A Tale of Two Countries

A Tale of Two Countries (in the same geographical space)

A Quarter Millennium Resetting of America’s Moral Compass

Remember that Madison was the principal author of our Bill of Rights. Currently, there is a huge transition in basic American values, from cherishing freedom and democracy to replacing that moral vector with centralized power and efficiency. Given control of both houses of Congress, Trump could have easily relied on using a sycophantic GOP to legislate his desired changes without relying on executive orders that obviously usurped congressional constitutional powers. But he didn’t. He took the autocratic approach instead. Looking at the Musk de facto co-presidency, there is a rising force in the United States, relying on red America’s cultish fascination with billionaires, particularly within the relatively recent rise of Silicon Valley’s techno-billionaires.

Whether you call it “tecno-fascism” – a man-up, anti-“woke” class of “our success tells you we know better than the masses” belief that modernity mandates a new metric of qualified “efficiency-directed” leadership or – “tech bro Maoism” – disrupt, destroy, replace and only we can do it (echoing the familiar Trump refrain, “only I can fix it”) – there is little question that there is a massive war of values reshaping America. Gone is the studied, surgical precision and low-key nature of a Clinton-era $400,000,000 annual budget cut of federal agencies, one secured with the cooperation of the agencies involved, one that did not provoke a single challenging lawsuit but one that lacked the media-grabbing headlines of autocratic performance art or the gas-lighting necessity of totally rewriting of history. Simple autocratic efficiency is a new moral direction. Blow it up and ask questions later!

There is clarity of that American shift rejecting that it was an autocratic Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago. On February 24th, joined by 17 nations allied with Russia (including Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Nicaragua, and Haiti), the United States specifically rejected a European-drafted United Nations General Assembly resolution that condemned Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an unenforceable act. Trump has repeatedly refused to agree that it was Russia that unilaterally invaded Ukraine (in fact, actually stating the opposite) or state that he opposes autocracy. The above UN vote reverses previous UN votes where the US voted squarely to blame Russia for the invasion. Russia was once an untrusted “Evil Empire” (as Ronald Reagan once called it)… but today, the United States picks autocratic Russia over democratic Europe. Russia’s track record suggests that trusting Russia seldom works:

“[Russia and Ukraine] began with the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 amid the illusion of the ‘end of history.’ Ukraine yielded its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S., U.K. and Russia. Moscow explicitly promised to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and refrain from economic coercion.” February 23rd Wall Street Journal. Over 1,000 nuclear Ukrainian warheads were moved to Russia.

Russia’s violating its treaty commitments began less than a decade later: “In 2003 Russia began building a dam on the tiny Ukrainian island Tuzla without warning or permission from Kyiv. Ukraine responded to this territorial violation by deploying troops, and the crisis diffused only after Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma struck a compromise with Mr. Putin on terms favorable to Moscow.” WSJ. In 2014, also in violation of that accord, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula, then part of Ukraine. The United States did nothing. Three years ago, under the guise of protecting the interests of Russian speakers in Ukraine, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, denying that Ukraine was ever an independent state, with the stated goal of annexation, thus keeping Ukraine from drifting farther towards the West and NATO.

On March 1st, at a gathering at the Oval Office to witness the signing of an economic/mineral rights agreement, a question from a member of the Polish press corps ignited a firestorm. Based on Russia’s breach with his own country’s treaties with Moscow, that correspondent, Marek Valkuski, asked Trump and Zelenskyy how a peace treaty with Putin’s Russia was even possible when Russia consistently breached treaty and ceasefire pledges it made, without more than a simple Russia pledge to respect Ukraine’s territory… again. Until that moment, the meeting was quiet and civil.

As Trump responded, suggesting that he “trusted” Putin, and that after the mineral rights agreement was signed, Zelenskyy was free to pursue European guarantees but that the US was not making any such guarantees, all hell broke loose. Zelenskyy agreed that without strong third-party guarantees, the proposed peace agreement with Russia could be meaningless. And Trump exploded, supported by VP JD Vance, suggesting that Zelensky was an ingrate, that he was disrespectful to the President of the United States and the US itself, that even his lack of suit to such a meeting was disrespectful in and of itself (since the inception of the war, Zelenskyy has never worn a suit) and that a weak Zelensky (“you have no cards to play” as Trump stated) had no choice. Zelenskyy, constantly being interrupted, tried to explain that he was simply expressing the will of the Ukrainian people and had no other choice. Zelensky was soon expelled from the White House by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The global reaction was divided between the democracies of Europe and loyalist Republicans reworking the truth, ignoring that the issue originated with a member of the Polish press, that accused Zelenskyy of inappropriately raising the issue of territorial guarantees. The Ukrainian President was just answering a question and stating the obvious. The aftermath was predictable: loyal Republicans faulted only Zelenskyy (who was subdued yet obviously emotional). Democrats, and virtually all American allies, questioned Trump’s apparent abandonment of “freedom.” Particularly aghast at Trump’s migration into the pro-Russian camp, European leaders noted that democratic freedom was a European core value, one our allies had theretofore assumed was core to the US as well. Every poll that I have seen has clearly stated that about 80% of American dislike and distrust Vladimir Putin. Trump openly rejects that view.

Indeed, Trump’s failure to condemn Russia as the aggressor combined with threats to force-buy Greenland, to take over the Panama Canal and push Canada as the 51st US state, did reek of autocratic rejection of freedom and democracy. A rising pattern of sycophantic GOP members of Congress – gas lighting everything from labeling the January 6th invasion of the capitol as “peaceful” or the March 1st Oval Office Trump bullying session as having originated with Zelenskyy’s rejecting a peace treaty with Russia – was pretty convincing evidence of a new MAGA/Trump realignment with Russia as a rejection of democratic freedom itself. MAGA America feels such a threat from the American left, which may have a few (very few) elements of justification, that to them ending democracy is the only was viable response. Did Trump’s address to a less-than-full gallery in his March 5th address to Congress change any minds? More later.

I’m Peter Dekom, and to many Americans, the form of government that has defined the United States for a quarter of a millennium (as the oldest constitutional democracy on earth) is an inappropriate, outdated form for the governance of the United States of America.

Our House Divided Will Not Stand

 

Our House Divided Will Not Stand

“And I think I came into this moment maybe understanding better than some other people how angry and anxious this country is and how many people are in a truly revolutionary mood…And so for me, it made sense that there were a lot of folks in this country who were really willing to entertain the idea of throwing out 240 years of democracy. Now, that's not the majority of the country, but it's a strong, powerful minority movement… If you actually think that we are months away from the destruction of democracy such that it is irreversible — man, that requires a different level of energy when you wake up every morning, a different level of urgency that, frankly, not everybody has inside the Democratic political infrastructure.” 

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) in a February 18th interview.

