Modeling the Perfect MAGA Woman

 

“Katie Elizabeth Britt (née Boyd; born February 2, 1982 [in green above]) is an American politician and attorney [a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law] who is the junior United States senator from Alabama since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, Britt is the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama and the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate.” Wikipedia. A dynamic, articulate woman who was carefully coached to present herself as a “good wife,” espousing the values of women a la the 1950s (the era MAGA holds “great”), in the official GOP rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union speech. In her kitchen!

Facing the MAGA cameras, she was softspoken and consistent with a “Stepford Wives” tone, very much the opposite of most American women today… and hardly reflective of her own education or station in life. To a significant majority of women polled, it was a disastrous presentation, a de facto putdown of modern American women, most of whom work to support the household. The overriding message of her rebuttal was as subservient homemaker, reinforcing MAGA’s obvious program against independent women who can and should control their own lives.

So, what are “women” in America actually like? First of all, according to a Pew survey announced on February 7th, “Women have overtaken men and now account for more than half (50.7%) of the college-educated labor force in the United States, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. The change occurred in the fourth quarter of 2019 and remains the case today…”

Over 60% of those enrolled in US undergraduate, professional and graduate schools are women. While the “Father Knows Best” (a popular TV series of the 1950s and 60s) showed what most believed to be the perfect American family: Like many TV series of the era, it was about the father-patriarch, the sole breadwinner and the true head of the family. But women have been necessary co-breadwinners for decades. Computers and machinery have long since equalized the place of women in the skilled work world. An average American family today requires two breadwinners, and there are plenty of women, married and single, who aspire to success in their careers.

With the recent visit of Viktor Orban (Hungary’s autocratic prime minister) to his admirer’s home in Mar-a-Lago, we are reminded of the model society Trump has pledged to his constituents; it is the America he has promised to restore, a 1950s place where Blacks and Hispanics knew their place, where women were primarily mothers and homemakers, where abortion was a crime, families routinely attended Sunday church services and white Christian men made virtually all the decisions. Properly coached and set in the right venue, Katie Britt was a perfect foil for Biden… or so the MAGA GOP thought. The subservient woman, sitting in her kitchen, deferential towards senior men, is an undercurrent not only in the United States but in every conservative nationalist/populist nation on Earth, even some that you might believe otherwise.

The murder of women seeking a strong voice, free from sexual horrors and “honor” killings, is something you expect to find in countries like India and Saudi Arabia. Even where crimes against women are clearly listed in the books, authorities and juries (where there are juries) often look the other way or impose little more than slaps on the wrist to clear murderers. You wouldn’t expect that in modern European nations, especially those where the head of state is actually a woman. Think again. At the core of conservative nationalism/populism is the need to keep women in their place, making them operatives in maintaining a patriarchal hierarchy.

Women are not permitted to control their bodies, are forced to bear children no matter what and to remain the old-world double standard as bastions of sexual purity, while boys will be boys (and “you can grab them by the pussy…”). Italy recently elected a woman prime minister, Giorgia Meloni (at a bank of microphones above), a well-respected conservative who knows how to walk the line in a nation, which CNN (March 8th) calls a country with a “patriarchal history as femicide cases shock the nation.” Indeed, “More than 100 women were killed [in Italy] in 2023. The term ‘femicide’ – which is typically when a woman is killed by a current or former partner - became so topical an Italian encyclopedia named it as its word of the year in 2023.

“Italy might have a female prime minister, but she makes a point of not identifying herself as a feminist… The country only criminalized crimes of passion in 1981, and the judicial system still often gives lighter sentences to male killers if their wives were unfaithful… While Italy does not have Europe’s highest rate of domestic violence, it is among the lowest ranked in Europe when it comes to gender equality.” CNN.

A clear Roman Catholic nation, Italy only legally recognized divorce in 1970 and abortion rights in 1978. But since abortion is legal in Italy, that country is clearly way ahead of the United States in protecting a woman’s right to control her own body. Nevertheless, the new prime minister is a throwback to rural post-WWII rightwing values. “In Italy, the feminist movement was largely driven by the left, which meant that those who supported right-leaning parties, including current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, have distanced themselves from feminism entirely.

“[Activist, educator and documentary filmmaker Lorella Zanardo notes:] that Meloni has even chosen to use the masculine article in front of the Italian word ‘prime minister’ rather than embracing the fact that Italy has one of the world’s few female leaders…. ‘She pretends to be called ‘il’ prime minister like a man and I think that a woman like her could be an activist also in language by showing to younger generations that leaders can be women,’” CNN.

While Meloni has acted like a true head of state in international matters, she has faithfully toed the conservative line on gender politics. These policies seem to follow conservative leaders the world over. Under these rigid mandates, women, even heads of state, are still limited to a subservient role controlled by old men. For example, Trump’s MAGA movement desires a clear autocracy where women return to being a second-rate political voice, an unequal minority, with vastly fewer rights than American women had in this country half a century ago.

I’m Peter Dekom, and is there an epidemic among MAGA women of self-loathing that actually justifies voting for Trump and his MAGA cronies in November?

Root Cause – Sometimes the Obvious Isn’t

It happens even to those who do not outsource their opinions to conspiracy theorists and rabble rousers. It is always easier to pursue simple solutions, treat systems and not the underlying disease, when dealing with complex problems. If medical doctors chose that path, and many do, there would be many more sick and dying people in the world. And sometimes the simple and obvious solution – like feeding a starving population – is exceptionally difficult to implement. Or simple but profoundly ugly: eliminate crime by executing all criminals.

Over the millennia, society has vacillated between enlightenment and expeditious autocracy, between kindness and tolerance, on the one hand, and cruelty and wrongful blame, on the other. Yet we have evolved in our knowledge base, our understanding of physics and chemistry and our growth of comprehending social patterns and individual physiological and psychological truths. Add a giant dollop of change, a tsunami if you will, and watch vast waves of humanity regress into destructive patterns of collective ignorance and wrongful blame, rationalization, denial, marginalization and false explanations of facts. History is replete with examples of failed and often arrogant thinking leading to wars, cruelty, death and destruction.

We are in an era of an extreme rise in populism, nationalism (especially religiously based), racism and unsupported assumptions of moral superiority. The earth is experiencing profound, life changing aspects of climate change, over-population in some areas and de-population in others, reaching the limit of habitable land masses and available resources. Some escape with drugs and alcohol, others actually migrate to distant lands while others linger, blame and suffer. But there are always winners and losers in any social structure. In most social structures, it is the relatively wealthy who smile and thrive.

