Winner-Take-All - The Rise Of The Mega-Dealership

Small-town dealers - of cars, boats, RVs, electronics, or anything - are a dying breed.

We are at an RV show in Florida, looking at "Class B" vans - RVs built on a van chassis, such as a Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit, or Ram Promaster (the latter sold in Europe as a Fiat).  We are renting one in Spain for a month and want to see what they are like.  As we get older, towing a trailer seems more difficult and the savings in storage fees (we can park the van in the driveway) would help defer the additional cost of switching to one.

What was interesting to me was that there were basically four mega-dealers there with dozens of RVs each.  No small-time dealers or Mom-and-Pop operations.  One salesman, from "Admiral RV" gleefully told me that "Leisure-Days" RV chain would soon go bust, and that his chain would snatch up the remnants of that once dominant dealership.

What happened?  Well, the big dealers get discounts - kick-backs - from the manufacturers, for selling a lot of RVs.  Car dealers work the same way, which is why you see so many big mega-chains of car dealerships, with dozens of locations and a host of brands.  Once you move a lot of product for a manufacturer, you can ask for - perhaps demand - special discounts and rebates, much as Rockefeller asked for "rebates" from the railroads for shipping his oil.

The snowball effect kicks in.  Since the big dealers can offer lower prices, they get more business and become more profitable and can expand further.  For the small dealer, the reverse-snowball kicks in, and since he has smaller margins, he has to charge more for the same product and resort to screwing his customers to make a buck.  This, in turn, pisses off the customer base, and they flock to the mega-dealer for better deals.  I learned this firsthand, years ago, when we bought the Nissan Frontier.  The local dealer had four in stock, one nearly two years old, unsold!  The big dealer in Jacksonville had dozens and called me one day, a year later, with an offer that was too good to refuse.

So the smaller dealer goes bust, and the mega-dealer who is flush with cash, buys him out for pennies on the dollar.  Capitalism at work!  And at first blush, this seems like a win-win for everyone except Joe Small-town dealer.  The customer gets lower prices, the manufacturer moves more product (and has to deal with fewer dealers) and the mega-dealer make more money.

Are there any other downsides?  Perhaps.  So long as there is competition between competing mega-dealers, prices can stay in check.  But if the number of dealers dwindles down to just a few - a duopoly, for example - it becomes a lot easier to fix prices and screw the consumer on a grand scale.

Perhaps this hasn't happened yet and maybe it never will. Maybe it already has. After all, at least with RVs, all you need to do to start an RV company is buy a sheet of fiberglass and a screw-gun.  I've seen it firsthand!

On the other hand, it seems that more and more of our economy is being controlled by a few big players.  You want to eat?  Chances are, you have to shop at one of four or five mega-chains to buy groceries, with Walmart being the 600 lb gorilla in the room.  They can set prices - to drive a competitor out of business or to reap windfall profits from consumers.

It just struck me as interesting that, not too long ago, there were no nationwide or regional mega-dealers of anything, and yet today, these are quite common, and it all happened in a short period of time and no one seemed to notice (or at least I didn't!).

Three Kinds Of Learning And Politics

There are some people who need to burn their hand on a hot stove before they learn.

Above: My idea for a t-shirt logo.

Many years ago, I wrote about the three kinds of learning.  It seems that most people have to put their hand on the hot stove before they figure out that (a) stoves get hot, and (b) hot things can burn you, which hurts.  Today, we are seeing this on a national scale, in real-time.

Sadly, it seems that until a lot of people get personally hurt by Trump's economic and political policies, not much will change.  As I noted in that earlier posting, not many people can learn indirectly - by seeing someone else burn their hand on a hot stove - and thus realize that putting their own hand on the stove is a bad idea.  Fewer still will every advance to projected learning - and postulate that since they know that stoves get hot and hot things burn, putting your hand on a hot stove is a bad idea, even if they never experienced this firsthand or saw it happen to others.

On the run-up to the election, those who were above cave-man mentality were warning of what would happen - that tariffs would tank the economy and that the government would devolve into fascism and oligarchy.  Funny thing, I met a fellow who was "concerned" by what Trump was doing ("he is hurting the wrong people!") but barfed up a Fox News Talking Point - that just because historically tariffs have caused economic chaos, doesn't mean it will happen again  Economists beg to differ.

