Charles Carreon, The Arizona Kid

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This is War
by Charles Carreon
March 19, 2025

If You Would Have Peace

If you've read very much of my stuff, especially The Sex.Com Chronicles, you know I'm a big fan of the view that life "is a ground of endless contention." And while my litigation philosophy has shifted in the last twenty years, I remain partial to the belief that si vis pacem parabellum, "if you seek peace, prepare for war." Behind this advice lies a frank assessment of the potentially villainous nature of a jealous neighbor. If you have a good enough situation that you wish to preserve in peace -- farms, fields, peasants, their yearly produce -- somebody is going to take it from you, so you had better plan on how to thwart their attempt, or your peace will become theirs.

A Failure of the Imagination

The Tao Teh Ching sagely observes, "Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it." For a quick pitch for my protection skills at a business lunch, I rephrased this as, "Nothing goes wrong until something goes right," which is to say, no one will bother to steal your stuff if it's worthless, but once it acquires value, you need to get it insured. Which leads to the next aphorism -- "It's too late when the blood is in the water." In other words, if you weren't prepared for war, you're going to get rolled when it breaks out "unexpectedly." Case for my services, made.

Applying this philosophy to the conflict of the day, the "defenders of democracy" underestimated the danger of a fascist takeover of the nation, and find themselves quite without weapons. They acquired no weapons, and the blood is in the water. They are chum, Trump is a shark, and the law of the aquatic jungle will prevail. They were taken by surprise in an unexpected war. Consider Trump, by contrast. He told us he'd choose electrocution over being eaten by a shark. He does not go down because he failed to anticipate danger. In his fantastic realm, he makes strategic choices, including about how to die! But Democrats thought they were immortal. The Party could never disappear. Its weak, cringing role in U.S. governance would never be totally eliminated. They never realized that the Republicans could assume that role, and Democrats could just disappear. Maybe they'll all end up on the Gaza Riviera. Or someplace in Bukele's prison empire.

Now as heads spin and coats turn (I'm talking to you, Chuck Schumer), people are wondering how this could have happened. I think in the CIA, they call it "a failure of imagination." What's that mean? According to information retrieval, "In the context of CIA-speak and statecraft, a 'failure of imagination' refers to an intelligence or policy failure resulting from an inability to anticipate or conceive of unconventional threats, scenarios, or adversary tactics. It's often used to explain why government agencies fail to predict major geopolitical events, terrorist attacks, or strategic surprises."

Defenders Who Suffer No Casualties May Find their Loyalty Questioned

Ah, yes, that would be it -- "a failure to anticipate unconventional threats, scenarios or adversary tactics." Who'd a thunk it? Trump was an unconventional threat, so his purported adversaries should have war-gamed some unconventional scenarios and adversary tactics. I say "purported adversaries," because whenever a defender caves to threat, you have to suspect them of being traitors from the outset, in sympathy with the adversaries, mere straw defenders unworthy of the name of warrior. You know -- "If you fought, why didn't they kill you?"

Gyatrul Rinpoche once told me a story. He said, "In Tibet, there were three monasteries known for having perfect Vajrakilaya practice. When the Chinese came, they didn't even try to get them to surrender. They just smash!" For emphasis, he smashed he fist into his palm with a vicious smile that turned to a chuckle of sincere amusement. He said no more. Just planted it in my brain that on this path, sincere devotion could be a ticket to martyrdom -- and why would you want anything less? If you hadn't already died to all hope of worldly life, why were you in the monastery, anyway? Now, I realize it was probably his way of asking me, "Charles, are you ready to die for your practice?" It's often taken me twenty years to comprehend the meaning of his words.

Are 2000 Year-Old Strategies Actually "Unconventional"?

Back to strategic considerations. What "unconventional scenario or adversary tactic" did Trump use? One I read about when I was seventeen, in Thomas Merton's translation of The Way of Chuang Tzu, on page 68 of which appears the following story:





Gee, Trump's method of government takeover -- having been discussed in a 2000 year-old Chinese text -- seems not so unconventional, after all. Take note, Tien Khang Tzu was the Attorney General, aka top lawman, and what an Attorney General can do, a man who controls the Attorney General can do. And there's no question that, after Roberts' immunity decision, Trump enjoys a vast but nebulous area of action free from criminal sanction, which immunized his collusion with Asst. US Attorney Jeffrey Clark to steal votes and the Presidency by exerting unlawful, fraudulent influence over state authorities in the 2020 elections. That ruling alone has legitimized the castration of the Department of Justice as an independent entity, the defenestration of hundreds of AUSAs for no sin worse than putting criminals who attacked the Capitol in jail, and the sudden creation of a cadre of DOJ lawyers who fear lying to federal judges less than they fear saying "no" to Donald Trump.

