I have criticized Donald Trump countless times for his pattern of promising, bloviating, then backing off. Or more often flip flopping. I coined the term the Trumpenstein Project to explain his befuddling behavior. He talked the talk, but never walked the walk. All toupee and no cattle. Well, now he can’t stop walking.
Trump 2.0 has unleashed a series of often fine looking executive orders in his first month back in office. Super model executive orders. He abolished birth right citizenship. He withdrew the U.S. from the WHO. He rolled back any recognition of the transgender lunacy. He declared an emergency at the southern border. He reaffirmed a commitment to free speech and against censorship, for what that’s worth. He is ending the annoying Daylight Savings Time. And now he’s establishing English as the official language of the United States. Now, they all sound really good, but how much will actually change? Already a federal judge has predictably ruled that the ban on birth right citizenship is unconstitutional. That’s what federal judges do under the odious guise of Judicial Review. In thirty days, really on his first day back in office, Trump did more than he did in his previous four years in the White House.
A few days ago, Trump staged (and it was definitely staged) the most remarkable meeting with a foreign leader that Washington, D.C. has ever seen. From the moment he greeted vertically challenged Ukrainian “democratic” leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a Trumpian troll at his casual attire, mocking him with “I see you got dressed up,” it was pure WWE theater. Zelenskyy has shown he is willing to wear a suit and tie, if the occasion calls for it. For instance, when he meets with Israeli “democratic” leader Bibi Netanyahu. During the meeting, which was aired live before the press, Trump and J.D. Vance both scolded the pathetic former Ukrainian comedian like he was a naughty schoolboy, not an upstanding world leader who once wowed audiences by playing the piano with his penis. Zelenskyy’s Boris Badenov impression just didn’t intimidate anyone, and Trump supposedly wound up throwing him out of the place.
Yes, Trump made certain to have his hands formed into the familiar triangle, as he met with the upstanding “democratic” leader of Ukraine. Just as Elon Musk made certain to flash similarly unnatural hand and finger formations, during his recent visit to the Oval Office, where one of his estimated one billion children wiped a booger on Trump’s desk or something. To be fair, I recall someone advising me, back in the misty days of America 1.0, that I should form my hands into a triangle when being interviewed. Something about how it displayed confidence and power. I don’t know, it didn’t work for me. I don’t see how you can feign power when the other party knows you don’t have it. All those weird things the rich and famous do with their hands obviously must be significant. They appear to be swearing allegiance to someone or something. Like wearing your guy’s letterman’s jacket. Or a blue collar name tag.
It would have been great to have video of Trump picking up the arrogant “democratic” leader with the Napoleon Complex, and tossing him onto the lawn of the White House. Maybe tarred and feathered him, using red, white and blue tar. Poor Volodymyr didn’t even to get to eat the lunch prepared in his honor. As Trump lashed out at him during the meeting, he certainly sounded the right themes. “You’re playing with millions of lives. You’re playing with World War III.” Zelenskyy appeared unmoved. And his fanbase in Hollywood and the state sponsored media were appalled at how disrespected he was. Treated horribly by the bully Trump and J.D. Vance, whom they never failed to denigrate for supposedly wearing eyeliner. I don’t know, isn’t that kind of bullying? It certainly would be if the eyeliner adorned the face of a random, obese, green haired, heavily tattooed transgender with a nose ring.
Those who somehow thought this cartoonish Bullwinkle villain in a black sweat suit, who refuses to consider a ceasefire or stop sacrificing his people in a hopeless cause, was the good guy, were reaffirming their commitment to war. Zelenskyy appears to want World War III. So does the entire American “Woke” Left. Nuclear weapons are so cool now! No Nukes? Sorry, can’t remember that. My memory is going- smoked a lot of pot back at those concerts. But nukes are a reasonable option when you #Stand with Ukraine. Sure, Zelenskyy banned all opposition parties and shut down newspapers who criticized him. But we paid Ben Stiller $4 million to slobber all over him, and Ben Stiller wouldn’t lie. And do I need to remind you what he can do with a piano? That certainly ought to count for something. Would Bono give a concert in the middle of an alleged war zone for just any “democratic” leader?
It is beyond my poor powers to fathom exactly what the purpose of the steel match encounter between Trump and Zelenskyy was. To make Trump look tough to the MAGA crowd? Why was the press there, and who was the guy who blasted Zelenskyy for his decidedly non-formal outfit? The most important question is; did Trump slip Zelenskyy yet another billion or so during his unceremonious exit from the White House? If Trump permits another penny- before he outlaws them- to be sent to this arrogant actor/dictator, then that destroys any pretense that this was a legitimate event. But I’m guessing that’s what happened. Or will happen. It’s a Trumpenstein thing, you wouldn’t understand. But if Trump stops the aid to Ukraine, and continues to lecture on the dangers of a World War III, then that would be a good thing. And it would cause more “Woke” warmongers’ heads to explode, which is always fun.
