Trump and Corporations

They are bending at the knee. But it is all just business. Democracy is not essential for business, power is. Power over competition or a market. Power over federal regulation,

The effect of Trump on us voters for the past three presidential terms has been extreme. There are his fans and then the rest of us: get out of my life, Trump! But then there are corporations. And I never understood this part of politics.

Corporations are the one thing bigger than Trump in our lives. And in a way they are similar. Corporations do not care about you. You just make a deal for some benefits when you work for them. But even if your employer has some symbolic founder, the corporation is never your friend.

Then there is Trump and the corporations. Tim Cook brings some sort of goofy award to Trump. They sit with Trump in Windsor Castle. They still have power. But corporations are only about stock value. They really have no principles. Like Trump. They have the wealth to deal with many issues. If Trump has to be bought, buy him. They cannot risk the future of a company past Trump. They sacrifice in the short term for the long term survival. They can keep doing this for a while. Many corporations provide an essential service and two or three companies are essentially a monopoly in any field. We will pay more for cell phone service if it comes to that. We will buy food distributed by a small number of food companies. 

There is some assumption that there will be normalcy, but corporations will survive no matter what. If the government fails in a bif way, such as with transportation, then we are all in trouble.

I have to say this is about as depressing as Trump ever got for me. MAGA voters will take years to learn. Trump is holding up pretty well in public, and whatever health problem he has may not take him down anytime soon.

MAGA-voter Men are Cavemen

I am addressing mostly men here. I've met a few people the last 12 years that I spotted immediatly as Trump voters. And heard their views on real life things that had nothing to do with Trump. Many were hard working white working class. Very proud of "never collecting welfare" and generally satisfied of their role in life. Which they see as something that has nothing to do with government, other than the local politics of a city. Someone has to fix the roads and all the we have to pay by tax. Schools they are not that enthusiastic about. They hated school. They then compare theirs to other people, the educated elites. It seems you had to learn something well and pass tests. A few of them will encourage any kids they have, especially to more technical fields. But they feel like they have paid for the education of me and my kids that went to college. "They got something and I paid for it." It is a sort of envy of us and dislike of all things to do with the federal government. They do see the need for specialists and the education of them, but other tasks of the government are seen as mainly a hindrance and "too much regulation." The things to do with the environment are all seen as fake.

There is then all the other stuff to do with the MAGA men. They are the tough guys, the bread winners and women are seen as having a lesser role. Careteakers, for sure, as there are children. They long for the old days when we had very independent families and more of a rural life. A little past hunting and gathering.

Trump was seen as a tough guy, Biden (after the debate for sure) as a wimp. Trump bragged about all the things he will do. Who would imagine he starts bragging about building things, like ballrooms. Before the election it was just about tearing things down that were "too much government." Trump has been proud of every single thing he has cut down. Also part of the caveman mentality. You have to show daily the achievements to your tough males of your clan.

The Atlantic in its story on resistance by David Brooks summarized the "achievemnets" as all in the category of male toughness (see the part after SNIP) :

For the United States, the question of the decade is: Why hasn’t a resistance movement materialized here? The second Trump administration has flouted court decisions in a third of all rulings against it, according to The Washington Post. It operates as a national extortion racket, using federal power to control the inner workings of universities, law firms, and corporations. It has thoroughly politicized the Justice Department, launching a series of partisan investigations against its political foes. It has turned ICE into a massive paramilitary organization with apparently unconstrained powers. It has treated the Constitution with disdain, assaulted democratic norms and diminished democratic freedoms, and put military vehicles and soldiers on the streets of the capital. It embraces the optics of fascism, and flaunts its autocratic aspirations. |snip|"Although Trump’s actions across these various spheres may seem like separate policies, they are part of one project: creating a savage war of all against all and then using the presidency to profit and gain power from it. Trumpism can also be seen as a multipronged effort to amputate the higher elements of the human spirit—learning, compassion, science, the pursuit of justice—and supplant those virtues with greed, retribution, ego, appetite. Trumpism is an attempt to make the world a playground for the rich and ruthless, so it seeks to dissolve the sinews of moral and legal restraint that make civilization decent."

This also ties in with all the machismo that the Joe Rogan fans display. Even taking vaccinations was for wimps.

The young men today seem to be craving some of these caveman jobs they no longer need to do. Just sitting on the couch playing videogames (Mike Johnson meme here) does not achieve it. 

A lot of the machismo is rather thin, like retired National Guard officer Hegseth talking about warrior ethos. Hegseth has served in Afghanistan. He may have some real experience. Even thinner is the machismo presented by Kristi Noem, amounting to wearing costumes with no real badges or rank. But the attitude from all this is enough for MAGA-men. Trump himself will fail with his hard leadership image when he becomes physically weak. When he can no longer climb the longer steps of Air Force 1, that is the end.

All displays of empathy are for wimps. Trump has no problem putting out an example of this. Greed and stepping on anyone to get your goals is the ideal. JD and all the others try to copy him.

All support to anyone with a need is just feeding the people that really do not need to survive. You have to stand on your own and never beg for help.

The entire taking care of citizens (as far as needs, help going to individuals) in terms of social programs and plans for our happy planet (environment) have been forever Democrat programs. All the ones Trump wants to cut. The concept is explained well in an Onion item related to the 1980 election:

Finally, there are women. Of course, MAGA men of the younger age will not find the women as easily as the Democrats. The women need to be slaves to men.

