No Crown for a Con!

 

Those five words were the makeshift sign I put together to display at our local No Kings rally. Ann and I went with two women from our community, one of whom is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. All four of us knew that our individual presence—or absence—meant very little to the broader anti-Trump, anti-fascist movement. But it meant something to us, to be there on the side of the road, feeling like we were at least doing SOMETHING.

 

The demonstration was one of several in the area, the largest in West Palm Beach where there was a march on the bridge towards Mar-a-Lago, and perhaps ours was the smallest, lining PGA Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens.  Nonetheless I would agree with the local paper that there were perhaps a thousand of us at our location.

 

Passing cars generally gave us the thumbs up or honked enthusiastically as our numbers grew by the minute. Of course, there were others who ignored us, or who rolled down their windows to give us the finger. A few muscle car drivers made their displeasure known by flooring it, letting their fart-can mufflers drown out everything.

 

One enterprising MAGA type filmed us, clearly hoping to provoke boos he could use in a social media post. Unfortunately, the crowd obliged. Better to ignore a cipher like that.

 

But the hot Florida sun takes its toll—especially in a community like ours—and our friend with a compromised immune system was unprepared. Though water was available, she hadn’t been drinking much. Eventually, she began to pass out. She clung to me, and I gently laid her on the ground. A volunteer EMT rushed over, followed by police, and finally an ambulance. She was treated on the spot for dehydration, but went to the hospital for further treatment which thankfully was successful.

 

All in all, it was peaceful, but the heat forced us to leave and take stock of what, if anything, we had really accomplished. Juxtaposed against our national wave of grassroots demonstrations was the Big Beautiful Parade for our Dear Leader. It was apparently a low-energy affair. Judging by the slouching march of the troops past the reviewing stand—far from the precision spectacle Dear Leader likely fantasized—they seemed to wish they were spending the day with their families instead. It was a pathetic, expensive waste of time and resources.

 

But make no mistake: he is dangerous—unbound, erratic, governed only by his so-called gut instincts. He has surrounded himself with a cabinet of conspiracists, kleptocrats, and power-worshipers. The Senate’s constitutional role of Advice and Consent is now meaningless, and the justice system has become puppet theater. The country continues to be fiscally irresponsible, and venerable American institutions are being ravaged, threatening our culture and intellectual discourse.

 

We’ve surrendered our private data to DOGE. Our reputation as a dependable ally and reserve currency is vanishing. We’re tearing apart immigrant families that have been here for generations, all in some deluded effort to resurrect an America that’s long since packed up and left. Globalization isn’t going anywhere. I can’t wait for us to reopen those mythical “widget” factories or fruit-picking fields—this time staffed by all-white nationalist labor. You betcha, they’re just itching for those menial jobs—while their overlords get drunk on crypto fortunes.

 

All of this in less than half a year.

 

Just when you think it can’t get worse, along comes the Big Beautiful Bill—a remix of Project 2025 that basically codifies the horror. So I asked AI about this bill. What came back was chilling. This is where AI actually shines: digesting a 1,000+ page bill—rubber-stamped by our somnambulant legislature and distilling it into something clear and actionable.

 

I’ve written to my Florida representatives. Yes, I know it’s hopeless but for the same reason I held my sign on the side of the road, it makes me feel I am doing SOMETHING!

 

In summary, AI’s analysis of the BBB is downright apocalyptic. At its heart it is an expansion of executive power, endangering independent institutions, rule of law, separation of powers, a free press, and fair elections.

 

Perhaps that is one of the reasons Trumpublicans have buried so many issues in one piece of legislation which is being hurried through the legislative process, well before the mid-term elections. 

 

 

 

 

Party Like There’s No Tomorrow – There Might Not Be

 

Dubai Token2049

The May 3 Wall Street Journal describes a bacchanalian bash—unimaginably over-the-top—in “What Happened in Two Days at a Very Wild Crypto Party. Arrests from just a year ago are forgotten. Executives ride zip lines, champagne flows, and deals are struck in Dubai.”

After 100 days, Trump’s presidency is essentially a revenge tour aimed at wrecking the institutions we’ve relied on since World War II. Instead of stability, we have chaos—fueled not by coherent strategy, but by his seemingly impulsive, seat-of-the-pants decisions. It may take generations—if we have that time—to restore public and global confidence in American governance. Behind the chaos stand crafty, avaricious power-seekers, armed with the Project 2025 playbook.

They’ve ravaged the judicial and educational systems, shifted our culture from tolerance to intolerance, and turned Congress and an unqualified Cabinet into obsequious followers. Our international commitments—on trade, the environment, and the defense of democratic allies—have been gutted. We have, in many respects, become the rogue state we once vowed to oppose.

In this sense, Trump’s second presidency represents the most consequential seismic shift in American governance since FDR. But this didn’t happen to us—it happened through us. We hastened it, abetted by a performative “woke” culture that quickly gave way to a reactionary cowboy ethos, supercharged by platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and X that allow anyone to spin their own version of reality, unmoored from fact.

