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The Mind of a MAGA                                                                           #335

By Hank Silverberg 


I confess. I just don't understand the mind of a MAGA. 

I get that people think their taxes are too high. 

I understand why many people think there is rampant fraud and waste within the trillions spent by the federal government. (Though that has not been proven) 

I acknowledge that the immigration system is broken and we need to tighten our borders. 

But I just can't understand how Trump supporters can keep following a man who has not earned our respect and in fact, has destroyed the good name of the United States in just 100 days.  

You have probably seen the meme, released by the White House, of Trump dressed as the Pope. It shows a total lack of respect for a religious leader who has just died and for the 53 million Catholics in the United States. That's 20% of the adult population. But MAGAs are not offended and don't seem to care. 

 The New York State Catholic Conference wrote on X, “There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us."

I am reposting a very tiny image of the AI meme from Trump's Truth Social post so you can see why it's offensive, not just to Catholics, but to anyone with an understanding of empathy. 

 I don't understand how MAGAs can praise Trump's business acumen when he filed for bankruptcy four times, mostly to avoid paying money to vendors. And scammed students out of their money and federal student aid with the fake Trump University 

I don't understand why they think Trump is a good leader when he has angered both our allies and friends and destroyed America's world leadership in just 100 days. 

I do know one thing. As his actions, and those of the Republican lemmings in Congress sink in, it may be red state America that will be hit hardest. 

Best example so far: Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, Trump's former press secretary, asked for federal help after her state was hit hard by tornados and floods. Trump's administration said "no".   

Because of his lack of integrity and general exaggeration or lies about those items I mentioned above--taxes, waste, fraud, immigration -- I don't think Trump has accomplished anything positive yet. Most of the things he has done are negative, and often discriminatory.  

Or they have been ridiculous like renaming the Gulf of Mexico. 

I have asked a few people who voted for Trump if they regret it. Most have said "no". It seems none of his chaos has hit them yet. It will eventually, but I am not sure that will change their minds on Trump. And that is a tragedy for everyone.    


News You May Have Missed

Musk Gets His Own City. 

(Wikipedia)
Talk about a company town!  South Texas is getting a new city. It will be called Starbase after a small group of residents voted to incorporate their neighborhood. Starbase is headquarters and the launch site for the SpaceX rocket program, which is the federal government's top contractor for the mission to Mars. Two thirds of the 283 people who live in Starbase are SpaceX employees.

 The new city is located in Boca Chica, Texas, near Brownsville on the southern tip of the Gulf Coast. Starbase, the city, is just one-and-a-half square miles and according to the Texas Tribune, the candidates who ran for mayor and two commissioner positions, all work for SpaceX. And yes, you are right, Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, had a major influence in this decision to incorporate. After the vote a newly created Starbase media account on X posted this:

"Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space." 

I suppose the name Starbase is better than Muskville. 


https://time.com/7282440/elon-musk-spacex-starbase-city-texas-location-population/


National Parks Could Be Hit Hard By Budget Cuts

The federal budget being proposed for fiscal year 2026 has big budget cuts for many things. Among the ones not getting much attention is a proposed $1.2 billion cut in the National Park Service budget which now stands at $4.8 billion. 

That's a proposed 25% cut for national parks, monuments,  historic sites, seashores and trails.  

And that's just part of the more than $33 billion in cuts proposed for parks, public lands, environmental management, conservation and science related programs and grants. 

The Department of Government Efficiency has already cut about 2,500 National Park Service employees who were either probationary or who accepted a government buyout. 

(My photo from Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, taken in 2012)

The Park Service manages 433 sites in all. There are 63 National Parks. If the budget is approved, millions of acres of government land now accessible to the public would just be given away, while other parks would be given to the states to manage. 


The proposed cuts are broken down this way:

*$900 million from park service operations 

*$158 million from historic preservation 

*$77 million from reservation and preservation funding. 

*$73 million from national park construction

This link will  get you to a list of all sites handled by the National Park Service. 

https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm

Many of these sites are pristine, undeveloped national treasures which left unprotected, could be lost to us forever. 

Dumbest Quote of The Week!

This week's dumbest quote comes from Justice Department Spokesman Chad Gilmartin. I don't usually pick on "spokesmen" because they are just doing their job and spouting the party line. But this one seems so insensitive, it deserves to be highlighted.  A memorial honoring the victims of gun violence at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been removed. It consisted of 120 photos of people shot and killed, including, among others, police officers and school children. It had been put up by the ATF during the Biden Administration. 

Gilmartin's comment when asked about the removal of the memorial?

"The ATF will continue to honor the memory of all victims of violent crime while at the same time preserving the rights of law-abiding Americans." 

Apparently some people at the agency are now traumatized by seeing all those faces of people killed by guns. Gilmartin's canned statement was insensitive, but the reference to the Second Amendment made it political in nature. Not good. 


  • (Your comments and suggestions for this blog are welcome) 

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https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796


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