While advanced math is not my field of expertise, I do have a pretty firm grasp of basic arithmetic, which was actually taught to us in a logical manner back in the good old days of “reading and writing and ‘rithmetic.” I can even add and subtract numbers in my head, without having to consult that little calculator thing on my phone.

But today I find myself faced with a puzzle I am unable to solve, and I’m here to ask my readers’ help. The calculations seem simple enough, but the result keeps coming up all wrong.

To begin with, I dug up some current figures (thank you, Google) on various segments of the U.S. population. As of the present time, we have:

26 members of the Presidential Cabinet
535 members of Congress, divided as follows:
— 100 Senators
— 435 Representatives
9 Supreme Court Justices
1,761 other federal judges in 208 appellate, district and special courts
50 state governors
8,500 +/- ICE enforcement agents
2,000,000 +/- active duty members of the military
3,000,000 +/- civilian government employees in more than 400 agencies
347,000,000 +/- total U.S. population
– and –
1 Donald Trump

My puzzle has nothing to do with total numbers, or percentages of government employees vs. civilians. What I really need to know is . . .

WHAT IN HELL ARE THEY ALL AFRAID OF??!!!

How can one person — one unattractive, unprepossessing, ineloquent, untruthful, unempathetic, narcissistic, sarcastic, insulting individual — wield so much power over so many?

Setting aside the millions of us ordinary taxpayers, both civilian and military, let’s just consider the so-called “power elite”: the 26 members of the Cabinet, the 535 members of Congress, the 9 Supreme Court justices, the other 1,761 federal judges, and the 50 state governors — a total of 2,381 highly-educated, supposedly intelligent people in positions of considerable authority. (Yes, I added that in my head.) Factor in an unknown number of heads of various governmental agencies, universities, media outlets, and the like, and we’re talking about well over 3,000 very impressive individuals . . . all knuckling under to one big bully.

For God’s sake . . . WHY?!!

Are they all so terrified of losing their jobs? Or might all 3,000+ people possibly have some deep, dark, personal secrets they’re afraid of having revealed? . . . every last one of them? Even if that were true, could Trump conceivably have knowledge of the skeletons in all of their closets?

And — let’s face it — could their dirty laundry possibly be any dirtier than his?

So what is it? How does one individual manage to gain that type of hypnotic control over masses of people. Vladimir Lenin did it in Russia; Adolph Hitler did it in Germany. And somehow — in some incomprehensible way — Donald Trump is doing it in the United States.

I can see only one link. Lenin and Hitler rose to power when their countries were in economic and social turmoil; they were in the right place at the right time, and they spoke to the outliers of society — the marginalized populace in search of a savior. And that is the lesson Trump has chosen to learn from centuries of the world’s history: the way to absolute authoritarianism.

We all know how things turned out for Russia, Germany, and much of Europe under Lenin and Hitler. Are we going to allow history to repeat itself again?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/28/25