Tag Archives: Elon Musk

Trump makes startling admission

The Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance is a goner, but left virtually untouched has been a startling admission that Trump made while denigrating the character of the world’s richest human being.

Musk has called Trump’s “big beautiful bill” an “abomination” and said Trump should be impeached. Trump’s response? He called Musk a man with a serious drug problem. I forget the exact words he used, but he said that Musk has been battling drug addiction.

OK. Here’s what is so remarkable. Trump hired a drug addict to remake the federal government, allegedly. He hired a guy he said couldn’t be trusted to remain sober long enough to make intelligent decisions about the future of government programs upon which millions of Americans depend.

What the f***?

Of course, Trump didn’t offer a single shred of proof of the allegation he has made about Musk’s alleged drug habit. The point, though, is that Trump has said time and again how he relies on hiring the “best people” to do the work on his behalf.

Which is it, dude?

Moreover, where is the media on all this? No one has explored the substance of what Trump has alleged about Mr. Tesla/SpaceX and the things he says drives this world’s richest human.

This idiot, the president, needs to be held accountable for the recklessness of his rhetoric.

What goes around …

As they might say at the office water cooler, “What goes around comes around,” or so it appears now that Republicans have control of both congressional chambers and the White House.

Republicans have produced what Donald Trump has called the “big beautiful bill,” but no one has read the 1,400-page document.

Allow me to flash back to when the TEA Party wing of the GOP was raising hell in Congress. Republicans bitched out loud that Democrats were pushing legislation forward without knowing what it contained. A key element of the Democrats’ bill happened to be the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

Republicans sought to derail it by exposing the bipartisan ignorance of what the massive bill contained. It didn’t work. We got the ACA and some other constructive measures … yes, along with plenty of pork stuffed into the nooks and crannies of the bill.

Now it’s the GOP’s turn to shove a bill across the finish line. It would add $2 trillion to the national debt, do nothing to reduce the federal budget deficit, award tax breaks to zillionaires and cut Medicare, Medicaid, USAID and the Affordable Care Act.

This is Elon Musk’s doing, but the planet’s richest human being calls the bill an abomination.

I guess I need to mention that the volume of Musk’s disapproval of the bill suggests he was fired from his job as Donald Trump’s go-to guy. I don’t really care about that. What I do care about is the hypocrisy among Republicans who lambasted Democrats for cramming an omnibus spending bill with too much spending are silent when their package is now under the lights.

Didn’t Trump vow to “drain the swamp” when he got elected the first time? Yeah, he did. Only the swamp is getting deeper and far more dangerous to working folks like many of you.

Musk is gone; his ‘legacy’ lives on

Elon Musk went to work for the Donald Trump administration vowing to make a difference in the way the government operates.

Brother … he left his mark. None of it, as near as I can tell, will be the stuff of legend. That is, if you count the destruction he performed during his time leading that idiotic Department of Government Efficiency.

He has to rescue his car company now. Its value has tanked. But when you’re the richest man on Earth, he can afford to lose a few trillion dollars and still be filthy rich.

I have been trying to wrap my noggin around what this moron accomplished during his time leading DOGE. He said he would slash trillions of wasteful dollars. He didn’t come close. He managed to piss off just about everyone with whom he came in contact, including — as I understand it — Donald John Trump. He boasted about taking a chainsaw to government agencies he determined were corrupt.

I will accept the idea that there exists plenty of corruption with the federal government. But you don’t dismiss tens of thousands of public servants who are there to do a job for the public they serve … and expect the department to miraculously cleanse itself.

Musk is now back in civilan life. He’ll return to making cars, launching space ships and presumably trying to recover the fortune he lost while torching the federal government. Truth be told, the richest man on Earth had no business making decisions on government programs that deliver essential services to those of us who need them just to make it through the day.

I just don’t know — nor will I ever understand — why Trump brought this clown into his sh**show in the first place.

Populism has been perverted

Let’s revisit a political philosophy that in this current age of perversion has been twisted and shaped into something that bears zero resemblance to what many of us have understood it to mean.

Populism! It has become a mantra repeated by the MAGA morons who now dominate the Republican Party. I decided to check what my dog-eared American Heritage Dictionary has to say about the term.

It states: “Populism: A political philosophy opposing the concentration of power in the hands of corporations, the government and the rich.”

I have to ask: Does that sound like what we’re getting from Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the MAGA numbskulls these days? Not to me.

