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.

Age is Just a Number, Unless You Are a Democrat in Congress

 

Age is Just a Number, Unless You Are a Democrat in Congress

The Constitution posits 25 years of age to be elected to the House and 30 for the Senate. Strange. purportedly the party of the young, the Democrats, has the oldest body of elderly folks: Here are the oldest currently serving Democratic members of Congress (all in the House): Grace Napolitano (86, CA), Bill Pascrell (86, NJ), Maxine Waters (85, CA), Steny Hoyer (84, MD), Nancy Pelosi (83, CA), Jim Clyburn (83, SC), Danny Davis (82, IL). Bernie Sanders (83, VT) is an independent but is generally perceived as a Democrat.

Republicans do not have nearly as many super-seniors, although Senator Chuck Grassley (90, IA), a Republican, is the oldest of them all. Is that a problem? After all, around 20% of Americans are over 65, and their needs should be well-represented. But every Democrat listed above is in their 80s. Aside from stamina, mental acuity and health, those in the far reaches of age in Congress are less likely to understand social media, artificial intelligence, crypto, and modern technological complexity in any detail.

But there are some underlying political schisms that further complicate this age-driven political landscape. For Americans born from the mid-1990s and on, they did not experience “communism” and “socialism” as dire threats to democracy. They did not face the “red scare” of the post-WW2 era or the fear of spreading communism a la the “domino theory” of the Vietnam War era. The communist autocracies – China, N. Korea, Cuba, etc. – were nations in existence long before their political memory began. However, they did witness the mental unraveling of Joe Biden during the last presidential cycle.

To many of the young, facing housing unaffordability, student loan debt, a soaring cost of living, climate change, the death of the American dream and overcrowding, socialism (government ownership of land, wealth and the means of production) doesn’t sound so bad. In fact, as AI takes jobs away, socialism just might seem inevitable. That could be why an elderly Bernie Sanders garners so much support among younger voters. However, if you mention “socialism” to an older American, you can usually expect a strong negative reaction. Gaza Palestinians garner more support among the young (even among young Jewish Americans), while older Americans are solidly behind Israel, come hell or high water.

But as much as younger Democrats (joined by 83-yr-old Sanders) represent Progressive Democratic politics, that just may be their Achillies Heel: issues near and dear to them, such as diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ Americans, are a total turnoff to a majority of independents, without whom Dems cannot win a meaningful voice, assuming we even continue full and fair elections.

As for younger American males, particularly those without college educations, and an increasing number of younger male Hispanics, their machismo ethos finds greater resonance than you might expect within the MAGA crowd. The Democratic intraparty schisms are a blessing for Republicans seeking to hold both houses of Congress, assuming we have fair midterms. So, what looks like a slam dunk for Democrats to usurp a party backing a corrupt autocrat with a criminal record just might be a mountain too high to climb. This age barrier within the Democratic Party has drawn the attention of Anthony Zurcher, writing for the June 6th BBC.com:

“Now many within the [Democratic] party… are wondering if it's time the party found new blood - especially after three congressional Democrats died in office this year alone. The losses meant that the Republicans' slim majority in Congress was bolstered, allowing them to pass Trump's controversial spending bill by a single vote… ‘We have a geriatric problem,’ said Ashley McIntyre Stewart [a young Democrat], specifically noting the recent House spending bill. ‘We need to get the younger community involved so that we don't have the Republicans railroad us.’

“According to a survey last month by Axios, more than half of the 30 Democrats in the House over age 75 are planning to seek re-election next year, including Clyburn, whose term would end when he is 88 if he wins… The veteran politician scoffed at the idea of retiring…’ I will respond to the voters of South Carolina,’ he told media [at a local political gathering] ‘I've been with them all month, and not a single one of them said to me that they think I'm too old. Every one of them said to me, please don't leave.’… He also bristled at the second-guessing over whether Biden should have stepped aside earlier, saying that his children and grandchildren don't care about the former president's choice… ‘They're going to ask me what did you do to make sure I got a better life,’ he said. ‘That's all I'm concentrating on.’

