DCUM Weblog

So much happens with the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump that I can't keep up with everything. There are topics about which I plan to write, but from which I get distracted by other topics. In some cases, the missed topics are overtaken by events and, at other times, they just fall out of the news. I want to go back to one topic that is no longer in the headlines, but still deserves some discussion. That is the use of the Signal messaging application by Trump administration officials.

Signal is a messaging program developed by the non-profit Signal Foundation. The program is open source, which means that anyone can download and modify the source code. Signal is best known for its use of end-to-end encryption, which means that eavesdroppers should not be able to intercept conversations held using the application. Signal received significant publicity when former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Waltz used it to arrange a chat involving high-level members of the Trump administration, including Vice President J. D. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The chat group was arranged to discuss the pending U.S. bombing of the Houthis in Yemen, but Waltz inadvertently included the editor of "The Atlantic", Jeffrey Goldberg, in the chat. Subsequently, Goldberg revealed a transcript of the conversation, including detailed war plans posted by Hegseth.

Today I am going to return to a topic about which I wrote back in March. That is, cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's erratic and contradictory policies related to the Middle East. The Trump administration has a Jekyll and Hyde approach to Middle East issues, providing unconditional support for Israel in some cases and plotting a more independent course in other situations. The result is a bizarre mishmash of policies that make predicting the administration's next step nearly impossible. This results in our being at a very dangerous point with regard to a possible war with Iran. Trump could easily go one way or the other when it comes to an attack on Iran.

I think Trump's policies towards the Middle East can be best understood if you picture Trump sitting at his desk in the Oval Office. On one of his shoulders is perched a miniature Marco Rubio, and on his other sits a small J. D. Vance. The shrunken Rubio and Vance each make their arguments, Rubio generally arguing strongly in support of Israel, and Vance normally taking an approach more narrowly focused on America's interests. For the most part, Trump has no interest in either of the figures and would simply like to get back to selecting more gold fixtures for the office. But, forced to deal with the competing personalities on his shoulders, he occasionally agrees with one and at other times the other. Another key figure is anti-Arab bigot Laura Loomer, though it is not exactly clear where she is perched.

Yesterday I wrote about how cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has established a funnel for bribery utilizing cryptocurrency ventures, specifically the $TRUMP meme coin and the USD1 stablecoin. Trump's corruption has been so brazen that it has simply become impossible for Congress to ignore. Republicans, of course, are unwilling to do much more than utter a few meek words of concern — and most are not even willing to do that — but Democrats see an opportunity to push back on the President. The most important impact, however, has been to potentially delay Congressional legislation regarding stablecoins.

First, some background. As I said yesterday, cryptocurrencies, especially meme coins, are created out of nothing. They have no intrinsic value. Nevertheless, the popularity of cryptocurrencies has created several opportunities for profit. For instance, crypto exchanges benefit from transaction fees. Initial investors in new cryptocurrencies can benefit when the prices of their currencies increase. The result is that some companies and individuals have made immense amounts of money from crypto initiatives. In many cases, some of this money has been used to influence politics.

"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." — U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 4.

The U.S. Constitution only lists two impeachable crimes explicitly by name. One is treason, and the other is bribery. Yet, we now face a reality in which cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is openly soliciting bribes. He is not doing this furtively behind closed doors by bestowing favors in exchange for bags of cash, but rather in plain sight in view of everyone. Indeed, there is even a website dedicated to soliciting bribes where the dollar values of the top bribes are listed. Corruption is so endemic to Trump and his administration that we now appear to accept it as normal. But this open flouting of the law is not normal, and we should not treat it as such.

Over the weekend, I collected ideas for posts and had at least five different topics prepared for today. The administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is such that it will probably provide at least five more possible topics before today is over. This is an administration, and President specifically, that spews a firehose of nonsense and controversy with which it is almost impossible to keep up. So, for today, I am just going to go through the latest indications that we are being led by a mad king. This really is a case of the emperor having no clothes. Trump's addled brain is on clear display. But rather than doing something about it, his top advisors and most Republicans ignore what is plainly obvious and, instead, insist that Trump is brilliant. Someday, people will look back at this time and ask how it could have happened. It is happening because far too many people see personal advantage in arguing that a clearly naked emperor is dressed in beautiful clothing.

