In an effort to put the final nail the VRA’s coffin, the Supreme Court sent back to lower courts two cases that had suggested that only the Justice Department could bring enforcement actions under the law barring racial discrimination in voting. That was a 180 degree turn away from its prior holdings. Indeed, the Supreme Court has heard VRA cases brought by voters. 

If Republican voters choose democracy, they should not vote for the candidates forced upon them by the Supreme Court’s racist majority. Otherwise, they accept the brazen rigging of elections and tear up our democracy by its roots – the right to vote.

Democracy gives voters the choice of who governs them. It cannot exist if elected politicians are allowed to make that choice. But that’s what Trump’s majority just allowed.

There’s a history behind why and how the Supreme Court majority is willing to pervert the Constitution, the VRA, and America’s other core values.

Republican extremist Leonard Leo, as chairman of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society, armed it with $1.6 billion to stack the Court with a majority that butchered the Constitution to turn their personal policies into law. Justice Thomas once joked (remember, humor is a vehicle for truth) that Leo was the “number 3 most powerful person in the world.”

Leo’s Supreme Court appointees — Justices Roberts, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito, and Barrett — were promoted by him and the Federalist Society to place their proxies on the Court. Holding that the Constitution and the VRA allowed states to racially gerrymander was at the top of their list.

It didn’t stop there. Leo and the Federalist Society had other priorities that his majority turned into law:

Keeping Trump in office:
• Trump’s majority gave him broad immunity and delayed his D.C. criminal trial until after the 2024 election so voters wouldn’t know if they were voting for a convicted felon.

• The majority struck down Section 4(b) of the VRA, which required states with histories of suppressing minority voting to clear voting-law changes with federal authorities. They relied on the 10th Amendment, which doesn’t mention elections. The 15th Amendment, which they hardly mentioned, expressly prohibits racial gerrymandering and gives Congress the power to enforce that prohibition. Requiring federal pre-clearance for states with a history of racial voter suppression would seem to fall directly within that power. Instead, the Court’s majority invoked the antiquated theory of equal sovereignty (“ES”), which requires the federal government to treat states equally. But ES is nowhere in the Constitution; it’s not even a law. It was originally invented to prohibit different criteria for admitting states into the Union.

Deregulation of corporations: The Supreme Court had previously held that courts should defer to the interpretations of executive agencies created and authorized by Congress to issue regulations under federal laws. The Supreme Court’s majority nixed that and transferred the authority to interpret legislation from executive agencies to the judiciary, which sorely lacks the personnel and expertise to do the job. It was the Court’s way of freeing corporations from regulations issued by executive agencies and, not surprisingly, it unleashed a slew of corporate lawsuits challenging agency interpretations. Corporations are now free to ignore regulations issued by executive agencies until the courts decide how they should be interpreted, which could take years – exactly what Leo and the Federalist Society wanted.

Overturning Roe v. Wade: That’s history too well known.

The entire majority is conflicted because it repeatedly rules in favor of the policies of Leo and the Federalist Society rather than as required by the Constitution. In Caperton v. Massey, the Supreme Court held that “every case … which would offer a temptation to the average man … not to be impartial … denies … due process of law.” Would Leo’s appointees feel beholden to the patron and his proxy who got them on the bench and be tempted to favor their agenda? You bet they would.

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The post THE CONSTITUTION GIVES VOTERS THE RIGHT TO PICK THEIR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS – IT’S NOT UP TO THE SUPREME COURT, TRUMP, OR STATE LEGISLATURES. first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Leo’s appointees — Justices Roberts, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito, and Barrett — just accommodated Leo by holding that the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act (the “VRA”) allowed Louisiana to use race in creating a district map, satisfying Leo’s hopes of denying blacks an equal opportunity to elect representatives. The holding was quickly exploited by six southern Republican state legislatures who redrew their maps to discriminate against black voters and convert minority-heavy districts into GOP seats.

In addition to rolling back anti-discrimination protections in voting, Leo’s priorities were: keeping Trump in office, deregulation of corporations, and restricting access to abortion.

His appointees complied on all fronts, even when it meant perverting the Constitution and defying the Supreme Court’s own precedent. The justices not chosen by Leo always filed strong and admonishing dissents.

Keeping Trump in office

• In Trump v. United States, Leo’s Majority gave Trump broad immunity and delayed his D.C. criminal trial until after the 2024 election so voters wouldn’t know that Trump was a convicted felon. By contrast, it took the Roberts Court just 16 days to decide Nixon wasn’t immune from prosecution and one day to make Republican George W. Bush president instead of Al Gore.
• Leo’s Majority worried that presidents would be chilled from taking bold action — a fabricated concern that other presidents’ conduct will be as egregious as Trump’s. As Justice Frankfurter held, “the process of Constitutional adjudication does not thrive on conjuring up horrible possibilities that … won’t happen again in the real world.”
• Leo’s Majority, bizarrely, remanded the case to the District Court to decide whether the January 6 attack on the Capitol was an official or unofficial act.
• That Trump, if inaugurated, could pardon himself.

States’ legislatures can racially discriminate to win elections.

• The Majority’s recent holding that state legislators can use race to gerrymander against minorities was preceded by other Constitutional violations.
• In Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP, Leo’s Majority upheld South Carolina’s Republican legislature’s right to move 60% of Black voters from their districts into a White-dominated district to ensure the election of the Republican candidate. Duh; isn’t the purpose of racial gerrymandering always to win elections?
• In Brnovich v. DNC, Leo’s Majority held that Arizona’s voting restrictions didn’t violate the VRA, which prohibits racial discrimination in elections. The law discarded votes cast in non-designated locations and prohibited third parties from collecting ballots for delivery to polling places other than family members, caregivers, or people who share the same household. But only 18% of Native Americans in rural counties receive mail at home, and most would have to travel two hours to reach a mailbox. Half don’t own cars and must rely on friends and neighbors, who are not allowed to help with transportation, which the law prohibits. Roberts admitted that Arizona’s restrictions fall more heavily on Native Americans, but that the consequences are small even though voters from the district were twice as likely as whites to have their ballots discarded. Nonetheless, Leo’s Majority decided that those disadvantages didn’t exceed “the usual burdens of voting.” To the contrary, the tossed votes exceeded the margins of victory in the 2018 and 2020 elections.
• In Shelby v. Holder, Leo’s Majority struck down Section 4(b) of the VRA, which required states with histories of suppressing minority voting to clear voting law changes with federal authorities. They relied on the 10th Amendment, which doesn’t mention elections. The 15th Amendment, which they didn’t cite, expressly prohibits racial gerrymandering and gives Congress the power to enforce that prohibition. Requiring federal pre-clearance for states with a history of racial voter suppression would seem to fall directly within that power. Shelby desperately invoked the antiquated theory of equal sovereignty (ES), which requires the federal government to treat states equally. But ES is nowhere in the Constitution; it’s not even a law. It was originally invented to prohibit different criteria in admitting states into the Union.

Deregulation of Corporations

• In Loper v. Raimondo, Leo’s Majority overturned Chevron v. NRDC, which held that courts should defer to an executive agency’s interpretation of ambiguous legislation — no longer. There, Leo’s Majority held that the Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to decide whether an agency’s interpretation of ambiguous language is correct. The holding transferred an enormous amount of policymaking from federal agencies, which require tens of thousands of workers, to the judiciary, the only unelected branch of government, which lacks the personnel to do the job. It was an indirect form of deregulation. Loper also unleashed a slew of corporate lawsuits challenging agency interpretations. The courts will now be loaded down with second-guessing agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes.

