Hush money takeaways. The jury was not taken for fools, nor should we

There is nothing more populist than democracy, a government which is ruled by the people, of the people, and for the people. It is rule by ordinary people, based on the rule of law. What Trump is asking us to do is to ignore that rule and make it the rule of, by, and for him.  The rule of law, of the people, for the people does not mean the rule of Trump's party, the law as he says it is, and the methods of enforcement that are to be ignored if they are not in his favor. Democracy's survival, of, by, and for the people, depends on respecting and abiding by the rule of law. On May 30, 2024, the rule of law and ordinary people won when he was found guilty of a crime by a jury of his peers in the hush money trial. The greatest lesson voters can take away from this is the threat of violence seen as his reaction to the verdict and a long record of inciting and advocating violence. Law and order do not apply to him. Part of that message is his self-serving pursuit with "his Supreme Court" for immunity from prosecution of crimes past and future while in office, including any violence he orders or incites others to commit on his behalf. 

His peers do not mean only those sworn to be loyal to him, but the only rigging acceptable to him is that only his loyalists sit on juries.,   His fellow New Yorkers were his peers, and they understood better than anyone else of people similar to him or who had a lifetime of tabloid Trump.  If New Yorkers have an attitude, they will not be taken as fools. (Members of my family and I have lived there; I speak from authority). It seems MAGA in response to the verdict, lost track of what Trump was found guilty of: Trump, the owner of the National Enquirer, and Cohen as the cut-out, go-between, and detail operative, conspired to fool voters that Trump was more than just p grabbing and locker-talking and then covering it up by cooking the books. ..damning last-minute news that might have cost him the election if it got out.. He set out to fool the voters, and he did . Voters were the victims, not Trump, of the crimes he committed. Trump continues to do so to this day. Trump's Repeated Claims on His New York Hush Money Trial - FactCheck.org

Ordinary people won this battle May 30, but the war is not won if more than half of the country buys what Trump sells. Here is what he selling you. The rule of law does not work for him, so throw out the system and let him substitute his.  Let me put it in sports terms if political science theory is not your thing.  He wants you to play a football game without officials, and after the brawl, the injured are carted off,  and his team still loses. So he moves to destroy the National Football League and put in place his like-minded with rules that guarantee he wins next time.  Failing that, he instigates riots by soccer hooligans. 

 Putting it in contemporary examples of the kind of rule of law in dictatorships, look at how sham "justice" works in the Russian trials of our/ basketball star, Brittany Griner, and the now dead opposition leader Navalny, a country and leader Trump so admires, or why so many from Venezuela fled to Miami and from the everlasting communist regime in Cuba.  The form of the rule of law is on paper in these countries, but the rest is how it really works regardless of the ideology, fascist, communist, or just craven lust for power led by a "strong leader."  In Central America, it is the rule of drug gangs or complicit tyrants. Once in power and in control of the levers of government, they are there forever.  Without the rule of law and the stability it creates, private enterprise and the economy cannot thrive, even if it is permitted. Instead, the enterprise that wins is the one who pays the most for protection/or campaign contributions or simply says "yes boss" even when the order that comes from above is stupid or harmful.      Trump only needs to be a dictator for day one to begin the process, using Project 2025,  turning the entire executive branch and the justice department into his instrument of power.  Note: in any of those countries Trump so admires, they at least do not have an immigration problem because no one is lined up at their borders; instead, the world seems to be trying to get into America.  Think about that and ask yourself why, MAGA.

So get a bit of New York attitude and don't be taken for a fool:

• He talks about a small government and states rights, but he plans to have everyone in the federal government pledge loyalty to him in action and in judgment calls. He would nationalize governmental power into a unitary federal system with no checks and balances, punishing states and politicians who choose other directions.
• When he talks about fair elections, it only is fair when he and those loyal to him win. Ordinary people do not count or get counted unless they vote for him.  Fair elections to him are only those whose voting systems and governance he or his loyalists control.  Ordinary people should not run elections unless they are loyal to him first.  Take a page from Russia: whether the communists or Putin are in control, 20% of the voters can vote no. Otherwise, for some reason, 80% always approve and vote for them. That shows they are a democracy, right? Go figure, ordinary people.
•  Abiding by laws, he acts like the dictator he would like to be. However, laws do not apply to him; they only apply to ordinary people. He has the right to disrespect, challenge, or ignore laws  and courts that refrain him, but ordinary people do not.
• No matter how ordinary people vote, he calls it stolen by fraud if he loses any election. If a court rules against him, the judge, the prosecutors, and even the jury are all corrupt...and he never presents evidence of it. He just demands ordinary people take his word for it as a test of loyalty to him. It is his excuse for past losses and an alibi for future losses. 
•  The judicial and political system is corrupt. Trump orates (when they oppose him), so the whole system is corrupt, so Trump says he does not need to abide by it. Heads up, ordinary people. The most corrupt governmental systems on this planet are authttps://www.newsweek.com/allen-weisselberg-may-helping-donald-trump-prison-1905935ocracies and dictatorships, which cater to their funders and oligarchs and throw enough crumbs at ordinary citizens to keep them quiet. 
• He seeks immunity from prosecution for criminal acts he has committed or plans to commit while in office. Ordinary people do not get that privilege. As we know now, too, even his loyal underlings do not get immunity.  Michael Cohen spent 3 years in prison for lies he made on behalf of Trump and was found guilty for the same charges that just snared Trump himself because both Trump and he caused the scheme to happen,. Trump's other loyalist, Allen Weisselberg, Trump organization exec,  is sitting in Rikers now, taking more than one for that gipper. https://www.newsweek.com/allen-weisselberg-may-helping-donald-trump-prison-1905935   Trump's trial attorneys themselves did not call him as a witness, nor did the prosecution, even when the judge asked them about it.
•  To ensure his control and amassing of power to become an effective dictator, he threatens political violence and a presidency devoted to taking revenge on his past opponents and disciplining any not loyal to him.
•  He talks about democracy, but it is not for ordinary people but only those loyal to him. Otherwise, in any authoritarian government or dictatorship of any degree, ordinary people just need to shut up and keep their heads down whether they like what is happening or not. The   authorities will tell you what is permitted to say

