Excellent piece, thank you. I feel as though I should be accustomed to the greed, ego and hubris constantly displayed by this administration but every day something new takes my breath away. I found myself chuckling yesterday as Xi led 47 around that large expanse of red carpet and stood him on the viewing platform while the band played on and on and the cannons boomed in time. And then up all those steps on his delicate cankles… I was almost surprised that he made it inside! Awaiting 47’s arrival, Hegseth looked like he was experiencing a blinding hangover head— frowning and squinting. I hope he thoroughly enjoyed the cannons! The cheering children surely helped him feel better! 😂
"Donald Trump said this at a White House press gaggle on May 13, 2025, when a reporter asked directly whether the financial suffering of Americans factored into his thinking about the Iran war he had launched...."
Right. Trump recently said, “NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT” when asked whether Americans’ financial struggles were influencing his Iran policy, later adding, “I don't think about Americans' financial situation … I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Politically, it’s the kind of quote Democratic ad-makers hear and immediately start high-fiving over cold beverages. It compounds with Trump’s usual out of touch --“groceries...what a strange word” persona and practically storyboards itself: shaky footage of eggs costing $11, cut to Trump saying he doesn’t think about Americans’ finances, cue ominous piano and... "That's a take"
Republicans will argue he meant national security comes first but, come on man— nothing says “man of the people” quite like sounding like a bitchy Marie-Antoinette being informed the peasants are upset about bread prices.
Well, I guess some of his voters are beginning to realize “America First” didn’t mean “Americans first” or ever!
Trump voters likely did not expect to be left hanging once he got what he needed in 2024: the means to attain power, with access to the U.S. treasury and national resources to enrich and glorify himself.
Rather than improving American lives, Trump pursues goals that benefit his family and useful wealthy elites who kiss his ring. The rest of humanity is of no value/further value to him. We are ants on an anthill to Trump - he likes holding the power hose, believing he can turn it in our direction at any time.
“I told you so” is of little comfort in the dystopian Hunger Games America and world Trump is enabling.
People talk about him wanting a return to the gilded age. They are about 200-300 years off. Like the emperors of old. He is after more land and personal tributes. Us serfs are supposed to just obey.
As I read your words today, I thought about the diversionary wall that is STILL being built in Texas and how the lives of so many will and are being affected by its erection. The people no longer have a voice because it was decided by the Governor of Texas. Taken completely away from a vote and handed off to the handman of Trump, Governor Abbott, it will have forever impacts upon us and the people who have lived on or near it for years. Gather together and fight because as JFK once said, " Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violet revolution inevitable." "Buckle your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"
Once again you have gone to the heart of the problem. No one is coming to save us. We must save ourselves and our communities through cooperation and lateral networks. We must learn to talk to one another, then to work together.
Let us remember what happens when young men are sent off to war and come home defeated, if at all. My Mom's cousin Walther told me of being in the German Army in Italy at the end of WWII (and of being on the Polish border as it began, years before.) In Italy, the German officers commandeered the last diesel and drove off, abandoning the men under their command. The men had to scale the Alps on their own and get through a screen of partisan gangs, to get home, and what did home mean? The writer Erich Kästner was there when these men came over the Alps. The farmers fed none of them. (They didn't feed Kästner, either. He was eating dandelions by this point.) The men stripped off the markings on their uniforms, threw their Reichsmarks into the meadows, and walked on, hoping to get home. Not to a place. Not to ruins. But to people. Family. Let us be those people helping them come home. To extend that a little, Kästner was one of the writers whose books were burned by the Nazis. He stayed in Germany because of his parents, working in the German Propaganda Ministry, along with many other dissidents, writing film scripts and keeping his head down. The Ministry is rightly maligned, but consider this: the books it published in the largest editions were by the Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson, all intended to win Scandinavia without firing a shot, and for teaching young German men how to be settlers and farmers in remote lands. That wasn't Gunnar's goal, but it was the Ministry's. However, when the men were coming back in defeat from the East, the Ministry, run at this time by dissidents under cover, published the same books in greater numbers, this time to teach the men how to come home. There are a lot of people who need to come home now, and a lot of people who need to receive them. It's not up to Kästner now. It's up to us. May we meet the challenge well.