Overturning Roe v. Wade

Leo found easy fodder in Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito. The rest is history.

Leo’s appointees were conflicted since they repeatedly ruled in favor of Leo rather than what the Constitution required. In Caperton v. Massey, the Supreme Court had held that “every case … [and] every procedure which would offer a temptation to the average man … to not be impartial … denies … the due process of law.” Would Leo’s appointees feel beholden to the patron who got them on the bench and be tempted to favor their patron’s agenda? Of course they would.

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The post THE GOP PLOT THAT STACKED THE SUPREME COURT WITH JUSTICES WHO TURNED THEIR PRIORITIES INTO THE LAW  first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

He put his five casinos and the iconic New York city Plaza Hotel into bankruptcy. At least 60 lawsuits document  Trump stiffing employees who worked at his real estate ventures. There finally came a time when no U.S. bank would lend to Trump. International Treasury buyers are likely to follow suit or, at least, demand higher interest rates.

This time he’s putting the U.S. Treasury on the hook risking: a default on America’s sovereign debt, the need to cut America’s safety nets to pay debt, a recession in the next 12 months and, frightfully, Trump mismanaging it into a depression. 

A default on U.S. Treasury debt and a depression would be highly unlikely if you could assume a rational President, Republicans that have the courage to reign him in and a qualified cabinet. Tragically, not one of these assumptions can be made.

In normal times, the risk for a recession in any 12-month span is between 15% and 20%. Moody’s Analytics, however, has raised the risk to 48.6%. While other estimates range between 30% and 45%, the risk is likely to rise rapidly if the conflict in the Middle East is prolonged or becomes more severe. 

The likelihood of a recession falling into a depression is more worrisome now. It was international cooperation that prevented the Great Recession of 2008 from becoming another depression. There will be none of that next time. Trump has alienated all our allies by bombing Iran without consulting them, by launching surprise tariffs, and his allegiance to Putin threatens all of Europe. 

The international cooperation he’ll need won’t be there, just like it wasn’t there when he asked our allies to help clear the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, Trump’s not one to compromise – only his opinions have any value.

To repeat, the United States now owes more money than its economy generates. Leading up to the Great Depression of 2008, US debt held by the public was 35% of GDP. Now it’s more than 100%, so borrowing to recover from a recession will be much more challenging.

It was Presidents Bush’s and Obama’s cabinets and advisors, who helped save us from a depression in 2008. They were expert and experienced in international economic and monetary policy. Trump’s cabinet has no such expertise or experience. They are the most unqualified and dangerous cabinet in America’s history, more like school children planning mischief, and they’re there only to condone Trump’s every decision. 

When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, the US was a large creditor nation. We’re now a large debtor nation, having borrowed more money than GDP can generate. In May 2026, total U.S. debt reached $39 trillion so Congress had to raise the debt ceiling to $41 trillion to replace the tax revenues lost from Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. 

How would Trump respond to a depression? The same way he responded to the Covid pandemic. He’ll assure us that it is “going to disappear. It’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” 

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The post TRUMP’S BORROWING MORE THAN HE CAN REPAY AGAIN. THIS TIME THE U.S. TREASURY IS ON THE HOOK. first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Shoen treated superstar Saquon Barkley with callous disrespect . So, Barkley left and signed with the Giants perennial rival, the Philadelphia Eagles. He lead them to a Superbowl victory and was named Offensive Player of the Year. 

Trump, actually, had no strategy, and certainly didn’t realize that the real winner of his Iran war would be China without deploying any troops or a single weapon. That calculation was beyond Trump’s bandwidth, but would have become apparent had he consulted Congress, our allies and/or qualified experts who, sadly, don’t exist among his unqualified appointments confirmed by the Senate Republicans on his leash.

Trump’s war has weakened America’s military readiness in Southeast Asia. He moved one of five U.S. aircraft carriers and powerful missile defense systems in the Indo Pacific to the Middle East, leaving South Korea vulnerable to Chinese economic retaliation for hosting U.S. antimissile systems that were promised by the U.S. to permanently shield South Korea from an attack by North Korea. 

The repositioning sent a message to all our Asian partners that the region is not a priority for our President. Tragically, it will take decades for the broken trust to heal.

The war in Iran is also providing China with a live tutorial of the United States’ military capabilities, which Beijing can use in a future conflict over Taiwan or anywhere else. 

The alienation of our regional friends hasn’t stopped at the Indo-Pacific. Iran responded to Trump’s bombing with drone attacks on our Gulf partners, breaking their trust in the U.S. and pushing them to rely more on China. For example, the United Arab Emirates has increased its cooperation with the Chinese military. 

Moreover, unlike the United States, China has insulated itself against the disruption in oil supplies by developing sources of renewable energy and an overcapacity in coal power. Its renewables now provide more than one-third of the country’s power and accounts for the production of a third of the world’s total wind and solar capacity. Its profits from batteries and electric vehicles have surged since the beginning of Trump’s war. 

In sharp contrast, Trump’s energy policy includes the rolling back of incentives for clean energy alternatives, which is not surprising given oil and gas firms $18 billion in tax cuts and regulatory breaks for the industry – a manifestation of Trump’s choice of self over country.

If his war calms down enough, he’ll reschedule his cancelled trip to China, where he will have to negotiate from a position of self-inflicted weakness and face a formidable leader in XI who has spent years preparing for this moment of U.S. overreach. 

Then there’s the Trump’s war’s $9B a month gift to Russia triggered by Trump’s waiver of U.S. sanctions against Russian oil exports to slow the surge in oil prices. This while Russia is providing intelligence, satellite imagery, and military technology to help Iran target U.S. forces in the Middle East.  

If any U.S. president needed help with his strategy for launching a war, it’s Donald Trump. Other presidents sought the advice of Congress (including when not seeking its formal declaration of war), NATO, the UN and qualified experts. Trump chose not to ask for help from any of them. Instead he rolled the dice and they came up craps.

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The post A TESTAMENT TO TRUMP’S IRAN STRAGETY first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

The fear of violence is justified. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene received  incited death threats against her and her son when she turned against Trump.Over a dozen Indiana state lawmakers who refused Trump’s request to gerrymander for more Republican seats were targeted with bomb threats.

Republicans have been swatted by Trump zealots. Swatting’s a type of harassment by falsely reporting emergencies to rush police to a person’s home. It can cause long-term damage to children’s emotional and physical health and can lead to long-term nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, emotional distress, terror and trauma. It can also turned deadly. 

The correlation between Trump’s constant invective and violence against non-accommodating Republicans is undeniable. ABC News identified over 50 criminal cases where individuals explicitly identified Trump as the reason for violent threats. 

After the January 6 Capitol riot, Republicans who criticized Trump for the rampage expressed fear for their lives.” 

A Reuters investigation identified over 30 Republican officials who faced threats tied to their refusal to support overturning the 2020 election.

Liz Cheney was the victim of repeated death threats after turning against Trump. 

Adam Kinzinger received threatening voicemails that warned: “Gonna get your wife… gonna get your kids” and “We know where your family is.”

The Raffensberger family received death threats after Trump’s surprise loss in Georgia.

Republicans’ most pernicious surrender to Trump-incited threats was their  confirmation of the most flagrantly unqualified and dangerous cabinet in America’s history. They risked Americans’ health, turned the Department of Justice and FBI into Trump’s private gestapo, removed rational thought from the decision to attack other countries and debilitated our national security. 

