Day: April 10, 2025

How To End Democracy

There is lots of talk these about the possible demise of democracy….personally I think we are stronger than that….but that is just me….

I read this article about other tyrants across the globe and their attempts/advice on doing the unthinkable….

The leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is an ally of Trump. As is the leader of Hungary, Viktor Orban, another authoritarian society. So is the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, to which Trump has shipped Venezuelan nationals (1 percent of El Salvador’s entire population, including 3,000 children, are held in megaprisons, where they are subject to torture).

Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who rose to power carrying around a chainsaw to “slash the overgrown state,” seems to have inspired Elon Musk’s brandishing a chainsaw at a recent rally of conservative allies.

…

These are all part of a global anti-democracy movement.

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is acting on a theme promoted by Trump: Harass and strangle nonprofits you don’t like. Modi’s government obstructs and even dismantles nonprofits and human rights organizations by weaponizing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which governs the receipt and use of foreign donations by nonprofits. Without FCRA certification, nonprofits are barred from international donations.

Other autocrats, who got a head start on Trump, are now using his example to go even further.

The Hungarian government is orchestrating a crackdown on gay people far beyond anything Trump has done so far to reverse the protections that prior US administrations extended to gays and other vulnerable groups. And Orban is citing Trump as cover for these actions.

One for All, All for One: Trump, Foreign Tyrants Share Tips on Ending Democracy

Just a few thoughts about the anti-democracy movement in countries that Donny has given credence to in his speeches and actions.

We stand on the precipice of a dilemma and we have only to take our eyes off the democratic prize and we could very well lose that which so many have fought to preserve for centuries.

Just that what you want?

If not then keep you eyes open and your hearts where it belongs with this country and its people…..and the institution that our forefathers carried forward for those many centuries.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What F*cking Game Is This?

Donny and his tariffs is nothing more than a wealth generating scheme for him and his billionaire buds….it is a game.

Just yesterday his wild swings on tariffs was something out of an economic nightmare…

It began with his statement….

Consumer confidence is sinking, China and the EU have introduced retaliatory tariffs within the last few hours, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says we’re likely spiraling toward a recession. The president’s response? “Be cool.” President Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday morning to share the following:

  • “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” (link)
  • “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” (link)
  • “This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America, like Apple, and so many others, in record numbers, are doing. ZERO TARIFFS, and almost immediate Electrical/Energy hook ups and approvals. No Environmental Delays. DON’T WAIT, DO IT NOW!” (link)
  • The president was unequivocal in comments made Tuesday night at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington, DC. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” Trump said.  (He does and it is not something for you or your family).

Then later Wednesday he made another of his wold swing on this moronic idea of tariffs….

President Trump said Wednesday that he paused most of his “reciprocal” tariffs on other countries because people were getting “yippy” and “afraid.” The president said he had been watching the bond market, where there has been a major sell-off, and he thought people were “getting a little queasy,” the AP reports. He said that he expects to reach trade deals with most countries, but “nothing’s over yet.”

  • Leavitt says tariffs will be held at 10%: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the tariff rate would be brought down to a universal 10%, a major reduction from the level imposed on imports from many countries in “Liberation Day” tariffs that took effect early Wednesday, the New York Times reports. She spoke to reporters after Trump posted about the pause on Truth Social and stocks soared. Trump said more than 75 countries had called to seek trade deals—but tariffs on imports from China, which brought in retaliatory tariffs, would be raised to 125%.
  • “Bespoke” trade deals: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump would negotiate “bespoke” trade deals with other countries. He said this has been the president’s strategy “all along,” the Washington Post reports. “You might even say he goaded China into a bad position—they have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors,” Bessent said.
  • ‘WTF. Who’s in charge?’ Trump’s announcement came as US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was testifying in front of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports. After Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford asked him if he knew about the pause, Greer said he found out about it a few minutes earlier. “WTF. Who’s in charge?” Horsford asked. He told Greer: “This is amateur hour. It needs to stop. How are you in charge of negotiations if the president is tweeting about this from wherever the hell he is?”
  • ‘He is reeling, he is retreating’: Trump “is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference moments after Trump’s announcement, the Hill reports. Schumer said he would keep pressure on Trump despite the pullback. “This is chaos. This is government by chaos. He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisers are fighting among themselves, calling each other names,” Schumer said. “And you cannot run a country with such chaos.”
  • Market swings could continue: Stocks jumped on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq up more than 11% in the afternoon, the S&P 500 up almost 10%, and the Dow up 8%, but investors are worried that volatility will continue. “The tariff clouds parted for the first time today, but it’s too soon to know how sunny the skies will be tomorrow—or 90 days from now,” said Daniel Skelly at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, per the Times. “As welcome as the announcement was, investors can’t assume it’s the end of the tariff story, or that the market’s day-to-day volatility will disappear.”
  • ‘Pause’ could be permanent: “Our working assumption now will be that, cowed by the market response, Trump will repeatedly extend the ‘pause’ meaning that this will end up looking a lot like the 10% universal tariff that he campaigned on,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said Wednesday, per the Journal. “In return, other countries will offer minor concessions on their own tariffs and trade practices.”

