Elonald, Elon and Donald, the mafioso approach to governance.
Dear TAT readers,
Happy last Friday before the Christmas, Chanukah and other end-of-the-year holidays. Even though my new writing is slowing down until after the New Year’s celebration, I will still sneak in a handful of shorter essays to peruse along with your eggnog, martinis, hot chocolates etc. From my hearth to all of yours, please just savor the special nuances of the season and generally speaking, a bit kinder and better world. Well, at least a bit kinder for the 31 days between now and January 20th.
When Elonald, a combination of the new loud and dishonest, mafia-styled leaders of the US government, Elon Musk and Donny take over, we will need all the strength and resilience we have, to hold back the flood of extortion and coercion in store for us afterwards. Last night’s budget debacle in the US House of Representatives, over funding the government after today was loudly shoved aside by the obsessive greed of Elonald. The primary sticking point to the agreed upon bipartisan deal, reached after the months of negotiations, is that Elonald demands to have debt limit raised. Like both have done most of their lives, they intend to borrow against it in order to increase their grifting capacities. For both, their appetite for power, is insatiable.
Besides their lust for power, both are limitless in their dishonesty and willingness to employ old-school, mafia, extortion tactics to get what they want, no matter who gets hurt. Last night’s budget failing is a classic example. The pain that would be inflicted onto countless Federal employees and military members, just five days before Christmas, is painful arm-twisting of the innocent or what is best defined as extortion. There is nothing political about this either. This is in mafia terminology, racketeering. The key words in the legal definition below are: “fraud, extortion, bribery, threats, violence, or other legal means.”
Elonald doesn’t even try to hide it anymore. Republican lawmakers are told publicly that they will be “primaried” if they don’t go along with them. The point of saying so publicly is that in order for those politicians to comply, they have to publicly “kiss the ring” and demonstrate public subservience. Greg Abbott and his henchmen like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and AG Ken Paxton used this primarying tactic to rid Texas GOP members who refused to go along with Abbott’s intentions to violate the US and Texas constitutions, by using taxpayer funding for non-public schools, even the bevy of private Christain Schools here in Texas.
"Kiss the ring means to show fealty or submissive respect, usually to someone in a position of authority or power." - Grammarist - Candace Osmond
"Each of the past few election cycles has featured at least one instance of "primarying," a challenge to an incumbent on the grounds that he or she is not sufficiently partisan. For many observers, such races signify an increasingly polarized electorate and an increasing threat to moderates of both parties." - Getting Primaried: The Changing Politics of Congressional Primary Challenges - University of Michigan Press - Robert G. Boatright - 2013
Being primaried is but one coercive tactic at the disposal of Elonald and quite likely unnecessary due to the near complete, subservience of the GOP to Trump’s manufactured persona. His cult of personality defines him and was manufactured by a variety of early actors in his life. Roy Cohn, dirty trickster extraordinaire, Trump mentor and mob “fixer” has a key and dominant role in the Trump that we see today. The tactics employed by Trump and his tiny group of close associates, are right out of the mob “playbook.”
Trump is well documented in mob circles dating back until at least the mid 1970s. His life since has been punctuated by those connections, to include the world’s greatest mobster, Vladimir Putin. Putin is now more akin to the Godfather of movie fame, with control over all of Russia’s Siloviki or organized crime organizations. Often called securocrats or silovarchs, they are the powerbrokers of Putin’s Russia. After Putin started the war against Ukraine, those silovarchs that wanted to distance themselves from Putin and his disastrous invasion, often found themselves falling out of top floor apartments with gunshot wounds or neck, rope burns. This occurred not only in Russia, but in a variety of other nations around the globe.
The only thing that Trump loves almost as much as himself, is another mob boss-like dictator and world leader. For example, Orban’, Putin, Modi, Xi and the former Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad are the most easily recognizable similar thugs. When Putin talks about a “new world order” it is this bunch and a couple more, that he’s talking about. Musk from a business perspective is every bit as ruthless. His personal penchant for mistreating and dangerous working conditions and the firing of employees seeking to unionize are infamous. Bezos at Amazon is/ was, much the same. He doesn’t need to commit violence in order to leverage his power over others. He simply manipulates politicians to do his dirty work of championing his personal power, hence his pragmatic attachment to a far-less than bright, Donald Trump. In fact, most authoritarian leaders around the globe, that Trump ingratiates himself with also manipulate him, and quite easily.