It’s doubtful that the threat of loosing their seats was responsible for confirming a troop of grossly unfit sycophants, especially because sitting Republicans are more likely to lose their seats to a Trump-backed primary challenger or a Democrat. But the decision becomes more difficult when one’s family is threatened.

So how can dissenting Republicans effectively oppose Trump and neutralize the threats he rouses?

Most states make threats of harm a crime punishable by jail . Victims should notify state law enforcement officials with details of threats. They  can track digital threats and subpoena records from social media platforms and Gmail logs, including IP addresses, account activity and can often identify the offender. Calls and texts can also be traced through carriers. Then Republicans can be untethered to Trump.

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The post REPUBLICANS ARE MORE AFRAID OF VIOLENT ATTACKS THAN LOOSING THEIR SEATS TO A TRUMP-BACKED CHALLENGER first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Trump warned that Iran’s “civilization will die” if it doesn’t take his deal, which includes opening the Strait of Hormuz and freezing Iran’s nuclear development. Iran rejected both conditions and accused Trump of violating their agreement. Israel is far from on board. The cease fire is disintegrating.

Oddly, Trump said Iran’s  proposal  is “workable” even though it requires passage through the Strait be coordinated with Iranian’s Military, which leaves Iran in control of its traffic. It also requires an acceptance of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, which Trump blithely claims, “will be … taken care ⁠⁠of.” 

Iran has already won. The Pentagon’s addiction to expensive sophisticated weapons that take long to produce has shifted the military advantage to Iran’s drones which take much less time to produce and at a fraction of the cost of America’s Tomahawk missiles. Their drones are capable of more precision at short and long ranges. Putin has helped Iran fight until it exhausts America’s military, which is already draining our supply of precision-guided munitions.

Iran, now in the driver’s seat, won’t agree to liberate the Strait or freeze its nuclear program. Although it’s unlikely that Trump will incinerate Iran, we should remember that General Milley had to prevent Trump from resorting to our nuclear arsenal during his first term. 

The other option is to declare victory and pull out, which leaves Iran in control of the Strait to charge tolls that rebuild its infrastructure and strengthen its economy and increase its treacheries. It’s clear who won and who lost. 

Voters must replace the Republican detritus with candidates who aren’t Trump’s slaves. 

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The post WHAT THE HELL ARE REPUBLICANS WAITING FOR? first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Trump is letting Vladimir Putin  send Iran intelligence on American military movements and  give Iran technology that makes Iran’s drones more accurate and deadly. Our President is helping Iran fight until it exhausts America’s military. It’s already draining the Pentagon’s supply of precision-guided munitions designed to hit specific targets.

 Putin denied it, but Trump took his word over his administration’s own security experts, and he continues to waive oil sanctions against Russia – another pitiful accommodations to his idol. 

Ironically, Trump’s many treacheries are more the fault of sitting Republicans who, among their many oath violations, confirmed the least qualified and most dangerous cabinet in American history. Unlike sitting Republicans however, Trump can’t help himself. He checks all the boxes mental professionals use to diagnose sociopaths and narcissists. Among them:

• Narcissists focus exclusively on are their own needs and nothing else. The ugly truth is that Trump’s bombing was self-serving – to distract voters from the Epstein scandal and his punishing economy, and for leverage to declare an emergency as an excuse to deploy American troops on U.S. soil, delay the midterm elections, and prove he can do anything he wants. The attack had nothing to do with Trump’s stated goals of regime change or denuclearization. Both were lies. Preventing the latter was already accomplished by his last attack on Iran, and achieving regime change doesn’t work for the U.S. It certainly didn’t in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. 
• Both narcissists and sociopaths are delusional. Trump insisted regime change had already occurred in Iran when it’s people and  military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have consolidated around the Ayatollah. He also said the Strait will “open up naturally,” reminiscent of his promise that Covid would “disappear like a miracle.” But by the end of his first administration the U.S. accounted for just 4.2% of the world’s population but 30% of COVID  cases and 19% of COVID deaths. Whether he believes what he says or is lying, he shouldn’t be America’s President.

I blame the sitting Republican cowards for putting our country, our allies and most of the Gulf nations in this near-irreversible disaster. There are no good outcomes. Trump might take a politically motivated escape that leaves Iran in control of the Strait of Hormuz and subjects the U.S. and the rest of the world in a devastating oil shock. 

Unlike every other U.S. President, Trump never consulted with our allies before bombing Iran. So we won’t be able to rely on their cooperation for decades to come, even, perhaps, if a more reliable government replaces the current one. That’s because American voters elected a rouge president and a complicit Republican majority to Congress, and our allies worry that it could happen again. 

Another unspeakable outcome is that Trump continues the war and deploys American troops in Iran which would extend the war indefinitely and ensure a more obvious U.S. loss given Iran’s rugged mountains and uninhabitable deserts.

There have been many courageous Republicans  that have done great things for our country, even saved us from several crises. We need them now more than ever to save us from this Iran train wreck  and to restore the Republican party to its respected standing at home and internationally. 

Perhaps the most difficult challenge to a new Congress will be to recapture the honor, trust and respect that sitting Republicans allowed Trump to reduce a respected global leader to a nation widely mocked, distrusted, and shunned.

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The post REPUBLICANS CAN  KEEP THEIR MAJORITIES BY VOTING IN THE PRIMARIES FOR REPUBLICANS NOT ON TRUMP’S LEASH.  first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

You can add the Iran war to the list of Trump’s betrayals that were enabled and then tolerated by his subjugated Republicans in Congress. They need to be replaced by Republicans he doesn’t control. So, vote for them in the upcoming Republican primaries. 

Many Republicans have strengthened the world’s respect, trust for and cooperation with America with thoughtful and effective foreign policy:

• President Theodore Roosevelt, aided by his Republican Congress, established the United States’s right to intervene in Latin America in order to maintain stability. Unlike Trump’s war, Roosevelt’s administration  was quickly successful in reducing European interference in Latin America and the Caribbean. Roosevelt’s foreign policy was clear — to “Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick,” meaning,negotiate peacefully while maintaining a powerful military. Trump launched his attack while he was pretending to negotiate.

• Arthur Vandenbergas chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee worked with Democratic President Truman to forge bipartisan support for NATO and the Marshall Plan – a plan that rebuilt Europe after World WAR II and spread American influence throughout the globe. 

• Unlike Trump, President Reagan won the cold war without military action. And while standing at the gate of the Berlin Wall, Reagan successfully admonished Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “to open the gate and tear down this wall.”

• John McCain warned the U.S. of Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons early on, and that they would be used to sponsor and provoke terrorism. He also advocated a tougher stance with North Korea, prevented Trump’s repealof Obamacare, saving21 Americans their health insurance, and was a dominant voice in building America’s global influence and strong military.

• Richard Nixon was the first President to visit China, meet with its leaders and open diplomatic relations. The improved relationship was key to counterbalancing Russia’s global influence. It also  developed in to a broader policy of détente between the major powers.

Historically, European countries have played central roles in maritime security operations of the type they denied Trump. They possess  advanced naval capabilities and have a long record of participating in securing international waterways. Indeed, Europe joined the United States in NATO-led and ad hoc missions to maintain global stability.

But Trump trashed those relations with his constant disparagement of NATO, his withdrawal from international agreements, including the Iran nuclear deal, his insults of European countries and their leaders, the surprise (and illegal) tariffs and not alerting our allies in advance of the bombings. It all exhausted Europe’s diplomatic trust in America. History shows that when the United States consults allies to align strategies before acting, they are much more willing to help.

