A New World Order?

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What took place at the Oval Office yesterday was shocking, disgusting, malicious and downright shameful!

President Zelensky was ambushed and bullied not in any schoolyard but in the Oval Office by two arrogant and uncouth individuals who didn’t give a flipping flip if the whole world was watching. He was an invited guest not to mention a beleaguered but giant of a man who had been fighting against an enemy who he referred to as “the killer” and rightfully so. He had come to the White House begging for assistance but instead he got the takedown! Furthermore, he was labeled as being “disrespectful” but the only people who were disrespectful were the President of the United States and his VP who acted like hooligans on the world stage.

After the horrific blowup, Trump had this to say: “I think we’ve seen enough. This is going to be great television, I will say.”

Great television it was not but more like “Bully TV.” The ceasefire agreement with Russia and the mineral deal with the US both went up in smoke because the bullies in question decided to hold a shouting match instead. JD Vance further added,

“I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

Bend your knee and kiss the ring or else all hell will break loose was the message there.

Shortly after, Zelensky was out the door and all peace talks were halted by the new Chief and the man at the helm of the new administration. Trump further added:

“You’re right now not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now with us, you start having problems right now.”

Hmm….what?!! What played out in the Oval Office was hard to watch but more importantly it signaled what the future of this presidency will look like. Diplomacy, compassion and empathy have all flown the coop and strongmen tactics, boorish behavior and siding with the “bad guys” is what it is about.

The White House deserves a modicum of decorum but it was nowhere to be found yesterday. It too had gone hiding while rude and bullying tactics were front and center. What’s next? Let’s “put the screws on” as bullies do to get what they want.

SHAME ON YOU BOTH!

The Muzzle?

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A friend asked me yesterday, “Why don’t you write more about politics?” My answer to him, “I’m trying to stay away from it and trying to keep it at a bare minimum.” I do mean that but the current administration makes it hard to do so. If it’s not one thing than it’s another. Drama and plenty of it is at the core of this administration.

Associated Press refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and that set a chain of events in motion. They were barred from access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and events held at the White House. The AP has filed a lawsuit calling it unconstitutional.

“The constitution prevents the president of the United States or any other government official from coercing journalists or anyone else into using official government vocabulary to report the news.”

Does it matter? Not one iota!

A district judge and a Trump appointee declined AP’s request for full access to the White House temporarily.

Trump has said, “We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America.”

Do you see what’s happening here?

Joy Reid, a political commentator and television host was fired by MSNBC due to network restructuring, that was the official claim. The lady is Black and is an outspoken critic of Trump and she voices her opinions on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Her reporting is of the no holds barred variety. Katie Phang, of Asian descent, also lost her show but she will remain at MSNBC in a less visible position.

Trump celebrated the firing by saying this:

“Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast,” Brian Roberts, the owner of Ratings Challenged NBC and MSNBC, has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid.”

Really? Isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black?

In her final show, Joy Reid had this say.

“How do you resist – when fascism isn’t just coming. It’s already here? So, what, if anything can you do about it?”

She further added: “The first rule is to fight back, to never stop resisting. Do not obey in advance, as (anti-Trump historian) Tim Snyder put it…..Even if it’s scary or uncomfortable or inconvenient, just keep saying no, or finding creative ways to say no in small ways and large.”

Fascism is defined as a “far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader” where society and economy is controlled by government and where “free press” as we know it might become a thing of the past. The message is “bow to the king and kiss the ring” or else you will suffer the same fate!

Humpty Dumpty!

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It was a disaster of a presser but ONLY Donald J. Trump can ignore all the symptoms of a failing presidency and TRY to come across as a winner.

This latest presser had him rolling out all he has done and is about to do which left many of us cringing in our seats as to the massive dismantling of government as we know it AND foreign policy like never seen before. Where’s the crown? It’s there and “the emperor with no clothes” has no qualms about spreading rumors and lies amongst other things.

He’s come up with something new sitting on that golden throne in the wee hours of the morning. It’s the 5 million dollar GOLD CARD! Hmm….it’s meant for his kind of people if you know what I mean. The man is losing it and royally!

What’s with the two henchmen standing to the left and right of him with their hands crossed in front? Remind you of anything? Godfather comes to mind! It was a disaster of a presser just like all that he and the co-president are doing!

LIAR-IN-CHIEF!

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According to Wikipedia, “Donald Trump has made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims, including during his first and second terms as President of the United States.”

Let’s take a look at some of them:

He claimed that Hamas got $50 million dollars for condoms and then he inflated it to $100 million dollars!

