Category Archives: Foreign Policy

The Trump Regime’s Toxic Racism.

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The MAGA movement began with racist attacks on Mexican immigrants and attacks on political correctness (aka courtesy and civility). It incorporated the slogan “America First” previously used by the Ku Klux Klan. And it gained momentum with the claim that Critical Race Theory was being taught in K-12 classes. (It was only taught in law schools to help attorneys understand the disadvantages faced by minorities.)

And now that Trump is, once again, in the Oval Office, his blatant racism has permeated the entire federal government as well as both private and public institutions with his assault on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), a long overdue initiative to create fairness for all Americans. The regime is even using its distaste for DEI to bludgeon corporations and universities by withholding federal contracts and research grants from those that refuse to accept the regime’s racist policies.

The Trump family’s well-known history of prejudice has led his loyal cabinet members to decapitate our military leadership by firing black and female military leaders and ordering the military to ban transexuals. It has led to the firings of minorities throughout the federal government. It has led to his takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Arts, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. He and his MAGA minions have banned books featuring histories of slavery and any reference to the LGBTQ community.

None of this should come as a surprise. Since the late 1960s, the Republican Party has been built on racism and vicious attacks on minorities following the SCOTUS ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation of public schools. It counted on Jim Crow, attacks on gay marriage and voter suppression to win elections.

The Party continued to create new scapegoats and culture wars including the myth of black “Welfare Queens” and the racist belief that poor black women relied on abortion as a method of contraception. It gained power by claiming that all Mexican immigrants were murderers and rapists. And that boys and men were emasculating themselves as transexuals just so they can enter girls’ bathrooms and succeed in sports against girls and women.

Now the Trump regime is rewriting the history of the George Floyd murder suggesting that Floyd was a violent criminal who deserved to be choked to death or that he actually died of drug abuse. The regime’s “Justice” Department is seeking to dismiss police reforms enacted following racist murders in Minneapolis and Louisville. And, in a clear sign of racist immigration policies, the regime has welcomed white Afrikaaners as refugees while pushing to end the Temporary Protected Status of black and brown refugees from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Not long ago, the House of Representatives banned the nation’s first transexual congressional representative from using the Capitol’s women’s bathrooms. What’s next? Labeling federal buildings as white only?

100 Days Of Criminality, Cons, Constitutional Crises And Chaos.

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As the second Trump regime concludes its first 100 days, let’s review the many lowlights:

To begin, there’s the takeover of the FBI, DOJ, and the State Department by Trump loyalists. There were pardons of more than fifteen hundred insurrectionists and violent criminals. The unjustified and illegal dismissal of entire government agencies and tens of thousands of federal workers. The careless and cruel deportation and imprisonment of immigrants and even US citizens without due process. The humiliation and thuggish intimidation of others by ICE brownshirts.

Of course, there’s the incompetent leadership of the Pentagon, the NSA and HHS. The complete abdication of the constitutional power given to Congress. The stonewalling of judicial rulings and verbal assaults on the judiciary. The ongoing attacks on all but the most compliant of news gathering organizations. The assaults on free speech. The many vengeful acts against political rivals. The partisan attacks on K-12 education, universities, students, corporations, law firms, medical research, the VA, Medicaid, public broadcasting, the Voice of America, endangered wildlife, national parks, national forests, clean air and clean water.

There are the economy-killing tariffs that have created an international trade war. The alienation of traditional allies and the embrace of war-criminal-led governments. The dismissal of inspectors general and other watchdogs to enable blatant and unconstitutional grift, including insider trading, the awarding of questionable government contracts, the Trump meme coin, and the hundreds of millions spent on weekend golf retreats, the Super Bowl, NASCAR, UFC, etc. – events where the felon-in-chief can bask in the public spotlight.

And now, with the destruction of our federal government nearly complete, the end will likely be marked by a military parade in celebration of our dear leader’s birthday. If that happens as planned, we may as well tear down the Statue of Liberty and set fire to every copy of the Constitution. At that point, we’ll have become a nuclear-armed superpower with a banana republic-style leadership and faint hopes of ever restoring democracy.

The Trump Regime’s War On Everything.

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Much has been written about Trump’s insane trade war with the world, which has endangered our stock markets, our economy, our international reputation, and the strength of the US dollar. Even the very conservative Wall Street Journal has taken the regime to task for its stupidity.

