money the retailer blew on stock buybacks. Lowe’s median worker pay was just $30,606 last year. If McDonald’s had spent their buyback outlays on worker bonuses during this period, they could’ve given all their employees an extra $18,338 per year – more than the company’s median wage.”

*** “To lead the people, walk behind them.” [ Lao Tau ]

4]. “It’s bad for business too – most of these companies are spending more on buybacks than on vital investments like training employees or upgrading technology, equipment, and properties. And extensive research shows that extreme pay disparities undermine employee morale and boost turnover rates.”

5] “How could policymakers incentivize more equitable pay practices? They could increase taxes on corporations with huge CEO-worker pay gaps. Congress could also increase the 1% excise tax on stock buybacks that went into effect in 2023.”

*** “He that hastes to be rich has an evil eye, and considers not that poverty shall fall upon him.” [Proverbs. 28: 22]

III. “At McDonald’s, low-income customers aren’t lovin’ it”

1] “Lower-income customers aren’t finding much value in the menu at McDonald’s these days. Traffic dropped ‘nearly double digits” industry-wide among this demographic. Meanwhile, traffic among higher-income customers continued to grow across the fast-food sector.”

2] “McDonald’s is the latest example of a growing bifurcation among U.S. consumers. The wealthiest Americans are fueling consumer spending, while the working class – bogged down by waning wage growth, grocery inflation and the rising costs of living – are forgoing dining out….Chipotle chief executive Scott Boatwright told investors last week that “the gap has widened’ among its customers, with those in households earning less than $100,000…eating at the fast-food restaurant less frequently.” [ read this again, & again ]

***. “In imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own and to take practical steps to alleviate it.” [ pope Francis ]

3] “Walmart, Dollar General and Dollar Tree have also noted the growing pressure on their core low-income customers as they continue to pullback on spending in discretionary categories..”

4] “From 2019 to 2024, the average cost of a menu item rose 40 percent, according to a company fact sheet.”

***. “Take heed, and beware of greed, for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

[Luke 12: 15]

IV. “The Undeclared Class War”

1] “A number of commentators have remarked recently on the symbolic expression of Trumpian corruption and ostentation… If you can’t afford to belong, don’t feel bad. most Americans can’t afford to ante up for much of anything in the nation’s capital these days. The town belongs to the billionaire class and their retainers – or political bosses.. Oligarchy is in the saddle, and the oligarchs know it.”

2] “It’s a strange combination: Fascistic apparatchiks resembling a mafioso peddling conspiratorial extremism, fear and vengefulness are paired with nouveau riche entrepreneurial billionaires willing to happily accommodate the extremist politicos to ensure the success of their personal, wealth-generating vision of a starwars economic future built on monetized technology. Put it all under the command of a godfather figure who is at once chief executive and chief oligarch. as well as chief enforcer, and you have what some have called a gangster government.” [re-read this!!!]

3] “The descent can be said to have begun in the 1980s, when the excesses hailed as freedom by Trump sycophant Bezos were delivered in large helpings to the upper orders under the smiling visage of Ronald Reagan. It was classic American laissez-faire capitalism in application; that is, deregulate and privatize, eliminate high-end taxation, and allow the market’s “invisible hand” to work its will free of government oversight. Assume the rewards will trickle down to the benefit of all…they never do; the signature characteristic of the system in its mature phase is overwhelming economic concentration and starkclass disparities.”

*** “There is class warfare all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” [Billionaire Warren Buffett, 2005]

4] “The group Americans for Tax Fairness reports that by the end of 2023, American billionaires were collectively worth a record $5.2 trillion – up an astounding $2.3 trillion, or 78%, since the passage of the Trump-GOP tax cut of 2017; that’s an annual increase of 13%, producing unheard of riches even by the standards of U.S. billionaires…..”

5] “a reasonable question is how such egregious capital concentration – it currently stands at 17% of American GDP – has been allowed to develop. The most obvious explanation is federal tax policy.” YES – it is that simple – this is CORRUPTION in action. There is NO justification that considers. ‘..to promote the general Welfare..” that can imagine tax cuts like these, let alone actually enact them.]

6] “Since the 1980s, virtually all federal taxes impacting billionaires – personal income, corporate income, long-term capital gains, shareholder dividend, and inheritance – have been cut roughly in half, radically reducing the money owed..” [. this isn’t rocket science – it’s blatant CORRUPTION ]

***. ‘You have despised the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you, and drag you before the judgment seats?” [ James 2: 6 ]

V. “Our ‘inflation diet” Is Starving Junk Food Sales”
1] “Rising food prices remain the top concern among consumers globally, according to a recent NielsenIQ study. Food inflation ranked higher than war, job security, housing costs and climate change. Almost all food is noticeably more expensive now compared with five years ago.”

