*** “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.”
[ Double Pulitzer Prize winner; Historian; Barbara Tuchman ]
Donald John Trump has done much damage to America, and the world. Domestically, America MIGHT. be able to repair its democracy. BUT – Trump’s incredible STUPIDITY. of saying that climate change is a “hoax” [ in the face of unprecedented damage]; his arrogant treatment of [former] friendly nations; his coziness with other dictators; his STUPIDITY in saying, thinking, acting as if the United states can successfully enact an “America First” foreign policy may prove to be fatal to the American experiment in democracy.
***. “Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world, we cannot ensure its domestic tranquility, or provide for its common defense, or promote the general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. But joined with other free nations, we can do all this and more.”
[ John F. Kennedy; 35th U.S. President; 7/4/1962 ]
This post presents excerpts from “Trump Is Making America Dispensable” [ Jon finer; New York Times; 7/12/26]. The results of Trump insulting and demeaning other nations; of his ignorant ideological framework; of his tariffs, bullying nations, and now his RECKLESS war on Iran. – will NOT be good for America in any sense. His 8 years as president might well be seen as the beginning of the collapse of America as a world power. America, “thanks” to Trump, is no longer seen with the same affection and respect the world had for us before 2016. Finer reports on what has ALREADY happened, is happening, will happen. YOU are watching the DISASTER unfold……………………..
1] “Three years later, de-risking from predatory superpowers remains the fundamental challenge facing European leaders, but China is no longer the main country of concern: The United States is.”
2] “It is not just Europe backing away from the United States. Leaders of America’s partners in Asia and the Middle East are quietly doing the same. The second Trump administration’s ostentatious corruption, trade conflicts, military adventurism and mercurial artificial intelligence regulation have produced a new moment in international affairs: a nearly global grand strategy of countries distancing themselves from the world’s most powerful nation.”
3]. “For the United States, which has called itself the “indispensable nation” for decades, this represents a sea change. Countries have long sought the protection of America’s mighty military and access to its markets and technology. That in turn has benefited our economy and national security.”
*** “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.” [ Isaiah. 48: 22 ]
4] “..in a world where big countries increasingly weaponize the dependence of small countries, and self-sufficiency is its own form of power, the global de-risking is already hurting Americans at home….The lost war against Iran…contributed to a $132 billion hit to American consumers, according to Moody’s.”
5] “Mr. Trump’s immigration policies are also driving countries away. Four million fewer visitors came to the United States in 2025 than in 2024, an estimated cost of more than $8 billion. America is hemorrhaging future skilled labor as enrollment by international university students dropped 17 percent last fall from the prior year, already costing universities at least an estimated $1 billion, and potentially costing the country hundreds of billions in future revenue.”
6] “The chilling effect is spreading. As Mr. Trump muses about making it a 51st state, Canada has embarked on a “new strategic partnership” with China, opened its market for the first time to 50,000 Chinese electric vehicles and joined a more than $150 billion European defense fund aimed at breaking the dependency on the American defense industry.”
*** “The American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.” [ Will Rogers ]
7] “In East Asia, where Mr. Trump has paused the sale of arms to Taiwan in deference to President Xi Jinping of China, Taipei and allied capitals are recalibrating their relationships. Japan is overhauling its concept of national defense to develop greater offensive strike capabilities. South Korean contractors are displacing American arms sellers around the world.”
8]. “India is deepening commercial ties with Europe, the Middle East and even, grudgingly, China. India is one of a growing number of countries sufficiently worried about reliable access to American frontier A.I. models that it is considering Chinese or domestic alternatives.”
9]. “But nowhere is the push to de-risk from the United States more costly to both sides. – and disadvantageously timed. – than on the continent that coined the phrase. Once unthinkable conversations are underway in European capitals. European officials tell me they are quietly developing plans for responding in the event of a full-blown trade war with America…”
*** “Before we engage ourselves, we must know what we are doing, and once we have engaged ourselves, we must prevail, or the impact will be catastrophic.” [ Henry Kissinger; former U.S. Secretary of State ]
10]. “..the divisions Mr. Trump is causing are different. In 2021, for example, Australia agreed to invest billions of dollars in the U.S. submarine industry, on the promise that new boats would appear near Perth somewhere in the mid-2030s. Fewer countries are willing to make such long-term bets on America anymore…”
11]. “Some costs of the world’s de-risking from America are already hitting home. Others won’t be evident overnight. Allies were right not to join Mr. Trump’s unnecessary Iran fiasco, but our ability to deter future conflicts is weakened by our greater isolation. Lacking a clear alternative partner, most countries will hedge gradually, rather than immediately “decoupling” from the United States.”
*** “…thanks to Donald’s penchant for division, and devastating uncertainty about our country’s future have created a perfect storm of catastrophes that no one is less equipped than my uncle to manage. Doing so would require courage, strength of character, deference to experts, and the confidence to take responsibility and to course correct after admitting mistakes. His ability to control unfavorable situations by lying, spinning, and obfuscating has diminished to the point of impotence in the midst of the tragedies we are currently facing.”
[ Mary L. Trump: “Too Much And never Enough. How My Family Created the World’s most Dangerous Man” ]
*** “Trump’s rash behavior makes his presence in the Oval Office a clear and present danger to the safety and security of not just the American people but the rest of the world, too.”
[ double Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “The Making of Donald Trump” ]
Tag: trump
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CCI. – Trump, Republicans INTENTIONALLY Blow Up U.S. National Debt
*** “..the right’s..overriding mission, at which they’ve succeeded smashingly, is to make sure the rich get richer [and big business bigger], and the most direct, unambiguous, universal way of doing that is by keeping their taxes low, no matter the costs… Fiscal responsibility rhetorically pops back to life for Republicans only when they’re out of power in Washington, and only as an argument for achieving their secondary goals of reducing Social Security and Medicare benefits and preventing any major expansion of health or education or other social programs.”
“Irving Kristol, that mastermind and key promoter of remaking the political economy, had candidly announced this new strategy of the right. – right-wing fiscal recklessness, forcing the left into defensive restraint. – in a Wall Street Journal column back in 1980..” [ Kurt Andersen: “Evil Geniuses ].