‘Democratic voters have tended to accept the risks that come with electing older politicians to office, prioritising governing experience over youth and vitality. In 2024, only two Democratic incumbents in Congress lost their party's nomination, and both – Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York – were relative newcomers under the age of 50… Republicans have their own crop of elderly politicians too, including the 78 year-old president. But 2020's electoral battering and Biden's health revelations have caused some introspection.

“William Godwin, a Democrat from Chicago, was visiting South Carolina and stopped by [a local South Carolina, Clyburn sponsored] fish fry to see Clyburn and hear from the two Democratic governors, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Wes Moore of Maryland, invited to speak. He said he respected the wisdom of elderly politicians like Clyburn and Biden, but his party needed a youth movement… ‘We need the activists," he said. ‘We need the energy from a variety of different backgrounds - not just age - to really come put our hands together and work toward getting some real elections won.’

There are signs some young upstarts are taking heed: Saikat Chakrabarti, the 39-year-old former chief of staff to Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is challenging former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her San Francisco Congressional primary. Jake Rakov, 37, is going after the seat of his former boss, 15-term incumbent Rep Brad Sherman, 70… Maryland's [Governor Wes] Moore – a 46-year-old military veteran who is only the third black governor in US history – generated the most animated response, as he spoke about the ‘baton’ being in his generation's hands… ‘We're about to send a message the entire country is going to hear,’ he said. ‘This is our time. This is our moment. We will not shirk, we will not flinch, we will not blink. We will win, just as those who came before us did.’

“Democrats may have won in the past, but last year's defeat was particularly stinging – and Trump's first months back in power have put the party in a deep hole, with years' worth of work needed to rebuild Democrat-backed government programmes and replenish worker rolls that have been slashed by the Republicans.” But polling still puts the Dems behind both Trump and the GOP as they struggle for an identity and appropriate leadership. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and as Joe Biden would put it, “I’m not joking; here’s the deal:” either Dems unify under a new, younger leadership and tone down those aspects of the Progressive agenda that scare independents or standby for a thank-you card from the Republican Party.

Recycling History – White Christian Nationalists with European Roots Must Rule?

  

Recycling History – White Christian Nationalists with European Roots Must Rule?

Carefully and slowly, the Trump administration is actually removing “segregation” from Federal practices and rules where it can. The Department of Defense is removing evidence of heroics by non-whites in military conflicts, even winners of top medals, from their public displays and historical records. Military bases shorn of names based on Confederate heroes are watching those names restored. Courts from top to bottom are determining that diversity, equality and inclusion represents discrimination based on, among other criteria, race and religion… and whites are now the discriminated class. White employees and students are mounting successful claims against companies and colleges where Black students appear to be disproportionately represented or favored. Discrimination based on social class and race are the new American way.

Even Donald Trump’s Massive Malignant Money bill (miss-named his “Big Beautiful Bill”) rips away at survival programs (like Medicaid and SNAP) for our poorest Americans in order to throw cash and other benefits to the richest of the rich in the form of tax cuts and dissolving agencies charged with protecting the public against con men and corporate bullies. As killer heat waves sweep the nation, Trump’s bill trashes climate legislation and cheap alternative energy to foster expensive and highly polluting fossil fuels instead.

The United States refused to attend a 70-nation international conference in Barcelona, Spain to discuss the vast income disparity between rich countries, like the US, and nations comprised of mostly impoverished peoples. The United States, having shut down USAID and delighting in proposing extreme tariffs, is much more focused on how to use bullying to do what it does best these days: rob from the poor to give to the rich.

There should be little surprise that institutionalized racism rises openly with extreme measures in our midst. Does anyone really believe that all of these new Trump administration measures will improve the lot of most Americans? Even the value of the dollar, through all of this, has dropped to a low not seen in a quarter of a century, and as that Massive Malignant Money bill nears full passage, the huge increase to the deficit is paralleled by the highest interest rate on US treasuries than we have seen in decades.