Would Hamas and related terrorists have risen in a world where everyone had a nice home, access to good transportation, satisfying work, sufficient quality food and even a discretionary income? Do criminals born within the harsh conditions of poverty feel justified dealing drugs, killing for profit and stealing from those with “more”? Are incarceration and even execution the solution to high crime rates? Does the five and six figure annual cost per inmate in our criminal justice system produce results? Our bleak recidivism rates say otherwise. Our fully disintegrated opportunity of upward mobility and our highest rates of income inequality in history also scream otherwise.

An academic study supported by WalletHub.com and presented by Adam McCann, released on January 23rd, addressed one of those obvious realities: “Some key factors driving the racial wealth gap include unequal access to higher education and employment for minorities, as well as residential segregation that still persists… [WalletHub Analyst Cassandra Happe adds:] “Even decades after the Civil Rights Movement, there is still a high degree of wealth inequality among racial groups in America. These gaps persist not just in held wealth, but also in wages, poverty rates, homeownership rates and unemployment rates. Part of this wealth disparity is due to unequal access to education, which can put some people on a better financial footing from the start.” The poster city for the link between income inequality and crime is our nation’s capital.

Writing for the February 29th FastCompany.com, Micheal Shank, an adjunct professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, drilled down on the study’s focus on Washington, D.C.: “[The] the District of Columbia has the highest overall wealth inequality in the United States as well as rising (not falling) violent crime rates—and yet, that science seems to have little impact on how the local government determines policy.

“Rather than doubling down on investments that reduce the median household-income gap, the homeownership-rate gap, and the poverty-rate gap, for example—which would have a preventative effect on violent crime—the city continues to invest in reactionary and punitive policies.

“The nation’s capital already has one of the country’s largest police-per-capita rates, and the latest pursuit of a heavy-handed ‘Secure DC’ bill is just another illustration of how off the mark the city is in tackling violent crime’s root cause. Secure DC, an omnibus package positioned as the District’s comprehensive answer to the crime crisis, does little to leave the city more secure because it does little to address any of the inequality above. Yes, these gaps require longer-term planning; but with this bill, the city is making clear where its spending priorities are: in reactive, not preventive, approaches…

“Currently, Black residents in the nation’s capital are earning 65% less than their white counterparts. Their poverty rate is more than 350% higher than their white counterparts. And they are more than 480% more likely to be unemployed compared to their white counterparts.

“As if that wasn’t enough, one in three D.C. residents lives in food insecurity—which means they don’t know where their next meal is coming from—with nearly 20% of residents living in “severe food insecurity.” How does that land vis-à-vis racial inequality? Examine the data further: Half of the Black and Hispanic residents face food insecurity, and that’s compared to only 14% of their white counterparts… Those are some devastating statistics.

““In the city’s 2024 budget, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser tried to cut funding for programs that advanced racial justice and helped people meet their basic needs, and D.C.’s City Council left vital socioeconomic programs unfunded or underfunded. In slashing funding for key programs, it’s becoming apparent that the city’s leadership isn’t keen to tackle inequality and the root cause of violent crime.

“City leadership, meanwhile, supported tax breaks for developers, which undermines the city’s equity efforts but illustrates well that when there’s a will there’s a way. If the city wanted to find and funnel funds to fix inequality in this city, it could. If the city wanted to address growing racial and economic inequities, it could… What is D.C. doing instead? Throwing its attention and resources toward a bill that erroneously claims to be about violence prevention, and that criminal justice reform advocates say won’t keep the city safe…

“The nation’s capital, instead, is scaling up ‘crime fighting’ activities that, in fact, do little to prevent crime, according to the ACLU and other experts criticizing the latest security efforts. What the city will witness, with a move like this, is an escalation of police activity but with little concomitant attention, investment, and resources focused on the drivers of violence. With this kind of imbalance, the city is almost guaranteed to witness more violence, not less. There will be blowback.” And a rise in seething anger and increasing justification under a Robin Hood notion of grassroots fairness.

I’m Peter Dekom, and my hometown appears to be repeating the same behavior and expecting entirely different results… which is the very definition of governance insanity.

In Japan, It’s Active [Missile] Shooter Drills

 

In Japan, It’s Active [Missile] Shooter Drills

At Least for Its Outer Islands

The People’s Republic of China is the regional bully, seeking hegemony over all its neighboring seas, much of the fish and mineral wealth in those waters and control over all its neighboring sea lanes. A majority of those claims are either in international waters or waters that have long belonged to other countries.

China has manufactured a militarized island in the Spratly chain by dumping millions of tons of sand and rock to an existing minor outcropping. With its economy in shambles – unemployment hitting the highest in this century, banks and real estate monoliths failing – President Xi has both aligned himself with Putin’s Russia and Kim’s North Korea as well as amped up his claims over total ownership of Taiwan… a distraction from his man-made economic chaos. But that distraction has made life very difficult for many in the region… recently including Japanese islands that are closer to the PRC than the main islands of that nation. Xi wants them to kowtow to him.

There’s been a love-hate relationship between locals and US forces stationed on southern Japanese islands. Marines stationed on Okinawa have created legal maelstroms, from drunken conduct to serious felonies. Locals have often protested against that American military presence. But there is a new necessities to those American bases.

Following its succumbing to pressure from ambitious and aggressive military leaders in WWII, headstrong and filled with visions of the triumph of the Bushido warrior expanding Japan’s power over the entire eastern and southeastern Asian region, Japan eschewed a repetition of that disastrous past. Even as the West, mainly the United States, countered Japan’s earlier expansion into the Korean Peninsula in 1905 (fully subjugating and annexing that territory in 1910), her violent conquest in mainland China, including the notorious “Rape of Nanking” in 1937, and massive military build-up by cutting of that island nation’s import of Indonesian oil and rubber.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was intended to decimate America’s naval dominance by destroying most if not all of our capital ships, notably battleships, heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers. The short conflict, the Japanese believed, would be resolved by opening free importation of those raw materials Japan desperately needed. It almost worked, but our carriers were off in the Aleutian Islands and escaped that raid. Japan’s folly ended four years alter in a combination of air attacks – the incendiary decimation of Tokyo in March and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. Post-WWII Japan pledged to avoid rebuilding an offensive and aggressive military, allowing only defensive forces. Many in Japan saw no reason for US forces to remain anywhere on Japanese soil and banned nuclear weapons being maintained on her lands for decades.

The WWII destruction we heaped upon the Japanese was a horrible lesson learned. The “sleeping giant” was indeed filled with a “terrible resolve.” Yet China’s growth was troublesome for Japan; the two nations were traditional enemies. Japan’s “why can’t we just get along” mantra met the expansionist ambitions of China’s most recent Maoist incarnation, Xi Jinping hell-bent on building the most powerful navy in the world exercising total control of the entire eastern Asian region.

