Ultra-Violence and Bedlam in Demon California

Ultra-Violence and Bedlam in Demon California

I’ve already blogged about the decline in all forms of crime, including murder and other violent felonies, in California. Moreover, the national statistics, reported by the National Institute of Justice (September 12, 2024) surveying available data, noted: “The study found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.” Recent arrests by reason of immigration status muddy the waters of any current numbers, but the headline is simple: undocumented migrants are hardly the criminals that DHS and DOJ claim, with no real supporting numbers. But high crime rates for the undocumented is what Trump’s followers want to believe, what they really need to believe. As they like to say: “Fake news.”

American citizens, with even a hint of color in their skin tones, have taken to carrying their passports (if they have them) everywhere they go. Immigration Tsar Tom Homan, with DHS Secretary Noem’s support, has openly stated that skin tone is a relevant criterion for ICE agents to detain and incarcerate individuals, without due process, often subjecting them to quick deportation… even with zero record of criminal convictions. DHS has vowed to appeal any judicial ruling that challenges that criterion. Elected members of Congress, performing their elected services, have been arrested and charged with crimes relating to their demanding access (as permitted by law) to ICE facilities.

Woe to American citizens anywhere near an ICE raid, even if they are not protesting and have made their citizenship clear to arresting officials. Not that even undocumented detainees can be arrested (“detained”) without recourse to due process as required by the Constitution (that founding document applies to anyone within the US, not just citizens), but stories of Americans swept up and detained happen with increasing frequency. Who knows how many US citizens have been deported to foreign prisons – there’s really no way to know. How would you feel if you were arrested by a plain clothes, self-declared ICE agent with no warrant and no visible identification? It happens every day. One particular recent example grabbed my attention:

“[Army veteran] George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo [north of Los Angeles], said he was arriving at work on July 10 when several federal agents surrounded his car and — despite him identifying himself as a U.S. citizen — broke his window, peppered sprayed him and dragged him out… Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter's birthday party Saturday [7/12]… He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody.” Associated Press, July 16th. How glorious it is to be an American citizen these days?!

I am sure none of us missed the Trump tirades against radical leftists and violent criminals who had “taken over” Los Angeles. In short, he maintained, he was rescuing this city from the lawless duly elected state and municipal officials’ purportedly condoning and encouraging violent resistance to ICE pursuits of those dangerous undocumented criminals running rampant in the streets. That most of those protests were provoked by the ICE agents themselves seems to fall between the cracks. One of my neighbors, a member of the local press corps, was injured (along with other clearly labeled journalists) when she was struck by a large “non-lethal” projectile… and required medical attention. The wound sure looked horrible to me.

The ”violence” was so pervasive, maintained the President, that he was forced to federalize 2,000 (and then another 2,000) California National Guards over the objections of the Governor, and order 700 active-duty Marines, to support ICE agents and guard federal buildings in violent Los Angeles. Many were forced to sleep on concrete floors. They were not trained to be police officers and most never figured that they would be deployed against their fellow citizens. Morale plunged as Trump continued to fabricate reports of rebellious violence that could only be quelled by military force. Forget the Posse Comitatus statute that banned such activity absent a showing of invasion or rebellion (never established).

So, what was/is life for those military troops ordered to settle an otherwise peaceful Los Angeles? Writing for the July 17th Los Angeles Times, Jenny Jarvie, Grace Toohey and Christopher Buchanan write: “They were deployed by the Trump administration to combat ‘violent, insurrectionist mobs’ in and around Los Angeles, but in recent days the only thing many U.S. Marines and California National Guard troops seemed to be fighting was tedium… ‘There’s not much to do,’ one Marine said as he stood guard outside the towering Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood this week.

“The blazing protests that first met federal immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles were nowhere to be seen along Wilshire Boulevard or Veteran Avenue, so many troops passed the time chatting and joking over energy drinks. The Marine, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said his duties consisted mostly of approving access for federal workers and visitors to the Veterans Affairs office.

“More than five weeks after Trump mobilized an extraordinary show of military force against the will of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, few National Guard troops and Marines have remained in public view, most retreating to local military bases in Orange County… As an indication of the military’s dwindling role in immigration enforcement operations, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday [7/16] ordered the release of 2,000 National Guard troops. Now, Bass, Newsom and others are demanding the complete removal of remaining troops — or about 2,000 California National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines… ‘Thousands of members are still federalized in Los Angeles for no reason and unable to carry out their critical duties across the state,’ Newsom said on X , accusing Trump of using California National Guard troops as ‘political pawns.’.. ‘End this theater and send everyone home,’ the governor said… Bass said the troops’ primary mission in L.A. was to guard federal buildings that ‘frankly didn’t need to be guarded.’”

They never had much to do, but I suspect that is to be expected when the underlying justification for their deployment was totally fabricated… in MY HOMETOWN. As I and my friends, many attorneys practice here, have realized: we now know what it is like living in a police state, where purported “police” with no identification no longer even require “probable cause” to arrest anyone they choose. This is NOT the American I was born and raised in.

Despite Trump’s plunging numbers and particularly the overreaching nature of ICE efforts, Trump and his power-hungry appointees have pledged to ramp up their sweep of all these “dangerous” undocumented aliens (70% of whom have no criminal records).

DJT’s Legacy – Making America Small Again

DJT’s Legacy – Making America Small Again

For a President who seemed to be unstoppable, Donald Trump has not only overplayed his hand, but he is also losing some of his most diehard worshipers in the process. The United States was once a very small, isolated nation trailing the developed world in technology, commerce and influence. In 1789, it was a country of about 4 million people, 95% agricultural, with grit and determination. Over the next two centuries, the nation was flooded by immigrants, mostly European, but joined by racial, religious and ethnic minorities that led us into global technological and financial leadership. That immigrant melting pot, a lettuce bowl to some, is what made America great. We capitalized on that confluence of ideas and passion, ideas exchanged within that blend of people; DIVERSITY is what made America great in the first place. Now, it’s a dirty word, as Donald Trump strips away the leverage that took that population blend to the top: The greatest aggregation of innovation, learning and research within our finest universities.

Even Trump’s signature top-of-mind goal, the results of his autocratic immigration reform, pales in comparison with the accomplishments of late 20th and early 21st century presidents: Ronald Reagan’s successful statutory immigration reform in 1986 (the last major such reform) and Barack Obama’s deportation of double Trump’s numbers without the chaos, cruelty or constitutional lapses. Trump’s underlying political tool, destabilization with intimidation, fear and chaos, has shocked even members of his base but has really turn off support from the vital independent voters needed to elect MAGA candidates in the upcoming midterms. Even as MAGA dominated legislatures are desperately attempting to cull voting rolls of likely Democrats, expanding gerrymandering to marginalize their opponents, there is a rising groundswell against these abusive policies.

