A different world.

Mr. and Mrs. Kadizzle are visiting our daughter and grandchildren in New York. We are in a part of the world were poverty is not permitted. The minimum lot size is three acres. Many people here die from acute prosperity. If you have the illusion we live in a classless society, we got bad news for you. 

Yesterday we visited West Point and spent time in a military museum there. Seeing the history of how humans have slaughtered each other from the beginning of time was a bit unnerving. 

The grandchildren are a lot of fun and growing at an amazing pace. Megan is in the perfect place for her business which is interior design. Sam works with computer software. Both work from home so having our interruption is a problem.

The grandchildren live a charmed life, with every toy, dance lessons, gym lessons, and instant gratification too many times. It all works out well in the end. Putting effort into children generally pays off it is done well. 

Although both of us grew up in the East, we would never move back. The weather, the crowded conditions, are just not worth it. The terrain in the West differs every mile. Here from Florida to Main it is all about the same. 

Yesterday Kadizzle met a person who lives in the East and has never been west. These people who have no desire to see the rest of the world are amazing. 

How much has Trump stolen

How Much Has Trump Enriched Himself?

When Donald Trump returned to the presidency in 2025, he didn’t just bring his politics back to Washington—he brought his business model with him.

And business has been very, very good.

Let’s cut through the noise and look at reality. Conservative estimates suggest Trump and his family have enriched themselves by $3 billion to $5 billion since taking office. That number isn’t pulled out of thin air—it comes from publicly reported income, asset growth, and the explosion of Trump-linked ventures.

Start with the easy money: hundreds of millions in income from crypto projects, licensing deals, and branded ventures. These are cash streams—real money flowing in.

Then comes the bigger story: asset inflation. When your name is tied to a presidency, everything you touch suddenly gets more valuable. Crypto coins branded with Trump’s image surge. Business ventures tied to the family skyrocket. Companies connected to the Trump orbit don’t just grow—they balloon.

His sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have stakes in ventures now valued in the billions. Whether every dollar is liquid or not doesn’t matter—the wealth is real, and it was created while their father holds the most powerful office in the world.

This isn’t normal.

Presidents used to divest. They used to step away. At the very least, they tried to avoid even the appearance of using the office for personal gain. That guardrail is gone.

What we’re seeing now is something different: the presidency as a wealth engine.

And here’s the part that should bother people regardless of politics—this kind of enrichment doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It depends on access, influence, and perception. When the line between public office and private profit disappears, trust disappears with it.

Support Trump or oppose him, that’s your call. But the numbers tell a story that’s hard to ignore:

The presidency is no longer just a seat of power—it has become a tool for massive personal enrichment.

And once that door is opened, it doesn’t easily close.

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The Hoopleheads mastery of English

 

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Big ideas and complex thinking don’t get much traction in the Hooplehead world. Trump understands that. He speaks their language—short, simple, and heavy on cheerleader slogans. That’s the connection.

What stands out in most Hooplehead messaging is the absence of any real train of thought. The ideas are brief, often just a handful of words, and rarely build into anything meaningful. Reading has never been a strong suit, and Trump himself seems cut from the same cloth. Books contain an inconvenient ingredient—facts—and facts tend to disrupt the narrative.

Instead, the Hooplehead vocabulary leans on hollow labels and easy insults. Once they latch onto a catchy phrase, they treat it like a revelation. “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is a perfect example—repeated endlessly, rarely examined, and almost always misunderstood.

The formula is simple: keep it short, keep it loud, and don’t let facts get in the way. It’s a strategy that works, and outlets like Fox News have mastered how to package and deliver it.

Trump's Speech

 

We have the biggest, the best—things no one has ever seen before. That’s the constant refrain. Listening to Donald Trump speak isn’t inspiring—it’s exhausting. The exaggeration, the cartoon logic, the endless self-praise—it all feels less like leadership and more like a performance stuck on repeat.

History won’t be kind to this moment. Trump will likely end up in textbooks not as a model of leadership, but as a case study in what happens when ego overtakes judgment. The question is no longer what he says—it’s why anyone still believes it.

The damage isn’t abstract. It’s economic instability, environmental neglect, and strained relationships with allies around the world. Untangling it won’t be quick or easy. It will take years to repair what has been weakened.

And yet, somehow, the illusion persists.

At some point, reality has to break through the noise. Because leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room—it’s about being the most responsible one.

What's the problem?

Of the Rich, For the Rich, By the Rich: The New American Normal

There are an estimated 902 billionaires in the United States. That’s 0.0002% of the population—a statistical rounding error that somehow owns a nation.

