Today’s TomDispatch’s Tom Engelhardt’s D IS FOR DONALD (AND DECLINE): The Big 3Ds (or Is It Four?) concludes as follows:
“And yes, he’s certainly going to be President Decline, Baby, Decline. Don’t, for a second, be fooled by his very open urge, in a strikingly McKinleyesque fashion, ‘to expand our territory’ — to grab, that is, or at least dream about grabbing yet more territory for imperial America, ranging from Greenland and the Panama Canal to that 51st state Canada, and, of course, Gaza. The urge to return to a nineteenth-century version of imperialism, even as he does his best (or worst?) to take this country and this planet down, is striking, to say the least. Especially as, in the wake of the McKinley moment, the American version of imperialism normally involved a far more subtle kind of control over significant parts of this planet, rather than the Trumpian urge to simply grab what you can, bit by bit, island by island, country by country.
“Of course, on a planet that itself is beginning to come apart at the seams, such a president, a man focused on himself above all else, is no small disaster. Four more years of Donald Trump should worry anyone, whether your fears have to do with the dismantling of this country or the taking down of our world. In fact, THINK OF DONALD TRUMP’S AMERICA AS THE PLANETARY EQUIVALENT OF A MEMECOIN. WHILE HE AND HIS FAMILY MAY WIN SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT, DON’T COUNT ON THAT FOR THE REST OF US, INCLUDING THE 49.7% OF AMERICAN VOTERS IN THE LAST ELECTION WHO BOUGHT INTO HIS SCHEME.
“The Big D — whether you want to think of it as Decline, Dysdopia, Denial, or simply Donald — is now ours for four long, long years. And that couldn’t be sadder.”
Of Note: Zelensky, and Macron have Schooled DJT Publicly... This is how You Deal with a Bully... Seems that Resistance to this Putin abetted Regime is Arising... There Is Still Hope...
I have a different outlook tweeting this to Ari Melber on MSNBC just before coming here; @AriMelber
Watching you from CanaDa, I see too many SINS of Historical OMISSION in your anti-Russian rant ignoring the application of US Power. The Gaza Genocide would not be happening without US complicity. I always admired and generally supported your coverage of it.
You consider yourself to be a legitimate Journalist.
As such, you should appreciate the undeniable Historical FACT, The Kansas City Times was describing and quoting me 49 Years ago publishing this vision of the Future:
“He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD'S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered [...] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” [...] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”
That 1976 FUTURE is NOW with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter. The World is waking up to see Americans may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.
I saw your rant tonight as inciting for WWIII concurrent with The Middle East on the Path to Armageddon aka the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty shaping up between Jewish Israel, Christian America and the Islamic Nations.
Because of that 1976 period in my CV as a CanaDian while Americans were celebrating the Revolution, in the week BEFORE February 24, I went to the OSCE website DAILY, created by the Minsk Accords to see with my own eyes, the Truce Violations between the US installed anti-Russian Ukraine government in 2014 shelling the majority Russian speaking Ukrainians bordering Russia. Did you see them then Ari?
I did and the truce violations, mostly from the Ukraine were reaching up to 2000 A DAY! Ukraine as the proxy for the US, started the WAR provoking the Russian SMO to stop it.
US Propaganda wants the US Public to think there was no US-NATO- Russian History that led to February 24, just like Israel wants to World to think there was no Jewish-Palestinian History before October 7 that led to it!
The only reason why I like what Trump and Musk are doing is because they aren't Biden. For me, Trump and his billionaire buddy are just continuing Reaganomics and George Ws "unitary executive" project. In other words, get government regulations out of the way, and make Trump the King who issues all orders. I really hope Trump does thaw relations with Russia and China as that alone will be a major step forward. But further eroding government regulations, cutting taxes when there is a $36 trillion debt, and making the president more like the King are not going to make anything in this country better. My only consolation is that the worst administration of my lifetime is history, but the future doesn't look particularly bright right now.
