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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 10, 2025 at 12:18 am
Donald Trump is furious. The man who sticks humiliating nicknames on people he hates has had one stuck on him: TACO.
Or: “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
The TACO nickname was coined in May, 2025, by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong. It refers to Trump’s practice of spooking the market with his tariff threats before ultimately backing off, prompting them to rebound.
The nickname went national on May 28, when CNBC’s Megan Casella alluded to Trump’s repeated tariff threats while asking him about the “TACO trade” theory:
“Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO trade. They’re saying Trump always chickens out on your tariff threats and that’s why markets are higher this week. What’s your response to that?”
“I’ve never heard that,” said Trump. “You mean because I reduced China from 145 percent that I set down to 100, and then down to another number, and I said you have to open up your whole country? And because I gave the European Union a 50 percent tax—tariff—and they called up and said, ‘Please let’s meet right now.'”
And then came the explosion: “But don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.”
According to an unidentified source for CNN: “It clearly bothered him, primarily because it demonstrated a lack of understanding about how he actually utilizes those threats for leverage. But obviously he’s not a guy who looks kindly on weakness, so the idea anyone would think that with respect to his actions isn’t received well.”
Republicans generally—and Trump in particular—aren’t used to being insulted. This is primarily because Democrats lack the courage and/or imagination to fight fire with fire.
For example:
On May 27, 2016, conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks analyzed the use of insults by then-Republican Presidential front-runner Donald Trump. He did so with his then-counterpart, liberal syndicated columnist, Mark Shields, on The PBS Newshour.
DAVID BROOKS: “Trump, for all his moral flaws, is a marketing genius. And you look at what he does. He just picks a word and he attaches it to a person. Little Marco [Rubio], Lyin’ Ted [Cruz], Crooked Hillary [Clinton].
“And that’s a word. And that’s how marketing works. It’s a simple, blunt message, but it gets under.
“It sticks, and it diminishes. And so it has been super effective for him, because he knows how to do that. And she [Hillary Clinton] just comes with, ‘Oh, he’s divisive.’
“These are words that are not exciting people. And her campaign style has gotten, if anything…a little more stagnant and more flat.”
Donald Trump
MARK SHIELDS: “Donald Trump gratuitously slandered Ted Cruz’s wife. He libeled Ted Cruz’s father for being potentially part of Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of the president of the United States, suggesting that he was somehow a fellow traveler in that.
“This is a libel. You don’t get over it….”
Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only Presidential candidate who proved unable to cope with Trump’s gift for insult. His targets—and insults—included:
- Former Texas Governor Rick Perry: “Wears glasses to seem smart.”
- Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush: “Low Energy Jeb.”
- Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders: “Crazy Bernie.”
- Ohio Governor John Kasich: “Mathematically dead and totally desperate.”
Trump has reserved his most insulting words for women. For example:
- Carly Fiorina, his Republican primary competitor: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?”
- Megyn Kelly, Fox News reporter: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.”
- California Rep. Maxine Waters: “An extremely low IQ person.”
- Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “MS-13 Lover Nancy Pelosi.”
Only one candidate has shown the ability to rattle Trump: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
As Mark Shields noted on The PBS Newshour.
“Elizabeth Warren gets under Donald Trump’s skin. And I think she’s been the most effective adversary. I think she’s done more to unite the Democratic party than either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.”
Among her attacks:
- “Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap. What kind of a man roots for people to lose their jobs and be kicked out of their houses? What kind of a man does that?”
- “When Donald Trump says ‘great,’ I ask: ‘great for who, exactly? When Donald says he’ll make America great, he means greater for rich guys just like Donald Trump. That’s who Donald Trump is. … And you have to watch out for him, because he’ll crush you into the dirt.”
- ”Donald Trump is a bigger, uglier threat every day that goes by – and it’s time for decent people everywhere— Republican, Democrat, Independent—to say, ‘No more Donald.'”
Words are weapons—or can be, if used properly.
Republicans learned this truth after World War II.
- Richard Nixon became a United States Senator in 1950 by attacking Helen Gahagen Douglas as “The Pink Lady.”
- From 1950 onward, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and other Red-baiting Republicans essentially paralyzed the Democratic party through such slanderous terms as “Comsymps,” “fellow-travelers” and “Fifth Amendment Communists.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on September 5, 2025 at 12:16 am
For all his ruthlessness and duplicity, it’s almost a certainty that Donald Trump has never read the works of Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science.
Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) is widely thought of as the personification of Satan.
In fact, Machiavelli was a passionate Republican, who spent most of his adult life in the service of his beloved city-state, Florence.
Florence, for all its wealth, lacked a strong army, and thus lay at the mercy of powerful enemies, such as Cesare Borgia. Machiavelli often had to use his wits to keep them at bay.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Contrary to popular belief, Machiavelli did not advocate evil for its own sake.
Rather, he recognized that sometimes there is no perfect solution to a problem. He realized that men—and nations—are not always masters of their fates. And he warned that there is no course of action that is guaranteed safe or successful.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a man of simplistic “solutions” for simplistic audiences.
By early April, 2020, he opposed the issuing of a national “stay-at-home” order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. But, one by one, states began issuing shutdown orders of their own. So he railed against those orders and demanded that “we need to reopen the country.”
Donald Trump
There were two hidden agendas behind this:
First, throughout the first term of his Presidency, Trump claimed sole credit for a booming economy—even though this was largely the result of the administration of President Barack Obama.
