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?!

Malignant Power-Hungry Idiots Breaking Everything They Touch - Including America

 

Popular Hat in Greenland after 

85% Reject Being Part of the US

Malignant Power-Hungry Idiots Breaking Everything They Touch - Including America

Facing Quarreling Powerless Democrats, Dazed and Confused

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

Give me a cadre of previously-ignored computer nerds, soaking wet behind the ears, pay them six figures, who are led by a charismatic (to them anyway) mega-billionaire suffering, in my opinion, from Aspergers Syndrome (expert in narrow fields like physics and engineering, but not in government or human relations)… and tell them they have the power to cut jobs, agencies, vendors to slice an unrealistic $2 trillion from the federal government. Insert picture of nerds rubbing their hands together, cackling at their power.

What do you get? Furious Americans from those who know Musk is intent on cutting Social Security (he calls it the biggest Ponzi scheme in America), Medicare and Medicaid while decimating staffing to that agency, to veterans who are watching similar staffing cuts in VA hospitals that were already overcrowded, to happy fat cats who know that staffing cuts at the IRS pretty assure that they won’t get audited, to delighted scammers, polluters and brutal employers who know the government agencies formed to control such horribles are either being defunded or shut down altogether or to discharged researchers find cures for cancel and other diseases. Obvious result: Majorie Taylor Greene enraptured; red state elected officials in hog heaven. Really? See below.

But these devious souls are finding ways to hide the truth, by simply lying or, more conveniently referencing “national security” to reject any inquiry as to the underlying facts. “The Trump administration told a federal judge on Monday night [3/24] that it would not disclose any further information about two flights of Venezuelan migrants it sent to El Salvador this month despite a court order to turn back the planes, declaring that doing so would jeopardize state secrets…

“For almost 10 days, the judge, James E. Boasberg of the Federal District Court in Washington, has been trying to get the Trump administration to give him information about the two flights in an effort to determine whether officials allowed them to continue on to El Salvador in violation of his order to have them return to the United States… But in a patent act of defiance, the Justice Department told Judge Boasberg that giving him any further information about the flights — which the Trump administration maintains were carrying members of a Venezuelan street gang called Tren de Aragua — would ‘undermine or impede future counterterrorism operations.’” Even as there is mounting proof that several deportees sitting in brutal Salvadoran prisons were neither members of that notorious gang nor ever convicted of any crime.

Note that congressional efforts to limit and control what kinds of decisions federal judges are permitted to make fly in the face of the constitutional separation of powers. Chief Justice John Roberts’ admonition against impeaching or otherwise limiting federal courts was not said in jest! If you’re wondering whether we are in a constitutional crisis, pretty clearly yes! For those who worry about leaking national security information in a court, the judge has the power to keep such information secure. Not that security seems to be a high priority anyway as an insecure mass interactive DNI text/chat inadvertently added a journalist to the advanced planning of the attack on Yemeni Houthis.

Not only is Greenland likely to remain either independent or part of Denmark, the Panama Canal will stay as part of Panama, and there is no shot that any part of Canada (much less the whole) will become part of the United States, although there is reverse yearning from “Cascadia” (shorthand for the American west coast) to join Canada. Whether its about playing tariff/sanctions game, withdrawing from international trade agreements and treaties, softly quitting NATO, fabricating violations from our once longstanding allies, there are no nations on earth that really trust the United States anymore, a trust that is not easily restored. And no, Donald, we do not want to become part of the British Commonwealth even if King Charles asks.

Is Europe even still an American ally at all? In fact, the more EU nations stand in favor of Ukraine and oppose American heavy-handed threats, the more popular their leaders are. In a recent poll, 74% of EU citizens believe that their country’s EU membership has truly benefited them, the highest such rating since the EU was formed. Canada and the UK have new liberal PMs, as their conservative parties (with close ties to Trump) went from almost certain victory to massive defeat in flames, all in reaction to Trump’s threats. Tourism to the United States is down; Americans traveling to once open entry to allied nations are facing new entry forms and approvals.

If you need evidence of our grassroots’ rejection of Elon Musk and his band if killer nerds, of Trump’s imperious takeover over Congress with the federal judiciary in his crosshairs, just look at the record-breaking turnouts at town halls (often “virtual” when elected Republicans fail to show up), the “fight oligarchs” tour by Bernie Sanders and AOC, and read the signs. How often do you see liberals and veterans holding up the same signs at the same gatherings?

