America in 2025: Democracy to Oligarchy (& Kakistocracy)

With the inauguration of convicted Felon Donald Trump today, we have to consider where we are at. And it does not look good. While some praise it as a New America. Something we have heard criminals claim at various times in the past, always proven to be untrue. Those like Joseph McCarthy with his "red scare" who, as with Trump, is just a calling of others to arms to empower himself, first and foremost. 

Donald Trump as POTUS47. It this the beginning of the end for us? Or the end of the beginning? Is this the beginning of an authoritarian America, or simply growing pains to strengthen America from ever again going down this anti-democratic and authoritarian path of disingenuity, disinformation, disruption, and destruction?

Kakistocracy. by the way, refers to a system of government in which the leaders are the least qualified, most corrupt, or most incompetent individuals available. The term comes from the Greek words kakistos (meaning "worst") and kratos (meaning "rule" or "power"), and it describes a government run by those who are corrupt, inept, or unfit to govern. In a kakistocracy, power is typically held by individuals who act in their own self-interest rather than for the benefit of the public, often leading to mismanagement, widespread corruption, and poor governance.

Why? Because this IS what (and who) Trump is, in nominating to lead our government institutions people lacking proper qualifications for their nominated positions. 

Why?

Putting unqualified individuals in positions of power and institutions can happen for a variety of reasons, often influenced by political, economic, or ideological factors. Here are a few common reasons why this might occur:

1. Political Patronage and Loyalty: In some cases, leaders or political parties may prioritize loyalty and personal connections over qualifications. Appointing friends, allies, or political supporters, regardless of their competence, helps maintain power and solidify political support. This can lead to positions being filled by individuals who lack the skills or knowledge required to perform effectively.

2. Ideological or Partisan Goals: Political leaders might appoint individuals who share their specific ideological or partisan views, even if they are not qualified for the role. The goal may be to advance a particular agenda rather than ensuring competent governance. This is often seen in the appointment of judges, agency heads, or other key figures in the administration.

3. Cronyism and Corruption: In some cases, the appointment of unqualified individuals is a result of cronyism or corruption. Individuals may be chosen because they are willing to engage in corrupt practices or because they offer financial or personal benefits to those in power. This often undermines the effectiveness and integrity of institutions.

4. Political and Business Influence: Large corporations, interest groups, or wealthy individuals may influence the appointment of unqualified people to positions of power to protect their own interests. By placing their allies in positions of influence, they can shape policies that benefit their business or financial goals, sometimes at the expense of public welfare.

5. Lack of Accountability: In some systems, especially those with weak checks and balances, leaders may be able to appoint unqualified individuals without facing significant public scrutiny or consequences. In such environments, there may be little to no pressure to ensure that the most qualified individuals are appointed to positions of power.

6. Short-Term Political Gains: Some leaders may prioritize short-term political or electoral gains over long-term governance and effectiveness. Appointing individuals who can mobilize a certain voter base, or who are seen as symbols of a particular movement, may be seen as more beneficial in the short run, even if they lack qualifications.

7. Ideological Disregard for Expertise: Some populist or anti-establishment movements deliberately place unqualified individuals in power as a rejection of traditional elites, experts, or institutions. This is often framed as a way to "drain the swamp" or challenge the establishment, though it can lead to ineffective governance.

In all these cases, the decision to place unqualified people in power can harm institutions, diminish the quality of governance, and erode public trust in the system. It may also result in poor decision-making and the mismanagement of critical issues, potentially leading to long-term damage to a country's political and economic health.

While some may believe that Donald Trump is saving them from our government (apparently by destroying it), it is an irrational and disreputable view regarding our most immoral (and effectively nearly our worst) POTUS...a convicted felon who was re-elected under circumstances of delusion and frankly, criminal intent. 

In presidential rankings, Abraham Lincoln rated #1. Barack Obama rated #10. Donald Trump...#41 out of our 46 presidents as of today (with tomorrow being convicted felon Donald Trump's inauguration as POTUS47.

The image above illustrates themes of power dynamics and collective action. It depicts a transformation from oppression to liberation: initially, a figure wields a whip over a submissive group, but the group eventually rises against the oppressor. The image suggests that solidarity and collective action can overpower tyranny.