The quiet air of some of Japan’s most tranquil and seemingly idyllic islands, like Ishigaki island pictured above, are beginning to be shattered by wailing sirens and blue uniformed government officials shouting emergency directions to shocked and fearful residents. It is just part of new “preparedness” against possible PRC aggression against Japan, as that small island nation joins its regional peers in defiance against China’s undisguised territorial ambitions, with a strong PRC desire to drive Western fleets and airbases from the region.

Reporting for the March 3rd Los Angeles Times, Stephanie Yang explores this new anti-PRC movement during a practice drill on that tiny island: “[The] the only real urgency came from a man in a blue uniform, jogging through the confused crowd… ‘One more time,’ he called out through a megaphone… When the sirens wailed anew, a voice rang through the park: ‘A missile was just launched. Please evacuate immediately.’…

“‘Nowadays, you never know what might happen,’ Sano, a 37-year-old City Hall employee, said after the drill. ‘Not just in Ishigaki, but wherever you are in Japan.’… As geopolitical tensions in Asia grow more fraught, Japan has boosted military spending to record highs, and fear has permeated even some of the country’s most remote islands… ‘The threat is that Ishigaki is within range of North Korean and Chinese missiles,’ said Mayor Yoshitaka Nakayama, who wants to expand the drill to an islandwide evacuation rehearsal. ‘It is important to strengthen our defenses, even though it may increase tensions.’

“With the regional risks compounding, Japan has veered sharply from the anti-militarist stance it adopted after World War II. A defense strategy it released in December 2022 called for doubling military spending by 2027 and developing long-range missile capabilities.

“Japan is building up its military bases — including in Ishigaki and nearby islands — and allowing the U.S. armed forces to expand an already extensive footprint in the nation. It’s trying to calm citizen protests over an increased troop presence and a debate over whether the expansion will draw more danger to Japan, rather than defend it. And it is preparing its people for worst-case scenarios, with hourlong drills like the one on Ishigaki… While the secluded tropical tourist destination of Ishigaki may seem an unlikely target for attack, it is only 200 miles from Taiwan — the self-ruled island that Japan’s historical rival China claims as its own in increasingly aggressive displays.”

Many of the nations in the region, particularly Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines – also share that enduring that love-hate relationship with US military bases – yet look to the United States as their umbrella against a very aggressive new China with an evil, power-grab gleam in its eye. Xi delights in using his sea and air power to tease and remind locally stationed US forces of his growing power.

And like our European allies, the leaders of these smaller Asian nations wince and quiver in fear at the possibility of the reelection of Donald Trump, an isolationist with a deep and obvious affection for ambitious and unscrupulous regional dictators. He does seem to care that such autocrats want nothing more than to marginalize the United States and watch her jump to the command of those global strong men. And Xi is the strongest of them all, even as his nation suffers from his economic mismanagement.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder what it is about MAGA leaders who simply don’t want to study history and appear destined to repeat its mistakes.

Lying in Weight – Countering Mis- and Dis-Information

As technology gets more sophisticated, as the profound differences between Democrats and MAGAns define entirely different directions for every facet of our lives, the “one sure thing” is the rise of mis- and dis- information through the firehose of social media, traditional media, the pulpit of too many churches and temples, rallies and even in casual social gatherings. Today, highly biased conspiracy theory adherents have and actually use various tools to filter out any contrary information. Truth glances off these filters like bullets off an M1/A2 tank. Facts have never had less relevancy despite massive and often toxic proof to the contrary.

And extremist candidates, who could not rise from obscurity even to make it to a primary prior to the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs FEC (which took the spending cap off campaign expenditure not directly controlled by candidates and enabled the rise of SuperPACs), found easy money in just parroting the issue bias of mostly rightwing and Christina nationalist big bucks contributors. Without that judicial ruling, MAGA would not even exist today. Instead, MAGA replaced virtually the entire Republican Party. Scientific and medical experts are now vilified.

We have technology today than can scrape data from the ether, with automatic robotic (“bots”) creating tailored messages targeting individuals with alarming accuracy. AI has made that process scarily more efficient, even able to create audio-visual messaging with images and voices that seem to be high profile candidates themselves making convenient but completely and totally fabricated statements. Malign foreign governments – especially Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – have developed enhanced operations to spread mis- and dis- information to influence elections, embracing candidates that tout such evil nations’ priorities.

To make bad matters so much worse, this new incarnation of fake-news-spouting but genuine candidates have solidified their political power by embracing the messaging of such malign nations and the very conspiracy theories that an increased number of Americans treat as gospel. LA Times columnist, Michael Hiltzik (February 25th) examines the purveyors and those dedicated to root out these malign and false messages: “Prominent politicians, up to and including the former president, have promoted useless drugs as supposed cures for COVID-19. Partisan attacks on the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines have expanded into attacks on all vaccines. Established scientific and medical authorities have been vilified on social media and on the airwaves and even been subjected to physical assault.

“The sheer volume of lies and misrepresentations injected into the political mainstream has some scientists despairing of ever regaining the public’s attention… ‘Scientists really recognize this as a problem, from what they see in the community and read in the news,’ says Tara Kirk Sell of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. ‘They see the problems they have from misinformation and disinformation on the public health side and in the medical field and in other areas. They want to figure out how to deal with it. We’re providing some guidance for combating it and making people more resistant to it.

“Sell’s reference is to the ‘Practical Playbook for Addressing Health Misinformation’ just released by her center. The 65-page publication amounts to a road map for identifying misinformation and disinformation and applying the best strategies for counteracting it before it spreads.

“It’s part of an emerging genre of advice for scientists, public health officials and others who get confronted by rumors that interfere with their work, or by deliberate falsehoods; the latter is ‘disinformation,’ [also mal-information] as opposed to ‘misinformation,’ which may simply be widely accepted misunderstandings that may have innocent sources…

“One recommendation that most seem to have in common is to take a strategic approach: Disinformation campaigns can’t be defeated by ad hoc measures; they require an organized, proactive and targeted approach mounted by credible defenders of science… The effort is important because the disinformation has more than political consequences; it costs lives. Pseudoscience debunker Peter Hotez calculates that as many as 200,000 Americans may have perished from COVID after the vaccines were introduced because anti-vaccine propaganda dissuaded them from getting the shots.

“Cases of measles, which should have been eradicated in the U.S. years ago, are appearing again because of disinformation about the vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts more than 20 measles cases so far this year in at least 11 states. That’s about one-third of the 58 cases recorded in all of last year, counted in only the first six weeks of 2024, suggesting that a more serious epidemic may loom on the horizon.

