The Extortion Ship Sets Sail with Captain Trump at the Helm

We now have a corrupt businessman sailing the USS American Democracy into treacherous waters.  What Trump has undoubtedly done in his previous personal business ventures, and what he recently did with Ukraine, he is now doing with businesses. Extortion comes naturally to someone who places winning above all else; it's just another tool in the box.  To Trump, personal financial gain and a lust for power justify all activities without regard to inconvenient laws, annoying regulations, or God forbid, morals.

Our Sinking Democracy

Donald Trump, like many wheelers and dealers, likes to play in the big leagues, but with other people’s money.  Call it bribery, extortion, or quid pro quo, it all amounts to Donald Trump using his position as president to offer favorable financial incentives to big business in return for political/financial/ego support.  In private business, “tit for tat” incentives may be legal, but when it comes to using our tax dollars to buy such favors, this is never legal.  For Trump, the term “legal” seems to mean anything that you aren’t caught at.

The president is given wide latitude by U.S. trade laws in the realm of setting tariffs and enacting trade policy.  It had been felt that our president would be above the influence of special interests.  Whoever wrote such policy had obviously never met the likes of one Donald J. Trump.  This president wields this power as a Jedi knight might a lightsaber.  He uses it to slay his enemies, vanquish those who don’t swear fealty to his omnipotent power and to reward those who provide him solace.

You have to know how to kiss the ring.

Our current trade wars and subsequent tariffs have provided Trump with a golden opportunity.  He can now selectively exempt certain businesses from paying these tariffs thereby giving them a financial advantage over their competition.

Trump recently visited an Apple plant that he promptly took credit for, even though the plant had been in operation since 2013.  Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, did not correct Trump, but rather praised him for creating the “strongest economy in the world.”  Apple is seeking exemptions from Chinese tariffs since it assembles many of its products there.

It’s not just American companies that are useful to Trump (all roads lead to Putin), US sanctions placed on Russia for interfering in our elections were costly to Putin's friend Oleg Deripaska.  In 2018, his company received a waiver from aluminum tariffs.  When Democrats found out about the waiver, Trump’s Commerce Department tried to explain it away as a “clerical error.”

Getting back to our Star Wars lightsaber analogy, the Pentagon recently shocked likely JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) contract lead contender, Amazon, by awarding the cloud computing deal to Microsoft.  Trump warned Jeff Bezos, who’s Washington Post has been critical of Trump, that he was going to have “problems.”  While Microsoft and Amazon aren’t sympathetic victims, the mere fact that Trump is misusing his powers in such a brazen way only strengthens the need for his ouster in 2020.

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.  A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.  That's the signpost up ahead—your next stop, the Authoritarian State.