donald-trump – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

Despite John Kennedy’s anti-liberal leaning and conservative populism, his autobiography will make one pay more attention to what he says as a Senator of the United States.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

HOW TO TEST NEGATIVE FOR STUPID (And Why Washington Never Will)

Author: John Kennedy

Narration by: John Kennedy

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana

“How to Test Negative for Stupid” is an excellent autobiography of Senator John Kennedy. Not the John Kennedy who became President of the United States but a southerner who represents the great state of Louisiana. Having worked and lived for a couple years in New Orleans, experience reminds me of the extraordinary people I met who were as friendly as any strangers I have met around the world. Celebrating a Mardi Gras, seeing Elizabeth Taylor in a local theatre performance, and listening to Al Hirt live at a local bar were experiences one could not forget.

In my mind, Louisiana is an unusual State for Kennedy to represent as a Senator because of its colorful and diverse history.

In the 17th century it was claimed by France but ceded to the Spanish in the 18th century after the Seven Years’ War. France never really left Louisiana with some settling in New Orleans which became a vital port and, at least in my mind, a cultural representative of the State.

Half the state is enslaved by 1860. It joins the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War. After the Civil War, Louisiana endures Reconstruction and military occupation, while endorsing Jim Crow Laws that represent legalized segregation. This history is not to vilify or disrespect John Kennedy, but to give some context to the complex society John Kennedy ably represents in Congress.

Louisiana Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 declares the Confederate states “forever free”.

John Kennedy shows himself to be a well-educated, intelligent academic, and honest forthright politician. He is an erudite representative of the Louisiana’ Republican Party. This autobiography is a pleasure to listen to with one great reservation which is his defense of Donald Trump. Trump, like Senator Kennedy, represents a diverse constituency but, to this voter, President Trump is a risk to the health and welfare of America.

Trump’s anti-immigration policies are being enforced in legally suspect ways that should be and are being challenged by the judiciary.

Kennedy is reluctant to criticize Trump because of his belief that when one is elected to office in the United States, the position should be respected because of the election process. The absurdity of that belief is that Kennedy writes of the dishonesty and crookedness of some Louisiana Governors that got away with their corruption like it was just part of life in Louisiana.

Unfair political campaigning.

Kennedy is right about the Democratic Party unfairly vilifying Trump with false stories about Russian interference with electoral process and false reports of sexual activity (the Steele report) in Russia for which he could be blackmailed. False accusations have always been a part of the American election process. Every election for President has had true and false accusations made by opposing parties. None of these accusations kept Trump from being elected.

Presidents of the U.S.

Trump will be our President for the next three years of his second term. He is not the first or last President to abuse the office of the Presidency. His conflicts of interest are in his bond buying spree in 2025, his links to cryptocurrency, his appointments of cabinet members and advisors that have corporate ties, his use of the Presidency for personal branding, his gifts received like a $400 million plane from Qatar as Air Force One, and his personal empire building while being President of the United States.

Trump is not the first President to be accused of conflicts of interest.

George Washington had vast land holdings as the western parts of America that were being acquired by the government. Jefferson supported agriculture while being a large plantation owner dependent on slave labor. Bill and Hilliary Clinton were invested in the Whitewater real estate collapse in Arkansas, meant to sell vacation homes to the public. It went bankrupt and cost taxpayers an estimated $73 million. George Bush’s ties to the oil industry and his V.P.s recommendation to use Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton, to contract for work in Iraq seem questionable.

Migration is the movement of people to new areas of the world for work, better living conditions, and safety. In that process the world economy and American industry are arguably strengthened, not damaged.

Trump’s unadjudicated arrests and deportation of alleged immigrants is appalling. Trump’s anti-immigration policies are being enforced in legally suspect ways that should be and are being challenged by the judiciary. He is not the only President to have instituted policies that are contrary to the interests of America’s citizens. Many opposed Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal with history vindicating many of those decisions as appropriate for the circumstances of that time. Like Roosevelt, Trump tests the limits of his authority. What is appalling about Trump’s supported policies are issues like denying subsidized health care for the poor while maintaining tax reduction for the rich. Of course, history will be the final arbiter of Trump’s presidency.

