***** “Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.” [ Margaret Atwood ]
This post presents for YOUR consideration David Brooks’ “The Six Principles Of Stupidity” [ New York Times; 2/2/25 ]
1] “Last week the Chinese made incredible gains in artificial intelligence and the Americans made incredible gains in human stupidity. I’m sorry, but I look at the Trump administration’s behavior over the last week and the only word that accurately describes it is: stupid.
2] “I define stupidity as behaving in a way that ignores this question: What would happen next? If somebody comes up to you and says, “I think I’m going to take a hike in a lightning storm with a copper antenna on my head,” stupidity replies, “That sounds like a really great idea!” Stupidity is the tendency to take actions that hurt you and the people around you. The administration produced volleys of stupidity last week.”
3] “..this is my big prediction for this administration: It will churn out a steady stream of stupid policies, and when the consequences of those policies begin tohit Trump’s approval rating, he will flip-flop, diminish or abandon those policies. He loves popularity more than any idea
“But it is still true that we’re going to have to learn a lot about stupidity over the next four years. I’ve distilled what I’ve learned so far into six main principles: “
***** “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
[ Mark Twain ]
4]. “Principle 1: Ideology produces disagreement, but stupidity produces befuddlement…When stupidity is in control, the literature professor Patrick Moreau argues, words become unscrewed “from their relation to reality.””
5]. “Principle 2: Stupidity often inheres in organizations, not individuals. When you create an organization in which one man has all the power and everybody else has to flatter his preconceptions, then stupidity will surely result.”
6] “Principle 3: People who behave stupidly are more dangerous than people who behave maliciously. Evil people at least have some accurate sense of their own self-interest, which might restrain them. Stupidity dares greatly! Stupidity already has all the answers!”
***** “Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.” [ Samuel Johnson ]
7] “Principle 4: People who behave stupidly are unaware of the stupidity of their actions…the Dunning-Kruger effect..is that incompetent people don’t have the skills to recognize their own incompetence…the Hegseth-Gabbert corollary: the Trump administration is attempting to remove civil servants who may or may not be progressive but who have tremendous knowledge in their field of expertise and hire MAGA loyalists who often lack domain knowledge or expertise.”
8]. “Principle 5: Stupidity is nearly impossible to oppose…Because stupid actions do not make sense, they invariably come as a surprise. Reasonable arguments fall on deaf ears. Counter-evidence is brushed aside. Facts are deemed irrelevant.”
9] “Principle 6: The opposite of stupidity is not intelligence, it’s rationality. The psychologist Keith Stanovich defines rationality as the capacity to make decisions that help people achieve their objectives. People in the grip of the populist mind-set tend to be contemptuous of experience, prudence and expertise, helpful components of rationality. It turns out that this can make some populists willing to believe anything – conspiracy theories, folk tales and internet legends; ghat vaccines are harmful to children. they don’t live within a structured body of thought but within a rave party chaos of prejudices.”
***** “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” [ Friedrich Nietzsche ]
Tag: politics
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXV – The Human Toll of Trump’s Aid Cuts
***** “A man of Cruelty is God’s enemy.” [ thomas Fuller ]
Please consider the following excerpts from Nicholas Kristof”s “The Human Toll of Trump’s Aid Cuts” [New York times; 6/1/25]:
1] “I see secretary of state Marco Rubio as a good man doing bad things, but perhaps he thinks even worse of me: He recently suggested I was a liar. While testifying before Congress, Rubio claimed..the Trump administration’s dismantling of the United states Agency for International Development had not cost any lives. “No children are dying on my watch,”…broadened his statement to include adults..”
2] “This is ludicrous: the only debate is whether to measure the dead in the thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. So Representative Brad Sherman..challenged Rubio, citing reporting overseas by me and by Reuters of individuals who died as a result of the shutdown of American humanitarian aid….”That’s a lie,” Rubio said. “False.”
3]. “So let me help Rubio with the truth. Meet Evan Anzoo, a 5-year-old boy who was born with H.I.V. in south Sudan…for five years America kept him alive with antiretroviral medicines costing less than 12 cents a day…a program started by President George W. Bush that has saved more than 26 million lives..turned the tide of AIDS around the world and built enormous good wil toward the United States.”
4]. “Then along came President Trump and his freeze on most humanitarian aid…Evan weakened and soon died of an opportunistic infection.”
***** “The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the wicked closes his eyes to them.” { Proverbs 28:27 ]
5] “If Rubio needs further reminder of the human toll, I also met a little girl named Achol Deng, 8, who likewise died when she lost access to antiretrovirals because of the U.S.A.I.D. freeze….It was Elon Musk who first insisted that “no one has died.” Now Rubio has doubled down.”
6] “..American aid overall still saved about one life every 10 seconds, based on estimates by the Center for Global Development.”
7] “An ‘impact counter” developed by an economist estimates about 300,000 people have died so far from the reductions in American assistance, two-thirds of them children. The death toll is said to be rising at a rate of 103 per hour.