It is strange that Trump was seen as some sort of support for women in early days. This could all be framed as looking out for white Christians. He was protecting them from transgenders in bathrooms and from the "great repalcement theory." Their way of life would survive. At least in suburbs and rural towns.

If the fear and hate prevail through the next few presidential elections, there may not be a way back. The US will breawk up into red and blue regions.

Who Are These People?

Donald Trump was annoyed by Obama from the start. He entered poltics and ran for real in 2016. He, with media tools and Fox News, was able to reach people that never really followed poltics. A candidate endlessly sending social media messages was a new thing. No senator in 2016 was doing it.

I grew up in the Midwest, my high school was outside a major city. It was 60s and 70s suburbia. I had an idea of what America was and a sense of Americans. It was a predictable world, all the way to about 1990. I was never surprised by anything Reagan said.

But then Trump happened, and Fox News before that. Who are these people? They are not happy with anything. Trump most of all. Other than enjoying babbling to crowds or the press, the rest of his day is spent with hate and revenge.

The large numbers of extreme right wingers are into being tough men. Those that have deficiensies might as well die. Their thinking is Nazi era eugenics. The master race will survive.

I avoided these people for most of my life. But for 50 plus years I did not even know they were there in that number, 30-40 million voters. There are entire communities consisting of nothing but MAGA voters.

We had hippies and college and all sorts of experiments going on in the early 70s.

Our bands poked fun at the establishment. We were content doing our own thing most of the time. Politics was not much. We had a bad president, we got rid of him.

America swings left and right in some 8-10 year cycles. The current extreme right authoritarians only won by 1.5%. Yet they cannot stand us or pretty much anyone who is not a white Christian. And education is apparently bad. 

We invented most of the nice things you are enjoying. Technical stuff, cancer cure etc. We went to college for that. It was not necesary for them and it turned us into elites. We understand stuff well, and pretty much produce all change. They work for an hourly wage and simply produce things or provide a service.

We were never so persistent in our efforts to wipe out the opposition as Trump is. to keep himself out of jail. But he only has the MAGA hatred tools to do it with.

So, to simplify our hippie ideal of the 70s, and compare it to now, we are in a new swing in politics. Not just right and left. Now it is love and hate. They have absolutely no tolerance. Democracy is tolerance. That they have forgotten.

We will have to characterize these people sometime later. But it is worth pointing out that even though they clearly have sharp views on much of life and us, most of it is still just hate. Hate and fear. And they have a leader, Trump, who is psychologically at some extreme. His feelings are a bad model for anyone, and I think he lacks empathy altogether.

Added Note from Lynn on Threads, explaining these folks:

"I am not a Trump supporter but I think it has something to do with permission structure. Trump allows/enables us to be our worst selves (greedy, sexist, racist, victim, violent). Kindness, generosity, manners, responsibility and self-control are now "woke."

Prequel: The story of American Fascists

 

Rachel Maddow is a journalist for MSNBC who switched to hosting her show only once a week this year. This left her with time to focus on her books. There is also a free Podcast of the Prequel book. Thanks to the current Trump-led politics, she wanted to explore ideas in the 20th century, starting from the Depression and moving on to the World War. Political history is not usually of interest to readers when presented this way, but rather through biographies of interesting or controversial leaders. A book like this becomes a list of hundreds of names. But it was quite timely in 2023 and the year of chaotic 2024 events in politics was still ahead. "They are eating our cats and dogs!"

Right before the main text of the book is a so-called “cast of characters” list. The rest of their lives after the 1940s are described in an appendix at the end. Even the most famous of these are strange names to the reader. In the book, President Roosevelt met Father Charles Coughlin, who hosted a popular anti-communist program on his radio show. But soon the gentlemen parted ways. Coughlin joined the anti-Jewish groups that began to appear here in the 1930s. Their propaganda supported Germany, and a few characters in the book even got into Hitler's inner sphere. Father Coughlin began to support fascism quite publicly, because democracy was supposedly too weak for communism. Communism was always associated with Jews here at the time. Coughlin gave a speech in Chicago to 150,000 listeners in 1936. That is considered the first mass event of fascism. At the grassroots level, secret fascist organizations began to appear. It was believed that Jews had infiltrated everything, and President Roosevelt was really Mr. Rosenfelt.

At this point it becomes clear that Maddow's goal in the book's story is to tell exactly how fascist leaders come to power. The formula has not changed even in modern times. The leader needs to come up with some kind of threat to scare the voters. The leaders themselves may be somewhat racist, but they need to exaggerate the threat that threatens the majority of the population. In today's world, it is always foreigners or those of a different religion. No actual facts or numbers should be presented, but stories should be told that make the threat clear to everyone. When a leader scares voters enough, change in that country will happen very quickly.

When we get further along in the book, we hear that Congress was interested in the activities of another country, Germany, in our politics. There were a large number of German speakers in the country. The children were sent to summer camps modeled on Hitler Youth summer camps from Germany. Martin Dies was the chairman of the Un-American Committee and the committee tried to find out the situation of both Jews and Nazis up until 1940. But the Nazis' actions were not exactly known and communism was more feared. Dies prepared a report on the German and Nazi propaganda campaign in the USA, but it did not make much of an impact. At that point, Germany was more focused on another goal than recruiting Nazis in the USA. Hitler's propaganda was trying to prevent the USA from joining the World War. However, if Hitler were to conquer all of Europe, what was the point of sacrificing American soldiers for the cause? However, the American conspirators continued their project to make a revolution and put our own Hitler in power. There were already pro-German representatives in Congress. They even used the free postal service of Congress members to distribute propaganda letters. Among public figures, Ford and Lindbergh were fascists.

