Posts Tagged ‘BARACK OBAMA’
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ADOLF HITLER, ALEC BALDWIN, ALTERNET, ANDREW JACKSON, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BILL O'REILLY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHEKA, CNN, CONCENTRATION CAMPS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE, EXECUTIONS, FIRST AMENDMENT, FOX NEWS, FRED TRUMP, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, FSB, HILLARY CLINTON, HUMOR, HUSTLER MAGAZINE, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, JERRY FALWELL, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN MCCAIN, JOSEPH STALIN, KELLY SADLER, KGB, KIM JONG-II, KIM JONG-UN, LARRY FLYNT, MGB, MORNING JOE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NKVD, NORTH KOREA, NPR, ONE DAY WE WILL LIVE WITHOUT FEAR (BOOK), PARODY, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RUSSIA, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STORMY DANIELS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THEODORE ROOSEVELT, TIME, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WILLIAM REHNQUIST, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 6, 2025 at 12:10 am
“Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake news NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!”
So tweeted President Donald J. Trump on February 17, 2019.
Less than nine hours earlier, “SNL” had once again opened with actor Alec Baldwin mocking the 45th President. In this skit, Baldwin/Trump gave a rambling press conference declaring: “We need wall. We have a tremendous amount of drugs flowing into this country from the southern border—or The Brown Line, as many people have asked me not to call it.”
Right-wingers denounce their critics as “snowflakes”—that is, emotional, easily offended and unable to tolerate opposing views.
Yet here was Donald Trump, who prides himself on his toughness, whining like a child bully who has just been told that other people have rights, too.
The answer is simple: Trump is a tyrant—and a longtime admirer of tyrants—including Communist ones.
Donald Trump
He has lavishly praised Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, such as during his appearance on the December 18, 2015 edition of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”:
“He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country”—-a reference to then-President Barack Obama.
During a February, 2017 interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Trump defended Putin’s killing of political opponents.
O’Reilly: “But he’s a killer.”
Trump: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”
Asked by a Fox News reporter why he praised murderous North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, he replied: “He’s a tough guy. Hey, when you take over a country, tough country, tough people, and you take it over from your father…If you could do that at 27 years old, I mean, that’s one in 10,000 that could do that.”
In short: Kim must be doing something right because he’s in power. And it doesn’t matter how he came to power—or the price his country is paying for it.
Actually, for all their differences in appearance and nationality, Trump shares at least two similarities with Kim.
Kim Jong-Un
Blue House (Republic of Korea) [KOGL (http://www.kogl.or.kr/open/info/license_info/by.do)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
First, both of them got a big boost into wealth and power from their fathers.
- Trump’s father, Fred Trump, a real estate mogul, reportedly gave Donald $200 million to enter the real estate business. It was this sum that formed the basis for Trump’s eventual rise to wealth and fame—and the Presidency.
- Kim’s father was Kim Jong-Il, who ruled North Korea as dictator from 1994 to 2011. When his father died in 2011, Kim Jong-Un immediately succeeded him, having been groomed for years to do so.
Second, both Trump and Kim have brutally tried to stamp out any voices that contradict their own.
- Trump has constantly attacked freedom of the press, even labeling it “the enemy of the American people.”
- He also slandered his critics on Twitter—which refused to enforce its “Terms of Service” and revoke his account until he incited the January 6 attack on Congress.
- Kim has attacked his critics with firing squads and prison camps. Amnesty International estimates that more than 200,000 North Koreans are now suffering in labor camps throughout the country.
Thus, Trump—-elected to lead the “free world”—believes, like all dictators:
- People are evil everywhere—so who am I to judge who’s better or worse? All that counts is gaining and holding onto power.
- And if you can do that, it doesn’t matter how you do so.
Actually, it’s not uncommon for dictators to admire one another—as the case of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler nicely illustrates.
Joseph Stalin
After Hitler launched a blood-purge of his own private Stormtroopers army on June 30, 1934, Stalin exclaimed: “Hitler, what a great man! That is the way to deal with your political opponents!”
And Hitler was equally admiring of Stalin’s notorious ruthlessness: “After the victory over Russia,” he told his intimates, “it would be a good idea to get Stalin to run the country, with German oversight, of course. He knows better than anyone how to handle the Russians.”
Adolf Hitler
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1990-048-29A / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)%5D
One characteristic shared by all dictators is intolerance toward those whose opinions differ with their own. Especially those who dare to actually criticize or make fun of them.
All Presidents have thin skins. John F. Kennedy often phoned reporters and called them “sonofbitches” when he didn’t like stories they had written on him.
Richard Nixon went further, waging all-out war against the Washington Post for its stories about his criminality.
But Donald Trump took his hatred of dissidents to an entirely new—and dangerous—level.
On May 10, 2018, The Hill reported that White House Special Assistant Kelly Sadler had joked derisively about dying Arizona United States Senator John McCain.
Trump was outraged—not that one of his aides had joked about a man stricken with brain cancer, but that someone in the White House had leaked it.
2025 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOOD, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, ILLEGAL ALIENS, Kamala Harris, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRISONERS OF WAR, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRICION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAX CUTS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSGENDER OPERATIONS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, UPI, USA TODAY, WASHINGTON MONTHLY, WONKETTE, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on November 5, 2025 at 12:10 am
The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) now provides access to healthcare for more than 45 million Americans, who could not otherwise afford coverage.
The Act:
- Eliminates the “pre-existing condition” excuse insurance companies had used to deny coverage to those who most needed it.
- Provides a range of no-cost preventive services.
- Allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance up to age 26.
- Expands the Medicaid program that insures lower-income people access to health insurance markets offering subsidized plans.
Yet since it won Congressional passage in 2010, Republicans have made 50-70 attempts to repeal, modify, or otherwise weaken the Act.
As a Presidential candidate and President, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he wants to replace it. But he’s never offered a credible substitute.
On September 10, 2024, in his only Presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, moderator Linsey Davis, of ABC News, asked him: “So tonight, nine years after you first started running, do you have a plan and can you tell us what it is?”
Trump’s reply: “I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president right now.”
On July 4, a re-elected Trump, backed by a Republican House and Senate, signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. Its purpose: Significantly cut federal health programs to pay for tax reductions for billionaires.
The law primarily impacts Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and is projected to cause millions of Americans to lose health insurance coverage. The bill includes the largest cuts in Medicaid’s history, reducing funding by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
Democrats refused to support a temporary spending bill to fund the government unless Republicans reversed cuts to Medicaid and prevented health insurance premiums from rising at the end of the year.
