How to Make America Poor and Stupid Again – Cave Into Trump’s Culture War

 

 How to Make America Poor and Stupid Again – Cave Into Trump’s Culture War

Undermine Academic Freedom and Defund Scientific Research if Universities Don’t “de-Woke” 

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

Supporters of the Know Nothing movement [1840-50s] believed that an alleged "Romanist" conspiracy to subvert civil and religious liberty in the United States was being hatched by Catholics. Therefore, they sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in defense of their traditional religious and political values. The Know Nothing movement is remembered for this theme because Protestants feared that Catholic priests and bishops would control a large bloc of voters… Members of the movement were required to say "I know nothing" whenever they were asked about its specifics by outsiders, providing the group with its colloquial name. 

Wikipedia, where “native Americans” meant White Protestants

When the nation was young and truly “stupid,” conspiracy theories spawned political movements that captured the minds of an uneducated electorate. The United States was a relatively small and inconsequential nation then, but American drive and technological innovation made America the great economic power it has been since the industrial revolution. Today, with the most modern technology and medical tools and cures on earth, the push toward autocracy carries with it a toxic disruptive force: pushing “right thinking” (as defined by the MAGA minority) as this nation’s highest priority, elevating bizarre conspiracy theories well above truth and facts.

Lockstep conformity, adherence to “right thinking” principles “or else,” is the bullwork of the authoritarian control; dissent or alternative thinking is severely punished. Think: the purge and forced “re-education” of Uighurs in Western China or the Siberian gulags where those daring alternative thought in Russia are sent… if not simply tortured and killed. If those methods are not attractive to you, look around you. Law firms challenging the Trump vision are denied security clearances and face clear attack if they do not tow the MAGA line. Bibles are popping up in public school classrooms in several states, as local attorneys general push for a Supreme Court reversal of the separation of church and state. And so much more.

They key to instill “right thinking” as a mandatory substitute requires mass media (under attack now) and social media to spread and repeat misinformation constantly. Trump’s “excuse” is often to purge antisemitism and expressed sympathies for Palestinians in Gaza, no matter the peacefulness of the expression. As Jewish students marched into Trump Tower with signs reading “not in our name,” Trump ignored them. Allowing them would be to subvert his direct control.

The online social networks are the instrumentalities that change our cultural values from empirical facts to fanciful and often dangerous conspiracy theories. In an ironic twist, when users of X query Musk’s statements, his own X-dwelling Grok chatbot labels Musk as a major source of misinformation! Trump has mandated that the theoretically independent Smithsonian purge itself of exhibits and programs that are out of step with Trump’s vision of America.

But the most horrific Trump practice is the to cut scientific and medical research grants from some our most advanced and prestigious universities if they do not alter their academic programs (in the case of Columbia University, literally to put certain ethnic studies under direct Trump receivership). With funds cut in the middle research projects involving millions of dollars of equipment manned by some of our most educated scientists, there is a new wave of fear and doubt sweeping across those incredibly experienced and educated scientists, the same people who are derided by MAGA believers as “elitists” who are “out of touch” without a belief in “Jesus Christ our savior” who has “anointed” Donald Trump as our autocratic leader. They revere the medical quackery of HHS head, RFK, Jr, and scoff at medical facts. The results are sobering. Columbia University was the first to be slammed by Trump, but hardly the last:

“When President Trump canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia University over its handling of student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, much of the financial pain fell on researchers a train ride away from the school’s campus, working on things such as curing cancer and studying COVID-19’s impact on children… The urgency of salvaging ongoing research projects at the university’s labs and world-renowned medical center was one factor in Columbia’s decision last week to bow to the Republican administration’s unprecedented demands for changes in university policy as a condition of getting funding restored.

“The Ivy League university announced Friday [3/21] that it would overhaul its student disciplinary process, ban protesters from wearing masks, bar demonstrations from academic buildings, adopt a new definition of antisemitism and put its Middle Eastern studies program under the supervision of a vice provost who would have a say over curriculum and hiring.

“The university’s decision to accede to nearly all of the Trump administration’s demands outraged some faculty members, who say Columbia has sacrificed academic freedom. The American Assn. of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, representing members of Columbia’s faculty, filed a lawsuit Tuesday [3/25] saying the funding revocation violated free speech laws.” Philip Marcelo for the March 27th Associated Press.

It gets a whole lot worse from there: “More than three-quarters of scientists in the U.S are weighing leaving the country and are looking at Europe and Canada as their top relocation spots, according to a new survey released on Thursday [3/27]… The scientific journal Nature poll found that 75.3 percent of scientists are considering leaving the U.S. after the administration cut funding for research. Nearly a quarter of respondents, 24.7 percent, disagreed.