Hush money trial: example of the rule of law at work v the rule of an autocrat

 Update: 5/30/2024 This is the rule of law at work that allows juries of a defendant's peers to make that decision in every criminal case. The hush money trial could have gone either way. Today, Trump's fellow New Yorkers found him guilty of felonies.

This is why the rule of law is important and the key to American democracy. In an autocracy, the rule of law depends on the self-interest and judgment of one, and when the chips are down and the ruler has his appointees in place, the ruling and penalty are nearly always in favor of the ruler. The ruler depends on his power to stay controlled by a judicial system he controls. For how that works, Putin's Russia and how he has treated Navalny and Americans like Brittany Griner being held as hostages hoping to make deals in prisoner exchanges. The form of the rule of law is in Russia, but the use/abuse of it favors the autocrat.

Trump is already behaving like the autocrat he wants to be, refusing to accept any results of elections unless they show him winning, calling all judges and court decisions corrupt and the process rigged if they rule against him; and attempting to get "his" Supreme Court to rule he was immune from criminal protection when and if again he is in office and commits a crime. He has taken over his political party in total in preparation for 2024, requiring all those who think they have a political future to endorse him and to repeat the mantra: the 2020 election was stolen, or to resign or not run for re-election. . The question becomes, will he get away with it?

The warning to everyone else: If you think he was kidding about being a dictator on day one, he is already acting like one and making preparations to turn the entire executive branch into "his," replacing civil servants with loyalists per Project 2025, including the Department of Justice and the Defense Department brass, to use force or the threat of force to put down demonstrations who object to him.

How the twisted mind of Donald Trump turns virtuous values into evils.

 How Trump deals with criticism or anyone in power who dares to challenge his bad behavior is a pattern that is unfolding before our very eyes. Donald Trump turns virtuous values into evils, and those who call him out for his evil acts are human scum. This would be a great case study of demagoguery and defensive oratory of a historical figure. Still, the impact is more than just an interesting exercise in recognizing a deviant personality when we see one.It is more than just a skill of turning lemons into lemonade. On display for the world to see is how Trump deals with criticism and attacks by those who oppose him.  The danger it poses is it inspires others to go and do likewise, giving them cover and rationale for being twisted, too. 

There are many examples of how Donald Trump turns virtues into evils as a way to defend his bad behavior. Democracy is evil; dictatorships are good. Patriots are those who died in defense of our country's freedom, but now they are suckers and losers. Instead, patriots to Trump are those imprisoned on January 6 in support of Trump. Those accused of crimes were once called defendants; when he is accused of a crime, Trump is a victim who ought to be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. For those who once saw decency as moral and ethical behavior, Trump touts his indecent behavior as an asset of an alpha male or asks voters to ignore it. Those elected or appointed to political office were once called public servants on behalf of constituents or the public to which they provided a service and represented their interests. Now, they should be in service to him and his self-serving and self-aggrandizing priorities as president.

_________________________________________________

Some examples of how Trump uses making virtues out of evils to defend his self-serving interest and amassing of personal power:

Democracy is evil; dictatorships are ideal. In Trump's call to action, we hear that we should be more like Russia and China, as should leader Trump. They get stuff done effectively on behalf of their leaders' interests. (This means in Trump's interest and power as he sees fit that serves himself.)

Patriots were those who sacrificed for loyalty to an ideal; now, patriots are those who are loyal to Trump. Patriots once fought so our country could be free from foreign domination and the tyranny of a king and govern itself in ways that are fair to the standards we decided ourselves. Now, in Trump's twisted mind, a patriot is one who fights to protect Boss Trump's power, such as those who rioted on January 6. Those military who died in service to America are suckers and losers. who got nothing out of it for themselves. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-confirms-trump-privately-disparaged-us-service-members-vete-rcna118543  

Those accused of breaking the law were once called defendants. Now, Trump calls himself a victim who should be immune from being accused of a crime committed while in office.

What was once considered decent is now a weakness, and indency is, to Trump followers, a virtue or irrelevant., an asset of a macho alpha male to be admired by those yearning to be one. Three trophy wives, porn stars and playboy bunnies on the side, and an expert in unethical business dealings that courts define as fraud.   https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/04/is-decency-now-on-ballot.html Once presidents were someone to admire, and even to be one, but no longer. I speculate those who admire Trump themselves and consider themselves god-fearing churchgoers would not like their own children to grow up to be like him.

Those in politics were once called public servants because they were supposed to serve the interests of those who elected them. Now with Project 2025 waiting in the wings for Trump's re-election, the servants would be there to serve Trump. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-trump-only-needs-to-be-dictator-on.html Trump makes service to himself and the accumulation of power to himself the virtue, the goal to which others must also be loyal. Trump is the ultimate egomaniac. Trump is stuck on himself and then keeps repeating it in various forms just in case you miss the point the first time. He did that on Memorial Day, which was supposed to honor those who gave their lives in service to an ideal. Trump clearly believed the Memorial should focus on him, the king of self-serving, and anyone who does not serve him is scum, too. Exhibit # 1 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4687907-donald-trump-joe-biden-judges-legaTrump's twisted personality was on display this Memorial Day.    