Trump and like-minded Republicans pine for the gilded age before the income tax, where a starved national government had few programs, a tiny military, and no foreign entanglements.  When we went to war, it was against weak, opportunistic opponents, such as Spain's overseas colonies.  Dynastic, generation-spanning wealth was possible for a privileged few, and the rich built white-elephant mansions staffed by dozens of servants.  Today, many of those mansions, such as the Biltmore in Asheville, NC, are museums, or like Dungeness on Cumberland Island, lay in ruins.

What changed? The income tax for starters - and the Gifts and Estate tax (called the "death tax" by Republicans).  Both taxes have been in the gunsights of the GOP for ages.  These taxes made it harder - but not impossible - to accumulate dynastic wealth.  It made it harder - but not impossible - for rich people to pass on their estates intact to the next generation.  But as I noted in another posting, the simple mathematics of inheritance mean that each generation divides up the wealth more than the previous.  When Elon Musk dies, his estate will be divided by spouse(s) and children (11 at the last count) and the wealth inherited will dissipate rather quickly.  Now you know why, in Jolly Ole England, the oldest son inherited everything and the other kids got bubkis.

But I digress.

Trump's theory is that we can abolish the income tax entirely and rely instead on a national sales tax (what they call a VAT or Value Added Tax in Europe and the UK) and tariffs.  Indeed, tariffs were one of the major sources of income for the fledgling United States government in the 1800s - and helped promote domestic industry in an era where we relied on England for most of our manufactured goods.  Being a Republican in the Lincoln era meant you stood for "God, Country, and the Tariff!"  A lot has changed since then.  Today, Lincoln would likely be a Democrat.

So that's the plan.  Abolish all social welfare programs, including Social Security and Medicare. Shrink the military and cut ties with our allies.  Shrink the government so much that you could "drown it in a bathtub" as Grover Norquist once quipped.  How do I know this?  It is what they said they would do.  Sell off government lands, including national parks, and use the money to buy cryptocurrency.  What could possibly go wrong with that?

Of course, there may be another strategy.  Declare tariffs on Monday - after your rich friends have shorted automaker stocks - and then suspend them on Tuesday (after your rich friends went long on the same shares).   But crypto cheap and then declare you will start a national crypto fund.  OK, so it doesn't always work the way you want it to.  But these regular sea-saws of policies do swing markets and it is a great way to manipulate the market.

So that is always a possibility - that "Project 2025" was never a serious proposition, but just a way to create chaos and profit from it.  Either scenario is disturbing.

But getting back to our main point, nothing will change until a number of Republicans start to realize that Trump policies are bad for business and thus bad for their pocketbooks.  Traditional Republicans - business owners and investors - don't want to see major disruptions in the marketplace, unless, as I noted above, they can profit from them.  GM, Ford, and Stellantis don't want to see tariffs one day and then none the next.  You can't plan a business when conditions are changing on a day-to-day basis.

The MAGA Republicans - mostly working-class people - haven't seen these policies affect them - yet.  We are starting to hear some MAGA-heads becoming alarmed when they lose government contracts or government jobs, or lose business deals due to tariffs (or even the threat thereof).  Many are starting to question their support of Trump, but alas, like the Cybertruck owner whose car has been in the shop for 60 of the 90 days they've owned it, they "Still love the truck!"

It will take real pain to get through to these do-do heads.  But even then, MAGA-world has a built-in set of excuses.  It was all Biden's fault.   Obama's fault.  Hillary.  Bill.  Jimmy Carter.  Anyone but their infallible orange God!

But it's not a cult and doncuforgetit!

Even today in Germany, there are those who celebrate Hitler's birthday and secretly profess an admiration for a man who destroyed their own country and killed millions of people.  There will always be idiots, it seems, and there will always be MAGA-heads, even decades from now, once we emerge from the smoldering wreckage of what once was the US of A.

But that does not mean change won't come.  Enough people will turn away from Trumpism once they realize it hurts them, their neighbors, their friends, the country, and the world.  It won't take much, either.  Trump won with a small majority of those who voted, which makes up less than a third of the population of the United States.  The House and Senate are held by the GOP by slim majorities - a few seats one way or the other could change things dramatically.

