The Lost Boys

 

Cole Allen, Cal Tech grad and would-be assassin

The Lost Boys

20-30 million semiautomatic assault rifles, more guns that people, hate speech everywhere = political violence

Today’s blog is short and not exactly sweet. Political violence – particularly feeling justified in killing leaders that are associated with fostering agendas that the shooters have learned to hate (from healthcare to military figures to heads of state) – is hardly new. Assassination has been a part of history at least since recorded history began. And whether it is crass rivalry, anarchy, religious zeal, a search for fame or martyrdom or a belief “I must stop them,” killing what you hate or are taught to hate has accelerated as weaponry has increased in sophistication, volume killing capacity, range, lethality and effectiveness. Whether recruited fanatics, foreign operatives with defined targets or passionate lone wolves, in the modern world, every assassination attempt or success finds large cadres of supporters cheering, sometimes silently or to their core believers.

The April 25th Correspondents Dinner was cancelled after an alleged attacker and presidential wannabe assassin, 31-year-old parttime teacher, Cole Allen, failed to penetrate a very effective shield around President Trump and his political team. Even as he was a registered guest at the Hilton Hotel venue, Allen managed to bring a shotgun, a handgun, lots of ammunition and a passel of knives into his hotel room with assassination seemingly on his mind. But since most of these assassination attempts are by younger men, I feel justified calling them the “lost boys.”

Lumbering under a profoundly flawed interpretation of the Second Amendment (Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in the 2008 Supreme Court ruling in Heller vs DC), the first Supreme Court decision in over two centuries to rule for an almost ubiquitous right of American citizens to own firearms, even military-grade assault weapons… was never the intent of James Madison who penned the Bill of Rights (which included the Second Amendment). We have since become the most violent developed nation on Earth, bringing a gun culture to dominate American life… and death.

We are now told that anyone opposing our leadership is the enemy, often deserving prosecution and execution, unpatriotic operatives that must be silenced. The nation has been divided into basically two camps, now identified with colorful red and blue markers. The mass and social media of each camp has demonized, marginalized and targeted the other side with a litany of hate and blame the United States has not witnessed at this scale since our Civil War. Vituperative rhetoric, the dehumanization of political opponents with hate-filled labels, has brought us to where we are today, often accompanied by warnings from other governments to their traveling citizens to beware of the dangers of traveling to the United States.

We did this to ourselves, and the language of hate and blame continues unabated, with some minimal signs that perhaps these labels are false, and that extremes on either side of this nasty debate are, simply, wrong and out-of-touch. We need to learn these lessons better, reject leaders who goad us to extremes. We need to stop outsourcing our political beliefs to extremists with simple and obviously undemocratic solutions… and learn to seek out facts vs conspiracy theories.

I’m Peter Dekom, and what we have before us is what happens when common sense is so vilified that it has simply left the building.

Trump Broke It but Wants Europe to Fix It

Trump Broke It but Wants Europe to Fix It

Iran totally controls which tankers can pass through the Strait of Hormuz

Donald Trump, who has never been able to articulate a consistent reason why US forces have attacked Iran, claims repeatedly that all US goals have been met (and we’re leaving soon), that liberating the Strait of Hormuz is not our fight (even though it is closed primarily in response to the Trump-initiated WAR on Iran, and opening the Strait was an announced goal), that the 970 pounds of Iran’s fissionable material is no longer a threat (because it is buried under tons of rubble), and that if Europe wants the Strait open, it must send military forces to “liberate” that passage. With relatively cheap, low-tech drones and mines, neither the United States nor Israel has achieved the slightest success in reopening that waterway. Insurance companies covering international shipping still will not cover losses incurred by shipping companies who attempt to pass through the Strait without Iran’s approval.

Here are the main catches: first, contrary to Trump’s beliefs, over 95% of the oil and gas passing through the Strait has always been directed at Asia and not Europe. We’re not talking about the Suez Canal! Second, the price of oil and gas in the United States will always be impacted by any global disruption in those products, notwithstanding our ability to produce those fossil fuels as one of the largest suppliers on Earth. As Trump berates our European allies for not joining the US in its assault on Iran and threatens to pull out of NATO, he seems to forget that NATO has always been a defensive pact and not one that can force NATO members to join a raw attack on another nation. That most Americans disagree with Trump’s WAR should be an indicator that NATO allies are in alignment with the predominant US sentiment… and it is Trump who is the odd man out.

If the US pulls out of the region, letting it mire in damage and firm Iranian control of the Strait, oil prices are unlikely to return to pre-WAR status anytime soon. Trump speaks with the certainty that his dialog with Iranian leaders is working, that they are ready to make serious concessions, despite a clear contradicting take from the Iranians in power, who claim no such conversations. Trump also tells us that there has been a regime change (several times over) in Iran, which is categorically false. The underlying theocracy is intact, the layered leadership has replaced all major Iranian leaders who have been killed, the IRGC still dominates the entire country, there is no popular uprising in this brutally repressive nation, and despite the incessant hammering of critical Iranian infrastructure by US and Israeli forces, Trump will never get his demanded “unconditional surrender,” no matter what he claims.

