How’s It Lookin’ Under Trump 2.0?

 

How’s It Lookin’ Under Trump 2.0?

Hint: In Trump vs the Rule of Law, Trump is Winning Big; We’re Losing Bigger

Trump’s appointments are a clown car of ineptitude, fawning obsequiousness and a foundation of fabrication and blame that cannot hold the country up. Nobody should be laughing. You can start with the stuff that the headlines keep missing, which just might kill you:

“The number of measles cases has climbed this year to the highest they’ve been since the disease was declared eliminated in the US a quarter-century ago. Still, a record share of kindergartners missed required vaccinations last year, and the vast majority of the 2025 measles cases were in unvaccinated children. As we head into the new school year, exemptions are also climbing — and most are for non-medical reasons.” CNN, August 5th.

RFK, Jr. who may have good notions about nutrition, has replaced qualified medical professionals with so many false medical prophets that the quacking sounds like a huge duck farm. We seem to have a adopted a “freedom to infect others” as a basic right. God help America if another COVID-level pandemic were to invade the United States. With so many cuts to Medicaid and nutritional programs combined with the savings by defunding billions and billions of dollars of productive medical research, our falling life expectancy numbers may well plunge even more. Think of the “bright side;” the rich not only get a huge tax break, but if enough middle- and lower-income people die, falling federal healthcare costs may just make them ever richer.

As bourbon producers in Kentucky (which produces 90% of this spirit) are learning the hard way; the momentary increase in international sales (offsetting Gen Z’s changing tastes) of that beverage is facing the headwinds of retaliatory tariffs and consumer anger at American economic bullying. Multiple bankruptcies among smaller independent distillers reflect the issue. “Beyond bankruptcies and financial difficulties, the American spirits and wine industry has also seen a number of companies cut jobs in an effort to stay profitable in an increasingly uncertain trading environment. In January, Jack Daniel's parent company, Brown-Forman, announced it would be eliminating about 12 percent of its workforce and closing a barrel-making plant in Louisville, Kentucky.” Newsweek, August 4th.

But if you want to watch what is happening to small businesses, farms, meat processing plants and construction sites, the loss of low-cost labor is shutting down job sites, leaving crops rotting in the field, closing small restaurants and creating meat and poultry shortages as meat processing plants are closing for lack of the relevant workers. If childcare was prohibitive before all this, it is untenable now. But for cruelty fans, they do get to watch warrantless brutality in ICE sweeps by anonymous masked “police”… which continue to pick up more than a few US citizens along the way. Despite an injunction against racial profiling, sustained by a federal appellate court, racially based ICE raids have not stopped. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, huh? Good to be an American. That there are politicians proud about our growing construction of “Alligator Alcatraz”-like prisons for a pretty benign cadres of desperately needed workers, is pure cruelty without offsetting benefits. Prioritize deporting the “worst of the worst” has not and will not happen.

On the international credibility front, where we incent treasury buyers to support our massive deficits and push for international investors to place their funds in US companies, we are destroying the foundation of 80 years of prosperity, a time when the United States became the most successful economy on earth. The Great Depression accelerant, the Smoot-Hawley tariff, had been replaced by a long-term move to foster free trade. But as Trump tells you that the foreign countries will pay the new massive tariffs he is imposing, he forgets: retaliatory tariffs, that foreign countries do not pay these tariffs and that US consumers pay in the form of a de facto regressive sales tax. Sure, the government receives this tariff income at the border, but the revenue is more than offset by higher consumer prices and increasing US business failures.

As Trump seeks to control the Federal Reserve, appoint loyal cadres to ensure that bad economic news will never be published, shuts down US data-driven federal agencies that produce contradictions to Trump make-believe “hoaxes,” fewer people everywhere believe us. Foreign governments and international investors, one drawn by the accuracy of these reports and by a predictable rule of law, are instead creating workarounds to replace these tarnished numbers and new unpredictability in cross-border investing.

“European governments are taking steps to break their dependence on critical scientific data the United States historically made freely available to the world, and are ramping up their own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes, according to Reuters interviews… The effort - which has not been previously reported - marks the most concrete response from the European Union and other European governments so far to the U.S. government's retreat from scientific research under President Donald Trump's administration.” Reuters, August 1st.

