Apparently they don't get along anymore.
Last edition:
Showing posts with label Elon Musk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elon Musk. Show all posts
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 6. “Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs.”
Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs.
The Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2025.
May 14, 2025
Wyoming Delegation Not Supportive Of Trump's Idea Of Tax Hike For The Rich
So Barrasso and Lummis separate from Trump on this?
Neither one of them are actually Trump supporters in terms of their personal beliefs, but have adopted his views for political survival in Wyoming, which is fanatically pro Trump. Everyone is well aware that the budget is in a crisis stage and at some point soon the US needs to have a balanced budget. That can only be done through raising taxes, and they know it.
Additionally, taxing the wealthy will not hurt the economy, and everyone knows that. Tax rates for the wealthy were much higher in prior decades with no ill effect on the economy.
A matter of critical interest.
Wyoming Is The Second Most Expensive State For Beer Lovers
And one Wyomingites just won't believe
Reaction To Trump Tariffs Helps Push Wyoming Oil Prices To Four-Year Low
This is an absolute fact, but if you follow the story on Facebook, a lot of Wyomingites just won't believe it. That would mean Trump is hurting the local economy, and they can't accept that. . . at least not yet.
Oil is at $62.02/bbl this morning.
May 15, 2025
Given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.
Oil is at $61.60/bbl.
May 17, 2025
Thanks to Republican mishandling of the economy, specifically increasing debt, Moody's downgraded the economy from Aaa to Aa1.
The GOP can't seem to grasp that you actually have to pay for the government.
New Jersey transit engineers are on strike.
Trump's "Big Beautiful Budget Bill", which would add $4T in debt, failed 16-21 in the House Budget Committee.
The irony is that those voting against it want more spending cuts, but only increased taxes will address this developing crisis.
Let's put this in bold, as people just don't seem to grasp it.
THE UNITED STATES CAN'T "CUT" ITS WAY OUT OF ITS BUDGET CRISIS. IT MUST RAISE TAXES.
Cont:
It's really time to stop calling Trump a businessman:
He's a real estate developer. Clearly he's otherwise a business illiterate.
May 19, 2025
The Trump deficit expanding budget bill made it out of committee on a 17-16 vote with those who were to vote no, voting present.
This bill will be a disaster for already an already irresponsible Federal government. Taxes need to be raised on income, particularly upper incomes to make the budget balance and this insanity cease.
May 22, 2025
The House of Representatives passed by a margin of one a funding bill that will swell the deficit disastrously while making cuts in Medicaid and food stamp while adding to border security. Taxes will be cut, when they should be raised, and will irrationally be eliminated on tips and overtime.
Trump, who speaks oddly at best, has called this his "big beautiful tax bill"
Walmart is cutting 1,500 corporate jobs.
The stock market is crashing because of the bad tax bill. The bond market is flat.
West Texas crude is back down to $60.96.
Cont:
The "tip" exemption appears to be for "cash tips".
FWIW, bar tenders tend to get cash tips, but restaurant workers less and less. FWIW, cash tips are notoriously underreported anyway, as they're impossible to keep track of.
May 23, 2025
Hageman’s Budget Vote Critical As House Passes One Big Beautiful Act 215-214
The next one is interesting:
Republicans are for state's rights, except when the state exercises the right to do something they don't like.
Likewise, the GOP is for local control, but really isn't.
At Lusk Town Meeting, Locals Say Wind Projects Have Ended Friendships
Developer Of Controversial Casper Gravel Mine Wants To Renew State Leases
Trump:
What does the "thank you for our attention to this matter" intend to do?
May 29, 2025
Federal trade court blocks Trump's emergency tariffs, saying he overstepped authority
That the power wasn't there was obvious. Now the question is whether the Trump administration will obey the Court.
May 30, 2025
An appeals court is allowing the tariffs to be collected while the matter is on appeal, which is a poor ruling.
June 2, 2025
Well, of course. . .
