Note to Putin: Don’t Even Think About It

Don't Tempt Him.

So several countries sharing a border with Russia are preparing for war on the theory that once Putin is done with Ukraine, other nations are bound to follow. One of those is Finland (see Finland accelerates preparedness for war in all forms by Shona Murray in Euro.news) and another is Poland (see Poland prepares for war by Rob Schmitz and Greg Dixon on the NPR website.) 

As is clear from both articles, the two countries are quite serious about fighting back. And remember, both nations fought wars of independence with Russia – Finland twice (The Winter War and the Continuation War), and Poland in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921. In both cases, these much smaller European nations did remarkably well against their much larger rival. 

So, note to Putin. Don’t think about an invasion of either Poland, or Finland, or anywhere else in Western Europe. You didn’t do well in your initial invasion of Ukraine. You are still not doing terribly well there. And, yes, you’ve learned a lot over the last few years, but so has everyone else. We’ve all learned the lessons of this new kind of war – the importance of drones, cyberwarfare, social media, etc. –  and we know how to apply them. 

Therefore, here’s a word of advice. Yes, Trump, that repulsive lickspittle, has given you the green light to do what you like in Europe. But he’s not the only factor to consider. Finland, Poland, plus the whole of NATO, are fully capable of hurting you badly.

So badly, in fact, that even a victory might seem Pyrrhic at best, and an abject disaster at worst.

GOP Mega-Doner: Trump’s Not Such A Good Idea After All

Politico is reporting that Ken Griffin, a major GOP donor and star of the libertarian-free-enterprise world, has startled everyone by rejecting Trump’s tariffs. Not only are they bad for business, he says, they also open the door to Crony Capitalism, with the government deciding who wins and who loses.

It is interesting to see Griffin taking this position. He was, until recently, a serious Trump supporter. Now, quite the reverse. 

It’s good that he is taking on Trump, of course. Though, really, it would have been nice if he'd seen what Trump was a bit sooner. Which should have been easy. After all, Trump made no secret of his intentions. 

Which brings up a question. Why is it that "visionary" business professionals so often fail to see what is right in front of their face? And which all the rest of us…we non-visionaries…have perceived all along? 

Factory Jobs Aren’t Coming

No Humans Need Apply

So I saw in an article in Fortune that “U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says factory gigs are the ‘great jobs of the future.’” This is part of the Right’s drive to return manufacturing to America.

That’s fine. It’s even laudable. We need more manufacturing to be done here in the United States. We need to claw back the factories that our business elites happily offshored so that they could get “low-cost labor” … and to crush unions in the process. 

But the idea that Americans are going to get jobs in those new factories is another matter entirely. Let’s face it, in the future factories are going to be automated. It’s going to be mostly robots that are going to be working in them. Even the “robot technicians” working to fix broken robots are going to be robots.

I find it fascinating because the Right seems to be obsessed with the idea that Americans need to get back to “real work” and that “real work” means factory work. Not namby-pamby white-collar office jobs. We need tough guys. Doing tough jobs. You betcha.

And, maybe that’s right. I don’t know. But I do know that huge numbers of humans working in gangs on assembly lines are not in the cards. And not all the Executive Orders from the White House are going to change that.

Which means…perhaps…that the country the Right is building has no real place for people in it.

Kind of disturbing, don’t you think?

Killing The Black Middle Class

Killing The Black Middle Class

There’s a fascinating article in a recent issue of Fast Company, How Trump’s mass firings could quickly hollow out the Black middle class: The president has gone nuclear against federal union jobs—historically African Americans’ ladder to economic equality, originally in Capital and Main and written by Mark Kreidler.

The piece looks at how Trump’s furious assault on federal workers and unions is hitting Black Americans hardest. Government jobs have been one of the traditional routes by which African-Americans have entered the Middle Class. Now, those jobs are going away, and they could take the Black Middle Class with them.

The question, of course, is whether this is strictly an accident. Trump and the GOP have waged a war of annihilation on federal workers for a long time. And perhaps the demise of African-American employment is just collateral damage.

