The Good, the Bad & the Ugly – America’s El Salvador Template

 

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly – America’s El Salvador Template

“Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate… But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. That’s the way it works, right?” 

Salvadoran President, Najib Bukele, to Donald Trump during their April 14th meeting in the Oval Office

“We used to be afraid of the gangs… Now… we’re afraid of the state.” 

Victor Barahona, former Salvadoran inmate, who still doesn’t know why he was incarcerated for a year; he lost 70 lbs.

“This is the first time in as long as most people can remember that global portfolio allocators are saying ‘Hey, this could be the moment to switch your money out of American financial assets, into Europe.’”

Sebastian Mallaby, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

It is hardly an understatement that I oppose most of the Executive Order/Project 2025 frenzy that has fueled Trump 2.0 to date. And while some of what he has accomplished is positive, often it was done for the wrong reason. For example, at an impromptu meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Saloman, new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa (and former al Qaeda operative) stood on the world stage with President Donald Trump. “Trump announced he would lift the crippling U.S. sanctions against Syria and urged al-Sharaa to meet specified conditions in hopes that it will stabilize the country. These conditions include normalizing relations with Syria's neighbors, including Israel, as well as the United States.” MSN News, May 14th. Trump’s reason: as a favor to the Crown Prince. Not what’s right. His move to engage with Iran on denuclearization is equally positive, although it was during Trump 1.0 that Trump abrogated the accord and enabled Iran to restart its nuclear enrichment program.

Both such efforts have the potential of stabilizing the region, and Trump picked up added credibility on his recent three-nation foray (each a monarchy) by ignoring a simultaneous opportunity to meet with Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose recent escalation of the Gaza war and pledge to break up that tiny Palestinian enclave into three separate sections has drawn a new level of global condemnation. Also, Trump’s ceasefire with Yemeni Houthis, his meeting with Arab leaders who are prioritize stopping the Gaza carnage, and Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Israel have rattled Israeli hardliners. Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu is obviously strained.

But Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip business transactional foreign policy is laced with hypocrisy. As he tells the Middle Eastern monarchs that the United States will not meddle in their internal affairs, his emissary to Europe, VP JD Vance, had no problem excoriating Germany and the rest of the European Union for repressing rightwing political movements (like Germany’s AfD) and their speech, even though this neo-Nazi resurgence is an anathema to nations decimated by Hitler in WW2. His unique refugee status accorded to white Afrikaner farmers, based on little evidence of any South African genocide, appears to be nothing more than a paean to white Christian nationalism. Moreover, while protecting our economic interests is a good priority, Trump’s efforts to implement that strategy seem only to resonate with autocratic states and primarily benefit Trump’s pack of oligarchs.

Nevertheless, it does seem that El Salvador’s President Bukele has become the new “replacement darling” (for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán) of Trump’s radical right. So, it merits looking at the recent transition of El Salvador from a gang-infested failing country to a relatively gang-free but severely repressive police state. Writing for the May 18th Los Angeles Time, Kate Linthicum, paints a more accurate picture: “But for all [Bukele’s] modern trappings — his embrace of Bitcoin, TikTok and slick promotional videos — Bukele’s critics say he’s just following the playbook of previous Latin American strongmen, including the military leaders who ruled El Salvador as a dictatorship from 1931 until the early 1980s.

“Bukele jails opponents, fires judges and has been implicated in corruption. He pushed for a court decision that paved the way for his reelection even though the country’s constitution prohibits it. Last week, he launched a crackdown on nonprofits, calling for 30% of their donations to be taxed… ‘He’s not a divergence,’ said Noah Bullock, the director of Cristosal, a human rights group. ‘He governs in the same way as past dictators and uses the same instruments of power. It’s a regime that tortures and kills and disseminates fear.’

“There is little doubt that Bukele’s mass arrests starting in 2022 helped dismantle the gangs that once held this country in a chokehold. And for that, most Salvadorans are thankful… But as part of his security push — which included asking Salvadorans to denounce suspected ‘terrorists’ via an anonymous tip line — tens of thousands of innocent people were wrongfully detained, human rights groups say.” As a lesson to Donald Trump, Bukele’s totalitarian efforts have not helped the Salvadoran economy as Linthicum illustrates:

“The poverty rate rose from 26.8% in 2019 to 30.3% in 2023. The country has the lowest levels of economic growth and foreign investment in of all of Central America, worse even than nearby Nicaragua, a dictatorship that has been pummeled by U.S. sanctions… While Bukele can claim some impressive projects, like a towering new Google office in San Salvador, the shaky rule of law has spooked other investors, said an adviser to foreign companies who spoke on the condition of anonymity: “They feel too much risk.”