“The highest contingent of researchers who are looking to move out of the country are those who are early in their careers. Nearly 550, out of 690 who responded to the survey, said they are considering leaving the U.S. Out of the 340 PhD students, 255 shared the same inclination, the poll found… The administration, along with tech billionaire and close Trump advisor Elon Musk, with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency, have terminated entire agencies and made cuts in the last two months in an effort to shrink the size and scope of the federal government.

“Some of those reductions were felt at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where all grants for equity issues, which encompass studying Black maternal health and HIV, were canceled. The cap on indirect costs of NIH grants was capped at 15 percent.” The Hill, March 28th. Trump’s policies mirror those of an autocratic banana republic… and unless stopped, will shove the United States into an uncompetitive global also-ran, where our “greatness” will be relegated to the history books. None of these policies will even maintain what greatness with still have! 

I’m Peter Dekom, and while the breadth and scope of the Trump/Musk destruction of what really made us great will be mire the United States in an artificial intelligence-dominated nation of poverty and mediocrity.

What Looks Worse – The Fire Damage in Los Angeles or the Economy?

 

What Looks Worse – The Fire Damage in Los Angeles or the Economy?

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

Estimates for the January fire losses in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena range from a low of $164 billion to $250 billion or more. Chump change when measured against the damage to the economy from Trump’s ever-vacillating tariff policies. Even excluding the wild gyrations of the stock markets in overseas markets, reacting to Trump’s promised tariffs, our own stock market has plunged by trillions of dollars, sporting the worst share price quarter in two-and-a-half years. “The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment tumbled 10.5% on a monthly basis in March and plunged 27.1% over the past year. The preliminary report released Friday [3/14] shows that consumers’ expectations of annual inflation climbed to 3.9% from 3.5%, the largest monthly jump since 1993.” Associated Press, March 14th. House Democrats have addressed the estimated tariff-related cost increases for average American consumers:

“The costs of specific goods that Americans depend on are expected to rise significantly, including: • Electronics, like computers, phones and televisions, will see overall prices rise by nearly 11%; • Clothing prices are expected to also rise by 7.5%; • The price of cars, car parts, and other motor vehicles are expected to increase by over 6%; • Oil will also rise by 1.7% and petroleum and coal products will rise by 1.6%, making it more expensive for families to fill up their gas tanks and heat their homes; • And at a time when a trip to the grocery store is already squeezing household budgets, grocery prices will jump under these tariffs, with fresh produce prices rising by nearly 3%, rice prices increasing by 4.4% and food prices overall rising by nearly 2%.” The average family net hard dollar increase will range from $2,000 to $10,000 a year.

The March 25th USA Today makes clear what economists have been telling us ever since Donald Trump began touting tariffs as a cure-all for our deficit and to foster reshoring manufacturing: “Just to be clear, tariffs are not paid by countries. They are paid by importing organizations who pay them for the importing businesses they work for. The actual importer then pays the tariff and then determines how much of the tariff cost will be passed on to the consumer. Generally, most of it if not all of it, raising prices.”

For tax jargon fans, this tariff add-on is a de facto sales tax, and such taxes are considered to be “regressive taxes,” since they account for a vastly larger percentage of middle- and lower-income people’s budgets and a vastly lower percentage of income for the rich. This becomes obvious when you understand that the lower your income the larger the percentage of expenditures for basics: food, clothing, shelter and transportation… and those who are richer have lots left over beyond these basics to invest and buy luxury goods. “Progressive taxes” rise as the income levels rise, hence costing higher income Americans a greater percentage as earnings go up. That’s why “progressive income tax rates” increase at various earnings levels.

What makes Donald Trump’s blind faith that tariff revenue will so increase the government’s tax receipts, that our deficit will plunge, is simply that he thinks so. If you look at the projections of commercial banks, central banks in other countries (even our own Fed) and Wall Street – and ignore the projections of Trump appointees who are not allowed to question the boss – there are virtually no numbers supporting either Trump’s revenue tariffs revenue assumptions (by a long shot) and very little evidence that reshoring manufacturing will move the employment needle much. Robotics and our addiction to lower-priced manufactures from overseas suggest almost no real benefits for most Americans.

As noted above, we will face higher prices, which are already rising in anticipation of those tariffs. The date such tariffs went into effect was anything but “Liberation Day,” which is simply a product of MAGA wishful thinking. Credible economists have slowly increased their projection of a possible recession to 40%, a number Trump himself does not dispute. On March 29th, Trump dismissed the reality that foreign car prices would rise saying “I couldn't care less"… but he failed to address the reality that most American cars have substantial parts manufactured overseas.

Instead, Trump has sparked a trade war with what used to be our closest allies… and retaliatory tariffs are expected. International trust in the US dollar and our globally dominating trading and banking exchanges is fading fast. Workarounds are looming.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I would love to see Trump’s undergraduate grades in macro-economics, where he should have learned that Americas greatest period of economic growth and prosperity mirrored the era of free trade!!!

Hey America, Trump-Musk Policies: What’s in It for You?

   

Hey America; Trump/Musk Policies: What’s in It for You?