For the record a graduation address delivered by Ken Burns puts this into a macro perspective, the antidote to the Trump's memorial day address: Ken Burns, H’24 Keynote Address to Brandeis University's 2024 Graduates (youtube.com)

"There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. When, as Mercy Otis Warren would say, "The checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed." The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids, an easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction and addiction, "a bigger delusion", James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide as Mr. Lincoln prophesies. Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer."

Trump's other Achilles heel: if Abortion is a voter deal killer, killing affordable health care ought to be, too

The Democratic National Committee came up with a list of Trumpisms spouting how he plans to destroy affordable health care.  That one issue seems to get eclipsed by others, such as abortion and democracy, but the issue of affordable health care cuts across many more demographics, sex, age, and middle-class income. "Across coverage groups, a total of 45 million Americans are enrolled in coverage related to the ACA, the highest total on record. This represents 14.1 million more people enrolled than in 2021 (a 46% increase) and 32.5 million more people enrolled than in 2014 (a 258% increase, or more than triple).Mar 22, 2024"    https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/a1e8128c1b9996fd5a7eb98d0860d572/aspe-2023-race-ethnicity-marketplace.pdf

In Celebration of 10 Years of ACA Marketplaces, the Biden ...

HHS.gov

While I am usually reluctant to quote a political party's press releases, I thought this one used Trump's own words against him.  I think this issue has legs and I hope during the upcoming campaign, it gets more exposure.  Like the ending of Roe v Wade, most voters don't get the message in advance of its ending until the dirty deed is done, and all of a sudden, the access door is slammed shut in their faces. The only thing left for those who sound alarms left to say is "I told you so".  Chicken little warnings often get dismissed as "the sky is falling" hysteria.  In this case, it really could fall in when it concerns the ability to get health care to cover pre-existing conditions. afford premiums, and give a vehicle for 45 million to pay for it via Obama care. 

From the DNC release with links to sources     https://democrats.org/news/trump-on-the-aca-donald-trumps-plan-for-affordable-health-care-is-getting-rid-of-it-entirely/

Trump: “We’ve really decimated Obamacare.”

“We’ve done a great job, but we’re going to be getting rid of it entirely.”  

As Trump pledges to repeal the ACA in a second term, here’s a recap of some of the most egregious statements he’s made about killing the program:

Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”

NBC: “Trump, by contrast, stood by his support for a lawsuit headed to the Supreme Court that seeks to invalidate Obamacare. The justices will hear the case one week after Election Day.

“‘I would like to terminate Obamacare, come up with a brand new, beautiful health care,’ Trump said at the debate, which was moderated by NBC News’ Kristen Welker.”

Trump: “Obamacare is a disaster. And I said, ‘We’re gonna do something about it.’”

Trump: “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives. We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”

Trump: “And what we’d like to do is totally kill [the ACA].”

The Hill: “In a Truth Social post, the leading GOP presidential candidate claimed he’s ‘seriously looking at alternatives’ to replace ObamaCare, and that the failure to repeal the health law in 2017 while he was in office was ‘a low point for the Republican Party.’” 

Trump does not care that the majority of Americans support access to affordable health care and protections for people with preexisting conditions.

Washington Post: “But what’s clear is that an effort to ‘terminate’ Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. … And when politicians talk of ending health insurance for tens of millions of Americans, dropping coverage of preexisting conditions and cutting Obamacare’s Medicaid funding, things get even dicier.”

Reminder: Trump spent his entire presidency trying (and failing) to get rid of the ACA while making it harder for people to sign up for health care.

NPR: “The very day President Trump was sworn in — Jan. 20, 2017 — he signed an executive order instructing administration officials ‘to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay’ implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act, while Congress got ready to repeal and replace President Obama’s signature health law.” 

CNN: “Trump slashes funding that helps people sign up for Obamacare.”

NBC News: “Affirming its disdain for ‘Obamacare,’” the Trump administration on Thursday announced sharp cuts in programs promoting health care enrollment under the Affordable Care Act for next year.

“Advertising will be cut from $100 million spent on 2017 sign-ups to $10 million, said Health and Human Services officials. Funding for consumer helpers called ‘navigators’ will also be cut, from $62.5 million for 2017, to $36.8 million for next year.”

The Hill: “Insurance Experts: ObamaCare Mandate Repeal Driving Premium Increases.”

New York Times: “The Trump administration said Saturday that it was suspending a program that pays billions of dollars to insurers to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, a freeze that could increase uncertainty in the markets and drive up premiums this fall.”

NBC News: “Trump approved a surprise decision to push for the complete elimination of the Affordable Care Act in the courts. If it succeeds, millions of Americans will lose their private insurance or Medicaid coverage and the health care system would be thrown into chaos.”

Trump's love of Nazi rhetoric and symbolic gestures is becoming a habit

 Heil, Boss Trump. Trump's love of Nazi rhetoric and symbolic gestures is becoming a habit, as well as his dog whistles to white nationalists and supremacists. This should not be passed off as a tongue slip or an intern goof. Watch how frequently he uses the Aryan fist. It is a closed fist, turned forward and sometimes pumped from a bent arm. Once the symbol of black power, it has become currently the symbol of white power as the fist becomes white and the background changes to black.