We’ve also seen and heard a lot about the regime’s war on immigrants. Though Trump claimed that he would only deport immigrants with serious criminal records, it is now obvious that his thugs at DHS and ICE are targeting all immigrants, including those here on student visas.

But the Trump regime’s war is much, much broader. Since taking office less than 100 days ago, the regime has expanded its list of targets to include American citizens, federal workers, veterans, the LGBTQ community, news media and newswire services, people of color, disabled, women, Democratic-led states and cities, the environment, climate change mitigation, intelligence professionals, USAID, Voice of America, FEMA, NOAA, National Weather Service, IRS, FBI, CIA, VA, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, prosecutors, scientists, immunologists, health care workers and researchers, AmeriCorps, HeadStart, the education system, universities, libraries, arts centers, museums, law firms, judges and the courts, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canada, Greenland, Panama, our closest allies, and virtually every longstanding positive norm and institution.

Not the least of the regime’s targets is the United States Constitution beginning with an executive order repealing the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship and, more recently, full-frontal assaults on the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of press and the freedom of assembly.

The regime has gleefully overstepped its authority by illegally destroying agencies created by Congress and blocking congressionally authorized funding, a violation of Congress’ Article One powers as spelled out in the Constitution.

Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, the regime has even attacked the First Amendment guarantee of free speech by detaining students and legal immigrants who have spoken out against Israel’s many war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, including the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, murders of journalists and aid workers, and the intentional targeting of children as young as 2-years-old.

Even worse, the regime has abducted and imprisoned dozens without acknowledging their constitutional right to due process. In fact, it has attacked almost every aspect of the rule of law – the very foundation of our democracy. That has led to a full-fledged constitutional crisis as Trump and his cronies have willfully ignored a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court demanding the regime to facilitate the return of a legal resident who, by its own admission, was sent to a Salvadoran prison through an “administrative error.”

By contrast, the regime has supported dictators and brutal strongmen, most especially Vladimir Putin. It has also pardoned and excused felons, including the seditious mob that invaded the US Capitol and violently attacked law enforcement on January 6.

All of this has led to massive nationwide demonstrations, to longtime allies making plans to defend themselves without our help, to trading partners banning the import of American-made products, and to almost every nation on the planet issuing travel warnings to the United States resulting in significant drops in tourism along with a corresponding drop in revenue.

Of course, none of this should come as a surprise to voters. Much of it was clearly laid out in Project 2025. Moreover, if you give a convicted felon, rapist and fraudster great power, you shouldn’t be surprised when he engages in criminal activity and breaks more laws

What Is Our Democracy’s Breaking Point?

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All but the most extreme of Trump’s supporters now have legitimate concerns about the future of the world’s oldest democratic republic.

After all, we’ve seen the Supreme Court of the United States give our Dear Leader immunity for official acts while in office. We’ve seen Trump pardon violent criminals who attacked police and vandalized our U.S. Capitol. And we’ve seen the unqualified and incompetent take control of our government agencies.

We’ve seen Trump, the world’s richest man and his DOGE bros usurp congressional authority by illegally firing more than 200,000 government employees and withholding congressionally approved funding in order to rationalize a $4.6 trillion tax cut for American oligarchs. We’ve seen them threaten Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. We’ve seen them decimate HHS, SSA, VA, the Department of Education and more. And we’ve seen go so far as to eliminate USAID and the Voice of America.

We’ve seen the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the National Security Agency decapitated. We’ve seen longtime FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors fired for simply having done their jobs by investigating Trump and his friends for legitimate and obvious crimes.

We’ve seen women, people of color and other minorities removed from positions of leadership as part of Trump’s attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We’ve seen history removed from government websites. We’ve seen Trump take control of the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian. We’ve seen universities have their federal research grants pulled for refusing to give up control of their institutions to the administration. We’ve seen Trump threaten some of the nation’s oldest and largest law firms along with legacy media and newswire services.

We’ve seen former president Joe Biden and former Trump and Biden officials have their security clearances pulled. Some have also lost their security details leaving them vulnerable to the Oathkeepers, Proud Boys and other violent MAGA supporters.