R&D job postings down 18% since president took office
From the same article, about the impact on the economy:
A 25% cut ultimately would reduce gross domestic product by an amount similar to the decline seen during the Great Recession, they said.
cont:
“Was it all bullshit?"
Donald Trump, reportedly, about Musk's promise to cut $1B from the government spending.
That anyone could seriously think that $1B could be cut from the discretionary budget demonstrates that the person has no grasp on the Federal budget whatsoever.
June 3, 2025
Elon Musk on the "Big Beautiful Bill".
It is an abomination, but so was the work that Musk was doing:
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 85th Edition. DOGE dipshittery and Clinton efficiency.
June 4, 2025
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Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 5. The Roller Coaster Edition.
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 85th Edition. DOGE dipshittery and Clinton efficiency.
The current DOGE results put Musk’s efforts well short of Democratic President Bill Clinton’s initiative to streamline the federal bureaucracy, which saved the equivalent of $240 billion by the time his second term ended. Clinton’s effort reduced the federal workforce by more than 400,000 employees. According to government estimates, the total civilian federal workforce — not counting military personnel or postal workers — reaches 2.4 million people.
Associated Press.
Last Edition:
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 84th Edition. The uncomfortably agreeing with the far right edition (on some things). Hegseth orders transgenderism out and a bill to outlaw pornography.
Monday, April 14, 2025
Seriously?
What the crap? Some of the weird stuff that comes out of the "elite" of our culture now days.
I learned in Basic Training how to fight with a bayonet. The US M7 bayonet specifically.
Solider in Vietnam with M16A1, early flashhinder variant, and a M7 bayonet.
It's not all that easy to do, frankly.
Monday, April 7, 2025
That was a sudden switch . . .
“There are things that we need beyond tariffs. We need open borders.”
Donald Trump, April 7, 2025.
Of note, Elon Musk said the same thing, as to Europe and North America, within the past 24 hours.
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 81st Edition. Protests and Golfing.
Lex Anteinternet: Protests spread to Wyoming.: The "Hands Off" protest is a nationwide movement. And it's showing up even in Casper, in central Wyoming.
Protests spread to Wyoming.
The "Hands Off" protest is a nationwide movement. And it's showing up even in Casper, in central Wyoming.
Protests did occur yesterday in Casper, and apparently in a host of other cities, including Rock Springs. Based upon the article in the Tribune, the Casper protests suffered from the common problem all left of center protests in Wyoming tend to, which is rather than be focused on the immediate topic, they featured every left wing cause going, which is exactly why the left has no pull here.
Apparently there were large protests across the country, showing widespread discontent with Trump. Even some Republicans who have backed Trump all along, like Ted Cruz and Ben Shapiro are calling his tariff policy into question. Some of them are being surprisingly blunt, calling the tariffs basically dumb.
Here's the thing, however. Trump, born into wealth to the degree that he can repeatedly fail and not feel the effects, doesn't care. He has the supreme confidence of a man who is not introspective, and frankly, by all evidence, not very smart. He's believed in tariffs for over 40 years, having a shallow understanding of the economy, and not even grasping that the economy 40 years ago had real problems.
The US has lost its manufacturing base, but not to the degree people like Trump believe. Quite a bit of it fully remains. Many of the "lost" industrial jobs in heavy manufacturing were lost to automation. Those behind Trump understand that, and they don't seem to care that their concept of "returning" jobs to the US means taking jobs from real human beings overseas.
The ultimate irony of all of this is that the tariffs real goal, for those who aren't as dense as Trump seemingly is, was happening anyway. As world trade increasingly globalized roboticization was occurring anyhow, and as that occurs other factors, such as transportation, begin to factor heavily. So the tariffs simply disrupt the economy, destroy wealth, and probably actually slow that evolution.
Meanwhile Trump goes golfing, seemingly not caring what he's doing to real people, and not needing too, as he lacks the empathy, understanding, and financial exposure that would require him to. His wealthy backers and racial rearward looking functionaries continue on in their destructive march.