The price for all of this Trumpian manipulation? Interest rates on our deficit driven related debt are rising, new international exchanges are being created to circumvent the “standard US clearing house” for international pricing and debt, and numbers from federal agencies are no longer accepted by so many major overseas financial institutions. And if the dollar is soon no longer the major reserve currency (the global value pricing metric), standby for massive increases in all forms of bank interest (from mortgages to credit cards to business loans)… with a concomitant increase in consumer prices.

As the Epstein Whisperer is telling his congressional minions to begin to release selective files on Jeffrey Epstein, the file searching has instead centered around requesting files on settled federal investigation of Russian election interference (ignoring the Russians indicted during the Trump administration)… of Clinton, Obama and Biden. And as Trump gloated over the humbling for foreign nations over much higher tariffs (we’ll see) and what appeared to be solid economic success, the truth began to collapse as the normal release of seasonally adjusted numbers. “Phony” and “rigged” Trump declared as he fired the non-partisan head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But, as the August 1st The Atlantic pointed out, the truth was just plain ugly:

“What had been reported as a strong two-month gain of 291,000 jobs was revised down to a paltry 33,000. What had once looked like a massive jobs boom ended up being a historically weak quarter of growth.

‘Even that might be too rosy a picture. All the net gains of the past three months came from a single sector, health care, without which the labor market would have lost nearly 100,000 jobs. That’s concerning because health care is one of the few sectors that is mostly insulated from broader economic conditions: People always need it, even during bad times. (The manufacturing sector, which tariffs are supposed to be boosting, has shed jobs for three straight months.) Moreover, the new numbers followed an inflation report released by the Commerce Department yesterday that found that the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of price growth had picked up in June and remained well above the central bank’s 2 percent target. (The prior month’s inflation report was also revised upward to show a slight increase in May.) Economic growth and consumer spending also turned out to have fallen considerably compared with the first half of 2024. Taken together, these economic reports are consistent with the stagflationary environment that economists were predicting a few months ago: mediocre growth, a weakening labor market, and rising prices.” If Trump were confident in public support, would he be asking his red state minions to “eliminate Democrat voters” and gerrymander their districts? Exactly!

I’m Peter Dekom, and, without even looking at the DOD, in answer to my title question, as the malignant chickens come home to roost, “not good, actually really bad.”

Rule of Law vs Rule by Law

 

Rule of Law vs Rule by Law

When Autocracy replaces Democracy

When George Washington first led the nation, he was faced with a monumental task, one rather unfamiliar in his era: governing a nation as a democracy. He refused to serve more than two terms, rejected the possibility of being named “king,” and showed a particular distaste for political parties. As the Constitution gave him the power to appoint federal judges for lifetime appointments, he required the “advice and consent” of the Senate… and little more. There were no subcommittee screenings; it was straight up and down Senate vote. Washington believed such votes should only be focused on the nominee’s character (generally assumed to be good), eschewing pollical affiliation and a detailed analysis of the nominee’s political biases. He found the British party-driven Parliament to be deeply antidemocratic.

By the time FDR became president, there were Senate Judiciary Committee reviews, and the generally accepted notion was that Republicans nominated Republican judges, and Democrats nominated Democratic judges. FDR appoint eight Supreme Court Justices over his twelve years in office, the most of any president. While his appointments helped him make wartime restrictions that were hardly democratic, the Court often disagreed with him, frequently limiting the reach of his New Deal, for example.

Today, despite a (mis-)belief of judicial neutrality, a study (reported in the February 20, 2024 Public Law Library) conducted by Harvard Law Professor, Alma Cohen, “examined 630,000 federal appeals court cases from 1985 to 2020. Cohen found that party affiliation had a far-reaching impact on decisions, beyond just controversial issues like gun control or abortion. She concluded that judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents consistently differed in their tendency to side with the weaker party.

“Cohen’s research revealed that panels with more Democratic judges were more likely to make decisions favoring individuals in civil litigation against institutions like corporations or the government. The same pattern emerged in criminal appeals, immigration appeals, and prisoner litigation. In fact, an all-Democratic panel was twice as likely to rule in favor of immigrants in immigration cases as an all-Republican panel… Critics of previous studies that examined the partisan differences among judges argued that unpublished decisions were not taken into account. However, Cohen’s work showed similar partisan effects among both published and unpublished decisions, as well as unanimous and divided panels.”

