Can Trump Mediate a Successful End to the War in Ukraine?

 

Can Trump Mediate a Successful End to the War in Ukraine?

Why Should Putin Settle When Trump’s Medling is Already Helping Him?

“But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective…. We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.” 

Newly confirmed Dept of Defense head, Pete Hegseth, in a speech during a trip to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.

I’d like to begin this blog with a simple analysis of the US’ moral and ethical failures, all of which play into Putin’s view of what’s possible. The notion that world order requires respect of other nations’ territorial integrity, a United Nations principle that we have espoused repeatedly, goes by the wayside as the United States tells the world: 1. It intends to own Gaza after all of its Palestinian residents are displaced, one way or the other. 2. If Panama does not cut a favorable deal (better than that accorded to every other nation) for the passage of US ships though the canal, we just may have to use military force to take it back. 3. Inasmuch as we see Greenland (a Danish autonomous territory) as essential to our national security, if NATO ally Denmark with not sell it to us (both Greenland residents and Danish citizens uniformly oppose such a sale), we may be forced to use military force to seize that land.

As China pretty makes its own arguments why it would be justified in using military force to annex the currently independent Republic of China (“Taiwan”) and as Russia is already engaged in a full-on war to make an angry and fiercely resistant Ukraine just one more part of Russia (despite having entered into a treaty with Ukraine to respect its sovereignty), we are hardly in a position to mediate and settle the raging conflict between Moscow and Kyiv or act as a trustworthy Taiwanese ally if and when China invades. We have other moral issues that plague our policies.

For example, our moral high ground on immigration sweeps is hardly reflective of evangelical concepts of tolerance and kindness (the essential thrust of the New Testament), and the Catholic Church is even more obviously opposed to current Trump “detain and deport” policies. As a purportedly practicing Roman Catholic, VP JD Vance has attempted to justify such policies under a Catholic notion of applying “Christian love” with intensity based on pragmatic proximity (“ordo amoris,” love those within your immediate circle more with decreasing obligations to those farther away). “Pope Francis appears to have rebuked Vice President JD Vance over his interpretation of Catholic theology as the pontiff condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown… In a remarkable step, the leader of the Catholic Church addressed the controversial program in a letter Tuesday [2/11] to U.S. bishops, warning that mass deportations ‘will end badly’ if based on force.” Huffington Post, February 11th.

So bottom line, who are we to mediate disputes when our own practices generally align with predatory aggressors, a “might makes right” approach, when trying to contain that form of aggression? But if these elements do not disqualify our holding our selves out as “neutral” arbiters, you also have to ask yourself why Putin would need to compromise given our reality… and what’s in it for Putin anyway.

First, note that Putin has stamped out opposition to his war within Ukraine, both by torture and imprisonment for any dissenters and by his total control of all forms of media in Russia. His economy may be in shambles, but Russians are used to suffering for state mandates. While territorial gains are still leaning, however slowly, towards Russia, Putin sees clear signs that Trump is more likely to erode Ukraine further. Emma Burrows, writing for the February 11th Associated Press, notes: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Putin wants to deal directly with Trump, cutting out Kyiv. That runs counter to the Biden administration’s position that echoed Zelensky’s call of ‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.’… He suggested any such peace deal would send the dangerous signal to authoritarian leaders in China, North Korea and Iran that adventurism pays.

“Putin appears to expect Trump to undermine European resolve on Ukraine. Likening Europe’s leaders to Trump’s lapdogs, he said Sunday [2/9] they will soon be ‘sitting obediently at their master’s feet and sweetly wagging their tails’ as the U.S. president quickly brings order with his ‘character and persistence.’… Trump boasts of his deal-making prowess but Putin will not easily surrender what he considers Russia’s ancestral lands in Ukraine or squander a chance to punish the West and undermine its alliances and security by forcing Kyiv into a policy of neutrality.

“Trump may want a legacy as a peacemaker, but ‘history won’t look kindly on him if he’s the man who gives this all away,’ said Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the U.S. from 2016-19. Former North Atlantic Treaty Organization spokesperson Oana Lungescu said a deal favoring Moscow would send a message of ‘American weakness.’” European nations are already supplying sophisticated jet aircraft (French and US) from their reserves and are preparing for go-it-alone continue support for Kyiv. They genuinely believe that former Soviet countries (e.g., the Baltic nations, members of NATO) and even NATO members once part of the Soviet bloc (like Poland), would be at risk from future Russian incursions, such that the protecting Ukraine is an existential necessity for Europe.

Burrows continues: “Putin hopes Trump will ‘get bored’ or distracted with another issue, said Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat in Geneva who quit his post after the invasion… Russian experts point to Trump’s first term when they said Putin realized such meetings achieved little… One was a public relations victory for Moscow in Helsinki where Trump sided with Putin instead of his own intelligence agencies on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Another was in Singapore in 2019 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when he failed to reach a deal to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear program.” How far will Trump go if he simply faces another peace-making failure? In answer to the title question, the simple answer is “no.” Putin is a masterful negotiator against the likes of Trump. Flattery and simply “declaring victory” in a losing deal are Trump trademarks.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as Trump struggles to impose a unitary American autocracy in the US based on ultra-loyalty from every American, can he remotely extend that powerlessness to his overseas peacemaking… and can he do anything without China-entrepreneur Elon Musk’s approval?

What’s An Autocracy without a Cult Following?

 

What’s An Autocracy without a Cult Following?

There are bills pending in Congress to impeach any federal judge who has issued a ruling against a Trump executive order. In defiance of Trump’s most basic campaign pledge to preserve Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, the House passed that Big Beautiful Budget Bill Trump requested, giving the wealthiest Americans very large reductions in their federal taxes, extending and amplifying the soon-to-expire federal corporate tax cut of 2017… while mandating cuts to the above social programs (ostensibly solely to cut “waste and corruption” but in fact to decimate these programs to the bone) of at least $800 billion. And still raise the debt ceiling by $2 trillion.

Co-President Musk suggested a bribe… er one-time stimulus payment… of $5 thousand per taxpayer, representing about 1/70 of the average dollar cut to the rich. You can buy gilded Trump sneakers, Trump NFTs, Trump enhanced Bibles, Trump articles of clothing and even to step into Trump’s cryptocurrency world. In the House, when one Democratic congressman labeled Trump as our “grifter in chief,” there was a move to have him forcibly removed. At GOP town halls across the land, constituents zealously challenged why Elon Musk had so much power, how the President’s policies were disrupting lives in red states and demanding that GOP members of Congress should “Do your job” and not outsource their vote to “whatever Trump wants.”