Democrats and Republicans have redefined our political discourse. Yet the guardrails have been redefined by only one man: Donald John Trump. Michelle Obama’s refrain – “when they go low, we go high” – is now ancient history. Perhaps this is a natural reaction from a Democratic Party now marginalized by its own “we will not budge” extreme at the edge of the Progressive movement. They don’t even remotely know what to do as MAGA vectors – even more extreme but with many more voters – set the agenda for the nation. The MAGA trifecta of power: Congress, the entire executive branch and the majority of the Supreme Court.

Donald Trump’s March 4th address to Congress and the Nation can be summarized thus: Donald Trump is responsible for everything good, Joe Biden caused everything bad … all to raging cheers from Republicans and depressed reactions from the Dems. Many believe the Dems have given up, instead are simply waiting for Trump to self-destruct. But can strategy work? Relying only on courts to rule and expecting Trump to obey? If neither of these occur, is it over for democracy?

Instead of striving for national unity, President Trump was reveling in deriding and marginalizing Dems further. He goaded and taunted the Democratic Party mercilessly, as the Dem constituency responded with boos (often drowned by MAGA screams and applause), pink protest clothing and real-time fact checking reflected in signs. Trump squirmed in delight at the Democratic discomfit, taunting them with his vision that very much negated their agenda (if a unified agenda can be articulated) and obvious accomplishments. He sneered, noting that the tariffs he was imposing would serve the dual purpose of protecting American interests while raising revenue to reduce the deficit. He introduced a litany of individuals he had benefited, a folksy touch. Trump even ceded the point, currently legally contested, that Elon Musk was indeed the head of DOGE.

While global stock markets crashed (very much including ours), fires raged in North and South Carolina (an ugly reminder of the perils of ignoring climate change), border crossings were already low (which began in the Biden era), as our allies were circling their wagons against a truly unreliable United States, as Russian state agencies cheered, critical federal agencies were defunded and their missions forever compromised, House MAGA representatives were lambasted in local town hall meetings (blamed on “paid outside agitators”), once extinguished diseases returned to our shores in serious numbers… and even a fatality based on the Trump administrations wink-wink nod to anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists now dominating HHS, consumer fundamentals continue to experience price increases… the economy was teetering in an era of international distrust of US policy-making… Yet with the help of studied fabrications, Trump extolled his amazing “progress” in his initial days of his second term presidency. You could see the winces from the Democrats (at least the ones who showed and stayed) as he promised that all of the above were just “the beginning” of his reworking of “America.”

The deer-in-the-headlights Democratic Party mounted pitiful signs of resistance; the thought of mobilizing a unified party seemed elusive as the above quote from Senator Chris Murphy reflects, also accompanied by a warning that we are at inflection point (Murphy: the most “serious” challenge to the most fundamental American commitment to Democracy since the Civil War). While a post-speech CNN poll showed a slightly more favorable domestic response to Trump’s speech, outside of the Russian orbit, there were signs from “allies” that much of what Trump/Musk have already “accomplished” may be impossible to reverse.

Trump 2.0 proved that Trump 1.0 was not an aberration. Free trade in North America was now dead, even if the Mexican and Canadian tariffs are reversed, because the world has additional proof that the United States could never be trusted again; MAGA America has no trepidations against breaching international commitments, attacking our closest allies with harsh sanctions, withdrawing from essential international accords and treaties and switching our most fundamental commitments to our Western allies to join with one of the most brutal autocratic nations on earth: Putin’s Russia. We showed that we are willing to defy hard science in favor of conspiracy theories and once laughable extremist views. MAGA cheered; our allies cried.

Real-time fact-checking by NBC and ABC news revealed a plethora of clearly false statements in Trump’s presentation, but fabricating facts is now acceptable to MAGA constituents, hardly relegated to Donald Trump or Elon Musk (the latter whose summary of his “cost savings” was not remotely accurate, often by billions in individual numbers). Hours before that congressional presentation, for example, “United States Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is facing criticism after making false claims about transgender athletes in women’s sports. Speaking on Fox News, he said that girls’ and women’s sports are ‘getting ready to be extinct’ because of transgender athletes. Many people quickly pointed out that his statement was not true…

“The senator claimed on social media that transgender women had won over 900 women’s sports trophies in the last four years. No data supports this claim. In fact, NCAA President Charlie Baker recently told a Senate panel that fewer than ten transgender athletes currently compete in U.S. school sports…

“A 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that only about 3% of high school students identify as transgender, and an even smaller number play organized sports. A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine also found that transgender women lose any major strength advantage after two years of hormone therapy… Tommy Tuberville has a history of exaggerating facts. Before the Super Bowl, former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Tuberville had coached star quarterback Patrick Mahomes in college. Tuberville later said he had recruited Mahomes, but Mahomes denied it.” Total Pro Sports, March 4th. I picked Tuberville, not as an isolated example of MAGA mendacity, but as an example of pernicious MAGA legitimization of extreme political lying by senior lawmakers… everywhere!

As Trump/Musk defy logic and international standards by relying on conspiracy theories in lieu of facts, those allied with our previous values are striking out in defiance of the new American values. For example, in contrast to Trump’s “drill baby drill” embrace of fossil fuels, the UK government announced new climate goals at COP29, including reducing emissions by 81% by 2035, as their Prime Minister called on other countries to bring forward ambitious targets. We are creating international distrust, sowing the seeds of horrendous economic destabilization that is so clearly reflected in the global stock market collapse as Trump imposed harsh tariffs and sanctions on our closest allies… stuff no one really believed he would actually do.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I suggest you re-read Senator Chris Murphy’s quote above… and ask yourself if you believe we are that close to the end of democracy... and ask yourself if you were a European ally, would you ever trust any legal commitments that Trump might make in the future.

DEI is Alive and Well in MAGA Land - White Christian DEI

 

“They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.” 

Matthew 22:20-22, New Testament, King James Version

“Joe [Kent, Trump’s as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)] will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard,” 

Trump wrote in a statement.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion? If you listen to the MAGA crowd and their sympathetic media, liberals are “killing Christmas,” promulgating deep anti-Christian, deviant beliefs that hold LGBQT+ as “normal,” that gay marriage violates the Bible, and that separation of church and state is both dismissive of the essentially our Christian history and values that cannot be separated from governance. The First Amendment, they maintain, does not require a separation of church and state. The bible suggests otherwise. See the above quote from the New Testament. Slowly, rightwing evangelical orthodoxy is creeping into Supreme Court decisions – from the right of a bake shop to refuse (for religious reasons) to provide a cake for a gay marriage, the anti-abortion ruling and the Court’s current consideration of state or local support for religious school – and state legislation. Love those “Ten Commandment” posters in Louisiana classrooms.

The number of Christian fundamentalists in Congress is substantial, clearly reflected in Speaker Mike Johnson (R – La) who has a lot of problems trying to be secular when he clearly believes that the United States should, while tolerating other faiths, declare itself to be a Christian nation… officially. Maybe not a theocracy like Iran but at least a country like Israel. For years, Donald Trump, a serial divorced playboy (“You can grab them by the pxxxy”) whose propensity to “bear false witness” is legendary, has attempted to provide that he is a deeply faithful, committed Christian. Notwithstanding his holding a bible upside down or making a few bucks selling his own patriotic version of the bible (see above).