Trump—and Congressional Republicans—refused. They also falsely claimed that Democrats wanted to give health coverage to illegal aliens.
So the Federal Government shut down on October 1. The shutdown continues into its 36th day—with no end in sight.
Why have Republicans relentlessly tried to end healthcare for the poor? Here are the publicized reasons:
- Millions of Right-wingers hate the Federal Government and openly call for its overthrow. They vividly proved this on January 6, 2021 when they tried to illegally retain Donald Trump as President. They hoped to prevent the selection of Joe Biden as the legitimately-elected President of the United States by storming the Capitol Building.
- Racism forms a major component of the GOP’s appeal to older, white, Right-wing voters. So having the name of the first black President unofficially stamped on the Act (“Obamacare”) serves as a constant spur to their racist hatred.
Barack Obama
- Obama’s promise that “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” The promise backfired because the law stated that those who already had medical insurance could keep their plans—so long as those plans met the requirements of the new healthcare law. If their plans didn’t meet those requirements, they would have to obtain coverage that did.
Now for the most important—and unpublicized—reason.
Like so much else in the Republican agenda, it is rooted in the goals and methods of the Third Reich.
On June 22, 1941, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler sent three million soldiers smashing into the Soviet Union. During the first six months—June to December, 1941—German armies lured huge Soviet forces into gigantic “cauldron battles,” surrounding and exterminating them.
An estimated 5.7 million Russians became prisoners of the Wehrmacht. The Germans found themselves surprised and overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of them. But their mandate demanded that they keep marching ever forward.
So they simply imprisoned their captives behind barbed wire and wasted no food or medical care on them. Between starvation, illness and the brutal Russian cold, at least 3.5 million POWs died in custody.
Soviet POW’s
Republicans have learned a valuable lesson from this: If you simply deprive those you detest of food, clothing, shelter—and medical care—you don’t need gas chambers or firing squads. Or even rigged vote-counts.
No better proof of this could be given than the lying announcement made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on October 27:
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.”
This is a lie. Trump is holding back access to a contingency fund of $5 to $6 billion for the SNAP program. The reason: To pressure Democrats into agreeing to gut healthcare programs for the poor.
SNAP provides food assistance to more than 42 million Americans with low or no income.
For Trump, Democrats can choose to provide the poor with food—or medical care.
The official Republican lie continued:
“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
Most Americans—owing to naivety or historical ignorance—cannot accept that their Right-wing politicians can be as evil as those in other nations.
But they can—and are.
Those who depend on the government to provide access to food or medical care had better learn this truth quickly.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ATOMIC BOMB, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BEIRUT BOMBING, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS MATTHEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, CULTS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, ECONOMICS, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, HARDBALL, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOSEPH STALIN, MEDIA MATTERS, MEET THE PRESS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, POLLUTION, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, Secret Service, SLATE, SOVIET NUCLEAR PHYSICS, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAX CUTS, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIS WEEK, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, Vladimir Lenin, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 27, 2025 at 12:05 am
On February 6, 2011, Ronald Reagan, if he had been alive, would have been 100 years old.
Publishers rushed to put out worshipful tributes to his eight years as President. Network political programs such as “This Week” and “Meet the Press” assembled surviving members of his administration to re-live the “glory days” of Reagan’s—and their—time in power.
Actually, it was during the Reagan administration that America entered its decline—a Right-wing legacy of huge Federal deficits, tax-cuts for the rich, bloated military budgets and cutbacks in government programs to aid the poor and middle-class.
Ronald Reagan
No two men could have been more different than Vladimir Lenin and Ronald Reagan. Lenin created the Soviet Union in 1917 and became its first in a series of absolute dictators. Reagan spent his life fighting Communism, most notably as President.
So it’s ironic that both men, in death, got essentially the same funeral—and for the same reason: To sanctify and legitimize their respective organizations—and the authority of their potential successors.
Vladimir Lenin
Lenin died on January 21, 1924, and was immediately succeeded by the party’s General Secretary, Joseph Stalin. Stalin, as a youth, had been a seminary student. He knew that, despite Communism’s official atheistic stance, most Russians remained loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church.
So in giving Lenin’s funeral oration, Stalin used the language of religion to confer sainthood upon a militant atheist—and upon his successor, Stalin himself: “We vow to thee, Comrade Lenin, that we will fulfill this, thy commandment….”
Funeral for Vladimir Lenin
Stalin and his fellow Communists immediately launched the “cult of Lenin,” depicting him as a fatherly, all-wise leader whose genius could only be bestowed upon his closest disciples.
Lenin’s extensive political writings were treated as divine writ, and were used to justify everything Stalin and his own successors wanted to do.
A classic example: Although he died 20 years before the American creation of the atomic bomb, Lenin was hailed by the Soviets as the “father” of “Soviet nuclear physics.”
Similarly, Republicans quickly turned Reagan into a modern-day saint of mythical proportions.
They did so for the same reason that Stalin deliberately forged a cult around the dead Lenin—to create a “holy” figure of whom other Republicans can claim to be true disciples.
Funeral for Ronald Reagan
These deliberate fictions conveniently ignore a series of ugly truths:
- Reagan was only one of a series of Presidents who held the line against the Soviet Union.
- His budgets were just as stained with red ink as those of all previous Presidents.
- By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been investigated, indicted or convicted for official misconduct and/or criminal violations.
- His “trickle-down” Reganomics brought prosperity to only the wealthiest 1% of Americans, proving that “a rising tide lifts some yachts.”
- By drastically shrinking the tax-base, bloating the defense budget and destroying programs to benefit the poor and middle-class, Reagan produced a $1 trillion deficit-–which only the Clinton Administration eliminated.
- Reagan believed that government should not help the impoverished. Those who lacked wealth to buy such necessities as housing and medical insurance were written off as unimportant.
- John F. Kennedy had praised government service as an honor. Reagan repeatedly said that “the best and the brightest” could be found only in business.
- This denigration of government service continues among Republicans to this day—defaming the very institutions they lust to control.
- Although he often berated the poor for their “laziness,” Reagan adhered to a “banker’s hours” schedule: During his working hours in the Oval Office, he often had blocks of free time—two to three hours. He would call for his fan mail and answer it.
- Reagan saw no need to protect America’s fragile environment against corporate polluters, eager to enrich themselves at its expense. He ignorantly stated: “Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.”