Despite disagreeing with Kennedy’s support of Trump, the story of John Kennedy’s life is entertaining and enlightening. One comes away with admiration for a person who speaks his mind and who acts in the interests of his constituency and the country with honesty about what he believes to be right or wrong.

Despite John Kennedy’s anti-liberal leaning and conservative populism, his autobiography will make one pay more attention to what he says as a Senator of the United States.

VICE PRESIDENTS

Harris’s tough mindedness and potential are well illustrated in “107 Days”. America is ready for a woman to be President, but Ms. Harris may have too much baggage to be a successful candidate for President in 2028.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

107 DAYS

Author: Kamala Harris

Narration by: Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris (Author, former V.P. of the United States and former California attorney general.)

The obvious message of Kamala Harris’s book “107 Days” is that the Democratic Party lost the presidency because of the compressed time for Harris to mount her campaign. There are many reasons noted for Harris’s failure to get elected as President of the United States. She notes Biden’s weak candidacy, party disorganization, misinformation and disinformation, foreign policy controversies and protests, polarization and turnout problems, and cultural/generational messaging gaps. “107 Days” is a well written and narrated story of the difficulties that Harris had in her political race against Donald Trump. Her book is a compelling argument. However, it seems her most likely cause of defeat is time.

Donald Trump (President of the U.S., politician, media personality, born into a wealthy New York City family, has a B.A. in Economics from University of Pennsylvania.)

Retrospectively, Harris’s story makes many think she would have been a better President than Donald Trump. The story of her book reinforces that belief. However, that is misleading in the sense that Harris is faced with two burdens that are difficult, if not impossible, to overcome. One, America has never had a woman President and two, Harris is too closely associated with the administrations cover-up of Biden’s intellectual decline. There are many causes one can give to understand why Harris is defeated but time to know who she is seems the most crucial.

Vice President Harry Truman became President with the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

It seems most Vice Presidents of the United States are viewed as figure heads or pawns to increase votes for the person who is running for President. The duties of a Vice President today seem more like “gopher” jobs that give little visibility to the character of the person chosen to be Vice President. Only when that person becomes President, does the world find out who the Vice President is and what capabilities he (before Harris, they were all men) brings to the office. (For example, Trump’s successor, if it was his V.P., is unknown and unpredictable.) Harry Truman, retrospectively, is one of the great Presidents of the United States but no one thought a part owner and proprietor of a grocery store could be a competent President of the United States.

Five V.P.’s in history became Presidents of the United States.

Though there have been several Vice Presidents (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, Richard Nixon, and Biden) who have successfully become Presidents of the United States their election was determined by campaigning. Regardless of whether time was the determining factor in Harris’s loss of the Presidency, her book shows she has the intelligence and ability to be America’s President. What that means to her and the future of America is unknown. One presumes Harris will consider running for President, but one suspects the burden of her loss to Trump is likely to diminish her chance of getting enough political support for her candidacy.

Presidents of the United States.

TYRANNY

Arresting people based on their appearance without judicial review puts America on the slippery slope of authoritarian tyranny.

Opinion Page
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Chet Yarbrough

Today, the idea of Aryan endorses the absurd belief in white, Anglo-Saxon supremacy. Research shows a French aristocrat (de Gobineau), and a British-German philosopher named Chamberlain, defined Aryans as a superior white race.

However, there are many ideas and speculations revealed by the Durants’ history of civilization.

In the Durrants’ research, the word Aryan was originally used as a descriptive word for the Brahmin class in ancient India. The Durants noted the word Aryan in their history of civilization meant “noble” or “distinguished”. The criteria of India’s Brahmin class are reprehensible to one who believes in “equality of opportunity” professed by America but not practiced by Americans.

Class identity in ancient India does deny the truth of equal opportunity but not based on the color of one’s skin, but on ritual status, occupation, and social custom.

The injustice of human inequality is as old as the history of civilization.

ICE’s accosting citizens because of the difference in the color of their skin is reprehensible. Of course, that has been the criteria for American Blacks before and after the Civil War.

Emigrant injustice is compounded by the failure to adjudicate immigration status before deportation.

The Administration’s use of force is a reminder of Nazi Germany when Jewish German citizens were being rounded up for believed difference and/or opposition to the government.