Even the Supreme Court has its limits - lifetime appointments tend to mellow justices, Clarence Thomas notwithstanding.  You can get Amy Barrett to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade as it was a technically challenged decision ("Are abortion laws unconstitutional?  Yes, and let me give you a three-trimester outline as to how it should all work!")  but getting her to void basic contract law?  That's a lot to ask of a former law school dean.  "Yea, the government can simply void contracts for work already performed, on a whim - that works!"

So maybe the tide will turn - but not before a lot of people get hurt.  And it sounds mean to say this, but no one seems to have much sympathy for the Trump voter who gets his dick caught in the wringer, crying "you were supposed to hurt the other guy, not me!"  Maybe he'll learn from his hot stove experience.

Probably not, though.  And I don't feel sorry for him, either.

Drug Use and Fascism

If you are wired on drugs, it is easier to deny reality.

There has been a lot of talk about how Trump and Musk are on some sort of drugs.  Both are accused of taking Ketamine, a drug prescribed for depression, or Adderall, a drug prescribed to attention deficit disorder.  Others have accused Trump of using cocaine, particularly during the disco era.  Reports have come in saying that the White House, under Trump, was awash in stimulants and sleep aids, not only for Trump, but also his staff.  A woman alleges that Musk used to do LSD and even asked her to get into a three-way sex orgy at the time.  And of course, Musk is famous for his junior-high-school giggles involving "420" references.

The use of drugs, legal and illegal, to alter perceptions and behaviors is well-known.  During World War II (and presumably other wars since), armies would hand out "little white pills" - amphetamines - to soldiers to keep them awake for long periods of time during battles - and also make them more aggressive and more prone to risk-taking.

Hitler, of course, was infamous for his drug use - uppers and downers and God-knows-what-else.  It takes a wired mind to think you can still win a war when the enemy is literally overrunning your country.

Mood-altering drugs - the name itself is telling - alter your mood.  Alcohol is a drug, and it will make you depressed, anxious, aggressive, violent, sleepy - or even incoherent.  I remember (vividly, a sad side-effect of aging, I'm afraid) my Mother's fugue states she would enter once she had a few drinks.  Rambling, screaming, shouting, getting violent.  It was alarming how she could change from Jekyll to Hyde in a matter of  minutes.  She was not a happy drunk, a sleepy drunk, or a mellow drunk.   She went right to crazy.

Trump famously doesn't drink, but his odd behavior could be explained by drug use.  He rambles and is incoherent.  He says things and then denies he ever said them (and probably doesn't really remember saying them).  There is no way to rationalize his behaviors other than to wonder whether he is mentally ill, on drugs, or both.  Drug use seems to fit the pattern.

I wrote before about cocaine users and how annoying they are.  You do cocaine, and you start to think that everything you do is fantastic.  There is no self-doubt or any check or balance to your behavior.  You tend to stop associating with people who don't use coke, so eventually you live in an echo chamber, with your "new friends" telling you nothing but what you want to hear.  Coke heads are annoying AF.

Chronic drug use leads to chronic health problems over time.  Judy Garland was famously doped up with uppers to make her perform.  Of course, then she couldn't sleep, so they gave her depressants - the same rollercoaster of uppers and downers that drove Hitler insane, and later on, Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Prince, to name a few.  Throw in some alcohol and your liver is toast.  Lack of proper sleep can lead to other problems, such as Parkinson's.

A reader sends me this chart showing Musk's tweeting habits.  When does this guy ever sleep?

The above chart plots every Tweet made by Elon Musk from 2014 onward.  I am not sure of the provenance of this chart, and of course, he may be using bots or assistants to make Tweets for him.  But if he is indeed posting this much on Twitter - at all hours of the day - then he is suffering from severe sleep deprivation and it falls in line with amphetamine usage.

You know who else sends incoherent Tweets at 2 AM?  Yea, Trump.  Sort of fits a pattern here - rampant drug usage among right-wingers.  But of course, it is prescribed medicine so it isn't drug abuse, right?

I am taking a synthetic dopamine drug and it is interesting to observe my own behavior when the drug wears off and after I take it.  Without the drug, it is hard to do simple manual tasks like tying my shoes or putting on a jacket.  Not impossible, just time-consuming.  And sometimes, as Juan's Grandmother used to say, you have to "push through the evil" and your appendages start working, twice as fast as normal.  It is like watching a movie in slow motion and then see it speed up to 4x speed instantaneously.