When Trump survived an assassination attempt in the recent campaign, he notes that such attempts on his life changed him. His newfound religiosity is now rallying the religious right while drawing accusations of hypocrisy from other faith leaders. To Trump and his appointees, it is genuine Christians who are the excluded class… and that as immigrants of color “invade” the United States, white Christians are becoming the minority. Writing for the February 7th Associated Press, Aamer Madhani, brings this new white Christian effort into focus:

“President Trump said Thursday [2/6] that he wants to root out ‘anti-Christian bias’ in the U.S., announcing that he is forming a task force to be led by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to investigate the ‘targeting’ of Christians… Speaking at a pair of events in Washington surrounding the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said the task force would be directed to ‘immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the [Department of Justice], which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.’… Trump said Bondi would also work to ‘fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.’

“The president’s comments came after he joined the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, a more than 70-year-old Washington tradition that brings together a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship… The president told lawmakers there that his relationship with religion had ‘changed’ after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year, and he urged Americans to “bring God back” into their lives.

“An hour after calling for unity on Capitol Hill, Trump struck a more partisan tone at a second event across town, announcing that, in addition to the task force, he was forming a commission on religious liberty… He criticized the Biden administration for what he called ‘persecution’ of believers for prosecuting antiabortion advocates… And Trump took a victory lap over his early administration efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to limit transgender participation in women’s sports…

“Trump said at the Capitol that he believes people ‘can’t be happy without religion, without that belief. Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.’.. The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance, accused Trump of hypocrisy in claiming to champion religion by creating the task force… ‘From allowing immigration raids in churches, to targeting faith-based charities, to suppressing religious diversity, the Trump Administration’s aggressive government overreach is infringing on religious freedom in a way we haven’t seen for generations,’ Raushenbush said in a statement.

“Trump also announced the creation of a White House faith office led by Paula White-Cain, a longtime pastor in the independent charismatic Christian world. An early supporter of Trump’s 2016 campaign, she led his Faith and Opportunity Initiative in 2019, advising faith-based organizations on ways to work with the federal government.” Beyond these gestures, Trump’s appointees are littered with avowed white Christian nationalists (read: white rule), and with domestic terrorism easily exceeding any meaningful foreign terrorist threats, his quote above completely eschews making that point and he raves about counter-terrorism appointee, Joe Kent, who has openly supported the white nationalist Proud Boys.

“[NBC News writes:] Now, on paper, Kent appears to be qualified, unlike many of the diversity-averse appointees that the DEI-hating president has selected. He served in Army Special Forces for 20 years, and after that, he worked for the CIA. But Kent doesn’t believe the people who attacked police officers at the U.S. Capitol, stormed the building and threatened legislators, all to upend democracy by overthrowing the government, are terrorists. He also reportedly has an affinity for white nationalist groups, but don’t worry, folks, because he rejects ‘racism and bigotry.’” No wonder those innocent January 6th Capitol attackers were pardoned?! The Trump administration does not see angry evangelicals willing to injure uniformed police officers as a threat.

Oh, and Mr Co-President, the United States is not getting more Christian, according to the Pew Research Center: “The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular,’ now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.” The results mirror other polling (e.g. Gallup) as well. But when an angry minority is handed the reins of power, with its leadership not bound by the legal structures that have formed and maintained the basis of our nation for almost a quarter of a millennium, it’s amazing how much they can destroy and replace.

I’m Peter Dekom, and that angry minority is quick to take advantage of their newfound power… and if they push hard enough, their efforts may never get undone.

Once the Big Media Players Are Properly Aligned or Killed, MAGA Free Speech Will Reign

 

  X          TikTok            WAPO             Meta

“What [Trump] wants to do is make sure that speech or beliefs that are critical of him have less opportunity to be expressed, that speech or beliefs that are praising him have more ability to be out there, and to the extent that people are saying, doing, believing, reading things that he doesn’t approve of, he would like to shut that down and is taking actions to do so.” 

 Kate Oakley, senior director of legal policy at the pro-LGBTQ+ Human Rights Campaign

If you recall my recent blog – To MAGA, There Are No Frenemies – you can easily understand that there is no such thing as the “loyal” opposition, legitimate political dialogue… and those who criticize Trump or his policies are enemies facing serious retribution. Those casting the need to eliminate liberal media, to restrain what they say, to purge liberal commentators (bye, CNN’s Jim Acosta for example) and to threaten their licenses or corporate existence, are content to live in this badly named era of “free speech” according to Trump.

Effectively, Trump is overwhelming the systems with executive orders that violate contrary statutes or constitutional provisions. For example, his attempted “freeze” of congressionally passed spending effectively usurps the power uniquely granted to Congress in Article 8, Section 8 to raise taxes and allocate expenditures. Up to the Nixon era, various presidents tested the limits of that constitutional provision by refusing to spend what Congress enacted. “The practice peaked under Nixon, who impounded billions lawmakers had appropriated for matters like highway spending and pollution control. In response, Congress in 1974 sought to restore its power of the purse by enacting a law called the Impoundment Control Act.” NYTimes, January 28th. A federal court order blocked that Trump effort… but what happens if Trump defies the federal courts?

As if it were an actual branch of government, media has become our national watchdog, containing or exposing corruption and excesses of the branches of government as noted above. And one of the immutable parts of installing an autocracy is quickly to muzzle the free press. Whether it was King George III during the pre-Revolutionary War era here, Hitler’s Germany or Orban’s reformed Hungary, autocrats eliminate the free press very early in their turning the government solely to their ends. Will the Supreme Court support the First Amendment assertion of a free press? And if it does, will Trump accept that result?

The MAGA premise is that there is a liberal bias in most of our mainstream media, and therefore there is de facto censorship against conservatives. That the vast majority of conspiracy theories emanate from conservative efforts, most susceptible to failing fact-checking, Republicans have targeted even the most neutral fact checking as “censorship.” Well, Trump used that word, but as Kevin Rector of the January 28th Los Angeles Times notes, explaining the Biden administration’s efforts at eliminating election level mis-and dis-information: “In one of his first acts in office, President Trump issued an executive order promising to end government censorship and restore free speech.

“The order accused the outgoing Biden administration of harassing social media companies and violating the rights of ordinary Americans ‘under the guise’ of combating disinformation online, and said federal resources would no longer be used to ‘unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.’.. The order [also] echoed a recurring theme from Trump’s campaign — that liberals across the federal government are censoring conservative voices to advance their own ‘woke’ agenda — and [this] immediately resonated with his followers.