As the fractious Democrats dither, their constituents are angry at the simmering nothingness of the Democratic responses. Are Dems scared of turning off the same fat cats who fund their campaign coffers, when they know most Americans do not want to become second class citizens to billionaires seeking tax cuts at their expense… as Trump’s appointees stumble at every level except blindly following their leader.

I’m Peter Dekom, and where are the Democrats, where is the million-citizen freedom and democracy march on Washington, D.C. with signs opposing the Trump/Musk cabal of autocrats and oligarchs… putting the fear of God (of continuing to hold office, at least) in the hearts of elected members of Congress who seem to have forgotten and abandoned their constituents in favor of a Trumpian dictatorship.

The Rise of Women in America – Talk to the Hand!

 

The Rise of Women in America – Talk to the Hand!

Man Up… and Step Down 

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

Women still trail men in the equal pay department, only 10% of the CEOs at major corporations are women, no matter the changes in opportunity and earning power, women are still the major keepers of the home and children, and that glass ceiling may be cracking a bit, but it is very much a continuing reality. However, is that a sustainable social structure? An aggregation of social realities – from the skews in education favoring women over men, the application of DEI to level the opportunity field for women from athletics to corporate hiring, to a rising fervor among women protesting (from me2#, abusive bosses to discriminatory pay/promotion practices), the MAGA redefinition of “woke” manhood, the impact of remote jobs (allowing women to care for their children at home which accelerated during the pandemic) the absurdly high costs and availability of viable childcare, and the sheer numbers of more qualified women – tells us that perhaps the future of America lies in their hands. Men: get used to it.

Sure, if Donald Trump does away with democracy, MAGA values will continue to be forced on the general public. Just listen to the rantings of VP JD Vance, particularly during the campaign. Using our declining birthrate (a reality for most developed countries), he expressed a need for America to return to traditional family values where either the mother or elderly family members fulfilled the childcare need. He didn’t mention that Trump’s immigration policies would only make childcare even more expensive.

Suggesting that a woman’s place is in the home, and that the Democrats exaggerate the degree of abusive marriages and domestic violence, he maintains that divorce should be much harder to obtain. Even as his own wife is a graduate of the Yale School of Law, Vance echoes the Trump mantra that the rise of women everywhere is merely the result of overzealous application of purported DEI mandates, now severely limited by the Supreme Court. Huh? And you got elected?

Writing for the March 18th Washington Examiner (a newspaper with a conservative bent), neuroscientist, Dr Debra Soh took on the obvious changes benefitting women, while examining the impact of these changes on men (a DEI bias against men touted by the Trump administration): “A new report from the Pew Research Center speaks to the differences between American girls and boys in their educational experiences. It revealed that female students (aged 13-17) outperform their male peers academically and in leadership roles.

“Teenage girls are also more likely to pursue higher education, with 60% reporting plans to attend college after graduating from high school, compared to only 46% of teenage boys. This is a continuation of a larger trend we’ve seen of young women outnumbering young men as university graduates.

“Why aren’t men pursuing higher education? Among adults who aren’t enrolled at university and who do not have a bachelor’s degree, roughly a third of men said they ‘just didn’t want to.’ In comparison, only 1 in 4 women said the same. These sex differences are also more pronounced among white individuals than black or Hispanic individuals.

“This problem begins long before students apply to university. The educational system acknowledges girls’ needs but not boys’. The system requires sitting at desks for hours instead of lessons incorporating physical movement and sensory activities (that engage all five senses). Boy-typical behavior is pathologized. This is reflected in an increased number of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnoses in males and a higher threshold for diagnosis in females. One in 6 students also reported that teachers favor girls.

“Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe too little emphasis is placed on encouraging boys to be leaders and to do well in school. But university campuses, like primary and secondary school classrooms, are deeply imbued with left-leaning political bias and diversity, equity, and inclusion practices that are especially hostile toward white and Asian men and conservatives.” Really? I argue that confusion in a rapidly changing world is the culprit.

As hands-on manufacturing has declined, agricultural harvesting and resource extraction have become increasingly automated, the rise of export-proof blue-collar jobs has been substantial. Skilled craftspeople in everything from the very physical building trades, with more regular hours, to automotive and equipment repair have risen in value.