But besides physical effects are mental ones.  I get irritable and impatient when low on dopamine.  I tried to navigate a cruise ship website the other day and it was frustrating as hell.  Every page wants to sell you an upgrade and the information you really want is three pages deep, and in a manner where you will never find that page again, without spending a half-hour again, trying to find it.  And no, you can't bookmark it - the bookmark will just take you to the login page.

So the dopamine kicks in and an hour later I am content as a kitten.  My own behavior has changed in a matter of minutes.

I wrote about this before - how our brains are just a bag of chemicals and electrical impulses.  Fortunately, the dopamine drug I am taking is not the one that makes you gamble uncontrollably or turn you into a cannibal hamster.

Of course, you can't just do drugs forever, without harming your body.  Although there are records of people who did massive amounts of drugs and lived a long, long time.   There are rock stars who are doing their geriatric "farewell tours" again and again, looking like dried raisins.  It is interesting that the current administration is somewhat silent on the topic of drug use - although drug laws are designed to imprison poor people, while the wealthy can hire lawyers and go free.

The only exception seems to be Fentanyl.  And maybe perhaps that is because it is poisoning the drug supply, which takes all the fun out of recreational drug use.

Myself, I kind of soured on the drug scene after a decade or so.  My sister turned me on to pot when I was 13 (pot users become evangelical drug users - believing that if everyone smoked pot, the world would be a better place).  But eventually, I got tired of it - and the marginal life I was leading.  I never did speed, of course, and cocaine seemed like a dead-end.  Now that Marijuana is legal in places, I have tried it again, but oddly enough, the desire to get high has largely diminished.  When I was a teen, getting high all the time seemed like the thing to do.  As an oldster, it is more like, "meh!"

Sad to say, but it takes a long time for a drug user to crash and burn.  It is possible that Trump and Musk may continue their Laurel and Hardy act for another four years or more.

Political Scam PACs Are At It Again?

If you get an e-mail or text from a group purporting to support Democratic candidates - ignore it.

Back in October, I wrote about a shady PAC that was sending me lots of messages asking for money.  The further I dove into it, the worse it got.  They are a PAC, just not a legit one.  They even are listed on the "Act Blue" website, and I immediately cancelled my account there.

It ain't just Donald Trump grifting off of politics these days - it is a money-making franchise.  And Democrat or Republican, you will get SPAMmed with these messages, asking you for donations that go into someone's pocket - just not the someone you are trying to help elect.

If you want to donate to a candidate, find their legitimate website and donate there.

But, I suspect there is an ancillary goal of these fraudsters - to get people to be skeptical of political groups and PACs and to stop donating.  If you are really into conspiracy theories, maybe the Russians are behind this - using the money to self-fund their own disinformation campaigns.  If so, what a brilliant move!  Get Americans to foot the bill for their own brainwashing.

Lately, I have gotten a slew of messages from various candidates, each one loaded with lines of question marks, which I assume is some sort of HTML error as my phone is so old as to not display most emojis.  This message came in today, purportedly from Governor Walz:

Hey Robert, it's Gov. Tim Walz.

A little over a month ago, Donald Trump took office and solidified a GOP trifecta that will do his bidding, alongside a Supreme Court packed with extremist judges.

???????? ??????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????????? ????????????????????, ??????????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????. But here???s what I want you to know:

???????? ???????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????, ????????????????????????????????, ???????????? ???????????? ???????? ????????????????.

Democratic governors like myself are fighting every day to protect our shared values. But we can???t keep up our critical work without you.

Robert, if you???re ready to fight for a future where no one is left behind and nobody gets told they don???t belong, I???m right there with you.

That???s why I???m asking you right now: ???????????????? ???????????? ???????????????? ???? ???????????????????????? ???????? ???????????????????????????????? ???????? ???????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????:???????? ????.????. ????????????????????????????? Your input will be crucial in shaping our strategy for these next four years.

https://t.demgov.co/*******

Thank you,
Gov. Tim Walz for the Democratic Governors Association

Stop2End 

What's with all the question marks? Is this legit?  If so, why does it look so sleazy and link to a "survey" site which we are implored to complete "by midnight tonight" (every night is tonight, if you think about it).  Another missive claimed that I had to donate by "tonight" to defeat Republican candidates and flip the House to the Democrats.  There is a special election coming up - April 1st - but it is in two solidly Republican Florida districts.