Or is it? Could there be more? Could there be a design here? After all, Trump and his MAGAts are no fan of racial equality. Perhaps the point of the war against the civil service (or at least part of the point) is to remove those men and women whose ethnic heritage is distasteful to them?

Perhaps we’ll never know for certain. But, that’s irrelevant. It is clear that the current Administration is a disaster for Black America. Whether that disaster is by accident or design does not, even remotely, change the larger effect.  

Martial Law Coming

There Is A Coup Coming.

If you ever had any doubts about where Trump and his enablers are headed, then just consider these three articles:

Trump Orders Hegseth and Bondi to ‘Determine How Military’ Can Be Used in Domestic Law Enforcement, by Charlie Nash, Mediaite, Apr 28th, 2025, 9:08 pm 

Trump Orders Hegseth, Bondi to Send Military Assets to State, Local Police 'to Prevent Crime' in Latest Executive Order, by M.B. Mack / Published Apr 29 2025, The Latin Times, 11:58 AM EDT

Donald Trump's New Order Sparks 'Martial Law' Concerns, by Sophie Clark, Newsweek, Published Apr 29, 2025 at 11:25 AM EDT

Simply put, Trump is more or less openly preparing to use the military to impose his will on the nation. He’s purged the Pentagon of officers who might oppose him. And now he’s working to create a legal fiction that he has the right to use the Armed Forces inside the United States and against American citizens. The final act? It’s obvious. Some sort of coup d'état. 

We can only hope that 1) he and the GOP don’t get a chance to put their plans into motion, and 2) that our men and women in uniform will be unwilling to support his treasonous activities.

But one other thing is very true. To wit, no one can say that Trump and his Fascists have concealed their plans in any fashion. They are not making any secret of their preparations.

The only ones who will be surprised on the morning that there are tanks in front of the Capitol Building will be those members of the Democratic Party’s elite who are doing so painfully little to oppose Trump and his minions, and who have instead wasted their time and resources silencing those Democrats (Bernie, AOC, others) who have had the energy and the foresight to protest. 

 

A National Registry of Jews?

 

Rawstory just ran this alarming piece: 'Vindictive commissar’s list': Alarm as Trump admin appears to build Jewish registry, by Krystina Alarcon Carroll, April 29, 2025 4:08PM ET. According to Ms. Carroll, the Trump administration seems to be building lists of people (particularly in higher ed) who are Jewish. This follows the startling news that RFK Jr. is building a compiling list of individuals who are supposedly autistic. 

Frankly, this may be a story that means nothing. It could be just another of the inane and idiotic stunts that the White House uses to keep us all off balance and exhausted…a distraction while the Orange One and his billionaire enablers loot the country of another few trillion.

But, on the other hand, it could be …terrible. We know, too well, who has had these kinds of lists before. And we know what was done with them.

Let us, therefore, prepare. It may be necessary for us, someday, to find and shred those lists, and to defend the men and women whose names are on them. 

Goodbye Europe

Europe says So Long, and thanks for all the movies

If you get a chance, check out this article in Zeit Online: Thanks America, That’ll Be Al:lAndy Warhol, Big Mac, iPhone: It was a grand American epoch. But it’s over, by Florian Illies

In it, the author looks at Trump and the American Right’s foreign policy (such as it is) and concludes that the special relationship that used to exist between the US and Western Europe is gone for good. And, maybe, American cultural vigor has gone as well.

The article is a little bit tongue in cheek, but you have to admit, the author’s got a good point. Trump has effectively ruined our relationship with the rest of the world, in general, and with our allies in Europe in particular.

Frankly, that could hurt us far more than it could hurt Europe. For a long time, Western Europeans accepted our leadership, and devoured our popular culture. But, now, that happy time is gone.

And mind you, all of this was so that one Orange Man could impose his diseased conception of the world on events, and so that rabid MAGAts could “own the libs.”

Somehow, I don’t think the “victory” was worth the price.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone.