It's more than a year away until the mid terms. Ted Cruz predicted a bloodbath at the pools in 2026 if things go badly. And that's the ultimate irony. Trump was elected, basically, as people didn't like the social views of the left and didn't believe that he believed the rest of the nonsense he spouted. People tend to vote with their wallets.
Trump isn't going to change direction. Like many old people, his ideas are fixed in the distant path, when they actually might have made some sense. It's a common failing of the old. The nation is going to go into a heavy duty recession, the Republicans are going to get slammed in the 2026 election, and the left will be resurgent. A weary nation will, at that point, not care much about men wearing dresses and the like, and for that matter, the left may have made a slight course correction.
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Protests spread to Wyoming.
The "Hands Off" protest is a nationwide movement. And it's showing up even in Casper, in central Wyoming.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Monday, April 2, 1725. Birth of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova
Better known simply by his last name, Casanova remains famous for his sexual exploits and libertine lifestyle.
He was born in the Republic of Venice and died in 1798 in Bohemia, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. Late in life he wrote his memoirs, which is why he is remembered today. A lawyer by training, he was mostly a seducer in society and a gambler, and was working as a librarian at the time of his death. Given his behavior, he is thought to have fathered several children, including a child by one of his own illegitimate daughters.
Interestingly, his final words were "I have lived as a philosopher and I die as a Christian", perhaps showing a late in life conversion back to Catholicism.
I wasn't going to post this anniversary at all, but decided to do so as Casanova was illustrative of the lack of morals in European high society of his day. He serves as an illustration of how gross and disgusting behavior in the age of Musk, Trump, Weinstein, Hefner, Cosby and Epstein isn't something wholly new to our own age.
Last edition:
Easter Sunday, April 1, 1725. Bach's Easter Oratorio.
Labels: 1720s, 1725, Austria, Bach, Catholic, Christianity, Classical Music, Easter, Music, religion
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Monday, March 24, 2025
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 78th Edition. We'd like to inform you that terrible things are being done in your name, edition.
The caption comes this week from a letter the publishers of The New Republic wrote to Stalin, when one of their reporters wrote back on atrocities being committed in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.
Crowd jeers Hageman at tense Laramie town hall. She calls them ‘hysterical.’: Wyoming’s lone congresswoman faced tough questions and angry constituents Wednesday night.
Not just Laramie, but also solidly Republican Rock Springs and Evanston.
Indeed, all over the country, when Republicans show up in their home districts.
Indeed, the event in Evanston was so notable that a populist apologist felt compelled to write an Op Ed for the Cowboy State Daily.
Jonathan Lange: Barbuto’s Miscalculation Released The Flying Monkeys
Lange you may, but probably don't, recognize as Rev. Lange of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, who has his own blog, Only Human. He's reliably pro Trump and Pro Populist, which brings up one of the real ironies of populism, which is deeply religious people supporting a movement lead by some wildly irreligious people, as we've discussed elsewhere, so we'll only note that Trump is, in Christian terms, an adulterer living in an adulterous irregular relationship as well as being a serial liar, and Musk is an atheist. Lange came to the attention of some in the state by opposing the successful bill to make child marriage illegal.
But we digress.
What's really notable, is that even here in deep Trump country people are really reacting to DOGE and aren't happy about it.
And that's not all they aren't happy about.
A coal mine near Kemmerer is laying off 28 workers.
Tesla chargers have been vandalized with swastikas in Rock Springs.
In far Western Wyoming coal continues to fail, as it will, as coal's days are over, but that hasn't caused deeply Republican Kemmerer to say "yes, we'll sign up for the deportation frenzy" and take an immigrant concentration camp.
Interesting.
Anyhow, I'll give Hageman credit for simply going to Laramie, where she must have known that she'd encounter real hostility. But her response to a LGBTQ was really wrong headed in a city that's sought to overcome the murder of Matthew Shepard for decades.
She called the crowd "hysterical". They weren't hysterical, they were angry.
