Will President Trump retaliate against his political opponents?
Yes, he could. After observing him from afar for eight years, it is a real possibility. But it shouldn’t happen. Politicians do know about the English War of the Roses, The Italian Medici Rivalries, The French Capetian Family Feuds, and especially the American Hatfields and McCoys feud. The Democrats and the Republicans are well aware of the danger of the obsession with retaliation and the havoc it can cause and hopefully in their wisdom, won’t allow it to happen.
The Republicans controlled by the president-elect are huddling to implement Project 2025, which no doubt has little respect for Democratic Institutions and Democracy. That battle is where the Democrats find themselves: fighting to preserve Democracy with little political power. But since politics is the most convoluted “science”, they may find new allies among the so-called establishment Republicans.
Since the Republican Party is at its peak in terms of political power, many of its members won’t feel obligated to defend their party and attack the other party, in many cases, blindly. Reason and good faith (in the good teaching of Christianity) may come back, and dirty tricks may take a hike for the good of the nation.
The anxiety lies in the fact that the Democrats are awful in predicting the mood of the voting population and therefore pursue wrong strategy to gain or maintain power. It looks as if they haven’t played the game well to balance the power in the political two-party system.
In 2016, Mr. Trump got almost 63 million votes. After witnessing his administration of the country for four years – the general objective assessment was not really positive – he got more than 74 million votes in 2020, 11 million more voting for him; his base did not shrink but expanded. It was a phenomenon worth deep and extensive research to determine what was going on. Obviously, it was not because of Mr. Trump played the role of a statesman skillfully, but because of his down to earth positions on issues dear to the voters despite his clumsy administration.
In 2024, the Democrats seemed to have sensed the problem and tried to be sensitive on immigration policy. They tried to get some Republicans to sign on their legislation which tried to modify the asylum process, increase the detention facilities, and so on. They tried to be humane and reasonable. The Republicans objected to the legislation forcefully that, in hindsight, played well with the voters who were determined to see a hardball attitude when immigration is concerned. And Mr. Trump garnered over 77 million votes, 3 million more than 2020 regardless of his otherwise crippling legal problems.
The Democratic voters? More than 81 million in 2020 and just under 75 million in 2024? Where did the 6 million go? It is reasonable to assume that many of them went to Mr. Trump. President Biden still thought that the Democrats would win. Throughout 2024 he repeatedly stated, even on November 7, that he would not pardon Hunter, his son; the obvious implication was that a President Harris would be a more proper pardoner.
All fathers understand why he wants to give his son every opportunity to fare better in life and deeply sympathize with his dilemma when his son was in trouble, and he wanted to help. But the Hunter affair makes many feel uneasy. Not just the way it was handled by the President and the Democrats. Together with their defeat in November, one must ask the question whether the Democrats were neglect and unprepared. They believed before Nov. 5th that they had a strong progressive base. It turned out the base was probably ideologically strong but not as large as they had thought. The ones who crossed the line to vote for Mr. Trump did not like a “reasonable and sensitive” immigration measures. They wanted swift and forceful actions now to correct the excesses of the current policies.
For years, the Republican Party looked as if it was in a disarray. One was concerned that Democracy would start to crumble when one party, Republican then, was weak. One suggested, half in jest, that Elon Musk should join the Party to rescue it. It is time for someone of Mr. Musk’s caliber to join the Democratic Party to help pull it up, a gigantic enterprise given the American current political reality: the Republican Party controls the White House with a president who is the leader of the MAGA segment of the party which would do anything to belittle the Democrats; the House with its Republican members who love to gerrymander to form congressional districts in favor of the Republicans; and a super majority in the Supreme Court, with only two of their members, Thomas and Alito, being over 70 but showing no sign of bad health or a desire to retire. On the other hand, of the three leaning Democratic, Sotomayor is 70 and suffered severe diabetes. During his coming term, President-elect has a very good chance of nominating another hardline Republican to the bench making a Republican supra majority of 7-9. Whether 5-9, 6-9 or 7-9, the Republicans will control the Supreme Court for a foreseeable future, and soon it will find many established precedents egregiously wrong including previous decisions on Democratic principles, a clear sign of the unhealthy state of the nation’s court of last resort.
There is little doubt that the incoming administration will, actually is already trying to concentrate power into just one center, the executive suite headed by the president-elect. One can reasonably assume that it is just the first step to subvert Democracy. The Democrats whose name derives from Democracy seem to be its only defenders.
Let’s pray.
JOHN P. LE PHONG

I had a dream.

The dinner was in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago. The president-elect sat at the head and his children on both sides of the table. Melania sat in the first chair on his right opposite Don Jr.
Don Jr., “Dad, I am thankful for your approval of this family dinner on this Thanksgiving evening. Our family only …”

“Who are you?”

“I am Don Jr., Dad.”

“Oh! Jr. my son. How are you, son?”

“I am getting emotional Dad. In just a few seconds, you call me son twice. I am deeply touched.”

Eric interjected, “Come on Don, get to the point. Dad may get tired easily.”

Don Jr. glanced at Eric, “We are here to celebrate your incredible victory. You tremendously overcame so many hurdles, bad press, Democrats’ cruel attacks…”

“Don, what are you doing?” Eric was impatient. “Dad already knows all that. If you don’t get to the point, Dad may go to sleep before we can convince him of our plan.”