The Blitzkrieg Philosophy

Now, an excellent historical example of an authoritarian takeover by an unconventional force was the Nazi takeover of France, and the installation of the Vichy collaborationist government in Southern France. This vital, strategic move gave Germany, a land-locked state, warm water ports for their U-boats to slide out into the English Channel under cover of the waves, and sink troop and supply convoys. Focused on the strategic aim, guided by a new vision of mechanized warfare, the Nazis wasted no time on pillaging, looting or destroying useful infrastructure. They did not seek out and destroy the enemy, prolonging the engagement in search of total domination; rather, they avoided major artillery emplacements, using lightly armored but heavily armed, fast moving armed troop transports, cruising past the French heavy artillery -- the vaunted Maginot Line -- straight into the heart of Southern France. The advance columns would secure radio stations, newspapers, telegraph operations, and government offices as a matter of priority, installing their own technology and communications people (Musk & DOGE) and recruiting local traitors, establishing collaborationist governments in each province, and moving on to the next. Panzer Leader Heinz Guderian later explained in his biography that Germany knew it was behind in manpower and technology, so it had to excel in speed and organization.

Gen. Guderian, who, a few years later would see his men dying in the snows of Stalingrad, led the Panzer tank divisions, whose tanks he helped design, and whose crews he personally trained. The Panzers, with their specially designed cannon -- the famed .88 millimeter -- and powerful engines, tore through the Ardennes forest, crushing opposition, and swiftly reached the goal of the English Channel. The unvarying tactics applied -- speed and intensity -- gave this method of war its name -- Blitzkrieg / Lightning War.

Using Blitzkrieg tactics, Germans minimized casualties and established the Vichy government lead by George Pétain, thus preserving the excellent French administrative state and civil servants, while making them loyal to Germany. Vichy / Nazi propaganda portrayed the defeat of the French government as the fault of democracy and communism, while glorifying Pétain as a national savior. There is no need to kill willing servants, and willing Pétain and his lackeys were, collaborating with the transport of over 40,000 children said to be "Jewish," who were shipped to concentration camps, and giving the Germans full control of Southern France until near the end of the war. When abduction, torture and murder were required, the Gestapo could be deployed, aided by the "Milice," the Vichy Secret Police. If the Allies hadn't invaded Europe and defeated the Nazis, their descendants would be sunning swastika tattoos in Provence.

It's a Wrap

So there you have it. The analogies to Trump's lightning takeover of government are apparent. He is wasting no time engaging with authorities who can be ignored because they are too slow to respond, and will be entirely neutered when he takes effective, read -- financial -- control. His technological forces seized the true centralized controls in the US government -- the mainframes that comprise the "ropes, locks and bolts" to which Chuang Tzu refers -- that actually, not in political theory, control the primary issue: Who writes the checks around here? A little chat with the Gestapo, and by the end of the day -- DOGE writes the checks.

Trump's too stupid to run a computer, but that stupidity is the intelligence that lets him know he needs a safe cracker to bust a lock and get the loot. Mice-men like Musk who were pissed on by their powerful fathers are always going to be easily manipulated by a little flattery from a dominant male. And Wall Street shills like Chuck Schumer are always ready to play Petain, saving the nation by giving it away. Reading history might not help us avoid it, but it does help us see that villainy repeats itself, and perhaps we, the virtuous, should get a fucking clue and yes, prepare for war before the blood is in the water.

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Liberation Day: Curtains Rise on the New World Disorder
by Charles Carreon
April 12, 2025



Cast in Irony

When Bush the First spoke the words, “New World Order,” he birthed a thousand conspiracy theories that nourish a vast, expanding fan base of believers. Trump coined “Liberation Day,” and given its extraordinary popularity as meme fodder, it may well show similar permanence in modern speech. This typically Trumpian, which is to say Orwellian, expression, is cast in irony that will gleam brightly through the ages, impervious to the rust of familiarity. Because the consequences will last forever.

The US Has Liberated Itself from the Burden of World Economic Leadership

What did Trump liberate us from? He freed us from world economic leadership, and pitched us over a cliff into a spiral of increasing national debt, coupled with decreasing resources with which to pay it. The ill-advised maneuver has happened, and cannot be retracted. And to think -- it was primarily a matter of presentation. For my entire life, I have seen how US Presidents represented us on the world stage. Dressed in a tuxedo, unflappable, in control, holding all the cards and administering the game. The United States runs this game by issuing stable, reliable debt of unquestioned reliability, payable in dollars that keep their value with respect to other world currencies.