Musk and Ramaswamy at the head of the made-up new government entity DOGE are but two of Trump’s 14 billionaires and not one of them with a reputation for fair play for the working classes nor competitors. Musk and Ramaswamy in particular, are making a point to loudly threaten anyone in government that without loyalty to Trump’s whims and wishes, will lose their job and benefits. In an economy where working people struggle with price-gouging, not the alleged inflation, losing one’s job and carefully accrued benefits is tantamount to extortion. Elonald’s threats prior to taking office are nothing more than intimidating all Americans to get in line or pay the consequences.
Trump learned his leadership style from the historically unchallenged king of nasty, mob-like behavior, Roy Cohn. Never admit you’re wrong or acted badly, even if the entire world population watched you do it on TV or in social media. Never back down, never admit defeat and sue, sue, sue are just some of Trump’s tactics based on his Cohn mentorship. Of course, he learned much of this from his father and grandfather as well. Grift, conning people and intimidating and not paying people, are in his DNA, some might say. I would agree. The only saving grace is that Trump never really succeeds at anything and as much as he wishes to live out his life-long dream of being a mob boss, he isn’t good at that either.
Trump and Musk often consult on nominees for high office. Those who share Elonald’s penchant for coercive and immoral governance have found their way into the cabinet and as leaders of Agencies, embassies and advisory panels. The more ruthless, the better. The cold hard truth that we must all become accustomed to on January 20th, is that coercion and intimidation will be the operating system for the new administration. The welfare of the American people will not be a factor in the decision-making of any nominee or subordinate. Trump will loudly boast that he’s helping the people, and his base will believe him… until they feel the betrayal in their lifestyle and wallets.
When Trump fails, he will blame the current administration, dishonestly of course. Nothing will be his fault, nor anyone in his administration. It’s the same tactic used by Greg Abbott and the TX GOP. For thirty plus years, only the GOP has run Texas, exclusively. Still to this day, every single thing wrong is blamed onto the opposition party. TX Republicans are conditioned to believe this too. The national GOP voters will believe Trump just the same.
The fight for all of us will be centered around surrounding your local GOP congressman’s office and raising hell. We must also write as many letters to the local editors as possible to keep the Trump administration’s abusive tactics in the headlines. Remember, “the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease.” The GOP’s high powered media machine is the squeakiest wheel of all. This is one reason that they won in November. Making a lot of noise and continually dominating the airwaves with conspiracy theories work. The Nazi party in pre-war Germany, taught us this lesson quite well. In fact, the GOP’s media machine runs very similar to what Goebbels designed and successfully operated for Hitler.
I have long found that if I must experience something dangerous and potentially harmful, it was best to understand it as well as possible. For example, while on yearly deployments to Afghanistan, I spent time in between learning everything I could about the nation and the identity of its people, especially the Pashtuns that are 95% of the Taliban’s makeup. I did the same with the other extremist groups working alongside the Taliban against the US and allied forces. What I have written about today, tells you a great deal about Trump’s identity and that of his billionaires, Musk especially and of course, his sycophantic GOP congressmen.
Elonald can always go lower and for most of us, that mob-like strategy of extortion and intimidation, will be their calling card. If we stand together, these tactics won’t work, and the US Government’s infrastructure will hold. Those opposed to this administration, regardless of party must work together to stop the carnage. Remember, in its simplest form, Elonald is the schoolyard bully that is courageous in a gang but that flees when confronted with overwhelming resistance. At the end of the day, bullies are cowards. Elonald is no different. If you get nothing else from today’s essay, it is that we must resist the new administration, and we must do it in large, loud numbers.
When our nation was born, we opposed the largest, most successful military on earth and their government. We won then and we can win now. The key is building resilience around our constitutional rights and demanding that they are sustained against Elonald’s onslaught. We must stand with anyone, and everyone being intimidated at any time. We must buy two years until the Midterms where we can stop Elonald’s intended and unconstitutional Project 2025 agenda. The greatest irony of Elonald’s demand to raise the debt ceiling is that they keep claiming that they will slash the US budget and deficit drastically. My question and yours should be, “if they are slashing the budget drastically, why do they need a higher debt ceiling?” It is our right to demand these answers and doing so, will keep the spotlight on their grift. Like our first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis is quoted, “sunlight is said to make the best disinfectant; the electric lamp, the most efficient policeman.” In other words, stay focused on what Elonald does, not says. Also, keep their crooked dealings in the spotlight.
My very best for a joyful weekend of preparing for your holiday celebrations. Most of all, savor this last holiday before Elonald.
Paul
At least this is an improvement over the superannuated gerontocracy that has become the Democrat Party.