This post examines how the Republicans have blown up the U.S. national debt in the last 45 years. It was less than $1 trillion when Reagan was inaugurated. Reagan, Bush, Trump tax cuts have produced a $39 trillion U.S. national debt. According to the U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data system, when Trump was inaugurated January 20, 2017. – the U.s. national debt was $19,944,429,217,107. The IMMORAL Trump tax cuts of 2017 and 2025, plus annual $1 trillion interest payments have DOUBLED YOUR. national debt. The consequences are many…..
***. “The second Vice is Lying, the first is running in Debt.” [ Benjamin Franklin: “Poor Richard’s Almanack” ]. [NOTE: Thus Donald John Trump is. GUILTY of THE top two vices !!!!!!!!!!! – and YOU pay for them.]
This post presents excerpts from: “They Blew Up the Debt, Stalled America’s Future, and Stuck You With the Bill. All to Enrich the Top 1% and Win Elections” [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive Populist; June, 2026 ]:
2]. “This year, America will spend over a trillion dollars just ti pay interest on the current $39 trillion national debt, a debt entirely the result of a 45 year-long GOP scam designed to make the rich richer and elect Republicans, all the while simultaneously screwing Democrats and average working class people.”
9]. “The combined Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts, along with Bush’s two wars add up to more than our current national debt of – $39 trillion. And the only way to fix all this without causing horrible pain for the American people is to undo those three president’s tax cuts and take America back to the tax system we had in 1980.”
10] “..Trump..once bragged: “I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me.”
***. “Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous consciousness of honor.” [ Thomas Paine; 1792 ]
4] “…here’s the “lost opportunity cost”. of what that trillion dollars a year we now pay in interest…on the GOP’s Debt could do for America:
– First, it could guarantee universal childcare and early childhood education nationwide that would free millions of parents to work and start businesses…”
- Second, it could make all public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free, while also wiping out existing federal student loan debt over time.”
– Third, the U.S. could could establish a universal healthcare system or at least a robust public option with zero premiums and minimal out-of-pocket costs, ending medical bankruptcies and improving public health outcomes.”
– Fourth, it could fully fund a national infrastructure modernization program, repairing every deficient bridge in the country, rebuild highways, expand mass transit, and replace aging water systems, including lead pipe removal nationwide.”
– Fifth, a trillion dollars a year could finance a rapid transition to clean energy: building out solar and wind at scale, modernizing the grid, subsidizing home electrification, and accelerating EV infrastructure to catch up with China.”
– Sixth, it could end homelessness in America, with massive savings in healthcare and policing.”
***. “The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.”
[ Andrew Jackson; 7th U.S. President ]
– Seventh, we could provide a guaranteed basic income [ – $500 to $1,000 a month ] to every adult American or a more targeted version for lower- and middle-income households, dramatically reducing poverty.”
– Eighth, it could expand Social Security and Medicare benefits significantly – raising monthly checks, lowering the retirement age, or both – while shoring up the system’s long-term solvency.”
– Ninth, the U.S. could also fund universal paid family and medical leave, so no one ever again has to go to work sick or choose between a paycheck and caring for a newborn or a sick relative.”
– Tenth, it could dramatically increase teacher pay, reducing class sizes, modernizing school facilities, and providing universal free school meals.”
– Eleventh, it could launch a large-scale affordable housing initiative, building millions of. units, stabilizing rents, and helping first-time buyers with down payments.”
– Twelfth, it could rebuild and expand public health infrastructure, including pandemic preparedness, local health departments, research funding, and domestic manufacturing of critical medicines and supplies.”
*** “As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible.” [ George Washington; September 17, 1796 ]
1] “Republicans in May proposed an appropriations bill that will allocate a billion dollars to pay for Donald Trump’s Golden Epstein Dance Hall [ a.k.a. “Ballroom”]. Every penny of it will be borrowed and we’ll be paying interest on that money for the rest of our lifetimes unless something dramatic changes.”
3]. ‘..by 2030, Fortune magazine reports, we’ll. be paying $2 trillion in interest at the current rate of burn, as Republicans add more and more items to the national debt every day.”
5]. “And even after doing several of…[the 12 things mentioned above in #4 ]…at once, there’d still be room for things like universal broadband, modernizing the postal system, expanding national parks and conservation efforts, and funding scientific research at levels that could accelerate breakthroughs in everything from cancer to renewables to clean water.”
***. “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” [ Thomas Jefferson; 7/12/1816 ]
6] “It all started in the 1970s when Republican strategist Jude Wanniski noted that Republicans were viewed as Grinches while Democrats. – who’d brought the people the minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, free college, and dozens of other popular programs – were viewed as Santas. His solution was twofold: have Republicans become the “tax cut Santas”. while forcing Democrats to “shoot their own Santa” in the face by cutting back on those gift-like programs.”
7] “The Two Santas scheme has two parts: “When a Republican is in the White House, spend money like a drunken sailor, running up the debt as hard and fast as possible. All this deficit spending…produces “good times”. by stimulating the economy like crazy, making Americans think Republicans are good with economics when in fact they’re only good at spending borrowed money. “When a Democrat is in the White House, start screaming about the debt and how ‘our children will have to pay for this!!!” to force that president and the Democrats in Congress to “shoot’ their own social programs by cutting them back, producing hard times and reducing the deficits.” [NOTE: hw many people voted for Trump – saying he was “a good businessman”!!!!!!!!!!!]
8]. “To justify all this deficit spending, Wanniski invented a term “supply-side economics,” arguing that tax cuts for the morbidly rich would pay for themselves as wealth “trickled down” to average working people, and Art Laffer handily supplied a “curve” that seemed technical and scientific. The media lapped it up. It was all, of course, bullsh*t…”
*** “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.” [ Supreme court Justice Louis Brandeis ]
[NOTE: do the research!!! – get the REAL, un-spun NUMBERS. – on income distribution, especially 1947-73; on the average top marginal rates, 1933-1980. – cut in half by Reagan, bush, Trump. We don’t have record numbers of billionaires by accident !!!!!!!!!!! We don’t have a $39 trillion U.s. national debt by accident !!!!!!!!! We don’t have large numbers of potential U.S. blue collar workers unemployed in crafts their fathers were !!!!!!! WE don’t write these posts – all 201 of them – for fun. We want you, Mr. and Mrs. American – to begin to learn the truth.
