Connecting The Dots

Posted: October 29, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) Picture by Petty Officer Jackson Adkins

It is another wild week in the Trump regime. On 1 November, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP — commonly called food stamps) will cease to operate for a lack of funds. There is an emergency fund of roughly six billion dollars in the Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for the program, but they insist they cannot release the money, even as the United States provides roughly 40 billion dollars in aid to Argentina. Perhaps MAGA actually stands for Make Argentina Great Again. Clearly Trump cares little for the American people. He only cares about his personal well-being by collecting money for himself and his family and being treated as royalty. To wit, if I may bring it up, he is suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) for 230 million dollars for pain and lost income relating to his indictments following his actions in attempting to overthrow the government and for stealing classified documents and storing them in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. The people making that decision are his personal defense attorneys that are now leading the DOJ. That money is taxpayer money. Let’s also not forget that during the shutdown, demolition of the White House continues for construction of a 300 million dollar ballroom. But we cannot feed 42 million Americans, and we do not care about the small grocers, farmers and others whose livelihoods depend on serving the people that use SNAP.

About that ballroom….

I am not a math major, but 300 million dollars for a ballroom works out to be 3,333.00 dollars a square foot. I have read that most hotel ballrooms max out at about 1,000.00 dollars a square foot for even the most luxurious locations. Additionally, reports indicate that a “patriot” donated 130 million dollars to the Pentagon, supposedly to help pay the military during the shutdown. That sounds great, but it works out to about 6 hours worth of pay. (Incidentally, a private individual paying the military — hmm, would that not make them mercenaries?) So what gives? What few people are talking about is that under the now destroyed East Wing of the White House was the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) — also known as a bunker. It was originally built as a bomb shelter during World War II. It has been updated over the years with ever more sophisticated equipment. Most famously in recent times, it is where Vice President Dick Cheney was rushed by the Secret Service during the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

It seems to me that when Trump says he needs to upgrade the East Wing, he is really talking about having a PEOC that meets his gilded standards, like 130 million dollars of gold. You know, a command bunker worthy of any self-respecting autocrat as all of his authoritarian buddies have — historically we know how well those bunkers for dictators work out in the long run. I opine that the 130 million dollars donated to the Pentagon is not for paying the troops but for helping to pay for a grand bunker. (The patriot, by the way, is thought to be Timothy Mellon, a billionaire member of the Mellon banking family and the bank is under investigation for its connections to Jeffrey Epstein. It gets “curiouser and curiouser.”)

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean Sea, and now in the Pacific Ocean, the Trump regime continues to order the murder of alleged drug smugglers. They have yet to offer even a shred of evidence to certify their assertions and not even members of Congress can get a straight answer even as they have oversight of the military and its use. Assuming for a minute that they are in fact drug smugglers — and as I have explained in previous posts I do not think most are drug smugglers — it is still unlawful under U.S. and international law to simply blow up boats and murder people just because the president says so. It is the equivalent of standing on a street corner in Huntsville Alabama and someone points at you and claims you are drug dealer and the police shoot you on sight. Or is that the point?

Admiral Alvin Holsey, USN the head of U.S. Southern Command that is responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean resigned earlier this month only one year into a normal three year tour of duty. Reports indicate that he retired early because of his concern over the use of force against unidentified boats and would not go along with the policy. At last! Someone spoke up. I wish more senior military officers would push back. Maybe they are and we just do not hear about it, but they need to re-invigorate the over two hundred year tradition that the military is non-political and takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not the whims of one man. Trump continues to call it “my military” and make political speeches with uniformed military as a back drop, just like it is some kind of campaign rally. Someone needs to make it clear that the military is not his to play with.

Now, we are told that in addition to the numerous Navy and Marine units already in the Caribbean Sea, it is necessary to send the entire Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. The fact is that most drug deaths in the U.S. are from fentanyl which comes primarily from Mexico via land and smuggled mostly by U.S. citizens, and that it is made from precursors from China. Colombia and Venezuela are more into the cocaine business to Europe. Let’s do a little more math. Trump says that each boat they destroy saves 25,000 American lives that would otherwise die of an overdose. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says that there were 73,000 drug overdoses in the year ending in April, 2025. The Secretary of Defense claims to have sunk fourteen boats at the loss of at least 57 lives. That means, according to Trump, that 350,000 American lives have been saved. There should be no more deaths for at least four and a half more years. All of it is preposterous of course.

Speaking of preposterous, a carrier and its escorts will not have any impact on the flow of drugs. Even if that were their mission, it is perhaps the least cost effective method ever devised by any human being to stop illicit drugs. (We all know that the only effective way to stop the flow of drugs is to stop the demand for them. To stop the demand, we need to improve the social safety net and our health services, especially mental health. Instead they plan to cut them.)

So why are they doing this? One, because they can. Trump gets off on being able to show his power. Two, I think something larger and far more dangerous is afoot. My thinking on this is not clear, but I am trying to connect the dots as are other Americans that spend time thinking about this.

First, remember the implementation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua, the alleged gang allegedly connected to the president of Venezuela. They, the Venezuelan president, and the alleged drug boat personnel have all been declared terrorists. The president will use this fig leaf to attack Venezuela (and perhaps Colombia as he has been whining about their president too) and assert that he is wiping out narco-terrorists. Think about the fact as well that Trump has already put American troops onto the streets of American cities in places he does not like. He wants to put more there and elsewhere including actual, regular combat troops. Remember that he talks about “the enemy within” and how they are as dangerous as any foreign terrorists. He calls those that he considers his enemies (anyone that doesn’t agree with him) “domestic terrorists” and that the Democrats are an “extremist organization” among other demeaning and demonizing terms. I have already written about the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) that outlines the steps that Trump wants to take against “Antifa” and “domestic terrorist organizations” by using broad and vague language that prohibits dissent and severely impacts our First Amendment right to protest. It asserts that anyone that espouses “extremism on migration, race and gender,” in other words anyone that disagrees with him, or does not match his view of “traditional American views on family, religion, and morality” is to be investigated and perhaps prosecuted.

As I look at those dots, I become increasingly concerned. I hope not paranoid, but to me the warning lights are blinking bright red and sirens are blaring. He is setting a precedent in Latin America that he can and will use the military to eliminate anyone he deems a terrorist. Why not in the U.S. as well?

Remember that the powers behind Trump’s throne are Stephen Miller and Russel Vought, the same two men that are the primary architects of Project 2025. They are well on their way to attaining their goals. Miller and Vought continue to assert that Trump has plenary authority to do whatever he wants. Absolute power. If you oppose their plans, as did Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) recently, he will accuse you of “seditious conspiracy.”