European leaders are not letting American voters off the hook. They remind us that Trump’s outrageous and autocratic proclivities were well established in his first term, his campaign for his second term was even less ambiguous, and still America voters put him back into the presidency. There is a sweeping change of attitude among NATO allies, that if Trump pulls out of that defensive organization, perhaps the world just might be better off. I can actually envision traditional allies breaking diplomatic relations with the United States, further reinforcing the isolation Trump seems to embrace, sending a message that the world cannot trust a bully who cannot keep his word, that the US financial stranglehold over international trade must end, that TACO tariffs are no longer acceptable.

Even if Trump were unable to sustain Trumpian authority past the 2028 presidential election, or even if a powerful Democrat were to retake the White House, even if both Houses of Congress were to turn blue, the world can no longer assume that the US will not later elect another malignant autocrat to undermine any return to a true democracy. We are politically damaged goods with almost no way to convince the world that we aren’t really that way.

The great beneficiary of Trump’s misplaced WAR is the same nation that invaded and proceeded to decimate and attempt to annex Ukraine (so far unsuccessfully): Putin’s Russia. With oil prices staggeringly high, and with Trump’s release of sanctions against Russia, Trump has actually become Putin’s champion; Russia is making a fortune from its latest oil exports, and Trump is effectively helping Russia finance the war in Ukraine, while the same time using up America’s most powerful stash of sophisticated weapons, draining our treasury and showing the world how militarily vulnerable the US truly is. China is also cheering as well as we cannot truly claim victory.

Trump’s approval levels have never been this low. His TACO responses on this WAR, immigration and the economy, may not have alienated his MAGA cult loyalists, but he has lost his grip on the independent voters who backed him… and there is scant likelihood that they will return to back him and his policies.

And his feeble explanation in his April 1st speech failed at every level. 19 minutes of meaningless babble. Trump said we have met all of our military goals (what exactly were they, and why are we still striking targets?), that even though we never threatened regime change (we did), we effected eliminating hardliners at the top who were replaced with more reasonable leaders (except the replacements are vastly tougher and more intransigent than those they replaced), a desperate Iran is seeking a ceasefire (denied by Iran), we are almost finished (but no timeline was announced), the Strait of Hormuz is not our problem (it’s no more Europe’s problem than ours, but global oil prices have soared through the roof everywhere), we may withdraw from NATO (like we are a good partner now?), and unless the Strait were immediately open, we would bomb Iran into the “stone age.”

Prior to this failed speech, the UK and Australian PMs made it clear that they considered this WAR to be Trump’s unilateral decision (with Netanyahu’s push), and Spain, Italy and France declared that they would deny US military aircraft destined for Iran the right to use their airspace, reminding Trump that NATO is a defensive, not an offensive, pact. Trump pledged that we would keep satellite surveillance over the rubble where the enriched uranium seems to be lodged and attack if Iran attempted to extract it. But weren’t we already doing that? The stock markets crashed, oil prices soared further, sending a clear message to Trump that he was in this alone, increasingly viewed as a global loser. A few regional Arab nations resurrected their traditional antipathy against Iran, but their request to continue the WAR was a small ripple on a very large pond. And Iran pledged even more powerful retaliatory strikes, and suggested that the United States will have no say in the future of the Strait of Hormuz.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the more extreme Trump’s policies these days, the lower his polling and the more he is being reversed by our judicial system, proving that Donald John Trump is America’s greatest LOSER president presiding over a toxic legacy.

Can There Be Any Remaining Doubts of His Insanity?

 Truth Social, 5/2/25, 11 days after the death of Pope Francis

Truth Social 4/13 deleted

“The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this,

 but I think it is quite nice!!!” Truth Social 4/15

Can There Be Any Remaining Doubts of His Insanity?

“If I weren’t president, the world would be torn to pieces.” 

Donald Trump after failed Vance Iran negotiation

Trump gives me the feeling of an insane relative who stole my credit card, going on a fool’s errand to spend as much as he can, without my consent, to buy guns, ships and hire armed soldiers to kill, destroy, kill and decimate my life and the lives of those around me. For some odd reason, the banks won’t let me challenge those expenditures and shut down that credit card. Trump is as much a Christian as the devil incarnate himself, it seems, even as his followers (including hordes of GOP member of Congress) seem unwilling to lift a finger to stop him. His actions and his statements confirm, in my mind at least, that Donald Trump is beyond delusional and exceptionally dangerous.

