By Trump himself, in this case – because it was he who imposed massive taxes on Americans who were told they were merely "tariffs" and so wouldn't cost them any money. These tariffs – which of course are taxes applied to the manufacturers of things that are then passed along to the buyers of things – have increased the cost of new vehicles by at least as much as the paltry $2,000 checks Trump says Americans may receive sometime next year. By which time it is likely – so he hopes – everyone will have forgotten the promise and moved on to some other thing.

As they have already forgotten the $5,000 checks Trump hinted Americans would get as their refund for the money saved by Elon Musk's DOGE operation, which everyone seems to have forgotten about, too. Or would just rather not think about anymore, for the same reason a rape victim tries to forget what happened to her.

What almost no one asks anymore is – why don't they just stop stealing our money? Then they wouldn't have to go through the motions of giving some of it back to us. Well, the answer to that question is one we already know.

Roman politicians bought the support of the masses by literally throwing money at them, too. Of course, the plebes – as they were known then – had been robbed to pay for it all. History never changes. Just the names and places.

Does anyone remember when Trump suggested the income tax might be abolished because tariff-taxes would make income-taxing Americans unnecessary? Why is it that few ever ask who (and it's never us) gets to decide what is "necessary" in the first place?

Most of us probably think it is necessary that we provide for ourselves and our dependents; to pay our own bills. Few of us would willingly pay other people's bills, which is why we are forced to pay them. Of course, we are also taught – conditioned is the more accurate word – to believe we are getting things for free, via etymological trickery. We are taught to regard "public" things – like government schools – as being free. Never mind the bill that homeowners (sic) get every year to pay for them. Even if they do not use them.

People are taught – conditioned – to believe that being forced to hand over money (i.e., strong-armed robbery) is the "price of civilization." It is "civilized" to rob people, in other words. When it is done legally. When it is done via notices sent in the mail. These cause people to disassociate, a psychological term for the human brain's capacity to compartmentalize unpleasant things by not thinking of them as the same thing. Or not thinking of them at all. (Another example of this is the way that, on the one hand, almost everyone is appalled in a very open way – as in people will say so, freely – about the persecution and murder of Jews by Germans during the late unpleasantness in Europe but – on the other hand – have a difficult time even acknowledging that what is being to Palestinians and Christians by Zionist Jews right now, today, in Israel, is the same thing.)