This is a picture of the beginning of Jewish discrimination in Nazi Germany with broken windows of businesses owned by Jews.

ICE arrests in America based on his non-white appearance.

Being able to easily identify difference based on physical appearance amplifies the probability of discrimination.

THREE ASIAN AMERICANS BRUTALLIZED IN 2025 BY AMERICAN RACISTS.

What has happened to the principle of “separation of powers” meant to provide a system of checks and balances on the Legislative and Executive branches of the American government? Have we abandoned Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, power sharing between federal and state governments, the Bill of Rights, Judicial Review, and Electoral Safeguards? The idea of our Constitution is to stop a single branch of the government from dominating our system of government. Have we become a third world country? Today’s “NO KINGS” turn-out offers hope that others agree with the sentiment of this disappointed supporter of American Democracy.

Where is the Supreme Court in this injustice?

Arresting people based on their appearance without judicial review puts America on the slippery slope of authoritarian tyranny.

THE WEST

Though Mahbubani’s book is quite provocative, it is short and interesting. “How the West Lost It” is certainly worth reading/listening to, but few Presidents of the United States have reversed the admittedly slow improvement of “equality of opportunity” in America.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

How the West Lost It (A Provocation)

Author: Kishore Mahbubani

Narrated By: Jonathan Keeble

Kishore Mahbubani (Author, Singaporean diplomat and geopolitical consultant, former Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Relations, formally served as the United Nations Security Council President.)

Mr. Mahbubani’s short book suggests the highly provocative belief that the West’s dominance of the world is giving way to Asia, particularly China and India. To mitigate the West’s decline, Mahbubani argues–the West needs to develop a more “coherent and competitive global strategy”. Paul Kennedy of Yale University praises Mahbubani’s assessment. The public commentator Fareed Zakaria endorses Mahbubani’s belief, and Hilton Root of “The Independent Review” acknowledges Mahbubani’s inference that “the West’s overperformance was a historical aberration and the East’s rise reflects a rebalancing of history”. Despite Root’s measured support of Mahbubani’s book, his analysis is nuanced. Root argues the decline of the West is oversimplified and that Mahbubani underestimates the resilience of Western economies.

Mahbubani argues Great Britain’s Brexit and Trump’s re-election are reactions to the West’s economic decline.

Edwad Luce argues Western liberalism needs to be reinvented by investment in a technological revolution for all Americans, not just those who have benefited from the industrial revolution. However, China seems to have read the future better than the West by building up their reserves of rare metals needed for advanced computer chips. In contrast, President Trump chooses to antagonize allies as well as competitors with a foolish trade war.

Root believes the innovative capacity and adaptability of the West will make adjustments to remain competitive, if not the dominant economic power of the world. Trump’s trade war suggests otherwise. Trump’s attitude is to ignore the years of built-up trust with Western allies and attack the world with destructive economic tariffs meant to right wrongs that are figments of real-politic’ imagination. However, some believe Mahbubani discounts political freedom and the drive of both the West and East to improve citizens’ living standards. That seems somewhat plausible, but Trump is attacking Americas most highly regarded universities with specious concerns with what he considers overactive recruitment of immigrants and minorities. The truth is American education for immigrants aids the strength and influence of Democracy in the world.

Yale University (American education for immigrants aids the strength and influence of Democracy in the world.)

The long cultural, educational, and technological influence of the West may be diminished by some of today’s political leaders but the trend over the last 200 years is unlikely to be reversed by Trump’s misguided authoritarianism. Trump’s significant risks are partially mitigated by publicly ingrained western democratic values. Though democracy is messy, it has demonstrated long-term stability and innovation that equals or exceeds the worst of what Trump’s authoritarianism is doing to the American economy and its institutions. Three more years of Trump’s presidency will not erase America’s legacy or destroy its future.

Though Mahbubani’s book is quite provocative, it is short, impactful, and interesting. “How the West Lost It” is certainly worth reading/listening to, but few Presidents of the United States have reversed the admittedly slow improvement of “equality of opportunity” in America. Mahbubani argues for a more diplomatic American policy with rising nations in the East because he believes China will ultimately replace America as the leading economy in the world.