Who creates the laws, and their reference points and political, legal or cultural limitations determine rule of or by the law. A theocracy, like Iran, elevates Quranic law, as interpreted by Shia’s highest theologians above any laws created by human beings. Germany’s Nazi Party also had a legal system, but its laws were applied to amplify individual power and the party of the Fuhrer himself. When the law emanates from a single leader, one who cannot be contained by a judicial system, that is clearly rule by law. The LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation determined that “rule of” requires examination of four core values, noting that “The stronger each of these components are, the greater the rule of law.

• Equality Under the Law - All people, businesses and governments are accountable, and the law applies to everyone in the same way, no matter who you are.
• Transparency of Law - Laws must be clear, precise, affordable and accessible while protecting fundamental human rights.
• Independent Judiciary - An independent judiciary ensures equality and fairness of law between people and public officials.
• Accessible Legal Remedy - There must be access to timely resolution in a court of law.”

It is little wonder, then, a move to autocracy almost always starts with the wannabe dictator’s attack on the judiciary. It can be personal attacks on individual judges… or attacks on the “integrity” judicial decisions. If a government can simply ignore a judicial decision or appoint judges who are merely rubber stamps to the determination of a unilateral authority, that system of government cannot protect its citizens from the arbitrary application of the law, an essential trait for “Rule of.” Recent decisions of Trump’s reconfigured Supreme Court reflects partisanship on steroids and an overt deference to a single, supreme authority figure: The President.

That Court has handed down decisions that allow the election process to be totally manipulated and distorted by purely partisan forces. Unless an election law names a protected class on its face, in 2019, in Rucho vs Common Cause, the Court ruled that while partisan gerrymandering may be "incompatible with democratic principles," the federal courts cannot review such allegations, as they present nonjusticiable political questions outside the jurisdiction of these courts. This case explains why Trump recently ordered red states to use gerrymandering to protect the GOP’s slim majority in the House. Texas leapt into action.

In 2021, the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Supreme Court all but repealed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The decision interpreted the "totality of circumstances" language of Section 2 to mean that it does not generally prohibit voting rules that have disparate impact on the groups that it sought to protect, including a rule blocked under Section 5 before the Court inactivated that section in Shelby County v. Holder (a 2013 case that released states with traditional patterns of racial voter discrimination from federal oversight).

A little over a year ago, in Trump vs United States, the Court held that presidential immunity from criminal prosecution presumptively extends to all of a president's "official acts" – with absolute immunity for official acts within an exclusive presidential authority that Congress cannot regulate such as the pardon, command of the military, execution of laws, or control of the executive branch. Numerous subsequent decisions expanded presidential authority, at the expense of congressional power, to hold back funds approved by Congress and to have a very free hand in firing individuals in congressionally funded federal agencies under the executive branch. The Court will soon have to test whether the President’s mere statement of “emergency” conditions (without substantiation) would be sufficient to usurp Article I of the Constitution’s grant of setting taxes and tariffs to Congress.

We have also witnessed Trump-appointed administrators and lawyers find ways to twist and squirm to avoid federal court orders, even from the Supreme Court itself, particularly in the realm of citizenship and immigration. To confuse matters further, on June 27, 2025, in Trump vs CASA, Inc, the Supreme Court held that federal district courts likely lack the authority to issue universal injunctions blocking presidential actions nationwide, a ruling that is likely to allow the Trump administration to continue enforcing executive orders or other policies despite legal challenges to their constitutionality.

Politicians follow trends, and judges are supposed to ignore trends and apply the law. Populists often prefer leaders to laws, believing that this path generates necessary efficiencies to effect their beliefs. Yet looking at major variables over time – studies have shown that metrics like economic growth, life expectancy and the encouragement of investment consistently show that democracies always outperform autocracies. Yet the zeal of populists and the frequent submissive inattention of most voters often decimates democracy and its obvious benefits.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is incumbent on those who understand what the rule of law means, to human rights and happiness, convey: it is not red vs blue, but democracy vs autocracy that is at issue today.

The Appeasement Game

 

The Appeasement Game

From Optics to Threats, to Perception of Autocratic Control to Actual Autocracy

Welcome to the rapid transition of the American democracy into a police state where rigging elections through gerrymandering has become a national pastime. While there is a tendency for leaders who truly do not study history to repeat its mistakes, my personal adjustment to that circular view adds a third dimension to account for paradigm shifts not faced by prior generations. The result of that additional variable – which can account for the impact of major climate change, nuclear weapons, crypto, artificial intelligence, etc. – creates a spiral of history. Today’s blog focuses on one oft repeated leadership failure, the fallback to repeating failed policies because the soundbites always appear believable – like if you give rich people tax cuts they will trickle down those savings to create lots of new jobs or if you just give an egotistical tyrant what he wants, he will smile and go away – but litter the path of dire failure under the consistent harsh light of history. Trump has become the “great repeater of historical mistakes.”

