If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Dear reader, dear voter, we absolutely must not wait until November 2026 to bring back sanity to our body politic. We must immediately have a day of mourning for the hundreds of thousands of American workers that may be entering the unemployment line because of Project 2025 and this idiotic madness over tariffs. We simply cannot afford to lose the goodwill of our trading partners.

Project 2025/Tariffs; “fools rush in where angles fear to tread”.

Dear reader, dear voter, I am 88 years old, and I write this missive before God and all of the Saints and encourage all fact checking on everything that I lay out.

On November 5th, 2024, the new President replacing Joe Biden was Donald Trump. How did the transfer of power go? Well, despite Donald Trump telling his MAGA followers that the Democrats were going to cheat, he won the election. In fact, in August of 2024 there was a poll taken and it suggested that 80% of the MAGA Republicans polled believed Donald Trump when he said, “all Democrats would cheat”. So, what happened? President Joe Biden in a very civilized and proper manner transferred the keys to the White House to Donald Trump in person. Remember, Donald Trump said Joe Biden did not defeat him correctly in 2020 because of a “rigged election” and refused to meet the new President at the White House. Every reader should note that there were no facts and no evidence whatsoever that Joe Biden had rigged the 2020 election. So now what do we have? We have Joe Biden entering the White House to turn over the Presidency to Donald Trump with no complaints and no accusations at all.  He did not even complain about Trump calling him “sleepy joe” or the “head of the Biden Crime Family”. Biden didn’t remark when Trump referred to him as “the enemy of the people”. So, ladies and gentlemen, in fairness to Joe Biden, he kept his cool, and honored every provision in the U.S. Constitution. No riots, no deaths, no mayhem.  A peaceful transfer.

What did he turn over to the new President by the way? Well, a rising stock market, inflation that was lower than 22 EU countries, an economic scene that was the envy of all the other free world countries, 17,000,000 new jobs, and an infrastructure bill that will help our country for two more years at least. He also reunited NATO and rebuilt our friendship with the EU counties and other allies. Most of all, he provided over $130 billion in military support to Ukraine to fight off Vladimir Putin. So now, please note that in February of 2024, over 100 political science professors did a survey of successes by U.S. Presidents. President Donald Trump captured last place out of 46 prior Presidents. And the same professors ranked President Joe Biden as 14th. And don’t forget, that was after only 3 years of Biden’s Presidency.

So now let us examine two areas of the new President Donald Trump’s take over of the American economy. The two aspects that must be examined in greater detail are those of Project 2025 and that of tariffs. Project 2025 had been in existence for several years. It is a project started by the Heritage Foundation, Rus Vought, Kevin Roberts, and JD Vance did an introductory into the written document. The gist of Project 2025 was that the United States of America’s Institutions were out of control, too regulatory, too interested in taxing business, and too interested in bureaucratic oversight to the point where something had to be done, according to them. They suggested the reason for the problems in the American Institutions was “woke-ism”. What is “woke-ism”? I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but it appears the “wokes” created Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, USAID, the Education department, the Veterans Administration, and several other Institutions such as HHS. The Heritage Foundation believes that there is a need to slim them all down to get rid of “waste, fraud and abuse”. How were they going to carry out this plan? Well, they set up DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and low and behold put billionaire Elon Musk head of the whole operation, “unofficially”. So, what was his modus operandi? It was to get underway and to straighten out the faults in the Institutions. Well, he used bulldozers, chain saws, and a bunch of young smart computer operatives to enter the Institutions, many times un-announced, to get important papers, and to even perform some shake downs for getting information they were not entitled to. In some cases they had guards with them and in some other cases they asked the Federal employees to leave the buildings and told them, “Don’t come back”. In Fact, Elon Musk made public statements that the “weeds”, (federal employees) had to be removed and the Institutions disbanded, or the “weeds” would come back. Dear reader, fact check that please! So how is the bulldozing of our Institutions going, was there clear proof of waste, fraud and abuse? No, President Trump had already fired every single Inspector General in 95% of the Institutions. All oversight was given to Elon Musk. We had to take his word for any wrongdoing they claimed to find. How were his inspections? Well, for one thing, running in and moving out employees left gaps in intellect and knowledge in many departments to the point where in emergencies, they had to call laid off workers back to work. They didn’t even have telephone numbers! So far, they have diminished most of the Institutions and canceled many others. USAID set up by John F Kennedy in 1962 was shut down leaving, it appears, billions of dollars of food in warehouses throughout the world. Many observations have shown that there will be deaths of starving people because of this. This needs a vastly more extensive investigation because of the criminal appearance. They also eliminated the Voice of America; they also are ready to lay off a total of 80,000 veterans working for the Veterans Administration.  The HHS has lost most of its medical expertise. Robert Kenndy now is suggesting the measles problem in several States does not necessarily need a vaccine, but they could take cod liver oil. So, what about the waste, fraud and abuse, is that a legitimate complaint? Dear reader, please note throughout the world, bureaucracies do have waste, fraud and abuse. It’s a matter of degree. In most studies that I have seen, the abuse is 3% or less. So, if there is 3% fraud and abuse, does that mean we get rid of the 97% of the Institution that is needed? For example, in the United States the most well-run Institution is the Social Security Department that is extremely and competently well run. To call it a “Ponzi scheme” like Elon Musk did is borderline criminal because it is a groundless assertion. 73 million Americans paid into that program and their return compensation should never be threatened or ridiculed. So, should great Institutions with lasting value be trashed because they are not perfect? Hell no!!