Put over all of it that MAGA legislators all over the country are trying to gerrymander their House of Representatives districts to eliminate districts that voted for Democrats and thus keep control of the House. Texas succeeded in doing so and there are many more working on doing the same. That is the first sign that the 2026 elections, if held, are going to be anything but free and fair. Indeed, Speaker “Little Mikey” Johnson has declared that no Republican Representatives should return to Washington for the fourth straight week. They are getting paid during the shutdown to sit home and do nothing. Talk about freeloaders living off the public dole. Perhaps they will never return. As it is, Trump was quoted as saying “I’m the president and the Speaker,” according to two anonymous sources from within the White House.

We find ourselves in this predicament for a variety of reasons. Let us not let it happen because it is impossible to imagine that it can happen here. It is happening here. The entire picture to me looks like Trump wants to sit in his new bunker, direct the military to kill anyone he deems disloyal and ensconce himself and his cronies in power for as long as they can illegally keep it.

The MAGA Authoritarian Regime Is Growing

Posted: August 11, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess, but He’s pretty sure you’re f***ed.”

— “Stephen” the Irishman to William Wallace in the movie “Braveheart”

Sometimes it is the little things that tell you that events are unfolding in a negative way. Sometimes it is the big things. Sometimes it is both. However I look at, it seems that all of the evidence points in the direction of Trump and his MAGA acolytes converting our government into an authoritarian regime. I fear that we are further down that road than most of us realize.

Have you seen pictures of the Oval Office or the rest of the White House recently? It is as though Trump has some form of kenophobia. Every imaginable space is filled with gold gilt. Cherubs, medallions, swirls, and countless other embellishments fill the walls, ceiling, doors, and every other imaginable flat space. Meanwhile he has cornered the market on gold tchotchkes and proudly displays them everywhere. I think he was going for the Saudi prince model of decorating. He bulldozed the Rose Garden and paved it over with a patio that rivals any patio at a La Quinta Inn anywhere. He plans to build a 90,000 square foot ballroom by demolishing the East Wing of the White House and replacing it with his idea of glamour. Or most likely, as a monument to himself. For comparison, the ballroom will be almost twice as big as the existing main structure of the White House. It will totally distort the grace of the current White House and grounds with a tasteless monument to one man’s ego. So much for calling it the “Peoples House.” Besides being heartbroken by the destruction he is spreading — institutionalizing his disregard for the law, tradition and morals — I worry that he is remodeling the White House to suit his tastes because he does not plan to move out. Add to that the nearly one billion dollars that the Department of Defense (DOD) must redirect from modernizing our nuclear arsenal to rebuilding the “new” Air Force One with which the Qataris bribed him — talk about “pimp my ride”– and we have some serious indicators that the man does not think that the laws pertain to him. He is a guy planning to remain in power one way or another for the rest of his natural life.

Ahh, but what about elections you ask? You mean the ones that Trump and his MAGA henchmen are trying to rig? Here is all you need to know about where this is all heading. Look at Texas, already a state that has gerrymandered (drawn voting district lines to favor one party over another) its map for the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republican majority there is attempting to draw the districts yet again to give more seats (five) to the MAGA party at the expense of Democrats in the House. Last week this is what Trump had to say about the ongoing effort.

“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”

“Entitled.”

That is Trump’s approach to everything and the approach that his administration takes — laws, tradition and morality be damned. If Trump wants it, he will get it. Oh, but there is more. Not content to get five seats from Texas, he is pushing Florida, Ohio, Indiana and other states to do the same thing. If that does not get the job done, he wants to hold a census, this year, and dictate who can and cannot be counted, specifically excluding people living in the country without legal status. The goal is to gain forty more seats for the MAGA party and make it a permanent majority. In other words, keep one party in power while denying power to half the country. But wait! There’s more! The 14th Amendment requires that the census include “the whole number of persons in each state.” It does not distinguish who those “persons” are. Just that they live there. The census determines how the representation in the House is distributed among the states as well as the number of presidential electors to the Electoral College. Additionally, Trump has tasked the Commerce Department which oversees the census, to “immediately” begin work on a new census applying modern technology to “the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.” I am not sure anyone knows exactly what that means, but I am betting that since he won that election the analysis will show that he is “entitled” to more representatives than he currently has.

One more little wrinkle. Not only the 14th Amendment addresses the census, but Article I of the Constitution gives the Congress control of the census. Currently Title 13 of the U.S. Code dictates a once a decade count. The last census was in 2020.

But why let a silly little thing like the Constitution stop the great man from rigging the election?

By the way, keep an eye on developments in Texas. Lots of threats have gone back and forth between the Republican majority and the Democrat minority. Currently most of the Democrat state representatives are out of state to prevent a quorum in the legislature (the minimum number of elected representatives needed under state law to conduct business) and thus to prevent a vote on the new districts. State officials are trying to get the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) involved to arrest the Democrats and haul them back to Texas. There is no law, state or federal, that would allow that. The missing Democrats have broken no laws. They are not criminals. If the president or any other administration official orders the FBI to get involved, then we know we are all in great danger. It will mean that the FBI has become another branch of the private army of the MAGA politicians. (Some may argue that the disguised undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] officials taking people off the street in unmarked vehicles are the other branch.)

The abuses are becoming bigger and they do not try to hide them or justify them anymore. Today in what I see as a test run for the rest of the country, Trump and his cronies took over the Washington D.C. police department, put FBI officers on the streets and began deploying National Guard troops in the city. Ostensibly, their actions are to fight crime, which comes as a surprise since the D.C. crime rate is at a thirty year low. In reality, I believe this is the first of many such moves to gradually take over the country’s “blue” cities with federal forces. They declared an “emergency” which allows such action. (Just like everything else that they are doing, be it the economy, immigration, deportations, tariffs, etc. etc. All of their actions utilize loopholes in the law that allow actions in “emergencies” that are not normally legal.)

Trump and his MAGA buddies always tout that “blue” cities are the most dangerous, crime ridden, awful places to live. By many accounts, that award should go to a “red” city — Memphis Tennessee. Which isn’t to say that crime is not a problem. One murder or rape is too many. But other cities in the top 15 according to the news outlet U.S. News and World Report, include St. Louis Missouri, Alexandria Louisiana, New Orleans Louisiana, Anniston Alabama, Little Rock Arkansas and Birmingham Alabama. New York City, Washington D.C. and other supposedly crime ridden cities are not on that list. According to data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 2022 (the latest year available) the five states with the highest murder rates per capita were Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, New Mexico and Missouri. Interesting. Why isn’t the National Guard being called out to patrol their streets?

It’s all about power and suppressing political opposition. Crime is just an excuse.

Well, at least it isn’t all bad. At least Trump is bringing a war criminal who is a pariah who would be arrested in most countries in the world to Alaska so that he can give Russia Ukraine without the good people in Ukraine giving their consent. Well maybe it will fulfill his fantasy of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

I hope that the Almighty can get us all out of this mess.