Recently he blamed Ukraine for starting the war in Ukraine! Facts don’t matter as far as the 47th president is concerned.

When asked why he pardoned the January 6th rioters who assaulted first responders, his answer was, “they were assaulted by our government and they didn’t assault.” Yes, a criminal would say that wouldn’t he?

His most famous lie and one he will never give up is this one. It’s about his defeat in the free and fair elections of 2020. “It was rigged!” It’s not about “winning.” The truth is he can’t stand losing! Unfortunately or fortunately, he’s heading in that direction.

The next lie blew everyone’s socks off except his. “Zelensky is a dictator without elections.” Truth is, elections in Ukraine have been suspended since February 2022 and we know why don’t we? The man who claims to be a “genius” and one who has lots of “commonsense” should have known that shouldn’t he?

Just some of his blatant lies and there are too many to put down here. According to one source, Trump made over 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first term. What do you think? Will he blow that record to “kingdom come” during his second term?

He’s well on his way and the problem is he doesn’t care if they’re lies or truths, if they hurt and destroy or if what he says has consequences. It’s all about him and the “me” concept which is front and center every time he opens his mouth and inserts both feet in!

The Betrayal

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It is mean-spirited, dictatorial and a betrayal of the worst kind. Throwing Zelensky under the bus comes easy to Trump because he wants to “make a deal” so long as he can say, “I stopped the war!” At what cost? It doesn’t matter to him and siding with the “bad guys” comes naturally to him as well.

The world is calling it a “disgusting betrayal” and rightfully so. The 47th president who is obviously in cognitive decline has openly sided with Russia and went so far as to say, “Ukraine should have never started the war.” Lest we forget, the war was launched by Vladimir Putin in February of 2022.

Trump didn’t stop there. He further added that Zelensky played Biden like a fiddle and called him, “a dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left….Europe has failed to bring peace, and Zelensky probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going.” What a bunch of BS!

He has conveniently forgotten that Zelensky is the victim here and Putin the aggressor but things like that are small peanuts to the man who thinks he is running the whole show. The tirade has gone viral signaling not only that the cuckoo has flown the nest but that it is never coming back! Every day something new of the unsavory kind but that is nothing new where Trump is concerned! It is showtime folks and it’s ALL about the “deal.”

Lord Have Mercy!

A Power-Packed Speech

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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker delivered his ‘State of the State’ address in Springfield Wednesday and although he spoke of many things, it was the last part that made many of us sit up and take notice. He was speaking to the heart of the matter.

Here is an excerpt:

“if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm….I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most… public praise on the Sunday news shows…..it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators.”

He went on to deliver what can only be called a punch to the gut without lifting one finger. It was eloquent, it was persuasive and it was more than powerful.

“The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame….I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country here…..The authoritation playbook is laid bare here. They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.”

He further added:

“I just have one question. What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorites – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in that answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.”

Nothing more needs to be said.

Trump’s Word Fiasco (Archives)

He is now the 47th president and nothing much has changed except that the spin cycle has revved up and is now heading to Timbuktu with no stop in sight it seems! Only now he has a co-president who is the puppet master as well!

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Trump was asked this question at the prestigious Economic Club of New York.

Question: “If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make childcare affordable and what specific piece of legislation will you advance?”

It was a straightforward question coming from the founder of the nonprofit organization Girls Who Code. However, it was one flew over the cuckoo’s nest for Mr. Trump. It had nothing to do with Harris so that took away his power. God, this was a hard one so he went on a nearly two-minute response that made no sense and it did not answer the question either. It was a roundabout way of saying, “I don’t know!” Give me something simple like Kamala’s looks, I’m sure I can do a number on that one!

Trump’s answer: “Well, I would do that, and we’re one sitting down-you know I was, somebody we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that-because look, child care is childcare, it’s – couldn’t, you know, it’s something, you have to have it in this country you have to have it.”

That was just part of his answer but you get the drift. I had a hard time figuring out what ‘Grandpa Trump’ was trying to get across. His sentences, if you can call them that were half-cocked and made no sense but that is Trump tried and true. It was plain gibberish coming out of his mouth and to him, he had given the perfect answer, Trump fashion.

The only thing that was clear is that Trump has no policy commitments other than he wants to win the presidency on the sheer magnitude of his bigger than life persona but alas, that too is fading. How can you make sense out of something that makes no sense. You can’t.