Some of the Trump-driven extremists represent domestic terrorists training with military tactics and weapons like the easy-to-convert-to-fully-automatic AR-15, a rifle that was originally developed for Navy SEALs. Others are building communities where European white Christian nationalists are the only people allowed.

Writing for the June 30th The Forward, Hannah Feuer addresses one of the most segregated new communities in the land: “Nearly 60 years after the United States outlawed racial and religious discrimination in housing, one group in Arkansas is openly reviving it… ‘Return to the Land,’ a white supremacist group started in 2023, owns 160 acres in northeast Arkansas, according to the group’s website. [Parcel Map above] Jews and non-whites are explicitly banned from membership. Prospective residents must verify their ‘ancestral heritage’ in a written application and interview before becoming paying members and residing in the off-grid settlement, according to the group’s Substack.

“The organization hopes to replicate its whites-only settlements across the country, with the stated aim of ‘trying to put land back under the control of Europeans.’ Experts warn the group’s practices likely run afoul of anti-discrimination laws and express doubt about its long-term viability… Still, the group’s financial and legal infrastructure makes it one of the most established white supremacist residential communities in the United States today, according to Morgan Moon, an investigative researcher with the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Extremism…

“In the 1970s and ‘80s, white supremacists urged like-minded racists to move to the Pacific Northwest with the goal of transforming the area into a white ethnostate. In recent years, similar attempts at forming remote enclaves have cropped up in Kentucky, North Dakota, and Maine… Such communities almost always fail to gain traction, Moon said, often due to financial troubles, infighting, or simply the difficulty of asking people to move to remote areas and uproot their lives.

“This isn’t the first time Arkansas has been the site of such a project. In 2012, Jason Barnwell, a member of the Aryan Terror Brigade, hoped to persuade white supremacists to relocate to the small town of Evening Shade, Arkansas, where he had purchased 12 acres, according to an ADL report. But the project soon fell apart after Barnwell and several others pleaded guilty to federal charges of firebombing an interracial couple’s home.

“The acreage owned by Return to the Land is near Ravenden, a town of fewer than 500 people in northeast Arkansas that’s more than 97% white. The bare-bones set-up consists of tiny homes with tents and outhouses at times. A few dozen people live on the property, where residents grow their own food, homeschool their children, and rely on well water for drinking.

“Though the Arkansas community may be small and remote, its founders are transparent about their ambitions to gain influence and expand beyond the region. According to Moon, the group’s leaders are part of the identitarian movement, a far-right ideology that believes white European identity is under threat from immigration and globalization. Their response is to create a parallel society of whites-only communities.” They might be shocked to learn that the founders of Christianity itself included no white Europeans!

There are “clever” provisions in the RTTL by-laws that try to sidestep covenants that bar homeowners from reselling their properties to excluded classes of buyers. Simply, the homeowners’ association has a first refusal to preempt a sale to an undesirable. If you are worried about this development selling out before you can snap up one of these residential lots, don’t worry, the owners are scouting sites for RTTL 2 right now. I used to believe that such racially excluded housing was illegal… but that was before Trump was elected President and the Supreme Court began dismantling the Constitution… Today anything is possible with Trump’s 6-3 MAGA tilted Court. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and while “Whites Only, No Jews Allowed” communities are unlikely to explode in popularity, that people believe this the viable way America should be “ruled” lurks in the heart of too many of us in this increasingly ungovernable nation.

Fore! Play

 

Fore! Play

I must admit that I think, perhaps, the more time Donald Trump plays golf, perhaps the better for the country. But then, I visualize his “replacement killer,” JD Vance, taking over… and I cannot see any good options. Trump is, after all, the master of distraction, a man with the ability to fabricate an enemy or an “overwhelming issue” that “only I can fix it.” But inevitably that fabrication evokes a Trumpian response that creates more havoc, more confusion and more permanent damage than the calm that usually preceded it. So, them “eat cake” and let Trump play through.