Reports and polls indicate that more racial minorities are toying with supporting Trump. They need to get a grip on reality that a second Trump term will not treat them fairly or the same as his friends since the cultish body of his supporters contains so many racist white nationalists and their sympathizers. The white supremacists get the message, even if you look the other way.

Add this Aryan fist pump to his lists of Hitler worship references: dog-whistling to white racists using terms like: "immigrants poisoning our blood", and "Reich" as a goal like Hitler's goal of establishing a Third Reich empire (oops, blame the intern) neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville are "fine people," too, which was the epic false equivalency that inspired Biden to run for president, and the call to activism of the white supremacist Proud Boys on January 6 to riot. Trump has been heard to call white supremacists "my people".

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/09/donald-trump-white-supremacists-my-people

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4676368-donald-trump-truth-social-video-references-unified-reich

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/white-supremacy-returned-mainstream-politics/

Below from https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/aryan-fist

ALTERNATE NAMES: White Power Fist, White Fist

The upright clenched fist has long been used as a symbol (both graphically and as a hand gesture) to represent themes such as defiance, unity, and power.  In the 1960s and 1970s, black nationalist groups in the United States and elsewhere often used a dark-skinned clenched fist gesture or image as a "black power" symbol.  By the 1980s, white supremacists in the United States and elsewhere had appropriated this symbol, substituting a white fist.  White supremacists frequently claim that they use the symbol to represent "white pride" or "white power."

_______________________________continuing with my post:

A friend of mine, a Hispanic immigrant with newly acquired documents, was bemoaning Denver becoming such a destination and transit point for those migrants without documents. He himself said, "Trump will fix it," indicating if he could vote, he would vote for Trump. I took that to mean Trump will put such migrants in concentration camps and deport them. If that is the fix, then those who made it have little sympathy for their compatriots coming later. If that puzzles those who think birds of a feather should flock together, they should not be surprised. That is not the first time I have encountered that. I once asked a dear Asian friend of mine to explain this lack of sympathy to me about why those who went to the pain and effort to get to the US looked disdainfully at those later arrivals of the same race. He told me that this was common and that those like him, a descendent of Japanese-Americans imprisoned in World War II, did look with disdain at new arrivals they called "hot off the boat." I thought about it later and wondered if it was because new arrivals competed for jobs with them or that they should not have it easy, too, or they were somehow culturally inferior late-coming refugees? Any ideas? What I do know is if you are required" to show me your documents" to prove to a law officer demanding this because you look Hispanic, that will get an indignant reaction and a revolt against such anti-civil rights infringements and racial profiling. By then, if Trump wins, it will be too late because, as he promises, he will also control the Justice Department and the super majority of the Supreme Court.

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/supreme-court-reinstates-arizona-show-me-your-papers-law-strikes-down-three-other

Warning to consumers: buyer beware if Trump is elected. Update: 6,/28/24

Today, the Trump Court has just overturned Chevron, 40 years of consumer and environmental protections. It is buyer beware, drinking water, product safety, the air you breathe, cars you drive, and the food you eat will now be unprotected.  This ruling will handcuff any agency like the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Safety Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Financial Consumer Protection Agency, and any other federal agency from issuing regulations to fill in the blanks left unaddressed in legislation.  Instead, like abortion, it will fall into states to do it when clearly the issues cross state boundaries, leaving confusion.  Most states have laws conforming to current federal consumer and environmental consumer laws. 

Concerned about inflation?  Think that Trump cares about consumers? It is back to buyer beware if Trump is elected. He comes with a warning label.  He will be a danger to your health, safety, and pocketbook. If Trump wins in November, it is buyer beware. He is not consumer-friendly, no matter what policy he is selling you today.

 Is the Federal Reserve's attempt to slow down inflation working? If the goal is to cool down consumer spending and demand, which has been driving inflation post-COVID, it is beginning to work. Inflation figures have much to do with the interest rates controlled by the Fed. This is the only effective governmental tool available to keep the lid on inflation. Nearly a year ago, economists predicted the US would go into a severe recession within 6 months. That did not happen, either.  The Fed deserves credit for avoidance of that dire prediction, as well as for tapping the brakes instead of causing a crash landing. It is the only brake available to control inflation and takes finesse and expertise.  

Trump has other plans for the Federal Reserve and consumers, which would be a lasting idiocy. Finesse and trustworthiness are not Trump's strong suit. Developing, selling, and lying about the values of real estate are not qualifications to be an economist. Tinkering with the national central bank, which is the Fed, is not for amateurs or those with political agendas like Trump. So far, the US has the strongest economy in the world as it recovers from COVID-19.  The Fed is not broke, but Trump plans to break it. Trump is working on plans to set Federal Reserve rates himself. https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/trump-allies-federal-reserve-independence-54423c2f  You can trust Trump to do what will benefit him politically in the day's news cycle, but that is not the best basis to make complex economic judgments.  The economy will be thrown into uncertainty dependent on Trump's whims of the moment, and only "Yes, boss" advisors will surround him to give him no shot of reality.  

So far as consumers go, he has promised his oligarch friends who are coughing up campaign money he will lift the burden of environmental consumer and lender protections from their backs. Buyer beware did not work before, which is why those consumer protections became laws and rules in the first place.  It is back to the days of being unsafe at any speed and not breathing the air or drinking the water.  