In the context of the past 20 years in America, and particularly with the framing of Donald Trump as either a savior or a manipulator, interpretations vary depending on political alignment. But it's quite obvious to anyone paying close, or even distant attention (as with our friends worldwide) that Donald Trump is part of a tyrannical orientation with an easily uncovered disreputable career.

Conservative Perspective:

Many conservatives see Trump as the figure fighting against entrenched elites, "saving" the people from oppressive systems like "the swamp," big government, or globalist agendas. To them, Trump represents the individual who breaks the whip held by these powers. "Conservatism" today, is not what it once was. Or as it's still claimed to be.

While both forms of conservatism value national identity, personal liberty, and tradition, Trump’s conservatism has brought a more combative and populist tone to the forefront, often challenging the status quo and the institutions that traditional conservatism sought to preserve.

Opposing Perspective:

Critics argue that Trump himself embodies the authoritarian figure, concentrating power and leveraging divisive rhetoric to maintain control. From this perspective, his actions and policies (e.g., tax cuts for the wealthy, environmental deregulation, and alleged undermining of democratic norms) disproportionately serve elites rather than ordinary citizens, contradicting the notion of him as a liberator.

Overarching Theme:

The image underscores the potential for manipulation of collective belief systems. Trump's supporters might view themselves as the liberated group, but critics could argue that their alignment with Trump perpetuates systemic oppression under the guise of populist rhetoric. The image invites reflection on how leaders use narratives of "us versus them" to wield influence and whether true liberation is achieved or if the cycle of oppression continues under a different guise.

Pointing out how the objective view about Donald Trump is not a good one as he is a convicted felon and has been a lifelong and career criminal.

The claim that Donald Trump is a "convicted felon" is inaccurate as of now. While he has faced numerous legal challenges, including indictments and civil lawsuits, none have yet resulted in a felony conviction. However, he has been found liable in certain civil cases, including one involving sexual abuse and defamation. It is critical to distinguish between criminal convictions and civil liabilities when discussing his record.

That said, Trump has faced significant legal and ethical controversies over the years that invite scrutiny. Here's an objective overview of some of the major issues often cited by critics:

1. History of Fraud and Business Misconduct

• The Trump University case resulted in a $25 million settlement after allegations that the program defrauded students.
• The Trump Foundation was dissolved in 2019 following a lawsuit alleging misuse of charitable funds for personal and political purposes.
• Multiple contractors and employees have accused Trump of failing to pay for services rendered.

2. Tax and Financial Irregularities

• Trump was the first president in decades to refuse to release his tax returns voluntarily, raising questions about transparency.
• The New York Times' investigation into his taxes revealed years of aggressive tax avoidance, claiming substantial losses to offset income and paying little to no federal income tax in some years.

3. Criminal Indictments (2023–2024)

• Trump has been criminally indicted four times in connection with:
  • Classified documents case: Mishandling sensitive national security documents after leaving office.
  • 2020 election interference: Allegations of attempting to overturn election results in Georgia and on a federal level.
  • Stormy Daniels hush money case: Alleged falsification of business records to conceal payments.
  • January 6th Capitol attack: Charged for conspiring to defraud the United States, obstructing an official proceeding, and inciting insurrection.

4. Evasion of Accountability

• Critics argue that Trump's tactics often involve delaying and deflecting through lawsuits, appeals, and public attacks on institutions like the judiciary, FBI, and DOJ. This behavior erodes trust in the rule of law and democratic norms.

5. Ethical Concerns During His Presidency

• Emoluments clause violations: Accusations of profiting from the presidency by promoting his properties for official government and foreign delegations.
• Nepotism: Appointing his children and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to key advisory roles despite their lack of qualifications.
• Use of presidential power for personal gain: Pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden (which led to his first impeachment).

6. Patterns of Manipulation and Deception

• Trump has a documented history of making false or misleading statements, with fact-checkers counting tens of thousands during his presidency. Critics argue that his frequent use of misinformation undermines public trust.