Given his problematical math skills--reportedly he'd boasted of saving us a BILLION dollars by revising or ditching one gov't contract, which fact checkers quickly discovered was a mere MILLION dollars (a mere thousand-fold overstatement)--I wonder how much of his own intellect actually built the Tesla company?? Likely he was just using ideas of his employees and then discarding their dried out husks. [And please, no pleas for sympathy 'cuz he reportedly is autistic!] Never thought I'd side with Steve Bannon, but I'm signing on to his "crusade" (half-hearted?) to declare Musk an "illegal immigrant from South Africa"! DEPORT ELON MUSK!!!
Alas, this is more progress in the pending MAGA coup as now DOD has been hamstrung and there are no significant guardrails for fascism besides we voters. In an interview with Thom Hartman this afternoon, Michael Cohen seemed to expect a 2nd shooting revolution. Hope the MAGAs get woke before the gunfire starts.
I'm ok with doge but not ok with muskrat running it or some 22 yo nurd doing the snooping. Personally I hated yearly reviews and whether or not I met or exceeded expections. I did my job. I lovedwhat I did, enjoyed my colleagues and was always part of the team. Performance reviews was the only part of any job I had I soooi disliked. But every year did them reluctantly. I can seeing 'the team" being evaluated at team brin storm sessions to rout out what needs fixing and where efforts should be placed but lthe individul performance review is a stupid patriarchial activity. Just another capitalist higharchy keep em uder foot crap. Oppose oppression dear comrades.
In my job they were called Progress Reports. Sometimes I would pick an obscure word and try to build the report around it. Sometimes we would also have weekly staff meetings in which we would report our progress. They were usually first thing in the morning and everyone was half asleep. Or at least I was. Yawn.
Amid the most intensive Israeli operations in the area in decades, Palestinians fear entrenched displacement and a return to military control in some towns.
Civil service employees work for one of the three branches of government - executive, congressional, or judicial. I suppose some could claim - I wouldn't - he has the authority to make those demands for the various agencies under the executive branch. Even that seems specious as it's unclear under what statute he's operating - specifically those that would be called out in the Code of Federal Regulations.
The first question i had, Bill, was: On what authority did Musk issue that demand? My second question was: Who is going to read all these WARs and how much is that going to cost? And my third question was: Will the leaders of any Federal Agencies publicly denounce Musk's "order" and refuse to comply?
As has been noted before: "The Decline" of The American Empire has ended, and "The Fall" has begun. And with it, the end of the beginning of the end of The Experiment called The United States of America.
Answer to at least one of your questions. … Yes, heads of departments are beginning to tell their people NOT to comply, considering the demand an encroachment on THEIR prerogatives … even some recently appointed by DJT. I’d prefer to think that is a good sign, but I actually just think it illustrates how incredibly dysfunctional DJTs administrations always have been {in business AND government| and continue to be. Sigh.
I work at a military campus and they have already told everyone not to respond to the letter that Musk had sent out. So the backlash has started. Trump has also demanded that everyone return to the office, but the parking lots where I work don't have nearly the capacity for that many cars, so they are scrambling to figure out how to get everyone to car pool or take the metro. Don't think that is going to work out. It is fairly obvious that they are doing the age old tactic of throwing as many monkey wrenches into the works of the government as they can to weaken its ability to regulate big business. But considering how counter-productive and corrupt the government has become, creating havoc may not be so bad in the long run.
LOVE your caption under the Elno-and-chainsaw pic, Bill!
Today’s TomDispatch’s Tom Engelhardt’s D IS FOR DONALD (AND DECLINE): The Big 3Ds (or Is It Four?) concludes as follows:
“And yes, he’s certainly going to be President Decline, Baby, Decline. Don’t, for a second, be fooled by his very open urge, in a strikingly McKinleyesque fashion, ‘to expand our territory’ — to grab, that is, or at least dream about grabbing yet more territory for imperial America, ranging from Greenland and the Panama Canal to that 51st state Canada, and, of course, Gaza. The urge to return to a nineteenth-century version of imperialism, even as he does his best (or worst?) to take this country and this planet down, is striking, to say the least. Especially as, in the wake of the McKinley moment, the American version of imperialism normally involved a far more subtle kind of control over significant parts of this planet, rather than the Trumpian urge to simply grab what you can, bit by bit, island by island, country by country.