What sounds good, makes good headlines – well, often it does not work in practice

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

The problem with rising autocracy with a rubber-stamp legislature, even if tempered by “elections” and a competent bureaucracy, is that the hammering repetition of sounds bites and attention-grabbing headlines often convinces a confused constituency that there are bona fide solutions in them thar words, spoken by people so many believe in. Even within the inconsistency of Trump’s vacillating statements, there is still a hammering consistency: “only I can fix it” overall “principles” that do not change: tariffs are good (they will generate lots of income for the government, make America a manufacturing hub again and really won’t cost more in the near future), immigrants are bad and mostly criminals (particularly from south of our border), Putin is mostly right, Europe and Canada have played us for suckers, climate change is hardly as bad as Democrats say, woke books are polluting our nation, DEI denies our fundamental White Chistian National essence, presidential orders under national security realities and the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 cannot be challenged by radical activist judges, the executive branch may deport any non-citizen it chooses without due process, detailed war plans on insecure media platforms are not classified, government funded medical and scientific research are a waste of money, expert regulatory agencies created by Congress can be ignored, media licenses to media that criticize the government should be revoked, the government has a right to review and control the teaching curricula and research programs of American universities, etc., etc. Quite a paragraph, but relatively short when compared to the roughly 900-page Project 2025 agenda Trump once denied he even knew about… and is following as a checklist of executive orders.

When a governing autocrat is irrefutably married to the severe doctrine that moved him (not many hers) to power, the flexibility needed to govern in a rapidly changing world becomes impossible. You need only look at the November election that Trump declared to be a mandate (with a 1.5% higher popular vote?), as his MAGA following believes his assassination survival was a message from God, including his appointment of chainsaw wielding mega-Trump donor and profiteer from federal contracts followed by a never-ending litany of executive orders which, when challenged under our Constitution, seldom pass judicial muster.

A Trump mandate? Just look at the steady plunge of: Trump approval polls, consumer confidence metrics, the stock market, our global creditability, any thought of moderating consumer prices, the increasingly frequent lapse of vital national security, the fall of well-paying job openings, the slowdown in housing starts, the shortages of vital farm labor, the litany of natural disasters from that “climate change hoax,” and special elections in Florida and a judicial election in Wisconsin that show eroding voter support for the GOP.

Harsh realities thrown by the wayside: 1. Complex economic problems are constantly changing, take long-term constant fine tuning and require massive expertise. The construction of new factories at any level requires years with stable economic parameters. Manufacturing jobs never paid well and are being replaced by robots. Even if a few US manufacturers fare well, the tariffs on building materials may take that joy away fast. 2. Federal judges enforcing the Constitution are neither radical activists nor rogue jurists. 3. Without reasonable immigration, our population (and the growth we need) is contracting fast. 4. Without access to cheap labor, consumer costs will skyrocket, and our housing shortage will get worse. 5. Cutting university research will allow other countries to be the tech job creators of the future and will result in an increasing number of American deaths from otherwise preventable diseases. 6. Antagonizing our allies, even claiming a right to take their territory, leaves us to bear the burdens of growth, national defense against obvious foes, entirely on our own. 7. US travelers to foreign countries and tourists to the US will continue to decline in a sea of hostility. 8. “Drill, baby drill” will not make America great again. 9. While the value of the US dollar will decline as planned, it may be replaced as the global reserve currency, either directly or by the workaround cryptocurrency which is not controlled by monetary or fiscal policies.

Behind all of this is a clear shift in American and international attitudes, pushing back against the most unpopular men in America, pictured above. From recent publications and statements:

• A top European Union official warned the United States on Tuesday that the world’s biggest trade bloc “holds a lot of cards” when it comes to dealing with the Trump administration’s new tariffs and has a good plan to retaliate if forced to… “Europe has not started this confrontation. We do not necessarily want to retaliate, but if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers. AP, April 2nd. And no, Donny, the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff passed under the Hoover administration didn’t abate the Great Depression; it only invited reciprocal tariffs and accelerated bank failures!

• Democracies in Europe and their detractors in Washington have radically different understandings of why the continent depends on American military protection. Donald Trump and his aides constantly talk as if crafty Europeans have cynically manipulated the United States for decades, making Americans pay for their defense while Germany, France, and the like enjoy their lavish welfare states, early retirements, and carefree lives. “I fully share your loathing of European freeloading,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Vice President J. D. Vance in the Trump-administration Signal chat that accidentally included The Atlantic ’ s Jeffrey Goldberg . “It’s PATHETIC,” Hegseth added…European leaders, meanwhile, believe their countries have been dutifully following America’s direction on geopolitical matters for 80 years. Hundreds of millions of Europeans have completely subordinated their fate to the desires of the United States, which looks after them, protects them, and even thinks for them. Most Europeans now alive have known no other security arrangements. Contemplating the disappearance of NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance, is so unnerving for many in Europe, including many of the continent’s political leaders, that they seem incapable of thinking for themselves. The Atlantic, March 30th.