Trump has violated virtually every election pledge he has made, appointing weak and sycophantic cabinet members who tremble at his very words, and every day brings further irreversible damage to our economy, our plunging global influence on life support, and a delusional autocrat tells us his “regime change” (when did that happen again?) has left us in better position: “The U.S. and Israel launched the war with the hope that killing top Iranian officials—starting with Mojtaba’s father, Ali Khamenei—would create the conditions for regime change or at least the emergence of leaders more willing to bend to America and Israel’s interests. In an address to the nation one month into the war, President Trump called the new leadership ‘more reasonable.’... Instead, the void is being filled by radical new leaders who have shown little interest in political compromise at home or abroad.” Wall Street Journal, April 14th. The hardest hardliners we have ever met!!!

Indeed, as the world is now deep into questioning the mental capacity of the President of the United States, Trump’s constant threat to pull the US out of NATO (which actually requires congressional approval) is beginning to have traction among the balance of NATO allies, particularly since Hungary’s pro-Putin regime has just been ousted in a landslide election. “A fallback plan to ensure Europe can defend itself using NATO’s existing military structures if the U.S. departs is gaining traction after getting buy-in from Germany, a long-term opponent of a go-it-alone approach.

“The officials working on the plans, which some officials are referring to as ‘European NATO,’ are seeking to get more Europeans into the alliance’s command-and-control roles and supplement U.S. military assets with their own… The plans, first conceived last year, underscore the depth of European anxiety over U.S. reliability. They accelerated after Trump threatened to seize Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, and are now gaining fresh urgency amid the standoff over Europe’s refusal to back America’s war in Iran.’ Wall Street Journal, April 15th. A weakened United States, having spent a massive number of its sophisticated military hardware while being stalemated by the cheap drone attacks from what had been touted as a helpless Iran, seems to making a strong impression on China, which is both learning about our weaknesses and watching our global power dissipate.

“When China declared on Monday [4/13] that the U.S. blockade of Iranian oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz was ‘dangerous and irresponsible,’ it was a brief window into President Trump’s latest challenge: how to keep the Iran conflict from upending an emerging détente with China.” NY Times, April 15th. What would happen if China determined that its navy would now escort its tankers through the Strait of Hormuz? Will that become a topic of discussion as Trump and Chinese President Xi meet?

And back here, Trump’s unrestrained spending has had a humongous economic impact on so many levels. Without the slightest congressional authorization, lumbering under the already deficit destroying Big Beautiful tax cut for the rich, Trump seems to be spending us into the ground. Writing for the April 14th FastCompany.com, Sarah Bregel brings us the economic analysis from one Harvard financial expert: “While wars always come with an added cost to taxpayers, a public policy expert is saying the Trump administration’s military efforts in Iran, which include attacking infrastructure and a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, could drag on and come with tremendous costs to the American people—and long term, the projections are alarming… That’s according to Linda Bilmes, a senior lecturer in Public Policy and public finance expert at Harvard’s Kennedy School. She says that the war is already costing about $2 billion a day, but that’s only ‘the tip of the iceberg.’

“In a recent interview, Bilmes said that while the Pentagon said the war cost around $11.3 billion in the first few days of the war alone, that’s an “underestimate,” and the true cost is much higher… ‘According to my calculations, those first few days cost at least $16 billion,’ Bilmes explained. “We are spending down munitions at an extraordinarily fast pace—to put it in perspective, we fired more Patriot missiles in the first four days of the Iran war than we have given to Ukraine over the past four years,” she said.

“The researcher asserted that short-term costs are adding up quickly, as “we are losing high-cost assets,” but it’s the long-term costs that are most troubling. For starters, Bilmes said it’s important not to overlook the cost of human life, which is already being lost. Thousands of Iranians, including at least 1,700 civilians, have already lost their lives to the war. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers have been injured with at least 13 dead. Financially speaking, the cost of medical and disability care for veterans will be substantial. So will be the increase in the defense budget, which Bilmes explained could become permanent…

“‘The president is proposing roughly a 50% increase in the defense budget,’ Bilmes explained. ‘If enacted in full, that would push defense spending to levels about 20% higher than the peak reached during World War II. This raises the baseline. Even if Congress does not agree to approve the full increase, it is highly likely that at least $100 billion per year will be added to the base defense budget that would not have been approved in the absence of this war.’”

“Bilmes says those costs add up to at least $100 billion per year. ‘I am certain we will reach $1 trillion for the Iran war,’ Bilmes explained… While the projections are no doubt troubling, Americans are already paying for the war. Gas prices recently saw the largest jump in about 60 years, which means that air travel costs are also up. And on Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that if the conflict continues to escalate, we could face a global recession.”