We’ve seen Trump threaten Canada, Greenland and Panama. We’ve heard him speak glowingly about his plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza and build a Mar-a-Lago on the Mediterranean. We’ve seen him alienate our closest allies and side with brutal dictators and autocrats. For example, we’ve seen him side with Vladimir Putin by claiming that Ukraine started the war with Russia.

We’ve seen Trump institute tariffs against all of our trading partners – tariffs that have crashed the stock markets, and increased prices on all imported goods.

We’ve seen retribution and threats against judges who have signed injunctions to block Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional actions. We’ve seen immigrants arrested and sent to an El Salvador torture center without due process. We’ve seen a DOJ attorney fired for admitting in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal immigrant, was mistakenly sent to El Salvador through an administrative error. We’ve seen foreign students detained for having written or spoken out against our government’s support for Israel’s war crimes. We have heard Trump talk about sending US citizens to El Salvador. And we are in the midst of a very real constitutional crisis now that Trump and his minions are defying a unanimous Supreme Court order to facilitate Garcia’s return to the US.

All of this has happened in less than 3 months! And the Republican’s narrow congressional majority seems uninterested, willing to fall in line behind Trump without so much as a vote. Indeed, the only thing that seems to motivate the majority is to further restrict voting in Democratic-leaning areas.

The question is: How much longer can our democracy hold? Will we still have our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms by the congressional midterm elections in 2026? Our nation is already unrecognizable to the majority of our citizens and to most of the world. If the administration’s illegal and unconstitutional actions are allowed to continue for another 22 months, what of our democracy will be left? Even if Democrats win an overwhelming majority in both houses of Congress in 2026, it will take decades to rebuild a functioning government, and generations to rebuild our stature around the globe.

The A In USA Now Stands For Autocracy.

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Fellow Americans: The good news is that we no longer have to worry about our nation becoming an autocracy under a second Trump administration as many Democrats feared. The bad news is that it already has.

Trump has moved the nation toward autocracy faster than Putin of Russia, Erdogan of Turkey or Orban of Hungary.

Indeed, in just two months, he has ignored or dismissed most of his campaign promises to end inflation and cut costs for American consumers. He has elevated dozens of loyalists – many of them grossly unqualified – to cabinet positions. He has fired Inspectors General and others responsible for identifying government corruption. He has replaced Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs with racism and misogyny.

He has purged the DOJ and FBI of nonpartisan civil servants and replaced them with submissive toadies. He has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization. He has defunded the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. And he has blocked funding for medical research.

He has punished news media that have had the temerity to confront him with difficult questions, to report his illegal actions, and to debunk his numerous lies. He has permitted an unelected and unvetted billionaire to fire tens of thousands of federal employees and to access classified information and the personal data of millions of Americans. Further, he has indicated his desire to eliminate Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security in order to justify an additional $4.5 trillion tax cut for billionaires and large corporations.

He has embraced our nation’s greatest adversaries while abandoning our most loyal allies. He has begun an international trade war that is almost certain to send our economy into recession. And he has threatened to make Canada our 51st state, to take Greenland, and to retake the Panama Canal by force.

Without debate or congressional input, he has governed by Sharpie.

Thus far, the Felon-in-Chief has signed 90 executive orders – many of them blatantly unconstitutional. For example, he unconstitutionally abolished birthright citizenship as established under the 14th Amendment. He has illegally blocked congressionally approved payments. He has illegally threatened research grants to universities that fail to suppress student demonstrations against Israel and his policies.

He has shuttered Voice of America and effectively closed USAID. He has ordered the closing of the Department of Education. He has revoked the temporary protected status of more than half a million refugees. And he has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to justify detaining and deporting those who do not meet his definition of desirable immigrants without the protection of Habeas Corpus. That includes those legally in the US who have committed the “crimes” of expressing contempt for Trump and his policies.

More worryingly, he has blatantly and dismissively ignored judicial orders and threatened the judges who made them, thereby creating a constitutional crisis. Not even a rebuke by Chief Justice Roberts seems to have deterred him.

Of course, all of this was predictable. What else would you expect from a presidential candidate who stated he would be a dictator on day one, who has been convicted of 34 felonies, who was judged to have committed sexual assault, who was the subject of multiple felony indictments, who inspired a violent insurrection, who announced his intention to exact revenge on those who tried to hold him accountable?