Bottom line: the unprecedented mass blue and white collar American prosperity – HAS. BEEN. DELIBERATELY. SABOTAGED. AND STOLEN. AWAY. – by the greedy top 1%, by the Far Right, by the Republican Party. Do your own research. The intent is recorded, the programs – G.I.Bill, Social Security, etc. – are recorded. Trump is simply, hopefully, the final conclusion of this decades long PLANNED. THEFT. Trump is now destroying much of the basis for a real democratic society – one that cares about its citizens. Trump is destroying YOUR democratic government right before your eyes – much of this programed by “Project 2025” – itself a project of the Far Right.
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness
*** “In a president, character is everything.” [ Peggy Noonan; Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan ]
From January 20, 2025 to June 17, 2026 – this site posted 200 times on the Trump DICTATORSHIP. We are slowing down – summer vacation, etc.
BUT –
THE primary reason is this: in doing our research, compiling our 200 posts – the Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. – is beginning to corrode us mentally. Being exposed to Trump’s personality, rhetoric, actions, policies, above all his LIES. – is corrosive. It is depressing to see an American president say and do these things as intensively as we have. To make our posts – we did research for perspective on who and what Donald Trump is. – compared to other presidents; compared to what American politics and society considered “normal”; compared to what normal Americans consider to be decent, considerate, fair.
*** “A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.” { Mark Twain ]
We have repeatedly said this: judging Any president or American government actions. – apply this test: The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution: “We the People…a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty..”
ANY U.s. government action, policy, law – that DOES NOT achieve these objectives is – Unconstitutional, UnAmerican, destructive, and corrosive to American liberty, society, government.
The Eisenhower freeway system passes the test. The Trump tax cuts for the rich of 2017 and 2025 DO NOT. Because, among other things: they FAIL to ‘..promote the general Welfare..” Few, if any, Trump actions have done so.
***. “There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men.”
[ Ludwig von Mises ]
Donald John Trump is THE anti-George Washington; THE anti-Abraham Lincoln; THE anti-Dwight D. Eisenhower. Not because we say so – but because the EVIDENCE, the plain public record says this. No objective American can say Trump’s character and actions are even close to these three men. using public records. – few observers, with a straight face, can say Donald John Trump is close to many of the previous 40 other U.S. presidents.
***. “Openly monetizing the presidency is a true Trump innovation….Mr. Trump’s scheming will define him and his family…All that will be left is his reputation. Mr. Trump has made that synonymous with corruption forever.”
[ Noah Schachtman; New York times; 5/24/26 ]
No other American president has ever been accused of openly fomenting an insurrection to stop an election. No other American president made a reported fortune of $1-4 billion in just a few months in office. No other American president created, allowed ‘a pardon industry” that freed many convicted of serious white collar crimes. No other American president routinely insulted and demeaned American citizens so publicly. No other American president has LIED. so often. – over 30,000 in one term; is anybody counting 2021-2026 Trump fabrications?
*** “Trump has taken mafia government to heights unrivaled in this country’s history.”
[ Sarah Chayes: “On corruption In America” ]
Some recent illustrations of Trump’s corrosive effect on America, headlines alone:
1] “How Trump Weighed suspending a Legal Right” [ Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan; New York Times; 6/18/26]
2] “Trump Escalates Push On voter ID”. [ Michael Gold, Dustin Wolf; New York Times; 6/18/26 ]
3] “True to Form, President Unsettles G7 Summit”. [ Mark Landler; New York Times; 6/18/26 ]
4]. “U.S. Pays $765 Million to Not Build 4 Wind Farms” [ Brad Plumer; New York Times; 6/18/26 ]
5]. “Protester says he was beaten, shackled for days”. [ Alan Feuer; New York Times; 6/20/26 ]
6] “Meloni says Trump ‘fabricated’ claim”. [ Nicole Winfield; Associated Press; 6/20/26 ]
7] “Flu sickens 160 at Air force base after end of vaccine mandate” [ Greg Jaffe, Maggie Haberman; New York Times; 6/20/26 ]
[ NOTE: this happens almost EVERY day during the Trump DICTATORSHIP !!! ]
*** “Most of Trump’s failings can be explained by a simple truth: He cared more about himself than the country.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winners Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker: “I Alone Can Fix It” ]
YOU can help SAVE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. – on November 3, 2026. – vote against EVERY. Republican running for Congress. – just this one time, please. YOU do not want to experience an unrestrained, unaccountable. TRUMP. DICTATORSHIP. for two more years. YOUR democracy just might end if YOU don’t act…………
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CC. – “Trump Just Took Us Somewhere The Country Had Never Been Before…a dark new realm of presidential corruption”
***. “We can never truly know..[Trump’s]. character, but we can examine and assess it based on his actions…This is why I focused on Donald Trump’s obsession with money and the trappings of wealth, and his many comments about women not as equals, but objects, their value measured in particular by the size of their busts and the length of their legs, not the size of their hearts or how far their minds reach. It is also why so much of this book is about Trump’s many complex and little-known with criminals – a vast assortment of con artists, mobsters and mob associates, swindlers, and other unsavory characters, including a major drug dealer he went to bat for.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “The Making Of Donald Trump” ]
This post presents excerpts from “Trump Just Took Us Somewhere The Country Had Never Been Before” [ Noah Shachtman: New York Times; 5/24/26 ]. We also present statements by Pulitzer Prize winners, relatives, close observers about Donald John Trump. Ethical behavior and empathy for others have never been his strong suit. YOU should not be surprised that Trump is brazenly engaging in obvious corruption. Close observers tell YOU he’s engaged in morally-challenged behavior before.
5] “Just in terms of sheer dollars, this is the most corrupt action in American history,” says Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department special counsel…”This may be the most infamous thing that Donald Trump does beyond Jan. 6, 2021.”
14] “…Mr. Trump’s scheming will define him and his family. When he leaves office, the Trump name will most likely be stripped from the Kennedy Center. The challenge coins he’s affixed to the White House doors will no doubt be stripped away. his ‘enhancements” to the Oval office may eventually be remodeled away. All that will be left is his reputation. Mr. Trump has made that synonymous with corruption forever.”
7] “..openly monetizing the presidency is a true Trump innovation. You have to go back at least a hundred years, to the administration of Warren harding or Ulysses Grant, to find anything remotely similar. And no one ever accused Harding of minting memecoins. “This isn’t the ‘honest graft’ of Tammany Hall – corruption as the price paid for public improvement,” The Time’s Jamelle Bouie wrote. “It is petty theft.”