 I now feel defrauded as a a voter, over President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, Rus Vought and Kevin Roberts for knowingly withholding information in the campaign for President in 2024. They knew what they were going to set up after the election and kept it a secret. Yet they remained totally silent and in denial that Project 2025 would be put in force after the election if Trump won. Now they are destroying thousands of lives without proper proof of what the hell they are doing. And the money they expect to save, will it go to reducing our $36 trillion debt? No dear reader, it will go to help Donald Trump fulfill his promise of paying $4.5 trillion in continuing tax relief for his billionaire friends.  There will be a promise of trickle down tax cuts for the average American.

Now dear reader, let’s talk about tariffs. Tariffs are like bullets, the more they are used, the more damage they do. Relationships with our trading partners will suffer and respect must be employed or there will be countermeasures taken by others. Tariffs are a tax paid by the buyer. Tariffs in government must be handled by the best negotiators that they can find because the last thing you want to do is make enemies in your demand for tariffs. You must maintain friendships and maintain civility or nobody wins. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration considers “civility a sign of weakness.” Tough eighth grade bullies in the school yard employ a "take it or leave it" attitude. Equivocation is not a sin when it comes to tariffs.

President Donald Trump is sacrificing the well being of American citizens because of his ego, because of his demeanor, and because of his inability to understand reality. He keeps saying “give it time” and his opinion will make the tariffs work. He cannot understand some how that suffering for two or three years waiting for countries to build their factories in the United States is too long of a process. Tariffs have cost many societies billions of dollars over the past 150 years. We cannot continue in a situation that brings suffering because of dumb headedness and arrogance.  I’m beginning to think that President Donald Trump sees himself as a combination of King George III, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban. He has no room in his political activities to embrace or study any of the past methods of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or Ronald Raegan. He is more comfortable acting as an authoritarian that has all the political answers in his own back pocket. Take it or leave it, dear voter. There are peculiar aspects dear reader over the attitude of many of the Project 2025 instigators, they boast of being Christian Nationalists. The oddity is that Jesus Christ and Saint Peter said, “honor your government and pay your taxes.” So how come they are anti-American, un-American and want to destroy our institutions? This riddle must be solved.

Dear reader, dear voter, we absolutely must not wait until November 2026 to bring back sanity to our body politic. We must immediately have a day of mourning for the hundreds of thousands of American workers that may be entering the unemployment line because of Project 2025 and this idiotic madness over tariffs. We simply cannot afford to lose the goodwill of our trading partners. 70% of Canadians have already cancelled visitations to the United States. Our universities are nervous over what the Trump Administration is going to do to foreign students. For international travelers and incoming visitors, we don’t want to greet them with a snarl or arrogance.

All Christians, all Muslims, all Jews, all atheists, all agnostics, must understand the pain of the forthcoming mess we are about to endure. We must join together to try to put a rational government back in place. Before we are reduced to cinders!

God bless the United States of America. We must hope that we can regain that wonderful spirit of those 55 men in Philadelphia in 1787. Every fiber in every American must be expended in this worthwhile fight. Our duty is to keep our children and grandchildren safe from chaos and mayhem. So, saddle up, buckle up! Each moment is an opportunity to Return to the Beginning! Let’s not waste a single minute!

Opening Image: Evan Vucci/AP/NBC News, The New York Times