Sunday, May 11, 2025
Most Americans Don't Support Trump's War On Higher Education
Trump Is Not Even Trying To Hide His Massive Corruption These Days
The following is just part of a posting by Dan Rather:
As Donald Trump is telling American consumers that their children can make do with fewer toys this Christmas because his Grinch-like tariffs will make prices jump and supplies shrink, he is getting richer by the hour. Quite literally.
You may not have heard much about this, but Trump and his family are profiting from his presidency in unprecedented ways and in staggering amounts. And the deals they are making are ethically murky at best, corrupt at worst. Illegal? We may never know. Is it buying access to Trump? That’s what one Democratic senator calls it. If it walks like a duck …
While most American presidents have gone out of their way to avoid even a whiff of a conflict of interest or profiteering, Trump is brazenly embracing the practice.
Among other things, Trump is getting rich(er) off of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency where transactions are made independent of traditional banks, using a decentralized system that has no restrictions or paper trail and in which confiscation is nearly impossible.
Once a derider of the industry as a place for “drug dealers and scammers,” Trump is now its biggest cheerleader and policymaker. He is directly benefiting from his administration’s loosening of crypto regulations.
Last fall, Trump and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric started a new cryptocurrency venture called World Liberty Financial (WLF). It has been highly lucrative for the Trump family, making them almost $3 billion in just six months! That’s according to a report by State Democracy Defenders Action, which also says the scheme now accounts for 40% of Trump’s net worth.
A large share of those billions has come from the sale of something called “meme coins.” One of Trump’s coins, named $TRUMP, was launched the Friday before he was inaugurated. The digital coins have no intrinsic value — just what someone is willing to pay for them. And folks are willing to pay a lot, if it means access to Trump.
Usually crypto transactions are anonymous, but WLF says they vet every buyer, which means they know who they are, which means Trump knows who is supporting him. WLF isn’t trying to hide the obvious quid pro quo. The company has made gaining access into a game.
On its website, WLF advertised recently that the 220 wallets, or accounts, worth the most would be invited to an “intimate private dinner” with the president. The top 25 wallets would also get a White House tour. The website has since scrubbed mention of the White House, but sales of the coins jumped 80% on this news. Keep in mind the Trump family collects a large percentage of each transaction.
Trump’s crypto enterprise is also allowing foreigners access to the president in new ways. By law, foreign nationals cannot donate to a presidential campaign or inauguration fund. But they can buy Trump’s meme coins. And boy are they. Bloomberg estimates that a majority of the top 220 wallets are owned by foreigners.
Foreigners buying influence is not simply hypothetical. After Chinese billionaire Justin Sun invested $75 million in Trump coins, an SEC investigation (begun during the Biden administration) into whether Sun had fraudulently inflated crypto prices was suddenly halted.
Many in finance and the government are raising the roof over Trump’s latest scheme. “It’s a black spot on our industry,” says crypto firm founder Andre Cronje, who has had his own run-ins with the SEC.
The Senate Subcommittee on Investigations is looking into possible conflicts of interest. “Donald Trump is selling cryptocurrency like snake oil in the Wild West, and he’s put a for sale sign on the White House for his meme coin,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.
Senator Chris Murphy was even more blunt: “Donald Trump is essentially posting his Venmo for any billionaire CEO or foreign oligarch to cash in some favors by secretly sending him millions of dollars. The Trump meme coin is the single most corrupt act ever committed by a president.” Republican senators are silent.
A Stark Assessment Of The Sociopath Living In Our White House
I know a little something that so many do not appreciate about Donald, but that those of us who worked with him in the financial services game have known for many decades—LONG before he ever made a run at politics.
His stated motives rarely reveal his true agenda. His showmanship and charisma bedazzles the uninformed, which is exactly how he likes it. He never signed a contract or met an agreement he wouldn’t violate or wriggle out of if it suited his hidden agenda. He never met an investor whose purse he didn’t consider his own in some strategic way. And he never met a human being he wouldn’t screw in order to advance or satisfy himself.
If you want to understand his beef with Panama, don’t look at the canal to which he now points. Look at Trump enterprises and their fraught financial and criminal relationship with Panama, and look to the Russian oligarchs who bought condos in his Panama Tower.
If you want to understand his fixation with Gaza, don’t look at the Palestinian or Israeli people; look at the real estate value he now perceives that Gaza holds, and he’d like to unlock.
If you want to understand his insane, obsessive beef with energy renewable windmills, don’t look at the wind energy aspect; look at his beef with Scotland over his golf course and the nearby windmills that damaged his idea of its aesthetics.
If you want to understand his irrational hatred of Obama, don’t look at the policies of the Obama administration; look to the annual press corp dinner where Obama poked fun at him and bruised his ego.
If you want to understand his demonization of Democrats, look not to Democratic social policy, but to the fact they didn’t want him to run under color of their party.
If you want to understand his hatred of “immigrants” don’t look to the actual contributions and challenges related to immigration, but to his own germophobia and personal disgust for all things “dirty and brown.”
What he does SO masterfully, as many sociopaths do, is figure out how to align, however temporarily, his own personal agenda with the drives of those he can then USE to help him execute it.
