Part 2: The New Replacements – Issues and Freedom Replaced by Cultural Leadership

 

Part 2: The New Replacements – Issues and Freedom Replaced by Cultural Leadership

Pick a side; there is only “or,” not “and.” Irreconcilable Differences

“This is a war. We are at war. And that’s why the gloves are off. And I say: Bring it on.” 

 Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democratic governor, appearing in Albany with fleeing Texas lawmakers

China has really never had true democracy. India is struggling under PM Narendra Modi’s Hindu Nationalist near-autocratic rule. And the third most populous nation in the world, the United States, is hopelessly divided between two diametrically opposed factions, each seeking to impose its vision for America on the “other.” One, primarily white Christian nationalist, seeks to redesign the nation as an exclusionary power where its government is based on MAGA values under culture warriors with wide discretion, a clear mandate to rule efficiently, ruthlessly if necessary. This vector is essentially a form of governmental “do-over,” in what has become a rolling coup d’état, that seems to have begun after the 9/11/01 attack on the Twin Towers in NYC and the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C.

The other faction, secular and egalitarian, still clinging to a belief in the rule of law under the Constitution, is watching its cherished institutions under unending attack by a populist minority driven by the angry, passionate religious zeal. A zealous minority that controls all three branches of the federal government: Congress, the Executive Branch and the Judiciary. All of this suggests that nations with very large, highly fractionalized populations just might be ungovernable. The complexities that arise – from highly impactful climate change, the rise of new diseases that can effectively cull overpopulated humanity, the challenges of artificial intelligence sweeping aside jobs increasingly controlling daily life plus the rising unchecked desires of the wealthy to “make more” without restriction – further challenge the notion of a unified nation in today’s world. Simply, the house divided is not standing.

The above 1812 political cartoon gave birth to the word “Gerrymander.” On February 11, 1812, Gerry, then governor of Massachusetts, “signed legislation that created an oddly shaped voting district with its southern tip in Chelsea, then heading east to Marblehead, and north along the Merrimack River towns to Salisbury. The convoluted district, most of which was in Essex County, was drawn by the Massachusetts legislature to favor Gerry’s incumbent Democratic-Republican party over the Federalist party, which had traditionally been in control.” Historicipswich.net.

Today, these two red-blue factions occupy the same American land mass. Some of their centers of power are in reasonably delineated areas (the great red-blue divide) while others (“swing states”) create regional conflicts and ambiguities. In 2013, the Supreme Court (in Shelby County v. Holder) negated most of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (as amended), notably ending federal supervision of named states (including Texas) that had an historical pattern of voter racial discrimination) under section 5 of that law.

Almost immediately after that ruling, the once-regulated states began reimposing more subtle, but equally effective, variants of racial discrimination against their minority constituents. In 2021, the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court all but repealed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which still made explicit racial discrimination legal, but otherwise left control of federal elections in the rather wide discretion of the states. As the Court swung to the populist right, virtually all of Trump’s emergency appeals to the Supreme Court have been successful, only amplifying his powers. In short, the Court is rewarding states that manipulate elections away from voters. Red now had the power to punish blue.

In an excellent deep dive into our current partisan deep disconnect, Aaron Zitner, writing for the August 8th Wall Street Journal, presents his analysis of our current redistricting battle, under the title, Gerrymandering by Both Parties Is Deepening America’s Political Divide Less than 20% of Americans live in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance: “America’s identity as a unified nation is eroding, with Republican- and Democratic-led states dividing into separate spheres, each with its own policies governing the economic, social and political rules of life.

“The bitter fight over redrawing U.S. House maps, triggered by President Trump’s effort to protect his party’s majority in the 2026 midterm elections, is the latest example of how the dominant party in many states is making extraordinary efforts to impose its will… In 40 states, a single party controls the House, Senate and governor’s office—a so-called trifecta—or else has enough power to block vetoes from a governor of the other party. That leaves less than 20% of Americans living in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance.

“The result has been a deepening of differences in red and blue America. Abortion is now banned or heavily restricted in about one-third of states, all of them controlled by Republicans, while abortion access is protected or allowed in every Democratic trifecta state. Every GOP trifecta state has passed bans or limits on gender-affirming care for minors.

“Red and blue states have moved in sharply different directions on employment law, gun regulation, immigration enforcement and other policies. When Louisiana passed a law last year that required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, later struck down by courts, 18 GOP-trifecta states filed a legal brief in support.

“‘You’re seeing this divide—trifecta blue states and trifecta red—and it’s creating this remarkable contrast in which you’ve got radically different policies from state to state,’ said Jay Richards, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, who tracks legislation regarding gender, marriage and religious liberty... Redrawing House districts for maximum partisan advantage would probably deepen the nation’s political divide further, wiping out some of the remaining Democratic House members from red states and Republicans from blue states, leaving the minority party in each state with less representation.

“‘The two parties will become more geographically sorted, and the different interests of blue voters in red states and red voters in blue states will get lost in the wash,’ said Ben Williams, who once tracked election legislation for the National Conference of State Legislatures and is now with FairVote, a nonpartisan voting-regulations group.” With Trump’s explosion of executive orders, his funding of his private ICE army (willing to deploy anonymous officers to arrest without a warrant) through his massive tax-cut-for-the-rich Big Beautiful Bill combined with his administration’s willingness to ignore or sidestep federal court orders, the Constitution is shredding into oblivion. Red is having its way with its blue enemy, most clearly targeting California unlike any other state. None of this is good for America.