The world has struggled numerous times with nations, led by obsessed autocrats, that have collapsed because of unsustainable inflexible decisions. Nations that tamper with statistical reporting – like China, Argentina, Greece, etc. – because autocrats or wannabe autocrats don’t like the numbers, discover the hard way that they cannot repeal global economic rules as their economies plummet into inflation (or worse, stagflation), unemployment and staggering interest rates. Dead messengers replaced by doctrinaire administrators never produce the autocrat’s desired results. Appeasing an autocrat – are you listening House Republicans and the US Supreme Court? – seldom tempers egotistical avariciousness. As universities and major law firms kowtowed to (appeased) Trump’s fabricated “war against antisemitism” to make absurd concessions, they were floored by the next round of massive Trump demands and his expansion to more universities.

Or, as Los Angeles Times columnist, Michael Hiltzik lamented on August 11th: “The rationale for some of Trump’s policies — social and economic — are mysterious. But a greater mystery is why these institutions have given in, sometimes without a whisper of defiance… The capitulation trend has encompassed some American institutions that made their names standing firm against authoritarianism. One is CBS, whose parent, Paramount Global, last month settled a $20-billion Trump lawsuit over the editing of an interview with Kamala Harris at ‘60 Minutes’ by paying $16 million, ostensibly to finance Trump’s presidential library.

“The settlement ‘resembled payment of an extortion-like penalty to the government for the standard editing’ of the Harris interview, Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for Leadership Studies and a leading professor at the Yale School of Management, wrote in the New Republic with two Yale colleagues… As my colleague Meg James reported , critics blasted the settlement, with one calling it a ‘spineless capitulation’ that would only embolden politicians and others to ‘weaponize lawsuits and bring regulatory pressure to bear to silence and censor independent journalism.’” Naïve spinelessness is appeasement’s best friend.

We have a President, who is admittedly not a deep thinker or reader of anything, believing his negotiating skills have produced instincts that make deals happen, counting on his perception of his personal connection to other world leaders (usually just a wishful figment of his imagination) under his whimsical and often random, shifting policies, frequently based on statements of “facts” that, on examination, prove to be totally fabricated. As Trump bobs and weaves, unable to implement his promise to end the Russo-Ukraine war on “day one,” or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, he is played by savvy opponents on the “other side.” Vladimir Putin has not altered his position one whit since the invasion began, and Benjamin Netanyahu no longer cares what Trump wants, because the US just keeps that weapons flow to Israel unabated.

Sanctions have only solidified Putin’s resistance – Russians have long history of enduring sacrifice to the Motherland – but Trump believes that tariff pressure on Russia’s major fossil fuel buyers (like India) will get to him. As a huge Indian sentiment pushed back on Trump, not Putin, shows, that pressure is unlikely to work… while alienating a major ally and trading partner in the process. If Trump were to supply Ukraine with massive new offensive capabilities and begin the process of considering Kyiv for NATO membership (in very close cooperation with all NATO allies), after an initial Russian level violent showmanship and bluster, perhaps peace could actually stand a chance. Putin is very aware that in search of personal glory, Trump is open to appeasing him more.

WWII, British PM Neville Chamberlin (pictured above with Adolph Hitler) made serial territorial concessions to that German tyrant, hoping for peace, until Germany continued its expansionist effort by invading and conquering Poland in 1939. Chamberlin was out, Winston Churchill took over, and WWII began as a total, out-of-control global conflict. Chamberlain, the appeaser, was replaced by exceptionally well-schooled and experienced Churchill, the pragmatist. Spine won!

Trump depends heavily on perception, noting that most of his policy choices are not aimed at the betterment of the nation but instead are focused with making him look good. His obsession with being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is obviously more important to him than creating pragmatic and sustainable solutions to global issues. His efforts towards increasing the US’ global influence have consistently backfired. Our closest allies are bewildered by his tariff attacks on them. As he gloated about the total “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program – restarted literally within weeks of the big attack – his statements on the good time for a regime change in Tehran were countered by a huge groundswell of support for the repressive theocracy by every stratum of the Iranian public.

