Who Are We? Bravery Begets Brave vs Fearfulness Begets Fear

 

Who Are We? Bravery Begets Brave vs Fearfulness Begets Fear

“A society in which judges are routinely made to fear for their own safety or their own livelihood due to their decisions is one that has substantially departed from the norms of behavior that govern in a democratic system.” 

 Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in an early May speech in Puerto Rico and on her Website.

"JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others." 

Cardinal Robert Prevost wrote, in response to Vance’s belief in ‘ordo amoris’ (the hierarchy of who gets your love in what order). Prevost is now Pope Leo XIV

We live in an era where the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, appointed by the President ostensibly to purge waste and fraud from the federal government, instead reinforces his notion that the rich should rule, not support governmental agencies that address pain, starvation and poverty, and where taxes only encourage waste. Decried for Musk’s selfish, insensitive approach, the former richest man in the world, Bill Gates, announced that he intended to dissipate virtually the entirety of his foundation’s $200 hundred billion within the next two decades in support of combating disease, lack of access to potable water, starvation and poverty. His efforts failed to convince the self-centered Musk, who used his appointment to generate more federal contracts for his companies at the expense of his competitors. Musk’s destruction of USAID, a modest-cost federal agency that spread food, medication and education to those clinging to life at the edge of subsistence, was clearest evidence of the triumph of rich selfishness.

The vectors of insensitivity, manipulation, fabrication and, most of all, intimidation exemplified by tangible acts of retribution and persecution, define our system of governance today. As high-profile law firms and universities tumbled like dominoes, that intentional ripple of fear and blind compliance became a self-enforcing tsunami that resonated across the entire nation. The goal, quite obviously, was to foment fearfulness… to beget fear and subjugation. It worked… until…

A counterforce of bravery, exemplified by powerful players from Harvard University, Perkins Coie, plus a growing alliance of colleges and universities, blue state attorneys general, but the forces of darkness continue to revile and ignore the Constitution and deploy government agencies as personal instruments of retribution, control and vendetta. Writing for the Raw Story, May 8th, Krystina Alarcon Carroll writes of the blanket of fear that Trump has wrapped above the entire Republican constituency on Capitol Hill: “ ‘Republican politicians face threats of violence if they oppose [President Donald Trump],’ but a New York Times guest essay, published Thursday [5/8] morning , claims that shouldn’t stop them from trying.

“Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt are the three political scientists who wrote the essay. They study how democracies come to an end… America has, with stunning speed, descended into a world in which opponents of the government fear criminal investigations, lawsuits, tax audits, and other punitive measures…. The writers added, ‘Even Republican politicians are, as one former Trump administration official put it , ‘scared’ out of their minds ‘‘about death threats.’’… These threats against Republicans aren’t stopping. According to the writers, ‘Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) reported that the F.B.I. warned him of ‘credible death threats’ while he was considering opposing Pete Hegseth’s nomination as secretary of defense.’… They believe, ‘Republican lawmakers have abdicated their role as checks on executive power.’”

For me, even as so many Republican members of Congress are beginning to realize they are caught in an election vice – the MAGA base will vote to defeat them just as the once friendly body of independents is defecting and depriving these politicians of the need majority – they face a midterm that will only be lost by Democratic incompetence. There are legislative vectors, focusing on eliminating as many pro-Democratic voters with new voting rules as an example, to a possible extreme in having Donald Trump declare some sort of national emergency to delay or cancel those elections.

A culture war obsession – anti-DEI efforts and purported antisemitism – is MAGA’s defining tool against opponents. “Woke” continues to be used as generic condemnation of everything they disagree with, and their loyalty to Trump, even as the economy devolves around them, is difficult to comprehend. People with manifest antipathy for Jews use antisemitism as an autocratic tool.

Self-righteous rightwing propaganda has elevated MAGA to expect the rest of the world to follow suit. The Department of State, in building a new embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, demanded that that nation’s DEI mandate for workers be stopped for the construction…and the entire city. JD Vance criticized Germany, once destroyed by Nazis, for limiting a neo-Nazi political movement under the notion of “free speech,” odd coming from the party of censorship. The request was rejected by Sweden out of hand, just as Louisiana eliminated school segregation bans and various states and federal agencies are suing private employers for discriminating against white hires. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma public schools, the texts teach that the 2020 US presidential election was “stolen.”

But there are good signs, as Carroll continues, noting her cited authors “do see ‘signs of an awakening.’… This includes Harvard’s refusal ‘to acquiesce to administration demands that would undermine academic freedom.’ They also pointed to Microsoft’s drop of a law firm that settled with the administration and hired one that defied it… ‘When the most influential members of civil society fight back, it provides political cover for others. It also galvanizes ordinary citizens to join the fight.’… They ended by saying, ‘America’s slide into authoritarianism is reversible. But no one has ever defeated autocracy from the sidelines.’”

We’ve seen it in Poland, and there is rustling in Hungary and Turkey… and in a way we’re lucky Trump’s economic plans are/were a disaster from inception; there are now enough anti-Trump Americans who will no long tolerate his bumbling, self-aggrandizing autocratic decisions and leanings! What we cannot stop now, we hopefully will have midterms to end this terror then. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and I have to believe that most Americans won’t allow themselves to be pushed around by an overweight rabble rouser-fraudster from NYC.

The Slow Erosion of the American Economy Goes into A Trump Led Hyper-Plunge

 

Homeless encampment in Portland, Oregon

The Slow Erosion of the American Economy Goes into A Trump Led Hyper-Plunge

Unsustainable

“Yesterday felt like we were somewhere along the line of a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ with regards to the U.S. fiscal situation. Hard to know where in that thousand we are but probably much nearer a thousand than at zero even as yesterday saw an initial sell-off reverse as the session went on… At the end of the day the loss of the final U.S. triple-A rating late on Friday night doesn’t change anything much immediately but it keeps the drip, drip, drip of poor fiscal news building up against the debt sustainability dam in the background.”

Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid in Fortune Magazine, May 19th.

There are so many miscalculations about the American economy over the years, assumptions about what must change while ignoring many of the elements that Congress won’t change. After his trade and DOGE “efficiency” efforts have created the most unstable stock market and rapidly rising interest rates in recent memory, Donald Trump fabricates numbers reflecting falling costs of ordinary products that no one anywhere in the United States can find. “Heading into this year, many analysts argued that one of the biggest risks to stocks would be a jump in Treasury yields if Republicans passed tax cuts without offsetting their cost.” Sam Goldfarb for the Wall Street Journal, May 19th.