The Epstein Files

Posted: July 30, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

As Donald J. Trump continues to reign over his kakistocracy — have you noticed that he has the least competent members of his Cabinet in the most important roles — and to pursue affirmative action for white Christian males, you may have noticed that over the last couple of weeks he has been distracted by what are now commonly called the Epstein Files. Unfortunately, this is not the name of a new television program or a new Netflix series. It is short hand for the investigation into the people that may have been involved with an infamous sex trafficker who exploited girls and young women and who died in jail by committing suicide. The news cycles have been full of developments surrounding the evolution of the entire caper and in particular, Trump’s level of involvement with Epstein. The subject repeatedly comes up in Trump’s constant interaction with the press reporters that cover the White House, including during his taxpayer funded — at a cost of at least 10 million dollars — trip to Scotland to promote his businesses and to play golf.

I will attempt to explain the current situation and why it continues to dominate the headlines, but first, I must lament that all of the coverage surrounding the Epstein Files crowds out important developments that impact all of our lives. Trump and his administration continue to implement the tenets of Project 2025 and to attack the First Amendment ability to express one’s beliefs and opinions without fear of retribution. He is systematically going after the media, the education system (especially colleges), law firms, the judiciary and any other person or institution that dares to criticize him. More than that, he is working hard to establish that anything that upsets him, in any form, or that does not reflect his own view of the world is to be attacked, eliminated or otherwise punished unless they bend the knee to his highness. It is pure Mafia tactics. “Nice little university you have there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.” 220 million dollars and the installation of a government overseer seems to be the current price for getting out from under his attacks. Just ask Columbia University. Or soon, Harvard at a cost of 500 million dollars. Oh, and let’s not forget that Trump demanded that Texas redraw it’s map for districts for the House of Representatives to give the Republicans (MAGA) five new seats — meaning the Democrats lose five — and the state legislature did just that.

I could go on and on. Please keep an eye on the ball as to the destruction of the norms and values of our country as we dive into the abyss of the Epstein Files. I would not go into this territory were it not for the fact that it exposes the dark corners of MAGA land, and for once, it is Trump’s own supporters that will not let it go. It may be the first time that I know about that Trump might not be able to con his way out of trouble. May be.

Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier that ran in the fancy circles of power, money and prestige in the U.S. and elsewhere. He was also perhaps the world’s biggest child sex trafficker. His convicted accomplice is Ghislaine Maxwell, currently serving twenty years in jail for child sex abuse as the recruiter and procurer of under age girls for Epstein. Epstein was first arrested in Florida in 2008 and pleaded guilty to procuring for prostitution a girl under the age of 18. He got what was considered a sweetheart deal of 18 months in the county jail on a work-release program. The prosecutor in that case who agreed to the plea bargain was Alex Acosta who later became Trump’s Secretary of Labor during his first term. Epstein was arrested a second time in New York in 2019 for sex trafficking of minors. He committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial. Please note the dates. Despite Republican politicians attempts to blame Presidents Obama and Biden for the whole mess, note that President George W. Bush was president when Epstein was first arrested and sentenced and Trump was president the second time he was arrested and committed suicide.

Nice people. The evidence suggests that Epstein and Maxwell abused hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand, young women and girls from around the world. Pure evil. Of Epstein’s many friends, one was Trump as can be seen in many videos and photographs of the two together. To date, no one other than Epstein and Maxwell have been indicted or convicted of partaking in their crimes. However, to many MAGA believers, that is a problem. In their eyes, there must be a massive cover-up. More on that in a moment. Many MAGA podcasters and others spent years focusing on the Epstein case as a major source of criticism of Democrats and the “elite.” Of those people, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino were front and center stoking the conspiracies behind the Epstein case. They are now, respectively, the Attorney General of the United States, the Director of the FBI and the Deputy Director of the FBI. They all promised to release any and all documents and information relevant to Epstein and to expose the cover-up for what it was. Ooops. Not so fast. According to the Wall Street Journal there are numerous mentions of Trump in the files. So, the DOJ and FBI announced that there was really nothing of value in the files and therefore they would not be releasing them.

Cue the fire storm. MAGA land went ballistic. Trump had betrayed them. So far, everything that Trump the con man has tried to do to change the subject has either made it worse or did not work as a distraction. Right now the world’s greatest con man is running scared that he cannot change the narrative. Here’s why.

Remember that I do not make this stuff up. I am not sure that my imagination is good enough to come up with the following. From my perspective, there are two levels of MAGA folks that are riled up about the lack of transparency about Epstein. There are the hard core MAGA believers that think the world is run by a cabal of pedophiles that are rich, powerful and secretive. Sometimes referred to as the “elite” sometimes as the “deep state” sometimes both. The deep state is not just the civil servants in the government that always foiled Trump in his first term. They are, but in the sense that they do the bidding of the real deep state that controls all of our lives and are never held accountable. Think Pizzagate in 2016 where code words, satanic symbols and other clues indicated that Democrats (sometimes Hillary Clinton) had a secret underground lair in a neighborhood pizza shop in the Washington D.C. area where pedophiles feasted (in some tellings, literally) on young children. A man from North Carolina shot up the place in an attempt to break up the pedophile ring. (No such ring existed. Only pizza.) These folks think that Epstein was part of that world. (Part of the Trump administration policies and actions is to wrest control of our institutions, government and civilian, in every walk of life, from the elites. He is doing it for his own power, but it satisfies his base to claim he is doing it for them.)

The second level of Epstein conspiracists do not quite match the level of depravity that the hard core believers do. However, they do think that there is a class of people that get away with things that ordinary citizens cannot. The elites control outcomes in many of our lives and the ordinary person cannot catch a break because all of the best outcomes are hoarded and controlled by the elites. Think of it as Pizzagate light. They are not necessarily into the pedophilia and really dark aspects of the really deep conspiracies but they do believe that they never get a fair shot.

Trump promised to expose all of those people controlling the world, expose their networks, their plots and bring them all to justice so that the MAGA faithful will have their retribution (his campaign promise) and finally get a fair chance at “the good stuff.”

He was to be their savior. Thus the Christian overtones and appeals to the Evangelicals. He survived the assassination attempt because God chose him to be the one to bring light to all of the darkest secrets. It gets complicated, but you get the idea.

For him to now say that “there’s nothing to see here, move along” means either that he betrayed the MAGA faithful or that he, in fact, is one of the elites and is trying to protect himself or them or both. He either lied when he said that he would release all of the files or he lied when he said that there is nothing in them. Which then begs the question that his followers now ask, if he lies about this what else is he willing to lie about?

It has taken me quite a while to comprehend all of this. I am not sure that I do now. The attempt to over throw the government? No big deal. Adjudicated sex offender? Rigged. Prices continue to go up? We will survive. The war in Ukraine did not end in 24 hours? Not our problem. I could go on and on but his true blue followers allow or explain away all kinds of things that impact them daily that Trump promised and never delivered. But the Epstein Files? Traitor!! Their existence is at the center of everything they believe and at the center of the way they view the world. If they do not exist then what are they to think?