If the obviousness of Trump’s delusion isn’t sufficient deterrent to GOP members of Congress, perhaps their belief that they require the voting support of an equal number of MAGA stalwarts to hold their congressional jobs is the most destructive vector in American politics today. Can we afford to wait until the midterm elections to change our destructive course… when ever day our political and economic realities get so much worse so much faster?! Trump would rather battle the Pope than deal with his own crimes and misdemeanors… as the GOP continues to support him.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the most troubling aspect of this not-so-funny comedy of errors is how much of this is a result of the decisions of so many Republican voters.

As Our (?Former?) Allies Begin the Great "Weakened America" Isolation and Workaround

As Our (?Former?) Allies Begin the Great “Weakened America” Isolation and Workaround

As Our Clown-Car of Senior Trump Appointees Seems Addicted to Power & Failure

I mean seriously, who takes on the most popular Pope in recent memory, and backs Donald “34 felony convictions” Trump, the man who unilaterally declared a full-on war against Iran, in a religious debate? Over the Pope’s statements that God is a champion of peace over war? MAGA Republicans (are there any other kind?) are tripping all over themselves to justify Trump’s violent approach (he threatened to bomb the entire Persian civilization into the “stone ages”) against the Pope’s admonitions against a raw warrior mentality, the rantings of a recovering alcoholic ex-Army major, in favor of a humanity-embracing peace. To say this is colossally stupid seems to be so horribly obvious, that I find myself questioning why it is even up for debate. No, Sean Hannity, the Iran conflict does not remotely have the justification that American soldiers had in WWII against the hellish Nazis who slaughtered millions in death camps.

It really has gotten ugly, as the “Trump administration canceled millions of dollars in funding to Catholic Charities in Miami… The Office ‘of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)’, under the Department of Health and Human Services, has been a long-time source of funding for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami under the unaccompanied children program. The Catholic Charities received $11 million from HHS in fiscal year 2025, according to federal spending data, but the award ended as of March 31.” USA Today, April 17th. But nothing is quite as ugly as the massive fall from grace of the entire Trump administration in the eyes of most of the rest of the world.

Apparently, I seem to stand with the majority of western nations who find Trump’s WAR baffling. We had free passage through the Strait of Hormuz before Trump’s assault, begun during peace negotiations, and today, we do not. Oh, sure there are statements to the contrary, and with Chinese intervention (which a weak US President sought), we are somewhat better off, but the Trumpian threats to bring Iran to its knees continue with barricades on Iranian ports, seizure of Iranian oil and gas tanker ships on the high seas… the financial equivalent of saturation bombing.

But the President’s mandates continue to irritate at least 30 nations, now working through the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative, to fix the damage wrought by Donald J. Trump. Needless to say, the United States was specifically excluded from this aggregation of seriously angry world leaders who, with zero consultation, faced soaring oil and gas prices resulting from the uninformed actions of America’s self-declared monarch… “The leaders of France and the U.K. gathered dozens of countries — but not the United States — on Friday [4/17] to push forward plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil route choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

“The Paris meeting is part of attempts by sidelined nations to ease the impact of a conflict they didn’t start and haven’t joined, but that has sent the global economy reeling. After the war started on Feb. 28, Iran effectively shut the narrow strait though which a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes… The U.S. is not part of the planning for what has been branded the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative. In a post on X ahead of Friday’s conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said the mission to provide security for shipping through the strait would be ‘strictly defensive,’ limited to non-belligerent countries and deployed ‘when security conditions allow.’

“British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, facing political troubles at home, was greeted by Macron in the courtyard of the Elysee presidential palace on Friday [4/17] afternoon.

… Macron and Starmer have spearheaded international efforts to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, which Starmer has accused of ‘holding the world’s economy to ransom.’ U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a retaliatory American blockade of Iranian ports has raised the economic jeopardy even higher…. ‘The unconditional and immediate reopening of the Strait is a global responsibility, and we need to act to get global energy and trade flowing freely again,’ Starmer said before the meeting.” Associated Press, April 17th.

Just to watch Trump’s cabinet appointees writhe to find a path to please an increasingly unpopular President implement his even more unpopular policies. By way of example, the Department of “Justice” has instead embraced policies protecting Trump buddies from exposure as pedophiles, as would probably be revealed by full release of the Epstein files, to a continuing losing effort to use the federal legal bureaucracy to hunt down and prosecute Trump’s growing litany of opponents. Trump pseudo-lawyer, and now disgraced Attorney General Pam Bondi, was the first major minion to go, and it sure seems that the mockery of an FBI Director, Kash Patel, is likely next to leave. Just a few apparently well-documented excerpts from The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick, published April 17th, makes that point very clearly:

After a major Patel freakout that he had been fired because he seemed locked out of the FBI computer system (false alarm, Kash), the heavy drinking FBI director seemed most justifiably in fear for his job. Using FBI personnel and jet aircraft to ferry his country-singer girl friend around was not the worst of it. “[FBI officials] said that the problems with his conduct go well beyond what has been previously known, and include both conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences. His behavior has often alarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice, even as he won support from the White House for his eager participation in Trump’s effort to turn federal law enforcement against the president’s perceived political enemies.

