“It’s all made-up.” she said. “That’s the point.”
It’s extortion. Extortion (noun): the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.
Currently, he extorts law practices. He extorts universities. His strategy is to make up an offense so he might exact his price. In his tariffs he claims extortion from other nations so that he might extort them. His tariffs also give him leverage over the nation’s businesses: soon he will extort them, too: he’ll suggest that he’ll remove the tariffs impacting their bottom-line if they give him what he wants.
As is true of all bullies, he pretends strength to mask his weakness. For instance, the supposed most powerful man on earth can’t seem to recover a citizen wrongly sent to hell in El Salvador. “The administration further says it lacks the power to seek his return from El Salvador’s government…” Truer words were never written: he lacks power. So, he must extort.
This is my favorite made-up offense: claiming that Columbia University tolerated antisemitism, the bully administration withheld $400 million dollars of federal funding. It’s my favorite because the made-up offense smacks of a (slightly twisted) DEI protection: he claims that he’s punishing the university for not protecting a minority group. He claims that he’s championing equality. Sounds like a liberal impulse to me!
I wonder why his dedicated DEI-esque protection of a targeted minority group doesn’t include African Americans or LGBTQ? A rhetorical question so no need to roll your eyes. His extortion exclusively serves himself, whiteness and the ultra-wealthy. It need not make sense or be consistent since it is all-made-up.
The first amendment protects the right to protest. A pro-Palestinian rally in the United States of America is not a failure to protect Jewish students. It’s a student group exercising their first amendment right. The university caved nonetheless, validating the bully’s tactic. Just as are the law practices. Just as is the congress. Just as is the now awol justice system. [note: how sad that rather than protect their student’s first amendment right, the university instead protected their bottom line…a microcosm in the tale of the collapse of democracy in the USA]
A president who resorts to extortion is not a president (a servant of the people). He is an authoritarian wanna-be (a servant to himself). He is a controller. He lacks power. It’s basic.
It makes me wonder when some courage will rise in the spines of the people and institutions he currently extorts. There’s little to be found within our borders so perhaps the rest of the world can show us actual courage by not bending the knee to this little made-up-big-man and his not-so-made-up-malfeasance.
read Kerri’s blogpost about TARIFFS
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The Direction of Intention 