Oh, and treasuries are reflecting those higher yields already, a fact which is already rippling through the consumer debt marketplace. As Diana Olick, writing for the May 19th NBC News reports: “After several weeks of sitting stagnant, mortgage rates surged higher Monday following Moody’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating… The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed loan hit 7.04% on Monday, according to Mortgage News Daily. That is the highest level since April 11.”

Trump “also” wants to reduce taxes. Federal income taxes are hardly the highest ever charged. In 1944, for example, the highest tax bracket, for income over $200,000, we 94%. Over the next three decades, the top federal income tax rate remained high, never dipping below 70 percent until, until the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 slashed the highest rate from 70 to 50 percent and indexed the brackets for inflation. Compared to most of the developed world, which the Republicans decry as “socialism” (a dramatic misuse of that word, which means government ownership of wealth, land and industry), our tax rates for the rich have been modest.

Programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are social benefits, often earned by taxpayer contributions, but are no more “socialism” than public primary and secondary schools. One of the great failures of “denial financing” is the rash assumption that the basis for funding programs like Social Security, originally premised on working Americans supporting retirees, would never change. But in what some have called the “graying of America” combined with the lowest US birth rates ever recorded (well below replacement numbers), that 45 workers-per-retiree ratio right after WW2 has fallen to under 3 active workers-to-retiree.

But we never see that reality accepted by Congress! Republicans’ vocabulary describing these GOP-hated programs ranges from “entitlements,” “giveaways” and “creeping socialism.” Though Republicans fight like cornered badgers against resorting to the general tax base in support of these most popular programs, they are completely focused on simply cutting the benefits. And as that disastrous “Big Beautiful” income tax bill forces its way out of a constipated Republican-led House of Representatives, all in order to pass Donald Trump’s pledge of massive tax cuts that almost entirely benefit corporations and mega-wealthy individuals, in a most populous way, he demands that Social Security, Medicare and mostly what is becoming a GOP sacrificial lamb, Medicaid, cannot be touched. Yet everyone knows that, outside of defense spending and paying the massive interest load on our national debt, without truly significant cuts to these programs, there is no way to implement those tax cuts without eviscerating them.

As Donald Trump continues to alienate most of the rest of the world, led by his trade/tariff wars, basically the “lenders” who buy the deficit’s underlying treasury notes, the global economy, are beginning to push back, demanding even higher interest returns on the perceived higher risk that rising deficit carries: “Economists have criticized politicians’ plans to reduce America’s national debt as too little, too late. But analysts are warning that the issue is now coming home to roost, with the once unshakeable confidence in the United States’ fiscal future beginning to erode.

“America’s national debt, which currently stands at more than $36.2 trillion, is increasingly rising on economists’ agendas. Their fear is that as the nation’s debt burden increases, alongside the interest payments to service the debt, the economy will not grow fast enough to sustain the spending… Such fears were reflected in a Moody’s downgrade of U.S. credit [mid-May] from Aaa to Aa1. Moody’s justified: ‘While we recognize the US’ significant economic and financial strengths, we believe these no longer fully counterbalance the decline in fiscal metrics.’” Eleanor Pringle, writing for the May 20th Fortune.

As House GOP demagogues scream about those non-working recipients accessing Medicaid as their de facto healthcare provider, they forget that the majority of working age individuals who rely on Medicaid are in fact employed. They just don’t make enough to afford insurance. The majority of those on Medicaid (the GOP’s primary target) live and work in red states. If the GOP succeeds in passing their proposed federal budget, between 8 and 13 million Americans will lose any healthcare. In fact, even a shallow dive into which states and which workers benefit most from the Biden era infrastructure and energy bills (which the GOP wants to repeal) tells you that Republicans seem to be going out of their way to screw their own constituents. This disproportionate pain will fall heavily on MAGA land:

“Republicans have described the ‘big, beautiful’ megabill they’re currently attempting to pass as a way to end ‘Green New Deal–style waste’ and ‘limit government spending to what actually helps Americans,’ ‘according to Brett Guthrie [R/Ky], the House Energy and Commerce Committee chair. The House’s Ways and Means Committee put its plans to ax the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate and energy programs under the heading ‘Working Families Over Elites.’ The class warfare–style language is familiar. Over the last several years, the right has reliably leveraged its faux populism against Biden’s climate and energy measures: Tax cuts for the rich are ‘pro-growth, pro-family, and pro-America,’ while the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, is ‘corporate welfare for progressive special interests.’

”They’re lying about the content of their megabill, and they’re plain wrong that climate and energy spending benefits only the wealthy. The most bizarre thing about the GOP’s war on alleged climate elites getting rich off the IRA, however, is that the main beneficiaries of Joe Biden’s trademark legislative achievement have actually been Republicans. Nearly three-quarters of investments spurred on by that bill have flowed to states that voted to make Trump president; two-thirds of those funds have come in the form of private-sector investments incentivized by the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax breaks for zero-carbon energy, advanced manufacturing, and more. This week, as House Republicans decide how quickly and thoroughly to dismantle the so-called ‘green new scam,’ the results will signal how committed GOP politicians are to snatching from their own constituents.” Kate Aronoff, writing for the May 20th New Republic.

This notion of cutting taxes to promote growth is an oft-repeated Republican fallacy that sounds good (incent the “job creators”) but has never ever worked. Trump’s 2017 cut in corporate taxes is the latest proof of that fallacy. Trump is instead cutting the most effective job creator this nation has ever known: quality education. Trump’s proposed tax cuts, under even the most conservative estimates, will add $3-5 trillion to our federal deficit. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and that “a rising tide will float all boats” is in fact “a rising tide will float all yachts.”