Writing for the February 26th Wall Street Journal, Katy Stech Ferek and Xavier Martinez write: “Congress didn’t make George Washington’s birthday a federal holiday until 80 years after his death. The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated nearly three score after the Gettysburg Address. Ronald Reagan had been out of office for almost a decade when Congress named D.C.’s National Airport for him… President Trump’s most ardent supporters don’t plan to wait for the commemorations to start.

“A Florida GOP lawmaker wants Trump’s face chiseled into Mount Rushmore. A New York Republican wants to make his birthday—June 14, which also falls on Flag Day—a new federal holiday. Another is proposing to rename one of Washington’s other main travel hubs Donald J. Trump International Airport… Lawmakers of both parties often propose ‘messaging bills’ that have little chance of becoming law to score political points with constituents. But congressional Republicans’ message this session is rare for the volume and limited focus of one category of proposals: unabashed adulation for the 47th president and his agenda, even if some of the bills are more performative than realistic… ‘It’s an opportunity for us to show the country that Congress supports the president,’ said Rep. Andy Ogles (R., Tenn.).”

His adherents and cronies are echoing V-P JD Vance’s suggestion that the President should not accept court orders vitiating or limiting the scope of his executive orders, and there are several injunctions the administration has simply ignored, stepping up trial and appellate courts to consider contempt orders (with fines and criminal sanctions) against Trump officials who openly defy legitimate court orders. The absolute deadline set by a court to require the US to honor its USAID contractual obligations came and went without compliance. All this as Trump’s approval levels plummet under every major recent poll on point.

I have to wonder why an insensitive tech entrepreneur, who has wreaked havoc in every company he has run – inviting a flood of litigation and court-imposed sanctions – is simply assumed to be competent to slice and dice the entire operational system in the US. It seems impossible to purge the notion that government is not run to make a profit… anywhere; it is supposed to be a service and protector to its people. If there is anyone who has proven thorough incompetence to step into a senior position overseeing American governance, I submit that would have to be Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, many of our traditional allies are declaring the United States as either a new enemy or at least no longer a dependable ally. Old conspiracy theories – suggesting Putin has videos of Donald Trump, while visiting Russia in the 1980s and beyond, in seriously compromising sexual situations with planted prostitutes – are resurfacing. More than one foreign legislator, trying to explain Trump’s 180-degree flip from supporting Ukraine to favoring Russia, has suggested Putin went so far as to enlist Trump as a Russian operative. A real “Manchurian Candidate”? Proof? We haven’t seen that… yet. But Putin learned his craft as an operative in the dreaded Soviet-era KGB.

The likely successor German Chancellor, following the February 23rd election, sent this message to the world: “Friedrich Merz did not even wait for the final results in Germany's election before delivering what could well be a defining verdict on U.S. President Donald Trump, consigning Europe's 80-year alliance with the United States to the past.

“The Trump administration does not care about Europe and is aligning with Russia, said Merz, who is on course to become Germany's new leader. The continent, he warned, must urgently strengthen its defenses and potentially even find a replacement for NATO — within months… Merz's comments mark a historic watershed: They reveal how deeply Trump has shaken the political foundations of Europe, which has depended on American security guarantees since 1945.” Politico, February 23rd.

In Canada, a move to boycott American products joined by boos from the fans at the US-Canadian finals (Canada won) at the recent Four Nations Tournament when the US anthem was played, suggested a rising anti-American sentiment, as pointed out in this excerpt from the February 22nd Newsweek: “According to the Leger poll conducted between February 14 and 17, 27 percent of Canadians now consider the U.S. an enemy, while 30 percent still see it as an ally. Another 27 percent view it as neutral. The poll surveyed 1,500 Canadians and 1,000 Americans. It was not assigned a margin of error as it was conducted online… Only 1 percent of Americans told Leger they consider Canada an enemy country, while 56 percent said they view Canada as an ally.

“The poll also shows that a strong majority of Canadians hold an unfavorable view of Donald Trump, with 74 percent expressing disapproval, while only 13 percent view him favorably. Among Conservative supporters, that number rises to 27 percent, compared to just 5 percent of Liberals and 7 percent of NDP voters. Conservatives were also more likely to see the U.S. as an ally (48 percent), whereas only about 20 percent of Liberals and New Democrats agreed. Meanwhile, 37 percent of Liberals, 34 percent of NDP supporters and 47 percent of Bloc Québécois voters consider the U.S. an enemy state.”

Who cares? As Trumpers might express, but for American businesses, these numbers could be deadly for the export market. Traditional American allies, feeling threatened by this America First toxicity, are forming new workaround alliances with those nations feeling similarly betrayed… and are beginning to look to China as a replacement trading partner. Meanwhile, the US stock markets are down, retailers are projecting consumers pulling back on purchases and the overall American economic picture now evokes trepidation where optimism once glimmered. Only the mega-rich seem to have benefitted from this recent spate of executive orders.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while these trends portend a dramatic unraveling of the entire Republican Party, the underlying unraveling of the entire nation may not be as easy to reverse.

If We Are Living in a Post-Constitutional Era, Are the Guardrails Gone?

  

Trump Proudly Holding up

      an Executive Order

Now that Donald Trump has finally embraced what he denied during his campaign – that the hundreds of pages of Project 2025 are in fact the guiding light in the restructuring of our government – many of the contributors to that absurd, rightwing document, openly discuss how pragmatism, efficiency and strict adherence to MAGA doctrine (as interpreted by Ayatollah DJ Trump), literally the “result” of the 2024 election “mandate” (Trump won 1.5% of the vote), offer a modern replacement for our archaic Constitution. The three separate but equal branches of government – legislative, judicial and executive – are unable to adapt to the vagary and changes of the modern world, they claim.