“‘This order is a critical step to ensure the government cannot dictate what speech is permissible or weaponize private entities to enforce censorship,’ said Mark Trammell of the Center for American Liberty, a conservative rights group founded by California attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon, Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“However, many others said they found Trump’s order absurd — both because of his long track record of attacking speech he doesn’t like, and because of his new administration’s simultaneous efforts to muzzle people it disagrees with, including journalists, federal health officials, teachers, diplomats, climate scientists and the LGBTQ+ community.

“‘Let’s not be naive,’ said Hadar Harris, the Washington managing director of PEN America, which has advocated for free speech in the U.S. for more than a century. ‘While some of President Trump’s flurry of executive orders pay lip service to free speech, in reality they frame a frontal assault against it, dictating the terms of allowable expression and identities, demanding political loyalty from civil servants, and threatening retaliation against dissent in ways that could cast a broad chill on free expression well beyond the halls of government.’”

Trust me, right after the election, the most powerful owners of big media began kowtowing to Trump with massive donations to the inauguration. These “protect my asset” sycophants knew what was coming and rapidly backed off embracing media neutrality or any liberal bias. Journalists were fired or isolated. The big-media individuals pictured above were provided with very strategic places on the dais where Trump was sworn in. Billionaires are accepting Trump’s power over them… even those running our formerly free press. Bona fide fact-checking is not censorship

I’m Peter Dekom, and with Trump’s pressure on Senators to do exactly as he directs plus his attempt to deprive Congress of its constitutional mandate, it is unsurprising that a truly free press – unwilling to be Trump’s absolute and unquestioning supporters – simply has to be contained or eliminated under MAGA doctrine.

Ambush in thge Oval Office

  

Ambush in the Oval Office

Is the United States We Knew Over?

"The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office… The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII.’" 

 Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy chair of Russia's Security Council and the country's former president, on X

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” 

John F Kennedy’s speech inaugural address, January 20, 1961.

“Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine… History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.” 

Former Republican Congresswoman, Liz Cheney wrote, on February 28th, in a post on social platform X.

Don’t believe that what happened on February 28 at a televised news conference from the Whitehouse – Volodymir Zelenskyy vs Donald Trump and JD Vance – was simply an expression of Trump continuing rage at Zelenskyy. Trump touted the Putin party line, glorifying a manipulative and brutal dictator. Master Gas Lighter Trump and “I wanna be you” JD Vance pounced on the legitimately elected President of Ukraine with a pounding, spewing threats and falsehoods like a leaking fire hydrant. Here’s an excerpt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyTO0oIpbqQ

If you watch that humiliation that Trump and Vance fired at a calm Zelenskyy, you will see an honorable man who was not allowed to defend himself, charged with ingratitude (Zelenskyy’s record profuse thanks to the US is overwhelming and well-documented), his “disrespectful” failure to wear a suit (he has not worn a suit since the war started; look at Elon Musk’s tee-shirt at Trump first cabinet meeting), that thus he was rude and insulting to Trump and Vance (the opposite is true). Trump echoed the Russian message; Putin could not have written it better. Trump even blamed Zelenskyy for the continuing horror show in Ukraine and that Zelenskyy could trigger WWIII. Treaty-breaking Trump scoffed at Zelenskyy’s reminder of Russia’s breaking of treaty commitments to Ukraine. Then Secretary State Marco Rubio threw Zelenskyy out of the White House.

What is more interesting is the reaction of high-profile Republican members of Congress. Even as some has tout Zelenskyy as a peacemaker on X or to the press before the meeting, could not get in line fast enough behind Trump’s hardline humiliation of Zelenskyy… touting the latter’s “insulting” responses to the Trump/Vance tirade as requiring Zelenskyy to resign as Ukraine’s President. Despite the fact that various incarnations of Russia have been our primary adversary since the post-WWII Soviet blockade of Berlin, except for a very short-lived 1991+ failed effort at true democracy in Russia, the GOP embraced Trump’s false narrative almost instantly. I have to acknowledge that some GOP voices echoed the Reagan-era opposition to Russia and felt betrayed by Trump’s flip to supporting the hated Putin. But MAGA has crushed those American commitments from every president since Truman.

In Ukraine, support for Zelenskyy was nearly unanimous, rallying Ukrainians to defend and even increase their support for Zelenskyy (who before the meeting already had a 57% approval level in that nation). Feeling outrage at the Trump/Vance tirades and obvious falsehoods, many citizens took that attack on Zelenskyy as an insult to the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who died in support of what they used to believe was America’s firm commitment to democracy… and for families that lost combatants or innocents decimated by Russian artillery and the unending Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian targets. Freedom from a Russian tyrant was worth continuing the fight, with or without US support.

In Europe, as evidenced by the above collage of European newspapers, many felt that that White House verbal assault on Zelenskyy was clear evidence of Donald Trump’s completely switching sides in the Russia-initiated war on Ukraine. The general reaction of leaders and the European press was outrage against Trump. European leaders called for an immediate meeting in London to address how Europe would address America’s seeming abandonment of Ukraine and embrace of war criminal Putin instead.

Trump has always felt that international alliances are evidence of weakness. That the post-WWII world saw the United States “surrender” to that global trend toward military mutual protection and trade-defining treaties, according to Trump. His “America First” platform was a mix of isolationism and, when it comes to international relations, to force the world to do as Trump bids. We are a bully these days, led by an egotistical autocrat in the eyes of most of Europe. For all practical purposes US involvement in NATO is dead; Europe is attempting to figure out how to realign against the obvious Russian threat, which is felt particularly by Western Nations in that continent.

Meanwhile, we are watching the Trump/Musk administration focus on dismantling the power of the press, impose loyalty tests for civil servants, defund any vestige of DEI, consumer or environmental protection and without any tangible plan for future governance, tear down the federal government at every level. As Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, made clear to Mexico, the United States is quite ready to send military forces into that country to take down cartels and their supporters, we are witnessing bully tactics that could easily involve the United States into another era of international conflicts, sending our troops in harm’s way… against a neighbor, still reeling from that mass of US-made firearms sold at a clandestine profit by US arms manufacturers wielded by those cartel armies. Will we see a Chinese naval base in Mexico soon? As Trump tries to walk back this oval office debacle in his meetings with European heads of state, we will soon discover if Europe has a backbone, a sense of shame, or will simply pretend the US can be turned back around under Trump.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as these policy changes seem irreversible, it is hard for me to envision anything but a massive defeat of Republican candidates in the 2028 election… if those elections even take place.