The con-man-in-chief is now trying to figure a way out. So far, it is not working. It is his supporters that are after him the most. Democrats and other never-Trump folks are happy to keep bringing up the subject but he still cannot assuage his supporters. (The Democrats have to be careful not to pin it all on Trump. They should push to have the files released and then let the chips fall where they may, even if some prominent Democrats or their supporters are revealed in the files.) The Democrats are working to have the files released and have proposed legislation to have it happen. Republicans are caught in a bind. The solution? Shut down the House of Representatives and send every one home until September — even though there was still important work to do — as the Speaker of the House did last week. I guess he hopes that it all blows over by then.

Trump is getting ever more desperate. He is calling the whole thing a hoax — his go-to attack. But if it is a hoax then why did Epstein and Maxwell go to jail? Why have hundreds of victims asked for justice? Then, he tried the move to ask the courts to release the grand jury testimony. I am not an attorney, but my understanding is that only very rarely happens in specific cases and it takes a very long time to make it happen. And that testimony would be very narrow. Only enough to get an indictment on Epstein and Maxwell. It would not include all of those that might be involved. A stalling tactic? We are trying but those darn judges are standing in our way again. Then he sent the Deputy Attorney General of the United States to interview Maxwell over two days at her prison. Also unheard of in proper prosecutorial practice and procedure. By the way, the Deputy AG was Trump’s personal attorney prior to joining the administration and is good friends with Maxwell’s attorney. Coincidence? Oh, and did I mention that Maxwell is a known liar officially charged with perjury? And that Trump keeps hinting about a pardon or commutation for her? Could this be a diversion to make Maxwell’s testimony a substitute for releasing the files? And why has no one asked the victims about all of this? Trump has expressed no concern or empathy for the many victims. Indeed, he speaks about how Epstein “stole” one of “his” employees. According to his own telling, Trump broke up with Epstein for stealing his employees, talking about them as if he owned them. He doesn’t say anything about breaking up with him for what he was doing to the girls. Trump has made many other weird statements that indicate he doesn’t seem upset about what was going on. (One of the employees was a 16 year old girl at the time that worked in Trump’s spa at Mar-a-Lago. Hmmm.)

I have no idea how any of this is going to end. I tend to think that Trump will survive without serious consequences as he has his entire life. But then, he has never been attacked by his own supporters before. Meanwhile, we are all talking (well, a lot of people are talking) about the Epstein Files while Trump and his minions continue to turn our country into an autocracy.

This Is Not Normal

Posted: March 13, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Okay. Time to face up to the facts. We, the citizens of the United States of America are getting screwed. Erstwhile apologists for the 47th president contend that it is “normal” for a new president to bring in his own political appointees to carry out the policies of the new administration. This is true. But let’s not pretend that what is going on in the Trump administration is anywhere close to normal. Besides the fact that many of his cabinet and other Senate approved nominees are unqualified for their jobs, the person making the biggest impact on our government and, indeed, our cherished way of life, is an unelected, unconfirmed South African billionaire that has no idea of how the U.S. government works and has no intention of finding out. Elon Musk and his co-president Trump just do not care about any of it. Under the Trojan horse of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, they are destroying our federal government resulting in life changing decisions for tens of thousands of Americans and facilitating the possible deaths of tens of thousands more through their drastic cuts to research, science and health programs and the elimination of funding for the basic necessities of life. The secondary and tertiary effects of these decisions include the impact on farmers that had their contracts to supply food programs cut, to the truck drivers and stevedores responsible for getting the supplies to those in need and on and on. The key question is why are they doing this? I’ll get to that below.

With sincere compassion, yesterday Trump opined that he feels “very badly” about those that are losing their jobs, literally overnight, but “many of them don’t work at all. Many of them never showed up to work.” So I guess the lie that the roughly 32,000 federal employees fired (so far) are losers is supposed to make it all okay.

It is hard to define exactly how much alleged waste fraud and abuse has been rescued from government spending so far. Some lies are easy to unravel, others do not make sense but since the data is limited, it is hard to know exactly what is going on. Musk and his DOGE-bros say that they will cut one trillion dollars from the federal budget by the end of the year. The entire federal work force costs about 293 billion dollars or about 4% of the total budget. That includes salaries and benefits. So far DOGE claims to have cut 115 billion dollars. Most experts that are tracking the cuts conclude that is an overestimate by about 80%. For example, they are counting contracts that were already complete or terminated, sometimes as long ago as during the Bush administration, and in one case, they claimed 8 billion dollars in savings until the contractor pointed out that it was really for 8 million. (I’m reminded of Dr, Evil in the Austin Powers movies and the bit about one million vs one billion dollars in ransom. Only this isn’t funny.)

According to the New York Times tracker, so far at least 10,030 people have been fired in agencies scheduled for dismantling, 21,433 probationary employees were let go, along with 428 DEI workers, 33 January 6 coup investigators, 22 government watchdogs (mostly Inspectors General), and 434 other staffers from across the government that came into the crosshairs of Trumpian disdain. Reports claim that the administration wants to eliminate 100,000 employees in the near future. In other words, the chaos we have endured so far is just the beginning.

Maybe the 18 million dollars of taxpayer money Trump spent in his first seven weeks in office to play golf at his own course could have gone to keeping a few park rangers on the job. I do not begrudge presidents having some down time, but really? President Obama often played golf — at the course on Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington D.C.

All of this is illegal, of course. Not to mention unethical and a direct conflict of interest given Musk’s 38 billion dollars in government contracts (since 2003) and the fact that much of what they are doing is shrouded in secrecy. Under Article I of the Constitution Congress writes the laws that govern our country, including budget authorizations and appropriations. Under Article II, the president executes the duly enacted laws. Mandates from the electorate or not (and in this case not, Trump got less than 50% of the vote not-with-standing his claims), no president can ignore the law and act as his Project 2025 acolytes decree within a “unitary presidency.” To emphasize that point following the attempts by President Richard Nixon to with hold funds for policies with which he disagreed, Congress passed The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that reiterates Congressional control of government funds. The Act was reinforced in Train v City of New York (1975), a unanimous Supreme Court decision. Indeed, Trump’s first impeachment was based on his impoundment of funds appropriated and authorized to help in the defense of Ukraine.

Today’s Congress, controlled by MAGA Republicans, refuses to exert its authority and instead is letting an unelected billionaire run amok, cutting on a whim whatever he deems “unnecessary,” for fear of the wrath of Trump. They are derelict in their duties and apparently don’t care. In recent meetings between the MAGA Congress and Musk, he told them to call him if they have any questions about what he is doing. He was even so gracious as to give them his phone number. Which, of course, is totally backwards. They should not be asking him to spare their constituents as a favor, they should be delineating what is and what is not acceptable in accordance with already appropriated spending. Congress has conceded their power and responsibilities to one unelected man. The Speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency behind the Vice President wakes up every morning worried that he did not properly respond to something Musk wants. I exaggerate not. This week he is quoted as saying that Musk has the power to “blow the whole thing up” if he doesn’t like or understand a particular action by Congress. As Speaker Johnson explained, “So I spend a lot of time working with all these dials and all these folks, and I just run around all day and make sure everybody’s happy.”