“Of course, on a planet that itself is beginning to come apart at the seams, such a president, a man focused on himself above all else, is no small disaster. Four more years of Donald Trump should worry anyone, whether your fears have to do with the dismantling of this country or the taking down of our world. In fact, THINK OF DONALD TRUMP’S AMERICA AS THE PLANETARY EQUIVALENT OF A MEMECOIN. WHILE HE AND HIS FAMILY MAY WIN SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT, DON’T COUNT ON THAT FOR THE REST OF US, INCLUDING THE 49.7% OF AMERICAN VOTERS IN THE LAST ELECTION WHO BOUGHT INTO HIS SCHEME.
“The Big D — whether you want to think of it as Decline, Dysdopia, Denial, or simply Donald — is now ours for four long, long years. And that couldn’t be sadder.”
The full article is well worth the read and is at https://tomdispatch.com/d-is-for-donald-and-decline/ ; EMPHASIS added.
Note: Another "D" to add to the list ~ as John pointed out earlier ~ is DEBT; now standing at $36.52 TRILLION, and counting, to be exact.
Of Note: Zelensky, and Macron have Schooled DJT Publicly... This is how You Deal with a Bully... Seems that Resistance to this Putin abetted Regime is Arising... There Is Still Hope...
I have a different outlook tweeting this to Ari Melber on MSNBC just before coming here; @AriMelber
Watching you from CanaDa, I see too many SINS of Historical OMISSION in your anti-Russian rant ignoring the application of US Power. The Gaza Genocide would not be happening without US complicity. I always admired and generally supported your coverage of it.
You consider yourself to be a legitimate Journalist.
As such, you should appreciate the undeniable Historical FACT, The Kansas City Times was describing and quoting me 49 Years ago publishing this vision of the Future:
“He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD'S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered [...] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” [...] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”
That 1976 FUTURE is NOW with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter. The World is waking up to see Americans may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.
I saw your rant tonight as inciting for WWIII concurrent with The Middle East on the Path to Armageddon aka the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty shaping up between Jewish Israel, Christian America and the Islamic Nations.
Because of that 1976 period in my CV as a CanaDian while Americans were celebrating the Revolution, in the week BEFORE February 24, I went to the OSCE website DAILY, created by the Minsk Accords to see with my own eyes, the Truce Violations between the US installed anti-Russian Ukraine government in 2014 shelling the majority Russian speaking Ukrainians bordering Russia. Did you see them then Ari?
I did and the truce violations, mostly from the Ukraine were reaching up to 2000 A DAY! Ukraine as the proxy for the US, started the WAR provoking the Russian SMO to stop it.
US Propaganda wants the US Public to think there was no US-NATO- Russian History that led to February 24, just like Israel wants to World to think there was no Jewish-Palestinian History before October 7 that led to it!
https://rayjc.com/2022/04/13/us-politicians-are-sleepwalking-toward-the-nuclear-abyss/
The only reason why I like what Trump and Musk are doing is because they aren't Biden. For me, Trump and his billionaire buddy are just continuing Reaganomics and George Ws "unitary executive" project. In other words, get government regulations out of the way, and make Trump the King who issues all orders. I really hope Trump does thaw relations with Russia and China as that alone will be a major step forward. But further eroding government regulations, cutting taxes when there is a $36 trillion debt, and making the president more like the King are not going to make anything in this country better. My only consolation is that the worst administration of my lifetime is history, but the future doesn't look particularly bright right now.