After telling his butt buddies to buy stocks and then announcing a the ‘pause’…..markets hit record numbers…..and then set about using the American people as an excuse to help his cronies make lots of cash….

US stocks soared to one of their best days in history on a euphoric Wall Street Wednesday after President Trump said he would back off on most of his tariffs temporarily, as investors had desperately hoped he would.

  • The S&P 500 rocketed higher by 474.13 points, or 9.5%, to 5,456.90. It was the index’s third-best day since World War II.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial leaped 2,962.86, or 7.9% to 40,608.45.
  • The Nasdaq composite jumped 1,857.06 points, or 12.2%, to 17,124.97.

So I ask again….what is this f*cking game?

You guys really do not see what all this economic games is doing?

Looks to me like all this tariff shit is just a cover to help himself and his ass kissers make lots of cash.

At what point do you allow this type of blatant bullshit to continue….time to get off your ass!

(I sit and shake my head)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What’s That Sound? War Drums?

The idiot in charge of the War Department is thumping his chest again about Iran, I am sure he had to clear it with the man in charge, if it is not China then it will be Iran.

Donny does what Donny does best….threaten.

President Trump again threatened the possibility of the US taking military action against Iran and suggested Israel might “lead” the attack.

“If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if the US would attack if a nuclear deal isn’t reached with Iran.

“Israel will obviously be very much involved in that — it’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do,” he added.

Trump’s latest threat comes ahead of negotiations between the US and Iran that will be held in Oman this Saturday. The talks will be attended by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Trump has been increasing sanctions on Iran and threatening the country over its nuclear program even though US intelligence agencies recently reaffirmed that there’s no evidence Tehran is building a bomb.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian restated Iran’s long-standing pledge in comments on Wednesday. “We are not after a nuclear bomb,” Pezeshkian added. “You have verified it 100 times. Do it 1,000 times again,” he said.

(antiwar.com)

Let’s be honest for a change…..Hegseth is just sitting on his hands waiting for the Beserker-in-charge to give the word…..and it looks like it could be just weeks away if not sooner.  Why?

In the largest single deployment of stealth bombers in U.S. history, the Pentagon has sent six B-2 “Spirit” aircraft to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The long-range bombers, which are uniquely suited to evade Iranian air defenses and can carry America’s most potent bunker busting weapons, flew in from Missouri last week in a little noticed operation.

The B-2s carry not just bombs, but a message for Iran: “do you see our sword?,” as one retired general told Newsmax this week.

President Donald Trump hasn’t been shy in threatening Iran, saying that if Tehran doesn’t close the door on a nuclear capability they will experience “bombing the likes of which they haven’t seen.”

“Hell” will “rain down” on the country, Trump has also said. Just today, amidst the stock market meltdown Trump again reiterated his threat, saying that “doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious” — which to the president is undertaking a massive strike.

Blatant as the threat is, the U.S. government has not otherwise publicly acknowledged the bomber buildup. Though B-2 bombers were used to carry out strikes on underground Houthi facilities in Yemen (both under the Biden and Trump administration), the forward deployment of the bombers to the island of Diego Garcia was only reported when commercial satellite images of the airbase there revealed the six on the runway.

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/pentagon-prepares-for-trump-to-go

This is a stupid idea on so many levels….one using those barbarians from Israel and do we really want to make an even more ruthless adversary?

At some point there has to be a competent person at the War Department….we know that it is not the ass licker in charge.

This should worry every American….there are so many consequences that we are not told to a possible war with Iran.

When we ever learn?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”