King Dollar

Dollars have been the hardest of all money in two senses -- unbreakable in their value, and difficult to acquire. Most other countries can only borrow money from international bankers if they promise to repay it in dollars. Why? Because then it doesn’t matter if the debtor country devalues their own currency – the debt is payable in dollars. This makes the United States the King of Debtors. Until Trump’s second term, everyone in the game wanted to lend us money. In a couple of moves, that all changed. Trump ditched the formal presentation and abandoned the cool projection of calm control and mastery that the United States has always relied upon to maintain its financial authority, swapping it for an insecure, unstable, anxious, urgent demand for big changes in the game that Trump had discovered was somehow “unfair” to the dealer, the USA, the issuer and lender of the world’s most important money. Suddenly, the emperor had no clothes. Indeed, he might as well have been posting dick pics on TruthSocial – the world’s reaction could not have been more negative. And you know, you don’t need to do anything really stupid more than once. From then on, everyone will remember you for it.

The Suicide King

So for whom was it really Liberation Day? For the rest of the world. On April 9th and 10th, the world was liberated from the illusion that the United States was sure to act rationally. Insane import tariffs went into effect, far more punitive than expected, and the word was out. Trump had channeled his ineptitude in financial matters into a frenzy of self-destructive acts. Assuming the invulnerability of the nation’s finances, he did the Titanic’s captain one better – he piloted the ship of state directly for the largest iceberg he could find, shouting, “I’m gonna move you, baby!” As the horrendous sounds of a mountain of ice tearing holes in metal bulkheads terrified all aboard, Trump was pumping his fist, and shouting like Slim Pickens in the closing scene of Dr. Strangelove, gleefully riding the nuclear missile down to ground zero, and kickstarting Armageddon.

I'm gonna get them doors open if it harelips everybody on Bear Creek!









-- Dr. Strangelove, directed by Stanley Kubrick, © Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

Crazy Pays a Premium

The world saw this insane spectacle and took shelter. From what? From the impending collapse of our finances. Kind of like yanking our credit cards, bond traders world wide started dumping US Debt Obligations, aka “Treasury Bonds” or “T-Bills.” They dumped them so fast that sellers of T-Bills had to take big losses to sell. So bonds got cheaper, so what? The interest rate goes up. And who pays the interest on T-Bills? You and me. We are the hamsters cranking that interest payment debt wheel, and except for a few aberrant moves, every administration that has ever breathed the air of Washington D.C. has lived by the principle that keeping the government’s borrowing rate low is good financial policy, and good politics. The government’s credit card got jacked from 3.9% to 4.5% in one day, increasing the total amount of interest payments by around 12.5%. Since our interest payments are already eating up 16% of the budget, we need this like a hole in the head.

Goodbye Dollar Stores

And what about consumer prices? Having not connected cheap consumer goods with “China,” Trumpers have been celebrating Trump’s tariff war as if they really wanted to pay $45 for a $12 t-shirt at WalMart, $100 for a $40 tool at Harbor Freight, or $3 instead of $1 for a pack of plastic face-shavers. It seems quite likely that, with a trade war with China in full swing, we’ll see Dollar Stores going belly up nationwide. That’ll make a lot of rednecks unhappy, but will they connect their unhappiness with their favorite President? I wouldn’t touch that bet.

Blood Bath in the Oil Patch

One bright spot -- oil prices have gone down! That’s good, isn’t it? Actually, it sounds a most discordant note for those reciting the “drill baby drill” mantra. US oil drillers have high production costs that only make sense when oil prices are high. Thanks to Trump’s trade war, world economic activity is expected to slow down, and future oil usage will decline accordingly. Thus, crude oil prices have already gone down so much that many oil drillers have suspended operations in the Permian Basin and other fracking zones. Just ask a shale oil man.

Shale boss Bryan Sheffield told Bloomberg that the situation right now is a “blood bath”. “The industry needs to cut immediately and hunker down to let the tariff war play out,” Sheffield was quoted as saying. OilPrice.com

The Fate of the Nation in the Hands of a Madman

How unfortunate that, when a great fool like Trump falls, so many are crushed under the wreckage. No one can destroy a man like himself, and the same holds for nations. A great many fools pulled their ballot levers to elect this fool, and the "wealthiest men in the world," if you can call people devoid of humanity "wealthy," threw their fortunes at his feet to gain his favor by helping him take power. Billions in the bank obviously do not make a person more able to distinguish the shit from the Shinola.

For light to accompany the heat, read the New Statesman article quoted and linked below.