“Six cases have occurred in a single school in Florida, a state whose Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has placed anti-vaccine propaganda at the center of his public health policies. The school’s measles vaccination rate is about 89%, well below the 95% level thought to provide communal immunity protecting even the unvaccinated.”

Even with perhaps the currently most successful economy of any developed nation, MAGA candidates have managed to convince their cult-followers that the American economy is in shambles. Even as our immigration policy is a mess, and our border is clogged with an unmanageable gathering of asylum-seekers, the MAGA House refuses to pass a bi-partisan comprehensive immigration reform bill because MAGA chief Trump does not want Biden to look good. To the vast contingent of MAGA voters, despite over 60 judicial findings (many by Trump-appointed judges) of a fair election in 2020, that election was stolen.

But even as AI can amplify the threat of spreading dis- and mis- information, that technology can be particularly adroit, even on a very high-volume basis, at identifying the fakes and the false. But unless we take the threats of this tsunami of lies very seriously and adopt sophisticated countermeasures, we can kiss democracy good-bye.

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless we truly prioritize truth and facts over their fabricated alternatives, there indeed cannot be credible and fair elections.

To Be or Not to Be: Presidential Immunity

  or 

“Whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.” 

The Narrow Issue Before the US Supreme Court

Some say that simply by agreeing to hear the matter (a granting of “certiorari”), the US Supreme Court has effectively granted Donald Trump the immunity he seeks. The only matter that Court is reviewing here is the special counsel’s case against just Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. By issuing an actual or de facto “stay” (postponement) to lower courts’ pending Trump trials where such immunity is relevant, the Court has given the former President the possibility, if he is elected in November, to vitiate all or most of the criminal indictments against him in one of oh, so many ways. As for federal crimes, he could appoint an attorney general who simply ends those prosecutions. Or attempt to pardon himself.

Claiming that immunity even applies to states (like Georgia) who are attempting to find a massive criminal conspiracy that began before he left office on January 21, 2021; those fundamental acts that might constitute a conspiracy that falls within the definition of “official acts,” a finding that would most certainly find its way to the federal appeals courts. That “stay” noted above would probably apply to state courts where immunity is a defense. Further, those of his constituents who pledged that would not vote for him if he were criminally convicted would have no conviction by the November election.

Even outside of these parameters, there is the prospect of Trump’s reelection triggering a down-ballot election of MAGA legislators and governors. State legislators, even where the governor does not have direct pardoning power (as in Georgia, where a pardoning commission must make a preliminary ruling), could simply defund the prosecution attempting to convict Trump. There are all sort of local statutes and actions in Georgia, which have already passed and some if passed and judicially sustained (unlikely), that could stop the Atlanta case from proceeding: firing the prosecutor or defunding the prosecution. And then there is the darkest prospect of a genuine MAGA rebellion that overthrows the existing government.

Assuming this “January 6th” case is actually tried by a lower court, the Supreme Court’s narrow scope of review – as stated in the opening quote above – is already telling. Trump’s counsel asked for “absolute immunity” for anything Trump did while President, but that’s so absurd that the Court did not include that notion within the scope of their review. Debra Cassens Weiss in the Journal of the American Bar Assn, February 29th digs deeper: “What is the significance of the narrowed question? Some commentators think that it benefits special counsel Jack Smith.

“In a social media thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, Jack Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School, noted that the question focuses on official acts and presidential immunity, rather than absolute immunity.

“Goldsmith sees the language as indicating that the high court might be considering a subset of official acts for which a president might get immunity. Those acts could be core functions under Article II or a subset of presidential powers. He speculates that acts carrying immunity might include pardons, firing of officials and self-defensive military action… ‘But such a ruling wouldn’t come close to giving POTUS a blank check in office since most official acts would not be core Article II functions,’ Goldsmith wrote.

“Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, also attributes significance to the phrasing of the question presented. ‘My own view is that the [question presented] is written rather carefully to narrow exactly what the court is doing, both to cut out of the case entirely some of Trump’s more … extreme … arguments (like double jeopardy) and to also signal that the court is focused on the official acts question (strongly implying that it has no interest in recognizing any broader immunity),’ Vladeck wrote in a Q&A on his One First Substack site.

“Even if Trump wins on the narrowed question, there is room for Smith to go forward with the prosecution based on nonofficial acts, Vladeck wrote… A column in the Washington Post agrees that the ‘official acts’ language means that the Supreme Court could rule for Trump and still leave discretion for Smith to argue that trying to overthrow an election is not an official act.

“In a Lawfare blog post written before the cert grant, Martin S. Lederman, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, elaborates on why he thinks that there is no serious argument that Trump was acting in his official capacity when he engaged in the alleged conduct… ‘For starters,’ Lederman wrote, ‘all but one of the counts of the indictment allege that Trump conspired with others to violate the law through fraudulent conduct. And, with one discrete exception, Trump’s alleged agreements to commit such fraud were with persons outside the government’—including, apparently, four lawyers… ‘It’s very hard to see how Trump’s agreements with the five private parties might have been undertaken in his official capacity as president of the United States,’ Lederman wrote.”

So notwithstanding a successful delaying tactic, if Trump is not elected and there is no overthrow of the government, Trump is likely to be tried… and given the tsunami of evidence, even with a very pro-Trump appointee on the federal bench in Florida overseeing the documents case, faces a likely criminal conviction. So, the question remains: can the delay engendered by the Supreme Court’s reviewing his immunity claim at any level effectively save Trump from criminal conviction? Perhaps that is the only question here.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are currently teetering between a continuing American experiment with democracy or becoming a white Christian nationalist autocracy, and this case just might be determinative.

Even a Dry Sense of Humor Won’t Help

Hong Kong decades agoHong Kong decades ago

Mexico City Today

Even a Dry Sense of Humor Won’t Help

Cape Town, Mendocino, and Now Mexico City

They’re notifying people in Beverly Hills, you can only use 40 gallons of water. They don’t have water… And it’s true: in Beverly Hills, you pay a fortune in taxes, they say you can only brush your teeth once a day.” 

 Donald Trump at CPAC, February 24th.

