As Donald Trump meets with India's Prime Minister and JD Vance and Pete Hegseth give speeches abroad, it's clear that Trump wants to push his MAGA rhetoric around the globe.
I can help fight back, Steve. I worked the Federal bid market for 40 years. Trump anticipates kickbacks from Elon on Federal contracts. Run this up the flag pole. It impacts every single Federal BID that Musk currently has in progress, and also every potential future bid. At issue is insider information. You cannot bid if you hold insider information, or if the appearance is the same. DOGE has insider info.
Every bidder competing against Musk has recourse outside of the bid-letting agency. When a bidder suspects there will be an unfair bias in the agency, they can bypass GAO and file in federal court to disqualify Musk, a Musk company, or a Musk team via subcontract or joint venture. Federal court judges will decide on the insider information issue, not the Executive Branch employees.
What I foresee is no more Federal contracts for Musk. I don’t even see how he can be awarded a sole source extension to an existing contract. I see $ for lawyers. Jeff Bezos has a strong protest play here.
Trump's feckless sycophant, Elon Musk, is looking to enrich himself and other oligarchs by cutting federal aid to red states where most of the Trump supporting MAGAs live so they can then lower taxes for the super rich. 😎🇺🇸🇺🇸
Diplomacy is dead, our Envoys will promote that greed is for the taking by the USA. If countries don't comply, then our Lord and Master, Donald Trump will take without their consent. We have entered a depraved new world, where chivalry and diplomacy no longer will be tolerated. America has been reborn in the image of Putin. Welcome to the Oligarchy.
Yep, true about USA. But other democratic / allies/ good people will not put up with this. Less than half of Americans agree with his (gop) madness. It wont take long for others to band against the US. We will be pariahs because Donold's putting a massive target on our back. Many good people (US) will be targets because of his avarice and destruction
Trump and his martinets and Axis-like partners in crime are now full of the kindred megalomaniacal hubris in which Hitler luxuriated during his blitzkrieg into Poland in 1939. But our Allied response is likewise gathering steam, and the Trump malignant narcissistic crusade will likely end up as dispositively and tragically for this maddened crowd as it did for the German Fuhrer.
Great commentary. I wish I shared your optimism. The Democratic Party is mostly spineless. I am happy to see a few speaking out. The leadership is a total disgrace.
I am ready for mass demonstrations, strikes and boycotts. I am afraid, though, that many are too glued to social media to pay attention. Things won’t reach critical mass until the pain begins. It is clearly coming. Economic pain resulting from trump’s bonkers economic policies. Death and disease resulting from the rapidly mutating avian influenza. I have no doubt that RFK Jr will screw the response up so badly that “injecting bleach” will, in retrospect, seem like a brilliant strategy.
I am an old man. I served in Vietnam and have come to love our sometimes flawed democracy. I hope I live long enough to see the end of this insanity. In the meantime I am not going down without a fight.
There are already big marches and demonstrations all over the place and they are growing. Some efforts at boycotting but those need to GET BIGGER. Waiting for unions to strike; some HAVE been speaking out. Plenty of people waking up in red states: farmers in Kansas and other states are losing millions of $$$ because of the USAID freeze. Canadian govt (and the majority of citizens, without ANY urging by the govt) are refusing to buy American goods, including booze from KY.... and have been cancelling travel plans south of their border. Canadians make up to 40% of tourism $$$$ in the N and S Carolina and Florida areas. Apparently the owners of affected businesses are flooding their US senators and reps to complain. This will only grow, esp when those US citizens who rely upon medicaid and other assistance realize what's happening.....
I will not go to the US this year and maybe never again . I always look to see where a product is made and now more than ever - not buying anything manufactured in the US. Canadians are pretty calm and low key for the most part but would say now that our patriotism has been fully triggered. Our 5 living former Prime Ministers, including Stephen Harper (shocked) have all encouraged us to fly our Canadian flags this weekend embracing our Heritage Day. I have seen our flags being flown spontaneously in several new places in the last couple of weeks and at first didn’t quite connect it. No more California wine - boycotting and will miss it. My new flag is flying high!🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🍁🍁🇨🇦🇨🇦. Going forward-Will do whatever it takes for my beloved Canada!!