What is t.demgov.co and why such a weird website name?  According to Scam Advisor, the site has a low score as it may contain malware.  The owner of the site has hidden their real name, the site has negative reviews, and is very young.

There is a legitimate Democratic Governors Association dedicated to helping Democratic Governors get elected. Note they have the ".org" suffix for an organization, not the ".co" for a corporation (originally for Colombia, before that country decided to rent it out).  Frankly, the whole ".co" domain sounds sketchy af.  While the DGA may be legit, it is still a better idea to just donate directly to the candidate of your choice - your dollars will go further without having to cover the overhead of a PAC.

And why is the DGA using a separate website URL for this donation/survey pitch?  I have more questions than answers.  Is the DGA even legit?  Check out this "open secrets" site which shows a paltry amount raised and little spent and notes that organizations cannot directly contribute to campaigns.  Another reason to contribute directly to a campaign.  The amount spent in the 2024 election cycle was negligible in the greater scheme of things.  Seems the bulk went to political parties.  The 2022 cycle was at least in the millions, although perhaps this is because more governor's seats were up for grabs.  Again, most money went to local political parties.  Why not donate directly?

Legitimate or not, their pitch for "Surveys" and donations has all the charm of an MLM scam.  It reminds me of the ACLU "surveys" I get in the mail regularly (and regularly throw in the trash).  Bear in mind, I get the same junk mail from Republican organizations and even candidates. They are an insult to my intelligence. Why not make the pitch for money directly from the candidate and cut out all these middlemen?

Sadly, these kinds of pitches seem to work, which is why they use them.  I scanned "Open Secrets" for everyone in my zip code and noticed that some people contributed, again and again, totalling thousands and thousands of dollars.  It's like learning your grandma is sending all her money to a televangelist!

I donated hundreds and hundreds of dollars during the last election cycle, and some of it even went to candidates.  In the future, however, I think I will be more selective in my donations - to candidates and not organizations.

And legit or not, never to these sleazy survey come-ons.  The reason they keep using them is that we keep donating!

UPDATE: In my SPAM box is a missive from "blue wave america" which has emojis in the title and exhorts me to help flip the House with all the charm of a carnival barker.  Open Secrets has little to say about this PAC.  Think I'll pass, thank you!

United We Stand, Divided We Fell

Russian propaganda isn't designed to convince us to love Russia, only to hate our neighbors.

Note:  Thanks to all the nice folks who have e-mailed me with kind words - and even writing letters!  Thanks!  However, my energy levels are not what they once were, so I may be writing less in the future.

* * *

There is so much talk today about how "divided" we are as a nation - and as a planet.  And all of this is by design, to get us to dislike or even hate one another, to the point where our country and indeed, all Western countries, are weakened and perhaps even fall.

A lot of people deny that the Russian Internet Research Agency is behind a lot of this propaganda.  To them, propaganda is something along the lines of the patriotic posters and movies of the Stalin era, where the workers were exhorted to make more tractors and harvest more wheat.  They expect Russian (and Chinese) propaganda to be as basic as "Russia great! West sucks!"   But of course, that would be stupid and people would readily see through that.  Not only that, it would accomplish nothing, even if some people believed the message (and a small minority of the far-right does, of course).

No, they are more nuanced than that.  Their goal is to divide us, get us angry at one another, to the point where our country - and the rest of the Western world - collapses from within.  Then they win without firing a shot.  It is right out of the Art of War playbook.

What sort of divisions am I talking about? Well, consider the following:

1. The War Between The Sexes:  In the last decade, we have seen the rise of the "red pill" and "incel" movements among men, with a similar backlash movement from women, who are naturally repulsed by the former. In case you have been sleeping under a rock for ten years, it works like this:  Online "influencers" like Andrew Tate, tell young men that they are entitled to the woman of their choice, who should perform sex on demand and make them a sandwich and clean house (the so-called "bang-maid") and not have a career of their own, but of course somehow have sufficient income to support their husband.

These men are taught that they can manipulate women through cheap psychology, such as "negging" - making slight derogatory comments to engender insecurity in women.  Of course, this rarely works as most women are smarter than that, and as a result, these young men become "incels" - involuntary celebrates (they claim) and become women-hating misogynists.  They are told if they vote Republican, then "traditional family values" will be forced upon the country and even women's right to vote will be rescinded.  Whether anyone actually believes this is questionable, but like the flat-earth theory, what starts out as an online joke ends up turning into a religion.