Can the US truly boast that it does not discriminate between assets held by residents and assets held by foreigners, the kind of openness often presented as a condition for a currency to become an international reserve currency? Chinese companies would disagree – and many around the world now wonder if they might be the next target of America’s economic warfare. It is not possible to both create the rules of the game and act like one of the players.

Every time the rule of law is replaced by a system of political favour, investors take note. Their assets might be safer outside of the US, and good alternatives seem to be emerging in Europe and Japan, particularly as new debt will be necessary to fund their announced rearmament.

Finally, as the painful costs of issuing a global reserve currency continue to grow, Donald Trump will find it impossible to resist the need to address these costs. His voters demand action and now dream of a new industrial golden age. Trump may well believe that he can bring it about without sacrificing dollar dominance, but the last few days prove that every action has a reaction. After the recent fracas, he will surely try other ways to implement his agenda, and perhaps with renewed ferocity. King dollar will struggle to survive. The downfall of King Dollar

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The Island of Dr. Elon
by Charles Carreon
May 12, 2025

Back in the day, the press had covered Dr. Elon’s lifestyle choices as a billionaire’s idiosyncrasies, unworthy of deep reflection on his real motivation. Given his gossip-worthy penchant for having children through IVF and surrogate mothers, journalistic curiosity about his family lives had been surprisingly shallow. Of course powerful men have maintained harems since the origin of the species, and the press has always ogled these exploits greedily, so the faceless herd can vicariously experience the dream of sexual abundance. Dr. Elon’s serial engagements with surrogate moms, however, lacked the glamorous element of courtship and sensuality, being apparently mere business arrangements. So at the time, no one hazarded a serious explanation for why the world’s most serious man was managing a hive of faceless women to generate offspring.

My paper had clinched an exclusive interview with the great man aboard his orbital space yacht now hanging in geosynchronous orbit over the lush paradise of Muskovia, formerly Greenland, purchased from the Truth Empire in 2055. In the X-bucks coffee parlor of the orbital elevator port, I marveled at the flavor of the coffee. “Real Arabica, grown here in Muskovia,” says the Inuit woman who served me the cup.

The Truth Empire’s forced acquisition of Greenland – prompted by Dr. Elon’s suggestion to the Big Cheese Himself – had been very well-timed. As the developed world lost its coastal cities to the sea, obliterating their civilization, and its agricultural belts turned into neglected wastelands, the vast, icy island thawed. Dr. Elon sold off the ice, using solar powered tugboats to tow icebergs to the sweltering, thirsty southern lands. All things had worked together for the benefit of Dr. Elon, and now I was getting into the world’s only privately owned orbital elevator -- essentially a railgun for shooting a capsule full of people into orbit. Once out of the earth’s gravity pull, with the help of small compressed air rockets, we would dock with Dr. Elon’s enormous space yacht, Extreme Measures.

Inside the warmly upholstered capsule, there were only four others, and a few empty seats. A robot took my overnight bag and guided me to my acceleration couch. When I sat down, an opaque mask came down over my face, the acceleration couch tilted back and strapped me in. Through the intercom, the elevator AI nattered on about the wonders of Muskovia until the scent of a dissociative anaesthetic teased my olfactory sense and the marketing monologue ended. I felt pleasantly separated from my anxiety and relieved of the weight of my physical body. As the long chain of electromagnets steadily accelerated us up into the sky, and G forces mounted steadily to generate escape velocity, I blissfully felt them not at all.

The docking maneuver went smoothly, and we disembarked into the hold of the Extreme Measures, where a wheeled AI assistant met me, took charge of my bag, and lead me to my room. The AI stowed my bag, and paused by the door before leaving to say, “I will return with dinner. You will see Dr. Elon in twelve hours. Be ready.” The door closed.

How could anyone be ready for Dr. Elon? Born in apartheid South Africa in 1971, now, in the year 2130, he was almost 160 years old, and during that time he had advantaged himself in every way possible. No one had photographed him in decades, and I wouldn’t be allowed to do so now. But they said I would see him, making me one of the most privileged people in the world. No pressure.

The AI assistant brought me a passable meal after a couple of hours, and I slept well in orbit, thankful for the artificial gravity generated by the centrifugal rotation of the passenger section of the space yacht.

But the interview took place in a large spherical space where the reality of weightlessness surrounded me. Huge viewscreens mounted on the curving walls replicates the vast expanse of the surrounding universe. Weightless AI's manuevered about, emitting hisses of compressed air, drifting from location to location, busy with tasks only they understood. There below us, hung the Earth, the moon peeping ‘round the blue horizon, and on the other side of the ship, a massive collection of machinery was visible, being assembled by a pair of huge metal hands. Dr. Elon floated in a webwork of instruments and controls. He looked down at me and called out, “Climb the rigging!” I saw the way up to where he was, and clambered up the ropes to reach the deck where he was moored, belted into a captain’s chair with 360 degree rotation, his hands in a pair of haptic gloves, his head in a helmet with a heads up display covering his eyes.