It’s an odd thing, really, this Mexican holiday which isn’t that big a deal in Mexico, but which has been adopted wholehog by the United States. We celebrate it like it was us, and not the Mexicans who defeated (for a while) the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

I mention all of this because there is an interesting bit of irony here. We’ve adopted the holiday, and it has become a major North American celebration of Hispanic culture, while at the same time our government and MAGA is doing its best to force Hispanic people out of the country. 

Tell me, when it is all done and said, and His Imperial Majesty King Trump III rules in the district of post-democratic Columnia, will we still be allowed to mark Cinco de Mayo on the calendar? Or will it be erased forever? And we’ll just just from 4 May to 6 May, without so much as a moment’s hesitation?

The Arts... Damage Assessment

Art In An Age Of Trump and Techbros

Interesting article in Variety the other day, “John Lithgow Says Donald Trump’s Second Term Is ‘Pure Disaster’ for Arts: ‘First There Was Coronavirus, Now There’s This’” by Alex Ritman. In it, Mr. Ritman reports on Lithgow’s response to Trump and his enablers virtual shutdown of art in this country–as evidenced most recently by the White House’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.

It is a fascinating article, and you have to agree with Mr. Lithgow. But you also have to understand the mindset of the current White House and the people who run it. For the businessmen, tech bros, engineers, and “poorly educated” MAGAheds, the demise of the arts is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, it is praiseworthy. For them, Art was something that college-educated, decadent, effete coastal dwellers did. It wasn’t something that Real Americans did. It didn’t increase shareholder value. It didn’t fix trucks and hammer nails. It didn’t code billion dollar applications. It was…suspect.

And so, in The New World Order, we may expect more of this. There will be less public art…or any sort of art…and more crudity. We will have a society built to reflect the aesthetic values of boors and billionaires.

Which is to say, none at all…

Rand Paul Agonistes

So I read that Rand Paul is so aghast at Trump’s tariffs that he fears for the future of his party. He notes that each time the GOP has instituted tariffs in the past (as in 1850 and 1930) the result has been a severe economic downturn while the Republican party lost seats in the House and Senate. He fears, in fact, that the Party could be wiped out in Congress for “sixty years.”

I both fear and hope that he’s right. Fear, because I suspect that the tariffs will be every bit as destructive to the American economy (and society) as he says. But, also hope, because it would be lovely to think that the GOP was about to be expelled into the outer darkness for another half century or more.

Or…better yet…far better….

…be dissolved as the criminal enterprise it has so clearly become.

~mjt

Once Again, Mitch

So I read in Semafor that Mitch McConnell remains terrified of what Trump is doing to the nation. He is openly saying that if something isn’t done, and soon, to stop Trump…and Musk, and others in their circle…that it is only a matter of time before the United States is overwhelmed. As he puts it, Russia will win. We will lose.

This is probably true. He is probably absolutely right. But, alas, he is…well…late. This is the man who spent his entire professional life as “the Grim Reaper,” killing anything like progressive legislation. This is the man who openly told President Obama that his job, as he saw it, was to make certain that Obama would be a one term president.  This is the man who labored long and hard to turn the GOP into a militant, centralized, disciplined band of right-wing radicals who thought of nothing but victory, regardless of the consequences. 

In other words, McConnell is one of those who most of all got us into this mess. He helped Trump gain the White House, not once but twice.

So what do we say to Mr. McConnell? I’m not certain. But perhaps it begins with “Yes, sir, you are correct. But you should have spoken up long ago, and acted constructively. As it is, you are like an enfeebled Lenin, who at the end of his life railed weakly against Stalin, a monster he’d helped create.”

Gold Rush!

Just in case you’re interested in such things, Gold is booming. Its price has been on the rise for weeks now. Or to put it another way, the value of the US dollar has gone down in relation to the yellow metal.

Why? Well, now, isn’t it obvious? Trump and Musk and co. came along with their “reforms” and “cost cutting measures” and began the happy process of screwing up the American economy. Investors are fleeing currencies (particularly the dollar) and stocks (particularly American stocks) for gold, whose value is something you can count on.

Let’s stress that again. Gold. Not cryptocurrency. Not the dollar. Gold.