8] “I’m not sure it’s actually that high, partly because I’ve seen some laid-off health workers continue to work without pay…And it takes time for children to weaken and die…nobody knows the true number…the flat denial of any deaths at all is preposterous.”
*****. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.” [ John 13:34 ]
9] Rubio chooses not to make the argument that I believe is Trump’s true position: We want tax cuts {disproportionally benefitting the rich}, so we need to cut funds in the budget from people who are so marginalized that they can’t even complain. So Evan and Achol died.
*****. “The point is you can’t be too greedy.” [ Donald John Trump ]
10] “To deny the reality of dying children not only insults the memory of children starving to death in Sudan and Yemen and Afghanistan; It also insults the intelligence of Americans.”
*****. “Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation.” [ Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ]
[Note: so there you have the essence of one Donald J. Trump: deliberate CRUELTY so billionaires don’t have to pay proportionate taxes on their immense, obscene, wealth. And, it is KNOWN. people are dying because of this. How does this “Make America Great Again” ?????]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXIV – Reverse Robin Hood
*****. “An unjust law is ni law at all.” [ St. Augustine ]
!!!!!!!!! K.I.S.S. !!!!!!!!!! – Just look at one part of Trump’s “Beautiful Big Bill” – to see the CRUELTY and CORRUPTION of Trump’s agenda
1] “..here’s what this bill does in the real world: It cuts taxes mostly for rich people. It cuts Medicaid and food stamps. Republicans are also allowing some Obamacare subsidies to expire. And so the estimate is that between all this, 13 million people will lose health insurance.
***** “The love of money is the root of all evil.” [ I Timothy 6:10 ]
2] “It’s also grimly exact. The bill has $1.1 trillion in tax cuts for people who make more than $500,000 a year. And it has $1.1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. It is a straight transfer from people who cannot afford food and medical care to people who can afford to fly first class.”
***** “Woe to them that make unjust laws.” [ Isaiah. 10:1 ]
3] “I’ve been a policy journalist for more than 20 years… I cannot remember a more cruel or irresponsible piece of domestic legislation that has been seriously proposed.” { Items 1, 2, 3 al from: Ezra Klein: “Trump’s Big Budget Bomb”; New York times; 5/25/25 }
[NOTE: Read items 1, 2, 3 above. AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN. This is the ENTIRE Trump agenda, or perhaps the “Project 2025” agenda, or perhaps the billionaire’s agenda – probably all three. GREED, CRUELTY, CORRUPTION. In stark terms: the top 1-3% wins and the lower 97% loses – that’s YOU, your children, your neighbors, your friends, America’s future.]
*****. “..essentially all..economic gains of the last 20 years have gone to a tiny sliver of the wealthiest Americans, and that’s not by accident…It’s by design. the wealthy have paid for the ability to stand at the drawing board and plan out big parts of the economy so..the whole thing works out particularly well for them.” [ Morris Pearl, Erica Payne & The Patriotic Millionaires: “Tax The Rich! NOTE: read this book for FACTS on why & how the GREEDY super rich are screwing the lower 95-97% legally ]
In addition to raising the national debt [which will be used as an excuse to screw the bottom 95-97%], gutting government [which protects YOU from the rich], making enemies all over the world, seriously weakening America – there’s this: Trump’s absolute CONTEMPT for YOU, the average American citizen.
No American president who believed in “democracy,” and enacting policies that ‘..promote the general Welfare.. [Constitution’s Preamble]. would demand Congress pass such a bill, and then have the arrogance to call such a travesty “A Big Beautiful Bill.”
[NOTE: do your own factual research: compare 1947-73 America to l98l-2025 America. Research tax laws, wealth, income, attitudes, policies, intent of policies. America has never been perfect – but in 1947-73, by INTENT, we did approach it. the – the rich struck back, greed took over. America is a much harsher, crueler, hateful, mistrusting country. BECAUSE – we used to think “we all do better when we all do better.” Donald Trump , the people around him, the POWER BEHIND HIM – are a cancer on America. things will NOT get better un†il “Trumpism” is ended. ]
The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXIII – DOGE’s Stolen Data
*** “The point is you can’t be too greedy.” [ Donald J. Trump: “The Art of the Deal” ]
This post provides some excerpts from: “The Department of Government Efficiency Is a Lie – And It Might Destroy Us All” [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive populist; 5/15/25 ]
1]. “America is under siege, but not by foreign armies or rogue terrorists, the threat is coming from inside the house: unelected billionaires who are quietly hijacking our democratic institutions from within.”…..
“This isn’t cheap or even ordinary corruption: †his is the sort of thing that happens in Third World countries….It’s the sort of corruption that destroys democracies from the inside out.”…..
2]. “And make no mistake: this is not some crackpot theory. Shortly after DOGE operatives created accounts inside the NLRB system, a login attempt came from a Russian IP address using one of those accounts..”…..
