Trump Creates Chaos
In a chaotic world, our federal government normally acts as a stabilizing force. Under Trump, it’s driving chaos.
Tariffs on Mexico and Canada, two of America’s largest trading partners, have been on and then off, then on and then off. The administration put 80 million square feet of real estate up for sale, only then to take the “for sale” sign down. Federal employees at the CDC, the FDA, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Agriculture Department have been fired, then re-hired.
Trump touted the use of military aircraft to carry out high-profile deportations, only to suspend the flights after finally realizing what Democrats said was true—it would be too costly and inefficient. He promised not to cut Medicaid, then backed a House Republican budget plan that could force exactly that in order to meet its proposed spending cuts.
Tell me, how do you balance the federal budget while endorsing trillions of dollars in tax cuts, plus new campaign promises for no tax on tips and overtime as he has vowed to do?
We daily saw chaos during his first term, and now we’re seeing it again as stocks fall, jobs are cut and hospitals along with nursing homes are in danger of being closed. Egg prices continue to rise, accompanied by an increase in most of what we buy, with no solutions in sight from the president or our Republican-controlled Congress.
As we saw the first time around, chaos seems to be the point.
Peggy Perkins
Winder
Cryptocurrency Corruption
I write today to point out, as others have, the utter corruptness of Trump and his cronies. One need look no further than his cryptocurrency scheme to see that he has created yet another way to bring millions into his own pockets.
If you don’t know how cryptocurrency works, look on the Federal Trade Commission website. You may also want to see the Reuters article “Trump’s meme coin made nearly $100 million in trading fees, as small traders lost money” by Tom Wilson and Michelle Conti.
Trump owns the trading company named CCI Digital, and the official website for $Trump (his meme coin) says CCI Digital will “receive trading revenue derived from trading activities” of the meme coin. Meanwhile, on Feb. 26, “lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justin Sun, a 34-year-old Chinese crypto entrepreneur, asked a federal judge to put the agency’s case on hold, citing the interests of both sides and the public’s interest. The pause is a 180 for the SEC, America’s top financial regulator, which two years ago charged Sun and his companies… with selling unregistered securities and fraudulently manipulating the price of digital token Tronix. Sun and his companies sought to have the case dismissed,” according to a CNN Business News article titled, “A crypto mogul who invested millions into Trump coins is getting a reprieve on civil fraud charges,” by Allison Morrow.
The president has paused all investigations into corporate foreign bribery. He has also fired 17 inspector generals who are auditors appointed to root out abuses of power, waste and mismanagement. This is a corrupt President who is making it easier for his wealthy billionaire donors to benefit.
I am not a journalist nor are economics, business and government my professional background. But as my letter shows, it is possible to find the truth in the written word, on the internet, in news outlets that are unbiased. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of everyone who believes in our democracy to be vigilant, to seek truth and root out the outrageous lies being told by Trump and his allies. Protect democracy, speak up!
Gail W. Hoge
Athens
Trump Targets Social Security
One by one, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have decimated institutions created by Congress to protect the health and welfare of Americans. Now it’s Social Security.
Seventy-three million Americans receive benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA). More than 7 million Americans 65 and older receive at least 90% of their income from Social Security. Forty-two percent of Americans age 65 and up report that they wouldn’t be able to afford necessities like food, clothes or housing without their monthly Social Security retirement benefits. More than 11 million disabled Americans under the age of 65 rely on benefits administered by the SSA through either Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income or both. The SSA has never missed a payment in over 80 years.
Former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley says, “Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits,” and adds, “I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.” Why?
The Trump/Musk playbook is the familiar one: fire massive numbers of employees (especially those experienced with SSA’s outdated equipment); close 50 local SSA offices; eliminate the ability to apply for benefits or make changes by phone and force older and disabled beneficiaries to have computer access to online services or make in-person appointments, even as the local offices are closed.
Musk and Trump are breaking our Social Security system—and Congress must act to stop it. Will Congressman Mike Collins support legislation to do just that? So far, Collins has enthusiastically endorsed everything the Trump/Musk wrecking crew does.
Bruce Menke
Athens
Trump’s Not So Bad
Although Flagpole works at being all-anti-Trump-all-the-time, how about an exception here? Carol Myers’ litany of fears and grievances (Flagpole, Mar. 19) deserves rebuttal, if the pain of honest disagreement can still be tolerated in progressive circles.
Myers says she is at the most troubled moment of her 66 years; I can say likewise for my 20 or so additional years. Many if not most of us MAGA crowd will recognize Trump’s shortcomings, but in light of the other side’s embarrassing silliness and pure wrong-headedness so much of the time, he is easy to forgive.