So far Hageman hasn't toured north of the Union Pacific, which is interesting. I wonder why, sincerely?
Someone else who is touring is Bernie Sanders, and AoC.
AoC is obviously considering running against the pathetic Chuck Schumer.
Also, in Colorado:
Walking the fine line of ‘all of the above’: Two Republicans from #Colorado add names to letter calling for restraint in gutting of #climate legislation — Allen Best (BigPivots.com) #ActOnClimate
One of the really interesting things that's starting to happen in the Trump world is the same thing that happened in the Socialist left world during the 20s and 30s, that being the belief that the dear leader doesn't know about what the Party is doing. I saw this on Facebook, which is just about as far to the left as Wyomingite's normally go, from somebody who is about as far to the right as possible.
So again, in our home State of Wyoming, the left wing lunacy continues to try to rob Wyoming of more original beauty. My understanding is that the Duncan Ranch was to be used for Agriculture and ag based education only. How is it that these are even being considered?!?! Anyone that knows this area can attest to its beauty yet now, that is threatened. I warned people that the State Lands and BLM would be the next spots for these to be in the crosshairs. Those who have allowed these on their private property have opened the door for them to continue to push for this failed technology. So here it is, they want to build on public ground like it's no big deal. There are already whispers of eminent domain coming into play for the future of these cancers as well. It must stop! There is absolutely nothing green about the agenda they push. Wyoming is Oil, Gas, Coal Agriculture, and Tourism. We are not some waistland where you can just stand your turbines up and collect a check. Our Natural Resources are the reason our State isn't bankrupt like the liberals who surround us. Why are we so worried about pandering to these other states that don't follow or respect our way of life? At one time a few years ago, the Natrona County Commissioners agreed 4 to 1 to allowing all of these turbines just North of Casper at 20 Mile Hill. They did so even tho there was standing room only in the courthouse in opposition. So now, there are windturbines in our back yard. It's sickening. Blinking lights at night as far as you can see. The beautiful sunrise that generations of my family has enjoyed for years is now ruined by towering monstrocies. However, when it came time to vote on those commissioners who's term was up, WE THE PEOPLE replaced them. Now, we have a commission who is strong for the people. The most recent green deal that came before these new commissioners for approval got shot down 3 to 2. They understand Wyoming doesn't want this crap in our back yard.
My point is, whoever is not standing for Wyoming, needs voted out and if we want to protect our Wyoming and our tax dollars, these projects need to be met with lots of opposition by, "We The People".
The Duncan Ranch, which this individual is worried about, justifiably, is not in Natrona County. It's in Converse County, which never saw any kind of industrial project of any kind it didn't like. And the rancher, and that's what he is, who is upset, is justifiably upset, but he's being about as green and distributist as can be, and doesn't know it.
Anyhow, these projects weren't backed by a bunch of raving environmentalist here.
Hydrogen project major wind farm at & near Duncan Ranch, seeks state approval this week
They were backed by major heavy industry. And by the county its in, which has supported every single one of these projects without question. Indeed, the only County Commission which didn't support one was the Natrona County Commission, which actually was largely made up of the same people who had supported the prior ones in the county, in spite of what the Facebook fellow says. I think there's only one new Commissioner.
Trump seems backed by billionaires.
People don't really seem happy with what's actually occurring.
By the way, one of the things that's occurring is that the Trump Administration is going to require you appear in person to apply for Social Security. . . while they're also closing Social Security offices. Rock Spring's office is being closed. Casper's isn't listed, but the entire building is suggested to be sold, which could mean that Casperites would have to probably drive three hours to Cheyenne, or five to Denver.
Not to worry, no billionaire will be harmed by this decision.
Postscript:
From Rep Hageman's newsletter:
Rock Springs Social Security Office Update
Late last week, we began receiving calls from constituents concerned by a media article reporting that the Rock Springs Social Security Office was closing. I immediately reached out to the agency and was able to confirm that the allegation was inaccurate. The agency has canceled the lease for an ancillary hearing room it no longer uses, and those hearings will now be held at an alternative location, but the office itself will remain open. You can read more about the new SSA efficiencies here.
