The Witness Chronicles

Another ‘advisor’ with no expertise

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Is Laura Loomer the New Elon Musk?

Getting ‘Loomered’ is now a thing in the White House

There’s a new vengeful angel of death in Washington, DC named Laura Loomer, who previously was just a nut case who never met a conspiracy theory she didn’t like. Now she is the new White House executioner and heads are rolling. Lots of them.

This week it was the National Security advisor Mike Waltz and most of his team. That poor sucker left a secure House seat to take a job that lasted 102 days after he fell under the bus for Signalgate, a bus being driven by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And so it begins, the Trump ongoing massacre that eventually spares no one.

Trump threw Waltz a bone, offering him the ambassadorship to the United Nations, a position subject to confirmation by the Senate. That position had been promised to Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York who became a Trump loyalist only to have the new role pulled out from under her as the Republicans realized they desperately needed her vote in the House.

Apparently Stefanik is not too happy about that. Now she wants to run for governor of NY (fat chance) but is also being discouraged about that for the same reasons. So she finds herself stymied in her ambitions by the President she so ardently campaigned for.

The obvious question here is why are these people surprised by any of this? We had four previous years of exactly the same thing in the first Trump administration when he went through four National Security Advisors, among a constant revolving door of loyalists discovering what the rewards of that loyalty are, which is nothing, nil, nada.

So, here’s Ms Loomer, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere last year, suddenly flying around on Trump’ s jet and whispering in his ear. She briefly disappeared during the campaign, likely because she wasn’t a good look for Trump with her extremely racist and wacko views, which she shares freely. Now she is operating a Joe McCarthy blacklist op, defining what loyalty is and who doesn’t have the requisite cred.

Then the axe falls.

Honestly, it appears Trump needs sidekicks like this. The big one, Elon Musk, with his bottomless billions, is out and now we get this Loomer thing. I am wondering who gets the axe next. Hegseth is the likely candidate but there is a factor there I have not heard much talked about.

If Trump were to declare a state of emergency as an excuse to take all power, he will need the backing of the Pentagon and he needs Hegseth there if he has any chance of getting it (he likely doesn’t have a chance as Hegseth is methodically turning everyone in the Pentagon against him with his boneheaded firings and security failures).

So Hegseth’s blunders probably put a target on his back.

It should be noted that Trump announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would take over Waltz’s role as National Security Advisor in addition to his three other roles. For some reason Rubio seems to be the go to for taking on roles made vacant by Trump’s constantly shifting priorities.

Rubio might want to watch his back too. The more he is tasked with, the more likely he is to fail at something. And the likelihood is that he takes the blame when something goes badly wrong as it inevitably will. The unlearned lesson there is do not show Donald Trump up or steal the limelight. That is certain career death.

So, if the first 100 days was the triumph of chaos at the hands of Musk and Trump, the second 100 days might be the first round of rolling heads. Good luck White House guys and gals. We’re taking bets who goes next. Better kiss Laura Loomer’s ass while you have the opportunity.

Also this week the tariffs will start really hitting consumers as a provision that protected items under $800 from tariffs went away. Now everything we import from China, Vietnam, and other countries will go up drastically. And consumers are already cutting consumption, avoiding dining out, putting off vacations (flight reservations are down drastically), and generally holding off from any purchases that are not absolutely necessary.

The effects of this madness are not going to be minor. Small businesses will close and it is unlikely anyone will want to start new ones until we have a more stable economic environment. No sign of that in the near future. 70% of all the products sold on Amazon come from China which means they are subject to 145% tariffs immediately.

That alone could cripple the online shopping behemoth, something impossible to imagine just a few months ago. It’s important to remember that Amazon is the distribution partner for thousands of smaller businesses and the ripple effect on the economy of their business losses will be devastating.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to proclaim that we will all become so rich, richer than we can imagine and that any bumps in the financial road are leftover from Biden, an excuse which makes no sense considering GDP grew in Biden’s last quarter and fell in Trump’s first quarter.

But Trump apparently thinks Biden is still so hated that constantly saying his name gets him off the hook. One of the few things the Democrats have done right recently is keeping Biden out of the picture. Which brings me to a pet peeve.

Last Sunday Cory Booker and Hakeem Jeffries did a day long sit down on the Capitol steps in protest of Trump’s actions. Is this the best they can come up with? Because literally no one paid any attention. For protests to work you have to assume their target cares and Trump obviously does not.

He is no longer subject to the will of the people, so why should he care? There are things he does care about. They include the stock markets, the opinions of billionaire business owners, and the polls, in that order. But the rest of us? I think he has written us off.

That will backfire as the effects of his actions trickle down to our daily lives and people, including his supporters, turn against him. That trickle is already turning into a flow and all signs point to it becoming a torrent. Only then, in my opinion, will we see what the people will do and whether we have power.

I believe we do, but sitting on the Capitol steps and talking is not a sign of it. Wait till that anger grows and Donald Trump finally faces it in public. It’s going to happen.

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Martin