“Dad…”

“Pass me the Big Mac, Melania,” the president said.

“This is Thanksgiving dear. The kitchen staff doesn’t serve hamburger.”

“What do they serve?”

“Don’t pretend dear. You know quite well what they serve. The same thing you have been served for 78 years: turkey, stuffing, and gravy.”
Ivanka was not in a good mood, “Please Melania. Let Don start the meeting.”

“Oh! So, this is a meeting, not dinner?” Baron knitted his eyebrows.

“Dad. We had discussed the issue among us…”

“I didn’t. What is the issue?” Baron asked.

“What are you talking about, Jr.?” The president also seemed to be in the dark.

“About the next four years, Dad.”

“Then why my staff and advisors are not here? Where is Susie Wiles?”

“The matter for our discussion tonight does not concern any outsider. Our family only. Everyone, what we will discuss in this room must stay in this room. No detail of our discussion is revealed to anyone outside of the family. I will ask everyone to swear on the Bible that you will not leak the information, any information of this family discussion, to anyone who is not present at this dinner. Agreed?”

“Meeting,” corrected Baron.

“You are serious, son. I have never seen you acting so seriously.”

“You must change your plan for the next four years, Dad,” said Jared.

“Who are you? You are not my son, are you?”

“Dad, it’s Jared, my husband, your son-in-law.” Ivanka was peeved.

“Here you are, my Ivanka. I haven’t seen you for four years.”

“Come on Dad. I have always been around when you needed me, always ready to support you. You know that. I was just too busy taking care of your grandchildren.”

“Even when they are in school?” asked Melania with a smirk.

“Ok! Ok! People, be serious. We have the utmost important issue to discuss and to decide on what actions to take. Dad, we have been talking about your legacy,”

“What about it? Do you think anybody else has a more tremendous legacy than mine? Dubya’s? Reagan’s?”

“No, Dad. But…”

“What?”

“Your legacy is great, but something needs to be changed,” Ivanka said. “Jared, can you tell Dad? You are the articulate one.”

Jared looked at Jr. Seeing no objection from him, he addressed the president, “It is as clear as the sky over Palm Beach, your legacy is great and enduring. You lost in 2020, came back in 2024 and beat the hell out of the Dems. You are the only Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years.”

“You are damn right. Who are you? Never mind. Just tell Susie that I want you to work for me.”

“That’s Jared, Dad, my husband, your son in law. We had worked for four years for you already. We don’t want to go back to government. We have been trying to build up our private life and patch up our old connections. Let Don and Eric help you in the White House this time.”

“What about me,” asked Baron.

Junior ignored Baron, “Thanks, Ivanka. Dad, your legacy is what people will remember you for. They don’t just remember your achievements; they also remember your not so good things you said or did.”

Jared did not want to beat around the bush, “We are concerned that if in the next four years we fail to repair your reputation, you will go down in history as a racist or a dictator wannabe regardless of how much good you will have achieved.” Jared seemed to get the president’s attention.

“To be honest, Dad,” Junior was encouraged to speak his mind, “the people who are fawning all over you are either parasites living off your name or exploiting their connection with you, or those working behind the scenes using you to reach their own goals. We don’t expect them to be loyal and stick around once you are out of power.
“And there are people who hate you, honestly Dad, with their guts. We must pay careful attention to their feelings because there must be some things that have gone seriously wrong. We must address them for the sake of our family, your children, and grandchildren.”

Melania was truly concerned, “So, what do you propose to do?”

Jared wanted to impress the president a little bit more because he knew the president was not easily convinced that he needed to do anything differently, “New York was our city, the center of our life, we were born there, grew up there, made it there. Don’t you want your own statue standing tall in the middle of Time Square? Don’t you want your name to replace Fifth Ave, which will become Donald J. Trump Avenue? Those can be done if you can win back the love of New Yorkers. Once they see who you really are, not the fake personality you have projected as a TV celebrity or a MAGA politician, they will welcome you back with open arms.”

The president said in a hoarse and melancholic voice, “I don’t give a f—k what the New Yorkers think of me, or about me.”

Eric tried to make contribution to the conversation, “You can’t let the Bloombergs of New York look down on you.”

The president asked, “What do you boys have in mind?”

Detecting the president’s nostalgic tone in his voice, Junior rushed ahead before Jared could interject, “One very good thing about your winning the 2024 election is that you don’t have to fight anyone anymore. That will leave you with plenty of time and energy to build up your positive image.”

“Can we eat now? I don’t see why we can not eat and talk at the same time,” Barron moaned.

“Shut up kid. You don’t talk when you eat,” Eric shouted.

“Don’t raise your voice at my son,” Melania said calmly but firmly.
“The first thing we focus our energy on, I say “our” because from now on the family will be actively involved in all aspects of your life including your administration,” Junior continued.

“Who says that you can be involved?”

The room was deadly silent.

“So, you know, just don’t do that again,” the president said sternly.

“What, Dad?”

“Some people sitting here know what I am talking about. But anyway, we are back together again, and I want it to be forever. Family is my priority.

“Do you think that when someone hates me, I don’t know it or don’t care, Jared? Well, you are not a Trump, so you don’t know me. But I know and I care, not in the sense that I give a damn about those sons and daughters of bitches. I am just careful. I was from the New York construction business world. I fight even in my sleep. Continue son.”