The interpretation of the Constitution has changed over the last 200 years, but it stands for continuity for America’s present and future.

The direction of American society remains true to the fundamental beliefs of liberty, equality, sovereignty, rule of law, separation of powers, federalism, checks and balances, and individual rights. Trump is challenging some of those rights, but balance of power and term limits will ultimately rescue America from his misbegotten domestic and international blunders. These rights have been challenged at different times in America’s history but never permanently reversed.

TWO OLD MEN

Age is an existential risk that can only be managed by the checks and balances of others which is why America’s government has survived and prospered despite good and ethically or morally corrupt Presidents.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Original Sin (President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again)

Author: Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson

Narrated By: Jake Tapper

Jake Tapper (Washington anchor for CNN.)

“Original Sin” is a hard-hitting expose by two tough minded reporters that convincingly explain President Biden did not have the cognitive ability to be America’s President in the last two years of his Presidency. This is a particularly hard pill to swallow because the current President of the United States is old while being at the opposite end of the political spectrum. At 74, this book reviewer is old. Age undoubtedly has an impact on this reviewer’s cognitive abilities and the cogency of what he thinks and writes. President Trump is 79 years old. The difference is that what a critic writes means nothing in respect to governance of the United States and the impact it has on American citizens and world events.

Trump’s decisions and actions have had great impact on U.S. relationship with other countries, American public policy, and the economic future of Americans.

Trump has directed the firing of thousands of government employees. Because of Trump’s authoritarian characteristics, he surrounds himself with sycophants who are more interested in pleasing him than managing the government’s responsibility for America’s welfare and role in the world. Authoritarianism is untrue of Biden who throughout his public career has been a consensus builder, not an autocrat. This is not to suggest Biden is not fundamentally wrong in not immediately supporting an alternative candidate for the Presidency. The authors of “Original Sin” clearly explain Biden fails America by waffling on his candidacy for a second term.

Old age is a risk for every manager of other people’s lives and opportunities.

Biden is not at fault for getting old but people who worked with him are guilty of negligence in their service to the American people. Tapper and Thompson offer numerous examples of Biden’s intellectual decline. The importance of their assessment of Biden’s failing capabilities is a warning to all managers of other people’s lives, employment, and family responsibilities. Age is a life circumstance that affects every human being. One who is losing their cognitive ability cannot see it in themselves. It is the responsibility of others to help older people relinquish responsibility for those things they can no longer handle.

Relinquishment by a man or woman who has great responsibility is a hard thing to accept. Age effects people in different ways. The catch 22 is that loss of cognitive ability is unseen by the person who loses it. It is the responsibility of those who rely on one who is losing their reasoning ability to manage the circumstance of that decline.

Putting politics of government aside, President Trump is old. The concern one has is the risk of relying on those who work for Trump, like many who worked for Biden, may see loyalty as more important than the public interest of America. Age is an existential risk that can only be managed by the checks and balances of others which is why America’s government has survived and prospered despite good and ethically or morally corrupt Presidents.

America will survive Trump but it will take time to reset America’s relationship with the world. America has had good and bad Presidents in both political parties but its foundation of checks and balances have kept it on course for the betterment of society. It is nations with leaders that have no checks and balances that threaten social and economic equality.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

It is interesting to be reminded of the danger of a strong executive branch and the consequence of rule by an authoritarian President. Trump shows loyalty to his beliefs, rather than competence, as the primary qualification for appointment to America’s federal government bureaucracy.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Alexander Hamilton

Author: Ron Chernow

Narrated By: Scott Brick

Ron Chernow (Author, biographer of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Ulysses Grant, and Mark Twain.)

Though this critic did not care for Chernow’s biography of Washington, his examination of Alexander Hamilton is of some value. Chernow’s attention to detail is impressive. Considering the detail of Chernow’s biographies, it is quite an achievement for Chernow to have had the time to fully research and write histories of one, let alone four, important American’ leaders and influencers.

Traditionally, Alexander Hamilton’s father has been identified as James A. Hamilton, a largely unsuccessful Scottish trader in the British West Indies (approximately 1,000 miles from the American’ continent–made up of the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and the Lesser Antilles.)