• Experts are sounding the alarm that the fossil fuel industry may be losing its grip on the market. A new analysis shows that oil and gas stocks are underperforming, with companies like Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. seeing sharp declines… While that might sound like bad news, it's actually a positive sign of something bigger: the clean energy transition is reshaping the economy, and dirty energy sources are becoming a riskier bet. Oil and gas companies have already been on shaky ground. In 2024, fossil fuel stocks returned just 5.72%, while the broader market gained over 23%. The Cool Down, March 30th.

• [Mega-Private Equity] BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warns that America’s rising national debt could threaten the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, potentially leading to decentralized assets like Bitcoin taking its place. He and Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio caution that if the U.S. fails to manage its debt, global confidence in U.S. Treasuries may collapse, triggering economic instability and a shift toward alternative financial systems. Fortune, April 1st. The billionaire tax cut will add trillions to the national deficit.

• Nearly 90% of U.S. Christian religious leaders believe humans are driving climate change. When churchgoers learn how widespread this belief is, they report taking steps to reduce its effects, as we found in our research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences … According to that data, while the overwhelming majority of Christian religious leaders accept the human-driven reality of climate change, nearly half have never mentioned climate change or humans’ role in it to their congregations. Further, only a quarter have spoken about it more than once or twice. The Conversation, April 2nd.

• "It's clear the US is no longer a reliable partner…The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over." Canadian PM, Mark Carney, March 27th.

• Nearly 400 books have been removed from the U.S. Naval Academy's library collection in a DEI purge ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth... Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed late on Tuesday the unified resolve of military academies, stating, "All service academies are fully committed to executing and implementing President Trump's Executive Orders." Irish Star, April 2nd.

I’m Peter Dekom, and exactly how have and how will Trump/Musk policies made/make your life better?

Stop Corruption and Waste in the Federal Government

Stop Corruption and Waste in the Federal Government?

Shut down DOGE and End Presidential Immunity 

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

It doesn’t take much digging to see how graft, grifting, corruption and lucrative conflicts dominate what passes for Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). And yes, Musk does run DOGE as the President himself declared in his recent address to Congress. For example, Musk’s closings and reprioritizing governmental agencies under his DOGE rubric often have hidden meanings. As he pushes to shut down and de-staff NASA’s traditional function over placement of strategic satellites, he suggests they just focus on their Mars mission, guess which private company is slated to take over those “normal NASA functions”? Hmm? Could it be Musk’s SpaceX? Musk is also pushing competitors, like Verizon, to leave the placement of new communications satellites… so Musk can have them.

Specifically, Musk makes millions of dollars a day from federal contracts. “As billionaire businessman Elon Musk has been leading an unprecedented effort to slash government spending, his own companies have, over the last several years, received an increasing amount of funding through government contracts, according to federal spending data… Over the last decade, Musk's companies SpaceX and Tesla were awarded at least $18 billion in federal contracts, according to spending data -- with SpaceX winning more than $17 billion worth of contracts since 2015… Federal contracts to SpaceX doubled at the beginning of the Biden administration, going from $1.1 billion in the 2020 fiscal year to $2.2 billion in the 2021 fiscal year. The contracts continued to grow under Biden, reaching $3.7 billion during the 2024 fiscal year.” ABC News, February 10th. And the grift just keeps on coming.

Maybe you think it’s perfectly normal for the President of the United States, standing in front of the White House, to market cars… in this case Musk’s Teslas. Or that that same President, who once declared crypto currencies to be a scam, is now hyper-accelerating the value of his own family’s recent foray into crypto (and significantly enhancing Musk’s crypto holdings) by announcing his plans to create a federal crypto reserve, thus “legitimizing the scam”… one which recently allowed North Korea to hack its way to a $1.5 billion online cryptocurrency heist. Maybe you prefer gold sneakers, Trump bibles, expensive gold watches, TruthSocial stock, nice red hats, or even that wonderful $5 million dollar gold card, a path to US citizenship.

Even using Jesus as a launching platform for unscrupulous religious solicitations of for “donations.” On February 7th, President Donald Trump issued an executive order reinstating his version of the White House Faith Office and once again placing Florida pastor and longtime supporter Paula White-Cain in charge of the initiative. White has an office in the White House and has used her appointment to promise all kinds of God-bestowed life enhancing benefits and tangible religious artifacts to those who donate $1000 or more to her ministry. Holy grift, Batman!

Republicans have all kinds of excuses to cut taxes for the rich, none of them valid when actually used. Like “a rising tide floats all boats” or “incent the job creators” which neither produces more good jobs or adds critical investment for the betterment of the nation. Most of the cuts sponsored by DOGE are not reductions to save money but are more focused on Trump’s culture war and his promised massive tax cut mostly benefitting billionaires.