Reagan famously attacked “welfare queens” and sought to deny government benefits for the poor. But he didn’t hesitate to enrich himself at public expense.
- Before his Presidency ended, 18 wealthy Californians contributed $156,000 apiece to buy him a 7,200 square-foot mansion overlooking Beverly Hills.
- Reagan signed a multi-million dollar deal to write his Presidential memoirs and publish a collection of his speeches.
- He signed an exclusive contract with a Washington lecture bureau, which paid him $50,000 per speech given in the United States and $100,000 overseas. This made him the highest-paid speaker in the country.
- These monies came in addition to his Presidential pension of $99,500 a year for life and his $30,000 annual pension as a former governor of California.
- At a cost to the government of $10 million annually, Reagan—a millionaire who could afford private security—continued to receive lifetime Secret Service protection from 40 fulltime agents.
The “cult of Lenin” died when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The “cult of Reagan” died only when it was superseded by that of Donald Trump.
The difference: Reagan hid his brutal deeds behind a smile; Trump celebrates his openly with a frown.
2018 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, 9/11 TERROR ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ADOLF HITLER, AL QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FORD'S THEATER, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FURLOUGHS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MSNBC'S "HARDBALL", NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STEPHEN TYRONE JONES, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL, WHITE HOUSE, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on October 9, 2025 at 12:12 am
Republicans constantly revile the very government they lust to control.
But there are others—living or working in Washington, D.C.—who perform their jobs with quiet dedication.
One of these unsung heroes was Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security guard at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
On June 10, 2009, Johns, 39, was shot and killed by James Wenneker von Brunn, a white supremist and Holocaust denier. Brunn was himself shot and wounded by two other security guards who returned fire.
United States Holocaust Museum
At 88, von Brunn died in jail awaiting trial.
Washington, D.C. ranks—with New York City—at the top of Al Qaeda’s list of targets.
Prior to 9/11, Americans assumed that visiting the White House was their birthright.
Today, if you want to tour the Executive Mansion, you quickly learn there are only two ways to get in:
- Through a special pass provided by your Congressman; or
- By someone connected with the incumbent administration.
Congressmen, however, have a limited number of passes to give out. And most of these go to people who have put serious money into the Congressman’s re-election campaigns.
And the odds that you’ll know someone who works in the White House—and who’s willing to offer you an invitation—are even smaller than those of knowing a Congressman.
But even then you’ll have to undergo a Secret Service background check. And that means submitting the following information in advance of your visit:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Birthplace
- Social Security Number
Secret Service agents protecting President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obma
You’ll have to leave many items at home. Among these:
- Cameras or video recorders
- Handbags, book bags, backpacks or purses
- Food or beverages
- Tobacco products
- Strollers
- Cell phones
- Knives
- Electric stun guns
- Mace
After showing a government-issued ID—such as a driver’s license—visitors enter the White House from the south side of East Executive Avenue.
After passing through the security screening room, they walk upstairs to the first door and through the East, Green, Blue, Red and State Dining rooms.
Secret Service agents quietly stand post in every room—unless they’re tasked with explaining the illustrious history of each section of the White House.
Like everyone else who lives/works there, the Secret Service fully appreciates the incredible sense of history that radiates throughout the building.
This is where
- Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation;
- Franklin Roosevelt directed the United States to victory in World War II;
- John F. Kennedy stared down the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The White House
But even the generally unsmiling Secret Service agents have their human side.
While touring the East Wing of the White House, I asked an agent: “Is the East Room where President Nixon gave his farewell speech?” on August 9, 1974.
“I haven’t been programmed for that information,” the agent joked, inviting me to ask a question he could answer.
Another guest asked the same agent if he enjoyed being a Secret Serviceman. The agent replied that this was simply what he did for a living. His real passion, he said, was counseling youths.
“If you love something,” he advised, “get a job where you can do it. And if you can’t get a job you’re passionate about, get a job so you can pursue your passion.”
A third visitor noted that none of the agents he saw were wearing their trademark sunglasses. An agent pulled out a pair and said, “That’s because we’re indoors.”
On December 22, 2018, President Donald J. Trump shut down the government. The reason: A Democratic House refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
Trump’s fanatical base believed that a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border would stop all illegal immigration. Trump knew it wouldn’t. But he also knew that if he didn’t build it, they wouldn’t re-elect him.
Donald Trump
The effects of the shutdown quickly became evident:
- For weeks, hundreds of thousands of government workers missed paychecks.
- Increasing numbers of employees of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA)—which provides security against airline terrorism—began refusing to come to work, claiming to be sick.
- At the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) many air traffic controllers called in “sick.” Those who showed up to work without pay grew increasingly frazzled as they feared being evicted for being unable to make rent or house payments.
- Many Federal employees—such as FBI agents—were forced to rely on soup kitchens to feed their families.
- Many workers tried to bring in money by babysitting or driving for Uber,
Trump told Congressional leaders the shutdown could last months or even years.
But by January 25, 2019, the 35th day of the shutdown, he caved and re-opened the government. The reason: Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy refused to open the House for his annual State of the Union message.
The men and women who work in Washington, D.C., aren’t faceless “bureaucrats,” as Right-wingers falsely claim.
They are husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. They have deadlines to meet and bills to pay, just like everyone else.
Many of them, such as agents of the FBI and Secret Service, have taken an oath to defend the United States Constitution—with their lives if necessary.
They deserve a better break—and the respect of their fellow Americans.
2018 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, 9/11 TERROR ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ADOLF HITLER, AL QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FORD'S THEATER, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FURLOUGHS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MSNBC'S "HARDBALL", NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STEPHEN TYRONE JONES, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL, WHITE HOUSE, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Uncategorized on October 8, 2025 at 12:13 am
To hear Right-wingers tell it, you might believe that Washington, D.C. is:
- The capitol of an enemy nation;
- A cesspool of corrupt, power-hungry men and women slavering to gain dictatorial control over the life of every American;
- A center of lethal contagion which, like ancient Carthage, should be burned to the ground and its inhabitants destroyed or scattered.
According to Republicans, they are all that prevents “Washington” from gaining absolute power over a defenseless citizenry.
This does not stop Republicans from lusting to rule it—and enable a Constitution-violating Donald Trump to serve as “President-for-Life.”
But others who live or work in Washington, D.C. take a far different view of their city and the duties they perform.
These men and women will never call a press conference or rake in millions in “political contributions” (i.e., legalized bribes) for promising special privileges to special interests.
