Remember when welfare mothers picked up checks in Cadillacs?
A parable is a moral story that can be applied to many situations. With Donald Trump, there can be thousands of immoral situations.
Let’s use the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to name just one. In the old days, when Republicans and Democrats actually worked together for the common good, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation to establish a performing arts center in Washington for the common good of the nation. When he was elected, President John F. Kennedy championed the cause by approving money for it in the federal budget.
As the huge building took shape in the 1960s, 60 nations donated furnishings and art. Italy gave the largest gift — 3,700 tons of very high-quality Carrara marble that sheaths the façade and the interior walls. The marble is from the same pit that the marble for Michelangelo’s “David” came from.
When Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Congress dedicated the institution to him. It has an Opera House, a Grand Foyer, a Hall of Nations, a Concert Hall, Millenium Stages for free performances and an Eisenhower Theater.
An 87-year-old tour guide named Sandy Weiswasser, a retired sixth-grade teacher from Michigan, has been a tour guide at the center for 18 years. She recently gave an interview describing her reactions to the current Trump controversy.
“This place used to be really thriving and busy and crowded,” she said. “Now it’s a black hole.”
It’s a black hole because of Donald Trump. The Washington National Opera left after performing there for 15 years after an argument with the new director.
What is the most dangerous man in the world doing today?
Let’s remember that Donald’s niece, Mary Trump — who has observed him since childhood — is a practicing psychologist who has called him “the most dangerous man in the world.” She agrees with the diagnosis of 27 psychologists and psychiatrists who label him a malignant narcissist, a person who has fallen in love with himself and has no empathy. He must also dominate the 24/7 news cycle.
His mental illness forced him to add his name to JFK’s on the Kennedy Center, assuming command of the entire operation and handpicking the governing board. As performers canceled hundreds of bookings and the Concert Hall filled with trash, “Firing Fridays” were used to fire staff and march them out of the building, given 20 minutes to leave.
For many years, volunteer guides who worked hard to guide people to the right event were honored and feted at an elegant dinner and praised. This year volunteers had a two-hour reception and given bottle openers and dish towels.
Billionaire David Rubenstein was chairman of the center until replaced by Trump and his loyalist board. Rubenstein had financed many of the programs at the center and turned it into a community hub. Trump and his board have turned it into a dark disaster after he had put his name in front of Kennedy’s name. Ms.Weiswasser comes with three other guides each day, but they often have no one to guide and nothing to do except sit at the information desk in the dark.
A court decision demanded that Trump remove his name from the building. Trump had it done in the darkness of the night — behind canvas drapes. Reminds one of how the dark, disastrous Iran War is being conducted.
Trump uses “I” and “me” hundreds of times a day. He should study this Edgar Guest statement every day: “I have to live with myself, so I want to be fit for myself to know. I want to be able, as days go by, always to look myself in the eye. I don’t want to stand in the setting sun and hate myself for things I’ve done. I want to go out with my head erect; I want to deserve my own respect.”
The problem is, Trump loves only himself.
Meanwhile, the cost of the Iran War keeps “Escalading!”
Economists have estimated that the 240 million households in the Divided States of America have already paid more than $1,100 each in fighting the Iran War. In order to look good in fighting the war, Trump announced that he had just ordered 250 Cadillac SUV Escalades for White House and administration use during a speech at a General Motors facility in Michigan.
Why?
“We ordered 250 Escalades because we want to look sharp in those cavalcades, you know,” Trump explained. “We look sharp in those Escalades. Our guys are very spoiled. They like the Escalade. So do I.”
The newspaper story covering the event said the suggested retail price of the giant SUVs was more than $90,000. I checked a Minneapolis dealership. It listed a regular, fully-equipped one at $183,084. That’s quite a bit more than $90,000. Maybe Trump cut a deal. But, then again, maybe he was lying again.
How many will be specialized for the president and his Secret Service protection? It presently costs about $1.5 million per car to add 3- to 5-inch thick ballistic glass and about 700 pounds of armor plate to each door. The underbody is protected by ceramic layers, steel sheets and Kevlar to protect the car from roadside bombs. Each Secret Service vehicle has run-flat tires, oxygen supplies, built-in blood bank and secure, encrypted military communication systems.
