Kleptocracy, Oligarchy, Kakistocracy, or Fascism...Choose your Fighter

On any given day it's hard to tell which one we are living in but luckily MAGA has room for all forms of corruption and hate

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“America isn’t a democracy you moron!”

I seem to start each day being welcomed by some MAGA acolyte with the clever idea that the United States is not a democracy since my bio calls me a pro-democracy advocate. This is such an automatic response that I assume they are a bot or someone so far down the rabbit hole of stupid there is no reaching them.

You can explain that a Constitutional Republic is a form of democracy until you’re blue in the face but in the end the truth is that it’s become a major talking point of MAGA herd because they want some other form of government. They want to rule over us without any restraints.

Now we are four months into Trump 2 (Bigger, Badder, and More Evil!) and it’s clear that even MAGA can’t decide what form of government they want but it’s evident they don’t care as long as it “owns the libs!”

I don’t pretend to be an expert on forms of government but in my nearly 60 years I’ve certainly had the opportunity to travel the world, live in a few countries, and fight a couple of wars that give me something of an idea.

It honestly feels like the crew that Trump has brought with him all have their own ideas and his new Administration is simply offering up our nation to whomever wants to carve out their own approach as long as he gets paid.

Donald Trump ran for President to stay out of jail and make money. That’s it. If you think he had grand plans for his second term you are delusional. It was about saying he was being politically persecuted, grifting his idiot followers, and prolonging his legal cases.

While he was doing that the evil coalition that build Project 2025 realized it would be super easy to put him in office and use his greed and easy to manipulate personality to advance their varying agendas. Then came the billionaires who realized they could relieve themselves of some pesky regulations and agencies while securing their cash flow. All they needed was a few willing fools to provide cover and to buy an election.

Here we are.

Kleptocracy

klep·​toc·​ra·​cy - : government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed

I was originally going to write an entire post on Trump’s naked corruption and the sale of the Presidency. The examples are too numerous to count starting with the day before he took office when he issued his memecoin knowing it couldn’t be investigated by the Biden Admin and his own Department of Justice or Securities and Exchange Commission would never touch it.

It is now the easy way to bribe him without any pesking reports to file or the risk of being seen burning money at his crappy hotel like last time he was in office. Just “invest” in his coin, let him know, and the doors open.

Every day it’s a new nakedly corrupt act. Now he is selling pardons to MAGA fans, millionaires, and celebrities. Just this week he pardoned three more rotten people including Paul Walczak whose mother just donated a million dollars to a Trump fundraiser. The New York Times has the story.

“Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.

Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.”

Feels super duper kleptocratic to me.

But, wait what about the billionaires?

Oligarchy

ol·​i·​gar·​chy: a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes

The Trump cabinet is the richest in American history…not even close. Public Citizen added it all up.

“The collective net worth of Trump’s top appointees is reportedly estimated to exceed $460 billion, including Elon Musk’s $400 billion net worth. Even without Musk, Trump’s cabinet and top appointees in 2025 by far exceeds the wealth of previous cabinets, including his previous cabinet (and previous record holder), which was worth $3.2 billion. President Biden’s cabinet collectively was worth $118 million.

Sixteen of Trump’s 25 wealthiest appointees and nominees are members of the 0.0001%, meaning they are among the 813 billionaires in the United States, where some 341 million of the rest of us make up the 99.9999% (earning an average yearly income of about $61,000). Elon Musk’s outrageous wealth places him in a category all his own, as the world’s richest person. By contrast, cabinet members who are mere members of the top 1% – members such as J.D. Vance, Kristi Noem, and Marco Rubio – appear almost working class, even if the wealth of each is more than triple the median income Americans earn over their entire lives ($1.7 million).”

Even with Elon possibly departing the inner circle as he has promised to do now, it’s still the richest set of appointees in history by every measure. Surely it’s not to simply take care of themselves is it? We are told that even as ridiculously rich people they still care about the little people.

Why just look at the things they say about Average Joe’s.

Sometimes the billionaires running the federal government sound like they’re talking to other billionaires.

“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” President Trump wrote on social media last week, offering a stock tip that appeared aimed at the investor class rather than ordinary Americans watching their plummeting 401(k)s.

Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, has said his mother-in-law wouldn’t be worried if she didn’t get her monthly Social Security check. Elon Musk, who is slashing the Social Security Administration’s staff, has called it a “Ponzi scheme.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has asserted that Americans aren’t looking at the “day-to-day fluctuations” in their retirement savings.

And if automakers raise their prices because of Mr. Trump’s tariffs? “I couldn’t care less,” the president told Kristen Welker of NBC.