I’m Peter Dekom, and these unreconcilable differences embolden our traditional enemies and are clearly unraveling what has been, up to now, the greatest nation on Earth.

Part 1: The New Replacements – Issues and Freedom Replaced by Cultural Leadership

 

Part 1: The New Replacements – Issues and Freedom Replaced by Cultural Leadership

MAGA votes for leaders and culture over everything else. Constitution? Meh! Woke!

As the Chinese curse reminds us: “May you live in interesting times.” The whole world is watching as the United States, once the bastion of democracy and personal freedom, makes a rapid descent into a cruel and judgmental autocracy. We are at an inflection point, where efficiency and cultural warriors under strict, mostly white, Christian nationalist values trump the rule of law, particularly the Constitution. It is a battle royal, replete with its own potential descendible monarchy-in-waiting. And those Christians who believe in a tolerant, charitable and non-judgmental New Testament, are simply being passed by an evangelical movement that flexes power and views the Bible as a “pick and choose” menu.

Thomas Jefferson would be aghast at the federal government’s official take on freedom of speech. He found even those who opposed the new democratic principles were not called “terrorists” or subject to censorship. This is quite the opposite of Trump sycophant State Department Secretary, Marco Rubio, who has revoked foreign student visas from totally peaceful students for protest activities deemed to pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Simply applied, since the US foreign policy embraces the Israeli point of view on Gaza, the support of a peaceful resolution in support of Palestinian statehood local rights was sufficient to generate a visa revocation order.

There is absolutely no question that freedom of speech is not limited to US citizens. The 1945 Supreme Court case of Bridges vs Wixton held “Freedom of speech and of the press is accorded aliens residing in this country.” A deportation based on an alien’s expression of an unpopular belief was reversed. As the Trump administration turned to clamp down on foreign students writing for Stanford University's student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, threatening immediate visa cancellation and deportation, on August 6th, Stanford sued the Trump administration in California federal court claiming that the threat of immigration law enforcement against lawfully present noncitizen students expressing pro-Palestinian views is unconstitutional and has students self-censoring out of fears of being deported. Was Jefferson rolling in his grave?

As President Trump has unilaterally declared a maze of massive tariffs, now in effect, based on some concocted and factually unsupportable theory of “emergency” (the only basis for the President to usurp Congressional control over setting taxes and tariffs), he imposed one of the greatest tax increases on the American public (a de facto regressive sales tax) in American history. But as his executive orders invade every facet of American life, his loyal base reminds us that he was not elected to lead a democracy; instead MAGA followers elected him to impose their cultural beliefs to defeat a “deep state” hiding under an archaic and irrelevant US Constitution. Many MAGA believers fabricated their own interpretations of the Constitution as an alternative approach. His Big Beautiful Bill crushes the life out of his core MAGA constituency, but they still support him… with one huge cultural exception: the immutable MAGA concern with “deep state” pedophilia, that Trump seems to be betraying with the Epstein debacle.

As Confederate statues are being resurrected, we know we are in a culture war. Just looking at the ICE recruitment strategy, now that it is overfunded, offers large recruitment bonuses and caters to those who are ready to “protect our American culture.” ICE is being constructed as Trump personal police force, able to operate without warrants or due process… or even personal identification. Trump voters are relatively unmoved by traditional values, economic or otherwise.

There are also many subcultures in this mix, but race, ethnicity and sexual orientation remain the bastions of the movement, and white pride is an essential bulwark. Strict evangelical religious underpinnings are rising in importance, including the new “bro culture” embraced by DOD head, Pete Hegseth. Women should not vote except as their husbands dictate, they should not be in the military and should return to their traditional roles as mothers and homemakers. This Christian concept is called Postmillennialism, which “holds that Jesus Christ establishes his kingdom on Earth through his preaching and redemptive work in the first century and that he equips his church with the gospel, empowers the church by the Spirit, and charges the church with the Great Commission (Matt 28:19) to disciple all nations. Postmillennialism expects that eventually the vast majority of people living will be saved. Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ's return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of men and of nations. After an extensive era of such conditions Jesus Christ will return visibly, bodily, and gloriously, to end history with the general resurrection and the final judgment after which the eternal order follows.” Wikipedia. That Christian soldiers may have to eliminate non-believers, by whatever means, is simply reality.

Muscles, physical power, AR-15s, defiant poses and a clannish self-righteousness define a new class of Gen Z men who arrogantly support Donald Trump, a phenomenon not paralleled by Gen Z women. Indeed, Gen Z women now outnumber men in colleges and universities, remarkably in professional schools (especially law). Even in the tech and cryptocurrency world, images of male power seem more important than scientific achievement. In a surprising Darwinian parallel, RFK, Jr’s slashing of MNRA and overall medical research funding, suggests that those whose medical issues are tossed aside do not merit tax dollars to keep them alive. Men can control the environment, as Trump slashes any NASA funding to track atmospheric carbon dioxide build-up, continuing to pronounce climate change, using his favorite word, as a “hoax.”

In upcoming blogs, I will explore more of this “my culture above all else” movement that threatens to derail our democracy, the pattern of education and innovation that made us the most powerful economy on earth, our quality of life and our influence (rapidly declining) in the world, as our allies are now scrambling to construct workarounds to our efforts at bullying hegemony. It is apparent that “strength” has been redefined to benefit this explosion of American pro-autocracy. If “they” don’t like it, they label it “woke” (still undefined) … but to “them” “woke” stands for “weak.” If Trump were so confident in his popularity, why is he pressuring his sheeplike governors to rig the next elections to guarantee the purge of Democrats from political power?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I hope I can help explain the damage to replacing issue-oriented democracy with autocratic leaders who prioritize their vision of “American culture” above the rule of law.