Man of the Poor and Vulnerable vs a Man of the Rich and Powerful

 

Man of the Poor and Vulnerable vs a Man of the Rich and Powerful

“Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 

 As Jesus said to his disciples, NT Matthew 19: 23-24

Bias admission: I was raised in the Episcopal/Anglican faith – I was even an altar boy – and my take on reading the New Testament was it was an amazing moral statement driven by a simple message: tolerance, humility, charity, not sitting in judgment of others, loving their fellow man, and giving kindness without preconditions are the fundamental values of anyone calling themselves a Christian. As Pope Francis, RIP, entreated his faithful to cherish God’s gift of the planet and everything in it by fighting climate change and pollution, too many evangelical pastors denied that climate change even existed (assuming their church wasn’t consumed in a hurricane or smashed by a tornado) and pushed their flock to take and use all of our environment, as God’s unlimited gift to man. “Drill, baby, drill,” and “God wants you to get rich.” Sorry pastors who believe that; the Bible is not a menu!

Our immigration policy is cruel and unforgiving, with many undocumented aliens shipped off to a hellish Salvadoran prison, simply by labeling them as violent gang members without a shred of proof. JD Vance, who calls himself a devout and practicing Roman Catholic, is anything but. To justify mistreating poor and vulnerable people, Vance had the temerity to challenge the Pope on what love meant… and that a moral Catholic could apply “love” to a defined class of people, without extending that love and Catholic principles to anyone else. “Vance … invoked the Catholic concept of ‘ordo amoris’—the order of love—to defend the White House’s mass deportation policies, claiming in January that the well-being of Americans trumped any concern for that of immigrants.

“Francis, the first and so far only Latin American pope, responded with a letter saying, ‘Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups… The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception,’ the February letter stated, pointedly criticizing mass deportation.” Hafiz Rashid, New Republic, April 21, 2025

It's the ability to discredit any attempt at dialog or political expression, without giving a response, by demonizing the speakers. How could a “bad” person have anything good to say? The master of marginalization by demonization is Donald Trump, and many of his senior MAGA allies have legitimized this vilification of anyone with an opposing political perspective. Writing for the April 23rd Huffington Post, Jillian Wilson, writes: “Most people grow out of name-calling by about the ninth grade — maybe 12th grade if you’re particularly immature. By that time, you’re likely aware that calling someone names is mean, aggressive and not actually a good way to create a positive change in a relationship… This can’t be said, though, for Donald Trump , who purposely name-calls (like when he labels his critics and opponents ‘haters ,’ ‘fake ,’ ‘bad people’ or ‘crazy’).

“Experts say this is a pointed strategy. ‘It’s demagoguery is what he’s doing,’ said Patricia Roberts-Miller, a professor emerita of rhetoric and writing who taught at the University of Texas at Austin… There’s lots that goes into demagoguery (more on that below), but to put it simply, it’s political rhetoric that uses emotions and prejudices to push forward an agenda.

“It’s proven to be an effective strategy for Trump, but is a clear red flag in what it reveals about the way he leads and views others. Here’s what to know: … Trump utilizes what’s known as an ‘ad hominem’ attack, said Jennifer Mercieca , a professor in the department of communication and journalism at Texas A&M University and author of ‘Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,’

“That’s a Latin word, and we have been studying ad hominem attacks since way back in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The word ad means ‘to’ and homonym means ‘the person’ or ‘the man,’ and so it is a distraction strategy in debate, meaning that you, instead of addressing whatever is the central issue of the debate, you reroute the audience’s attention to the person, and it is used ... to discredit the opposition,” said Mercieca.”

There is a clear set of benefits to the autocrat who relies on this tactic, such that it is a very typical approach for just about all dictators and dictator wannabes. Not only does it render what that evil person stands for, but if for any reason you might agree, that too makes you a fellow evil person. Wilson continues: “Ad hominem attacks may disqualify you from high school and collegiate debates, but Trump has successfully used them since 2015, according to Mercieca.

“In 2015, he used the term ‘low-energy’ to describe his political opponent Jeb Bush, and since then, you can likely think of countless derogatory terms he’s used to describe his opponents or critics — ‘sleepy Joe Biden,’ ‘crazy Nancy’ Pelosi and the ‘radical left,’ to name a few… ‘The fundamental reason why he does it is ... to discredit them, but also to reinforce the us versus them mentality and polarization,’ noted Mercieca.

“The ‘us versus them’ mentality, or ‘good guys’ versus ‘bad guys,’ is a huge part of Trump’s strategy and has become popular among many of his supporters, too, Mercieca added… ‘It allows people to deride the opposition. They’re illegitimate. We shouldn’t consider what they have to say. We’ll just mock them,’ she said… Trump also uses ‘whataboutism’ to deflect, Roberts-Miller said. He does this by bringing up the alleged past mistakes of the ‘bad guys.’.. ‘It’s called the bad math of demagoguery,’ she explained. ‘If I can find anything that a member of your group did that’s bad, it erases anything bad on the part of my group.’” Even if that “bad thing” is an “ends justify the means” total fabrication.

Meanwhile, a humble Pope, willing to kiss the feet of the poorest people he sees, eschewing the papal residence for more modest accommodations, embraces a vision of morality that appears to be the diametric opposite of everything Trump. I suspect he is the least likely prelate anywhere to be believe that God “anointed” Donald Trump to lead America.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am not sure how purported Gpd-fearing people can so embrace a code of immorality that contradicts the very faith they claim they are following… by the millions!

One Big Beautiful Destruction of Medical Care as We Know It

 

One Big Beautiful Destruction of Medical Care as We Know It

Decimation of Medicaid Support for the Poor & the Elderly

It’s actually called “THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” by the House Ways and Means Committee defined and sponsored a House “reconciliation bill” (where the Senate supermajority will not be required for a floor vote) is the omnibus super-bill reconciling the House approved federal budget with Trump and ultra-rightwing GOP hardliners who want major tax cuts for the rich. The “pro-business at all costs” is everywhere. It seems that the only Trumpy sacred cow remains tariff land.

You can see the trend of supporting business at every turn. The FCC is declawed from true regulation, focused on Trump critics and “woke” programming instead. NOAA and the EPA have been told that since there’s no such thing a “man-induced climate change,” they need to stop monitoring the obvious evidence of climate change. Worker safety (OSHA) has been downgraded. Criminal investigatory powers (DOJ, SEC, FBI, etc.) over a pile of white-collar crimes – from consumer fraud and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to violations of financial crimes arising from business fundraising – has been suspended or vastly reduced… but woe to individuals who protest against causes that Donald Trump supports and note how these agencies are now helping ICE pursue individual undocumented aliens. Trump tells Americans, tighten your belts! Anybody want a 13-year-old 747-8 fit for a king? King Trump, the Emir of Washington, D.C. The retrofit would be in the billions!

