You may have heard Trump’s braggadocious announcement the other day about the White House’s new fleet of 250 Cadillac Escalades for the the presidential motorcade. “Our guys are very spoiled. They like the Escalade. So do I,” said Trump. “We look sharp in those Escalades.”
That’s a lot of “we.” 
The Escalade is a super-size SUV with three rows of seats; 7-8 people can ride in one. That might be a little coach class for our Dear Leader class, so let’s assume just four (plus the driver) in two executive class rows. That would be seats for 1,000 apparatchiks. Cut that in half and it’s still 500. Did Louis XVI – who later on lost his head – have an entourage this extensive? This expensive? The base price of a civilian Escalade is $91,100. Trump and his entourage are also civilians, of course – excepting the handful of OKW types that follow him around – but the Escalades they ride in are surely upgraded to suit the eminence of officialdom. Maybe Trump worked a “deal” with government motors.
What’s most interesting about this is the imperial garishness of it. More finely, as the American empire disintegrates, its garishness waxes. There is some sort of weird congruency there. Forty-something years ago, Reagan was driven around in Nixon’s old Lincoln limousine, which was a ’72 model. Later, Reagan upgraded to an ’83 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. Singular. As in just the one. This was at the height of the American empire, mind. Fast-forward to the present. America is a kind of louche empire on the wane, led by a strangely gesticulating vulgarian who “tweets.” Say what you will about Reagan. To imagine him “tweeting” is right up there with imagining his wife, Nancy, doing a striptease. This is not to praise the Reagans. It is simply to make a point about the changes. 
The decorum that once existed no longer does. It has been replaced by an extravagance on par with what you’d expect from a mafia don. The funeral procession for Don Corleone comes to mind. Dozens of shiny black limos, each containing a mobster come to pay his respects. These are preceded by a plethora of flower cars. To his credit, the late Don paid for it all.
America’s Don – who is a billionaire – isn’t paying for any of it. How much is it? Estimates range from $22.5 million to about $75 million, depending on the extent of the modifications to each of the 250 Escalades. Probably these will be considerable since an as-it-comes Escalade is much too common for our pompadoured Don. It is not improbable that he will order gilded trim, as he has done all over the White House (which is now his house, as he sees it).
There is also the gas. An Escalade has a 24 gallon tank and its standard 6.2 liter V8 wants premium unleaded, currently well over $5 per gallon nationally. So each fill-up costs (us, the taxpayers) about $120 and the Escalade needs filling up often since it averages 17 MPG. It is interesting to note that the same government that hectors Americans about “gas hogs” loves to buy them in bulk, for its own use. 
Some more rough math: Filling up 250 Escalades means us paying for 6,000 gallons of premium unleaded. Assuming $5 per gallon, that comes to $30,000 to gas them all up – once. The entourage of the Don does not have to sweat that, of course – even if the cost of filling up goes up by double – because they can put the charges on our card.
It’s a really bad look, but the Don not only doesn’t care – he flaunts it, like John Gotti used to – and he does it at the same moment in time when ordinary Americans are struggling to put regular in the Kias they paid for with their own money, with whatever was left of it after they got tax-fleeced to pay for all the nice things the Don thinks are befitting the magnificence and generosity (to its clients) of the regime.
“We look sharp in those Escalades. Our guys are very spoiled. They’re very spoiled,” says the Don.
Indeed they are.
. . .
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One reason I supported Trump is that I felt that his administration would not treat environmental issues like a pagan cargo cult demanding more and more sacrifices lest we be punished with fiery doom.
That said, the Trump administration’s purchase of 250 Cadillac Escalades for motorcades is proof positive of Uncle Sam’s poor stewardship of our tax dollars and our natural resources, as well as overall tone-deafness.
As others have mentioned, the Carter administration was indeed incompetent and out of touch with many harsh political and economic realities, but it at least tried to do the right thing and wasn’t tone-deaf.
The Trump administration has proven incompetent, out of touch, and tone-deaf, and doesn’t even try to do the right thing.
A few years ago, I saw a video of a presidential motorcade SUV that had a machine gun turret that would pop up from the center of the roof. In the demo video, the pop-up gunner was sweeping the gun through a wide arc, as if clearing the street of any inobsequious citizens. The rate of fire was so high that the driver had to use the wipers to keep the windshield clear of spent shell casings.
The gun, bulletproof glass, and Kevlar armor probably add another couple hundred thousand dollars worth of awesome beautiful sharpness.
How soon will the Soviet model arrive?
Escalades only for Party leaders.
Yukons for Cabinet Secretaries.
Tahoes for mid-level functionaries.
Trabants for citizens with proper social credit score.
Shoe leather for those who fall short.
Tut tut, Martin!!!
How soon you forget the Lada?
And the wonderful Yugo???
Oy Vey, what’s the ongoing decline coming to…
When we cant remember what mechanical menaces our former supposed enemies had to tolerat, and what depths our (((leaders))) want to drag us back down into….
YMMV….
I would rather have a Trabant than what is coming out of new car dealerships these days.
A little off topic, but perhaps not given SCOTUS’ ruling in Kelo v New London back in 2005, and the resulting abuses by government of Eminent Domain since then…
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/corruption/government-will-steal-your-land-to-feed-the-ai-machine/
I suppose Trump thinks his trashy boorish behavior is endearing him to people.
Sorry Donny, but I am rapidly approaching becoming physically ill every time I encounter any reference to him. One thing “positive” about him, he is exposing exactly how government looks at people.
