It's Really All About Retribution

Back in 1975, a then young 39 year old Donald Trump had a “dust up” with a Jay Pritzger, the head of the Hyatt Hotel chain, and walked away, having been thrwarted in some hotel venture, vowing to get back at him. Being of a similar mindset to an elephant who never forgets, we can fast forward to now, when Penny Pritzger, Jay’s niece, is the President of the Board at Harvard, and his nephew, JB Pritzger, is Governor of Illinois, and we can see what’s going on with Trump’s actions against Harvard.

Seen through the “Retribution Lens,” the taking over of the Board at the Kennedy Center, where Trump felt unappreciated during his previous term of office, and the tumultuous relationship with NATO and European leaders, who did not give him the respect he felt he deserved, and his going after the CDC, which belittled his Covid treatment options, like hydrochloroquine, azithromycin, and even the ingestion of bleach, becomes clear for all to see. The list of Trump’s grievences against “those who wronged him” is endless.

What is even more disturbing is that in Elon Musk he has found a person, who is also hell bent on going after those he has felt have stood in HIS way, and he is determined, when he can, to destroy them for daring to thwart him in his quest for power, and for what he sees as the right and only way. USAID fined him. Wisconsin dared to file suit against him. NASA has placed restrictions on his launches. In his zeal to exact revenge he is destroying the very foundations of America’s willingness to help less fortunate countries, to hold open elections, to control our space program so as not to endager ourselves with falling debris, and to hold on to our human scientists and not replace them yet with AI models, which Musk considers more reliable and faster than humans. He may be proven right in the future. Haven’t Sci-Fi movies been predicting the latter for years? But the human factors have always been shown to be needed, and he is robbing us of the expertise that has gotten us this far. Musk is putting us at a disadvantage as other countries are jumping on the bandwagon to entice these scientists to help them.

Because Trump has surrounded himself with individuals willing to help him carry out his vendettas, we are watching in real time, the elimination of careers in science, the arts, social services, teaching and more. What will be left for our children and grandchildren to study in school if there will be no jobs in these fields in the future?

We have to stay dilgent to show what the basis for the administration’s actions are and to thwart them by continuing to speak out and to fund the fights that are being successfully waged to stop them in their tracks.