Donald Trump opposes the “invasion” of immigrants.
Well, not all immigrants–just Brown or Black ones. Perhaps you have somehow missed the administration’s daily efforts to reverse the progress of women and people of color, but there’s no way to miss the racism of his recent exemption of (properly pale) folks from his otherwise unremitting war on immigration–his grant of refugee status to “persecuted” White folks from South Africa. According to our racist and demented Chief Executive, White South Africans should be welcomed while dark-skinned people escaping actual persecution–and dark-skinned people already living in the U.S.–should be excluded.
Per the linked New York Times report:
Mr. Trump has halted virtually all refugee admissions for people fleeing famine and war from places like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But he has created an expedited path into the country for Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that created and led the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa.
The refugee process often takes years. But only three months have passed from the time Mr. Trump signed an executive order establishing refugee status for Afrikaners to the first cohort making its way to America.
As I have often written, and as any sentient American knows, Trump’s appeal to his MAGA base is rooted in racism. Some wealthy Americans probably voted for further tax breaks and the ability to evade government oversight, but the devotion of his MAGA voters was and is firmly based upon his none-too-veiled promises to put “those people” in their place.
Unfortunately, people who embrace racist tropes are also likely to misinterpret–or entirely miss– numerous other aspects of the world they inhabit. It’s doubtful whether most of the fearful and angry folks who cast their ballots for an ignorant buffoon understood that they would get a demented puppet controlled by the authors of Project 2025, or that his profound ignorance would destroy the robust economy left by his predecessor.
But here we are.
In a recent newsletter, Robert Hubbell described our current civic/governmental landscape. He began by reporting on the most recent violation of the Emoluments Clause–the fancy airplane being gifted to Trump by Qatar (a country that has supported Hamas to the tune of 1.8 billion dollars and for whom Pam Bondi, our current Attorney General, once lobbied, for a hefty $115,000 a month.)
He then turned to the recurring question that arises as evidence of corruption mounts: how does he get away with it?
The short answer is that Trump has neutralized the guardrails of democracy that would prevent behavior violating US criminal laws and constitutional provisions.
First, the US Supreme Court has immunized Trump from the criminal laws of the US (in Trump v. US). In the normal course, the DOJ would investigate and prosecute Trump under the the US criminal code.
Second, Trump has immunized himself from impeachment and conviction by engineering a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. In the normal course, Congress would impeach, convict, and remove Trump from office.
Third, Trump has neutered Congress, which could stop his corruption through legislation, oversight, and investigations.
Finally, Trump has corrupted, compromised, or destroyed the DOJ, FBI, and the system of inspector generals and independent agencies.
All in one hundred days! But as Hubbell notes, Trump didn’t do all those things alone. He had help weakening the guardrails of democracy–the damage he’s done has been “enabled and assisted by a corps of cultural war shock troops who believe in white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and antisemitism.”
Trump remains in control of about one-third of the electorate–the segment of the population that has embraced White supremacy and Christian nationalism. But as Hubbell reminds us, a third is not a majority. It is not enough—or should not be enough–to turn America into a country governed by a White Christian Taliban.
The outcome of this very fraught time in our national story depends on the rest of us.
I wish there were a better, easier answer than saying that years of protesting in the streets and showing up at town halls and ballot boxes will be needed to get us out of this mess. But here we are. The only question is, “What are we going to do about it?” For me, the answer is, “Exactly what we have been doing, only louder, more frequently, and in greater numbers.”
No new leader will emerge who can miraculously save us. We cannot hope for a “deus ex machina” end to our current national story.
It’s up to us.
It won’t be quick or easy, but we need to act as if our lives depended on it because they do! Louder, more frequently and in greater numbers. Amen, Sheila.
There are a lot of points at which this authoritarian “borg” can be confronted. Indiana’s election laws that insulate the “two major” political parties worked quite well for Jim Bopp as he drafted the Indiana GOP articles of incorporation, rules and bylaws. (If one construes “The Prince” as a serious guide to those who seek power (versus seeing it as satire), Bopp would make Machiavelli blush. And, in case anyone doesn’t realize it, Indiana’s Lt Gov (a/k/a Merde de Poulet) has vowed to visit each of Indiana’s 92 counties. In doing so he is recruiting delegates for the 2026 GOP state convention. That means the Indiana GOP will be locked down & in lock-step for him, the AG and (drum roll, please) Sec’y of State.
Having read “The Prince” some time ago, I found it to not be as extreme as advertised. And, what has been going on here puts it to shame.
LOUDLY WE NEED TO PROTEST!!!
The prospects for our immediate future as a democratic republic are terrible. We are being “led” by a cult of NAZIs. The cult of MAGA are also very much from the NAZI playbook of the 1930s in Germany.
Who/what will step up to rid the world and our nation of this blight on humanity, civility and responsible government? Who? How?