Even in the military, there are a whole lot of college-educated men opting for the more hands-on enlisted ranks, noting that being elevated into the NCO ranks carries increases in pay and benefits that rival most junior and mid-level officers. When they leave the military, their skills translate well into the demands of private employers. Or, if a top enlisted soldier stays around long enough to be elevated to E-9 (in the Army, that’s a sergeant major), he or she carries the highest respect, even among commanding generals.

Soh continues: “Blue-collar professions currently make up 35% of the fastest-growing jobs, and more than 1.7 million new positions are expected by 2032. An added bonus is that due to the hands-on nature of their jobs, skilled laborers such as plumbers and electricians aren’t as easily replaced by artificial intelligence or automation.

“In today’s marketplace, it’s questionable whether a college degree maintains the same utility it once held. Only a third of college graduates under the age of 50 said their college experience was ‘extremely useful’ in helping them prepare for the workforce, compared with 45% of college graduates aged 50 and older.

“If men decide they are happier working in a blue-collar industry, they shouldn’t be castigated for this. But many male colleagues I’ve spoken to have abandoned academia in disciplines such as science, business, and law because they were unfairly penalized.” While I agree with that final conclusion, I still question why that glass ceiling remains, why women are not leading corporate America in greater numbers. Even Congress is more representative of female leadership: “A record 128 women are serving in the newly elected House, accounting for 29% of the chamber's total. In the Senate, women hold 25 of 100 seats.” Pew Research. Is this rise of qualified women over men just a swinging pendulum, a backlash that elected Trump… or the promise of a more systemic change? Time will tell.

Today, too many men don’t even want to step into the competitive corporate or senior professional world. That kind of job isn’t ever a 9-to-5 structure and is probably facing a real threat from AI systems focused on eliminating white-collar work. Even once coveted government white-collar jobs are viewed with a smug “bye-bye” smile from one of the most hated men in America: Elon Musk. Oh, he looked so manly holding a chainsaw on that political stage.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I suspect I am railing as much against putting people into immutable silos instead of looking at them as equal individuals.

A Monarchy Does Not Desire or Require Logic and the Rule of Law

 

A Monarchy Does Not Desire or Require Logic and the Rule of Law

Is the Supreme Court beginning to realize its Trump-empowerment misstep? 

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

"For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose." 

 Chief Justice John Roberts, March 18th, in a rare statement to the President.

A pundits decry the Trump-destroying tariffs, forcing markets to plunge, recover a bit and then dive again, sooner or later those tariffs will be settled, but the underlying message will remain: All Americans, especially big business, now know that the economy is governed by the whims of an unreliable President. Economic instability will be here for a while, maybe for a very long while, as our traditional trading partners, including our allies that have been with us for decades if not centuries, no long trust our commitment to treaties we signed… and are actively designing a world where the United States cannot decimate their protective military shield or define global monetary and fiscal policies: like US defined trade exchanges, reserve currency status and location of major financial institutions. Does this force US enterprises in this sector to push more work into other countries? Finance is our biggest private market sector; manufacturing never will be.

The administration’s goal of reshoring manufacturing has several thorny side-effects, all resulting in serious price increases. The manufacturing that does return will be driven heavily by AI and robots, with a lot fewer jobs than we might expect. Since Mexico and Canada already deploy those robots in their plants, that just means moving those machines or buying better ones to be used here. Agricultural products keep our grocery shelves filled with fruits and vegetables which would otherwise be out of season. Bye-bye. Hello, cost increases!

Red state agricultural interests beg Trump for an exemption for back-breaking farm labor (and for those souls who endure work in slaughterhouses), jobs US citizens will not take at any price despite efforts to lure them with substantial pay. We decry a housing shortage, which has several causes (including rich people protecting their property values from low-income housing), but cutting out roughly 20% of the skilled and semiskilled craftsmen as well as unskilled workers from the construction trades will kick housing costs to an even less affordable level.

Everyone who just might need coverage from Medicaid or those who have spent decades paying a payroll tax to fund their Medicare and Social Security plan are watching idiots explain why decimating the middle- and lower-income class is the only way to save the system. Really? Did these greedy planners drop out of elementary school? Everyone knows that if you cannot balance your budget, indeed you do have to cut your costs… OR generate more revenue. Duh.