Trump is not getting the message. As food rots unharvested in the fields, as small businesses are failing for lack of low cost labor, and social and traditional media abound with stories and images of cruelty – from masked plainclothes ICE raiding undocumented workers at their places of employment (pretty much ignoring the small number of criminals they promised to prioritize in order to meet bizarre quotas), families separated, people shipped to terrifying foreign prisons without any effort to verify their status via due process and the construction of concentration camps like Alligator Alcatraz for even the lowest level undocumented workers they can find – has turned the majority of Americans in opposition to Trump’s secret police immigration enforcement officers and their cruel methodology… and now there is a 79% majority favoring immigration and a clear path to citizenship (July 11th Gallup poll report).

But even with $170 billion added to Trump’s enforcement effort, the remaining pool of potential recruits is drawing sub-par applicants, seeking power over other people, seems likely to anger voters even more. Quality enforcement is not remotely the goal anymore. As Andrea Castillo, writing for the July 20th LA Times notes: “The independent watchdog concluded that to meet the goal of 10,000 new immigration officers, ICE would need more than 500,000 applicants. For CBP to hire 5,000 new agents, it would need 750,000 applicants.

“It doesn’t appear either goal was met. In 2017, ICE hired 371 deportation officers from more than 11,000 applications and took 173 days on average to finalize hires, the news outlet Government Executive reported. And Cronkite News reported that when Trump left office in 2021, Border Patrol had shrunk by more than 1,000 agents… [The last time we went on such a massive immigration officer hiring spree] Josiah Heyman, an anthropology professor who directs the University of Texas at El Paso’s Center of Inter-American and Border Studies, studied the mid-2000s hiring spree. He said smuggling organizations have only gotten more sophisticated since then, as have security measures, so it’s more valuable for smugglers to ‘buy someone off’ instead of attempting to bring in people or drugs undetected.

“Beyond corruption, Heyman said he worries the drive to quickly increase Homeland Security staffing could lead to Americans being deported, as well as an increase of assault and abuse cases and deaths of detainees.” That bullying tendencies are vastly more prevalent in the current state of applicants should worry us all.

And then there’s the economy. As Trump’s cancelation of alternative energy infrastructure, he mistakenly believes that “drill, baby, drill” will spur the production of cheap gasoline, coal and diesel fuel. But global markets, not Donald Trump, set the price for these fuels… and the trend lines are terrible. Losing the predicted 700,000 jobs that were created by this proposed US infrastructure is bad enough, but Americans are losing EV vehicle incentives and charging stations by the thousands. Newsweek, July 16th. China should send the Trump a thank you note, and Detroit automotive workers should be screaming bloody murder. We are tanking in that international marketplace as China’s BVD electrical cars are so hot, that for every US car sold overseas, China is selling four vehicles (the above photo shows one of many BVD models).

Even as Trump once claimed he was first in his undergrad class at Wharton, hard facts say otherwise as Trump will not permit his academic record to be released to the public. Given Wharton’s list of honored graduates in Trump’s year of graduation, it is obvious, Mr Trump was nowhere near a top student. Given his grasp of macroeconomics – necessary to understand trade policies (like what tariffs really do) and the function of the Federal Reserve – virtually all independent economists at established financial institutions are predicting serious increases in interest rates, compounded by new federal loan policies that are likely deny even lending support for graduate students, even in the very necessary growth STEM fields. Trump would prefer to revel in his own power to destroy the American higher educational system than adhere to his pledge of reducing costs for us all.

Our military did not “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program; Israeli intelligence tells us that they have stores of such materials, some of their centrifuge processers are already back online and Iranian munitions and money are already being restored to the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc. “Mission accomplished!” Only in the uncritical, fact averse minds of MAGA Trumpers.

I could continue with the bungling efforts of a self-congratulatory Trump clown car, but where we are seriously losing the game is in our efforts to contain and compete against China, already a miliary and economic superpower. They are almost on par in the development of AI, are enhancing not tanking their universities, currently have the capacity to disrupt our power grid and internet system… and they have stepped to replace American soft power global influence (our foreign aid is almost gone), letting most the world know that the United States is already a second rate power. We are willing to assume massive debt (as long as people by our treasuries) to prioritize tax cuts for the rich. But how long can the world’s greatest debtor nation remain the superpower most Americans assume we will continue to be. That does not work for most of the rest of the world.

I’m Peter Dekom, and most Americans cling to the belief that we will remain (perhaps grow) as the number one superpower on Earth; don’t hold your breath as we slide in precisely the opposite direction.

Born in the USA and Getting Away with Murder

Born in the USA and Getting Away with Murder

The United States is increasingly looking like a third world country when it comes to law enforcement. Convicted violent criminals are pardoned when their violence, which injured and resulted in the death of police officers, was in support of the President. Clemency and other pardon activities favor donors (and their family members) to Presidential campaign coffers and favored candidates. Our reconfigured FBI is headed by an idealogue with no police experience who spends more time in his beloved Las Vegas (enjoying the nightlife) than he does at the helm of his storied agency… not to mention purging agents that may have been involved in Trump investigations and using agents to track down pro-Trump discredited conspiracy theories.

For the most part, local police are woefully undertrained, at least by international standards. As police officers in much of Europe train for up to three years, a local US cop is lucky to get even 6 months of training. The number of successful lawsuits against police use of excessive force not only reflects this undertraining but saps local municipal budgets with massive judicially determined payouts. Understaffing is the consequence of such payouts. The use of powerful “non-lethal” containment methods, from large projectile to powerful tasers, makes matters worse. As do the ubiquitous smartphone videos of officers pummeling handcuffed arrestees already subdued and pinned to the ground. The recent use of federalized National Guardsmen, backed by active-duty Marines, deploys reluctant untrained “cops for a week or two” almost exclusively against pollical protestors opposing the incumbent administration.

So, police are too often called to counter protesters who support causes that the local administration opposes (or is under national pressure to oppose). Meanwhile, federal agencies aimed at preventing consumer fraud, criminal dumping of toxic effluents, intentionally releasing addictive drugs and substandard prescription drugs by major companies, etc. are being defunded or actually being shut down. The resultant rise in what were once prevented crimes is staggering.