12] “If political violence committed in the president’s name is not only tolerated but actively rewarded, it could take this already bleak timeline somewhere much, much darker.’
***. ‘..Donald, who understands nothing about history, constitutional principles, geopolitics, diplomacy [ or anything else, really ] and was never pressed to demonstrate such knowledge, has evaluated all of this country’s alliances, and all of our social programs, solely through the prism of money, just as his father taught him to do…In the midst of obscene plenty, one person, using all of the levers of power and taking every advantage at his disposal, would benefit himself and, conditionally, his immediate family, his cronies, and his sycophants; for the rest, there would never be enough to go around, which was exactly how my grandfather ran our family.”
[ Mary L. Trump: “Too Much And Never Enough” ]
1]. “President Trump has been thinking a lot about his place in history. That’s one of the reasons…he’s paying so little attention to his plummeting popularity and so much attention to remodeling Washington in his own image. But there’s no arch high enough, no ballroom gilded enough, to distract from the mountain of corruption he’s constructing.”
2]. “The president may wish to be considered in the same class as Napoleon or Alexander the Great, but he is in danger of turning himself into the next Mobutu Sese Seko or Suharto: a kleptocrat remembered not for his ideas and not for his power but for his greed.”
3] “Mr. Trump has devoted a large portion of his second term to enriching himself and his family with foreign and private funds…But until recently, there was no evidence that his most brazen capers involving taking actively, from you and me. That changed when he, two of his sons and the Trump family business sued the government for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns.”
4] “Trump supporters convicted of crimes connected to the Jan. 6 riot could get large spoonfuls. But the Trump clan looks to be the biggest beneficiaries of all: As part of the settlement, the U.S. government would be barred from prosecuting or further auditing the Trumps or their family businesses for any potential misconduct preceding the agreement. That would save the Trumps from penalties that some estimate could reach $100 million or beyond. More than that, it could functionally put the family beyond the reach of the law in these tax cases…”forever.”” [NOTE: read this again – forgiven for misconduct, now and “forever.” Wouldn’t YOU like to have this?????]
***. “[Trump]..routinely staked out positions on issues that violated the law and that ran counter to what career law enforcement, intelligence, military, and economic officials believed was right. Even more mysteriously, at times Trump appeared to favor positions that benefitted America’s geopolitical adversaries, like Russia, more than the United States… McGahn had spent hours laying out what the president did and said behind closed doors as he sought to maintain control over the Russia investigation.. how the president insisted on having a loyalist oversee the investigation..the true reasons the president had for firing the FBI director, James Comey..told them that Trump wanted Mueller out.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner Michael S. Schmidt: ‘Donald Trump V. The United States” ]
6] “Mr. Trump is the defining political figure of the past decade. But despite his enormous influence, he’s had relatively few legacy-making accomplishments….He’s bullied specific schools instead of remaking the educational system and cut bargains with drug retailers instead of recasting the U.S. government’s relationship with Big Pharma….[So far, only Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court appointments and their warped decisions have amounted to truly historical changes.]”
8]. “Mr. Trump has already pardoned convicted criminals after receiving donations on their behalf…Trump cronies…brought up .case over a round of golf with the president.”
9]. “This new slush fund – set up with minimal guardrails, not even a definition of what constitutes “weaponization”..Just think what people might be willing to do to get this money, and what Mr. Trump might get in return. This fund would institutionalize that ethical disaster…This would make cronyism an official function of the federal government, a U.S. Agency for Corruption.”
*** “Trump’s dozens of pardons are just one of several moves by the administration indicating a newly permissive environment for white collar crime.” [ Jeffrey Toobin: “The Pardon Brokers…How The Trump Administration Turned Clemency Into A Lucrative Cottage Industry”; New York Times Magazine; May 31, 2026 ]
***. “..the lucrative pardon industry that has emerged around mr. Trump. It is based in part on the proposition that paying the right person to deliver a message tailored to mr. Trump’s politics of grievances is more important than demonstrating remorse or a likelihood of recidivism.” [ Kenneth P.Vogel: “Pardon Industry Offers the Rich A Path to Trump”; New York Times; 3/8/26 ]
10]. “The primary risk is that this money is going to be used to fund paramilitary organizations that are loyal to the president,” Mr. Ballou said. “Financial support for violence – that is going to be the most important thing, and it’s fundamentally new and different from, say, the Qatari jet.”
11]. “THe self-described “American terrorist” Andrew Paul Johnson was convicted of his role in the Capitol riot, pardoned by Mr. Trump and subsequently found guilty of molesting two children. To silence his victims, he is said to have promised them a share of the millions he said he was about to get from the federal government for being a “Jan. 6-er.”
13] “The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bars the government from paying ‘any debt or obligation incurred in aid or insurrection or rebellion against the United States,” which would appear to bar payments to people who attacked the Capitol in an effort to overturn an election.”
*** “The characteristics of Trump’s leadership, blazingly evident through the first three years of his presidency, had deadly ramifications in his final year. he displayed his ignorance, his rash temper, his pettiness and pique, his malice and cruelty, his utter absence of empathy, his narcissism, his transgressive personality, his disloyalty, his sense of victimhood, his addiction to television, his suspicion and silencing of experts, and his deception and lies. Each trait thwarted the response of the world’s most powerful nation to a lethal threat….Most of Trump’s failings can be explained by a simple truth: He cared more about himself than the country.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winners Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker: “I Alone Can Fix it” ]
[ NOTE: read this again – SLOWLY – and remember, this all occurred when, during Trump’s first term, he was “restrained’ by patriotic advisors and others from doing numerous illegal and dangerous and destructive things. Now – in his second term – Trump is deliberately surrounded by loyalists and Project 2025 authors. That largely explains the Trump DICTATORSHIP. ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXVIII. – Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts Endanger America
*** “We must never forget that international friendship is achieved through rumors ignored, propaganda challenged and exposed, through patient loyalty to those who have proved themselves worthy of it; through help freely given, where help is needed and merited…Peace is more a product of our day-to-day living than of a spectacular program, intermittently executed.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower; Republican; 34th U.S. President ]
This post BEGINS to discuss the consequences, the DAMAGE, the DANGER, the STUPIDITY, the Cruelty – of Donald Trump’s cuts to American foreign aid around the world. Begin with a partial list of aid cooperation programs America started, has joined: Agency for International Development, Alliance for Progress, Asian Development Bank, Developing Country, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Development Association, Marshall Plan, Peace Corps, UNESCO, World Health Organization.