When Social Security was enacted back in 1935, the ratio of workers to retirees was overwhelmingly “workers.” Look at the above chart (prepared by Mercatus senior research fellow Veronique de Rugy); see the issue? A funding system that worked during the depression began unraveling after WW2. There was no way in hell to maintain Social Security by applying a clearly obsolete funding mechanism: there just aren’t enough workers in the system to support an economic model that stopped working in the 1980s!!!! Obviously, the government should examine which new or combined old system will fund Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid most efficiently. Takes cap off FICA? Raise taxes for those at the top? Cutting taxes for the rich benefits… er… only the rich.

DOGE, even in very recent court filings, maintain that Elon Musk is not part of DOGE… even though in his address to Congress, Trump thanked Musk as the head of DOGE. Since Donald Trump has purged truly competent lawyers from every agency, particularly the Department of Justice, replacing them mostly with second rate-hacks, legal Stepford Wives, who seem to be unable to present coherent arguments to presiding federal judges that support a vast array of Trump’s dictatorial Executive Orders. Like a flight totally controlled by US agents is no longer subject to any judicial order once it reaches international waters. Or that in his unfettered discretion, without limitation by statutes or courts, Trump can deport any non-citizen, even long-term green card holders… without any due process.

In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy and asked each of his cabinet and agency heads to identify area where cut could be justified without serious negative consequences. The result: $400 billion ($750 billion in today’s dollars) removed from the budget, and his efforts pushed the “United States federal budget into surplus from fiscal years 1998 to 2001, the only surplus years since 1969. Debt held by the public, a primary measure of the national debt, fell relative to GDP throughout his two terms, from 47.8% in 1993 to 31.4% in 2001.” Wikipedia.

The Trump/Musk approach encompasses wonton meat-axe destruction as MAGA smiles with schadenfreude. Kind of like Russia’s Peter the Great, who spent hours watching people being tortured. They don’t even think about how much consumer spending power is being retracted from the economy as federal workers and vendors lose their power. Many are suing for lost pay as civil servants, and we know that this country will not meet citizen expectations for public services, from air traffic controllers, agencies that protect us from corporate scammers, unsafe food, drugs and polluters to the rangers who maintain our national parks.

So, we could use the Clinton approach in which the heads of federal agencies manage reductions (which, by the way, generated NO litigation) or the imperious Trump/Musk approach of major slashing first and thinking later. Firing the watchdogs (inspectors general) against waste and corruption has resulted in more direct control in the President to customize corruption amongst his designated rich loyalists. As bad as the international retaliation has been, as isolated we are from our purported allies, Trump lumbers and bumbles into is joyful bromance with autocratic leaders the world over. What do you expect from a President whose campaign message was: “I am your retribution!”?

I’m Peter Dekom, as bad as all of the above is and is likely to remain, Trump’s vicious attacks on judges, the judicial system and the Constitution itself erode the last viable guardrails against tyranny given to us by our founding fathers.

Pick the Worst People to Install Government Efficiency

  

Pick the Worst People to Install Government Efficiency

Could it be Silicon Valley Tech Bros?

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

There is a certain arrogance to Silicon Tech Bros, a passel of mega-wealthy folks who made billions and are still relatively young (even if they do not live in The Valley). There is a Tech Bros ethos that “we’re on the cutting edge of what’s next, and you’re not! Get out of our way!” Creative destruction is the underlying moto, and much like Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward program of the 1960s and his Cultural Revolution a decade later, remnants of the past must be destroyed or subjugated to evolve into a powerful future. How did that work out? It is an extension of the perpetual Trumpian claim, “Only I can fix it.” These oligarchs place technology first, but there is a Tech Backlash growing, as illustrated by the CEO of the “better, truer and friendlier” new alternative to X: Bluesky.

Writing for the March 11 FastCompany.com, Jessica Bursztynsky, explains: “Bluesky CEO Jay Graber took a clear swipe at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg when she took the stage at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin [mid-March] wearing a shirt that copied an infamous one he’d worn last year at a Meta product reveal event.

