DCUM Weblog

For the most part, I have tried to stick to discussing factual information with, of course, many of my opinions mixed in. Today, I'll do something different and try my hand at speculation. I have to warn readers that I am a poor speculator. Were it otherwise, I would have made a bazillion dollars by now by correctly picking stocks to buy. Alas, I remain a humble website owner, lacking the means to purchase a U.S. Supreme Court justice or even a Wisconsin State Supreme Court justice. But, luckily, speculation is free and, therefore, I can afford it. The topic of my prognostications, or let's face it, guesses, is the interdependency of Shadow President Elon Musk's political and financial fortunes. More specifically, my argument is that a decline in one area will negatively impact the other. Hence, the victory by Susan Crawford yesterday in an election for a seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court will result in financial losses for Musk, particularly in the case of Tesla.

It is somewhat remarkable that I never struggle to find a topic demonstrating a movement by cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump towards autocracy. To the contrary, many days, including today, I have to choose between multiple possible topics. Today I'll follow up on a topic that I've written about a number of times already: the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants. Exactly a week ago I wrote about the denial of due process to those being deported to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), pointing out that, without judicial review, "we are expected to believe that the government is infallible." I further suggested that such an expectation was probably ill-advised. Now, we have a case in which the Trump administration admits to making an error and wrongly deporting an individual to be held in CECOT. Astonishingly, however, the government says that it does not have the ability to return the man and is arguing that courts do not have the authority to order that he be returned.

I have been highlighting cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's autocratic actions that threaten our democracy. For those who value the democratic traditions of our country, the threat of autocracy is enough to oppose Trump and his imposition of dictatorial practices. However, like autocratic regimes throughout history, the Trump administration is incompetent. In fact, one motivation of dictatorial rule is the fear of the rulers that their incompetence will be exposed. They don't want their actions to be questioned because they know that the answers to those questions will expose just how bad of a job they are doing. Another aspect of authoritarian rule is that, instead of being based on values and principles, governance serves those close to the rulers. Proximity to power becomes paramount to being provided government support. Over the weekend, two Trump administration initiatives were highlighted that showed both the administration's incompetence and its deference to those in favor with leading Trump officials. The first is the way in which the administration identifies members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The second is a Trump program called "Mission South Africa" that is aimed at encouraging the immigration of White Afrikaners from South Africa.

Given that the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has decided that criticism of Israel is a deportable offense, I am going to use the privilege afforded to me by virtue of my being a U.S. citizen to criticize Israel every chance I get. While I would love to have a reason to do that today, my criticism is actually going to be of U.S. officials. But it involves Israel.

I wasn't going to write about the notorious "SignalGate" controversy in which top Trump administration officials engaged in discussion of top-secret military plans while including a journalist in on their discussion. There has been a lot written about that already, and I assumed that I could not add anything that hasn't already been brought up. But then I realized that was not true. One aspect, at least to my knowledge, that has not been addressed in detail is the role of Israel. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, the root cause of the U.S. attack on Yemen is Israel's actions with regard to Gaza. Had Trump not adopted former President Joe Biden's policy regarding Israel and Gaza, there would not be any Houthi missile attacks and no need for the U.S. to respond to those attacks. Yet this aspect of the conflict was completely ignored in the Signal chat.

I have previously written about the police state-style detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, a student protester at Columbia University and a U.S. legal permanent resident. Khalil was seized by Department of Homeland Security agents from the lobby of his student housing building, taken first to a detention center in New York City, then to another detention center in New Jersey, and eventually to a third detention center in Louisiana. Throughout this time, Khalil's wife, who is an American citizen, and his lawyer were trying to track down his whereabouts. Khalil was not accused of a crime but rather the simple exercise of the right of free expression. Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump, who previously signed an executive order supporting freedom of speech, apparently supports limits on speech when it involves criticism of Israel. The warning sign set off by Khalil's arrest has now become a blaring siren as additional students have since been similarly detained due to the "crime" of criticizing Israel.

As I have written previously, I changed the focus of this blog in order to document the autocratic rule of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. In earlier posts, I described many of the specific actions he has taken to implement autocracy. Today, I want to delve into the techniques that Trump uses to exert control, not just of government, but other components of civil society as well. Trump's tactics include bullying, extortion, and divide and conquer. Many, if not most, of Trump's actions are illegal, resulting in several being tied up in court at the moment. Nevertheless, Trump has had considerable success in asserting his will and forcing both people and institutions to acquiesce to his demands. Today I will discuss how Trump is able to do this.