Three Faces of Stubborn Bully Failure

 

Three Faces of Stubborn Bully Failure

Outside of their closely aligned nations, the three autocrats above share these common traits: as a result of their bully autocratic international actions each has drawn international opprobrium and resentment, each has or is in the process of neutralizing and politicizing their national judicial systems to serve their personal ambitions, each has imposed their vision of economics on their nation with disastrous consequences, each believes that international policies are primarily a function their personal relationship with other world leaders and each actively spins “facts” to justify their positions while censoring or falsifying statistical or factual information that contradicts their distorted and self-centered statements. One of the other common traits is stubbornness: they actually believe that by repeating clearly the same failed policies (“doubling down”), they will achieve a different result. Insanity? You be the judge.

Let’s start with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his “Security Cabinet.” After publicly stating that there is “no starvation in Gaza,” Netanyahu stands charged by the International Criminal Court of “war crimes,” and the notion that he has been the principal architect of “genocide” is the majority opinion across the globe. The “war against Hamas” has formed his main way to deflect his criminal bribery prosecution, as he continues to press for the right of his unicameral Knesset to have the right to overrule his own Supreme Court. After he recently fired the nation’s attorney general, she was immediately reinstated by the courts. Increasingly, our Western “allies” are recognizing an independent Palestinian state, to Donald Trump’s dismay.

Facing protests in Israel itself as well as reports from Netanyahu’s most senior leaders that the Israeli Defense Force is wearing out, some nations (like Germany) are suspending military sales to Israel. That the United States has continued to supply military weapons and munitions to Israel has irrevocably linked the United States as Israel’s great enabler and coconspirator in the death and destruction in Gaza. Many Israelis also fear that Netanyahu’s August 9th decision to mount a total takeover of Gaza City (a reduction from his goal to take all of Gaza, consistent with Donald’s Trump’s vision of Gaza as a major beach resort free of Palestinians) will result in the execution of the remaining hostages are serve as a recruiting incentive for Hamas. Devasting more Gazans.

Writing for the August 9th New York Times, Pat Kingsley summarizes this recent policy repetition: “Throughout the war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has repeatedly said that he just needs one more military maneuver to finally defeat Hamas… In April last year, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel was merely ‘a step from victory’ — as long as it captured Rafah, a city in southern Gaza. This March, with Rafah long decimated and Hamas still refusing to surrender, Mr. Netanyahu started a campaign that he promised would finally give Israel victory. When it did not, he launched an even broader operation in May that, three months later, has failed to dislodge Hamas’s battered remnants, while leaving many Palestinian civilians on the brink of starvation.

“Now, Mr. Netanyahu is planning another major push after his cabinet voted on Friday to prepare to capture Gaza City, the main city in the enclave. That followed his announcement on Thursday that Israel would finally defeat Hamas by occupying all of Gaza and then handing it to ‘Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us.’

“This latest endeavor, which may take weeks to begin, risks ending the same way as all his previous efforts: in a strategic dead-end, with Hamas still holding on by its fingertips, Israeli hostages still in Hamas’s grip, and Palestinian civilians trapped in a dystopian nightmare. Israel captured much of Gaza City in the first months of war, seizing some areas more than once, before relinquishing it all on the false assumption that Hamas had been defeated.” There are no credible “Arab forces” able to take that control, as all regional nations decry Netanyahu’s double down. The world blames Israel’s overkill against Gaza; Trump and Netanyahu blame a weakened Hamas. Israel has become one of the most hated nations on earth. In a parallel reality, the United States is rising rapidly in that global negative perception.

Meanwhile, Trump struggles with the notion that in the eyes of the world, Putin has played him like a fiddle. Putin has not altered his original goal of either taking control of all of Ukraine or at worst relegating Kyiv to a vassal state mirroring Putin’s indirect control of neighboring Belarus. Putin believes meetings and conversations with Trump help him implement a delay, which in Putin’s mind, will produce his desired results. More importantly, Putin believes Trump is intellectually weak, desperate to “look successful” even in failure, and willing to throw anyone under the bus to “appear to be a winner,” even as he is losing big time.

Writing for the August 8th Newsweek, in anticipation of the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting, Andrew Stanton and Barney Henderson explain what Trump’s caving to Putin’s expectations might look like: “The United States and Russia are aiming to secure a peace deal that would lock in Russia's gains in Ukraine following its invasion three and a half years ago, according to a report by Bloomberg.

“The deal would mean Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky giving up the entire eastern Donbas, Crimea and parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, where fighting is still raging, unnamed sources told Bloomberg… Newsweek reached out to the U.S. State Department, as well as the Russian and Ukrainian foreign affairs ministries for comment via email on Friday [8/9]… If confirmed, such a deal would represent a huge win for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 with the stated goal of ‘liberating’ the Donbas, despite concerns and condemnation from global leaders who viewed the war as unprovoked and unjustified.”