Here’s the headline: “President Trump has spent 25.9% of his Presidency to date Golfing — at an estimated cost of $50.4 million to US taxpayers.” A new study presented in the June 15th TotalProSports.com. This only counts the time allocated to presidential activities and does not address the time the Donald rearranges his schedule to travel to the various courses where he plays, many of which are Trump courses.

“According to golf writer Alan Shipnuck, the POTUS cares more about the sport than he does serious global issues...’I have no doubt that Donald Trump cares more about the state of professional golf than he does about Gaza or Ukraine.’” TotalProSports.com.

I must admit that I am truly curious about Trump’s undergrad grades at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania), particularly in economics. His failure to see tariffs as consumer taxes, his mistaken belief that cutting taxes instantly turns the rich into lean, meaning job creating machines (which has never happened), his utter failure to understand how the financial chaos of his destabilizing inconsistency has frozen so many businesses from making necessary investment decisions and his desire to rewrite government labor and growth statistics in new numbers that would always reflect Trump economic success even as the nation were unraveling in confusion… are seriously alarming.

Even given Trump’s recent judicial track record, the growing international revulsion of all things dollar-denominated (especially US treasuries used to finance our exploding deficit), and the violence of his masked ICE agents and supporting military troops in immigration efforts under the mistaken and oft-repeated Trumpian phrase “I have the greatest voter mandate in history” belie an unparalleled litany of lose, lose, lose. But if Trump substitutes totalitarian rule to cover up his “loser” reality, the United States and everyone in it will be the true losers. Most of the rest of the world seems to recognize our “clown prince,” but that “clownishness” may just ben what got him elected here.

Back to the golf course. Legend has it, with more than a few eyewitnesses in support, that Trump hates losing so much, hates looking bad even for an instant, he engages “hidden figures” in some of his golfing outings to move a mishit ball, lost in the foliage, miraculously onto the green ready for that birdie putt. You’d think his name were Donald “Mulligan” (golf-speak for an unauthorized do-over) Trump… but those who play with him know that a polite loss (unless you are the best pro on tour) is required.

Trump’s proclivity for transparently incorrect hyperbole puts him in solid comparison with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, a mediocre golfer who, according to local reportage, has an amazing track record for holes-in-one. Reality is a harsh mistress. For an amateur golfer, getting that elusive hole-in-one has a statistical likelihood of one in 1,700 rounds of golf. Scratch golfers who play regularly can expect that elusive reward only once every 7.5 years, and even the top pros don’t get better than once every 3 years.

Why does any of this matter? Because this establishes both what is most important to the President and his character. We now know about his Bible-selling, gold sneaker marketing, expensive watch availability, his favor-driven practice of rewarding only his biggest donors and most recently, the millions, perhaps billions from his ventures into cryptoland. But all that grift was already painfully obvious from simply observing how he plays golf.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we’ve never had a convicted felon as President of the United States… but just watching his golf game…

What Half of the American Electorate Seems to Miss

Massive flooding in W VA

 Midwest devastation

Gulf and Atlantic Coast horrors

West Coast Heat/Blazes

What Half of the American Electorate Seems to Miss

As raging wars threaten to engulf us, as politics unravels our democracy, there is a bigger, more obvious issue.

Even as political storms whirl around us, encouraging Americans to demonize and dehumanize those with opposing views, I look back on those purportedly villainous MAGA southerners and recall some of the warmest most hospitable people I have ever met. I still have those memories. They bring a warm smile to my lips, as I wonder if my little one-year-old granddaughter will ever be able to experience that warmth. My California-born-and-raised son, today a successful financial consultant, loved his undergraduate education in North Carolina and his MBA studies in Virginia. I keep wondering how we can be “Americans” again.

But as Republicans in Congress fall prey to Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” aimed to coddle spoiled-brat billionaires and mega-millionaires with continuing and new tax cuts these brats absolutely do not need, programs that will probably follow the pattern of all the recent such rich-folks tax cuts and generate no real solid new jobs or businesses… Yet these tax cuts will definitely tank any effort to control our ever-growing deficit that has the rest of the world downgrading the dollar and dollar-denominated assets, while kicking the interest rate on our deficit borrowings (e.g., the sale of treasury bonds) to the highest rates in recent decades. The credit-rating services are lowering US government to new, never before witnessed, depths.