3] “What’s being looted here isn’t just random bureaucratic files. We’re talking about the private information of whistleblowers, union organizers, witnesses in federal cases, proprietary corporate data, and labor rights enforcement strategies. Including complaints and complainants against Elon Musk’s companies.”
*** “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” [. Honore de Balzac ]
4] “In other words, the raw materials for dismantling organized labor in America – and for targeting, harassing, or discrediting anyone trying to stand up to corporate power, including Elon Musk’s multiple efforts to stop or break unionization attempts in his own companies.”
“This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s the naked truth, verified by a growing number of insiders and corroborated by NPR, which reports that at least 11 government officials and staffers have confirmed their fears about DOGE’s data exfiltration campaign.”
5]. “Here’s the conflict of interest that should make every American’s hair stand on end: Elon Musk’s companies – Tesla, SpaceX and X – were themselves under investigation by the NLRB for alleged labor violations. At least until musk’s underlings fired the people investigating him and his companies.”
*** “There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. the wrong comes when riches possess men.” [Billy Graham]
6]. “And if the information DOGE extracted gets used in court – or even leaked selectively – it could permanently tilt the scales of justice in favor of Musk and his corporate cronies
7]. “But it gets worse. Much worse. According to longtime employees within the Department of Labor and other agencies, the DOGE teams aren’t seasoned experts or trained cybersecurity professionals. They’re “new arrivals,” many of them with no vetting, no security clearance, and no relevant experience. Some have even worked with criminal hackers, and another reportedly runs a website based in Russia.”
“Yet they were granted sweeping access to some of the most sensitive data systems in the federal government. It’s a digital coup executed not by hackers, but by political loyalists and tech-bro mercenaries handed the keys to the kingdom by billionaire benefactors.”
*** “Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.” [ Theodore Roosevelt ]
8]. “This is how authoritarianism functions in the 21st century. It doesn’t need a dictator in a military uniform when it has billionaires in boardrooms, access to surveillance technology, and cronies embedded deep within the machinery of government. It replaces accountability with loyalty. It replaces oversight with secrecy.
9] “This isn’t just about controlling government agencies and the courts, it’s about creating a culture of fear so pervasive that no one dares to challenge power. Workers won’t organize. Regulators won’t enforce. Whistleblowers won’t come forward. Democracy withers not with a bang, but with a whimper of silence and complicity.”
***** “Social control is best managed through fear.” [ Michael Crichton ]
***** “If you want to control someone, all you have to do is make them feel afraid.” [ Paulo Coelho ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXII – Possible Trump Dementia
This post is about one thing: Donald J. Trump’s mental fitness. We start with “Mental health professionals sound the alarm”. [ Sabrina Haake; Progressive Populist; 5/15/25]: “A petition is currently circulating among psychiatrists and other mental health professionals about Trump’s cognitive impairment. The petition was begun by Dr. John Gartner, former faculty member of Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Over 3000 psychiatrists have signed the petition, concluding that Trump has probable dementia. To reach their conclusion, they reviewed recordings of his speech patterns over a nine year period. [Gartner reviewed records dating back through the 1980s]. They note Trump’s shrunken vocabulary, misuse and mispronunciation of words, and that Trump often breaks now in the middle of sentences to digress into inappropriate ramblings.”
“They write, “Donald Trump is showing unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia, based on his public behavior and informant reports that show progressive deterioration in memory, thinking ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills…. his vocabulary is impoverished, he often has difficulty finishing a thought, sentence or even a word. Typical of dementia patients he perseverates and overuses superlatives and filler words…” Their concern supersedes their competing professional duty of neutrality; it also outweighs concerns about diagnosing someone without conducting an in-person assessment known as the “Goldwater rule.”
“Wall Street apparently agrees. Analysts at the notoriously conservative Wall Street Journal wrote, following the tariffs, that another Trump impeachment is “already in the bag.” Calling Trump’s tariffs stunt “neurotic,” a WSJ op-ed said Trump, clearly divorced from reality, had “fabricated a gratuitously ambitious mission to meet his misguided sense of importance…. Nobody in Mr. Trump’s orbit actually shares his belief in the magical efficacy of tariffs because it makes sense only in a world that doesn’t exist, where other countries don’t retaliate.” About Trump’s dissociation from reality, the op-ed noted that “no consensus or even significant coalition exists for trying to force into existence a new American “golden age” with tariffs, which is like asking a chicken to give live birth to a lioness. [Trump] invented this mission out of his own confused intuition.”
“Scores of universities have also published papers concluding ..Trump has dementia… Even ..Steve Bannon thought Donald Trump had dementia, and campaigned covertly to remove him from office via the 25th amendment….A simple Google search for “Trump has dementia” identifies hundreds of articles from think tanks, universities and MSM outlets like The New York Times, reporting on Trump’s cognitive decline and the concern it presents among mental health professionals.”