August 9th was Trump’s deadline for a Russian acceptance of a ceasefire, after which major new economic sanctions would kick in. Go to any store in Moscow and buy a world map. Even as combat in those territories continues, the maps all clearly show Russia as including all captured or targeted capture Ukraine territories. Putin is inured against sanctions. There are still enough buyers for Russian fossil fuels, and even massive threats against its biggest buyers (100% tariffs against India, for example) don’t seem to move the needle. Absent a massive new infusion of US offensive weapons to Ukraine, with reduced restrictions on usage, that needle is unlikely to move at all. Putin will use the meeting to magnify his effective delay towards “victory.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is sad to watch this massive litany of foreign policy failure and global opprobrium against us, realities which will strongly impale the United States and its economy on a downward spike of higher costs, travel restrictions on Americans and profoundly reduced US global influence.

Bye Bye Educating the Best and the Brightest to Research our Future

Bye Bye Educating the Best and the Brightest to Research our Future

Let’s start with the above and very clear and spectacular chart from the June 22nd York Times… just looking at funding for medical and other scientific research from various federal agencies. The numbers are anything but startlingly high. Many of these, particularly those focused on medical research, are on the chopping block. Conspiracy and Antivaxxer King, HHS head the unqualified Robert Kennedy, Jr. is prepared to lead as the GOP’s slice and dice anti-science executioner… and spend fewer dollars on more medically inane programs.

This is made particularly easier by pretending this is part of Donald Trump unjustified “antisemitism” attack on the biggest, most elite research-driven hospital in his ugly sights: Harvard, one of the greatest producers of relevant medical research in the world. Even with its massive endowment – but much of that endowment can only be used under very limited donor restrictions – Harvard is struggling under Trump’s assault, even as it generates legal victories (like Trump’s attempted ban on foreign students), step-by-step.

As the July 2nd Wall Street Journal points out, look at the federal research funding cuts, “By our estimate, Harvard would face a budget shortfall of about a billion dollars a year if President Trump follows through on all of his plans and threats spanning research funding, tax policy and student enrollment. That grim math helps explain why the university has taken steps toward negotiating after months of defiance… The Trump administration on Monday [6/30] told Harvard the university had violated federal civil-rights law over its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students, risking further funding. Asked about the pressure on Harvard’s finances, a senior White House official said the school will receive no money ‘until it ends its discriminatory and deeply embarrassing practices. The private sector is welcome to step in and support Harvard….

“The Journal’s estimate, based on publicly available data, is for a worst-case scenario in which Harvard loses all federal research funding, federal student aid and its ability to enroll international students, and Congress hikes its annual endowment tax to 8% [literally taxing donations!].

“A sustained shortfall of that magnitude would severely strain Harvard’s ability to manage its $6.4 billion annual operating budget. Though Harvard has a $53 billion endowment, more than 80% of the money is subject to donor restrictions, meaning it can’t be touched to patch budget gaps without inviting lawsuits… ‘They’ve got enough money to keep going for a while, but eventually they’re going to have to make substantial cuts,’ said Robert Kelchen, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who studies education finance. ‘You would change the future of the institution.’

“The Trump administration has sought to make Harvard a poster child in its fight against institutions it says haven’t taken concerns about antisemitism and diversity programs seriously. Harvard has said it is working to promote intellectual openness in the classroom and to enroll students willing to engage across perspectives. Talks between the two sides were under way as recently as mid-June, according to a social-media post by the president.”

We’re watching Trump utilize the excuse of antisemitism and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion policies to force his overall MAGA cultural agenda across the United States, from the University of California system and even to nearby University of Virginia: “In a stunning development that’s igniting fierce political backlash, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan resigned Friday [6/27] under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which alleged the school had failed to fully dismantle its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs — a demand tied to a sweeping federal crackdown on higher education.

“The New York Times first reported Ryan’s resignation, citing DOJ claims that the institution had merely rebranded its DEI efforts instead of eliminating them. The university’s Board of Visitors accepted his resignation, with Ryan expected to officially step down by Aug. 15… Ryan said in a letter to the UVA community published late Friday that while he is motivated to fight for his beliefs and the university, he cannot oppose the federal government due to the potential impact on the institution... ‘To do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld,’ Ryan said in the letter, released Friday [6/27] afternoon…

“In a statement following Ryan’s departure, a White House spokesperson didn’t mention Ryan by name but said President Donald Trump’s administration is working hard to eliminate DEI from society and put college leaders who oppose that mission on warning. ‘That sham virtue [diversity, equality and inclusion] signaling of DEI has no place in our country, and the Trump administration is working tirelessly to erase this divisive, backward, and unjust practice from our society,’ said Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for the White House. ‘Any university president willingly breaking federal civil rights laws will be met with the full force of the federal government, and it would behoove every school in America to prioritize the civil rights of every student and end DEI once and for all’… Ryan’s departure has sparked outrage on campus and across Virginia.” Virginia Mercury, June 27th.

Why does this “demonize unwanted minorities,” purge their cultural values from any institution that relies on government funding at any level and then “cleanse” these institutions into a marginal existence… sound so familiar? Ah, it was a pattern Hitler mastered so well in the 1930s and beyond. You have to wonder why so many American heroes died in WWII fighting the very strategies that Donald Trump believes are the bedrock of future America.

I’m Peter Dekom, and even if you believe in such diabolical crushing power against America’s institutions, the very driving force that made the great economic power it is today, do you really believe the nation would be better off if medical research funding continues to be slashed in order to give tax cuts to the richest in the land?

Denial, Spin and Desperation – Is Gaza Killing Israel’s Future?