It’s a pity because securing the Strait requires coordination with other countries, intelligence sharing, and a legitimate political purpose that Trump never had. First he told us he’s bombing Iran to achieve regime change, then switched his reason to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, all while claiming he had productive talks with Iran on the “complete and total resolution of hostilities” in the Middle East. Iran denied it.

All were lies. Preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb was already accomplished by his last attack on Iran. His real reasons for bombing and killing thousands were to distract voters from the Epstein scandal and his punishing economy, for leverage to declare an emergency as an excuse to deploy American troops on U.S. soil, to delay the midterm elections, and prove he can do anything he wants. Had he not trashed those relationships, the United States might have assembled a powerful multinational force and cleared the Strait. 

Sitting Republicans could have prevented this war by joining Democrats in impeaching and convicting Trump. Waiting for them to rein him in is foolish. 

Perhaps the most difficult challenge to a new Congress will be to recapture the honor, trust and respect that sitting Republicans allowed Trump to diminish a respected global leader to a nation widely mocked, distrusted, and shunned.

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The post OUR EUROPEAN ALLIES WOULD HAVE HELPED TRUMP CLEAR THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IF HE HADEN’T ALIENATED THEM  first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Republicans safeguarded the continued existence of the United States before during and after the Civil War. It’s Congressional majority passed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, and it strengthened post-civil war America by promoting industrial expansion and free labor. Those policies together with Republican President Abraham Lincoln’s leadership pulled America through a crisis that threatened its survival. 

We’re in a different crisis now and need those kinds of Republicans, even if it takes impeachment; although there are less extreme measures.

All Presidents sought Congressional Declarations of war or Authorizations for Use of Military Force before they attacked another country. Trump did neither. 

Nor did he let Congress know what he was about to do. In fact, it wasn’t Trump, it was Benjaman Netanyahu who decided we should bomb Iran. Trump complied without input from Congress or consulting with or informing our European, Asian and  Persian Gulf allies, all of whom spurned Trump’s plea for help in liberating the Strait of Hormuz. 

Yet Trump’s obedient Republicans tolerated all of it, including letting a foreign leader launch the Iran war, and Trump’s brazen contempt for the Constitution. Worse, they enabled Trump’s bombing by confirming the most corrupt, sycophantic, dangerous and unqualified cabinet in America’s history. 

The key components of every President’s cabinet are expertise, competence, experience, high ethical standards, the ability to challenge the president without repercussions and bipartisanship that’s solved the most contentious issues for more than two centuries but is sorely lacking today. Sadly, sitting Republicans confirmed a cabinet that fails dismally on every count.

Republican President Lincoln’s cabinet was intentionally bipartisan, representing different views on slavery. It helped Lincoln unite a fractured nation, and played key roles in the Union’s Civil War victory and the abolition of slavery. 

There’s an enormous amount of damage that needs to be undone and catastrophes that need to be prevented.  Non-Trump Republicans need to:

• Restore the FBI unit that tracks threats from Iran and that Kash Patel gutted days before Trump bombed Iran. 
• Prevent Trump from sending ground troops to Iran that could require the scale of troops in Vietnam and be to Iran’s advantage. Rugged mountains make up half of Iran. Its urban centers are inland and protected by the mountains and uninhabitable deserts.  
• Repeal cuts to Medicare and Medicaid Republicans passed as part of Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax cut that replaced lost revenues with cuts to both safety nets. 
• Narrow our shamefully wide wealth spread. Republicans’ $4.5 trillion tax cut will make it wider.
• Revive USAID which Trump shuttered. A year later, more than 762,000 people relying on medical aid died including more than 500,000 children.  Other crucial defense and economic benefits are now in jeopardy.
• Restore the  guardrails against corruption abolished by Trump . He then built his net worth from $4.3 billion to $7.3 billion, often ignoring bipartisan opposition to his actions. 
• Stem the threat to the dollar’s supremacy triggered by fiscal irresponsibility. Large countries have set up trade relationships using other currencies. The dollars share of reserve currencies is at a two-decade low. 
• Rebuild America’s ability to prepare for disasters hobbled by Trump that could have saved most – maybe all – of the 120 people killed in Kerr County, Texas.
• Restore budget cuts and reduce hostility towards immigrants that’s sent our best scientists and researchers to China. 
• Impeach and replace Trump’s cabinet of the most unqualified dangerous sycophants in the country’s history by not confirming Trump’s picks until he’s gone.
• Restore the two Democrats Trump fired from the NLRB to replace them with sycophants so it could no longer protect workers rights by not confirming his picks for replacements to any agency where Trump intends to replace members with sycophants until he’s gone.

There are less extreme measures than impeachment. But what demands impeachment is an honest look at Trump’s decisions to aggrandize his power and image instead of benefitting Americans, and his immorality and dishonesty. 

Consider his latest betrayal. Trump told us he’s bombing Iran to achieve regime change, then switched his reason to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. Both were lies. He had already accomplished the latter by his last attack. His real reasons for the bombing and killing thousands were to distract from the Epstein scandal and his punishing economy, for leverage to declare an emergency as an excuse to deploy American troops on U.S. soil, to delay the midterm elections and prove he can do anything he wants. 

He also told us he was shocked when Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz – also a lie. Trump’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned him that an attack could prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. officials long-believed Iran would deploy mines, drones and missiles to close the world’s most vital shipping lane, and Trump acknowledged the risk. 

His press secretary claimed “The Pentagon has been planning for Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz … well before Operation Epic Fury …” 

Perhaps the most difficult challenge to a new Congress is to recapture the honor, trust and respect that sitting Republicans allowed Trump to diminish a respected global leader to a nation widely mocked, distrusted, and shunned.

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The post REPUBLICANS CAN FIX OUR COUNTRY first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

The disaster will have consequences that American voters and even Trump’s enslaved Republicans should finally realize that Trump is a bigger threat than an advantage to keeping their Congressional seats and join the Democrats in removing him – in other words, regime change at home.

The momentum is building. The war is backed by the lowest number of Americans ever at 41%. Reuters poll has it as low as 27%. Support will continue to deteriorate as Iran increases its retaliation.

Videos showing Iran’s drones bombing a high-rise building in Bahrain, a Dubai hotel, Dubai’s airport, a Bahrain radar facility, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, and Amazon data centers in the Emirates are plentiful and convincing that Iran’s threats are real and lasting. 

So is the economic damage to the U.S. and the world at large. Iran bombed critical oil-production facilities and the UAE had to shut down one of the world’s largest oil refineries. Shutting down the Strait of Hormuz reduced oil traffic by 75%, sending oil prices soaring globally and gas prices at the pump in every state.

Clearly, America’s military is far superior to Iran’s. But in this war, the U.S. lost that advantage to Iran’s drones which are much less expensive, more rapidly produced, more scalable at a fraction of the cost, and is capable of precision at short and long ranges. The Pentagon’s addiction to too-slowly producing sophisticated and expensive weaponry is a disadvantage. It’s unclear whether the 1000 Tomahawks ordered will be delivered on time. 

The Pentagon’s Switchblade drone was deployed in Ukraine with a range of less than 60 miles and costs around $120,000 each. By contrast, Iran’s drone has a range of 940–1,240 miles and cost around $35,000 each. Ukraine, copying Iran’s drone technology, brought Russia’s offensive to a halt.

The U.S. fired around 400 Tomahawk missiles to intercept Iranian drones –about 10% of U.S. drone inventory – at a cost of around $800 million, which could buy 23,000 Iranian drones. 