Second, Trump wanted to return to his Nuremberg-style rallies, where he could slander anyone he wanted while basking in the worship of thousands of his fanatical followers.
His White House “Coronavirus briefings” had been his pale substitute for dispensing propaganda under the guise of sharing reliable medical information.
Thus he clearly missed this warning, offered in Machiavelli’s masterwork, The Discourses, about safely giving advice:
“For as men only judge of matters by the result, all the blame of failure is charged upon him who first advised it, while in case of success he receives commendations. But the reward never equals the punishment….
“Certainly those who counsel princes and republics are placed between two dangers. If they do not advise what seems to them for the good of the republic or the prince, regardless of the consequences to themselves, then they fail of their duty….
“I see no other course than to take things moderately, and not to undertake to advocate any enterprise with too much zeal, but to give one’s advice calmly and modestly.
“If either then the republic or the prince decides to follow it, they may do so, as it were, of their own will, and not as though they were drawn into it by your importunity.
“In adopting this course it is not reasonable to suppose that either the prince or republic will manifest any ill will towards you on account of a resolution not taken contrary to the wishes of the many.”
By May, 2020, more Americans were wary of “reopening the country” than they were rushing to do so.
On the May 15 edition of The PBS Newshour, New York Times columnist David Brooks noted:
“If you look at actual behavior, people locked themselves down before any politician took a move. And even in those states where the politicians are opening up, people are still locking down….
“You look at the movement based on cell phone tracking. Red and blue states have the same amount of movement. The same number of people basically in state after state are staying home. And red and blue states, there’s no correlation between whether it’s a red and blue state and whether people are doing better or worse.
“And so I think the key decisions right now are not being made in statehouses and certainly not the White House. They’re being made in living rooms, as people decide, is it safe? Can I go out?”
Coronavirus
By pushing his mantra—“America needs to reopen NOW!”—Trump risked the lives of millions of Americans. But he also risked the future of his Presidency.
Several states—such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—that re-opened saw swarms of people flooding into bars and restaurants. They weren’t wearing masks or practicing “social distancing.” Packed together like sardines, they offered themselves like a sacrifice to Coronavirus.
If COVID-19 continued to claim more victims after America “reopened,” Trump would be seen—as Machiavelli warned—as the primary instigator of that “reopening.” He would also be seen as the primary cause of that disaster.
That is, in fact, what happened.
Herbert Hoover did not create the Great Depression. But he presided over the first three years of it. And that was enough to elect Franklin D. Roosevelt for 12 years and give Harry S. Truman another eight.
For one year, Trump presided over the outbreak of COVID. He hoped to convince voters to ignore it and give him another four years.
Instead, voters turned him out and elected Joseph Biden, who promised to attack COVID head-on.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on July 21, 2025 at 12:09 am
On March 9, 1954, Edward R. Murrow, the most respected broadcast journalist in America, outlined the career and demagogic tactics of Wisconsin United States Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
He did so on his CBS news show, “See It Now,” at the height of the “Red Scare” hysteria that McCarthy had whipped up four years earlier. In doing so, he risked his own future at CBS.
Virtually any American could find himself accused of being a Communist, a “Comsymp,” or a “fellow traveler.” Such an act could rob him/her of friends, career—or even liberty on the flimsiest of evidence.
Meanwhile, Republicans cowered before McCarthy’s attacks on the press, the military, the judiciary and law enforcement—or joined his chorus. Protecting the nation’s social and political institutions took a distant second place to attacking Democrats as Communist traitors.
Joseph McCarthy
Today, 71 years later, another demagogue—Donald Trump—casts an even darker shadow across the land. As President of the United States, he commands far more power than McCarthy ever did.
Among the crimes and outrages of his second term:
- Slandering anyone—famous or anonymous, athlete or disabled, politician or celebrity—he dislikes or who dares contradict him.
- Pardoning about 1,500 of his followers who violently attacked the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, to overturn the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election. Move than 250 of those pardoned had been convicted of assaulting police.
- Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.
- Ordering the dismissal of 5,000 FBI agents who investigated his incitement of the January 6 riot and his illegal hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Donald Trump
- Declaring a false “national emergency” targeting migrants—legal and illegal—for arrest and deportation.
- Seeking to cancel automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children, known as birthright, and enshrined within the United States Constitution.
- Attacking and endangering federal judges who have ruled against him—such as on his authority to issue extortionate tariffs and strip Harvard University of its right to admit international students.
- Withdrawing the security detail assigned to Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Fauci’s “crime”: Contradicting Trump’s lies about the dangers of COVID-19.
He has, in short, forced most Americans to re-think their longtime assumption that a dictatorship can’t happen here.
Today, only those Republicans who have decided to retire from Congress dare to criticize Trump. The rest fear he will aim a nasty tweet at them—and cost them Fascistic voters, perhaps even their offices.
At this time, Murrow’s warnings about Joseph McCarthy need to be seriously reconsidered. Just substitute “President” for “Junior Senator” and “Trump” for “McCarthy,” and Murrow’s text could have been written yesterday.
Edward R. Murrow
On one thing the [President] has been consistent. Often operating as a one-man committee, he has traveled far, [defamed] many, terrorized some, accused civilian and military leaders of the past administration of a great conspiracy to turn over the country to [terrorism], [slamdered] and substantially demoralized the [Department of Health and Human Services]….
