Musings:
•The Sins of Donald J. Trump (chapter two): He has:
Curtailed the prosecutions against persons accused of blocking reproductive-rights facilities;
Revoked the ban on employment discrimination;
Ordered all Federal government agencies to make lists of businesses and universities which promote diversity, equity, and inclusion;
Demanded that Denmark cede Greenland to the U.S.;
Threatened to take back the Panama Canal, by force if necessary;
Imposed sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China;
Fired the inspectors general of various government agencies;
Canceled all government programs dealing with diversity, equity, and inclusion;
Withdrew all regulations from the Joe Biden Administration still pending White House review;
Ordered all public-health agencies to cancel their scientific meetings and cease all public communications;
Banned transgender persons from serving in the military; and
Implemented a hiring freeze of Federal civilian employees.
•T. Rump wants to expand the United States – by hook or by crook, as they used to say – territorially with the forced cession of other countries’ possessions. On the other hand, The Chas wants to subtract parts of the U.S. which would result in a reduction of wasted money.
The plan would proceed in two phases: independence and cessation. First, independence will be granted to the five off-shore territories – Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Marshall Islands, and Guam – giving them the opportunity to plot their own destiny. Additionally, independence should be granted to Hawai’i which was seized by force in 1898.
The cessation phase would give (1) Texas back to Mexico, (2) Florida back to Spain, and (3) Alaska back to Russia, because our acquisition of them was due to duress.
Can’t you just feel the U.S. budget being balanced, dear reader? Let someone else go bankrupt with the costs of supporting those territories.
•Elon Musk has been taking a lot of heat lately for his attempts to save tax-payer dollars. Gee, whiz, everybody! Give the guy a break! His heart is in the right place, huh?
Here’s an idea by which Mr. Musk can salvage his good name. He can use some of his billions to pay off the national debt. Not all at once, of course. That’s asking too much of anybody. No, it should be incrementally over the next, say, oh, ten years. He’d still have enough left over to buy eggs, right?
•B.S. claims that T. Rump will “fix” the United States. Actually, T. Rump will put the U.S. in a “fix.” If B.S. would take off his rose-colored glasses and his aluminum headgear, he would receive a large jolt of reality. There is no Republican Party anymore. There is no democracy. There is only King Donald I, surrounded by his MAGA courtiers, issuing one executive order after another and ignoring the Congress and the judiciary altogether. Once upon a time, America divested itself of one king. It’s time to divest another one.
•As an undergraduate studying history at Aurora College many years ago, I came across the concept of a “universal spider.” According to the historian who coined the phrase, a universal spider is an influential individual, unelected, of course, who becomes the voice of authority behind the throne. It weaves its web of intrigue across national boundaries in order to expand its world vision as humanly possible. The historian used the eighteenth-century churchman, Cardinal Richelieu of France, as an example. (The Chas has nominated Henry Kissinger as another.)
I say all this because I see another universal spider in the making. We see him standing next to T. Rump in the Oval Office, making sure His Majesty is prone to “suggestion.” Do I need to mention any names, dear reader? This spider wears a dollar sign on his chest and a smile on his lips. Before we can divest ourselves of the puppet, we must first deal with the puppet master.
Just a thought.