Month: February 2025

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I baffled at what the end game is for the billionaires club now dismantling the federal government. The present system has served them well. They have wealth, power, and beautiful women. Talk about hitting the jackpot. What more can they want? More importantly, what possible good can come from the chaos they are creating in our system.

They have this mistaken notion that they can control the chaos. But chaos, by its very nature, is uncontrollable. A disorderly dismantling of government is just fun and games right now but the further gutting of a system that has worked remarkably well these past 230 years or so for what? To be replaced by what? Everyone will be free to do whatever they want to do. That is mighty vague.

But what does this mean about public schools which, by the way, the founding fathers supported without reservation. What about Social Security which provides retirement income and people paid for in their payroll taxes. What about the National Parks? What about the FAA? None of which are perfect and all of which have a necessary function. What do the stripped down versions of these look like after Trump and Musk get through with it.

The arrogance of these men is dumbfounding. They sit on billions of dollars all earned in a system that was highly favorable to billionaires making money. Yet this isn’t enough somehow. Call me old fashioned, even call me conservative, but I prefer orderly change which protects the institutions we have while also opening these institutions to gradual change. It is less traumatic and boring but there is a lot less chance that the goose that laid the golden egg will be murdered in the process.

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Perhaps the Pope’s doctors were trying to report on his condition in a way not to alarm the public but how can there be anything mild about kidney failure. This seems like a pretty big deal and the mild in the phrasing does little to mitigate my concerns when directly after mild I see kidney failure.

Wouldn’t the Pope is in the early stages of kidney failure be a more accurate phrasing of his condition?

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I don’t particularly like Rudi Giuliani’s politics but I think this is an unduly cruel use of precious press time to point out he has to buy hair dye at Walmart.

He is no longer on the political scene, at least, not in an effective position worth writing about. Trump has used him and tossed him aside just as quickly now that he is of no use for him.

I am all for speaking truth to power but Giuliani is powerless. He is a broken man. I see little reason to point out his travails other than to laugh at him and how far he has fallen. It is unkind and unnecessary.

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I have been laid off twice in my career.

There is a way to do it that benefits the company eliminating the jobs while also minimizing the upset to the people losing their jobs. Donald Trump, a business genius no less, is doing it in the most careless and obnoxious way possible.

First, he and his DOGE stooges are laying off people and then discovering that they need these employees still. Musk, in his storied career, has repeatedly made this mistake. Most companies take a little time, particularly when there is no emergency, in learning what people do, assigning the tasks to retained employees so there is no gap in service and trying to put the laid off employees in the best position for a new position. Planning for the company’s sake, compassion for the people losing their jobs. Trump is doing neither. It is a shoddy mistake that gives retained employees and customers the impression that you don’t know what you are doing.

Planning requires a little more effort than looking at a spreadsheet and eliminating jobs. Doing this so quickly and without consideration to the repercussions is a costly mistake especially for businessmen of Trump and Musk’s supposed caliber. The abruptness could lead to rehires, gaps in services, and law suits. What money you saved from the layoffs will be eaten away in the chaos created by the layoffs. It isn’t they way to run a business successfully but then I doubt seriously if this is Trump or Musk’s intention. Destroying the Federal Government is much more like it.

The unalloyed glee that the DOGE boys are taking with their job is unforgivable. Laying people off is a sad task and it should be approached as a regrettable but necessary task. These guys are having way too much fun. People are losing their jobs. The DOGE boys may not like them, they may think their jobs are unnecessary, and they may think it is the right thing to do but they should respect the people they are putting out of a job. It is the very least they can do. Instead they are acting like a bunch of mean girls in high school who get to say who is in and who is out.

Trump and Musk are bullies. They enjoy laughing at others but are unable to take any ribbing at their own expense. They demand respect without giving any. The extraordinary number of people who have turned on them speaks volumes about their character. Nobody much likes Trump and Musk once they are free from their orbit. Let’s hope we all learn how to stand up to bullies in the ensuing few years.

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I don’t know why Hamas thought attacking Israel on October 7 was a good idea but they were wrong. What a disaster. It has failed utterly to do anything of value for the Palestinian people. All they are getting from it is more martyrs. A whole population ruined again by this ill thought out attack.

And I don’t blame the Israelis for kicking the shit out of the Palestinians. Hamas attacked the civilian population of Israel — killing men, women and children. Did they really expect the Israelis to do nothing? Anyone watching the Middle East for the past 70 years knew they were going to retaliate. Unsurprisingly they did with the full might of their military.

Maybe Hamas thought that they could change world opinion which might have worked if October 7 had not been so vicious. But it was so much so that whenever I try to get mad at the Israelis, I remember October 7 and I no longer can muster the requisite anger to actually change my mind.

The modern world doesn’t work in a way that matches the Hamas’ strategy. The news is everywhere. What you do is seen and once it has been seen, it can’t be unseen. Terrorism still scares the shit out people. The more repellant the terrorism, the less likely that any positive message you have will be heard. October 7 was truly repellant.

What about the Israeli merciless attack on Gaza. Yes it was bad but, again, I keep coming back to Hamas. Israel wanted the perpetrators of the October 7 attack. They were hiding in Gaza. If Hamas truly wanted to stop the Israeli counter attack, they could do what any losing army does when their civilian population is getting the shit kicked out them — they can surrender. They refused to do it, so then who is responsible for the long bloody war in Gaza? To my mind, Hamas.