The only questions remaining are to what end and how do we save our democracy from his grasp? Waiting until 2026 to elect a Democratic-majority Congress may be far too late.

Already stock markets are plunging, inflation is soaring, and consumer confidence is falling. Adding to our economic woes, many former European allies have warned their citizens against travel to the US. Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs and dismissive speeches have infuriated Canadians causing Canadian tourism to the US to fall off a cliff.

Other NATO allies are making plans for their defense against Russian aggression without help from the US. In addition, our national security is at risk after Trump’s reported sharing of the nation’s most secret military plans with Musk and others who lack security clearances.

The question is: To what end?

I understand the desire of Trump and his oligarch friends to send the US economy into a recession. Many have already sold off their stocks and could reap immense profits by repurchasing shares at a lower price. I can understand the oligarchs’ desire to profit by privatizing pools of public funds, such as those intended for education, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Though it sickens me, I can even understand Trump’s desire to undermine the Constitution by weakening Congress and the judicial system in order to consolidate his own power.

And given Trump’s years-long ties to Russia and reports of kompromat, I can understand why Trump would personally bow to Putin.

But why destroy most of the agencies of the federal government? Why make our government so dysfunctional? Why destroy our national parks? Why ignore climate change and endanger the entire planet? Why rewrite history and so embrace fascism, racism and misogyny? Why deport necessary undocumented workers? Why treat tens of thousands of hardworking civil servants so cruelly? Why destroy our decades of goodwill with democratic nations around the globe thereby weakening the US for decades to come?

Is Trump inviting Americans to take to the streets in protest – to engage in violence – so that he can institute martial law? If so, what then? He’s already acting as a king. What is the end game?

The Growing List Of Trump Victims.

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Members of Trump’s MAGA cult have long wanted to reshape our government and punish the “Libs”. But they have gotten much more than they bargained for. Under the guise of making America great again and improving government efficiency, the actions of Donald J. Trump and his billionaire friends have already victimized millions of Americans and untold numbers of others around the globe. And there appears to be no end in sight. Indeed, it seems that Trump won’t stop until the US mirrors Putin’s Russia.

Following is a partial list of the victims so far:

  1. The Constitution – In a blatant attempt to consolidate power in the executive branch under his direction, Trump has ignored or violated many of the Constitution’s provisions. He has usurped Congress’s power of the purse by blocking funding. He has illegally fired federal employees without cause. In his first term, he violently dispersed peaceful demonstrations. He has tried to violate free speech. And he has signed an executive order abolishing the 14th Amendment.
  2. Truth – Trump told more than 30,000 documented lies during his first term in office and the number has only accelerated since.
  3. Justice – By pardoning roughly 1,500 of the January 6 insurrectionists while investigating and firing all those within the FBI and DOJ who had anything to do with bringing charges against him, Trump has shown that he is willing to weaponize the justice system on his behalf.
  4. People of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and the disabled – By abolishing DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), Trump has eliminated programs intended to prevent discrimination in the federal workplace, in corporations and in universities.
  5. Federal employees and their families – Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have illegally and unconstitutionally fired hundreds of thousands of civil servants, disproportionately military veterans, without severance.
  6. US federal government – Trump and Musk have created chaos throughout the government. They have illegally usurped the powers of Congress by gutting agencies and firing hundreds of thousands of employees without justification or cause. In doing so, they have compromised essential government services, including
  7. Refugees –With the stroke of a Sharpie, Trump has revoked temporary protective status for Haitians, Venezuelans, Ukrainians and others who escaped political violence and war in their countries.
  8. Undocumented workers and their families – Trump has ordered ICE to detain and deport all undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. Unfortunately, many innocent hardworking people, including US military veterans, have been swept up in raids that appear based on racial profiling. And though it’s a civil, not a criminal offense to be in this country illegally, it appears that many will be sent to prisons, including Guantanamo.
  9. Farmers, food processing companies, & small businesses – As ICE continues sweeps at workplaces and schools, most undocumented workers and their children are now afraid to leave their homes. This has been so disruptive to the employers that many now claim they are vulnerable to bankruptcy. Additionally, the block on USAID foreign aid contracts represents the potential loss of billions in income for US farmers. And Trump’s tariffs will result in further losses as China raises tariffs on the import of most US agricultural products.
  10. US military – Trump and his lapdog, Pete Hegseth, decapitated the leadership of the military with the intent of replacing members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with loyalists regardless of inexperience.
  11. US intelligence services – It could be argued that in the Trump administration there is no intelligence. Yet Director of National Intelligence, conspiracy theorist and Russian apologist Tulsi Gabbard has fired more than 100 senior staffers and numerous CIA officers for violating Trump’s ban on DEI.
  12. Veterans – Not only has DOGE illegally fired thousands of military veterans throughout the federal government. It has gutted the Veteran’s Administration through a hiring freeze and mass layoffs.
  13. Americans’ health – Trump has illegally blocked funding for the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization. This comes at a time when those organizations are needed to deal with an Ebola outbreak, Avian Flu and the very real threat of another pandemic. It even compromises the ability to select the appropriate vaccine for the next flu season.
  14. Women – Trump’s previous term resulted in compromising women’s freedom to control their own bodies with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This term is likely to result in further loss of women’s rights – not only the right to abortion, the right to contraception, even the right to vote. Indeed, there is a bill before Congress that would block millions of women from voting because they took the last name of those they married.
  15. Wildlife and the environment – Trump has already unleashed an all-out attack on the environment. Not only did he again withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords and end programs that attempt to mitigate the worst impact of climate change. He has ordered the expansion of production of fossil fuels, including in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. He also wants to eliminate most regulations on the fossil fuel industry. And there are plans to weaken the protection of endangered species.
  16. National Park visitors – DOGE has fired more than 1,000 rangers who clean and maintain parks in addition to educating visitors and providing for their safety. This will result in long lines, reduced hours and even the closing of some parks.
  17. Disaster victims – We have already seen cuts to FEMA staff and Trump has made it clear that disaster relief from floods, tornados, hurricanes and wildfires should be the responsibility of the states. And given his past actions and statements, it is likely that he will politicize federal aid, prioritizing red states over blue.
  18. Consumers – Despite promising to eliminate inflation and cut prices on day one, Trump has made it clear that he no longer cares about those issues. Instead, he has exacerbated the problems by starting a trade war with Canada, China, Mexico and others. And, contrary to Trump’s rhetoric, the cost of the tariffs will be paid by importers and passed along to consumers.
  19. Shareholders – Trump’s announced tariffs have already led to a large downturn in the stock markets which affects everyone with a 401(k). And, as the tariffs take full effect, the downturn is likely to turn into a market crash which will only benefit the billionaires and hedge fund managers.
  20. Emerging nations – With the gutting USAID, many of those living in emerging nations will suffer from food deprivation and epidemics.
  21. Ukraine – Following the Oval Office ambush of Zelenskyy for refusing to sign an agreement that would have given away half of Ukraine’s nation’s resources, Trump has illegally “paused” military aid for the defense of Ukraine. The only person that benefits is Putin.
  22. Palestinians – By stating that the US will take over Gaza, Trump has encouraged Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and potentially further destabilized the Middle East.
  23. Tibetans – Trump has illegally blocked congressionally approved funding for the Tibetan government in exile – another case of revictimizing victims.
  24. NATO and longtime allies – Trump’s long running distaste for NATO and his unwarranted attack on Zelenskyy and Ukraine has understandably shaken the bond between the US, the UK and Europe. Our allies are now discussing ways they can stave off potential attacks by Russia without US help.
  25. You – Without proper oversight, Musk and his DOGEbags have been illegally filing through the data files of Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and the IRS. That means they now have personal data for virtually every American citizen – where you live, where you work, how much you make, what is the status of your health, even your investment and bank accounts. What will they do with that information? For all we know, they could provide it to Putin or some other foe to drain our resources.

And this is just the start. Keeping in mind that it only took Hitler and his Nazis 53 days to completely dismantle a constitutional democracy, imagine how much damage this administration can do in four years.

We’ve Seen This Movie Before.

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If the actions of the current Trump administration seem vaguely familiar, it’s because we’ve already seen similar storylines.

Consider the movie Dave, in which a man without any relevant experience or qualifications finds himself in the White House through a series of misunderstandings and odd circumstances. There’s also Being There, the story of Chance, a simpleton who accidentally becomes one of the most powerful men in Washington.