Before the end of the World War, prosecutor John Rogge led a trial of well-known people in 1942 called The Great Sedition Trial. Over 40 were eventually charged with planning a rebellion. Diplomat Lawrence Dennis, one of the book's main characters, was involved in the prosecution. The man was an unusual fascist, as one of his grandparents was black. The long-drawn-out trial ended when one of the judges happened to die. No decision was reached. But it is estimated that there were at least thousands of people organized into conspiracies, all ready for some sudden takeover. Communication between the groups was minimal. A few people were aware of almost all the state-level groups. In our modern world things are completely different through social media.

Joseph McCarthy, who became famous in the 1950s, was a bystander in these events, but this was a good model for tracking people that were seen as enemies and their eventual exposure. He continued to hunt down spies and traitors as communism became a new fear. The rest became our 1950s politics.

Maddow's Prequel title is probably a play on words that brings up the Trump era. Trump's sudden rise in 2016 and one term as president, with his subsequent Capitol takeovers, can then be seen as "the sequel." Democracy is therefore again under threat.

It's our country too

Mehdi Hassan runs short debates with a room full of usually young peoole. Who have some conservative ideas.

I had a debate with a local guy named Tim on a FaceBook forum. he and some others noted my name and it was going toward "if you don't like it here, why don't you go back to where you came from?"

Me: I've been a citizen 50 years. How long have you been a citizen, Tim?

He did not come back for that. But I would say 35. I have paid taxes that built his interstate highways.

So we are here, some 50 million of us. They can't send us all back. And it would require a court case for each. For now, opposing the president does not qualify as treason, or opposing one before you had citizenship. As green card immigrants, most of us were not very political in public. But now my friends in that status do not dare to post political stuff at all. They remove all social media off their phones if they travel and re-enter at a busy airport. A few cases of deportation took place as the person had not kept papers up to date and some anti Trump comments were found. You have to renew your visa every year.

I'm pretty sure we are inluded in his list of "the enemy within." Waiting for the courts and states to push back.

As a young man I experienced some threats from authority figures. At the time I did not take them as a serious threat, a policeman controlling a crowd for example. But now the new generation of immigrants, legal immigrants, is essentially silenced. I had accepted America as it was for 50 years. I had political leanings and I voted to at least contain authoritarianism. Reagan was not a favorite. He cleaned up Peoples' Park in Berkeley in the way Trump is "deporting" the homeless now. All those things back then were somewhat under control. Now they are not. Only the states are holding Trump back. 

Homelessness is a difficult problem and will not go away soon. Countires with money provide homes for as many as they can. The step to get them indoors is the most improtant one.

As far as their hatred, MAGA folks and the uneducated working class have developed a resentment of anyone who went to college, the elites deciding things like vaccine safety and pretty much all Dmocrats. I found a military member of our party finding the older generation hating her for just being a Democrat. 

Undecided voter..or low information voter? Why parties seem unconnected to the voter

The United States is a big place. Lots of cultures, economies, climate, landscape. All this produces a bit of infinite variety in what is important to people. To farmers in the prairie it may be mostly rainfall. But severe weather has also entered our lives.

The fact that we have 340 million people and a small area on the East Coast houses our government makes many feel that politicians, once moved there, can't really be in touch with daily lives in all our states. The views of the federal government range from hatred, by MAGA folk, to a neutral one by the undecided and independent voter. They do not see much benefit personally from the government. The left has the educated elites who see things like education important. It is seen as a human right to have a basic education. I would say most MAGA voters actually hated school.

Trump, with his two separate terms, is able to be a bit of an outsider still. He is now floating an idea of rebates. He has indeed collected tariffs from goods we sell in store. But now he is able to frame it as "Trump is giving you your money back" and not make it look like the deep state or evil goernment is involved. Biden made bold moves as well, forgiving student loans. But those went to the elites.

The politicians attempt to give you a picture of what is wrong and what should be done. Things like the economy are always there, but even there, prices, wages and inflation do not give a voter much of an idea. They only react when they lose something. It could be a benefit or a job. Trump was good at putting blame on groups. "They are ripping you off." Other than that, in normal times the current president is pretty much always blamed for the econoy. That is why the party in power often changes two years into a prsident't term. Normally. Trump will push through with a lot of executive power. At least till the election of 2026. He pretty much has to. If we still count on democracy, that two years is all he has.

The voter had a good feel for a presidential candidate. Their hunch about who was to do something for them was formed over days, weeks. Sometimes over a longer term. A low rating for Biden for month after month certainly meant something. 

They then make some bond with a candidate and vote based on that. It may be a lack of overall feel that makes a voter decide. "I just don't know about Kamala." Some charisma is needed for all candidates. No Walter Mondale is ever going to win. Today's world needs short punchy things said by candidate. So far only Newsom has gone full into this type of ridiculing of Trump.

The voter then votes, and also correctly assumes that the president is the important vote. A US president has tremendous power and a fixed four year term. Doing reawlly badly will get you one term. Vice presidents who run ofter end up not as capable as the president they served under. Prime ministers can be voted out any time.