In short, ordinary citizens don’t matter much… unless the administration so oversteps is anti-individual, pro-business obsessions that GOP (really MAGA) members of Congress truly believe that if they don’t pay attention to some seminal federal programs and preserve (even expand) them – like Social Security, Medicare, Veterans’ benefits and, importantly, Medicaid – they will be blown out of office at the midterms (if those even take place). For GOP fiscal hardliners, they want our egregious deficit to stabilize and even be reduced (we’re spending almost a trillion dollars a year just paying interest on our deficit borrowings)… but extending the expiring 2017 corporate tax cut (which did not pay for itself or create tons of new, well-paying jobs as promised, instead adding trillions to the deficit), and adding even more trillions of new, additional tax cuts that tend overwhelmingly to benefit only the rich, are worth it for MAGA elected legislators.

Given the abysmal failure of Elon Musk’s DOGE to do much in the way of bona fide federal budget cutting – the final tally of his efforts suggest we would be lucky to get 3% of the two trillion dollars of cuts he originally proposed – the only way to scale back that federal budget is to slash defense spending (which is unthinkable to the GOP rightwing) and go for the federal social programs with a meat axe. Musk, probably the most hated man in the United States, is all for a major slash and burn of these social programs, calling Social Security a “Ponze scheme.” As Congress and DOGE tear away at the administrative staffing needed to make these programs work, pretending that they are leaving the underlying benefits intact, it is apparent that that such cuts are hardly enough. Since elderly voters form a significant part of the GOP base, and since Congress and the Trump administration hold America’s poor in particular disdain, the only programs that are vulnerable include food stamps (SNAP), school lunch programs and, most of all, Medicaid.

Medicaid is complicated, often including major state “opt-in” benefits, but has functioned as the nation’s safety net for the poor (including the working poor), the elderly (especially where nursing home care is required), and the disabled. Since the United States is the only developed country on Earth that does not have government-sponsored universal healthcare, millions of Americans are without insurance… and many of those rely on Medicaid to survive. But if the eligibility and work rule requirements (which have never worked anywhere where applied) that are part of this new House reconfiguration are enacted, as many as 13 million Americans will live without even this safety net.

It’s true that some states, like California, extend that safety net even to undocumented aliens… but some wise bureaucrats noticed that these workers, many of whom handle our food supply chain, could easily accelerate a pandemic that would take us all down if denied access to medical care. Ironically, it is the red states that have the largest proportion of Medicaid users, a fact not lost on Republicans facing reelection in 2026. Writing for the May 14th ABC News, Lauren Peller and John Parkinson tell us: “A growing number of House Republicans -- from moderates to hardliners -- are expressing grievances with key components of the megabill encompassing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda -- threatening to undercut the package’s momentum ahead of an expected vote late next week.

“Speaker Mike Johnson faces yet another critical test of his speakership and must corral his divided conference around the final reconciliation package in the House. Johnson can only afford to lose three GOP defections and currently there are enough lawmakers signaling opposition to stop the bill from advancing to the Senate… House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris called the Medicaid plan ‘a joke.’… ‘The proposal to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid will do little to achieve that. The common-sense work requirement for able-bodied adults doesn’t start for four years (into the next administration) and CAN BE WAIVED by any state for ‘hardship’ that they determine (and they will). What a joke. The swamp is real. And by the way…the federal government should NOT pay states more for able-bodied, working-age adults on Medicaid than it pays states for children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities on Medicaid,’ Harris said in a post on X…

“Republicans voted 30-24 to advance the bill to the House Budget Committee, which will tie together the 11 bills under reconciliation on Friday [5/9]… Ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Democrats put up a ‘good fight’ throughout the markup. Democrats held up photos and told emotional stories of their constituents who rely on Medicaid, warning that millions of Americans will go uninsured under the GOP plan… Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got into a testy exchange with GOP Rep. Randy Weber around 3 a.m. Wednesday [5/7] when she asked a question about consequences for those who had miscarriages under the proposal's new work requirements to receive Medicare.”

Yet, the bill covers more than just Medicaid. Writing for the May 14th Los Angeles Times, Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking explain: “House Republicans proposed sweeping tax breaks… in President Trump’s big priority bill, tallying at least $4.9 trillion in costs so far, partly paid for with cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs used by millions of Americans.

“The House Ways and Means Committee… seeks to extend the tax breaks approved during Trump’s first term — and boost the standard deduction, child tax credit and estate tax exemption — while adding new tax breaks on tipped wages, overtime pay, Social Security benefits and auto loans that Trump promised during his campaign for the White House.

“There’s also a tripling of the state and local tax deduction, called SALT, up to $30,000 from $10,000 for couples, which certain high-tax state GOP lawmakers from New York and California already rejected as too meager. Private universities would be hit with a hefty new tax on their endowments, as much as 21%, as the Trump administration goes after the Ivy League and other campuses. And one unusual provision would terminate the tax-exempt status of groups that the State Department says support ‘terrorists,’ which civil society advocates warn is a way to potentially punish those at odds with the Trump administration…

“On Sunday [5/11], House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of the package, with at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of the tax breaks… Although Republicans insist they are simply rooting out ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. In the 15 years since Obamacare became law, Medicaid has expanded as most states have tapped into federal funds.” The cuts to IRS staffing alone will cost us almost a trillion dollars, but rich folks won’t be able to be audited as much! Think of all those tenements in major urban areas homeless encampments are filled with healthy people? Think if an epidemic were to break out there, only they would be impacted? 

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you are not at least middle class in the United States (and even that may not be enough), the government policy of slamming the less affluent in our society generates a great big MAGA “meh” or even a Trumpy “screw you for being poor” look of disdain.

Hey America, You’ve Been Played… Again

 

Hey America, You’ve Been Played… Again

And Is Trump Mentally Impaired or a Stable Genius?