Why are Musk and Trump doing this?

It is hard to know for sure as to what is going on in the scrambled minds of the co-presidents. Their Project 2025 acolytes believe in what they are doing, They are trying to remake the government in their own ideological image of a white Christian nation. I do not think that Trump and Musk care much about that. Their motivation? To me, money.

There are billions and billions of dollars to be had if one has the inside track on government contracts. If the cuts to the Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies and departments make already difficult situations worse, then so much the better. The more dissatisfied the public becomes with these agencies and the more that they are unable to provide the required services, the more the public will clamor for change. And what change would that be, you may ask? Not to make the departments more efficient or productive by upgrading computer systems or hiring more federal workers or even more, supposedly, efficient workers. The answer is to privatize them. Turn them over to the billionaires to run. Turn them into for profit companies that provide the services previously paid for by taxes and instead charge a fee for the service.

Another example is in the dissolution of the Department of Education. Trump and others in his administration continue to extoll the virtues of vouchers for schools. Vouchers mean private schools. Private schools can be for profit schools. There is also the added benefit of being able to decide who does or does not get to go to a particular private school — limited enrollment, you know, to enhance the student-teacher ratio. They can also set their own curriculum, ideological leaning and rules. Taxpayer dollars getting diverted from public schools to private ones, thus over time destroying the public school system? Maybe, But, let the free market reign!

The General Services Administration wants to sell over four hundred properties around the country owned by the federal government, including such buildings as the Justice Department Headquarters, the Social Security Administration Headquarters, and others. Does anyone really think that we do not need centralized offices for administering the government? Of course not. It is a potential scheme. Flood the market with too much real estate, prices drop, billionaires buy up those properties at reduced prices, and then turn around and rent them back to the government at a profit.

All the talk about taking over Greenland, Canada, Ukraine and other seemingly non-sensical ravings? Rare earth minerals and other resources abound. More money! Not for the ordinary Joes, but rather for those billionaires that deserve to reap the benefits because, after all, they are the “Master’s of the Universe” (see the film Bonfires of the Vanities, although in the end it did not work out so well).

Their blueprint may well be the way that the oligarchs took over Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. When the centralized economy crashed, there were willing businessmen that saw an opportunity and took it. Buying up formerly state-controlled industries at dirt cheap prices, they parlayed their gains in an “anything goes” atmosphere during the turmoil following the collapse of the Soviet state. During Boris Yeltsin’s time as the country’s president, in order to keep the government afloat, he turned to the now billionaires profiting from their monopolies. In the course of events, they accumulated massive political power along with their wealth. When Vladimir Putin came to office as Yeltsin’s hand picked successor, he made examples of three of these budding oligarchs, either throwing them in jail or forcing them to leave the country. As a result, the remaining oligarchs got the message. In exchange for their continued wealth, they agreed to support Putin, stay out of politics, and share their wealth with him. If you helped Putin, you became rich. If you opposed him, you were exiled, killed or both.

While the United States is not Russia, this same outline could be the game plan for Trump and his billionaire friends. He helps them get rich as long as they keep him in power and make sure that he gets rich alongside of them. We already see that the Department of Justice is dropping cases against criminals that support Trump while going after businesses and high profile individuals that oppose him. Two months into his term, Trump has already made it quite clear that those that support him will benefit and those that oppose him will suffer. With billions, maybe trillions of dollars afloat throughout the government, privatizing agencies that control that money is a huge opportunity for those that play along.

Am I predicting this? No. Can I see that it is possible? Yes. I take solace in the fact that we are not Russia. The United States has a long tradition that no other country in the world has. I have faith that eventually people will catch on to what is happening and work to stop it. Already there are a multitude of challenges to the Trump/Musk administration in the courts. So far, the challengers are winning and Trump is losing. Unfortunately, the wheels of justice turn slowly. While I think that they have a righteous cause that will eventually prevail, in the meantime countless numbers of our citizens will suffer and some will die because they are unable to access the help that they deserve and that our government promised to give them.

Continue to let your elected officials know that you did not sign up for this. We need to keep shouting our dissatisfaction. The self-anointed Masters of the Universe will not prevail.

Dysfunction or Destruction (Continued)

Posted: January 31, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Since the Republican majority in the House of Representatives took office last January, I have pondered in this space as to whether the new majority was totally dysfunctional or totally determined to destroy our country and our democracy. Without painting everyone in the Republican party with the same broad brush, it is increasingly apparent that while the House is dysfunctional under MAGA Republican leadership, it is also bent on destroying the institutions and norms our government established and refined over the last 235 years. Taking one seemingly singular policy — immigration — it is possible to see how the MAGA crowd combines multiple issues into one large untidy package and brings the wheels of government to a grinding halt.

I will explain further in the following paragraphs, but through a supposed concern over our southern border, the MAGA Republicans controlling the House of Representatives have impacted our relations with NATO and other friends and allies; disrupted desperately needed aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Taiwan and our own border; initiated impeachment proceedings against a cabinet official; threatened the ability of the Supreme Court to interpret our laws; created the conditions for a state to physically impede federal officials from following the law; and elevated an out of government civilian to become the controlling entity on national policy. The implications for our country are too deep and disturbing to be merely the result of incompetence or dysfunction, although that certainly exists. It can only be attributed to a deliberate attempt to destroy our institutions in order to bring an autocrat to power.

Last October President Joe Biden asked Congress for 105 billion dollars for aid to Ukraine ($61.4 billion), Israel ($14,3 billion), and the southern border ($14 billion) and smaller amounts for Taiwan and humanitarian assistance in the Middle East. Republicans in the House and Senate immediately voiced their concerns over the request and it went nowhere. By the end of the year, Republicans were tying the money to policy reforms impacting our southern border. The president agreed to negotiate changes and invited the leadership of both parties in Congress to the White House to get the process started before the end of the year. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (MAGA – LA) refused to participate in any solutions that did not meet all of the (mostly impractical) demands of his caucus. In the Senate, both parties, along with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and key White House aids entered into intense negotiations. All parties involved agree that there is a crisis on the southern border and that significant steps must be taken to alleviate the situation. Compromises came from both sides, and although the final product is not yet public, many Republican Senators publicly applauded the deal, as did most Democrat Senators and the president. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham declared that it was the best immigration deal in decades. The legislation seems to be moving to a vote in the Senate in the coming weeks. Money for Israel — great! Money for Ukraine — great! More money to hire significantly more Customs Border Protection (CBP) agents, asylum judges, and facilities to house migrants on the southern border — great! Unicorns and rainbows and meaningful accomplishments! Except for one thing.