“The perils for businesses were clear this month, after a highway renovation disrupted traffic and Bukele declared on X that transportation would be free nationwide… When some bus companies failed to comply, Bukele ordered the arrests of 16 company owners on charges of sabotage. They remain in jail… On a recent scorching afternoon, Erica Mendoza, 42, was waiting for a bus with her disabled husband. Mendoza, who earns about $8 a day, said she was grateful for the help with bus fare, and said she didn’t expect Bukele to solve El Salvador’s long-standing economic problems over night… ‘If there’s money we eat, if there’s not, we don’t,’ she said. ‘This is life and we’re used to it.’

“In recent years, his government has bought up multiple lots in the neighborhood to build what government officials say will be a new presidential residence… Enrique Anaya, a constitutional attorney who has criticized Bukele’s mass firings of judges and suspension of rights, said it’s clear that ‘his mission is clearly to stay in power as long as possible and to make himself scandalously rich.’

“Marco Rubio, Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump Jr. have made pilgrimage to El Salvador, and Republican commentator Tucker Carlson said Bukele ‘may have the blueprint for saving the world.’ Elon Musk insists that El Salvador’s crackdown ‘needs to happen and will happen in America.’… President Trump seems eager to replicate many Bukele strategies. An ongoing state of emergency declared by Bukele has suspended civil liberties, including due process. The White House announced it is ‘actively looking at’ suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to challenge their detention by the government.” Mr Bukele seems to have replaced a failing state with a different kind of failing state. Trump’s model for America? 

I’m Peter Dekom, and using Bukele’s El Salvador as a vision of perfection seems more typical of Central and South American dictators in that part of the world… but is a horrible fit for governance for the purportedly constitutional government that is supposed to be the United States.

Forget the Big Jet and US Austerity, As the Trump Family Cashes in Big Time

 

Forget the Big Jet and US Austerity, as the Trump Family Cashes in Big Time

Welcome to the most corrupt presidency in American history! The Tea Pot Dome scandal ain’t got nuffin’ on family Trump! First, let’s drill down on that horrible baseline for high-level corruption that happened more than a century ago: “The Teapot Dome scandal was a political corruption scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Warren G. Harding. It centered on Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall, who had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. The leases were the subject of an investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, Fall became the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison, but no one was convicted of paying the bribes.” Wikipedia.

Oooooh, that was a despicable program of high-level corruption. What could possibly top that? Harding did not benefit from that misstep, and an unelected administration official was the true miscreant du jure. Yet every time “high-level corruption” is discussed, somehow Tea Pot Dome is always mentioned as our top-of-mind corruption standard. Seriously?! I’m not saying that Trump’s travels to his grift happy place, the monarchies of the Middle East, do not produce a few side benefits, but even those are presented with a giant attribution to the monarch in question. For example, dropping the sanctions on the new government in Syria and openly meeting with that nation’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa (former al Qaeda operative, who once carried a $10 million US bounty), helps stabilize the region… a worthwhile experiment… but giving all the credit for that meeting to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman makes Trump look further beholden to the Crown Prince. So, it is worthwhile to “follow the money” for the overriding truth!

As US billionaires accompanied Trump on his recent foray to the wealthiest Middle Eastern monarchies – as Trump noted “they’ll be coming back with checks” – enjoyed their oligarch status, the big $$$ winner in those travels was the entire Trump family. Meanwhile, per the May 16th Newsweek, the “Stable Genius” has provoked Moody’s credit rating to the lowest US standing in ratings history: “Moody's Investors Service on Friday [5/26] downgraded its outlook on the U.S. credit rating from ‘stable’ to ‘negative,’ marking the final blow to America's once-unblemished credit standing among the three major ratings agencies.” But damaging the country seems to be acceptable to the President as long as Trump’s and his family’s personal wealth skyrockets. Eric Lipton, writing for the New York Times The Morning news feed on May 14th, focused on the whirling maze of recent increase in Trump family wealth: “Now that President Trump is back in office, his family is profiting from his brand: At least $2 billion has flowed to Trump companies in just the last month. The ventures include real estate, a cryptocurrency and a private club slated to open in Washington with a $500,000 membership fee. Now, Qatar may give him a new presidential airplane.

“The ethical mess is obvious. Trump is both the commander in chief and a business partner of foreign governments in Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The White House says his sons run his companies, so there’s no conflict. Legally, that’s true… But Trump is still getting rich (or richer) from all of it. And that leaves incentives for the president to pay back his business partners with policy decisions designed to help them, which is how the law defines corruption… Through an investment firm, the United Arab Emirates put $2 billion into the Trump family’s new cryptocurrency outfit, World Liberty Financial. The company, whose leaders include Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., will make tens of millions of dollars per year from the investment.

From cryptocurrency (and even a Trump bitcoin meme), private dinners with “The Donald” and even White House tours for the big investors, major Middle Eastern real estate development (from resorts, golf courses to hotel and virtually entire cities) on prime land, a new golf league and “investments” from regional potentates in Trump and Trump-family ventures… by the billions, presidential grift knows no bounds.