However, Chernow suggests James Hamilton may not have been the father of Alexander because his mother, Rachel Faucette, may have had sexual relations with other men. Ms. Faucette had become James’ lover while being married to Johann Lavien. Faucette had become unhappy and left Lavien in 1750 to take up with James Hamilton. Lavien had Faucette imprisoned for adultery. Lavien eventually divorces Faucette in 1759.

Chernow suggests Faucette, at some point, may have had an affair with Thomas Stevens, a successful merchant and landlord, while living with James Hamilton.

Chernow’s evidence is primarily from reports of Alexander’s close physical appearance to a son of Thomas Stevens. These two young men, Alexander and Thomas Steven’s son, Edward, were about a year apart in age with Edward being the older. Alexander and Edward became close friends, and Thomas Stevens played an important role in Alexander’s life when his mother died. Stevens took Hamilton into his household on St. Croix. Alexander became part of the Stevens’ family.

In Hamilton’s time with the Stevens family, he became educated by reading books and being employed in the mercantile trades of the West Indies.

By any measure, whether Alexander is the son of Stevens or Hamilton makes little difference. By definition, Alexander’s paternity is illegitimate. One asks oneself–so what? Alexander’s genetic inheritance from Faucette and either father leads him to become one of the most important historical influences in the creation of the American Constitution.

Hamilton arrives in New York City in 1772. Hamilton is only 17. The American Constitution is adopted, signed and ratified on September 17, 1787, and implemented on March 4, 1789.

Hamilton’s influence as a representative of New York is to create a centralized government with taxation authority.

This national government is to have the right to enforce national laws that apply to all citizens according to enumerated powers of a federal government under the direction of a President and Congress elected by American citizens. Chernow notes that George Clinton, the governor of New York, is opposed to the strengthening of the federal government because of his interest in maintaining his power as Governor of New York. Hamilton is one of the three representatives of New York at the convention, two of which were opposed to strengthening the federal government.

Chernow explains how the convention succeeded in strengthening the federal government.

The two framers that are shown to have the greatest impact on the draft of the Constitution are Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Chernow explains Hamilton pushed for a strong centralized government with broad powers to tax, regulate commerce, and enforce laws. Madison supports a strong federal government but argues for states’ rights and strict limits on federal authority. Hamilton wishes for broad flexibility for the federal government in the interpretation of implied powers while Madison insists on an explicit statement of the powers of the federal government to limit its implied powers. Hamilton looks to America as an industrializing nation that should be supported by a national bank with federal support for infrastructure improvements while Madison sees America as the agrarian breadbasket for the world with limited banking and industrial’ support by the federal government. Hamilton believes in rule by an educated elite while Madison is concerned about concentration of power in an elitist aristocracy. In the end, Madison takes on the role as the principal author of the Constitution which is intended to limit Hamilton’s expansive interpretation of federal government control of State governance.

It is interesting to be reminded of the danger of a strong executive branch and the consequence of rule by an authoritarian President.

Trump shows loyalty to his beliefs, rather than competence, as the primary qualification for appointment to America’s federal government bureaucracy. Chernow successfully reminds listener/readers of the history of early American government creation, but “Hamilton” is not a page turner like his biography of Mark Twain.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON

Trump’s push to hugely increase government debt at the expense of the poor and middle class, along with a tariff war, look to some like paths toward an economic Armageddon.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

On Tyranny (Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century)

Author: Timothy Snyder

Narrated By: Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder (Author, graduated from Brown University with a degree in history and political science, received a Doctor of Philosophy in modern history from the University of Oxford.)

“On Tyranny” makes one research Timothy Snyder’s education because of his allusion to the rise of Hitler and America’s rising authoritarianism in the 21st century. His short book “On Tyranny” is disconcerting. He infers Trump’s presidency is an early sign of American democracy’s deterioration. He recounts the rise of German complacency when Hitler came to power and Nazi’ support for victimization of Jews and invasion of Poland are the beginning of a plan to reorganize spheres of influence in Europe.

Snyder’s observation is undoubtedly to create a sense of moral urgency on the part of American listener/readers to do more than just observe what is happening in America. Not that it is about Jewish discrimination but about American government rounding up and deporting alleged illegal immigrants without due process and sending them to prisons in other countries. Snyder is a scholar who specialized in Eastern European totalitarianism which suggests he knows something about the precursors of authoritarianism.

