Corruption infecting our country

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The Most Corrupt Man Ever to Sit in the Oval Office — And Why His Second Term Is Even More Dangerous

By any and every measure, Donald J. Trump is the most corrupt human being ever to sit in the Oval Office. Historians know it. Ethics experts know it. Anyone with the courage to peel back even one layer of the onion knows it. And if the A-plot of Trump’s second presidency is his openly declared authoritarian project, then the B-plot—the one running quietly in the background, poisoning everything it touches—is his shameless, industrial-scale corruption.

And make no mistake: the B-plot feeds the A-plot. Corruption is the bloodstream of authoritarianism.

Trump’s First Term Was a Warm-Up for Corruption

The first Trump presidency was a four-year ethics crime spree:
• Cabinet members indicted, investigated, resigning in disgrace.
• Foreign governments funneling money through Trump hotels.
• Pardons handed out to cronies, political allies, and convicted criminals like party favors.
• A president who refused to divest from his businesses, meaning the Oval Office was essentially a full-time marketing department for the Trump brand.

That wasn’t a presidency. It was a smash-and-grab operation.

And yet—as unbelievable as it sounds—it was only a preview.

The Second Term Is the Heist in Broad Daylight

Trump is not hiding the ball anymore. He’s telling you exactly what he plans to do.

During his first term, he at least pretended the Constitution mattered. Not anymore. The new Trump project is straightforward:

1. Immunity for himself.
   Trump’s legal arguments boil down to: If the president commits a crime, it becomes magically legal. That is the dream of every dictator in world history.

2. Weaponizing the Justice Department.
   He openly says he will use federal power to punish political enemies—mayors, governors, journalists, former officials, prosecutors, anyone in his way.

3. Replacing qualified civil servants with loyalists.
   The goal? A government run by yes-men whose job is not to serve the public but to protect the Dear Leader.

4. Turning the U.S. Treasury into a family wallet.
   Every kleptocrat starts here. Trump’s second term is already modeled on Orbán, Erdoğan, and Putin: consolidate power, crush opposition, and enrich yourself and your inner circle.

This is not speculation. It’s the blueprint Trump and his advisers brag about on television.

Corruption Isn’t a Side Plot — It’s the Engine

Corruption isn’t a character flaw with Trump—it is the governing philosophy. The system exists only to extract wealth, power, and revenge.

You can’t have democracy and Trump’s brand of corruption in the same country. One destroys the other.

That’s why historians warn that the second Trump term would not simply be a replay—it would be a completion. Authoritarians always return to finish the job.

The Real Irony? Trump’s Base Is the First to Be Betrayed

The MAGA faithful, the folks who would lose sleep if a library book had two moms in it, are the same people Trump is fleecing blind.
He takes their donations.
He sells them cheap gold sneakers.
He turns their fears into merchandise.
He pockets their loyalty while giving them nothing in return.

Every dictator in history has the same trick: convince the peasants to cheer while you empty their pockets.

A Nation at the Crossroads

We’re not debating policy differences anymore. This is the oldest question in politics:

Do we want government by law, or government by one deeply corrupt man?

If Trump’s return to power is the A-plot of creeping authoritarianism, then the B-plot—the constant drip of corruption—is what keeps the whole rotten story moving forward.

And it ends the same way every time:
with a ruined democracy, a frightened population, and a leader who escapes the wreckage holding bags of money.

America has been warned. Loudly. Repeatedly.

The question now is whether we’re still a country capable of listening.

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The Peasants always suffer

The Peasants of the New American Dictatorship

The United States has slipped—quietly for some, violently for others—into its first full-blown dictatorship. And as history always tells us, there is never any mystery about who suffers most when a strongman takes power. It’s never the oligarchs. It’s never the billionaires. It’s never the yacht class or the resort dwellers.

It is always the poor.
It is always the workers.
It is always the people who believed the lie.

From ancient kings to 20th-century fascists, dictators rule with the same formula: weaponize the grievances of the people at the bottom, then hammer those same people into the ground once power is secured. Trump has not reinvented the wheel; he’s simply rolling the same old iron chariot over the backs of the very peasants who worship him.

The Great American Irony

What makes the Trump dictatorship remarkable is not its brutality—history has seen worse—but its absurdity. The people who empowered him were the people with the most to lose. The MAGA peasants weren’t just foot soldiers; they were the fuel, the oxygen, the cheering section.

And here is the cruel twist:
Trump abuses them the most.

The factory worker who thought Trump would “bring back jobs” now faces rising costs, disappearing healthcare, and a government run by corporations.
The struggling rural family that believed Trump would fight for them has been rewarded with cuts to social programs, worse schools, and crumbling infrastructure.
The veterans who believed the strongman myth now watch as Trump pardons war criminals but abandons those who served honorably.