To accommodate those tax cuts that enable third and fourth homes, yachts, private (mega-polluting) jets, champagne travel and luxury, there have to be some sacrifices, the GOP tells us, creating mythologies to justify their actions (“Medicaid recipients don’t work,” when those able to work actually do; “there is massive fraud and waste in Veterans programs, Medicare and Social Security,” when even DOGE failed to find any real proof of this assertion)… but why are those sacrifices loaded on to those least able to afford them?

Hey, the Republican Party maintains as a basic platform either that the horrors of climate change are exaggerated or non-existent. They want to take down non-fossil fuel infrastructure projects, oddly creating most of the relevant new jobs in red states. They want to encourage the old world “drill, baby, drill” or “extract, baby, extract” fossil fuel mantras that seem to fall on deaf investor ears… but they are forcing this damaging mandate anyway. “We can’t afford to fix it.” “It is a global problem that we cannot control.” “We choose business over tree-hugging, climate change wokeness.” Nature does not care one whit; she started with nothing and has no issue starting over.

Our divide and conquer political battle may take down the United States, replacing democracy with one-man rule, but pretending climate change is not a serious problem will continue to kill us, less slowly all the time. Migrating insects, following the change heat patterns, are bringing diseases to areas not remotely prepared for the resultant outbreaks. Migrating farmers all over the world are moving to areas where crops can still grow… but they are hardly welcomed with open arms.

All of the “trigger” climate occurrences have been met or almost met. The Outer Banks in North Carolina are disappearing. Miami area streets are routinely flooded after heavy rain. Condos are sinking in Florida, due to a very porous limestone substratum, sink holes are abounding and property insurance and required retrofitting are so expensive that many are losing their homes with no place to go. Cities all across the United States are experiencing life-destroying heat waves. There is almost no place within the United States – which is itself a selfish perspective – where billions of dollars of climate-related damage are not raging. But don’t worry, the administration has NOAA’s weather tracking, NASA’s older weather satellites are not being replaced, and FEMA is on the verge of being shut down or seriously defunded. New diseases? Defund the CDC.

“Earth's energy imbalance is growing faster than anyone expected — and scientists don't understand why… To complicate matters several NASA satellites that provide the highest-resolution picture of this imbalance are nearing the end of their lives, and researchers fear their lone replacement isn't sufficient. In the worst case scenario, scientists could lose one of the leading indicators of climate change, as the next-best way of measuring the energy imbalance has a lag of about 10 years.

“‘What we get from [these] satellites is roughly one decade faster data, so that's why it's so critical,’ Thorsten Mauritsen, a professor in the department of meteorology at Stockholm University in Sweden and the lead author of a commentary on the issue, told Live Science. ‘The absolute best option is that NASA continues.’…

“Earth's energy imbalance is the difference between the amount of energy our planet receives from the sun and the amount it radiates outward into space. The imbalance is mainly caused by our emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap a portion of the energy radiating from Earth inside the atmosphere, driving temperatures up.

“Satellite data suggest Earth's energy imbalance has more than doubled over the past two decades, massively exceeding the increase predicted by climate models. In 2023, the imbalance reached 1.8 watts per square meter (0.16 watts per square foot), which was twice what models estimated based on rising greenhouse gas emissions, according to the commentary, which was published May 10 in the journal AGU Advances — but scientists still aren't sure why there has been such an increase in the imbalance recently.” Sascha Pare in June 5th LiveScience.com. You do have to wonder why our leaders either only learn lessons the hard way, live in denial land or are at their best when they simply pass the buck to future administrations and generations. But nature is not so flip… resulting damage does not get kicked down the road; it is front and center NOW!

I’m Peter Dekom, and I guess if we do not care that gun violence is the number one killer of American children and teens, why would we express the slightest concern that we are destroying their future by underestimating climate change?

