A house very near Manville Airport, in suburban New Jersey.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~ Sinclair Lewis, the first American recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature
Yesterday, I picked my girlfriend up from Newark Liberty International Airport. While the plane landed on time - early, in fact - everyone there as forced to sit where they were for more than half an hour, she said. Think that they were having trouble finding a gate, so they told everyone to hold tight. That is similar to stories I heard earlier this year, which were largely a result of the DOGE budget cuts to airports and such. Which is to say, these problems came along right about the same time that Trump once again took the White House.
Coincidence?
Nope. It was by design.
Anyway, I waited by the International Arrivals, in the seating section. It was a long wait. Worst of all, I forgot to bring a book.
Rookie mistake.
So like most people, I kept myself occupied by perusing the internet with my phone. Occasionally, I also looked around. One of those times, I noticed that there was a MAGA moron sitting almost right in front of me. He had his red MAGA hat (although this one seemed old, because it read "45" and not "47."
He was also wearing a t-shirt, which was as loud and designed to get attention as his hat. This is what it read:
Sorry If My Patriotism Offends You
Trust Me Your Lack of Spine Offends Me More
Sigh.
And would you believe it? This guy happened to be the loudest person there.
Shocker, eh?
Not sure what he and presumably his wife were talking about, but he kept saying, loudly, "You should have. You really should have." Kind of saying that she likely should have acted out against someone who offended her (or them), although I only overheard the end of the conversation. Also, I could not actually hear her end, just him. He had that kind of a voice where private conversations become all too public in a space like that.
You know, the Ugly American.
Because these days, nothing says "Welcome to the United States" like some obnoxious, loud and proud, militantly stupid MAGA moron, thrilled with the country's fascist turn.
It reminded me that just the other day, I drove by a house where, once again, there was a MAGA cult member loudly advertising their political leanings. Admittedly, I was so disgusted that I felt a need to take a picture (which is included here, in this bog entry), as proof of the stupidity of our age someday when all of this is in the past, and people doubt that such ridiculous times actually existed. One of the major turn-offs with people in the MAGA cult is that everything that they do - especially the stuff that they probably should not be proud of - they do it very loudly. Clearly, wanting attention. Perhaps needing it.
Fitting, really. Because I don't know anyone in the history of the world, literally, who is as needy for attention as the cult leader, King Con Don. It always has to be about him. That is why he was the poster child for the "Me decade." With him, it's always "Me, me, me."
Moreover, those are the "values" which he wants to pass down to the rest of the United States.
It would be funny, possibly, if the ramifications were not so dead serious. These are the people who claim that anyone else's criticisms of their cult leader amounts to something called "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Look at the house pictured below. Can you imagine decorating your house in this way, so everybody passing by can see? Is this not a form of at least attempted intimidation?
Reminds me of the time that I got into an online argument on social media (it was Facebook) with a guy. He was a Trump fan, bigtime. And he took exception to me leveling some criticism at Trump, lumping me in with all "crazy liberals" as I recall. So I took a look at the guy's Facebook profile, and he literally had a picture posted of his Christmas tree, decorated in nothing but Trump flags (well, there may or may not have been decorative lights). Again, this was the guy calling me (and other people voicing criticisms of Dear Leader) crazy. But I was the crazy one for criticizing Trump?
Ri-ight.
Apparently, MAGA world is really divided over this whole Epstein things at the moment. Remember, Trump boldly declared that he would release all sorts of lists and declassify a whole bunch of classified documents. Remember how all of those files pertaining to the Kennedy assassination were going to be released to the public? And remember how once he actually released them, many of them were either partially blacked out or missing, and nothing really challenged the official narrative laid out by the Warren Commission Report?
Well, Trump also promised transparency regarding the Epstein list. Remember how he helped foster the common impression among MAGA cult members - many of the same people who believe in lizard people and Pizzagate and fixated on birth certificates when it came to the first black president and the first black and female Vice President - that some powerful people, like surely the Clintons, would be on that list? It was them. Always the other guys. Never Trump himself.
Except, of course, that the MAGA cult conveniently chose to ignore what was right in front of them. Only now are some members of the MAGA cult awakening to the possibility of what once surely seemed unthinkable to them, and which it seems the majority - probably the vast majority - of MAGA still believes in unthinkable. I mean, you have a rich, entitled, elitist prick who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has always been pampered. Always lived a life of privilege, and always managed to get away with whatever he wanted or needed to get away with.
Want some examples?
A supposedly "modest" loan of $1 million, which is still a lot today, but which back in Trump's youth was a huge sum of money (and in reality, we all know that he received a whole lot more than that, as it was reported that he was "earning" $200,000 per year at the age of three, because it was beneficial for his father to report this for tax purposes) plus all of the business connections that the family had, plus that family name of Trump. All huge benefits to help "the Donald" get things going?
Check.
Bone spurs to prevent him from being sent off to Vietnam, despite his elite military education?
Check.
High-priced, powerful lawyers that effectively delayed and delayed contract workers whom Trump had basically screwed over, since they could not compete with Trump's high-priced lawyers?
Check.
Scams from the master con artist, which he seems to have gotten away with time and time again (likely because of the delaying tactics from all of those high-priced lawyers), including Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump Water, Trump Casino, Trump Magazine, Trump Airlines and, of course, everyone's favorite, Trump University?
Check.
Declaring bankruptcy six times (Trump himself admits to having declared bankruptcy four times) and using existing laws to help bail himself out, then using this strategy to try and legitimize the self-serving mythology of declaring a "business genius"?
Check.