The main problem is that politics is not that interesting to most people. Or they do have issues that politics could solve, but no interest or time. Voters have a much less defined idea of their congressman or governor. The party does carry some clue. A GOP candidate is always going to cut taxes. But there is somehow less need to find out more. They may vote along the party line or on a single issue. We now have a lot of independents, and many are not that deeply interested in politics. They seem to remember negative things about both parties well. Yet they are eventually able to vote for those Democrats and Republicans. There is often a less than 3% majority of seats in the House for the winner. Senators are seen as old fuddy duddies and young people are not excited. Democrats would do better with young senators. The independents either like the person for a term or two or know nothing at all about their own senator. The elections are too far apart for the senator to be much in the news in the state except the year of the election.

The small groups that follow politics are from both ends. Educated people seem to know a lot and get frustrated with the general public not finding out much. We have most of the information on many topics. At the other end, uneducated voters are mostly fascintaed by conspiracy theory. If you connect it to an item the right is obsessed with, such as child trafficing, you can direct voters to believe that Democrats are the cause of it.

It is a big job to wade through all this stuff. Before an election, people start putting in questions into Google. Google AI told me that ICE has arrested 300 000 people and that some 50 000 are detained by ice. I tend to doubt the first number. They have maybe detained that number, but have released many due to lack of evidence. They number of arrests itself is a quota they are trying to meet. Other sources cite 200-400 000 deported.

You can try to Google some other items yourself. Yes I know, Google is somewhat bowing to Trump and making some small gestures to appease him. But I like short explanations. Google AI does that.

MAGA consists of racists and conpiracy nuts

The racist part was outlined last time. They believe pretty much everyone is ripping them off and making things hard for them. But there is another major side to MAGA folks.

The people there are not really going to check for facts. The reason is that they believe the world is run by conspiracy. Trump merely needs to call something a hoax and it was dismissed. Back in 2024. 

The conspiracy angle then leads them to travel the internet looking fot these conspiracies. They find company. they even like the talk show hosts feeding the stuff to them. They sound like regular people. None of that woke science. Science and vaccines are largely a conspiracy to them. Climate too. It's almost like a religion. You have to believe in conspiracies to start with, and then everything falls into place.

Trump with his show business hunches was able to grab every conspiracy in the news and spin it in his favor. "They are eating our cats and dogs." Endless tales were made up by picking and choosing to make all illegals dangerous criminals.

It is hard for us regular people to undestand the conspiracy mind set. You will never have the solution or truth of anything revealed, the conspiracies just generate more conspiracies. One thing that may help explain it is the fact that they hated governmnet to start with. The government only helped other people, not them.

Now Trump is the government. It was bound to come. He is finally an insider. He seems to be much more in control, or at least Project 2025 is. The Trump that suffered all the injustice he claimed was only in 2016-2020. He cannot even claim the courts are against him now. He is no longer a victim or underdog.

The media circus will not stop. Even WSJ jumped in. The "attention" thing is going all wrong for Trump.

The backlash to the Epstein material is Trump attacking Obama, for a change. I guess Biden is too senile as a target. Anyway, some of the MAGA people seem to be having fun with it. Meanwhile, more Epstein and Trump material is trickling out.

I have come to a description of the MAGA mind, reduced to "they are ripping me off." I never found the mix of conspiracy theory and politics appealing. There was nothing in it for me personally. Some truth would eventually trickle out.

I did not undertand the conspiracy mind. This was a tiny news item. For them it was the headline of the day. there it is. There was no need to release anuthing such as a lack of material. Yet they did. They too failed to judge the conspiracy believing mind.

They are ripping me off!

What was Trump about? What was MAGA about? Someone was ripping them off. Their world is a zero-sum world. If someone gets something, it is away from me. Medicaid, kids in headstart, maybe that blind man with the cane. "I'm paying for that talking traffic light for him!"

Trump is the same way. But he now has power. He is assuming powers he does not have. And when someone points that out, he feels he has been ripped off.

I totally missed understanding them. I am not against being taxed and I can see a need for many things we fund. I am shocked public schools being placed aside, so the GOP can build conservative institutions at all levels. Or maybe they just want the white working class uneducated.

Anyway, Fox News has been feeding this stuff to them for years. For at least 30 years the conservative media has been broadcasting all this stuff. And I failed to see that just by our presence, the teachers and scientists and people who get funding for jobs that are aimed at improving our lives...well, we have been ripping them off them too. What do they care about Harvard curing cancer, if they do not get paid enough for a comfortable living? Our effort, research, is a waste that is away from them. The elites must not be supported by tax funds! Pay for it yourself! Get your rich eltites to pay your research!

Day in and day out Fox points out all the waste, all the spending that does not give the working classes immediate benefits.

The working poor are finally getting relief from Trump cutting all the waste and deporting the aliens. Why were the aliens a ripoff to them? They got something from the government. Something the natural born Americans did not get.

The bonus was that their racists ideas, rejecting all foreign culture (except Mexican food and sweet and sour chicken) that they did not even want to see or hear in public.

Trump himself now sees the US as something he more of less owns, since he can profit from it. In this sense his strage economic ideas com into play. ALL the other countries are ripping him, as CEO, off. Trade cannot be something both countries would gain something from.

The bigger picture is just as bad. The MAGA voter is convinced his problems are the result of poor people "sitting on the couch." They should get a job. Well, most of them are working. But can't pay the rent etc. You meet them every day, MAGA. Delivering packages of stocking shelves at Wal Mart.

"We are owning the libs!" No, you are not. Trump and Musk are owning you. It will hurt a little.

