Dear America,
I saw a statistic recently that I found singularly disturbing. 59% of Americans think that Trump's transition process is going well. Apparently the vast majority of Americans have no problem with candidates for positions of power in our federal government being people possessed of the same kind of character that Donald Trump flaunts: vengefulness, misogynistic treatment of women with whom they come in contact--and I emphasize the word "contact"--amorality, hypocrisy such as in the case of the nominee who employed himself helping businesses fudge their applications for covid-era loans, which in the end were fraudulent and went unpaid under the benefic, bipartisan program created during the Biden administration, which program he now criticizes for allowing fraud, and on and on. And now, the last accoutrement he needs before arranging for repeal of the 22nd amendment, his very own oligarch: Elon Musk. What good is it to be a perpetual president like Vladimir Putin if you don't have oligarchs like he has. An autocrat needs a social circle of his own. After all, he can't be seen mingling with ordinary people, can he. And now, with all the oligarchs he is trying to appoint to his cabinet, he will have such a social circle so that he can be applauded whenever he enters a room not just when he is in the White House like he arranges for now, but from one or more traveling partners and their staffs when The President gets off of Air Force One, or when he gets out of a limo for a lynching like he tried to inspire for Mike Pence on January 6th. And the Republican Party seems eager to accommodate Trump that way.
You may have noticed that Trump's nominees are getting less and less critical scrutiny. If the interviews with Republican senators we are seeing on the evening news are any indicator, Trump's sycophants are scrambling to get in line behind him. He couldn't have done any more effective a job of suborning his party if he'd tried, and he didn't have to do much this time. A simple threat to seek revenge was all it took to make the Republican party poltroons cower in the halls of congress and tacitly volunteer to do his bidding because everyone knows what he is capable of, though there was one surprise today. After Musk displayed his feathers on "X" regarding a bipartisan proposed 1500 page budget, panning it so badly that his president got in line behind him, a second proposal was concocted by the Speaker of the House in an effort to save himself, which included more tax cuts for Trump and his kindred billionaires. What's a little self-serving corruption if you're president and the other branches of government are lining up to lick your boots, including our illustrious supreme court. But surprisingly, enough Republicans to sink it in The House voted against it. The bill didn't pass, and Donald Trump must have had a fit down there at Mar-a-Lago. He was probably too upset to play golf today, which suggests that those thirty-odd congresspersons who did the deed had better lock their doors and windows every night for the foreseeable future. They will not be seated at the oligarch table with the big people when the next big party comes, that's if they even get invited to the party. And Trump's 2029 inaugural ball will be some party, so it will be a shame for them to miss it.
It's been over a month since the election and I have been able to temper my consternation with a newly acquired ennui. A majority of the American electorate voted for this guy, so who am I to feel "snakebit." As I have said over and over for years, on election day the American people get what they deserve, so I guess I deserve this too since I'm an American person. I'll just retreat behind the hedges I've grown around our house over the past twenty years or so and pretend that all is great "out there." And we aren't rich, but we have enough set aside that when Trump takes enough from everyone else, we'll still have enough secure income that we can relax, have a roof over our head and continue to eat normally. It's not that I don't care about all of you, but what can I do. After all, I didn't vote for him.
Your friend,
Mike
I saw a statistic recently that I found singularly disturbing. 59% of Americans think that Trump's transition process is going well. Apparently the vast majority of Americans have no problem with candidates for positions of power in our federal government being people possessed of the same kind of character that Donald Trump flaunts: vengefulness, misogynistic treatment of women with whom they come in contact--and I emphasize the word "contact"--amorality, hypocrisy such as in the case of the nominee who employed himself helping businesses fudge their applications for covid-era loans, which in the end were fraudulent and went unpaid under the benefic, bipartisan program created during the Biden administration, which program he now criticizes for allowing fraud, and on and on. And now, the last accoutrement he needs before arranging for repeal of the 22nd amendment, his very own oligarch: Elon Musk. What good is it to be a perpetual president like Vladimir Putin if you don't have oligarchs like he has. An autocrat needs a social circle of his own. After all, he can't be seen mingling with ordinary people, can he. And now, with all the oligarchs he is trying to appoint to his cabinet, he will have such a social circle so that he can be applauded whenever he enters a room not just when he is in the White House like he arranges for now, but from one or more traveling partners and their staffs when The President gets off of Air Force One, or when he gets out of a limo for a lynching like he tried to inspire for Mike Pence on January 6th. And the Republican Party seems eager to accommodate Trump that way.
You may have noticed that Trump's nominees are getting less and less critical scrutiny. If the interviews with Republican senators we are seeing on the evening news are any indicator, Trump's sycophants are scrambling to get in line behind him. He couldn't have done any more effective a job of suborning his party if he'd tried, and he didn't have to do much this time. A simple threat to seek revenge was all it took to make the Republican party poltroons cower in the halls of congress and tacitly volunteer to do his bidding because everyone knows what he is capable of, though there was one surprise today. After Musk displayed his feathers on "X" regarding a bipartisan proposed 1500 page budget, panning it so badly that his president got in line behind him, a second proposal was concocted by the Speaker of the House in an effort to save himself, which included more tax cuts for Trump and his kindred billionaires. What's a little self-serving corruption if you're president and the other branches of government are lining up to lick your boots, including our illustrious supreme court. But surprisingly, enough Republicans to sink it in The House voted against it. The bill didn't pass, and Donald Trump must have had a fit down there at Mar-a-Lago. He was probably too upset to play golf today, which suggests that those thirty-odd congresspersons who did the deed had better lock their doors and windows every night for the foreseeable future. They will not be seated at the oligarch table with the big people when the next big party comes, that's if they even get invited to the party. And Trump's 2029 inaugural ball will be some party, so it will be a shame for them to miss it.
It's been over a month since the election and I have been able to temper my consternation with a newly acquired ennui. A majority of the American electorate voted for this guy, so who am I to feel "snakebit." As I have said over and over for years, on election day the American people get what they deserve, so I guess I deserve this too since I'm an American person. I'll just retreat behind the hedges I've grown around our house over the past twenty years or so and pretend that all is great "out there." And we aren't rich, but we have enough set aside that when Trump takes enough from everyone else, we'll still have enough secure income that we can relax, have a roof over our head and continue to eat normally. It's not that I don't care about all of you, but what can I do. After all, I didn't vote for him.
Your friend,
Mike