Many of them work for the National Park Service. Every national monument—and Washington is speckled with monuments—has several of these employees assigned to it. Their duties are to protect the monuments and offer historical commentary to the public.
One such employee regularly addresses visitors to Ford’s Theater—known worldwide as the scene of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
George (a pseudonym) opens his lecture by raising the question every member of the audience wants answered: How much of Ford’s Theater remains intact from the night of Lincoln’s murder—April 14, 1865?
And the answer is: Only the exterior of the building.
Ford’s Theater
After Lincoln’s assassination, enraged Union soldiers converted the interior of the building into a military command center. That meant ripping out all the seats for spectators and the stage for actors.
The stage and seats—even the “Presidential Box” where Lincoln sat—have all been reproduced for a modern audience.
As George talks, you can tell that, for him, this is no typical day job. He realizes that, renovated or not, Ford’s Theater remains saturated with history. And he clearly feels privileged to share that history with others.
George explains that Presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth did not sneak into the theater. He didn’t have to—as a celebrity actor, he received the sort of favored treatment now accorded Brad Pitt.
Another monument where you will find Park Ranger guides is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Completed in 1982, it receives about three million visitors a year. Adorning the Wall, in columns that seem to reach endlessly to the sky, are the names of the 58,195 soldiers who gave their lives during the Vietnam War.
That struggle—from 1961 to 1975—proved the most divisive American conflict since the Civil War.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
On the day I visited the memorial, groups of elementary schoolchildren passed by. They were jabbering loudly, seemingly oblivious to the terrible sacrifice the Wall was meant to commemorate.
But their adult chaperones realized its significance, and ordered the children to quiet down. I asked a nearby Park Ranger: “Do you feel people now respond differently to the Wall, as we get further away from the Vietnam war?”
“No,” he answered. He felt that today’s visitors showed the same reverence for the monument and for the losses it had been created to honor as those who had first come in the early 1980s.
And it may well be true: I saw many tiny American flags and wreaths of flowers left at various points along the Wall, which stretches across 250 feet of land on the Mall.
When thinking about “Washington,” it’s essential to remember that this city—along with New York City—remains at the top of Al Qaeda’s target list. Those who choose to live and/or work here do so in the potential shadow of violent death.
Anytime you enter a Federal building, be prepared to undergo a security check.
In most agencies—such as the Department of Agriculture—you simply place your bags or purses into an X-ray machine similar to those found at airports, and walk through a magnetometer. If no alarms sound, you collect your valuables and pass on through.
Such machines are, of course, manned by armed security guards. And they stand sentinel at every conceivable Federal building—such as the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, the Smithsonian Museum, the Pentagon and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
These men and women must daily inspect the bodies and handbags of the 15 million people who visit Washington, D.C. annually, generating $5.24 billion dollars in revenues.
This means repeating the same screening gestures countless times—looking through X-ray machines at bags or coats, and running an electronic “wand” up and down those people whose clothing gives off signs of metallic objects.
It also means knowing that any one of these ordinary-looking visitors could be the next terrorist intent on killing as many people as possible.
It also means projecting a smiling, friendly demeanor towards those same people—many of whom are in a rush and/or resent being electronically sniffed over.
And every security guard knows this: It’s only a matter of time before the next terrorist shows up.
On June 10, 2009, just that happened at the United States Holocaust Memorial.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACT), ALAMO, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA, AP, “BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BOB WOODWARD, BORDER WALL, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DAILY KOS, DAVID CROCKETT, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HAKEEM JEFFRIES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, ILLEGAL ALIENS, J.D. VANCE, JACK SMITH, JAMES BOWIE, JIMMY KIMMEL, JOSE ANDRES, JOSEPH STALIN, KIM JONG UN, MANUEL CASTILLON, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OBAMACARE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT MUELLER, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (BOOK), THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PRINCE, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADMINISTRATION (TSA), TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, WASHINGTON WEEK, WINSTON CHURCHILL, WONKETTE, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 6, 2025 at 12:46 am
It was the night of March 5, 1836. For the roughly 200 men inside the surrounded Alamo, death lay only hours away.
Inside a house in San Antonio, Texas, Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was holding a council of war with his generals.
For 12 days, his army had bombarded the old mission. Still, the Texians—whose numbers included the legendary bear hunter and Congressman David Crockett and knife fighter James Bowie—held out.
Now Santa Anna was in a hurry to take the makeshift fortress. Once its defenders were dead, he could march on to sweep all American settlers from Texas.
One of his generals, Manuel Castrillón, urged Santa Anna to wait just a few more days. By then, far bigger cannon would be available. When the Alamo’s three-feet-thick walls had been knocked down, the defenders would be forced to surrender.
The lives of countless Mexican soldiers would thus be spared.
Santa Anna was eating a late-night chicken dinner. He held up a chicken leg and said: “What are the lives of soldiers but those of so many chickens?”
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
Santa Anna ordered his generals to prepare an all-out attack on the Alamo, to be launched the next morning—March 6, 1836—at 5 a.m.
Hours later, the attack went forward. Within 90 minutes, every Alamo defender was dead—and so were at least 600 Mexican soldiers.
“What are the lives of Americans but those of so many chickens?”
That could well be the slogan of President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans during the October 1 shutdown of the Federal government.
On July 4, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, which enacts significant cuts to federal health programs to help pay for tax reductions.
The law primarily impacts Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and is projected to cause millions of Americans to lose health insurance coverage. The bill includes the largest cuts in Medicaid’s history, reducing funding by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
Democrats had demanded a bill that reversed cuts to Medicaid and prevented health insurance premiums from rising at the end of the year. Republicans had refused.
Trump had threatened to use a shutdown to permanently reduce the size of the federal work force:
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
Donald Trump
And Trump’s Congressional supporters quickly issued threats of their own:
“We have never had Democrats that are so insane as this,” said Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH), “because this is going to last a long—if they shut down the government tonight, my prediction is it will go on for a long, long time.”
“Far-left interest groups and far-left Democrat members wanted to show down with the president, and so Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats’ partisan interests,” Senate majority leader John Thune said.
Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Yet they are blaming the shutdown on the party that doesn’t control any of these institutions.
And they are using a Trump lie to justify it: “One of the things [Democrats] want to do is, they want to give incredible Medicare, Cadillac, the Cadillac Medicare, to illegal immigrants. And what that does is, it keeps them coming into our country like they do in California. And no country can afford that, no country.”