WHY did America do this, and much more? Partly for humanitarian reasons; partly because it was in OUR self-interest to help others. – thus maintaining peace, often creating markets for American products. Intelligent people knew American “soft power” was a key to American prosperity. People respected America for being generous. – they looked upon America favorably…..
Because of GREED, selfishness, not taxing the rich, and whatever else percolates in Donald Trump’s mind – and possibly “Project 2025” mandates. – his DICTATORSHIP’s policies will COST AMERICA MUCH, in many ways…
Presented below are SOME costs from Trump’s international Stupidity and Ignorance:
A]. “When Trump and Musk slashed aid they left us vulnerable, too”. [Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 6/8/26 ]:
1] “After Elon Musk “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chopper,”…he and President Donald Trump ridiculed American humanitarian aid as, in effect, woke nonsense. Yet in reality American humanitarian aid not only saved one life every 10 seconds but was also safeguarding the world from epidemics.”
2]. “..in three ways, Trump’s assault on global health has left us in a worse position to combat Ebola…The first failing was the destruction of USAID…..The second failing ..was its hostility to the World Health Organization….The third failing is simply the administration’s disregard for public health and lack of preparation.”
***. “Whoever has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, and has no pity on him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love merely in word, neither in speech, but in deed and truth.” [ I John 3: 17-18 ]
3]. “I don’t think there is any way that this outbreak would have been missed for so long if all those programs were still at full strength and the USAID mission team was still there.”
4]. “With Ebola, time is lives,” Dr. Tom Frieden..”
5]. “Trump not only withdrew the United States from the WHO, but his administration also reportedly barred some U.S. health officials even from communicating with counterparts there.” [ So – ignorance is going to keep America healthy?}
***. “In public affairs, stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.” [ Woodrow Wilson; 28th U.S. President ]
6] “The Trump administration also left positions for disease preparedness vacant. It cut funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is helping develop a vaccine for this strain of Ebola.”
7] “The fecklessness of Washington officials, recklessly cutting programs they don’t understand, contrasts with the raw courage of doctors, nurses, aid workers and burial teams in places like Congo who are risking their lives and making do without adequate supplies to stop this outbreak.”
8] “The USAID cuts were lethal: I’ve documented how we let children die from malaria for want of $2 mosquito bed nets or from starvation because we couldn’t be bothered to provide 50-cent packets of peanut paste. A Boston University researcher estimates that the aid cuts have already cost more than 750,000 lives worldwide.”
*** “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.” [ John 13: 34 ]
B] “Cuts to Foreign Aid Are Trump’s Most Lethal Policy”. [ Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 9/20/25 ]:
1] “..the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development will cost taxpayers $6.4 billion over two years…the subject of earlier reporting by Bloomberg Government, said the money is necessary to manage “litigation, claims, residual payments and closeout activities. That’s enough money to save more than one million children’s lives.”
2]. “..the Trump administration is sitting on huge stockpiles of R.U.T.F. purchased under the Biden administration…300,000 cases in warehouses of Mana Nutrition…and 185,535 more cases sit in the warehouse of another manufacturer, Edesia Nutrition, in Rhode Island, where we pay to store it….storage costs that amount to more than $600,000 so far…rather than rush it to children like Fred who may die for want of it..”
*** “WE may well be unable to afford to be the world’s policeman, but neither can we afford to fail to live up to the responsibilities that the accidents of a bountiful land and a beneficient fate have placed upon us.”
[ General William Westmoreland ]
C] “Trump’s Aid Cuts Kill More Christians Than Jihadists Do” [ Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 11/9/25 ]:
1] “A radical theme of Jesus’ teachings, as the scholar Bart Ehrman notes in..”Love Thy Stranger,” was his emphasis on empathy for all people, including strangers outside one’s circle.”
***. “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.” [ Fredrich von Schiller ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXVI. – Trump’s Ideological Tests for YOUR Government’s Grants
*** “In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, Russell Vought..described his work crafting legal justifications so military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions. He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country… Another priority, according to Vought, was to “defund” certain independent federal agencies and demonize career civil servants..” [Molly Redden, Andy Kroll, ProPublica; Nick Surgey, Documented: “‘Put Them in Trauma’: Inside a key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda”; The Progressive Populist; December 1, 2024 ]
This post presents excerpts from. “Billions in grants could depend on political test….White House would block funding if plans don’t align with Trump”; Tony Romm; New York Times; 6/3/26 ]:
7] “The proposal was only the latest attempt by the Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell T. Vought, to exert power over federal funding. The preamble to its sprawling new blueprint reaffirmed Vought’s view that much of the government’s ledger is riddled with spending that is wasteful, “divisive” or “woke.”
4] “The government could not issue grants to projects or groups that…”promote anti-American values”..”
9] “.. the administration has stalled or blocked aid for child care, disaster preparedness, green energy, education, food stamps, foreign assistance, mental health, public broadcasting, research and transportation infrastructure….In cases that date back to the early, disruptive days of the Department of Government Efficiency, judges have found that many of Trump’s actions have violated the law.”
***. “In papers and legal memos, Vought and his associates have articulated a vast array of dubious maneuvers to remake American democracy…Their plans to remove checks and balances and challenge long-established constraints on executive overreach, if realized, would unleash a Trump presidency battle-tested to turn gripe into policy.” [Isabella Dias: “The Architect…Trump wants to be King, Russ Vought has a Plan to Make It Happen”; Mother Jones; November-December, 2024 ]
1] “The White House is seeking to exert more control over billions of dollars in annual government grants, aiming to restrict a vast swath of funding – in health, housing, science and transportation. – so that it primarily serves the purposes and organizations politically aligned with President Donald Trump.”
2]. “..its proposal amounts to a major escalation in its attempt to reimagine the nation’s spending, even as Congress and the courts continue to rebuke the president for abusing such powers.”
3]. “If finalized, it would require all federal grants to be approved by the president’s political appointees, who must ensure that the money would “demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities.”