“Jared knows you well, Dad,” insisted Ivanka, meekly.

He ignored her. “Junior?”

Junior smiled broadly, “We start with your language and everyday communication. Speak about nice and positive things. Stop giving people you don’t like bad epithets. Why don’t you use in your speech the title Mr. or Mrs. when you mention a political opponent’s if you don’t remember their current or previous position? Mrs. Clinton, President Obama would be a progress.”

“Um.”

Junior became animated, “Next will be the nominations to fill your cabinet. The Gaetz affair was brilliant. You complied with MAGA’s request, got him out of Congress, then out of the running as well and everyone is in your debt including Mr. Gaetz and his family. Brilliant!”

“It was not intended that way.”

“That should be your intention from now on. Soften your image of extremism. Discreetly keep a distance from MAGA …” Jared could not finish his sentence.

“Do you know who I am dealing with?”

“No matter how powerful they are, you are holding the handle of the knife. This is your last term. You don’t run for anything that needs the support of their machine.”

“You kids do not know how much control the money people have on our country. Totally. The financial system is the blood circulation system of the country and probably the whole world since John D. Rockefeller started accumulating wealth and J.P. Morgan wielded his financial power to created U.S. Steel and General Electric. They have never laxed their grip on power.”

“Of course we don’t antagonize them. To clean up the bad side of your reputation, we need to play our hand carefully, discreetly, and skillfully. Whenever they want you to nominate bad apples, we execute the Gaetz strategy to get the nomination sabotaged.”

“I would not use that word, Don,” Jared differed, slightly. “They are still our strong allies. But I agree with your strategy. You will choose competent, experienced, and ethical people to work with you in this administration. Give MAGA crump appointments here and there, education, labor.”

“You can pressure Thomas to resign from the Supreme Court,” Melania surprised everyone. “I don’t like them, him and his wife. They are coarse, have no manner. Up there those judges can rule for or against anything they want as long as they show finesse. You can squeeze the Thomases hard and get not even an ounce of finesse from them.”

The president showed a rare smile, “Justices.”

“What,” Melania was confused.

“In America, we call the judges sitting in the Supreme Court Justices. I guess you have someone in mind to replace Thomas, right dear?”

To everyone’s surprise, she said, “Yes. I do. I like Merrick Garland.”

Eric was dumfounded, “Oh God. Be serious Melania!”

The president warmly said, “Tell us your reason.”

“I like straight arrow guys. As far as I know, no one including those in your Supreme Court has a better legal brain than his. More, he is clearly better than any of them because he is not political. What kind of a judge who flies our flag upside down to publicly show his political bias? My dear, you and the boys,” she saw Ivanka dart a glace at her, “and Ivanka may take the law lightly. Not me, not ordinary Americans like me and my parents, we understand and cherish the Constitution, laws, and order.”

The president was amused, “You want to replace Alito too, with whom?”

Melania could not hold back her eagerness, “Kamala Harris.”

The table erupted with laughter and shouting. Even Barron joined the ruckus, “Mom is a RINO.”

Jared called the table to order, “Back to our discussion, everyone. Seriously, the idea of replacing Thomas is not a bad idea. It would show Dad to be a bipartisan law and order president and the Republican majority still remaining on the Court. The whole country would see Dad as a constitutionalist and a patriot who loves his country, the Constitution, and its citizenry. I think our plan will work.”

“The people who control the financial institutions control the country. We are owners of our money, our accounts, our properties. But the system has been designed so that we owners, billionaires included, are only trustors. We entrust our properties to the money men for management They are the trustees who actually have control over our properties. Those are the people that you will have to fight back if you want me to follow your plan to rehabilitate my legacy.”

“The stake is much higher than that, Dad. We love our freedom and Democracy. You may want to be the Putin of America but how much longer will you hold power? When you are gone, another guy will replace you and we, your children and grandchildren will be the subjects of the new guy. Do you think that we will still have our freedom and will be protected under an oligarchic or dictatorial regime especially some of your grandchildren are Jewish?”

“Jared, work with Junior closely on the plan and keep me posted regularly. Keep Melania in the loop. Honey, I did not know you have such an excellent political acumen. Where is Tiffany?”

Everybody looked at Barron who said, “She is traveling.”

Junior said, “I will brief her on the plan.”

Jared said, “I am sure you will be successful. You have a reputation as being unpredictable, decisive, and doing things as you please. In the pit bull fight between you and MAGA people, your tenacity will ensure that you will win. Remember Dad, your legacy is the only thing that matters to you as you are now 78 and irreversibly sailing into the sunset.”

I felt someone shaking me. It was my wife. “Hi honey. We don’t need to get up early today, right? Why do you wake me up?”

She smiled, “You are smiling, John, in your sleep. Were you dreaming?”