I am appalled at trump’s attacks on Canada. My mother was born in Chandler, Quebec. Half my extended family is Canadian. My siblings and I are Canadian by descent.
Please know that our hearts are sick and that we will do everything we can to end this madness. 🇨🇦
Most of us in the US are embarrassed and beyond sad about this entire development. BUT at the same time we are extraordinarily grateful for every action the Canadian govt AND the enormous number of its citizens like you have taken to help us fight this. Even simple words of understanding and/or encouragement mean more than you know. It's additionally maddening that the person (gee, which of the two?...) who has hijacked our govt would 'suggest' - even DARE - that Canada should become our 51st state. Trust me, merging with you guys would be thrilling - BUT ONLY IF EVERYONE WANTED THAT..... but what the hijacker wants to do, and how he may try to do it, is insane and beyond belief. I'm sorry Canada got pulled into this. You don't deserve it... any of it.
If I were an ally, a NATO member or a member of the EU, I would dust off my strategies for war. JD Vance is a suited street thug scolding and subtly threatening other nation states. (Perhaps ONCE our allies.) Greta Thunberg vs. Elon Musk? Where'd he get that gem? If Trump has sent out his goons to threaten other democratic nations, he might want to learn / know what "sovereign" really means. (Not what Putin thinks it means.) One must begin to wonder if Trump secretly wants to start another world war. Or an expansion of the one already taking place in Ukraine.
That may well be his fantasy. Brain-wise he is not even close to Xi or Putin, two men who are experts at manipulating Trump. Btw, Trump is SO deep in violation of his Oath and the law that Congress should proceed with Article 25. Musk may be a criminal. He feeds off the U.S. to the tune of millions. But, with spineless butt-licker Johnson and no-balls John Thune leading (wink wink) the Republicans, we know where this will go. I mean, integrity left them long ago.
Holy sh#t. Just when I think it couldn't get any worse when I heard about JD. Thank YOU Steve. ♥️
Think they cut my energy assistance money this year too. That really hurts. Just makes me madder though. I will not give up or get discouraged. Keep the faith friends!! We must never ever surrender to the Fascists!!! 🙏😔🇺🇸
As this spectacle continues we will become an unwelcome sight when the clowns decide to appear on the world stage. If I was Yale and Princeton I would ask for the diplomas to be returned!
Supremely cocky & arrogant, vance and hegseth are in sooooooooo far over their heads it is ridiculous. . hegseth acts like he is still on the faux set, blathering out any old thing while on one of the highest stages in the world where every word & nuance counts.... he is an outright danger & embarrassment to the US, but additionally: HE IS EMBARRASSING HIMSELF. Doubtful he knows that. The other one is equally dangerous & an embarrassment, simply trying to say what he believes his puppet master wants, while not having practiced enough. THANK HEAVENS it appears that those in the German and Ukrainian meetings are totally in on what is happening. Unfortunately they just have to figure out how to deal with it. Then you have the orange felon, just trying to stay out of prison and not giving a damn about anything else other than ways to grift off the office, who contradicts himself and generally makes no sense whatsoever, knowing he can just blame all the messes and foul-ups on the "real" president who believes he's projecting wholesome warm fuzziness by carting around that poor child who has NO BUSINESS in all those adult situations. Hollywood could not make all this s--t up. Please wake me when the nightmare is over.
Good one. Great historical background and clarification. Thx for clarifying Putin started the invasion in Ukraine. I thought I read on the Midas Daily News update yesterday - Hegseth mentioned Ukraine “volunteered” to be invaded by Russia. My goodness, just when I thought an individual couldn’t go any lower. What country would volunteer to be invaded by Russia. Simply put, we need a miracle from this dangerous rhetoric. It will happen. Keeping the faith. ✌️
hegseth has no idea how to really professionally "sling it" when in a room with REAL and SERIOUS adults instead of just 1-2 other talking airheads on a couch and a tv camera focused only on them.