Can a Party that Botched Immigration and Seldom Speaks with a Unified Voice Defeat MAGA?

Can a Party that Botched Immigration and Seldom Speaks with a Unified Voice Defeat MAGA?

“When you have the most Latino district in the country outside of Puerto Rico vote for Trump, that should be a wake-up call for the Democratic Party… This is a Democratic district that’s been blue for over a century.” 

 Representative Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, who saw Mr. Trump win every county in his district along the border with Mexico.

Keeping in mind that the majority of Trump’s MAGA followers are not issue oriented; they will do whatever their strongman directs and believe anything he says even if proven false. They delight in the decimation of the federal bureaucracy (their view of the demon “deep state”), even if it crashes to the ground and they lose vital benefits that most of them depend on. Efforts to win them back needs to be the result of efforts to recapture or solidify liberals and moderates who are open to change… not addressing MAGA diehards on their own terms.

And here is the “Democratic BIG INTERNAL SQUABBLE”: A strong “progressive” surge may indeed redefine the Democratic Party over the long haul, but they cannot begin to protect the LGBTQ if they are not in power. For younger voters, “socialism” is a viable economic strategy; for middle-aged and older voters, it represents a betrayal of the political dogma they were raised to fight. Focus instead on the younger male, working class and Hispanic voters the Dems have lost in recent elections. And more than a few issues that non-MAGA voters care about.

Trump’s unfounded belief that tariffs are paid by the nations they are assessed against assures a continued unstable and declining economy. There’s never been a tariff paid by the country the tariff is assessed against. Tariffs are a regressive tax – most negatively impactful against those who spend most of their money on buying “stuff” versus investing and controlling big assets… hence the lower and middle classes versus the rich. Tariffs are only paid by the US importers and their ultimate consumers. It is, to put it simply, a sales tax. As long as Trump tries to impose this false economic vector, the economy will sputter, rising and falling on “news,” as TACO Trump struggles to make a bad economic plan work. It won’t! Costs were rising and will continue to rise.

Hammer home that “businessman Trump” is no longer the go-to “economic guardian” for us all. Explode that myth, which Americans will encounter in their daily lives. AFFORDABILITY is the underlying issue. So is the LOSS OF UPWARD MOBILITY, as the benefits of living in America are transferred to the rich and paid for by the rest of us. Today, most younger Americans do not expect to live better than their parents; in fact, they expect a life of less.

Not only is Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill as disaster for 80% of Americans – carefully designed to have those Medicaid-slashers delayed until after the midterms and to have the mini-tax benefits to middle income taxpayer expire on their own (as the big cuts for the rich become permanent) – there is an overall vector of cutting public benefits and safety measures, shifting costs to underfunded states, all to benefit the richest in the land. Republicans rely heavily on “trickle-down” economics to justify the big tax cuts – “that rising tide” myth which has never produced real economic benefits for anyone but the rich. Yet the GOP majority are slowly eliminating the only clear path to upward mobility – education – by attacking our best colleges, sticking graduates with unsustainable debt and underfunding education from primary school to graduate education. Anti-“woke” policies have long since replaced hard-ass subjects as the focus of too many of our 13,000 separate school districts.

After the WWII with the GI Bill and the post-1957 reemphasis on infrastructure and education (the “Sputnik” reaction), the US economy soared, upward mobility was the rule, and the individual well-being of most Americans reached magnificent heights. If we all want to live better, we must replace the wrongful “a rising tide floats all boats” falsehood with a refocus on providing the best education from the best schools for the least per-student cost for as many Americans who want that staircase to upward mobility. Plus continued INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE, particularly alternative energy. Well paid jobs on steroids!

IMMIGRATION has been a massive failure by the Democrats, which kept getting worse over the years. The Republicans loved every moment, fighting immigration reform to keep the issue alive as election-supporting rage… going feeding frenzy crazy as racist zealots (notably senior White House advisor Stephen Miller – as the mastermind – underqualified Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, anti-constitutionalist AG Pam Bondi and stormtrooper and Immigration Tsar Tom Homan) hit the accelerator pedal as Trump began his Project 2025 purge of undocumented aliens the instant he took office in Trump 2.0. It was considered, literally, the GOP Trump card. MAGA followers even believed there were undocumented Haitians eating their pets! But Trump administration overzealous efforts gave power to Dems, over an issue that belonged once solidly to the GOP. No more!