“Several officials told me that Patel’s drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said that he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication, in many cases at the private club Ned’s in Washington, D.C., while in the presence of White House and other administration staff. He is also known to drink to excess at the Poodle Room, in Las Vegas, where he frequently spends parts of his weekends. Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights, six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel’s schedule told me.”

OK, why this mix of global opprobrium over the Trump-Pope religious debate, the global fury over the consequences of Trump’s WAR on oil prices and the machinations within the Trump Department of “Injustice”? The simple answer rests with the difference between a nation governed under the rule “of law” (where no one is above the law) – which once defined the United States – to one defined under rule “by law” (where one man and one party impose their “laws” on everybody else). The new USA.

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless the checks and balances inherent in the first three articles of our Constitution are restored, not only will our nation unravel as a working democracy, but our global power and influence will continue to plunge, with very serious consequences for every American.

What Now Given China’s Rapid Ascent?

What Now Given China’s Rapid Ascent?

“Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” 

Pope Leo XIV, on April 16th in Bamenda, Cameroon.

What totally amazes me is how utterly blind and tone deaf so much of this country is, particularly Trump world, pretending that Trump’s ever-changing goals are achievable, that we had any shot to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without China’s assistance, that the worst American military leader in our history is doing a great job banging Iran into submission, that Americans totally back Trump’s huge military budget to expand and enhance existing strategies that couldn’t even force a decimated Iran to surrender and that Americans are willing to sacrifice their medical benefits, support continued tax cuts for the rich and absorb higher prices for Trump’s bizarre national goals. Further, while most of MAGA does not care about Trump’s “Pope-baiting,” independents are either angry or baffled by that Trumpian practice.

Having wasted billions and billions of dollars of our sophisticated munitions on a losing cause, somehow too many Americans still believe that China cannot match our military might… that Trump’s “bully first” approach is unstoppable. As we build massive and super-expensive aircraft carriers ($15B/each and rising fast, just for the boat without crew, aircraft or support ships), we get pummeled by simple drones, basic mines and watch China rebuild its nuclear arsenal to modern specifications, learning the lessons of war from Ukraine and Iran and building accordingly.

Back in the 1990s, after the Soviet Union had collapsed, we began to build the fastest, deepest diving super-submarines – the new Seawolf class. But they were so damned expensive, we only built three such subs before abandoning further construction in favor of the vastly less expensive Virginia class sub, a nice boat but nothing like the superior Seawolf class vessel.

We have a stronger navy, with a whole lot of bigger ships than China. They have more vessels, hardly anything comparable to our nuclear carriers, but theirs are nimble and most are more modern with some surprising new capacities. To make that point, China seems to have developed an upgraded version of our discontinued Seawolf class subs: ““An initial surprise is that the Type 095 is, despite always expected to be a larger boat, not longer than the preceding Type 093 Shang-class. In fact it may be slightly shorter. Yet it is noticeably wider, with the beam increased to around 12 meters from around 11 meters. This makes it almost the same size as the Seawolf-class.

“While there is no suggestion that it is a straight copy of the American design, there is some sense in these new dimensions; there was a hydrodynamic logic in Seawolf’s specifications. Like a whale or other marine creature there is an optimum length-to-beam ratio which optimizes drag and allows the creature to go faster, or use less energy. Counter-intuitively the shorter-fatter Seawolf has a much more efficient hull design than the later, more compromised, Virginia-class.” NavalNews.com. Oh my. And for some reason, Trump believes that Americans want a 50% increase in our “defense budget,” not remotely acknowledging the rising citizen antipathy to that.

“An effort to ramp up U.S. weapons production and build more ships, planes and drones will require a massive upfront investment, President Trump’s budget director told a House committee Wednesday [4/15]… The testimony from Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought jump-starts the White House’s push to increase defense spending to nearly $1.5 trillion in the next budget year , up from nearly $1 trillion this year, while cutting health research, heating assistance and scores of other domestic programs by about 10% overall. Such cuts do not cover mandatory spending, which includes such programs as Social Security and Medicare… ‘For the industrial base to double or triple and build more facilities, not just add shifts, it requires multiyear agreements to purchase into the future,’ Vought told lawmakers. ‘That cost has to be booked in this first year.’” Kevin Freking, writing for the April 17th Associated Press. Bark, bark!

And we still think we can force Iran to surrender with the financial equivalent of continuous bombing. “The U.S. military has widened its efforts beyond the blockade of Iran’s ports to allow its forces around the world to stop any ship tied to Tehran or those suspected of carrying supplies that could help its government, including weapons, oil, metals and electronics.

“Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, specifically pointed to operations in the Pacific, saying the U.S. would be targeting vessels that left before the blockade began this week outside the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy and other shipments… U.S. forces in other areas of responsibility ‘will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran,’ he told reporters at the Pentagon.” Konstantin Toropin, Ben Finley and David Klepper writing for the April 17th Associated Press

“If the U.S. and Iran aren’t able to soon come to a deal to end the war or extend the ceasefire that expires next week, the Trump administration is setting the stage to shift its war campaign toward a more economic-focused effort aimed at choking Tehran into submission rather than relying on bombs alone… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at a White House briefing Wednesday that the U.S. plans to ramp up economic pain on Iran, and said the new moves will be the ‘financial equivalent’ of a bombing campaign. …

“Bessent said the administration has ‘told companies, we have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure. And the Iranians should know that this is going to be the financial equivalent of what we saw in the kinetic activities.’” Fatima Hussein, Aamer Madhani, Will Weissert and Seung Min Kim writing for the April 17th Associated Press.

As Trump has destroyed any competitive hope for US carmakers, he sure as hell has boosted China’s competitive edge. “The U.S. is the world’s top oil producer and has pushed liquefied natural gas. The American approach — summed up by Trump as ‘drill, baby, drill’ — favors fossil fuels over renewables… Markets were witnessing a ‘bifurcation’ before the war, [energy expert Sam] Reynolds said, with the superpowers pushing very different energy futures, leaving other countries with complex choices on which approach to back…

“The Iran war is driving demand for technology from China, whose exports of solar panels, batteries and electric cars had already hit a record of almost $22.3 billion in December. That was up about 47% from the year before, with much going to Southeast Asia and Europe, according to the think tank Ember… Investment in renewable power and battery storage — designed to save energy when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing — is expected to increase in nations heavily dependent on energy imports, including European countries, according to the credit rating firm Fitch Ratings.” Chan Ho-him, Aniruddha Ghosal and Anton L. Delgado, writing for the Associated Press, April 17th.

We are relying on conspiracy theories, fabricated statistics and false narratives to convince ourselves that continuing archaic strategies and bully tactics will keep the United States as the top dog in global influence, military power and economic dominance… even as the rest of the world is doing everything it can to prevent that toxic hegemony.

I’m Peter Dekom, and like it or not, China is in the adjacent passing lane, already accelerating into the top spot.

As Republicans Battle with God, "Destruction of a Civilization", No End Game & Soaring Prices

 

As Republicans Battle with “God,” “Destruction of a Civilization,” No End Game & Soaring Prices

The United States also seems terrified of competition & how to explain toxic Trump practices alienating so many

April 15, 2026

In addition to their utter puzzlement at Trump’s self-defeating direct attacks on a very popular Pope Leo XIVth, “Few Republican lawmakers said anything publicly about President Donald Trump’s startling social media post last week warning Iran that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight,’ but privately, in a large text chat, a group of them read his threat with alarm.

“The chat is among members of Congress’ ‘Main Street Caucus,’ a group of almost 100 GOP lawmakers. One Republican lawmaker questioned how the remarks were helpful to those having to defend Trump’s costly war with Iran and complained that the president’s rhetoric isn’t doing the party any favors, according to three House Republicans with direct knowledge of the exchange. Multiple members then chimed in to echo similar concerns.” NBC New, April 15th.

These Republican members of Congress aren’t stupid; they know Trump is eroding their chances at the midterms. However, they are caught in a trap. If they challenge Trump – effectively, do their jobs as members of a theoretically independent branch of government – the MAGA Trump cult, even as their numbers are falling slightly, will punish any GOP member of Congress who questions anything Trump says or does… by killing that congressperson in the next primary. That the policies embraced by Trump may be barriers to winning in the subsequent general election doesn’t move the MAGA needle one whit.

What’s worse, Trump’s actions, combined with the medical catastrophe of RFK, Jr’s war against vaccines as infections rise and Trump’s obvious inability to face the ravages of climate change, are making Russia rich (feeing their coffers to battle Ukraine as oil prices rise) and rapidly moving China to the become the global “king of the hill.” “President Donald Trump’s decades-long ambition to dismantle the Iranian regime has culminated in a six-week conflict that critics warn is exposing American fragility rather than projecting strength. As the war transitions into negotiations largely brokered by Beijing, the United States finds its global authority and the dollar’s supremacy under unprecedented strain.

“The offensive, fueled by a ‘hard sell’ from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was intended to kneecap Tehran before it could threaten the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, the administration’s miscalculation has triggered what historians call a ‘Suez moment’—referencing the 1956 crisis that effectively ended Britain’s era as a global superpower.” Thomas Smith writing for the April 15th Better America. But then, Trump doesn’t read history books.