Last edition:
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 77th Edition. A bridge too far?
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
DOGE is the talk of Wyoming. What are state leaders saying and doing about the Elon Musk-led cuts?
DOGE is the talk of Wyoming. What are state leaders saying and doing about the Elon Musk-led cuts?: Alongside ample praise for slashed U.S. government spending, Wyoming's governor and congressional delegation have offered sympathy and, in some cases, worked quietly to ease impacts on a state that’s half federal land.
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Random snippets. Nero's Court.
Washington has become Nero’s court, with an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers and a jester high on ketamine. (...) We were at war with a dictator, we are now at war with a dictator backed by a traitor.
French Senator Claude Malhuret.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
What's wrong with the United States? The Protestant Work Ethic.
Professor Galloway "on follow your passion".
His advice?
Don't.
More particularly, his advice is dedicated yourself relentlessly to something you are good at, and it will become your passion, in no small part as you'll make money at it.
There's plenty of evidence that's right. . . and just as much that it's wrong.
Professor Galloway is a Calvinist. He comes by it naturally as his father is from Scotland.
Oh, sure, you'll note that Galloway states he's an atheist. Well, like a lot of people who are something on an existential level, he doesn't know what he actual is. And what that is, is a Calvinist. Perhaps a cultural Calvinist, but a Calvinist.
And it was Calvin, not the Church of England, or the Lutherans, who gave us the Protestant Work Ethic.
Well, that's great, right?
Not so much.
John Calvin was as French radical Protestant reformer who was grim in his outlook and basically an asshole. One of his central core beliefs was double predestination, which held that from the moment of conception almost everyone was going to Hell.
Calvin taught that all men must work, even the wealthy, because to work was the will of God. Irrespective of their ultimate fate, which they could in no way impact, it was the unyielding duty of men (and I do men men) to toil here on Earth as part of God's plan to continue the creation of the Earth. Men were not, in his view, to become wealthy, I'd note, but were to reinvest the fruits of their labor over and over again, ad infinitum, or to the end of time.
Calvin held that using profits to help others rise from a lessor level of subsistence violated God's will since persons could only demonstrate that they were among the Elect through their own labor.
The Puritans were Calvinists, and so were the Presbyterians, the latter of which has generally slacked up on Calvinist theology a great deal. None the less, the impact of Calvinism on the US has been huge. It founded the thesis that you should work and work, well past the point where accumulation of wealth made any sense. When you look at people like Elon Must or Donald Trump who have vast sums of wealth but keep accumulating, you are seeing the Protestant work ethic at work.
You are also seeing it when you lay people off in droves. They're lessors, and their economic plight is existentially foreordained. If they were among the Elect, this wouldn't be happening to them.
Work is what it's all about.
You see that well expressed in Galloway's comments. Galloway is an opponent of Musk, but they have essentially the same view on work. Galloway presents in the grim Calvinist style. You must find productive and useful work and love it, as that's the ticket to everything.
It isn't.
Contrary to what Galloway things, for one things, there are plenty of people who have done well in their carers and know a lot about what they do and hate it. The legal profession is a poster child for this, but I've found it to be the case for medicine as well.
And women have become particularly the victim of this in recent years, diving hard into careers as, John Calvin has told them, this would affirm that they were part of the Elect, in the modified American social view, only to find that they are miserable.
And all this because Calvin was flat out wrong. His theology was wrong, and his understanding of human beings appallingly wrong.
The Catholic view has been much more nuanced than the Protestant one. Catholicism itself holds to a degree that we work, because we have to, work being one of the results of the Fall. It also hold, however, that we toil as part of a community and are never to put that aside. The accumulative nature of the Protestant Work Ethic is basically antithetical to Apostolic Christianity, although there are certainly Catholics, such as Bill Gates, who have become extremely wealthy. Largescale wealth, however, comes in Catholic theology with a heavy burden to everyone else. Unlike Calvinist, you can't really morally justify investing over and over while those less well off suffer in your presence. Indeed, that would be one of the four sins God hates.