Read this again!!!!! Think WHO said it, WHAT they said….. Then consider previous concerns:
2]. “McConnell was shocked that Trump won in 2016. He told Tackett, “The big problem is…[he]. has every characteristic you would not want a president to have. Not very smart, irascible, nasty.” [Jean P. Bordewich: “Icarus of the Senate”; Washington Monthly; Jan/Feb/Mar, 2025]
3]. “111 former GOP officials call Trump ‘unfit to serve'” [Peter Baker; New York Times; 9/19/24]: Trump had demonstrated “dangerous qualities.”
4] “Security leaders endorse Harris”. [Maggie Astor; New York Times; 9/23/24]: “More than 700 current and former national security and military leaders endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris…arguing only she had the temperament and values needed to serve as commander in chief.”
5] “The Trump Testimonials: The Case Against Him, From His Own People”. {New York Times Editorial Board; 10/6/24]: “Scores of people who know him well, including 91 listed here, have raised alarms about his character and fitness for office.. Some have spoken out at the expense of their own careers or political interests.”
6]. “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” the general told Woodward. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person in this country.” [Ruby Cramer: “Trump is ‘fascist to the core,’ Milley says”; Washington post; 10/13/24]
7] “Trump praised Hitler, Kelly says..Ex-chief of staff says his former boss meets the definition of a fascist.” [Dan Merica; Associated Press; 10/24/24]
8] “Ex-Trump aides back Kelly’s warning..They say Trump wants “unchecked power” [Tim Balk; New York Times; 10/26/24]: “Thirteen former Trump administration officials released an open letter Friday amplifying warnings from John Kelly..that the former president would rule like a dictator if returned to office…”This is who Donald Trump is,” wrote the 13, all ‘life-long Republicans,” …The letter said its signers had “witnessed, up close and personal, how Donald Trump operates and what he is capable of.”
9]. “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump..37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President…Updated And Expanded With New Essays” [ Bandy lee, editor; Thomas Dunne Books; 2019]
The evidence is clear, and overwhelming: Trump is unfit to be president. About 900 people who viewed him up close, many life-long Republicans. came to an unescapable conclusion: Trump is mentally unfit, and may already be in early stage dementia. Joe Biden was disqualified because of questions about his mental abilities.
The Trump DICTATORSHIP Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXI – Long Term Damage to Health and Science
***** “Where there is no vision, the people suffer.” [ Proverbs. 29:18 ]
As the STUPIDITY, and DESTRUCTIVENESS of Trump policies becomes more evident, Americans are beginning to speak out. Here are just four examples of how Trump policies do NOT. “..promote the general Welfare..”, now, and even worse, for OUR future, which Trump is sabotaging. All of this being done to provide tax cuts for billionaires.
1]. “Economists: Trump science policies pose long-term risk…They say U.S. could lose edge by cutting federal support for research” [Ben Casselman; New York Times; 4/1/25]: “..ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about, and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research.”………
“To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, and leave Americans..poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead.. “Universities are tremendously important engines of innovation.. This is really killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”
*** “If you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on this earth.”
[ Roberto Clemente ]
2]. “EPA set to end power plant emissions limits”. [Tobi Raji; Washington Post; 5/26/25]: “In its draft, tghre agency argued..carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or climate change..” [!!!!!!!!NOTE: power plants WERE responsible for about 25% of U.S. greenhouse emissions in 2022!!!!! – did the Trump administration flunk high school math & science?]
*****. “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” [ Lenin ]
3] “Public health system has been eroded by HHS cuts” [Laura Ungar, Michelle Smith; Associated Press; 6/1/25]: “Americans are losing a vast array of people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy…State and local health departments…are being hollowed out…The Trump administration is cutting health spending on an unprecedented scale…at a time when the nation faces the deadliest measles outbreak..rising whooping cough cases and the risk bird flu could spread widely among people. The moves reflect a shift..Americans may not fully realize, away from the very idea of public health..one of the most critical responsibilities of government..”
***** “Health is the first of all liberties.” [ Henri Amiel ]
***** “Health..is the first and greatest of all blessings.” [ Lord Chesterfield ]
***** “Health is by far the most important element in human happiness.” [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]
***** “The first wealth is health.” [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
4] “Funding Cuts Are a ‘Gut Punch’ for STEM Research” [Katrina Miller; New York Times; 5/25/25]: “STEM education resarch focuses on improving how students, from preschool to university, are trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics….Experts in thre field saw the grant cancellations as part of a broader attack on education….it often took a decade or more of training for scientists to meaningfully contribute to cutting-edge programs. “Reducing the quality of the training can’t possibly be good for society,’ he said.” [ QUESTION: WHY would a modern, advanced, civilized society need citizens trained in science, technology, engineering and math. – OR – is there ANY. LOGICAL. REASON. why such a nation would NOT want these people?????????????????????????? ]
*****. “Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.” [ Goethe ]
[NOTE: We have a manilla envelope bulging with similar Trump STUPIDITIES on health alone from his first 4 months. And – remember WHY. Trump wants to make cuts in health, education, science. – to pay for billionaire’s tax cuts!!!!!!! How does damaging America’s public health system, and its training of scientists and engineers. “Make America Great Again” ???????????? America became a super power because of 20th century public health, public education, advances in science, engineering, math. YOU live better, longer, healthier because of those investments.]