Like most autocrats, Trump is addicted to demonizing his opponents, efforts usually devoid of facts, and embracing using the military, in contravention of the law, to invade blue cities (like Los Angeles and Washington, DC) under clearly false pretexts. A big ($30M) military parade and the visual of federal troops taking over police duties are touted as proof of his commitment to “law and order.” The same President who pardoned insurrectionists who seriously injured and killed federal police officers charged with protecting the US Capitol. The same President who cut $811 billion under his Big Beautiful Bill that would have gone to bolster local police with equipment and manpower upgrades.

Trump’s own cabinet appointments, unqualified apparatchiks – like HHS head RFK, Jr who may just have doomed millions of Americans by imposing his antivaxx conspiracy theory to kill research for the exceptionally successful expansion of mRNA vaccines or DOD chief Pete Hegseth’s open embrace of white Christian nationalism and belief that women should only be allowed to vote as their husbands determine – have increased Trump’s control to an absurd level of destructiveness. Who is he kidding?

I’m Peter Dekom, and perhaps Trump’s new show of force in Washington, DC will finally serve as a distraction from his failure to deflect the Epstein scandal… but that won’t stop him from trying no matter what!

As Kryptonite is to Superman, Truth is to Trump

  

As Kryptonite is to Superman, Truth is to Trump

“If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just did it because they didn’t like the numbers, they ought to grow up.” 

Retiring Senator Thom Tillis (R/NC) at Trump’s firing of the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for simply reporting job numbers Trump did not like.

Lying with statistics is just a start. It’s why I tell people looking at financial statements that are filed on their favorite companies, even those filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, read the footnotes first! It’s bad enough when Chief Financial Officers of publicly traded companies move income and expenses back and forth from various tax years to make the numbers look good, but when they intentionally ignore a serious financial reality, you often can see that distortion admitted in writing in the footnotes. Trust me, it can take a rosy picture and turn it into a red alert horror show.

We seem to have a proclivity to disguise deception under the concept of transparency. And no one has done it better than Donald John Trump. Maybe that’s just the way real estate developers in NYC have to be. Trump’s voluminous litigation and bankruptcy history suggests, however, that he relies way more than others on denial, blame, deflection and deception – the legacy of being Fred’s son and Roy Cohn’s protégé. Until the Epstein debacle, he was the Teflon MAGA messiah. But today, with Epstein questions raging, he seems to be wrapped in molasses and rolling in dirt.

There’s nothing new in Trump’s approach to facts. He’s addicted to braggadocio and self-aggrandizement and frequently labels as “fake news,” ready to shoot the messenger, any fact that contradicts him or casts him in a negative light. His ultimate prerequisite for someone to be allowed inside his inner circle (I don’t think he has any actual friends), his measure of loyalty is absolute adherence to “whatever I say, even if I contradict myself.” His most cherished inner circle are those able to spin, deflect and disguise facts to create overwhelming proof of his undying correctness. That he has been wrong most of the time of late did not, until recently, matter.

Remember when he was scheduling tariff “Liberation Day,” he pulled out this huge chart (pictured above) of what tariffs should be? Unless you understood the crass manipulation, you could not make heads or tails of the numbers. They certainly did not reflect the tariffs other nations charged on importing US goods; they had this mysterious cast about them. Turns out his lackies figured out how to add a trade imbalance variable into the tariff equation, intending to punish countries where we bought more than we exported to the designated country. Well not always, as Trump actually levied a punitive tariff on Brazil (a country with which we actually had a trade surplus) because Brazil’s Trump-equivalent ex-president (Jair Bolsonaro) was being prosecuted in Brazil for his Trump-like policies.

Well, if you think about a trade deficit in common sense terms, how could any nation that sold us goods at a good lower price, where we actually received those goods, be cheating us? Huh? Like a department store having a sale is cheating its customers by not charging them a higher price? But Trump loves it when his lackies figure out how to spin a huge benefit to Americans as a really bad thing. It’s OK to tariff iron and aluminum big time, even though for every one US iron or aluminum worker benefitted by such tariff, five US workers in industries that used such metal in their manufacturing work lost their jobs. The whole notion that the tariffed nations paid the tariff was also a boldface lie that sounded good. In fact, tariffs are de facto sales taxes.