 

Musk says it is going to hurt a little. Well, it is going to hurt quite a bit. That voter is going to suffer quite a bit. But he will get to avoid getting vaccinated for a few more years. And I don't think he will even need the Social Security that Musk is fiddling with. He won't live past 63.

I think by 2028 there will be great disinterest in any candidate Trump decides to annoint to follow him. He is too tired to do this again. He will try to run the rallies for whoever he appoints, but that is where it ends for him.

Meanwhile, MAGA folk will suffer.

 

And the MAGA poor? From at Threads poster:

rpittajr

30m

They don't want government handouts and they don't think corporations should pay a living wage, they simply say work more. Americans are working more and still falling behind. They have no real answers to anything. They just listen to their propaganda masters and take everything at face value, never questioning how Americans are supposed to get ahead when corporations just keep price gouging them.

It would be a shame (2017)....and now something IS happening to it

 

Coping with...all of it

Trump alone is a big task to deal with. Most of the voters do not want or need a president who is in the media daily with some new or recycled "tweet" and entire countries have fates that depend on his quirks.

But we have to move on. Last November I had some thoughts about my state and the blog picture was the first one of me out here on the edge of endless cornfields. And a city with a university.

The full force of Trump came in January, we are a week into it. The weeks were quite gloomy for weather and cold. I did spend time outside (recommneded!) about half the days. It is very springlike today. I took my hat off half way into the same walk. I think it is the same spot but maybe facing the other direction. The trees are similar.

We are all coping with reckless changes in Washington. Some have real fears "losing all" very soon as Congress goes and does what Trump and Musk want. 

ANXIETY

So we have a lot of frustration and anxiety. This is not a post to belittle any of it or make more dystopia predictions. We need to get on with our year. Yes, plan on that, a year.  I am retired so I need to "invent" each day. I do as many chores as I can without paying someone to do much at all. 

I know a young person who put a list together to deal with this, for you as a person.

1- Recognize your values: Living without regret begins with recognizing where to place your values, time, and effort. What are your values when it comes to this election season? Are the ways you spend your energy around it fulfilling? Are they adding to your values or distracting from them?

2- Review what actions you can take: Are there things I can do to make changes? This in essence is a review of what I could influence and what I could not. Consider which actions are realistically within your control and which are outside of your control.

3- Take Action:  Allow yourself to try new things and take calculated risks to broaden your experiences. Find organizations that support the issues you’re concerned about and begin to get involved. 

4- Enjoy the Moment: As you are participating in the areas that are important to you, focus on the present rather than worrying about what might go wrong. There will always be “more” to do but it is impossible to do it all. 

5- Observe and Adjust: Look ahead not back; are there adjustments to make in the present about your next actions? Can your time, talent, or finances be more effective elsewhere? Adjust accordingly! 

Some of the steps in a solid cope ahead plan for election season might include

• anticipating emotions
• connecting with a support system
• practicing healthy coping strategies
• managing media consumption
• engaging in positive or fun distractions
• and connecting with a community with shared values  

Downsizing and Other Preparations

It's a few weeks into the Trump term. Let's not kid ourselves, we have a dictator. And a racist one at that. We have states and courts, so it is not like we do not have some way to maintain democracy at the state level. Trump has little power over my basic freedoms at this point. But he has power over my income.

Congress is not doing much. The GOP is not resisting Trump at all. All their actions indicate we are headed to a US with no elections at all. Trump and Musk will then eliminate Medicare and Social Security.

This is where we get to downsizing. I have STUFF. I am keeping material on family history for about 70 years, pictures and all. And I have interests in retirement that made me buy books, mostly. My music collection has mostly stopped. These are topics that interested me for 10 years:

History, science, a bit of psychology. Those books and the stack behind them are not going. But I have college texts on many topics that I bought for less than ten dollars each. Those are all going. You can imagine a two car garage with recreational stuff. Only the newest supplies will survive. Camping gear will be reduced to the minimum for two. No cooking gear.

The Other Preparations

There is now some thrift in all our spending. I bought rather expensive bifocal glasses last fall. They will need to last two years. The frames certainly will. I do not use Medicare Advantage plans that give you "free glasses." The health care part there is an HMO.

Trump has been in power a few weeks. His thinking is mostly revenge and appeal to his base. The continuation of a Trump dictatorship in some groomed successor is unlikely. He may be thinking of his legacy, but those things are spur of the moment things. He won't bother with it till 2028. But even with that hopeful thinking, the damage Trump will have done will not return the federal government to its 2024 level.

On my part, it is quite clear we seniors will lose a lot. I am not in the worst group. Those are the ones renting and the ones on expensive medication. Losing social security payment will make them homeless.

I own a  house and a car. Presumably I can survive with those for two years and the income from withdrawals from retirement savings. Past two years,  the house is likely to go. We will be renters and since I own the house, the funds will get me 5-10 years. If one of us gets medical bills in the 5-10 years that go over 10 000 each year, then it will go quicker.

There is a bit of an advantage to downsizing first and then waiting to see. If you have less STUFF, and are renting, you can more quickly move to a new state or other place where you find more benefits remaining.

The downsizing will start this year. I will need to go through family history and minimize the materials. Slides can be scanned. But since Trump is forcing me into this, it will not be the fun wintertime activity it was supposed to be.