Denial, Spin and Desperation – Is Gaza Killing Israel’s Future?

“But most of [the visuals from Gaza are] fake — fake — distributed by Hamas… It’s a campaign. Unfortunately, some of the Israeli media, including some of the international media, is distributing this information and those false pictures, and creating an image of starvation which doesn’t exist.” 

Gaza Strip, Effie Defrin, a commanding officer and Israel Defense Forces spokesman, July 27th

“Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry… They have to get food and safety right now… That’s real starvation… I see it, and you can’t fake that.” 

Donald Trump, July 28th responding to Netanyahu’s statement on July 27th that “there is no starvation in Gaza.”

The United Nations (UN) Defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The above definition is incorporated wholesale into Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It should be noted that mass killings – including the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the waning month of WII – are differentiated from the targeted destruction of an identifiable ethnic, political, racial or religious “group” – as that word is used above context. The intent of the attackers is, thus, at the core of the controversy, even though the result of “mass killings” and “genocide” are often identical.

The biggest question revolves around Israel’s response to the Hamas-led carnage and hostage-taking across the border into northern Israel on October 7, 2023, an attack that killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 individuals hostage, noting that some of the remaining hostage survivors are still Hamas captives. Has Israel’s response against two million Gazan, only a small fraction of which are affiliated with Hamas, devolved into “genocide,” a particularly salient question to a nation born of Hitler’s WWII Holocaust (which exterminated approximately six million regional Jews), almost universally described as “genocide”? What do you believe?

There has always been a lingering sentiment among many that question Israel’s legitimacy, based on the formation of that Jewish state in 1948 by occupying land (labeled the “Nakba” by many regional Muslims) that belonged to Palestinians. Numerous wars between Israel and neighboring Arab states since have almost all been repelled by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The words “from the river to the sea” have often been used by angry Palestinians and their sympathizers (like Iran) to justify the total destruction of Israel, returning all that land to the Palestinians who lost it 77 years ago. To many Jews (and their supporters), that lingering hatred and dedication to Israel’s destruction has always justified Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinians and military responses to any challenges to its control of is current borders, both external and internal. But Palestine is not the first nation to lose territory to an invader, and the potential acceptance of that reality among regional Arab states should begin to sink in to all of the relevant factions there.

The impact of these confrontations, the war of political labels, has fired up younger generations attending college with significantly Jewish contingents. Some believe that Zionism (the absolute defense of Israel without question) is an essential and necessary part of Judaism itself. Others separate a religious belief from the political reality of “Israel” as a nation state. Campus protests here have led to cries of “antisemitism” as anti-Israeli protesters have shut down prominent American Universities. The Trump administration has used this cry to justify attacking universities and defunding major Research grants. But the constant and growing flow of images like those above, coupled with accusations of Israeli intentional policies of imposing starvation on Gaza, are changing minds. Many in Israel still view the war in Gaza as a justified response to the deadliest attack in the country’s history and not an attempt at extermination. But…

Until the recent rather graphic images of starvation in Gaza, the killing of Gazans lined up to access food, US policy has favored Israel’s spin of the situation there. With a mounting death toll north of 60,000, rapidly growing statistics showing the starvation deaths of children, even US hardliners who have blindly supported Israel are beginning to push back. Even Donald Trump (see above statement) and powerful voices within Israel itself: “Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday [7/28] said their country is committing genocide in Gaza, the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war… The claims by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza … amounts to genocide.” Associated Press, July 28th.

But there is an even bigger question for Israeli politicians: is Israel’s denial of starvation, the constant images of death and destruction from Gaza, beginning to create a permanent disdain for Israel among Gen Z and younger that will carry into future US-Israeli relations… even as Israel is relenting slightly on allowing food and medical supplies to move more efficiently into Gaza? Writing for the July 29th Newsweek, its director of politics and culture, Carlo Versano, writes:

“I don't hang out with a lot of Zoomers. My social circle consists mostly of 3- and 4-year-olds, and their views on the Mideast are muddled at best. But I do come across members of Gen Z in the wild, and it's being majorly underpriced right now the degree to which this entire generation is being radicalized against Israel. I'm not just talking about privileged college students wearing keffiyehs on campus and screaming ‘Globalize the Intifada’. Those people are idiots. I'm talking about normal, otherwise apolitical—even right-leaning—kids who are being inundated all day with images of women and children being blown up, shot by the IDF while waiting in line for food, and starving to death. And their response is to be revolted by Israel's behavior. How could it not be? How is that going to materialize when these kids get a little older and start running for office, or otherwise having political influence? Entire generations of goodwill toward Israel are being wiped out... and for what? For who? A right-wing Israeli regime seemingly hellbent on exterminating an entire civilian population? If I were an American Jew, I would be absolutely enraged by this! (And to be clear, many of the Jews I know are.)

“There's some reason to believe we are at or near a tipping point here, the point at which Netanyahu will actually be forced to back down from his increasingly maniacal perch. President Trump is not an ideologue, and he is obviously disgusted with what he is seeing just like any normal observer would be.” No other nation is willing wholesale to allow this Palestinian populations to leave Gaza and move to another nation. The West Bank is erupting as well. The pressure for an independent Palestinian state has become a very loud international chorus. But there is a change, and the word “genocide” is being used increasingly globally to described Israel’s “obliteration” of most of the structures in Gazan cities and the unceasing politics of death that define that response.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I do not understand how Netanyahu does not see the rising generational negativity among America’s rising voters and its likely impact on Israel’s increasingly isolated future.