We’ve moved from a government that has, until now, measured governmental success in terms of embracing global values that have reflected policies and directions redefining how the rest of the world can benefit from following this template. Instead, the Trump era has shifted American policies to a simple dollars-and-cents metric of success, more reflective of the era of colonialism and slavery, as opposed to a global system of mutual dependence… ending the system that led to our 20th century ascendance to the top of the global influence and economic food chain. The more Trump has insisted on setting the global rules, the more the loss of alliances, the greater the pushback and the more China has benefited from that arrogance.

The allegory of this erosion of American power can easily be observed in Trump’s inane support of the fading value of fossil fuel globally, resulting in a massive technology shift favoring China, while minimizing the value of the entire American automotive sector. We’re actually fighting another oil war! As Jack Ewing, writing for the March 3rd NY Times points out: “[US auto] industry veterans say they can’t remember a time when the biggest carmakers faced as much uncertainty as they do now. They have been whipsawed by tariffs. Chinese carmakers are breathing down their necks around the world. Self-driving taxi companies like Waymo are changing the very nature of transportation. Software has replaced horsepower as a key selling point. Sales are flat almost everywhere, and profits are declining.

“How U.S. carmakers cope with this pivotal moment will determine whether they survive as global players or slide into irrelevance, becoming niche manufacturers of pickups and sport utility vehicles that only Americans buy… The early indications are not promising. Many established U.S. and European carmakers have been stumped by electric vehicles at seemingly every turn. First, Tesla’s meteoric rise caught them unawares. They responded by investing in new factories but are now pulling back after the U.S. government repealed tax credits and other subsidies for those cars.”

Not only are Chinese EV cars vastly cheaper, often with enhanced luxury, but they are usually far more technologically advanced… their new batteries often having double the range and far more AI elements than their American counterparts… and they face almost no competition from old world American fossil fuel-driven cars… as oil prices soar from the American failure in Iran. And trust me, after China moves in to solve this American-made “Iran War” problem (behind the scenes or directly), we will fall more than a mere notch to their ascension, eclipsing American power with Trump’s total assistance. Does the new America truly hate competition that much?

So why is April 15th featured in red above? Tax day or something much more? To me, it will soon become apparent that it was the day that Donald Trump accepted that he was unable to extricate the United States from a completely unnecessary war declared by him (alone) without Congress or any allied support – after the world’s most powerful military led by a recovering alcoholic Christian nationalist zealot who never made it past the rank of major, facing serious retention/recruitment issues, was brought to its knees by cheap drones from an asymmetrical enemy after massive bombing destruction – and a nation less than a third our size… decimated our economy. It was the day that Donald Trump had to enlist China (in a private call with China’s President Xi) to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz… an admission that the United States was no longer the number one superpower on Earth. The rise of China to the top became undeniable.

I’m Peter Dekom, and by our accepting Trump’s new bully-driven, under-analyzed colonial expansionist monetary metrics of success, we have cleared the way for China to assume the top position of global economic power and influence.

God is on [Insert Name of Aggressor Nation’s] Side

God is on [Insert Name of Aggressor Nation’s] Side

“Happy Easter — He is Risen indeed!... From the foot of the Cross on Good Friday to the stone rolled away from the now empty tomb, sin has been destroyed. Jesus has been raised from the dead. And God has granted each of us victory and new life.” 

Excerpt from an Easter email from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to approximately 100,000 USDA employees

“Using government resources to promote one religion contradicts what I learned about how America was founded on separation of church and state. Even though many of my coworkers were also celebrating Passover, the email didn’t address any other religious traditions.” 

One USDA employee mirroring the reactions of many others

The embrace of white Christian Nationalism as an official Trump policy objective began with the text of Project 2025, a zealous pursuit by senior White House advisor, ultra-rightwing Stephen Miller. “Donald Trump’s establishment of the newly-minted White House Faith Office and ‘anti-Christian bias’ task force isn’t merely another gesture to his evangelical base — it’s the methodical implementation of Project 2025’s radical blueprint for installing Christian Nationalist governance throughout the federal bureaucracy. The strategy, emerging with crystalline clarity, reveals how a sophisticated network of religious nationalists has positioned itself to transform executive power and infuse one particular version of religious dogma into American life.

“At the nexus of this transformation stands televangelist Paula White-Cain, newly appointed senior advisor to Trump’s Faith Office and current chair of the Center for American Values at the America First Policy Institute, a cousin to Project 2025 and a similar far-right, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-woman think tank with several other Trump appointees among its ranks.” Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, February 12, 2025. Indeed, White-Cain likened Donald Trump to Jesus Christ, drawing strong pushback from legitimate mainstream American pastors. Yet Iran’s theocracy, claiming victory against the “Great Satan” (the United States) in recent days, firmly announced that God is completely on their side of Trump’s War.