I think he was referring to when Ukraine permitted NATO to put missiles on their eastern border facing towards Russia. Apparently, that was Putin's red line. This Putin argument placed MAGA on the side of Russia from then on out. Tulsi Gabbard drank that Kool-Aide right up.
Thanks Steve ....You said it all. It is frightening ,cringefu,l disgusting ... I am so ashamed of my country right now. I want to tell Europe a lot of us don't agree with the shithead on anything . His level of criminality staggers the imagination. I hope Ukraine can stay in the fight no matter what the fuckhead does with polonium Putin ...I feel helpless .. I hope we will still have elections and keep our history from being destroyed .. And that someone will keep an acurate record of what is happening daily.
When they see Hegseth and hear his mind numbingly nonsensical words, one wonders if the Europeans are reminded of another bone headed diplomat, Joachim von Ribbentrop. It must be very hard for them, and all of our overseas allies, to believe what they are experiencing. We here in America can relate.
How much you wanna bet that Pastor Paula and the rest of the Faith office crowd are telling Donald Trump that he has been chosen by God to usher in Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ!? That is supposed to start a thousand year Millennium of peace! Remember Hitler and his “Thousand Year Reich” promise??
I think the "chosen" orange one's hearing stops once he has heard the word "king". He IS throwing his weight around as though he believes he is king of the WORLD and can even boss vlad around as he orchestrates his idea of supreme power.
I can help fight back, Steve. I worked the Federal bid market for 40 years. Trump anticipates kickbacks from Elon on Federal contracts. Run this up the flag pole. It impacts every single Federal BID that Musk currently has in progress, and also every potential future bid. At issue is insider information. You cannot bid if you hold insider information, or if the appearance is the same. DOGE has insider info.
Every bidder competing against Musk has recourse outside of the bid-letting agency. When a bidder suspects there will be an unfair bias in the agency, they can bypass GAO and file in federal court to disqualify Musk, a Musk company, or a Musk team via subcontract or joint venture. Federal court judges will decide on the insider information issue, not the Executive Branch employees.
What I foresee is no more Federal contracts for Musk. I don’t even see how he can be awarded a sole source extension to an existing contract. I see $ for lawyers. Jeff Bezos has a strong protest play here.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/musk-stains-future-federal-contract
Good post!
This is how ignorant some geniuses are. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGECzHdS5wI/?igsh=Nmx0bTl2eW4xYWhn
"Who let the DOGEs out?!?"
Trump's feckless sycophant, Elon Musk, is looking to enrich himself and other oligarchs by cutting federal aid to red states where most of the Trump supporting MAGAs live so they can then lower taxes for the super rich. 😎🇺🇸🇺🇸
Suckers!
DOGE - Dotards Obstructing Government Excellence
100%
Diplomacy is dead, our Envoys will promote that greed is for the taking by the USA. If countries don't comply, then our Lord and Master, Donald Trump will take without their consent. We have entered a depraved new world, where chivalry and diplomacy no longer will be tolerated. America has been reborn in the image of Putin. Welcome to the Oligarchy.
Yep, true about USA. But other democratic / allies/ good people will not put up with this. Less than half of Americans agree with his (gop) madness. It wont take long for others to band against the US. We will be pariahs because Donold's putting a massive target on our back. Many good people (US) will be targets because of his avarice and destruction
Steve, the power of your warnings continues to increase. I can hear it in your voice.
What's the highest alert level? Are we there yet? When I think about the Pvtin thing I feel like I'll puke.🤮
Trump and his martinets and Axis-like partners in crime are now full of the kindred megalomaniacal hubris in which Hitler luxuriated during his blitzkrieg into Poland in 1939. But our Allied response is likewise gathering steam, and the Trump malignant narcissistic crusade will likely end up as dispositively and tragically for this maddened crowd as it did for the German Fuhrer.