One advantage in living so long is that I remember those days.  There are few of us left with an institutional memory like that.  It is now like what happened to Roe v Wade. We took it for granted for 50 years, and only when it was yanked away by Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court did we suddenly miss it. We have had a history of the past 50 years of being protected from unfair credit practices and products kept safe by laws and rules.  In the meantime, for all but the profit-craven and uncaringly blind, environmental protections became more than applied to clean water and air, but also to the extremes in climate change caused by man's indifference and exploitation.  We will miss those protections, too, when they are yanked away or subverted by Trump-loyal appointees.

Consumer spending is slowing down after a post-COVID buying binge. This raises the possibility of a reduction in interest rates in the near future. A little pain in these past months of high interest rates has kept us from a financial crash and a rip-roaring pain. 

 Target, Walmart, and Home Depot are seeing consumers shift to buying less, reacting to what they see as unjustified price rises that only pump up corporation's balance sheets. That is what the term "greedflation" has come to mean.   In fact, grocery chain profits are out of sight: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-regulators-urge-congress-look-into-grocery-profits-2024-03-21/  

So far, Target has reduced price reductions in response, but expect Walmart to roll back and Home Depot to follow. That is how "greedflation" is fought with the free market system. It is a slow process, indeed, but in time it can work. Much of our economy is driven by consumer spending.  At the same time, wages have increased faster than the inflation rate, enabling consumers to afford higher prices on items they buy,  which has offset attempts to cool down inflation. Inflation has been Biden's political Achilles heel. Consumers have just not felt any improvement.  However, the inflation ship is slowly turning around, perhaps enough by November 2024.

So what would Trump do instead of the current Biden approach? We consumers need to brace ourselves for some idiocy.  There is no return to the good old days of pre-COVID, so stop dreaming. Trump is out to upset the apple cart with his plans for a second term.  He pretends to be the friend of those on a budget, but the policies he has promised us would do the opposite. A lesson in capitalism: The government cannot set consumer prices.  That only happens in communism. The government can influence prices, however, by allowing monopolies to set those prices among themselves as they snuff out competitors. Trump has made it clear he is the friend of and a beggar of their campaign donations from American oligarchs who love being monopolies and Trump's policies of keeping their taxes low and sabotaging consumer protections and environmental regulations.  He who pays the piper calls the tune, and while Trump's volatility day-to-day is the rule, he is, if anything, a keeper of political promises to those loyal to him.

The whole consumer movement began with Nader's "Unsafe at any speed," and Trump would make us sicker and unsafer as protections are sabotaged.  He would also put us at the mercy of unfair loan practices again as he ends the agency that watchdogged it. 

 Trump promises to take the pedal off the brakes of inflation by putting interest rates in his self-serving hands, which would make decisions based on short-term political gains to make Boss Trump look good. That idiocy would take the lid off sound economic principles and throw the economy into chaos in the longer run but benefit Trump in the eyes of his low-information supporters.  The other Trump policy is to raise duties on all imports by 10% across the board to protect US manufacturing and jobs.  Those are no more than 10% taxes on consumers, which will be passed onto all of us consumers used to cheap clothes, furniture, and electronics of imports as retailers try to keep up their margins.  Another Trump proposed idiocy is to round up an estimated 10 million migrants to put them in concentration camps to determine if they had documentation of legality to deport them, which is also inflationary.   We already have a labor shortage and the best employment rates since the 1960s, which has been one of the contributors to inflation. along with the supply chain, COVID-19 caused shortages. 

MAGA has amnesia when it comes to the good old days under Trump just before COVID hit. On December 2019, just before COVID hit, the price per gallon...and Trump was pres...Year Dec2019 2.645 per Google. Today the price of gas average in Colorado is 3.288 per gal.The price of gas at the pump,  is up 65 cents per gallon over Trump days just before COVID hit....and we are dealing with the Ukraine war, too. Let 's not let the MAHA get away with their BS.. 

 Prices at the gas pumps will increase this summer as they always do to take advantage of higher demand by vacationers. Prices per barrel are set mostly by international cartels, which is always an unknown factor. Still, another idiocy aimed at Tumrp's low-information supporters is to "drill baby drill." Under Biden, we have pumped oil so much that we are now the largest producer of oil in the world and are a net exporter.  We never have ever pumped so much. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-panels-launch-probe-into-trump-quid-pro-quo-with-energy-execs-2024-05-23/ 

More on the subject, some appearing in past postings:

Update 5 15 24  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2024-05-15/us-cpi-report-for-april  

The good and bad news  From Forbes May 22, 2024 "Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, noted in its earnings call that customers are spending more on essentials and less on discretionary categories. Home Depot reported a drop in sales for the third quarter in a row as high interest rates cause customers to defer costlier home improvement projects that are typically financed. " 

Grocery price inflation is cooling down, per April figures; housing and gas at the pump are still inflationary, but signs are good enough that experts think it is possible the Fed will lower interest rates in the fall because the trend lines for inflation are going lower. Another good sign is that the free market system is still alive as retailers realize there is a business opportunity to compete with lower prices. Update: 5/20'24  https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/target-reduces-prices-5000-products-high-inflation-persists    Many of the items are in the grocery department. Look for the yellow tags.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/still-ticked-at-high-grocery-prices-and.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html

 https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/tracking-the-recovery-from-the-pandemic-recessionJuly 2020, CBO published its first complete projections of GDP following the outbreak of the pandemic. They showed real GDP down 11.3 percent in the second quarter of 2020 and still down 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, relative to CBO’s pre-pandemic January 2020 projections. CBO projections made in February 2021 were less pessimistic, showing GDP 2.3 percent below the pre-pandemic projection at the end of 2021. But in data available at the end of 2023, actual GDP generally tracked CBO’s pre-pandemic projections after the fourth quarter of 2021 and was above those projections at the end of 2023.