JOHN P. LE PHONG

The Democrats woke up on November 6 to find that they have been just guests on the planet of MAGA, bewildered and lost. The MAGA made the presidential victory in November look so easy, a Democrat would be tempted to exclaim AI did it. That is a cry in the wilderness because they are out to the pasture for at least two to four years.
American politics now is a battle between traditional Republican Establishment and MAGA Republicanism. Republican Establishment – Reaganism with big tent ideal comes to mind – seems to attract only older guys and gals whose energy and cunning is nowhere near the MAGA Republicans, younger and smarter. MAGA Republicans are representing themselves as battling the excesses of the liberal left. But in victory, they will go overboard without an effective counter force. Some of them have already stated their intention to undo or at least weaken Democracy.
The reverse revolutionary – turning Democracy back to Autocracy or another form of dictatorship – previously seemed to be unachievable because the hurdles looked insurmountable. After the 2024 election, such reversal does not seem to be impossible not only because the Republicans had all four power branches under their control, but they are also boosted by the huge energy coming from the billionaires.
For ordinary citizens, Democracy is the sole guaranty of freedom and happiness. The modern billionaires are rich and privileged right after graduating from college or even high school before they experience any hardship or injustice in life. They don’t appreciate what Democracy offers because they don’t see how it is better for them while a dictatorship offers even more privileges, and pomp and circumstances as bonuses. Their support for such scheming may also have something to do with their tendency to look for something different, a laudable habit of making life richer for everyone. But tampering with Democracy such as giving more power to one person or shutting down watchdog agencies is clearly not the same.
Even though Matt Gaetz has taken himself out of the run for US Attorney General, the new administration’s nomination of such flawed and controversial characters to run the country signals its intention. Why are men who have absolutely no experience and no knowledge of the businesses of the gigantic departments nominated to run them?
Firstly, the president wants to show the Party and other Republicans who is the boss. A democratic boss relies on consensus and persuasion. A dictatorial boss wants their underlings not just to pledge allegiance to them but to prove their loyalty. If he doesn’t get his way, he retaliates. If they don’t do what he tells them to do, he will remember. We have seen for the last four years that MO of controlling the Republican Party and its members including respectable Republican leaders who have just lost their mettle.
The new AG nominee, Pam Bondi, has stated that she would prosecute the Department of Justice’s prosecutors and investigate the investigators because they had the audacity to carry out their job duties of investigating and prosecuting the then former president for wrongdoings. It’s hard to think of anything more anti-democratic than that statement. Some commentators dismiss it as rhetorical. But if her boss tells her to do just that, will she not do it?
Let’s hope that those comments are not wishful thinking.
Secondly, those nominations are early signs of a dictatorship in the making. When a leader has around him only yes men, there will be no debate, which means contrary opinions are also seriously considered. Or vice versa, he has yes men working for him because he doesn’t want any debate on his decisions.
Again, let’s hope that the Republicans can manage to prevent such reversal from happening.
JOHN P. LE PHONG.

Some Democrats claim voting fraud in this election. Voting fraud is a strange thing. It is easy to commit (in every election, there is a claim of fraud) but impossible to prove. No one is more capable and persistent than President Trump in charging the Democrats of voting fraud in 2020. But after four years of hard digging and bitterness, he could prove nothing.
It is understandable that the Democrats are frustrated witnessing what they maintain a suspicious result with the vice president got only 61 million votes while the polls had consistently showed a neck and neck running.
Venting frustration should be over now. They must focus on 2026. If they are obsessed with voting fraud, they can do their best to prevent it from happening from now on. For now, they should try to work harder to take back the House or the Senate, or both. They should try to balance between the demands of their liberal base and the concern of the majority, which elected Mr. Trump.
Government takes care of and address the interest and wishes of the whole citizenry including the deplorables, not just Democrats. They lost probably because they sympathize with the immigrants and the under dogs. Too sentimental. They blindly pushed their core liberal policies, and when they realized the white majority’s determination to push back against their immigration policies, they offered halfhearted measures. High minded progressive ideals are commendable, but it could only be achieved with good timing. A party is irrelevant without power.
The president and his allies will be very busy in the next one or probably two years to cleaning up the government, euphemism for remaking the government to their liking. As a businessman, Mr. Trump has not been successful in many enterprises that he had tried – except one, a solid achievement: the Trump Organization. Now he models his administration after the TO: a small group of obedient helpers whose job is to take orders directly from him and execute them strictly and un-hesitantly. He wants to reduce the job of any cabinet secretary so simple and easy to carry out that even Baron could do it. He is familiar and more comfortable with that format.
When Elon Musk was wooing Mr. Trump, trying to get into his inner circle, many were hoping that such a precise engineering and mathematical brain would effectively counter the excesses of the MAGA force, which is more a zealous revolutionary cabal than politicians in a political democratic system.
Mr. Musk argued when he joined Mr. Trump’s campaign that voting for Republicans would save Democracy. Americans who care for Democracy were optimistic that he would be able to influence the new administration’s domestic affairs such as economic issues, tariffs, import restriction, but also foreign policies dealing with Ukraine conflict, relations with China and Western Europe with the rise of racism. He could conceivably tamper the president’s dictatorial tendency.
However, Mr. Musk’s brain power seems to have worked against such hope, even against his own interest and plan. The MAGA Republicans may have the same scared feeling when one stands next to Mike Tyson: his sneezing could blow you off your chair.
Not only Mr. Must is not only relegated to a position, albeit a cabinet secretary, without portfolio, he is one of two guys, co-leaders, working together doing “non portfolio” things. In other words, he is not going to be able to do anything, let alone make decisions. The co-leadership appointment could be a slight to Mr. Musk. For a sharp and formidable executive who makes decisions when sleeping on his factory floor, he does not have a co-leader in anything.
Mr. Musk is a decider. It is difficult to absorb the image of Mr. Musk wandering in the hall of the West Wing. Upon hearing Mr. Trump calling him from the Oval Office, he would step in smiling broadly and ask, “Am I late for the meeting?” and the president says, “the policy discussion was over. Come in to say hi to everyone and have biscuits and tea.”
True to his character, the President has always given, and will give, the Americans an exciting show for the next four years. It will be mesmerizing to watch when the show adds Elon Musk to the cast.