But what happens when our local police are shifted to priorities that just do not keep Americans safe, where court rulings ensure the open use and spread of firearms, from AR-15s to large capacity handguns, including unpermitted concealed or open carry rights? Do “stand your ground” laws deter crime or cause crime? The statistics in places like Texas and Florida are not good. But as part of this official encouragement of lawlessness, a reflection of the distraction of local police everywhere from traditional law enforcement priorities, is this harsh reality from the resulting staffing shortages: roughly half of all the murders in the United States remain unsolved.

Starting with Louisville, KY, a typical small city where murderers have even odds of never getting caught, NY Times columnist, German Lopez, writes (on July 7th): “Louisville’s police department acknowledges serious problems; it says it is about 300 officers below full staffing. The department is trying to address those issues, said Jennifer Keeney, a spokeswoman. She shared a message for the family members of murder victims: ‘We understand they are grieving, frustrated and in pain. We want them to know it’s frustrating for us, too, and that we do care.’

“Louisville is representative of a national issue. In the United States, people often get away with murder. The clearance rate — the share of cases that result in an arrest or are otherwise solved — was 58 percent in 2023, the latest year for which F.B.I. data is available. And that figure is inflated because it includes murders from previous years that police solved in 2023…

“Compared with its peers, America overall does an unusually poor job of solving killings. The murder clearance rates of other rich nations, including Australia, Britain and Germany, hover in the 70s, 80s and even 90s. Several issues, including a lack of resources, the sheer volume of cases and a distrust of the police, have converged to make the jobs of American detectives much more difficult. ‘It’s a serious problem,’ said Philip Cook, a criminal justice researcher at Duke University.

“The lack of legal accountability emboldens criminals, leading to more crime and violence… ‘It’s a vicious cycle,’ Brian Forst, a criminologist at American University, told me. ‘When the bad guys see that the police are not there to deter crime and catch criminals, they remain on the streets to do more bad stuff. And the rest of the community is less deterred from crime. They think, ‘Why not? I’m not going to get caught.’’”

Let’s face it, we prioritize gun ownership over the lives of our children (guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the US), we have more guns than people and a serious misinterpretation of an amendment that simply allowed Revolutionary War citizen soldiers to keep their weapons in the ensuing peacetime… to promulgate a fairly unrestricted individual right to own firearms of all descriptions, often arming street gangs with weapons superior to the police engaged to arrest them. What’s even more absurd, the seminal case on point and the first such case since the Second Amendment was passed in 1789 to address open gun ownership rights, the 2008 Supreme Court in Heller vs DC, went so far as to require the application of gun ownership rules from 1789 (i.e., that applied to flintlocks and muskets).

We watch online and television criminal process programming where the cops always get their man (perpetrator, anyway), applying readily available state-of-the-art forensics, a team of dedicated expert investigators and statistically extraordinary results… that hardly reflect real world facts. Unless you use your weapon in plain sight, often under the obviously watchful eye of nearby cameras, the United States is a great place to murder, whether for profit or simply… because one can. I wonder how many murders were committed under the NRA expression: “the only way to kill a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” The rights of the bad guy with a gun and the good guy with a gun to have a gun are often the same.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while rightwing zealots decry the failure to support the rule of law, they seldom really mean traditional crimes… they usually mean containing those expressing views they do not like.

Toxic Metrics and the Death of "Community" in America

 Mark Zuckerberg’s jet  

Mark Zuckerberg’s jet

main residential compound  

and yacht 

                                     

Toxic Metrics and the Death of “Community” in America

Donald Trump always hated the community (Queens, NYC) where he was born and raised. He yearned for the New York across the river, where money was the ultimate metric of success: Manhattan. And when that part of NYC rejected him and his values, he fled to a state in the midst of an experiment in anti-democratic autocracy: Florida. Was he looking for that 1789 “community” that had defined a tiny (4 million people) and highly isolated new nation, 95% engaged in farming, or did he not care anymore? The hallmark of early-era America, outside of the few urban areas, was small pockets of farmers, linked by weekly church attendance, which were communities where everybody knew everybody. Where people met and married, where barnstorming was a collective mutual support construction practice and where individuals cared for members of that community, into which they were born and where they were buried when their time came.

“Community” grew as immigrants invaded both cities and vast tracts of arable land that was slowly being confiscated from the Native Peoples who lived there. As the 1803 Louisiana Purchase offered more room for new communities, settlers from other, mostly European countries, brought their crops (and agricultural knowhow), recipes, religious structures (almost all Christian), music, language and culture to what was, at first, a melting pot and later a lettuce bowl of diversity. Those First Amendment rights were particularly attractive to former residents of monarchies plagued by religious intolerance.

The Civil War, Reconstruction and the Industrial Revolution changed all that. People left their communities, often devastated by war damage, having fought wars, to seek economic/well-paid jobs and opportunities far from their home communities. Former slaves, now free to travel, left the repressive lands they once worked under whip and chain… to seek opportunities northward.

Today, those communities – from ethnic urban enclaves to farming communities and small towns – have slipped out of national relevance, except where they could be manipulated by unscrupulous politicians, from Reconstruction to Tea Party/MAGA frustration to liberal countermeasures. Territorial “communities” were soon replaced by shared job center connections. As advanced education became an employment-essential, mobility raised certain new variables to communities and individuals’ increasingly feeling unconnected. For those admitted to nationally prestigious universities, there was little reason to return to a job-impaired small town or rural community upon graduation. Facebook and other social networks were often the only way for college friendships to continue. But maybe “community” does not matter now.

You can see, even in our most basic assumptions, that we prize efficiency (even modest) over community. As Andy Boenau, writing for the July 9th FastCompany.com, explains: “If you want to understand how even modern American cities became hostile to human life, don’t start with the political conspiracies; look at the way city planners and road engineers calculate success… Every day, public agencies across the country greenlight projects that cost millions of dollars, destroy neighborhoods, and ultimately kill people—all in the name of saving drivers a few seconds. This is standard operating procedure, justified by a single, dangerous metric: vehicular delay… In transportation bureaucratese, it’s called Level of Service (LOS). Think of it as a report card with grades A to F describing how freely cars move. But this grade has nothing to do with safety, quality of life, economic productivity, or human flourishing. It’s entirely about how long a vehicle waits at an intersection or slows down during rush hour. The built environment is shaped around that metric.” People and their welfare take second place all the time.