Sending troops to Iran is not the act of a sane man. Yet Trump’s ill-considered decision to bomb Iran has made a land invasion possible if not likely. 

A ground war in Iran will be near-impossible to win. First, the size of the ground force could exceed the scale of Vietnam. Rugged mountains make up half of Iran’s territory, and its urban centers are inland and protected by them and by uninhabitable deserts.  

Given Iran’s much larger population than Iraq’s, it would require as many as 1.6 million troops, equaling roughly three-quarters of the U.S. military, including combat forces America doesn’t have.

Deploying ground troops would provide Moscow and Beijing with an opportunity to weaken a rival superpower that is already overextended and domestically fractured. 

In the end, Trump’s goal of inspiring an uprising won’t be reached. American bombing has yet to create fissures in the regime. Nor has it inspired Iranians to demonstrate.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard remains firmly ‌in control of Iran’s strategy and battlefield. Demolishing their infrastructure only intensifies national solidarity. 

Trump’s ignored the lessons of America’s shameful failures in similar military attempts.

America’s experience in Vietnam bears a striking similarity to what Trump’s doing in Iran.  The U.S. dropped three times more tonnage of bombs in Vietnam than in World War II. U.S. air superiority destroyed the country’s crucial military facilities seemingly vital to the Vietnam’s military, and crushed any expectation that North Vietnam could fend off America’s imminent victory. Yet, just a few months later, Vietcong and Vietnamese forces attacked America’s presence in 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam and shattered the perception that an American victory was near. The Defense Department reported that the failed war cost the U.S. military $138.9-billion — over $1 trillion in today’s dollars. 

The U.S. war in Afghanistan was also a shameful failure, costing over $2.3 trillion and more than 20,000 American lives. And it set the stage for the Taliban’s rapid return to power.

The cost to the U.S. of the Iraq war totaled more than $3 trillion including direct government expenses and its impact on the U.S. economy. It also cost 4,492American lives.

Yet Trump declared “We won … It was over in the first hour.” Remember when he claimed Covid will disappear “within a couple of days and be near to zero,”  it would “disappear like a miracle.” But by the end of his first administration the U.S. accounted for just 4.2% of the world’s population but 30% of COVID  cases and 19% of COVID deaths.

The ugliest truth is that Trump’s attack on Iran has nothing to do with his goals of regime change or denuclearization. It’s that he’s sacrificing American lives, its economy, its honor and what’s left of its financial strength in order to distract from the Epstein scandal, for leverage to declare an emergency, as an excuse to deploy American troops on U.S. soil and to try to delay the midterm elections. 

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The post REGIME CHANGE IN THE U.S. IS MORE LIKELY THAN IN IRAN. first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Turns out it was a good idea for Trump, but a disaster for the country. 

The bombing of Iran quickly supplanted news about his sexually assaulting and hitting a minor, his corruption, Constitutional violations, more brutal ICE killings, and his election rigging. He can also claim emergency powers that he’ll try to use to deploy troops against protesters, postpone the midterm elections and give Republicans something to cheer about. 

This isn’t a political accusation. It’s a string of facts. Our president raged war against a country and fired the people who protect us from its retaliation.

The war is catastrophic for the United States. It’s already killed dozens of school children (who the Chairman of the American Conservative Union claims are better off dead), a thousand other civilians, will kill countless more, and cause major economic disruption throughout the world.

Trump claims he wants regime change. It didn’t work in Iraq and won’t in Iran. Like in Iran, we killed Iraq’s leader, it ended in decade-long brutal civil war and increased the region’s hatred towards America. 

The attack on Iran has also heightened the risk of a nuclear event either by intention or mistake. It could originate with Trump who wanted to nuke North Korea in the last month of his first administration. But General Mark Milley was there to stop him. There’s no Milley now, only a sycophant, alcoholic, unqualified Fox News co-host shockingly confirmed by Republican Senators. 

Trump is capable of hitting the button out of his anger at something unrelated to the issue at hand. He launched his tariffs his steel tariffs upon becoming “unglued” over  Hope Hicks’ testimony about Russia’s election interference and because his chief of staff dropped his son-in-law’s security clearance. There were no meaningful consultations, research or explanations, no alert of foreign trade partners or Congress. No one at the State, Treasury or Defense Departments were notified that tariffs were about to be announced — just like he started a war with Iran without the Constitutionally required Congressional approval. 

After becoming frustrated over his staff’s inability to reach a consensus on pardoning January 6 attackers, he threw up his hands and said, “”F–k it, Release ’em all,” and he released into the streets dozens of prisoners with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes of rape, sexual abuse of a minor, manslaughter, child pornography, drug trafficking. 

If Iran nears defeat and develops the capability, it’s final retaliation could be a nuclear bomb, perhaps not on America’s homeland, but within the region.  Most Western observers view Iran’s priorities as protecting their national interest, but they’re dictated more by religious doctrine. And many clerics preach that the deployment of nuclear weapons is permissible as a last resort.

An unintended nuclear launch has always been more likely than an intentional one. Of the 24 close calls where nuclear war was narrowly avoided, only the Cuban missile crisis involved one nuclear power threatening another. The other incidents resulted from faulty technology, misinterpreted data, human error, and a Soviet false alarm. A nuclear disaster could also result from Iran missiles and drones hitting U.S. and UK nuclear facilities in as many as ten of them. 

Iran still has lethal military power. It can fire hundreds of missiles at U.S. facilities in the Middle East and awaken its regional network of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian who share Iran’s animosity toward Israel the United States. Support from Tehran enabled the Houthis to fire missiles into Israel.

Intelligence assessments indicate that Iran has active sleeper cells throughout the United States.

As hostilities escalate, Trump’s war could plunge the global economy into an inflationary crisis led by the price of oil, especially if Iran cripples shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The consequences could be Trump’s worst. But will they be bad enough for his Republican toadies to find their consciences?

The post IRAN – A GREAT IDEA FOR TRUMP, A DISASTER FOR AMERICA first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

The fallout is likely to  upend the entire region, produce significant civilian casualties, cause major losses to the U.S. military and our allies in the region, result in major economic disruption in the United States and throughout the world, and leave the region destabilized for years to come.

The attack is also unlikely to lead to regime change. That and denuclearization of Iran are Trump’s stated missions. Regime change failed before – even backfired. Like Trump’s mission in Iran, the invasion of Iraq was aimed at regime change. We killed their leader and triggered a power vacuum, a brutal, decade-long civil war, regional instability a “dysfunctional kleptocracy,” and increased hatred towards America. 

Worse, the attack heightens the risk of a nuclear event, either by intention or mistake. A nuclear attack could originate right here at home with a President who wanted to nuke North Korea in the last month of his first administration. Fortunately, General Mark Milley was there to stop him. There’s no Milley now, only an alcoholic, unqualified Fox News co-host shocking confirmed by Republican Senators.

A nuclear disaster could also come in the form of Iran’s final retaliation. Most Western observers view Iran’s conduct through the lens of protecting their national interest, but its priorities are more consistent with the Mahdist religious doctrine,  which dictates that military might is central to its doctrines, and many jurists maintain that the deployment of nuclear weapons is permissibleas a last resort.

An unintended nuclear launch has always been more likely than an intentional one. Of the 24 close calls where nuclear war was narrowly avoided, only the Cuban missile crisis involved one nuclear power threatening another. The other incidents often resulted from faulty technology, misinterpreted data, human error during the Cold War and beyond, the 1983 Soviet false alarm, and the 1983 Nato military exercises. Eight of the closest calls stand out as among the most provocative of a  launch in the in the Middle East.