Okay, so why is this a problem?
It's a massive problem in that deep in American culture is an anti human dedication to acquisition and toil, that's why. People are expected to work themselves to death and tolerate those among us who acquire vast wealth. Ultimately, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, who often have simply benefitted from the circumstances of their birth takes from everyone else, makes millions miserable, and actually makes the economy less and less productive.
Society doesn't exist to generate wealth for those who can accumulate. Society exists for society. That means, at the end of the day, that some must be protected, for the good of us all, from their appetites, weather that appetite be for drugs, dissolute living, or avarice.
The fact that we have forgotten this is literally destroying the country.
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Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Lex Anteinternet: Some Grim Predications. "He who saves his country violates no law" as the stupidest possible quote.
For those who thought the first part of this might be a little extreme as a predication:
Symbol of the Freedom Caucus, um, Nazi Germany's Sturmabteilung.Eh? With the NRA in Donny's pocket.
Yep.
The reason for this is pretty obvious. Trump has no natural affinity for firearms, although apparently his son Eric does. Trump's love for the NRA was because they loved him more than they loved their country, or anything else. The NRA was and is his tool. The NRA can thank Wayne LaPierre's leadership for that.*
But we're about to see some massive violence in American society, which gets to a couple of other predictions
Mass shootings, and by that I mean real ones, not ones where five people are shot up in a gang fight, are probably likely to break out here soon on an increased scale. Political violence is about to occur. You can't release 1,000 Brownshirts into society and not have violence break out and you can't routinely insult up to half the nation before somebody gets mad.
And sooner or later, some of that is going to be directed at Trump himself.
Of course, it already has. There's been two attempted assassinations of Trump already. That's not going to stop, it will occur again.
I'm not wishing that on him, or anyone else, but only a fool could deny that it might occur, or indeed that it will occur. The level of tension is too high in the country for this not to start playing out, and Trump is making it worse on a daily basis.
The last President this hated was Abraham Lincoln, who was perhaps ironically hated by the same people who are MAGA today. That's the last time the country was this divided, and that division resulted in John Wilkes Booth killing Lincoln. Trump isn't comparable to Lincoln in any fashion, his own demented imagination aside, except for the level of hatred they both engender, and interestingly from the same classes. It was probably nearly inevitable that somebody would take a shot at Lincoln, and it likely is the same in regard to Trump.
And frankly, like Booth going after Lincoln, the general trends fit the pattern, as do the sorts of personalities involved.
Leon CzolgoszLeon Czolgosz killed William McKinley, whom Trump suddenly discovered, as Czolgosz was an angry unemployed anarchist and a member of a despised minority.
We're about to see a dip in the economy, which I'd guess will be a massive recession, and there are going to be a lot of angry unemployed around. For that matter, there are about to be a bunch of angry unemployed former Federal (and State) employees and we seemingly have a problem with angry semi employed veterans around right now.
Charles Whitman. . . he doesn't look like an unhinged killer, does he?An angry radicalized veteran is what Lee Harvey Oswald was. Charles Whitman was also a veteran. Indeed, they'd both been Marines. The country has spent the last several decades absolutely idolizing veterans to the point where we've seen at least three mass killing performed by them and barely took notice of that fact. With the war in Afghanistan causing thousands of head injuries and a devotion to servicemen that's so profound that we excused their refusal to get vaccinated and have ignored service member presence at the January 6 insurrection, we're really setting ourselves up, something that's been amplified by the AR15 Effect.
And we're also in the process of making entire foreign and ethnic populations angry. Palestinians who naively hoped for a less pro Israel administration now have a kook who proposes to take over Gaza and make it into a sort of Club Med. Canadians openly boo the Star Spangled Banner at sporting events now every time they're held. A hockey game in Montreal this past week showed at least one American hockey player nearly in tears. The United States is experiencing a level of contempt not leveled at it since the height of the Cold War, when Communists nations and their fellow travelers displayed it. And Trump has made vague threats against Iran, which has never had a problem with murdering people.