For some, feeling unconnected or isolated, distances collapsed as online connectivity replaced in person reality. Increasingly, individual identity and political affinity merged into one. It’s hard for a Massachusetts liberal to drive through virtually any Oklahoma residential district where Trump and MAGA signs are everywhere, and those with liberal leanings are likely to hold back.

“In today’s America, political identity isn’t just about voting—it’s shaping who we want as friends, neighbors, and even in-laws. A study published in Political Psychology found that partisanship now overrides nearly all other social identities—including race, religion, and education level—when people evaluate others. Using a national survey, researchers showed participants profiles of hypothetical individuals and asked them to judge how much they liked each one, or whether they’d want to live near them or have them as family. Political affiliation was the strongest predictor of these social preferences, with people consistently favoring those who shared their party and expressing dislike for those who didn’t…

“A new study published in the European Journal of Political Research found that voters who feel ideologically close to ‘dark’ political candidates—those scoring high in Machiavellianism, psychopathy, or narcissism—were more likely to express stronger affective polarization. The effect wasn’t caused by dislike of the opposition, but rather by an emotional attachment to their own combative leader…

“In one of the largest cross-cultural studies of its kind, researchers from 25 countries found that people are more likely to support dominant, authoritarian leaders when they perceive intergroup conflict or national threat. Published in Evolution and Human Behavior, the study included over 5,000 participants and tested whether scenarios involving war or peace affected leadership preferences. In conflict situations, people were more likely to prefer leaders who appeared physically dominant, aggressive, or forceful. This preference showed up across cultures—from the United States and China to Kenya and Russia… The findings support the idea that humans have an evolved tendency to turn toward strong leadership during times of danger.” Eric Dolan writing for PsyPost, July 5th. Perhaps the United States is just too big to be governable.

While the metrics of success, at least in the United States, focus on growth (as in Gross Domestic Product), low unemployment, share prices and relative currency values, we have a pretty angry fractured population. Our old celebrities, movies stars pale in comparison to todays’ musical and athletic powerhouses… and everything pales in comparison to billionaire status. Gated “communities” (where no one really speaks to anyone else) are replaced by mega-billionaire, guarded “enclaves” and “compounds.” What are not national priorities are wellness metrics (note: US life expectancies are declining), measures of relative happiness (Finland seems to be the happiest nation on earth… but it’s so… er… socialist, right?) and livability (Denmark’s Copenhagen takes that prize).

Just looking at how skewed our metrics truly are, understand how “rich folks” bias tilts our GDP calculation (the value of the aggregation of US economic transactions). Let’s use a relative earnings model as an example. Look at 10 Americans earning $100,000 each and one American earning $10M. The average earning of that $11M total is obviously $1M/per capita… and GDP is not a median or a mean calculation; it is an aggregated amorphous number that has virtually no statistical relevance for anyone. Simply put, mega-wealth, mega-earnings and the special tax rules that amplify the wealth of the richest, skew “success” dramatically but mean nothing to average Americans. Unlike the stocks and bonds market, the labor and GDP statistics, there are no routinely scheduled or international comparisons for happiness, affordability and wellness. Reports on such metrics (that should really matter), are reported randomly with little attention or alarm/joy.

I’m Peter Dekom, and in a country where Americans increasingly hate each other, where mass misery loves highly polarized company, we live with a government that uses statistical manipulation to tell you why you should be happy and satisfied… when you really are not.

Who Knew the Bill of Rights Was Just a Pick-and-Choose Menu?

  US Deportees in El Salvador           

 Sweep of undocumented slaughterhouse workers

 

Who Knew the Bill of Rights Was Just a Pick-and-Choose Menu?

We Know Diehard MAGE Evangelicals See the Bible That Way

"Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.” 

Set forth in a Trump Executive Order, January 20th.

Even as the ultimate MAGA rule-makers have been Donald Trump and his appointees, it’s clear that making new choices seems a reaction to an officially immutable Bible and an unamendable Constitution. In a hotly divided nation, there is no way to amass the necessary state and federal votes necessary to amend that founding document. The last amendment to pass (the 27th in 1992), a relatively innocuous requirement that before Congress could give itself a raise there must be an intervening election, took 203 years from being introduced to passage. But even with a fully compliant MAGA majority in both houses of Congress, except for budget reconciliation bills which only require a simple majority to pass, the cloture rules in the Senate mandate a 60 (out of 100) votes just to move a bill to a full floor vote. Solution: executive orders from a bully dictator!

Given that Trump’s followers (his base) are generally not issue oriented – preferring to vote for a charismatic leader confirming their conspiracy theories – even with the recent Jeffrey Epstein “client list” controversy, they still seem bound to him “no matter what.” Without this MAGA base which permeates into virtually every nook and political cranny at the red state level, Trump’s ability to “primary” (fund their GOP opponents) has eliminated opposing Congressional Republicans into lockstep alignment with Trump’s mandates. Trump has also found a backdoor to amending the Constitution: getting his ideological 6-3 Supreme Court majority to de facto amend the Constitution through “tortured logic” rulings, some detailed on point (like his immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts), others based on an opinionless “shadow” docket rulings (for example, effectively ending nationwide trial court injunctions on constitutional issues).

Based on Trump’s now perfected bully tactics, Trump has managed to move Article I congressional constitutional powers – to establish tariffs and taxes, to wage war and utilize the military to enforce his domestic pollical agenda – to himself. Of particular relevance is Trump’s approach to the Bill of Rights (the first ten constitutional amendments), claiming “invasion” (by foreign gangs), rebellion and emergency economic necessities, to issue Executive Orders that, on their face, are obviously unconstitutional. His followers, favoring the “efficiency” of one-person rule, have cheered Trump’s ignoring those rights to effect the kind of society MAGA voters want.

Most of these violative executive orders have imposed penalties (loss of citizenship, immediate deportation, denial of continued legitimate residency, detention, cutting congressionally-approved funds for state institutions and universities) primarily in connection with his immigration policies, his stand that diversity, equality and inclusion are un-American, his convenient use of “antisemitism” to decimate opponents and bring the nation’s top research universities to heel. Bill of Rights? Inconvenient and ignored.

Yet almost as quickly as Trump issued his protection of free speech noted in the above quote, he began stripping foreign students of their visas, even declaring them to be enemies of the state for expressing opinions he disagreed with. Arrests, detention and deportation, often without notice of the change in status or any semblance of due process, followed. In defiance of the 10th Amendment (states rights) and legislation like the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act (banning the use of military, absent invasion or rebellion) for domestic purposes, Trump federalized troops from the California National Guard and assigned active-duty Marines to support ICE policing services in support of roundups and any offsetting protests. His senior appointees pledged to use the military, wherever state or local governments (or protestors) challenged Trump’s immigration mandates. Free speech died. A police state was born.