JOHN P. LE PHONG, ESQ.

In 2020, even though the Democrats won the presidential election, the fact that President Trump received 74 million votes was, or should have been, a canary in the coal mine: The slogan “Take Our Country Back” resonated with 74 million voters. Not all of them were MAGA Republicans.

The same message was used by the Republicans in the 2024 campaign that just changed the form from “Take Our Country Back” to illegal immigrants flooding the country and committing crimes, illegal immigrants committing voting fraud, border crisis, and so on. They all led to the climactic shouting: the country is losing its identity. That was powerfully persuasive even to many Democrats. That explains the 69 million votes Kamala Harris received this election compared to Joe Biden’s 81 million in 2020; a sizable number of Democrats either did not vote for her or crossed the line and voted for Donald Trump.

The Democrats had been aware of the slogan’s power, but they were in between a rock and a hard place: they did try to be tough on immigration then they panicked when their base rebelled.

That was before November 5, 2024.

The question today is what will the Republicans do now that they gain total power: the White House, both houses of Congress, and a 6/9 majority in the Supreme Court? Will they wield this almost absolute power to clean up the immigration mess, correct and make America great again.

Or would they transform America into a dictatorial regime?

The 2024 election of President Trump runs the risk that MAGA’s extremist policies will be implemented, and the democratic political system will be tampered with. There is the risk that MAGA Republicans will try to do everything to maintain their political hegemony even undermining Democracy. And there is the risk that MAGA Republicans will become bolder to move forward with whatever sinister plan they have hashed. Four years of unchecked power could move the country into uncharted waters as the Democrats are completely sidelined. There is no counter force in sight.

Before November 5, 2024, there was hope that the so-called mainstream Republicans would have risen up to right the malaise of the party. That failed to materialize. Let’s just pray that the “I don’t like him, but I will vote for him” was their one-time tactic to preserve their options, not a sign of their losing the will to fight to protect the Constitution and preserve Democracy.
It is a daylight nightmare just to think that the prayer would never be answered.

JOHN P. LE PHONG.

Only one more day when Americans will decide if Mr. Musk will go to Washington.
Mr. Musk has contributed hugely to the American economy, automobile industry, and space technology. We have benefited tremendously from his successes. So, we say thank you Mr. Musk, we root for you, and we listen to you.
But that does not mean we agree with him on all issues. Many people including his followers on X, certainly do not agree with his concept of a traditional Christian family. But whether someone agrees with him or not, that would have no bearing on him; he has just made offers to donate his sperms to any woman who can overcomes her bewilderment and accept his offer.
But when it comes to his politics, Americans must pause to answer this question before they vote: will you vote for Donald Trump because Mr. Must supports him?
The prospect of Mr. Musk sitting in Mr. Trumps’ future administration is a serious matter. On the positive side of such an occurrence, Mr. Musk, as the minister of efficiency, would make sure that no non-efficient people such as someone named Trump except Donald J. Trump would talk loud in the White House to disturb the staff.
But the very thought of Mr. Musk’s joining Mr. Trumps’ government sends a shiver down the country’s spine.
Mr. Trump and his allies had tried for years to find ways to weaken the democratic institutions. They did not completely succeed, but the country is shaking.
Mr. Musk, the man who beat both the Automobile Dynasties and NASA at THE SAME TIME in only a few years, now supports Mr. Trump. Sitting in government, with such a brain, it would not take him long to dismantle Democracy.
When you go to vote tomorrow, think of Mr. Trump’s supporter in chief who is running $1,000.000/day sweepstakes in the swing states to support Mr. Trump, a clear sign that they want to turn the Democratic Unites States of America into a Banana Republic.

JOHN P. LE PHONG

We admire the billionaires for their achievements. But we must consider carefully their advice, especially on social and political problems, when Democracy, the safe and protective heaven for the ordinary people, is at stake.

Many billionaires support the former president. But that does not mean we will do the same. They think differently of course. But they pursue interests different from, and in many situations opposite to ours, ordinary people’s.

Billionaire Peter Thiel, an early supporter and advisor of former president Trump, has said that competition is for losers. What he meant is that one should not try to compete with an existing business but rather build something new and monopolize it. It sounds profound. But does it serve our society at large?

Had Mr. Thiel’s idea become a policy, the automobile industry would have been Henry Ford’s monopoly with no competition from GMC or the Japanese. It would not be too difficult to imagine that the Pintos (the car that exploded and killed Lilly Gray when it was rear-ended by another car) would be everywhere today on U.S. highways. Mr. Thiel’s friend, Elon Musk, would not have become ultra-rich by building another car, an electric one, to compete with so many other car builders who had already been in business. So, Mr. Thiel’s opinion may be good for him and some others, but definitely is not good for ordinary folks who want to own an affordable and safe car.