But what happens when the most basic standards of performance are so distorted that they become meaningless, except for hapless civilians who tend to believe anything if it is in writing. Nothing has bolstered truly fake news and misdirected conspiracy theories like the Internet. And with AI fake imagery and sound, the truth is increasingly difficult to find. And no one has focused on rewriting history and factual occurrences more than Donald Trump. He’s actually convinced a very large part of his base that historical accuracy is “woke.” For example, as reported in the August 1st People Magazine, “After Donald Trump's administration seized control of the Smithsonian Institution's messaging in March, the iconic museum network has been accused of rewriting history.

“On July 31, The Washington Post reported on the recent change to an exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History titled ‘The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden.’ A section of the display is dedicated to the U.S. presidents who have faced impeachment, and includes information about Andrew Jackson, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. (While Jackson and Clinton were successfully impeached, Nixon resigned the presidency before getting to that point.).” Embarrassed, the Smithsonian suggested that there might be an update soon.

Trump’s most consistent weak spot is “numbers.” Numbers of people attending rallies. Analyzing Jerome Powell and the Fed’s interest rate decisions. And, most recently, the stock market plunged twice in one day (August 1st): one dip because corporate America believes Trump’s tariff and trade war is a disaster for business planning, prices and jobs in this country, and another dip because by simply reporting what hundreds of Bureau of Labor Statistics staffers based on thousand of data points had generated, showing adjusted job losses to be much worse than expected, Trump fired the director of that bureau calling such solid statistics “phony” without a shred of evidence. Faith in transparency in government statistics and the consistent application of the rule of law is precisely why the US economy is (was?) so highly regarded by the international marketplace. But purging anything that looks bad has become the obsession of a man beginning to show some disturbing signs of dementia. Still, his lackies seek to placate him.

For example, even though Gross Domestic Product – the monetary measure of the total market value [1] of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country [2] or countries – is used to analyze relative economic success, sometimes politicians may have so distorted an economy that reporting GDP would make Trump look bad. For example, government spending is a huge part of our GDP, but when DOGE shut down government agencies, fired tens of thousands of federal employees and slashed federal spending on non-military costs (often supported by a Congressional affirmation of such cuts), the Trump administration contemplated substituting GDP numbers in a way that would hide the impact of those costs.

Last March, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that government spending should be “separated from gross domestic product reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn… ‘You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,’ Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ ‘They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.’

“Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the U.S. economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can impact the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists.” Associated Press, March 2nd. Donald Trump is the least truthful US president in our recorded history, and the chickens, ducks and geese are coming home to roost.

I’m Peter Dekom, and what happens when virtually an entire political party knowingly embraces the falsehoods of their party leader, who is increasingly evidencing mental symptoms far more severe than the psychological issues Trump hurled at his predecessor?

Epstein Distractions that are Working – DC Takeover & Illegal Proposed Russa-Ukraine Swap MEAT

 

Epstein Distractions that are Working – DC Takeover & Illegal Proposed Russa-Ukraine Swap MEAT

The news around the world is scary and truly weird. Trump has been desperately trying to get national attention off the Jeffrey Epstein scandal; he has failed to deliver the proof of a deep state conspiracy of Democratic pedophiles he promised his base. His efforts at erasing cultural and legal reflections from government websites have not distracted his MAGA followers. Some nasties he hoped would slide by have, however, almost worked. Like the website, Constitution.Congress.gov – operated by the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office – which mysteriously rejected user efforts to access key provisions of our Constitution that would embarrass him when users attempt to view Article I, Section 9 and Article I, Section 10. The missing text provides constitutional limits on federal and state powers, and references to habeas corpus, a safeguard that allows persons to challenge their detention in court. That was largely ignored by the public… but it didn’t move the needle on “Epstein.” The “inadvertent error” will be corrected.

But the distraction efforts continued – aided by strange pronouncements from HHS’ RFK, Jr effectively ending mRNA vaccine research and DOD head Pete Hegseth using his office to champion white Christian nationalism and declaring that women should not have the vote (unless it aligns with their husband’s vote) – and still did not turn voter heads much. Israel’s discussions with South Sudan to take “voluntary” Gazan to a new homeland in that desolate and war-torn nation, nominally moving forward Trump’s now abandoned vision of turning Gaza in a giant beach resort did not distract from Epstein either. Trump just kept trying.