Speaker Johnson (also known as “MAGA Mike”) refuses to entertain any of it. Why? Because his boss, an out of office civilian pending criminal prosecution, told him to kill it. Trump has very few, if any, issues in his retribution campaign for the presidency. The only policy issue he touts to date is immigration. He deplores the current policies and claims that we have an “open border.” He uses dystopian rhetoric and xenophobia to paint the crisis on the border as an existential threat to our security and yet, no deal. He wants to run on the issue and cannot do so if it is resolved. He does not want to give a “win” to the Democrats (even though the Republicans publicly declare that they got almost everything they want) and so the country must endure another year of crisis until he is in office. A great patriot. 

Meanwhile, no money for Ukraine. No money for Israel. No money for additional resources on the border. The MAGA Republicans’ total support of Trump includes his desire to withhold money for Ukraine. The pro-Putin wing of the party would like to see Ukraine fail. This is not a domestic issue. By preventing the United States from fulfilling its commitments to NATO, Ukraine and our friends and other allies around the world, we are sending a very clear message to the world that no country should depend on the United States for anything. This plays perfectly into the hands of Putin, Xi, Kim and the mullahs in Iran. If the United States does not stand fully with Ukraine, it is a safe bet that Xi will not expect us to stay the course with Taiwan. We will be finished as a reliable partner and supporter of democracy. The lesson for the world is that democracy does not work. Too chaotic. Too unreliable. Too dysfunctional to accomplish anything meaningful. 

Meanwhile, at the same time that Secretary Majorkas is working with the Senate to find a solution to the border crisis, he is about to be impeached by the House. No “high crimes or misdemeanors,” just that they do not like the administration’s policies. Constitutional scholars of all stripes agree that there is no basis under the Constitution or the law for such an impeachment. Only one cabinet officer in our history has been impeached and that was nearly 150 years ago. (For those curious, it was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 for blatant corruption. Although a majority voted to convict him in the Senate, it did not reach the required two-thirds threshold. He had already resigned.) This is just another blatant political MAGA stunt taken at Trump’s direction in order to make his two impeachments look less terrible and to further hurt our country. The Secretary is likely to be acquitted in the Senate — if they even hold a trial which is not required – but if he is removed from office, the president will appoint another person to carry out the same policies. The entire thing is blatantly ridiculous and is underway only to appease one man.

As if this were not enough, the MAGA governor of Texas, Greg Abbott is defying a Supreme Court order concerning the placement of razor wire along the border that restricts and in some cases prevents the federal CBP from doing their job. Under the Constitution, the United States has jurisdiction over immigration and the borders, not Texas. The MAGA rhetoric surrounding the issue is reminiscent of that from southern states in the 1850s. ”States’ rights” is again the issue. Governor Abbot is using the Texas National Guard to “defend” the border and to prevent the federal agents from doing their jobs. Other MAGA governors are promising to send Guard units to Texas to help them defend their “sovereignty” and Governor Abbott’s claims that “the fight is not over” and that Texas has a right to “self defense.” By that he means that state laws and policies have priority over federal law, in direct conflict with the supremacy clause of the Constitution. Great MAGA minds such as Representative Thomas Massie (KY) promote over riding the Supreme Court decision by eliminating President Biden’s border funds. In other words, he advocates solving the border crisis by defunding the DHS. Brilliant! The next steps by the governor or the president are unclear as I write, but it could easily escalate into another self-generated crisis. What is clear is that MAGA politicians are willing to go against the Constitution in order to support Trump and his ambitions. A bad sign for our future.

Taken as a whole, the House of Representatives and certain state houses around the country see that their goal is to create chaos and disruption in order to bring down our established norms and institutions in the name of one man. There are multiple severe domestic and international threats to our national security as a result. Dysfunction may be MAGA’s middle name, but such a wide spread and concerted effort can only be explained when we realize that the real point is the destruction of our norms in order to elevate an autocrat to power. 

Meet The Speaker Of The House

Posted: October 30, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

“The swamp is on the run, MAGA is ascendant, and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.” — Congressman Matt Gaetz (MAGA-FL) talking about the new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (MAGA-LA).

Last week House Republicans ended three weeks of bitter infighting, recriminations, and ignoring the people’s work by electing a new Speaker of the House. The unanimous Republican vote for Congressman Mike Johnson of Louisiana proved that the rabble rouser Gaetz was accurate in his assessment. The House Republican Party can only be considered a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump, Inc. and a solid MAGA institution. There are no moderates left on the Republican side of the House given that the support for “MAGA Mike” was without exception.

Note that Trump thoroughly controls the House through his MAGA acolytes. His autocratic control can be discerned from one telling event. Speaker Johnson was the Republicans’ fourth choice after they deposed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — thrown out because he dared to pass bi-partisan legislation to keep the government functioning under a Continuing Resolution (CR). Their third choice was Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota. He had the votes of most of the caucus, but one social media post by an ex-president doomed his chances and his support evaporated before a formal vote on his Speakership. In other words, Trump vetoed Mr. Emmer from becoming Speaker. Trump supported Mr. Johnson and he became Speaker. Pretty simple. One person out of the government controls what happens with the party holding the majority in the House. It took them three weeks to figure out who would be the biggest MAGA champion, but they found their guy.

It appears that Speaker Johnson is a nice, polite, well-dressed individual with a pleasant smile. Do not let the packaging influence your opinion of what is inside. Here are a few examples.

He is labeled an “election denier” but it goes far deeper than that. Former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) called him “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.” He organized over 100 House Republicans to sign an amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting an effort by the Texas Attorney General to throw out the results of the presidential vote in four swing states. The Supreme Court turned it down. In gathering support for that effort, Mr. Johnson sent an email to all Republicans in Congress explicitly saying that Trump asked him to recruit all of the Republicans to join the brief to the Supreme Court and that he would report those that sign on as Trump “will be anxiously awaiting the final list to review.” A not so subtle threat. When that didn’t work, he helped to organize the sedition caucus of Republicans that voted on 6 January 2021 to decertify the results of the election — after the capitol was attacked. He was an ardent advocate of the Dominion voting machine scam claiming that the machines came from “Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.” The very allegations that cost Fox News three-quarters of a billion dollars and for which increasing numbers of scammers are pleading guilty in court agreeing that they are all lied when they claimed that there was massive voting fraud.

This does not bode well for certifying the 2024 election results in the House.

One would think that this alone would disqualify anyone from becoming the second in line to the presidency — behind a president he apparently does not think is legitimate. When asked about this in recent interviews, he refused to answer.

But wait! There’s more!

For example, he is widely recognized as a right wing, white Christian nationalist, although he demurs when asked if that his world view. As he stated in a recent interview on Fox News, “I am a Bible believing Christian, …go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my world view.” Such a devotion to his religion is in itself not a problem. The problem is that he has worked most of his adult life to push his religious principles ahead of, and over-riding those of other religions or those that have no religious belief at all. His states is that the U.S. was founded on Christian principles and that the Constitution is really a Christian document, but a Christianity that he defines. To him, our constitutional republic was established by the Founding Fathers because “they followed the Biblical definition of what a civil society is supposed to look like.” He is vigorously opposed to same-sex marriage, LGBTQ rights and the influx of immigrants (not just border control but who is allowed to enter the U.S.).