Women, of course, are repulsed by all of this nonsense.  You read about this all the time on discussion groups.  Online dating sites don't help any, with people's expectations being unreasonable and people of both sexes lying about themselves in their bios and using enhanced photos.  The net result is a host of people who are convinced that men or women are no damn good and they will never find a spouse.  Score: Puntin 1, Humanity 0.

2. The War Among the LBGTQ+ Alphabet:  In the last few years, we suddenly are hearing about transgender issues, as though they never existed in previous years.   Sure, there was Christine Jorgensen back in the 1950s and Bruce/Caitlin Jenner in more recent times (the latter, oddly enough, a staunch Republican).  It was pretty much and under-the-radar phenomenon until recently.  Trans people have always existed, but for some reason, in the last few years, we are told this is the most pressing issue of the day.

We are told we are bad people for using the wrong pronouns, or not supporting the transitioning of underage minors or even pre-pubescent kids.  Moreover, these expensive procedures are claimed to be "life-saving" on the premise that unless they are provided for free, people will kill themselves.  Real issues have been raised whether it is fair to have a transitioned person compete in women's sports, but rather than discuss this rationally, we are told to shut up.  Needless to say, this has been a real vote-getting issue for the GOP as no one likes to be told what to think or say.

On the flip side, I think trans people are being baited to become more militant and intolerant - and to shame anyone who questions any aspects of this.  We are being baited by outside forces.  Whether or not you are transgender is a serious question that should not be a part of pop culture or the latest fads or trends - and certainly not something for children to be deciding for themselves.  There are many varieties of people in this world, and not all effeminate men or masculine women are "trans" yet I think many are being pushed in that direction.

Part and parcel of this is the dicing and slicing of the various sexual minorities into an alphabet soup of self-identities.  I noted before that the great rift between gays and lesbians has been around for centuries and can only best be described as an uneasy truce.  Some gays, I am sad to say, just hate lesbians and protest when they "invade our space."  And sadly, the reverse is also true.  Divided, both groups are weaker than if they were united.

But it gets worse.  With each letter added to the alphabet mix, we are dividing into smaller and smaller subsets, and are encouraged to think of ourselves as different and not like others.  There are gays I have met who hate drag queens, and transvestites (many of whom are heterosexual) who want nothing to do with drag queens or transgender people or gays.  We have twinks, and bears, and otters and leathermen and lipstick lesbians, and so on - and never the twain shall meet, or so it seems.  Seeds of discontent and discord are spread, with the PC-talk about transgender folks only being the latest example of this divide-and-conquer strategy.

And this divisive talk is spread and encouraged online by you-know-who.

It is, of course, all nonsense.  You are not a heartless bastard for calling someone by the wrong pronoun, and the whole "preferred pronouns" nonsense, like most if not all PC-talk, amounts to reorganizing the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Only worse - as not only does it accomplish nothing, it turns people against one another.  It has a negative impact.

There is also the trolling aspect of it as well.  The Harry Potter lady likes to crack open a box of Chablis and start tweeting hateful things about trans folks.  Not a nuanced discussion of the real issues as I have noted above, but just gutter-talk and name-calling in an attempt to "trigger" people - and they respond in kind, with each new tweet setting off a firestorm on the Internet, thus distracting people from what is really going on.

3.  The Moderates Versus The Extremes:  Like it or not, most people, worldwide, are pretty politically moderate.  They are invested in the system and don't want to rock the boat.  By the time you are 30 and have a career and a mortgage, you want to work the system and get ahead - not overthrow it and start over.

But at an earlier age, it seems that the system is stacked against you - I know I felt that way at age 22, even as I was a salaried employee of GM.  Social Security?  I'll never collect that! - or so the GOP encouraged me to believe.  But by age 25, I sobered up (literally) finished my degree and in a few years, graduated from law school.  From dead broke to millionaire, in about a decade.  Needless to say, I didn't think the system was so bad at that point.