Nope. Trump has done quite the opposite. He has scarfed up tremendous amounts of power for himself. He and Musk have summarily fired thousands of individuals from government service. He wants to bestow tax breaks for zillionaires, while slashing Medicare and Medicaid benefits from ordinary slobs like you and me. Trump has sicced the Justice Department on media outlets and anyone who has dared speak out against what he intends to do; he has taken DOJ “weaponization” to a level never before contemplated.

I don’t recall Trump ever saying a single word about any of this while campaigning twice for the presidency. Do you? I didn’t think so. He said he would look out for the little guy. He campaigned as a populist. You remember that, right?

Except that Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the term. I have just laid it out there for all of you. Maybe someone who reads this blog can let Trump know what one man’s dictionary says about the philosophy he has perverted into something unrecognizable.

Now, though, comes the big question: When in the name of fighting back against the deceit and lies will Republicans in power rise up to seize the power that this tinhorn dictator seeks for himself?

Is there any courage left in the halls of power? Populism … my ass!

Trump’s ‘ratings’ are, um, tanking

Donald J. Trump’s political career has been a testimony to his “ratings,” as he has said himself countless times.

Dude was a reality TV celebrity before becoming a politician, who he knows about ratings. He would boast that his political “ratings” were the best in human history … or words to that effect. He would chide his foes for their “failed ratings.”

We’re now 80-some days into the second term of Trump’s time in office. Know what? Man’s ratings are taking a header off the proverbial cliff.

Makes me wonder: Why is the Dumbass in Chief being so silent about them? No need to answer. I know that the charlatan cares only about news he deems favorable to him. Everything else is “fake,” or is a conspiracy of some sort.

This is what happens when a politician simply doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Meaning that Trump just doesn’t know, for example, that his tariff tantrum is going to result in a national tax increase for every living American.

He and his sidekick, Elon Musk, have set about cutting inspectors general loose, slashing the ranks of national park personnel, Social Security staffers, limiting veterans benefits, slashing foreign aid to countries that need assistance to fend off disease. Oh, and turning this country’s back on an ally in the middle of a ground war with Russia.

I don’t recall Trump ever boasting that he would do all these things while he campaigned for office in 2024. Do you?

Of course not. It’s because the Ignoramus in Chief doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

I want efficient government, too!

Allow me this admission: I am all in on Donald Trump’s desire to make government more “efficient” and more “accountable” to the folks who pay for it … that means you and me.

We have heard tales for decades about wasteful spending in our federal government. Remember the stories about $600 toilet seats? Or airplanes that couildn’t fly?

Those were maddening tales to be sure. Trump got elected in 2024 partly on his promise to cut waste in our government. Hey, count me in!

What I — nor I doubt any other American — could foresee was the method Trump would use to slash government spending. Indiscrimiinate firings of inspectors general, or civil servants, of dedicated public employees, slashing of entire Cabinet departments all have become part of the modus operandi.

Then we have Elon Musk and that quasi-government agency called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The term DOGE has become part of the government vernacular like NASA. We refer to the acronym as if it’s a real word.

Musk has been unbridled in his public statements about cutting Social Security, which has called a Ponzi scheme when, in fact, it is an earned benefit paid for with our tax noney we old folks paid with our tax money. That doesn’t matter to the richest man on Earth, whose DOGE lackeys are running amok.

The Musk-Trump strategy — such as it is — only demonstrates to me that the president has no plan, no principle, no idea of what our so-called leaders want to do.

They have taken a noble cause — making government more efficient — and turned iit nto a clown show.

The product is far from efficient … and no one is laughing.

Yeah, I’m tired of ‘winning’

Donald Trump’s version of “winning” bears no resemblance to what the rest of us think of the term.

He insists America’s unprovoked trade war that has spread across the planet like a Texas prairie wildfire has earned the respect and admiration of our allies.

Um, Earth to Donald: No. It hasn’t.

Canada has vowed to retaliate. So has Mexico. We start with our two closest neighbors and two of our most reliable trading partners, and it only worsens beyond that.

The European Union is aghast that Trump would impose steep tariffs on goods imported from France, the UK, Italy and Germany. What’s a bottle of wine going to cost now that Trump has imposed steep tariffs on that item?

Here’s the bitterest irony of all the international reaction. Russia, Turkey and Hungary – nations all run by ham-handed dictators and thugs – aren’t feeling the tariff pinch the way our traditional allies are feeling it. Why is that? It must be that Trump so deeply admires dictators, so much so that he is exhibiting signs of becoming one himself.

