Why?

 Why?

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

“Already, Trump has waged war on everything that builds prosperity and wellbeing: democracy, healthy ecosystems, education, healthcare, science, the arts. Yet, amid the wreckage, and despite some slippage, his approval ratings still hold between 43 and 48%: far higher than those of many other leaders. Why? I believe part of the answer lies in a fundamental aspect of our humanity: the urge to destroy that from which you feel excluded.”

George Monbiot in his “Rightwing populists will keep winning until we grasp this truth about human nature,” written for the April13th Guardian UK

Deep, seething anger has been the driving force behind the almost anarchist-laden MAGA movement. An anger so strong that MAGA members are willing to give up Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, harbor huge tax cuts to the richest in the land if they would help to crush the federal government, purposely oppose the apparent sacred cows of the liberal establishment that has increased its hold on the federal government since the New Deal, and decimate as many politicians and bureaucrats as possible, purging them and their educated-elitists views forever. Even if that medical research could save their lives. Diversity, equality and Inclusion? Racial harmony? Books about subjects many Christians find abhorrent, censored or banned entirely from schools, libraries and even our military academies. Gone, baby, gone!

While I call it corruption born of Trump’s layering loyalty and money as the only criteria of who has power in the MAGA reincarnation of government, MAGA adherents smile… the Dems lose in this system. “New research set to be published in The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis [July 30th Edition] reveals that politically connected companies were significantly more likely to receive valuable exemptions from the tariffs imposed on U.S. imports from China during the Trump administration.

“The authors… found that companies that made substantial investments in political connections to Republicans prior to and during the beginning of the Trump administration were more likely to secure exemptions for products otherwise subject to tariffs… Conversely, companies that made contributions to Democratic politicians had decreased odds of tariff exemption approval.

“‘Our findings reveal that politicians not only use exemptions to reward their supporters, but also withhold exemptions to punish supporters of their opponents,’ [Lehigh Associate Professor J. Salas said. “The tariff exemption grant process functioned as a very effective spoils system allowing the administration of the day to reward its political friends and punish its enemies.’” Lehigh News, April 12th. MAGA supporters are committed to the harshest punishment possible for those they believe have unraveled basic American values. Even without due process, MAGA members widely support immediate deportation to exceptionally cruel Salvadoran prisons Latinos in the United States whom the Trump administration labels as gang members, often without a shred of proof.

Though once vilified as “Little Marco,” now Secretary of State and Trump cheerleader, Marco Rubio is implementing a new policy, which is negating foreign student visas across the land merely base on thoughts such students espousing, without any violences or threats of violence or the breaking of any laws… any political position contrary to the stated position of the United States under the Trump administration. “The Trump administration is claiming the right to deport individuals based on their beliefs or speech alone, as pressure mounts to release activist Mahmoud Khalil.

“In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the government can expel legal residents from the country based on “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful.” The memo came in response to a federal judge's order to show evidence in its case against Khalil… Khalil was grabbed by federal agents inside his Columbia University housing last month and transported to a detention center in Louisiana.

“Rubio pulled the alleged authority to rendition activists from a 1952 act that specifies the Secretary of State can flag an individual for deportation if their presence could have ‘serious adverse foreign policy consequences.’ The rarely-invoked clause is vague, though legal experts say the federal government cannot unilaterally revoke a person's green card status… Rubio claimed in the memo that Khalil’s involvement in pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia’s campus constitutes a belief worthy of deportation based on the ‘U.S. policy to combat antisemitism around the world.’” Salon, April 10th. Joyfully contradicting the Constitution as decided by the US Supreme Court, Trump uber-loyalist and Attorney General Pam Bondi, leading what has become Donald Trump personal law firm of retribution, solidly agreed with Rubio.

As pointed out in my recent Crony Capitalism 101: How To Replace Democracy with Only Your Loyalists, Musk and DOGE were not sent out to ferret out waste, fraud and corruption; they were charged with destroying the federal bureaucracy (MAGA’s “deep state”) so it could be completely be replaced by Trump loyalists in which the once excluded MAGA cult would be implementing the new exclusions. DOGE went from promising to cut $2 trillion from the budget and are now suggesting it would be less than $150 billion, literally 92.5% below their original goal.

If harboring and coddling billionaires was the price to pay, sobeit for MAGA! Even as businesses and the most credible economists in the nation are decrying Trump’s mad-man tariff plan, his trade war, even as Europe has decided to go its own way and act in its own best interests (against Trump’s America First vision), China is celebrating what they believe is the complete undoing of American global political power. Trump paused the tariffs and issues exemptions for certain Chinese goods under a 90-day “pause,” because Trump knows that continuing to play this game at full stream is leading the United States into far worse than a recession. When those 90 days (as extended) expire, the United States will have run out of all good options.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I would have expected most Americans to have understood the absurdity of Trump’s plan when he declared Canada to be an enemy, accusing that great American ally as having spent decades ripping us off… but the MAGA faction didn’t!