He has [slandered] a varied assortment of [the press], what he calls [“the enemy of the American people.”]
[Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California] said of [Trump] today: “….This President believes he is above the law, beyond accountability. And in my view, there is nothing more dangerous than an unethical President who believes they are above the law.”
It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the [President of the United States] has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of [liberalism].
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another.
We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men—not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
This is no time for men who oppose [President Trump’s] methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.
There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The actions of the [President of the United States] have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his.
He [has created] this situation of fear [and] exploited it—and rather successfully. Cassius was right: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on July 18, 2025 at 12:45 am
In his bestselling 1973 biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, British historian Robert Payne harshly condemned the German people for the rise of the Nazi dictator.
“Ultimately, the responsibility for the rise of Hitler lies with the German people, who allowed themselves to be seduced by him and came to enjoy the experience….
“[They] followed him with joy and enthusiasm because he gave them license to pillage and murder to their hearts’ content. They were his servile accomplices, his willing victims….
“If he answered their suppressed desires, it was not because he shared them, but because he could make use of them. He despised the German people, for they were merely the instruments of his will.”
On November 5, 2024 77 million ignorant, hate-filled, Right-wing Americans re-elected Donald Trump–––a man reflecting their own Fascistic hate and ignorance—to the Presidency.
Yet Americans had fewer excuses for turning to a Fascistic style of government than the Germans did.
Adolf Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party in 1919—the year after World War 1 ended.
Adolf Hitler
In 1923, he staged a coup attempt in Bavaria—which was quickly suppressed by police. He was arrested and sentenced to less than a year in prison.
Hitler then decided that he could not win power through violence. He must win it through election—or appointment.
When the 1929 Depression struck Germany, the fortunes of Hitler’s Nazi party rose as the life savings of ordinary Germans fell. Bloody street clashes erupted between Hitler’s Nazi Stormtroopers and German Communist Party members.
Germans desperately looked for a leader—a Fuhrer—who could somehow deliver them from the threat of financial ruin and Communist takeover.
In early 1933, members of his own cabinet persuaded aging German president, Paul von Hindenburg, that only Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor could do this.
Paul von Hindenburg
Hindenburg considered Hitler a dangerous radical. But he let himself be convinced that he could “box in” and control Hitler by putting him in the Cabinet.
So, on January 30, 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor (the equivalent of Attorney General) of Germany.
On August 2, 1934, Hindenburg died. Hitler immediately assumed the titles—and duties—of the offices of Chancellor and President. His rise to total power was complete.
It had taken him 14 years to do so.
On November 15, 2022, Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President in 2024.
Among his crimes as President (2017 – 2021) he had:
- Used his position as President to further enrich himself, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
- Praised brutal Communist dictators Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un.
- Fired FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and continuing to investigate Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
- Attacked Federal judges whose rulings displeased him.
- Openly lusted for his daughter, Ivanka.
- Attacked America’s oldest allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
- Shut down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his useless “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. About 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were forced to work without pay for 35 days.
- Allowed the deadly COVID-19 virus to ravage the country, killing 400,000 Americans by the time he left office.
- Attacked medical experts and governors who urged Americans to wear masks and socially distance to protect themselves against the deadly COVID-19 virus.
- Repeatedly lied—while still in office and afterward—that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him by massive voter fraud.
- Illegally tried to pressure state legislatures and governors to stop the certification of the vote that had made Joe Biden the President-elect.
- Incited his followers on January 6, 2021, to attack the Capitol Building where Senators and Representatives were counting the Electoral Votes won by himself and Joe Biden. His objective: Stop the count, which he knew would prove him the loser.
.jpg/220px-Donald_Trump_August_19,_2015_(cropped).jpg)
Donald Trump
These outrages were fully known to—and supported by—his legions of fanatical followers. But they were outweighed by two issues: Immigration and inflation.
In short: “Get rid of the spics!” and “Give us cheaper eggs!”
Repeatedly, Vice President Kamala Harris warned that Trump’s return to the Presidency would result in a Fascistic dictatorship:
“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly [Trump’s former chief of staff] would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions….
“He wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally, one that will obey his orders, even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”
Reputable media warned that he intended to turn the FBI into his private Gestapo and use the Justice Department to attack his political rivals.
But Americans didn’t care.
Instead, 77,303,573 Fascistic voters chose to overturn the democratic traditions that had guided American life since 1788, when the United States Constitution was ratified.
Appeals to their hatred, racism, misogyny and greed proved far more seductive.
All of this should be remembered the next time an American blames Germans for their embrace of Adolf Hitler.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on June 26, 2025 at 12:22 am
On October 4, 1943, SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler addressed SS officers stationed in Posen, Poland, about the ongoing campaign to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
He gave a similar speech two days later to an audience of Reichsleiters (national leaders) and Gauleiters (governors), as well as other government representatives.
Himmler intended to alert Reich officials of the extermination campaign the Schutzstaffel (“Protective Squads”)—otherwise known as the SS—and Wehrmacht (German army) had been waging since June, 1941.
The purpose: To make his listeners accessories to his monumental crimes—and to warn them there was no turning back.
Heinrich Himmler
Either Nazi Germany won the war that its Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, had unintentionally unleashed on September 1, 1939—or its topmost officials would themselves face extinction as war criminals.
Said Himmler:
“I want to also mention a very difficult subject before you, with complete candor. It should be discussed amongst us, yet nevertheless, we will never speak about it in public. I am talking about the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people.
