Demagogues seeking to be tyrants have always been with us and American presidents of the past have addressed that threat. Now we have lived to see a demagogue returned to the White House. As we’ve already seen, this second time around Donald Trump brings with him an entire Trojan horse of destructive characters that weren’t in place the first time. One of Trump’s first actions has been his declaration of imposing extreme tariffs, particularly on our neighbors to the north and south, Canada and Mexico. This has been rebuffed already by Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has visited with Trump on this matter. Both Sheinbaum and Trudeau will probably get the impulsive Trump to see the light, for his own well being, which translates as Trump pitching one thing but in fact doing another and spinning it to the base yet a third way. But here’s what Ronald Reagan had to say about this.
Ronald Reagan warned against “demagogues” like Trump:
“We should beware of the demagogues who are willing to declare a Trade war against our friends, weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world, all while cynically waving the American flag…” pic.twitter.com/bkblf8kUKE
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) November 30, 2024
I was gobsmacked by Reagan’s ridiculous “trickle down effect” nonsense back in the day but I would go back to dealing with that in a New York minute over dealing with what we have before us today. And you have no idea how crazy the economic discussions underway in Washington are. Charlie Pierce shares some vintage nuttiness with us.
Congressional Republicans are establishing a new subcommittee to root out waste in federal spending and cut government jobs, which will work with the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The panel will be led by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, a vocal supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, who is sharply critical of government agencies and employees. She said the subcommittee will work “hand in hand” with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have pledged DOGE will help carry out the most sweeping federal cuts in the country’s history.
Elon, Vivek, and MTG. There has not been such an assemblage of geniuses in Washington since the last time Marsha Blackburn dined alone.
“We have thousands of buildings that the federal government owns and pays for … but yet those government buildings sit empty, and these government employees stay at home,” she said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” hosted by Maria Bartiromo. GOP legislation has suggested the government could save taxpayers close to $15 billion over a period of five years, if federal agencies could sell off empty and underutilized buildings.“The federal government should be providing the top and the best customer service to the American people and the way to do that is to carefully spend their money,” Greene said, noting everything will be on the table.
The “top” and the “best”? Shoot for the stars, lady.
Surely, you see the crossfit brilliance of this logic. The executive department of the DOGE apparatus is warming up
to halve the federal workforce by all means fair, foul, and insane. From the Washington Post:
“If your Social Security number ends in an odd number, you’re out. If it ends in an even number, you’re in,” he explained in a podcast interview in September. “There’s a 50 percent cut right there. Of those who remain, if your Social Security number starts in an even number, you’re in, and if it starts with an odd number, you’re out. Boom. That’s a 75 percent reduction done.”
Plutocrat logic never fails to astound and to terrify.
Just by the by, my social security number both begins and ends in an odd number and so I would be out in the street, and I’ve always been one of the most productive employees anywhere I’ve ever worked. So the screaming illogic of this truly comes home to me. But this is how crazy the conversations in D.C. are these days and this is a warm up act.
There are no adults in the Trump room so the adults are coming from different countries to tell Trump how things really work. Or, who knows? Maybe we will have avocados that cost $2,000 per bushel if Trump has his way. That is a distinct possibility. Ordering guacamole in a restaurant may soon be akin to ordering caviar. A little too rich for my blood.
The problem with the childish minds now in key posts in government is that they don’t know how things work. Everything is interconnected, therefore you can’t destabilize one thing without affecting a myriad of other things. There’s another snippet in Charlie Pierce’s column about Marge Greene wanting to defund toilets in Africa, because that “doesn’t help Americans.” Well, I daresay it helps the Americans in Africa that are using them. There are American programs in disease-ridden and impoverished areas of the world and yes, Marge, having a toilet is the least that we can do for these people, as they work for higher goals of humanitarian and diplomatic bridge building between the peoples of the earth. We know these concepts are utterly beyond you, but that doesn’t mean they’re not valid and worthy.
The next trickle down effect in government is going to really be something. We’re going to see how abject stupidity at the top trickles down to affect the rest of us. People were mad at Joe Biden for containing inflation? Wait’ll they see what’s coming now. Expect the MAGAs to start screaming in a manner that would do howler monkeys proud when it finally dawns on them what they have done. Too late, alas.
I too will be in deep Shiite if they do that with ss#’s, mine are odd both first and last. Starting to really look for someplace else to live.
The problem is that they will never recognize what THEY have done. It will all be Biden’s fault. Trust me on this. From day one, throughout tRump’s reign, everything that goes wrong will be Joe’s fault. Count on it.
That is why it is up to US to correct the BS and misinformation every time we hear it and on every platform. If we hear/read/see the tyrant and his minions lie about mandates, inflation, costs, etc., then we must correct them. I have charts and other information that show how great we really are doing under President Biden and I will use that information every time the right lies. We cannot trust the media to tell it like it is nor to correct the lies and misinformation. They are too afraid. It is now up to us.
How about we include members of Congress who don’t seem as interested in doing the jobs they were HIRED (ie, elected) to do as they are in hosting their own podcasts or going on right-wing media propaganda shows? That would cut a good 50% of Congress–interestingly enough, all with an “R” by their names–and save untold amounts of money, considering they also have staff members doing a lot of the ACTUAL work they’re supposed to be doing (and those staffers are getting paid by the government).
Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981, but he at least recognized that they needed to be replaced. The Trump regime will gleefully put public safety in peril by cutting staffing at the FAA, FDA, FEMA, NTSB – the list goes on an on.
During the Vietnam War, TV networks ran a running total of Americans killed in battle. I propose that at least some in the media keep track of deaths that can reasonably be blamed on Trump’s policies. “Efficiency” comes with a steep cost.
The main stream media has not been reporting facts for many years. I doubt that any will start doing so now. They are afraid of being silenced, added to the 8 year old’s “enemies” list, or being exposed by muskrat so the magats can harass them. I’m afraid it’s up to the little people, and that includes us, to tell the truth and hope to stay out of jail or worse. We can see by this article that the house and senate do NOT plan to stand up to the tyrant. Everyone will bend the knee. It’s just a matter of how long it will take before the Democrats do as well.