After announcing they would focus on removing convicted criminals first, Trump officials began to alienate Americans with cruelty, masked ICE agents making random stops, ripping workers from the farms and small businesses, pulling long time US documented residents from their productive (tax paying) jobs and businesses, implementing Trump’s personal vendetta against California, as the only state where federal military forces are deployed as de facto police officers, and killing cohesive communities of US citizens mixed with hardworking long-term undocumented workers. Many Americans applauded, but these were mostly MAGA believers.

The Trump administration even coopted the US Supreme Court in a sustained and exceptionally cruel effort to deport, without due process, individuals picked up off the street and airlifted to harsh prisons in countries with which they had no connection. Pretending that once the deportees were in foreign hands, notably El Salvador, and so informing our courts, the Trump administration claimed no jurisdiction to bring them back. What the party does to change its approach to immigration — and to change how voters see Democrats on immigration — may be the most consequential and difficult decision it faces as it searches for a path back to power. Dems must accept that controlling our borders and limiting immigration are simply political facts of life that they must embrace… intelligently. Whether they like it or not.

But the Democrats were handed a huge and POWERFUL CRUELTY ARGUMENT as the Trump administration received an unpleasant report from a July 7th official filing by El Salvador with the United Nations: “Over 200 migrants who were sent to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison [pictured above] under accusations that they were members of a violent criminal gang are the responsibility of the United States, the government of El Salvador told a United Nations working group: "In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters," El Salvador officials said in their report to the U.N.

I’m Peter Dekom, the Dems have the tools to retake the majority in America, but they need to deal with the above issues with a new and unified perspective or accept their second rate status for the foreseeable future… not just “against things Trump” but for tangible steps for a better future.

China in an Era of Weak US Foreign Policy Expertise

China in an Era of Weak US Foreign Policy Expertise

There’s something happening here; what it is is not exactly clear

"The Chinese simply can’t believe their luck: that at the dawn of the electricity-guzzling era of artificial intelligence, the U.S. president and his party have decided to engage in one of the greatest acts of strategic self-harm imaginable."

NY Times journalist Thomas Friedman, at Trump’s slashing alternative energy initiatives to favor BIG OIL & BIG COAL.

China is very complicated and clearly aiming to replace the United States as the predominant economic and military power on Earth. Their universities are accelerating in AI research, hovering to equal or surpass US efforts. Their fleets are now moving beyond the disputed channels in the China Sea, bolstered by a fully militarized, manmade (landfill) airport and support systems in the Spratley Islands. They are challenging Philippine military vessels in traditional Philippine fishing zones, harassing Taiwan and the US vessels that support it, and letting Japan and S Korea know who’s boss. Now, often in conjunction with Russian naval vessels, they are extending their range to encircle Australia and venturing north around Alaska and the melting northwest passage.

With two modern aircraft carriers, stocked with modern attack and fighter jets, they now have the largest navy (in numbers of ships) in the world, and as their sophistication grows, potentially the equal of US naval power. But they have several huge advantages over the United States. First, their forces are concentrated in the Asia Pacific area, while the United States has seven active fleets deployed across the globe. We are thus spread thin when it comes to supporting our south and eastern Asian allies. Second, their military (the Peoples’s Liberation Army – PLA), while politicized to some degree, has only seasoned, highly experienced officers at the top, dwarfing the leadership of our own Department of Defense, led by an emotional, immature, inexperienced alcoholic Secretary of Defense… and lumbers under “DEI cuts” of some of our best senior officers.