And the GOP fell right in line with that abusive strategy. The GOP now looks much like a battered wife who would LOVE to quit Trump, but who also knows their financial security, personal comfort, and social status would collapse if they ran away. And they fear they won’t get much sympathy or support from the people who tried to warn them not to marry the dude—a serial, liar, cheater, thief, sadist, and a generally Bad Person.
Many of the GOP politicians today are busily masking their own abuse from the general public; at some point, however, as they watch their power continue to erode, their reputations get smashed, and themselves get blamed for the extensive abuse they now suffer, something’s gonna give.
Saturday, May 10, 2025
How Can We Tell If We've Crossed The Line into Authoritarianism?
The following is part of an excellent article by Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way and Daniel Ziblatt in The New York Times:
The descent into authoritarianism doesn’t always set off alarms. Because governments attack their rivals through nominally legal means like defamation suits, tax audits and politically targeted investigations, citizens are often slow to realize they are succumbing to authoritarian rule.How, then, can we tell whether America has crossed the line into authoritarianism? We propose a simple metric: the cost of opposing the government. In democracies, citizens are not punished for peacefully opposing those in power. They need not worry about publishing critical opinions, supporting opposition candidates or engaging in peaceful protest because they know they will not suffer retribution from the government. In fact, the idea of legitimate opposition — that all citizens have a right to criticize, organize opposition to and seek to remove the government through elections — is a foundational principle of democracy.
Under authoritarianism, by contrast, opposition comes with a price. Citizens and organizations that run afoul of the government become targets of a range of punitive measures: Politicians may be investigated and prosecuted on baseless or petty charges, media outlets may be hit with frivolous defamation suits or adverse regulatory rulings, businesses may face tax audits or be denied critical contracts or licenses, universities and other civic institutions may lose essential funding or tax-exempt status, and journalists, activists and other critics may be harassed, threatened or physically attacked by government supporters.
When citizens must think twice about criticizing or opposing the government because they could credibly face government retribution, they no longer live in a full democracy.
By that measure, America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism. The Trump administration’s weaponization of government agencies and flurry of punitive actions against critics has raised the cost of opposition for a wide range of Americans. . . .
America’s slide into authoritarianism is reversible. But no one has ever defeated autocracy from the sidelines.
Trump's First Tariff "Deal" Was Just A Public Relations Stunt
Trump announced on Thursday that he had negotiated a huge deal with the United Kingdom. It was supposedly the first deal of many to come.
But he lied. It wasn't a deal at all. No final agreement had been reached. And no signatures were on a completed deal. It was just a general understanding that the two nations would work on the details of a broad agreement in the coming months. In other words, it was just a PR stunt.
Opposition has been growing to Trump's tariffs, and doubts were growing that Trump knew what he was doing with his trade war. This was just an effort to try and fool the American public into thinking his crazy tariff scheme was on the road to success. It isn't!
And if it had actually been a deal, it wasn't a very good one. Britain got almost nothing - just a removal of tariffs on expensive British cars and steel, while the 10% tariffs will continue on everything else. It's not a good deal for Americans either, since it will just feed inflation on goods imported from Britain.
One troubling aspect is the 10% tariff remaining. Trump has called it a minimal baseline tariff - implicating that the 10% tariffs he placed on nearly all countries will remain in place - even if "deals" can be reached with all those countries.
This was a failure for the "great negotiator". Only the most fervent MAGA faithful could believe otherwise.
Friday, May 09, 2025
Who Belongs In The Democratic And Republican Parties?
The charts above are from the YouGov Poll -- conducted between April 9th and 11th of a nationwide sample of 1,139 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
Public Is Pessimistic About The Economy (And Think Trump Is Responsible)
The charts above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between May 2nd and 5th of a nationwide sample of 1,850 adults (including 1,693 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points for adults and 3.2 points for registered voters.
About 228,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed that 228,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on May 3rd. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending May 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 228,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 241,000. The 4-week moving average was 227,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 226,000.
I Hope He Is A Good Influence On The World
I am an atheist (and have been for over 50 years). But I recognize that religious leaders can have a great deal of influence over their followers. That influence can be for good or evil.
The Catholic conclave has chosen a new Pope - Pope Leo the 14th. Most pundits seem to think he is much like Pope Francis, and is a strong believer in social justice. I hope they are right, since he will be a strong influence on about 1.4 billion people around the world.
We shall see.
Thursday, May 08, 2025
Who Americans Trust For Information About Vaccines
The charts above are from the Kaiser Family Foundation Poll -- done between April 8th and 15th of a nationwide sample of 1,380 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
Public Wants Stores To List The Cost Of Tariffs On Prices
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between May 2nd and 5th of a nationwide sample of 1,850 adults (including 1,693 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points for adults and 3.2 points for registered voters.
And they know the tariffs will raise prices!
The 20 Richest People In The World
This list of from Forbes.com. You can go to their site to see the complete list of billionaires - all 3,028 of them!
In a world with so much poverty, should anyone have a billion dollars?
Wednesday, May 07, 2025
Americans Are Skeptical Of Getting Any Benefit From Tariffs
The charts above are from the Gallup Poll -- done between April 2nd and 15th of a nationwide sample of 2,036 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
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