As I reached the platform, he pointed to another chair, and said, “Belt in.” I did as suggested. So this was the man. More machine than man, at this point, and not physically impressive. Then I put two and two together. The haptic gloves on his hands were controlling the two enormous metal hands out in space. With the heads-up display, he was able to see the enormous orbital construction, and with the mechanical hands, he could assemble huge structures with delicacy. Dr. Elon had literally increased his grasp to exceed that of any other human. What else had he done?

He turned towards me, pulled off the gloves, and helmet, and smiled. The smile looked sincere, but not because I thought he was happy to see me. He was happy that I was seeing him, and that I was aware of the privilege involved. But he could not be happy about the subject I had been invited to discuss – the human rights lawsuit filed by his surrogate children. “Shall we begin?” asked Dr. Elon.

I pulled out my slate and stylus and nodded, “Yes, certainly,” tapping the screen to call up my notes. I hit voice record, and the transcript follows.

FT: “Dr. Elon, thank you for inviting the Financial Times of London to interview you about this matter. The accusations made against you are extensive, detailing a course of conduct that at this point stretches over a century. Your unearthly longevity has sparked many questions, and few answers. The lawsuit by your offspring suggests an explanation – that you owe your longevity to them.”

Dr. Elon: “Yes,” answered Dr. Elon, “I understand their claims, and I’m ready to answer them. My lawyers are not at all in agreement with my course of action, but I hire them to listen to me, not the reverse. So ask your question a little more directly.”

FT: “The complaint here alleges that you have been milking your biological offspring of their blood, extracting plasma and other life-giving fluids, and injecting them into yourself. Is that true?”

Dr. Elon: “Well, I don’t do the actual injection myself, but yes, my children have been supplying me with transfusion material, but it has all been done with informed consent, and they get paid. How many pay their children a lifetime salary? All of my child donors receive that.”

FT: “But now they are complaining.”

Dr. Elon: “About what? About what are they complaining? That the checks are not big enough, right? That’s when the lawyers go away, when they get money, right? So that’s what this is all about!”

FT: “They claim it is about human rights. They say you tricked their mothers into signing away their own rights to their own bodies.”

Dr. Elon: “I don’t know what was so tricky about it. They all had their own lawyers. I hired separate counsel for all of them, and they all signed those agreements with full understanding.”

FT: “But those agreements have now been set aside by the courts on the grounds that parents cannot determine the biological destiny of their children.”

Dr. Elon: “At the time, all of the attorneys we consulted with on bio-ethics said there was no law against it.”

FT: “But did you, personally, think it was moral to force these women to sign contracts that allowed gene editing of their embryonic children?”

Dr. Elon: “I’m a scientist. I want to learn. We learn through experiment.”

FT: “Experimenting on your own children?”

Dr. Elon: “Well, I sure wasn’t going to experiment on anyone else’s.”

FT: “And why is that?”

Dr. Elon: “Legal issues.”

FT: “Like what?”

Dr. Elon: “A child is always a lawful donor for a parent. Can you imagine a court telling a child they
can’t donate a kidney to save the life of their father?”

FT: “No.”

Dr. Elon: “Neither could my lawyers.”

FT: “So let’s get onto organ donation. Have any of your children donated organs to you?”

Dr. Elon: “Yes, many of them.”

FT: “But for those donations, would you still be alive today?”

Dr. Elon: “Not likely. And I most definitely would not see. These flawless eyes were the product of one
of my favorite children. Passed on, unfortunately.”

FT: “What do you mean, passed on?”

Dr. Elon: “That child died of a disease that was incurable at the age of eighteen. Willed me her eyes, the dear.”

FT: “But why did you not save her? Why didn’t you edit her genes so that she wouldn’t die of that disease? You would have done it for yourself!”

Dr. Elon: “Ah, but she was not myself. She lived well, she lived with loving care. Her death was foredestined, and her giving me flawless eyesight, likewise. Into each life some rain must fall. One man gathers what another spills.”

FT: “And what of this allegation, one I hope you will deny – that some children were raised to be organ producers. This child who grows kidneys that can be harvested successively. Tell me that’s not true.”

Dr. Elon: “I’m please to tell you, it is not. One of my over-enthusiastic experimenters did start the editing process, but I put my foot down. Waste of resources.”

FT: “What do you mean, waste of resources?”

Dr. Elon: “Well, nowadays, we have the technology to clone organs straight from the tank. Why opt for the Mengelian solution?”