“It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.” 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D/NY)

Donald Trump has, for the most part, surrounded himself with the least qualified cabinet and subcabinet appointments in modern history with a disproportionate list of former Fox News reporters and anchors, each with strident MAGA views. Underscoring this reality is the “less than coincidental” sequential implementation of Project 2025 goals, which the President claims never to have read, and the fact is that Donald Trump and his merry band of conspiracy theorists seem to be following rather directly… or trying anyway with not a whole lot of meaningful resistance to stop him. Perhaps, we should look at the Project 2025 887-page agenda as the replacement for the US Constitution and note that it is being “implemented” by the weakest possible rule-making device: executive orders, which all too frequently step on congressional power and the clearest language of that languishing US Constitution.

We live in an era of massive “wink-wink” corruption, a mockery of the Constitution’s “emolument” limitations on “gifts” to the President and a transactional presidency where everything is a deal or an attempt to solidify power and silence critics. Gordon Gekko might have presented it this way: “A conflict of interest, for lack of a better term, is good.”

Do I think that interim Air Force One “gift” of a super-luxury tricked out Qatari 747-8 will actually be completed? Not really. As Trump described the craft and its potential future as AF-1, he sure used the words “I” and “me” a lot. That “Trump’s personal lawyer,” the Queen of retribution justice, signed off on the ethics of that proposed “gift” is no real solace; it seems that Ms Bondi, immediately before her appointment as this nation’s highest font of neutral and independent law enforcement, US Attorney General, served as a registered lobbyist for Qatar… at the modest rate of $115,000/month. This egregious “emolument” has drawn severe skepticism from both sides of the aisle. At a time when Trump is admonishing America to downsize into a “two doll” austerity move, his lust for outrageous luxury at any price is particularly absurd.

I am focusing on the recent grift today, but Trump’s legacy of taking US taxpayers for a ride is long and rife with outrageous examples, mirrored in amplified numbers by his appointed “grifter in search of fraud and waste” in chief, Elon Musk, whose rising revenues from federal contracts and decreased federal oversight are staggering. His Tesla losses are made up in all the other lucrative deals, and a man who apparently “saved taxpayers” 3%, if even that, of what he originally stated. And aside from making billions from his shares of Trump Media (which owns Truth Social), the former “sham” as Trump described it, crypto currency, has become another rather direct vehicle to enhance the Trump family wealth. “Want to know who, exactly, is putting millions of dollars, even tens of millions, directly into Donald Trump’s pocket through his ‘meme’ crypto coins, and what they want in return?

“Or whether his trip to the United Arab Emirates this week will include a visit with the state-backed firm that plans on using $2 billion of his ‘stable ‘ coin?... Well, too bad. According to the White House, none of that is any of your business… It truly is astounding, watching in real time as the president of the United States openly uses his office to enrich himself — the very definition of corruption — the way a third-world dictator might and, at least thus far, get away with it… ‘It’s like the government is for sale,’ said Norm Eisen, the top ethics lawyer in the Obama White House. ‘Trump is acting like some kind of a corrupt pirate or a medieval potentate.’” Huffington Post, May 11th. Trump’s cadre of press corps loyalists, replacing so many established news outlets, is indeed following their dear leaders habit of calling failure “success.”

But it’s all worth it, many might say. Trump’s tariff policies have scared even China and the UK into making tariff deals that benefit us all. Really? If you are buying a Rolls Royce, maybe, or if you were reeling from the proposed 145% US tariff on Chinese import and the 125% retaliatory tariff, perhaps… But the recently reduced tariffs to these two trading partners, albeit temporary, are still considerably higher that the tariff structures in place before Trump messed with the system. They still slam small businesses, and even with a few electronic and automotive components as well as essential minerals and construction/manufacturing necessities carve-outs; they still particularly hurt small businesses who, unlike the corporate behemoths, are unable to shift their supply chains with any efficiency. Indeed, Trump 1.0 claims of a liberal “war on Christmas” seems hypocritical as Trump’s de facto pricing policy (tariffs) seems like an even bigger war on Christmas.

The grift plan is to propose something outrageous, shooting from the hip and terrifying the world, and then reduce that outrageous to “less outrageous” (but still nasty) to make it look good. Yup, the stock markets always go up based on such “positive news,” but we are still worse off than during pre-Trump 2.0. Tout statistics that measure the past, where they make you look good… particularly since it takes months for the economy to reflect even big changes… and blame Biden where those numbers do not. Fabricating numbers, claiming obvious failures as mega – the best ever – success, and pretending that he accurately predicted everything that is happening (I meant to do that) when he certainly did not is Donald “flimflam man” Trump 101. Trump’s cadre of press corps loyalists, replacing so many established news outlets in the White House pressroom, are indeed following their dear leader’s habit of calling failure “success.”

But the bigger question, given Trump and his horrifically unqualified appointees, is whether there just might be more than just his narcissism, obsessive-compulsive and personality disorders at work here; is Trump’s increasing detachment from reality reflective of one more psychological issue: dementia? As news host, Jonathan Capehart noted after listening to the President: “"I wrote down this note immediately: why are we not talking about his mental acuity? How?" Barbara Comstock (R/VA) noted, "I mean he's talking about how it's great that those, right the [container] ships coming over are empty, that means we're saving money, it is literally economically illiterate."

"His own people –– look at Steve Moore, Heritage Foundation, a guy who opposes tariffs has been saying to people behind the scenes, actually, he's been saying it on Fox News, this is insane… You can tell –– Ken Griffin who gave money, huge money to Republicans last year, including Trump, has said this has made us 20 percent poorer in a month done permanent damage to the American brand and this isn't going to be something we can turn around from now. You know, and what he [Trump] does is he burns down the house and then he comes in and says, 'Oh, the market went up.' Well, no." Raw Story, May 13th. Ignorance? An obsessive-compulsive refusal to let go of even the most disastrous path, unable to live in the real world? Or one more mental issue: dementia?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you are not into the stock market or bitcoin, you can still feed Trump’s uncontained avarice by buying his expensive watches, over-priced sneakers or even his politicized Bible.

They’re Baaack… and Can Kill Your Credit Score

 

They’re Baaack… and Can Kill Your Credit Score

Gen Z vs Student Loan Repayments

Gen Z seem to be the new sacrificial lambs in Trump’s America. Even as many voted for Trump, the supporter of the new man-up machismo vs woke rising female power, they are facing absurdly higher housing costs, as those most junior in recent hires, they are the most likely to lose their jobs in the impending recession (a certainty for many of those in federal jobs), the cost of living is skyrocketing, interest rates are soaring and they are the most powerless adult generation in the nation. State legislatures and Congress have very few elected Gen Z representatives. And now, as icing on a poisonous cake, those student loans that were in a temporary freeze… are now officially unfrozen. If Republicans are to implement their massive tax cuts for the super-rich, anything that raises the deficit that can be cut is toast. Like unpaid student loans.

