The Good, the Bad and that Big UGLY Bill

The Good, the Bad and that Big UGLY Bill

The need to “spin” into consistency is a Trump administration addiction, with Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s credibility falling faster than a stone tossed of the Rock of Gibraltar. Without addressing the unilateral nature of Trump’s decision to bomb Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment sites, you have to wonder why, without actual human inspection, Trump insists on determining that his bombing effort was a total success, a “mission accomplished” statement of ending Iran’s nuclear program forever. His puppets, from Leavitt to Hegseth, are parroting the “obliteration” term, increasingly tempered with “maybes” now, when that B-2 task force bombing would have at least stood as a solid military victory without straining for the hyperbole that undermines the power of that attack. Attempting to equate challenges to the totality of the bombing damage as an insult to the mission pilots is not only false but smacks of the quivering weakness of a dictator who wants to control the press and everything they say. And insulting to our pilots. Further, too many are now questioning how Trump is usurping powers constitutionally allocated to Congress, from war powers to tariffs.

What’s equally challenging, across the board, Trump has established a pattern of acceptable government corruption, supporting an upper class kleptocracy – from the well-publicized expensive travel, motorhome and tuition support for his young relative of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the insider trading of members of Congress, the $600M fortune generated by Donald Trump on sales of Trump Bibles, golden sneakers, gold watches, NFTs, his revenues from those seeking to currying favor by using Trump-owned facilities, backdoor profits in getting his followers to jack up the value of shares in his media company by investing in thin air and his recent forays into the warm fuzzy world of crypto (including using the federal government to legitimize his stablecoin) – all spun as signs of his business expertise. Putinesque corruption as expertise?

But even the cruelest immigration efforts, aimed at increasing detentions even as the government clearly lacks the necessary facilities, makes money for some in government. Indeed, the nefarious ICE raids by masked individuals in regular cars, with no warrants or any form of personal identification, do put pressure on the federal government to use an increasing number of private facilities, usually overcrowded and profoundly unsanitary, run by data analytics from companies with strong ties to Trump’s minions, including his personal policy Rasputin and senior advisor, Stephen Miller. … “the hard-line Trump adviser who helped craft some of the administration’s most aggressive immigration enforcement policies, is apparently profiting from the tools that make them possible, a new report finds.

“According to financial disclosures cited in a new report by the Project on Government Oversight, Miller is one of a dozen current White House staffers invested in Palantir, the data analytics firm whose contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have made it the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year. His stake—valued between $100,001 and $250,000—is the largest among staffers… Ethics experts say the investment raises serious concerns, given Palantir’s deepening relationship with DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agencies central to policies Miller continues to influence.” FastCompany.com, June 26th. Why is Palantir’s stock soaring? It seems that one of Palantir’s platforms (Apollo) is the primary software logistics program, which controls and directs the movement of ICE detainees to detention facilities with diabolical efficiency. By moving people faster through the system, and increasing government dependence on the Apollo platform, Palantir is one of the primary beneficiaries of an aggressive deportation policy.

Corruption and failed policies are the hallmark of the Trump 2.0 administration to date, couching failures as victories. We are watching RFK, Jr’s efforts unravel basic protections for our nation’s children by unleashing conspiracy theories to replace decades and decades of successful medical experience. Predicated on pure fabrication – that Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs will be untouched by his new tax effort – Trump has ordered his puppets in Congress to ramp up immediate passage of his horrifically ugly paean to the rich, his reverse Robinhood transfer of wealth from the poor to those atop the income ladder via unjustified tax cuts, increasing our deficit by trillions of dollars.

“Senate Republicans face a major problem with President Donald Trump's megabill: ‘a mathematical double-whammy,’ according to a new report… The Senate version of Trump's megabill is roughly $400 billion more expensive than the version that the House of Representatives passed. That could force Senators to include deeper cuts to programs like Medicaid, which some moderate members of the GOP see as a political liability.

“‘They got a problem,’ Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Politico. ‘The conservatives have got a real problem if it’s not doing what we thought we had in the House.’.. The higher cost of the Senate version could threaten some priorities for Senate leadership. For instance, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) has said he wants to make business tax cuts in the megabill permanent. It also could force Republicans to give up on their efforts to increase state-and-local-tax deductions, which is a deal the GOP brokered in the House before sending the bill to the Upper Chamber…Republicans are hitting the math wall at a time when Trump and Republican leaders are trying to push the bill across the finish line.” Raw Story, June 25th. Trump is telling his GOP Congressional puppets and parrots to pass the bill now, before the July 4th holiday… or else.

Between the inane tariff and trade policy, which define economic instability, and Trump’s tax proposal, according to Torsten Sløk, the chief economist at the prestigious Apollo Global Management, the United States is beginning to generate numbers and forecasts that make a mere recession the least of our worries. Instead, Sløk sees the double horribles of stagflation… recession with continued unmanageably rising prices. Even Fed chief Jerome Powell suggests that managing interest rates through a period of stagflation is exceptionally difficult.

I’m Peter Dekom, and does Trump qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize he covets or a new “Major Piece of the Side Hustle” prize that he may have de facto created?