Notwithstanding the 1st Amendment’s further ban against the establishment of a state religion or given the right of individuals to assemble and to present grievances to the government, Trump used the military to contain local governments, and high-ranking MAGA officials (like House Speaker Mike Johnson) rejected the notion that Congress could not vote for a state religion. Other officials, from Vice President JD Vance embracing Nazi-like mandates or DOD Secretary, Pete Hegseth very obviously attended a religious service openly supportive of white Christian nationalism, flaunting the Constitution as an irrelevant piece of paper.

Trump sneered at the multiple facets of “probable cause” and “due process” (which applies to all persons within the US under the 14th Amendment) at set forth in the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments and the ban against “cruel and unusual punishment” articulated in the 8th Amendment. Masked and unidentified officers, holding themselves out as ICE agents, swept mostly innocent undocumented workers (and more than a few US citizens) into detention centers like the new “Alligator Alcatraz” with hundreds being shipped to overseas prisons (see above) without a trial or any criminal conviction.

Even American citizens lacking that “perfect” white or pink skin carried their passports with them, knowing that an ICE agent could confiscate that document and claim it was never produced. Meat processing plants, stoop-labor farms, construction sites, restaurants and hotels, car washes, childcare workers were stripped of workers, failing to focus on the “convicted criminals” DHS promised to deport first. About 70% of those undocumented arrestees had no criminal convictions, most paid taxes on their earnings and the majority of those workers were willing to take low-paying jobs that US citizens would not take at any price.

Even with this track record of clearly defying the US Constitution, most Americans simply assumed their lives would continue without material change. There were and are unaware of the material provisions of Trump’s disgusting giveaway to the rich at the expense of lower income Americans in his “Big Beautiful Bill.” As the Democrats founder in search of a path to resist, they face a huge wall of national complacency no matter what the Trump autocracy imposes. Remember that in the last election, approximately 90 million eligible voters… DID NOT VOTE!

I’m Peter Dekom, and the fear I see in Los Angeles streets, from citizens and non-citizens alike, is a disease that could easily spread to all of the United States… unless voters begin to care!

Unnecessary Stupid Pet Tricks from the Clown Car Cabinet: American Food Insecurity

 

Unnecessary Stupid Pet Tricks from the Clown Car Cabinet: American Food Insecurity

On paper, Brooke Rollins actually seemed that she might qualify to be one of the rare Trump cabinet appointees to know what she is doing. With an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M (B.S. in agricultural development) and a JD (with honors) from the University of Texas, having served as a presidential advisor during Trump 1.0, Rollins seemed appropriate. She’s no “woke” animal rights advocate, but she had widespread support in the farming and ranching communities in Texas and beyond. She sailed past the Senate confirmation as Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture. Then she opened her mouth, attempting to address issues like high egg prices and the fast-rising farm labor shortage. Later, saying that replacing the vast hordes of missing undocumented farmworkers and meat processing employees would be exceptionally easy.

Back in March, after pushing even beyond the Trump mantra – Biden was the cause of all that bad that only Trump could fix – she had this most egg-sellent suggestion, telling a March 1st edition of Fox & Friends for Americans to fight higher egg prices by simply raising their own chickens if they’re upset about the soaring price of eggs: “I think the silver lining in all this is how do we, in our backyards — we’ve got chickens too in our backyard — how do we solve for something like this? And people are sort of looking around thinking, ‘Wow, well, Maybe I can get a chicken in my backyard,’ and it’s awesome.” Wow, Brooke, how insightful! Works really well for folks where zoning permits and, well, where they actually have a backyard. Or just tell the landlord for your rental apartment that you will use your living room to raise chickens.

But farmgirl Rollins was full of solutions for the Trump administration in early July as ICE farmworker sweeps – right off the fields where their stooped bodies were harvesting crops (40% of US farmworkers are undocumented) – leaving rotting crops in the fields… and where livestock lacked the necessary butchers and meat-prep workers to process for our grocery shelves. Farm states have been trying for years to get US citizens to do that unpleasant, back-breaking work (often in searing heat), simply by upping the compensation to meet the price for unskilled citizen labor (although a lot of agricultural work is extremely skilled). Even when farms posted acceptable wage rates, US citizens seldom lasted more than a day. Bad idea. Never worked at any price.

And even as Donald Trump was beginning to recognize that farmers in his diehard MAGA constituencies really could not function without those undocumented workers, genius Rollins completely disagreed: “[She] declared that the Trump administration’s massive deportation plans will continue without any amnesty for migrant farm workers, and insisted that ‘able-bodied’ American adults who access Medicaid for health care insurance should be the ones to replace deported migrant farm workers. Critics have pushed back.

“‘I can’t underscore enough,’ Secretary Rollins said at a press conference at the USDA on Tuesday [7/8], ahead of a White House Cabinet meeting. ‘There will be no amnesty, the mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation.’… She added that, ‘with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.’

“Secretary Rollins’ remarks do not take into account that nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults under 65 accessing Medicaid are already working, according to [the Kaiser Family Foundation]. Another 28% are exempt due to illness, school, or care-giving responsibilities.” David Badash, writing for the New Civil Rights Movement, July 8th. I wonder if Pete Hegseth, when he is demoted from Secretary of Defense, just might be the right choice to replace her? But were such undocumented sweeps the game plan? Writing for the July 14th Associated Press, Melissa Goldin explains:

“President Trump has pledged to deport ‘the worst of the worst.’ He frequently speaks at public appearances about the countless ‘dangerous criminals’ — among them murderers, rapists and child predators — from around the world he says entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration. He promises to expel millions of migrants in the largest deportation program in American history to protect law-abiding citizens from the violent threats he says they pose.

“But government data around ongoing detentions tell a different story… There has been an increase of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Trump began his second term, with reports of raids across the country. Yet the majority of people currently detained by ICE have no criminal convictions. Of those who do, relatively few have been convicted of high-level crimes — a stark contrast to the chilling nightmare Trump describes to support his border security agenda. The latest ICE statistics show that as of June 29, there were 57,861 people detained by ICE, 41,495, or 71.7% of whom had no criminal convictions…

“Nonpublic data obtained by the Cato Institute show that as of June 14, 65% of the more than 204,000 people processed into the system by ICE since the start of fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1, 2024, had no criminal convictions. Of those with convictions, only 6.9% had committed a violent crime, while 53% had committed nonviolent crimes that fell into three main categories — immigration, traffic or vice crimes.” It seems that the Trump administration is addicted to quotas, and unless they can round up masses of ordinary, usually taxpaying undocumented workers, they could never remotely meet their promised goals. Plus, driven by an obsessive hatred of California, Trump could kill two birds with one stone: meet the quotas and decimate California’s economy.