Other than Dallas, Texas has higher property taxes than does Beverly Hills, and Beverly Hills absolutely never sent anything remotely like such a notice – water is very available – this little “fake news” is telling in that water shortages are becoming a major political topic these days. I remember visiting Hong Kong as a young teenager decades ago. There were no water pipe connections from mainland China, and as local springs were hardly enough to sate that growing city’s water needs, the abundance of tropic rainstorms, including typhoons, made rooftop cisterns a common necessity (see above picture). Except for the chichi upscale hotels, there was severe water rationing – toilets got pretty skanky mid-afternoon – and people lived with it. In Santa Fe County, NM, many new builds today come with the requirement of rain-capture into cisterns, most of which are underground. This is a story that will repeat itself many times in the coming years.

Despite atmospheric rivers descending over much of California recently – remembering that a single aerial river typically contains five times the water of the entire Mississippi River – there are still water shortfalls here and across the West. Two years ago, Mendocino, CA literally ran out of water. Hotels, inns and restaurants built cisterns and purchased water by the truckload. Cape Town, South Africa, was down to a trickle… and bottled water was lifesaver for that modern city. A few rainstorms later provided a temporary respite from a repeat performance.

But one of the largest metropolitan centers on earth, 22 million people representing literally 20% of Mexico’s population, is literally on the verge of running out of water. Taps are already running dry. For those without enough money to buy and store needed water… or even buy bottled water, Mexico is rapidly becoming an intolerable hellhole. The February 25th CNN News shares some history about this massive urban sprawl: “Densely populated Mexico City stretches out across a high-altitude lake bed, around 7,300 feet above sea level. It was built on clay-rich soil — into which it is now sinking — and is prone to earthquakes and highly vulnerable to climate change. It’s perhaps one of the last places anyone would choose to build a megacity today… The Aztecs chose this spot to build their city of Tenochtitlan in 1325, when it was a series of lakes. They built on an island, expanding the city outwards, constructing networks of canals and bridges to work with the water.

“But when the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century, they tore down much of the city, drained the lakebed, filled in canals and ripped out forests. They saw ‘water as an enemy to overcome for the city to thrive,’ said Jose Alfredo Ramirez, an architect and co-director of Groundlab, a design and policy research organization… Their decision paved the way for many of Mexico City’s modern problems. Wetlands and rivers have been replaced with concrete and asphalt. In the rainy season, it floods. In the dry season, it’s parched.

“Around 60% of Mexico City’s water comes from its underground aquifer, but this has been so over-extracted that the city is sinking at a frightening rate — around 20 inches a year, according to recent research. And the aquifer is not being replenished anywhere near fast enough. The rainwater rolls off the city’s hard, impermeable surfaces, rather than sinking into the ground...

“The rest of the city’s water is pumped vast distances uphill from sources outside the city, in an incredibly inefficient process, during which around 40% of the water is lost through leaks…. Around 60% of Mexico is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, according to a February report. Nearly 90% of Mexico City is in severe drought — and it’s set to get worse with the start of the rainy season still months away.” City planners have reassured local residents that “day zero” will not come… but too many locals, with dry taps, just do not believe them.

Mexico as a whole has been plagued by seriously rising temperatures. Last summer, over 200 people died from that severe heat. The United States has sucked out so much of the Colorado River that by the time it seeps into Mexico, there is almost nothing left. With dry season a month away, no one expects the situation to improve. Especially in Mexico City.

“The result is that residents in Mexico City have taken to the streets, calling for action. In late January, Reuters reported that residents forced open the gates of Mexico's National Water Commission, damaging property… Their actions came after severe water restrictions were placed on Mexico City residents. Maribel Gutierrez told Reuters that she had gone over a month without water at her residence prior to the massive protest… ‘I think they should be empathetic,’ Gutierrez told Reuters of government officials. ‘We understand there was a serious water problem, but they must understand that water is vital for everyone.’” Scripps News/Reuters, February 26th.

This tale will only grow more frequent, all over the earth. As flooding reaches new levels of disaster in some parts of the world, wildfires and severe drought (compounded by the severe depletion of underground water everywhere) are an elsewhere increasing newfound global misery, which impacts impoverished people so much more. Food prices will continue to soar, parts of the earth will become uninhabitable, and life will be an increasing struggle for all forms of life.

I’m Peter Dekom, and Mother Nature (expressed by the laws of physics) really does not care that climate change deniers and marginalizers will not take steps to contain and reverse the destruction created by the massive accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions above us; she’s coming for all of us.

Good News Evangelicals: The Bible Has Officially Replaced the US Constitution

So far, only in Alabama. An 8-1 decision from the Alabama Supreme Court on February 16th involved two wrongful death appeals: LePage et al [as parents of Baby Aysenne, deceased embryo/minor] v. The Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C., and Mobile Infirmary Association and Burdick-Aysenne et al [as parents of designated embryos] v. The Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C., and Mobile Infirmary Association. Reversing a lower court decision that had dismissed these wrongful death cases, the state high court held that these frozen invitro-fertilized embryos were “extrauterine children — that is, unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed.” In short, they were the equivalent of full and complete human beings, newborns if you will, who were accorded full protection under Alabama law, and thus killing them was effectively homicide.

The majority opinion states: “In each of its judgments, the trial court explained its view that ‘[t]he cryopreserved, in vitro embryos involved in this case do not fit within the definition of a 'person'’ or ‘'child,'’ and it therefore held that their loss could not give rise to a wrongful-death claim… All parties to these cases, like all members of this Court, agree that an unborn child is a genetically unique human being whose life begins at fertilization and ends at death. The parties further agree that an unborn child usually qualifies as a ‘human life,’ ‘human being’ or ‘person,’ as those words are used in ordinary conversation and in the text of Alabama's wrongful-death statutes… That is true, as everyone acknowledges, throughout all stages of an unborn child's development, regardless of viability. The question on which the parties disagree is whether there exists an unwritten exception to that rule for unborn children who are not physically located ‘in utero’ -- that is, inside a biological uterus -- at the time they are killed. The defendants argue that this Court should recognize such an exception because, they say, an unborn child ceases to qualify as a ‘child’ or ‘person’ if that child is not contained within a biological womb…

“Unborn children are ‘children’ under the Act, without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.” The absurdity of the ruling hits home when the Chief Justice Tom Parker’s concurring opinion at least had the decency to state directly what motivated the majority decision in the first place: an evangelical and fundamental belief that God and the Bible protect human life beginning at conception. He wrote: “Thus, the history and meaning of the phrase ‘sanctity of life’ informs our understanding of ‘sanctity of unborn life’ as that phrase is used in § 36.06 [the Alabama law at bar]. At the time § 36.06 was adopted, ‘sanctity’ was defined as: ‘1. holiness of life and character: GODLINESS; 2 a: the quality or state of being holy or sacred: INVIOLABILITY b pl: sacred objects, obligations, or rights.’ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 1100 (11th ed. 2003). Recent advocates of the sanctity of life have attempted to articulate the principle on purely secular philosophical grounds. See, e.g., John Keown, The Law and Ethics of Medicine 3 (2012); Neil M. Gorsuch, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia 157-58 (2009) (arguing that ‘human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable’ based on the ‘secular moral theory’ that human life is a ‘basic good’ that "ultimately comes not from abstract logical constructs (or religious beliefs)’). Such advocates have preferred to use the term ‘inviolability’ rather than ‘sanctity’ to avoid what one scholar calls ‘distracting theological connotations.’