Another apropos movie to consider is The Godfather, the story of a powerful crime boss who is ironically more empathetic and far more patriotic than Trump. Then there’s Joker, the story of a man who, after failing at his chosen profession, descends into mental illness and leads a violent revolution against the establishment. You could also add American Psycho, a movie about Patrick Bateman, a man completely devoid of empathy.

Finally, there’s A Clockwork Orange the story of a group of youthful dropouts known as droogs who go on a crime spree engaging in anti-social behavior.

Each of these films could be instructional in understanding the Trump administration, including the Felon-in-Chief, Musk and the rest of his DOGEbags, and the group of misfits who comprise the Trump cabinet.

Like Chance, Trump attained his position more by luck than qualifications. Like Dave, Trump is an opportunist. Like the Joker, Trump was a business failure before leading an attack on polite society. Like Michael Corleone, Trump is expert at using other people’s money and his position to extort and threaten. And similar to the character Bateman, Trump has been diagnosed as a malignant narcissist and sociopath.

Additionally, the droogs are roughly equivalent to Musk and his youthful group of nerds who have set about slashing and burning our most cherished institutions and belief systems.

Of course, Trump and Musk claim their actions are intended to save money and make your life better. But reality is quite the opposite. They’re reducing government services, starving the poor, deporting essential workers, alienating the U.S. from our longtime allies, and torching the planet in order to give themselves and their billionaire friends a $4.5 trillion tax cut.

Moreover, the firings of hundreds of thousands of federal employees and civil servants will add to the unemployment numbers. Likewise, the elimination of USAID, SNAP and school lunch programs will negatively impact those who grow our food. Cuts to VA will negatively affect veterans. The abolishment of DEI will impact people of color, women, and the disabled. The planned mass deportations will impact farms, food processors, restaurants, hotels and more. The massive tariffs on goods from our trading partners will raise prices for consumers. And the potential cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and even Social Security will be devastating for tens of millions of American citizens.

By the time Trump’s demolition squad is finished we’ll almost certainly be facing an inflationary recession – a recession that will be crippling to our economy and ordinary people.

But will Trump, Musk and their wealthy friends suffer along with you? No! Emphatically no! Indeed, the wealthy often create recessions by dumping their holdings during a strong stock market, so they can buy low after stock prices have tanked.

If Trump and his DOGEbags were serious about cutting waste and fraud, they’d be looking to cut Musk’s government contracts totaling more than $38 billion. And Trump would forgo his golf weekends, Super Bowl outings and costly excursions such as his multi-million-dollar victory lap around the Daytona Speedway, which have already cost more than the federal salaries cut.

Complex Problems: Part 3 – The National Debt

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According to the National Debt Clock, our national debt is currently $36 trillion and counting. That’s because the government is currently spending more than $1.6 trillion than it receives from federal taxes. This is despite the fact that the annual deficit is currently $1 trillion less than when President Biden took office.

Of course, there are many who will say that the way to reduce the debt is to simply cut spending. Others will say that we need to raise taxes to increase revenue. But it’s not that simple. To understand why, you need to look at how we got here.

Since the end of World War II, we have endured two banking crises and 13 recessions. Many of those events resulted in the necessity of corporate bailouts, tax cuts, and increased spending to induce economic recovery. During that time, we have also fought in four costly wars, not including the estimated $26 trillion in today’s dollars spent on defense during the Cold War. More recently, the failed response to the Covid Pandemic resulted in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the $1.2 trillion Inflation Recovery Act, which were necessary to stave off a second Great Depression and lower runaway inflation. Without those expenditures, we would have seen unemployment and inflation continue to skyrocket with many millions of Americans in soup lines and/or begging in the streets.

The point is, in a civilized society, there are certain events and economic conditions that require government to outspend its revenue.

Not the least of these are the climate-related disasters that annually cost billions of dollars to help victims and rebuild infrastructure. The National Centers for Environmental Information estimate that over the last five years those costs have totaled $764.9 billion! Do we turn our backs on the Americans ravaged by wildfires, droughts, hailstorms, tornados and hurricane victims to avoid budget deficits? Of course not.

And there are still more issues that have contributed to our debt, including self-inflicted problems such as trade wars, battles over the debt ceiling, and political shutdowns of the government which have cost many billions of dollars.

Taking all of this into consideration, you can see why, in modern times, our government has experienced a budget surplus only once. That was accomplished by the Clinton administration.