7. Social and Political Impact

• Trump's divisive rhetoric has exacerbated polarization, emboldened extremist groups, and fueled distrust in democratic institutions.
• His role in the January 6th Capitol insurrection marked a low point in American democracy, with many viewing it as an attack on the peaceful transfer of power.

The Broader Implications

While Trump’s supporters delusionally view him as a fighter against corrupt elites (which he is himself), critics and most rational thinkers argue his actions consistently reflect self-interest, authoritarianism, and a disregard for democratic norms, the US Constitution, and the law.

Controversies surrounding Donald Trump and those from his inner circle, suggest patterns of prioritizing personal and political gains over accountability, ethical governance, or public service. To wit, a career of criminality and abuse.

With convicted felon Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday, January 20, 2025, a new era of America arises under the auspices of an authoritarian and convicted criminal as POTUS47. 

US institutions and the US Constitution, aside from the Department of Justice (recognizing its own failures in holding Trump accountable after he left office in 2021), politically swelter under the weight of the Trump crime organization, now being assimilated within the US Government as it reforms it from an oligarchy or plutocracy, with elements of kleptocracy, into a kakistocracy.

As of January 19, 2025, the most fitting description of the United States, based on current political and economic trends, could be oligarchy or plutocracy, with elements of kleptocracy and meritocracy also being relevant, depending on the specific issue being discussed.

• Oligarchy: Many critics of the U.S. system argue that power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of wealthy individuals, corporations, and interest groups, who influence policy through lobbying, campaign contributions, and media ownership. This has led to concerns that the government serves the interests of the elite rather than the general population, especially on issues like tax policy, healthcare, and corporate regulation.

• Plutocracy: With the growing influence of wealth in politics, such as the rise of super PACs, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few individuals, and the outsized impact of billionaires on elections, the term "plutocracy" is often used to highlight the role that wealth plays in shaping political outcomes. This has raised concerns that economic inequality has reached levels where the rich can effectively control government policy.

• Kleptocracy: While the term "kleptocracy" generally refers to the outright theft of state resources for personal gain, there have been instances where government officials or business elites have been accused of corruption, embezzlement, and self-dealing, particularly in relation to issues like government contracts, tax policy, and regulatory capture. Critics of the current system sometimes use the term to suggest that corruption is pervasive at the highest levels of power.

• Meritocracy: Despite its ideal, the U.S. is increasingly criticized for not functioning as a true meritocracy, especially with regard to social mobility. Structural inequalities related to race, class, education, and geography have made it difficult for many Americans to succeed based purely on merit. However, meritocratic ideals are still often used to justify policies, particularly in education and employment.

As of January 19, 2025, the most fitting description of the United States IS, based on current political and economic trends with Donald Trump's inauguration tomorrow, is that of a plutocracy or oligarchy, where wealth and concentrated power shape the political landscape, limiting true democratic representation. 

However, aspects of kleptocracy (with lingering remains of an ever-decreasing meritocracy), still play roles in the broader discussion of American governance, depending on the specific issue being discussed.

Much of the problem is Donald Trump's divisional tactics to divide and conquer America. WE can do better together. We all need to see that.

We can do better. But not if one cannot see beyond one's partisan, especially when delusional, beliefs.

Do we even want to do better anymore? Because it doesn't seem like it as those on the right denigrate democracy, praise authoritarianism and autocratic enemies of Western democracies, and continue to confuse reality with fantasy and tribalism.

We CAN do better. Easily. 

Reality still matters. While we are welcome to our own opinions, we are not welcome to have our own personal (or tribal or partisan)...facts.

Let's end with these two thoughts:

Twenty Lessons On Tyranny, From the Twentieth Century - Timothy Snyder.

And finally...

Why I remain hopeful about America Even as darkness falls - Robert Reich

Compiled with the aid of ChatGPT

Why America Stopped Being Great - Corporate Thought

Here's what I'm seeing in life today. "Corporate thinking" has taken over our businesses, our social institutions, our religions, our government. Look. It's really not that capitalism is so very bad. It's that at some point, people stop acting decent and start acting like they are at war.