2]. “But many food companies, like Hormel and Oreo-maker Mondelez, are still raising prices to preserve their profit margins… Then there is ‘shrinkflation,’ where prices ara stable, but packages contain less food.”

3] “Without sales growth comes a hunt for productivity. Nestle, the world’s largest food company, recently announced it’s cutting 16,000 jobs, about 6% of its workforce, and will bring in more automation in office jobs and at factories to become ‘an agile company.” The Swiss giant’s stock price rose 10% on the news.” [ SO, stay tuned….]

***. “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, U.S. Senator, 1829 ]

*** “The only orthodox object of the institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible to the general mass of those associated under it.” [. Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father, 3rd U.S. President ]

The Trump Dictatorship – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXVI – “Are We losing Our Democracy?”

~ tomdolen


***”The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
[ James Madison, Founding Father, Fourth U. S. President; Federalist #47 ]

[NOTE: This post is from a New York Times editorial, 11/2/25; “Are We Losing Our Democracy” – excerpts presented here. READ THE ENTIRE EDITORIAL – if YOU care about whether America will have a REAL democracy on January 20, 2029. If TYOU happen to be a Trump supporter, then YOUR challenge is to examine each accusation – WHY is this said, what are the undisputed facts of consensus Americans – not just in your bubble?

“Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the United States, the Times editorial board has complied a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studies this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12.

“No. 1 An Authoritarian Stifles Dissent And Speech. Trump Has Started To……The Bottom Line…His evident goal is to cause Americans to fear they will pay a price for criticizing him, his allies or his agenda.”

“No. 2 An Authoritarian Persecutes Political Opponents. Trump Has……The Bottom Line…he has already targeted his opponents with legal persecution in shocking ways.”

“No. 3 An Authoritarian Bypasses The Legislature. Trump Has Started To……The Bottom Line. Mr. Trump has defied the Constitution by trampling on Congress’s power of the purse.”

“No. 4. An Authoritarian Uses The Military For Domestic Control…..The Bottom Line…..his willingness to use it as he has – and his threats to expand that use….”

“No. 5. An Authoritarian Defies The Courts. Trump Has Started To……The Bottom Line…the court’s reluctance to restrain him appears to have emboldened him to sidestep lower court orders he does not like.”

“No. 6. An Authoritarian Declares National Emergencies On False Pretenses. Trump Has……The Bottom Line Mr. Trump’s willingness to kill people without due proces…represents one of his most extreme abuses of power. It raises the prospect that he may expand the use of emergency power to other areas, including domestic law enforcement.”

“No. 7. An Authoritarian Vilifies Marginalized Groups. Trump Has. The Bottom Line. Mr. Trump is borrowing from the autocrat’s playbook by suggesting that some citizens are legitimate and others are second-class.”

“No. 8 An Authoritarian Controls Information And The News Media. Trump Has Started To……The Bottom Line. In place of an independent and free press, Mr. Trump evidently hopes to create a shadow ecosystem willing to promote his interests and talking points.”

“No. 9 An Authoritarian Tries To Take Over Universities. Trump Has Started To……The Bottom Line….Initially, some universities seemed as if they might simply submit to Mr. Trump’s demands. More recently, several showed more willingness to resist, rejecting a proposal that would have rewarded them financially for adopting Trump-friendly policies.”

“No. 10 An Authoritarian Creates A Cult Of Personality……The Bottom Line. The Trump cult of personality plays into his claims – common among authoritarians – that he possesses a unique ability to solve the country’s problems.”

“No. 11 An Authoritarian Uses Power For Personal Profit. Trump Has……The Bottom line. Mr. Trump’s culture of corruption may resemble the behavior of foreign autocrats more closely than any other category on this list. he is using what rightly belongs to American citizens – the power and resources of our democratic government – to enrich himself, and he is not trying to hide it.”

“No. l2 An Authoritarian Manipulates The Law To Stay In Power. Trump Has Started To…….The Bottom Line. Even if he backs away from any scheme to serve more than two presidential terms, Mr. Trump’s attempts to tilt the electoral field in favor of Republicans is anti-democratic and could pervert American elections for years.”

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

***. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” [ Wendell Phillips ]

SO – Mr. and Mrs. American. – what are YOU. going to do about the obvious, blatant, theft of YOUR. DEMOCRACY. in plain sight??????