Excellent piece, thank you. I feel as though I should be accustomed to the greed, ego and hubris constantly displayed by this administration but every day something new takes my breath away. I found myself chuckling yesterday as Xi led 47 around that large expanse of red carpet and stood him on the viewing platform while the band played on and on and the cannons boomed in time. And then up all those steps on his delicate cankles… I was almost surprised that he made it inside! Awaiting 47’s arrival, Hegseth looked like he was experiencing a blinding hangover head— frowning and squinting. I hope he thoroughly enjoyed the cannons! The cheering children surely helped him feel better! 😂
I see the rise of colonialism (annexing Canada, making Venezuela the 51st state, seizing Cuba) as part and parcel of Trump's feudal ideals.
He can't label it feudalism. He has no educational depth - if you asked him about it, he wouldn't have a clue.
But he understands absolute power, all right.
Great essay. Thank you!
"Donald Trump said this at a White House press gaggle on May 13, 2025, when a reporter asked directly whether the financial suffering of Americans factored into his thinking about the Iran war he had launched...."
Right. Trump recently said, “NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT” when asked whether Americans’ financial struggles were influencing his Iran policy, later adding, “I don't think about Americans' financial situation … I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Politically, it’s the kind of quote Democratic ad-makers hear and immediately start high-fiving over cold beverages. It compounds with Trump’s usual out of touch --“groceries...what a strange word” persona and practically storyboards itself: shaky footage of eggs costing $11, cut to Trump saying he doesn’t think about Americans’ finances, cue ominous piano and... "That's a take"
Republicans will argue he meant national security comes first but, come on man— nothing says “man of the people” quite like sounding like a bitchy Marie-Antoinette being informed the peasants are upset about bread prices.
"It's the economy stupid"
Well, I guess some of his voters are beginning to realize “America First” didn’t mean “Americans first” or ever!
Trump voters likely did not expect to be left hanging once he got what he needed in 2024: the means to attain power, with access to the U.S. treasury and national resources to enrich and glorify himself.
Rather than improving American lives, Trump pursues goals that benefit his family and useful wealthy elites who kiss his ring. The rest of humanity is of no value/further value to him. We are ants on an anthill to Trump - he likes holding the power hose, believing he can turn it in our direction at any time.
“I told you so” is of little comfort in the dystopian Hunger Games America and world Trump is enabling.
Feudalism is right!
People talk about him wanting a return to the gilded age. They are about 200-300 years off. Like the emperors of old. He is after more land and personal tributes. Us serfs are supposed to just obey.
As I read your words today, I thought about the diversionary wall that is STILL being built in Texas and how the lives of so many will and are being affected by its erection. The people no longer have a voice because it was decided by the Governor of Texas. Taken completely away from a vote and handed off to the handman of Trump, Governor Abbott, it will have forever impacts upon us and the people who have lived on or near it for years. Gather together and fight because as JFK once said, " Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violet revolution inevitable." "Buckle your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"
Once again you have gone to the heart of the problem. No one is coming to save us. We must save ourselves and our communities through cooperation and lateral networks. We must learn to talk to one another, then to work together.
Let us remember what happens when young men are sent off to war and come home defeated, if at all. My Mom's cousin Walther told me of being in the German Army in Italy at the end of WWII (and of being on the Polish border as it began, years before.) In Italy, the German officers commandeered the last diesel and drove off, abandoning the men under their command. The men had to scale the Alps on their own and get through a screen of partisan gangs, to get home, and what did home mean? The writer Erich Kästner was there when these men came over the Alps. The farmers fed none of them. (They didn't feed Kästner, either. He was eating dandelions by this point.) The men stripped off the markings on their uniforms, threw their Reichsmarks into the meadows, and walked on, hoping to get home. Not to a place. Not to ruins. But to people. Family. Let us be those people helping them come home. To extend that a little, Kästner was one of the writers whose books were burned by the Nazis. He stayed in Germany because of his parents, working in the German Propaganda Ministry, along with many other dissidents, writing film scripts and keeping his head down. The Ministry is rightly maligned, but consider this: the books it published in the largest editions were by the Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson, all intended to win Scandinavia without firing a shot, and for teaching young German men how to be settlers and farmers in remote lands. That wasn't Gunnar's goal, but it was the Ministry's. However, when the men were coming back in defeat from the East, the Ministry, run at this time by dissidents under cover, published the same books in greater numbers, this time to teach the men how to come home. There are a lot of people who need to come home now, and a lot of people who need to receive them. It's not up to Kästner now. It's up to us. May we meet the challenge well.