Now, you may say that I have overlooked one of the largest contributors to our annual deficits – the rising costs of “entitlements.” Certainly, it is true that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments comprise about 61 percent of the annual federal budget. But before you call for cutbacks to these programs, consider this: In reality, these programs should be entirely separate from the federal budget. That’s because the retired workers who benefit from them have paid for them over a lifetime of work through FICA (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act).

That’s right, these programs are not “entitlements” at all. They are, in fact, insurance – nonprofit retirement insurance for which you pay premiums that are deducted from your paycheck.

Since the founding of the programs, the premiums collected have gone into a trust fund where the money is invested in federal securities. And because these programs are insurance, they should be treated like all other forms of insurance by following the principles of actuarial tables, which match premiums to expenditures. (When the costs of your casualty and accident auto insurance go up, so do your premiums.) Unfortunately, Congress has refused to consistently and equitably raise premiums, which has placed the programs in some degree of jeopardy.

That leads us to the politics of deficits and debt.

Since the Citizens United v FEC decision of 2010, political campaigns are funded in large part by billionaires, lobbying groups, and large corporations. Of course, these groups all expect a return on their investments. For example, despite the impact on our climate caused by the burning of fossil fuels, the fossil fuel industry received more than $1 trillion in subsidies in 2023. Many others have similarly cashed in. And all of these paybacks contribute to the deficit.

Further, politicians love to promise tax cuts even when they know those tax cuts will lead to larger deficits. Perhaps that’s why the highest federal income tax rate has been cut from 91 percent in 1950 to 40.8 percent today. Indeed, we have seen at least five major tax cuts since WWII. And since many of those same politicians like to campaign on a platform of fear – fear of immigrants, fear of other religions, fear of terrorism, and fear of other nations – they routinely vote to increase our defense budget.

The requested Pentagon budget for 2025 is nearly $850 billion dollars. That’s more than the next nine countries combined! And, if you separate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from the annual budget as is justified, it represents roughly 34 percent of the remaining (discretionary) budget. Add another $103.2 billion for Homeland Security, plus $303.8 billion for Veterans Affairs, and you’ll see that we’re spending an incredible amount for defense and the consequences of war – an annual total of more than $1.2 trillion that is nearly equal to our deficit.

And that doesn’t even include the $21 trillion in previous spending that the Pentagon couldn’t account for in a recent audit.

So, where do you cut? How do you raise more revenue? If you’re serious about reducing the debt, you absolutely have to do both. But if you do too much of either, you risk damaging the economy which will further add to the debt.

The planned tax cuts, inflation-inducing tariffs, and mass deportations of undocumented workers certainly isn’t the answer.

Trump Has Already Irreversibly Damaged Our Nation.

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Forget his plans for a second term. Pay no attention to the impending execution of Project 2025. Disregard his planned revenge against political opponents. Try to ignore the coming mass deportations, the threats to leave NATO, the refusal to address climate change, and his pandering to the obscenely wealthy and large corporations. Those are only symptoms of his impact on a nation that was once proud to be a beacon for the poor and the oppressed.

Trump long ago set the United States on an unprecedented path of hate, cruelty and injustice.

Following a decade of his rhetoric, our political theater has evolved from a time when word of an extramarital affair was disqualifying to a point where a majority of our citizens voted for a man who previously would have been a model for the most evil and the most dastardly cartoon villain ever.

Despite his constant lies, his bragging, his blatant cruelty, his obvious racism, the dozens of credible accusations of sexual assault, his felony convictions and multiple grand jury indictments, his fraudulent use of taxpayer funds, his failed response to the pandemic that killed many thousands of Americans and crashed our economy, his cavalier handling of our nation’s most guarded secrets, and his attempt to overthrow our government, a plurality of Americans chose him to be their leader.

How could that happen?

It’s not as if voters were unfamiliar with Trump’s darkest tendencies. They had four years to observe his unethical, immoral and incompetent actions during his first term as president. Journalists exposed his more than 30,000 lies while in office. They reported that he was schooled in racism and eugenics by his father, that he was mentored by a lawyer for the Mafia, that his company was found guilty of defrauding the government of taxes, and that he created phony “charities” to further avoid paying his fair share.

It has been revealed that Trump’s best friend was a sexual predator. And that he gleefully bragged of sexually assaulting young women himself. But millions of Americans marked their ballots for him anyway.