“It is one of those things that is easily said: ‘The Jewish people is being exterminated.’…Most of you will know what it means when 100 bodies lie together, when 500 are there or when there are 1,000. And to have seen this through and—with the exception of human weakness—to have remained decent, has made us hard and is a page of glory never mentioned and never to be mentioned….”
Fast forward 81 years—to July, 2024.
On July 15, 2024, the Republican National Convention met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to nominate former President Donald Trump for President of the United States and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance for Vice President.
Most of the attendees of Himmler’s speech at Posen hadn’t known the full details of the systematic extermination of the Jews. But everyone at the Republican convention knew Trump’s history:
- Publicly siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—which unanimously agreed that Russia had interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Using his position as President to further enrich himself, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
- Praising brutal Communist dictators Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un.
- Firing FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and continuing to investigate Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
- Openly lusting for his daughter, Ivanka.
- Shutting down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his useless “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. About 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were forced to work without pay for 35 days.
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance
- Allowing the deadly COVID-19 virus to ravage the country, killing 400,000 Americans by the time he left office.
- Attacking medical experts and governors who urged Americans to wear masks and socially distance to protect themselves against the deadly COVID-19 virus.
- Repeatedly lying—while still in office and afterward—that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him by massive voter fraud.
- Illegally trying to pressure state legislatures and governors to stop the certification of the vote that had made Joe Biden the President-elect.
- Inciting his followers on January 6, 2021, to attack the Capitol Building where Senators and Representatives were counting the Electoral College votes won by himself and Joe Biden. His objective: Stop the count, which he knew would prove him the loser.
At the time of the January 6, 2021 coup attempt, even Republicans admitted Trump’s responsibility for it.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy frantically phoned Trump, insisting that the rioters—who were breaking into his office through the windows—were the President’s supporters. He begged Trump to call them off.
“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said.
But on January 28, “My Kevin” groveled before Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, while they discussed how to win a House majority in the 2022 midterm elections
And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on January 12: “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”
But when the Senate met to try Trump for inciting an insurrection, McConnell voted to acquit him—and successfully urged his fellow Republicans to do the same.
At the 2024 Republican convention, House Speaker Mike Johnson declared: “We in the Republican Party are the law and order team.”
But he ignored Trump’s past conviction for raping advice columnist E. Jean Carroll and his 34 felony convictions for scheming to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to a porn “star” after the two had sex.
Heinrich Himmler diabolically entangled his fellow Nazis in his own crimes.
Attendees at the Republican convention could not plead ignorance of Trump’s crimes. They were knowingly, enthusiastically championing a proven criminal for the highest office in the nation.
History has brutally condemned those Germans who, knowing the full extent of Adolf Hitler’s crimes, nevertheless signed on to perpetuate them.
History will render the same damning verdict against those Republicans who provided similar support for Donald Trump.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on June 20, 2025 at 12:12 am
This December 2 will mark the 24th anniversary of the collapse of Enron Corporation.
Based in Houston, Texas, Enron had employed 22,000 staffers and was one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, communications and paper companies.
In 2000, it claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion. Fortune had named Enron “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years.
But then the truth emerged in 2001: Enron’s reported profitability was based not on brilliance and innovation but on systematic and creative accounting fraud.
And, on December 2, 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
Enron’s $63.4 billion in assets made it the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history—until WorldCom’s bankruptcy in 2002.
The California electricity crisis (2000-2001) was caused by market manipulations and illegal shutdowns of pipelines by Texas energy companies.
The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts. Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the state’s largest energy companies, collapsed, and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis’ standing.
The crisis was made possible by Governor Pete Wilson, who had forced the passage of partial de-regulation legislation in 1996.
Enron seized its opportunity to inflate prices and manipulate energy output in California’s spot markets. The crisis cost the state $40 to $45 billion.
The true scandal of Enron was not that it was eventually destroyed by its own greed.
The true scandal was that its leaders were never Federally prosecuted for almost driving California—and the entire Western United States—into bankruptcy.
And the crisis occurred during the “liberal” administration of President Bill Clinton.
Once the news broke that Enron had filed for bankruptcy, commentators almost universally oozed compassion for its thousands of employees who would lose their salaries and pensions.
No one, however, condemned the “profits at any cost” dedication of those same employees for pushing California to the brink of ruin.
To put this in historical perspective:
- Imagine a historian writing about the destruction of Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (Guard Detachment), or SS, as a human interest tragedy.
- Imagine its Reichsfuhrer, Heinrich Himmler, being blamed for failing to prevent its collapse—as CEO Kenneth Lay was blamed for Enron’s demise.
- Imagine that same historian completely ignoring the horrific role the SS had played throughout Nazi-occupied countries—and its primary role in slaughtering six million Jews during the Holocaust.
Heinrich Himmler
Nor did the media urge the United States Department of Justice to end the extortion via RICO—the Federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act.
Passed by Congress in 1970, this was originally aimed at the kingpins of the Mafia. Since the mid-1980s, however, RICO has been successfully applied against both terrorist groups and legitimate businesses engaged in criminal activity.
Under RICO, people financially injured by a pattern of criminal activity can bring a claim in State or Federal court, and obtain damages at three times the amount of their actual claim, plus reimbursement for their attorneys’ fees and costs.