It seems the comparison of Trump to Hitler is hyperbolic when one considers the dire financial condition of Germany in the late 1920s. However, Trump’s push to hugely increase government debt at the expense of the poor and middle class, along with a tariff war, look to some like paths toward an economic Armageddon. If the economy falters, would America fall into Germany’s past? One doubts that will happen, but with a President who believes his own lies and Americans who accept them gives listener/readers of “On Tyranny” a chill. The power of Snyder’s argument gains some credibility.

It seems with the history of the United States, federal government checks and balances, and the limited tenure of elected Presidents, a Nazification of America seems unlikely. However, the danger is there because Trump has strong support from his party and many Americans who voted for him who choose to ignore his lies.

SUPREME COURT

To Leah Litman, Trump’s election seems a setback but not a reversal of the ideal of balancing equal rights with private interests. As Alexander Pope wrote in his poem, in the 18th century “Hope springs eternal in the human breast”.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Lawless (How the Supreme Court Runs Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes)

Author: Leah Litman

Narrated By: Leah Litman

Leah Litman (Author, BA in Chemistry & Chemical Biology, constitutional law scholar with Doctorate from University of Michigan Law School.)

One doubts Leah Litman would suggest there are no biological differences between men and women considering her education as a science major and legal scholar. As a science major, she knows there are chromosomal, hormonal, physical, and reproductive system differences between the sexes. However, Litman is spot on in arguing women do not have equal rights with men just as all races and ethnicities do not in the ideals of American Democracy. Litman argues that legally, equality is not being enforced in America today and is being diminished by today’s Supreme Court of the United States.

American Supreme Court

Litman persuasively argues today’s Supreme Court has eroded women’s rights by supporting legal theories that are ideologically promoted by political conservatives but not by precedents set by an earlier Supreme Court. Today’s majority at the Supreme Court has succumbed to the influence of conservative theories about the sexes rather than precedents set by an earlier Supreme Court.

It is not that the sexes are not different but that they deserve equal treatment under the law.

The point made by Litman is that the Supreme Court has found that in “all forms of discrimination”, equality of opportunity is mandated by the 14th amendment which provides equal protection under the law to all citizens with assurance that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process. Further, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment, education, and public accommodation. Previously settled law by the Supreme Court is being ignored in reversing Roe v. Wade, criminalizing same sex intimacy and marriage, and denying equal rights to the LGBTQ community.

What Litman is pointing to is the politicalization of the Supreme Court.

One might argue the Court has always been a political body. America’s history of discrimination has been reinforced and attacked in different eras of the Court. As the Turkish saying, “A fish rots from the head down”, today’s Justices of the Supreme Court are reversing precedents set in former rulings. America elects a President every four years. Even though Supreme Court justices are appointed for a lifetime, they decide to retire at some point in their careers and are replaced by recommendations of a current President with acceptance or rejection by Congress. If a conservative is in the office of the Presidency, then the recommendation will be based on candidates who reinforce a President’s political leaning. The same, of course, is true for a more liberal President.

Litman infers a politicalization of the Supreme Court lies at the feet of those who choose to vote, promote, and support candidates of their choice.

America is at a conservative revisionist point in the history of the Court with Donald Trump’s election. America has only itself to blame or praise for that revisionism. The obvious leaning of Litman is liberal in that she strongly believes in equal rights for all Americans. Her plea is for Americans to wake up to the importance of voting, promoting, and supporting candidates for public office.

American Democracy remains the best form of government despite wavering on balancing equal rights and private interests.

A perfect society will balance equal rights with private interests. America is not there, but it has a greater possibility of getting there than any other form of governance. To Leah Litman, Trump’s election seems a setback but not a reversal of the ideal of balancing equal rights with private interests. As Alexander Pope wrote in his poem, in the 18th century “Hope springs eternal in the human breast”.

PROJECT 2025

Only the Constitution of the United States stands between Trump’s authoritarianism and what has made America one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Project (How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America)

By: David A. Graham

Narrated By: Ari Fliakos

David A. Graham (Author, journalist, staff writer at The Atlantic.)

