The Life in My Years

April 5, 2025
Around the country, across all 50 states, a financially devastated, Trump weary nation took to the streets to protest. In New York and Washington DC the crowds were estimated at 100,000 each; St. Paul, Minnesota was estimated at 25,000; 10,000 in Montpelier, Vermont; 30,000 in Chicago; and 20,000 in Atlanta. In little Hercules, California where my wife and I attended, the crowd was estimated at 300. Protests were held worldwide in sympathy and in anger; Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, London, and Lisbon.

Elon Musk fell back on the oft used conspiracy theory that demonstrators against Tesla and the administration are being paid by rich liberals who Musk, the very same man who was in Wisconsin trying to buy votes, claims must be prosecuted.

Four servicemen return home
It was a smaller and more somber crowd at Dover AFB in Dover, Delaware, where four American servicemen; Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan, Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois, Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California, and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam, returned to the States after serving their country in Lithuania. They were all deceased, having died in a training accident.

After being recovered from a submerged military vehicle, the bodies of the four American servicemen were driven in a ceremonial motorcade through the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania. The streets were lined with thousands of Lithuanians that included Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda, all there to pay their respects. School children joined the crowd, as they waved Lithuanian and American flags in a show of honor and respect. It should be stressed that Lithuanians were paying their respects to four men who represented the nation that has been treating the world with utter contempt.

It was a show of respect and thanks for their service that the deceased men’s commander in chief couldn’t be bothered to grant. It’s a tradition that the president meets the returned bodies of servicemembers at Dover, in what is called the dignified transfer. But Donald Trump, who is neither dignified or extends dignity where that quality is demanded, handed the duty off to his disgraced stooge of a Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

Flaunting oligarchy
The president had more pressing matters to attend to. He was hosting the sports washing, Saudi backed LIV Golf Tournament being held at the Trump National Doral resort. Yes, those Saudis, the ones who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi and then disposed of the body Sopranos style. The same Saudis who invested two billion dollars in Jared Kushner’s equity firm. When the Trump family and the Saudis get together it’s an almost foregone conclusion that quid and pro quo will enjoy a mutually advantageous reunion.

On Thursday, while the bottom was falling out of the stock market, his highness Trump was making a grand entrance at the edge of one of his golf courses, disembarking from a military helicopter, all paid in full by the American taxpayers who were at that moment reevaluating their retirement plans, canceling vacations and wondering if their small businesses would weather insanity. While black clouds loomed over America, in Trumpland it was just the beginning of a bright sunny weekend of obscene excess.

Trump spent the next day at the Trump International Golf Club, where he occupied much of his time sending messages on Truth Social. One particular message pulled away the curtain, the veil and the mask as he wrote to a panicking nation, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE.” (his caps)

How nice for the president and his wealthy sycophants. I remember reading in the history books about a president who, 92 years ago, spoke the now timeless words to a terrified nation, “the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself” But DJT is no FDR. No, not by a damn sight.

On the same day that the president was celebrating being rich I was looking at my measly portfolio and finding that I’d lost over $17,000 dollars in two days. Where oh where, I’ve been wondering, is that payment for going out and protesting? I’ve been to six demonstrations and I figure that I have back pay due me. I could sure use that little bit of scratch about now.

Yes, the president was getting rich. At the Trump Doral, all 643 rooms were sold out for the weekend, even the $13,000 dollar a night presidential suite. The bars and restaurants at the Trump property were packed, including the BLT Prime steakhouse bar where, for a mere $130 dollars, you could get yourself a porterhouse steak.

The rich, the unseeing, and the tone deaf, all of them insulated from a suffering nation, shopped for golf club covers that bear likenesses of the exalted leader. If golf isn’t their game they could snap up a $550 dollar silver studded purse – Trump branded of course. In the restaurants and bars the well-heeled could raise their crystal glasses in a toast to their grand fortunes.

Mike Atwell, a Key Largo, Fla., restaurant owner, drank up and expounded on the meaning of life, “The sky is falling every day. When you are happy, you drink. When you are sad, you drink. It all works out.”