Rigging Elections 101 – Texas Governor Trump & His US Supreme Court Henchmen

  

Texas House minus Democrats 

Greg Abbott with his Master

Rigging Elections 101 – Texas Governor Trump & His US Supreme Court Henchmen

"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators." 

US Constitution, Article I, Section 4, Clause 1

“The people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry, and there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated. All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have... Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give me a break." 

Donald Trump, in January of 2021 (prior to the certification to the 2020 election), in a recorded telephone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

It’s pretty clear that Donald Trump is the master puppeteer, and a Greg Abbott doll is a willing mouthpiece for the Master Trump’s demand that Texas redraw its election map, prior to the upcoming midterms. Trump’s “request” – mirroring his 2020 election demand of the Georgia (see above) – as part of his demand of other red state governors that they too gerrymander the election maps to eliminate the possibility of a loss of the GOP majority currently in the House of Representatives. As Trump Puppet Abbott ordered a special legislative session to implement that gerrymander request – “because we can” as the Texas House speaker stated – the Democrats left Texas to deprive Abbott of the legislative quorum he needed to disenfranchise them and deliver for Trump.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott then ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety on August 4th to arrest the 56 Democratic lawmakers who fled to other states (mostly Illinois) to prevent the quorum needed under Texas law to enact a “certain to pass” redistricting plan. His goal: eliminate five Democratic district seats and replace them with a heavily gerrymandered election map that would most certainly shift those seats to Republican dominated constituencies. Despite other pressing issues (e.g., recovery from the massive damage from the July 4 floods in the Hill Country and Central Texas, a failing statewide electrical grid, etc.), Abbott only cared about gerrymandering.

Red states, Indiana and Ohio, hinted that they may be next, as blue states – especially California, New York and Illinois – entertained comparable countermeasure redistricting (“This is war” as NY Governor Kathy Hochul stated) to prevent the election distortion Donald Trump wants to impose to protect the slender GOP House majority. Not the easiest path in states where legislation exists moving redistricting into the hands of non-partisan agencies. Polls and local town halls suggest that in a fair election, the GOP would lose that majority. Let me say that I hate gerrymandering. Both parties have done it. But a failed rightwing Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled in favor of state-driven election distortions favoring Republican candidates. Unless the Supreme Court returns to neutrality, it appears to have become a wing of the Republican Party as defined by Donald Trump. If Trump succeeds in this effort, that could be the final nail in the coffin of America’s claim that it is a true representative democracy. If this nation is to have any hope of avoiding a transition to pure autocracy, it is time that the Supreme Court understand its current role in killing voting rights and immediately reverse course.

Recent Supreme Court cases, for example, beginning with Citizens United vs FEC (2010) – which took the dollar cap off SuperPAC campaign support, as long as funding was not directed by a candidate (that limitation may be eliminated) – “equal protection” of voting rights was slowly replaced by “however the states want to control elections within their state.” Despites the plain language of the above-cited “Election Clause,” the Supreme Court felt free to negate Congress’ statutory mandate of a law aimed at protecting efforts to disenfranchise minority voters.

In 2021, the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Supreme Court all but repealed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The decision interpreted the "totality of circumstances" language of Section 2 to mean that it does not generally prohibit voting rules that have disparate impact on the groups that it sought to protect, including a rule blocked under Section 5 before the Court inactivated that section in Shelby County v. Holder (a 2013 case that released states with traditional patterns of racial voter discrimination from federal oversight). Virtually all of Trump’s emergency appeals to the Supreme Court have been successful, only amplifying his powers. In short, the Court is rewarding states that manipulate elections away from voters.

This appears to be very much the opposite of what our Founding Fathers intended. There are federal rules, however. For example, federal employees under the Hatch Act, although there is an exemption for the President and the Vice President, may may not engage in partisan political activity while on duty, in a federal workplace, with the use of any federal resource (such as computers, cell phones, email, etc.), or while identified as a federal employee (such as while wearing a DOL lapel pin). The law aims to prevent the use of official authority to affect election outcomes and to protect civil servants from pressure to support specific candidates or parties. This framework helps maintain a system where federal employment and advancement are based on merit rather than political affiliation. And while Trump may be exempted from the application of this 1939 statute, other federal operatives, acting to implement the President’s directives, are not so exempt.

But Republicans want to force voting distortions that would change the entire complexion of Congress. “President Donald Trump said the FBI ‘may have to’ help arrest Texas Democratic lawmakers to their home state after more than 50 fled to block a Republican redistricting plan that could flip five U.S. congressional seats… ‘A lot of people are demanding they come back. You can't just sit it out. You have to go back,’ Trump said at an Aug. 5 press event.

“Trump made the remarks when asked by a reporter about Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn's request earlier in the day for the FBI to ‘take any appropriate steps to aid in Texas state law enforcement efforts to locate or arrest’ the Democratic lawmakers.” Aysha Bagchi, writing for August 5th USA TODAY. Dictators hate defiance. Trump hates anyone or any medium that opposes his will, no matter how unlawful or unconstitutional it may appear. Can Trump deploy the FBI or any other federal agency to support obvious election distortion? If he can, this country is toast.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we just may be facing a constitutional crisis that could effectively repeal the final vestiges of a fading vision of America as a representative democracy.

Voting into a Banana Republic: Autocracy 101

 

Voting into a Banana Republic: Autocracy 101

You Vil Follow Orders, Ja?!