Okay, fine. Business can be like war and applying Sun Tzu's Art of War can be useful. So can Machiavelli's, The Prince. The problem is at some point they throw meritocratic issues out of the window and go right for the jugular.

And at that point, capitalism breaks down. THAT is where corporate thought kicks in. One no longer has a need or consideration of the "bigger picture." The picture, the situation that is all-inclusive. In the capitalist sociopath's point of view the picture is only as big as they are. They do things like get to where they have power and money and then, change the rules for all those who come after them, or try to dethrone them. Wonderful, right?

I would argue, that benefiting only one person or group, is dysfunctional. Because we are a country, a nation, America. The entrepreneur is supported on a cloud of the nation. While they try to sell the belief they have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps so no one else has any claim on their success or their money or resources.

Hey, if video and fun are your bag and this is kind of try, hop over to Amazon Prime and watch Kal Penn's show, This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy. Try Episode 2: Are Rich People Dicks or Do Dicks Get Rich.

This is (in part) why capitalism is broken: Rent-seeking ...an individual's or entity's use of company, organizational or individual resources to obtain economic gain without reciprocating any benefits to society through wealth creation. An example of rent-seeking is when a company lobbies the government for loan subsidies, grants or tariff protection.

That, is a mistake and that, is where America has been draining reality off of the middle class for decades now to the point of killing it off. Of making a duality of the very rich and the very poor and that is where we are headed. That, has to stop. And where that starts is the lack of responsibility by the individual sociopaths in business and the lack of concern or understanding of how we all really are tied together.

There is a MASSIVE infection of a lack of responsibility in this country. Whenever you push through to something, past reasonable attempts, to what you have no right whatsoever to, merely in order to make money, gain status, or increase your power over others, that is shirking responsibility. There is a huge difference between perseverance and being unethical or immoral.

Because of that, others who do deserve all that do not receive it. We are seeing this too in government from the conservative Republicans who have purposely skewed facts, reality, even our elections. Some with the help of Russian interventions in our social media, or worse. 

Pursuing those kinds of behaviors are harming them, harming us all. As well as the structures surrounding them, in society. Harming our country. 

Many times, if not most of those times, people who do deserve it, have actually put in the hard work, have attained the necessary personality and infrastructures around them, and the understanding of those things. All in order to be able to handle that responsibility. 

While those others haven't. 

That is what corporate thought is all about. It's why I despise it so much, corporate thinking. It's abusive. It's bad, as the old saying goes, for children and flowers and all living things.

An example of this is as recent and relevant as 60 Minutes episode last night on opiates. They had on Ed Thompson who owns PMRS who said that in 2001 the FDA changed the labeling on Purdue Pharma's Oxycontin. Basically heroin in a pill. Ed said that was illegal. I think he was right. He is now suing the FDA over this to change the label back, to make it correct.

Purdue pushed the FDA to bow to their wishes and go from indicating on the label that Oxy was for short term use (which research dictates) to long term use (which research says it is contraindicated for).

He also said that the FDA lit the fire for big pharma to make billions. I disagree. FDA poured out the catalyst, tossed gasoline on the tinder. But it was big pharma who lit that fire.

THAT is an important thing because we have to put the responsibility on the right agency or entity. To think that falls on the corporations is correct. To believe that the government is the one who needs to set the law for this to keep greed from overwhelming corporations is also correct. But let's face it. This is corporate thinking at it's best example.

Purdue and others simply refuse to be responsible, except to their wallets and stockholders. At the expense of literally thousands of citizens lives. At the destruction of communities and families.

That is corporate thinking. 

I can play the game, too. I've just refused to. Most decent people do. That's the problem with our GOP, the party of (mostly) big business. They are happy to take all they can. And with a man as POTU|S who is more con than business, they are following his lead.

It is all about attaining what you deserve to aim for, regardless of your right to it, or your ability to achieve it. Shoot for more than you believe, but don't steal from others who deserve it more. 

When rather than attaining it by your own personal skills, abilities, and resources alone, when instead it is accomplished by breaking rules, ignoring humane considerations, mores, and even laws? You should be brought down. As our Pres. Donald Trump and friends now should be brought down, brought to heel, brought to bear the full weight of national security and jurisprudence.