Graham has taken the time to dissect the policies proposed by the Heritage Foundation’s support and creation of Project 2025. Project 2025 is a political treatise that seems to outline many of the policies and objectives of the Trump administration.

As Graham notes, even though Trump is unlikely to have read Project 2025, its content seems to outline much of what Trump has done or is trying to do in his Presidency.

A priority in Project 2025 is downsizing the federal government. Interestingly, government employee firings began as soon as Trump entered the oval office. With Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk as the leader of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) over 200,000 federal workers have been discharged. An estimated 10,000 employees were discharged from the Department of Health and Human Services. If all of these firings were to be permanent, an estimated $1.17 billion to $1.26 billion would be saved per year. With 2 million federal employees, less than 1 percent of the payroll cost of government has been SAVED.

Three things come to mind with the 1 percent cost reduction in government employee payroll.

One, is the effect of a job lost to a family who depends on gainful employment. Two, what public services are lost as a result of 2oo,000 fired government employees. And finally, what value is there to the public in reducing government payroll cost by less than 1 percent?

Of course, some will say that misses the point of the symbolic value of reducing the cost of government.

After all, America is founded on capitalism not socialist welfare. Yes and no. Yes, we are capitalists. No, we benefit from government employees who are gainfully employed because they buy things with the money they make while providing service to the public. Is the risk of unemployment in America worth the cost of some human inefficiency?

Project 2025 recommends tax system overhaul with the implementation of a flat income tax.

Trump has reduced jobs in the Department of the IRS. One should remind oneself that the present tax system takes the same maximum amount of money per year out of a family’s income for social security whether they make a million dollars per year or minimum wage. The social security tax rate is 6.2% of up to $176,100 of income per year. After one who is making more than $176,100, no further social security tax is taken. Americans pay that 6.2% whether they make minimum wage or millions of dollars per year. There is something wrong with that picture. Tax reform is needed in America, but the tax reform Trump is interested in is for rich capitalists, not minimum wage earners.

Trump wants to abolish the IRS and finance the government with tariffs and a sales tax.

He wants to have a national sales tax of 23% or roughly 30 cents per dollar spent. That tax will be a burden to the poor but nothing to the rich. Trump perceives an equal benefit to minimum wage workers because they would not have to pay taxes on tips, overtime, and social security. Is that tax benefit equal to corporate tax reductions of 21% to 20% and a reduced rate of 15% for U.S. manufacturers. More jobs may or may not be created, but who gains the most benefit?

Trump infers corporation owners and managers would not put tax savings in their pockets but would create more jobs.

Two entitlement programs Trump believes will be unnecessary as a result of his tax changes are Medicare and Medicaid. Trump supporters believe economic growth will offset the negative impact that his tax reform plan will have on the poor. Does that make it unnecessary to have Medicare or Medicaid for the poor?

Trump is making a mockery of the Constitution by indiscriminately arresting and deporting anyone who cannot prove their status as a legal resident of America.

Project 2025 insists on immigration enforcement with improved border security and tighter immigration policies. Trump endorses that plan, but it is a job for Congress, not an autocratic President. He is willing to pay immigrants with American tax dollars for them to return to their countries of birth. Whose money is it that Trump is choosing to use?

Trump believes global warming is just a seasonal event in the history of earth.

Project 2025 recommends rolling back environmental regulations and endorsing fossil fuels over renewable energy. Trump endorses that plan by rolling back environmental regulations because he believes global warming is a fiction. Science is a fiction to President Trump.

Project 2025 recommends strengthening the executive branch of government and decreasing the rolls of Congress and the courts.

Project 2025 recommends strengthening the executive branch of government and decreasing the rolls of Congress and the courts that are the basis upon which separation of powers were written into the Constitution. Trump is ignoring fundamental tenants of the Constitution like Due Process of Law in the deportation of immigrants.

Project 2025 recommends criminalizing pornography, removing legal protections for anti-LGBT discrimination, and ending diversity programs that drive for equality of all Americans. Trump is using the office of the Presidency to punish elite colleges that have DEI programs meant to address American social inequality.