“This kind of acceptance is not foreign to our Constitution, which in its preamble ‘invok[es] the favor and guidance of Almighty God’… The Alabama Constitution's recognition that human life is an endowment from God emphasizes a foundational principle of English common law, which has been expressly incorporated as part of the law of Alabama. § 1-3-1, Ala. Code 1975 (‘The common law of England … shall … be the rule of decisions, and shall continue in force ….’). In his Commentaries on the Laws of England, Sir William Blackstone declared that ‘[l]ife is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual….’” I’ve quoted extensively from the ruling itself, rather than simply make the obvious conclusion presented by many critics that this decision makes a mockery of the inherent separation of church and state generated by the First Amendment to the US Constitution… without a clear sample of the court’s reasoning.

Other red states have suggested that they may amend their statutes to follow Alabama’s lead. As Harry Litman, writing for the February 23rd Los Angeles Times added: “Alabama’s largest hospital announced Wednesday [2/21] that it would no longer offer would-be parents in vitro fertilization procedures due to the substantial threat of criminal liability for mishandling fertilized eggs. Other providers followed suit Thursday [2/22]. Medical personnel who try to help couples conceive have been suddenly recast by the courts as potential murderers… The immediate consequences don’t end there. Women who use intrauterine devices or morning-after pills, which can affect fertilized eggs, are in the eyes of Alabama law rank baby killers… The U.S. Supreme Court is to blame for Alabama’s outlandish embryo opinion… Recklessly reversing Roe vs. Wade laid the foundation for further restriction of individual liberties on religious grounds.”

Meanwhile, red state legislatures are trying to convince their courts to hold any voter initiatives putting pro-choice to a popular vote as either violative of local statutes or their interpretation of their state constitution. They obviously know the result… in conservative states like Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, etc., voters made the decision to enshrine as fundamental the individual right to abortion. But Alabama is hardly the only state trying to invoke that fundamentally religious position… that human life legally begins at conception. After Roe v Wade was reversed, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma immediately tried to opt for this same religious result.

I’m Peter Dekom, and any woman who wants to maintain the right to make decisions about her own body has a clear choice in November… and it should certainly not be for any Republican legislator or Donald John Trump.

When Offices Lie Empty in Expensive Residential Real Estate Markets

Even before artificial intelligence replaces millions of American office jobs, there are large US cities with office vacancy rates over 10%, even over 20%. The list includes San Francisco, New York, Austin, Houston, Boston, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Atlanta, etc., etc. Actually, most American towns and cities have vacancy rates well-north of 15%. According to a January report from the Commercial Edge, the national vacancy rate reached 18.3% at the end of December 2023. Want some quality alone time? Head on over to downtown San Francisco: Tech layoffs, hybrid work habits (or completely remote work), downsizing, rising interest rates, and tons of small businesses that catered to these now abandoned office workers. Retail businesses in and around Union Square are departing at high speed.

According to the Visual Capitalist, “At the national level, the supply of new office real estate has been dropping steadily since Q1’2022, down by a whopping 67% year-over-year.” In some decimated markets, office space is renting at 40% below recent, prepandemic times. And there are chills going down the backs of a whole lot of mortgage lenders, where cash flow is always the basis for setting mortgage rates. While the larger American banks can weather the storm, there many local banks whose core business is lending for commercial real estate. Uh oh.

The January 14th CBS 60 Minutes, headquartered in Manhattan, looked around the city, where the vacancy rates have risen 70% since 2019, and the story was anything but pleasant for local real estate developers, building owners and… lenders: “[It's] not just the real estate industry that is impacted. The effects of vacant office space could ripple through the economy because many buildings are financed through short-term loans from banks. If real estate firms are unable to make rent money from commercial tenants, they may default on their loans, increasing the risk for banks.

“That's what led real estate company RXR to default on a $240 million bank loan at 61 Broadway in New York City. With half his office tower sitting vacant, RXR chief executive Scott Rechler says it was ‘time to face reality.’… ‘This post-COVID world of higher interest rates, the changing nature of how people work and live, we're not going back to where we were,’ Rechler said. ‘And it's going to be turbulent.’…

“With remote and hybrid work hardening from trend to new normal, office occupancy rates are at an all time low. More than 95 million square feet of New York City office space is currently unoccupied –the equivalent of 30 Empire State Buildings.

“As tenants shrink their office footprint, office landlords are confronting the fact that some of their buildings have become obsolete, if not worthless. By some estimates the price of office buildings has tanked by as much as 40% since the pandemic. At Columbia Business School, real estate professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh has modeled out the impact of hybrid work on pricing. He calls it a ‘train wreck in slow motion.’

“‘And this is just the beginning. And the reason it's just the beginning is because there's a lot of office tenants that have not had to make an active space decision yet,’ Van Nieuwerburgh said. " 'Do I want to renew this space? Do I want to vacate? Maybe I sign a new lease for half as much space.' This is what tenants have been doing for the last three years.’

“Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green Realty — New York's biggest office landlord, and 60 Minutes' landlord — considers work from home to be ‘one of the biggest societal problems we're facing right now.’… ‘I think that it's bad for business. It's bad for cities. It's bad for people,’ he said.” Combine this reality with staggering interest rates on residential mortgages with the fact the residential housing market is still holding its value vastly better than the commercial counterparts… and you get a bizarre pricing anomaly. Rents skyrocketed after the pandemic, and while they are settling down somewhat, housing affordability is one of the major stories in the coming election.

So, do we convert these office buildings with tons of empty space into residential units? Just think of the plumbing associated with bathrooms and kitchens, vastly more extensive than any office requirement, and you can begin to see how expensive an office-to-resident conversion might cost. It’s a bold and expensive move for many building owners, and many would prefer to walk away from their buildings, given that the outstanding debt on these structures is often higher than the true value of unrented space. They would rather take the loss rather than “throwing good money after bad” in a very uncertain marketplace. Others believe that the predicted “doom loop” will vaporize, and offices will recover their lost values.

