NEW LEVELS OF CORRUPTION

 

Another week, another set of new lows for President Donald Trump.  Much media attention has been given to the fact that, to construct an enormous golden ballroom, his administration has demolished much of the East Wing of the Oval Office.  This was after he promised not to alter the existing architecture, but then what do you expect from an inveterate liar like Trump?  And this is nothing new for him; way back in 1980, when he constructing Trump Tower in New York, he made a deal with the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art to donate some artistic statuary from the building that was being torn down to make way for his tower.  But then he went back on his word and had the statuary demolished, because of course he did.  Now, while I certainly don't care for the way that Trump is ripping apart a publicly funded building to turn into his own gaudy, gold edged playpen, and I'm also not fond of the way that he's raising funds for the work from wealthy companies trying to curry favor with him, I also think that in the grand scheme of things, this is hardly the worst thing he's done just this week. In other words, I agree with former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, who publicly said "He can demolish the entire White House, raze the whole thing to the ground, if he takes ICE off the streets."

Much worse than that construction is his recent contention that he deserves recompense for past investigations into his 2016's campaign ties to Russia and his refusal to return classified documents after his first exit from the White House.  The amount he's asking for is 230 million dollars, a staggering number even give how big his legal bills may have been, or how accurate he was about the illegitimacy of those investigations.  And unlike that ballroom, the money would come directly from the taxpayers.  Even Trump himself seemed a little awestruck by his own corruption here, pointing out that it would be he himself who finalizes this huge pay out to his own bank account.  Sadly, given how much he has already corrupted the Justice Department by filling it with his bootlicking lackeys, he very well may get that money.  

And he would get that money even after ProPublica reported that at least 170 American citizens have been held against their will by immigration agents since Trump took office in January, some of whom faced physical violence, and none of whom will be able to sue the government for false arrest.  Yes we now live in a country where our billionaire president can ask for almost a quarter of a billion dollars  to cover his legal expenses for past investigations of his wrongdoings, but American citizens wrongly arrested can't get any compensation for being held in brutal conditions.  What a time to be an American.

Another utterly corrupt moment came when Trump pardoned the world's wealthiest cryptocurrency owner, Changpeng Zhao.  In 2023, back when there was some sanity in this country, Zhao's cryptocurrency exchange known as  Binance, did not have decent compliance systems, which allowed terrorist groups like Hamas, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, to move money on his platform. Zhao pleaded guilty to laundering and served four months in prison.  After his release from prison, Zhao has praised Trump and Binance has made deals with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto start-up, deals that the New York Times estimates could make the Trump family tens of millions of dollars this year.   The pardon will make it easier for Zhao to run his company after he stepped down while admitting his guilt in 2023.  Once again, Trump has used the power of the presidential pardon to reward his friends and business associates while lining his own pockets while his Republicans allies in congress ignore it.  And to add to the whole terribleness of this, just imagine if a Democrat pardoned someone who made it easier for terrorist organizations to move money.  Again, what a time to be an American.  

All of this is happening as Trump continues to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies like Leticia James and James Comey and sends National Guard troops into states that don't want them and separates families and  tears communities apart with his ICE raids.  He can't even get inflation under control, with his tariffs driving prices up for American consumers, while his recently passed budget bill will raise healthcare premiums for millions of Americans. His second term  is proving to be a corrupt disaster for the country, and he hasn't even been in office a year yet.  And that's not even considering that former Trump advisor Steve Bannon says that there's a plan for him to run again in 2028, the 22nd. Amendment of the Constitution be damned.  At the recent No Kings rally, protestors chanted against the rise of fascism in this country, and with good reason.  Sadly, we do seem to be heading that way.    

WAR AND PEACE

 

During President Donald Trump's first term, I found almost all of his policies and actions morally and politically bankrupt.  But even I had to admit that Operation Warp Speed, the policy that lead to the quick development of a vaccine for Covid, was a good thing.  Even Trump could get some things right, even if he also once stated that injecting bleach was a good idea.  (He later tried to say that his comment about bleach was sarcastic, but it didn't sound that way at the time!)

My feelings about Operation Warp Speed are similar to  what's going on now in the Middle East, with a cease fire between the Israeli government and the terrorist group Hamas finally being negotiated. This is, of course, a good thing, with the brutal war that began over two years ago leaving the territory of Gaza decimated with tens of thousands of casualties.  If Trump played a role in getting that cease fire, then good for him.  If it holds, then perhaps he should get a Nobel Peace Prize next year (although he may find holding both sides to the agreement may be difficult).

So Trump is helping to bring peace to the Middle East.  Good.  Too bad he's spreading hatred in our country and other parts of the world.  About a month ago, the Trump administration bombed a boat from the country of Venezuela that, the administration claimed, was carrying drugs to the US.  Since then, three more boats from Venezuela have been blown up by our government, each allegedly carrying drugs.  No evidence has been given by the Trump administration for what are essentially acts of war against a foreign country.  