*****. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” [ George Santayana ]
The Trump-Msk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXX – The DOGE Regulation Rollback. FRAUD
!!!!! STOP !!!!! – Before going further – ask YOURSELF – what are the government functions that DOGE
did. NOT. investigate – Defense Department?, Going to Mars?, corporate subsidies,
subsidies to rich farmers – some living in cities!!! – versus real “Mom & Pop” farmers?,
interests that benefit Trump donors?……………
***. “Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees, and both the trust and
the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” [ Henry Clay, 5/16/1829 ]
1] “DOGE promotes..purported savings on an “Agency Deregulation Leadersboard…But many of those regulatory reversals will actually pile more costs on to individual Americans in the form of higher bank fees, electric and water bills, and health insurance payments, according to experts and government analyses.” [NOTE: average American households saved $576 on water and gas bills due to appliance efficiency standards in 2024]
2] “But several experts, upon reviewing the DOGE website and the notices in the Federal Register that it links to, said many of DOGE’s numbers appeared to be plucked from nowhere.” [!!! – ‘plucked from nowhere” !!!!! ]
3] “An earlier Times analysis of DOGE’s related “Wall of Receipts” – which shows purported savings to federal spending through staff reductions, lease cancellations and terminated contracts – found that the math that could back up those checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes.” [NOTE: thus revealing that “our” so-called “efficiency experts” are themselves INCOMPETENT !!!!!!!!!!]
4]. “The misleading claims come as the Trump administration has begun a push for mass deregulation of the American economy, with plans to rapidly undo hundreds of rules on clean air and water, food safety, labor protections, finance, health care, telecommunications and more.” [NOTE: – read this again – how will this “..promote the general Welfare..”??? – do YOU benefit from this or – do Trump’s rich business donors ?????]
5]. “Mrs. Dudley, the former regulatory chief of the George W. Bush administration, said she tasked one of her graduate students at the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center to spend days trying to decipher how DOGE came up with the $1.9 billion figure, but the student came up empty-handed.”
“I don’t understand how anyone thinking this through could account for that claim of savings…They’re not doing their homework, and they’re not showing their work.” [ items 1-5 from: Coral Davenport, Stacy Cowley: “Costs for Americans Rise Despite Claims by DOGE”; New York Times; 6/1/2025 ]
***. “Anybody who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”
[ Albert Einstein ]
6]. “About 40% of DOGE contract cuts save nothing…Government’s own data show a lot of the money has already been spent”. [ Ryan foley; Associated Press; 2/26/25 ]
7]. “Musk offers no proof for sweeping claims” [ Maggie Haberman, Theodore Schleifer, Zolan Kanno-Youngs; New York Times; 2/12/25 ]: Musk: “We are actually trying to be as transparent as possible…I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.” “In reality, Musk’s team is operating in deep secrecy, surprising federal employees by descending upon agencies and accessing sensitive data systems.”
8]. “DOGE’s only public ledger is riddled with mistakes”. [ Aatishi Bhatia, Emily Badger, David Fahrenthold, Josh Katz; New York Times; 2/23/25 ]: “But the math that could back up these checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes…its slapdash accounting adds to a pattern of recklessness by the group…” [NOTE: in one case, DOGE claimed $232 million in savings, actual savings were $560,000 !!!!! ]
9]. DOGE Savings Could Be Offset By Firing Costs”. [ Elizabeth Williamson; New York Times; 4/27/25 ]: The Partnership for Public Service said: “..firings, re-hirings, lost productivity, and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost over $135 billion in 2025.” Then there is the cost of defending 200 lawsuits and appeals related to Trump’s agenda. “Not only is Musk vastly over inflating the money he has saved, he is not accounting for the exponentially larger waste that he is creating..”
10]. “DOGE can’t find Social Security fraud… In recent years, less than 1% of payments deemed improper”. [ Todd Frankel, Hannah Natanson; Washington Post; 3/25/25 ]: Musk claimed 20 million Americans over age 100 receive Social Security checks – the agency found 1,294 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11] !!!!! Read “DOGE falls far short of budget goal”. [ David Fahrenthold, Jeremy Singer-Vine; New York Times; 4/14/25 ] – for. LAUGHTER !!!!!!!!!!!!! at the unbelievable. INCOMPETENCE. of DOGE – claiming savings for a contract canceled when Biden was president; claiming saved $1.75 billion for. $0 savings; claiming savings for a “contract that did not exist.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And more !
*** “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most do.” [ Dale Carnegie ]
[ NOTE: no laughing matter – the cost of all this craziness, damage, chaos, error, incompetence – Americans like YOU will suffer, and many will die. We will soon post here what the Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP is doing to cripple and dismantle American health care – in the name of “saving money.”