No one has been as religiously zealous as recovering alcoholic, WAR Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose messages to the troops is constantly repeating how a Christian God has anointed the US military as Crusader saviors of Christianity as our primary underlying value. Members of other faiths are not mentioned, often completely ignored, made to feel they are now fighting a religious war for someone else’s view of God. To Zealot Pete, the Constitution does not exist, and the Supreme Court decision, that he cannot unilaterally exclude members of the press from the Pentagon for refusing to agree to report only Pentagon official releases, can be subject to a workaround. Having touted our victory in Iran, assured the President of our complete victory, Hegseth is second only to DNI head, Tulsi Gabbard, as the next cabinet officer to be discharged.

As a complete repudiation of diplomatic protocol, it seems that the Ambassador to the US from the Vatican was summoned to the Pentagon to face criticism of Pope Leo XIVth, who has spoken out against the Trump administration on a number of occasions since he took on the role last year, including over the Iran war in recent weeks. “According to the report, also backed up by independent reporter Christopher Hale, who writes the Letters from Leo Substack, a closed-door meeting between Vatican and Pentagon officials took place in January.

“U.S. officials were reported to have lectured the Catholic Church representatives, with one official reaching for a 14th century weapon and invoking the Avignon Papacy—a period of time when the French monarchy used military force to bend the Bishop of Rome to its wishes… U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday [4/8] he would look into reports that senior Pentagon officials lectured the Vatican‘s ambassador, leading to the cancellation of a planned visit by Pope Leo XIV.” Newsweek, April 8th. Vance’s standing within the Catholic Church is on very thin ice, bordering on formal excommunication, given his support of Trump’s and Secretary of Defense/War, Pete Hegseth’s, constant references to “God’s” absolute support of Trump’s WAR against Iran.

“The meek shall inherit the Earth” has been replaced with “only the strong are blessed by God,” and the woke (“meek”) are disposable. Even as prices everywhere are soaring due to the failing WAR against Iran, inflation resuming, Trump proposes higher WAR taxes, cutting social services like Medicare, SNAP, Medicare and Social Security even further, and spending money (either from corrupt donors seeking Trump favors or directly from taxpayers) on his rising collection of Golden Calves, from his party-room extension on the White House to the proposed 250 foot golden arch (pictured above), on the Potomac as Trump’s paean to America’s 250th anniversary this coming July 4th.

This rise of Christian nationalism is everywhere red Republicans have been elected to high office. Texas, the poster-state for “Christianity is America’s only true faith” and damned the First Amendment, is at it again, as LZ Ganderson, writing for the April 10th Los Angeles Times, observes: “We had so much going on this week, with the new season of ‘Euphoria’ coming out and the president threatening to wipe out a 2,600-year-old civilization, that it’s easy to miss things like the latest attempt by conservatives to reshape the U.S. into a theocracy. Not satisfied with shoehorning Bible stories into its English curriculum and the push to display the Ten Commandments in public classrooms, the Texas Board of Education is now considering adding Bible verses to the required reading list for students.

“For one of the country’s largest providers of public education to consider requiring students to read Bible verses feels like a grenade being hurled at the wall separating church and state. However, when you factor in similar challenges from other red states such as Louisiana, which also wants to display the Ten Commandments in public classrooms, or Oklahoma, whose attempt to use public funds to create a religious online charter school was blocked by the Supreme Court last spring, it’s clear state officials in red states have launched a full-on coordinated attack. Which means the collection of warm and fuzzy scriptures being considered in Texas is likely just a Trojan horse to either bring in more extreme theology next or force another visit to this conservative Supreme Court. And recall, it was the court’s ruling on an antiabortion law out of Texas in 2021 that set the stage for overturning Roe vs. Wade the following year.

“Now, in a country in which more than 60% of people identify as Christian, there may be a temptation to view the Ten Commandments in public schools as innocuous. Most of the content is uncontroversial: Murdering and stealing are bad; lying and cheating are things one should not do. However, how does a state government reconcile displaying ‘you shall have no other gods before me’ in a democracy in which a third of citizens may have another god or no god at all?... And why place public school teachers, many of whom are not Christians themselves, in a position in which they may have to explain that religion’s doctrine?” Especially when the current administration seems to interpret the New Testament in a manner that seems to repudiate the most basic teachings of Christ himself. I think Thomas Jefferson and James Madison got it right when they clearly separated Church and state.

I’m Peter Dekom, and instead of reconfiguring the Bible as an instrumentality of a state that embraces violence as a routine solution, perhaps the MAGA (what’s left of it) “Ministry of Propaganda” needs to leave religion to God and bona fide worshippers, and not highly biased politicians!