After the mass shooting in Lewiston Maine he said in response to a question about stricter gun laws that “The end of the day, it’s, the problem is the human heart. Its not guns. Its not weapons. At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and that’s the Second Amendment.” A few years ago, in his speeches (some call them sermons) he blamed school gun violence on various social issues including abortion, divorce and the teaching of evolution.

There is more, but it is clear that he is far to the right and in perfect alignment with MAGA principles. As to governing, we will see. He has little experience in any government leadership position having never even chaired a full committee within the House of Representatives. The coming months are going to be difficult for our country as we still need to fund the government, decide on aid to Israel and Ukraine and deal with the many issues that continue to languish in the House for lack of action because the MAGA agenda is Hunter Biden’s laptop and not much else.

Some might argue that having anyone as Speaker is better than having no Speaker at all. Well, with “MAGA Mike” we may have just gotten exactly what we asked for.

We Are Not Alone In The Universe

Posted: July 28, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

This week the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Border, and Foreign Affairs held hearings to investigate Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), formerly known as UFOs. This is not the first Congressional hearing concerning UAP, however this may be the most unserious one ever. In the past year or so, there have been hearings attempting to understand possible national security threats posed by UAP. Additionally, there are military and civilian safety of flight issues surrounding their possible existence. More to the point, there are UAP, the real questions are what are they, and where do they come from?

In his testimony, the star witness, a former Department of Defense (DOD) intelligence officer named David Grusch, claimed that they do exist and that they are extra-terrestrial. Not only that, as Dana Milbank reports in the Washington Post, he claimed the U.S. government has intact aircraft, dead pilots, and “non-human” evidence of their other-worldly existence. For over a century, according to Mr. Grusch, the U.S. government has covered up its knowledge of such activity and hidden evidence in an effort to “gaslight” the public and to allow the federal government to lie to our citizens. Hold that last thought, I’ll come back to it.

He offered no proof, evidence, or even a single fact that could be corroborated.

Earlier this year, Sean Kirkpatrick who is in charge of the DOD office investigating UAP testified that they have “no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics.” Other federal agencies, such as NASA, concur in that conclusion.

My own view matches that of Mr. Kirkpatrick. We on Earth have no knowledge of any other-worldly beings or spacecraft. However, I do think it likely that there are other beings in our universe. We just have not met them yet. I have no inside information or conspiracy theories to back that up. It just seems that with a universe so large that we do not totally understand its full size, the odds are that there must be other beings out there somewhere.

That said, they have not visited Earth. My primary reason for thinking so is exactly as Mr. Kirkpatrick stated. There is no evidence and in my mind, given the “known laws of physics,” there cannot be any to find. I am not a scientist of any sort, much less a physicist, but I am a reasonably educated person with common sense. When talking thousands of light years of travel to get here, how could any biological being make it? Not to mention that the size of the UAP spotted to date are far too small to carry beings and all of the logistical support needed for a trip of impossibly indeterminate time and distance. Even if manned by robots or other mechanical replacements for living beings, the practical aspects of the undertaking create obstacles too large to overcome.

There is, of course, one major flaw in my thinking. It could be that I, and others, have a failed sense of imagination. The terrorist attacks on 11 September and the insurrection on 6 January were unimaginable before they happened, demonstrating one human failing is an inability to imagine the unimaginable. Perhaps there are physical laws of the universe that we have yet to discover that undermine all that we think we know. Such a development is theoretically possible and cannot be discounted. Yet, where is the proof that those obstacles were overcome? In this age where overwhelming numbers of people literally carry a camera everywhere they go, how come no one has video or even a photo clear enough to discern the true nature of the object?

This conclusion is not meant to disparage anyone that has ever reported a UAP. They saw what they saw and I was not there. However, numerous studies have shown that reported UAP were weather balloons, birds, reflected sunlight, natural phenomena or man made objects. From personal experience I know that weather anomalies of pressure differentials, cold air over warm air and other naturally occurring events can cause technical equipment such as radar to produce false images. I experienced similar anomalies observing objects miles further away than I should reasonably be able to see them. Atmospheric conditions can cause light to bend over the horizon and travel further and in different directions than expected. It happens. Sometimes our brain deceives us. (Think mirage in the desert.) There is, of course, some small number of never explained sightings. These should be explored. From a national security and air safety perspective we need to know if there are things flying around space and in our skies that we do not know about. It is possible that those UAP are experimental air or space craft tested by a foreign power or even our own military. Remember that in the 1980s there were reports of mysterious objects spotted over the desert in Nevada and other areas of the far west that were reported as (then) UFOs. We later learned that there was a “secret” base in the desert where the U.S. Air Force F-117 Nighthawk was based and the UFOs were the first stealth fighter aircraft.

So, back to the thought I first raised above. Why would a Republican controlled House subcommittee hold public hearings where the star witness claims, among other things, that the U.S. worked a deal in the 1930s with Benito Mussolini with the assistance of Pope Pius XII to obtain an alien spacecraft, or that a defense contracting company has a warehouse containing an alien spaceship as big as a football field or any of the other unbelievable statements for which he has no proof? Primarily because Mr. Grusch also ardently testified that the U.S. government (aka: “The Deep State”) has been consistently lying to the American people, is engaged in a massive cover-up and is running secret operations to suppress the truth-tellers. Sound familiar? It is one more step in executing a MAGA Republican plan to discredit the federal government, undermine its authority, feed every coo-coo conspiracy they can find, and generally bring everything into question to create chaos. As usual.

We need serious and real efforts to identify UAP and their impact on national security. I think that, so far, they are all of this planet. However, it can be a fascinating enterprise to contemplate other beings in our universe. It has great moral, philosophical, religious and scientific implications. So many questions and almost no answers. Of one thing I am sure. We are not alone in the universe.

America Held Hostage

Posted: May 8, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

As traditionally happens in this century, a Republican controlled House of Representatives is holding the nation’s debt ceiling hostage to get concessions from a Democrat president. So far, despite the cliff hanging last minute resolutions of the past, the U.S. has never defaulted on its debts. This time it feels different. I’ll explain why below.

As I have written in this space before, it is important to remember that the debt limit is based on commitments already made by the U.S. government based on the budget and appropriations authorized by past Congresses. It is not about new spending. It is about paying for past commitments, much like using a credit card to pay for a new suit and then later having to pay the credit company for the clothes you are already wearing. The laws creating the debt ceiling can be traced to the U.S. entry into World War I and were designed to make it easier for the government to expend funds in time of war. Since 1960 the debt ceiling has been raised 78 separate times, 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents. Indeed, it may surprise you to know that the debt ceiling was raised three times under the last administration with no muss, no fuss and in a bipartisan vote.