Will I afford to travel? I have flown overseas twice in the past ten years. Also one shorter trip out of the USA. I will need to really shop for routes and so on, maybe Iceland Air for most it. If things settle down by 2026 and the steam runs out for Trump as he loses the house, this will be a posssibility. If social security is completely gone, as opposed to reduced, it will still be difficult.

They are getting a taste of their own medicine now!

Vance: If you can survive Greta Thunberg for 10 years you can survive Elon Musk for a few months.

Listening to news, Democrats and MAGA voters are both going to get a lot of painful news, when the other party is in power. I am not quite sure why the MAGA voters bother to watch Fox when they could just turn off the TV news for four years. Just watch entertainement. But they watched this.

A jogger was killed by an illegal alien. They are ALL criminals!

Those news items came daily, and the MAGA voters suffered watching awful things Democrats allowed. Because we defunded the police, apparently.

WHO wants to watch shows night after night telling you the world is terrible? And because they believe it, the Fox then has to present more lies. Or clips of news items that distorts the world.

The facts presented by Fox are not facts. But the news clips offering the point of view were in fact real, mostly. They just did not represent the average. Or the statistically signficant.

Now they think: "They are getting a taste of their own medicine now!"

And we are in fact suffering with every week of Musk and Trump doing awful things.

We could, both sides of the debate, just sit back and assess what all this is doing to me. On the Fox viewer side, there was a belief that penniless immigrants were bringing fentanyl in their pockets to sell to their own teens in their community. They were a threat to joggers in every city, stealing and threatening. Because...why? They would not risk getting deported. The crimes, if any, were petty theft at best.

Now look at what we see happening under Trump. Medicaid gone, Medicare coverage reduced, rates going up on supplemental insurance. Human rights under attack as foreign looking people are rounded up. Do all of them carry their "green card" at all times? No.

So the things we will suffer are all real, whereas the suffering MAGA felt would have disappeared by just turning Fox News off. Those trans atheletes were not ruining the sport career of anyone you knew or had heard of! And how many trans women were a threat in a public rest room?

BIG GOVERNMENT

Did MAGA voters feel some sort of pain of negative feeling every day while we still had a fully functioning government with FEMA and all the agencies? That was pushed by Fox News as well. But no, any angst they had about being suffocated by big government was all their own making. It does not compare in any way to the material suffering of being cut off from Medicaid and Medicare that we will get. The elder people will all go bankrupt before they die in this Trump World.

Trump: cruelty is the point

The voters acted based on fear and selfish motivations. There was no room at all in the 2024 election for any program directed at citizens from the Trump side. Some promises were there to protect the white majority from all kinds of evils they made straw men of. But no direct aid to any individuals. 

Bush senior made the Thousand Points of Light speech. At that point there was an assumption that you would take care of those in need. Even if it was only by charity. Medicaid was still there. Perhaps the Republicans of the Bush age still wanted their parents to get some care after they lost all and were in a nursing home. Even that is soon gone.

Trump has only revenge and cruelty to offer. It will entertain his voters in the "owning libs" sense. Black Lives Matter only led to the right rejecting DEI altogether. This is what we get for all four years of Trump. If he lasts that long. I think his revenge campaign lasts about a year. Then golfing, I hope. There is the danger that Musk is left in power past that time. He is going to be functioning in some role for about two years. He has his own goals to meet.

Trump, with a 1-2% majority, will suppress all opinions that make him look bad. That in itself looks awful. A petty dictator wannabee taking his revenge on evey one of us in the 50% that does not approve him. Trump disapproval is at 47-51%, depending on the poll. But the average will soon get to 55% when a few more planes fall out of the sky and when Musk does more stupid things.

The Voters

Trump voters look really bad now. They will make excuses, exclaiming what kind of awful people are in the Democratic party. If nothing else, they will claim they are honest hard working Americans. Democrats are lazy bums. Get a job!

The Trump coalition did include some ethnic groups. Those people will have to evaluate things for 2028. For now, they are making excuses as well.

Democrats are a coalition. We need to tolarate a large range of opinions and focus on the ones we share. It all looks really awful from our point of view. We have a good chunk of the educated people in our country supporting us. We try to focus on a future we can achieve with some long term planning. MAGA folk lack education and only think about the next paycheck. We have a problem with this unified "stupid" group. Who are proud to be....stupid. They do not use that word, but that is what it is.

I do have a new theory of why Biden was unpopular. Vaccinations. The vaccinations were carried out in huge events. Many a MAGA voter reluctantly took it. We have to get on with life. But the pandemic hung over us, the administration kept managing it  and Fauci lectured to us. That all was "too much government" hanging over his head. And he sure was not getting a second COVID shot. He never goes to the doctor, even. For healthcare now, the MAGA folk will enjoy "freedom" and no nagging CDC or other agencies sending out warnings.

As far as cruelty, the concept is rather alien on the Democratic side. We do not mind giving benefits to everyone, so cutting off benefits or making DEI disappear for groups that are not hired due to some prejudice all sound strange to us. The best we can do for revenge is that some of the awful things MAGA voters have brought us through Trump will make them suffer as well. Perhaps they won't bother to vote next time. They clearly had not idea the government does things beneficial to us. We are only cruel to the rich. They can afford it. Their lives are sad anyway. Bitter people with millions in property somehow feel like it is unfair. We have no sympathy.

Conspiracy theories in politics: fun shared hobby to "blame the liberals and elites"

 

Conspiracy theories are filling up social media. Alex Jones is happy. He lives for conspiracies.