Still safe from any obvious path to House impeachment and Senate conviction, that GOP/MAGA congressional majority in fear at the thought of doing their job and shutting Mr. Money-for-me “Donny two-doll” Trump down. Stephen Miller’s tactics of overwhelming the federal judiciary with executive orders and ethical conflicts have even softened that branch of government. The rest of the world sees it, and many rise in defiance of the arrogant bully. Our credit rating agencies, as noted above, see it… and you have to wonder why the MAGA members of Congress and the MAGA cult voters still do not. These poorer cult MAGAns are, after all, the biggest losers from Trump’s and Elon Musk’s demonic and uncaring, self-aggrandizing, policies. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and the tidal wave of negativity against the United States suggests that we may have passed the point of no return… even after only a few months of Trump 2.0.

Lie, Purge, Lie More, Blame, Purge Again and Take Credit for What You Did Not Do

Lie, Purge, Lie More, Blame, Purge Again and Take Credit for What You Did Not Do

“In a few moments, you’ll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history…And you will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known. And I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term.”

Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, the Republican president addressed the 1,002 graduating West Point cadets

OK, most politicians lie, blame and take credit for stuff they may have even voted against. Nothing new. The above title, representing a Trumpian pattern missing one ingredient – self-enrichment – has one particular focused activity that is redefining America: purging. Slashing or ignoring laws that could diminish his quest to become the “unitary executive” of the United States, firing and deporting inconvenient obstacles to his vision and disemboweling his political opponents with unrelenting zeal. Barriers to the Project 2025 agenda he denied knowing about but, post-inauguration became the Trump agenda, were sequentially decimated. Any threat to his unchecked authority – from law firms with success litigating against the government to our nation’s premiere educational institutions with too much clout and factual authority – was hit with a sequence of legal rockets enough to send the fear of God to all who were watching. After all, Trump campaigned as the “retribution” president.

If appointing an obviously unqualified Fox News host, a reserve major with an admitted drinking problem, Pete Hegseth, as head of the Department of Defense, dismissing a very large cadre of most senior flag officers, marginalizing women in the military, purging LTBTQ soldiers, sailors and airmen and women from the ranks, and erasing historical monuments of heroism from non-white members of the armed forces is re-building (I call it deconstruction), and if his effectively alienating traditional allies is strengthening our military capacity, then indeed, Trump was a rebuilder.

But there is a more sinister trend, a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, to use the US military as Donald Trump’s personal enforcement force if his reconfigured federal agencies (DOJ, FBI, HIS, ICE, ATF, etc.) were not able to eliminate opposition to his whimsical takeover of all aspects of the United States, from private industry to effectively eliminating due process from the Constitution to his ability to legislate by executive order. Even creating a false “military base” out of 170 miles at the border, which has been rejected as bona fide by federal courts, just to be able add the crime of trespassing to border crossers heading north (not many these days, BTW).

“The Posse Comitatus Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. 1385, is a federal law that limits the use of the U.S. military in civilian law enforcement. Enacted in 1878, it was designed to prevent military involvement in domestic affairs without explicit authorization from Congress or the Constitution. The law reflects a long-standing American principle of keeping military power separate from civilian governance.” LegalClarity.org.

Trump’s May 24th West Point speech was filled with political rhetoric, with which a very large segment of the American population strongly disagreed: “‘We’re getting rid of distractions and we’re focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America’s adversaries, killing America’s enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before,’ Trump said. He later said that ‘the job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,’ a reference to drag shows on military bases that the Biden administration halted after Republican criticism.

“Trump said the cadets were graduating at a ‘defining moment’ in the Army’s history, as he criticized past political leaders, whom he said led soldiers into ‘nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.’ He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, ‘critical race theory ’and trainings he called divisive and political…. Past administrations, he said, ‘subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries’ wars.’” Seung Min Kim and Ali Swenson, writing for the May 25th Associated Press.

Trump is not only trying to amend the Constitution by fiat, instituting a new autocratic future for himself and his designated heirs, he is also trying to erase the past, from African American and women heroes, throughout our history, to pretending his party is all-American with a spotless past. “Donald Trump has instructed Republican lawmakers to ‘erase’ the events of January 6, a Democratic congressman said, as efforts to honor Capitol police officers with a memorial plaque remain stalled more than two years after its legal deadline.

“Following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, during which over 140 officers were injured and five died in its aftermath, Congress passed legislation requiring a commemorative plaque to be installed by March 2023 to honor the officers' bravery…. The plaque, funded through an omnibus spending bill passed with bipartisan support, was designed to be placed on the Capitol's Western Front—the site of some of the most intense violence… The plaque has not been installed and is currently sitting in a Capitol basement utility room. Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries says House Republicans, under Speaker Mike Johnson, have deliberately blocked its placement.” M.B. Mack, Latin Times, May 23rd. Clearly, Trump did not remind the West Point grads that have taken and will again take an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic… An oath which Mr Trump has violated many times.

