Editor, Times-Union:
Donald Trump, “rocker in chief,” recently posted these words as he promised anyone making a $1 billion investment in the U.S. “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals.” In plain words: Pay up and I will relieve your corporations of all environmental restrictions that protect the health and well-being of our planet and its inhabitants. Profits and wealth are all that matters. To hell with the sniveling middle- and lower-class masses.
But wait, there’s more. Trump’s guru in chief, Elon Musk (richest man in the world), and his little sidekick, Vivek Ramaswamy (also a billionaire), have been picked to recommend over $2 trillion cuts to the U.S. budget, and guess who will be targeted to tighten their belts? They expect us to “endure some hard times” while small businesses suffer, our incomes decrease but theirs increase.
For the first time in our nation’s history, we could have a White House controlled by and for billionaires if Trump’s “chosen” are approved by the Republican-controlled Senate. At least 11 of Trump’s cabinet picks, from Treasury Secretary to Commerce Secretary to Interior Secretary to Department of Education Secretary, are billionaires, and several more are multi-millionaires. While I do not believe wealth automatically disqualifies someone for a government position or any position, neither do I believe that it automatically qualifies them. Most of Trump’s cabinet picks to run our country, to represent our interests overseas and to protect us from all enemies at home and abroad have no knowledge about, or experience with the departments which they may lead. All they have is Trump’s admiration for their wealth and his desire to be accepted as one of them, the rich cool kids.
Trump’s proposed appointees include ex-cons, accused sexual assaulters, TV personalities, election losers, misogynists (women haters), failed business leaders, failed group leaders, poor money managers, witness intimidators, inexperienced family members, ex girlfriends, ghost gun makers, terrorist admirers, and several assorted “re-vengers.” The only qualifications met by all of these misfits — persons poorly adapted to a situation — is their enormous wealth, their unquenchable greed and lust for power, and their undying loyalty — most definitely not to you — but supposedly to one man, a failed businessman, a convicted felon, a fraud, a cheap grifter, and a liar who has never won the majority approval of the American people. He cheats, he steals, he breaks laws, and it’s reported he even smells bad. Many people honestly believe he is being used as a link to a power grab and will be discarded when/if that goal is reached.
One more really frightening tidbit: Gnarly, bloodthirsty self-trained off-the-grid woodsmen, cave dwellers and other assorted Trump “patriots’ have recently and eagerly offered their services to their orange god to keep the rest us under control —- that is, if the existing military refuses to defy their Constitutional oaths to serve and protect our country, its people, and the rule of law.
Rock on!
Jeanne Tuka Schutz
Winona Lake, via email