And yet the POTUS keeps yapping about the “winning” strategy of declaring economic war on our allies. He says they’ll come around to seeing it our way. Really, dude?

It’s looking all more likely to this old man’s eyes that our allies are fed up to here – and you can determine where “here” is – with Trump’s ignorant push for tariffs that only punish Americans.

Am I tired “winning”? Yeah, I am sick and tired of it in terms that Donald Trump applies it.

Musk wearing out his welcome?

Some within the political punditry class of Americans are beginning to speculate over many folks predicted would happen once Donald Trump took the oath of office as POTUS.

There’s been some legitimate reporting that Elon Musk, the de facto co-president, might be on the way out at the West Wing.

I haven’t heard much conjecture yet as to why Trump and Musk will part company. I do have a theory. It is that Musk is stealing Trump’s thunder.

Some of us have begun referring to the administration as the Musk-Trump administration. You know what that does to any ego-driven politician in America? It sends them into orbit. If that’s what is happening with Trump, well, I don’t blame him one bit for getting upset.

Americans voted for Trump, not the world’s richest man, as president. I wasn’t one of them, but that’s not the point. I accept the verdict of the slim majority of Americans who cast their lot with the twice-impeached, convicted felon who won the 2024 election. I still believe they made a mistake, but the results were certified and entered into the record.

The White House, quite naturally, says Trump is standing by Musk. But anyone whose butter hasn’t slipped off their noodle knows of Trump’s mercurial temperament.

Which is to say that today’s statement of loyalty and support by Trump can turn the next day into a social media pink slip.

Musk, Trump testing our faith

Elon Musk and his puppet, Donald Trump, are testing my faith in the U.S. Constitution’s ability to hold up to the full frontal assault these two nimrods are launching.

Yes, my faith is bending, but I believe — at least I hope — it is far from breaking.

Trump campaigned for the presidency vowing to leave veterans benefits and Social Security alone. He said he wouldn’t cut either program. Then he hauls Elon Musk aboard the clown car and Musk — the richest man on Earth — starts yammering about cuts in vets’ programs and calls Social Security a “ponzi scheme.”

OK, the disph** doesn’t know a ponzi scheme if it bit him in the ass. Social Security is a compact this government made in 1935 with elderly Americans to provide them with assistance to live in their retirement years.

We have paid into the system and as we seek to enjoy retirement from a lifetime of working hard, we are getting some of it back. What does Elon Musk know about any of that? Not a damn thing!

As for veterans benefits, for Donald J. Trump — the draft dodger in chief — to say a word about cutting benefits for those of us who did serve our country is merely adding unconscionable insult to unforgiveable injury.

Some of us are old enough to remember a time when Democratic leaders in Congress sought to monkey around with elderly benefits. In the 1980s, House Speaker Tip O’Neill and senior U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois got caught making untoward comments about Social Security. The outcry from the masses was so vigorous that they both backed down.

Musk and Trump should face an equal rage-filled response if they try to monkey around with old folks’ retirement and veterans’ pre-paid benefits.

Does this oath even matter?

Donald J. Trump took his presidential oath of office in January while doing something that wasn’t lost on me or millions of others: He did not put his hand on a Bible.

Thus, when he vowed to “defend and protect” the Constitution and the government under which the founders created, that must have given him some way out of sticking to the sacred oath presidents normally take.

That must be the only possible rationale he is applying as he and Elon Musk lay waste to the government he vowed to defend and protect.

The Trump vow to be his supporters’ “retribution” is playing out as he and Musk fire thousands of public servants, seeking to slash billions of dollars from the budget.

Trump now, I suppose, can look at himself in the mirror and say with an overfed straight face that he can do all this without violating any sacred oath. Good grief! The guy is without conscience, without any moral compass, without any sense of empathy or decency.

Why else would he bring Earth’s richest human being on board to do his dirty work? Musk has none of those aforementioned qualities, so he can issue orders from his DOGE platform. Indeed, Musk doesn’t even have to answer to voters, as he didn’t run for office. He’s a hired gun whose task is to be Trump’s hit man.

I wasn’t alert enough to expect this kind of blowback at the second Trump inaugural when I noticed that Trump didn’t put his hand on a Bible. The gesture likely meant nothing at all to a man with zero compassion for the lives he is grinding into the dirt.