Downhill
POST 1177
Deterioration
During an ABC interview our president 
boldly and repeatedly embarrassed himself by claiming that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 terrorist gang member. Trump tried to prove it by showing a picture of Mr. Garcia’s left hand with “MS13” tattooed on his knuckles.
But here’s the Snopes fact check article that exposes Trump’s claim as bunk. They wrote,
While publicly available evidence confirmed the image shared by Trump was authentic in origin, it also confirmed the image had been altered to insert the text “MS-13” above the actual tattoos — in effect annotating them. There was no clear evidence the symbols on Abrego Garcia’s fingers proved an affiliation with MS-13. [emphasis mine]
Okay, so Trump lied. No breaking news there.
A couple weeks ago Trump declared that, “The price of eggs went down 92%.” But there is no place in the United States where the price of eggs went down 92%. Trump lied again, a fact based right here on Earth 1.
The egg lie is pointless. It’s stupid. The other lie has enormous impact, not just on Mr. Garcia, who remains in an El Salvador gulag, but on our foundational principle of the rule of law and, consequently, on all of us.
If Trump believes that the false things he says are true, then instead of his being dishonest, he would be delusional, mentally separated from reality, cognitively dysfunctional.
Going downhill.
The Garcia and the egg lies are just a couple of the most recent demonstrations of what makes Trump the poster boy for the 25th Amendment.
From Robert Reich’s post, Don’t Call Them “Potential Conflicts of Interest. They’re Corruption:
Words matter. When the media points out Trump’s “potential conflicts of interest,” as it has in recent days when describing Trump’s growing crypto enterprise, it doesn’t come close to telling the public what’s really going on — unprecedented paybacks and self-dealing by the president of the United States, using his office to make billions.
The correct word is corruption. [emphasis original]
Trump holds a private dinner at the White House for major speculators who purchase his new cryptocurrency, earning him and his allies $900,000 in trading fees in just under two days. One senator calls this “the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done.”
Further downhill.
Now there’s the $480 million jet bribe.
Over and over during his first term there was talk about the obvious emoluments violations that constantly attended him like water swirling in a toilet. And the Republican controlled Congress let Trump get away with his grift, just as this Congress sits spinelessly watching his grift today.
It looks like there is little Trump criminality that is low enough to motivate Republican legislators to honor their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.
Like I said: Downhill.
From Michael Cohen’s post, This Ain’t the Godfather, Morons**, explaining why so many Americans support this mob boss:
” . . . in a country broken by inequality, fear, and rage, people want to believe in someone who promises to punish the people they blame for their pain.”
“With Trump back in office, it’s no longer an act; it’s a goddamn sequel. But this time, he’s not just throwing tantrums on Twitter. He’s purging government agencies, pardoning his goons, and rewriting the rules to protect himself. This is mob rule in a democracy’s clothing.”
“America loves an outlaw. We romanticize the antihero. But we forget the lesson every one of those gangster stories teaches us: it always ends in blood. In betrayal. In regret.”
Not-So-Fun Facts
Not-So-Fun Fact #1:
Trump’s repugnant, organizationally illiterate, DUI Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has announced that he is firing 20% of our flag officers (generals and admirals). They’re the guys with long experience and with the knowledge and good judgement that take decades to accumulate. They’re the folks who know national defense and who live the concepts of integrity and accountability. Hegseth is dumping 20% of these knowledge and expertise resources.
He’s also announced plans to eliminate legacy weapons and equipment programs. He’s said little about what these are.
Wait: He’s dumping our smart people and a bunch of our munitions. Who in the world might benefit from us hobbling ourselves like that?
Not-So-Fun Fact #2:
Musk and Trump have conspired to give worldwide dominance of internet services to Musk’s Starlink. Other than the tsunami of money for Musk, it’s a grab for worldwide dominance of AI. How do you feel about putting Musk in charge of everything, including your private, personal information and whatever you’re thinking and saying?
Plus, Musk warns us, the Sun is expanding and will affect and then eat Earth in 5 billion years. Musk realized as a child the threat we face and wants to go to Mars pronto. After all, we only have billions (with a “B”) of years until doomsday. There’s too much to unpack here, so read Heather Cox Richardson’s piece from last Wednesday.
Like I said: Downhill.
Thinking Beyond The Current Tweak To Your Sensibilities
As Trump slides down the mental acuity and corruption sewer pipe we are left with a terrible reality. Were Trump to leave office before January 20, 2029, J.D. Vance would move into the Oval Office. That’s actually as bad as Trump staying there, because Vance is just as comfortable as Trump is with dishonesty and betrayal of the Constitution and our laws. Worse, he’s cunning, slimy and indebted to a bunch of mega-billionaire Project 2025 types (read: greedy billionaire bastards) who paved his way to the vice-presidency on a highway of greenbacks. What could possibly go wrong?
Also from Robert Reich:
Today the great divide is not between left and right. It’s between democracy and oligarchy. [emphasis original]
He’s right, but most people don’t know what oligarchy is. Instead, try this when you speak of the threat we face:
Today the great divide is not between left and right. It’s between democracy and greedy billionaire dictator wannabes. – JA
Reich also said,
Unlike income or wealth, power is a zero-sum game. The more of it at the top, the less of it anywhere else.
He’s right. It’s time we stopped our downhill slide and started us and our country back to becoming once again the shining city on the hill.
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* Trump remains the undisputed champion of deceit. They even track Trump’s mendacity in Australia. From Independent Australia’s Victoria Fielding in her post, Donald Trump is the world’s most audacious liar:
Trump’s entire political career has been one lie after the other — a fire hydrant of small, medium-sized and huge lies, lies told to hide other lies, lies told to confuse, to attack, to undermine, to pretend he is something he’s not, to cover up for what he’s done, to justify the unjustifiable, to shirk responsibility, to avoid consequences, to confuse people about what is true, to make them stop trying to tell the difference between lies and reality.
** “Morons” refers to Americans who blindly follow and support Trump.
Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election
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