The Supreme Court has literally tied its own hands behind its judicial back by granting the president virtually total immunity for his/her actions with a colorable claim to “official acts.” There is no basis for that decision in the Constitution, but that ruling falls under the “give them and inch, and they will take a mile” axiom… and inspired Trump, the entire MAGA movement and the framers of Project 2025 as open field to remake America as they wish. The MAGA-majority in both houses of Congress, quiver in fear at the power of Trump should they even question his “mandate”… the tsunami of Trump’s executive orders, his outsourcing of the “Power of the Purse” (a constitutional power delegated solely to the House, but to be voted on by the Senate) to an unelected mega-billionaire and his unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Thus, with an ultra-conservative Supreme Court majority, that literally handcuffed itself, and a Congress unwilling to act as the legislative body it was designed to be, Co-Presidents Trump and Musk have every reason to pursue governance by decree. Sure there have been some stumbling blocks along the way – a couple of federal trial courts issuing restraining orders or injunctions against a litany of overreaching executive orders (from citizen birthrights to wholesale efforts to trim the federal payroll and shut down entire federal agencies, to name a few) – but most of the retrenchment of the Trump/Musk administration resulted from the reactions of cadres of MAGA followers, international reactions and simple failures to achieve the desired result.

Tariffs on Mexico and Canada, delayed and presented by Trump as a negotiating strategy, did not happen. Even the automobile manufacturing sector noted that multiple border crossings of essential parts among and between the US and these countries, in virtually every car “made in the USA,” would kill sales, throw thousands of American out of work. Hamstrung between younger progressives and older, geriatric “moderates” in redefining what the Democratic Party should be, the Dems have only been able to muster popular rallies against obvious overreaching by the MAGA-controlled branches of government.

Trump remains wildly popular with his base, unconcerned about constitutional limits. While the Trump/Musk administration has received at best mixed reaction from our traditional allies, his popularity in Russia is exploding, beginning to eclipse the sacred image of Vladimir Putin. “On January 27, Repost, an independent Russian digital newspaper, published an article headlined ‘The Kremlin is concerned about the popularity of Trump and his ideas among Russians.’” Newsweek, February 6th. Mainstream EU nations evidence more concerns over this apparent American transition from democracy to autocracy. Want a staggering inciteful metric in the two largest EU countries: Tesla sales in Germany have plunged by 59%, in France by 63%.

As the MAGA House majority prepares its “whatever Donald Trump wants” proposed going forward budget, in anticipation of the expiration of the stopgap debt ceiling rise on March 14th, expect a Congressional bloodbath, with the House totally focused on cutting social programs and what is viewed as unnecessary government (e.g., paring 10,000 person USAID to about 300 and moving its operations as a small offshoot of the Department of State, culling the civil service payroll regardless of the consequences, shutting down the Department of Education and seriously defunding the Environmental Protection Agency and maybe even FEMA).

Eliminating waste and increasing government efficiency, as they promise – and there is always room for cutting the unnecessary – or simply making room for Trump’s clear commitment to his billionaire oligarch cronies of what would be the largest cuts to the rich (who get over 95% of the benefits of such tax cuts) in recent memory. Otherwise, that tax cut would, by most credible estimates, add $5 trillion to our aggregate federal deficit. But even as MAGA-House is in slash and burn mode, immigration Czar Tom Holman needs money, lots and lots of money (estimates range from $88B - $350B a year) to arrest, detain and deport the mass of undocumented residents in the United States), as Holman has clearly expanded his targeted efforts.

Trump is counting on both the snail’s pace of litigation challenging his decrees, expecting conflicting rulings at the appellate level and a continuation of the rightwing expansionist rulings from his reconfigured Supreme Court. And yes, America, if the Trump changes are too severe in the eyes of even die hard Trumpers, he can always blame and then dump Musk and company!

But as Trump’s appointments all-too-frequently embrace our new “post-constitutional” era, there is one “constitutional crisis” threshold that Trump/Musk have not crossed yet: ignoring or defying the definitive order of the federal courts. Looming large among issues is the very existence of DOGE, its access to payables and personal information as it penetrates the Department of the Treasury and other agencies, and its seeming unfettered leadership of perhaps the most conflicted infamous rule-breaking CEO, Elon Musk. Stand back and standby.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while many voters shudder at the rising threat of a major constitutional crisis, one that could bring the nation to its knees, devoted MAGA-Trumpers relish the idea.

"If I Had Been President, the Russian-Ukraine War Would Never Have Happened"

   

“If I Had Been President, the Russian-Ukraine War Would Never Have Happened”

“America can no longer be trusted to side with its democratic allies against authoritarian aggression, a realization that is slowly dawning on leaders around the world and which will have far-reaching implications in the years to come.” 

 David Faris, Associate Professor, Roosevelt University, in the February 20th Newsweek

If you repeat it enough, require your subordinates to repeat it enough, and if there is absolutely no way to prove or disprove that statement, well this is how autocrats take credit for something that didn’t happen and rewrite history to glorify themselves. Kind of like Kim Jong-Un’s fame in North Korea as a golfer who was “well-known” for an unusual number of holes-in-one that even the highest ranked professional golfers could never claim. But I have to admit that until Donald Trump began assessing blame, taking credit for “solutions,” rewriting history while predicting the future of his success, even looking at the other great autocrats of the 20th and 21st centuries, Trump has won my revisionist “first place.” With false indignation, Donald Trump’s historical fake news now has United States glorifying its biggest enemy post WW2 – Russia.

Trump’s efforts have been massive, sufficient to cause the United States to switch sides (from backing Ukraine/Europe to now supporting Russia). In the process, Trump has abandoned America’s traditional European allies, cutting both Europe out of the “peace efforts.” Trump is in direct discussions with Putin and his diplomatic functionaries. Unlike Europe in WW2, which was directly attacked, whose cities were bombed (many into oblivion), with vast segments of their populations (particularly Jews and folks considered to be unacceptable outsiders) marched into forced-labor death camps and whose economies were decimated, the American industrial machine – based on massive power generation over-capacity from FDR’s New Deal make-work projects – created wartime values that elevated us into being the most powerful nation on earth… the United States was itself spared from most of the WW2 damage.

Add the rebuilding contributions of the Marshall Plan, our post-WW2 era combined a grateful Europe, and a ground-up rebuild of much on non-communist Asia, to our GI Bill that educated hordes of Americans into the talent-driven top of the roost, created a technology vector that continues to this very day; we also provided home ownership to millions. The American dream left a legacy of both geographical and upward mobility, where 90% of the next generation would earn more than their parents. Today, even assuming a child finds his or her way into a school district of even a modicum of quality, the 90% statistic fades into 50-50, where home ownership is rapidly moving into history books.