They are the crowd of the ends justifying the means. Some others will praise you if they know that, merely out of envy. Many will praise that if they don't know because...they think you'd earned it. Or they use plausible deniability and accept all you do for all they can get. It's the new criminal, breaking reality, tossing citizen's on the trash heap, the environment into the garbage, all as long as they avoid breaking laws (whenever possible, but not always, and that is our hope), so they don't get caught. So they can keep doing it. 

It doesn't have to be that way? We can make changes. We can force those appropriate changes.

I knew a guy like, who would do anything to rise above, back when I worked for the University of Washington. He shocked me one day by openly saying he didn't have my abilities or education so that gave him the RIGHT to walk all over anyone, to climb over anyone however he could in order to rise up that ladder to success.

I was stunned. I didn't see the writing on the wall with him that day back in the early 1990s. I didn't foresee a large group of Americans leaning that direction. I just assumed he was a one-off, a low life, a potential criminal. And indeed, he got booted out of that office and off the campus workforce. But, it had to be done in such a way that it was legal, but covert. Which speaks to our current dilemma today. These people are getting away with these things. The laws have been written to allow their behaviors and if WE try to do what is right? Then WE become the criminals. 

It is an upside down reality now.

Today's way is to not EARN a damn thing, merely to attain it by hook, or by crook. 

What the hell do you think "by crook" MEANS? THIS is now the foundation of the Republican party. Of Donald Trump. Of Vladimir Putin. Of many on Wall Street. And THAT is who you are if you support them. Or if you choose that path. 

And if you do? If you do you are disgusting. Statistically speaking you are also most likely a conservative Republican. 

That IS the party of business and corporations. And with the tax cuts they always pine over, it is also the party of giving them(selves) tax breaks so they don't have to make it on their own. It is a kind of socialism they will not point to. Not needing to accept responsibility.

When poor people need help? They can't as the odds are (purposely) stacked against them and so they suffer. That is growing day by day to include all who do not have vast buffers of wealth and money to insulate them from the damages, the lies, elitist plutocratic cultures. 

Some will even kill you for it. Indirectly and at a distance, of course. Our healthcare system is a prime example of that. 

It is a natural and basic function to destroy that which attempts to destroy you. This current defective format of our government, our business, our wealth distribution has got to be eradicated. 

Culture has got to learn that this is unacceptable. So our children don't think they are someone to imitate. How many children right now think Donald Trump in being POTUS is some a role model? How many parents actually ARE teaching their kids that? 

There is even a Republican politician, Ron DeSantis running a political ad about exactly that! It's humorous, but that does not excuse it. It is an embarrassment to America. 

We are now living what government is supposed to be about avoiding. The rule of the jungle. The rule of gangs. It is, what society is supposed to be 100% against. Because it leads to chaos and mayhem which Donald Trump loves so much. Destruction, uneven playing fields. 

A disruption of our society, our government, our Republica, our democracy. A breaking down of infrastructures such as we're seeing today. 

It is what corporations today are all about. 

It is corporate thought. 

It is why American has been stopped from being Great. We didn't need to make America great again. We've been on that path for over two centuries. It is turning us from the path of greatness. It has even been ending our greatness, that effort by the conservative base, the Republican party, the Trump acolytes. They have moved from political party to cult entity.

So stop thinking calling out disingenuous attacks against "socialsm", while having nothing to do with what is going on in American politics today, have any real bearing on your or other's abusive capitalistic practices, if not outright criminal actions. Just because your President in Donald Trump seems to be getting away with it, just because Plutocrats in America have been getting away with it and Oligarchs in Russia are running that coutnry too, doesn't mean we will continue to allow the abuses to continue. Either in America, or Russia. Both Trump and Putin need to find their seats in prison, and soon.

It needs to end. This invasion, this infection of corporate thought into all of our American ideals and ideologies, has got to stop. 

And it can be done. WE can do it. We will do it. 

America's First & Necessary Post POTUS Execution

Is there an argument for the State execution of Pres. Donald Trump, once he is removed from office? I believe the consideration it is now rapidly being approached and very likely will soon be surpassed.