I was mainly interested in how the use of them is tightly joined to the right at this time. Jewish space lasers? Green had specific ideas with that. Wikipedia even dug up a Jewish business connection. See under Marjorie Taylor Greene.

It did not have the right impact without the "Jewish" part. The purpose is to at first grab attention and spread like wildfire. But there are parts that the person inventing the conspiracy wants to hang on to. She gets her people to share their ideas and make fun of elites. "Owning the libs."

Trump himself seems to grab onto a new one every time he can. If you can attach a country or ethnic group to it, even better. Trump has no use for facts. He needs these things like he needs rallies. Material for his stand up routine. He does not need to explain it well, like Hannibal Lecter. It is just there for a joke. He needs the crowds and social media for the stuff. He is going to be so depressed when he is nothing in a few years and TV has gone past him and his weird hobbies.

To sum up: My take is that there are only two goals: 1 distract and throw doubt on something, get political support of the regular folks in doubting the elites 2 togetherness, sharing.

With Trump there is a big factor that is maybe in all the wacko category of MAGA polticians: secret message to the faithful followers suggesting something rather disgusting about a group (Jews, foreigners, libs) without actually using the word. "They are eating our cats and dogs." It was too good not to use.

Something common among all MAGA voters is the reaction to everything the government (CDC, FDA) tells us: "who are they to tell me what to do?" It is this thought that preceded the details of most popular conspiracy theories. A few were also about individuals (Hillary).

There is a more serious part to conspiracies outside of politics. These people are just there to make a few dollars, so they cast doubt on Covid medications and vaccines and use their web site to peddle a few health supplements. The same junk you can get in a variety of forms at your local health supplement store. Dr Mercola was a pioneer way back from the Nutrasweet days.

Conversations with Average Republican Congressman

 On his FB page.

Day 2

BACON IS PROUDLY BEHIND ISRAEL 100% (NO MENTION OF GAZA)

Most of the comments below that are not on Israel, more like "do your job." I've copied my posts and those of "Tim" and others:

Me: Congressman Bacon won by 5000 votes. He is sbout to steal Medicaid from 41 000 in his district.

Tim: Steal Medicaid? Get real. Freebies be disqualified isn’t stolen. It’s not deserved

Me: Dump the nursing home patients on the street then? 60% of those in Omaha nursing homes. Medicare does not cover it. They are not "able bodied adults." Beyond that, hundreds of Omahans are working full time and now can't afford insulin or similar daily drugs.

Tim: Sure you got all the numbers there little buddy . Cant take care of the world . But maybe worry about Finland .

Me: I do worry. But I have paid American income tax and property tax for 50 years. I've never worried about "wrong people" getting insulin paid by me.

Tim: The country voted massively to reduce waste. If you don’t think there is not massive waste in all government to bad . Move back

Me: There is not massive waste. The work force is reduced from its peak and seasonal projects are all contracted out. Compared to Western countries, our expense is in the low end. The US federal work force is huge, but so is the country. Being America, there is only waste in courts as the government sorts out issues. More planes will crash under Trump, FEMA will be scrapped. Wait for the next Nebraska floods in spring.

Brian: I never imagined the United States would align with authoritarian regimes. Under President Trump’s administration, our nation has joined Russia, North Korea, Iran, Belarus in opposing a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This marks a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy, distancing us from our traditional European allies. It’s a stark reminder of how fragile democratic alliances can be and a warning of the potential erosion of our nation’s moral leadership on the global stage.

Connie (note she does not mention tax cuts): Republicans in Nebraska are counting on you to vote Republican Mr Bacon and to vote to eliminate trillions of dollars of debt! Thanks!

Joseph: Are you willing to turn your self into authorities for your part in the government fraud waste and abuse that has been knowingly funded by you and legislative branch since you have taken office?

Alex: It’s really weird to brag about your support of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. You should be ashamed, but you’re not because you’re a soulless monster.

Jim: How about your role model selling out Ukraine?? Also, you are OK with a 40% reduction in the DOD budget over the next five years?? You've been awfully quiet lately!!!

Joan: when's your town hall Don? when are you going to explain to Nebraska why you sold us out to rapist, 34 time convicted felon. You may be scared of him, but you should be more afraid of the people you're selling out for a pat on the head

Democracy: a week gone and we are not doing so well

 

The Black Knight is optimistic. The stuff is just piling up day by day. Is there anything we can do? Sure, the voters WILL protest, espeecially in places like LA. In 2017 in congress there was good resistance to Trump. And his henchmen were incompetent. But so are Democrats now. My take is that the last hope they had of immediate action went with the Trump supreme court. After that there is nothing to do but wait. If we are lucky Trump will last 2 years. He only had a 1-2% win.

Well, the Democrats do not head any committees involved in any of this.

Anti-science

We had no idea. The MAGA folk are outraged at the whole world. We paid experts to invent and then get approval for a vaccine in record time. But...they were offended just by the fact that educated people told them to get vaccinated. If not for you (you are a tought guy) but the common good. But no, they have no need to do that. It is a zero sum world fot them. If he gets vaccinated, someone else but benefit from that.

I had this written up when the book came out. Now with RFK Jr inserting wacko ideas into healtcare, it is again relevant.

Peter Hotez's book describes how anti-science has become problematic. It can even prevent government funding of research.