There is strong evidence the current deficit and debt and future projections are heavily due to the tax cuts for the rich.  Trump is promising to carry on with them. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tax-cuts-are-primarily-responsible-for-the-increasing-debt-ratio/

Felicia Muftic's resume points to a lifetime of advocacy for consumers. She began as an activist for consumers in the late 1960s and 1970s. Her first consumer project was as a volunteer leader and coordinator to prove Denver's poorer consumers paid more at grocery stores by launching volunteers to survey and collect the data, and then she published it.  She is the author of the Colorado Consumer Handbook and has served as a consumer representative on many boards and commissions. She is a former white-collar crime and consumer protection unit director in Denver's district attorney's office. She has served as a president of the board and government relations staff of the local consumer credit counseling nonprofit agency.

Trump's appeal: "whatever bugs you, he will fix it if you make him a dictator"

One of the most disturbing conversations I have had recently was with a local small businessman. We were bemoaning specific neighborhoods in Denver and Aurora, Colorado, which we avoided because of street crime.  His response: don't worry, Trump will fix it. How? I asked. He didn't respect the cops on January 6.  The inference of the Trump media whining about high grocery prices has left unsaid how Trump will fix it.  On reflection, I think this fantasy thinking has to do with Trump saying he will be a dictator and, zap, he will fix it.  Trump paints himself as the law and order guy, the friend of everyday Joe's.  This so-called populism, economic or political,  has little to do with people and much to do with his lust for power centralized federally in his own hands. My immediate response to my friend's belief that Trump would fix it was, "Trump is only interested in amassing power for himself, and once there, he will not care about you or me."  A recent YouGov poll puts my view in the majority: "In contrast, a full 50% of Americans (and 53% of registered voters) agree with Biden that “Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not America. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power.” Few, if any, of them are likely to vote for Trump in November." https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-yahoo-newsyougov-poll-shows-why-biden-trump-rematch-is-still-neck-and-neck-193252126.html

Let me say something positive about Donald Trump: He is a great salesman. He makes a national security adversary like Putin into a role model and sells the majority of his party on a fraud, that dictatorships are better than democracy. He knows a gullible and vulnerable audience when he sees it. Ken Burns said it best: Trump is the "opioid of all opioids".This explains how he got away with fraud in his business dealings until he got caught scamming the state and insurance companies by lying about the value of his property or taking Trump U students for suckers and had to pay them back. Despite more than 60 courts and an exhausting number of "forensic audits", no evidence of enough fraud to make a difference in the 2020 elections.

Four years later, the gullible still believe the election was stolen, or, to show their loyalty to Trump, must swear it was a fact because it was the only belief line that allows him to give an excuse for his 2020 loss and to justify his refusal to accept the results against I'm in 2024.

Trump is neither an economic populist nor a political populist.  Trump's reliance on American oligarchs for his campaign financing and his promise to use political violence, those thinking their small businesses and consumer fixes will benefit from a dictator is jaw-dropping.   Where are they coming from? Trump is no small guy economic populist, but a crony capitalist, promising American oligarchs he'll keep their taxes and consumer and environmental regulations low. However, the good salesman he is is selling his flock a bill of goods that only he can fix their economic woes. He is no political populist either, promising not to accept the results of the 2024 election if he loses it, as he promises to put his hard-core loyalists in place to rule over the majority of the rest of us. 

Since when has Trump done in the past that benefitted consumers and small businesses?  In fact, he has a history of using what powers he has had to sabotage consumer protections. He calls Obamacare a disaster but never offers a replacement. Law and order are only respected if they benefit him and his devoted followers. Top of the list is his promise to his big business funders that he will keep the deficit-driving tax cuts to the rich, and his allegiance will be to them, not to the masses, thinking the crumbs will somehow trickle to them. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-tells-billionaires-ll-keep-taxes-low-50-million-fundraising-gala-rcna146748 His plans for the economy he now touts would only harm  https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html

Trump offers nothing but oppression of the over 50% who do not share his lust to make himself the supreme ruler and trash democracy as we know it.  His attitude to any governmental entity that stands in his way, the justice system, courts, and juries, is on display now for all to see as he raises his third finger is disrupted and delayed at every one of the current batches of criminal and civil actions against him. All in the justice system are corrupt, he tells his followers, so throw that out and put him in charge, and the ignorant and craven believe him as they anticipate his second coming.

 So far as urban street crime is concerned, that one is a head-scratcher as nothing I have seen from Trump has done anything but bemoan it and keep assault weapons available. Trump has a war on the rule of law and wants to be the ruler of laws instead.  His disrespect of cops trying to protect and honor the rule of law is what an autocrat does and dictators become.  

 Those who rioted on January 6 and assaulted police officers is exhibit #1 of on whose side he is on. It is not the cops that day. His promise to use active military against laws against it is guaranteed to give us four years of violence from those he oppresses. That his consolidating power as he proposes would generate chaos and violence is not a threat, but that is organically what happens when a wannabe dictator tries to do away with the rule of law. We saw it as he called on the armed militias to action on January 6. He has advocated taking away parts of the constitution regarding civil rights, eliminating opposition media, and supporting the freedom of speech for MAGA loyalists alone, which will not go down well with most Americans. If you think that kind of power grab will result in peaceful streets will give us a different kind of violence as protests and anger erupt. The next four years of a Trump presidency portends constant conflict and chaos as he tries to consolidate power in his hands and take it away the power from ordinary citizens at the ballot box and promises to refuse to abide by outcomes of elections that do not go his way.  