As our nation faces billionaires attempting to pile their bloodlust for a massive tax cut on the backs of everyone else, particularly that segment of our social strata that often is voiceless and powerless by reason of their poverty and social condition, we are running a parallel intercept that chastises our most reliable allies. We ignore that it was Europe that suffered the most from Nazi (white Christian nationalism), a continent witnessing yet another dictator (Putin) loom over them. Russia has invaded a European neighbor, Ukraine, still smarting from remaining open scars from Russia’s unending assault… from force-marching Ukrainian Jews into trains and then gas chambers, to starving 4 million Ukrainians to death in Stalin’s post WW2 with his failed agricultural demands, to invading and annexing Crimea (2014) and invading and decimating the rest of Ukraine in 2022. As the Wall Street Journal (February 21st) puts it: “The war Russia is waging against Ukraine isn’t just about territorial gains or global power projection. For Ukrainians, the generational trauma of suffering under Russian and Soviet rule motivates them to keep fighting.” Some of Trump’s rightwing favorites, like the February 21st NY Post cover above, reflect rightwing resentment of Trump’s leaning into Putin. Could the rest of Europe be next?

As Europe suffered horrible Nazi-inflicted losses during WW2, they passed laws making resurrecting Nazi symbols and racism illegal… yet the elections in Germany show that the call of simple solutions – them vs us blame after rewriting history into “correct thinking” – has risen again. It’s a common theme in a continent that failed to stop Hitler, a man who was the master of that blame, and where the United States (in the person of US Vice-President JD Vance) recently chastised Europe for attempting to repress a resurgent neo-Nazi AfD political party, thus violating our “common value” of “free speech.” As Trump demands half of the value of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals for the military aid we have provided, we should know that Europe (which actually has contributed more) would get nothing. Trump also purposely excluded Europe a seat at the “peace talks” with Russia.

“US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky have entered a war of words after the US leader initiated talks with Russia about ending the conflict, but did not include Ukraine… After Zelensky said Trump was in a ‘disinformation space’, Trump called Zelensky a ‘dictator’ - a remark condemned by Kyiv's allies.” BBC.com, February 20th. Trump may have backed off his accusation that Ukraine started the war with Russia, but his strident tones and clear worship of Putin the war criminal has resulting strong negative polling for Trump is his “peace-talk-washing” of Putin and Russia… at the expense of our allies… and our credibility.

“Zelensky also said he would like Trump’s team ‘to be more truthful’ as he offered his first response to a series of claims that Trump made a day earlier, including falsely suggesting that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which [entered] its fourth year….The comments were a staggering back-and-forth between leaders of two countries that have been staunch allies in recent years under Trump’s predecessor. While former President Biden was in the White House, the U.S. provided crucial military equipment to Kyiv to fend off the invasion and used its political weight to defend Ukraine and isolate Russia on the world stage...

“The Trump administration has started charting a new course for the U.S., reaching out to Russia and pushing for a peace deal. Senior officials from both countries held talks Tuesday to discuss improving ties, negotiating an end to the war and potentially preparing a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after years of frosty relations.” Hanna Arhirova and Justin Spike, writing for the February 20th Associated Press. In times of instability, the power of an unchecked strongman, becomes simple “us vs them” solution, especially when he is backed by a large political party. The question for Ukraine and Europe remains how much they can resist a strongman from the United States, if they have the resolve to do so, and whether that means they need to prepare for a direct military conflict with the United States.

I’m Peter Dekom, and even if Trump manages to “broker” a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, is that reality likely to produce a better and more stabilized world for Europe and the United States… or just another step of the kind of appeasement the was a prelude to WW2?

The King Speaketh: Deport Them All, Even If Legal

 

The King Speaketh: Deport Them All, Even If Legal

White House Post Above: A JOKE or a Joke?

One of the most fundamental starting points for rising autocrats is to rewrite history, censor or punish efforts to contradict this “correct thinking” revisionism, and build policies and platforms that the erase truth where it contradicts this revisionist past. Woke-ism. Slaves benefited from slavery. Ukraine started the war against Russia. A leader who tries to save America cannot break any laws. LGBTQ+ people are destroying America. Whites are the real class of targeted discrimination. There is no such thing as a “loyal” opposition. Undocumented immigrants are mostly murderers, rapists and drug smugglers, sapping governmental benefits, occupying housing citizens need and taking vital jobs away from legitimate American workers. The President has the power to ignore congressional funding mandates. Elon Musk does not run DOGE. All supported by executive orders and falsehoods paraded as factual.

Until recently, Trump’s approval polling has been strong and rising. But the underlying assumptions behind Trump’s effusions are bringing the vultures home to roost. Destroying governmental agencies and programs with absolutely no idea how to replace the vital and necessary aspects of “government.” Watching once die-hard red state voters seek exemptions – from government shutdowns, funding cuts and buyout offers to essential federal workers – brings a “I told you so” smugness to Democrats who lost the November election, albeit by a slim margin… by 1. not listening to disillusioned constituents and 2. attempting to reach younger voters through media they no long watch or listen to.

Rich folks cheered the layoff of 6,700 IRS employees, knowing that such destaffing makes complex audits that generate the most delinquent tax revenues almost impossible. But aside from this oligarchical class and zealous MAGA followers including passionate white Christian nationalists, lots of Trump voters are stunned at how rapidly their world has changed for the worse. Foreign allies, particularly Europe, are beginning to understand that they can never again trust commitments made by the US government. And we are learning how one of our worst enemies, in a rather dramatic flip-flop, is our “friend,” and that the nation struggling for freedom is now our foe. What would have happened in WW2 if FDR suddenly changed sides to support Hitler?

But hitting Americans in their wallets has an immediate reality that comes with “I didn’t really think he meant that” expressions of shock and surprise. To make that point, you do not have to look beyond those undocumented workers who have become the bastion of our workforce (5% of the total US labor force). Not just in taking jobs Americans won’t take at any wage – from digging ditches, stoop labor farmworkers and workers in slaughterhouses to backroom work in hospitality/restaurants – but in leaving even more sophisticated work simply undone. We don’t have to guess what happens. Recent efforts at the state level that illustrate the reality Trump supporters face are well documented, including in a February 18th article written by university academics Francisco Pedraza, Jason Morín and Loren Collingwood, published in the February 18th The Conversation:

“Past state-level immigration enforcement policies offer an idea of what could happen at the national level if Trump were to carry out widespread deportations… For example, a 2011 Alabama law called HB-56 directed local police officers to investigate the immigration status of drivers stopped for speeding. It also prohibited landlords from renting properties to immigrants who do not have legal authorization to work or live in the country. That law and its resulting effects prompted some Alabama-based immigrant workers to leave the state following workplace raids…Their departure wound up costing the state an estimated $2.3 billion to $10.8 billion loss in Alabama’s annual gross domestic product due to the loss of workers and economic output.” Multiply this across the entire nation, and the impact is staggering. Here are some additional excerpts from that article:

“One of President Donald Trump’s major promises during the 2024 presidential campaign was to launch mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization… The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has said that, since January 2025, it is detaining and planning to deport 600 to 1,100 immigrants a day. That marks an increase from the average 282 immigration arrests that happened each day in September 2024 under the Biden administration… The current trend would place the Trump administration on track to apprehend 25,000 immigrants in Trump’s first month in office. On an annual basis, this is about 300,000 – far from the ‘millions and millions’ of immigrants Trump promised to deport.