I’m Peter Dekom, and in lieu of West Point’s tradition of honor, valor and dignity, the Commander in Chief (Trump) has embraced the “qualities” of arrogance, avarice, cruelty and mendacity as his mission to purge the “deep state” and vitiate the rule of law except as he chooses to interpret or create it.

Invasions and National Emergencies vs Facts

 

Invasions and National Emergencies vs Facts

If you want some quiet alone time and if you are willing to accept wandering US soldiers, ICE and Border Patrol agents on the prowl, I suggest hanging out, if you dare, anywhere along our roughly 2000-mile border with Mexico. What you won’t see much of those would be undocumented aliens attempting to cross into the United States. And then there’s this endless sieve of flowing fentanyl flooding into the US from Canada that justified punitive tariffs against our neighbor to the north, according to Donald Trump.

But many of Donald Trump’s executive orders, intended to be based on direct determinations by federal agencies of who can be deemed a criminal perpetrator or border-crosser – without the benefit of constitutionally-mandated due process under the 5th and 14th Amendments – and be instantly deported, perhaps to a Salvadoran “concentration” camp prison (like CECOT). All based on inapplicable provisions of the Constitution or very old statutes side-stepping due process – whether by immigration hearing, appearance before a traditional court or a habeas corpus petition – allowing such unilateral actions in times of national emergency, invasion, armed insurrection or rebellion. Indeed, so many of these federal agency determinations are based simply on a “gee, that tattoo looks like it might be evidence of gang membership” determination by a lone ICE agent.

So, let’s look at the statistics, the actual numbers generated by those federal agencies themselves, and what Donald Trump has ordered based on his extreme assumption of acts of genuine national emergency, invasion, armed insurrection or rebellion, facts required before the President can take unilateral action without Congress and such that judicial scrutiny does not require due process in such deportations. If those facts giving rise to Trump’s deportations do not exist, then his executive orders and the efforts taken by federal agencies to follow such presidential orders are, to put it mildly… unlawful and subject to being banned, undone and reversed by federal courts. As a practical matter, Trump’s executive orders, triple the number of any other president, have been nullified by virtually every federal court that has ruled on their viability.

Let’s see whether the threat of fentanyl has risen so much in recent times to justify being labeled a national emergency. Let’s start with a realization of how dangerous and pervasive the use of fentanyl has become here. “In a statement, the CDC noted that overdoses are still the leading cause of death for people 18 to 44 years old, ‘underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to maintain this progress.’” Associated Press, May 15th. That could be enough, in the minds of many, to justify making the containment of fentanyl a national emergency. However, emergencies are, by definition, extreme events happening over a relatively short period of time… and thus cannot be threats that are rapidly dissipating.

Thus, it is hard to maintain that fentanyl just became a national emergency when: “There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline recorded… That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023….” AP, citing CDC statistics. “Federal statistics show US border authorities seized 21,889 pounds of fentanyl in the 2024 fiscal year. Of that amount, 43 pounds were seized at the Canadian border — about 0.2% — compared with 21,148 pounds at the Mexican border, about 96.6%.” CNN New, May 1st.

We know there’s no sudden increase in fentanyl trafficking, so, we need to examine that southern border to assess the level of that purported “invasion.” Maintaining secure borders from a mass of humanity that could be viewed as an “invading force,” thus allowing the President to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, suspending habeas corpus and the requirement of due process as a condition to detain and deport such “enemy aliens” under the authority of the Executive Branch alone.

I think the headline on a May 1st article on CBS News by Camilo Montoya-Galvez really says it all: “Migrant crossings at U.S.-Mexico border stay at historically low levels 3 months into Trump crackdown.” Uh oh, another statistic reflecting an improvement in the flow of undocumented aliens crossing into the United States along our Mexican border. In fact, that reduction had already begun in the last year or two of the Biden administration, but if that border were no longer a migrant river overflowing its banks, it would not suit Trump’s claim of a criminal invasion.

Between “whatever you say, sir” from Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem and a man with a most sadistic glint in his eye, Tom “Border Tsar” Homan, the Trump administration had to amp up the claims of a criminal invasion, from MS 13 (which was born in Los Angeles and transported to El Salvador) to the dreaded Venezuelan Tren de Aragua ‘violent robber barons’ gang. The latter was held out to be a particularly dangerous and ultra-violent force. That latter criminal gang, new to the scene, was also the real invader. They worked across 16 states, 5,000 strong at their peak. But for a nation with 330 million people, that’s a pretty small number… and unlikely to send images of beach landings and arial bombardment.

So, Trump’s peeps had to work hard to figure out to turn a minor trickle into seeming like a major flood. They didn’t need photographs like the one above showing peace and quiet with almost no crossers. “The apprehensions reported in February, March and April are the lowest tallies recorded by the Border Patrol in its public monthly dataset, which stretches back to fiscal year 2000. The last time Border Patrol averaged fewer than 9,000 monthly apprehensions along the southern border over a year was in the late 1960s, according to historical agency figures.” CBS News. So, what’s a number fabricator and fear monger like Donald Trump to do?