Keep in mind one simple thing: all this is being done to save money for billionaires and others in the top 1-3%. Defunding the IRS gives the game away – because an underfunded IRS can’t enforce tax laws – as the IRS has ALREADY testified. – it can’t get the $1 trillion a year in evaded taxes. – most of which will be by the top 1-3% and the corporations they own or control. Speak up or YOU will continue to get hurt.
The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXIX – The New Know-Nothings
*** “When the Know-nothings get control, it will read, all men are created equal except Negroes and foreigners
and Catholics. When it comes to this I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense
of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of
hypocrisy.” [ Abraham Lincoln, 8/24/1855 ]
1]. “Other civilizations have experienced moments like this…Mysticism and occultism spread rapidly in the dying days of the Russian empire…Rasputin, a peasant holy man..claimed..he had magical healing powers..eventually became a political advisor to the Czar…many Russians were convinced..dark forces..were secretly in control of the country.”
“Replace “dark forces” with “deep state.”…For Americans, the merger of pseudo-spirituality with politics represents a departure from some of our deepest principles: that logic and reason lead to good government; that fact-based debate leads to good policy; that governance prospers in sunlight; and that the political order inheres in rules and processes, not mystical charisma. The supporters of the New Obscurantism have also broken with the ideals of America’s Founders..” [ Anne Applebaum: “The New Rasputins”; The Atlantic; February, 2025 ]
*** “..it was the witch craze that produced the witch and not, as has been traditionally argued, the figure
of the witch that stimulated hunting.” [ Leland Estes ]
{NOTE: In addition to all the other damage Trump has inflicted on American democracy, American government, American society, American decency – Trump wishes to become the Culture Czar!!!!!, to become YOUR “Big Brother”!!!, who knows all about every thing!!!!!!!!! The person who doesn’t read, who gets his “information” from media sources KNOWN and DOCUMENTED to push lies they themselves don’t believe!!! THIS person is now going to decide what is good and true and proper for 330 million Americans!!!!!!!!!! }
2]. “President Trump is not known as a student of history…[but]…keenly understands the power of history…has moved forcefully to advance his vision of it – and to reshape federal cultural institutions…moving to challenge or seize control of history-related federal cultural institutions..” [ Jennifer Schuessler: “Trump Puts His Spin on 250 Years of U.S. History, to Historians’ Dismay”; New York Times; 4/20/25 ]
*** “Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.'” [ George Orwell” “1984” ]
3] “Okla. to teach ’20 election theories..New school standards promote conspiracies and misinformation” [ Sean Murphy; Associated Press; 5/18/25 ] [Note: the New Know-Nothings and Rasputins are, unfortunately, not confined to Washington, D.C. Think about the magnitude of this: an American state proposes to teach KNOWN, lies to its children as part of their “education.” Is this a form of a “re-education” camp? What is the cost to American democracy of this?]
*** “Erasing history helps authoritarians because doing so allows them to misrepresent it as a single story…[it is]..
especially true of..fascism, which seeks to divide populations into “us” and them..”
[. Jason Stanley: “Erasing history.. How Fascists Rewrite The Past To Control The Future” ]
4] “..Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday he may bar government scientists from publishing in the world’s leading medical journals…the latest Trump administration’s attacks on scientific institutions.” [Niha Masih, Amy Wang, Leah Sun: “RFKJR. may bar scientists from top medical journals”; Washington Post; 5/29/25 ]
*** “The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be
accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings
in the real world – and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this
end – is being destroyed.” [ Hannah Arendt ]
5]. “..Trump..has leveraged control of foreign enrollments to press his demands with American colleges…The uncertainty raised by the suspension of the visa appointments will do further damage to the U.S. reputation as a destination country…”Undermining their ability to study here is self-defeating. With these actions, the United States will alienate the very minds that fuel its success.” [ Annie Ma: “Visa rule adds to scrutiny of international students”; Associated Press; 5/29/25 ]
*** “Stupidity makes you dangerous – to yourself and everyone around you.” [ Jennifer Lee Carrell ]
6]. “To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, and leave Americans..poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead. “Universities are tremendously important engines of innovation.”…”This is really killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” [ Ben Casselman: “Economists: Trump science policies post long-term risk”; New York Times; 4/1/25 ]
***. “Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.” [ Friederich Nietzsche ]
{ NOTE: THINK !!!!! Education and scientific advances are what made America great and strong and free. The Trump crew cares not. They are determined to impose THEUIR prejudices, ignorance, stupidity and craziness on America. History, experience, evidence tells us that if they succeed – YOU nad. YOUR. children will pay the price. Freedoms of thought, speech, creativity. were what drew people from around the world to America. An ignorant, bitter, greedy, vengeful LIAR – Trump – has the ability to destroy virtually everything that for over 230 years made America the envy of the world. Speak up. NOW – or it will happen.]
!!! One more thing: “president Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday evening promising to eliminate “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution’s museums..” Question One would be; has Trump EVER been in any of the Smithsonian museums, or ANY museums, the Library of Congress, or ANY other serious place of learning????? THINK on the bitter irony of this. If Thomas Jefferson had said this, we might wonder hat had disturbed him that he would issue such a order. Trump, and the POWER behind him are deadly serious about rewriting factual American history and culture into their own ignorant and bigoted version.