Student debt was not a significant number 50 years ago, but as the above NY times chart reflects, tuition increased over the years at triple the inflation rate, just as government cuts to scholarships fell. With higher interest rates, the aggregation of student debt quadrupled in the last 25 years. There is more student debt now than the totality of US credit card debt. Today, with the demise of the federal Department of Education, the rising resentment of “educated elites” by the MAGA masses and the direct assault by the Trump administration against prestigious research universities and their governmental funding, the writing was on the wall for all that accrued and hanging student debt. The new mandate, effectively pay or die, began on May 5th.

Writing for The Morning, NY Times News feed, May 5th, Stacy Cowley writes: “For five years, more than 40 million Americans have not faced dire consequences if they failed to pay back their federal student loan debt. That ends [May 5th]… As the coronavirus pandemic convulsed the economy, President Trump and Congress brought relief: They allowed borrowers to take a break from their payments. The government also froze the interest, meaning borrowers’ balances did not grow. People saved hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month.

“The measure was popular at the time. It let people improve their credit scores, pay down other debts and build savings. So officials extended the reprieve nine times — across the rest of Trump’s first term and most of former President Biden’s… But the government made those loans, and letting them go unpaid added to the deficit. Some economists also warned about sending the wrong message — that it was fine not to repay your debt. Eventually, the payment freeze ended, but policymakers said they wouldn’t penalize borrowers for late payments yet.

“Now even that break is gone, and late payments are showing up in credit reports for millions of people. Today, the government restarts collections on defaulted loans — first by docking tax refunds, then by garnishing paychecks and Social Security benefits.” The Biden administration tried unsuccessfully to reduce/forgive a lot of that student debt but was stopped in federal court. “To prevent borrowers from facing bills larger than what they can pay, the government can tie your monthly payment to your income. Biden’s new program to do that, called SAVE, cut some borrowers’ bills in half and allowed millions of low-wage workers to pay nothing at all.

“But several Republican-led states said in legal challenges that he couldn’t do that, and federal courts froze the plan. (Loan forgiveness has been especially unpopular on the right. College graduates are more likely to be Democrats, although many people with student debt started degrees and never finished.) Some eight million people who enrolled in the plan are now in limbo.

“The Trump administration intends to end the plan if courts don’t. For now, borrowers on SAVE can simply stay on pause — they won’t be considered delinquent — but that extension is nearly certain to end sometime this year. No one knows exactly when, which stresses borrowers out.

“Another point of confusion is Trump’s ambition to close the Education Department — the agency that owns and manages federal student debt — and move the loans to another agency… Moving all those records, including contracts with the companies that collect payments, would be complicated, and it can’t happen without Congress. Lawmakers and federal officials tell me there’s no plan for this.” Cowley.

This repayment program will put pressures on Gen Z, well above the impending recession, since whatever their discretionary budgets may have been is reduced dramatically. Home ownership is now all but abandoned, consumer purchases will drop, marriages delayed and giving birth as Herr Trump seems to demand is just an unaffordable luxury. The notion of serious government-supported childcare has been reduced to a bad joke. It’s back to Ramen for lunch and dinner for way too many. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and this nation appears to enjoy eating their children’s future to appease the rich… with absolutely no shame at all.

Red State American, Blue State American or Just Plain American?

   

Red State American, Blue State American or Just Plain American?

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

“What Trump does not understand about anything, is that he thinks you can call somebody all kinds of names, and then you make peace and just move on. Well, that person you’ve just called all those names is your enemy for life. He may not say it, but he thinks it.” 

 Former Obama economic advisor and current fund manager, Steve Rattner, Puck.com, April 17th

The difference between the pre-WWII “America First” movement and the current Trump iteration revolves around the fact that, until Donald Trump attempted to bully the rest of the world under this tariff/trade war attacks, the post-WWII United States led the world (at least the democracy-driven Western world) in military power, economic leadership, wealth and global influence. Cheap goods were not “ripping us off,” any more than a sale at Macy’s is ripping off consumers. But words matter, insults against our allies followed by harsh tariffs matter, and the fierce isolation, that Trump mounted in his iteration of “America First,” has redefined the United States of America as an arrogant, untrustworthy bully, wildly successful in casting itself as an isolationist nation going it alone. If there’s a post-Trump recapture of trust and viable alliances, it will be a long time coming.

As Trump seems to have burned down so many bridges to the rest of the world, most of it in just under 100 days, what happened? In an interview on The Good Fight (Substack, April 19th), Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University, 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and the Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama, presented this 30,000-foot view of the United States after this recent transformation: “There are set patterns that we associate with developing countries, for which some people would use the term ‘banana republic.’

“In mature democracies, it's institutions that dominate; in banana republics, it's personalities that dominate. In mature democracies, it's the rule of law that governs interactions between businesses and between business and government; in emerging markets, it’s personalities, personal connection, and loyalty. In mature democracies, the central bank and finance sits with independence relative to politics; in emerging markets, that is much more in question. In mature democracies, the goal is interaction, openness, and prospering along with the world; in immature democracies, in emerging markets, it is nationalist economic policies tied to particular interests.

“The United States in a stretch of a few short months is transforming from being the United States to being something much more like Juan Perón's Argentina—and that is being recognized by markets. It's being recognized in the economy. It's being recognized by people.

“The market version of it comes from looking at patterns. In the United States, traditionally when stocks go down, that's because the world is riskier and less certain. So bond yields go down as well, people rush to buy bonds, and the dollar goes up, as people in a more uncertain environment seek safety in the dollar.

“There's a different pattern. It's the pattern of emerging markets. It's the pattern that prevailed very briefly in the United States before Paul Volcker was appointed to the central bank during the Carter administration. It's the everything-goes-together pattern. Stocks go down, bond yields go up, the currency goes down. We now have that pattern in markets in the United States. But that's the market version of it.”