Mr. Musk came to the State of California and received the hospitality and support of its people and government. From this nurturing society, Mr. Musk’s businesses had sprouted up and thrived, not just one but six or seven (if you count X, formerly Twitter) hugely successful companies.

Then he got into fights with the state regulators, notably the County of San Mateo during COVID. He has been angry with California, just like he was angry with Delaware and threatened to change his incorporating state from Delaware when the court there ruled against his Tesla’s compensation package. He has acted compulsively out of anger and impatience.

In July 2022, Mr. Musk said this about Mr. Trump, “it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.” He said that when he was in a calm mood and clear mind. Mr. Musk’s support of Mr. Trump therefore has very little to do with ideology or his favorable opinion about Mr. Trump as a leader but out of his anger and frustration with the Democrats’ regulations, meaning laws.

He and a few other billionaires endorse Mr. Trump, but that does mean we should follow suit and vote for him too. We must take the billionaires’ endorsement or statements relating to this year elections with a grain of salt when we enter the voting booth this November 5. We must vote for the candidate who will fight to protect Democracy. It has been made clear by no other than Mr. Trump himself that he is not that candidate.

JOHN P. LE PHONG

In a democratic society, a person’s fundamental rights are respected and protected, including the rights of the people who work AGAINST it. And those rights are earned, not given, by fighting hard for Democracy. American Democracy are inscribed in the Constitution. Once its constitutional democratic institutions are undermined, ordinary Americans will go back to being slaves at the beck and call of a few who are in power.

The people behind the Republican Party’s push for Donald Trump to win the presidency this year, 2024, are MAGA Republicans who are trying, one step at a time, to undo democratic institutions until Democracy is replaced by Aristocracy or another form of dictatorship.

Who are they? The followers and practitioners of an outlandish political doctrine called Traditionalism, formulated by a Frenchman who uncannily resembled Stephen Miller, the acerbic anti-immigration advocate, and his followers. Traditionalism dictates that white men rule the world, and other people including white women must be put in their place as white men’s subordinates. That was the tradition since Cro-Magnon men took women by the hair to drag them to their caves for copulation (it is doubtful they had anything resembling the concept of wife or marriage).

The former president and his supporters, MAGA Republicans and their allies want to restore that tradition disguised under the pretext of restoring Aristocracy that has a more romantic, therefore more palatable and acceptable to their supporters.

Racism has always been a negative force in society long exploited by its bad elements. But since the rise of world immigration, racism has become a political strategy – and a very effective one to gain political power. White people have flocked to the MAGA Movement in droves due to their unfounded fear that their culture, tradition, and even lives are about to change by immigrants. But change is the course of nature.

The compass and gunpowder were invented by China, a loathsome country to MAGA. But learning from it and adopting its knowledge opened the world, literally, to the Europeans. Adopting foreign ways of life and making good use of them has been the right course of progress, and, in light of the history of life on Earth (a very enlightening series on Netflix), is one way of saving mankind in the long run. If America just stays calm and thinks deeply about foreign cultures and enriches its people’s life by sensibly adopting them into its own culture such as using gun powder to clear the boulders to build the Panama Canal, but not for killing our fellow humans. Complaining about foreign culture is misplaced.

White folks support the MAGA Movement for another reason: its pursuit of white supremacy within a white nation. MAGA Republicans have been using it to build their grass root support to control Republican elected officials to make sure that they are in line with their grand plan to restore Aristocracy and from there to a white dominated world – to be exact, white men dominated world.

But is it in the interest of white people to support the former president and the MAGA Movement?

It is definitely not in the interest of white women, unless they want to be submissive to white men to caress their egos. The former president, to woo them, has soften MAGA’s position on abortion. But he has been known to change his position on many issues, opportunistically. Besides, even if he turned out to be “soft” on abortion and women’s rights, MAGA Republicans would not let him. There have been indications that he is the head of the Republican ticket because MAGA put him there, but MAGA themselves formulate policies and implement them.

The answer is the same for white men including Republicans. The pro-Aristocracy faction whose members have surfaced lately in debates in public forums, posits that Aristocracy is better than Democracy for America. They seem to be willing to debate Thomas Jefferson: Stephen Bannon versus Thomas Jefferson. America’s money, and trust, should be on and in Jefferson.

Younger generations of white Americans have politically experienced nothing but Democracy, so they are easily persuaded to try something new such as Aristocracy. A war against a dictatorship, WWII, was 80 years ago. All the horrible things committed by the German Nazi were just stories, boringly repeated that they might as well forget them.

But it should be remembered that their ancestors had been there and done that. For hundreds of years, ancestors of European and American white had fought not just tooth and nail but with blood and tears to get rid of Aristocracy, because it was bad, really bad, for them, for their well-beings and for their children’s development. They even migrated to America to escape the Aristocrats’ tight grip on their life. And after years of living in freedom and practicing democratic politics, they found out the political truth that Aristocracy had no place in America, in their lives, and the lives of theirs descendants.

Young Americans should be conscious of the horrendous ramifications when a dictatorship takes hold of a country, such as the German Nazi, the North Korean regime, and Putin’s Russia.