“Trump officials defend immigration raids after deadly California sweep… Federal officials on Sunday [7/13] defended President Donald Trump's intensifying deportation campaign, including a controversial raid at two California cannabis farms that left one worker dead and sparked widespread protests. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump's border czar Tom Homan said the administration would appeal a federal judge's ruling that temporarily blocked immigration detentions based on racial profiling and restricted access to legal counsel for detainees… ‘We will appeal, and we will win,’ Noem said on Fox News Sunday, denying that the administration used discriminatory tactics. Homan added on CNN that physical characteristics could be one factor in establishing reasonable suspicion during enforcement actions.” Amanda Castro, writing for the July 14th Newsweek.

No, they are not targeting criminals, and California is NOT a hotbed of crime, unless intentionally provoked by unidentified ICE agents: “Trump’s claims of a California ruined by crime are not supported by statistics law enforcement agencies submitted to the state’s Department of Justice… California’s homicide rate last year was the second lowest since at least 1966, and the overall number of homicides decreased by nearly 12% since 2023, the Governor’s Office announced in a news release… California’s overall violent crime rate dropped 6% statewide last year from the previous year.” Sacramento Bee, July 12th.

The litany of ICE cruelty and violence has finally backfired: “The share of Americans who thought immigration should decrease – 55% – reached a 5-year high point in 2024. This year, it has dropped to 30%, and positive views of immigration have hit a record high of 79%, according to poll results released July 11. The poll surveyed 1,402 Americans between June 2 and 26.” USA Today, July 14th. And that’s even before grocery prices take off again… way above what they were.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if these immigration policies are making life worse for most of us -witnessing exceptional cruelty, a tromping of constitutional rights and watching costs soar – exactly who is Trump trying to satisfy with his immigration policies?

The Clown Car, Chaos, Mental Instability and Führerprinzip

  USA 2025

 Germany Pre-WWII

     

The Clown Car, Chaos, Mental Instability and Führerprinzip

"The people in charge who are supposed to protect us — our fellow Americans who we elected, along with those who were appointed, and swore an oath to protect this nation and our Constitution — now use the Constitution as a weapon to suit their own ends. And the most terrifying fact is, their road map is very long." 

Patty Hartman, who worked in communications for the DOJ for 17 years before being fired, who says America is barreling toward a new reality where "the rules don't exist anymore,"

The Trump 2.0 administration is marked by the appointment of the least qualified cabinet in our history. As the whistleblower behind the nomination of former Trump lawyer, Emil Bove, to the Third Circuit (a lifetime appointment to the second highest federal appellate court) seems to have proved, unless courts accept Trump’s unequivocal mandate, Trumpers will twist and squirm to pretend they don’t understand the order… until they feel they have to reject to authority of the federal courts altogether. We have an AG who is incapable of protecting either the Constitution or the general public if Trump wants otherwise, and she is presently consumed in her inability to produce that which she had promised throughout her appointment: the Epstein client list.

Even our Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, is completely unfamiliar with the multiple attempts in states where hand labor is required to harvest crops or do the dirty work in slaughterhouses. Regardless of the pay offered to US citizens to do that work, there has NEVER been a successful effort to recruit citizens to accept such jobs. The studies and surveys are substantial, but Rollins’ reading skills seem unable to grasp that reality as she suggests (incorrectly) that there are more than enough able-bodied unemployed and available Medicaid recipients to fill that void. Even Trump knows better.

As our unskilled “master of conspiracy theories in lieu of medical facts,” Robert Kennedy, Jr. (completely rejected by his own family) – known for such intelligent hobbies such as leaving a dead bear in Central Park – has assembled a mass of equally unskilled conspiracy theorists to manage the nation’s healthcare at every level. Deep antivaxx sentiments, making what used to be required vaccinations for any child entering elementary school for decades, have left containing childhood contagions to the whims of parents. The reality is that such parental resistance to required childhood vaccinations is nothing more than a right for their children to infect anyone they come in contact with, often in a classroom where contact is inevitable.

RFK, Jr’s replacing seasoned and experienced vaccine experts with conspiracy theorist amateurs has resulted in dramatic increases in diseases that we once had under control. With decades of experience, there is no doubt about safety and effectiveness of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which the CDC and HHS have been encouraging Americans to get vaccinated for over half a century. No longer. By making such vaccinations voluntary, there have been well over a thousand outbreaks (focused heavily in Texas) of measles. “Childhood vaccine coverage has been declining in the US, and the vast majority of measles cases this year – more than 90% – have been in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, according to the CDC.” CNN, July 10th. And given our recent experience with COVID, another such pandemic could kill millions of Americans without a professional and properly educated HHS staff.

DHS Secretary, Kristi “where is the camera” Noem, is addicted to heavy make-up… but has obviously no clue about the laws she is supposed to enforce. Her response before a Congressional committee – that “the right of habeas corpus” embodies the President’s unilateral right to instant deportation of undocumented aliens without due process – is clear evidence that she is ill-preprepared to lead Trump’s immigration efforts. Immigration Tsar, Tom Homan let it be known that detaining people on the basis of race or ethnicity was fully legal and justified (a federal district court has already ruled against that premise). Alligator Alcatraz has already proven to be a hellish, searingly hot mosquito haven, unnecessarily cruel. And Noem’s willingness to shoot a puppy suggests that cruelty is one of her fortes.

Noem’s insists on micromanaging emergency approvals; she failed to okay the launch of swift water rescue boats in time to be effective in the Texas floods. Her failure to approve vendors to service the emergency notification network left the bulk of the early flood-related telephone calls unanswered. For this, Trump gave her a “hell of a job” commendation. The very future of FEMA continues to hang in the balance, and even if funds are ultimately restored, they just might be reserved for red states.

Trump’s gone a little crazier with power than usual, threatening to revoke the citizenship even of normal US citizens because they disagree with him… like long-term critic Rosie O’Donnell. But understanding the root of Trump’s MAGA vectors, even as the missing Epstein client list still haunts him, is the fundamental premise of a single head of state, one who sets all the rules and is empowered to crush those who oppose him. It’s an old theme, and falls under that term, “Führerprinzip.”