Such prosecutions would have pitted energy-extortionists against the full investigative might of the FBI and the sweeping legal authority of the Justice Department.
Consider this selection from the opening of the Act:
(1) “racketeering activity” means (A) any act or threat involving…extortion; (B) any act which is indictable under any of the following provisions of title 18, United States Code: sections 891-894 (relating to extortionate credit transactions), section 1343 (relating to wire fraud)Section 1344 (relating to financial institution fraud), section 1951 (relating to interference with commerce, robbery, or extortion), section 1952 (relating to racketeering)….
Today, two powerful social media companies—Facebook and X—play pivotal and potentially dangerous roles in the lives of millions of men, women and children.
Facebook has invaded its users’ privacy (such as via the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), manipulated elections (such as the 2016 Presidential one) and subjected its users to mass surveillance.
X has allowed trolls to abuse its followers and spread dangerous lies to millions. For five years, its chief troll was Donald Trump, who libeled hundreds while falsely claiming that COVID-19 was a hoax and that he won re-election in 2020 but was cheated by fraud.
Such lies resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans from COVID—and poisoned the American electoral system for future races.
Yet in both cases, the Federal Government has stood by and allowed such abuses to continue unpunished. Yet it commands a wide range of agencies capable of addressing such abuses—such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and—not least importantly, the Justice Department.
Powerful, life-altering companies require powerful oversight—through the prism of the warning given by Niccolo Machiavelli more than 500 years ago:
All those who have written upon civil institutions demonstrate…that whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
If their evil disposition remains concealed for a time, it must be attributed to some unknown reason; and we must assume that it lacked occasion to show itself. But time, which has been said to be the father of all truth, does not fail to bring it to light.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 11, 2025 at 12:10 am
There are literally no limits to which Donald Trump’s fanatical supporters will go to convince others he’s a heroic champion worthy of their reverence.
On Facebook and Twitter, his disciples post images of him that are not only false but laughably so.
One such meme depicted Trump as a military hero, clad in full Army gear, leading his men into combat. 
The problem: Trump—a notorious draft-dodger—received five deferments to escape the Vietnam war, including one for bone spurs.
Now, as re-elected President of the United States, he’s determined to give himself a victory parade—the sort traditionally reserved for egocentric, service-dodging dictators such as Joseph Stalin and Kim Jong-Un.
The date Trump has chosen for the parade: June 14, his 79th birthday. Naturally, he’s claiming it’s strictly a coincidence, and the purpose is to salute the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.
Plans for the parade call for about 6,600 soldiers, 150 vehicles and 50 helicopters to follow a route from Arlington, Virginia, to the National Mall.
Participating vehicles will include: A Stryker battalion with two companies of Stryker vehicles, a tank battalion and two companies of tanks, an infantry battalion with Bradley vehicles, Paladin artillery vehicles, Howitzers and infantry vehicles.
The cost to repair Washington, D.C., streets after the parade could reach $16 million, according to U.S. military officials.
Defense officials estimate that the parade’s expense could reach $45 million, with individual Army units ultimately bearing the cost.
But Trump claims the cost would be “peanuts compared to the value of doing it. We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we’re going to celebrate it.”
The pricey parade comes as Trump and his illegitimate Department of Government Efficiency have decimated federal agencies and programs, costing thousands of workers their jobs—including civilians in the Defense Department.
Donald Trump
There is no better way to trace the decline of the United States than to compare the upcoming salute to Trump’s ego with the 1946 Memorial Day ceremony at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, near the town of Nettuno.
The cemetery held about 20,000 American graves, mostly of soldiers who had died in Sicily or at Anzio, fighting Nazi Germany.
Presiding over that event was Lt. General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., the U.S. Fifth Army Commander.
Unlike many other generals, Truscott had shared in the dangers of combat, pouring over maps on the hood of his jeep with company commanders as bullets or shells whizzed about him.
When it came his turn to speak, Truscott moved to the podium. Then he turned his back on the assembled visitors—which included several Congressmen.
The audience he now faced were the graves of his fellow soldiers.
Lt. General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.
Among those who heard Truscott’s speech was Bill Mauldin, the famous cartoonist for the Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes. Mauldin had created Willie and Joe, the unshaved, slovenly-looking “dogfaces” who came to symbolize the GI.
It’s from Mauldin that we have the fullest account of Truscott’s speech that day.
“He apologized to the dead men for their presence there. He said that everybody tells leaders that it is not their fault that men get killed in war, but that every leader knows in his heart that this is not altogether true.
“He said he hoped anybody here through any mistake of his would forgive him, but he realized that he was asking a hell of a lot under the circumstances….
“Truscott said he would not speak of the ‘glorious’ dead because he didn’t see much glory in getting killed in your teens or early twenties.
“He promised that if in the future he ran into anybody, especially old men, who thought death in battle was glorious, he would straighten them out. He said he thought it was the least he could do.”
Then Truscott walked away, without acknowledging his audience of celebrities.
Bill Mauldin and “Willie and Joe,” the characters he made famous
Contrast the character of Lucian Truscott with that of the man who holds the office of President of the United States.
Donald Trump has:
- Equated his reckless sex life during the 1970s with the risks American soldiers faced in Vietnam.
- Relentlessly defended Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against all criticism, even as he’s slandered literally hundreds of his fellow citizens on his website, Truth Social.
- Attacked the FBI and CIA for concluding that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help him win the White House.