FT: “Well doctor, you used the word. Some people have called you a Mengele.”

Dr. Elon: “I’m no Mengele. He didn’t have a plan, and his so-called experiments produced little knowledge of use. I am on a quest to transcend the limitations of physical existence, and the only laboratories of any use to me are the human bodies that live and die and hold the answer, if answer there might be, in how to live forever. So far, I’ve staved off death for twice the normal span, and our knowledge of organ transplantation has become ever more refined. I anticipate that, someday, I will be able to transplant the brain currently in this body into a younger body grown in precisely the way necessary to receive this brain.”

FT: “But sir, this is arrogant madness. You are saying you would carve your child’s brain out of its cranium, and replace it with your own?”

Dr. Elon: “Oh, surely not. The younger body would be grown with the most vestigial brain possible, just enough to manage the construction and operation of the body – in practice simply the brain stem – no cerebellum, no consciousness.”

FT: “Doctor, you clearly prize your own life highly. How can you regard the lives of others with so little concern.”

Dr. Elon: “Growing up in Praetoria.”

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Trump’s Golden Age — Fulfillment of Billionaire Dreams Under the Guise of a Populist Revival
by Charles Carreon
May 23, 2025

Donald Trump is often said to be a populist. True as far as it goes. He was certainly lifted to power by an underclass. He moves the masses, like the famed Argentine populist dictator Perón, but for a different purpose. Perón genuinely sought to uplift the poor, his "descasmisados," the bare-chested people, the ones who didn't wear shirts. Trump's latest crypto-bribery Oval Office stunt made it clearer than ever that, even as he charms the ignorant poor, he serves only the wealthy and himself—an elite masquerading as a savior of the common man while enacting policies that entrench oligarchic power.

Where Juan Perón used debt and state resources to uplift the Argentine working class, Trump deploys the same tools to enrich the already-rich, gut public institutions, and leave America’s lower classes more vulnerable than ever. This is Trump’s Golden Age—a descent into deprivation and imposed austerity for ordinary Americans, while billionaires live their wildest fantasies under the protective cover of nationalist theater.

The Paradox of Modern Populism

The Trump movement sells itself as a crusade for the forgotten American worker, yet its material effects consistently advantage corporations, hedge fund managers, and dynastic wealth. His 2017 tax overhaul slashed corporate tax rates and overwhelmingly favored high-income households. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1% reaped nearly 20% of the total benefits. These tax cuts were recently expanded further by the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed by the House in May 2025, extending deductions for capital gains and passthrough income while slashing revenue streams needed to support basic public services. Unlike Perón, who redistributed national wealth toward the working class through wage hikes and nationalizations, Trump redistributes it upward. Medicaid and SNAP are being gutted to pay for tax shelters. This isn’t a safety net; it’s a springboard for wealth extraction.

Protectionism as Propaganda

Perón embraced protectionism to cultivate domestic industries and working-class employment. Trump’s tariffs mimic the form but not the function. Rather than shielding U.S. manufacturing, they serve as symbolic weapons in a culture war. A Yale Budget Lab analysis shows that the average effective U.S. tariff rate in 2025 has surged to levels not seen since 1909. The burden of these tariffs falls on American households—not on the elites. It’s not economic sovereignty; it’s cost inflation wrapped in a flag.

Fiscal Irresponsibility as Strategy

In Argentina, Perón’s debt-fueled populism eventually drove inflation and economic collapse—but at least the working class saw short-term gains. Trump’s fiscal policy is more cynical: national debt explodes to subsidize shareholder dividends and real estate depreciation. Rather than investing in infrastructure, housing, or education, Trump’s policies deepen inequality and widen the fiscal gap. This is not populism. It’s wealth extraction under populist cover.

The Cult of Personality Without Substance

Trump, like Perón, commands a cult-like loyalty. But unlike Perón, he delivers little material improvement to his base. His rallies are performance politics—furious, nostalgic, and hollow. Real power lies not with his voters, but with the private equity billionaires and dynastic donors who fund his campaigns and shape his agenda. The American worker is a stage prop; the corporate class writes the script.

From Perón to Plutocracy

The original Peronization meant redistributing national wealth to the poor, often unsustainably. Under Trump, the term now signals the reverse: an economy weaponized for the rich, defended by a culture war that distracts and divides. This is not about national renewal—it’s about elite preservation. A gilded age masquerading as a revolution.

America, the Betrayed

Trump has delivered not a populist revival but a golden age for the plutocracy. His administration is a crowning achievement in elite deception: convincing millions that their impoverishment is patriotism. This is not the populism of bread and dignity. It is the theater of false promises and golden parachutes. If the United States is ruined economically, it will not be because it tried to help the many—but because it served the few, under the cynical flag of the common man.