“While he was writing Mein Kampf within the walls of Landsberg prison in 1924, Adolf Hitler argued that Germany’s salvation required a single, infallible leader — one whose will would override parliamentary squabbling, legal constraints and institutional checks. This governing idea, known as the Führerprinzip, became the spine of Nazi rule: first consolidating control over the party, then over the state.

“A century later, the Führerprinzip is no longer lurking in the shadows. In Donald Trump’s second term, echoes of the doctrine are surfacing in policy, purges and propaganda, transforming American governance from a constitutional system into a vehicle for personal power.

“Americans got an early glimpse of Trump’s authoritarian impulses in his hit reality TV show The Apprentice. His cosplay boardroom rulings were final, often abrupt and rarely questioned — mirroring a top-down leadership style that emphasized dominance over deliberation. At the time, Trump’s business empire was riddled with failures, yet his onscreen persona cast him as the ultimate arbiter of success and singular greatness. His trademark edict, ‘You’re fired,’ thrilled viewers but also showcased his comfort with public humiliation. Long before executive orders and loyalty purges, the Führerprinzip was playing out on prime-time television, with 24 million Americans watching.” Terrence Petty, writing for the July 12th The Foreward.

Trump’s made no secret of his admiration for his plainclothes personal police force, ICE, and their warrantless arrests of even the most ordinary undocumented workers. Trump has authorized them to go all out against protestors. To those far removed from businesses and farms that rely on undocumented labor, where there aren’t hordes of ID-less ICE cops busting darker-skinned people, the current bust-and-deport syndrome is just what the doctor ordered. But when it happens to their community, their neighbors, they just do not believe it is real. Well, folks, it is, and if you disagree with Trump, even if you are many generations deep in American citizenship, you just might be next.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I just do not believe the clown car with malice in their hearts and violence in their enforcers that consider the United States Constitution an inconvenience that is “dead, dead, dead,” a 2013 quote from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Great Big Devil is Often in the Small Details

 

The Great Big Devil is Often in Small Details

Details so small you could compare them to a fleet of aircraft carriers on a small lake. They’re only small details to the members of Congress who did not read them, are woefully unprepared to read financial legislation in the context of global macroeconomics or are so terrified of Donald “me and only me” Trump that they cannot do their jobs.

For example, let’s note the global marketplace for debt is not infinite. When demand for loans rises, lenders smile. Under the most basic law of supply and demand – like when the largest economy in the world needs to finance trillions and trillions of dollars of new deficit debt, that limited supply of lending capital tends to raise its interest rates… across the board. Add a growing perception of higher risk from a nation perceived to be increasingly unstable, and that interest rate rises further. The problem for folks borrowing to buy a car or take on a mortgage, or using credit cards, the overriding increase in interest rates, caused by their own government’s profligate ways, also slams them the teeth. The big US pig at the finite debt trough is sucking all that money from the potential of other borrowers, like US consumers.

Picture this other scenario: you punish (with big government fines) retailers who are selling discounted products, on sale or simply priced low, with the government’s claiming that only full-price sales are fair. Pretty stupid, huh? But that’s the frailty of the argument maintaining that anyone causing a balance of trade deficit in US deals… they sold too cheap… is abusing and “making suckers of American consumers.” We got the cheaper goods! So as Donald Trump tries to use tariffs (ok, unlikely as TACO Trump does not have the stomach for standing firm on tariffs) to address trade imbalance, effectively punishing those who gave Americans a good deal by slamming them with higher tariffs. And while Donald Trump admits that tariffs are taxes, he mistakes these as taxes paid by seller nations, missing the point that they really are sales taxes on US importers and consumers. Seller nations do not pay tariffs!!!! Ever!!!

In the world of tariffs, there is now zero question that Trump’s TACO tariffs are NOT remotely related to any “emergency.” His direction to his Commerce and Treasury Secretaries to send cut-and-paste “new tariff rate” letters to dozens and dozens of nations is one unsubtle proof of this reality. And if there is no emergency, Trump’s taking the initiative by setting tariffs is an unlawful usurpation of the Constitution’s according only to Congress with that right.

However if you want irrefutable proof of “whim vs emergency,” look at this effort (regardless of the ultimate result): in early July when one particular democracy had legitimately charged and wass trying a former president for attempting a coup d’etat, circumventing election results he clearly lost, a nation with which the US actually has a trade surplus (a major net importer of us goods)… Trump has threatened unless that ex-president were released and all charges dropped with prejudice… the United States wrote that it will up its tariff to 50%! Which we will pay! That ex-President has been called the “Trump of the Tropics,” a man with Trump-like autocratic proclivities from a nation that produces and is the major exporter of coffee (we only grow a tiny amount in the US) and cocoa which does not compete with us. The Trump-bro is Jair Bolsonaro; and the country is Brazil.

Trump is acting out his fantasy that he expressly stated back on April 28th when he told The Atlantic: “The first time [first term], I had two things to do ‒ run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world.” Effectively, between Project 2025 and DOGE, Trump’s utter failure to understand government and macroeconomics is destroying the country, perhaps irretrievably.

I now turn to an excerpt from the New York Times (July 8th) from this opinion piece by former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers (under Clinton) on the hard knocks and fiscal impact of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” cutting taxes for the rich and deeply cutting survival-level benefits for the poor: “I am plenty negative about this president and this moment. Even I was unpleasantly surprised by what I learned.

“This round of budget cuts in Medicaid far exceeds any other cut the United States has made in its social safety net. The approximately $1 trillion reduction, over 10 years, represents about 0.3 percent of gross domestic product. Previously, the most draconian cuts came with President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax law. But they were far smaller — $12 billion over 10 years and 0.03 percent of G.D.P. The Trump law will remove more than 11 million people from the rolls, compared with about three million under the Reagan cuts. Other noteworthy reductions to the social safety net, such as the Clinton-era welfare reform, were even smaller.

“Because Medicaid is a state-level program and varies widely across the country, economists can evaluate the impact of alternative policies. A number of studies suggest that removing one million people from the rolls for one year could result in about 1,000 additional deaths. It follows that removing more than 11 million people for a decade would probably result in more than 100,000 deaths. Because this figure fails to take account of the degradation of service to those who remain eligible — fewer rides to the hospital, less social support — it could well be an underestimate.

