mystoryorhistory

The last six weeks of the new Administration has been hectic to say the least. One reason is because this administration has eschewed the normal rules, procedures and decorum of government. It’s first 100 days are coming fast and furiously at the Democrats, possibly the bulk of the GOP, the media–basically all of us. The playbook, Project 2025, is the vision on how Trump’s administration will govern.

This playbook is a radical departure from say Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan’s first 100 days in office. Both FDR and Reagan turned the country from a rightward trajectory in the 1930s to a leftward tack and then back to a rightward journey in the 1980s . Since, then we have bounced around like a compass needle seeking true north.

Unlike FDR and Reagan, this playbook is bent on crashing the economy into the ditch and retooling the federal government into a single unchecked branch of government where Congress’s main job is to stand up and chant USA. I always got a kick out of seeing clips from communist countries when they had their annual party congresses. In walks, Stalin dressed in his little premier of Russia uniform to a thunderous welcome. In 1937 Uncle Joe got an 11 minute standing O. No one dares to be the first one to stop clapping let alone sit down.

With the 2025 playbook in operation it has created a lot confusion to say the least, chaos among government managers, mayhem for government workers while the markets double clutch and downshift to unchecked presidential power.

Changing rules of the game is nothing new. major league sports tweek the rules before every season. Take the 1983 NFL season, it started the new season with a rule dealing with snowplows. Just like there is no crying in baseball, there is not suppose to be snowplows in football. But on December 12, 1982 the Miami Dolphins battled the New England Patriots in icy snowy, New England winter conditions that had the teams tied up in a scoreless game late in the fourth quarter. During the game referees were using a small tractor with a snow brusher attached to clear off yard markers.

However, with less than five minutes left in the game and the Patriots on the Dolphin’s 33 yard line, and a timeout on the field, in comes the snow brusher to clear off the spot for the Patriot place kicker. The field goal was good and the Patriots went on to win 3-0. At the time there was no mention in the rules that this was an illegal move by the snowplow operator. The snowplow left Dolphin coach, Don Shula, on the sideline livid. The real kicker in all of this was that Shula was on the NFL rules committee. He made sure no Northern snowbound team would clear off a spot with a mechanical device in the future to make a winning kick.

In my life I have played a lot of games. I have played backyard games like Badminton and Croquet. Badminton was fun until you got the birdie, or the shuttlecock, caught in the net. Croquet was fun but it was much later in life I realized that our backyard rules didn’t quite follow The Official Rules of Garden Croquet. Before we played tag football the out of bounds and goal lines were discussed. We decided if it was two-hand touch, one-hand touch or a touch below the waist only.

Then there was one indoor game that I never got the hang of: Pool. It is a game of angles. A game of precise aim. It is a game where the cue ball has to have the exact velocity to match the distance and force in which to strike the target ball to get the desired results. And with all of that, the shooter has to have the fineses to take into consideration where the cue ball stops to line up the next shot. It is not a game of Whack-A-Mole.

The opening moves and possessions in any game are intended to set the tempo and direction of the game. President Donald Trump’s opening break in his first six week in office has a lot of people confused as to the rules he is playing by. Maybe he has a pool room in Mar-a-Lago. But I honestly think he must have a poor pool player calling his First 100 shots. Even the opening break shot in pool takes a well measured shot to ensure a break that does not end up in sinking the 8 ball. What we are seeing is some guy running around the pool table with a chainsaw. A guy who shows no fineses. A chainsaw mentality might be good for cutting down trees, but it takes a more than a finely balanced cue stick to get around a pool table, surely no place for a chainsaw.

If Elon Musk is calling the shots he is sending balls all over the table. I am not sure, but I think Elon has already put two 8 balls in each side pocket with his break ’em up style of play. This has people wondering how did the other 8 ball get into play. Maybe his young teenage apprentice, “Big Balls” lent him one.

I find it difficult to believe, that Trump a golfer, would let Musk loose in his pool room or golf course. Trump knows you drive for show and putt for dough. To get to the dough you need a well placed drive in the fairway setting up the next shot to the green. With Musk doing the driving the ball is going into the rough from one side of the fairway to the other. And since we are nowhere near the green we are not sure what kind of club Musk will pull from the bag to get out the bunkers he is sure to beach himself into, obviously not a chainsaw. Possibly a shovel, but more than likely a backhoe to dig him out of the hole he is putting the government in.

Then there is the sport term: Flood the Zone. In basketball and football teams utilize what is called a Zone Defense. Instead of a defender assigned to cover a specific offensive player, the defender is assigned an area to guard. One way to beat a zone defense is to flood the zone with more offensive players than defensive players. Supposedly, Steve Bannon came up with this Trump political strategy.

Originally it was aimed at dealing with the media. Bannon called the media “the real opposition.” The best way to “deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” The key word here is “shit.” Not only do we have a guy running around with a chainsaw, we now we have feces being chucked throughout the government like dung flung in a monkey cage. It is a telling statement. It is hard to tell who is making political decisions: The guy with chainsaw or the host of flies following the shit storm that is flooding the zone. This is not governing.

For almost 250 years the United States has had set of rules and procedures in place for the government to follow. It is called the Constitution. Thirty-nine delegates endorsed the document in 1787. All 13 states ratified it by 1789. Since that time a Bill of Rights was added. It has been amended 27 times, laws have been enacted and its processes have gone through judicial review. It has served us in a Civil War and ended slavery. It has given us the ability to fight two World Wars, a Cold War and ensure order in times of civil unrest. It has given the country a frame work in dealing with economic depressions and recessions–despite differing economic philosophies. Furthermore, the Constitution has even given us continuity through the assassination of four presidents and the natural death of two others.

In all that the Constitution has gotten us through dark times like December 7th 1941, 9-11 and January 6th. Now, all of the sudden it is floundering and needs the guidance from the Heritage Foundation because somebody has decreed America is not great. Somebody who wants to take us back to the 1890s; a time when America was led by President William McKinley and tariffs. America was forging an empire under McKinley. After defeating Spain in the Spanish American War, America picked up territories in the Pacific and Caribbean, Hawaii was annexed. As testimonial to McKinley, Trump says, “He was a very good businessman, and he took in billions of dollars at the time. We were a very wealthy country at the time.” I hate to tell President Trump but America is still a rich country. If Trump’s gage of greatness is on billionaires, we have eight of the top 10 richest men in the world. If we go by economics our Gross Domestic Product is the highest in the world.

What we are dealing with in Project 2025 is a one-way conservative plot hatched in a think tank founded in 1973 to combat a supposed communist/socialist takeover of the government. The main goal is to increase the power of the Office of the President. The Project itself tells us that “the nation’s leading conservative organizations (are) joining forces to prepare and seize the day.” And that “History teaches that a President’s power to implement an agenda is at its apex during the Administration’s opening days. To execute requires a well-conceived, coordinated, unified plan and a trained and committed cadre of personnel to implement it.” This sounds more like the Soviet Union’s takeover of Eastern Europe after World War II. It was a takeover that killed fledgling Democracy in countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia with a cadre of commissars from Moscow strong arming their way into power–its mandate was backed by the Red Army.

If anything the 2025 Project has an interesting interpretation of Article II for re-arranging Constitutional checks and balances. Pardon me, but the 2024 Election was not a mandate for this. The election was more of a sales pitch giving us bait and switch coupon at the grocery checkout. If agencies and programs need to be honed and excesses rolled back there is a legislative process. It is Congress’s job. Not some billionaire with a chainsaw.