In The Don’s world, chaos is the point. We’ve given a know-nothing person who lacks curiosity and believes he knows everything, who has hired many know-nothing “yes sir” devotees to surround himself with, to run our country. We’ve given a man, who created so much uncertainty and chaos the 1st time around, culminating in an attempt to overthrow the government, a second chance to wreak havoc. We’ve given a man with the attention span and critical thinking capacity of a mosquito, the keys to the kingdom. We’ve given a malignant narcissist the opportunity to gratify his delicious fantasies of revenge and retribution. We have all now become a pawns in his game of whack-a-mole!
To be fair, The Don has very clear ideas about things he deems important and that he has promised his voters he would do. On the domestic front, he promised to deport millions of people who he claims are poisoning our country; dismantle a bloated and inefficient government (or as he and his cronies like to say: destroy the deep state), and implement tariffs that he believes will supercharge our economy. He has promised to “drill baby drill”, and undo many of the regulations in place that protect our environment because it hampers businesses and because he believes climate change is a hoax. He has promised to deregulate and neuter any oversight of businesses to unleash the “greatest economy the world has ever seen.” He promised to create an outrageous tax cut that will give most of the money to the rich. He has promised to erase anything and everything that smells of “Wokeness” to the dustbin of history. That is what he told us and that is what he is doing. There are no surprises here, so those of you who are surprised go read Project 2025.
On the international front his prime goal is to flex American muscle and reestablish our position in the world, which he blames Joe Biden for flitting away. He promised his people he would use his bully pulpit to shake things up: to end the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza; to use tariffs and other threats to bring other countries to their knees and force more to be produced in our country. He believes America has been getting a raw deal when it comes to unfair trade balances and the money it spends all over the world, from the money we supplied to Ukraine in its war of survival against Russia, to denying aid to programs around the world that provide essential nutrition, medicine and medical care for those less fortunate. The fact that this act will result in people suffering and thousands of deaths does not cross his mind; and if it does, it doesn’t matter, as he doesn’t care about anyone but himself.
One might argue that some of The Don’s goals make sense, but one only has to look at the way he Don and his cronies are pursuing them to realize that there is no worked out system in place to achieve these goals. It is a mosquito brained, chainsaw process: creating chaos and keeping the world off balance is the point.
As I wrote in a recent piece, he is the boxer who comes into the ring and before the ref starts the fight has already kicked his opponent in the balls, dizzying his him into a standing eight count. The ref cries foul and attempts to end the fight because The Don has broken the rules, but he ignores the ref (thank you to the Supreme Court for giving him immunity to about everything he does) and continues to throw blows. In his mosquito-brained, chainsaw mind there are no rules: everything is up for grabs, nothing is off the table.
The Don sees himself as the great disruptor, a chaos machine. He also loves the theater of it all. It’s like 24 hours of TV programming about him. Can’t you just see him up at night looking at the world map thinking “Is there anything I could get from Sri Lanka? God, and those European freeloaders.? Can’t stand them. The French with their fancy wines and cheeses; the British with their dumb Queen who does nothing as opposed to me who has control over everything. How cool would it be to build luxury hotels in Gaza and rid that area of those vermin? Fuck the World Health Organization, as it doesn’t have the word America in its name. And making the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. What a scream. And it’s so much fun to tease that little sissy Trudeau about taking over his country and making it the 51st state?
And Russia. I love Russia. Not sure why everyone is surprised. I can’t believe he is siding with Russia against Ukraine. They are all whiners. I can’t believe he is thumbing his nose at NATO. He is realigning the western world. Blah, blah, blah. Damn straight I am realigning it. Putin understands how to run a country. I don’t need Europe for shit. They need me. In all my greatness, sometimes I have to pinch myself when I realize I have the entire world on a string. Everyone is running around like chickens with their heads off. And it’s all because of me. Who wants to sleep when there’ s so much more chaos to bring to the world. It’s simple: There are winners and losers. I have the power and you don’t, so you either do what I say or else. The world is a brutal place and only those who have the power to inflict pain and brutality survive. It’s like I said to Zelensky in that made for TV meeting in the White House: “You don’t have the cards right now.” In other words, Zelensky, you better fold or you will lose it all.