Hi John,
One problem is it’s not just the federal government that does such extravagant things like buying those expensive Cadillac Escalades Eric speaks of. Many state and city governments throughout the country are doing much the same thing while their citizens are struggling with the price of seemingly everything continuing to go up. Some politicians even vote themselves increases in pay, which taxpayers pay for.
Same here John,
Seems like every year the cops get brand new cruisers, equipped with all the latest surveillance gear. Just rubbing it in our faces that we are robbed to pay for the actual thieves.
Don’t you find it fascinating Mike, how the same people who constantly complain about billionaires don’t seem to complain as much, if at all, about bureaucrats and politicians who are millionaires or even billionaires themselves.
I’ll start thinking climate change is an existential threat when I stop seeing things like this.
Both the Escalade and OF loom large in rap music and video iconography. As just one example of many, the other day commenter Kmose referenced the mid-90s rap song “Incarcerated Scarfaces” by Raekwon. That song contains not one but two direct references to OF.
Rae’s a heavy generator, but yo, guess who’s the black Trump?
And my favorite:
You rolling like Trump, you get your meat lumped
If you’re interested in a kind of stream of consciousness, violent, criminal ghetto psychedelia, definitely Startpage the full lyrics to see the context for the above sentiments. I would even recommend a listen because the beat matches the spirit of it all, kinda haunting and sinister. Reminds me of the current day news cycle. But I digress.
Here is the antidote to all that from the late, great Lemmy Kilmister:
I twist the truth, I rule the world, my crown is called deceit
I am the emperor of lies, you grovel at my feet
I rob you and I slaughter you, your downfall is my gain
And still you play the sycophant and revel in your pain
And all my promises are lies, all my love is hate
I am the politician, and I decide your fate
Motorhead – Orgasmatron
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FroqNkT0vNg
Try to imagine Trump behind the wheel of Reagan’s much-beloved Subaru Brat.
Reagan was the last president who grew up poor as most people understand the meaning of the word.
Morning, Roscoe –
It’s really something, isn’t it? I mean, if you can remember Reagan and so are able to juxtapose how it was then vs. how it is now. How about Jimmy Carter? Say what you will about his policies, at least Jimmy wore a sweater in the White House during the energy crisis. Trump is a graceless, leering oaf. People would sometimes say Bill Clinton was white trash. Trump has managed to make Clinton seem respectable.
Jimmy Carter graduated from the Naval Academy and Admiral Rickover’s nuclear submarine training program. He wasn’t stupid.
I also believe that Carter did the country and possibly the world a huge service in refusing to turn his delegates loose for the floor vote at the convention in 1980 which could have resulted in Ted Kennedy getting the nomination in a last gasp effort by the Democrats to stop Reagan.
“Camelot” dies hard.
Except that Carter was a stupid fool, in that he gave away control of the Panama Canal that the US built. Now the Chinese are down there (from what I understand?)
Hi Shadow,
Yes, that’s true – about Carter being a fool. But at least he wasn’t an evil fool – and I’d take that over the evil fool we’ve got now.
One can also (hopefully) breathe a sigh of relief that Carter was not a murderer and rapist (Clinton), or a pedophile (George HW Bush). I surmise for that, we can give the man some credit. Better to have that, then the evil that is running everything into the ground, and us right along with it.
@Eric – If you are ever out that way, stop at the Reagan Presidential Library and tour the Air Force One on exhibit.
Reagan used the plane the most but Nixon, Ford, Carter, and both Presidents Bush also used the same aircraft tail number.
Do you remember any of them complaining about the size of the *707*?
The American Empire is far worse than the British Empire of George III that the colonists rebelled against in just about every way — militarization, policing, taxes, garishness, debt.
Washington, Jefferson and Madison would be aghast to see what their country has become.
Americans today aren not rebelling against anything. They love government and social security When given the chance to directly vote to be taxed by their local school district most citizens chose yes.
Let’s see how “sharp” they look when the brakes fail and the engine blows. I highly doubt Cadillac is making a better quality product.
Morning, RG!
These piece of shit are perfect for the POS, eh?
I believe they are, Eric.
“Our guys are very spoiled.”
That is, the AGWs that “protect” him. Nothing is too good for the Hero Class.
Personally I would like to see how they justify this purchase. Was like there 250 old vehicles requiring replacement or is it more of a matter that they should all match one another like houses in a HOA development?
A hundred years ago, President Calvin Coolidge regularly took walks outside the White House through the streets of Washington, D.C. on his own, though his Secret Service detail usually followed behind him.
Today it’s unthinkable. This is the price of empire: enemies round the world, including in the imperial capital. And a perceived need for vast cavalcades of flunkies in big black SUVs, to impress the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Nobody voted for this. It derives from a government no longer accountable to the people, pursuing its own objectives.
During his long term in office (1933-1945), Frank Roosevelt drastically expanded the size of government, first with the welfare state and then with world war. Inevitably, the simple days when the president was just another citizen ended. Now the little people bark in dismay, but the great cavalcade of black SUVs rolls on, in its blind imperial obliviousness.
“I have left orders to be awakened at any time during national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.”
—
Donald TrumpRonald ReaganFDR loved being at war with Japan and Germany.
Aaah, the irony. The Feds have expensive taste, and are “allowed” to have vehicles the rest of us cannot have/purchase, but pay for. So that the “…some who are more equal than others” can obtain.
Were I Rep. Thomas Massie, I would introduce a bill limiting the engine displacement of government vehicles for personal transport to a 2-liter four.
We’re all in this together! 🙂
That’How about limiting government vehicles to a 1.2 liter three cylinder. Add a plastic turbo to fight climate change.
that’s not a dumb idea at all