Look at the focus only on cutting Social Security benefits to keep the system solvent, when the very basis for funding Social Security has been obsolete for decades. See my March 28th A Monarchy Does Not Desire or Require Logic and the Rule of Law blog if you want the details. Cutting IRS staffing is estimated to reduce tax collections by 10% or more, and the “savings” from DOGE’s other cuts – even before the lawsuits under civil service laws are taken into consideration – is not remotely what is touted. The above NY Times charts (from March 31st) suggest the federal budget is NOT coming down, and most of federal budgets are mandatory expenses (like paying interest on our deficit or supporting Social Security).

An analysis in the NY Times’ The Morning news feed for March 31st, by German Lopez and Ashley Wu is most informative: “Discussions about federal spending are difficult because the numbers are so large that they can be difficult to grasp. How many ordinary folks can truly comprehend how much $1 billion — that’s a thousand millions — is? And still, it’s a rounding error (just 0.01 percent of spending) compared with the nearly $7 trillion federal budget.

“This is the context for the federal spending cuts led by President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Last week, the administration announced its latest dismissals: 10,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services. That sounds like a lot of people, but it’s small for a government that employs three million civilian workers.

“How much has DOGE pared back so far? Federal spending is actually higher this year than it was at this point in 2024, according to the Hamilton Project… For years, many economists downplayed concerns about the debt. Interest rates were low, and debt payments — the cost of borrowing all that money — were consequently low, too. Inflation was also low, which suggested that government spending hadn’t overheated the economy… But interest rates and inflation have increased. Today, the federal government spends more to pay off its debt each year than it spends on Medicare or the military. Economists now warn that the federal debt is piling up too quickly.

“At the same time, politicians are scared of cutting popular programs. Trump has ruled out cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military. Along with interest payments, that’s about 70 percent of what the government spends. There’s an old saying among wonks: The United States government is just an insurance company with a standing army.” Repairing the damage caused by DOGE’s meat-axe approach to cutting federal expenses will probably exceed any “savings” by billions of dollars. Contrast this to a reasoned cost-cutting approach during the Clinton administration, in full cooperation with federal agencies, that slashed a real $400 billion (roughly $750 billion in today’s dollars) from the federal budget. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs and other elements of economic mismanagement will increase costs to consumers by trillions!

I’m Peter Dekom, and as the Trump/Musk federal budget cuts inflict pain and suffering on the American people to benefit mostly billionaires, for anyone willing to look at the actual results, it becomes obvious that this Musk-gone-mad approach is just a disguised culture war with no real overall spending cuts.

Alone and Abandoned – How Trump’s Divide and Conquer Strategy Is Succeeding

 

Media moguls on the stage at Trump’s Inauguration

Alone and Abandoned – How Trump’s Divide and Conquer Strategy Is Succeeding

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

“We believe in maintaining, by affirmative efforts, a membership of partners and associates reflecting a wide variety of religious, political, ethnic and social backgrounds, characteristic of that community. We believe that through this policy we may bring to the service of our clients greater breadth of understanding and wider contacts with the world at large, while enriching our personal lives and demonstrating the value of democratic principles as applied to the organization of a law firm… We refuse to be deterred by the unpopularity of a client or his cause from accepting a matter which justice and professional responsibility prompt us to take.” 

1963 Statement of law firm Paul Weiss’ principles

We’ve watched major universities with solid legal positions against Trump efforts to bring them to heel… cave like a house of cards. Like prestigious Columbia University’s putting several regional and ethnic studies programs (like their Middle Eastern and African American programs) into de facto Trumpian “receivership.” Columbia, reeling from charges of antisemitism which could be more directly dealt with, allowed an overall surrender on anything that could be viewed as DEI related and curricula dealing with ethnic studies relating to individuals who may be involved in civil rights or other protests. In what should have been a national university outrage against government interference with academic free speech, the fear of losing federal funds as mandated by Trump or his henchmen (including Musk), brought a wall of silence to American academia.

Columbia was just the most recent and obvious example, but Trump had no trepidation cutting $175 million of federal funds to his own alma mater (University of Pennsylvania where Wharton is contained) pending fixing their DEI issues, and the California state University system (focusing on Berkeley and UCLA) is a more recent Trump target. As each of these institutions is challenged, they now know that among their fellow institutions of higher learning, they are alone and abandoned. It’s every school for itself.

As Trump has sued large corporations where their larger asset base may include media – print, online or in some form of telecasting networks – for a distorted view of “defamation” that would otherwise die under the judicial standards (e.g., as set forth in the 1964 Times vs Sullivan Supreme Court ruling), instead big checks flowed to settle the legal claims as well as to Trumpian causes. Trump has so many tools to apply to make their lives miserable, from tax audits to federal license renewal to DOJ investigation, that fear cowed CEO everywhere, particularly in media, that may be critical to Trump or his policies. The new chair of the FCC announced that any media companies that support any form of “DEI discrimination” have no shot at getting their mergers approved. See numbers of top media executives at Trump’s inauguration above in privileged spots.