Why?

I believe that Trump, unfortunately, represents the values of a large segment of our population, including many Americans who claim to be devout Christians.

Regardless of what happens over the next 4 years, the damage has already been done. He has coarsened our public conversations. He has further divided our population. He has encouraged Americans to distrust journalists and scientists, to ignore evidence and facts. He has further politicized the courts and the churches. He has modeled hate, cruelty, greed and corruption for the next generation of American leaders. He has even led them to question the value of democracy.

From here I fear there is no turning back. All we can hope for is that the outcome of future elections will result in the restoration of our Constitution and our nation’s most essential institutions. Even then, America will never be the same.

It has been made clear that our claim of American exceptionalism based on “freedom, justice and dignity for all” is little more than a myth. And the vision of a shining city on the hill has been forever dimmed.

America’s Great Character Test.

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Each 4th of July, we celebrate Independence Day, the day the Declaration of Independence was ratified by the Second Continental Congress. That act, of course, led to the Revolutionary War, our freedom from a tyrannical king and the world’s longest-lasting democratic experiment.

It was called an experiment by our nation’s founders because they were uncertain if our citizens could maintain it. Though the Constitution was written to “establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” the framers could not guarantee that it would last.

They were right to be worried.

Since the original Independence Day, our nation has faced a number of critical tests. Tests that have required character, courage, determination, luck and a great deal of our citizens’ blood. From its beginning, the Revolution was very much in doubt. Even after the defeat of British forces, we had to face them again in the War of 1812. Then came the Civil War, a war testing the founders’ original belief that “all men are created equal.”

World War II again put the future of our nation in doubt as it raised the question of whether or not we could defeat the cruelty of fascism.

Of course, we passed each and every test. But it remains to be determined if we can fend off fascism and tyranny from within.

Ironically, just prior to this Independence Day, our nation’s highest court has made the defense of liberty and democracy much more difficult. Following years of political division and challenges to the rule of law by former president Trump and his supporters, the court’s highly partisan MAGA majority ignored one of the founders’ most intensely held beliefs – that no man is above the rule of law. Their decision has not only delayed justice for Trump’s illegal activities. Should Trump be elected again, the court has given him immunity for “official acts” no matter how corrupt or cruel they may be.

We all know that Trump’s mindset has always been that of a narcissistic, sociopathic bully – one who was mentored by Roy Cohn, attorney to Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the New York Mafia. During his term in office, Trump was held partially in check by men of good conscience. Men like John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Gen. Mark Milley, and, in the end, V.P. Mike Pence.

But, according to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda 47, should Trump be re-elected, no one of good conscience will be anywhere near him. The entire executive branch, and virtually the entire government will be filled with tens of thousands of Trump loyalists. Unfettered by legal and ethical constraints, Trump will be free to do what bullies do – seize power and exact retribution on anyone and everyone he considers an enemy.

His enemies list is already quite long. And it’s growing. It includes anyone who dares to question his decisions and who makes negative statements about him.

So, this November, Americans will face another test that will determine the future of our democratic experiment – a character test. Will we choose a leader, such as Joe Biden, a man who has long proven to be of good character? A leader who, though you may or may not agree with his policies, believes in democracy to his core. A man who has accomplished much in his political career. Who led us out of the pandemic. Who helped put our economy back on firm footing. Who engineered a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

A leader whose policies have led to near full employment, record wage growth, and record stock markets. A man who has taken on some of the world’s greatest problems, such as wealth disparity and climate change. A man, who unlike Trump, stands for truth. A man who has never been divorced, who has never been convicted of a felony or defamation or sexual assault. A man who has never needed to pay hush money to women with whom he has had affairs. A man who has never created a fraudulent “university” or a fraudulent charity. A man who has never led an attack on our government and institutions.

Indeed, the biggest knock against him is his age and the fact that he botched a debate when overwhelmed by Trump’s avalanche of lies.

Or will we choose a lying, womanizing, false prophet and conman totally lacking in character? A man who is known to admire the world’s worst strongmen and who will undoubtedly emulate them. A man who sees our government as a personal piggy bank. A man who will try to turn the world order upside down by embracing our nation’s enemies and alienating our greatest allies.

But the decision isn’t just about the candidates’ character. It’s about yours.