Yet no matter how many times he orders or wills it, the Epstein Whisperer has been a big bust, among so many other arenas, in trying to bend statistical realities and the laws of nature (read physics) to his will. Like his September 5, 2019, insistence that Hurricane Dorian was about to strike Alabama, when he added his own hand-drawn extension to the official National Weather Service projection (which was correct). Or recently, when he insisted that he had restored the economy, which he claimed was in full-on growth mode, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics released seasonally revised non-farm labor numbers a significantly lower than earlier estimates.

The BLS has traditionally released such unemployment numbers for the preceding month, based on preliminary polling and business surveys – the effort of hundreds of data-gathering staffers – which is later tested against additional information (e.g., local unemployment statistics which take more time to accumulate) and then corrected. Non-partisan number gatherers doing what have been doing for decades. Trump hated the revised numbers and shot the messenger (a statistician heading the BLS), and too many Republicans, followed the standing rule: thou shalt support the President even when he is obviously wrong.

“White House officials are rushing to defend President Donald Trump's decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, arguing that the fact-finding agency's revisions to recent jobs numbers were too staggering to be credible. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, described the revisions—which showed 258,000 fewer jobs created in May and June than previously reported—as ‘hard evidence’ of statistical tampering by the BLS.” Newsweek, August 4th.

But the gathering storm of missteps, including what appears to be an Epstein coverup and a breach of the DOJ’s Bureau of Prisons policy of never transferring sex traffickers to serve their sentences in minimum security prisons, by transferring convicted Epstein partner, Ghislane Maxwell, from a more restrictive federal penitentiary to a very low security federal facility in Texas… coincidentally, immediately after an unrecorded interview of Ms Maxwell by former Trump attorney and current Deputy AG Todd Blanche. Combining this suspicious move with the hard number results from TACO Trump’s chaotic tariff policies and the slam to everyday Americans in his Big Beautiful Bill, it was clear GOP candidates in future elections were now facing an uphill battle.

In apparent violation of the Hatch Act, Trump still ordered red state governors, particularly in already over-gerrymandered Texas, immediately to redistrict their congressional districts so as to make impossible any potential loss of GOP control of the House of Representatives. Unable to save a failing power grid or prepare emergency state forces for inevitable flooding – keeping taxes low for the mega-wealthy business community – mini-Trump Governor Greg Abbott immediately called a special session of the Texas legislature to deliver a new redistricted map that eliminated five Democratic districts. To avoid a quorum, the 52 Texas house democrats fled to Illinois under the aegis of that state’s Democratic governor, as Abbott swore to arrest them or expel them from their elected positions to be replaced in a “special election.”

But haphazard ability of Trump to control the nation as he directs, rewrite history and remove opponents and protestors at will, was inefficient. And so Donald Trump has secured $170 billion in his Big Beautiful Bill to fund a personal army of ultra-loyal ICE agents quite willing to ignore judicial orders and constitutional limitations to conduct warrantless arrests unencumbered by any notion of due process. Yet even that effort was not enough for the Epstein Whisperer. In a classic banana republic move, it appears that Trump is hellbent on removing statutory restrictions against the use of the military to maintain more MAGA domestic control than on foreign enemies:

“A leaked memo from the Department of Homeland Security suggests that the Trump administration is considering using the U.S. military to boost its ongoing mass deportation agenda, while acknowledging the deployment of troops in Los Angeles earlier this year wasn’t ‘perfect,’ according to a new report… The memo was allegedly written by DHS senior adviser Phil Hegseth, the brother of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The New Republic published the texts on Saturday [8/2].

The result of using federalized National Guardsmen and US Marines against California protestors (hardly “rioters” as Trump declared) not only raised the ire of an increasing number of Americans, but the soldiers themselves felt dirty and used in a way they never expected. “Ever since President Trump seized control of the California National Guard and deployed thousands of troops to Los Angeles, calls from distressed service members and their families have been pouring in to the GI Rights Hotline.

“Some National Guard troops and their loved ones have called to say they were agonizing over the legality of the deployment, which is being litigated in federal court, according to Steve Woolford, a resource counselor for the hotline, which provides confidential counseling for service members… Others phoned in to say the Guard should play no part in federal immigration raids and that they worried about immigrant family members who might get swept up… ‘They don’t want to deport their uncle or their wife or their brother-in-law,’ Woolford said. ‘Some of the language people have used is: ‘I joined to defend my country, and that’s really important to me — but No. 1 is family, and this is actually a threat to my family.’ ” Los Angeles Times, June 27th.

Investors, federal agencies and foreign nations’ setting national policies over the efficacy of investing in and supporting the US economy, have felt secure in our rule of law and the accuracy of economic performance statistics released by our federal agencies. But as Greece, China and Argentina have found, when there is an autocratic effort to censor those performance numbers to suit the will of the dictator, the economic consequences to those nations have been consistently catastrophic, often resulting in economic chaos if not collapse.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as I watch the President of the United States do his best to undermine democracy, replacing with a dire and horrific autocracy totally defined by him and only him, I can only hope that finally, Trump may have set in motion a powerful national sentiment that just may save American democracy… that even his election interference cannot stop.