The global reaction is to create new workarounds against US economic hegemony, create new trade alliances that exclude the United States and challenge the supremacy of the US dollar (now perceived as “risky”) and the financial trading platforms that are/were controlled by major US financial institutions. Nation by nation, the world is turning its back to the United States. There’s no going back… for a very long time, If ever. China is delighted! They plan on resisting the US… no matter what it takes. And they can play dirty, very dirty.

Inside the United States, clearly and knowingly provoking a power struggle to take the US Supreme Court down a notch, Trump is using his generally popular immigration policy massively to revoke student visas, to assert his “anti-woke” agenda to clamp down on universities, law firms and even medical journals, asserting a level of censorship that flies in the face of our First Amendment. Claiming the ability to alter “American born citizenship,” insisting that centuries old war power statutes (as well as the President’s right to control “foreign affairs”) give him the power to deport, without due process, any foreign-born US resident (and perhaps even US citizens who are critical of his policies). The courts, showing deference to presidential policy-setting rights, have given Trump enough wiggle room to delay. But the confrontation, that constitutional crisis is upon us. Trump even insists that he is not required to answer the federal court’s questions.

I remember when “Southern hospitality” was open and amazing, less so for African Americans, but in today’s world, if you are in a deep red state at a white-owned establishment, you may not want to tell them that you are visiting from California or New York. The moment will change as they try to be nice but are fighting their revulsion at your presence. Unfortunately, there are red state Americans and blue state Americans, and even when they attempt to listen to each other, there is a deep disconnect.

Young men, seeking a new masculine identity, are more likely to follow “man-up” influencers and podcasts than any other form of media. “Teachers are raising concerns about the detrimental influence of social media personalities , such as Andrew Tate , on student behaviour, citing a rise in misogyny and sexism within schools… A recent survey conducted by the NASUWT teaching union revealed that nearly three in five teachers (59 per cent) believe social media contributes to the declining behaviour of students.” The Independent, April 19th. These younger voters, here and across the Pond, cannot be reached by traditional media, not even Fox News. What’s wrong with just being an “American”?

Trump’s version of the Russian Tsar’s Rasputin appears to be Harvard educated “economist,” Peter “I love tariffs” Navarro, who is generally considered an economic whack-job by virtually all credible economists. An outlier with dangerous influence. And while a prudently applied tariff has it place in global economics, the major American institutions, including the Federal Reserve, believe Trump’s unstable, on-again/off-again mega-tariffs are leading us straight into an ignoble period of stagflation. Tourism is sliding down fast. Canadians are cancelling their US vacations in droves (as are other nations’ travelers); many are listing their US properties for sale. Exactly, who would be dumb enough to attend the 2028 Olympics? Hotel or a holding tank?

I’m Peter Dekom, and there are an increasing number of trained psychologists who are beginning to question whether our self-proclaimed “stable genius” is indeed mentally “stable” without even having to answer the “genius” claim.

Thought Control, Teaching Only "Right Thinking," Purposefully Ambiguous Terms

Thought Control, Teaching Only “Right Thinking,” Purposefully Ambiguous Terms

Arkansas becomes the second state, after Oklahoma, to mandate the posting of the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom and government building in the state. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from establishing a state religion or favoring one religion over another. The version of the Ten Commandments to be posted are taken from Christian versions of the Old Testament. MAGA Republicans (are there any other kind these days?), with a less than subtle white Christian nationalist platform, have argued that there is no prohibition against acknowledging a national religion, as long as other faiths have a right to practice without discrimination. But then, what does “establishment” mean?

We are watching a MAGA minority pushing to mandate a very rightwing version of political thought and beliefs as the only proper vision to be taught in any school or other institution where any federal money is spent… which pretty much covers most public schools, all state colleges and universities, especially major research universities – like Harvard and MIT. Using a set of 2023 Supreme Court rulings against affirmative action admissions based on race – Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, the Trump administration has declared that any DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policy used directly or indirectly by an educational institution, or even a private employer receiving federal funding, is illegally discriminatory.

DEI remains an ill-defined term, but in Trumpland, it is applied with the subtext of “discriminating against whites,” combined with a vitriolic campaign against protesters who support Palestinian rights. Trump calls those protestors as “antisemitic.” The Trump administration has targeted public libraries, even within our military academies, with books that focus on historical minority group members depicted as heroes or present views inconsistent with proper evangelical Christian teachings… and those books have been removed by the thousands. Purging “antisemitism” is the justification for the cutting of federal funding and the insistence of direct federal approval of teaching materials, curriculum, admissions policies and personal information about any protestors or faculty members who support them.

Despite the fact that until Trump assumed office, official US policy supported Palestinian rights (and a two-state solution) for decades. But somehow, those protestors peacefully touting support for those Palestinian rights and against the violence in Gaza are “terrorists,” and any college or university that tolerates such protests, is labeled as antisemitic which justifies the federal actions noted above. The photograph above is of Jewish protestors who are firmly committed to free speech and do not want to be associated with the Trump crackdown. They do not want to be an excuse for the imposition of authoritarian “right thinking” and the repeal of true free speech.

Clamping down on law firms, universities and other institutions that have taken positions against Trump’s repressive anti-free speech policies (while insisting such efforts are somehow supporting free speech), seems to be taken out of the textbook of every authoritarian regime: Control thought, punish offenders harshly and quickly, and impose a uniform vision on everyone. There are no authoritarian regimes anywhere that tolerate open criticism of the incumbent government. Here’s how Dana Goldstein, writing for The Morning, April 17th, NY Times newsfeed summarizes the Trump position:

“The Trump administration has set out its case in a series of executive orders and memos. It believes that when schools allow transgender students to play on the sports teams or use the bathrooms of their choice, they are violating the rights of girls under Title IX. And it believes that D.E.I. programs violate the Civil Rights Act, which prevents discrimination based on race, color or national origin… The Trump administration has also argued that teaching about concepts like white privilege is discriminatory toward white students. Those concepts, however, are central to ethnic studies courses, which are increasingly common in K-12 schools in liberal states…

“And here lies a major paradox: For decades, many liberals have argued that the federal government should play a bigger role in K-12 education. They have called for national curriculum standards and greater financial support… Conservatives, including Trump, have often said that the federal government should allow states to chart their own educational paths… Now, however, the American tradition of local control of schools is what allows liberal states and districts to push back against a more muscular federal approach.” Positions totally reversed?