“A lack of funding, immigration officers, immigration detention centers and other resources has reportedly impeded the administration’s deportation work… The Trump administration is seeking US$175 billion from Congress to use for the next four years on immigration enforcement, Axios reported on Feb. 11, 2025… If Trump does make good on his promise of mass deportations, our research shows that removing millions of immigrants would be costly for everyone in the U.S., including American citizens and businesses.”

Restaurants closing. Construction projects shutting down. Crops rotting in the field. Companies filing bankruptcy. And trust me, the homes this deported workforce will leave behind are not what will have any meaningful impact on our housing shortage. Oh, and by the way, most of these workers do pay taxes and contribute to Social Security/Medicare … although they will never be able to collect on those benefits. Over the years, a significant number of these workers also built up their expertise and have become very capable supervisors. More excerpts:

“Part of the challenge of mass deportations for industries like construction, nearly a quarter of whose workers are living without legal authorization, is that their workforce is highly skilled and not easily replaced. Immigrant workers are particularly involved in home construction and specialize in such tasks as ceiling and flooring installation as well as roofing and drywall work… Fewer available workers would mean slower home construction, which in turn would make housing more expensive, further compounding existing problems of housing supply and affordability.”

Just as an aside, do you really believe that the richest man in the world – who cherishes deregulation and huge tax cuts above all else – gives a rat’s behind concern for the tens of millions of “the rest of us” (the majority of working Americans) who will have to pay thousands of dollars more per family for everyday consumables (from housing to medicines to groceries)? Just add the cost of any new tariffs to this mix and the loss of government research support and direct purchases of stuff like “food” for the military, and ask yourself how much better off you will be. Compare your current life facing increasing costs with the massive savings (from deregulation and tax cuts) to the billionaire class that currently runs this country. And remember, DOGE and Trump’s cabinet appointees have the nation by the throat.

I’m Peter Dekom, and ask yourself if Trump’s slim margin of victory (1.5%) “mandate” and resulting implementation effort fall into that “be careful what you wish (or vote) for category of OMG!!!!”

Head in the Sand – Government by Whim & Retribution

 

Musk at CPAC, 2/21, with Chainsaw gift from President Javier Milei of Argentina

Head in the Sand – Government by Whim & Retribution

He Came, He Sawed, He Destroyed

We’re being “invaded,” repeats Donald Trump, as justification using “emergency” executive orders for enlisting the military as an essential tool to help manage Trump’s “detain and deport” immigration policy and using the Department of Justice as his personal army of retribution. This is substantially based on the above 1807 Insurrection Act. His logic, he believes, thus allows him to ignore the provisions of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that limits the powers of the federal government in the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States. All of this follows a rather consistent Trump/MAGA pattern of declaring the existence of a massive problem that “only I can fix” and then employing extreme measures to crush/solve the problem. But repeatedly, there has been a problem: That massive problem requiring a fix did not exist! It was fabricated to create autocratic and justify solutions.

Let’s start with those thousands and thousands of people Trump and friends tell us are crossing our border every day. Apparently however, if you want some serious peaceful alone time, that border area is a good place to start. As the following excerpt from a February 23rd piece written by Texas-based Wall Street Journal reporter, Elizabeth Findell, illustrates: “Border Patrol agents sit in empty parks. Active-duty soldiers drive through fields along the base of a towering black border wall. Military helicopters roam the skies.

“This is the scene lately along the U.S.-Mexico border, where President Trump quickly declared a national emergency upon taking office, rushing thousands of active-duty soldiers here. They arrived to join thousands of Texas National Guard members and state troopers deployed under a state disaster order, plus the thousands of agents permanently working for Border Patrol and other agencies… What are they all doing? ‘A whole lot of nothing,’ one South Texas National Guard soldier said.

“Trump, who campaigned on cracking down on immigration, inherited a border where illegal crossings, after peaking at record levels in late 2023, had been steadily dropping for a year. Before he took office, crossings had returned to the levels of the first Trump administration. Since then, they have fallen even lower, with some days officials making a few hundred arrests across the southern border.” If we are looking for waste in government, why isn’t DOGE all over this?

And why is Donald Trump willing to reverse the US policy of supporting Ukraine, whose million-man army has contained Russian troops, decimated Putin’s tank force and built and deployed over a million drones against Russian advances. Trump and lock-step minions repeat that Ukraine cannot win, cannot ever hope to retrieve lost territory and cannot ever join NATO. What is it that allows Trump to contradict our multiyear policy of miliary support for Kyiv against a brutal tyrannical dictator, clearly sending a horrible message to our traditional allies. Is it Trump’s unnatural bromance with a dictator willing to subject his people to a severely declining currency, the loss (killed or wounded) of approximately 800,000 Russian troops (against Ukraine’s losses pegged at under 50,000), and economic sanctions that have forced Russian to reduce their standard of living?

A September report from the Rand thinktank noted that Russia, largely reliant on oil and gas revenues, pivoted to gold to shore up its economy in the months leading up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Its reliance on gold has since increased. But likewise those gold reserves are fading fast, as noted in this February 11th article from Newsweek: “Russia's gold reserves fell sharply at the end of last year, partly caused by the country's record-high interest rate imposed by the country's central bank to cool the economy [over 20%]… Citing data from Russia's Central Bank, business outlet RBC [RBC Group, or RosBiznesConsulting] said that during 2024, gold reserves had fallen by nearly half (46.4 percent), or over 33 metric tonnes.” All signs of Russian desperation. But since Trump ascended to the presidency for his second term, that hope has turned into devilish certainty that Trump will sell Ukraine down the river. Trump is following Putin’s settlement wish list almost to the letter.