Further Reading:

• MarketWatch: What’s in the GOP tax bill?
• The Guardian: Republican cuts to food and health benefits
• Yale Budget Lab: US Tariffs Report
• Wikipedia: Economic history of Argentina
• Washington Post: Trump tax and immigration bill

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Comparing the Trump Outrages to Those of George III
by Charles Carreon
June 13, 2025

To my fellow citizens:

Please find below, in parentheses, commentary that compares the Trump Outrages of the last four months with the litany of misdeeds of which the Founding Fathers accused King George as justifying their decision to rebel absolutely and completely against his unjust rule.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
  (Pardoning J-6 convicts and other MAGA trash, destroying government agencies through DOGE, disbanding the DOJ Civil Rights division, ending criminal prosecution and civil enforcement of laws for the public benefit.)
  
• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance...
  (Pressuring big city mayors and state governors to end migrant protections, DEI policies, and withdrawing funding for universities and nonprofits that support Palestinian rights, defunding AID, SNAP, Medicaid, and a host of other social services.)
  
• He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people...
  (Cutting off funding for states, counties, and cities deemed political enemies of the Trump regime.)
  
• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable...
  
• He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly...
  (He has gutted administrative agencies, firing long-time civil servants because they refused to kowtow to MAGA priorities.)
  
• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected...
  (Trump has defunded public health and welfare, infrastructure maintenance, land management, and socially beneficial nonprofit activity.)
  
• He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States...
  (Obstructing immigration policies, especially harming industries reliant on migrant labor.)
  
• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice...
  (Refusing to enforce laws that constrain his misconduct, threatening judges, and inciting violence.)
  
• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone...
  (See above.)
  
• He has erected a multitude of New Offices...
  (Deploying ICE officers en masse to intimidate communities of color.)
  
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies...
  (Remember Gavin Newsom suing over military deployment?)
  
• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
  (As per the DOJ under Pam Bondi—yes, seriously.)
  
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution...
  (Aligning with authoritarian regimes like Bukele’s El Salvador.)
  
• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
  
• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment...
  
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
  (Tariffs have returned—with a vengeance. Like the ones that triggered the Boston Tea Party.)
  
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
  (Trump tariffs cost average Americans $1,700/year—basically a MAGA tax.)
  
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
  (Mass deportations with no conviction, no trial.)
  
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
  (Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to a foreign prison, wrongly accused.)
  
• For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province...
  (Red states implementing harsh, theocratic laws to set precedent for national imposition.)
  
• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws...
  (Dismantling DEI, defunding police oversight, shredding due process.)
  
• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power...
  (The MAGA Congress does Trump’s will. Democrats offer no real opposition.)

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

****

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Anyone unable to see the correspondence between these words of the Declaration of Independence, the actions of the Trump Junta, and the legitimacy of a revolutionary response to those actions, should clean their glasses. Clearly, Sam Adams would be brewing more than beer, were he alive today.

[admin]

Tyrants -- They Never Hear the One That Hits Them
by Charles Carreon
June 17, 2025

All Successful Rebellions Are Stealthy

History rarely records the first whispers of revolution. Before barricades go up, before flags are raised, before tyrants are toppled, rebellion begins in silence, in secret, and in shadow. Every successful rebellion starts not with a trumpet, but with a whisper. From Europe to Latin America to Africa, this is the common root of insurrection.

Consider Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution in 1989. There were no riots, no mass graves. The regime collapsed under the weight of its own lie when candlelight vigils, banned poetry, and students shaking their keys in the Prague air made the continued fiction of authoritarian legitimacy impossible to maintain. Vaclav Havel, playwright-turned-president, proved that imagination and moral persistence could dethrone a state.

Shift to Cuba, 1950s: a revolution conceived not in radio broadcasts or grand pronouncements but in prisons and mountain hideouts. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, along with Vilma Espín and Haydée Santamaría, plotted each step through whispers, persuasion, and coded messages. Soldiers were persuaded to defect before they were defeated in combat. Sierra Maestra was the womb of a rebellion born in strategic stealth.

Cross the Atlantic to Mozambique, where the FRELIMO movement fanned the flames of independence against the Portuguese. Josina Machel, a young fighter and educator, inspired a generation with the quiet defiance of her service to refugees and wounded soldiers. Eduardo Mondlane built the foundations of victory not on open battlefields, but through years of slow, careful organizing and moral argument.

In all three, as in so many others, the pattern holds: stealth, not spectacle, births lasting revolution.