Great commentary. I wish I shared your optimism. The Democratic Party is mostly spineless. I am happy to see a few speaking out. The leadership is a total disgrace.
I am ready for mass demonstrations, strikes and boycotts. I am afraid, though, that many are too glued to social media to pay attention. Things won’t reach critical mass until the pain begins. It is clearly coming. Economic pain resulting from trump’s bonkers economic policies. Death and disease resulting from the rapidly mutating avian influenza. I have no doubt that RFK Jr will screw the response up so badly that “injecting bleach” will, in retrospect, seem like a brilliant strategy.
I am an old man. I served in Vietnam and have come to love our sometimes flawed democracy. I hope I live long enough to see the end of this insanity. In the meantime I am not going down without a fight.
There are already big marches and demonstrations all over the place and they are growing. Some efforts at boycotting but those need to GET BIGGER. Waiting for unions to strike; some HAVE been speaking out. Plenty of people waking up in red states: farmers in Kansas and other states are losing millions of $$$ because of the USAID freeze. Canadian govt (and the majority of citizens, without ANY urging by the govt) are refusing to buy American goods, including booze from KY.... and have been cancelling travel plans south of their border. Canadians make up to 40% of tourism $$$$ in the N and S Carolina and Florida areas. Apparently the owners of affected businesses are flooding their US senators and reps to complain. This will only grow, esp when those US citizens who rely upon medicaid and other assistance realize what's happening.....
I will not go to the US this year and maybe never again . I always look to see where a product is made and now more than ever - not buying anything manufactured in the US. Canadians are pretty calm and low key for the most part but would say now that our patriotism has been fully triggered. Our 5 living former Prime Ministers, including Stephen Harper (shocked) have all encouraged us to fly our Canadian flags this weekend embracing our Heritage Day. I have seen our flags being flown spontaneously in several new places in the last couple of weeks and at first didn’t quite connect it. No more California wine - boycotting and will miss it. My new flag is flying high!🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🍁🍁🇨🇦🇨🇦. Going forward-Will do whatever it takes for my beloved Canada!!
I am appalled at trump’s attacks on Canada. My mother was born in Chandler, Quebec. Half my extended family is Canadian. My siblings and I are Canadian by descent.
Please know that our hearts are sick and that we will do everything we can to end this madness. 🇨🇦
Most of us in the US are embarrassed and beyond sad about this entire development. BUT at the same time we are extraordinarily grateful for every action the Canadian govt AND the enormous number of its citizens like you have taken to help us fight this. Even simple words of understanding and/or encouragement mean more than you know. It's additionally maddening that the person (gee, which of the two?...) who has hijacked our govt would 'suggest' - even DARE - that Canada should become our 51st state. Trust me, merging with you guys would be thrilling - BUT ONLY IF EVERYONE WANTED THAT..... but what the hijacker wants to do, and how he may try to do it, is insane and beyond belief. I'm sorry Canada got pulled into this. You don't deserve it... any of it.
If I were an ally, a NATO member or a member of the EU, I would dust off my strategies for war. JD Vance is a suited street thug scolding and subtly threatening other nation states. (Perhaps ONCE our allies.) Greta Thunberg vs. Elon Musk? Where'd he get that gem? If Trump has sent out his goons to threaten other democratic nations, he might want to learn / know what "sovereign" really means. (Not what Putin thinks it means.) One must begin to wonder if Trump secretly wants to start another world war. Or an expansion of the one already taking place in Ukraine.
He probably wants to divide the world in 3 parts. For Pvtin, Xi, and Orange tvrd.
That may well be his fantasy. Brain-wise he is not even close to Xi or Putin, two men who are experts at manipulating Trump. Btw, Trump is SO deep in violation of his Oath and the law that Congress should proceed with Article 25. Musk may be a criminal. He feeds off the U.S. to the tune of millions. But, with spineless butt-licker Johnson and no-balls John Thune leading (wink wink) the Republicans, we know where this will go. I mean, integrity left them long ago.