While the rich have always managed to get richer, things took a dramatic leap after the Republican tax cuts. Analysis shows that the net worth of people who were already billionaires grew by 49% in just eight years. That wasn’t because they suddenly worked harder. That wasn’t because they invented anything new. It was a direct result of policy engineered to funnel wealth upward at warp speed.

And here’s the punchline:
If you’re a poor billionaire—someone scraping by with “just” $1,000,000,000—you would need to survive on about $40 million a year if you limited yourself to a humble 4% withdrawal rate. Imagine the struggle. Imagine the sacrifice. Somehow, against all odds, they endure.

Of course, most billionaires have more than one billion. Many have dozens of them.
They seem to muddle through.

The Numbers That Should Start a Revolution

• 902 people

• owning 32% of all wealth in the United States

• while making up 0.0002% of the population

Republicans tell us this is “freedom” and “opportunity.”
Everyone else sees it for what it is: a gilded-age oligarchy wrapped in a flag and sold as patriotism.

Meanwhile, Back in Payson…

Take our own little experiment here in Payson.

We struggle for years to finance a simple community pool.
We argue, plead, tax, and bond ourselves into knots.
For 16,000 residents, paying for a pool will take two decades of scraping.

Yet one American billionaire—just one—could pay for the entire project with three months of passive income. That’s without touching the principal. Without noticing. Without even interrupting their third vacation home renovation.

But here we are, told that public amenities are “too expensive.”

And Then There’s Trump

While towns like Payson fight over modest civic improvements, Donald Trump has managed to amass $1.5 billion in a single year—almost entirely through influence selling, donor shakedowns, and plain old-fashioned grift.
The Republican Party doesn’t blink.
They applaud.
They call it “success.”

If a teacher found a way to make an extra $1,000, they’d be audited.
Trump hoovers up a billion and a half, and Republicans call it leadership.

The Bottom Line

America is now a country where:

• A tiny billionaire class owns a third of everything.

• Towns debate for decades over pools, parks, and playgrounds.

• Corruption is called “genius.”

• Inequality is a feature—not a bug.

• And the people cheering the loudest for this system are the ones most crushed by it.

But don’t worry:
Republicans assure us everything is fine.

The National Association will continue saying the quiet part out loud:
It’s not fine.
It’s a rigged system run by an elite who write the rules, buy the politicians, and expect the rest of us to thank them for the privilege of being fleeced.

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If you want, I can also produce a shorter version for Facebook, a punchier version for a Kadizzle blog post, or an extended version with sources and graphs.

How many pools

Trump’s New Playground Has Money for Downed Jets — But Payson Can’t Afford a Pool

Three military jets were accidentally shot down by Kuwait, collateral damage in what might as well be Donald Trump’s new global playground — a world where recklessness is policy and national security is treated like a live-action video game. Billions wasted, confusion everywhere, and the only thing consistent is that someone else pays the price.

But meanwhile, back in the real America — the one where actual human beings live — Payson can’t even afford a decent community pool.

Think about that contrast for a moment.

Washington burns money like fireworks, the ultra-rich glide through life on tax cuts and special favors, and last year 88 new billionaires were added to Trump’s collection of lickspittles, donors, and applause machines. They’re doing great — spectacular, actually. Their bank accounts got so fat they should be declared a national park.

But the kids in Payson?

They get potholes.
They get broken promises.
And if they want to cool off in the summer, they can go wading in a sinkhole on South Beeline.

This is the America we live in:

• Unlimited money to arm the sky like a casino slot machine.

• No money to give children a clean, safe place to swim.

• A booming billionaire class.

• Struggling towns being told to “tighten their belt” while the wealthy loosen theirs and buy another yacht.

The National Association for the Advancement of Humanity asks the obvious question:

How much longer will we tolerate a country where the rich get golden runways while small towns can’t even build a community pool?

America wasn’t supposed to be a theme park for billionaires. But somewhere along the way, we became a nation where jets can fall from the sky without consequence, yet a town full of working-class families can’t get a pool approved because “there’s no money.”

Let’s call it what it is:

Economic cruelty disguised as fiscal conservatism.
Government for the rich, subsidized by the rest.

If this is “great again,” I’d hate to see what “rock bottom” looks like.

The Crazy club

Shanika told me Shinney died. Who in the hell is Shinney. Back in the old days in Hazen, N.D. we used to meet on Wednesdays at the crazy club. A bunch of old people got together and bullshitted, and had a good time. Shinney ran a art shop for local artist. It was actually and old comfortable house set up as a business. So members of the crazy club just had a social hour or two. Shinney was always up on all the local gossip. Old people need to communicate. 

Now old Kadizzle is in Payson. There is no crazy club, but we do have Donuts with Democrats which is larger and similar. At donuts we just bitch about politics. On Thursdays we have board meetings, with the board. It is just three people enjoying a beer.