- Allowed the deadly COVID-19 virus to ravage the country, killing 400,000 Americans by the time he left office.
- Incited his followers to attack the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, to stop the Electoral Vote count, which he knew would prove Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 Presidential election.
Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg’s 1998 World War II epic, opens with a scene of an American flag snapping in the wind.
Except that the brilliant colors of Old Glory have been washed out, leaving only black-and-white stripes and black stars.
Small wonder that, for many Americans, Old Glory has taken on a darker, washed-out appearance—in real-life as in film.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 10, 2025 at 12:37 am
Republicans have a long and disgraceful history of excusing Donald Trump’s litany of crimes—as a 2016 Presidential candidate, as President (2017-2021), as a former President (2021-2025) and once again as President.
Forgiven Crime 44: Trump’s Justice Department ordered Danielle Sassoon, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to dismiss pending criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams for bribery, solicitation, conspiracy and wire fraud,
This occurred after Adams—who had previously refused to cooperate with Trump’s roundup of illegal aliens—agreed to do so. Sassoon resigned from the Justice Department rather than comply with the order.
Forgiven Crime 45: When Danielle Sassoon resigned instead of carrying out what she believed was an illegal order, Emil Bove, the Acting Attorney General, sent her a letter stating that her conduct would be investigated and evaluated by the Attorney General, after which “the Attorney General will determine whether termination or some other action is appropriate.”
Danielle Sassoon
Forgiven Crime 46: Trump held what amounted to an ambush meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Trump blamed Zelensky for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump demanded that Zelensky sign over mineral rights to the United States without America’s providing a security guarantee for Ukraine. Zelensky left without signing such an agreement.
Forgiven Crime 47: Trump announced that he was considering violating the 22nd Amendment and seeking an illegal third Presidential term in 2028.
Forgiven Crime 48: The Trump-authorized and illegitimate Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk, dismantled multiple agencies, invaded the privacy of untold millions by accessing sensitive data systems and fired tens of thousands of federal workers.
Forgiven Crime 49: Trump filed frivolous and extortionate lawsuits against major news networks CBS and ABC.
Against CBS: Trump claimed that its news magazine, “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris to damage his presidential campaign and influence the election. He initially sought $10 billion in damages, then increased it to $20 billion.
Against ABC: He claimed that its commentator, George Stephanopoulos, falsely stated he was found liable for “rape” in the case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll. The jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, but not rape. The judge later clarified that what the jury found Trump did was in fact rape, as commonly understood.
ABC settled the lawsuit by agreeing to donate $15 million to Trump’s Presidential library.
Forgiven Crime 50: Trump solicited and received a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar for use as Air Force One, in direct violation of the Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign countries.
The jet will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it up to presidential standards, including a security sweep of the entire aircraft and costly upgrades to ensure classified communications.
After Trump leaves office, it will be transferred to his Presidential library.
* * * * *
Why have Republicans almost unanimously stood by Donald Trump despite the wreckage he made of American foreign and domestic policy?
Fear—that they will lose their privileged positions in Congress if they don’t.
This could happen by:
- Their being voted out of Congress by Trump’s fanatical base; or
- Their being voted out of Congress by anti-Trump voters fed up with Trump’s appalling behavior.
House and Senate Republicans’ support for Trump hinges on one question: “Can I hold onto my power and all the privileges that accompany it by sticking—or breaking—with him?”
In his bestselling 1973 biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, British historian Robert Payne harshly condemned the German people for the rise of the Nazi dictator:
“[They] allowed themselves to be seduced by him and came to enjoy the experience….[They] followed him with joy and enthusiasm because he gave them license to pillage and murder to their hearts’ content. They were his servile accomplices, his willing victims.”
Like Hitler, Trump offered his Republican voters and Congressional allies intoxicating dreams: “I will enrich all of you. And I will humiliate and destroy those Americans you most hate.”
For his white, Fascistic, largely elderly audience, those enemies included blacks, atheists, Hispanics, non-Christians, Muslims, liberals, “uppity” women, Asians.
For most of the first three years of his first term, he faced little opposition. What cost Trump the White House wasn’t Democratic or Republican courage but a deadly disease—COVID-19—which Trump refused to take seriously.
Democrats cowered before Trump’s slanders—thereby ensuring more assaults.
Most of the press quailed before Trump. Only a few media outlets—notably the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post-–dared investigate his crimes and blunders.
In 1960, the Russian poet, Yevgeney Yevtushenko, published “Conversation With an American Writer”—a stinging indictment of the cowardly opportunists who had supported the brutal tyranny of Joseph Stalin:
“You have courage,” they tell me.
It’s not true. I was never courageous.
I simply felt it unbecoming
to stoop to the cowardice of my colleagues.
Too many Republicans know all-too-well how it feels to stoop to the cowardice of their colleagues for a transitory hold on power and privilege.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 9, 2025 at 12:10 am
Throughout the first term of his Presidency, Republicans continued to support Donald Trump despite a series of actions that would have normally resulted in impeachment, if not imprisonment.
And they continued to support him after he left office—and after his re-election as President on November 5, 2024.
Forgiven Crime 29: Trump has echoed Adolf Hitler in attacking immigrants: “They’re poisoning the blood of our country. They’ve poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just the three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world.”
Republicans have refused to condemn those remarks—or the original source—Mein Kampf-–of those remarks.