“Arguing that the country is facing an ‘invasion,’ the president has all but shuttered the American asylum system, authorizing U.S. border officials to rapidly deport migrants to Mexico or their home countries, without court hearings. Thousands of additional active-duty troops have been deployed to fortify the southern border and, in some cases, detain migrants… The Trump administration has also dismantled Biden-era programs that allowed some migrants to enter the U.S. legally, arguing that the policies were contrary to federal immigration law.” CBS News.

So, what if we could create a massive new military base as a southern border barrier to that horde of nasty criminal migrants? The existence of such a barrier might convince most of Americans that there must be an invasion “out there.” As Luis Martinez, writing for the April 15th ABC News tells us: “President Donald Trump sent a presidential memorandum to Cabinet secretaries directing them to devise a plan to take jurisdiction over federal lands to combat illegal border crossings…. U.S. Army soldiers will soon be patrolling a 170-mile buffer zone along the southern border with Mexico in a newly created ‘National Defense Area’ in Arizona and New Mexico.

“It's part of the Trump administration's efforts to use the U.S. military to stop the flow of undocumented migrants into the United States… The large swath of area will stretch 60-feet-deep along federal lands running the length of the border and will be considered a part of Fort Huachuca in Arizona, meaning that, just as at any Army base, trespassers would be apprehended by soldiers and held until turned over to law enforcement.

“Some analysts see it as a way to militarize the border and skirt a federal law -- the Posse Comitatus Act -- that prohibits U.S. military personnel from carrying out law enforcement duties: by declaring the federal property a military base where migrants crossing into can be detained.” Indeed, Trump was twisting and squirming to side-step the US Constitution and laws that held the line against obviously negating the rights of all peoples within our borders. But once again, no invasion, no out-of-control hordes storming a federal military base… and no justification for terminating oh-so-many rights we hold near and dear. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is incumbent on our Congress and our federal judiciary to rein in a rogue President who wants total control… and preserve the very Constitution, that made and keeps America great, untainted, intact and untarnished.

Does Attacking DEI Now Legally Ratify White Privilege?

 

Does Attacking DEI Now Legally Ratify White Privilege?

White Afrikaners Welcome Here

Somehow that old adage – “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – truly gets in the way of a political force trying to move the United States back to the ethos, economic manufacturing base and climate reality of the 1950s. As I was writing this blog, there was record flooding in Maryland and Virginia, the “new normal” of 100 degree temperatures hit the South way, way too early in the season, warming coastal waters in California are producing toxic bacteria blooms killing seals, whales and other sea life, disease-carrying mosquitoes are following the higher temperatures, wildfires were blossoming in the hot, dry southwest… and even with the “suspension” of the highest tariffs between our largest trading partners, prices were soaring and layoffs, and anti-DEI attacks against our universities were accelerating. None of those “uncomfortable events” were problems for the 1950s… race relations and Jim Crow laws were.

The vectors we call DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – were the product of civil rights Supreme Court rulings (starting with the school integration rejection of “separate by equal” precedents set forth in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education decision and continuing into the 1960s with supporting court holdings and voting/civil rights legislation). It is less-than-subtle that the Trump administration’s labeling the treatment of Afrikaners (white descendants of the Netherlands) as severe discrimination, now entitled to special US residency status as refugees desiring to emigrate from South Africa to “discrimination free” America. This seemingly minor gesture is probably the most obvious admission by the Trump administration that preserving and restoring white privilege is the main vector behind the “anti-woke, anti-DEI” initiatives.

Let’s look at that purported Afrikaner discrimination vector, claiming these white farmers were being attacked by Black SA citizens in droves. Is life so terrible for white South Africans? “White people account for roughly 7 percent of South Africa’s population of 63 million people, and of that number, Afrikaners make up about two-thirds, so roughly three million people in total. Despite having a vastly smaller population, white commercial farmers—the majority of whom are Afrikaners—still possess about half of the country’s land and produce a whopping 90 percent of its agricultural products. In 2024, South Africa’s agricultural exports were worth a record $13.7 billion.

“Afrikaners have therefore maintained a hefty chunk of the nation’s wealth. Only 1 percent of white South Africans live in poverty, compared to nearly two-thirds of Black South Africans. This accumulated land and wealth is the direct result of systemic historical racial oppression under South African apartheid.” Edith Olmsted, the New Republic, May 13th. The sheer numbers speak for themselves. That doesn’t say that a few farmers haven’t been attacked in some areas or support the general notion that Blacks run roughshod over white South Africans. Historically, among the most powerful adherents of apartheid laws were Afrikaners.

