The Witness Chronicles, 5/16/25
Greed, blah, blah, blah
The Crackpot Regime
The corruption that couldn’t shoot straight
Well, Donald Trump went to the Saudis and Qataris, who played him masterfully, arranging regal displays of the advantages of being royalty and he bought into it, lock, stock, and barrel. We’re going to forget about the $400 million dollar blatant bribe because when examined it makes no sense.
But it is working. They gave Trump some wins just as he desperately needed them. But in the background the corruption was going on steroids. The meme coin scams putting wads of cash into the Trump coffers. A distraction from the utter failure of the tariff fantasies. And Walmart’s CEO announced that prices at the world’s largest discount retailer would rise.
That may not excite the news cycle but it is going to hit Trump’s MAGA loyalists hard and that can’t be stopped. So, the Trump team is doubling down on the crazy. Wars apparently no longer matter, except as excuses to sell billions of dollars worth of weapons. Netanyahu is still bombing Gaza into even more rubble, killing hundreds, and for what? Putin cannot be bothered to negotiate on Ukraine. But Trump brags about trillions in investments, which as is usual with him, likely adds a few zeros to the actual numbers, which will never be verified.
Meanwhile in Congress they pretend to govern by writing a massive budget, over 1100 pages, that pleases no one and that is not going anywhere. Who the hell will read 1100 pages of budget projections that make no sense? The answer is no one and they count on that as cover for the fact that Republicans in Congress have done exactly nothing in years.
Things are a mess and nobody seems to care, excepting a few ranting writers like me who still pay attention and somehow hold out hope that we will get out of this mess at some point. But even I have to admit that I have no idea how we get out, or when.
Right now it’s lovely outside, blue skies, warm bordering on hot and a little muggy. A typical early summer day around here and when you compare the stuff going on in Trumpland the contrast is startling. It’s like we are being ruled by some different kind of humans, a genetic variant that seldom even looks out the window and never enjoys the view.
Instead they count their money, knowing they are being played by everyone they deal with but not caring as long as the checks clear. The inhumanity of it is something new in American politics, and that probably disturbs me the most, this acceptance of psychopaths as leaders and allies. People who not only do not care about others but who take pleasure in their pain.
Buddhism, and most other belief systems, teach us that compassion is the most powerful action we can practice in life. Yet that word is treated as a sign of weakness by our leaders. But there is a steep price to pay for a society that does not care about the welfare of others.
Humans are by nature, a community. We need each other. Even Donald Trump cannot live without constant reassurance that he is wonderful, even if that praise is obviously fake and self-serving. Take that attention away and he will lose his mind.
The man has eleven grandchildren. His daughter just had number eleven. When I read that my immediate thought was when have I ever seen a picture of him with them or even heard him speak of them? If nothing else that should tell all of us that our President has something seriously wrong with him, something inherently inhuman.
We are often reminded that this man is transactional in all his actions, that nothing means anything unless it profits him in some way. And for many, that is somehow seen as a good thing, that deal making is more important than humanity, even if those deals never materialize.
At least he is ‘taking action’. That phrase may be the dumbest thing ever said about a politician, as if ‘actions’ do not have consequences and are valuable even if they hurt others. And that thought underlines my biggest issue with all of this.
Half the country still thinks this man and his followers are somehow helping us move forward. And they will have to find themselves in dire circumstances before they recognize what he really is. If they bother.
Apathy. Apathy means you have given up, have no hope for the future, and that is the saddest thing imaginable, and one of the hardest things to shake once you go there.
I am not going there, not ever. And I believe there will be more and more of us who feel the same way, who believe in community and shared experiences, experiences we learn from. It is notable that we never hear any talk of community from those who think they lead us, not this crew anyway.
But all their anger and fear cannot change this essential nature of humans, the compassion I wrote of a few paragraphs ago. Without it we are not living up to our potential or experiencing growth. More words we do not hear from our leader in the White House.
He may mouth the words, but does he care? I think not, and that is the saddest thing I can say about a fellow human being.
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Martin
I so agree with your comment "The inhumanity of it is something new in American politics, and that probably disturbs me the most, this acceptance of psychopaths as leaders and allies." As maddening and infuriating as Trump and his many terrible actions are, it's the acceptance or even approval of it all that is the most sickening.
Well said. We now know that our various realities are illusions. The only thing that is real is the suffering that results from our mindless acceptance of our illusions. Compassion is the only working response to the endless suffering. That is the only value.