Man with a Plan

 

Man with a Plan

A Street-Fighting Real Estate Developer with Raw Ambition & No Moral Compass

Driven by decades of “whatever it takes” real estate developer chops, with a Machiavellian lawyer-tutor, Roy Cohn (himself in constant conflict with the legal system, pictured above with Trump), Donald John Trump tended to draw a straight line towards whatever he wanted… eschewing subtle back-and-forth meandering as deals evolve… and charging forward like an enraged bull, without moral limits, to win. As the Trump University debacle and Trump’s criminal conviction for filing false documents with the State of New York and several banks evidence, Donald Trump is hardly invincible or even a master of the art of the deal, but his braggadocio as a man who constantly defeats Chinese players… well, not exactly true. In Trump world, there are almost no win-wins, just a loser and a winner. For example:

“It began when a group of Hong Kong billionaires, including one who has been called the Donald Trump of China, helped rescue Mr. Trump from the verge of bankruptcy by investing in one of his properties in Manhattan… But when his Hong Kong partners sold the property without his support, Mr. Trump waged a bitter, long-shot legal battle against them [that began in the 1990s]. And far from winning his share of the Bank of America building, according to court documents, he had to settle for it after losing in court. In the end, Mr. Trump’s alliance and eventual rivalry with some of Hong Kong’s richest men proved to be a tale of Mr. Trump at the extremes. It showcased his unflagging confidence in his ability to turn a bad financial situation around. But it also underscored his willingness to destroy a fruitful relationship with aggressive litigation.” New York Times, 5/30/16 Simply put: Trump lost most of his stake and clearly lost control of some of the most valuable real estate in Manhattan. He used his standard “go-to” tactics of delay, filing aggressive cross-complaints with great sound bites, riling up in the press, but he was up against Chinese real estate mavens who had greater chops, more staying power… and whole lot more money than did Trump.

Trump is hardly the master of finesse. And as his approval ratings sink – the only category where his marks are strong, unfortunately: “The one policy area where Trump received majority approval was LGBTQ policy, with an average of 54% support and 33% opposition.” Miami Hearld, February 27th. But like many authoritarian strongmen, Trump’s dirtiest efforts have been shoved into what seems to me a parallel to Mafia “enforcers” and henchmen: DOGE and Elon Musk. Trump’s history of throwing even those closest to him under the bus might not end well for Musk… except Musk’s billions represent the potential of a staggering counterpunch. In Trump world, there are almost no win-wins, just a loser and a winner.

Trump and the MAGA GOP hold Hungarian autocratic PM Viktor Orbán in especially high regard. Orbán’s ability to transition a representative democracy into his private autocratic fiefdom appears to be the model for Trump’s implementation of Project 2025. He’s been able to rope former liberal-leaning mega-corporations into a humiliating self-preservation mode, now funding Trump’s political agenda (including the cost of his inauguration), killing DEI initiatives and openly groveling at the President’s feet. His latest Orbán-like foray against his “enemy of the people” liberal media, has pushed traditional mainstream media out of the White House press pool in favor of Trump-friendly reportage that holds MAGA values and touts Trump’s political invincibility. Standard play for every modern autocrat in the world. His minions are also pressing courts to reverse the requirement of showing “actual malice” (established in the 1964 Supreme Court case of New York Times vs Sullivan) when suing the press for defamation. All of these efforts, if sustained by his seemingly puppet Supreme Court, represent a de facto repeal of the free speech and free press provisions of the First Amendment.

As reported by Lee Moran in the February 27th issue of the Huffington Post, “And ‘the genius of what he did, seen from a diabolical authoritarian perspective, is that he targeted Republicans as well as Democrats,’ [according to Ruth Ben-Ghiat , author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present]… Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, went after his own then-Vice President Mike Pence, and what it showed, ‘from an authoritarian perspective, is that no one was off-limits,’ said Ben-Ghiat… Republicans were calling their family members, they thought they were going to die that day, and then they have had to kind of forget that trauma and publicly debase themselves by popping up and saying, ‘Yes, we’re here for you, leader,’’ she added. Authoritarianism ‘doesn’t only require you to betray others, it requires you to lose your own conscience,’ she said.” Total loyalty or death!

As Democrats love to point out, Trump, Musk and Trump’s obviously unqualified appointees implementing the Project 2025 agenda, page by page, are a failed “clown car” of idealogues out of touch with the majority of Americans. But are they? Or does it even matter? Even if our purportedly “independent judicial system” actually defends the Constitution – and you can see Trump’s power by skipping over a federal appellate court and going directly to his Trump-configured Supreme Court to fight one of the many temporary restraining orders against Musk/Trump spending freezes (even on congressionally-approved legislation) for a decision – what happens when dictator Trump orders his phalanx of loyalist-appointees to ignore a lawful judicial order? Merely a constitutional crisis? Or an end to the republic itself? Or will federal courts purposely avoid rulings that would inflame Trump? Throw in a few death threats to federal judges and prosecutors for good measure.

Reading the explanations from Trump’s spokespeople for each of these policies, I see a litany of total fabrications, false statistics and a vituperative slam to anyone who disagrees with their “logic.” I also see the rise of “emperor’s new clothes” syndrome, combined with a massive head-in-the-sand response from elected Republicans who reverse their private statements to go to “whatever Trump wants” support. Americans seem to have an unholy belief that “billionaires always know what they’re talking about,” but in my experience with billionaires, with occasional exceptions, is that they too believe that their success translates into success in everything they touch. Not my experience in my years as a major Hollywood dealmaker.

But as evidenced in their fumbling abilities to deal with ordinary issues that face most of us, consistent Trumps’ and Musk’s dramatic lack of a shred of empathy, they all believe their success is about “everything.” Yet as I watch Musk fumble in his axe-to-the-whole system, he almost seems to resemble an autistic savant (here, perhaps a genius, at math and engineering), incompetent at everything outside his core competency). Trump’s expertise, a no-holds-barred real estate developer, does not seem to reflect an ability to appreciate the lives of the majority of his own constituents.

I’m Peter Dekom, even if the Trump/Musk approach is a fumbling, bumbling clown car, if they manage to impose their clearly defined autocracy where opposition is not tolerated, then it really does not matter; we will be governed by brutal, insensitive clowns.

Looking for Corruption & Waste in the Federal Government?

 

Looking for Corruption & Waste in the Federal Government?

I’ll Tell You Where to Start

"People are concerned about what DOGE is, what it can do, what its powers are, if they're overstepping the law. They're concerned about the rapidity of the moves and people losing their benefits… I'm all for trimming the government; I am all for also doing it in a deliberate manner that allows people to adjust to their lifestyles ... We're talking about people who are struggling and have to make big decisions… "You can lose that message with just one attitude. And if nothing else, we have to be careful with how we message this so it doesn't come across as discompassionate… In my opinion, we have to be a little more -- give people a little more to adjust, who are about lose their jobs." 

GOP Georgia Congressman Rich McCormick said after being confronted by angry constituents at a town hall event.

Someone once said, if you want find truth in an investigation, follow the money. In DOGE-land, with the approval of the President of the United States, himself convicted of the 34 felony counts including fraudulent filings on tax forms and bank applications, one of America’s major federal contractors (as owner, major shareholder or CEO of entities doing major business with the federal government) has been given more power than any other non-US president in our entire history.