***. “.. Vought nurtures a far more expansive. – and alarming. – ambition: to institute a new governing paradigm predicated on unrestrained presidential authority. With Vought as the architect, Trump could take his “dictator” on “day one” aspirations beyond words..” [Isabella Dias: “The Architect”; Mother Jones; November-December, 2024]
5]. “Restrictions echo the string of executive orders that Trump signed shortly after returning to office, many of which have been challenged or blocked in court. This time, however, the White House has pursued its restrictions by proposing a regulation…The result could be applied far more broadly, and perhaps in ways that are harder to fight legally or undo later..”
6]. “In exchange for federal assistance, researchers would face limits on the subjects that they can explore, the foreign labs with which they collaborate and even the conferences at which they can appear.”
8]. “Trump has frequently disregarded the instructions of Congress anyway..”
*** “During the first five months of the 2016 GOP primaries, the New York Times was so struck by Trump’s demagogic rhetoric they gathered and analyzed “every public utterance” by him, some 95,000 words. They retained historians, psychologists, and political scientists to review the material, and the experts concluded it echoed “some of the [worst] demagogues of the past century.” [ John W. Dean, bob Altemeyer: “Authoritarian Nightmare… Trump and His Followers” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXV. – “Trump Keeps Pushing Plans People Dislike”
***. “..the last forty-four presidents all pursued policies that they believed would make for a better America tomorrow. The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop. He says so himself all the time..”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
This post presents excerpts from. “Trump Keeps Pushing Plans People Dislike”. [ Luke Broadwater; New York Times; 5/24/26 ]:
7] “Mr. Trump has seemed unconcerned about whether these ideas are popular with voters, and has lamented openly that Democrats are likely to gain ground in the midterm elections. He has been most animated when discussing how he exacts vengeance on Republicans who criticize him.”
8] “Ms. Binder said she took Mr. Trump at his word when he argued last year that he had little further use for Congress, a suggestion that he could enact most of his agenda by circumventing lawmakers…..”He’s focused on the arch. I think he’s focused on his own personal legacy. He’s focused on vengeance,” she said.”
*** “According to Malkin, political leaders such as Hitler, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un exhibit malignant narcissism. As Robert Jay Lifton notes in “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” such narcissism in a leader can lead to “malignant normality”…people can come to accept aberrant and even pathological behavior as a new norm, especially when it is exhibited by an authority figure. He applies this to Trump.” [ Steven Hassan: “The Cult of Trump”]
1] “…his grip over Republican lawmakers began slipping after he proposed a pair of deeply unpopular spending items, prompting an unusual revolt from the Senate. When faced with such a backlash ahead of midterm elections, many politicians would pivot, redirecting their focus ti issues they are on stronger footing with. But Mr. Trump has decided to double down, presenting himself as all-powerful even in the face of indications that he is not.”
2] “Over the years, Mr. Trump has often appeared to have an air of invincibility…He has successfully exacted retribution on many a perceived enemy. Now, with less than three years left in office, he seems comfortable burning whatever political capital he has in order to leave his legacy, even if it drags his party down in the process.”
3] “Rather than abandon his plan for a $1.8 billion fund to reward allies who claim they were persecuted by Democrats, mr. Trump has defended the proposal, suggesting he could have used the taxpayer money to enrich himself…..”Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden administration..”
***. “Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” [ Adolf Hitler ]
4] “The meeting went so poorly for Mr. Blanche that party leaders scrapped planned votes on another of Mr. Trump’s top priorities: a $72 billion immigration crackdown measure lawmakers had planned to muscle through before memorial Day.”
5] “Mr. Trump was also undeterred when another unpopular policy position – using taxpayer money to help fund security for his $400 million luxury ballroom on White House grounds – was met with backlash on Capitol Hill.”
6]. “Another dynamic at play in the Trump White House is a lack of dissenting voices to some of the president’s most extreme ideas. In mr. Trump’s first term, some of the president’s radical ideas were checked by aides like John F. Kelly..Jim Mattis..Gary Cohn… But these men are long gone, and their positions have been filled mostly by people who are true believers.”
***. “Lincoln never forgot that in a democracy the leader’s strength ultimately depends on the strength of his bond with the people. In the mornings he set aside several hours to hear the needs of the ordinary people lined up outside his office, his time of “public opinion baths.” Kindness, empathy, humor, passion, and ambition all marked him from the start.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin: “Leadership” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXIV. – “Dumb and dumber, Republican-style”
***. “corruption as commonly understood is back to Gilded Age levels..Never since the scandal-ridden administration of Ulysses S. Grant has there been an executive branch as nakedly given over to self-dealing as that of Donald Trump. To describe even a few of the dynamics not yet mentioned would take pages.” [Sarah Chayes: “On Corruption In America”]
This post presents excerpts from George Will’s. “Dumb and dumber, Republican-style” [St. Paul Pioneer Press; 5/24/26]:
1]. “In this past week, the Republican Party has accomplished something difficult: It made itself stupider. It subtracted from its already shallow reservoir of intelligence by moving to purge two fine senators. And its embodiment authored a novel grift.”
6] “There is a sort of artistry, akin to the shenanigans used to cook Enron’d books, in Trump’s attempt to fleece taxpayers for a $1.776 billion [get it? this is patriotic] slush fund to be doled out by his friends to his accomplices. The doling will be done by a board appointed by the attorney general, who serves at the president’s pleasure. Trump can fire the board members for any reason. And the fund will disappear immediately after the 2028 election.” [!!!!!!!!!!!!]
*** “There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin”: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” [ Tammany Hall ward boss, George Washington Plunkitt, in: “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall”, by William L. Riordon ]
2]. “..the two senators will be replaced on this autumn’s ballots by persons who, if elected…can be counted on to be exactly what no senator should be: another of the president’s congressional sock puppets, promising, as a high principle, not to think independently.”
3] “His scarlet sin was to have believed that Donald Trump’s urging a mob to stop Congress from certifying the results of a presidential election constituted an impeachable offense. Cassidy’s departure will subtract most of the Senate membership interested in responding to the approaching crisis of Social Security funding.”
4]. “Cassidy’s genuine sin – casting the decisive vote that put an amateur quack [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] at the pinnacle of the public health system. – probably pleased the yahoos who wanted Cassidy gone. He will be replaced by a Republican whose identity does not matter: He or she will be a cipher, vigorously subservient to Trump.”
***. “as president – Trump’s ignorance of science…many of them had no qualifications whatsoever…The Trump administration deposited political termites throughout the structure of our government.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
5] “..Trump surely, correctly, sees in Paxton a kindred spirit…He is a pinup of religious “conservatives” who disregard his lurid personal life.”