But something that really hit home for me is the overall reluctance of law firms, with Trump-revoked necessary security clearances necessary to represent clients with government contracts and being told that they were likely to find fierce resistance from government lawyers. Mega-legal powerhouse law firms Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling were unwilling to take sure winners to defeat this practice to court. The time it would take to win, they reasoned, would destroy their practice. There was not the slightest evidence that other law firms, perhaps the expected mass of law firms might come to their aid, boycotting essential legal services needed by the government… Those firms were essentially alone and abandoned. The list of good lawyers willing to represent clients against Trump’s and Musk’s government dropped like a stone.

When a like attack against an equally powerful law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, the firm not only caved to Trump demands but agreed further as noted below. The Wall Street powerhouse, becoming yet another big firm alone and abandoned by its competitors whose practices are subject to the same Trumpian demands and mandates. They believed they had no choice. After all, it was now clear that AG Pam Bondi’s DOJ and Kash Patel’s FBI were simply lackies for the President, waiting to implement his “retribution.” For decades, Paul Weiss was governed by the principles enunciated in part in the above cited statement of principles. No longer. As stated in an email to Paul Weiss staff, Brad S Karp, Chairman wrote why he accepted the horrific settlement with the Trump administration. Here is an excerpt from that email:

“Late in the evening of Friday, March 14, the President issued an executive order targeting our firm. Since then, we have been facing an unprecedented threat to our firm unlike anything since Samuel Weiss first hung out a shingle in downtown Manhattan on April 1, 1875 — almost exactly 150 years ago. Only several days ago, our firm faced an existential crisis. The executive order could easily have destroyed our firm. It brought the full weight of the government down on our firm, our people, and our clients. In particular, it threatened our clients with the loss of their government contracts, and the loss of access to the government, if they continued to use the firm as their lawyers. And in an obvious effort to target all of you as well as the firm, it raised the specter that the government would not hire our employees. We were hopeful that the legal industry would rally to our side, even though it had not done so in response to executive orders targeting other firms. We had tried to persuade other firms to come out in public support of Covington and Perkins Coie. And we waited for firms to support us in the wake of the President's executive order targeting Paul, Weiss. Disappointingly, far from support, we learned that certain other firms were seeking to exploit our vulnerabilities by aggressively soliciting our clients and recruiting our attorneys… [The agreement with the Trump administration] had three primary components. First, we reiterated our commitment to viewpoint diversity, including in recruiting and in the intake of new matters. Second, while retaining our longstanding commitment to diversity in all of its forms, we agreed that we would follow the law with respect to our employment practices. And third, we agreed to commit $10 million per year over the next four years in pro bono time in three areas in which we are already doing significant work: assisting our Nation's veterans, countering anti-Semitism, and promoting the fairness of the justice system.”

So Trump has successfully installed the Sword of Damocles over big media, has taken control of university academic programs teaching about foreign cultures in a manner Trump finds woke or uncomfortable to MAGA, and powerful law firms, even individual practitioners, with government practices, will hold back representing clients and issues that are antithetical to Trump’s personal beliefs even if they are targeting protecting basic constitutional rights. Where is the Democratic Party in all this? A recent poll showed half of all Californians are so disenchanted with the “Blue Wimps” that they would even consider voting for a Republican for governor.

I’m Peter Dekom and this is a message to elected and aspiring Democrats, eliciting the words of Donald John Trump himself: “If you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore.”

Those Who See Government as Our Public Service Sector Have Lost Big

   

Child-killer? Social Security Scoffer / Cabinet members who use unsecured devices & platforms for classified communications

Those Who See Government as Our Public Service Sector Have Lost Big

Trump Loyalists, Billionaires Seeking Benefits & Protection, and Idiot Savants Have Replaced Democracy

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

"The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperations, is over… The time will come for a broad renegotiation of our security and trade relationship."

Canadian PM Mark Carney

"He's been through so much – the lawfare, having been the leader of the free world, having had an assassination attempt… He's a different person than he was." 

White House Chief of Staff, Susan Wiles

Make no mistake, as special elections for state offices flip once major MAGA strongholds and town halls have made an indelible impression that augurs badly for Trump followers, Donald Trump has noticed. His pulling of GOP stalwart and member of Congress, Elise Stefanik, out of her nomination for UN Ambassador, happened for one reason: despite the fact that her NY district went for Trump by 20 points in November, Trump fears that in any special election that would be needed to replace her, that district could easily go Democratic, putting that narrow GOP majority in the House at greater risk. So, back to the House she goes. Apparently, Americans do not like severe cutbacks to staffing at the VA and the Social Security Administration, the press to decimate Medicaid and the National Park Service. Why? Go figure! This blog is no “April Fools” day talk.