So, gee, thanks, Trumpsters. You’ve managed to bring home to us all where real value is to be found. And, guess what? It isn’t in Trumpcoin…or anything like it. 

 

4D Chess, Occam’s Razor, and the April Fool

So there was recently an interesting article in the Atlantic, The Wild Trump Theory Making the Rounds on Wall Street: QAnon for tariffs by Rogé Karma. In it, Mr. Karma notes that among Wall Street insiders, there is a weird conspiracy theory circulating that Trump’s apparently insane antics about tariffs are actually planned and highly rational. The idea is that Trump is using his clownish behavior to drive other nations toward an agreement by which America would profit greatly. 

Mr. Karma is not impressed by the theory and suspects that Trump’s clownishness is the result of his being just, well, a clown.

I tend to follow Karma’s lead on this. Though, you always do wonder, could there really be more here than meets the eye. Could Trump actually be a brilliant tactician who’s just playing the fool to lure his enemies to their doom? It is certainly what his supporters have said many times in the past. They imply that he’s playing 4D chess and simply looking like he’s a nutcase. And you have to admit, so far Trump’s been far more successful than he has any right to be.

Upon reflection, though, I think that we can dispense with the theory that he’s a genius in disguise. Occam’s Razor suggests that the simplest explanation is often the right one, and so if a person appears to be a raging, narcissistic idiot…well, then…that is probably what he is.

Or, to put it another way, this particular April Fool is just exactly that. I.e., a fool, in April or any other month.

Stagflation, the economy that dare not speak its name

 Here’s an interesting article on CNN’s website, So, what is stagflation, anyway, and why is it so scary?  by Elisabeth Buchwald. In it, Ms. Buchwald first defines “stagflation” – which is the dangerous condition that occurs when prices are increasing but the economy does not grow – and then explains why the Federal Reserve is trying very hard not to use the term. It seems that the markets are starting to show signs of stagflation (mostly because of Trump’s tariffs and other dumbass measures), but the Fed won’t use the terms for fear of spooking the markets even more than they are spooked already.

But, let us admit it. Stagflation is coming and it may be the new norm. That’s because under Trump, the public regulation of corporations is going to be largely jettisoned. That means that we’ll see more monopolies. Which means in turn that businesses will be able to increase prices without restraint while having no motivation to innovate or otherwise undertake the sort of investments that would grow the economy. In other words, all the conditions for permanent and universal Stagflation are present and obvious.

Thus, if we are honest and foresighted, we will say that despite the Fed’s best efforts, Stagflation is the future…whether the Fed says the word or not. And that’s because it is at the very heart of the Trump/billionaires’ program for the economy. And it is not an accident. 

Rather it, like the impoverishment of the middle class, is a goal. Part of the plan…

To extract all that can be extracted from our wallets. And giving ever less – eventually nothing – in return. 

Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker

Hegseth and the Big Lie

So, as everyone knows now, Trump’s Head of the DOD, Pete Hegseth, accidentally sent US war plans to a journalist at the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. 

What’s been interesting to me, though, is how the Administration, Hegseth, and their supporters are handling the situation. One of their responses is to claim that the incident did not occur. Hegseth said that “no one was texting war plans” and that Golberg is a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.” 

Meanwhile, on social media, I have seen postings from Trump supporters saying that the whole thing was a trap into which the liberal media promptly fell. (Though exactly what the trap was and how it worked is unclear to me.)

This looks like a strategy of overt falsehood. And, let’s face the grim reality, it could work. The Administration could just keep claiming that it didn’t happen, and, sure enough, the MAGAts of the nation will believe it. The Big Lie is a proven winner.

Of course, it may be that Hegseth will eventually be forced to resign. That would be a very good thing, indeed. But, in the end the real solution to the problem is teaching Americans to turn off Faux News and turn on their critical thinking.

Or, to put it another way, we are a nation desperately in need of civics classes in public schools everywhere and anywhere.  

"Who Will Protect Us From Our Protectors?"

Interesting article in the magazine Dissent, “Trump’s Antisocial State” by Melinda Cooper. In it, Ms. Cooper looks at the ways Trump and his minions are transforming the American government and comes to some distressing conclusions.