“Constitutional black rule in South Africa officially began on May 27, 1994, with the first democratic elections that included all racial groups. This marked the end of apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation that had been in place since 1948. The first president elected in these elections was Nelson Mandela, a prominent anti-apartheid activist.” AI Google search. But Donald Trump looked at the status of white South Africans, and in the first days of his administration set out to protect those poor white Afrikaners from rampant discrimination and deprioritization in their homeland.

“The first group of refugees brought into the U.S. since Donald Trump became President followed an unusual path. On his first day back in office, he suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S.—upending resettlement plans for thousands fearing persecution and violence. Eighteen days later, he announced an exception for white South Africans who ‘are victims of unjust racial discrimination.’” Google search.

Brian Bennett, writing for the May 13th Time Magazine, embellishes that story: “On Monday [5/13], the U.S. welcomed a chartered plane carrying about 50 Afrikaners, marking a new phase of the U.S. refugee program that looks nothing like what came before it. Trump’s order specifically referred to Afrikaners, descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600s and controlled the country from 1948 to 1994 through the racial separation laws known as apartheid.

“Shortly after their plane landed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., the South Africans stood in front of news cameras holding American flags as they were greeted by Trump administration officials. ‘You are really welcome here and we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years,’ said Christopher Landau, deputy Secretary of State. Landau called the Afrikaners ‘quality seeds’ who will ‘bloom’ in the U.S. ‘As you know—a lot of you I think are farmers, right—when you have quality seeds, you can put them in foreign soil and they will blossom. They will bloom,’ Landau told the families. ‘We are excited to welcome you here to our country where we think you will bloom.’

“Trump’s carve out for Afrikaners was partly spurred in reaction to a 2024 South African law that seeks to address the concentration of agricultural land in the hands of white South Africans.” Yet white citizens in South Africans were still generally wildly better off than their Black counterparts, as the above numbers prove. And even when Trump was questioned about this issue at a press conference, he bizarrely claimed his decision was race-neutral and would apply equally to South African Black citizens facing the same discriminatory dangers. Except it didn’t. Instead, Trump merely affirmed what we already knew, a priority denied by elected MAGA politicians: Trump’s and MAGA officials’ pursuit of anti-DEI policies is simply a restatement of their major underlying white Christian nationalist guiding principle. And while it ain’t broke, the MAGA movement is hell-bent to fix it! It is most consistent with Trump’s perpetual need to divide and conquer. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and while there is no force on earth than can restore the United States of the 1950s, you have to ask yourself if trying to undo progress and level the playing field to favor whites is really improving the lives of anybody… really.

Americans Buy MAGA First?

  

Do Americans Buy MAGA First?

There is political value for unscrupulous politicians to divide and conquer, make people pick sides and exert community pressure on those who do not conform to their community politics. That “us vs them” mantra is a rallying cry, giving moral justification and community support to those who actually do pick sides. Those who don’t or those on the other side are viewed with animosity and disdain. Wars help fracture (our Civil War) or unify (WW2) our nation, and getting along is easier in predictable, stable and economically prosperous times. But as we migrated from a solid blue-collar value system, the economy that replaced agriculture from WW2 until somewhere in the post-Vietnam War era, we slid into a service sector world of technology, sophisticated high-end entertainment, entrepreneurship and complex financial/trading as our major value creators.

Indeed, less than 2% of our nation is directly employed in agriculture, which can explain those red-blue maps. Raising livestock and growing crops takes vast tracts of unpopulated land to work, where manufacturing was more narrowly concentrated such as our “Rust Belt” in our rising manufacturing sector: From Henry Ford’s Detroit assembly lines to the Boeing plants of Everett, Washington, with hangers so big, some claimed, that they had their own internal weather systems. With an overcapacity of electrical power stemming from the massive hydroelectric New Deal dams added to the wartime demands for military hardware, we rose to the new economic order, in a nation virtually unscathed by Nazi and Japanese bombing raids over much of what might otherwise have been manufacturing centers in Europe and Asia.

With such unscathed factories, we could make “stuff” and reap the benefits of our industrial might. As formerly great manufacturing centers, those foreign regions were rebuilding the massive war-torn damage. No one could make money like the United States. Our unions provided well-heeled working-class citizens, consumers able to buy lifestyle upgrades touted by the Madison Avenue Madmen, heavily amplified by the new medium of television. Besides, as Asia and Europe rebuilt, their citizens did not have the earning power of the American behemoth. But… in time… the overseas rebuilt factories were now much more modern that ours, many of which US plants still deployed pre-WW2 technologies.

Trade in manufactures (and the fuel needed to power those factories) globalized. With cheaper labor and more modern plants, that manufacturing priority migrated overseas until 80% of non-governmental American jobs rested in the service sector, where education and upgraded skills were the entry-level basics for Americans to prosper. With agriculture consuming 2% of the labor force (with many low-paid immigrants in that mix) and manufacturing under 10% of our workers, it was pretty clear that a whole lot of Americans were not part of that service sector future… they were abandoned… left behind.