As I have documented repeatedly in earlier blog posts, the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has been operating with almost complete disregard for the law and Constitution. Instead of submitting proposed legislation to Congress and waiting for Congressional approval and then signing bills into law, Trump simply takes out his Sharpie and signs various executive actions. These actions do not have the force of law. They cannot create, modify, or eliminate laws. They are basically glorified interoffice memos for the executive branch. Yet, Trump acts like he is creating laws with these actions, a belief that is exacerbated by extremely poor media coverage. As a result, the idea that Trump is changing or creating laws has taken hold among the public to a very disappointing degree. I routinely see threads on DCUM saying something along the lines of "Trump just ruled that such and such is illegal." Trump may have signed a piece of paper saying such a thing, but regardless of what he may believe or want you to believe, he legally does not have such power.

One of the main reasons cited by those who voted for cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump was their belief that he cared about issues important to them. The Trump campaign explicitly encouraged this idea with anti-transgender campaign ads using the tag line, "Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you". Trump and his campaign relentlessly focused on the price of eggs, even when that required lying (J. D. Vance once claimed that eggs were selling for $4.00 while standing in front of an egg display with a sign showing the price was $2.99). Given that Trump is a notorious liar, it is remarkable that anyone believed anything that he had to say. But any voters who did have faith that he would address issues relevant to their lives must surely be disappointed by now. Since taking office, both Trump and his top officials have shown themselves to be out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. An administration that promised prosperity is not only leading the country directly into recession but acting as if Americans should enjoy it.

I've noticed a pattern being followed by the officials in the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. Let's call it "justification by label". The idea is that the officials can attach a label to someone, and that label justifies the administration's actions regarding that person. For instance, Trump signed an executive order regarding antisemitism. As a result, foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities can arbitrarily be labeled as having done something that is “antisemitic," which then automatically justifies their deportation. For instance, Rumeysa Öztürk was caught in this situation simply for coauthoring an op-ed that called on Tufts University to recognize the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Trump administration officials, in this case, Secretary of Deportations Marco Rubio, act as the judge, jury, and executioner. Rubio decides who is an antisemite, he decides that the person deserves to be deported, and he is the one who cancels their visa. In the authoritarian Trump regime, Rubio's decisions are not to be questioned. Rubio has applied the label, and the label justifies his actions.

Last week I mentioned in one of my blog posts that the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump had been holding immigration hearings for migrant children as young as 4 years old who had not been provided legal representation due to Trump's budget cuts. These children, who had no idea what the hearings were about, and could not mount even the most basic of legal defenses, generally ended up being deported. Soon after I published that post, several media outlets published stories about other children, including some who were citizens of the United States and were in the course of medical treatment for serious illnesses, who were also being removed from the country. The Trump administration, a group that consists of an inordinate number of bullies, frequently, like most bullies, targets the marginalized and powerless. As such, going after children, the weakest and least powerful of targets, should probably not be a surprise. Still, some of the stories that have come out really strain the conscience.

Today is another day on which there are multiple possible topics about which I could write. The administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump creates enough subject material on a daily basis — never mind an entire weekend — to provide plenty of potential topics. I had planned to discuss the administration's deportation of migrant and U.S. citizen children. I'll probably do that later, but today I want to focus on the almost guaranteed at this point shortage of imported products that we are likely to face. The potential empty shelves that we may encounter are a result of Trump's tariff policy and, particularly, his trade war with China.

While some bloggers may be experts on every topic, I'm not. In particular, I am not an expert on international shipping. So, what follows is the result of a weekend's worth of reading. Hopefully, however, what I have been reading was authored by folks who are experts. What I have learned is that we may have already crossed the point of no return and that empty shelves — at least for a short period — could well be inevitable. This is due to the nature of shipping to the United States from China. When Trump raised tariffs on China to 145%, many U.S. companies cancelled orders from the country. Chinese manufacturers, in turn, cancelled production and halted shipments. While Trump has signaled a potential backdown from the high tariffs, that has not yet occurred and getting production and shipping back to normal is not as simple as flipping a switch. According to Investor's Business Daily, "Cargo ships sailing from Hong Kong to Los Angeles take on average around two-to-three weeks, between 25 and 30 days to Houston and about 40 days to reach New York City". Many U.S. retailers stocked up on imports before the tariffs took effect, causing a surge of cargo being off-loaded at ports. However, those ports are now seeing cargo traffic from China dry up. A reduction in imports from China will first be noticeable on the U.S. West Coast. Because goods are shipped by rail and trucks from there to the middle of the country, there will be a drop in trucking and train transport, and then shortages in the Midwest. Finally, import shortages will hit the U.S. East Coast.