Elon Musk controls a bevy of companies with federal deals in effect or pending – from selling Teslas to the government, controlling communications satellites, mounting a rocket company that provides major services to federal agencies, requiring X to be the outlet for government social media announcements, etc., etc. In a joint press conference in the Oval Office, with Musk carrying his son, arms around daddy’s head (see above), where the President mumbled something about Musk’s withdrawing where there is a deal with the federal government… apparently voluntarily. All references to “transparency” seem to simply to use that word with little in the way of substantive definitions.

Looming additional conflicts are scary too, not to mention exactly what Musk might do with all that personal data he is generating as part of his government “efficiency” efforts. Cutting regulatory bodies that impact his business are already compromised. Where the government regulated automobile safety, it is no longer going to record and report on Tesla accidents anymore. Or try this: as Musk’s X contemplates adding a consumer financial component – such efforts would normally be subject to regulation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency that has returned billions of dollars to consumers by reason of financial games perpetrated by companies huge and tiny. Here’s the catch: Musk is trying to disband that agency, giving X and open road to play fast and loose with consumers’ money.

Yet, the government is taking the position that Musk wasn't technically involved as an employee or leader of the cost-cutting initiative or change in regulations, notwithstanding emails he has directed to be sent to federal employees, the specific hatchet-wielding firings, agency closings that all emanated from Musk. He is described simply as a “Senior Advisor to the President.” It appears the “acting administrator” head of DOGE is one Amy Gleason, with experience in health care who previously worked at the US Digital Service, an office created by President Barack Obama. If anyone believes she is making any meaningful decisions, there’s a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.

Bottom line, with an investment in Trump’s campaign (somewhere between $250-$300 million), Musk’s rate of return has been staggering: “His companies have gained a combined $613 billion in value since the election assuming anticipated funding rounds go as planned, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.” Bloomberg, February 19th.

As a few Republicans have braved town hall meetings with their constituents, they are quivering over the raucous demands of angry voters, now facing the horrors of the implementation of Trump’s pledge to destroy the “deep state” (whatever that means) and require all federal employees to evidence loyalty to him personally. To put it mildly, these grassroots meetings did not go well, and the general thrust of the local comments demanded the removal of an unelected semi-governmental official with the kind of universal authority to remake the federal government from the ground up.

The conflicts of interest noted above were more than obvious to those voters, but as the above quote suggests, the GOP message back on Capitol Hill does not confront Trump or Musk… and tiptoes about the potential impact in the next election (if there is one) on Republicans running for office. Musk is deeply resented, and virtually all major polls show Trump generating higher disapprovals than approvals, a major reversal. The GOP may be facing a day of reckoning soon. There are strange clearly unqualified people moving from DOGE into senior positions in major agencies… like Edward Coristine , 19, also known online as “Big Balls,” who has been listed as a “senior adviser” at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. He has also been granted access to the Department of Homeland Security computers.

Even with DOGE, there are signs that employees there know they are doing something very wrong: “More than 20 civil service employees [from the federal US Digital Services] resigned Tuesday [2/25] from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying they refused to use their technical expertise to ‘dismantle critical public services.’… The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them.” Associated Press, February 25th.

It seems equally clear that both the Trump administration and DOGE are contemplating defying federal court orders (and there are several of them), rulings that the DOGE slash and burn approach is usurping the Congressional “power of the purse” by refusing to disburse funds mandated by that legislative body, is making massive personnel decisions and cancelling federal programs without authority and abusing constitutional restrictions and specific legislation (e.g., the laws that protect civil servants).

If that non-compliance occurs, and if holdings and penalties for “contempt” do not work, we will have the greatest constitutional conflict since the Civil War. We just might wake up to a bloodless coup (bloodless so far), where the United States eschews any pretense that it is a representational democracy… and accepts the mantle of pure autocracy. Oh sure, we may have “elections,” as many autocracies have claimed, but somehow the brutal strongman always gets reelected. We all want to eliminate corruption and waste in government. We just should not replace it with just a different form of waste and corruption.

I’m Peter Dekom, and because of what is happening in the United States, regardless of how unpopular these “government efficiencies” are going, we cannot let this effort be an excuse for both irreversible damage to the country and to install a brutal dictatorship as the sole source of governmental authority over all of us.

Can Trump Mediate a Successful End to the War in Ukraine?

 

Can Trump Mediate a Successful End to the War in Ukraine?

Why Should Putin Settle When Trump’s Medling is Already Helping Him?

“But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective…. We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.” 

Newly confirmed Dept of Defense head, Pete Hegseth, in a speech during a trip to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.

I’d like to begin this blog with a simple analysis of the US’ moral and ethical failures, all of which play into Putin’s view of what’s possible. The notion that world order requires respect of other nations’ territorial integrity, a United Nations principle that we have espoused repeatedly, goes by the wayside as the United States tells the world: 1. It intends to own Gaza after all of its Palestinian residents are displaced, one way or the other. 2. If Panama does not cut a favorable deal (better than that accorded to every other nation) for the passage of US ships though the canal, we just may have to use military force to take it back. 3. Inasmuch as we see Greenland (a Danish autonomous territory) as essential to our national security, if NATO ally Denmark with not sell it to us (both Greenland residents and Danish citizens uniformly oppose such a sale), we may be forced to use military force to seize that land.

As China pretty makes its own arguments why it would be justified in using military force to annex the currently independent Republic of China (“Taiwan”) and as Russia is already engaged in a full-on war to make an angry and fiercely resistant Ukraine just one more part of Russia (despite having entered into a treaty with Ukraine to respect its sovereignty), we are hardly in a position to mediate and settle the raging conflict between Moscow and Kyiv or act as a trustworthy Taiwanese ally if and when China invades. We have other moral issues that plague our policies.

For example, our moral high ground on immigration sweeps is hardly reflective of evangelical concepts of tolerance and kindness (the essential thrust of the New Testament), and the Catholic Church is even more obviously opposed to current Trump “detain and deport” policies. As a purportedly practicing Roman Catholic, VP JD Vance has attempted to justify such policies under a Catholic notion of applying “Christian love” with intensity based on pragmatic proximity (“ordo amoris,” love those within your immediate circle more with decreasing obligations to those farther away). “Pope Francis appears to have rebuked Vice President JD Vance over his interpretation of Catholic theology as the pontiff condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown… In a remarkable step, the leader of the Catholic Church addressed the controversial program in a letter Tuesday [2/11] to U.S. bishops, warning that mass deportations ‘will end badly’ if based on force.” Huffington Post, February 11th.

So bottom line, who are we to mediate disputes when our own practices generally align with predatory aggressors, a “might makes right” approach, when trying to contain that form of aggression? But if these elements do not disqualify our holding our selves out as “neutral” arbiters, you also have to ask yourself why Putin would need to compromise given our reality… and what’s in it for Putin anyway.