Many of those slipping out of mainstream economics America, lived in a world where educational opportunities did not exist and were products of local generation-to-generation employment patterns faded. Grandpa worked in the big local mine/factory, daddy followed suit and when junior got in line… oh, the factory was shutting down. Turns out what America did best was decreasingly manufacturing. Liberals with degrees were prioritizing social justice issues, sadly ignoring their own backyard. The backyard was angry.

Enter Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission (Supreme Court 2010). Nothing changed the landscape more than did this case. Rich people with extreme views were unleashed to flash their cash, through SuperPACs. Candidates who couldn’t have raised a dime earlier now knew the issues and the causes that could attract campaign contributions. Most reflected in the House of Representatives, where every member runs every two years (and spends an average of 70% of their time raising campaign contributions), the most radical views were conservative, blame-ridden populism… and like moths to a flame, the radical-right leaning candidates circled. First it was the Tea Party, and today it is MAGA. Add an unscrupulous, self-aggrandizing, manipulative and power-hungry politician… and the nation spilt like a log under an axe.

Today, we have two distinct nations: some in identifiable regions (red or blue), others simply layered on top of each other. We are no longer “Americans.” Our leaders told us we had to choose: red, blue or nothing at all? We’ve seen the blame, the rhetoric, but what might really surprise blue America is how today there are actually very separate blue and red economies. The May 13th The Economist describes this schism well. “Imagine the perfect morning. After sleeping between sheets from MyPillow—a company established by Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist—you drink some Black Rifle Coffee, which ‘serves coffee and culture to people who love America’. You shave with Jeremy’s Razors (‘built for rugged jawlines....not feelings’). Then you eat some bacon from Good Ranchers, which pledges to ‘make the American farm strong again’, before going for a spin on your Harley-Davidson.

“The broader MAGA universe extends beyond goods with over-the-top marketing to products and employers merely favoured by Republicans. And each economic choice adds up to something bigger. According to our analysis, America is splitting into two different economies and markets: one conservative, the other liberal. People on each side think about the economy differently; they buy different things and work in increasingly different industries. Not only that, the MAGA economy is doing surprisingly well.

“American liberals tend to look down on companies that market themselves to conservatives. Although this is in part because they do not like the opposing side, some MAGA products seem like scams. President Donald Trump’s crypto coin soared following its launch, only to crash quickly and leave many supporters holding the bag. His branded watches, including the ‘Fight Fight Fight’ model, cost up to $100,000 and have received mixed reviews.

“Such snobbery also reflects a belief that the conservative economy is backward. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, noted that she had ‘won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product...the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward’. Kamala Harris, the nominee in 2024, won a similar share of America’s GDP. Of course, some solidly Republican districts have long been rich. In Jupiter, a town in Florida, activities include playing golf and wearing white chinos. Yet Yuba City, in northern California, where lots of locals are farmers and people voted strongly for Mr Trump, may be more illustrative of MAGA-land. Incomes are low; shops sell hardware, guns and fast food. There are no chinos in sight.” Sorry, blue America, that MAGA economy is doing just fine. We listen to different music, see different movies (if we go to movies), have separate media (social and mainstream), have different heroes… with lots of disdain and even hatred along the way! But each side thinks it will win. Can we ever expect to be the UNITED States ever again? 

I’m Peter Dekom, and while this is particularly difficult as the real manipulators – mega-rich people who benefit from divide and conquer – are the real un-Americans… the rest of us simply need to listen to each other without the filters of manipulative leaders and social media… and care, understand, empathize and compromise… if that is even possible today.

The Big Downgrade of the American Democracy and Economy

 

The Big Downgrade of the American Democracy and Economy

Where Denial, “Correct Thinking,” Autocratic Propaganda Replace Truth & Rule of Law is an “Obstacle”

Even as we sacrifice our representative government with a kleptocracy, even our oligarchs are not having a good time. The inordinate power that Donald Trump has illegally seized, with the massive backing and support by richest man in the world, actually isn’t good for anyone except Trump, his family and those oligarchs for as long as they kowtow to the Orange King. But if you look at Putin’s oligarchs, as is typical the longer an autocrat stays in power, even they wind up in ugly prisons or dead on the streets if the King even senses a slight departure from the path the King sets out. And while Russia and Europe have had a long history of monarchs and conquerors, the United States, founded to avoid these perils, does not.

For most economists savvy enough to have dealt with totalitarian regimes overseas, they are seeing a massive economic structure, recently the envy of the world, unravel and degrade. While we often are guided by the ups and downs of the stock market, those are reactive symptoms that belie a deeper and perhaps permanent reset to a second-rate former great power. The places you really have to look is the bond market, particularly the market for government treasuries, and the value of the currency. Where stocks plunge as interest rate skyrocket, in moderate doses, that can be view as a normal cyclical pattern. But if those trends reflect a global dumping of American assets, including the dollars themselves, that is a much bigger problem.