Given his problematical math skills--reportedly he'd boasted of saving us a BILLION dollars by revising or ditching one gov't contract, which fact checkers quickly discovered was a mere MILLION dollars (a mere thousand-fold overstatement)--I wonder how much of his own intellect actually built the Tesla company?? Likely he was just using ideas of his employees and then discarding their dried out husks. [And please, no pleas for sympathy 'cuz he reportedly is autistic!] Never thought I'd side with Steve Bannon, but I'm signing on to his "crusade" (half-hearted?) to declare Musk an "illegal immigrant from South Africa"! DEPORT ELON MUSK!!!
Alas, this is more progress in the pending MAGA coup as now DOD has been hamstrung and there are no significant guardrails for fascism besides we voters. In an interview with Thom Hartman this afternoon, Michael Cohen seemed to expect a 2nd shooting revolution. Hope the MAGAs get woke before the gunfire starts.
I'm ok with doge but not ok with muskrat running it or some 22 yo nurd doing the snooping. Personally I hated yearly reviews and whether or not I met or exceeded expections. I did my job. I lovedwhat I did, enjoyed my colleagues and was always part of the team. Performance reviews was the only part of any job I had I soooi disliked. But every year did them reluctantly. I can seeing 'the team" being evaluated at team brin storm sessions to rout out what needs fixing and where efforts should be placed but lthe individul performance review is a stupid patriarchial activity. Just another capitalist higharchy keep em uder foot crap. Oppose oppression dear comrades.
Oppose fascism in the work place.
In my job they were called Progress Reports. Sometimes I would pick an obscure word and try to build the report around it. Sometimes we would also have weekly staff meetings in which we would report our progress. They were usually first thing in the morning and everyone was half asleep. Or at least I was. Yawn.
Bill, your pragmatism is admirable.
Big WARS Small WARS
Why Tensions Are Rising in the West Bank
Amid the most intensive Israeli operations in the area in decades, Palestinians fear entrenched displacement and a return to military control in some towns.
That wouldn't be happening without US complicity!
This link lets you read this NYT article for free: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-what-why.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zk4.JkJ3.bWBlp3e56nLc&smid=url-share
A friend who worked AF systems acquisition used to say: “if the people in town knew what we did, it would be pitchforks and torches “
Musk looking for that.
Civil service employees work for one of the three branches of government - executive, congressional, or judicial. I suppose some could claim - I wouldn't - he has the authority to make those demands for the various agencies under the executive branch. Even that seems specious as it's unclear under what statute he's operating - specifically those that would be called out in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Even the President is subject to the CFR.
The first question i had, Bill, was: On what authority did Musk issue that demand? My second question was: Who is going to read all these WARs and how much is that going to cost? And my third question was: Will the leaders of any Federal Agencies publicly denounce Musk's "order" and refuse to comply?
Well, one can only wonder and imagine what is going to happen next: KEY FEDERAL AGENCIES REFUSE TO COMPLY WITH MUSK’S LATEST DEMAND IN HIS COST-CUTTING CRUSADE at https://apnews.com/article/musk-federal-workers-trump-demand-firings-06553df358086db05917d3c50f3699d6 .
As has been noted before: "The Decline" of The American Empire has ended, and "The Fall" has begun. And with it, the end of the beginning of the end of The Experiment called The United States of America.
Answer to at least one of your questions. … Yes, heads of departments are beginning to tell their people NOT to comply, considering the demand an encroachment on THEIR prerogatives … even some recently appointed by DJT. I’d prefer to think that is a good sign, but I actually just think it illustrates how incredibly dysfunctional DJTs administrations always have been {in business AND government| and continue to be. Sigh.
Roger. i saw the answer to that question in the AP report, Pat.
i'm really curious about the answers to the first two.
I work at a military campus and they have already told everyone not to respond to the letter that Musk had sent out. So the backlash has started. Trump has also demanded that everyone return to the office, but the parking lots where I work don't have nearly the capacity for that many cars, so they are scrambling to figure out how to get everyone to car pool or take the metro. Don't think that is going to work out. It is fairly obvious that they are doing the age old tactic of throwing as many monkey wrenches into the works of the government as they can to weaken its ability to regulate big business. But considering how counter-productive and corrupt the government has become, creating havoc may not be so bad in the long run.