“Graber’s shirt read Mundus sine Caesaribus, or ‘A world without Caesars’ in Latin. It was the same design as Zuckerberg’s shirt from last year that read, Aut Zuck aut nihil, which is a play on the phrase, Aut Caesar aut nihil: Either Caesar or nothing… Graber’s not-so-subtle message seemed to be that decentralized platforms, like the one she’s building with Bluesky, prioritize users over the platform’s bottom-line interests.

“‘If a billionaire came in and bought Bluesky or took it over or, if I decided tomorrow to change things in a way that people really didn’t like, then they could fork off and go on to another application,’ Graber said while onstage. ‘There’s already applications in the network that give you another way to view the network or you could build a new one as well. And so that openness guarantees that there’s always the ability to move to a new alternative.’” And the reference to Zuckerberg’s mention of Caesar was not about a salad!

With Elon Musk’s status as the senior (richest and in charge of the federal bureaucracy, so far) Tech Bro, LA Times columnist writes Mark Z. Barabak (March 16th): “The recklessness and destruction of the tech mogul’s fancifully named DOGE is not a bug but a feature... Washington has never seen anything like the rule-breaking, power-taking, government-torching, protocol-scorching force of delighted havoc and gleeful mayhem that is Elon Musk.”

Relying heavily on University of Washington historian Margaret O’Mara’s 2019 book, “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” Barabak continues: “there’s an attitude, a worldview and a fundamental set of principles that guide the tech industry and its progeny, like a secular catechism. O’Mara sees those beliefs very much in evidence at Musk’s fancifully named Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and his wrecking-ball efforts to raze huge swaths of the federal government in a single, unfettered swoop.

Several elements are present and accounted for. The ‘techno optimism,’ as O’Mara described it, with its unshakable faith that technology is inherently good and will improve things — ‘even if there might be some collateral damage along the way.’ The drive to move quickly and scale rapidly, if recklessly. The importance of personal relationships, such as the transactional bromance between President Trump and Musk, who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to put his ally back in the Oval Office.

“The two are masters of ‘the modern attention economy’ — getting people to sit up and take notice — ‘and have a kind of shamelessness,’ O’Mara said, ‘that is to their advantage, business-wise and politically right now.’… O’Mara’s book explains how the federal government built Silicon Valley, a fact many of its entrepreneurs and legends — basking in the reflection of their self-glorification — choose to ignore, or fail to understand. ‘That’s actually part of the secret,’ O’Mara said. ‘The indirect nature of the spending, the fact that it’s flowing through universities and private companies in way that is kind of stealthy and hidden.’” As they fight government research grants and subsidies, they ignore that is precisely how these Tech Bros were able to succeed.

There’s another phrase used to described Tech Bros – who believe that only they have the vision for the nation, and that all the regulations states and the federal government are imposing or trying to impose to “protect the public” – they are only one who should be the deciders: “Techno Fascists.” History repeats itself as this excerpt from Tim Brinkhof, writing for the March 16th The Daily Beast, illustrates:

“In February 1933, the future Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring sent out telegrams to 25 of Weimar Germany’s leading businessmen, inviting them to a secret meeting with Adolf Hitler —to discuss a potential alliance. Despite their growing success in the polls, the Nazi party was as good as broke, and desperately needed investment; Hitler was subsequently able to secure it by convincing his wealthy guests that they shared the same interests—stopping the spread of communism, protecting private enterprise and breaking up trade unions. More alluring still was his oxymoronic belief that “private enterprise cannot be maintained in a democracy.”

“The connection between German industrialists and Nazi leaders—until recently a grossly overlooked aspect in World War II studies—resembles the relationship that’s currently developing in the U.S. between MAGA Republicans and big tech CEOs, Silicon Valley elites and hedge fund moguls like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the latter of whom not only facilitated Trump’s return to the presidency in part through his donations (and ownership of the social media platform X), but has since obtained a key role in the White House.

“As Musk’s DOGE continues to decimate the federal workforce—gutting anti-Trump opposition under the guise of making the country’s political apparatus more productive and cost-effective—many Americans are wondering what comes next. Historical precedent gives us a possible answer. It isn’t pretty.” Indeed, until their AI enabled robots take over from them, these Techo Fascists will run it all themselves. Enjoy their wonderful creative destruction. If you have Tesla, you can change the label if you want.

I’m Peter Dekom, we’ve shifted from “America First” to “Techno Fascists First”… when we should be guided by the “People First” tenet that declared the “We the people” would be free from a monarchical despot.