Accusing former President Barack Obama of treason or firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because of bad employment numbers or imposing more absurd tariffs did not marginalize the Epstein narrative. Nevertheless, in the end, an unprepared self-declared “peace enabler” and a lover of military showcasing, TV celebrity and current president, Donald Trump continued, desperately, trying to diminish that focus on the Epstein scandal… Finally, he just may have found that distraction. Two-fold: first, using fabricated statistics, Trump activated a provision of Washington, DC’s Home Rule statute to send federal and federalized troops and officers to take over that city, preying on an national anti-crime sentiment with his usual extreme exaggeration: “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.”

Second, with the Russo-Ukraine war seemingly escalating, his scheduled meeting with Vladimir Putin in Russia’s former colony of Alaska (sold to the US in 1867) moved to the global center stage (which made Putin smile). Social and traditional media took the bait, and the Epstein controversy subsided, at least for now. Trump has worked hard, now that he has effective distraction, to lower expectations over that summit. To him and Department of State Secretary Marco Rubio, they will “listen” a lot. Really? That does not sound like the Donald. Trump suggested some “land swaps” between Ukraine and Russia, mostly over Russian occupied Ukrainian territories, should be expected, a position resisted by both European leaders (who share land borders with Russia) and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump, the real estate developer believes there’s always a deal to be made; his transaction world is talking. But as Samya Kullab, writing for the August 13th Associated press reminds us, this war is not a real estate deal: “A peace deal that requires Kyiv to accept swapping Ukrainian territory with Russia would not only be deeply unpopular. It also would be illegal under its constitution.

“That’s why President Volodymyr Zelensky has categorically rejected any deal with Moscow that could involve ceding land after President Trump suggested such a concession would be beneficial to both sides, ahead of his meeting Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska… Zelensky said over the weekend that Kyiv ‘will not give Russia any awards for what it has done,’ and that ‘Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.’ The remarks came after Trump said a peace deal would involve swapping of Ukrainian territories by both sides ‘to the betterment of both.’

“For Zelensky, such a deal would be a disaster for his presidency and spark public outcry after more than three years of bloodshed and sacrifice by Ukrainians. Moreover, he doesn’t have the authority to sign off on it, because changing Ukraine’s 1991 borders runs counter to the country’s constitution… For now, freezing the front line appears to be an outcome the Ukrainian people are willing to accept.” But that’s just a ceasefire. Maybe that’s enough, even permanent ambiguity, to stop the war… Trump is touting the Anchorage meeting as a triumph before it happens… but rogue Putin, a wanted war criminal, gets to stand center stage with the American President… a position that seems to reward toxic greed-driven invasion and conquest.

Sanctions, even against large nations still buying Russian oil, are unlikely to bring Putin to back down; Putin has not changed his position since the war began. Trump, meanwhile, has been all over the map. If Trump really wants to pressure Putin, it seems that furnishing serious new offensive weapons to Ukraine may be the minimum necessary to get Putin to pay attention.

The Russian dictator has seriously increased his attacks against Ukrainian civilian targets in anticipation of the Alaska meeting. All over Russia, since the announced Anchorage summit, commentators are reminding Putin that in the eyes of many Russians, the Tsar did not have the right to sell Russian territory to anyone… and Putin should demand that US relinquish its claim and return that state to Mother Russia. Appeasing Putin begs for him to ask for more! And if this doesn’t look good enough to the American people, “Epstein” is an easy fallback for them.

I’m Peter Dekom, and Barack Obama’s failure to challenge Putin’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, combined with Trump’s history of appeasing Vladimir Putin, continues to play into the hands of a violent dictator-aggressor… and America still look weak and ineffective against him.

As the Trump Administration Blunders Its Alliances and Military Preparedness, China Prepares for War

 

As the Trump Administration Blunders Its Alliances and Military Preparedness, China Prepares for War

As the Trump administration has prioritized purging non-white heroes and cultural references from our military (websites, camp and fort names, historical exhibits, etc.) our ex-Fox talk show host and former Marine major – aka our Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, whose very limited leadership past is plagued with failure and alcohol – has been unable to present the details of his military budget to Congress. Hegseth is instead obsessed instead with his “anti-woke” crusade, eliminating women from combat and leadership positions in our military and weeding out flag and other senior experienced combat officers from the ranks because they served under a Democratic president or he believes they may have leaked matters to the press.