Tomorrow, he’ll be facing his nemesis on the debate stage and it doesn’t bode well for him. Harris will step onstage, her wits about her, her 59-year-old self gleaming, her smile sparkling, hair perfectly coiffed and with answers ready to be shot off as she gets the questions thrown at her. Trump, well, the poor guy will be slaughtered even before he knows what hit him. He’ll claim she had the answers and there was something nefarious going on but if you can’t stand the heat, it’s time to get out of the kitchen!

You need a clear head and lots of commonsense to run a country but if you can’t even give a clear answer to a policy question than it’s time for you to hang up your political shoes. Let’s not forget, he couldn’t even complete his sentences so that they made some kind of sense was more than alarming. ‘Grandpa Trump’ it’s time for you to go.

Trump’s Modus Operandi!

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His first term was nothing compared to what he’s doing now. Has cognitive decline set in and is it in full-force?

I was reading an interesting article by Evan Soloman called, “Trump’s Empire State of Mind.” It goes like this:

“From his threats to make Canada the 51st state, buy Greenland, reclaim the Panama Canal, and, almost implausibly, “take” the Gaza Strip, Trump isn’t hiding his ambitions.” He further adds, that Trump’s empire state of mind was front and center on Tuesday when he met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and declared or made a promise to take Gaza and “clean out the whole thing – choice words not lost on anyone remotely familiar with the worst crimes under international law – the meeting was expected to be about as uncomfortable for the royal as a crown of porcupine quills.” It was.

When asked under what authority he would take the Gaza Strip. The president replied without flinching, “Under the US authority.”

All ravings of a madman?

Add Musk’s cut, slash and burn antics and you’ve got what Rep. Hakeem Jeffries referred to as the “far-right” administration. We’re not giving a “flying flip” is the message from the current administration and if it hurts the very people who voted him in, who cares? He’s in and that’s all that matters.

Fast forward to the press conference with PM Modi and it is plain to see he’s not all there or rather “intelligence” and “commonsense” was missing royally. Does he even know what AI stands for? It is definitely what is in his head and what comes out doing leaps and bounds whenever he opens his mouth. Add his stunted grasp of the English language AND vocabulary of which a few words stand out like a sore thumb. “A lot,” “huge,” and “tremendous,” and you’ve got Trump’s delusional empire state of mind!

What the Musk?!!

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The Tesla CEO and billionaire to boot has 12 children. Yes folks, he’s been busy in more ways than one. He believes in the “pro-natalist” movement which advocates having lots of kids as a remedy to population decline or it could be his contribution to world domination. Just saying.

He has had 12 children with three different women and goes by the motto, “Have money will propagate!” He has had six kids with his first wife, Justin Wilson, three with ex-girlfriend Grimes and three with his Neuralink executive girlfriend, Shivon Zilis.

Yesterday, he showed up at the White House for the Musk presser with President Trump by his side. Also present was his son with the unpronounceable name so we’ll him X. If picking his nose wasn’t enough, the cute four-year-old stole the show by mimicking his father!

Another source commented, “I’m watching Elon Musk’s son pick his nose, eat boogers and wipe them on the Resolute desk, there’s no way this kid is not annoying Trump.”

He probably did but since Musk was running the show, the orange-faced Commander-in-Chief kept his “cool” and ignored the whole thing including the kid!

Yes folks, “orange” is back in although his hair seems to be in a better shape. A new stylist or a toupee?

When asked to respond to critics who called his anti-government efforts a “hostile takeover,” Musk responded with, “The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get.”

Spoken like the boss man.

21st Century Coup?

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Trump’s power grab and brazen attempts at moving away from elected officials and centralizing power in a few selected hands is more than alarming but is it an attempt at hijacking government as is and establishing an authoritarian entity, one to his liking and that of co-president Elon Musk?

Some call it, “robbing the poor to enrich the wealthy.” Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman says, “Mr. Trump’s philosophy is simple: let the uber-rich do whatever they want, with little or no oversight. The result will be vast wealth for a select few while life grows nastier and shorter for the many.” Furthermore, it is all directed at “seeking retribution against his political opponents.” He further adds that the 47th president is postering like a monarch and “the real danger is letting his illusion of power become reality.”

Chaos! Chaos! Chaos!

Rule of Law? Out the window!

The Constitution? Who cares!

Democracy? Only if it panders to the “me” aspect.

Fascism? It is in the making!

Harold Meyerson observes in The American Prospect, “As to the wider world, if we ever sought to be that beacon on the hill, we’re now the bully on the hill. America, Trumpified.”

Trump 2.0 is front and center and it is an accelerated version causing destruction as he sweeps away everything standing in his way and moving towards being the de facto leader for life!

Lord Have Mercy!