I just want to pile on for a second. 47 actually said “and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats is over.” He said it with Elon Musk, the shadow President sitting right there, in the room. The GOP pretended not to notice but everyone else in the world laughed at the moronic buffoon. If you’re going to claim the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats is over, you might want to make sure the unelected bureaucrat you’ve got ruling over the government can’t be panned to by the cameras, highlighting your gaslighting…

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Well, well, whaddaya know? It turns out, 47s tariffs aren’t so much just a stupid economic move. I mean, they ARE an incredibly stupid economic move, or, would be, if they were real. But it’s looking more and more like they’re just insider trading. Make no mistake, everybody still has to take them seriously. That’s why they’re so effective. People have no choice but to respond, just in case he really means it this time. But they may never be imposed. All of the tough talk and claims of concern are just gaslighting.

Have you noticed? He threatens tariffs. Because they’re such a stupid economic move, the stock market declines, usually by a LOT. Then he suspends the tariffs and the stock market comes back. MEANWHILE, he and his insider cronies have had a tremendous buying opportunity. Buy low, sell high. And he can do it over and over and over again.

He’s manipulating the market to his own advantage. Insider trading. Um, how else can I put this? Oh, yeah, MORE crime! What a guy. Yes, the back and forth of it IS doing serious harm to the economy but HE is making huge piles of money – and he doesn’t CARE if you suffer while he does so. In fact, I suspect he kind of likes that.

This is, essentially, the same dishonorable tactic he uses when he bankrupts businesses. Sometimes, I get tired all over listening to people say he’s a terrible businessman because he has bankrupted so many businesses. He has, too. But they were never “failures,” in any traditional sense. He KNOWS those businesses are going under even as he sets them up. He talks them up, brags about how great they’re going to be. But it’s all gaslighting.

He puts himself in a position to profit, personally, from the business while it exists and milks the thing dry. He can also borrow against the business – or he could, until US banks caught on to his scheme and stopped lending to him. That’s when he allegedly became a Russian agent. The Russians still provided him money so he’s literally in their (that is, Putin’s) pocket. Yes, setting up businesses one KNOWS will fail destabilizes local economies and harms all of the people associated with the business – except him. HE makes huge piles of money from each grift and he doesn’t CARE if you suffer while he does so.

If he was even half as competent as a President as he is as a thieving grifter, he might not be the totally useless waste of flesh he is…

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I’m beginning to feel a little embarrassed by my fellow Americans. People keep watching 47 take some new, destructive action and they ask, out loud, “Doesn’t he understand?” Yes. He does. It’s the whole point.

For decades, the GOP had been pushing the false idea that governments don’t work. This claim, too, is gaslighting. The biggest problem they’ve had the whole time is that governments DO work. There was only one option, right? Sabotage the government. So, that’s what they did.

Every tax cut for the rich starves the government of resources it needs to do it’s job. That’s not a surprise, nor is it a secret. It’s the plan. All these firings? The criminal maladministration isn’t finding ANY fraud, waste, nor abuse. They’re just firing people. THAT will have the effect of rendering government less effective. THEN, they’re going to hammer on the idea that governments can’t work, point to the struggling agencies, the agencies they sabotaged for the purpose, and say, “See?”

It’s a two-prong gain for the greedy. One, they get to run an openly criminal authoritarian regime (have you noticed?) and two, they’ll get to privatize everything. For clarity, “privatize” is corporate-speak for “steal even more.” To the best of my knowledge there isn’t a single sector, not ONE, where the US has privatized operations and the operation because cheaper NOR more efficient. Instead, it becomes more expensive and LESS effective – but some greed-head gets to shave off some money and stick it in his pockets.

This is the pinnacle of the so-called “unfettered free market.” You can buy anything you can afford – even citizenship. Sadly, most of us won’t be able to “afford” anything. For the masses, life becomes a daily, desperate struggle for survival. A very small group of people own everything. There’s a small middle class that lives to serve that hyper wealthy group. Then there’s everybody else.

It’s weird I have to go to this level of detail, but think about it. If you’re not in the hyper-wealthy crowd and you don’t get into the tiny, wealthy-serving middle class, where does that leave YOU?

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Hey, take a quick lesson from Elon. Joe Six-pack is constantly told that CEOs get paid so much because they’re so completely and totally vital to the operation of whichever organization they front. I have long-since doubted that, most especially when one gets to larger and larger organizations. I say, the bigger the corporation, the less important the CEO. And claims to the contrary? By now, surely you’ve picked up on my theme.
“Yeah, yeah… gaslighting. And don’t call me ‘Shirley.'” (Sorry…)

Oh, you doubt me? Elon has been living around the White House. He’s the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and the Brand X web site. He’s nowhere near them. He’s ignoring them, even as sales and stock prices are plummeting, users are fleeing, his rockets are exploding, and his Starlink satellites fall from the sky, damaging the Ozone layer.

Quick question: How important is the CEO if he never has to even show his face around the company? So… why are they paid so effing much, again?

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If it ain’t Clarence “Pay Me” Thomas, it’s Samuel “Gimme, gimme” Alito. In this case, it’s Alito. The Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court recently made a ruling that – you might want to sit down for this – their ruling was in keeping with the Constitution! I didn’t know they were CAPABLE OF that, let alone that they might. Basically, they ruled that the money being illegally held by 47’s criminal enterprise had to be released to pay contractors for work already completed.

9-0 decision, right? I mean, it’s a no-brainer. The Constitution clearly gives CONGRESS the power of the purse in what’s left of our government. The House looks over spending, the Senate looks over the spending, they come to an agreement and authorize the money. 535 people look at it and make the decision – all in keeping with the Constitution. But, no. Somehow, four of the “justices” pretend to think Donny has the power to just… keep the money if he wants to.

“Does a single district court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” “Gimme, gimme” Alito wrote in his dissent. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic “No.” But a majority of this court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”

You’re not “stunned,” Sam. You’re corrupt. That’s different. Oh, AND? (Say it with me) You’re gaslighting! The “single district court judge” didn’t authorize the money, Congress did. The single district court judge just ruled that contracts must be honored. The work was completed, the money should be paid. Alito HATES that. (If you’re a contractor and Alito wants to hire you to do work, take note. He doesn’t believe in paying what he owes any more than Donny does. Get the money up front. ALL of it…)

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I guess you won’t be any more surprised than I was – that is, not at all – to learn that the so-called “reporter,” Brian Glenn, who attacked Zelensky for not wearing a suit in the Oval – completely ignoring Muck’s sartorial choices – is actually a paid shill for 47. Technically, I think this one is more ‘hypocrisy’ than gaslighting. We’ll call it ‘gaslighting adjacent.’

He has even confessed as much, though he tried to pretend that the payments were to cover the cost of cameras and such. He pointed to a row of them and said, “Who pays for them?” In a proper journalistic environment, the interviewing company pays for them, not the person being interviewed. But he needed an “explanation” and that’s the best he could come up with. Hey, he’s MTG’s boyfriend, too. How could he be much more than a Medulla Oblingata and very little else and continue to hang around such a mental disappointment?

So AP didn’t get to come in to the Oval for that “meeting” with Zelenskyy. Neither did Reuters. But 47 DID allow a Russian TASS agent AND a paid shill. I thought he had promised to “drain the swamp,” not create new swamp monsters. Hey, you don’t suppose he was gaslighting, do you? When would he never do that?