7} “In January, Trump sued the IRS [the head of which serves at the pleasure of the president] for $10 billion. this was a prelude to this week’s ‘compromise.” Trump – essentially negotiating with himself, sitting on both sides of the table – agreed to drop this suit. In exchange, the Justice Department [its head serves at Trump’s pleasure] agreed to create a $1.776 billion fund to compensate government “lawfare” victims”. [NOTE – but the fund will NOT compensate any person, any city, any state victimized the the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s persecution or prosecution !!!!!!!!!!!!]
8]. “Purging senators while complaining about “lawfare” but punishing law firms he dislikes…Sophists devoted to obfuscating the obvious will insist that Trump, not the Republican Party, is doing all this. But sentient people know it is a distinction without a difference.”
***. “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 point is you can’t be too greedy.” [ Donald John Trump: “The Art of the Deal” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXIII – Trump Votes By Mail !!!!!!!!!!
***. “There is not in human nature a more odious disposition than a proneness to contempt, which is a mixture of pride, and ill-nature. – It is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart.” [ Henry Fielding ]
1]. “Trump votes by mail after calling it ‘cheating'” [ Erica Green; New York Times; 3/25/26 ] IN YOUR FACE AMERICA!!! I, Donald John Trump can do whatever I want – you can’t !!!!!!! Because I make the rules!!!
this post will BEGIN to look at the FRAUD. of Trump’s various FALSE claims on cheating in American elections. – a reflection of his massive, fragile ego. “entailed by his belief that it is theoretically impossible for him to lose at anything.” [ George Will: “Trump’s ‘stolen election’ obsession”; Washington Post Weekly; 2/22/26 ]
NOTHING better illustrates Trump’s CONTEMPT for YOU and all other ordinary Americans than him voting by mail when he says it’s “crooked.” NOTHING better illustrates Trump’s LYING than falsely claiming there is massive cheating in American elections. – when ALL studies reveal this a COMPLETE LIE. NOTHING better illustrates Trump’s intent to continue the TRUMP DICTATORSHIP than his numerous attempts to rig the 2026 elections. – to prevent a REAL. Congress that would check his authoritarian “Project 2025” efforts. – as the Founders intended.
2]. “The president’s rationale for this dangerous proposal is even more alarming. He cited the opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin to support his position..” [ Mary Hartnett: “Reject Trump’s attempt to undermine absentee and mail-in voting”; Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/25/25 ]
3] “Out of 49.5 million voter registrations that have been checked, the department referred around 10,000 cases to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation of noncitizenship, or roughly 0.02%..” [ Alexandra Berzon, Nick Corasaniti: new York Times; 1/15/26 ]
4]. “Republicans could keep millions from voting SAVE Act, Trump order present array of hurdles” [ Janet Moore; Minnesota Star Tribune; 5/10/25 ]. Among the issues which could prevent people from voting: 69 million women changed their last names after marriage; 5% of men took. their wife’s last name; men who hyphenated their last name after marriage; rural college students; members of the military; millions don’t have a passport; 140 million Real IDs can’t be used as proof of citizenship; people who recently moved. Do YOU have your birth certificate???
***. “It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” [ Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ]
5]. “But as Trump has escalated efforts to involve the administration in election and voting matters while also eliminating programs designed to fortify these systems against attacks, secretaries of state and other top state officials, including some Republican ones, have begun to sound alarms.” [Nick Corasaniti: “alarms sound on Trump’s voting call”; New York Times; 2/8/26 ]
6] “A documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement for voting…is being pushed by America First Legal, a conservative group co-founded by Stephen Miller, the Republican president’s deputy chief of staff.” [ Julie Carr Smyth; “Barriers To Voting Pushed; Associated Press; 10/26/25 ]
7]. “Trump is basically destroying the federal statistical system,” said Margo Anderson, a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has written extensively on the history of the census. “He wants numbers that support his political accomplishments, such as he sees them.” [ Josh Boak, Mike Schneider, Joey Cappelletti: “Trump” Census to exclude migrants in U.S. illegally”; Associated Press; 8/8/25 ]
8]. “Trump often shouts fraud before an election that he fears losing, but this year he has intensified his drumbeat of threats, warnings and false claims about voting.” [ Shane Goldmacher, Nick Corasaniti: “Trump’s election efforts spur fears”; New York Times; 2/27/26 ]
***. “Beginning on his first day in office and continuing the past year in plain view of the American people, Donald Trump has orchestrated and led a sweeping federal government effort to subvert the mid-term elections,” said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal appeals court judge..” [ Goldmacher, Corasaniti – #8 above ]
9]. “Today, an all-out gerrymandering war, sparked by President Trump, has erupted nation-wide…to redraw congressional maps in hopes of maximizing their arty’s chances of controlling the House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections.” [ Richard Fausset, Nick Corasaniti: “Gerrymandering War Spreading Across u.S. is A Crisis, Experts Say”; new York Times; 11/9/25 ]
10] “..Trump called for GOP officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states…”The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,'” he said. “We should take over the voting…The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.” [ Reid Epstein, Nick Corasaniti: “Trump, in an escalation, calls for GOP to ‘nationalize’ elections”; new York Times; 2/4/26]
11]. “The U.s. Department of Justice has filed lawsuits in 23 states and the District of Columbia seeking access to detailed voter information for the purpose of building a national database. The department’s request sets a dangerous precedent and could expose millions of Americans to fraud, abuse and other nefarious activities.” [ Barbara McQuade: “The DOJ suing for voter data is dangerous on many levels”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 1/15/26 ]
12]. “President Donald Trump is engaged in an unprecedented attempt to manipulate the midterm elections. Not only has he demanded that Texas redraw its congressional districts, he’s now got Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice embarking on another insidious strategy: Building a dossier of private information on every voter that Trump can use for political advantage.” {Mary Ellen Klass: “DOJ’s push to collect data is a fishing expedition”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 8/10/25 ]
13] “That order embodies the right’s lie that elections have been ‘stolen,’ and it is a clear example of how Project 2025 has made prosecuting so-called election fraud a policy objective. Trump’s latest, a missive on mail-in voting, is just moving that same ball forward. Whether the executive order ever materializes or is enacted, it matters that when the president reaches for a strategic distraction, he chooses one that matches Project 2025’s goals.” [ Tressie McMillan Cotton: “Trump’s Voting Rights Chaos is A Pattern”; New York Times; 8/24/25 ]
***. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” [ Lord Acton ]
[NOTE: Trump and his Republican allies have done much to corrupt American elections, this post is only #1. Other’s include: “Project 2026. Trump’s Plan to Hijack the Next Election”; “The Coming Election Mayhem”; “Antidemocratic…Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to control American Elections”. Dictatorships don’t die willingly.]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXII. – Trump Destroys American Government
*** “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump…He is the most dangerous person ever…I talked to you about his mental decline..now I realize he’s a total fascist…A fascist to the core.” General Mark Miley – in Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward”s “War’ ] [NOTE: take so time… mull this over. Look at WHO said these words. Ask YOURSELF. – WHY – What events led General Miley to say this???]