Kyiv is certain that without NATO or an equivalent and enforceable treaty, Russia would ignore any territorial guarantee Moscow might make, as Russia obviously did when Kyiv relinquished its nuclear arsenal to Russia in the "Big Treaty." This 1997 agreement between Ukraine and Russia had fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, and respect for territorial integrity.

So, what’s really going on here? Back in the summer of 2019, as news of a massive effort by Russia to use mis- and disinformation to tilt the US election, conspiracy theorists maintained that the real disruptive efforts were disguised as Russian but really emanated from a server in Ukraine. Remember that “do me a favor” phone call between Donald Trump and newly elected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had just defeated Putin’s choice (hence Trump’s preference) Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent president?

So, lets examine a portion of the official, declassified notes from that July 25, 2019 telephonic exchange. In addition to asking Zelensky to find some dirt on the Bidens, Trump wanted to see that server he was sure existed that would be proof that it was Ukraine and not Russia that was the source of all that “purported” Russian election interference. “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it.” Red emphasis added. There was no such server!

Trump was impeached (but not convicted) based on that call. It would seem that Trump harbored personal animas against Zelensky, his whim. Why else would Trump leak, directly or through his cabinet appointment that Ukraine would have to give up all territory that Russia occupied, and give the United States ownership of half of Kyiv’s mega-billion-dollar rare earth minerals… excluding Europe (which has contributed as much as the US to Ukraine) from participating… and both excluding both Europe and Ukraine from participating in the US effort to end the war?

The other major prong of Trump’s effort to take total control of the government stems from an unspoken and judicially accepted unspoken belief that keeps criminal courts from any real questioning why a prosecutor brought a criminal case in the first place. Little more than “probable cause” is enough to sustain a prosecutor’s wide range of prosecuting or not prosecuting an alleged criminal defendant. This “prosecutorial discretion” results in the exceptionally high rate of plea bargains and conviction rates (well over 90% when a case goes to trial).

Thus, if the Department of Justice, where the President nominates (and the Senate confirms) the chief US Attorney in each major jurisdiction, if those appointments are not the expected “neutral” prosecutors… like the debacle over NYC Eric Adams’ corruption indictment. NY federal prosecutors appointed by Trump resigned rather than sustain a quid pro quo swap – we don’t pursue the bribery allegations if you let Homeland Security have full access to NYC defendants and convicted criminals… and allow the “detain and deport” policy to apply. For the first time in our nation’s history, the once generally accepted “independent judiciary” assumption – not specifically set forth in our Constitution – is being challenged. Trump has clearly stated that the DOJ is his to control, certainly incented by the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity decision. If Trump/Musk are accorded such power, the obviously fading power of the US democracy may just be totally extinguished.

I’m Peter Dekom, and besides a biased Supreme Court that just might not act, we are witnessing a steep plunge in Trump’s approval levels and a steep increase in a rising rejection of both Trump’s policies and his appointment of chainsaw wielding Elon Musk to define our government.

As the US Steps Out, China Happily Steps In

Putting the richest man in the world, a US citizen yearning for a tax cut extension, massive additional tax cuts and slashed-to-the-bone federal regulations, in charge of a strange non-governmental agency (“Department of Government Efficiency”) aimed at cutting federal expenditures, is begging for overreach and profound conflicts of interest. Calling the CEO of DOGE, suggesting he and his minions have authority to access the most secret files of a number of federal agencies, a “special government employee” does not fix the issue. With a “so sue the government” attitude as DOGE locks out federal employees from their own offices, gloms onto detailed personnel files and applies its own modifications to that agency’s own software. Offers to “buy out” federal employees, in a form letter that looks remarkably similar to the buyout format used by Twitter (now X) after Elon Musk bought the entity, really beg the question: who’s in charge? As a minority party in Congress, Dems cannot even muster enough support to subpoena Musk.

But the more Elon Musk and DOGE slice and dice, the happier the MAGA movement becomes – that minority is running the country and joyfully shutting down as much of the federal “deep state” as Trump and his de facto Co-President Elon Musk can. This isolationist band of MAGA sycophants was taken aback at Trump’s statement that the US would take over Gaza when the war was over to preside over the remaking into a resort strip of beach resorts, cleared of its former residents. But nobody seems to see that as even a remote possibility. Otherwise, MAGA faithful smiled at the inconvenience wrongfully discharged federal employees and their union face if they elected to litigate.

But the constitutional and statutory underpinnings that this wave of federal agency takeovers by DOGE (plus a personal Trump desire for retribution) has most of the rest of the country confused or enraged, especially when the resulting firings or suggested firings (e.g., the FBI) are directly related to FBI agents simply working on assigned cases that DJ Trump viewed as “weaponizing the DOJ.”

DOGE was focusing on shutting down US Agency for International Development (which dispenses soft foreign aid to desperate people fighting starvation, war and/or disease), and making sure that USAID employees never return. Add to that the Department of Education plus a serious destaffing of the CIA, even if names of CIA operatives were somehow compromised. The above poster and many like it produced tens of thousands (probably a lot more) of anti-Musk, anti-DOGE protestors in state capitals across the land.

The lawsuits filed and to be filed often track this strategy enunciated by Michael Hiltzik in the February 6th Los Angeles Times: “Here’s a phrase — three words, only eight syllables in all — that’s going to gain paramount importance in the conduct of government policy by Donald Trump over the next few years… The phrase is ‘arbitrary and capricious.’ It’s a guidepost for federal judges hearing challenges to agency rulemakings — whether by promulgating new rules or trying to overturn old ones. The terms are embedded in the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, which spells out the steps government agencies must take to immunize their rules from legal challenges.

“Trump has tried to evade those steps by purporting to rescind rules and regulations via executive orders, including 26 he issued on Inauguration Day, or via administrative ukases [an imperial decree]. That won’t do, says Peter M. Shane, an expert in constitutional and administrative law at NYU law school.”

But the aspect of DOGE/Trump policies that is doing away USAID to impoverished and desperate peoples the world over is that not only is this entire effort contrary to the “America First” mantra but that it is rife with (unproven) waste and corruption. It doesn’t help that food producing red states will watch their farmers lose billions of dollars of food purchases, but there is another nasty Musk aspect to this volatile mix that I have noted before. Literally, half of Tesla’s output of vehicles worldwide come from Gigafactory Shanghai: Located in Shanghai, China, this factory produces the Model 3 and Model Y for the Chinese and surrounding markets. Since this plant does not export to the US, there are no tariff issues, but China is quite ready to punish the US for other tariffs on Chinese goods.