Forgiven Crime 30: On January 20, 2025—his first day as re-elected President—Trump granted clemency to more than 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack. This sends a clear message that his supporters can commit virtually any crime against his opponents with impunity.
Forgiven Crime 31: Trump signed 26 executive orders. Among the results: Reversing climate change initiatives, eliminating DEI programs, changing the federal designation for the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and initiating a federal hiring freeze.
Executive Order signed by President Harry S. Truman
Forgiven Crime 32: Trump revoked the security clearances of 51 former Intelligence officials. Their “crime”: Signing a letter in 2020 stating that reports about a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, had “classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Forgiven Crime 33: Trump revoked an executive order on Artificial Intelligence safety signed by former President Biden. Biden’s order, introduced in 2023, aimed to establish safeguards for the rapidly advancing AI technology.
Forgiven Crime 34: During a press conference in North Carolina, President Trump reaffirmed his stance that Canada should become the 51st state. Rejecting the longtime friendship between the two countries, Trump took an increasingly aggressive stance toward Canada, imposing steep tariffs and even threatening military intervention.
Forgiven Crime 35: Trump fired the inspectors general—who are charged with protecting the government from waste and corruption—from more than a dozen federal agencies.
Forgiven Crime 36: Several career lawyers who worked on the criminal investigations into Donald Trump were fired by Acting Attorney General James McHenry because he “do[es] not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”
Seal of the U.S. Department of Justice
Forgiven Crime 37: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth informed former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley “that he is revoking the authorization for his security detail and suspending his security clearance.”
In addition, Hegseth ordered the Pentagon’s inspector general to open “an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding General Milley’s conduct so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination.”
Milley’s “crimes”: After the Trump-incited January 6 attempted coup, Milley assured his Chinese counterpart that the U.S. was not about to start a military conflict. And in his farewell speech upon his retirement, said that service members “don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. … We don’t take an oath to an individual.”
Forgiven Crime 38: Trump ordered a purge of about a half-dozen executive assistant directors at the FBI. These were some of the bureau’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations.
Their “crime”: Trump blamed them for investigating his inciting the January 6, 2021 coup attempt and his illegal holding of highly sensitive national security documents after leaving office.
Seal of the FBI
Forgiven Crime 39: On February 1, Trump arbitrarily placed tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% on imports from China with no stated exemptions.
Forgiven Crime 40: Without explanation, Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices.
Forgiven Crime 41: Following Trump’s executive orders, federal agencies deleted multiple federal web pages and data. Among the agencies: The Pentagon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Census Bureau. The changes affected content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), gender identity, public health research, environmental policy and social programs.
Forgiven Crime 42: Following Trump’s anti-DEI executive order, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) deleted content that included the achievements of nonwhite groups, such as Navajo code code talkers, black Tuskegee Airmen, Medal of Honor winners and women veterans. As in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, those that Trump hates are made to disappear from history.
Forgiven Crime 43: Trump fired the board members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and appointed himself as chairman—just as Joseph Stalin made himself arbiter of what was permissible for artists in the Soviet Union.
Forgiven Crime 44: When the Associated Press refused to designate the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” as Trump has decreed it now is, Trump banned its reporters from the White House press pool and official White House events.
A federal judge ordered him to reinstate the Associated Press’s access to presidential events on grounds that his ban violated the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 6, 2025 at 12:10 am
Throughout the first term of his Presidency, Republicans continued to support Donald Trump despite a series of actions that would have normally resulted in impeachment.
Forgiven Crime #19: After being acquitted of impeachable offenses by the Senate, Trump fired the Inspectors General (IG) of five cabinet departments in six weeks. Among these:
- Michael K. Atkinson – The IG of the Intelligence Community. The reason: Atkinson had forwarded the whistleblower complaint which led to Trump’s impeachment.
- Glenn Fine – Appointed to oversee funds voted by Congress to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the United States. His dismissal ensured that Trump—who had admitted to defrauding students at his notorious “Trump University”—could spend the $2 trillion in relief monies any way he wished.
Glenn Fine
- Christi Grimm – As IG at the Department of Health and Human Services, she outraged Trump by contradicting him by agreeing—accurately—that the nation’s hospitals were suffering from severe shortages of personal protective equipment and testing supplies for COVID-19.
Forgiven Crime #20: After losing the Presidential election on November 3, 2020, Trump became the first American President in history to refuse to accept the verdict.
Forgiven Crime #21: From November 3 to December 14, 2020, Trump and his allies challenged the election results, filing—and losing—59 cases in court, either withdrawing cases or having them dismissed by Federal and state judges.
Forgiven Crime #22: On December 5, 2021, Trump called Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and asked him to call a special legislative session and convince state legislators to select their own electors that would support him, thus overturning Biden’s win.
Kemp refused.
Brian Kemp
Forgiven Crime 23: On January 6, 2021, Trump ordered his assembled followers to attack the Capitol Building where House and Senate members were counting Electoral Votes—that were certain to certify Joseph R. Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 Presidential election.
Their goal: To stop the counting of those votes—and enable Trump to serve as “President-for-Life.”
Many of the lawmakers’ offices were occupied and vandalized. One Capitol police officer was killed and 114 others were injured.
This was, in effect, a treasonous coup attempt.
On February 13, 2021, the Republican-dominated Senate once again acquitted Trump—of “incitement of insurrection” against the United States government.