Iran still has lethal military power. Since last June, it has moved to rebuild its ballistic missile arsenal at what an Israeli military assessment described as “a rapid pace.” It can fire hundreds of missiles at U.S. bases and other facilities and awaken its regional network of partners and proxies, namely Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian who share Iran’s animosity toward Israel the United States and oppose the Jewish state’s existence. Support from Tehran has also enabled Yemen’s rebel Houthis to fire missiles at Israel and attack its commercial ships in the Red Sea — actions the Houthis called a show of solidarity with Hamas. 

Iran has sent missiles and drones to attack U.S. and UK facilities in Qatar,the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Iraq and Cyprus, raising the danger of bombing nuclear power plants, reactors and fuel storage facilities in many of those countries.

Each of the countries under attack indicated high levels of preparedness to retaliate for the actions of Iran.

Iran has many ways it could respond to Trump’s attack, including cyber operations. Between 2012 and 2014, Iran targeted U.S. financial institutions, Saudi Aramco oil, and the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. It could also to attack critical infrastructure. 

Intelligence assessments indicate that Iran poses a threat in the U.S. through networks believed to be operating as sleeper cells.

If hostilities continue to escalate, Trump’s war could plunge the global economy into an inflationary crisis led by the price of oil. The conflict has disrupted shipping, leaving at least five tankers damaged and around 150 ships stranded around theStrait of Hormuz. Marine insurers are cancelling war risk coverage for vessels and oil shipping rates are set to surge further.

Trump’s reasons for the attack conflict with Marco Rubio’s and are contradicted by the facts, raising suspicions as to Trump’s motives. Heightening those suspicions, just days before Trump bombed Iran, his FBI Director, Kash Patel, fired the counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran and its proxies, hobbling the United States ability to detect and subvert retaliatory actions against the United States, raising suspicions as to Trump’s motives.

Truth is who the hell knows why Trump bombed Iran? His denuclearization motive is contradicted by his claim that his attacks last summer obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons capacity, a claim he repeated during his recent State of the Union address. Regime change is fruitless – witness Iraq. He also bizarrely accused Iran of interfering in 2020, 2024 elections to try to defeat him.

Was it to give the Republican party an edge in the midterms? Or to create a state of emergency in an attempt to delay them? Or to rev up his base? You decide. 

The post THE PRICE OF CONTEMPT FOR THE CONSTITUTION first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Bipartisanship is impossible when one party is bound by lies whether they believe them or not and are unencumbered by the truth. The Republicans’ unanimous standing ovations for Trump falsehoods demonstrates that they’re confined to them in their policymaking.    

The Republicans stood and cheered for his most blatant and pernicious lies – including his touting of policies that will upend the quality of life of nearly all Americans. For example:

Trump praised his “One Big, Beautiful Bill” as a “turnaround for the ages,” suggesting that it will spur economic growth and pay for Republicans $4.5 trillion tax cut for America’s wealthiest. The nasty truth is Republicans will replace the lost tax revenues by cutting Medicare, Medicaid and food assistance programs.

He claimed that undocumented immigrants were criminals who are responsible for importing drugs, murder, sex trafficking, rape and other  violent crimes.  

The truth is that undocumented immigrants are arrested less than half as often as native-born citizens for drug crimes and have the lowest homicide arrest rate of all people sur, according to a 2024 study funded by the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice.

As part of his obsession to undo everything President Obama accomplished he continued to claim it was unaffordable and claimed he had a better and cheaper [undisclosed] plan. The Truth: overturning Obamacare could leave 21+ million Americans without insurance. 

Also, Republicans refused to extend the Obamacare subsidies. As a result premiums would rise from $888 in 2025 to about $1,904 in 2026.

And he claimed that his tariffs are paid “by foreign countries,” but they are paid by U.S. consumers, farmers, and businesses. Now that the Supreme Court held the tariffs to be illegal, he will have to reimburse those who paid them. Interestingly, most Republicans remained seated for his tariff lie.

Most Americans know when Trump is lying (which is almost always). It’s a safe assumption that Republicans also know. So why do they endorse his lies with standing ovations? The most common answer is the same reason they pass his policies – that they don’t want to face a primary challenger backed by Trump. So they value keeping their seats more than keeping their oaths to their constituents and all other Americans. 

Trump is incapable of reversing course. Unless the Republicans find the courage to contain him, the U.S. will suffer lasting economic and geopolitical costs for years to come. What’s most alarming is that Trump checks all the boxes that mental health professionals use to diagnose a malignant narcissist, which combines  narcissism with sadism, paranoia, and antisocial behavior. They take pleasure in harming others, are ruthlessly manipulative, and seek to destroy others to maintain power, often showing no remorse for their abusive actions. Yet the Republicans have turned him loose to destroy the leadership, influence, trust and respect America has taken seven decades to earn.

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The post MORE FRIGHTENING THAN TRUMP’S LIES first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Although injunctions don’t matter to Trump or his enslaved Republicans, these injunctions will matter to the individual ICE agents, members of the military, and other Trump operatives who attempt to deprive voters of the right to vote as they choose. 

It will matter because, specifically, if any individual violates the injunction, they can personally be held in civil or criminal contempt and suffer fines and jail time. Those consequences would provide the strongest disincentive to obey any order to intimidate voters. 

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and  The Rules for Courts-Martial  an order is unlawful, “if it is contrary to the Constitution or the laws of the United States.

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of federal troops for domestic law enforcement other than in the case of an insurrection.

So, if Trump issued an unconstitutional or unlawful order, the members of the military would be legally obligated to disobey it or be subject to fines and incarceration. 

Even without an injunction, individuals are legally obligated to disobey any command to commit illegal acts or else they’d be personally subject to civil liability and incarceration. 

Trump would probably pardon the ICE agents and other offenders for federal crimes but cannot pardon for state crimes, void civil liability or stop Congressional investigations. Nevertheless, Trump’s roll in ordering the intimidation is likely to be its own crime, and could be the basis for criminal prosecution after he leaves office.

Although the law gives the Attorney General the authority to bring the proceeding for an injunction, it is beyond unlikely that Pam Bondi would do so. Nevertheless, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 creates a way for citizens to bring a civil action  to seek injunctive relief and compensatory and punitive damages against the individuals that deprived voters the right to vote as they choose. 

There are plenty of grounds to believe that Trump will employ ICE agents and the military to engage in such attempts. First, there are the undeserved horrors ICE has inflicted on immigrants and citizens alike, sweeping them off the streets in Gestapo-like fashion and sending them to the most brutal prison in the Western Hemisphere. 

Trump has openly discussed using the military to quell domestic demonstrations, which he labels as chaos, and declaring a national emergency so he can bring in the troops. 

To facilitate intimidating voters, Trump is pressing Republicans from states across the country to give him their voter rolls,  Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened Minnesota Governor Walz that if he wanted a ICE to back off he must give Trump access to his state’s voter rolls, and Bondi has initiated more than 20 legal actions to get them.

Trump obtained a magistrate’s warrant to seize voting records in Georgia, ostensively to prove he won the 2020 election. Many legal experts worry that he’ll use the seizure as precedent to obtain a similar warrant to seize voting machines and midterm ballots before they’re counted. 

Trump may pressure his Republican allies to refuse to seat Democratic winners claiming there are disputes about the results. California, with 54 electoral votes, could be particularly vulnerable, since it takes so long for the state to tally its votes. It’s happened before in a closely contested race.

Trump could repeat his deployment of supporters, pardoned Oath keepers and Proud Boys to stage another Jan. 6 attack on Congress.  