Why do I keep thinking of the French Revolution of 1789 – 99? And, "Why [does] President Trump resembles a pre-revolution French monarch."

Either way, treating our abusive leader appropriately, is really my point in all this.

The Donald, or The Don?

The argument against it is far less strong with each passing day. Not to mention Mr. Trump's own orientation on the death penalty being required for certain crimes. It's not a long stretch to consider if he were on the other side and himself were his enemy, he too would be calling for the execution of a traitorous POTUS. Especially if he could have pushed for that against an obviously far better president in Barack Obama.

Where there is this much smoke...there's fire.

First off, IF we allow this kind of abuse to go unpunished, we are essentially following the Donald Trump foreign policy for his beloved dictators and the abuse of national leaders' own citizens as in Syria or even as with Saudi Arabia against a journalist: "Oh well...."

We have GOT to send a strong message to not just Donald Trump AND his people who appear to be dropping like flies in a firestorm. And the vapid and zombie Republican party for this manufactured nightmare. But also to ANY other party (or foreign actor) in the future who may consider similar actions against the American electorate in their desire for power and position, or simply...chaos.

Putin loves western chaos, not Trump

That includes Vladimir Putin as a foreign actor against America and as well against his own country. Putin needs to be removed. I can't say that enough and I'm sick of saying it as I have since about the year 2000, a year after he took power.

Perhaps, had we better helped and made better decisions along with Mikhail Gorbachev in the bringing down of the Iron Curtain, we would never have seen a coup that replaced him with the alcoholic criminal Boris Yeltsin. Who then put Putin into power to protect him and his family from prosecution once he left office. It is a chain of authority from a decent path to a criminal path until today we have a State Criminal in Putin and a government he crafted in his own ex-KGB image.

Obviously, we need the appropriate and legal proof against Donald Trump to act upon it. The last thing America needs now is more illiberal or criminal actions in our government. We need to not follow in the footsteps of Russia.

Or China for that matter in their recently giving Pres. Xi a position for life. A stupid move. A very stupid move for any country to do. And a sign that something is very wrong. One that other nations need pay attention to and in their dire fortune if they ignore it. As they are doing. As we are all doing.

We must also take a stand against presidential plausible deniability. A tough thing to accomplish.

Which one should suspect Mr. Trump has already screwed up anyway and may prove not to even be a concern for us. Mostly because of his innate ineptness and that of his crew along this path he has taken these past decades.

The president is indeed held to a different consideration than the rest of us. And rightly so. Up to a point. Therefore he (or hopefully soon, she) needs and, especially this president Trump, needs to be held to a different judicial consideration.

We obviously have to be sure what we're doing. That is, to be transparent. As there will always be those who believe this is being done TO the POTUS  and somehow had not been done BY him and to himself and therefore, to America at large.

These are difficult times to be sure but we're up to the occassion!

That being said, IF Mr. Trump did these things, IF we cannot prove it in the normal ways, then it needs to be proven in an appropriate enough way to succeed in finding a ruling that should be found in considering just what he has done. Leaving things like plausible deniability by the wayside. We need to protect the citizens by rule of law. But we also must protect the nation by rule of reality.

Presidents DO need that capability at times in plausible deniability, in order to not be held accountable. There IS  a legit reason for its existence.

But FOR the American nation, the American people, and not against them as Mr. Trump has apparently done. All for wont of money and power, to satiate his defective ego and personality. That is no longer in question. Mr. Trump obviously has some serious defects. Defects that should have disallowed him ever to become POTUS. We have damaged the office of president, ourselves in allowing such a man to enter into it.

In actuality, our least hardworking POTUS in history

Otherwise, we will have allowed ourselves to continue to be dupes to what and who is basically a conman in a Donald Trump as president.

However, if all this happened as we're seeing it, but Trump is technically "clean" though obviously not, as a nation we have got to demand appropriate repercussions. We cannot let a conman slip through our fingers because he is the president.

Just as being POTUS should have certain protections, so too it should not have certain protections because of a situation just as we're seeing before us now. The loopholes have been found by the Republican party and Donald Trump. When that happens sometimes you have to step sideways and correct an abusive action, in the most powerful and democratic ways available to us.