Ken Burns, H’24 Keynote Address to Brandeis University's 2024 Graduates (youtube.com)

"There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. When, as Mercy Otis Warren would say, "The checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed." The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids, an easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction and addiction, "a bigger delusion", James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide as Mr. Lincoln prophesies. Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer."

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/still-ticked-at-high-grocery-prices-and.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/watch-your-health-care-needs-gop-have.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/how-it-works-in-dictatorship-story-my.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/shock-that-trump-only-respect-outcome.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/04/budget-and-deficit-hawks-take-note.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-trump-only-needs-to-be-dictator-on.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-tells-billionaires-ll-keep-taxes-low-50-million-fundraising-gala-rcna146748

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/victims-of-trump-v-2-would-be-us.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/more-messaging-theme-to-consider-biden.html How Trump failed to deliver on promises and Biden succeeded...a contrast

Trump's debate advantage over Biden? He inspires followers, but not for the good

 OK. Trump is inspiring. Biden is a boring business-as-usual, wise, wiley technocrat.  The question is, what does Trump inspire his followers to think and do? 

This poll explains much, and gives a glimmer of hope to Democrats. "In contrast, a full 50% of Americans (and 53% of registered voters) agree with Biden that “Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not America. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power.” Few, if any, of them are likely to vote for Trump in November." https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-yahoo-newsyougov-poll-shows-why-biden-trump-rematch-is-still-neck-and-neck-193252126.html

 Biden has just challenged Trump to a debate on the issues that "matter to people."  He feels confident the debates will help him publicize a favorable contrast to Donald Trump's policies. However, Biden still has a hill to climb on issues. Data may be one thing, but public perception is another. He is underwater for most issues or tied as the YouGov poll recently indicated. (above) It is linked to partisan identification and loyalty. He still has an advantage on the issue of choice/abortion and  is firmly ahead on Biden's position of democracy.  Both of those advantages appear to be unshakeable.

Trump's appeal has little to do with public policy issues. There are many theories, but looking at the heavily white male-dominating, non-college graduate demographics of those supporting him appears to have much to do with stoking the anger of those who fear they might become losers in a country with racial demographic changes and the rise of power of women at the ballot  https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/changing-partisan-coalitions-in-a-politically-divided-nation/     One of the puzzles of this research is the support Trump has from those identifying themselves as Christian Evangelicals, mostly white. Trump is easily the winner of the indecent behavior award, yet he is seen as The Second Coming.  Is it all because of the abortion issue? If so, the former GOP of the Moral Majority now overlooks Trump's character flaws and has recreated itself as the amoral minority.

 Biden has challenged Trump to "make his day " in the debate format he proposes. Trump accepted the debate dates, the first June 27 and the second September 10, on CNN/ ABC, but not yet to the Biden format:  no audience,  media anchors/existing staff moderating. In the past, Trump has found ways to squirrel out of such debates. 

It will be up to the ABC/CNN anchor moderators to make sure a debate does not devolve into two warships passing in the dark, taking cannon potshots at each other as they pass by. Biden will discuss data and issues, and Trump has another agenda.  Trump's appeal inspires the dark side of humanity. It stokes their sense of victimhood, only fixed by him by changing America to a dictatorship and ending democracy. He will get revenge on his followers' behalf and their grievances, which Trump himself has identified and dramatized.  He is all-powerful in his mind, and anyone who stands in his way should fear his wrath, retribution, and revenge, including political violence. He blames the system of democracy that stands in his way of doing stuff because it isn't fair.  To whom? Trump? Certainly not to all people in this 50-50 country. In fact, per a just-released poll by YouGov, "Americans now approve of the indictment and trial by double digits". How Biden would make his case in an issue debate is one thing. It will take some delicate phrasing if these character matters arise.  His lies are his truth: the election was stolen, and the January 6 rioters are patriots. Turmp's idea of fairness is what he defines it himself. All elections that do not show he wins are corrupt.  It is not as courts, juries, and other independent arbiters decide what is corrupt.  His answer to all the criminal indictments and trials he faces is that the justice system is corrupt.  Prosecutors are corrupt. Courts who rule against him are all and in every instance (except for the one judge he appointed, "corrupt," though what he defines as corrupt means "against him.". Bribery and the usual meaning of corrupt government officials are either unproven or not what means. So, it follows scrap that: replace the "establishment" with his one-man rule with "yes men" cheering him on.  The deep state is conspiring against doing what he wants, so he replaces civil servants and the justice system with those who are loyal to him. (Fair for him, but not to anyone else who would like some neutral arbiters to check in, like juries of his peers). So who does he see as his peers he prefers, and on behalf he would decide and govern?.  Taking clues from dog whistles and calling neo-Nazis are some fine people, and even dominating sexually over women and their ability to control their lives, white males. preferable Evangelical Christians.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/15/trump-allies-call-trial-sham-public-opinion-isnt-cooperating/

A puzzle that probably answers itself:  The GOP was once the party of the Moral Majority, but the white Christian Evangelicals have looked the other way, excusing their favored candidate of winning the award for his indecent behavior. They even see Trump as their Second Coming. My guess? The issue of abortion. On that one issue alone, the Moral Majority has become the  A-Moral Minority. https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-march-2024-abortion-in-the-2024-election-and-beyond/

An essay on Trump's contribution to American culture: indecency   https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/04/trumps-greatest-contribution-to.html

From the Muftic Forum Facebook posting 5/16/24

The Clone Show

From the Muftic Forum Blog this AM: Biden has just challenged Trump to a debate on the issues that "matter to people." He feels confident the debates will help him publicize a favorable contrast to Donald Trump's policies.