Hubbell didn’t mention the extensive PAC under Trump’s control, which is controlled by AIPAC, Silicon Valley, and the Billionaires. If the elections aren’t canceled by then, that gives him lots of control heading into 2026.
I would also say that Trump is a protected asset just like Jeffrey Epstein was, and he also has the videotaped evidence from Trump 1.0. Bondi promised the files of Jeff’s bribery scheme and the pedophiles he attracted, but her first release was all hype but no content. I knew more from reading Whitney Webb’s book. As I said before, Clinton was helping the drug trade while he was governor of Arkansas and always had a roaming eye for young women. Not sure how Monica could make him accountable, but Hillary took care of all the rest. Remember during Trump’s debate with Hillary, he invited several of Bill’s affairs to sit in the front row to throw off Hillary?
“Oh, the tangled web we weave…”
And Sheila is correct, Qatar funds Hamas with weapons and money. The guns they supply are purchased from our MIC, which profits from both sides of the genocide in Gaza. Trump’s trip was to Arab states, not Israel. It was a sign that Trump and Netanyahu were on the outs, but Donny couldn’t make a move without Miriam Adelson’s approval, which tells me that Bibi may want to look over his shoulder often! 😉
The other reason the Republicans aren’t holding Trump accountable is that the corruption is spreading. Trump is enlarging his “pool of influence” to anybody who is loyal enough to kiss his ass. I mentioned that MTG profited from “liberation day,” and Pam Bondi did. She sold a large chunk of Trump Media on the eve of Trump’s tariff announcement. This is precisely how the mob spreads its influence, and why they say there is no “retirement” from the underworld. You can’t grow a conscience after you sell out, once you pledge allegiance to Satan. 😉
Well, meanwhile in Gaza…
There is a genocide happening in real time.
I’m supposed to hate rural Americans as opposed to zionists and Banderites?
Since Trump is in sync with Biden’s plan for death of all Palestinians,it’s no wonder why so many stayed home. The new boss is the same as the old boss. Unless your ricebowl is dependant upon the DNC and you believe the party can never fail the public.
I can’t wait to see the pundit class and its sycophants trip over themselves when they will claim to have always been against the genocide
Putin, Trump, Mohammed bin Salman, and Netanyahu all represent the worst in people, and when people get in a mind to be cruel to each other, there are no limits. We all have it in us, and we are each created by what we saw and experienced in our developmental years.
DNA is our seed, and culture is the field in which it falls.
We have some weeding to do.
I am convinced there are traditional, common sense, Constitution loving, conservative Republicans in our communities. Their silence is worse than disappointing.
The cabinet trump put together in his first term were a pretty inept bunch, but there wasn’t a strong underpinning of loyalty, more simply a lack of credibility. His second go around, however, has all of that missing expertise, but this time around the loyalty trumps (sorry) everything else. They are also loud, unnerving and really the essence of the 2025/maga dream team. He couldn’t do it by himself, and now he has corralled the wealthiest, most loyal bunch of rascals ever assembled, and it may take down the whole great experiment that has survived a Civil War, Reconstruction (Jim Crow), the Great Depression, two world wars, The Korean War, McCarthyism, the JFK assassination (and MLK Jr., RFK), Watergate, Vietnam, Contra, Monica Lewinski, 9/11 and many other catastrophes and disasters we’ve weathered. God help us.
Don’t look for a savior. We have to save ourselves. Hopefully, if we can do that we will find new leaders, who come from the effort.
One that I have been watching closely is AOC. What I see is a young woman who is intelligent, personable, has a sense of humor, and who knows the rules and uses them to her advantage. I love watching her in committee hearings. She triggers the Republicans every time her five .minutes come up. She comes prepared and drives them crazy. Might she be our first female President?
There are other young people who might come forward as leaders. Most of them have a way to go to get the polish to control a situation while maintaining the mantle of leadership. David Hogg and Jasmine Crockett are two who come to mind.
If we are lucky enough to get through the coming battles we will better serve the future if we can deliver a country that recognizes that we are not exceptional, but can and must strive to become exceptional.
Pete is the most qualified, intelligent, experienced of the Democrats in possible leadership right now. If you have not seen his appearances when he walks into the line of fire on Faux News, you have missed someone who is in complete control of his emotions, master of the situation from the beginning, never rattled, has a sense of human and doesn’t resort to the usual strawman/whataboutism of pundits on the right.
We progressives, collectively, have to resist at all costs or we are lost to the very real possibility of armed conflict. People forget that Democrats and Independents own weapons, too, unfortunately.
If we have elections in 2026, we can only hope that so many of the opportunists in Congress get voted out.
At the state level, Indiana’s Lt. Gov. is marshaling his forces, moving to consolidate his power base of white, Christian nationalist fascists, teaming with the morally corrupt men and women who are racist to the core (see our AG and SecState) to destroy public education and produce automatons for the oligarchs, all in the name of their God.
RESIST!