Continually lying as a candidate (specific examples include, but are NOT limited to building the wall and making Mexico pay for it, building a national healthcare system that would be affordable and would cover all Americans, even suggesting that this would be easy, paying off the national debt in eight years when he actually raised the national debt by over 25% in his first four years, and now adding well over three trillion to the national debt in order to pay for all of those tax cuts and incentives for the wealthiest and most privileged Americans in his "One Big, Beautiful Bill," ending the war in Ukraine within one day, lowering the price of groceries and gas very quickly, starting on "Day One" of his new term in office and, most importantly (at least for me) failing to actually honor and abide by the Constitution that he swore (twice now) to "preserve, protect, an defend" when he took the Oath of Office?
Check.
Now, the Epstein files. He promised transparency, and seemed to insinuate that everyone on those files was guilty. At least that was his position when it suited him, when he needed some support to get the Republican nomination and, ultimately, to be elected to the White House (again, twice now).
The reality, however, is that it's not really all that difficult to connect the dots as to why the Trump administration is now refusing to release the files, and why Trump himself is sounding angry and impatient that people (his supporters, mostly) are still fixated on this list. Because, after all, they are still attempting to save face and create self-serving arguments that allow their support of him not to be seriously questioned, or to waver.
But I mean, come on! Seriously, this guy is photographed several times with Epstein over the course of many years, to the point where you can see them aging. They are seen together on videotapes, With Trump partying with Epstein at Mar-a Lago, since Trump was apparently hosting. There are tapes with Epstein describing some of his experiences with Trump, and he even suggested that they were close friends. In a 2002 news article (New York Magazine), Trump called Epstein a "terrific guy" and joked about how Epstein liked beautiful women almost as much as Trump himself, and admired how many of Epstein's women "are on the younger side." Couple that with the often creepy behavior that Trump has displayed in the past, and which is frankly no secret - from "grab 'em by the pussy" to bragging about being able to access the locker rooms of Miss America pageants and seeing the women naked, to the disturbing comments and videos of him seemingly admiring his own daughter in inappropriate ways - and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, not to become very suspicious of the worst regarding Trump's ties with Epstein.
Yet, is MAGA support of Trump crumbling? A lot of media reports suggest that. But the reality on the ground feels different. After all, I just saw that MAGA moron who likens himself to a patriot, rather than a fascist, at the airport yesterday. And that house is still all decked out in Trump and MAGA nonsense. And the polls might show Trump slipping somewhat in the polls, but it is hardly the free fall which the press often seems to suggest, with sensationalist headlines and doomsday political scenarios.
Besides, Trump is safely in the Oval Office. And the process of legally ousting him feels virtually impossible. After all, he is a masterful scam artist extraordinaire. If there is one thing that I grudgingly admire of the man (not sure if admire is precisely the right word here, but you get the point), it is his capacity at self-preservation and self-promotion. Say what you will about the guy, and I hardly think that he is the "very stable genius" that he proclaims himself to be. That said, he knows how to promote himself with everything, all of the time. Also, he seems to be extremely good at always landing on his feet, like a cat.
Maybe other presidents have, at times, been known as the "Teflon president." But the man sitting his fat ass in the Oval Office when he's not busy playing golf at one of his resorts at taxpayer expense truly is the "Teflon president." The master of all con artists.
Once you understand and, perhaps most importantly, accept this as the truth, a lot of the terrible things which have happened and are continuing to happen in this country become a whole lot easier to understand, frankly. You just have to be willing to open your eyes. But the flip side of what is happening in the United States right now is that, truth be told, far, far too many of us Americans have the courage to truly open our eyes and see what is happening right in front of them. So much easier to figuratively carry around the MAGA blanket like Linus in those old Peanuts cartoons.
Also, to close our eyes and plug our ears whenever we are reminded of how the rest of the world now views what is actively going on in the United States as a bad joke. The days of even being a respected world power, let alone supposedly the "shining city on the hill" as Reagan used to suggest, are long gone. The reality today is a whole lot grimmer.
To me, not to see Trump for what he really is and always has been is the real sickness. That, to me, fits the bill of something called the "Trump Derangement Syndrome" far more than people actually criticizing Trump and holding him accountable. Remember, he was elected to be a public servant, and that's it. The Founding Fathers implored us to use the system to hold the figurative feet of elected leaders to the fire, and designed a system of government precisely to prevent tyrannical behavior like what we are seeing now in the White House. Whether or not he won the election with a majority or was given a mandate, as he proclaimed, he was most certainly not officially elected to become a king or a dictator, however much he now acts like one and tries to empower himself to become one.
Here, according to a Washington Post article by Michelle Lee back in 2016 (see link below), are the specifics regarding Trump's official declarations of bankruptcy, in detail:
Trump’s companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means a company can remain in business while wiping away many of its debts. The bankruptcy court ultimately approves a corporate budget and a plan to repay remaining debts; often shareholders lose much of their equity.
Trump’s Taj Mahal opened in April 1990 in Atlantic City, but six months later, “defaulted on interest payments to bondholders as his finances went into a tailspin,” The Washington Post’s Robert O’Harrow found. In July 1991, Trump’s Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy. He could not keep up with debts on two other Atlantic City casinos, and those two properties declared bankruptcy in 1992. A fourth property, the Plaza Hotel in New York, declared bankruptcy in 1992 after amassing debt.
PolitiFact uncovered two more bankruptcies filed after 1992, totaling six. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts filed for bankruptcy again in 2004, after accruing about $1.8 billion in debt. Trump Entertainment Resorts also declared bankruptcy in 2009, after being hit hard during the 2008 recession.
Why the discrepancy? Perhaps this will give us an idea: Trump told Washington Post reporters that he counted the first three bankruptcies as just one.
Fact Check: Has Trump declared bankruptcy four or six times? by Michelle Lee September 26, 2016:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-has-trump-declared-bankruptcy-four-or-six-times/
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