So, China – joining with other nations in creating reserve currency, sanction and trade exchange workarounds to avoid US influence – needs allies to implement this goal. With their “boy” in Trumpland, Elon Musk, Beijing has a very serious power over the Trump administration. China’s centralized government, brutal when citizens protest, can weather economic hardship created by US tariffs. But as the United States pulls back USAID soft support around the world, China is most ready to step in… smiling and friendly. As Kate Linthicum and Stephanie Yang, writing for the February 5th Los Angeles Times tell us:

“Over the last two decades, China has begun to challenge longtime U.S. hegemony in Latin America. In at least six countries — Panama, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia — it has surged ahead of the United States as the biggest trading partner… Now experts say China has been handed another opportunity in its quest to dominate the region: the presidency of Donald Trump.

“In his first two weeks in office, Trump has strong-armed American allies, using the threat of tariffs to extract concessions from Colombia and then Mexico. At the same time, he has halted — and threatened to eliminate — many U.S. foreign assistance programs that have been a lifeline for developing nations… Suddenly, China may seem like a more stable partner for many countries.

“‘The U.S. is now more unpredictable and bizarre than ever,’ said Carol Wise, a political science professor at USC and expert on the relationship between China and Latin America. ‘The Trump administration has been very hostile to the region, and China has never shown that kind of hostility, ever.’” I wonder how our national security interests, part of “America First,” are served by these DOGE/Trump policies… and how Americans would feel if 1. Those workarounds begin to gel and 2. One of more Chinese naval bases (or air stations) begin to be constructed in Latin America. I wonder what  has to say about this?

I’m Peter Dekom, and as fearful Republicans in Congress bite the bullet and remain silent at this coarse violation of constitutional restrictions and very specific federal employment statutes, as MAGA stalwarts revel in great unraveling, I suspect they are happy even as most of Trump’s kitchen table pledges to America just will not happen.

To MAGA, There Are No Frenemies

  

“Every actual democracy rests on the principle that not only are equals equal but unequals will not be treated equally. Democracy requires, therefore, first homogeneity and second—if the need arises elimination or eradication of heterogeneity.” 

Mid-20th Century Jurist and Scholar Carl Schmitt

As the failed Harris run for the presidency undergoes a litany of post-mortem analyses, the focus has been on issues – which may resonate – but which are merely offshoots of a nastier vector, highly evident in Donald Trump’s insistence of blind loyalty to him (look at his demand that all Senate Republicans must confirm his cabinet-level nominees or face retribution). A philosopher from the 1920s-30s, dismissed an issue approach to politics, insisted on the efficiency of a single decider… and divided the electorate and leadership into two immutable segments: friends and enemies. And those who are not absolute “friends” are, simply, “enemies.”

“[Carl] Schmitt’s [above left] brilliance lay in his unflinching, unsentimental analysis of the baser notions of politics. He knew only too well the power of xenophobia and hatred to mobilise mass support. He saw at first hand the attraction of a leader who could cut through political or constitutional quagmires to ‘save’ the nation. Even as a jurist, he felt the rush of emotion in a crowd when a leader articulates their deepest fears and desires.” The Conversation, 5/26/16 Schmitt’s influence framed the early tenets of Hitler’s ascent under his Nazi banner. By 1936, Schmitt was ousted from the Nazi Party, but his underlying message that absolute fealty to a sovereign leader was basic building block for any successful political leader.

There is no middle ground in his assessment: There are friends and there are enemies. Even if everyone managed to become friends, Schmitt holds we would make someone an enemy just because that is human nature and that is what politics is about. Without the struggle life is shallow, adding that a view that we don’t have enemies is a flawed view of human nature. “Man lusts for domination.” As the opening quote sustains, particularly salient for the death of any DEI initiatives. Schmitt’s philosophy underlies every autocracy from the 1930s into the present day. He even accounts for old enemies to see the folly in their beliefs, flip-flopping into becoming friends.

This is very much like Donald Trump’s bizarre approach to foreign policy. Kim-Jong-un was an enemy, then a friend and then back to being an enemy. This seeming inconsistency just might yield an agreement between a MAGA administration and Iran. Trump also wants to show how his raw power produces results… hence attacking (literally or figuratively) helpless nations (like Colombia, Panama and even Denmark), or using tariffs to pressure enemies to accept his goals… a core Trump approach, which makes the United States’ signature on a treaty meaningless. The cost of this approach is the growth of a profound lack of trust in US commitments, as even purported “friends” circle their wagons against MAGA policies.

As you watch brilliant Democratic icons, like Rhodes Scholar, MSNBC’s Rachael Madow (above right), articulate clear hypocrisy, unmet promises and outright deceit from Trump and his MAGA adherents, you are missing the McLuhanesque “the medium is the message” mantra. The anti-MAGA’s primary medium of choice is television, with a much looser, disorganized campaign in social media, a marketing arena that Trump (and Musk) have pushed with billions of investment capital. But the MAGA voice is heavily dominates social medial to carry their message.

By its very nature, social media approach is a highly filtered; The Trump effort here has successfully sold a pro-authoritarian flood of rightwing blame (i.e., against the “enemies”) where denigration, marginalization with a pledge of retribution are dominant. It is strange that a famous elderly television icon – Donald Trump – has long since recognized that television is a medium for the elderly… and is rapidly declining in today’s world.

Once you apply this “absolute friend or you are my enemy” approach, the MAGA movement becomes clearer. There was no voter Trump “mandate,” but if you deny that there was, you are an “enemy.” While immigration issues are often discussed in terms of taking jobs or enabling more criminal activity, the flood of negative description of the immigrants themselves comes down to one vector: they are our enemies and must be stopped.

With Trump’s de facto co-president, Elon Musk, openly supporting the rise of the German neo-Nazi AfD Party, among other rising autocratic political movements – even looking at what appears to be an on-strange Nazi salute in celebrating Trump’s victory – this Nazi era friends-enemies dichotomy becomes a much better way of understanding Trump’s vision for leadership. And remember, while Adolph Hitler was elected in the early stages of his governance… he managed to kill further elections in order more effectively to defeat the “enemies of the German people”… like the deep state enablers: Jews.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as Trump-voters realize how much worse off they are at every level, if they do, Trump’s efforts at continuing MAGA necessarily requires voter restrictions or the elimination of elections altogether.