On the September 30 edition of The PBS News Hour, Liz Landers, the News Hour’s White House correspondent, said: “Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to be enrolled in federally funded health care coverage in this country. That includes Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, the child health care program, and even some of those Affordable Care Act subsidies.”
This is the first government shutdown since December 22, 2018, during Trump’s first term. Angered that Democrats refused his demands for border wall funding, Trump declared the government closed.
About 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
The shutdown lasted 35 days—December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019. It ended only when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to open the House of Representatives for Trump’s annual State of the Union message.
The effects of the shutdown quickly became evident:
- For weeks, hundreds of thousands of government workers missed paychecks.
- Trash piled up in national parks.
- Increasing numbers of employees of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA)—which provides security against airline terrorism—began refusing to come to work, claiming to be sick.
- At the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) many air traffic controllers called in “sick.” Those who showed up to work without pay grew increasingly frazzled as they feared being evicted for being unable to make rent or house payments.
- Due to the shortage of air traffic controllers, many planes weren’t able to land safely at places like New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
- Many Federal employees—such as FBI agents—were forced to rely on soup kitchens to feed their families.
- Celebrity chef Jose Andres launched ChefsForFeds, which offered free hot meals for government employees and their families at restaurants across the country.
- Many workers tried to bring in money by babysitting or driving for Uber.
ABORTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BC NEWS, BEN CASEY, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CULT TV: A VIEWER’S GUIDE TO THE SHOWS AMERICA CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT, DAILY KOS, DEATH PANELS, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DOCTORS, DONALD TRUMP, DR. KILDARE, ER SHOW, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NEWS NETWORK, GREY’S ANATOMY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS), HOUSE (TV SHOW), HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JAMES COMEY, JOHN JAVNA, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, KIM SCHRIER, KOCH BROTHERS, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, M*A*S*H*, MAGGIE HASSAN, MARCUS WELBY M.D., MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK MEADOWS, MASKS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEDICINE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIONS DISEASES (NIAID), NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH), NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC), NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, OBAMACARE, ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT, PATRICK JOSEPH WHITE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC CITIZEN, RAPHAEL WARNOCK, RAW STORY, RAYMOND MASSEY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., RUSH LIMBAUGH, RUSSELL VOUGHT, SALON, Sarah Palin, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOCIAL DISTANCING, ST. ELSEWHERE, SUSAN MONAREZ, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TEA PARTY, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PRINCE (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSGENDER SURGERY, TRISH REGAN, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VINCE EDWARDS, VLADIMIR PUTIN, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 3, 2025 at 12:10 am
Republicans have a long and despicable history of scapegoating one group after another: Blacks, liberals, Hispanics, gays, Asians, women, Muslims, environmentalists, lesbians.
And now they have added scientists generally and doctors in particular to their list of hated targets.
Since taking office on January 20, Donald Trump has virtually declared war on the American medical establishment.
Summarizing Trump’s first 100 days in office, Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, warned:
- “Trump’s health administrators fired or forced resignations of senior staff, including the top vaccine regulator at the FDA, directors of many NIH institutes, and senior FDA staff involved in the regulation of food, tobacco and new drugs.”
- “The administration has also proposed consolidation of many HHS agencies with near elimination of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).”
- “The Trump Administration stripped vital public health information from HHS, CDC and FDA websites and abandoned all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.”
- “Trump issued an executive order announcing his intent to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), suspending funding and other support and recalling U.S. government personnel assigned to work with WHO—to the detriment of several global health programs and emergency response efforts.”
- “Trump’s allies in Congress are seeking to cut Medicare and Medicaid, with dangerous implications for access to health care, particularly for seniors and people with disabilities.”
- “The Trump Administration is threatening to further privatize Medicare, threatening to hinder access to care and put the long term health of the program in jeopardy.”
- “Trump and his allies in Congress want to give Big Pharma its top demand to undermine the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program—blocking seniors’ and people with disabilities’ access to Medicare-negotiated prices until 13 years after a drug is approved.”
On September 4, for the first time since he took office as Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 13, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. faced his critics at the Senate Finance Committee.
Defending the wholesale firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he said: “The people at the CDC who oversaw that process—who put masks on our children, who closed our schools—are the people who will be leaving. ”
He called the United States the “sickest country in the world” due to the prevalence of chronic diseases:
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Kennedy attacked the integrity of Susan Monarez, whom he fired as CDC director after less than a month on the job. She had been nominated by Trump, endorsed by Kennedy and confirmed by a Senate vote in July.
Kennedy claimed: “I asked her: ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ and she said ‘No.’ If you had an employee who told you they weren’t trustworthy, would you ask them to resign?”
In testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on September 17, Monarez offered a different explanation for her firing: She refused to cede to Kennedy’s demands to pre-approve vaccine recommendations for the public and he wanted her to fire career scientists.
“He just wanted blanket approval. Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology.
“He called CDC the most corrupt federal agency in the world, emphasized that CDC employees were horrible people. He said that CDC employees were killing children and they don’t care.”
Susan Monarez
In late August, Kennedy told her he had “already spoken with the White House several times about having” her removed, she said.
Kennedy used much of his testimony to lie or lob insults, rather than refute his critics with facts.
On August 9, a 30-year-old Georgia man, Patrick Joseph White, using an automatic rifle, had fired over 180 rounds on the CCD headquarters in Atlanta, breaking about 150 windows.
Influenced by anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, he believed the COVID-19 vaccine had made him depressed and suicidal.
When Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock asked Kennedy if his disparaging remarks about CDC employees could have instigated the shooting, Kennedy retorted: “Are you complicit in the assassination attempts on President Trump?”
“Why have you acted behind closed doors to overrule scientists and limit the freedom of parents to choose the COVID vaccine for their children?” asked Democratic New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan.
Kennedy: “This is crazy talk.”
It wasn’t. In many states, pharmacists cannot legally administer vaccines unless they are endorsed by the CDC’s advisory panel.
During 2020—Donald Trump’s final year of his first term as President—COVID-19 emerged as the greatest threat to worldwide health since the 1919 Spanish influenza.
Coronavirus
To this crisis, Trump responded with:
- Lies about its dangers
- Attacks on medical authorities who urged masking and social distancing
- Inciting his followers to ignore governors’ “lockdown” orders to stop the spread
- Thefts of medical supplies from Blue states
- Quack cures (bleach, UV light)
- Demands to “Re-open the country!” and
- “Learn to live with it.”