This post presents excerpts from. “The Purged… Donald Trump’s Destruction Of The Civil Service Is A Tragedy Not Just For The Roughly 300,000 Workers Who Have Been Discarded, But For An Entire Nation.” [Franklin Foer; The Atlantic; February, 2026. Read the mini biographies of 50 former U.S. government experts to understand partially. WHY Trump’s destruction of. YOUR. government will take years, if not decades, to rebuild and repair. Trump and Musk fired people who’s job was to protect America and make America run efficiently for. YOU. 80% of U.S. government employees work outside Washington. YOUR community and YOUR. state will most likely not work as well or efficiently. THIS is one of THE most STUPID things Trump has done. “The damage will ripple through every national park, every veteran’s hospital, every city and town.”
2] “For all its flaws, the American state was a source of national greatness and power: It ushered in an age of prosperity and discovery; it made everyday existence safer and fairer.”
7] “Until the purges of the past year, the U.S. government housed an unmatched collection of experts, capable of some of the greatest feats in human existence…the Manhattan Project, Apollo, the Human Genome Project.”
10]. “What’s been lost isn’t just a sense of purpose, but a body of knowledge – a way of making the machinery of the state function….By wiping out many of the bureaucracy’s most experienced practitioners, Trump has severed the chain that allowed one generation of civil servants to pass on the habits of effective government to the next.” [NOTE: again, re-read these words. This is SABOTAGE. WHY would a loyal American patriot sabotage his own government???]
***. “Our Constitution is not written to handle someone like Trump,” the political scientist Jason Johnson told me. “That is the greatest danger and greatest harm he is to our country… the Framers “envisioned presidents who might be dishonest, who might not have consistent ethical values, but they never envisioned a self-involved dictatorial capitalist, so we don’t have a government designed to restrain someone who doesn’t care about any of the norms.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
1]. ‘..the administration showed little interest in understanding the organizations it was eviscerating. Any sincere attempt to reform the government would have protected its top. experts and most skilled practitioners. In fact, such workers account for a disproportionate share of the Trump-era exodus.”
3]. “In the late 19th century, as the American government took on its modern form, a single word captured the spirit of the enterprise: disinterestedness. The duties of civil servants..were supposed to transcend patronage and partisanship. Their professional obligation was to present facts and judgments that reflected objective reality – not to flatter the preferences of the administration in power.”
*** “Can’t you just shoot them?” President Trump asked Defense Secretary Esper on June 1, 2020, about the protesters in Washington, D.C. “Just shoot them in the legs or something?” { Bob Woodward: “War” ]
4] “…regulators also prevented immense human suffering. Before the advent of the modern state, the economy convulsed with financial panics roughly every 20 years. After the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were created in the 1930s, confidence replaced chaos. Generations passed without bank runs. American markets became the safest bet on the planet.”
5]. “At the dawn of the 20th century, American medicines were often laced with alcohol, opiates, or narcotics. Thanks to the FDA, those potions were gradually replaced by pharmaceuticals tested for safety – snake oil gave way to science.”
6]. “..the surprising thing, really, was how many preeminent experts – scientists, intelligence analysts, economists, even lawyers – stayed in their government job for the entire arc of their career.”
*** “He is a transgressive personality, so he likes to attack and destrroy and unsettle people,” Wehner said. If he sees an institution that he thinks is not doing his bidding, not protecting him like he wants or is a threat to him, he’ll go after it….intelligence community…Justice Department…North Atlantic Treaty organization…The press is ‘the enemy of the people.’…doesn’t have any regard for institutions, the role they play, why there’re important…delights in tearing them down.” [ Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius” ]
8] “Under Trump, the expertise capable of such achievements has begun to vanish… What took generations to build is being dismantled in months, and with it goes not just expertise but what remains of the shared American faith in expertise itself.”
9]. “a generation of bureaucrats, now in the prime of their career, entered government after September 11…They felt an obligation to serve. Donald Trump has betrayed those workers. by describing them as a hostile force, he’s questioned their patriotism – and robbed the sense of mission from their work.”
11] “The toll of the purge will become clear only gradually…Government, too, is part of a delicate American ecosystem – as it erodes, crises that lay bare its indispensability will multiply.”
*** “Tillerson was never told why he was fired. The president did not give him a reason. It had earlier leaked out that Tillerson had called Trump a “fucking moron”. at a July 20, 2017, Tank meeting. Probably nothing could have triggered Trump’s insecurities more.” [ Bob Woodward; “Rage’ ]
12]. Listed below are some of the critical employees no longer in. YOUR. government:
A] Micaela White: “She was America’s fixer of choice….her improvisational skills were legendary.”
B] Eric Green: ‘..became the head of the American genomics effort.”
C] Wren Elhai: ” helped build the State Department’s new cyberspace and digital policy bureau.”
D]. Jeff Cohen: “became adept at improvising programs that burnished America’s prestige.”
E]. Peter Marks: ‘was a driving force behind Operation Warp Speed.”
F] Mamta Patel Nagaraja: ‘She trained astronauts.”
G] Michael Feinberg: “becoming the FBI’s top Chinese counterintelligence invetigator.”
H]. David Boucher: Infectious disease preparedness and response expert.
I]. Susan Miller: “she led the CIA’s counterintelligence unit”
J]. Mike Gordon: “He became the department’s closer.”
K]. Michael Missal; “his office issued 2,500 reports and 10,000 recommendations, saving billions of dollars.”
***. “Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.” [ Margaret Atwood ]
With Justice For All 
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