His own track record of security missteps – like using a below-grade civilian platform to include purportedly sensitive briefings, including confidential materials and one where a journalist was inadvertently included – is an unforgiveable list. Morale among our senior officers has crashed and burned as Mr Macho, Hegseth, who prefers showmanship with enlisted soldiers in training… by participating in the muscular show. Stating and restating the Trumpian line that the recent B2 bombing in Iran had “obliterated” that nation’s nuclear enrichment program – as Israeli intelligence quickly proved was hardly the case – was clear evidence that our military, with lots of truly passed- over qualified officers, was being led by the most unqualified Defense/War Secretary in American history.

Our military has enough issues without the absence of real leadership. We have built our preparedness for combat against large comparable armies, only recently shifting some focus to existing in world of small nation/terrorist groups successful application of asynchronous warfare… where inexpensive drones and hit-and-run tactics have been successful against American forces. We have seven active fleets (built around large aircraft carriers) deployed across the planet, and while we currently have a quality advantage against China, that nemesis nation and our largest trading partner, has the largest navy on earth… updating and modernizing every day. They have taken to patrolling international waters, sometimes with Russian naval vessels, claiming many of these sea lanes as their own. Chinese naval forces and their significant land and air forces are focused mostly in their Asian sphere of influence. We are spread thin with global deployment.

It appears that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his Peoples’ Liberation Army to be prepared for a full-on invasion and occupation of the Republic of China (that small island nation we call Taiwan) by 2027. Without relevant historical precedent, has claimed that Taiwan has been and always will be a Chinese territory, and that Beijing is its only legitimate political government. PLA naval and air patrols have challenged US Navy ships and aircraft, as the United States refuses to recognize China territorial and sea claim, vowing to protect Taiwan from invasion. But with the Trump/Hegseth reconfigured US military, Trump’s on-again/off-again taunting of NATO and other military “allies,” and his downright effort to use tariffs to bully our once-best allies into submission, there is every reason to believe that the United States, without NATO support, will have little help in defending Taiwan… or any of our other regional allies (e.g., South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, etc.) against Chinese aggression.

Aside from deploying more traditional “large force” weapon systems, modernizing the PLA with alarming speed, China is now building a unique large-scale invasion fleet, very much tailored to an assault on Taiwan. Take a good look at the above images: one showing how the entire invasion system would work, and the others showing the actual finished products, now being mass-produced in China’s Guangzhou Shipyards by the CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering Company (COMEC). What you see are a new category of high-capacity (troops, tanks, etc.) seagoing barges, which link up into a single file landing structure that rapidly become an anchored port and a series of mobile bridges, all designed to support a large-scale amphibious assault, obviously targeting Taiwan.

“The barges, dubbed ‘Shuiqiao’—Mandarin for ‘water bridge’—barges, are notable for their jack-up legs and bridges that extend nearly 400 feet. These features allow multiple barges to be connected, forming a single long span, as seen in images and video shared by military enthusiasts on Chinese social media… A Shuiqiao barge functions as a temporary pontoon. Tanks and other armored vehicles ferried to the coast by China's roll-on/roll-off ships could drive over the bridge and disembark farther inland, bypassing heavily defended beaches…

“‘It reflects a deliberate effort to simulate Taiwan's northeast coastline, particularly areas like Yilan County and New Taipei City, where rugged, less-defended beaches could offer the PLA an asymmetric opening,’ Bryce Barros, associate fellow with GLOBSEC think tank, told Newsweek... ‘This suggests the PLA may be preparing to rapidly disembark vehicles, troops, and supplies near the capital [Taipei] if a beachhead can be secured,’ he added… The barges, however, would be highly vulnerable without established air and sea superiority and could still face threats from Taiwanese drones and portable missile launchers like the Javelin, Barros said, pointing to Ukraine's defense against invading Russian forces as an example.” Newsweek, August 1st.

But as China tightens its military relationship with Russia, now quite experienced in defending and attacking using drones based on its Ukraine experience, and North Korea, having refined its drone manufacturing technology as it has assisted Russia in that effort against Kyiv, you can bet that they will be well-prepared to counter and deploy drones if and when they actually invade Taiwan. It is well-recognized that Xi believes the United States in unraveling under the whimsical leadership of Trump and his clown car cabinet… and soon may well be so isolated and dysfunctional that the US would be unable to defend Taiwan against anything. Unfortunately, he may be right.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there is a price to pay, beyond the loss of democracy, under a conspiracy-theory-spouting autocrat who is thoroughly unprepared to lead the United States in a time of crisis.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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