We are encouraged to be extremists.  Many young people touted the phrase "Killer Kamala" as though Democrats were somehow responsible for the war in Gaza - and that Republicans just loved Palestinians.  It was a ridiculous proposition, of course.  Yes, both parties are beholden to Israel and the Jewish vote (the latter once a lock for Democrats).  So instead of voting for the lesser of two evils, they either voted for the most evil, or a third party spoiler - if they voted at all.

And make no mistake about it, phrases like "Killer Kamala" were coined and minted in Russia.  It was a clever technique that even got some Muslims to vote for Trump - the same Trump who touted a "Muslim Ban" the last time around.

Of course, this works two ways.  While the far-left of the Democratic party was encouraged to sit out the election, the moderate independents (who make up the vast majority of the electorate) were encouraged to vote GOP by painting the Democrats as leftist extremists.  Sadly, the Democrats went along with this, trying desperately to court the far-left vote (which never would have been satisfied) while alienating moderates who otherwise would be turned off by Trump's antics.  Turning moderates against extremists and vice-versa resulted in a GOP win.

But of course, Trump is an extremist.  How did they get moderates to go along with that?  Well, the GOP was successful in convincing the moderates that Trump "wasn't all that bad" and moreover, didn't have to worry about losing the extremist vote - their "base" in every sense of the word.   The Nazis, anti-semites, racists, preppers, incels and all the other components of Hillary's well-named "basket of deplorables" would vote for Trump no matter how much he might soften his image to appeal to the moderates.  Moderates were not attending his rallies, they were watching Fox News and reading sane-washed articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

So you see, it was a losing situation from the get-go for Democrats, who tried, in vain, to get out the vote from the leftists.  Sure, they voted for Obama back in the day - but later decried him as too moderate or even conservative.  There's no pleasing those folks!  And Putin knew this.

4. Race - The Obvious Choice:  Race relations have understandable divided America since its inception.  We have racial issues in America because we have races.  It never ceases to amuse me when someone in a monocultural country tsk-tsks us for having racial problems.  Sure, the had no issues of race in blond-and-blue-eyed Sweden, or 99% Japanese Japan, or Achtung! Deutschland, as everyone was of the same race and mindset.  I say "had" as with recent worldwide migration (a natural result of overpopulation, climate change, and the power grab for diminishing resources) these once "pure" lands are now becoming a mixing pot - that often refuses to mix.

I guess I am most amused when Europeans knock us for having racial strife, when their own history is one of nearly continuous wars over the centuries, based on little more than differences in culture, language, and religion.  But more about that, later.

Turning people against each other over race has become more nuanced, as even the GOP (the better part of, at least) has denounced the past evils of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, and the like.  But they are using more nefarious tactics to divide blacks from whites and from hispanics and Asians.  Blacks are told that it was the "Democrat Party" that was behind Jim Crow - and technically they are right.  Just as the word "Nazi" originally was an abbreviation for "National Socialism" it is a misleading argument.  Nazis abandoned whatever small pretense of socialism early on in their reign of terror.

And Democrats lost the "Solid South" when they embraced Northern labor movements.  The GOP stepped in, touting "traditional values" (a dog whistle to racists) and Nixon won election as the South flipped from blue to red in my lifetime.  But the inaccuracy - the lie - is the point.  They just want to sow division, and if they can turn even a small number of blacks to either not vote or vote Republican, they win. And of course, it only takes a little bit of money to bribe "influencers" online to go along with the party line.

Hispanics have always been divided amongst themselves and indeed, resent being lumped in together with each other.  My Cuban friend doesn't consider himself Hispanic or Latin, as everyone in Cuba is of 100% Spanish descent and donchuforgetit.  In filling out my Medicare and Social Security forms, I notices that the old "race" categories have been changed.  It used to be "White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Eskimo, Other."  Today, "Hispanic" is a subset of "White" and when you tick off the "White" box, you are then asked if you are Hispanic or "Other."  It is an interesting shift in terminology.

Of course, why are we asking people's races anyway?

Hispanics of various countries do not necessarily identify with one another, or with different regions.  Latin America, South America, the Caribbean - they are all different from one another and the residents don't like being lumped together.  Nor do they like being considered as default Democrats.  The Abortion issue has great currency among Catholics and most if not all "Hispanic" countries have a rich Catholic tradition.  So it was easy for the GOP to peel off this segment into their fold.  In Miami, the Cubans vote Republican, convinced that any day now, Trump will get their farms and businesses and casinos back for them.