Forgiven Crime 24: In 2022, Trump became the first ex-President to be indicted for crimes committed during his four-year administration: 2017-2021. He faced 91 criminal charges across four jurisdictions: Georgia, Florida, New York and the District of Columbia.
Yet even as he viciously attacked his rivals for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination, all but one—former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie—refused to condemn him as an indicted criminal.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley promised to pardon Trump if he was convicted and either one of them was elected President.
Forgiven Crime 25: On August 8, 2022, for the first time in American history, Donald Trump became the first former President to be the subject of an FBI raid.
The raid came without warning on Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. FBI agents, armed with a search warrant, scoured the premises—for documents Trump illegally took before he left the White House on January 20, 2021.
Trump had repeatedly refused to return the documents.
Forgiven Crime 26: In March, 2023, Trump threatened “death and destruction” if he were criminally charged in New York for making “hush money” payments to porn “actress” Stormy Daniels. Trump shared an image of himself threatening Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with a baseball bat on his Truth Social platform.
Not even Mafia bosses like Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Albert “The Executioner” Anastasia dared issue such a threat.
Forgiven Crime 27: On November 18, 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith Special Counsel to prosecute Trump for his attempted January 6 coup.
Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, to attack Smith as “a deranged lunatic” and “psycho” for indicting him for his theft of national security documents. He also attacked Smith’s wife, Katy Gale Chevigny, thus exposing her to possible violence from his fanatical supporters.
Trump’s attacks on Smith led to an increase in security for the Special Counsel.
Jack Smith
Forgiven Crime 28: As Iowa prepared to cast votes in the Republican caucuses on January 15, 2024,, meteorologists warned of “life-threatening” conditions. Trump, the Republican front-runner lusting for a second term as President, took that advice.
Scheduled for four in-person Iowa events on January 14, he canceled three of them the day before voting, due to the freezing cold and snow.
But that didn’t mean he shared the same concern for those he urged to vote for him.
“If you want to save America from crooked Joe Biden, you must go caucus tomorrow. First step, very first step. We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna do it big. You got to get out. “
“You can’t sit home. If you’re sick as a dog, you say, ‘Darling, I gotta make it,’” Trump said at an Indianola rally on January 14. “Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it, remember.”
Republicans saw nothing immoral in Trump’s disregard for the lives of his voting supporters—just as they saw nothing immoral in his disregard for the lives of schoolchildren during the worst year of COVID-19.
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A LESSON FOR DEMOCRATS: WORDS CAN BE WEAPONS: PART ONE (OF TWO)
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 10, 2025 at 12:18 amDonald Trump is furious. The man who sticks humiliating nicknames on people he hates has had one stuck on him: TACO.
Or: “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
The TACO nickname was coined in May, 2025, by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong. It refers to Trump’s practice of spooking the market with his tariff threats before ultimately backing off, prompting them to rebound.
The nickname went national on May 28, when CNBC’s Megan Casella alluded to Trump’s repeated tariff threats while asking him about the “TACO trade” theory:
“Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO trade. They’re saying Trump always chickens out on your tariff threats and that’s why markets are higher this week. What’s your response to that?”
“I’ve never heard that,” said Trump. “You mean because I reduced China from 145 percent that I set down to 100, and then down to another number, and I said you have to open up your whole country? And because I gave the European Union a 50 percent tax—tariff—and they called up and said, ‘Please let’s meet right now.'”
And then came the explosion: “But don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.”
According to an unidentified source for CNN: “It clearly bothered him, primarily because it demonstrated a lack of understanding about how he actually utilizes those threats for leverage. But obviously he’s not a guy who looks kindly on weakness, so the idea anyone would think that with respect to his actions isn’t received well.”
Republicans generally—and Trump in particular—aren’t used to being insulted. This is primarily because Democrats lack the courage and/or imagination to fight fire with fire.
For example:
On May 27, 2016, conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks analyzed the use of insults by then-Republican Presidential front-runner Donald Trump. He did so with his then-counterpart, liberal syndicated columnist, Mark Shields, on The PBS Newshour.
DAVID BROOKS: “Trump, for all his moral flaws, is a marketing genius. And you look at what he does. He just picks a word and he attaches it to a person. Little Marco [Rubio], Lyin’ Ted [Cruz], Crooked Hillary [Clinton].
“And that’s a word. And that’s how marketing works. It’s a simple, blunt message, but it gets under.
“It sticks, and it diminishes. And so it has been super effective for him, because he knows how to do that. And she [Hillary Clinton] just comes with, ‘Oh, he’s divisive.’
“These are words that are not exciting people. And her campaign style has gotten, if anything…a little more stagnant and more flat.”
Donald Trump
MARK SHIELDS: “Donald Trump gratuitously slandered Ted Cruz’s wife. He libeled Ted Cruz’s father for being potentially part of Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of the president of the United States, suggesting that he was somehow a fellow traveler in that.
“This is a libel. You don’t get over it….”
Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only Presidential candidate who proved unable to cope with Trump’s gift for insult. His targets—and insults—included:
Trump has reserved his most insulting words for women. For example:
Only one candidate has shown the ability to rattle Trump: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
As Mark Shields noted on The PBS Newshour.
“Elizabeth Warren gets under Donald Trump’s skin. And I think she’s been the most effective adversary. I think she’s done more to unite the Democratic party than either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.”
Among her attacks:
Words are weapons—or can be, if used properly.
Republicans learned this truth after World War II.
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