As long as I can remember, the far right has been terrified of the word Socialism. In their mind, Socialism IS Communism. You know Communism, right? That’s a political/economic system in which the government owns the means of production. Cons are so scared of anything even approaching Communism, they are opposed to public fire departments. Well, they were.

Now Orange Man has taken a 10% stake of Intel on behalf of the US government. The government, officially, owns the means of production. Communism. It’s right there, right out in the open for all to see. Fortunately, MAGA can look away. Apparently, they’re okay with Communism when Donny does Communism. Why, it’s almost as if these guys have no beliefs at all.

It has happened before. The US has taken ownership stakes in companies that were considered important but badly run. Usually, though, only long enough to prop them up and spin them off. Even THAT is socialism, by the way. Cons cannot – WILL not – confess that Socialism is where Capitalism turns when Capitalism fails, but it happens on a fairly regular, ongoing basis.

The difference, this time, is that Donny doesn’t seem interested in letting go of the government ownership stake. Not only that, his regime is running around extorting a lot of different companies into paying a vig to the US government. “Nice company ya got here. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it.”

There is no end to what MAGA will do for this guy. He wants Communism? Communism is a-okay with them for… reasons. Sooner or later, someone else is going to take a shot at this guy. Sooner or later, Donny is going to want to collect the guns “for everyone’s safety.” And you watch, the Second Amendment, “cold, dead hands” crowd will be searching for their assigned gun drop-off station so the can do their patriotic duty and voluntarily turn in their weapons…

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I’m saying this: conservatism is on the rise around the world. Misery is ALSO on the rise around the world. Coincidence? I think not. I think where conservatism goes, misery follows. It’s pretty simple, really…

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Well, that was fun while it lasted. I wrote yesterday morning that nobody had seen Donny in public for a while and people were speculating as to why. I, for one, was hoping the mantra “trump dead at 79” was taking hold. No such luck. 47 hit the golf course yesterday. Fourteen. That’s the number of cars Donny used to get to a golf course yesterday. They’re all big, heavy vehicles. That explains (in part) why every trip he takes to a golf course costs taxpayers millions of dollars.

Left unexplained is where he was. He STILL wasn’t seen in public from Tuesday through Friday. That STILL means Donny went four days with no public fawning or adulation – nor epithets or insults, either. His ego is FAR to tiny and fragile to not rush to any camera, so where was he?

This morning, we’re getting a lot of “Oh, the haters were wrong,” from corporate media. It sure seems like something was up. He avoided cameras for four days. For anybody else, that’s just normal living. For Donny? It’s evidence of a crisis. He simply CAN NOT stay out from in front of a camera. I wonder if this pretended “most transparent regime in history” will issue a statement. My guess, it will be issued shortly after the Epstein Files are released to the public. That is, don’t hold your breath…

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Um… while they’re fighting a fire? Really?!? ICE raided a team of firefighters. They were held while the ICEholes determined citizenship. Oh, let me rephrase that. The fire burned freely while the ICEholes determined citizenship. Two people kidnapped. Unknown number of acres burned while the process played out.

They keep going to where people are working. They never arrest the employer who hired the person illegally. Only the worker. I don’t pretend to be an expert but do you really think MS-13 gang members are dutifully holding down a 9 to 5? I suspect that if you’re arresting MS-13, you’re NOT arresting someone with a steady job. If you’re arresting someone with a steady job, you’re NOT arresting MS-13.

It looks like the ICEholes want the easy captures and don’t really want to focus too much on MS-13. Those guys are tough. Why would ICE want to mess with them? The ICEholes are cosplaying tough guys. They dare not face actual tough guys, so they’ll take the woman picking lettuce – or maybe a couple of firefighters working to stop a wildfire. Certainly nobody threatening. Then they can talk tough at a press conference and the fantasy is complete.

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People who know about these things are saying that not only have the Drumpfster’s tariffs (aka tax on the American people) been declared illegal, if the decision stands the US may have to pay back all of the money they collected under the criminal regimen.

There’s no word on how I get back the excess money I had to pay when I went to the grocery store because of Donny’s tariffs coupled with corporate greed. Of course, the whole point is a wealth transfer from the working class to the lazy class, so I won’t be holding out any hope. In fact, The Felon knows he has the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court in his pocket. He’s expecting a 6-3 decision saying the Precious gets to do whatever he wants, just like it doesn’t say in the Constitution.

On his crappy social media site, he wrote, “If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country. It would make us financially weak, and we have to be strong.” The ONLY reason it would make us financially weak is because of his tax cuts. The tariffs were meant to offset some of the damage of the tax cuts – not ALL of it, but enough to potentially paper over just what a financial fumbler Donny really is.

Quick question: if the tariff decision stands – as it should since tariffs really are the sole purview of Congress – do you suppose Donny will repeal his precious tax cuts that do him so much good personally? You know, for the good of the country. I feel pretty certain that if the good of the nation comes into conflict with the good of Donny, the nation can pound sand…