But all is not rosy in China these days. The tariff battles with the United States combined with high-tech export bans of sensitive US-designed technology have taken their toll. Chinese college grads are finding a harsh entry-level job market, unemployment of what should be China’s elite engineers and scientists is high, and an over-built and over-leveraged residential real estate market is tanking both property values and the increasingly shaky debt leveraged in support of those failing efforts. The net impact is an unstable economy, one that has imperiled the underlying “peoples’” promise of the Communist Party: give us your total support and we will provide a solid economy for all of our people. An essential part of that economic pledge, one that dramatically impacts both nations, is the profound interdependence on US trade.

President Xi Jinping, now in his third term in a nation that once limited such leaders to a two-term maximum, is playing politics at new and, for him, probably an uncomfortable level. His rapprochement, his very treaty commitments, with Russia were meant to destabilize the US international power dynamics. And while he is exercising an end-run to create stronger trading ties with the European Union and other nations equally aghast at Trump’s bully tactics, nothing quite replaces the sheer volume of Sino-American trade. Xi has reduced the size of the powerful Standing Committee of the Politburo to five members, tied with the lowest number in PRC history. While this appears to be a purge to concentrate his power, he has also announced new efforts to “coordinate” economic and military efforts with Russia and various internal Chinese political entities. In “tealeaf reading” parlance, “coordinate” in China means power-sharing, something that would seem an anathema to a Chinese dictator.

But as much as Xi is facing obstacles to his plans, he has one strong ally in helping him achieve his global power-reach: Donald John Trump. To aid China in its development of AI and all sorts of other technologies, Xi is grateful for Trump’s reversal of alterative energy initiatives (where China is soaring) and his cultural assault on America’s best research universities, his bizarre need to keep the best and the brightest international students (who often stay in the US and become the greatest domestic job creators) out of xenophobic America. He smiles at how, despite Trump’s recent announced support of NATO, he knows that not one single other member of NATO remotely trusts him or his treaty obligation if a NATO nation is attacked. The United States is the only NATO signatory to have benefitted by that clause after the 9/11 attacks.

Xi is happily aware of the battle, even within the Republican Party, over immigration tactics and military support for Ukraine against Russia. Featherweight Secretary of Defense, Pete “how high should I jump” Hegseth, himself a serious national security risk based on his proclivity of using relatively unsecure communication platforms, appears to have halted congressionally approved and desperately need military supplies to Ukraine. Immediately after that announcement and following a totally unproductive call between Trump and Putin, Russia launched its most devastating attack against Kyiv. Despite contradictory statements from his own military, Hegseth justified his hold on those shipments so as to keep US military weapon systems at full capacity. That news made China happy for yet another reason:

“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat that Beijing can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China, an official briefed on the talks said, contradicting Beijing’s public position of neutrality in the conflict… The admission came during what the official said was a four-hour meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas on Wednesday [7/2] in Brussels that ‘featured tough but respectful exchanges, covering a broad range of issues from cyber security, rare earths to trade imbalances, Taiwan and Middle East.’” CNN, July 4th. China is watching the objective metrics of America’s self-unraveling, gleeful that many of these approaches may not be reversible or may take many years to fix. China has more freedom to pursue taking Taiwan these days. As the US pulls back on international aid, China has repeatedly stepped in to take our place. Putin and Xi were particularly gratified at the rapid demise of our Voice of America radio platform.

With the stock market vacillating at every bit of news, Xi is focused on the real economic harm Trump’s policies have done to the United States: “Analysts have sounded the alarm after the value of the U.S. dollar suffered its worst drop in nearly five decades. The sudden plunge in value is reportedly likely to trigger a price hike in everyday items as well as cause visitors to the country to experience a jump in expenses.” The Mirror US, July 4th. As the US increases its deficit to implement the tax cuts for the rich, the marketplace for US treasuries (how we finance the deficit) has demanded significantly higher interest because of the general global perception that the US is now a much riskier economy. We pay that interest as one of our highest priorities.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as much as Donald Trump has declared China to be our number one enemy, his only weapon seems to be “tariffs,” but no one on Earth has done more to amplify and solidify China’s growing global power (at our expense) than Trump himself.