So Bye-Bye, Miss America Pie

Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (1)

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 15

Now, Trump and Musk deserve whatever is coming, good and hard. But don’t let the schadenfreude of this psychodrama distract you from the fundamental point — America has fallen into a deep pit of corruption.

Musk believes that he delivered the presidency to Trump, and may well be right. He gave Trump and his allies a lot of money; he helped Trump regain confidence after his disastrous debate; he brought in the bro vote.

And Musk clearly believes that this entitles him to receive special favors from the White House — not policies he likes in general, but contracts and specific actions that benefit him personally. He even seems to have imagined that he was effectively co-president. That is, he simply assumed that U.S. policy was for sale, and thought he had bought it.

Trump, for his part, hasn’t responded by saying “How dare you suggest such a thing?” Instead, he has threatened retaliation — again, not in the form of general policies Musk won’t like but in the form of specific actions aimed to hurt Musk’s bottom line. Steve Bannon is even calling for Musk’s deportation.

The point is that both men start from the presumption that the U.S. government is an entirely corrupt enterprise, with the president in a position to hand out personal favors or engage in personal acts of vengeance.

And everyone takes it for granted that both men are right. Musk’s only mistake was in underestimating the depths of Trump’s lack of principles, imagining that he was the kind of corrupt politician who stays bought, as opposed to a guy who always breaks his promises the moment it seems expedient to do so.

In short, we no longer have rule of law, just rule by the Leader’s whims. We have abandoned everything America was supposed to stand for.

paulkrugman.substack.com - Wake up and smell the corruption

Maybe it was all just a dream., and “We the People” just a figment of our imaginations… and all the boys who died at Pointe du Hocreally were just suckers.

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

Print the post Share: X · FacebookFB · LinkedInLI · WhatsAppWApp · Email

Members reply directly to wzambon here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »

This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:

It's going to get worse · 33 recs · 2025

G’day Donny · 30 recs · 2026

Old Related Story · 28 recs · 2026

HCR is a national treasure · 27 recs · 2025

Fascism in America · 27 recs · 2025

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (1)

Prev | Next

Announcements

US Policy FAQ

Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

A community forum supporting civilized, and highly helpful, self-educating investors that come together for Shrewdness and merry spirits. These message boards closely follow the look and feel of the old message boards at boards.fool.com prior to the boards redirected to discussion.fool.com. Shrewd'm is not affiliated with the comprehensive and excellent investment website The Motley Fool (TMF) in any way. The Shrewd community here has owed, and continues to owe, gratitude to The Motley Fool for nurturing a culture of jovial irreverence towards Wall St, and that tradition will continue here.