Holy sh#t. Just when I think it couldn't get any worse when I heard about JD. Thank YOU Steve. ♥️
Think they cut my energy assistance money this year too. That really hurts. Just makes me madder though. I will not give up or get discouraged. Keep the faith friends!! We must never ever surrender to the Fascists!!! 🙏😔🇺🇸
Another great commentary Steve. It is hard to watch our constitution being dismantled before our eyes. This is the stress test of all stress tests.
Preach
As this spectacle continues we will become an unwelcome sight when the clowns decide to appear on the world stage. If I was Yale and Princeton I would ask for the diplomas to be returned!
Supremely cocky & arrogant, vance and hegseth are in sooooooooo far over their heads it is ridiculous. . hegseth acts like he is still on the faux set, blathering out any old thing while on one of the highest stages in the world where every word & nuance counts.... he is an outright danger & embarrassment to the US, but additionally: HE IS EMBARRASSING HIMSELF. Doubtful he knows that. The other one is equally dangerous & an embarrassment, simply trying to say what he believes his puppet master wants, while not having practiced enough. THANK HEAVENS it appears that those in the German and Ukrainian meetings are totally in on what is happening. Unfortunately they just have to figure out how to deal with it. Then you have the orange felon, just trying to stay out of prison and not giving a damn about anything else other than ways to grift off the office, who contradicts himself and generally makes no sense whatsoever, knowing he can just blame all the messes and foul-ups on the "real" president who believes he's projecting wholesome warm fuzziness by carting around that poor child who has NO BUSINESS in all those adult situations. Hollywood could not make all this s--t up. Please wake me when the nightmare is over.
Yep
We will also become targets.
except not "will" but "have become"....
JD stands for Just a Dick
but too kind..... he is trying SO HARD to swim with the big fish...................and failing miserably.
Good one. Great historical background and clarification. Thx for clarifying Putin started the invasion in Ukraine. I thought I read on the Midas Daily News update yesterday - Hegseth mentioned Ukraine “volunteered” to be invaded by Russia. My goodness, just when I thought an individual couldn’t go any lower. What country would volunteer to be invaded by Russia. Simply put, we need a miracle from this dangerous rhetoric. It will happen. Keeping the faith. ✌️
hegseth has no idea how to really professionally "sling it" when in a room with REAL and SERIOUS adults instead of just 1-2 other talking airheads on a couch and a tv camera focused only on them.
I think he was referring to when Ukraine permitted NATO to put missiles on their eastern border facing towards Russia. Apparently, that was Putin's red line. This Putin argument placed MAGA on the side of Russia from then on out. Tulsi Gabbard drank that Kool-Aide right up.
Thanks Steve ....You said it all. It is frightening ,cringefu,l disgusting ... I am so ashamed of my country right now. I want to tell Europe a lot of us don't agree with the shithead on anything . His level of criminality staggers the imagination. I hope Ukraine can stay in the fight no matter what the fuckhead does with polonium Putin ...I feel helpless .. I hope we will still have elections and keep our history from being destroyed .. And that someone will keep an acurate record of what is happening daily.
When they see Hegseth and hear his mind numbingly nonsensical words, one wonders if the Europeans are reminded of another bone headed diplomat, Joachim von Ribbentrop. It must be very hard for them, and all of our overseas allies, to believe what they are experiencing. We here in America can relate.
Some of them are sympathetic right now. But they will tire of it. Then we will be in real danger.
Retardpalooza😡
How much you wanna bet that Pastor Paula and the rest of the Faith office crowd are telling Donald Trump that he has been chosen by God to usher in Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ!? That is supposed to start a thousand year Millennium of peace! Remember Hitler and his “Thousand Year Reich” promise??
I think the "chosen" orange one's hearing stops once he has heard the word "king". He IS throwing his weight around as though he believes he is king of the WORLD and can even boss vlad around as he orchestrates his idea of supreme power.