At least 400,000 Americans died as a result.
Through his wholesale gutting of America’s healthcare system—once considered the best in the world—Trump and his anti-science accomplices are setting the United States on a collision course with the next deadly epidemic.
ABORTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BC NEWS, BEN CASEY, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CULT TV: A VIEWER’S GUIDE TO THE SHOWS AMERICA CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT, DAILY KOS, DEATH PANELS, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DOCTORS, DONALD TRUMP, DR. KILDARE, ER SHOW, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NEWS NETWORK, GREY’S ANATOMY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS), HOUSE (TV SHOW), HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JAMES COMEY, JOHN JAVNA, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, KIM SCHRIER, KOCH BROTHERS, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, M*A*S*H*, MAGGIE HASSAN, MARCUS WELBY M.D., MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK MEADOWS, MASKS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEDICINE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIONS DISEASES (NIAID), NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH), NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC), NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, OBAMACARE, ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT, PATRICK JOSEPH WHITE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC CITIZEN, RAPHAEL WARNOCK, RAW STORY, RAYMOND MASSEY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., RUSH LIMBAUGH, RUSSELL VOUGHT, SALON, Sarah Palin, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOCIAL DISTANCING, ST. ELSEWHERE, SUSAN MONAREZ, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TEA PARTY, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PRINCE (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSGENDER SURGERY, TRISH REGAN, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VINCE EDWARDS, VLADIMIR PUTIN, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 2, 2025 at 12:22 am
As a Presidential candidate in 2024, Donald Trump warned Americans that he planned to decimate their healthcare system: His Secretary of Health and Human Services would be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
On October 27, speaking at a rally in Madison Square Garden, Trump said: “I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.
“The only thing I don’t think I’m going to let him even get near is the liquid gold that we have under our feet,” he added, referring to oil.
Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, is a self-admitted former 14-year heroin addict, which he has said began at age 15.
On September 16, 1983, he was charged with heroin possession in Rapid City, South Dakota. In February 1984, he pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of possession of heroin, and was sentenced to two years’ probation and community service. After his arrest, he entered a drug treatment center.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Since 2005, Kennedy has peddled vaccine misinformation and public health conspiracy theories. Among these: HIV/AIDS denialism (that the human immune deficiency virus—HIV—does not cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
His vaccine misinformation has included:
- Vaccines cause autism;
- The COVID-19 vaccine—which has saved countless lives—is “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”
- There is no comprehensive system for monitoring vaccine safety.
So how did such a man become the final arbiter of the American healthcare system? During 2024, he ran an independent Presidential campaign before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump.
Predictively, since taking office on February 13, Kennedy has proven a disaster for the scientific approach to medicine.
On February 14, around 1,300 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were laid off by the administration, which included all first-year officers of the Epidemic Intelligence Service.
In August, over 600 CDC employees were laid off and a number of programs completely dismantled, including maternal and child health services, oral health programs, and the CDC’s long-running Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys.
At the May 6 meeting of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Rep. Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-Washington) decried the Trump administration for attacking American healthcare.
The first pediatrician elected to the House, Schrier warned: “We’ve got to recognize that our nation’s health care system is under attack right now.
Kim Schrier
“What we’re seeing now from the current administration has been infuriating and reckless, and this includes slashing medical research and essential staff and funding from agencies like the CDC, the NIH and the FDA, and this kneecaps U.S. research and innovation, and it jeopardizes public health.
“It also cedes the ground for U.S. leadership in the world, and basically hands that leadership to China. That’s plain wrong, and I feel like it just undermines U.S. leadership in the world.”
Referring to the $1 trillion in Medicaid funding cuts mandated in Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” then certain to be passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, Schrier noted:
“These cuts would be disastrous and detrimental for the most vulnerable members of our communities, many of whom are at higher risk for cancer, for deaths from cancer, for late detection of cancer, and I want you to know that I’m doing everything in my power to call out the destruction these cuts would cause, to restore funding for medical research, especially cancer research, and to stand up for patients.”
Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4.
On June 9, 92 National Institute of Health researchers, program directors, branch chiefs and scientific review officers signed their names in a protest letter to Jay Bhattacharya, their Trump-appointed director. Another 250 of their colleagues across the agency endorsed the declaration without using their names.
Accusing the Trump administration of spreading “a culture of fear and suppression,” the declaration said: “We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources.”
Its accusations included:
- NIH’s terminating 2,100 research grants valued at more than $12 billion;
- The resulting human costs—such as cutting off medication regimens to participants in clinical trials or leaving them with unmonitored device implants;
- NIH’s ending a $5 million research study when it was 80% complete.
On August 9, a 30-year-old Georgia man, Patrick Joseph White, fired over 180 rounds on the CCD headquarters in Atlanta, breaking about 150 windows and piercing some of the blast-resistant windows.
Influenced by anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, he believed the COVID-19 vaccine had made him depressed and suicidal.
White died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off CDC employees, blamed the attack on the anti-vaccine rhetoric on the Trump administration. Kennedy, they charged, “is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC’s workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety.”
Under Kennedy, CDC has laid off nearly 2,000 employees. And Trump proposes cutting the agency’s budget in half in 2026.
Fired But Fighting also demanded the resignation of Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget. In a a video he had said:
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”
ABORTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BC NEWS, BEN CASEY, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CULT TV: A VIEWER’S GUIDE TO THE SHOWS AMERICA CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT, DAILY KOS, DEATH PANELS, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DOCTORS, DONALD TRUMP, DR. KILDARE, ER SHOW, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NEWS NETWORK, GREY’S ANATOMY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS), HOUSE (TV SHOW), HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JAMES COMEY, JOHN JAVNA, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, KIM SCHRIER, KOCH BROTHERS, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, M*A*S*H*, MAGGIE HASSAN, MARCUS WELBY M.D., MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK MEADOWS, MASKS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEDICINE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIONS DISEASES (NIAID), NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC), NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, OBAMACARE, ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT, PATRICK JOSEPH WHITE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC CITIZEN, RAPHAEL WARNOCK, RAW STORY, RAYMOND MASSEY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., RUSH LIMBAUGH, SALON, Sarah Palin, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOCIAL DISTANCING, ST. ELSEWHERE, SUSAN MONAREZ, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TEA PARTY, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PRINCE (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSGENDER SURGERY, TRISH REGAN, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VINCE EDWARDS, VLADIMIR PUTIN, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 1, 2025 at 12:10 am
In an October 27, 2020 press release from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “Advisor to the President” and First Daughter Ivanka Trump noted her father’s signature achievement:
“ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. From the outset of the COVID019 pandemic, the Administration has taken decisive action to engage scientists and health professionals in academia, industry, and government to understand, treat and defeat the disease.”