The February 11th The Wall Street Journal found one investor looking to buy up some of these buildings, starting with very-vacant San Francisco. “Most investors are running away from San Francisco’s downtown real-estate market, but Ian Jacobs is heading in. Call it a family tradition… Jacobs is an heir of the Toronto-based Reichmann real-estate dynasty, which made a fortune buying properties in nearly bankrupt New York City during the 1970s. A bargain-seeking stock investor who once apprenticed himself to Warren Buffett, Jacobs has mostly avoided the family business—until now… San Francisco is the epicenter of a national commercial real-estate collapse…

“Jacobs has lined up commitments of $75 million for his first few deals, the people familiar with the matter said. Ultimately, he hopes to buy 3 million square feet of office space for prices about 70% below what it would cost to build the properties, according to marketing materials for the project viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Recent building sales in San Francisco averaged between $200 and $300 a square foot, implying total purchases of $600 million to $900 million.

“The plan is called ‘Project Uris,’ a nod to the Reichmann’s 1977 purchase of eight Manhattan buildings from Uris Buildings Corp. through their company Olympia & York Developments. Like San Francisco today, New York City was struggling with crime, corporate flight and political dysfunction. Five years later, a resurgent Wall Street lifted the local economy and the buildings were valued at 10 times what the Reichmanns had paid… Jacobs’s great uncles Paul and Albert Reichmann developed Canary Wharf in London and the World Financial .. Center in New York. The empire grew to $10 billion by 1991, collapsed when debts bankrupted Olympia & York, then slowly recovered to at least $880 million by 2005…

“The biggest short-term risk Jacobs has flagged to co-investors is that the window of opportunity slams shut before he can buy. Soaring interest rates chilled property sales by making mortgages costlier, but many think the Federal Reserve might cut rates this year. That could prompt fund managers and other institutional investors to return to San Francisco, they said… Even if rates remain high, Jacobs is an outsider in San Francisco competing against wealthy locals also looking to buy buildings on the cheap. He has bid on a few properties but hasn’t completed any deals, the people familiar with the matter said.”

So, will the revalued buildings generate new office rentals as much lower rates? How much of this vacant space can be converted into desperately needed residential real estate. Does Ian Jacobs know something that most owners of these buildings do not? Stay tuned.

I’m Peter Dekom, and for all those people who believe real estate is a risk-free investment, think again…

Red States Trying to Control Blue States’ Pro Choice Laws

Federalized Troops enforcing
judicially mandated school
integration in Little Rock in 1957
against a defiant governor

Article IV Section 1 – Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section 2- A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime…

It is a far cry from recognition of the requirements that each state honor the laws of other states – a divorce in one state must be recognized in other states, for example – to applying that state’s laws to its residents when they travel to or become resident in other states. Additionally, certain arenas of law have been judicially determined to belong exclusively to federal jurisdiction, like immigration and border control, under the Commerce Clause, the Naturalization Clause, the Declaration of War Clause, the Law of Nations Clause, and the Necessary and Proper Clause of the US Constitution.

The problem occurs when one state, under the control of a grandstanding political player – like Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas trying to push federal agencies away from its international boundary with Mexico – rejects federal primacy (despite a Supreme Court ruling to the contrary) or simply wishes to ignore the constitutional prerogatives for actions that take place outside of that state’s immediate borders. The distrust of red and blue states for each other has escalated – where judicial and constitutional mandates are ignored because they conflict with popular sentiments.

This disconnect is everywhere. Take this recent example noted by CBS News February 22nd: “Prosecutors in Arizona say they won't agree right now to extradite the man accused of murdering a woman in SoHo because they don't trust Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg… Raad Almansoori is locked up in Arizona, where police say he stabbed two women. The Manhattan DA wants to bring him to New York to face charges for that SoHo murder, but Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell wants him to stay in Arizona, for now.”

The Supreme Court and federal lower courts are also weighing on various cases pending before them as red states either track their residents’ seeking abortions in blue states, but that same court is weighing reversing the “Chevron Deference” rule where courts requiring explanation and interpretation of highly specialized federal statutes generally defer to the expertise of an administrative agency. The result of shifting increasing power to the states to ignore federal administrative rulemaking or to extend their jurisdiction to their residents even when then are not in their states is massive chaos, as different states apply differing interpretations and where experts are simply ignored by biased legislatures and lower courts with differing belief systems.

Red states are attempting to convict their residents of abortion-related crimes, either because they were provided with abortion-inducing “morning after” pills or physically traveling to blue states for safe abortions that are legal in their resident red states. But blue states are beginning to fight back, leaving to disputes over the meaning of the constitutional provisions cited above. Writing for the NY Times The Morning (February 22nd), Pam Belluck explains:

“Doctors in a handful of blue states have found a way to provide abortions to women in red states where it is banned or restricted. They are doing it with a new tool: laws that protect them from prosecutors elsewhere… These telemedicine shield laws block officials in red states who might prosecute or sue the abortion providers in Massachusetts, New York, California, Vermont, Colorado and Washington State. Those states won’t extradite doctors. They won’t turn over records. They won’t aid in any investigation… Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and triggered a wave of bans in conservative states, abortion rights advocates have worked to preserve access. They’ve used mobile clinics across the border from red states — and funds that cover the cost of travel to places where abortion is legal…

“[One new approach is where] providers started mailing abortion pills under the shield laws just last summer. But their reach has surprised even some advocates. They’ve already prescribed and mailed abortion pills to tens of thousands of women in Texas, Idaho and other places that banned abortion after the high court’s 2022 decision. Patients find them online and fill out forms about their medical history. Providers then evaluate whether patients are eligible. They can be up to 12 weeks’ pregnant and must have no disqualifying medical issues like an ectopic pregnancy or a blood-clotting disorder.

“Being able to receive abortion medication at their homes by mail saves patients the time, money and difficulty of traveling to a state where abortion is legal. It also avoids the weekslong wait for pills ordered from overseas. Shield law services charge $150 or $250, but they allow poorer patients to pay less or even nothing.

“Abortion opponents in conservative states are outraged. The shield laws are ‘really trying to completely sabotage the governing efforts of their neighboring states,’ said John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life. ‘It can’t stand, and we can’t be content with this new development.’

“The practice has not yet been challenged in court, but observers think it’s only a matter of time. Law enforcement officials in anti-abortion states may be waiting for a case they think will be persuasive. A senior government official in a conservative state told me about one possible strategy: State officials could first file charges or a complaint against a provider in a blue state. Then, when that state refused to cooperate, a red state could sue the shield-law state itself, claiming that the Constitution’s full faith and credit clause prevents one state from interfering with another’s laws.