The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness. XXVIII – Crippling Efforts to Support Antismoking!!!
*** “When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When Somebody Up there – a monarch
a dictator, a Pope, a legislator – so decrees.” [ Jessica Mitford ]
YOU tell me, after reading excerpts from this article: “Trump budget cuts hobble efforts to support antismoking education?” [ Christina Jewett; New York Times; 5/18/25 ]
1] “Experts on tobacco control said the Trump administration’s funding cuts would set back a quarter-century of public health efforts that have driven the smoking rate to a record low and saved lives and billions of dollars in health care spending.”
2]. “The decimation of antismoking work follows a year of lavish campaign donations to tobacco and e-cigarette companies to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans..”
*** “You cannot serve God and money.” [ Matthew 6:24 ]
3] “At the Food and Drug Administration, officials fired many staff members who levied fines on retailers that sold tobacco to minors or marketed illicit vapes. Some scientists who were experts in addiction and toxicology lost their jobs. The agency also fired the team that wrote proposals to ban menthol cigarettes and to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, efforts the Trump administration has abandoned. Most staff members who review new tobacco products for approval kept their jobs.” [!!!!!!!!!!]
*** “Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.” [ Terry Pratchatt ]
4]. “Kennedy has made chronic disease his top priority, taking aim at artificial colors in food and unproven theories about vaccines. Yet decades of data show that smoking is a top driver of cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death.”
5] “We”re at an inflection point,” said Mitch Zeller, a former director of the FDA’s tobacco center. He likened the cutbacks to “kneecapping” the agencies’ mission.”
*** “Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in th liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”
[ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
6] “The tobacco industry, meanwhile, has heavily supported Republican politicians and introduced new products. In 2024, Reynolds American, which makes Newport cigarettes and Vuse vapes, gave $10 million to PACs supporting Trump and $4.6 million to support Republican leaders in Congress.”
“Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes and NJOY vapes, contributed $6.4 million to congressional Republicans and $1 million to the Trump inaugural committee. Breeze Smoke, a vape company, and the Vapor Technology Association each contributed at least $1 million to the inauguration.”
[ NOTE: This is part of a PATTERN. See the following stories:
– ” Biggest Donors Expect Returns On Investment…Moguls look to Lifting of Regulations” [ Eric Lipton; New York Times; 11/7/24 }: Among other things, it mentions “The to-do list for President-elect Donald J. Trump from M.A., the venture capital billionaire..” {!!! – a “to-do list” for a president ???????? ]
– “Trump asks Big Oil for $1 B, vows to undo climate rules”. [ Josh Dawsey, Maxine Joselow; Washington Post; 5/10/24 ]: “Trump’s response stunned several of the executives..according to people with knowledge of the meeting…he has turned to the industry to help shape his environmental agenda…”
SO – is this corruption, is it “quid pro quo,” is it “freedom of speech,” is it legalized bribery, is it “good lobbying,” is it “democratic government in action,” ????? YOU. tell. me…..
*** “Corruption is never an individual act. It always involves groups of people bound by one fundamental rule of
association: an exchange of favors.” [ Roberto da Matta ]
How is this going to “benefit” OUR children??? Is this going to make OUR children healthier??? Would YOU want YOUR child to know about the risks of smoking???
*** “I am not sure how many “sins” I would recognize in the world. Some would surely be defused by changed circumstances. But I can imagine none that is more irredeemably sinful than the betrayal, the exploitation, of the young by those who should care for them.” [ Elizabeth Janeway ]
The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty,Corruption, Craziness, XXVII – The Destructive and Immoral 2025 Trump Tax Bill
*** Billionaire Leona Helmsley: “We don’t pay taxes, only the little people pay taxes.”
1] “Trump’s taxes illustrate how the game is rigged” [ Jared Berstein; Washington Post; 10/4/2016 ]
2] “Top 1% of wealthy held more assets than entire middle class.” [Alex Tanzi, Mike Dorning; Bloomberg News; 10/11/21]
***. “Corruption comes by degrees.” [ Juvenal ]
3]. Some details – Corrupt Republican 2025 Tax Bill:
– “GOP tax bill mainly benefits wealthy, analyses find” [ Tony Romm; New York Times; 5/18/25 ]
– “Tax bill adds $2.4 T to the national debt..To offset the cost, the measure would slash spending on social safety net programs by more than $1 trillion..” [Jacob Gage, Marianna Sotomayor, Matthew Choi; Washington Post; 5/23/25]
– “All kinds of perverse incentives in this tax bill” – “..even seven moths into fiscal year 2025..[the 119th Congress}.. will grab the prize as most fiscally irresponsible Congress ever.” [ Edward Lotterman; St.Paul Pioneer Press; 5/18/25 ]
4] Some other details about Trump-Musk economic INCOMPETENCE:
– “Sliding U.S. dollar is a fiscal headache” [Allegra Catelli, Michael Msika; Bloomberg News; 5/15/25]
– “Growth becoming harder to achieve” [ Evan Ramstad; Minnesota Star Tribune; 4/27/25 ]
– “U.S. Credit Rating Is Downgraded by Moody’s” [ Tony Romm, Andrew Duehren, Joe Rennison; New York Times; 5/18/25]
[ NOTE: Let’s be honest: virtually ALL of the Trump-Musk economic actions have been motivated by one thing: CUT TAXES ON THE RICH. PERIOD. The 2025 tax bill does that. Musk’s crazy government-slashing DOGE does that. Eviscerating the I.R.S. does that. Gutting environmental protections does that. Crippling consumer-friendly investigating agencies does that. Ending subsidies for EV vehicles does that. And, MUCH more………….]