Biology is still quite a mystery to the layman. Their approach to it is political and grassroots activism. You can read about politics and Fox News' campaign to oppose science in the name of freedom in other books. However, here the opponents of vaccines are described quite accurately. The factors you do not immediately see are also explained to some extent. Consumers are consumers of misinformation spread by a systematic machine. It is not worth basing your opinion solely on social media.

Who benefits from opposing vaccinations? Hotez mentions at least the trolls hired by Putin on social media. They spread false information about almost everything. Disinformation here and elsewhere, as well as the chaos of the pandemic, were Putin's goals. Local groups then seize on the false information to spread as facts. Scientists with important titles were also hired to come up with false information. The book mentions Jeffrey Singer, who wants to popularize all science. Scientists should no longer be in the role of "gatekeeper", but with the help of the Internet, a person could compile the information themselves and act on it. Even if a substance had been found to be ineffective against Covid, if it does not cause medical harm in a certain dose, a person would be allowed to try any substance on themselves.

There is also a large group of peddlers of fake medicines and “vitamins” circulating on the Internet. Hydroxychloroquine and a couple of others were popular during the corona pandemic. The criteria by which medicines and vaccines are tested and developed are not easy to read with the experience and education of a layperson. It is easy to grasp the simplest explanation. It is easy to exaggerate the risks of vaccines. In the case of Covid, it was not known that the mentioned risks and health problems in the Covid vaccines were the same, but more dangerous if you got Covid itself.

The functioning of the immune system is not understood by the layman. It is only understood that when you get the vaccine, you need to wait a while for the immune system to be ready to fight the virus. But at least that is clear. Those who have been vaccinated are starting to doubt whether the vaccine was of any benefit if you got Covid anyway. The statistics that support vaccines are tables, and they cannot be summarized in some Twitter-style message.

The book lists political groups that work in the healthcare sector. There is also a section on climate change and those who oppose anything related. All the January 6th rebellion groups, the Proud Boys and the like, are involved in sending threatening messages to Peter Hotez. He came into the picture during the pandemic and was even on television much more often than Anthony Fauci.

Anti-vaccine groups were ready since 2015 in Texas and California. When Donald Trump was elected president, opposition to science was in full swing. All government projects during the pandemic had to be modified stop depriving freedom. Public health in the US operates at the state level. State recommendations put in place, and in each state there is a person in public health leading that.

Public health operates at state and county level. Quarantines and tests were ordered. Now this was seen solely as the enemy of the individual and no compromise was made if there was even the slightest risk to the individual. Before the pandemic, there was misinformation about vaccines and autism in children.  Now the opponents had to come up with new claims. After all, the people being vaccinated were mostly adults.

At the local level, school parent councils first intervened in the use of masks because vaccines were not initially available to children. The same group of patents continues to operate and is now acting with the support of Governor DeSantis by restricting anything related to gender and minority groups in school textbooks and teaching.

Hotez explains exactly what happened during the pandemic in a few paragraphs. In the rest of the book, he continues to offer communication as a solution. He himself, although he is mainly a researcher in a large hospital system in Texas, has gone to the media as a defender of science. Hotez suggests a campaign in which prominent figures are hired to communicate with the media. They should be supported by organizations, so that the skeptical would agree to listen to the message for a moment. If the state hires them, they will not be believed.

There is hope: the young people

 I am as tired of the first week of Trump as we all are. Trump got in and his politics are summed up by exclusion. His voters wanted to exclude foreigners. That is happening. Now the process continues to exclude anybody but the most conservative and the wealthiest. Inclusiveness and democracy have no part in the Trump four years.

I had a lecture today from Roman Pryjomko. He has been involved in world politics since the 1990s. His one slide showed some hope. This is a South African, Fasija Hassan, who came into politics demanding in. "We will break down the door." Old men and women were holding all the power. Nelson Mandela quit at 80. He said the octagenarians have no right to govern. They cannot understand change.

If you want change, here is your chance. Quit following news from Facebook and TikTok. Find out what is going on. Get involved. I'll come out put up your yard signs. It is your turn.

A Tipping Point -- History has changed

                          

The first Trump term and now the 2nd will push the US in a certain direction. Trump will not get too much credit from the historians. It will be noted that there was a shift. The voters are not happy and part of it is that the US Constitution is no longer working for us citizens the way it did in the 1900s, even though the Reagan years.

 The result will be a US with a big army and some strength. But no longer keeping military bases all over the world and cruising aircraft carriers. Those were around for the purpose of providing a base in a place where there was not a lot of US support. Middle East, Asia, Russian neighbors. Aircraft carriers do not enter the Baltic as those are now all NATO countries. And they never did. The people with libertarian views saw this patrolling of the planet as waste. Now they will get what they want. Part of the America First idea. A zero-sum game of global scale. What  money goes abroad is away from my pocket. The problems that arise will pile up in the next few decades. Several epidemics will go out of control.

 The other trend that we will see is that red states are on their own. The South will be poor. Even federal highway money will be less and less. The blue states will continue as they did. They produce a lot of income and will take care of their own. They will invent their own healthcare.

 Healthcare will change. Traveling to a different state may require travel insurance, in case you get sick. The states will become little countries. Sharing only the military and the dollar. Federal spending will tighten and will run a lot like the EU. Some states will need to be bailed out from time to time. Catastrophes will need special laws for recovery, each one. Some kind of financial arrangements are made. Somehow the states will get independent economies. Don't ask how, I am not an economist.

ADDED 2-1-25

"It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families," writes Jonathan Haidt.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369