After Barack Obama was elected president, some of those descendants frantically searched for an antidote to what they perceived as the doom of the white men’s supremacy. Because they could not think of anything better to replace Democracy, they compulsively attacked, and continue to attack their opponents who are practically everybody who is not MAGA, bad mouthing their opponents, and readily and disdainfully labeling them “woke” whatever that means.

But their plan is now clear and in the open: they want a dictatorship that would make it more effective for them to control and easier to suppress the populace and exile their opponents.

People thought that the former president slipped his tongue when he said that he would be a dictator on day one. But he also said at a conservative Christian event in July that “Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” So, it was not a slip of the tongue but deliberate declarations carefully calibrated so that the populace are conditioned to something that will certainly happen if he and MAGA win this year presidential and congressional elections: a dictatorship.

George Washington, a man who could not lie, fought against Aristocracy and upheld Democracy by serving as president for two terms then retired even though if he wanted, he could have been king or at least president for life. Donald Trump lost the election but fought and continues fighting with suspicious means (lying is one of them) to cling to being president. Now he plots to be president for life or emperor. His temperament is clearly in sync with dictators’. He is more comfortable with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin than leaders in the free world. He has more kind words to talk about Kim, who put his uncle in a cage for the dogs to tear his body into pieces when he was alive, and Putin who eliminated so many of his billionaire cronies and political opponents that the number is uncertain when they disagreed with him. The former president has only disdain for leaders of the free and democratic nation.

Recently even before he could be back in the White House, the former president publicly called for the national guards or the military to “handle” his opponents. “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think … they should be easily handled by … the National Guards or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.” He even named California Rep. Adam Schiff as “the enemy within” who should be “handled” by the Guards or the military.

As he seems to be in no mood for political discourse, political debate, or political opposition, it is clear that the former president is deeply anti-democratic. That is probably a big reason why MAGA sticks with him and defends him despite his erratic and weird behavior as observed by many.

America, even though the best society in the whole world in many terms, still has social ills. Understandably, Americans want to address them. But the solution is definitely not voting for MAGA. A dictatorship or Aristocracy once established, would be there forever to carry out its natural mission: to enslave the multitude to serve a privileged few.

The first few years of a Trump MAGA administration after 2024 would be champagne and caviar for its supporters. Then in no time, Americans including MAGA Republicans would find that gun control would be semantic because they would have no right to own a gun let alone a concealed pistol. Twitter or X would go first among the media outlets and what’s left of it would be a propaganda tool working for the regime.

If a former president calls for a current congressman to be “handled” by the military, a dictatorial president’s security apparatus would “handle” not just Twitter but its CEO as well if it ran a post critical of him. All news channels, talk shows, and podcasts would be closed; a dictatorship would not need that many outlets because it would only need one to fawningly praise, 24/7, the “great leader” who was forever magnificent and wise even if he turned lies into a normal way of communication and, even though he did not say so, made false statements acceptable such that WWII was fictional, the Holocaust was fake, and there was no history of any race which had made sacrifices with sweat, tears, and blood to help build this country.

The former president has denied any connection with the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 (please read my previous post). He shifted his position many times on abortion to gain women’s votes. But he made false or misleading claims 30,573 times during his four years in the White House as counted by the Washington Post.    The historian Douglas Brinkley called Donald Trump a “serial liar”. The psychiatrist Donnel Stern declared that Trump “lies as a policy” and “will say anything” to satisfy his supporters or himself.

It is hard to believe a person of such lying caliber will keep his word on abortion, or not replace Democracy with Aristocracy or a dictatorship, or not jail his opponents, or not carry out Project 2025. With his belligerent attitude toward the lawful result of the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 riot, it would be naïve to trust him to uphold law and order.

Here are the two possible scenarios of the political landscape of the U.S. after the 2024 election:

Democrats won. Democracy would be preserved, the rights of the people, rich as well as poor, MAGA and non-MAGA, were protected. In four years, if they could not solve the country’s problems, voters could vote them out in 2028. Or,

MAGA Republicans won the election in 2024. There would be no chance for the people to change guards in 2028 or ever after. In four years since 2016, MAGA has learned from within how to manipulate and control the American security apparatus. Since 2020, with the help of the billionaires’ money and AI, they have developed even more sophisticated ways to impose a dictatorship on the country and tighten their grip on the populace. If modern dictators such as Putin and Kim could do it, Trump and MAGA could do it. Americans could go out and buy a hamburger and a beer then come back home to listen to the radio singing praise of the dear leader, but never ever could say the emperor was naked. Public opinion would be a forgotten political term. The country and its constitutional democratic foundation would be turned upside down.

Could the U.S.A. turn into a Hitler’s Germany, Putin’s Russia, or Kim’s North Korea? The votes in November will answer the question.

JOHN P. LE PHONG.

The title of this article expresses the hope that MAGA will disappear as the Trump era is coming to an end.

Watching the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, when he fudged Trump’s flip-flop position on the Iranian nuclear issue. a viewer could not help comparing Vance with the other also young, quick with words, and sophistic: Vivek Ramaswamy. But while Mr. Ramaswamy is a natural who eagerly and passionately practices the art of being a MAGA Trumpist, Senator Vance seems to be trying to be a MAGA Trumpist. That means he is not a MAGA Trumpist but only a loyal soldier who is for now following the line of the Party’s leadership, which has been dominated by MAGA Republicans.

