Do Americans really care about elections? Certainly, but an election really never changed things that much. Whether it was the Democrats or the Republicans, we were always sure to have a democracy with our freedoms set out in the Constitution and protected by the Courts. Not so anymore! The Republicans suddenly stopped believing in democracy, preferring a white Christian dictatorship, protecting white Christians at the expense of everybody else.
Joe Biden was eighty-one years old, seeking a second term, but stumbling and bumbling, whispering and slurring his words, especially in his debate with Trump in June of 2024. Maybe we should blame Jill Biden, who out of loyalty to her husband and the desire to retain power, tried to push Joe Biden forward. Kamal Harris had a reluctant democratic party, a lousy Biden inflation record of over five percent, a terrible immigration policy thrust on her with cries by the liberals for “open borders.” She had one hundred days to campaign and chose a weak running mate who brought no significant electoral votes with him and whose military history was involved with the Minnesota National Guard, allegedly resigning rather than serve overseas with his unit.
Donald Trump had experience and ran on a platform of promising to stop inflation and bring back low prices for food and gas. He promised to close the Mexican border, build a wall to stop the gang members and child molesters trying to get into our country which the Mexicans would pay for and deport the “worst of the worst” criminals who had gained entrance illegally. He said that he would “drain the swamp” of corrupt politicians in the government. He said that he would keep us out of war and stop our involvement with foreign governments. He said that he would investigate and stop foreign interference in our elections, especially China. He would “Make America Great Again.” He would bring down taxes, help the farmer, bring prosperity to the small business owner and control the large corporations. No more foreign entanglements
America jumped into bed with the devil. Trump won the popular vote besides winning the electoral college vote. We asked for something different than what we got. The Heritage Foundation and various right wing anti-democracy groups including the Federalist Society were ecstatic. They had a carefully planned, nine hundred- and twenty-two-page project book designed step by step to replace American democracy with an oligarchic dictatorship. Everything fell into place. The Trumpers won both houses of congress. They controlled a highly politicized Supreme Court. This had happened before, but never with the intent of the party in power to undo the Constitution and replace our democracy. President Trump swung into action on the first day in office by pardoning the January 6th rioters who tried to violently, overthrow our government. He signed a large number of Executive Orders, many of which had to be illegal, unconstitutional and outright unfair. He was the beneficiary of a crazy ruling from the Supreme Court giving him immunity for any act he performed as president. He already had the pardoning power, which could be converted into a stream of hot cash. As President Mr. Trump stretched the use of his “emergency powers”, started a private ICE army, purged the government and the military by discharging the watchdogs of the government, namely the Inspectors General and the JAG (Judges Advocate Generals) -lawyers of the military and requiring a belief from all, including Republican Congresspersons and Senators, that the 2020 elections were really won by Trump and were rigged against him. This, of course, was the big lie.
The way was now clear to rule with little restraint or restriction. Here we go. –
“Affordability?” President Trump says that it’s a democrat hoax. That the economy is fine’ It takes almost one hundred dollars to put gas in the pick-up. Steak is over fourteen dollars a pound. He took home over two billion dollars for himself and his family from what we must consider very questionable deals involving foreign entities investing in his crypto currency company which may have had few if any assets.
Tariffs were declared illegal, but Mr. Trump’s team found other laws which he could stretch and use such as child labor abuses. He uses tariffs for personal reasons to punish countries that don’t bend to his will or please him in some way. The American consumer pays for most of these tariffs in increased and inflated prices. What happened to the one hundred billion dollars that we collected because we paid for overpriced goods because of tariffs? It was supposed to be refunded to us. Forty of the S&P “500” companies received 9.6 billion dollars, including Apple, Nike, Ford, Fed Ex and Amazon. Look in the mailbox. You didn’t get anything. The National Debt could have been reduced, but under the Republicans it is now FORTY TRILLION dollars, increased by 3.8 trillion dollars, since January 20, 2025. Tariffs supposedly yielded six hundred forty-two million dollars a day. Where is the money?
Talking about big money, what is happening to the money pouring in from the renewed oil drilling in Venezuela? It’s the heavy crude that we produce. It doesn’t go through the Strait of Hormuz. Who is buying that oil? Who is getting all that money and the fees and making money on the operation? Is Venezuela keeping it? I don’t think so. Is Mr. Trump holding it in Qatar?
What about our American oil? We import light oil from Canada and pay a high price, but we export heavy oil in volume even more than we import and sell it to about one hundred and seventy countries and get that high international price all outside the Strait of Hormuz. Why aren’t those huge profits being used to reduce the price of gas at the pump? Why? – Because those profits are going to the oil companies which probably are the ones who donated about one billion dollars to the Trump campaign-maybe Exxon, more than Elon Musk gave! We have a right to know what they are making and to levy an excess profits war tax on them to reduce the prices that we are paying.
There’s a lot more to come, but I promised myself not to get carried away. People just want to get on with their lives. They are too busy working two jobs and not getting the promised “American Dream” to do anything about it. Just remember the Toyota motto- “You asked for it. You got it!” But I don’t really think that you asked to be screwed.
“I’ll be back!”
Lewis