As everyone knows, or should know, the government of the mid-twentieth century (after FDR) at least tried to make things a bit better for the average American. It was redistributive, meaning it took a small percentage of the wealth of the very rich and injected that back into the society as a whole.

But, at the end of the twentieth century, a new generation of “libertarian” populists and conservatives reversed that, and we saw instead a system installed by which money was taken from the middle and working classes and transferred to the vastly wealthy.

Cooper argues that we are in the next phase of that process. Now, the systems and institutions that were originally set up to protect American citizens and immigrants have themselves been reversed. In the American Government v.2, those systems are meant to coerce and control the population, not keep it safe.

Thus we come to a new and fascinating phase in American history. This will be remembered as the age in which our guardians become, instead, our guards…and our nation a prison. 

Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker

He's A Robot

 One thing I don’t understand is why no one among the tinfoil hat crew has come up with a particularly bonkers theory to explain why Trump the Candidate is so very different from Trump the President. Back in 2024, he was promising the moon and more to everyone. Lower prices. Jobs galore. The Middle Class protected. White people respected instead of mocked by full professors of Advanced Postmodernist Studies. 

Now, in office, he’s done none of those things and is, in fact, taking measures that actively harm a good many of his supporters – for example, cutting back on affordable health care and imposing tariffs on industries that can’t afford them. 

You would think, then, that the MAGA and the QAnon crew (not much difference between them) would be searching for an explanation. Yet, they haven’t seemed to come up with anything yet.

So, let me see if I can lend a hand. Now, what could we say? Ah, I’ve got it! Donald Trump has been removed. He has been replaced by a humanoid robot by Musk and his billionaire buddies. That works. Rather well in fact.

So, to all the MAGAnons out there, start spreading the news. Your hero has been replaced by an automation, as synthetic and soulless as a Visit With Abe Lincoln in Disneyland.

Like a (failing) business…

For decades, maybe for centuries, the American business elite has called for the American government to be run “like a business.” Well, by golly, in (powerless) President Trump and (all powerful) Prime Minister Musk, they’re finally getting their wish. They’ve got a Chief Executive who thinks like a CEO.

The kicker? A country isn’t a corporation. A corporation needs to think in quarters…three months is about as far out as it can see into the future. It needs to satisfy its stockholders and Wall Street, but not necessarily its “population,” i.e. employees. It doesn’t have citizens, each of whom have a vote and none of whose votes count more than others because they own more of the company. It can consider, if need be, going gracefully bankrupt. 

None of that is true for a country. 

There is thus a terrible possibility that running a country “like a business” is a disaster in the making and we will all suffer for it sometime soon.

If there is a straw to pluck at, maybe it is that after all is said, and we’re very lucky, the egotists of the corporate elite will be regarded with something less than adoration, and will never again be trusted to run the nation.

Will Business People Wake Up?

So by the time you read this, it may be out of date. However, last month, the online publication Semafor ran an article entitled, “American business leaders are turning on Trump — fast,” by

Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami. In it, Hoffman and Goswami reported on American business people becoming increasingly disillusioned by Trump and his ever more destructive impact on the economy. 

True? False? Well, hard to say. These are the same people who heartily supported Trump on the theory that he would run the government “like a business.” It is hard to see them abandoning him now, just when he is acting most like a predatory raider conducting a hostile takeover.

Still, it would be interesting (and helpful) if they did wake up and notice that the Trump Administration is a total disaster causing no end of harm to no end of people.

But…the question remains. Even if they are convinced of Trump’s fundamental evil, will they do anything about it? I must confess, I kind of doubt it.

A head full of mush…

It’s always weird when you find yourself agreeing with people you detest. Case in point: John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and arch-enemy of pinko-liberals everywhere. Like I say, I’ve got very little love for the man. As in none.

Yet…late last month he said bluntly that his former boss was basically dumb as a brick (okay, dumber) and has, in effect, a “mind…full of mush.”

Colorful. I like it.

Okay, I still don’t care for him much. But, well, just this once, I’m willing to make an exception. He does have a good turn of phrase.