Join Immigration, Customs & Enforcement and Be a Defender of God

Join Immigration, Customs & Enforcement and Be a Defender of God

"To me, there's something there that we really have to notice… That's not just an ad that says, hey, if you join up with DHS, if you become an ICE agent, that's a good career path for you, maybe this is a new start. That's not an ad that says, join up in a patriotic endeavor, something that you might think of as a great American program that started by, you know, Donald Trump. This is an ad that says, if you join up with us, DHS and ICE, you are answering a call from God. You're entering a holy war. You are answering the call to play a part in a story that is transcendent." Brad Onishi, a scholar of religion with the University of San Francisco

ICE agents are trained less, paid less and have fewer screening variables to overcome. The Department of Homeland Security is taking advantage of those realities. What seems to be attracting the mass of people that Trump wants to recruit into ICE is a cry not to traditional police values; it is a cry to potential recruits to be soldiers of God in a less-than-subtle cry to staff Trump’s personal army driven by white Christian nationalism. That medieval “crusader” knight above is the paragon of a perfect ICE agent. And what is done in the name of God justifies any relevant violence, putting their interpretation of the Bible as the highest authority, above the Constitution, protecting a Christian America from a hostile takeover by godless hordes.

Listening to White House Senior Advisor, Stephen Miller (the principal architect of Trump’s immigration policy), our DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration Tsar, Tom Homan, you know they view the Constitution as an anachronistic barrier to purging America of darker-skinned undocumented aliens, focusing on deportation quotas and pretty much disregarding the pledge to focused on dangerous criminal first. That undocumented aliens are less likely to commit violent crimes than native born Americans is lost in translation.

What Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill did for ICE was a budgetary windfall that makes this targeting “police force” better financed that the vast majority of military forces in nations all over the world. And unless the Jeffrey Epstein scandal upends Trump completely, ICE would become Trump’s personal army, just as the Department of Justice has become his personal law firm, in the pursuit of his opponents. “The bill delivered ICE a huge windfall ($75 billion through 2029 [an overall budget over time of $175 billion]) that should make it by far the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in the US government. PolitiFact calculated that ICE could be funded at an average annual rate of $27.7 billion, compared to the FBI’s $10 billion budget.

“This has led to plenty of concern among Trump’s critics about what that expansion will entail. He’s already signaled he’s willing to go to very controversial places in using law enforcement for his federal immigration crackdown and the military to back up his deportation efforts. He’ll also have more control over ICE than he would with the FBI, given post-Watergate reforms that made the FBI and the broader Justice Department more independent of the president. ICE has fewer such guardrails surrounding it.

“And even setting aside further potential politicization of federal law enforcement, there are the problems that can emerge when trying to quickly hire thousands of people for difficult jobs. A rapid 2000s-era expansion of the US Border Patrol led to standards being relaxed and a spike in misconduct.” Aaron Blake, writing for CNN, July 23rd. The recruitment effort for the thousands of ICE agents Trump wants to hire is resulting in some self-selection that should trouble the majority of Americans who now view ICE raids and detention as too extreme and fundamentally cruel.

“[ICE’s] masked militia has traumatized peaceful communities, with particular terror aimed at the Latino population, by presenting no badges or identification, and by physically accosting and kidnapping both undocumented and legal U.S. residents without due process… ICE’s evolving public-facing mission, which is increasingly spreading fear in American society, coupled with the expected increase in agents needed to carry out the Trump administration’s agenda, raises the question: What kind of person will seek to join ICE?

“Before the first Trump administration, ICE agents were typically motivated by integrity, courage, resilience, and a strong sense of duty and allegiance to the Constitution. Idealism and a sense of purpose were essential to balancing the gravity of their mission, and humility tempered the power dynamic inherent in law enforcement work. Agents require complex skills and knowledge, including cultural awareness and respect for civil liberties, as well as the necessary skills and training to maintain civility and safety during their missions…

“Today’s missions and subsequent behavior of many ICE agents are a far cry from those of the past. Trump has spent the last decade maligning immigrants in the United States, often with fabricated stories to create fear within communities and foster xenophobic hatred among his supporters. This paved the way for harsh, and sometimes sadistic, policies involving aggressive raids, warrantless detentions, family separations and imprisonment under conditions condemned by human rights groups.

“The pressure from the Trump administration to meet detention quotas and to enter peaceful communities in full tactical gear has been well-described. Bystanders have recorded videos of unidentifiable, masked agents in unmarked vehicles whisking people away without confirming the identities of their targets or informing the prisoners’ families of where they will be detained. These videos have entered the national conversation, leading to increased public scrutiny of ICE but altering the perception of this organization’s culture.

“The attention given to ICE raids, along with the empowerment bestowed upon the agency, may influence and alter the type of candidate for our next generation of agents. Instead of the ideals listed above, people eager to assume authoritative roles and participate in policies that emphasize dominance and public brutality may be attracted to the agency. Today’s ICE recruits may not be driven by a sense of noble duty or ethics but by the opportunity to exert power over vulnerable people, deriving satisfaction from the suffering they cause.” Dr. Geoffrey Grammer, a decorated U.S. Army Colonel (Ret.) and psychiatrist who treated active military personnel both at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, writing for the July 18th Salon.com.

In short, the current ICE recruitment effort is being focused on the kinds of bullies Trump and Miller believe they need to cleanse the United States of these undocumented “undesirables,” in the most expedient manner possible. What a perfect paramilitary organization for egotistical messianic mega-bully who so relishes “obliterating” anyone who disagrees with him!

In the words written by Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg (for the 1986 motion picture, “The Fly”), “BE afraid. Be very afraid,” of Trump’s master plan for the United States.