Trump’s recent executive order, and the underlying legislation sitting in the House, have focused on “election integrity” – looking for fraud that simply is as rare as hen’s teeth – but the impact is to cull voters likely to support Democrats. How many rural minorities or Native Americans have birth certificates or passports, the required IDs Trump seeks to require as a precondition to voting? And if that doesn’t work, will Trump use “national security” or an “enemy invasion” as an excuse to delay the midterms? Even as a hapless Democratic Party, which should be organizing “million-voter” marches across the entire US, but particularly in red states, stand idly by, grassroots efforts everywhere suggest the probability of seroious GOP loses if full and fair midterms are allowed.

In the meantime, the nation is watching a new, deeper state evolve. One where fat cats need not worry about audits from a depleted IRS, as Musk smiles as DOGE operatives invade the Securities and Exchange Commission, where Musk has been accused of violations regulations and underlying statutes. Trump-product salesman, Donald Trump, is grinning ear-to-ear as corruption and favoritism become national policy, as Trump touts Teslas at the White House, as he self-serves his family’s crypto holdings by elevating what he once called a “scam,” crypto currency, as worthy of a special federal crypto reserve, as conspiracy theorists tout medical cures that are seriously dangerous, as loyalists at the DOJ fight NY courts to help reverse anti-Trump decisions, as other multi-year senior DOJ staffers face firing for refusing to profess specific loyalty to Trump, and as Trump focuses his efforts on private institutions from law firms (to reduce their willingness to challenge Trump edicts) to universities (“Professors are the enemy,” according to JD Vance) which are now stopped in their tracks from creating new “job creating” technologies and exploring cures to diseases that infect millions of Americans.

But as Trump has appointed some of the least qualified cabinet appointees and senior disruptors in a century, rife with conflicts of interest that are worn like a badge of honor, where a horde of Trump appointees are billionaires overseeing federal agencies that once were designated to oversee them and rein in their excesses, scandals, missteps, and major errors are standard, serious national security leaks are explained away, we now have the most shamelessly corrupt executive branch in our nation’s substantial history. See if you can name the above pictured scoundrels appointed to cabinet leadership positions and identify their lack of qualifications, biases, and clear mistakes since they assumed their cabinet roles. I won’t help you!

If you want a short analysis of our current fall from grace among our international allies, as we threaten to take Greenland and view Canada as merely our 51st state, pull out of treaty commitments as if they didn’t exist, just read Canada’s Mark Carney statement above. His words ring true among most of our allies. While Susie Wiles’ quote above suggests the assassination attempts on Trump have made him a better leader, there are many others who say he’s starting to believe that God spared him to rule, completely in charge.

For all those American soldiers killed fighting Russian pilots in Korea or opposing Russian surrogates in regional conflicts, that Vladimir Putin has replaced our Western leaders in a cherished relationship with the highest levels of our government has to be the greatest act of betrayal they could imagine. Our major international opponent in most of the post-WWII era, Russia is now closer to us that any democratic ally. Reagan’s “evil empire” is now Trump’s bosom buddy… so maybe we need to stop referring to Trump’s part as “Republicans.” They have almost nothing in common with Reagan’s GOP. They are MAGAns and nothing else.

What are the elected Democrats doing about this? For most of them, virtually nothing. Grassroots gatherings should be all they need to plan million-voter marches across the land, but no… nothing. The MAGAns in Congress now believe that they can skip the 60-vote requirement in the Senate to pass their billionaire tax cuts and cement their rightwing agenda into our laws… by using the “continuing resolution” mechanism in the Congress, where the 60-vote Senate rule does not apply to budget reconciliation between the Senate and the House. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer already led a small Democratic contingent to pass the budget extension… so… 

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am ashamed of my country as it implements MAGA conspiracy theories and power grabs in lieu of constitutionally supportable legislation and governance… and I am absolutely horrified by the Democratic Party flailing without the necessary leadership or willingness to fight back!

So Far – America Under Trump

 

  Signal Chat Emoji                           HSI Secretary Noem visiting 

                                                                  a US… er… Salvadoran Prison 

                                                             where US deportees are incarcerated

So Far – America Under Trump

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

We live under a national security “come and get it” sieve where unambiguously classified detailed military attack plans are disseminated on unsecured personal smart phones on a mildly encrypted unapproved private platform (Signal) prior to a major Houthis attack by US forces. Among those receiving an invitation to the “Houthis PC small group” chat on March 13th was both a journalist from the Atlantic and US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. The former was not remotely part of the government, and the latter was in Moscow. Oh, and the above emoji was posted on that chat. So, when you hear the “national security” excuse/justification for Trump’s executive orders, keep in mind how loosely national security is regarded by the senior Trump appointees with the highest levels of security clearance.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made a mockery of our federal judicial system, which is constitutionally the full equal of both Congress and the Executive Branch. The administration has openly defied at least two direct federal court orders – one a request for information concerning when individuals were sent to El Salvador and the other a refusal to rehire wrongfully discharged federal employees – effectively a “dare” to the judiciary, despite Chief Justice John Roberts’ admonition to the Trump administration that the only proper response to such judicial directives is to appeal. We are in an unprecedented constitutional crisis!