Trump's appeal has little to do with public policy issues. This picture of Trump contenders for VP says it all. There are many theories, but looking at the heavily white male-dominating, non-college graduate demographics of those supporting him appears to have much to do with stoking the anger of those who fear they might become losers in a country with racial demographic changes and the rise of power of women at the ballot https://www.pewresearch.org/.../changing-partisan.../

NYPOST.COM

Why Trump loyalists, VP contenders are flocking to ‘hush money’ trial: ‘It’s about paying homage’

Donald Trump’s Manhattan “hush money” trial has been the place for prominent Republicans to see and be seen in recent days — with some hoping the 45th president will remembe…

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https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/more-messaging-theme-to-consider-biden.html.So here is Biden's possible debate presentation on issues. I suggested this in this prior post. His main goal is to contrast Trump's ineptitude on public policy issues.  Trump's rejoinder could well be "make me a dictator and I will get it done." Biden has to pin him down on getting WHAT done.   From the prior post:

Trump promised Foxx Conn. He failed. Biden brought you Microsoft: Biden delivered

Trump promised you a dictatorship, and he has a plan to deliver it in place of democracy. Biden promised you a continuation of democracy, and he has delivered and will deliver.

Trump promises violence if he loses in 2024. Biden promises peaceful transitions. Trump delivered violence on January 6. Biden has delivered bipartisan legislation helping people's safety and lives.

Trump denies climate change and touts drill baby drill. Biden directed resources to renewables and job-creating industries but also made the US energy independent and an exporter of gas as bridges to greater use of renewables. Biden has delivered.

Trump promised you the Wall to end the "border crisis"; he failed. Biden brought you a bipartisan, very conservative solution;  Biden delivered, but Trump sabotaged it

Trump promised Mexico would pay for the wall. Biden created legislation to address the border problem, providing personnel to enforce immigration laws and paying for more of the wall. Trump sabotaged it.

Trump promised you "made in America," but he failed to get more jobs. He failed even before COVID-19. Biden: I delivered after COVID-19 x number of jobs, even above pre-COVID levels.

Trump promised you infrastructure funding and brought you nothing but Infrastructure Day. Biden delivered.

Trump promised to make America's economy great again. Biden delivered.  Even before COVID-19, Trump rode the coattails of what those before had done. After COVID's worldwide blow, Biden's economy is the world's envy, with the lowest inflation rate and the highest growth.  Biden delivered much and knows there is more to do.

 Trump claims he, only he, can lower inflation by destroying the brakes on it. Biden brought inflation down from 10 to under 4% and knows how to keep working on it himself by cracking down on monopolies. Trump promises to raise tariffs across the board by 10%, which will be passed on to consumers, raising inflation, not lowering it. In the meantime, Trump promises to destroy the only tool that can put the brakes on inflation: the Federal Reserve. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1317878/inflation-rate-interest-rate-by-country/  If it ain't very broke, don't very break it.

If Trump claims he can reduce grocery prices, he is a con man. Trump cannot set grocery prices and interest rates. Neither can Biden. Trump cons you into saying he can fix it, but he does not tell you how.  Free market systems are at their slow work as grocery prices and retail sales show good trends.  

For years, Trump promised a better replacement for Obamacare. All Trump delivered were promises. In fact, he has never even provided a plan. Biden has even lowered Medicare medication costs to government by forcing competitive bidding.

 Biden lowered health care costs for millions on prescription drugs and diabetes meds. Obamacare has only gotten more popular doubling beneficiaries and participants. Biden delivered; Trump did nothing but back big Pharma.  

Trump opposes lowering student debt. They signed the papers, and they owe it, accumulated interest and all. Biden promised and is delivering relief to millions. 

 Trump promised you a dictatorship, and he has a plan to deliver. Biden promised you a continuation of democracy, and he has delivered and will deliver.

Trump promises you violence if he loses in 2024. Biden promises you peaceful transitions. Trump delivered his promise on January 6 and promised violence if he lost in November 2024. 

Trump ridicules and criticizes national security, the military, the CIA, and more, and praises and supports Russian national security goals and aggressions.  Biden delivers on national security and acknowledges and works to defend us from obvious adversaries who want to do us harm.

Trump tries to get himself immune from criminal acts. Biden abides by the rule of law and delivers daily.

Trump promises states' rights to control women's health; Biden supports and will support making Roe v Wade-type legislation for all in America.  Biden is committed to delivering it. Trump delivers a record of infidelity, sexual abuse, and rape and boasts about setting in motion the end of Roe v Wade.  

Trump only wants those around him to say yes to whatever he wants and plans. Biden treasures aides who tell him both the good and bad news. Biden delivers reality and pragmatism with decisions that are based on reality and pragmatism. (Obama had a team of rivals because he wanted a good debate before he made a judgment call.) Neither Obama nor Biden schemed to see how they could break the law to stay in power after losing the election

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-tells-billionaires-ll-keep-taxes-low-50-million-fundraising-gala-rcna146748

https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/trump-promises-to-undo-biden-s-environmental-agenda-if-oil-company-ceo-s-raise-1-billion-for-his-campaign-the-washington-post-reports-210627141698