Plenty of us indeed are elderly, and we cede no moral ground to progressives: We’ve worked hard all our lives, and are disappointed that the social contract we abided with has been so willingly tossed onto the scrap heap. You do still know the concept, right? We obey the laws and pay our taxes, fight the wars if we have to, but stay out of them otherwise, help our neighbors, and try to be decent citizens. In exchange, the government works to keep us safe, helps us educate our kids, spends our taxes as wisely as politicians can, and stays out of our hair and lets us live our lives. How has that been going in recent years? Enough of us thought, “not so well,” that we changed horses.
But let’s talk about Myers’ lament. First of all, America is not, excuse me, about equality, only about equality of opportunity. DEI that is administered top-down is the very embodiment of the authoritarianism she so fears about Trump, the government as a tool to shape society to its own vision of behavior and speech. And so of course the man she reveres, Bernie Sanders, is a proud socialist. Can we please acknowledge that if you love socialism, you love authoritarianism, that by definition it’s a top-down system that only functions through government control and intervention in all aspects of our lives.
Now much of the litany is just hysteria: Trump threatens human rights, freedom of speech, religion, Social Security, academic freedom, all the rest; it’s just too sad and ridiculous. About attacks on the transition to clean energy, are we to make no connection between current energy costs and the “60% of Americans” she says are living paycheck to paycheck? And does the affordable housing shortage have nothing to do with the millions and millions of “our immigrant friends”? And keeping our water clean is noble, but has really become the biggest government boondoggle in history, saddling farms and land owners with unmanageable regulations over the smallest trickles and ponds.
I could go on, but one point I must make: to say we abandon Ukraine is truly a canard. Trump alone has had the courage and vision to try to stop a war that threatens to become much much wider, putting his own political credibility on the line to do it. Putin is a very bad guy and will do anything to avoid coming away after three years of death and destruction with nothing to show for it. He already has the North Koreans in it, and that means China, too. European cowardice and sloth is at the base of all this, and plenty of them would be very happy to draw our troops into it.
Look: I have plenty of old-time liberal creds; I voted for JFK, didn’t I? And I could give you pages of discussion, but I would simply hope to find some ground to debate all these issues that are so easily dismissed as the nastiness of Trump and his bitter crowd of Neanderthals. It ain’t so, folks.
Charlie Jersawitz
Athens
Pathways Is Broken
Many thanks to Margaret Coker for her article on Georgia’s Medicaid experiment (Flagpole, Mar. 19). As a medical social worker for 29 years, I am sadly aware of how many are underserved by our health care system. I was sure things would change because the amount of suffering was unimaginable and inexcusable in this wealthy country. But Georgians most in need didn’t get the benefit of Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act, thanks to our governor and Republican leadership. As Coker detailed, they put up the Pathways program, underfunded it, and still managed to waste a ton of money—while they made things harder for those most in need.
The example of the trucker who works part-time so he can care for his son and elderly father is a case in point. He spends hours every month loading documents into a poorly built system, even though the Pathways program confirms that they only check eligibility paperwork once a year. There must be someone, or several someones, whose job is to ensure that getting help in Georgia is made as difficult as possible. And I bet those someones get a raise.
Kathryn Kyker
Athens
ACC Should Sell Property
I have no direct opinion of what may happen with the Saye building in general (Flagpole, Mar. 26). It is interesting, though, that there are issues with this non-taxed property owned by a church versus all the non-taxed property that ACC has collected and taken off the tax books or has not returned to the tax base.
An example is when the water office moved to the converted bank downtown (after $5 million rehab) from Prince Avenue, the property on Prince stayed under ACC and could have been sold as prime property for tax revenue. There is much more land and other property owned by ACC that could be viewed the same way. Just check on the county property tax site.
I just find it a paradox the one (ACC) with much off the tax base creates drama about such a small church-owned non-taxed property. In my opinion, as a property owner here in ACC, ACC has placed much more burden on the tax payer by absorbing taxable property than one small property downtown.
George Veeder
Athens
Collins Should Speak Up About Leak
I have emailed my congressional representative, Mike Collins, with a request that he acknowledge the unacceptable risk created to American military personnel by the security breach created by Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth and the others in the Signal “chat group.” I have not received a response, so I will repeat my request here.
As everyone knows by now, the chat disclosed specific, accurate accounts of the bombing raid to be conducted by the American military on Yemen. Through the unimaginable incompetence of this chat group, Jeffrey Goldberg, an editor for The Atlantic magazine, was included in the chat.
The extreme danger that the public disclosure of the details of the attack plan posed to the American service personnel involved in this attack is not diminished by calling it a glitch or a mistake to be learned from, as the administration has done. The members of our military risk their lives in our names. They and their families deserve that this risk be minimized to the extent humanly possible.
Waltz, Hesgeth and the others involved in that chat have demonstrated that through incompetence or neglect they are not worthy of their offices. They all should be dismissed.
I have asked Rep. Collins to be as brave as our soldiers and make a public statement denouncing this breach and those involved. We are all at risk if our elected representatives do not stand up for us.
Kathy Lynne Sanderson
Athens
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