This toxic act of repression is now the cornerstone of the Department of Homeland Security/ Department of State immigration policies, particularly as applied to student visas… and, believe it or not, to conditions the Trump is demanding in exchange for good trade deals from our traditional allies. “Recent trade negotiations between the US and the UK require the government to make a tough decision. At a time when the British economy is in crisis – and its citizens in dire need of a boost – will [PM] Sir Keir Starmer choose to put economic value over and above the protection of British values such as truth, tolerance and diversity?

“As reported by The Independent , sources close to the US vice-president, JD Vance, have indicated that the British government will have to repeal its hate speech laws and protections for LGBT+ people in order to get a trade deal over the line – in the name of the Trump administration’s quest for ‘freedom of speech’… To my mind, this begs the bigger question of whether we are now in a position of accepting ‘hate speech’ as ‘freedom of speech’ – and whether this is really the only path to economic sustainability.” Zoe Kalar, writing for the April 16th The Independent. Given that Nazi and extreme rightwing propaganda are illegal in the European Union, is this going to be a part of our failing tariff policy with our EU allies too? Even mega-repressive China is beyond delighted.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the battles fought in the courts, the ability of the Supreme Court to implement its rulings, whether Congress will assert its constitutional mandate and whether the midterms will remain full and fair elections will determine whether the United States of America can claim to be a democracy… or whether even the USA can be crushed under its own internal repressive boot.

Forget About MAGA’s Toxic Masculinity, Women Are Giving Up on Marriage to Those Guys

 

Forget About MAGA’s Toxic Masculinity, Women Are Giving Up on Marriage to Those Guys

But Donald Trump Wants More Babies (White Bias, of Course)

‘If I need companionship, I volunteer at the dog shelter.’ 

a happy, single, Christina Ralstin.

[Trump is "proudly implementing policies to uplift American families… The president wants America to be a country where all children can safely grow up and achieve the American dream. As a mother myself, I am proud to work for a president who is taking significant action to leave a better country for the next generation." 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt

"I want more happy children in our country, and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them. And it is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are….

"We need a culture that celebrates life at all stages, one that recognizes and truly believes that the benchmark of national success is not our GDP number or our stock market but whether people feel that they can raise thriving and healthy families in our country," 

JD Vance at the January March for Life Rally

[Pursuing dating apps is] “the only thing you can put 10,000 hours into and end up right where you started.” 

 Katie Kirsch

The United States is a mixed bag for women. Still, there are more women university graduates and professional/graduate school enrollees than men. But the cost and inconvenience of having and raising children has produced the lowest birthrate in American history (about 1.6 live births per couple, where 2.1 is the replacement rate). “ The U.S. fertility rate dropped to a historic low in 2023, with 3,591,328 births recorded that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birth rates specifically declined for women ages 20 to 39 as rising health costs, economic concerns and child-bearing postponements have impacted the fertility rate, according to Time, which cited research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.” Forbes, April 23rd. What a perfect time to eject immigrants who are necessary for our economy (but they’re not white!!!), cut medical programs, cut federal support for education as all levels, and make childcare even more prohibitively expensive. Good thimkin’, Mr Trump!

Having a child interferes with corporate promotion, the cost of childcare consumes most of lower-income wages, and the United States represents a toxic environment in which to raise children. The Trump/Musk model pushes “woke rejection,” but while may incent Trump voters, it actually creates a loser self-aggrandizement in the form of misogynist “toxic masculinity,” not particularly attractive to growing number of women. Is this Musk the model? “Musk, one of the president’s most senior advisers, has also encouraged Americans to have more children. Musk, a father of at least 14 children, has claimed civilization at large will collapse without an increase in children.” Forbes. Musk is actually doing more to collapse civilization with his cuts to medical and scientific research, social programs that actually support families and his generally anti-anyone who’s not rich attitude. Not to mention the possible impact of his Aspergers syndrome.

After clearly surveying the environment, an increasing number of women want nothing to do with marriage. Writing for the March 22nd Wall Street Journal, Rachel Wolfe tell it like it is: “American women have never been this resigned to staying single. They are responding to major demographic shifts, including huge and growing gender gaps in economic and educational attainment, political affiliation and beliefs about what a family should look like.

“‘The numbers aren’t netting out,’ said Daniel Cox, director of the survey center at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank. He ticked off the data points: More women than men are attending college, buying houses and focusing on their friendships and careers over dating and marriage… Stories of women complaining about the lack of quality men have long infused pop culture—from ‘Pride and Prejudice’ to Taylor Swift’s oeuvre. Yet women throughout history rarely questioned whether finding and securing a romantic partner should be a primary goal of adulthood.

“This seems to be changing. Over half of single women said they believed they were happier than their married counterparts in a 2024 AEI survey of 5,837 adults. Just over a third of surveyed single men said the same… A 2022 Pew survey of single adults showed only 34% of single women were looking for romance, compared with 54% of single men, down from 38% and 61% in 2019. Men were also more likely than women to say they were worried that nobody would want to date them… A rise in earning power and a decline in the social stigma for being single has allowed more women to be choosy. ‘They would rather be alone than with a man who holds them back,’ Cox said…

“The share of women ages 18 to 40 who are single—that is, neither married nor cohabitating with a partner—was 51.4% in 2023, according to an analysis of census data by the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, up from 41.8% in 2000… These numbers don’t specify whether women are looking for love or swearing it off, but more-nuanced surveys show that single women appear less interested in getting married now than they used to be. They also seem less keen on getting hitched than their male peers.” In short, the US population will continue to decline, there will be a severe shortage for jobs at the bottom of the workforce, the cost of living will continue to soar, the number of workers needed to support increasing number of retirees will fall, and the number of local American consumers will drop. Trump has a plan… a bad one… but a plan.

What’s the Trump administration solution? Maybe $5,000 baby bonuses, easier admission to colleges, perhaps even high-level honors programs, and perhaps a cash bonus for mothers who have six or more children. That college thang is clearly tilted toward white mothers. Well, you tell me how exciting and attractive any of these incentives appear to you.

I’m Peter Dekom, and American values are changing big time, even the notion of marrying well or at least for love, and there is an increasing cost to pushing national policies that really scare too many younger Americans from even thinking about marrying and having children.