It seems that Trump has combined his hobby with his underlying skillset in governance: intimidation. It is reflected in the alternate universe all Trump administration acolytes and sycophants must accept as reality, even knowing that “alternative perspective” is a serious perversion of truth. It may involve ignoring standard accounting rules such that only rosy Trump statistical fabrications are deemed valid – see my recent An Accounting System Built on Lies blog – that only his geographical designations are truth (welcome to the Gulf of America), his clear and convincing evidence is always irrefutable (such as his using footage from the Congo as representative of South Africa’s pattern of genocide against white Afrikaner farmers?!) or that his utterances of “fact” can lead to firing for any government employee who issues facts to the contrary. In short, nothing purportedly “factual” issued by any government agency can be trusted.

Trump has based his entire arrest, detain and deport (without a trial) immigration policy on 18th century statutes intended to be used in times of invasion or rebellion. He claimed that Venezuela was directing its gangs to “invade” the United States to wreak havoc. But “In February, the National Intelligence Council completed an internal assessment that found no credible evidence linking Venezuela's government to the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, despite Trump publicly declaring such a connection to justify mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act…

“Trump's proclamation asserted that Venezuela was using the gang to conduct ‘irregular warfare’ against the U.S., a claim not supported by intelligence findings, the New York Times reported. Emails reveal that Joe Kent, chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, urged analysts to revise the original report to avoid political fallout.

“On March 24, just days after a New York Times article exposed the contradiction between Trump's statement and the intelligence report, Kent emailed analysts to ‘rethink’ their assessment and produce a version more aligned with ‘basic common sense’ and the administration's policy narrative. He also suggested the Biden administration had effectively aided the gang's migration efforts through lax border enforcement.” Latin Times, May 21st. In The May 22nd The Conversation, Andrew Reeves, Professor of Political Science and

Director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, Washington University in St. Louis, writes under this headline: “Trump treats laws as obstacles, not limits − and the only real check on his rule-breaking can come from political pressure.” His article continues, addressing the role of Congress and federal courts in checking presidential power:

“But law alone has never been enough to prevent presidents from abusing their power. The law’s force depends on political will. Presidents often follow the law not simply because they must, but to avoid backlash from Congress, the media or the public…What the United States is witnessing in 2025 is not just a president testing the system. It is a transformation of the presidency into a fully political institution. The president acts until political resistance becomes strong enough to stop him… President Donald Trump criticizes judges whose decisions he doesn’t like.

“In his first 100 days back in office, he took aggressive steps on federal spending, appointments to key executive branch positions, tariffs and deportations. Trump has announced he will not enforce legislation that the Supreme Court confirmed was constitutional. Many of these actions have already triggered legal challenges.

“These are not isolated incidents. Taken together, they reveal a broader pattern… Trump appears to treat legal rules not as limits but as obstacles to be negotiated or ignored. One recent scholarly paper has described Trump’s approach as ‘legalistic noncompliance,’ where the administration uses the language of law to give the appearance of compliance while defying the substance of court orders… The executive branch can move quickly. Courts cannot. This structural mismatch gives Trump a significant advantage. By the time a ruling is issued, the political context may have changed or public attention may have moved on… Judges have begun to notice. In recent weeks, courts have flagged not only legal violations but also clear signs of intentional defiance…

“Trump is not guided by precedent or legal tradition. If there is a limit on presidential power, it is political. And even that constraint is fragile… In a February 2025 national survey [is reflected in his chart above, a survey] by the Weidenbaum Center, a research institute that I head at Washington University in St. Louis, just 21% of Americans said the president should be able to enact major policy without Congress. The public does not support unchecked presidential power…

“So far, no judge has held the Trump administration in contempt of court. But the signs of erosion are unmistakable. Trump recently accused the Supreme Court of ‘not allowing me to do what I was elected to do’ after it temporarily blocked his administration’s effort to deport migrants with alleged ties to Venezuelan gangs. Treating the judiciary as just another political adversary and ignoring its rulings risks an even deeper constitutional crisis… The most meaningful check on presidential power will be political.” Until Donald Trump, no president has meaningfully or successfully defied the Court’s constitutional determination. If Trump does ignore such rulings without consequences, the result is simply that the United States as a democracy is done.

Will voters have a chance to mandate democracy in the 2026 midterms? If midterms are not rigged and actually take place. Republicans led passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE Act) in the House, but Democrats and advocates have slammed the bill, which among other things would require voters to show proof of citizenship [birth certificate] in person for federal elections. It would disenfranchise many voters, particularly in rural areas or those born on Native American reservations or pueblos, and perhaps a recently married woman whose name on a document does not reflect their current married name. So, until there is a fair midterm election – which seems to be leaning toward the GOP loss of at least the House – I remain skeptical. 

 I’m Peter Dekom, and I keep thinking I am sleeping through a horrible dream that cannot be true, but I don’t have to wake up to see reality.