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

~ tomdolen


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXIV – STUPIDITY. CAPITALIZED – Desroying American Medical Science

~ tomdolen

*** “Research to improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy – CANCELED”

*** “Study to improve childhood cancer survival rates in low-resource hospitals – CANCELED”

***. “Development of a new technique for colorectal cancer prevention – CANCELED”

***. “Project to analyze premalignant breast tissue in high-risk women-CANCELED”

{NOTE: the list above is SOME of American medical research CANCELED by the “Project 2025” controlled Trump DICTATORSHIP – in order to achieve tax cuts for obscenely rich billionaires and achieve WACKO ideological goals. When YOU figure out how this kind of STUPIDITY. will “..promote the general Welfare..” perhaps YOU can tell America – especially surviving relatives of dead children, dead mothers, dead Americans.]

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

This post provides excerpts from Jonathan Mahler’s. “The War on the War on Cancer…How the 50-year campaign to saver millions of lives was dismantled in six months” [ New York Times Magazine; 9/14/25 ]:

4] “It’s an absolutely unmitigated disaster,’ Lauer told me. “It will take decades to recover from this, if we ever do…Project 2025 had called for the new administration to cut reimbursement rates….”We could lose a generation of scientists in a very short time.”

8] “It’s too early to predict what the ongoing dismantling of America’s cancer-research system is going to cost us – what life-saving, life-extending or life-improving treatments will be slower to develop, if they develop at all.”

*** “Authority has always attracted the lowest elements of the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum.” [ p.J. O’Rourke ]

1]. “..Sirianni started hearing rumors that ..[Trump].. was planning to disrupt the N.I.H.’s grant-making process..his administration ordered the N.I.H. to cancel meetings to consider pending grant applications….ordered the N.I.H. to temporarily cease all external communications….In a matter of months, the Trump administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related research grants and contracts…has terminated hundreds of government employees who helped lead the country’s cancer-research system and ensured that new discoveries reached clinicians.”

2] “..Trump made a less ambitious attempt to defund America’s scientific research system during his first term…Congress flatly rejected both efforts…But a very different attitude toward American science now prevails on the right wing of American politics…..This force has become institutionalized in Trump’s second administration.”

3] ‘..this has been a deliberate and targeted attack. “They have studied how N.I.H. works, studied it hard and learned well”…”And they have put sand in the gears in ways that are very effective, devastating.”

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

5] “Before scientists could figure out how to defeat cancer, they first had to learn how little they knew about its biology, starting with the fact that it was not a single disease but an infinite number of them..don’t just originate in different parts of the body. but also behave differently in different people. The process took decades and is ongoing…accumulated knowledge…begin to yield transformative treatments…..It now reaches into just about every medical specialty….This progress is a validation of a slow but patient process that requires time – and the gradual accretion of shared knowledge..”

6] “America’s investment in cancer research has rippled out far beyond cancer…..When the Covid pandemic struck, technologies that had been developed for cancer enabled scientists to quickly sequence the virus and then develop a vaccine for it.””

***. “A dogma…an indisputable confession of faith, is set up only when the aim is to suppress doubts once and for all. But it no longer has anything to do with scientific judgment; only with a personal power drive.” [ Carl Jung ]

7] “The system was designed to be insulated from politics….Tearing down the system, then, would require moving quickly and aggressively, taking control from the top down….The administration was much better prepared to accomplish this during Trump’s second term..Russell Vought, the director of the White House’s office of Management and Budget and the primary architect of the attack on biomedical-research system, spent the Biden tears getting ready for this moment…He and the new administration began executing their plan on Trump’s first full day in office.”

9] “Other countries are seeing opportunity in the chaos. Varmus is among a number of prominent U.S. scientists who have received solicitations from the governments of France and Spain to consider relocating there. America’s 80-year run as the world’s leader of biomedical research – and a 50-year run as the global leader of cancer research – may very well be coming to a close.”

10] “WE are great in science,’ he said. “Why would we want to destroy one of our greatest assets?”

*** “Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.” [ Laurens van der Post ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXIII – Undermining America’s. Community. Colleges

~ tomdolen

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

14] “Local economies throughout the country couldn’t thrive without them. Community colleges, in all their diversity and inclusion, were the hubs of economic mobility. As Gavin put it, “We are situated more than any other institution in America to deliver on the promises in our original founding documents that everybody deserves a good life.”