The Logic Behind Trump’s Illogic

The Logic Behind Trump’s Illogic

Trump rants, makes up “facts” to support his illogical conclusions, nominates clearly unqualified individuals who are readily confirmed by his Stepford wives in the Senate, embraces unworkable foreign policies and rails against science and scientists – cutting federal support to them even for life-saving research. Who are the winners here? Who gains? Despite signs of the onset of dementia that brought Biden down hard, Trump’s rants boast unprovable statements, anti-science/elitists in the swamp, and generally support the malaise infecting middle America. Despite assurances from the Fed and Democrats, average Americans know the economy they face every day is both unstable and is pushing them past sustainability. The winners are obvious: big powerful incumbents who defy regulation, find consumer advocates pesky insects to profits and have no interest in paying for the ravages of change they have caused.

As egg prices soar, as commodities join housing on the unaffordable list, average Americans are watching their world and their assumptions crumble beneath their feet. Trump’s assault on the “deep state” resonates with an electorate that is looking for simple solutions to massive problems. They may intuitively understand that climate change is slowly eroding their quality of life, but they find solace in MAGA denials or marginalization.

They accept the bona fides of a billionaire (who else knows how to implement corporate efficiencies in government?) and are willing to overlook the self-dealing and deregulation of American business that goes with it. That the primary vector behind cost-cutting, freely admitted by House Speaker Mike Johnson, is the support to avoid having the proposed tax cut to the rich without increasing the deficit (the poor can pay for it with cuts to federal programs supporting them). $400M order for a fleet of vehicles that precisely match the unique aspects of the Tesla Cyber Truck? $15 billion in recent deals to Trump-owned companies?

Perhaps Trump outsources budgetary cuts to Elon Musk, because he has no clue how to manage such massive reductions himself. Trump brags how he brought Putin to the negotiating table over Ukraine because of his “relationship” with that international criminal. That his spokespeople on point, like DOD head Pete Hegseth – touting Moscow’s requirements – repeating that Ukraine with have to live with territorial concessions to Russia and give up hopes of joining NATO. But how did Trump move Putin to negotiate now? Sure, Moscow released an errant, tourist schoolteacher, but was that just Putin being nice? It seems that the willingness to negotiate (on Moscow’s terms) with Ukraine - that teacher release - was conditioned on our releasing a much bigger fish.

“The deal Donald Trump brokered with Russia to release American school teacher Marc Fogel on Tuesday [9/10] was, in fact, a prisoner swap—even though the president had tried to suggest otherwise… The Russian man freed in the deal is Alexander Vinnik , 45, who stands accused of laundering billions through the digital currency exchange website he ran, an unnamed U.S. official told The New York Times on Wednesday [2/12].” The DailyBeast.com, February 11th.

Indeed, as fast as Russia and China leak conspiracy theories showing the “massive waste and corruption” within US agencies, never with any evidence, there are a cadre of Russian apologists and self-appointed spokespeople – led by Tucker Carlson, a most reliable disseminator of Russian and Chinese propaganda. Trump and Musk often point to such unsubstantiated statements to justify Trump’s outsourcing of fundamental federal governance to Musk’s unelected DOGE.

But Trump’s “shoot from the hip” rants, such as his White House remarks on February 12th, are nothing more than interesting but wholly fabricated statements, as quoted by the February 12th Raw Story: “‘When you look at the kind of money, billions and billions of dollars being thrown away illegally.…’ Trump blamed, without providing evidence, airplane manufacturer Boeing for some fraud… ‘You know, Boeing, we're not happy with the service we're getting in terms of those planes,’ he ranted. ‘Look at — take a look at the Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier, the Ford. It was supposed to cost $3 billion. It ends up costing like $18 billion.’

“‘And they have all magnetic elevators to lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time,’ Trump continued. ‘And instead of using hydraulics, like on tractors that can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they use magnets.’” First, Boeing is hardly the primary contractor building carriers, and there hasn’t been a US carrier built for anything near $3 billion for decades. Trump himself signed defense bills authorizing this new, expensive level of carriers. The use of magnetic systems are the new standard for catapult launches, more reliable and easier to maintain than the old hydraulic systems, and those elevators are currently only used to transport munitions from below deck. Want more?

RFK, Jr is our new HHS Secretary, and science has always been his nemesis. Co-Presidents Musk and Trump have cut grants for necessary scientific research like never before. “The most comprehensive sally, of course, is the administration’s drastic and abrupt cut in funding by the National Institutes of Health… On Feb. 7, the NIH announced that its payments for “indirect” research costs, which sometimes come to 60% or more of grants’ direct costs, would be cut to 15%, a cutback of billions of dollars from the budgets of leading academic institutions… The cuts were to go into effect three days later, leaving grant recipients thunderstruck. Indirect costs include overhead costs of maintaining buildings housing labs and general administration expenses.

“On the surface, these attacks make no practical sense. They can only erode America’s standing as a paragon of leading-edge science; the CDC is a source of indispensable information about disease outbreaks, and the NIH the world’s largest funding source for biomedical research — ‘the greatest engine of biomedical research ever created,’ in the words of oncologist and veteran pseudoscience debunker David Gorski. Whether the NIH can retain that distinction is now in question…

“The notion that the NIH cuts would strike hardest at blue-state institutions didn’t survive its first contact with reality. The truth is that academic centers in red states may be even more dependent on indirect funding than the rich institutions targeted by the NIH tweet… Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) immediately went public with an appeal that the NIH turn to a ‘targeted approach’ on the cutbacks ‘in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama.’” Michael Hiltzik, LA Times, February 13th.

Simply, if you deny rising a pandemic or simply do not report them, business can continue without encumbrance or interruption. If you deny climate change, all those limitations on fossil fuels make no sense. If you pretend toxicity in our food chain does not exist (like microplastics), you do not have to advance programs to limit and control it… all of which would cost business billions. In the end, unless and until there is local red state rebellion against these inane federal policies, Musk and Trump win. Big business wins. Everybody else loses. But at least the government is dealing with eliminating woke (whatever that is), making America a Christian nation, and siding with Russia that you can conquer any nation you believe you need.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you live in this parallel universe, prepare to suffer or die in the real one you live in!