The Circus and Its New Ringmaster
or MAGA: Make America Greedy Again
Ding dang, dear reader (is there anyone out there in cyberspace? anyone...? anyone...? Bueller...?), since my last post in September, a lot has gone down politically in this country. I hedged my bets in the August post I made, amazed at Orange Man Drumpf's presence of mind in taking advantage of that dramatic photo op with a bloodied ear seconds after the Pennsylvania assassination attempt. I figured just that alone would propel him back into the Oval duck pond.
Then Grandpa Joe bowed out of the race, and, as posted in my September entry here, Comma-la-la-la was riding a pretty good wave just hours before the one and only debate she had with The Orange Man (TOM), which was when I wrote the last words seen on this site before what you're reading now (hello? is this mic on?). She looked pretty good in that debate, though TOM -- and apparently a good portion of the electorate -- thought that he had handily won that war of words.
The voters spoke, and here we sit just days away from an inauguration that will put TOM mercilessly in front of our faces for the next four years. I steeled myself to that reality the day after the election, and I hoped against hope that maybe the Narcissist would surprise me and actually make a case for policies that wouldn't be too far beyond the realm of acceptance. I figured I wouldn't be happy with things, but I hoped that this time around his administration wouldn't be a circus.
Sheesh. It turns out that there were actually sane people working for him when he was the 45th Guy-in-Charge. Those sane folks were responsible for keeping the country out of the ditch into which he persisted in trying to drive it. And those same sane people (John Kelly, John Bolton, James Mattis, Gary Cohn, Ty Cobb, to name just a few) are now on the outs with him; are his biggest critics; are seen as "disloyal" and are definitely not going to be asked back this time around.
So who do we have? Climate change deniers, vaccine critics, immigration scurgers, Fox TV news personalities, and... billionaires. The rich tech folks -- Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Tim Cook -- have all gone to Mar-a-Lago, kissed Drumpf's ring and pledged money and loyalty... I think money is more important to TOM than loyalty, but why quibble on that detail.
And then there's the richest man in the world... Elon Musk, He jumped around the rally stages in pep squad fashion and donated a LOT of money to Drumpf... 75 million? 277 million? Whatever. It was enough to put him, along with Vivek Ramaswamey (another billionaire), in charge of something called the Department of Government Efficiency. Together they will decide how many people's jobs in Washington's bureaucracy will be eliminated, along with some "wasteful" government agencies. Said position, and his close proximity to TOM and his ear (Musk is supposedly renting a cottage for two grand a night at Mar-a-Lago), give the South African ex-pat more power than his billions have since his founding of Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk has weighed in on work visas for high-tech folks and has changed TOM's mind on the need for them. He voiced his opposition to a spending bill that would keep the government open hours before the president-elect concurred. And according to the Washington Post: "he’s weighed in on Cabinet picks, joined meetings with heads of state and now is acting as an enforcer of Trump’s political agenda on Capitol Hill."
Are you ready for what's to come?
Peace to all, and grab your popcorn... if your stomach can take it.
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