Deploying Media Weapons to Counter Oppressive Propaganda

Authoritarian regimes rely on control of the story. They produce histories that are half-erased, futures that are hollow, and presents too overwhelming to analyze. Yet wherever oppression reigns, the counter-narrative lives.

In the USSR, it was samizdat — the illegal underground self-publishing network that hand-copied banned books, essays, and news accounts. Writers like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Natalya Gorbanevskaya gave voice to a silenced reality. Every carbon copy was an act of treason against the state’s monopoly on truth.

In Chile under Pinochet, the guitar of Victor Jara and the words of Gladys Marín became more powerful than any rifle. Jara’s voice was mutilated by his torturers, but his songs remain.

In apartheid South Africa, artists like Miriam Makeba and playwrights like Athol Fugard crafted truths no newspaper dared print. In Vietnam, songs like "Bài Ca Giã Tường" served as signals and salves. In the West, The Clash’s "Clampdown" made British youth question empire in their own tongue.

The rebels wrote poems. They performed plays. They edited leaflets. They painted walls. They turned each act of communication into an insurgent weapon. And they did it not always with rage, but with irony, beauty, double meanings, and charm. Soft language, hard resistance

Developing Disgust for Empire

Before people resist, they must stop admiring their oppressors. Rebellion ripens when the emperor becomes ridiculous, the state becomes boring, the tyrant becomes tacky.

The fashion, art, and music of rebellion have always played this role. In the UK, punk rock made monarchy and imperial nostalgia seem absurd. Songs like The Clash’s Clampdown and Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen reframed obedience as a kind of death.

In the U.S. civil rights movement, the dignified defiance of Black marchers contrasted violently with the snarling faces of Southern sheriffs. In Argentina, Rodolfo Walsh’s writing made the junta’s lies look desperate and cruel.

In Tibet and among Uyghur artists, the Chinese state’s sterilized slogans are undercut by whispered prayers and coded poems. In Tiananmen Square, the Goddess of Democracy—papier-mâché and defiant—faced Mao's granite gaze and made the old tyrant look like a cartoon.

When young people reject the aesthetics of tyranny—the uniforms, the television programs, the slogans—the moral authority of the oppressor begins to rot.

Make them look stupid. Make them look small. Make them look scared. That’s where power begins to slip.

Building Support for Open Rebellion

Open rebellion doesn’t happen spontaneously. It is cultivated. It is nurtured. It is built over years of quiet planning, failed actions, whispered rumors, clandestine alliances, and moral preparation.

In the Sierra Maestra, Fidel and Che didn’t just shoot guns; they educated, negotiated, recruited, and persuaded. Many Batista soldiers surrendered not out of fear, but respect.

In South Africa, the ANC began underground organizing as early as the 1940s. Decades of exile, sabotage, and clandestine action set the stage for the explosion of resistance in the 1980s.

In Poland, Anna Walentynowicz’s firing triggered the Gdansk shipyard strike that birthed Solidarity—but it was only possible because thousands had been preparing underground for years. Catholic youth groups, independent press, labor circles: they all laid the invisible groundwork.

In Chile, the fall of Pinochet was preceded by years of slow moral attrition. When Judge Garzón issued the arrest warrant in 1998, the world was ready to receive it as justice, not vengeance.

Open rebellion is the fruit. Stealth is the root.

Keepin' What You’ve Earned

The tragedy of revolution is not only its bloodshed, but its loss through complacency. Many of the Eastern Bloc nations that broke free from communism in 1989 are now seeing democratic backsliding: Hungary under Orbán, Poland under PiS, and even the Czech Republic flirting with autocracy.

The United States, long seen as a beacon of liberal democracy, now finds itself on dying ground, as Sun Tzu would put it. Trumpism has built a junta not only of politicians, but of judges, sheriffs, media moguls, and militia commanders. They are preparing for a permanent coup by legal means.

But America still has weapons: institutional inertia, professional ethics, public employee resistance, and the stealth rebellion of ordinary decency. Nurses, postal workers, IRS agents, city council members, state judges, and school librarians are quietly refusing.

What we need now is mass stealth moral rebellion: workplace conversations, memes, songs, quiet refusals, ritual shaming, brave humor, and stealth organizing. If we make it socially shameful to support tyranny—if we activate decency in the human heart through stories, art, speech, and example—the junta will find the machine failing.

We do not need everyone to fight. We need some to resist, some to resign, and many to remember. The true battle is in the sympathies and loyalties of the uncommitted majority.

All revolutions begin in secret. So does every redemption.

Start now. Speak quietly. Fight well.

Produced with AI research and drafting. To see the full research session, click here.