“States with abortion bans will also watch a lawsuit the Supreme Court will hear next month, in which opponents of abortion have sued the Food and Drug Administration to try to bar abortion pills. (My colleague Emily Bazelon has written for The Morning about how much of the abortion struggle now revolves around pills.) If the justices uphold an appeals court ruling, patients might need in-person doctor visits to obtain the medications.”

As red states achieve new levels of radical laws – like Alabama’s law declaring frozen embryos as part of an IVF process to be human beings – as the radical right promises to force a national abortion ban and as states are arresting their residents returning from a blue state where they had an abortion… it’s clear that freedom itself is at issue… but there is a very strong undercurrent of white Christian nationalist autocracy welling up in MAGA America.

I’m Peter Dekom, and for women across the land, this desire to control their bodies according to fundamental Christian beliefs will hopefully drive mothers, grandmothers, daughter and sisters to the polls in November.

The New, Malign and Vastly Deeper State

The New, Malign and Vastly Deeper State

A Rogue Supreme Court, a Master of Delay, Cult-like Believers and Alternative Facts

“This is a historic moment for the conservative movement. From the time we launched this project, we knew it was critical for conservatives to put aside differences and come together if we are to succeed in restoring our federal government to one ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ And reaching 100 members on our advisory board is monumental. Americans are tired of their government being used against them. The administrative state is, at best, completely out of touch with the American people and, at worst, is weaponized against them. We will soon embark on a historic reform of the federal government to get it once again to work for the American people. With our 100-member strong coalition we have the momentum as we begin this critical year.” 

Paul Dans, director of the Heritage Foundation, 2025 Presidential Transition Project, Feb. 20th

Think about what $50 million (plus future spends) buys in terms of legal fees!!! You can waste some of that on the young and incompetent, but if you use better lawyers to accomplish “Trump Strategy Number One: Delay,” it’s a very good value. And if you can get others to foot the bill – perhaps under questionable uses of campaign contributions, some simply by stiffing some of your attorneys, or just plain selling “merch,” the sky’s the limit!

Trump is a proven: fraudster, a flimflam man, sexual abuser, a grifter, a man who faithfully follows Hitler’s Mein Kampf advice to “lie big” consistently, whose company has already been criminally convicted who might (might not?), faces 91 criminal indictments, who has sponsored legislation to give his rich cronies a tax break, who is hell-bent on killing all the regulatory agencies that protect consumers, repeal as much healthcare support as he can and expand white Christian nationalism (very much a Nazi goal in WII) with evangelical fundamentalism through new federal laws and continued appointment of federal judges incapable of being neutral. With a delay, because once Trump is president again, MAGA supporters believe, all the indictments and cases against him will vaporize.

And should Trump succeed in that endeavor, the major source of recommendations for ultra-MAGA rightwing federal appointments – the Heritage Foundation – is making sure that there is no “first 100 days” lead time for Trump to blow away bureaucrats and Democratic appointments in his program of retribution to dismantle most of the federal regulatory agencies and bureaucracies. As the above quote from Paul Dans suggests, the Heritage foundation has prepared detailed lists of who get eliminated and who gets appointed on day one of a Trump presidency.

You can thank Heritage for Trump’s appointment of Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett, appointments which enabled the repeal of Roe vs Wade, the further loosening restrictions on gun ownership, killing DEI initiatives, supporting voting restrictions effectively disenfranchising minority voters and rulings that disemboweled experienced and trained agency experts in favor of untrained and highly biased judges and legislators. You can also thank the Heritage Foundation not only for phase one of Trump’s vastly deeper state – highlighted by his appointment of MAGA-biased judges, many of whom vote the party line over the Constitution – but , if reelected, for phase two of totally saturated MAGA appointments at every level of federal government, defunding the DOJ and dismissing prosecutors helming those cases against him.

We already know that easily provable facts don’t move the needle with the cult worshipping MAGA crowd. They believe whatever falsehoods emanate from Trump’s mouth. After more than 60 judicial rulings (many from Trump-appointed judges) holding that the 2020 election was not “stolen,” MAGAns maintain that it was. And despite claims to the contrary, “U.S. energy production, from wind and solar to oil and gas, has boomed under President Biden.

“The nation is closer than ever to a goal that presidents have pursued for decades: true energy independence.” NYTimes, February 29th. The economy is booming, unemployment is negligible, and our southern border continues to have problems just as Trump told the MAGA controlled House of representatives not to approve a bi-partisan immigration reform act, because it might make Biden look good.

Just as Biden is watching Vietnam-war-like protests against his policy of US support for Israel’s massive overkill in Gaza, if Trump is elected, Netanyahu joyfully will continue a blank check from the man featured on Netanyahu posters in his Israeli election campaign. Biden is getting the blame. Trump is not. And while no president can control interest rates (that role belongs exclusively to the independent Federal Reserve), Trump’s promised tariffs of retribution will cause explosive inflation as consumer products soar in cost.

On February 28th, with the Supreme Court producing the required 5 conservative justices to grant certiorari to hear Trump’s inane claim of immunity from prosecution, Trump has triumphed like never before. The value of the resulting delay alone might allow “President Trump” to dismantle the cases against if he wins in November, and those GOP voters, who pledged not to vote for him if he were convicted in the major indictments against him, won’t have any such convictions by November 5th. “[The Supreme Court] scheduled oral arguments for the week of April 22. A decision is likely before July…

“With Wednesday’s announcement [2/28], the Supreme Court will be considering Trump’s immunity claims while he will likely be in the middle of a criminal trial in New York, on allegations he falsified business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star. [Considered a minor case.] A state judge has scheduled that trial to begin March 25.

“If the justices reject Trump’s immunity arguments, a federal trial on the election-interference charges likely wouldn’t take place until late summer, at the earliest. The Republican National Convention, where Trump will seek his third presidential nomination, begins July 15 in Milwaukee…

“The court took nearly two weeks to set its course on the Trump case, suggesting that the justices struggled to find a consensus. Wednesday’s order included no explanation, as is typical in emergency matters, and no noted dissents.

“Even if Trump ultimately loses before the Supreme Court, the delays in his trial could afford him a de facto victory should he return to the White House next year. As president, Trump could fire an attorney general who refuses to drop the prosecution, or attempt to pardon himself for past crimes.” Jess Bravin, WSJ, February 28th. Hey, Trump is one giant step away from transitioning the United States from democracy to autocracy. And trust me, Trump and his followers want him to be a dictator for more than “just one day.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and American voters – looking at the legacy of dictators who began as democratically elected (Putin, Erdogan, Orban, Maduro, Pinochet, Duvalier, etc.) – should know that dislodging them and their anointed successors can take decades… if ever.