And of course, there is a huge divide between Blacks and Hispanics - a real visceral hatred if you will.  I know some Hispanics who are more racist than Klansmen, and it amuses me that they think, for an instant, that someone with a name like Enrique Tarrio will be let into the Country Club.  We don't even let in the Irish or Italians!   My own Father had to renounce his Irish heritage and pretend to be a Scots.  Even then, he was viewed with suspicion.

The hate between Blacks and Asians is a new things and I don't understand it.  There have been numerous reports of Asians, particularly women, being assaulted in the cities.  Mentally ill homeless people have been pushing them off subway platforms.  The GOP has used this to encourage Asians to vote Republican - pushing Universities to abandon "diversity" admissions policies, which has resulted in an increase in admissions for Asian students.  Play one minority against another - divide and conquer.

They still ain't letting them in the Country Club!

5. Allies Against Allies:  The biggest success Russia has had so far has been in dividing America against the world, and Europe against itself.  With regard to the latter, it is now recognized that "Brexit" was a carefully orchestrated disinformation campaign aided and abetted by Russia.  Brits were told that they would still be able to trade freely and travel freely in Europe, while avoiding "unnecessary" regulations from Brussels and saving enormous amounts of money.  It was all bald-faced lies and now the UK is paying the price, with the last tattered remnants of their once globe-spanning empire reduced to irrelevancy.

Putin's dirty hand can be seen in the efforts of Hungary and Poland and Turkey to move to the far-right, with only the war in Ukraine being a serious mis-step on Putin's part - threatening to unify Europe once again.

In America, Trump's bluster about buying or invading Greenland is, of course, nonsense.  It would start a war with Europe and destroy the NATO alliance.  That would be the point.  Of course, he likely won't follow through on this threat - the divisiveness it has caused is already enough.

Similarly, the "51st State" of Canada is also a non-starter, as to join the Union, Canada would first have to vote to want to join and of course first be a US Territory.  Invade Canada?  There would be an insurgency that would never end.  Oddly enough, like Trump's talk of annexing Greenland, the only tangible result so far has been to unify our allies.  Not even a year ago, Canada was torn asunder by their own political divisiveness - Trudeau was boo'ed by the right, which was lead by their own Trump mimi-me, Ontario Premier Ford.

Today, Canadians are standing together - even the Quebecois, against American Hegemony.  But even so, America without Canada and Mexico as trading partners is a weakened America.  And the same is true for America and Europe.

Sadly, this has resulted in a lot of hateful rhetoric in both Canada and Europe - with Canadians boo-ing the American National Anthem, and Europeans claiming they can no longer trust "America."

But America is not Trump and Trump is not America.  Maybe 75 million people voted for him (many already expressing regrets, many more to follow) out of a nation of 330 million.  It is hardly a mandate to lead and most voters had no idea this is where it would take us.  Others simply refused to vote because no candidate reflected all of their values perfectly.  Again, divide and conquer - encouraging people to focus on the divisions between them and the party that most aligns with their values.

* * *

So, where do we go from here?  Will Trump ignore court orders - or will the Supreme Court roll over and acede to his every whim and demand?  Will the military be used to enact a dictatorship with Congress dissolved and Trump ruling by decree?

Or will it all fall apart as James Carville recently predicted? Will even Trump supporters revolt when their Grandma loses her Social Security check and millions die of Bird Flu, as hospitals are overwhelmed with uninsured patients, thanks to the cancellation of Obamacare and Medicare/Medicaid?  Carville has been so wrong about so many things before.

It is hard to say.  A special election in Florida is coming up on April 1st and could flip the House to the Democrats.  However, the two districts are staunchly Republican, and unless the Social Security checks stop coming by then, it is doubtful there will be a blue wave in the panhandle.  Besides, if bad things happen, it's all Joe Biden's fault, right?  Cognitive dissonance is a feature not a bug,

It may take a collapse to cause change.  Obama was elected because the Bush II Presidency and the wars he started were a disaster. Clinton was elected because "it's the economy, stupid!"  Roosevelt won only because Hoover drove America deeper into recession.

Maybe - just maybe - the MAGA movement will implode as people start to realize that tax cuts for Billionaires won't result in cheap eggs and that tariffs won't mean more jobs, just staggering prices and abject poverty.

It will get a lot worse before it gets better.