If that were the end of it, we might breathe easier. But the Wall Street Journal article suggests the story only deepens. Beyond the partying at “Token2049,” “the biggest names in crypto and 15,000 of their biggest fans marked a new era of freedom.” Ah yes—“let freedom ring.” But freedom for whom? This is the kind of deregulated “freedom” that enriches the few—like the Trump family—at the expense of everyone else. Quite convenient, when the foxes write the rules of the henhouse.

One marquee attraction: Eric Trump, alongside Zach Witkoff—son of Trump’s Middle East envoy—promoting their company, World Liberty, and its so-called stablecoin, “USD1,” a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency. I don’t claim to understand the technical aspects, so I turn to Wired:

The model is simple: World Liberty Financial receives US dollars in exchange for coins that customers can trade freely in the crypto market. It keeps some of those dollars in cash and cash equivalents and invests the rest in US government bonds—also called Treasuries—which yield interest. The profits of stablecoin issuers depend partly on the going interest rate—right now, short-term Treasuries yield a little over 4 percent—but otherwise scale in a linear fashion with supply. The larger the amount of a stablecoin in circulation, the heftier the underlying reserve of assets from which the issuer can generate income.

How convenient. We’re talking about U.S. government securities—the very instruments that underpin our bloated national debt. About 30% of Treasuries are held by foreign governments or by institutions. The Federal Reserve holds nearly as much. Among other roles, it buys Treasuries to help finance government operations.

And then this torpedo from the Wall Street Journal article: “To whoops and applause, [Eric] Trump said nothing would give him more joy than to see crypto help kill off the big banks that cut ties with his family.”  [emphasis mine]

There it is: the final destination on the Don Corleone Trump revenge tour. About seventy banks were involved in his near personal bankruptcy as well as the bankruptcy of six of his hotel and casino businesses in the 1990s, including Citibank and Chase. These same large banks serve as primary dealers in Treasury auctions. If crypto eclipses traditional banking, the global role of the dollar as a reserve currency is jeopardized. The financial regulatory rules for crypto are being written by those who have most to gain by their easing. 

When the banks have to crawl to Dear Leader, it’s the final nail in the coffin of what was once a flawed but functioning republic.

This article from the March 7 New York Times shows this has been developing right in front of our eyes, as have all his transgressions.  Note the symbolism of the staging:

 

 

 

Open Letter to Senator Chris Murphy

 

(Image credit: Mike Luckovich / Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate)

As usual, political cartoons speak volumes.  Thank you, Mike Luckovich.

I meant to be at a “Hands Off” (I prefer “F**k Off”) rally today but writing might be slightly more effective than my body being there.  This letter to Senator Chris Murphy also went to my Florida representatives, with no expectations of a non-AI response.  And as Senator Murphy is not my representative, I already received an automated reply that I should direct my letter to one of my representatives, so I am in an endless loop of non-representation; it’s frustrating, infuriating, but mea culpa for moving from the northeast, too late in life now for me to reverse.

The motivation for writing to Murphy is his view that tariffs are a Trump tool to subjugate businesses, bending them to his transactional will as he has done with other institutions. 

The fact that none of the math makes sense, and seems to be concocted by a Dunning-Kruger schoolboy the night before the homework was due (after his cheerleader-worthy Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, implied they are the result of decades of careful deliberations, admonishing the press to “Trust in Trump”). 

There’s so much more to say, but for the time being here’s my letter to Senator Murphy:

 Dear Senator Murphy:  I lived in Connecticut for thirty years before retiring to Florida.  Yet I write to you as you’ve had the courage to speak out about President Trump’s true motivation regarding these senseless tariffs: they are but a tool to “gain fealty from private industry.”

He has torn apart the government to surround himself with acolytes, as well as bringing legal firms and even universities to their knees.  His power is now unchecked, by SCOTUS, and by Congress.  Thus we are well on our way to autocracy with kleptocrats in control and the Rule of Law stifled.

The markets have finally awakened to the reality of tariffs, a tax on the people, and a means of further undermining a world order which emerged after WWII.  Our adversaries’ prophecy that democracy will be destroyed from within seems to be coming true, while our traditional allies are left bewildered and have found they must fend for themselves.

We all know that these tariffs are not going to solve our deficit.  More sensible graduated income and inheritance taxes are needed, but that will not become reality with plutocrats in control of government and congress cowered by this president.

The final death knell could be selectively defaulting on debt, particularly when a large foreign debt holder such as China is due repayment of principal and interest, yet another potential “tool” like tariffs.  Instead, the present regime might offer cryptocurrency, perhaps closely tied to the Trump family’s Bitcoin mining enterprise.  This would be the ultimate undermining of the “full faith and credit” of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.  It’s not surprising that the dollar has seriously weakened with tariff announcements. 

“Only the weak will fail,” he texted in regard to the market selloff.  Senator Murphy, this nation turns our lonely eyes to you and others in Congress to put a stop to this attempted coup and desecration of the American way of life.  I’d be out protesting today if it were not for health reasons, so I have taken to the pen.

Sincerely and with thanks,

 

Cc: Representative Brian Mast

      Senator Rick Scott

      Senator Ashley Moody