A half-century ago, Ronald Reagan complained about Chicago welfare mothers driving their Cadillacs to pick up welfare checks. It’s time that grocery shoppers putting groceries on high interest credit cards complain about politicians riding around in deluxe Cadillac Escalades that run about $1.5 million.
I forgot to mention Escalades have 24-gallon gas tanks. It takes a $100 bill to fill it now. If Trumpers modify and armor plate half of the Escalades purchased by Trump, they will burn up $200 million.
Why do Europeans live longer than Americans?
A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the most respected journal in the Divided States of America, stated that the wealthiest Americans had much higher mortality rates while earning the highest salaries per capita in the world and spending twice as much as comparable countries on healthcare. As a matter of fact, richest Americans have mortality rates comparable to the poorest of northern and western Europe. Americans die younger than any Europeans in every wealth category. There are many other reasons why Americans die younger than Europeans.
We are a uniquely violent high-income country with perhaps 450 million guns in the homes and on the streets. Guns are the leading cause of death for children and adolescents. Among children of 0 to 17 years of age, our death rate for children by firearms is 72 times higher than Great Britain. And of course, we also average one mass shooting a day somewhere in our huge country.
Another reason is we are the only high-income country in the world which does not have universal healthcare as a right. Presently, we have 26 million Americans uninsured and 77 million underinsured. On top of all of this, we have an administration and a Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy, Jr., who has dropped us from the World Health Organization and cut billions from health and science research at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Federal Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Sixty percent of Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. He is also an anti-science antivaxxer.
We must also remember that, according to Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, more than half of American households live paycheck to paycheck and do not have enough savings to buy a set of tires for their old car.
“American consumers are getting shafted,” said Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in a sharp summary.” Both Trump’s war and his tariffs are pushing up prices for a vast range of goods and services. The result is a massive redistribution of income and wealth from American consumers to big American corporations.”
Why does a guy from Miami Beach want to buy icebreakers?
It’s just been revealed that President Alexander Stubb of Finland had sent a gold framed picture of an icebreaker to Trump and Trump quickly decided to buy 11 of them from Finland in a very hot no-bid deal for $7 billion. They had played golf together at Mar-a-Loco. The DSA Coast Guard wanted only five icebreakers. As usual, when the Trump administration buys something from overseas, many national security laws have to be stretched or broken. The DSA Coast Guard wanted five of them for dealing with a melting northwest passage and Russia.
Was Trump thinking of invading and defeating Greenland or renting or leasing it from Denmark? Only The Shadow knows.
“The number ‘11’ came directly from the president,” said Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday in an interview. “This was the president’s number and the president’s decision.”
I wonder how long he will keep his job. He’d better get his testosterone shots quick. This deal is based on another no-bid contract, like the one on the reflecting pool.
Although Trump had promised Americans “I will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end,” he has involved us in a stupid foreign war with Iran — and killed and wounded Americans in a war that may never end. By the way, our main competition, China, appears to be happy we are at war. It is leading the world in the global production of green energy technology. While we are at war, China has increased the production and shipment of lithium batteries and wind turbines by 38% and 36% respectively.
Every American should read ‘Locked Away’ in The New Yorker
The article in the July 29, 2026 issue is a complete indictment of the Trump administration’s immigration program. I’m going to use incidents from the article to convince you to read it.
A wife whose husband had been detained for months in Camp East Montana in Texas got a morning call from the detention center. “Your husband woke up dead this morning,” the caller said.
ICE guards bet up to $500 on which detainees would commit suicide next. “Every day felt like a month,” said detainee Omar Ramsi. “Every month felt like a year. Camp East Montana was one thousand percent worse than a prison.”
A man denied a bond release was detained at Camp East Montana. “I have been in the U.S. for thirty-three years,” he said. “What is the danger I pose to society? Why am I still here?”
A wife of a detainee who had numerous medical problems said that “the problem wasn’t just the lack of response — it was they denied he was sick. They told him his blood pressure was fine when it wasn’t. But they made no record. I can’t tell you if they did any of what they said.”
“ICE lies as much as their creator,” a lawyer for a detainee said.