First, note that Putin has stamped out opposition to his war within Ukraine, both by torture and imprisonment for any dissenters and by his total control of all forms of media in Russia. His economy may be in shambles, but Russians are used to suffering for state mandates. While territorial gains are still leaning, however slowly, towards Russia, Putin sees clear signs that Trump is more likely to erode Ukraine further. Emma Burrows, writing for the February 11th Associated Press, notes: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Putin wants to deal directly with Trump, cutting out Kyiv. That runs counter to the Biden administration’s position that echoed Zelensky’s call of ‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.’… He suggested any such peace deal would send the dangerous signal to authoritarian leaders in China, North Korea and Iran that adventurism pays.

“Putin appears to expect Trump to undermine European resolve on Ukraine. Likening Europe’s leaders to Trump’s lapdogs, he said Sunday [2/9] they will soon be ‘sitting obediently at their master’s feet and sweetly wagging their tails’ as the U.S. president quickly brings order with his ‘character and persistence.’… Trump boasts of his deal-making prowess but Putin will not easily surrender what he considers Russia’s ancestral lands in Ukraine or squander a chance to punish the West and undermine its alliances and security by forcing Kyiv into a policy of neutrality.

“Trump may want a legacy as a peacemaker, but ‘history won’t look kindly on him if he’s the man who gives this all away,’ said Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the U.S. from 2016-19. Former North Atlantic Treaty Organization spokesperson Oana Lungescu said a deal favoring Moscow would send a message of ‘American weakness.’” European nations are already supplying sophisticated jet aircraft (French and US) from their reserves and are preparing for go-it-alone continue support for Kyiv. They genuinely believe that former Soviet countries (e.g., the Baltic nations, members of NATO) and even NATO members once part of the Soviet bloc (like Poland), would be at risk from future Russian incursions, such that the protecting Ukraine is an existential necessity for Europe.

Burrows continues: “Putin hopes Trump will ‘get bored’ or distracted with another issue, said Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat in Geneva who quit his post after the invasion… Russian experts point to Trump’s first term when they said Putin realized such meetings achieved little… One was a public relations victory for Moscow in Helsinki where Trump sided with Putin instead of his own intelligence agencies on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Another was in Singapore in 2019 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when he failed to reach a deal to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear program.” How far will Trump go if he simply faces another peace-making failure? In answer to the title question, the simple answer is “no.” Putin is a masterful negotiator against the likes of Trump. Flattery and simply “declaring victory” in a losing deal are Trump trademarks.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as Trump struggles to impose a unitary American autocracy in the US based on ultra-loyalty from every American, can he remotely extend that powerlessness to his overseas peacemaking… and can he do anything without China-entrepreneur Elon Musk’s approval?

What’s An Autocracy without a Cult Following?

 

What’s An Autocracy without a Cult Following?

There are bills pending in Congress to impeach any federal judge who has issued a ruling against a Trump executive order. In defiance of Trump’s most basic campaign pledge to preserve Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, the House passed that Big Beautiful Budget Bill Trump requested, giving the wealthiest Americans very large reductions in their federal taxes, extending and amplifying the soon-to-expire federal corporate tax cut of 2017… while mandating cuts to the above social programs (ostensibly solely to cut “waste and corruption” but in fact to decimate these programs to the bone) of at least $800 billion. And still raise the debt ceiling by $2 trillion.

Co-President Musk suggested a bribe… er one-time stimulus payment… of $5 thousand per taxpayer, representing about 1/70 of the average dollar cut to the rich. You can buy gilded Trump sneakers, Trump NFTs, Trump enhanced Bibles, Trump articles of clothing and even to step into Trump’s cryptocurrency world. In the House, when one Democratic congressman labeled Trump as our “grifter in chief,” there was a move to have him forcibly removed. At GOP town halls across the land, constituents zealously challenged why Elon Musk had so much power, how the President’s policies were disrupting lives in red states and demanding that GOP members of Congress should “Do your job” and not outsource their vote to “whatever Trump wants.”

Writing for the February 26th Wall Street Journal, Katy Stech Ferek and Xavier Martinez write: “Congress didn’t make George Washington’s birthday a federal holiday until 80 years after his death. The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated nearly three score after the Gettysburg Address. Ronald Reagan had been out of office for almost a decade when Congress named D.C.’s National Airport for him… President Trump’s most ardent supporters don’t plan to wait for the commemorations to start.

“A Florida GOP lawmaker wants Trump’s face chiseled into Mount Rushmore. A New York Republican wants to make his birthday—June 14, which also falls on Flag Day—a new federal holiday. Another is proposing to rename one of Washington’s other main travel hubs Donald J. Trump International Airport… Lawmakers of both parties often propose ‘messaging bills’ that have little chance of becoming law to score political points with constituents. But congressional Republicans’ message this session is rare for the volume and limited focus of one category of proposals: unabashed adulation for the 47th president and his agenda, even if some of the bills are more performative than realistic… ‘It’s an opportunity for us to show the country that Congress supports the president,’ said Rep. Andy Ogles (R., Tenn.).”

His adherents and cronies are echoing V-P JD Vance’s suggestion that the President should not accept court orders vitiating or limiting the scope of his executive orders, and there are several injunctions the administration has simply ignored, stepping up trial and appellate courts to consider contempt orders (with fines and criminal sanctions) against Trump officials who openly defy legitimate court orders. The absolute deadline set by a court to require the US to honor its USAID contractual obligations came and went without compliance. All this as Trump’s approval levels plummet under every major recent poll on point.

I have to wonder why an insensitive tech entrepreneur, who has wreaked havoc in every company he has run – inviting a flood of litigation and court-imposed sanctions – is simply assumed to be competent to slice and dice the entire operational system in the US. It seems impossible to purge the notion that government is not run to make a profit… anywhere; it is supposed to be a service and protector to its people. If there is anyone who has proven thorough incompetence to step into a senior position overseeing American governance, I submit that would have to be Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, many of our traditional allies are declaring the United States as either a new enemy or at least no longer a dependable ally. Old conspiracy theories – suggesting Putin has videos of Donald Trump, while visiting Russia in the 1980s and beyond, in seriously compromising sexual situations with planted prostitutes – are resurfacing. More than one foreign legislator, trying to explain Trump’s 180-degree flip from supporting Ukraine to favoring Russia, has suggested Putin went so far as to enlist Trump as a Russian operative. A real “Manchurian Candidate”? Proof? We haven’t seen that… yet. But Putin learned his craft as an operative in the dreaded Soviet-era KGB.

The likely successor German Chancellor, following the February 23rd election, sent this message to the world: “Friedrich Merz did not even wait for the final results in Germany's election before delivering what could well be a defining verdict on U.S. President Donald Trump, consigning Europe's 80-year alliance with the United States to the past.

“The Trump administration does not care about Europe and is aligning with Russia, said Merz, who is on course to become Germany's new leader. The continent, he warned, must urgently strengthen its defenses and potentially even find a replacement for NATO — within months… Merz's comments mark a historic watershed: They reveal how deeply Trump has shaken the political foundations of Europe, which has depended on American security guarantees since 1945.” Politico, February 23rd.