Why the debt ceiling is important can be complicated. Likewise, so is the impact of failing to raise it this time. In part, no one knows exactly what will happen because the U.S. has never defaulted on its obligations to pay creditors. However, most economists and financial experts believe that a default, perhaps even the threat of a default as we inch closer to the deadline, could have catastrophic consequences for the U.S. economy and to the world economy. As Catherine Rampell succinctly outlines it in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, based on interviews with leading experts on the subject, the result would be a “financial Armageddon.” Briefly, much of our and the world’s investments and financial institutions are based on the ironclad belief in U.S. Treasury bonds. The U.S. has always made good on the interest and principal payments for those bonds. They are the bedrock of the financial system because they have always been considered risk free. If U.S. bonds are deemed unreliable and they are down graded, it has a cascading effect on other assets. As a result, interest rates would rise across the board, the stock market would plummet, companies holding bonds that count on bond interest payments for revenue and investments could collapse, investors accepting bonds as collateral could call in the money owed, which without the bonds and their interest, could cause borrowers to go bankrupt and if all of that happens at the same time, the system simply would collapse.

Kind of a big deal. That summary also does not mention that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military salaries, government workers salaries, etc. etc. would not be paid. Some believe that “selective” payments of certain bills over others could mitigate the impact of a full default but no one in government is sure how that would work, who decides and whether it is even legal under current laws.

That is why the MAGA Republicans are holding the debt ceiling hostage. The consequences are considered to be so dire, that surely the president must concede to their draconian demands in order to save the world. Bwaaaahahahaaa.

In theory, we have already broken through the ceiling. In practice, through the use of “special measures” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen has been able to keep paying the bills. She now says that come 1 June, the special measures will no longer be able to meet the payments required.

The Republican controlled House did pass a debt ceiling increase in a bill last week. Many of the Republicans that voted for it expressed their opinion that it would never make it into law but rather that it was just a starting point for negotiations with the president. In fact, President Biden is scheduled to meet with the leaders of both parties in the House and Senate to discuss the issue tomorrow. The problem is that President Biden says he will not negotiate with terrorists. Well, I said that. He said he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling but was happy to do so for the budget and appropriations. The Speaker of the House refuses to separate the issues. Probably, because the House bill passed last week is so extreme, he knows it will not pass on its own and thus he must hold the debt ceiling hostage in order to squeeze out concessions.

Please note that President Biden put forth his budget over a month ago and the Republicans have yet to present their version of the budget, only the vague provisions in their debt ceiling bill. (A quick primer on U.S. government. The budget is the desired spending requirements and where, the Appropriations process is where the actual allocation of funds occurs and the Authorization committee allows for funds to be spent. The bills usually go through a lengthy committee process that involves detailed negotiations. That is the “regular order” that the president would like to see happen rather than the high stakes game playing out now.)

Here are some of the highlights of the bill pushed through by the MAGA Republicans in the House. The actual bill is hundreds of pages long, but here are areas that have drawn the most attention. The debt ceiling will only be extended until March of 2024. Thus if the president accedes to all of their demands, we will be in the same situation in less than a year anyway and an election year at that. They demand a 22% cut in all “non-defense discretionary spending.” They also say Social Security and Medicare are off the table. As Dana Milbank explains, that means that the areas cut will, among others, include the FBI, border security, airport security, highway construction, veterans health benefits, food stamps, national parks and a whole lot more. If they decide not to cut 22% from some programs (remember that they have not said where the cuts will come from, only that they are required), then the cuts will be more than 22% in some areas. Should this become law, it will have a devastating impact on our economy. Economists warn that the provisions of the current bill would greatly increase unemployment, significantly slow economic growth and raise the probability of a recession in the coming months.

Why would the MAGA Republicans want to do that? Two things come to mind. One, is if the economy is significantly disrupted, it increases Republican chances to retake the White House and the Congress in 2024. That’s the most charitable scenario. The second reason for playing with the economy is much more nefarious in my mind.

By definition, MAGA Republicans are ardent supporters of Trump, Trumpism and the insurrectionists on 6 January. Trump tried to overthrow the government in order to keep himself in the presidency. There is no question about that. Fake electors. Attacks on voting machine companies. Pleas to find phantom voters — “I just want 11,780 votes.” Fomenting violence against the Congress to preclude a fair and peaceful transition of power. It is all there. They are domestic terrorists. Too strong a statement? I think not. What else would we call people that supported overthrowing the duly elected government of the United States? If they supported Osama Bin Laden they would be called terrorists. He didn’t fly the planes into New York and Washington DC. Yet, clearly he was a terrorist. How is it different in this case? I cannot believe that anyone in these united states would support Trump for anything other than a long prison term. I cannot think of one good policy or decision that he made. But even if you named twenty wonderful things that he did, sorry, game over. He tried to foment a coup to overthrow the government. End of discussion. It did not work but I think he and his supporters will try again. Yet increasingly, Trump’s actions are being normalized. He has an upcoming one hour “town hall” on CNN. That is normalizing his actions and legitimizing his candidacy. To date, no other candidates have a one hour town hall scheduled. Why give him his infomercial to spread lies?

What does all of this have to do with the debt ceiling? My point is that there are MAGA Republicans willing to do anything to get rid of President Biden and bring in Trump (or some other autocrat wannabe like him). If that means tanking the world economy and throwing everything into chaos, then so be it. Terrorists use every means available to gain their desired end state.

I have absolutely no doubt that there are members of the House that would be perfectly happy to see the U.S. default on its debt. Just the price of doing business to create the conditions for an autocrat to assume power.

There are ways to stop the madness. I am not sure that there are any Republican “moderates” left in the House that could be counted upon to do the right thing. They all voted for the current mess of a bill that we have now. Yet, the Speaker only has a four vote majority. There may be five or ten Republicans willing to break ranks and join the Democrats to pass a reasonable debt ceiling bill. There are at least 18 House districts where Republicans won, but President Biden won the presidential vote handily. The Democrats already have a bill in committee that could be used to create a “discharge petition” that under certain rules, could bring a bill to the floor despite the Speaker’s objections. It requires the signed support of the majority of the House, which while a long shot, has a chance. Unfortunately, the window between proceeding with collecting the signatures and the date of default is very narrow.

Another option may be the 14th Amendment which reads in part, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” The original intent of this portion of the amendment was a reaction to Civil War debts, and it has never been used in modern times. Some legal experts believe that it gives the president authority to exceed the debt limit on his own, but should it be invoked, it will surely end up before the courts and that process could lead to a long period of uncertainty which would be nearly as disastrous to the economy.

What is certain is that no one knows exactly how this will be resolved. Current proposals include a few months extension for more negotiations, but personally, I do not see how the situation will change by then. The simplest answer is to raise the debt ceiling with a “clean” bill (no amendments or poison pills attached) and then do as the government should do — negotiate separate budget and appropriations bills.

But then when was the last time that things unfolded as they should?