DCUM Weblog

"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.

This is a particularly bad time in the history of the United States. Every day provides more evidence of how far our country has moved from the values that we were taught were fundamental to its existence. America was once portrayed as a land of liberty, free expression, and democracy. Today, it is a country in which universities collaborate with the President to suppress the speech of their students. It is a country in which innocent people are grabbed from sidewalks, homes, and even courthouses by unidentified masked agents and shoved into unmarked vehicles, vanishing into detention centers both within the country and abroad. America has become the type of country that we were once warned about and taught to fear. But, in the midst of all this, I have found one simple reason for joy. One of my favorite bands, the Dropkick Murphys, has unexpectedly — at least to me — gained viral popularity as a voice opposed to cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and his MAGA cult members.

Part of what cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has done, either intentionally or not, is to flood the zone with steps towards autocracy. He and others in his administration take so many actions that it is almost impossible to keep track of them all. Therefore, today I am going to list a few of the more recent autocratic moves that may otherwise go unnoticed.

First, I want to start with an update on the Kilmar Abrego Garcia situation. Abrego Garcia, as most of you reading this blog are probably aware, is the Maryland father who was removed to El Salvador in error. Federal District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered that discovery begin to determine whether the federal government should be held in contempt for failing to obey a Supreme Court ruling that the government should facilitate Abrego Garcia's release and return to the U.S. The government was also required to provide daily status reports on its efforts. On Tuesday, in a strange occurrence, government lawyers submitted their status update under seal, meaning that it was withheld from both the public and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers. We don't know what was in that report, but yesterday the government submitted a motion to delay both discovery and the status reports for seven days. That motion was also filed under seal, but was apparently shared with Abrego Garcia's legal defense team. Abrego Garcia's attorneys responded also under seal. Then Xinis issued an order granting the seven-day delay and saying that both sides had agreed to it. To be clear, we don't know what occurred here other than that the government asked for a delay, Abrego Garcia's legal team agreed to the delay, and Xinis approved it. My hope and guess is that the government is trying to work a deal for Abrego Garcia's return and is afraid that publicity will upset the negotiations. My further speculation is that these negotiations are not taking place between the U.S. and Salvadoran governments, but rather between various components of the U.S. government. Trump's advisors are probably busy jangling keys in front of his face like parents trying to distract a child having a tantrum and don't want him further upset by comments coming out of Xinis' courtroom. No guarantees, of course — again, this is speculation on my part — but I have some hope that Abrego Garcia could be returning to the U.S. within a week.

For the most part, in these blog posts, my intention is to focus on moves towards autocracy and the attendant corruption that normally accompanies such efforts. But another common characteristic of autocracies is incompetence. In a way, this is counterintuitive because one of the primary justifications for autocratic regimes is that they are effective and can get things done. In reality, this is often not the case. Contrary to popular belief, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini did not make the trains run on time. During his rule, Italian trains were just as likely to be late as during earlier periods. He was, however, successful in creating this myth. Similarly, cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has been considered a strong leader on economic issues and good for the economy. Supporters cite his background as a businessman and a very rose-tinted-glasses view of his first term. While I believe that former President Joe Biden did an objectively good job with the economy, inflation that persisted throughout his term (though reaching manageable levels in the latter part) convinced most voters otherwise. Indeed, the price of eggs became one of the major talking points of the Trump campaign. However, as things have turned out, much like Mussolini's railway timetable skills, Trump's alleged economic accumen has turned out to be nothing more than myth.