Who’s in Charge, and What Are They Doing?

Let’s start with the simplest platform that I believe most Americans support: we absolutely need border security to stop predatory cartels from supplying American addicts (follow the money) with life-destroying narcotics and to limit and contain (applying rational policies and implementation) cross-border movement of human beings. We need to stop burying our heads in the sand about US weapons being smuggled south into the very hands of the real “worst of the worst.”

We need to stop incendiary labeling against these immigrants of color at our southern border (or wherever they have gathered), accept them as human beings – just like us – except economically bereft of hope, often facing ultra-violence in their homelands. Instead, prioritize humanity and compassion that have defined the American spirit since inception. Those values that are of the essence in the New Testament, the backbone of the true evangelical movement: tolerance, charity, kindness, avoiding violence, not sitting in judgment of others and love of your neighbor (broadly defined). This cannot be accomplished without two huge changes: 1. Immigration is not a perpetual campaign issue that is purposely left without solution, because one party needs to keep it alive for partisan reasons. 2. Tell the truth about the vast majority of such immigrants (with substantially lower per capita crime rates than our population of citizens).

It is a non-partisan issue. The self-inflicted economic devastation: like construction slowing when we need it most, crops rotting in the fields, the service industry without workers and any nasty, dirty labor (from slaughterhouses to dangerous ditch-digging) that Americans refuse to do at any price. Despite some programs that were introduced by Republicans at the highest levels, the Congressional contingent of Republicans has blocked every major effort at genuine immigration reform since the last such effort by Ronald Reagan in 1986. Keep the rift alive as a perpetual campaign issue. Repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result?

Despite a pledge to go after criminals among immigrants, ICE is now going after volume detention without reference to criminal attributes. Fear has already depleted the ranks of necessary undocumented workers… Bad will escalate into increased human misery: for citizens watching costs soar and to those immigrants facing more direct suffering.

While most of us are hoping that Trump’s tariffs (applied and threatened) will push major trading partners to come to the table ready to make concessions, that could backfire. Our supply chain is complex. While importing fruits and vegetables from Mexico and oil & gas from Canada are pretty easy to understand – expect food costs and real estate prices to soar until this is resolved – some “American-made” products are filled with foreign-made components (a quarter or more). The February 1st news feed from The Wall Street Journal notes: “From General Motors to mom-and-pop parts suppliers, the auto industry is mobilizing for potential mayhem if Trump makes good on his promise to implement a 25% across-the-board tax on imports from Canada and Mexico. Many companies would immediately face steeper costs, which could squeeze profit margins and ultimately raise vehicle prices for automakers and consumers across the U.S., report Mike Colias and Ryan Felton. The auto industry imports more from the two countries than any other sector and would be the most impacted by tariffs.” If auto sales drop, American workers will lose their jobs in droves… and car prices (new and used) will reach new, nasty levels.

Even without contemplating the American military threats against Panama and Denmark (Greenland is a Danish territory) to cede territory (OK, the US would write some big checks if necessary), bully tactics we do not accept from other nations, it seems that the Trump administration intends to implement its entire Project 2025 platform, directly where it can… but indirectly where it cannot. And if you get down to short strokes, Elon Musk may already have taken the lead in the biggest way possible: shutting down the nation’s ability to write checks, all by reason the access to controlling US software accorded to Musk’s non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). If not stopped fast and hard, DOGE may well redefine the US into an irreversible disaster.

“Sources within the federal government tell WIRED that the highest ranks of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—essentially the human resources function for the entire federal government—are now controlled by people with connections to Musk and to the tech industry. Among them is a person who, according to an online résumé, was set to start college last fall… [Already] in place, according to sources, are a variety of people who seem ready to carry out Musk’s mission of cutting staff and disrupting the government.” Wired, January 29th.

It seems that a small cadre of DOGE staffers have effectively cut access to America’s check-writers (which release over a trillion dollars at year), freezing them out of the underlying software and refusing to write checks in order to comply with Trump’s desire to eliminate programs and personnel that do not adhere to his mandate. The folks who control that software now are not government employees… even as the Trump administration, facing an inevitable judicial determination that the President cannot unilaterally usurp Congress’ “power of the purse,” withdrew its demand that all government pause spending money pending a detail policy review.

Bottom line, Trump’s campaign promises (despite his purported disavowal of Project 2025) are implementing Project 2025 autocracy at warp speed… perhaps too fast and too deep to be reversed. Food and gasoline prices are not coming down anytime soon and are likely to rise if those tariffs and immigration policies are not limited by prompt action. Even as Senate confirmation hearings generate “we will not pursue policies of retribution” statements from many of the nominees, career civil servants – with a heavy concentration within the EPA, the DOJ, the FBI (undergoing a massive purge without the slightest consideration of civil service laws) – are being culled from government agencies in unbelievable numbers. Instead, hundreds of the January 6, 2021 violent Capitol attackers inflicting serious bodily harm to uniformed police officers (recorded on camera), convicted felons, were granted presidential clemency (pardons or commutations), just as President Trump illegally decimating rank and file FBI officers and other competent and diligent federal employees.

Criminals are treated with undeserved praise and leniency while law enforcement officers are treated like criminals. As bad as many see daily costs rise, post-election, Trump has already abandoned his pledge to lower such prices, saying he has little control over such costs. And an unelected mega-billionaire (with lots of government contracts) is determining the fate of federal employees and programs, passed by Congress, that he does not like. The American dream is becoming the American scheme!

I’m Peter Dekom, and notwithstanding unambiguous signs to the contrary, most of the MAGA faithful somehow believe that in the immediate future, all these Musk-Trump efforts will generate that promised “Great America” that is actually slip-sliding away.