Trump believes what he believes and acts on those beliefs. His sexual picadilloes are ok but pornography is not. The author shows Trump has support for his beliefs in Project 2025. His support is equally apparent in the free vote of a majority who voted for him in the last election. Only the Constitution of the United States stands between Trump’s authoritarianism and what has made America one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

MODERATION

Unless homelessness is addressed with affordable housing, America’s future looks bleak. A land of have and have-nots will grow to crush American prosperity.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Abundance

By: Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson

Narrated by: The Authors

Ezra Klein (American political commentator and “NYT’ journalist.)

These two young Americans offer an insightful view of politics and American government in the 21st century.

Klein or Thompson could have voted for either Trump or Harris in America’s last election. Their book argues American government is both a boon and bane for citizen “Abundance” in the 21st century. They note America has contradictory economic policies that have created great abundance among Americans while exacerbating inequality. Evidence for their opinion is growing homelessness, an immigration crisis, loss of manufacturing jobs, and government’s failure to creatively adjust public policies to provide solutions.

Those who have shared in the abundance of America have voted for candidates to preserve their privileges.

The authors note homelessness is a function of affordable housing that is denied by government policies that regulate zoning and construction requirements. Government policies make affordable housing too costly to build and impossible to locate because of zoning restrictions. The number of people living on the street is a self-inflicted American tragedy. Some of the homeless are young, some are old, some have mental or physical problems, and others are victims of drugs or their own weaknesses. What they have in common is unaffordable housing.

Historically, immigration has been a great boon to American economic growth.

Klien and Thompson note restrictive immigration policies have created obstacles for workers needed for manufacturing in key industries like agriculture, auto industry assembly, housing construction, and clean energy infrastructure. Rather than wasting money on building walls and deporting workers, the authors advocate immigration reform that meets the needs of American business. One can imply the authors meaning is that to “Make America Great Again” requires immigrants willing to work in agricultural and manufacturing jobs. The end of the baby boom requires help from immigrants to meet the needs of increased manufacturing and construction in the United States.

Some believe what Trump is doing is good for the American economy in the long run.

The criticism is that in the short run, the economy may collapse. Tariffs being used as a ham-fisted way of negotiating fair international trade is a fool’s errand. America needs labor and material in the short run to achieve equal and greater prosperity than it had in the 1970s. Added manufacturing will aid American prosperity, but it will be surpassed in the long run by automation. It is the automation race America needs to win or compete with to remain a world leader. Competing in that race depends on education, and scientific research. The irony is that Trump is firing government employees who have responsibility for public education, research, and funding that have been the engines of America’s prosperity.

The government employees discharged by the Trump administration to solely reduce costs is short sighted.

In the 1980s, 60% of basic research in the U.S. was funded by the government. In 2022 that funding dropped to 40%. Advances in semiconductors, global positions systems, biotechnology, and aeronautics were government-funded discoveries in the 1980s. American government-funded scientific research gave America the internet, GPS technology, mass production of penicillin, Space exploration, human genome project discoveries, and renewable energy innovations. The Department of Health and Human Services has lost 20,000 employees, the Department of Education 1,300, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 800, and the National Institutes of Health 1,200. One wonders how many of these employees may have been on the edge of scientific discoveries that could change the world.

The truth of “Abundance” is that America has caused many negative ecological impacts and aggravated the gap between rich and poor.

Klein and Thompson have written a provocative book. However, the truth of “Abundance” in America has caused many negative ecological impacts and aggravated the gap between rich and poor. Looking only to abundance does not address either social inequality or the environment. The NIMBY (not in my back yard) resistance to affordable housing aggravates inequality and increases homelessness. Unquestionably, higher density housing impacts the environment.

Klein and Thompson fail to address the increased power of corporations in America.

The 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission gave corporations the power to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. The influence of corporations on elections has disproportionate power in the election of government policy makers. That decision by the Court is a distortion of one person, one voter’s influence on public policy.

Aristotle emphasized the importance of “All things in moderation”. NIMBY communities must open their minds and hearts to homelessness and moderate their resistance to neighborhood accommodation. Government agencies must supervise and service higher density housing impacts wherever they are built and after they are completed.

Unless homelessness is addressed with affordable housing, America’s future looks bleak. A land of have and have-nots will grow to crush American prosperity.

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