The idea that blowing up a few boats could make a serious dent in the flow of illegal drugs to the US is laughable.  So what is the administration up to?  Well, there has been an amassing of American warships near Venezuela recently, and it's possible that Trump wants to move against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro,  Now, according to the US State Department, Maduro is a brutal authoritarian who has repressed the country and decimated the economy.  But removing him from power would be difficult, and if that's Trump ultimate goal, he should state that openly to the American public instead of dragging us slowly into a war.  

But what Trump is doing in Venezuela is dwarfed by his corruption in our country itself.  Yes, the man who has repeatedly said that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize has pushed our country to the brink of out right military conflict.  First, he has sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into our cities on a huge scale, with blue cities like Chicago and New York being targeted.  As if that weren't enough, Trump has also also ordered National Guard troops into blue cities like Washington DC and Portland Oregon, despite those cities leaders saying they aren't needed,  under the absurd notion that violent crime or out of control protests against ICE agents are taking place there.  In actuality, violent crime, after surging during the pandemic, has dropped precipitously all around the country, including in our cities.  And Trump's characterization of the city of Portland as being “war-ravaged”  because of ICE protests is based on a Fox News report on September 5th that showed footage of violent protests in Portland from five years ago!   

Hopefully, this will not become a self fulfilling prophecy, with increased military presence leading to increased protests that may become violent, leading to even more military presence.  So far, Portland seems to resisting the bait, with recent protests being low level and featuring people in animal suits to show how silly the whole thing is.  (Go Portland!).  But we must not forget what is going on here: our president is using the deportation of undocumented immigrants and the specter of violent crime and protests to use ICE and the national guard as his own personal army.  Just how far he's willing to push this kind of. power grab is unknown, but frightening. (Will he try to repress voter turnout in blue cities in the 2026 midterms?)  As is so often the case with Trump, we are in uncharted territory here, and the future looks grim.

THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

 

Since the Democrats in congress refused to sign onto a bill fully funding the government last Tuesday, the federal government has shut down non essential programs.  This isn't surprising; the use of a government shutdown as a last chance attempt by a  minority party to gain something politically have been around since the 1980's, and it was really turbocharged in the 90's when Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for one that lasted 21 days (before that they usually lasted only a day or two).

Shut downs are a tricky thing with the public, who usually say that they want congress to accomplish things, but then are divided over just what they want done.  Gingrich's shutdown was seen as a failure for him, cementing his image as a bomb throwing extremist, especially because he called for it more out of pique than any actual political issue (during a flight on Air Force One, then President Bill Clinton did not allow him to sit in the front of the plane or exit from the front).

The last shutdown was made by the Democratic party in 2019, and it lasted a whopping 35 days, making it the longest ever.  The subject was immigration, with the Democrats refusing to pay for President Donald Trump's border wall with Mexico and Trump eventually giving in and removing funding for the wall from the budget.  

This time the Democrats are trying to prevent cuts in Obamacare spending that will result in the healthcare premiums for millions of Americans going up, with some even doubling.  The Republican party has countered by saying that the Democrats want to use federal funds to provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants.  Both sides are clearly playing up to what are seen as their strongest issues, with Democrats defending people's healthcare and Republicans bashing undocumented (or "illegal") immigrants.  For the record, the Republicans are straight up lying about the federal spending funding healthcare for the undocumented, but it's a powerful lie.

Personally, I think the Democrats are right to stand up to Trump and the Republicans over this issue, even though shut downs are always messy.  Democratic voters have felt powerless ever since Trump took office again and started moving the country towards an autocratic system.  (I never thought in my lifetime that we would have masked government agents racially profiling people and then  grabbing them off the street in this country,  but here we are!).  Standing up to Trump and shutting down the government is the least that the Democrats can do, and using healthcare costs, a simple, relatable issue, makes sense.  And the fact that Republicans have resorted to lying about healthcare for the undocumented instead of actually defending the spending cuts on their own supposed merit shows how little they have to stand on here.  Put simply, the Democrats want Americans to not have to spend more money on their healthcare, and Republicans don't, even if they won't admit it.  (Bernie Sanders and  Acacia Ocasio-Cortez explained it all well in this this 3 minute video

That said, Trump is using the shutdown as an excuse to fire more government workers and cut already appropriated spending going to blue cities and states, engaging in the same kind of revenge based policies that have always driven him.   But Trump was already doing these things, and many of those fired workers have already sued him in court, so he's not really getting that much out of it.

The irony here is that the Democrats are actually doing the Republicans a favor; if the Dems had just let the healthcare cost increases pass, angry voters would have blamed the Republicans for being in power and voted against them strongly in the upcoming midterms.  But the Dems, as weak and ineffectual as they may seem, actually care about voters who aren't rich and want to make their lives better, even the ones in red states.  Hopefully, they will win this shutdown with some kind of compromise from the Republicans, because this issue is really a moral one.