As always, only the Republicans can stop Trump’s treacheries. Whether he rigs the midterms depends on whether they’ll sacrifice their constituents to avoid facing a Trump-backed challenger in the primaries.  

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The post DEMOCRATS CAN STOP TRUMP FROM RIGGING THE MIDTERMS first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

A majority of each party is opposed to the mid-decade redistricting  to guarantee a party’s win in midterms. An overwhelming majority of voters nationally (77%) and in Florida (76%), Texas (74%), New York (78%), Illinois (75%), and California (80%) support independent commissions to draw district lines instead of state lawmakers. 64% of Republican and independent voters want a ban on mid-decade redistricting. 

Even 60% of the voters who supported Donald Trump in 2024 want Congress to ban mid-decade redistricting. Yet he threatened Indiana that if the state Republicans didn’t pass a district map that gave the Republican House delegation a 9-0 sweep, all federal funding will be stripped from the state, roads will not be paved and major projects will stop. His warning was a brazen attempt at election interference.

The Supreme Court held that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to place a “gun to the head” of a state by threatening massive funding losses. Those funds are not discretionary political weapons. Any threat to strip highway funding would require clear statutory authority. 

While both parties politically gerrymander, the Republicans make much more use of  it. In 2022 Congress nearly passed the Freedom to Vote Act, that included a prohibition on partisan gerrymandering. The transformative bill passed the House and had majority support in the Senate. It stalled only because the Senate failed by two Republican votes to modify the chamber’s archaic filibuster rules to allow the bill to advance to an up-or-down floor vote.

In some states, the party that wins the most votes overall doesn’t win a proportional number of seats. For example:

• Pennsylvania (2012): Democrats won roughly half the vote in House races, but Republicans won about 75% of the seats due to how the lines were drawn.
• North Carolina & Michigan: Similar representational mismatches have occurred.

The worst consequence of gerrymandering is that it frequently guaranties the election of the least qualified candidate. Take for example Jim Jordan, the 2024 Republican candidate for Ohio’s Fourth Congressional. The state Republican legislature mangled the district map to make it look like a jigsaw puzzle missing random pieces to make Jordan a sure winner even though he had the lowest score of all Republicans for legislative effectiveness, and despite that over the  800 bills he authored in 2023, none have passed and become law.

Sadly, Republicans will sail through the Supreme Court’s pro-Trump majority, even when Republicans violate the 15^th Amendment by “deny or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.”

In Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP the pro-Trump majority upheld the South Carolina Republicans’ legislature removal of 60% of Black voters from their Congressional District into a White-denominated District to ensure the election of the Republican candidate. The same majority, minus Barrett, previously held in Rucho. v. Common Cause that political gerrymandering is not the business of federal courts. The combination of these two rulings allows racial gerrymandering

because racial gerrymandering is always done to win elections.

In Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Trump’s majority held that Arizona’s voting restrictions that allowed the tossing ballots that didn’t comply with the restrictions didn’t violate the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and 15^th Amendment prohibitions against denying or abridging the right to vote based on race or color. Although Chief Justice Roberts admitted that Arizona’s restrictions fell more heavily on Native American minorities, he hedged by claiming that the number of ballots tossed would be immaterial to the outcome of the election, even though they exceeded the margins of victory in the 2018 and 2020 elections.

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The post ANOTHER ELECTION INTERFERENCE ATTEMPT BY TRUMP first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

We know Trump’s wannabes are mostly  strong men dictators: Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Viktor Orban, Adolf Hitler, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Saddam Hussein: Trump’s praised all of them and promised that he, too, will be a dictator “on Day One” in office.

But the one he’s copying most is history’s most murderous dictator, Adolph Hitler. Of course, Trump’s worst transgressions pale in comparison to Hitler’s. Rather he’s like an adoring child playing him.  He praised Hitler for doing good things and, according to a Trump former chief of staff, had Hitler in mind as a model during his first presidency. 

Trump’s first wife, Ivana,, told the press that Trump reads a collection of Hitler’s speeches he keeps by his bed; although that’s hard to believe given that Trump hardly reads or even skims the written word. 

Emulation of heroes is common. Children emulate superheroes for their morality, strong sense of justice and protecting those in danger. Jonas Salk built upon the research other scientists to create the polio vaccine. Many Americans followed in the footsteps of civil rights hero Martin Luther King’s peaceful progress towards racial equality.

Trump, on the other hand embraced Hitler’s brutal Gestapo as the template for his ICE brigade. He pardoned all the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to join ICE to beat and murder innocent immigrants and citizens, while masked to hide their identities. Trump also copied Hitler’s racist propaganda to unleash the latent racism that lies dormant in America.  He repeatedly warned that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”– a diatribe straight out of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”  Most recently, Trump posted a video portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as apes and insisted he had nothing to apologize for. 

He also learned from Hitler’s propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels – that people will believe a lie if it is repeated often enough and is so outrageous that people simply cannot believe it is untrue. It worked for Trump.  Approximately 70% of Republicans came to believe Trump won the 2020 election in the face of being rejected by the Supreme Court three times, 60 lower federal courts, state election officials in every state, all federal election officials and federal agencies, and Trump’s own Attorney General. 

Trump complained that his generals should be more like Hitler’s generals.  

Hitler constantly blamed Germany’s problems on other German officials, his opposition, and the press. Trump blamed the press, political opponents, civil servants, judges, and election officials and called them enemies of the people.

Hitler presented himself as the only leader who could save Germany,. Sound familiar? Remember Trump frequently assuring voters “I alone can fix it.”? 

Both demanded absolute loyalty above what’s best for country and treated criticism as betrayal rather than dissent and retaliated against those who dissented. 

What’s more appalling than Trump’s treachery is that Congressional Republicans tolerate and enable a Hitler wannabe as our president and give him free reign to shame America and destroy the admiration, envy and influence it took us seventy years to earn. While Trump’s not a carbon copy of Hitler, he’s trying to get closer. He shouldn’t be given any more time. 

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The post WE ALL HAVE WANNABES. MINE WAS JOHN WAYNE. WHO IS DONALD TRUMP’s? first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Although there have been only two outbreaks, and none in the US, Nipah is considered a public health threat because of its high fatality rate, potential for human-to-human transmission and the absence of approved vaccines or treatment. 

So how would Donald Trump come to our rescue if it or when, not if, any pandemic hits the U.S. again? The answer is poorly given his brutal cuts to medical research and his dismal Covid-19 performance. 

Trump recently announced  cuts of $4 billion in medical research funding at universities, hospitals, and other scientific institutions. Researchers have had to drop crucial projects and many consider switching fields due to Trump’s cuts and layoffs. The cutscanceled 383 clinical trials affecting research into COVID-19,  cancer prevention and heart and brain disease. 

Not to mention that Trump has sent our best medical scientists to China, weakening our ability to fend off pandemics and rapidly propelling China’s medical advancement beyond ours. The assault on our health will continue until Congressional Republicans find the integrity and courage to stop him. 

Trumps ruinous actions and failure to stop the Covid pandemic during his first presidency is alarmingly similar to what he’s doing today. At the end of his first administration, America had 4.2% of  the world’s population, 25% of Covid cases and 19% of Covid deaths. Shamefully, he abandoned over seven decades in which America played the leading global role in fighting infectious diseases, including Ebola, tuberculosis, malaria, yellow fever, AIDS, avian influenza and Zika. It was an unconscionable abdication of responsibility. He ignored the Defense Production Act, which gives the president the responsibility to force production and distribution of materials needed to arrest a pandemic. 