Ivanka Trump has absolutely no scientific or technology background.
Ivanka Trump
In January, 2020, Donald Trump confronted an enemy—to his re-election—that he couldn’t bribe or intimidate.
Unable to apply his trademark solutions, he was forced to improvise one attempted remedy after another. Chief among these:
- Denial
- Lies
- Extortion
- Propaganda as news
- Attacking science
- Reopening the country
- Resignation.
Ultimately, the virus—far more than Democratic nominee Joseph Biden—proved his fatal enemy.
Millions of Americans didn’t care that Trump had criminally fired FBI director James Comey and tried to coerce the president of Ukraine to smear Biden. Nor that he had antagonized America’s closest allies while paying homage to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
But when COVID-19 wiped out their jobs, their children had to stay home because schools were closed, and they couldn’t pay their mortgage, Trump’s “President-for-Life” ambitions were doomed.
One of the harshest—and most poignant—attacks on Donald Trump came on August 17, 2020. It was delivered at the Democratic National Convention by Kristin Urquiza—the daughter of one of Trump’s 2016 supporters.
That supporter, Mark Anthony Urquiza, had died—from COVID-19.
Kristin Urquiza
In early June, he contracted the disease, shortly after Arizona lifted its stay-at-home order. He visited a karaoke bar with friends—and died, alone, after five days on a ventilator.
“My dad, Mark Anthony Urquiza, should be here today, but he isn’t,” Kristin said during a televised segment. “He had faith in Donald Trump.
“He voted for him, listened to him, believed him and his mouthpieces when they said that Coronavirus was under control and going to disappear; that it was OK to end social distancing rules before it was safe; and that if you had no underlying health conditions, you’d probably be fine.
“My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life.”
By the time that Joseph R. Biden took office as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021, more than 400,000 Americans had died of COVID-19.
Four years later, 77 million Americans returned to office the man responsible for the deaths of many of their friends and family members.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump was the most prominent Republican to:
- Dismiss—and even lie about—the dangers of COVID-19.
- Promote quack cures and attack legitimate medical professionals who urged citizens to mask up and socially distance.
- Incited his cult followers to violently defy governors and mayors who declared stay-at-home orders.
But it’s essential to remember that he was supported in this by virtually the entire Republican party.
Once Biden took office, he put the full weight of his Presidency behind legitimate medical science, urging Americans to get vaccinated, mask up and socially distance.
Since Donald Trump moved into the White House again on January 20, 2025, he has relentlessly attacked the medical profession. And, once again, virtually all House and Senate Republicans have supported him in these assaults.
On March 14, Representative Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-WA) and the other five Democratic physicians serving in the U.S. House of Representatives announced the launch of the Congressional Doctors Caucus.
Schrier condemned Congressional Republicans for “questioning [the] proven safety and efficacy of vaccinations, and endanger[ing] our public health by knee-capping key agencies and medical research.
“Together, we will stand up for patients, providers, innovation, science, and common sense improvements that enhance health care and bring down costs.”
But voters had not only elected Trump to office; they elected Republican majorities in the House and Senate. As a result, Democrats were powerless to halt Trump’s relentless efforts to dismantle the American healthcare system.
On July 4, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, which enacts significant cuts to federal health programs to help pay for tax reductions.
The law primarily impacts Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and is projected to cause millions of Americans to lose health insurance coverage.
The bill includes the largest cuts in Medicaid’s history, reducing funding by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. Among its impacts:
- Able-bodied adults aged 19–64 must now work, volunteer, or participate in qualifying activities for at least 80 hours per month to maintain their coverage.
- Medicaid eligibility has been eliminated for certain categories of lawfully present immigrants, including refugees and asylees, effective October 1, 2026.
- States are required to verify eligibility for Medicaid expansion enrollees every six months, instead of annually. Hundreds of thousands could lose coverage.
Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proven the single most destructive attack on the American healthcare system.
Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, is a self-admitted former 14-year heroin addict, whose addiction began at age 15.
ABORTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BC NEWS, BEN CASEY, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CULT TV: A VIEWER’S GUIDE TO THE SHOWS AMERICA CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT, DAILY KOS, DEATH PANELS, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DOCTORS, DONALD TRUMP, DR. KILDARE, ER SHOW, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NEWS NETWORK, GREY’S ANATOMY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS), HOUSE (TV SHOW), HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JAMES COMEY, JOHN JAVNA, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, KIM SCHRIER, KOCH BROTHERS, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, M*A*S*H*, MAGGIE HASSAN, MARCUS WELBY M.D., MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK MEADOWS, MASKS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEDICINE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIONS DISEASES (NIAID), NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC), NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, OBAMACARE, ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT, PATRICK JOSEPH WHITE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC CITIZEN, RAPHAEL WARNOCK, RAW STORY, RAYMOND MASSEY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., RUSH LIMBAUGH, SALON, Sarah Palin, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOCIAL DISTANCING, ST. ELSEWHERE, SUSAN MONAREZ, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TEA PARTY, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PRINCE (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSGENDER SURGERY, TRISH REGAN, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VINCE EDWARDS, VLADIMIR PUTIN, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on September 30, 2025 at 12:26 am
Once states across the country began “reopening,” President Donald J. Trump scheduled his first 2020 re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Then, to celebrate Independence Day, Trump scheduled yet another rally at Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota, on July 3.
A Trump rally
Although health experts expressed fears about large gatherings during the Coronavirus pandemic, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said people would “not be social distancing” during the celebration:
“In South Dakota, we’ve told people to focus on personal responsibility….Those who want to come and join us, we’ll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we won’t be social distancing.”
According to a July 3 story by NBC News: “Eager to move forward and reopen the economy amid a recession and a looming presidential election, the White House is now pushing acceptance. ‘The virus is with us, but we need to live with it,’ is how one official said the administration plans to message on the pandemic.”
On June 30, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before the U.S. Senate: “We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”
Fauci warned that the infection surge across the South and West “puts the entire country at risk.” Much of that increase was being fueled by young adults testing positive for COVID-19.
Anthony Fauci
Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
But Trump wanted children to return to school—and not through virtual classes at home.
And he wasn’t asking parents to send their children back to school after summer. He was ordering them to.