Unfortunately for the Palestinians, it looks like the world agrees or, at least, they aren’t willing to do much to save them outside of street demonstrations. So, Hamas allowed its civilian population to take the brunt of Israelis justified anger after a pointless, but savage, attack of Israeli citizens. How has it helped the Palestinians in any way? I mean fucking Donald Trump wants to take over Gaza, kick out the Palestinians and put up resort hotels.

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I know that Donald Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the poor but I think it is important to question him, nonetheless, on his intentions here. Getting rid of social welfare programs is all fun and games to him, but it will have a serious impact on poor people thus on everyone else in the community.

Contrary to popular opinion, social welfare programs work. The biggest drops in poverty have occurred during the expansion of federal social welfare programs during the 1930’s and the 1960’s. Conservatives like to think that just cutting these programs will somehow force poor people to go out and get jobs. This has never worked. Never.

And we know that because there were an awful lot of poor people around before social welfare programs existed. Indeed they made up a much higher percentage of the population than they do now. Churches and charities were unable to make up the difference. That was why there were so many poor people back in the good old days.

Even Jesus realized this. Matthew 26:11 “The poor you will always have with you.” So how does Trump, Musk and company intend to help them. Taking them off the dole is hardly helpful. People need housing in order to take showers so they can make a good impression with looking for a job. They need transportation in order to arrive at the job on time. They may need psychiatric counseling so that they are coherent enough to hold a job. They may need drug rehab or alcohol rehab. They may need job training so that they can work the available jobs. The poor need an awful lot of help to make companies see them as potential employees. Where is this help going to come from?

I do have a modest proposal here and it is from the Bible — a source that Republicans particularly like to refer to. Matthew 19:20 If you want to be perfect (a perfect Christian that is), sell what you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Come on Donald and Elon, you know what to do.

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So Elon Musk fired some people who are actually necessary. This is hardly surprising. He has done this before at Tesla and at Twitter. That he keeps doing it, however, is becoming a bit of concern. I mean once is a mistake, twice maybe forgivable, but three times, well this is showing a real character problem. He fails to learn from his mistakes and this is the genius who is responsible for overhauling the Federal Government.

Furthermore, he should take into consideration that just because he is looking at a bunch of numbers on spreadsheet doesn’t mean he understands anything about the business this agency does. He might consider doing a little more investigation than a cursory glance at a spreadsheet.

Also, and most importantly, he and his team might take a less gleeful approach to the elimination of jobs. He might even consult corporations who have laid off staff in the past as they do a remarkably civil approach to this unpleasant task. They usually don’t scream you are a waste of space and we are eliminating job. Now you may think it. Fine but saying it is unnecessary particularly when you are sitting in the catbird seat.

In the meantime, the cabinet officers who are responsible for these departments might take a little time with any recommendations Musk offers. He shoots first and asks questions later. Not a terribly intelligent approach.

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Marko Elez, one of Elon Musk’s young DOGE stooges, resigned for making clearly racist comments. A day or so later, Musk rehires the poor thing as he shouldn’t have to suffer for his racism. What? Am I hearing this correctly?

This would have been perfect situation for Trump to prove his concern for racism. Elez is a low level employee who would be easily replaced by another young more discrete racist. Trump wins for not putting up with racist assholes. Musk gets to carry on cutting jobs and government agencies.

And for what? They didn’t want to ruin the life of a young man. What? How is Elez life ruined? He would have surely gone on to some other job where he could lay off people. Corporations are chockablock full of these dudes.

Now Trump is stuck rehiring a racist asshole. Everything Elez does will have a taint. As it should. Trump is more interested in showing he is in charge and he doesn’t care what other people think. He is so obsessed with showing his macho-you-can’t-tell-me-what-to-do side that he misses these opportunities of showing some grace to his critics.

Elez is an asshole. There was no reason to hire him back. His life won’t be ruined by leaving Musk’s DOGE budget cutting fiesta. This was no great matter and a missed opportunity for Trump to show he actually cares about a real display of racism. He blew it.

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I laughed out loud when I heard Donald Trump was taking on the Chairman’s role at the Kennedy Center.

Really. I mean really. This is the job, of all the jobs in government, that is so important that he decides only he can do it right.

Elon Musk is slashing government budgets this way and that, the Gaza Strip is soon to become an American responsibility, the price of eggs is going through the roof, a trade war is brewing, and, well, the list goes on but of all the big problems Trump and his new administration are facing, Trump wants to take on scheduling acts at the Kennedy Center as a priority.

Gobsmackingly amazing.

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I can’t help myself. I try to ignore Donald Trump as much as I can but since he is now president it is impossible, so here goes.

Donald Trump wants to prioritize White South Africans as immigrants. Does this have anything to do with native South African Elon Musk? No, it couldn’t. Musk would never use his influence in the Trump Administration to ask for something so egregiously racist.

Immigration give priority to people who are in immediate danger. Trump’s focus is on South Africans of European descent. So this applies to mix raced South Africans as long as one of the two parents were of European descent. What if only one of the grand parents is of European descent? What percentage European descent is he talking about?

Then, why do White South Africans get priority? Are they in any more danger than women who want out of Iran? Or Sudanese rebels? Or just plain poor folk from Central America who want to escape drug lords?

The troubling aspect about Trump’s order is that it is so transparently racist. This order comes while he is trying to shut down the border from non-white immigrants. So Trump isn’t really opposed to immigrants, just non-white immigrants.