A Simple School Lesson for Donnie and Elon

Children, today we're going to learn something about administrations and governance.

An effective administration and governance for the benefit of all looks like this:



But an administration and governance that is not for the benefit of all looks like this:



Your homework will be to write about the difference between the two, and why. Can you see it?

Have a good weekend.

Erik Princes 'memo'

“This is not some idea of a private army,” Prince said Tuesday on NewsNation’s “On Balance.” “It was a memo generated to describe how to achieve the logistics necessary to move the millions of people that they intend to deport." - NEWSNATION

"Any further culling would come on top of the firings last week of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, the Navy’s top admiral, the Air Force deputy chief of staff and the services’ top military lawyers."] Politico

Anyone for a game of three shells and a pea?

Strange if true

The Laws

If the 'laws' are ignored by an antagonist, then what is the recourse?

What would the cartels do?

Reportedly, the Mexican cartels combined have around 175,000 members. Their activity also extends to many central and South America countries along with Canada, U.S., and Australia.

There has been talk from Trump and the far-right of dealing with the cartels, invading Mexico, etc. What do you think the cartels' united response to such would be?

Win or lose, Trump is f***ed

Unless he is completely oblivious to the reality of it, I think Trump probably knows that it's going to be a nightmare for him regardless of the outcome. It'll be 4 years of trying to appease 'basement dwellers' along with fighting an opposition that'll be jacked-up to a relentless and dangerous level. Miserable.

I would not be surprised at all if he is thinking that at least losing the election will be better for him in the long run. He can go on with the trials, put up an image of 'atonement' and pay some fines. And since he would no longer be an immediate threat then he might get some slack and no jail time.

Better to be a private citizen in Bedminster or Mar a Lago than be constantly under siege - from both sides - at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Of course, that all depends if he still has at least a measure of common sense left in him. If not:
"Oh Donny boy, the pipes, the pipes, are calling...."

Too Big To Fail

Those who read and participate in DU's comments are more than aware of what's at stake in the November election. Basically, it's either saving democracy or succumbing to a coup by elements that threaten anything from a civil war if they don't get their way, to an all-out reconstruction of our way of life if they succeed.

I've always held that at the core of US government there is a saying: Too big to fail. It is a sentiment that says that under no circumstances, whether foreign or domestic, can the US be allowed to be destabilized to the point where it loses its standing as the leading country on the global stage. It's as if there is a 'Star Chamber' somewhere that allows the rest of us to air out our grievances against others and then every four years we have a political 'Super Bowl' to see who gets the trophy until next time.

But a Super Bowl where the field is torn up along with all the seats and the stadium itself as in the notions of 'civil war' or 'revolution'? No, there's just too much at stake on many levels to allow something like that and especially to those beyond our shores who may want to take advantage of confusion and conflict.

I'm aware that 'Star Chamber', 'Deep State', and other such designations are debatable as to their reality, but I do think there is an element that when it seems the situation is getting out of hand and threatens the nation domestically and at large, it simply says NO in an effective manner. It is inconceivable to me that ALL that we as a people and as a country have struggled for would be lost and we would have to submissively accept the delusions of others who are ball-and-chained by the psyops of a few bad actors.

Am I being naive in any of this? If I were younger I might think so. But after several decades of 'Super Bowls' I may not get the spread correctly but I figure I'm safe with a straight win or lose - in the ultimate sense.

Too big to fail.

Message delivered

Trump got a message on Saturday: Stick to the script. And the message did not come from Democrats. By now he's realized that winning the presidency will be a burden of serving the agendas of others instead of a personal triumph. With that hanging over his head, and the prospect of 4 years of servitude and doubled-up criticisms from every point on the compass, 'defiance' is merely another word of little value.

His speech at the convention will be interesting. His words or someone else's? Whichever, if it weren't for the get out of jail pass he'd probably want to be nowhere near Washington DC. He knows now it's a dangerous place and more so than the first time around.

2076

I've lived through several administrations in my life. I can remember as a child having an "I Like Ike" button. I can't remember where I got the button or what it really meant.

After 12 of those administrations, including Gerald Ford's, it has become clear that the same playbook in terms of what to tell people, the voters, is always the same. The same promises though updated a little to seem more current. The voters in one way or another expect a politician to become a savior, someone that's going to part the sea of troubles and lead everyone to the promised land. But that sea is still there and some would say even more turbulent than before. They talked about making things better for future generations, and here many of us are that generation.

When it was just 3 television channels and newspapers there was at least some time to get away from it, deal with your immediate, personal concerns of life. But nowadays it's a 24/7 gauntlet of politicians, pundits, internet 'patriots', and a populace that seems partly cultish, partly fearful, and some who seem like they're just sleepwalking. Do I wish for those earlier times? No, not at all. I guess I've wished for a better understanding and assessment by people of the lessons learned(?) from history. Here we are in the 21st century and many are acting as if they were in the 1950s, or earlier.

I won't be around then, but I hope that by 2076 there will reason to celebrate in some measure all that this country, and the people who have passed on and those alive now, have struggled for.

I'm optimistic it will, but it's not an easy-chair type of expectation. The work continues.