8] “The Trump administration was slashing federal funding to a host of programs designed to support first-generation and low-income students, the sort of upward-mobility, American-dream work done by community colleges.” {Ben Austen: “Hitting Close to Home”; New York Times Magazine; 8/17/25]

STUPIDITY – the Trump DICTATORSHIP is full of it. IGNORANCE is part of it. Reckless pursuit of IDEOLOGICAL. GOALS is a BIG part of it. In evaluating Trump Stupidity – ask YOURSELF – would the Chinese, or Canadians, or West Europeans, or Japanese, or Australia and New Zealand. do this???
THEN – think on the Constitution’s Preamble”s goals for ANY American government: “..a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility….promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty..” How does Trump rhetoric, executive orders, actions – achieve ‘..to promote the general Welfare..”?????

We continue with “Hitting Close to Home…President Trump’s war on higher education was meant to punish elite schools – but the nation’s 1,100 community colleges are suffering some of the worst collateral damage.” [Ben Austen; New York Times Magazine; 8/17/25]:

1] ‘..the country’s 1,100 community colleges, which educate about 6.4 million undergraduates each year – roughly 40 percent of the national total and more than twice as many as are enrolled at every highly selective college and university in the country combined.”

2] “..the “dear colleague letter the Department of Education sent to every postsecondary school in the country in February, accusing the colleges of breaking civil rights law each time they considered race when making decisions about hiring, scholarships, classes or any aspect of campus life. The letter insisted that the schools had only days to comply or else.”

3]. ‘..the ways the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill will hit their schools in the near term and in the years ahead: the cascading effects of federal Medicaid reductions, which will force states to shoulder more of the financial burden and use up discretionary funding meant for their schools; the possible end of free community-college tuition…”

4] “Across the United States, community colleges have come to serve as the work-force-development arms of their local economies….It acted as a bridge to bring more women, racial minorities, immigrants, and first-generation college students into higher ed and the skilled work force….Like other community colleges, Durham Tech partnered with all sorts of employers, figuring their exact labor needs, and offered students customized training for those jobs.”

*** “The wise man takes pleasure in what is honorable, but the fool is not vexed by shamefulness.” [ Plutarch ]

5] “The Trump administration’s message is: Get on board or get out of the way,” Scott Yenor, a fellow at the Claremont Institute..”

***. “There is no possibility I have made a mistake.” [ Adolf Hitler ]

6] “..federal grants had also been axed at other big science and technology employers in the Triangle region, threatening not just college campuses but also the entire local research economy.”……”Employers are telling us we’ve got a shortage of qualified workers,’ he said. “We need to find more women.”….. Buxton said that the Bulls Academy, by targeting students of color for jobs earning upward of $45,000 a year, was also supporting the region’s big pharma company and the local economy.” [ read this again]

7] “Proposed cuts to the Department of Education budget would eliminate most funding for English-as-a-second-language classes. In California, nearly 300,000 students took free noncredit English-learner language classes at state community colleges……In a survey of Durham Tech students last year, 42 percent said they were the first in their families to attend college..” [do we know, for sure, WHO will be the next Einstein???]

9] “The Trump administration announced..it would seek to end funding of TRIO grants for students who. were the first in their families to pursue a college degree, calling the program dating back to the 1960s. “a relic of the past.”….The Trump administration had also cut staff in half both at the Department of Education, which historically managed thr country’s enormous portfolio of student loans…”

10] “The Republican spending bill initially proposed gutting funding for federal Pell grants, which helped low-income students pay for college, and limiting access to these grants for part-time and working students – the very definition of most people attending community college. After much lobbying and pleading from community-college advocates in red states as well as blue, warning of a coming catastrophe, Republicans in congress removed those provisions..”

***. “Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave a paradise for a sect.” [ John Keats ]

11] “The Trump administration talked about expanding manufacturing at home. But across the country, 400,000 factory jobs were currently vacant. “That’s what’s so crazy about this,” I was told by another community college leader who asked not to be identified, out of fear of retaliation..” [dictatorships operate in an atmosphere of fear]

12] “Get care at a local hospital, or prepped for surgery at a hospital, or treated after an accident, or have someone come to your home to do repairs – “those are all community college grads, all of them,” the community college leader told me. “This collateral damage is going to end up being regional economic damage.” [shall we slit our throats together???}

13] “…Republicans in Congress were voting to defund NPR and PBS, potentially decimating the public broadcasting station that Delta housed on its campus, a service it had provided the wider Saginaw community, including its rural parts, since 1964.” [ telling the truth is not what a dictatorship wants – see Russia, China, Iran, North Korea…]

*** “The most delusional fantasies can be made to masquerade as sanity if you’ve got the political power to reinforce them.” [ Penny Skillman ]