Shirhan Sirhan.Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was a Palestinian who had formerly adored Bobby Kennedy, we might wish to remember. The current goofball Secretary of Health and Human Services' father was running for the Presidency at the time he was murdered for his support of Israel. That was at a time when the Muslim population of the United States, and the immigrant Middle Eastern population, was quite small in comparison to what it is today. And Kennedy hadn't betrayed the misbegotten trust of an Islamic population the way Trump has. Nor did Kennedy accuse anyone of eating cats and dogs, or create an environment in which Native Americans now carry their IDs out of fear of being expelled from their own country for looking too brown.
Truman's would be killers were members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, and we don't even usually think of the Puerto Ricans being all that angry.
Funny, by the way, with all the talk of adding a state, Trump doesn't mention Puerto Rico. . . I wonder why that is?
And added to that, Trump's targeted Mexican drug cartels. For years some have been convinced that John F. Kennedy was "Paddy Wacked" by the Mafia or by Irish American mobsters working for the Mafia. It seems to lack any real credibility, but if the mob had reasons to go after Kennedy, whose father had connections with bootleggers, who was going after them, surely the Mexican mobs have just as great of incentive, and frankly are much more violent.
Finally, and one that is admittedly unlikely, there are growing rumblings about a military strike on Trump.
Just the other day I saw an officer post an item which, while veiled, clearly argued that his fellow officers needed to be prepared to disobey illegal orders, basically like the members of the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York just did. Okay, that's one thing. But then this past week I saw outright cries, from civilians, that the military oath to protect the country from foreign and domestic enemies applies to Trump, as he's a domestic, and maybe, a foreign enemy.
He may in fact be a foreign enemy, I'd note. We've raised it here before, but now Time's raising it.
It is perfectly possible that Trump is a knowing Russian agent, in which case there's some sort of duty for somebody to do something, if not actually what's being urged. On this we might note that the Army kept the Venona Files for decades before anyone knew it, and didn't really trust Franklin Roosevelt to know the truth about what was in it. The Venona Files revealed that the U.S. Army was aware that people like Alger Hiss were Soviet spies, they just didn't feel they could get any traction on it, and for that matter Whitaker Chamber's efforts to enlighted FDR outright failed. The point is that the service, if Trump is a paid or compromised Russian agent, may very well know it, but be afraid at this point to act on it. I wouldn't blame them for being afraid.
But, if that's the case, and of course we don't know that it is, it's worth noting that officers will act independently if they feel they have no choice or are obligated to. That's what nearly caused the US and the USSR to nearly go to war over Berlin. The officer in charge lacked clear instructions and was headed to war with the Soviets on one occasion when JFK was President before the clear instructions came in. If the Service is stilling around with information that Trump is simply a Russian tool, and to an outside observer there's plenty of circumstantial evidence that he may very well be, it's not impossible that the service, or the CIA, might actually act.
Of course, the fact that Trump is still living is pretty good evidence that neither the military or the CIA actually have anything of this type on him or he'd already be dead. If they had something, they probably would have done something by now.
On this topic, however, we might recall France.
France's politics became enormously polarized before World War Two, much like are own are, right now. World War Two made the French far right ascendant. Petain would have recognized the Project 2025 crowd pretty easily. The Second World War put the French far right sort of in the trash can, from which its never emerged, but French politics didn't return to normal for decades. One of the thing that occured in that context is that France fought two bitter colonial wars, one in Indochina and another in Algeria, in the decade following the Second World War.
DeGaulle's decision to pull out of Algeria lead to an internal anti DeGaulle movement inside of the French Army itself, the Organisation armée secrète. The OAS not only opposed DeGaulle's decision to leave Algeria, it tried to kill him numerous times. One such fictional attempt is the plot of the excellent book Day of the Jackal, which has been made into a movie twice.The OAS was bitter about leaving Algeria, and not really happy about what happened in Indochina. Of course, Algeria was an overseas department of France, so giving it up is sort of loosely analogous to leaving American Samoa or perhaps Puerto Rico, so the analay is strained.