A 39-year-old entrepreneur named Tyrell Davis summed up his version of the American experience, “It’s all about business and money,” Mr. Davis said. “That’s what it’s all about. America is a business. It’s a corporation.”

Screw baseball, screw mom’s apple pie, white picket fences and screw a kid practicing free throws at the basketball hoop over the garage door. “It’s a corporation.” Yeah, it’s a corporation alright. One that’s been acquired by private equity and is being stripped for parts before being liquidated.

I wonder if it ever occurs to Atwell and Davis that their dear leader could turn on them at a moment’s notice or that some policy born of a mad president’s wild hair could plunge them into ruin. Have another drink Mike Atwell; you may need it.

It was on that same day that I read that, due to cuts at the Department of Agriculture, 330 truckloads of food that had been earmarked for food banks in California had been halted. The stoppage included eleven trucks expected to supply 400,000 pounds of food for the hungry in the Sacramento area.

Let them eat steak.

At about the time that the attendees at the Trump blowout were spending $1400 to enter exclusive party venues, my wife and I were protesting on a street corner in Hercules being flipped off by Trump supporters riding in an old beat up foreign made sedan.

So much winning
Later that same day, the White House was announcing that Trump had won the Senior Club Championship, and would compete on Sunday for the Championship Round.

Of course he won.

It’s been well documented that Trump is a golf cheat. In his book “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump,” sports writer Rick Reilly wrote, “Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf.” “He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: ‘Pele.’”

A story in The West Palm Beach Post, tells of a Senior Club Championship held at the Trump International West Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Course. When members arrived for the final round, Trump’s name was atop the leader board. An astonishing feat given Trump hadn’t played the first round.

Couldn’t care less
On Saturday I learned that one friend had lost $32,000 dollars, while another had lost $12,000 dollars – all over the course of two days. But unlike the aforementioned FDR, who cared about the plight of the people who put their trust in him, Trump couldn’t care less. My friends and I know that because Trump had said as much the week prior when he noted that he “couldn’t care less” if automakers raised their prices.

Given his general, ‘I don’t give a damn,’ tone deafness over the past week, it’s clear that he “couldn’t care less,” about the nation or its people.

He “couldn’t care less,” that there are innocent people languishing in a Salvadoran gulag. “Couldn’t care less,” about the people who will go hungry because of his policies. “Couldn’t care less,” about the small businesses that will go under. “Couldn’t care less,” that the nation is less secure because he fired experienced national security experts on the word of a nutty, racist lunatic conspiracy theorist who should be institutionalized.

And clearly he “couldn’t care less,” about four young Americans who died in the service of their country or their grieving families who deserved the care and comfort of their commander in chief.

“Couldn’t care less,” might be the most truthful words that this man with a maggoty soul has ever spoken in his life.

Cora and I came home from the protest rejuvenated. It’s how we feel every week post-protest. It’s a short lived cleanse. Later that evening we discussed our vacation plans. We’ve been planning a late spring trip to New York City. A week prior we wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Would’ve made the reservations and planned all the things we would do. We’ll probably follow through with the plans because we know that the next time we plan a trip all we might be able to afford is a drive up Highway 4 to Stockton for a weekend stay at a moldy Motel 6, luncheon at a taco truck, and fishing for our dinner in the Sacramento River.

Doctor Feel Good
The man who would’ve had people inject bleach during a pandemic played doctor over the weekend – when he wasn’t playing golf. After Trump launched his tariffs on what he famously called “Liberation Day” (which ironically means that he’s liberating the American people of their money), he used a medical analogy, sending out a message that I suppose was supposed to reassure the fearful. “The operation is over!” Trump posted on social media on April 3, as stocks were mid-plunge. “The patient lived, and is healing. The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better and more resilient than ever before.”

That’s probably what Doctor Frankenstein said just before his patient went berserk.

As I recall, that classic old movie ends with an angry proletariat armed with torches storming the gates.

Which brings me back to the massive (but still not massive enough) protests of April fifth.