Colgate 64
Colgate 64's JournalWatching Trump flaunt his executive powers by ignorantly
decreeing a tariff war with the world for no reason is like being tied to a chair and forced to watch a toddler play with a loaded gun. There's nothing you can do to stop it and you know that, sooner or later there's going to be a tragedy.
I wonder how all the recent converts to the "Leopards will eat your face" party will react when they find their faces being eaten by leopards?
Does anyone remember the bulldog and pal cartoon?
Remember the cartoon that features a big, hulking bulldog (Spike) and a yappy little sidekick who is forever exploiting the big dog's presence? The yappy one is always strutting around saying "Yeah, Spike - it's you and me. Right Spike? You and me, right Spike right?" while trying to act the part of a bullying big dog using the intimidating presence of the bulldog to cow whoever it was the yappy dog was trying to impress.
Today's yappy little dog was J.D. Vance, playing bulldog to Ukraine's Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of the White House Press Corps. The meeting, (broadcast on MSNBC at4:00 today), was generally bland, i.e. made for public consumption (as the White House had planned when Vance suddenly decided to be a bomb thrower and deliberately picked a fight with Zelensky by unexpectedly hurling the accusation: that the Ukrainian President hadn't been sufficiently grateful to Trump. Needless to say, Vance's deliberate peeing in the punchbowl with comments of "ingratitude" immediately triggered the always-subtle outrage of Trump, who proceeded to seize upon Ukraine's "ingratitude" and then careening on to how much he and Putin had "gone through together" with the "Russia-Russia-Russia Hoax" Trump was, to all intents and purposes, out of control, lecturing Zelensky on "You don't tell us how to feel!!!!!" and similar bon mots. It was beyond shocking and embarrassing, perhaps even to the most die-hard MAGA supporters (although I'm not sure their bottom has ever been reached).
I wonder what Vance's ,motivation for torpedoing the meeting and supposed agreement over Ukrainian mineral rights that Zelensky and Trump were supposedly going to sign? Did Trump put him up to it in order to not sign the agreement but save some face? Or, did Vance go rogue for some reasons of his own? I am inclined to think the latter, perhaps because Vance is feeling left out since nobody even mentions him any more. The focus is on the co-presidency of Trump and Musk and no one even notices Vance, which has to rankle him. Or is it because he is even more radical and unhinged than many of the RW bomb throwers Trump routinely surrounds himself with and is despairing of being able to influence the political agenda toward a more anarchical development? Only time will tell. In the meantime, Trump and Vance have stood before history and the world on videotape showing their complete capitulation to and adoration of Vladimir Putin. I believe the tape will be shown in History and Political Science classes far into the future as indicative of the day we took the first public steps towards renouncing our hitherto unchallenged role as the world leader of free and open democracies.
A very dark day (IMO) for American Democracy and equally dark for our erstwhile allies.
Watching daily discussions of the economic clusterf*k
President Musk and his merry band of incel Dogebags are wreaking on the economy and, by eventual implication on millions of Americans (especially those who voted for Trump) while watching the breast-beating and shock shown nightly on cable news broadcasts, I can't help but be reminded of the apocryphal newspaper headline:
New Members of the Leopards Eat Your Face Club astonished. Say they had no idea that Leopards would eat their faces.
Were these people asleep all through 2024 until November? How do you penetrate such incredibly willful and self-satisfied ignorance?
Sheer and utter disdain and contempt
Now that we've had a taste of Elon Musk's management style, I believe it is becoming clear to even the most fervent MAGA's that Musk views all mere employees - especially government employees - as essentially worthless and in many cases unnecessary cogs in a machine he neither understands nor appreciates.
His disdain and, I believe actual contempt for workers is obvious. In Musk's world, these people are merely pieces of a machine. Some are unnecessary. Many are duplicative. And almost all are essentially lazy and unproductive. The solution: Fire "x" percent outright. Leave the others wondering when or if the axe will drop on them. And then rinse and repeat. This has been his "management strategy" at Tesla and is the strategy he's undertaking with our government agencies, all with the tacit blessing of the Orange Doofus who is presently serving as Musk's Vice President.
Musk's hyper-energetic ego will force him to double down on the many abuses already noted. Eventually Donald will tire of the Trusk presidency and throw Musk under the bus. But by that time, much of the government will be in ashes. Elon will take his billions of marbles and simply go home or to any number of countries that covet his money. We, however are left here to try and pick up whatever pieces are even left to pick up. We are well and truly screwed.
It's just a baby step
It's just a baby step from having a Trusk lackey as Attorney General demanding that charges against a Trusk mayoral sycophant be dropped in exchange for said sycophant helping carry out legal persecution against the sycophant's own (supposed) constituents to having the lackey A.G. threaten another important elected official - mayor, governor with prosecution unless the official agrees to cooperate with the Trusk rampage through all governmental institutions.
The courts can only do so much in curtailing this abuse. The legal system is just not designed to protect itself from in-house abuse like this since it is founded on the principle of ethical conduct as its cornerstone. In the recent past, abuse like this (Saturday Night Massacre) was reigned in by some elected politicians of both parties who hadn't traded their integrity for a political post and, more importantly, by citizen outrage. Unfortunately, both bipartisan politicians with integrity and significant outraged citizenry seem to shine by their absence. We are sleepwalking our way into a true dissolution of our constitutional judicial system of law.
Watching the Orange Pustule "play" President with our economy
is like being tied hand and foot to a chair while watching a 2 year old play with a loaded pistol.
Trump puts 25% tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico
Putting this ignoramus in the White House is like telling your disturbed child to go play with matches in the attic and then being surprised when (s)he burns the house down.
ICE now has a quota for arresting immigrants
They're filling it by going after the low-hanging fruit, all the undocumented people who've been in the country for years, living, working, contributing and being an American in everything but their nationality. Other administrations, both Democratic and Republican gave these people a "pass", figuring it wasn't worth bothering with them since they were doing no harm of any kind. But now the jackbooted thugs of the "Border Czar" are using these people to meet their quota. In Chicago it was reported than almost 50% of the people detained had no criminal record. So much for "we're going after the murderers and gang members". Liars.
When I was a child, my Mother told me that anyone
could be President. I never knew how very right she was, until Trump.
Trump suggests Proud Boys could have a place in politics
What a great idea. Maybe he could get them a uniform, maybe some snazzy brown shirts as a juniform and also give the a new quasi-military rank, I don't know, maybe something "Special Assistant", (S.A. for short). The possibilities are endless.
Profile Information
Member since: Tue Jun 17, 2008, 02:38 PMNumber of posts: 14,860