On the domestic front, he is marveling at Musk’s ability to create chaos. A man after his own heart who probably is giving The Don billions of dollars so he can use the American government as a toy, like some kind of video game that he wants to write new code for so he can insuate himself into every aspect of American life and enrich himself doing it.
Fire federal workers without thought to the consequences. Firing experts who are responsible for protecting our nuclear arsenal? Canceling funds that help prevent and track Ebola? The megalomaniac zillionaire’s chainsaw madness doesn’t consider for one second that the victims of his assault are real people, whose lives depend on these jobs; he looks at them like they are bad computer code that needs to be eradicated. The two people in charge share essential qualities: They want ultimate power; they see the world as merely a series of transactions to their benefit; they have no empathy and they love being the center of attention They also are intolerant of criticism and filled with rage and a desire for retribution when anyone criticizes and challenges them. I can’t think of a more toxic bro duo.
The chaos is exemplified by the thoughtless and cruel firings, some which have been overturned by the courts. The confusion and disruption this has created is dizzying. Federal workers fired and rehired. In all fairness, Musk did admit he had made a mistake on firing workers whose job it is to prevent and track Ebola outbreaks. Oops, no biggie, we reinstated that. But why was Ebola ever something you could mess with? It’s like taking away crossing guards at traffic lights near schools and wondering why more kids get run over by cars.
All this firing and rehiring is dizzying. It reminds me of the Groucho Marx song: “Hello, I Must Be Going?” What? Maybe we could alter the name a bit (Don’t be offended Groucho) by calling it: “Hello, I Must Be Coming and Going?” Here is a short list of agencies whose fired and then rehired (not all of them) workers would feel understood in that song.
Food and safety worker overseeing of medical devices, Bird flu response workers, 9/11 health program, experts at the National Science Foundation and the Department of Agriculture. And there are more.
But for some reason there was no reprieve for workers maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Why would you do that? It’s crazy!
Mindless, indiscriminate firing of veterans, who make up a disproportionate share of federal workers? Getting rid of the the VA Crisis Hotline and vital cancer research? As they say, thank you for your service, suckers.
Firings at the F.B.I and C.I.A., who play vital roles in our security without much thought as to the potential consequences of these acts.
They even fired the person who was responsible for overseeing protecting Florida oranges from infestation of a bug that nearly decimated the crop a number of years ago.
Some of the firings though are very intentional but still create chaos. Inspector Generals, prosecutors who have investigated the Don and financial watchdogs. Anyone who might prove to be a fly in the ointment and want to hold The Don and Musk accountable. Anyone who would be able to have access to information that could monitor and prevent corruption, fraud and the making of untold fortunes. Even judges are targets. Here’s Musk on X: “The only way to restore rule of the people in America is to impeach judges” and “we must impeach to save democracy.”
And let’s not forget The Don and Musk’s desire to eradicate anything that has the sniff of the word “Woke.” The administration has created a. dizzying and preposterous list of words they deem connected to “Woke” that will be eradicated for government websites and used to go after agencies where these words are mentioned. They just went after a law firm that defended liberal causes.
One of the terms on the list is environmental quality. Firings at the national weather service have caused the cancellation of weather balloons in Albany N.Y. because of the lack of weather experts. Well, we know what The Don and Musk think about the issue of the importance of the quality of the environment. After all, they are all going to be inhabiting Mars when the floods and fires destroy the planet: they will be playing golf there while millions starve to death and the oceans can’t support sea life anymore. Rumor has it that when someone brought up the value of the balloons to predict weather Musk joked: ‘Those balloons are just a bunch of hot air. They are a waste of money. And it’s New York, and that’s a place where we want bad shit to happen. And not only that, I hear the strings holding up the balloons are multi-colored and diverse. Need I say more?”
The Grand Offal Party 