“The administration claims its policies, such as adding work requirements for Medicaid eligibility, bear only on the able-bodied. I have supported the general idea of work requirements for cash welfare based on a common-sense idea of fairness. But a careful evaluation of an experiment in Arkansas confirms what common sense also suggests — imposing work requirements on a population in need of health insurance does not increase work and does inhibit necessary care.

“The cruelty of these cuts is matched only by their stupidity. Medicaid beneficiaries will lose, but so will the rest of us. The cost of care that is no longer reimbursed by Medicaid will instead be borne by hospitals and passed onto paying patients, only at higher levels, because delayed treatment is more expensive. When rural hospitals close, everyone nearby loses. Hospitals like the one where my daughters practice can no longer accept emergencies by air because those beds are occupied by patients with chronic diseases and no place to go.” We are only one-eighth into Trump’s second term, and to use a quote from Star Trek engineer, Scottie, “I’m givin’ her all she’s got, but I don’t know how long she can last.” The nation is unraveling, our enemies are delighted, and our allies are aghast.

I’m Peter Dekom, and reality does not conform to the wishes of idealogues believing in misguided “principles” and conspiracy theories; as I often say, “it is what it is, whether you like it or not.”

Is Socialism Still a Bad Word… or Inevitable?

Is Socialism Still a Bad Word… or Inevitable?

“[Socialism is a] social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members.” 

Britannica

“A social program is a set of coordinated actions that aim to improve the quality of life of a specific group of people. In general, these are programs that seek to meet the basic needs of the population, such as education, health, employment and social welfare. Social programs may be directed at the entire population or at specific groups, such as children, the elderly, women, etc. In some cases, social programs are aimed at assisting victims of certain situations, such as natural disasters or armed conflicts.” 

UniProyecta

Literacy has been a long-standing problem as our public schools continue to fall in comparison to those in other developed nations. You can thus assume that political leaders misuse terms because they truly do not understand what they mean, or, more likely, know that there are enough voters out there willing to confuse meaning to the advantage of the politician. For older voters, living through the “red scare” of the 1950s, the “duck and cover” 1960s facing rising of communism, and the “domino theory” of the 1970s as the Cold War sent a shiver of “they’re coming for us.” But for Millennials, Gen Z and the rising Alpha Generation, all under age 40 who already make up over half of the US population, the Berlin Wall and the fall of European communism happened “before our time.” “Communism” and “socialism” morphed from existential threats to mere words.

House representative AOC, NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and US Senator Bernie Sanders are major American political leaders of all ages who have openly embraced socialist policies that would have sent FBI agents, with handcuffs dangling, to their doors had they expressed these political beliefs back in the 1950s. Over 40 voters, particularly Boomer and older, are more likely to respond negatively to this message… and the words “creeping socialism” – now embedded in Republican doctrine as part of their new political gospel – are almost certain to elicit a strong negative reaction. “Communist,” “socialist,” “the radical left” are the most vicious words most Republicans can hurl at their Democratic opponents. And hurl they do, incessantly. But to younger voters, these are just words expressing political preferences.

Ever since FDR’s “New Deal” legislation of the 1930s, which gave rise to Social Security, Republicans have dreamed of a complete and total rejection of all such New Deal legislation, from these benefits to government regulatory agencies. And they call all the stuff they hate “creeping socialism,” forcing their constituents to conflate “socialism” with “social programs,” even as these older Americans benefit the most from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. I remember one angry Boomer quoted as saying, “Keep government out of my Social Security.”

But if you read the definitions above, the differences between “socialism” and “social programs” appear to be even wider than the differences between “rural” and “urban.” Some of the Trump 1.0 Education Secretary Betsy DeVol school of ignorance even view public education, which has been with us for hundreds of years, as socialism that needs to be cut from the body politic like a malignant tumor.

But artificial intelligence is coming for our jobs. Writing for the June 18th FastCompany.com, Michael Grothaus was stunned when an “AI first” memo from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy asked this question: “Who is going to shop at Amazon once AI takes all our jobs?” “AI might be a good worker—and great for a company’s bottom line—but it’s the worst customer a company could ask for… So if AI can’t buy Amazon’s stuff, and human workers are now unemployable because AI took their jobs, who shops at Amazon, then?... That’s something that none of the CEOs—who seem so determined to be seen as AI thought leaders every time they rattle off one of these AI love letters—ever address in these memos.

“If there’s one thing that humans can take heart in—at least for now—it’s that some companies that have already announced their plans to go all in on AI at the expense of their employees’ livelihoods have faced public backlash for it. But I think that’s a ‘problem’ companies may solve as AI advances… As for what happens to these companies’ bottom lines once consumers can no longer afford to buy their products because AI has taken their jobs? Well, I’m still waiting to hear CEOs offer a solution to that problem.” When you recognize that only big corporations and rich people own all those AI driven machines and software, the problem gets bigger.

It does seem as if the future holds some uncomfortable combination of capitalism and socialism that will be forced into existence, the battle lines weakening as the younger generation take over. But as we can see right now, to generate tax cuts for the rich, Republicans want to do away even with our most basic social programs… not by cutting the benefits but by redesigning the programs and how they are funded to watch them self-destruct. Social Security was created in a time when there were over 40 active workers for each retiree that was paid out such government retirement benefits. The payroll tax scheme was an easy funding plan. Today, with three active workers for every such retiree, that payroll tax structure no longer works… but keeping that funding plan in place ensures that Social Security, Medicare, etc. will unravel and end on their own.

Fatima Hussein, writing for the June 19th Associated Press, points out this archaic funding mechanism is currently unraveling: “The go-broke dates for Medicare and Social Security trust funds have moved up as rising healthcare costs and new legislation affecting Social Security benefits have contributed to earlier projected depletion dates, according to an annual report released Wednesday [6/18].

“The go-broke date — or the date when the programs will no longer have enough funds to pay full benefits — was pushed up to 2033 for Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, according to the new report from the programs’ trustees. Last year’s report put the go-broke date at 2036.

“Meanwhile, Social Security’s trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, instead of last year’s estimate of 2035. After that point, Social Security would only be able to pay 81% of benefits.

“The trustees say the latest findings show the urgency of needed changes to the programs, which have faced dire financial projections for decades. But making changes to the programs has long been politically unpopular, and lawmakers have repeatedly kicked Social Security and Medicare’s troubling math to the next generation.” We no longer fly in biplanes or use dial-up wired landlines. Simple technology is not the only area that needs updating as we approach the century mark for some of these programs.

I’m Peter Dekom, and even these seemingly insoluble problems are clear and easy fixes when you address the obvious… even if rich people do not like the fix.