Meanwhile. GOP Congressman (CA) Darrell Issa defied hundreds of his constituents, on March 23rd, gathered for a town hall meeting with their representative… he simply didn’t show up. But that did not stop this “empty chair” MAGA-man, echoing the President, from introducing federal legislation, probably unconstitutional, severely limiting federal judges’ rights to issue mandates and injunctions against federal officials or agencies. Issa may be involuntarily in his last term. House Speaker Mike Johnson even posited that Congress should consider reducing the number of federal courts.

Immigration Tsar, Tom Homan, also echoing the President, openly stated that he has no intention of allowing courts to limit his deportation efforts, is simply rounding up individuals, unilaterally and without sufficient proof, declaring them to be members of notorious gangs. With zero due process, there is unequivocal proof that there are numbers of such individuals shipped off and now living in prison hell (look behind Ms Noem in the picture above), who objectively are neither gang members nor have any criminal conviction. Trump already controls the MAGA-dominated Congress… Only the federal judiciary remains able to sustain the constitutionally expected guardrails against autocracy… and Trump finds that intolerable.

As Trump pledged to keep the United States out of more wars in distant lands, apparently that does not apply to his obsession with Greenland, currently a Danish territory that is likely to be granted independence. In a recent vote, 85% of the tiny population in that vast land made it clear that they did not want to be part of the United States. Nevertheless, presumably even that means invading the territory of a European member of NATO, “President Donald Trump said the U.S. will ‘go as far as we have to go’ to get control of Greenland, ahead of a planned visit to the Arctic island by Vice President JD Vance that has prompted criticism from Greenland and Denmark.” David Brennen on the March 27th GMA.com.

Telling Europe that there will be no trade negotiations until after US tariffs are fully operative, and warning against any agreement between Canada and Europe to impose a coordinated response to US tariffs, the US stock market continued its downward plunge, the real estate market tanked from the destabilized economy, a quarter of major corporations are freezing hiring plans (CNN, March 27th), tourism to the US off an astounding 8%+, and the US automotive sector is watching its business plans tank. Even Trump’s “drill baby drill” mantra is particularly unpopular with the Texas oil industry:

“The [oil company] executives, shielded by anonymity, bluntly criticized Trump in their responses to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from March 12 to March 20… ‘The administration’s chaos is a disaster for the commodity markets,’ one executive said. ’ ‘Drill, baby, drill’ is nothing short of a myth and populist rallying cry. Tariff policy is impossible for us to predict and doesn’t have a clear goal. We want more stability.’

“Several executives said Trump’s steel tariffs are raising their costs, making it difficult to plan for future projects… ‘Uncertainty around everything has sharply risen during the past quarter,’ another executive said. ‘Planning for new development is extremely difficult right now due to the uncertainty around steel-based products.’” NBC News, March 27th. The economy is in shambles, consumer confidence levels continue to fall, and people are not reacting well to most of the massive DOGE cuts to government services, from Social Security and the VA to air traffic controllers and national park rangers. With cuts to IRS, fat cats are celebrating the estimated 10% loss in net tax collections.

The raw hatred of Elon Musk, who in my opinion is suffering from Asperger Syndrome (a mild form of autism), is bubbling out all across the nation, evidenced by massive turnouts at town halls with a unified voice against Musk and DOGE… and even in one small special election in northern Pennsylvania in bright red district where Trump trounced Kamala Harris by a 15 point margin; even with massive GOP funds pouring in, a Democrat prevailed.

Trump has seen the writing on the wall: Republican candidates are not faring well with their own constituents, so he is demanding (via executive order and legislative support from House MAGA-maniacs) that election laws be changed to make voting hard or impossible for minorities and those with income levels likely to vote Democratic (via access and proof of citizenship requirement)… or he may have to cancel or delay the midterms, presumably for “national security” reasons. Trump has gone so far as to withdraw his nomination for UN Ambassador, NY state congresswoman, Republican Elise Stefanik, to avoid a probable losing battle in the resulting special election to replace her.

If you are among the MAGA crazies who believe God anointed Trump to be our supreme leader, you are probably cheering at Trump’s bumbling cloud with eternal hope for a silver lining. As JD Vance attacks Europeans as greater enemies than China or Russia, because they do not countenance Nazi hate speech and policies, you may join that 3% of Americans who support Vladimir Putin… versus the 80% who do not. And while Trump can fire Elion Musk and gain a nanosecond of relief, we do have to remember that Trump anointed Musk, supported him repeatedly and even presided over a Tesla promotion in front of the Whitehouse.

I’m Peter Dekom, and for those Democrats waiting for Trump to destroy himself and his credibility before acting in strong resistance, what more exactly do you need?!