In 2014, President Obama coordinated world leaders to stop the Ebola virus at its source, sending more than 3,000 health officials to West Africa as part of a 10,000 team. Cases fell by 80% from peak levels. He also led the fight against Ebola at home, resulting in just 11 cases and two deaths in the United States. 

In sharp contrast, Trump abdicated his responsibility to the states, telling governors they’re on their own to find the critical equipment needed to fight the Covid, admonishing them that the federal government is “not a shipping clerk.” 

Having failed to control the spread of COVID, Trump turned to massive misinformation and  blamed  Obama, governors, Democrats, the media and, most bizarrely, the World Health Organization, from which he recently withdrew.

Trump predicted the mortality rate “within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero” and would “disappear like a miracle” and that everybody “infected is getting better.” His BS led Americans to abandon caution and suffer more infections and death. 

This man checks all the boxes that medical professionals use to diagnose a sociopath. Whether his claims are lies or delusions doesn’t matter. Either way, he is out of control. Why the hell do we keep him as our President? 

Although Trump can’t help himself, the Republicans in Congress know exactly what they’re doing. They can stop the carnage, but they don’t because the value their Congressional and anatomical seats above their constituents and the country at large. So their complicity will be repeated when, not if, the next pandemic hits. 

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The post 2 NEW FATAL VIRUS CASES DISCOVERED WHILE TRUMP CUTS MEDICAL RESEARCH first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

The swing towards China’s political, scientific, technological and economic dominance will continue as long as Trump bullies our allies and trade partners, menaces our immigrants and stifles immigration. Meanwhile the Congressional Republicans won’t meddle with his insanity.

For the first time since Trump took office, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited China. He’s also leading a delegation of more than 50 British companies from sectors such as finance, healthcare and manufacturing to sign trade and investment agreements. 

Starmer’s visit follows a visit by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney where the two nations signed an agreement to tear down trade barriers and forge a new strategic relationship because, as Carney put it, China is “a more predictable and reliable partner” than the U.S. The two countries expect China to buy agricultural products from Canadian farmers that will replace products formerly purchased from U.S. farmers.

India and the European Union just sealed a colossal free trade agreement that creates a $2B market that will bolster their trading universe and their economies. The agreement will account for nearly a quarter of global GDP and exclude the U.S. while trade deals between the U.S. and India could end this year due to Trump’s tariffs.

Just last week, the European Union signed a  free trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc that comprises Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It will boost their economies and create one of the world’s largest free trade zones, including more than 700 million people. Mercosur eliminated duties on 91% of EU exports while Trump keeps hurling tariffs and trade threats at any country that irritates him.  

China has also exploited Trump’s hostility towards immigrants by seeking and welcoming qualified experts to China to advance its progress in science, technology, engineering and medicine. The list of experts leaving the U.S. for China is growing: a Princeton nuclear physicist, a mechanical engineer who helped NASA explore the possibility of manufacturing in space, a US National Institutes of Health neurobiologist, celebrated mathematicians, and over half a dozen AI experts. At least 85 U.S. scientists have joined Chinese research institutions since the start of last year, with more than half making the move in 2025. The loss of these experts, not surprisingly, follows Trump slashing the budgets for research in many areas crucial to the U.S. 

China is also culling experts from across the globe, many of whom would have come to the U.S. but for Trump’s hostility towards immigrants. He’s imposed a $100,000for employers filing H-1B visa applications, expounded hostile immigration rhetoric, threatened and employed violence towards immigrants, and froze U.S. borders.

Unless Trump reverses course or the Republicans find courage and integrity, the U.S. will suffer lasting economic and geopolitical costs for years to come. What’s most alarming is that Congressional Republicans are giving an unhinge madman free reign to upend our economy, shame America and destroy the trust and influence it took seventy years to earn.

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The post TRUMP SENDS US TRADE PARTNERS AND BEST SCIENTISTS TO CHINA, LAUNCHING ITS SLUGGISH ECONOMY INTO RECOVERY first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has equated opposition by state leaders and demonstrations with domestic terrorism and insurrection.

ICE’s budget tripled and its force doubled  in 2025 and will double again in 2026. There’s little doubt that Trump pardoned and recruited the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to carry out ICE executions. Who else would willingly and handily execute innocent Americans? They will continue to kill without cause.  

Martial law means the suspension of rights, lower bars for arrests, curfews, checkpoints, restricted travel and surveillance of anybody Trump and odious Stephen Miller want to know more about. Make no mistake, both of them are basking in the chaos and savoring the outcome. Don’t default to an oh-that-will-never-happen safe harbor. Aren’t you closer that you ever thought you’d be? 

The law prohibits bringing in the military and its consequences. But, tragically, we can’t rely on the Supreme Court’s Trump-favoring majority to stop him.

Even more unlikely is that Trump will act rationally – that’s because he’s emotionally unable of being rational. He checks all the boxes that mental health professionals use to diagnose a sociopath: He’s incapable of experiencing guilt, shame, remorse, or empathy. He exhibits aggressive behavior and verbally attacks his critics and won’t admit mistakes. He intimidates and threatens to maintain control, disregards rules and laws, has difficulty controlling impulses, acts without considering the consequences and his dreams are his realities and frequently nightmares for others.

So how do we stop the carnage? We can’t count on the Republicans that Trump has enslaved. There are however solutions. Voters could replace Trump-enslaved Republicans with Republicans not tethered to him in primaries. Democrats can help here. 24 states allow them to vote in Republican primaries.  Democrats can threaten sitting Republican seats more than Trump by threatening to vote for non-Trump primary candidates (and still vote for Democrats in national elections). If sitting Republicans feel the way the wind blows, they’ll seriously consider leaving Trump’s ship.

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The post DON’T RULE OUT MARTIAL LAW. WE’RE CLOSER THAN ANYONE THOUGHT  first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Trump also referred to Nazi protestors as “Very Fine People,” Mimicked the movements of a crippled reporter, said John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he was captured, and claimed he stopped several wars that never happened. The list of is long and, let’s say, not presidential.

Ty Cobb, a former member of the Trump Administration, noted Trump’s warning to Norway leaders that he could disregard peace with them because they didn’t give him the Nobel Peace Prize Cobb said, “I don’t think there’s anybody outside of the United States who believes that Trump is sane.” 

Mark my words. When Trump is gone and the complicit Republicans in Congress are blamed for the damage he’s done, they’ll create desperate fictions to disassociate themselves from him, just like the Nazis denied anything to do whatsoever with the Holocaust. 

The Republicans let him brazenly flout our laws, violate court orders and disassemble the blueprint of our governance. As Sir Thomas More, Arch Bishop of Canterbury, warned, “This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, … And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?” All will suffer, including those you took an oath to protect. 

More’s admonishments should also be heeded by the Supreme Court’s majority who mangled the Constitution to advanced Trump’s march to dictatorship.

To paraphrase a More admonishment of a man who perjured himself, “It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world… but for [a seat in Congress]?” 

Impeachment may be a drastic step, but it is a necessary one. The Republicans should join the Democrats and impeach and convict Trump to stop and repair the damage he’s caused, and restore the honor, trust and respect that Republicans helped Trump strip away from our country by reducing a once respected global leader to a nation widely mocked, distrusted, and shunned.

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The post THE WORLD WONDERS WHY AMERICA KEEPS A DIFUNCTIONAL BUFFOON AS THEIR PRESIDENT, EVEN MORE SO AFTER DAVOS  first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.