My Less Than Humble Opinion

Before Somebody Screams

The header image of this article shows the official portraits of the President-elect and the Vice President-elect released by their transition team on January 16, 2025.^[1]

Oversights and Unforeseen Situations

When I published my article entitled “The Enemy Within” in October of 2024, I focused on the danger related to J.D. Vance becoming Vice President because of his association with would-be oligarchs who wanted to eliminate our democracy in favor of a corporate model … with them in charge, of course. I failed to consider three possibilities:

1. To the “once and future” President, all relationships are transactional. As long as he believes the oligarchs are with him, they are his friends. At his inauguration, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Shou Zi Chew will be seated on the dais along with former Presidents, Trump’s family and his Cabinet picks.
   
   
2. The election was a trifecta for the Republican Party. In addition to President-elect Trump, the Party has maintained control of the House of Representatives and regained control of the Senate.
   
   
3. Most importantly, Donald Trump is able to instill fear in his Party’s Representatives and Senators.
   
   J.D. Vance has shown no indication of having such power. Having flip-flopped from Trump detractor to Trump supporter, Vance is unlikely to have the support of the oligarchs nor that of Trump’s most loyal voters. If, for any reason, Donald Trump is unable to continue as President, blind fealty to the occupant of the White House will lose its political-life-or-death quality to GOP members of the House and Senate.
   
   

Who’s in Minding the Store?

Did you vote for these guys to be President and Vice President?

Neither did I,^[2] but sometimes Elon Musk seems to be acting as if they are President-elect and Vice President-elect respectively.

How do you feel about these guys having easy access to the next President of the United States?

To tell the truth, I’d rather have them as a “Kitchen Cabinet” than the extra-governmental advisors from the lunatic fringe that President-elect Trump had during his first administration … like Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, and Roger Stone. Those guys … especially Bannon and Stone … seem to be more interested in sowing the seeds of chaos than anything else.

Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook, Chew, and others like them^[3] did not build their companies, become successful, and super rich by outrageous posturing and behavior on the public stage. They did it by having good ideas and being leaders. They know that chaos is bad for business.

It’s Going to be a Bumpy Ride

At Noon on Monday, January 20. 2025, President-elect Donald J. Trump will become President Donald J. Trump for the second time. If he does half of what he’s promised, it’s going to be a tough four years.

• If he puts 25% tariffs on imported goods … especially on Mexico and Canada … prices will go through the roof. Tariffs are paid by our importers; not other countries’ exporters. Do you really think our importers are going to eat that 25% increase? A lot of what we import could be produced here, but not with the stroke of a pen. It takes time to build factories and adjust supply chains. Some things, like raw materials and out-of-season fruits and vegetables are even more difficult.
  
  
• If he deports ALL undocumented immigrants, prices will be pushed even higher. Real criminals who would be incarcerated if they were U.S. citizens should go. I have no problem with that. But, most undocumented immigrants in our country are quietly working and supporting our economy. They pay local and federal taxes … including Social Security tax … from which they do not and never will receive benefits. They run small businesses, harvest our food, care for our children and elderly, maintain our properties, process our food, maintain our vacation resorts, and many other tasks that cannot be done by citizens because: a) many of these tasks are back-breaking work b) many of these tasks pay sub-standard wages, and c) we don’t have enough people.
  
  
• If he investigates his “enemies” Congress and law enforcement will have no time to pass laws nor to protect us.
  
  
• If he reduces taxes, guess who will benefit the most. It wasn’t you and me the first time. It won’t be you and me this time.
  
  
• If he attacks our allies (e.g., Denmark to take Greenland) or bails out on NATO altogether, a world order that has avoided World Wars since the year I was born (1945) will collapse.
  
  

I guess we’ll just have to “hang in there” until 2026 and hope that some of those who voted against the previous administration or just didn’t vote at all will have had enough. That year we can fix the current rubber-stamp House of Representatives and adjust the balance of power in the Senate.

I encourage you to share this article … through social media, re-post, e-mail, word-of-mouth, pony express, carrier pigeon, or any other medium.

If you have any comments or additional ideas, I encourage you to leave a reply in the comments section at the end of this article.

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Notes

[1]
Some avid (rabid?) supporters of President-elect Trump could be prone to believing that I tampered with his portrait. I didn’t. Blame the artist … and the passage of time. Here’s a picture of Donald Trump from 2017 compared to the current official portrait.

Maybe it’s the blue suit and tie in the picture on the right. 🤔

I’m a year older than him. Trust me at our age, 4 years takes a toll. Unlike the President-elect, I spent a lot of time in the first part of 2020 avoiding other people because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since I wasn’t going anywhere, I didn’t bother shaving. Learning that a beard covers a lot of wrinkles and a multitude of chins, I’ve kept my beard. .😉

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[2]
Just for the record, I didn’t vote for these guys either.

You win some; you lose some.

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[3]
I’m not so sure about Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk seems to relish the spotlight like the President-elect. Ramaswamy seems overly intense, but he and his company are still young. I’ll reserve my opinion about them for now.

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