TDS levels were already on red alert, prior to the Zelenskyy carnival sideshow. We continue to hear allegations that Elon Musk and DOGE are really “cleaning house.” Firing government workers left and right, many of them the essential, hard working types that most of us are largely unaware of. One claim is that some of these terminated employees were “working on nuclear weapons” or something. That’s kind of vague, isn’t it? Actually, the claims on both sides are pretty dubious. Musk and Trump brag about saving a gazillion dollars or so already. Without eliminating any agencies. Just on auditing USAID. I’d like more details with that, please. And those with TDS are apoplectic about losing the opportunity to pay all those humble and lovable federal workers a very generous wage, along with a much better benefit package than those in the boring world of private industry receive.
I would like to know where all this public outrage was when countless American workers in private industry were kicked to the curb, through no fault of their own, in the past several decades. In the first sixteen years of this century alone, some 600,000 employees were laid off, outsourced, or replaced by cheap foreign labor by just eleven companies. The examples are never ending; IBM got rid of 60,000 employees in 1993. Sears and K-Mart laid off 50,000 in January 1993. Happy New Year! A T &T laid off 40,000 in 1996. Ford eliminated 35,000 workers in 2002. General Motors- 47,000 in 2009. Citigroup- 50,000 in 2008. These are just a few instances of the outsourcing/ downsizing fervor that gripped corporate America, beginning in the 1980s. Dell laid off 26,000 in 2024. I didn’t see any gnashing of teeth over that on social media. But there is a pussyhat-level of screeching over the prospect of government cutbacks.
Why this double standard? Why do the same people who snickered, “you should have learned new skills,” when some useless eater in private industry lost his/her/ job, abandon all reason over the prospect of scrutinizing federal workers? For the first time, I might add. Until now, no one working for the government had to worry about being outsourced. Replaced by a foreign visa worker. The joke goes that it’s impossible to be fired from the federal government. But it’s no joke. You have to do something really awful to lose a government job. So why then, is it so easy to be fired by a private company? As I can personally attest to, this is especially true in so-called “right to work” states. Where they can fire you without cause, as happened to me in 2018. What DOGE is suggesting is finally looking at what various public employees actually do, to earn their generous taxpayer provided income.
In private industry, we all have been scrutinized. I’ve had bosses that literally looked over your shoulder. Stared a hole through you while you were trying to concentrate on your work. That would never happen to any government worker. I had a friend who worked in the Post Office, back when they paid extraordinarily well, and had premium benefits. He described how there was some immigrant worker, whose job it was to sort mail by zip code, that routinely just tossed mail into various zip code slots without even looking at them. Imagine how many others like that there might be. That goes a long way towards explaining why it frequently takes so long for mail to travel such a short distance. My friend eventually grew tired of trying to figure out his job function- no one really supervised him- so he just followed the crowd and did whatever he wanted. I doubt he was the only government worker like this.
I have a lot of family members who work now, or have worked in the past, for the U.S. government. I live in the D.C. suburbs, after all. I see double and triple dippers every day when I’m walking my lovely dog Riley. I can understand how they, or any other government worker, would feel threatened by this. But most of the criticism is coming from those who don’t work for the government. Shouldn’t they be the least bit interested in seeing just what it is they’re paying for? If the urban legends about three hour lunches and the like are true, should those of us who are these workers’ de facto employers have any say about that? You have to have never had any contact with a phone representative from any government agency, to believe there isn’t massive incompetence among the ranks of federal workers. Wait in line at a Social Security office. Or a DMV location. Try contacting the IRS. Or calling your “representative.”
Yes, massive government firings would mean that all those largely “unskilled” workers would be competing for the dwindling number of jobs that pay a living wage, alongside all the “unskilled” workers who never had a government job. That situation has to be addressed. Either Trump oversees the building of a great number of new factories in this country, or you’re going to eventually have to pay millions of people a universal basic income. I think it would be cheaper to pay everyone a UBI, while eliminating all the other programs that supposedly offer assistance, but aren’t easy to get. Whether Elon Musk is planning to nefariously chip and vaccinate us or not, AI is here to stay, and will eliminate even more jobs. We outsourced our industry for good with all those horrific trade deals like NAFTA, which Trump often references with disdain. But those tariffs will mean nothing without new domestic factories.
And in the same week, we saw rumors and more rumors about the Epstein List finally being released. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had it on her desk, then vented at the FBI for dragging its feet, then dragged her own feet. Eventually, a truly ridiculous photo-op of various conservative “influencers” was widely circulated, where the likes of Mike Cernovich, DC Draino (whoever that is), Liz Wheeler, and the Libs of TikTok woman were captured waving folders that read “The Epstein Files Phase 1.” This “Phase 1” apparently consisted of completely redacted pages. What exactly are the legal ramifications of this “list” anyhow? The authorities admitted taking videos and hard drives from Epstein’s mansion. Why aren’t any “influencers” waving them in public? As I’ve said, if Trump’s name is on any list, MAGA people will say it’s fake. If it’s not, those with TDS will say it’s fake.
