Transactional, ©2025 William L. Brown
Make the Vatican Great Again? Following the recent funeral of Pope Francis, President Trump jokingly invited the Sacred College of Cardinals to choose him as the next pope.
Maybe he was thinking of reviving the lucrative Medieval church practice of selling indulgences. The practice enriched the church, but it became the chief grievance of the Reformation, spoiling the Vatican’s greatness as Trump would probably see it.
Nearly every news report or column about Trump describes him as “transactional,” meaning that he expects to profit in some way from every meeting or political act he is asked to do. In the previous century, where I come from, we called it “pay to play” or even “bribery,” and it was frowned upon. Some politicians even went to jail for it.
…Donald Trump essentially monetizes at scale the White House and the powers given to him by the Constitution and the American people in order to enrich himself and his friends.
So said Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn) assessing the Trump Presidency’s first 100 days in a Senate-floor speech April 30, 2025.
This is not normal. None of this is normal. This is outlandish, this is illegal, this is unconstitutional, brazen corruption, and this is only the first 100 days.
Murphy gave 40 of the worst examples, starting before Trump’s inauguration.
So, on January 6th – this is before Trump is even sworn in – Amazon, which has a ton of business before the incoming Trump White House, pays $40 million to the Trump family to license a documentary in a series about Melania Trump. Just a cash payment from a company that has huge interests before the incoming White House to the Trump family.
Also before his swearing-in Trump released a bit-coin, “maybe the most corrupt act in the history of the White House,” according to Murphy. Trump profits from every transaction, making it a back-door way for people to express their gratitude for whatever presidential largess they seek. Transactions are anonymous to the public, but not to Trump.
Trump was inaugurated January 20. Murphy says, “And the day he's sworn in, Trump issues an executive order gutting environmental rules so that the oil and gas industry can start making bigger amounts of money.” This was in return for a billion dollars in campaign contributions handed over, says Murphy, at a meeting with industry representatives in Lar-a-Largo.
It’s not only about exchanges of money. It’s about creating a corruption-friendly environment. Murphy decribes Trump’s purges and closures of government oversight and regulatory offices.
On January 25th, Trump eliminates the Inspectors General, the ethics officials in government and whistleblower offices. It’s a late-night purge, so you know it’s fishy. On January 25th, 17 Inspectors General get fired, clearing the way for the president to engage in even more corruption because that's what the Inspectors General do. They sit in these agencies and they look for corruption. Now the Inspectors General are gone. They're just gone.
But that's not good enough because on that same day, Trump fires the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Why would you do that? Well, that office is an investigative and prosecutorial office that works to end government and political corruption and protects government employees who become whistleblowers. That office is gone now, along with all of the whistleblowers.
Two days later, Trump illegally fires NLRB member Gwen Wilcox. This effectively shuts down, illegally, the NLRB for a period of time. Why is that important? Because the guys who were standing behind Donald Trump on Inauguration Day, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, they are being investigated at the moment by the NLRB for massive workplace violations. Now the NLRB is shut down, a big gift to the people who financed Donald Trump’s inauguration and stood behind him to give him political endorsement and cover on his inauguration day.
Deflation, ©2025 William L. Brown. Russia marks the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. They probably won’t mention Soviet Russia was Germany’s ally at the beginning of the war, only becoming its enemy when Germany turned on them.
Russia is not winning. They’ve been fighting Ukraine for eleven years. They made a maximum effort three years ago to take the whole country, but the Ukrainians rolled them back. Despite their best efforts, they hold only 20% of the country, advancing at a rate that would take decades to reach Kyiv. The Russian economy is on one hand boosted by the ever-increasing government bonuses paid to military “meat-wave” volunteers, but on the other hand stretched by the need to pay them. Putin dares not throw regular conscripts into battle lest popular opinion turn on him. Russia is losing tanks faster than they can make them. Ukrainian drones bomb military sites in mainland Russia daily. Two Ukrainian incursions on Russian soil have taken months to repel.
Unfortately, they are also not losing. Analysts, experts and opinion-mongers have predicted Russia’s imminent collapse for years, but Russia confounds them all.
Though their advance is incremental, it is still an advance. They have learned how to adapt to Ukrainian battlefield adaptations, and have even surpassed them in some drone technologies, particularly fiber-optic drones.
Still, time is not on Russia’s side as long as Ukraine continues to get the necessary aid, ammunition and satellite intelligence. The more they get, the better their chances of winning.
Thank you to all the well-wishers following my recent bout with COVID. The third week was much better than the first two. I’m able to get back to exercise and a more normal routine. I still have occasional memory lapses. Words don’t come to mind, or objects and tasks get lost.
Recovery comes just as spring allergies arrive. There’s always a cloud lurking over the hills.