As I have brought up in several blog posts, Trump's primary means of ruling is through executive orders. It is important to understand exactly what these are and the legal standing that they hold. First and foremost, they do not create or modify laws. They are simply directives to the executive branch. They are more or less glorified inter-office memos. Only Congress can make laws. Those laws can often be fleshed out with regulations created by the executive branch, and Trump can influence those regulations with EOs, but he cannot create a law. Moreover, EOs have no authority outside the executive branch. Trump cannot legally use an EO to order Congress, a court, a university, a law firm, or a media outlet to do or not do something. EOs are only a method of communicating to executive branch staff. However, Trump has been giving force to his EOs, not because of their inherent authority, but due to his willingness to use the levers of government to either punish or reward those targeted by the EOs.

Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?

  - Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump, February 10, 2018

Lately, choosing a topic that demonstrates the threat to democracy and the rule of law posed by cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is difficult, not because no such topics exist, but rather because there are too many, making the selection difficult. Why then, did I lead off today with a statement by Trump in which he appears to be correct? Because that tweet is an almost perfect rebuttal to the position taken by Trump and Department of Justice lawyers with regard to the deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador of accused members of a violent Venezuelan gang. Contrary to Trump's position in 2018, Trump and the DOJ lawyers now argue that those being deported do not deserve due process.

As I said when I announced my new plans for this blog, I may not have much of a voice, but what little voice I do have, I want to use to document the autocratic behavior of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. Make no mistake about it, Trump is a serious threat to democracy in the United States. I have been writing about various specific aspects of Trump's attacks on our political system, but it occurred to me that I might be missing the forest for the trees. Therefore, today I want to take a step back and review the breadth of Trump's actions and the broad impact that they are having on the rule of law, civil society, and fundamental democracy in our country. Looking at the big picture, it is really quite astonishing.

Congress

Trump has launched a direct attack on our system of three co-equal branches of government. The easiest branch for Trump to neutralize was the legislative branch. This was primarily because the Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate were willing participants in the institution's emasculation. Trump has used three tactics to control Congress. The first of these has simply been to ignore the institution. Instead of working with Congress to pass legislation, Trump bypasses the legislative branch and simply signs executive orders. Despite Trump's contention, these EOs cannot create law. Yet, Trump acts like, and much of the country goes along with the charade, that these EOs are imperial diktats. The second tactic is fear and intimidation, relying on his own political strength and the threat to fund opponents posed by Shadow President Elon Musk. Elected Republicans know that if they step out of line, they are risking their political futures. Third is the use of carrots. Trump has quelled some Republican opposition by promising to use the powers that they concede to him for their benefit. The most clear example of this was how Trump managed to convince all Republican Members of Congress except one to vote in favor of the recent continuing resolution. A significant number of Republicans demanded budget cuts in order to vote in favor of a CR. Trump told those members that they needn't worry, that he had no intention of spending all the authorized funds. This is blatantly illegal and violates the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. However, illegal actions are not a bug of the Trump administration, but rather a feature.

After a week of writing pretty dark posts about cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's efforts to establish autocracy in the United States, I wanted to write something a little more lighthearted today. Unfortunately, inspiration for such a post never arrived. In an effort to clear my mind of the torrent of depressing news that normally engulfs me these days, last night I sat down to listen to a new album by the Drive-By Truckers. It wasn't a new album, exactly, but rather an old album to which they added some live recordings, slapped the label "Deluxe" on, and re-released it, convincing people like me to hand them our money. I found myself enjoying the song titled "Ramon Casiano" even though the lyrics were uncomfortably close to the news headlines from which I was seeking temporary escape. This got me wondering about exactly who was Ramon Casiano and why there is a song about him. That, dear readers, led me down a rabbit hole which, if you are kind enough to follow, I will take you down with me.

Yesterday I described how cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has been attacking law firms that have been involved in legal action to which the President objects. This is a clear attempt to undermine one of the foundational principles of the legal profession: that everyone is entitled to legal representation. By punishing law firms that represent his political enemies, Trump is weakening the ability of those opposed to him to seek legal remedies through the courts. But Trump's attack on the judicial system has not stopped there. Trump has also targeted judges themselves. This is not new, of course. Trump routinely criticized Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump's criminal trial on 34 felonies. Trump was found guilty on all counts and also found himself held in criminal contempt of court at one point during the proceedings. More recently, Trump has been attacking federal judges who have ruled against his actions as President. Trump appears to be hoping to delegitimize the courts in order to justify ignoring their rulings and, perhaps, trying to intimidate judges into ruling in his favor.