IF for no other reason than not being seen worldwide as the fools we are now being seen as!

Otherwise, we will inevitably see this action again and again, over and over again, against us. These conservative Republican abuses will continue against America (potentially and quite plausibly with the aide of one foreign entity or another), UNTIL we do something aggressively against it in order to once and for all, stop it.

We have got to end all this nonsense now! End all the extremist conservative right wing abuse from the GOP, from the NRA (which reportedly now may no longer be with us anyway), from Russia, from criminal types like Putin, from THIS president...once and for all!

Saying that this is treason, is actual and real patriotism. Unlike the fake forms of nationalism we've been seeing from the far right and not so weirdly enough, also from Russia who has been backing them.

When Nixon was pardoned by Press. Ford, I was like many, angry at the time. But eventually, I came to see Ford's reasoning. in order to protect the office of the president.

That certainly is not the case any longer. Quite to the contrary, this is exactly and specifically not that case.

Through this process, we have also got to work toward putting an end to this bacterial infection of authoritarianism worldwide. We need to end the greater potential we see for war today and the abuses from our wealthy who are involved, our military-industrial and our corporate sectors who have all had a stranglehold on what IS after all, OUR government.

It's time to clean things up. To truly empty the swamp Trump was foolishly elected to empty and instead, filled to the brim and overflowing with his political appointees. In the cabinet, in his offices, in our judiciary. And not for partisan, organizational interests, but for his own personal financial gain and empowerment. Never satiate an egotist's personality, that never goes well for anyone involved.

And yet we've force-fed Mr. Trump at his request again and again.

Trump is not the last, but merely the first domino. We need to flick his blank piece, executing the beginning of the end for as many of our ongoing nightmares as we can effectuate. Now!

We are and should be in control. We just need to start acting like it! An America for all. Not just a few.

Modern American Ignorance Defined

Pres. Trump and the Republican party today are spreading and seeding ignorance to further their own agendas and those of the Russian president Putin. Accidentally or on purpose, it damages America and their own base who are one or another kind of ignorant. But what exactly is ignorance and how many today are truly what we once understand ignorance to be?

A few of my personal quotes from the past on what we see so rampant in America today, especially from #Trump the oval office and the #gop, real or worse feigned #Ignorance. These were gleaned from my blog pages Quotes Along the Murdock I, II and III where you can see other quotes I've posted or published elsewhere over time.

Ignorance is the provenance of Anger.

If as has wisely been stated, travel is the antidote to ignorance, Donald Trump is most definitely going to need a starship. And he should take most of Congressional Republicans with him.

It's sad when you're talking to someone new and you realize, your own ignorance is still far more informed than their best "facts"

Ignorance is the greatest threat humanity faces.
Beware always those whose words may claim even to crave knowledge, but whose actions deny it.

Religion is the Art of using Guessing and Desire to explain Ignorance, rather than trying to find and use Reality based Explanations for that which we do not yet understand.

Ignorance is noble but as practiced today, it's disgusting.

Ignorance is noble. Everyone starts out ignorant.
Sustaining ignorance, however, especially in this day and age, is a cancer that is easy enough to fight against, with knowledge. But you have to want to fight against your own (and your group's) bias and agendas, which is another cancer.
Knowledge, by the way, is actual information, verified information; not just what sounds good to you or yours.

Beware of false ignorance, it is ignoble and more dangerous than knowledge.
[The opposite of false ignorance is not knowledge. To be falsely ignorant would be one who is being ignorant, but not really, so that they have chosen their ignorance. This presupposes a kind of agenda that actually propagates false knowledge. It is a kind of behavior that is both insidious and fundamentally, dangerous.
Example: "Monsanto was exhibiting false ignorance in their understanding that the chemicals could not give children deformities."]

"Ignorance is noble. Stupidity isn't."

"Ignorance is not a pursuit. Stupidity is."

Finally and most important:

"Everyone is ignorant, it's a normal state of being. Stupidity, however, is consciously choosing to remain ignorant."