The Old Story in New Clothes

Every dictator throughout history has blamed a scapegoat, promised a rebirth, and declared himself the only “truth.” Trump copied the script line by line.

• The strongman always claims he speaks for “the people.”
  Meanwhile, the real people can’t afford rent, groceries, medicine, or housing.

• The strongman always promises national greatness.
  Meanwhile, the oligarchs loot the treasury.

• The strongman always demonizes the poor as “lazy.”
  Meanwhile, his cronies siphon off billions in tax giveaways.

The only difference in America’s version is that the propaganda is piped through social media instead of state radio. Today’s peasants willingly carry the King’s message straight into their own living rooms.

The MAGA Peasant’s Burden

Call them peasants, call them serfs, call them Hoopleheads—whatever the name, the dynamic is ancient: the poor cling to the strongman because they are afraid. Afraid of cultural change. Afraid of economic uncertainty. Afraid of losing the tiny slice of status they believe they still hold.

So they pledge allegiance to the man who offers them the most seductive lie ever told in politics:

“Your suffering is someone else’s fault—not mine.”

Trump gave them a villain: immigrants, Democrats, teachers, librarians, scientists, trans kids, the FBI, the press, the courts, the experts, even the Constitution. Anyone but him.

But the bill always comes due.

And under a dictatorship, the bill is paid by the poor.

They pay with their labor.
They pay with their rights.
They pay with their public services.
They pay with their health.
They pay with their children’s futures.

And eventually, they pay with their freedom—sometimes without even noticing they lost it.

A Tyranny Built on Self-Delusion

The final tragedy of the American dictatorship is that Trump didn’t seize power from the people.

The people handed it to him.
They helped build the cage.
Then they climbed into it.
Then they slammed the door shut on themselves.

And now the strongman sits on his throne, chuckling to himself, knowing one great truth:

The easiest people to oppress are the ones who believe you’re saving them.

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The life of the Rat in the White House

“There is no literature or poetry in this White House.

No music.

No Kennedy Center award celebrations.

There are no pets in this White House.

No loyal man’s best friend. No Socks the family cat.

No kids’ science fairs.

No times when this president takes off his blue suit-red tie uniform and becomes human, except when he puts on his white shirt-khaki pants uniform to play golf.

There are no images of the first family enjoying themselves together in a moment of relaxation.

No Obamas on the beach in Hawaii, or Bushes fishing in Kennebunkport, no Reagans on horseback, no Kennedys playing touch football on the Cape.

Where did that country go?

Where did all of the fun and joy and expressions of love and happiness go?

We used to be a country that did the ice bucket challenge and raised millions for charity.

We used to have a president that calmed and soothed the nation instead dividing it.

And a First Lady that planted a garden instead of ripping one out.

We are rudderless and joyless.

We have lost the cultural aspects of society that make America great.

We have lost our mojo, our fun, our happiness.

The cheering on of others. Gone.

The shared experiences of humanity that makes it all worth it. Gone.

The challenges AND the triumphs that we shared and celebrated.

The unique can-do spirit Americans have always been known for. Gone.

We have lost so much in so short a time."

~Elayne Griffin Baker

How do the MAGAs ignore the sexual predator.

 The morning routine involved listening to Heather Cox Richardson. She is extremely intelligent, and gave a great talk about Trump, and his sexual exploits. You can get to her talk on Youtube. It was done in about the last 12 hours. Trump seems to have cornered himself in a couple of ways. Republicans have to decide if they want to go down with him, it will be interesting. 

The post turtle

 

The Dog that didn't Bark

This if from the New York Times

In one email from April 2011, Mr. Epstein told Ms. Maxwell, who was later convicted on charges related to facilitating his crimes, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.” He added that an unnamed victim “spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.”

That dog that didn't bark refers to Sherlock Holmes mystery " Silver Blaze". The dog didn't bark when the horse was stolen because the dog knew the person stealing the horse.  Epstien knew Trump was guilty as hell. The MAGA dog don't bark. They know Trump is a rapist and sexual predator. 

Insane Greed

Letter to the Editor:

What’s wrong with our country? A little math tells the story — even a die-hard MAGA supporter can follow it. Elon Musk is set to pocket a trillion dollars from Tesla. Do the math: if he worked 40 years, eight hours a day, that’s roughly $12 million an hour.

Now think about that. When one man earns $12 million an hour and a McDonald’s worker earns $20, something is deeply broken. When 400 families control half the nation’s wealth, that means millions of others go without food, health care, or housing.

Yet Trump and his crowd cheer it on. He gets his gold-plated toilet and endless golf rounds while ordinary Americans struggle to pay rent. Is this really the America we want — where 10 percent live in luxury and 50 percent live in poverty?

Most modern countries have figured out how to balance prosperity and fairness. But Trump’s America? It keeps shoveling even more to the Musks of the world — and calling it freedom.

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