Remember this day...

 

For almost 15 years, I have written about the three key principles of leadership.  They are: 

• Maintaining a high moral standard 

• Maintaining a high ethical standard 

• Maintaining strict adherence to the law 

Upon these three principles, you can build the character necessary to become an effective leader.  Your behaviour will provide assurance to others that they can count on you to be consistent to the values that you have expressed and under which they have committed to work.  It is essentially a covenant to be your best. 

Throughout much of the 20th century, and well into this century, the United States of America has accepted this mantle of responsibility to be the ‘leader of the free world’.  They have policed and protected their allies; they have generously fed and healed the poor across the globe; and they have been a beacon of hope to the displaced.  They have done these things because of their general acceptance of the moral, ethical and legal obligations associated with leadership. 

REMEMBER THIS DAY, BECAUSE ALL OF THAT HAS ENDED. 

It has been a gradual slide into ignobility, but the slide has now become a free fall. The fault does not lay solely at the feet of Donald Trump, though to be certain, he is the figure head.  It lays at the feet of those who are closest to him and who counsel him and who manipulate him.  It lays at the feet of his members of congress who abdicate their duties and serve his will.  It lays at the feet of the US Supreme Court which behaves like a secret police force to validate the misdeeds of the elected officials. 

Today, the US Senate passed legislation that will add $3.5 trillion to the US debt.  Today, USAID, ceased to operate. Today, the US acknowledged that desperately needed munitions to Ukraine will be delayed.  Today, the over 800 billionaires in the US became ever richer due to tax reductions.  They need this assistance because since the start of the pandemic in 2020, their collective wealth has only increased by 88%. 

Under Donald Trump’s presidencies, US debt will have increased by about $11.5 trillion.  That’s a pretty big number that most of us cannot comprehend.  So let me express it in a manner that we can better grasp.  If you spent $1 million per day, it would take over 31,000 YEARS to exhaust the funds...assuming you earned no interest. 

ONE TRILLION DOLLARS...could eradicate hunger around the world... 

ONE TRILLION DOLLARS...could eradicate homelessness around the world... 

ONE TRILLION DOLLARS...could eradicate disease around the world... 

ONE TRILLION DOLLARS...could impact climate change around the world... 

But ELEVEN TRILLIN DOLLARS will not restore a moral, ethical or legal conscience to the United States of America. Because money can destroy a soul, it cannot buy one. 

REMEMBER THIS DAY...AND PRAY! 

Immigration...tariffs...they're just distractions!

 

No one questions that Donald Trump is a transactional person.  Everything is a deal that must benefit him or his family.  His presidency is no different.  He has never run for office with the intention of making America great again.  It has always and only been a vehicle for personal enrichment.  Some of that enrichment is the adulation of others; some is the opportunity to rub shoulders with world leaders; but most of all, it is money. In his world there are winners and losers, period.  The wealthier you are, the more influence you have, the more of a winner you are. 

In his first term, his inexperience in how to work the system was his downfall.  He tried to coerce the Ukrainians and that led to his first impeachment.  He tried to overthrow the results of an election that he lost and that led to a second impeachment.  But four years of planning has resulted in a far different approach to ‘governing’.  He has mastered the smoke and mirrors and is profiting at a level ‘no one has ever seen before’ 

Here are the facts.  Just days before his inauguration in January 2025 he released his own meme coin.  While estimates are inexact, it appears that he and his family earned over $300 million in fees and their net worth has increased by $3-4 billion, all at the expense about 800,00 MAGA faithful.  To prevent any unwanted exposure, Trump’s DOJ crypto fraud committee was disbanded.  Coincidence...I think not. 

Not to be undone, Justin Sun, a crypto king under investigation by the SEC, had all investigations dropped after he made a $75 million contribution to World Crypto operated by Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr. 

But it gets better, Trump also is ‘selling’ pardons. 

In March he pardoned Trevor Milton of fraud convictions, motivated in part by the fact that Milton donated almost $2 million to the Trump campaign. 

Imaad Zuber, a venture capitalist serving 12 years for tax violations, had his sentence commuted.  The fact that he had contributed close to $1 million to committees for Trump couldn’t have clouded Donald’s judgement... 

Paul Walczak pleaded guilty to tax crimes exceeding $10 million.  Before he was to serve time and pay restitution, he was pardoned. Apparently, his mother donated and raised millions for Trump’s campaign.  

Little of this is making much of an impact to the public. Trump is using immigration and tariffs as a smoke screen.  Watch the shiny objects...just don’t watch me.   

He makes outrageous actions which the courts overturn, but at no cost to himself. He imposes tariffs and then reverses them and it is just meaningless noise.  As long as he distracts everyone from his primary purpose, to MAKE TRUMP RICH AGAIN, all the side show issues allow him to function with impunity. 

After Toto exposes him, the Wizard says ‘...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...’ 

For the next four years, that’s exactly what Trump will hope as well! 

More tariff truth

  

 

Donald Trump must be a magician.  Since he took office on January 20th, he’s made $12 trillion disappear from the stock markets. $12 trillion... For context, only 19 countries in the world have a GDP over $1 trillion, and of those, only 2 have a GDP greater than $11 trillion.  It took Trump 4 years to grow US debt by $8 trillion.  Apparently, he has learned a thing or two about debt creation since his first term. 

He is surrounded by alchemists and court jesters. A little pain and suffering is just what the world economy needs according to his worship.  Tornados and generational flooding be damned...Trump is a one-person natural disaster. 

Here’s the truth of the matter. 

At the end of 2000, the total US debt was just over $5 trillion, and President Clinton handed over a budget surplus. Then disaster struck on September 11th, 2001, and since then everything has gone pretty much downhill. 

After the attack in NYC, the US war on terror ramped up.  By the end of 2004 and the war in Iraq, debt climbed by 40% to $7.5 trillion.  Remember that this was a war based on faulty information about weapons of mass destruction. 

In 2008, Obama inherited the fiscal calamity, based on the mortgage crisis, that almost brought down the world’s financial systems. The bailout added $6 trillion to US debt by 2012, a 60% increase. By the time he handed the baton to Trump 45, debt had reached $19.5 trillion. 

The Orange Man decided that considering the deteriorating debt status of the US, this would be a good time to start trade conflicts and reduce income taxes for the wealthiest.  Combined with the initial impact of Covid, Trump left office with over $8 trillion added to the national debt, now $27.7 trillion. 

Under Biden, the response to Covid had the expected impact of adding more debt. He left office with the debt at $35.7 trillion, about half of which is attributable to the pandemic response. 

In quick summary, US federal debt has spiraled out of control due to engagement in unnecessary foreign wars, a corrupt financial system for which NO ONE was ever charged for their malfeasance, and tax relief for the wealthiest in the system, one that allows Warren Buffett to pay less as a percentage of income than does his personal assistant. 

Not to be outdone, the American consumer has accumulated total personal debt of over $18 trillion.  Mortgages make up about 65% of that amount, but credit card debt is over $1.2 trillion.  In fact, US consumer debt exceeds the GDP of China, the second largest economy in the world. 

So, tell me again how the nations of the world are ripping off the US.  It seems to me that the pain is self-inflicted.  Mismanagement, greed, gluttony and unequal taxation policies have much more to do with the matter.   

Take a longer look in the mirror.   

‘...we have found the enemy, and the enemy is us...’