5] Perspective: Mother Jones, March-April, 2011, page 25: “It’s The Inequality, Stupid”
– “A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundreth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. the average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.”
– Most Americans have a VERY inaccurate view of how wealth is distributed in the U.S. – vastly under estimating how extremely unequal and unfair it really is. Essentially refusing to believe had badly they’re being treated.
6]. SOLUTIONS – are easy, well known – CORRUPTION. prevents them being enacted:
– SOCIAL SECURITY – it’s been known for 40 years that the solution which ENDS any Social Security “crisis” is very simple: eliminate the earnings cap with no changes to benefits. In 2010, this would have solved any shortfall by 116%- yes, more than enough. [ Timothy Taylor; St.Paul Pioneer Press; 11/21/2010 ]
– “a living wage for all is attainable” [Nir Kaissar; Bloomberg Opinion; 7/8/21]: “the most pressing problem for the U.S. remains little acknowledged and unaddressed: Tens of millions of people work full time and can’t afford food, clothes, housing, health care and a proper education for their children” [ the problem: GREED – a simple refusal by large corporations to share their profits with workers.]
– “French Lessons on How to Grow the Middle Class” [Steven Pressman; The Washington Spectator; August 1, 2018]: France reduces financial burdens on families: by paid parental leave, affordable child care, how families with children are taxed. [American governments refuse to do these things sufficiently]
*** “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, if which the greater part of ther members are poor and miserable.”
[ Adam Smith – “Wealth of Nations” ]
7]. “Worker pay stagnates as it soars for CEOs” {Patrick Kennedy; Minneapolis Star Tribune; 9/19/19]: “CEO pay has risen 940.3% over the last four decades…Average worker pay rose just 12 percent since 1978..” [Note: “940.3% is NOT a typo]
8]. “Thousands of military families struggle with food insecurity” [Ashraf Khalil; Assoc. Press; 11/15/21]
9]. “Small Farms Struggle To Survive”. [ Alyssa Schukar; New York Times; 12/12/21 ]
10] Rich and Corporate Tax Cheats – some of many hundreds – details:
– “Tax cheats cost U.S. $1 T a year” [ Alan Rappeport; New York Times; 4/14/21 ]: “the agency lacks the resources to catch tax cheats.” [Note: virtually all of those are complicated returns – of the rich & corporations]
– “At least 55 firms paid no taxes in 2020” [ Patricia Cohen; New York Times; 4/4/21 ]
– “Firms move HQ oversea then exploit tax loophole” [ Steven D. Solomon; New York Times; 2/15/16 ]
11] BUT WE KNEW MOST OF THIS ALREADY !!!!! – Reagan, Bush II, Trump 2017 tax cut failures KNOWN:
– “A tax bill only millionaires could love” [ Bill Press; 1/1/2018 ]
– “Experts: Trump stands to save millions under tax measure” [ Drew Harwell; Washington Post; 12/24/17]
– “Art Of The Steal” [ Mother Jones; March-April, 2018]
– “Reaganomics Redux, but Worse” [Jeff madrick; Washington Spectator; February l, 2018} – “…fraud..”
{NOTE; The U.S. national debt for 1789-1980 America was just under $1 trillion. Reagan tripled it. Bush II doubled that [ and bills forhis immoral Iraq war, his2008 recession still being paid]. Trump’s 2017 tax cut is 25% of current U.S. national debt. Multiple Congresses have failed to pass legislation reducing debt [legal bribery!]. BUT – BOTTOM LINE: the rich refuse to pay taxes – have given legal bribes to Congress so they don’t fix it. The debt will now be used as a club to cut services for ordinary people like YOU – which is graphically done in Trump’s 2025 bill!!!!! Rome fell from corruption – will America???]
12]. Breaking News!!! – 5/24/25 New York Times: “GOP harnessing tax code to punish Trump’s nemeses” [Andrew Duehren]. YOU TELL ME – does this cross “the red line” into. DICTATORSHIP???? – in addition to other authoritarian uses of the tax code to punish ANYONE who dares cross him? YOU. TELL ME……………….
With Justice For All 
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