In Canada, a move to boycott American products joined by boos from the fans at the US-Canadian finals (Canada won) at the recent Four Nations Tournament when the US anthem was played, suggested a rising anti-American sentiment, as pointed out in this excerpt from the February 22nd Newsweek: “According to the Leger poll conducted between February 14 and 17, 27 percent of Canadians now consider the U.S. an enemy, while 30 percent still see it as an ally. Another 27 percent view it as neutral. The poll surveyed 1,500 Canadians and 1,000 Americans. It was not assigned a margin of error as it was conducted online… Only 1 percent of Americans told Leger they consider Canada an enemy country, while 56 percent said they view Canada as an ally.

“The poll also shows that a strong majority of Canadians hold an unfavorable view of Donald Trump, with 74 percent expressing disapproval, while only 13 percent view him favorably. Among Conservative supporters, that number rises to 27 percent, compared to just 5 percent of Liberals and 7 percent of NDP voters. Conservatives were also more likely to see the U.S. as an ally (48 percent), whereas only about 20 percent of Liberals and New Democrats agreed. Meanwhile, 37 percent of Liberals, 34 percent of NDP supporters and 47 percent of Bloc Québécois voters consider the U.S. an enemy state.”

Who cares? As Trumpers might express, but for American businesses, these numbers could be deadly for the export market. Traditional American allies, feeling threatened by this America First toxicity, are forming new workaround alliances with those nations feeling similarly betrayed… and are beginning to look to China as a replacement trading partner. Meanwhile, the US stock markets are down, retailers are projecting consumers pulling back on purchases and the overall American economic picture now evokes trepidation where optimism once glimmered. Only the mega-rich seem to have benefitted from this recent spate of executive orders.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while these trends portend a dramatic unraveling of the entire Republican Party, the underlying unraveling of the entire nation may not be as easy to reverse.

If We Are Living in a Post-Constitutional Era, Are the Guardrails Gone?

  

Trump Proudly Holding up

      an Executive Order

Now that Donald Trump has finally embraced what he denied during his campaign – that the hundreds of pages of Project 2025 are in fact the guiding light in the restructuring of our government – many of the contributors to that absurd, rightwing document, openly discuss how pragmatism, efficiency and strict adherence to MAGA doctrine (as interpreted by Ayatollah DJ Trump), literally the “result” of the 2024 election “mandate” (Trump won 1.5% of the vote), offer a modern replacement for our archaic Constitution. The three separate but equal branches of government – legislative, judicial and executive – are unable to adapt to the vagary and changes of the modern world, they claim.

The Supreme Court has literally tied its own hands behind its judicial back by granting the president virtually total immunity for his/her actions with a colorable claim to “official acts.” There is no basis for that decision in the Constitution, but that ruling falls under the “give them and inch, and they will take a mile” axiom… and inspired Trump, the entire MAGA movement and the framers of Project 2025 as open field to remake America as they wish. The MAGA-majority in both houses of Congress, quiver in fear at the power of Trump should they even question his “mandate”… the tsunami of Trump’s executive orders, his outsourcing of the “Power of the Purse” (a constitutional power delegated solely to the House, but to be voted on by the Senate) to an unelected mega-billionaire and his unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Thus, with an ultra-conservative Supreme Court majority, that literally handcuffed itself, and a Congress unwilling to act as the legislative body it was designed to be, Co-Presidents Trump and Musk have every reason to pursue governance by decree. Sure there have been some stumbling blocks along the way – a couple of federal trial courts issuing restraining orders or injunctions against a litany of overreaching executive orders (from citizen birthrights to wholesale efforts to trim the federal payroll and shut down entire federal agencies, to name a few) – but most of the retrenchment of the Trump/Musk administration resulted from the reactions of cadres of MAGA followers, international reactions and simple failures to achieve the desired result.

Tariffs on Mexico and Canada, delayed and presented by Trump as a negotiating strategy, did not happen. Even the automobile manufacturing sector noted that multiple border crossings of essential parts among and between the US and these countries, in virtually every car “made in the USA,” would kill sales, throw thousands of American out of work. Hamstrung between younger progressives and older, geriatric “moderates” in redefining what the Democratic Party should be, the Dems have only been able to muster popular rallies against obvious overreaching by the MAGA-controlled branches of government.

Trump remains wildly popular with his base, unconcerned about constitutional limits. While the Trump/Musk administration has received at best mixed reaction from our traditional allies, his popularity in Russia is exploding, beginning to eclipse the sacred image of Vladimir Putin. “On January 27, Repost, an independent Russian digital newspaper, published an article headlined ‘The Kremlin is concerned about the popularity of Trump and his ideas among Russians.’” Newsweek, February 6th. Mainstream EU nations evidence more concerns over this apparent American transition from democracy to autocracy. Want a staggering inciteful metric in the two largest EU countries: Tesla sales in Germany have plunged by 59%, in France by 63%.

As the MAGA House majority prepares its “whatever Donald Trump wants” proposed going forward budget, in anticipation of the expiration of the stopgap debt ceiling rise on March 14th, expect a Congressional bloodbath, with the House totally focused on cutting social programs and what is viewed as unnecessary government (e.g., paring 10,000 person USAID to about 300 and moving its operations as a small offshoot of the Department of State, culling the civil service payroll regardless of the consequences, shutting down the Department of Education and seriously defunding the Environmental Protection Agency and maybe even FEMA).

Eliminating waste and increasing government efficiency, as they promise – and there is always room for cutting the unnecessary – or simply making room for Trump’s clear commitment to his billionaire oligarch cronies of what would be the largest cuts to the rich (who get over 95% of the benefits of such tax cuts) in recent memory. Otherwise, that tax cut would, by most credible estimates, add $5 trillion to our aggregate federal deficit. But even as MAGA-House is in slash and burn mode, immigration Czar Tom Holman needs money, lots and lots of money (estimates range from $88B - $350B a year) to arrest, detain and deport the mass of undocumented residents in the United States), as Holman has clearly expanded his targeted efforts.

Trump is counting on both the snail’s pace of litigation challenging his decrees, expecting conflicting rulings at the appellate level and a continuation of the rightwing expansionist rulings from his reconfigured Supreme Court. And yes, America, if the Trump changes are too severe in the eyes of even die hard Trumpers, he can always blame and then dump Musk and company!

But as Trump’s appointments all-too-frequently embrace our new “post-constitutional” era, there is one “constitutional crisis” threshold that Trump/Musk have not crossed yet: ignoring or defying the definitive order of the federal courts. Looming large among issues is the very existence of DOGE, its access to payables and personal information as it penetrates the Department of the Treasury and other agencies, and its seeming unfettered leadership of perhaps the most conflicted infamous rule-breaking CEO, Elon Musk. Stand back and standby.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while many voters shudder at the rising threat of a major constitutional crisis, one that could bring the nation to its knees, devoted MAGA-Trumpers relish the idea.