There lies the real hope of a future Republican Party, which will not embrace the ugly Trumpist MO or MAGA’s policies. There are ways to be socially conservative, carrying out reasonable and compassionate immigration reform without being nasty, focusing on the American economy to protect Americans’ jobs, strengthen American competitiveness, preserve American technological edges without appearing to shoot from the hip.

JOHN P. LE PHONG

Katrina Cooke Brownlee and her children were living with her fiancé, a New York City Correction officer.

“I don’t remember not having a black eye. … Whether it’d been the right one or the left one. … it was a busted lip (sighs). It was always something. … that’s why shades became a signature for me,” she told 48 Hours. Each time she called 911 after he beat her, he would flash his badge to the police. “And every time he flashed that badge, they would walk away,” she said.

As she was powerless to fight back her sadistic fiancé, she made up her mind and was about to leave him.

When she came home, “He opened the door and he just had, like, a weird look on his face. It was strange. … And … he pointed a gun to me and said, “this is the day you die, bitch,” and he shot me in my stomach. And then he shot me again. And —”

As she was crying unable to recount further what happened next, the assistant district attorney, Keri Herzog had to do it for her, “He emptied the gun after the first five … reloaded and proceeded to shoot her again five more times…Each time he would say to Katrina, ‘are you ready to die, Katrina?’ Bang. ‘Is this the day you’re going to die, Katrina?’ … Bang. ‘You know you deserve this, Katrina.’ Bang.”

Was it an isolated incident? Hardly. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women in the U.S. will experience severe intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Millions of women reported being physically assaulted or stalked by an intimate partner in a single year.

Worldwide? – 1 in 3.

Why has such horrendous crime gone unstoppable for ages?

Men are taller, heavier, and physically stronger. The disparity in power and reach has given them an advantage. They have known it, appreciated it, sickly treasured it, and refused to let it go even such “privilege” put their mothers, wives, and daughters at risk and in horrific harm. Even learned men such as politicians did not lift a finger to help. They did not care to certify the Equal Right Amendment to elevate the status of women and therefore provide them with more protection.

But do not just blame men. Women have never put up a real and effective fight against such injustice. Blame it on the Stockholm Syndrome. But the reality was that without the help from their fathers, brothers, husbands, and male children, they were helpless. They continued to fetch beer for “their men” who sat in their La-Z-Boy drinking beer and watching a football game while their women washed the dishes, cleaned the house, and put the children to bed. When the men left his La-Z-Boy to go to bed, their women had better be ready.

For good, or at least justifiable reason: men had to handle hard and dangerous tasks such as tilling the land, running cattle, killing wild animals, and fighting enemies. Women did not have physical strength to do all that and men over time assumed that they did not have brain either. And over time, they came to believe that they were the master, not an equal partner, and started to treat their wives like a possession doing to them whatever way they wanted – like a slave.

Such a master-slave relationship should not have existed between a man and a woman – or between any two human beings for that matter. It was against nature because, men and women came together to pursue common goals like security, safety, comfort, and chiefly to reproduce. But the moment men realized that they were physical stronger and could force women to comply with their wish, they did everything including using deadly weapons, to maintain such social orders.

Circumstances have allowed them to stay being the master and they were determined to maintain their status as the relationship afforded them more opportunities for comfort and the freedom to do crazy things.

It is worth noting that dictators and kings were the archetype of this kind of men: they had so low an appreciation of a woman’s worth that they never appointed a woman to any cabinet level position. During his long reign as the dictator of Germany, Hitler appointed NOT a single woman to his government. The women known to play certain important roles during his time in power were his consort who he married only a short time before their death, and a cinematographer. Kings were no difference.

But things have changed. The disparity of power is no longer significant. Women can work in the farm by using mechanical tools such as tractors, heavy jobs previously reserved for men. They fly jet fighters and space crafts. They head governments. They run mega conglomerates. The usefulness between men and women has been equalized. The reason for men to feel superior and behave bossily should disappear, considering that women are the only sex which solely carry, for nine months, the burden of guaranteeing the existence of men including those horrible men who heartlessly and brainlessly demand total control over women.

But women have had to overcome another hurdle very similar to hand-to-hand combat. In close quarter, in the house for example, the reach of men’s arms is longer that could still produce a punch with more force than women’s. That puts women at a real disadvantage. Their fight against bad and non-thinking men might be heroic but futile – unless and until they found strong enough allies. Happily, they have found one, quite unexpectedly.

The National Rifle Association, the terrific, fierce, and effective defender of the right to bear arms, especially concealed weapons.

The bully type would stop making demands when they know their women mean it when they say no. They would think twice before rashly acting out knowing that their partners practice shooting three times a week and they don’t know where their Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 are.

It is about time for men to acknowledge and respect women’s power and rights. Heavy handed actions by men such as the Dodds v. Jackson decision (one might suspect that Justice Barrett joined the decision probably to show her loyalty rather than her inclination or reasoning. She was quite aware that her vote, one way or another, would not change the outcome, which had already been decided by the five male Justices), could transform a considered and peaceful evolution into a cantankerous and chaotic revolution – a shouting match between the sexes.

JOHN P. LE PHONG.