Having said that, it was Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, who surrendered to the Taliban, something that Trump's deluded followers were easily distracted from, including those followers who served in Afghanistan. But the fact remains we shed blood and then left, and now have a large population of veterans who served there.
And Trump is imperiling our relationship with Taiwan. "Losing" China in the 1940s, is what caused the Republican Party of that era to be shaken out of its foreign policy slumber and lead directly to the McCarthy Era, which saw the first expressions of something resembling what we're now seeing, point being, if we "lose" Taiwan, it's going to shake something up.
And Trump's course seems likely to lead us from withdrawing to an 85 year commitment to the security of Europe.
None of this means a military coup or an internal strike on the Presidency is going to happen, but all of it does put the overall violent situation that Trump has fostered into a very strange position. Men who have spent 30 years dedicated to defending the West might not really take it that well if they're told to cozy up to a side they know to be the enemy.
What would happen if the military actually acted in this fashion? I think we'd see far right riots for about a week, and that's about it. Most of the far right is a pack of paper tigers. Faced with a military action, or an action by a limited number of servicemen, they'll just accept it as the right thing to do and claim they were for it all along.
Back to civilian actors.
If all this seems far fetched, I've already seen two barely veiled calls for assassination on Blue Sky or Twitter. People outright hoping somebody will kill Trump. During the Super Bowl I heard several people either outright note what an assassination opportunity it was, or in the words of one person "what a John Wilkes Booth moment."
So where does this lead, if it happens?
If Trump survives the next attempt, he'll slap down an executive order banning wide classes of long arms and handguns, as well as orders massively curtailing civil liberties. My guess is that most semi automatic long arms will be outright banned. If Trump asks Congress to do it, the Democrats are already all in, and the dog like GOP will do exactly what Trump wants. He'll probably simply ban handguns as well.
And, as noted, he'll curtail civil liberties. In that sense, such a thing would be a gift to him.
And there's a good chance he'll do that when the next big mass shooting occurs. It's probably already being worked out.
And what's the risk to him? It's not like the NRA is going to suddenly turn its back on somebody they fanatically worshipped. Hitler, to a degree, turned on the SA, but they didn't turn on him. The NRA will roll over like a dog and come out for whatever he asks for.
If Trump doesn't survive, mass violence will break out in the Populist Storm Trooper camp who will blame the murder on the fantastical "deep state". They already believe they're freedom's vanguard in this fashion. J. D. Vance will use the event to declare an emergency and then he'll do the same thing. That will last for about a week, as noted, until Vance declares all is well.
Indeed, William McKinley, whom Trump so adores, provides an example. McKinley's Vice President was Theodore Roosevelt, who many in the GOP feared as a dangerous radical. Roosevelt wasted no time making the government his own. The Trumpite lackeys and Elon Musk will be shown the door, and we'll have National Conservatism, like it or not, and whether or not anyone voted for it.
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I have now seen a pile of people quoting Trump's quote of Napoleon, "he who saves his country violates no law" as justifying assassinating him. A highway bridge has been painted with graffiti openly asking who is going to kill Elon Musk.
Which is exactly why that sort of goofball dictatorial view should not be expressed by somebody in power. If Trump feels that ignoring the law is justified as he's "saving the country", others who feel he's wrecking the country can say the exact same thing.
We're supposed to be a country of laws not men. I hope the Supreme Court remembers that here in the near future.
Now, one of his predictable loyal supporters on This Week claimed that this was just "catnip for the media". Well, there's a lot of unhinged people out there. Remember Luigi?
And beyond that, let's remember that if Trump is openly advocating illegality, those who have sworn an oath to uphold the law are put in a really difficult position in regard to Trump. What do loyal members of the government, Congress, and the military do when the illegal orders come?
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