That’s before we talk about the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that had its eyes on companies run by several of the appointees, the dismantling of the DOJ’s white collar crimes team, and the dismissal of dozens of lawsuits and criminal investigations against the rich.

The oligarchs are having a moment.

But, what about the idiots?

We’ve got those too!

Kakistocracy

kak·i·sto·cra·cy: government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.

I mean…where do we start? How about Pete Hegseth who insists in using Signal to send our most important strike plans to reporters and his own wife? We’ve got the new head of the Social Security Administration who was caught on tape telling employees that when they called he had to Google what the job did and wasn’t familiar with the organization at all.

One of my favorite “least suitable” nominees is Missouri’s own Billy Long. A former House member, realtor, and auctioneer who wears a cowboy hat everywhere and has been nominated to head the Internal Revenue Service.

Why would Trump pick a random ex-Congressman from Missouri to be IRS commissioner? Oh…that’s a great story. Pro Publica has it.

Because he is an “expert.”

Former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri, whom President-elect Donald Trump has named his nominee to head the IRS, touts his expertise in tax matters.

He advertises his credential as a certified tax and business advisor, and he adds CTBA to his name on his X profile. That profile encourages people to message him to “save 40% on your taxes.”

But tax experts told ProPublica that they have never heard of CTBA as a credential in the tax profession. The designation is offered by a small Florida firm, Excel Empire, which was established just two years ago and only requires attendance at a three-day seminar. That is in stark contrast to the 150 credit hours and the rigorous exams required to become a certified public accountant, a standard certification for tax accountants.

Yes, the guy picked to run the IRS is using a fake credential gained at a three-day seminar as his expertise in taxes. So, we are in good hands.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight Cosplay Barbie herself, the woman of a thousand costumes, and the master of taxpayer funded Make-A-Wish fantasies, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem!

I could literally make a twelve spot collage of all of her costumes she’s worn for HLS all of which have nothing to do with actually managing a massive cabinet department.

‘I’m a SEAL!! - Kristi Noem

Then you’ve got Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who has said that people shouldn’t take medical advice from him…the Health and Human Services Secretary. The person charged with giving medical advice to the country.

On and on the examples of kakistoratic leadership in this clown car. Why are they there? Burnishing there resumes? Growing their following for future books? Traveling the world on our dime?

I have no idea at all.

But then it brings us that last form of government that’s got a major, if not leading place in the new Trump Administration...

Fascism

fas·​cism: a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition

This seems to be the one we all get the best and see every time Stephen ‘Pee Wee German’ Miller or Tom ‘I’m not the guy from Lethal Weapon II’ Homan steps to the microphone. The threats to bring hell on cities for resisting the mass deportation machine or threatening to prosecute members of Congress for advising immigrants how to handle ICE all echo with power hungry fascists of old.

Then we have the really dark plan of Project 2025 and its lead executioner Russell Vought at the Office of Management and Budget. He promised in a video last year that they would terrorize federal employees and make them broken.

No…really.

He is now in government and executing this evil vision. They have done just that. Just this week the Washington Post ran a story on morale at the Department of Veterans Affairs being absolutely destroyed thanks to the constant threat of firings and repeated demands for new reports or witch hunts.

“Morale is plummeting inside the Department of Veterans Affairs as tens of thousands of employees prepare for deep staffing cuts, raising alarms among staffers, veterans and advocates who fear the reductions would severely damage care and benefits for millions of the nation’s former service members.

VA Secretary Douglas A. Collins has signaled plans to shrink the agency’s workforce by 15 percent — or about 83,000 employees. Although agency officials insist front-line health-care workers and claims processors will be spared, the vague and shifting details of the Trump administration’s downsizing plan have only fueled anxiety and speculation within VA’s massive workforce.

The uncertainty is already taking a toll.”

At the same time a fake ‘white genocide’ in South Africa has made refugees out of perfectly well off Afrikaners while mass deportation sweeps have caught multiple U.S. citizens simply for looking hispanic.

The hallmarks are everywhere to see of fascism and its accelerating.

Choose your adventure

In the middle of it all is Donald Trump with half a clue of what’s even going on in his government on any given day. He signs their Executive Orders dropped in front of him and then goes to play golf secure in the knowledge his financial fortunes are set for life.

We are truly through the looking glass as the federal government has become a home for every miscreant, criminal, clod, and con artist looking to influence their personal goals and realize their malign dreams.

Time to get to work. It’s all important. None of it is a distraction.

Let’s hit the streets.