On July 8, 2020, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that did not resume in-person classes that fall:
“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”
And moments after making that threat, Trump said the guidelines of his own Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) for safely reopening schools were too expensive and impractical.
CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia
Among those guidelines:
- Schools should have markings on sidewalks and walls, that mark off six feet, and signs reminding students of protective measures.
- Masks should be worn by students and faculty, “as feasible,” and especially when keeping a distance isn’t possible.
- Sharing equipment, games and supplies should be avoided. If that’s not possible, they should be cleaned after each use.
- Playgrounds, cafeterias and dining halls should be shut. Students eat in their classrooms.
- Rooms should be well-ventilated.
- Schools should allow sick staff members to “stay home when they are sick, have been exposed, or caring for someone who is sick,” without being punished for staying home.
Many Americans asked: “How can President Trump demand that children return to school in the midst of a deadly plague? Especially when we don’t have adequate testing facilities—and, most importantly, a reliable vaccine?”
There was an answer—and it was brutally ugly.
On July 10, Paula Reid, White House correspondent for CBS News, provided the answer on the PBS program, Washington Week:
“And just speaking with White House advisers, I’m told the president knows that in order to get parents back to work you need to get kids back to class, and for the president a lot of this is about hoping that that would give an economic boost to the U.S. ahead of his reelection in November.”
For which he could then claim credit.
Just as the ancient Canaanites sacrificed their children to the god Moloch, so President Donald J. Trump expected his followers—and opponents—to risk their children’s lives for him.
On August 10, CBS News reported:
“Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Just over 97,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus from July 16 to July 30, according to the association.”
By October, no vaccine had been invented. Nor had a national system of testing or contact tracing.
Hospitals began overflowing with COVID cases. Doctors and nurses were overwhelmed with fatigue. Many of them had become COVID victims.
On October 20, more than 70,450 new coronavirus cases were reported in the United States in a day for the first time.
On October 25, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union”: “We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.”
By October 28, more than 8.8 million Americans had been diagnosed with COVID, and at least 227,673 had died from it.
Meanwhile, Trump kept barnstorming the country in a relentless re-election effort. Although infected with COVID-19 in September, he refused to wear a mask in public. His rallies reflected this same contempt for public health, with most attendees refusing to wear masks and/or socially distance.
Critics dubbed these rallies: “Super-spreader events.”
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ADOLF HITLER, ALEC BALDWIN, ALTERNET, ANDREW JACKSON, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BILL O'REILLY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHEKA, CNN, CONCENTRATION CAMPS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE, EXECUTIONS, FIRST AMENDMENT, FOX NEWS, FRED TRUMP, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, FSB, HILLARY CLINTON, HUMOR, HUSTLER MAGAZINE, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, JERRY FALWELL, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN MCCAIN, JOSEPH STALIN, KELLY SADLER, KGB, KIM JONG-II, KIM JONG-UN, LARRY FLYNT, MGB, MORNING JOE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NKVD, NORTH KOREA, NPR, ONE DAY WE WILL LIVE WITHOUT FEAR (BOOK), PARODY, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RUSSIA, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STORMY DANIELS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THEODORE ROOSEVELT, TIME, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WILLIAM REHNQUIST, X
TYRANTS UNITED–TRUMP AND HIS COMMUNIST HEROES: PART ONE (OF THREE)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 6, 2025 at 12:10 am“Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake news NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!”
So tweeted President Donald J. Trump on February 17, 2019.
Less than nine hours earlier, “SNL” had once again opened with actor Alec Baldwin mocking the 45th President. In this skit, Baldwin/Trump gave a rambling press conference declaring: “We need wall. We have a tremendous amount of drugs flowing into this country from the southern border—or The Brown Line, as many people have asked me not to call it.”
Right-wingers denounce their critics as “snowflakes”—that is, emotional, easily offended and unable to tolerate opposing views.
Yet here was Donald Trump, who prides himself on his toughness, whining like a child bully who has just been told that other people have rights, too.
The answer is simple: Trump is a tyrant—and a longtime admirer of tyrants—including Communist ones.
Donald Trump
He has lavishly praised Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, such as during his appearance on the December 18, 2015 edition of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”:
“He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country”—-a reference to then-President Barack Obama.
During a February, 2017 interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Trump defended Putin’s killing of political opponents.
O’Reilly: “But he’s a killer.”
Trump: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”
Asked by a Fox News reporter why he praised murderous North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, he replied: “He’s a tough guy. Hey, when you take over a country, tough country, tough people, and you take it over from your father…If you could do that at 27 years old, I mean, that’s one in 10,000 that could do that.”
In short: Kim must be doing something right because he’s in power. And it doesn’t matter how he came to power—or the price his country is paying for it.
Actually, for all their differences in appearance and nationality, Trump shares at least two similarities with Kim.
Kim Jong-Un
Blue House (Republic of Korea) [KOGL (http://www.kogl.or.kr/open/info/license_info/by.do)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
First, both of them got a big boost into wealth and power from their fathers.
Second, both Trump and Kim have brutally tried to stamp out any voices that contradict their own.
Thus, Trump—-elected to lead the “free world”—believes, like all dictators:
Actually, it’s not uncommon for dictators to admire one another—as the case of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler nicely illustrates.
Joseph Stalin
After Hitler launched a blood-purge of his own private Stormtroopers army on June 30, 1934, Stalin exclaimed: “Hitler, what a great man! That is the way to deal with your political opponents!”
And Hitler was equally admiring of Stalin’s notorious ruthlessness: “After the victory over Russia,” he told his intimates, “it would be a good idea to get Stalin to run the country, with German oversight, of course. He knows better than anyone how to handle the Russians.”
Adolf Hitler
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1990-048-29A / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)%5D
One characteristic shared by all dictators is intolerance toward those whose opinions differ with their own. Especially those who dare to actually criticize or make fun of them.
All Presidents have thin skins. John F. Kennedy often phoned reporters and called them “sonofbitches” when he didn’t like stories they had written on him.
Richard Nixon went further, waging all-out war against the Washington Post for its stories about his criminality.
But Donald Trump took his hatred of dissidents to an entirely new—and dangerous—level.
On May 10, 2018, The Hill reported that White House Special Assistant Kelly Sadler had joked derisively about dying Arizona United States Senator John McCain.
Trump was outraged—not that one of his aides had joked about a man stricken with brain cancer, but that someone in the White House had leaked it.
Share this: