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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Although workers in 19 states have received  an increase in their minimum wage to $15 per hour while the rest of Americans will work for a federal minimum wage of $7.25, the increases are not enough to cover middle and low income earners’ basic expenses. Prices projected to keep rising include beef, coffee, eggs, dairy and sugar.

Trump has put Stephen Miran, a close advisor of Trump, on the Fed’s board of governors. Shocking, Miran will stays in the administration as a Trump advisor while he’s a mole on the board for the President.  Trump is also trying to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden-appointed governor, claiming that she’s committed mortgage fraud, but the Supreme stopped him until it hears the case.

And if Trump’s compliant Supreme Court majority allows him to replace Cook, he’ll hold a majority on the Fed. Then Trump won’t need to pressure anyone – he’ll make interest rate decisions himself, and inflation is sure to follow. It always has when leaders exercise control over their central banks.

President Richard Nixon pressured Fed Chair Arthur Burns to keep interest rates low going into the 1972 presidential election. The Fed succumbed, the economy had a spurt, and Nixon got reelected. Predictably, four years after his presidency, inflation rates hit 15%, and the dollar lost 12 percent of its value.

It took painful interest-rate increases under new Fed Chair Paul Volker to get the inflation under control. In 1980, Volker raised rates to a record high of 20 percent. Inflation still shot up to 11.6 percent in March. High mortgage and car loan rates made homes and cars unaffordable, curtailed consumer spending and sent the economy into a severe recession. 

Argentina’s Consumer Price Index started surging in 1946 after President Juan Peron nationalized the central bank and had the banks expand the money supply and lower rates in order to accommodate aggressive public spending. The annual inflation rate reached 18.74%. By the end of 1951, the CPI surged to 50.21%. The accumulated inflation rate in just six years reached 297.57%. Clearly, the main cause of Argentina’s hyperinflation was its central bank’s enabling of political profligacy.

In January 2007, Argentina’s President Christina Kirchner, in a striking similarity to Trump, didn’t like her experts’ consumer price index numbers. So she fired them, replaced them with political appointees and threated prosecution against independent economists who published higher CPI estimates.

Turkey’s another example. Its inflation rates have been in double digits since Trump’s authoritarian idol, President Erdogan, appointed a central bank head to lower rates. Although the bank eventually raised rates, annual price gains were still around 40% as of January 2025.

These are examples of politicians seizing control over central banks for their own political gain while their countries bore the pain of higher inflation. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a House subcommittee, in referring to Volker’s increase of rates to stem rising inflation, . “No one wants to see that happen again”… except Trump.

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The post TRUMP SUES FOR LOWER RATES. WILL RAISE INFLATION AND CONSUMER PRICES first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

After all, Putin’s popularity only grows with his invasions. His ratings rose to 84 percent during the second war in Chechnya and to 88 percent after he annexed Crimea. Putin has called the Soviet collapse “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”  The takeover of Venezuela has to evoke the “he-did-it-why-can’t-I” justification to invade NATO members that were formerly part of the USSR. 

Trump’s aggression could also give Xi implied permission to bully its neighbors around the South China Sea and fulfill its historic claim to Taiwan. China has already violated the Hague International Court’s order declaring than Vietnam had the legal right to drill there. But it had to back off citing doubt that America would come to its aid . There’s no doubt that Trump won’t now. 

 Both countries have been trying to carve the world up into their own spheres of influence with each ruled by a single dictator. Trump would like nothing more than to join them. He’s knowingly diminishing America’s status as a superpower and watching as  Putin and Xi supplant the US-dominated world order with one that will give them and Trump the power and leverage to write the rules and intimidate other countries. 

His intensions, if you believe what his declaration says, that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again” portend more aggression outside U.S. borders. Moreover, Trump’s Security Strategy puts the first priority on the Western Hemisphere, which declares the Americas and their surrounding waters as Washington’s sphere of dominance.

There’s a better way to expand Washington’s sphere of dominance in Latin America. It’s by growing US trust, trade, influence and hegemony  (dominance achieved through political and economic efforts) in the region. 

Sadly, though, it’s not in Trump’s DNA. He’s much more comfortable with cruel force and pernicious power.  But the opportunity is there for a new and rational President or for Republicans with integrity and the county’s best interests at heart. 

Venezuela’s GDP has fallen by 75% in a decade. Oil production has collapsed. Public services can barely function. In seven out of 24 Venezuelan states the food insecurity rate is 99%, and only three states are lower than 90%. Around 82.4% of households live in poverty  and around 50.5% live in extreme poverty. 

So, the better solution is to employ a small Marshal Plan in Venezuela like the US did in Europe after World War II, which built economic and political stability. Given the Venezuelans’ jubilation over Maduro’s fall, the country is likely to welcome one there and cooperate.

After the devastation of Europe in World War II, the Marshall Plan generated a resurgence of European industrialization, agricultural production, brought extensive investment into the region, expanded traded, established financial stability and stimulated the U.S. economy by developing markets for American goods.

Similarly to Europe in 1948, Venezuela’s requirements for foreign food and other essential products far exceed its ability to pay for them. So the country needs significant assistance to prosper, and the US is in a position and has the opportunity to fulfill its needs … and also the needs of the greater region, which ranks as one of the most unequal regions in the world with the poorest 50 percent only holding 0.8 percent of its wealth.

A Marshal-type plan is also necessary to supplant China’s rapidly growing influence in Latin America and Russia’s military aid to Venezuela. It sent nuclear-capable bombers to Venezuela as a show of force in 2018. China ratified a “strategic partnership” with Venezuela last October to establish a platform for spreading its influence across Latin America. China also loaned more than $100 billion to the region over the last quarter-century.

But if US oil companies control  and then export Venezuela’s oil revenues instead of redirecting them back into the country, no government will be able to restore even a modicum of prosperity to the country. 

And a quick disengagement from Venezuela by the U.S. is likely to leave it fatally ungoverned, unstable, and losing people and capital. 

Tragically for Venezuela and the world’s stability, Trump is no Darth Vaderwho, after a lifetime of evil, becomes an unselfish and well-meaning.  

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The post TRUMP’S CHOICES AFTER VENEZUELA first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Never mind that Trump’s attacks on Venezuela and capture of its leader violates the Constitution, international law, the War Powers Resolution and the Geneva Conventions. 

It’s worse than that. The United States is now ruled by a President who is an unhinged, delusional renegade who has run amuck against the country he was elected to lead. 

His delusions are many. His unshakable belief that his lies are realities is most evident in his lies at the Supreme Court.  So, is Trump’s claim that Venezuela is a significant trafficker of drugs into the United States a lie or a delusion. In light of the facts, I vote for delusion. 

More than 90% of all seized fentanyl, 97% of all seized cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine came in through legal entry points. Less common methods include tunnels, drones, and the international mail system. None of the DEA reports include Caribbean boats and don’t even list the entire sea as a significant source of drugs.

Fentanyl is overwhelmingly produced in Mexico. 84% of cocaine seized in the US came from Columbia, the world’s largest producer. Today almost none of the drugs smuggled into the United States enter via the Caribbean. 

Yet, Trump has deployed the largest military buildup since the Cuban missile crisis in Venezuelan waters and forcefully captured its leader. Certainly, Venezuela pittance of drug activity, if any, doesn’t come close to justifying Trump’s military aggression … unless of course he believes that Venezuela is a major drug trafficker into the United States.

Trump also checks all the boxes that mental health professionals use to diagnose a sociopath, including that they act without considering the consequences. Let’s take a look at what they’re likely to be.

Venezuela and other Latin American countries will seek more military support from Russia and China. Russia already provides Venezuela with military cooperation and is Venezuela’s strongest geopolitical backer. China, Venezuela’s largest importer of oil, already provides it with economic support.

Both Russia and China will leverage their relationships with Venezuela and other concerned countries in South America against U.S. interests. 

Tragically the Congressional Republicans are complicit in his treachery and willing to let him shred America’s governing blueprint to avoid losing their seats to a Trump-backed challenger. They have knowingly enabled his treachery by confirming the most dangerous and unqualified cabinet in America’s history and by tolerating his too-many-to count treacheries. 

The solution is to replace them with Republicans that Trump hasn’t enslaved, or by Democrats. Then, and only then, will America regain the bipartisan cooperation  that has solved its toughest issues for centuries.

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The post TRUMP’S ATTACKS ON VENEZUELA ARE BASED ON A LIE  OR A DELUSION. THE DEA DOESN’T MENTION VENEZUELA AS A DRUG TRAFFICKER first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

The decision handed the wealthiest Americans oversized control over how America was governed and planted the seed that grew into the widest wealth spread in American history. For example, Trump’s signed into law a 4.5 trillion-dollar tax bill which provided that the country would recover the lost revenues by cutting the safety nets that lower-earners depend on, such as Medicare, Medicaid and food programs.

Disavowing 89 years of precedent, the majority labored mightily to justify its finding that corporations and Super PACs – believe it or not — “speak” when they spend money to fund political campaigns. Alas, we all thought that only humans and parrots can speak.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his dissent, “The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons … is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court’s” decision.

The majority justified its holding that corporations can speak because “they are associations of humans, which makes no sense. Corporations often contradict their human shareholders’ beliefs when they fund candidates and policies their shareholders oppose. As Justice Stevens said, “Nor does [the majority] tell us when a corporation may engage in electioneering that some of its shareholders oppose.”

Moreover, the Supreme Court previously held that state corporate law – not federal law —  a corporation’s governing structure, and ordered federal courts to defer to state law.  And it’s been that way for more than two centuries. 

When a state withholds the power to fund political campaigns, campaign funding is unauthorized and void; it doesn’t exist. So there’s nothing to protect. Federal law is mostly regulatory and prohibitory, limiting the exercise of corporate power. It does not bestow powers on  corporations.

Readers have to wonder why the majority labored so hard to reach its conclusion. One answer is that the concurrences of Justices Scalia, Thomas and Roberts, was necessary to carry the decision. Their willingness to stretch the Constitution to accommodate the Republican party was evident when they joined Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett to become the current Supreme Court majority. 

Citizens United was decided by the Republican majority and turned Republican power into law.  The decision was followed by a flood of campaign spending by corporations and Super PACs that spent $1,755 trillion on Republican campaigns in the 2024 election cycle while they spent $.787 trillion on Democratic campaigns. Moreover, two-thirds of business’s (including corporations) spending funded Republican campaigns. It worked. 90% of it went to Republican winners. 

The Court’s majority concluded that large spending on campaigns doesn’t increase corruption or cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.  Wrong on both counts. 66 percent of Republicans and 85 percent of Democrats back a constitutional amendment overruling Citizens United. Also, a majority of Americans (55%) consider corruption in government a major cause of their loss of trust. 

Ever since Roberts became chief justice in 2005, his main objectives have been clear: to empower corporate America and help Republicans consolidate power. It wasn’t too long before he added the priority of accommodating Trump’s march to autocracy.

Indeed, led by Roberts, the Republican Majority appears ready to transfer enormous amounts of power from Congress to the Republican President, which would brazenly violate a clear legislative prohibition as well as the Constitutions mandates for separation of powers, checks and balances and three independent branches of government.

Yes, folks. This is where we’ve come – a Supreme Court with pernicious political holdings that rival Constitutional ones, Congressional Republicans who’ve checked their spines at the Capitol doors, and a sociopathic President whose obsession with self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement precludes any focus on what’s best for America.

The only feasible solution is to replace Trump’s enslave Republicans with Republicans not afraid of him, or by Democrats. We’d relish in overdue bipartisan legislating.

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The Democrats settled for a promise that the Senate will vote on a bill to extend the subsidies by the end of the second week of December when Speaker  The Democrats who voted with the Republicans are either stupid or have been corrupted by our Chief Corrupter, President Trump. 

Open Enrollment in ACA coverage for 2026 begins on November 1^st. The subsidies are extremely unlikely to be adopted by then, so the options that millions of Americans will be left with will require higher premiums and lower coverage.

Republicans have been trying to cut health benefits for years and currently target Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Democrats ignored the fact that Trump’s obscene tax cuts are part of a decades-long sinister plan to increase our deficits and national debt, and create shortfalls so they can throw up their hands and lament that they have no option but to cut America’s safety nets. 

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McCarthy Bargains: A Dangerous Deal with the MAGA Fringe

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy made covert deals with twenty one Representatives who changed their votes in order to give him the Speaker’s gavel, including rewarding them with powerful committee assignments.

Members of Congress are supposed to engage in constructive dialogue, mutual respect, and compromise to write laws that improve Americans’ lives. Instead, most of McCarthy’s appointments obsessively seek to degrade Democratic accomplishments, dismantle America’s law enforcement institutions, and sow distrust in our elections, often through bizarre accusations.

MAGA Fringe Appointees: Threats to Lawmaking and Democracy

Marjorie Taylor Greene was rewarded with seats on the Oversight and Homeland Security committees. She was also the clear winner of the deranged canard competition. She has claimed that:

• The QAnon conspiracy theory is true. It holds that a global child-sex trafficking ring is backed by the government and run out of a pizza restaurant in DC by celebrities and politicians.
• The 9/11 attack was a hoax.
• The Clintons may have arranged the plane crash that killed JFK Jr.
• Devastating wildfires were started by “a laser” from space, controlled by a Jewish banking family with connections to powerful Democrats.
• She wanted to execute Nancy Pelosi.  
• The Democratic party was into child sex, satanism, and the occult.
• Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double before her death in 2020.
• The Capitol Police were like the gestapo (she mistakenly called them “the Gazpacho”).
• Vaccine passports were like the stars Nazis forced Jews to wear to identify them during the Holocaust.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci is like the Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele, the Nazi “Angel of Death.”
• The July 4 and Highland Park shootings were set-ups by rich people to pressure Republicans to back gun control.
• Prosecuting the people at the Capitol who bashed windows, built gallows, chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” and urinated and smeared feces on the walls is “a political witch hunt.”
• Walmart is “sexualizing children with sex toys.”

Weaponization of Government: MAGA Fringe’s Agenda

Dan Bishop was given a spot onthe House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which is intent on proving that Democrats have weaponized the DOJ and FBI to attack conservatives. The subcommittee has a budget of $19 million, up from $7.6 million last year. Its staff was expanded from about 20 to more than 60.

Weaponization Select Committee Chairman Jim Jordan claims to have heard from “dozens and dozens of whistleblowers” about how the FBI has been “weaponized” against the Right. In fact, he’s heard from three of them, none of whom described any wrongdoing. They are each about as credible as George Santos.

One, George Hill, repeatedly called for dismantling the FBI and suggested that it would be better for Americans to “die than to have any kind of domestic intelligence program.”

Another, FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle,has a vendetta against the agency after being suspended for refusing to take part in a SWAT raid on a January 6 suspect. O’Boyle claimed January 6 was “set up” by the Democrats with the help of the FBI. He posted a video of himself outside the Capitol on January 6 wearing body armor and a gas mask and holding an AR-15-style rifle. He also compared COVID-19 vaccine mandates to Nazi genocide.

The third, Stephen Friend, isanothersuspended FBI special agent who helped Russian propaganda outlets while an FBI employee. He was quoted extensively in a Sputnik article headlined “Federal Agencies Turned Into Instrument of Intimidation,” and he did an interview with Russia Today.

O’Boyle and Friend were paid by Kash Patel, a high-ranking official in Trump’s administration, who also found them jobs. Patel is facing a Justice Department investigation for improper disclosure of classified information.

MAGA Fringe Influence: Undermining the FBI and Law Enforcement

Sadly, Jim Jordan, his Select Committee, and other Republicans gunning for the FBI have done their damage. Almost half the country now doesn’t trust the FBI, citing concerns it does the bidding of one political party over another. This is a tragedy for the country.

The FBI was founded as an apolitical crimefighting force in 1909 and has become the world’s mightiest domestic intelligence agency. It has arrested countless criminals involved in organized crime, cyber security breaches, terrorism, espionage, drug trafficking, murders, and other violent crimes. It continues to prevent crime and save lives through its surveillance operations. Yet the Republican Right wing is calling for it to be destroyed and defunded.

Republican Moderates vs. MAGA Fringe: A Struggle for Control

More moderate Republicans have expressed chagrin at this radical turn. One G.O.P. committee aide complained, “There’s a big difference between oversight where you have expertise and oversight just to churn out press releases.”

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Reward Lauren Boebert with Oversight Role

Lauren Boebert was rewarded with seats on the Oversight and Accountability Committees,  which will muckrake and investigate the Biden administration in an effort to degrade its accomplishments.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Support Boebert’s Controversial Statements

 She suggested that U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who is Muslim, is a terrorist. She regularly calls Omar, Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts “the Jihad Squad.”

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Back Boebert’s Defunding NPR

Boebert called for NPR to be defunded, claiming it’s a government propaganda tool. She said talking about transgender identity and oppression causes students to shoot up schools.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Endorse Andy Biggs for Judiciary and Oversight

Andy Biggs stays on the Judiciary and Oversight committees and was named chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. He called Dr. Anthony Fauci a “coward” and tweeted that Tucker Carlson “reveal[s] the truth in America today.”

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Align with Biggs on 2020 Election

Biggs was a ringleader in the plot to overturn the 2020 Presidential election and was joined by 147 Republicans including 16 of McCarthy’s appointees. Along with most of last year’s 120 Trump-backed candidates, he endorsed the “big lie,” even though the claims of voter fraud were rejected by 60 courts including the Supreme Court, every state and federal election official including Republicans, all federal election officials and intelligence agencies, and Trump’s own Awas addedttorney General William Barr.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Add Matt Gaetz to Weaponization Committee

Matt Gaetz will stay on the Judiciary Committee and was added to the Weaponization Select Committee, where he dog-whistled his antisemitism by complaining about the “Soros-ization of the US Justice System.”

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Back Gaetz Despite Controversial Remarks

He asked Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who was about to testify against Trump, “Do your wife and father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison.” He later withdrew the accusation.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Support Gaetz’s Immigration Stance

He suggested that two Black members of Florida’s Senate couldn’t write or spell, and told a group of teens that abortion rights activists are too fat and ugly to impregnate.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Ignore Gaetz’s Anti-Immigration Lies

Generously funded by the NRA, Gaetz argues that immigration of violent criminals –- not guns — is the greatest driver of shootings. He’s either ignorant or lying about that. Crime by illegal immigrants is 45% lower compared to native-born Americans. Crime by legal immigrants is 62% lower.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Back Gaetz’s Anti-Immigration Rhetoric

False rhetoric about immigrants and crime helped freeze immigration during Trump’s administration.  That depleted the labor force, which as Fed Chair Powell said, contributed heavily to wage inflation, driving up costs consumers pay for essentials. About a million would-be immigrants who were turned away could have taken high-skilled jobs that boost U.S. innovation, productivity, and economic growth if they had been let let in. Immigrants  generate 2.5 jobs per worker and are three times more likely than U.S-born workers to start businesses.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Receive NRA Contributions

Republicans received $645,382 from the NRA last year while Democrats and Independents received nothing –- proof that impartiality has vanished from the Republican party when it comes to preventing the slaughter of adults and children. Indeed, every one of McCarthy’s appointees receive NRA money and oppose gun control.  Coincidence?

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates’ Role in Blocking Gun Control

Lawmakers who block gun control, particularly assault weapons, could be guilty of involuntary manslaughter. It is a felony defined as committing a reckless or negligent act that results in the death of another person. Notably, proving it does not require showing intent to cause death, only that the defendant was, or should have been, aware of the risk of death.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates and the Risk of Gun Control Opposition

Risk of death from blocking gun control is undeniable. The US has 5% of the world’s population and 42% of the world’s civilian gun ownership. There are 88.8 guns per 100 Americans   — the world’s highest per capita rate. There have been 21 mass shootings in 2020, 28 in 2021 and 36 in 2022. As of May 7, 2023, there have been 202 mass shootings, on track to set a record.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Reinstating Paul Gosar

Paul Gosar was reinstated on the Oversight and Investigation committees after being removed for tweeting an anime video of himself killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and swinging a sword at President Joe Biden. He also posted a video in which he appears to slash immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with anime blood spattered on the screen.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Endorse Gosar Despite Extremism

Gosar has a history of promoting QAnon and birtherism conspiracies. He claims the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville was paid for by “Obama supporter” George Soros, who “turned in his own people over to the Nazis.” He called the people who attacked the Capitol peaceful patriots and accused the Capitol Police of “executing” insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Support Mike Cloud’s NRA Ties

Mike Cloud won seats on the powerful Appropriations Committee which controls federal spending. Having  received $46,000 from the NRA and pro-gun PACs, he introduced a bill to prevent the federal government from building a firearms registry.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Back Andrew Clyde on Appropriations Committee

Andrew Clyde was awarded a spot on the Appropriations Committee. He claimed that the video of the attack on the Capitol just showed an orderly group of normal tourists.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Ignore Clyde’s Racism and Extremism

Clyde’s racism surfaced when he blocked naming a federal courthouse after Judge Joseph Hatchett, the state’s first Black Supreme Court justice.  It resurfaced when he voted against a community garden that commemorated 23 people murdered by a white supremacist in a mass shooting, and again when he voted against the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act which makes lynching a federal hate crime.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Defend Clyde’s Pro-Gun Stance

Clyde received $11,600 from Daniel Defense LLC, a supplier of assault weapons, and voted to repeal taxation, registration, and regulation of several of their weapons. Clyde also handed out AR-15 lapel pins to fellow Representatives during a week that commemorated gun violence victims.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Elevate Eli Crane Despite CRT Opposition

Eli Crane, whowill serve on the Homeland Security Committee, accused Biden of using the “FBI Gestapo to Terrorize Parents Opposed to CRT [critical race theory].”

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Overlook Bob Good’s Ethical Issues

Bob Good of Virginia was appointed to the Budget, Education, and Workforce Committees and was named Chairman of the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations and Employee Benefits. He filed a false financial disclosure form that listed no assets. An amended report revealed assets indicated multiple conflicts of interest because he voted to award major government contracts to two companies he held stock in, including two that pushed opioids.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Back Andy Harris Despite Capitol Comments

Andy Harris will continue to serve on the Appropriations Committee and was appointed chairman of the Agriculture, Rural Development and Food and Drug Administration Subcommittees. Even Republican constituents are calling for his resignation because he likened the mob banging on the Capitol’s doors to the enthusiasm that greets a president’s arrival at a State of the Union Address. Harris also claimed the Capitol attack was linked to Black Lives Matter protestors and Leftist provocateurs.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Reward Anna Paulina Luna

Anna Paulina Luna won a seats on the Oversight and Natural Resources panels. She built a backstory loaded with falsehoods.

McCarthy Bargains: Republican Moderates Endorse Mary Miller’s Controversial Views

Mary Miller will stay on the Agriculture Committee. During a Trump rally, she urged conservative mothers to follow Hitler’s advice to “win the hearts and minds of our children,” (for which she later apologized). She called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “victory for white life.”

Ralph Norman will stay on the Financial Services and Budget Committees and was named to the Rules Committee, which controls the introduction and processing of legislation through the House. It has been nicknamed the “traffic cop of Congress.” He sent Mark Meadows a text urging Trump to invoke martial law to prevent Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Andy Ogles won a seat on the Financial Services Committee. During his 2022 campaign he misrepresented himself as an economist, police officer, and international sex crimes expert.  

Scott Perry brokered a deal between conservatives and McCarthy. He’ll stay on the Foreign Affairs Committee and was given a seat on the Oversight committee. Perry pushed a you-got-to-be-kidding fiction that an Italian defense contractor conspired with the CIA to use military satellites to flip votes from Trump to Biden and pressed Mark Meadows and Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to investigate it.

Matt Rosendale will continue to serve on the Natural Resources Committee. He posed for a photograph outside the U.S. Capitol with supremacists Ryan Sanchez, a former member of a neo-Nazi street gang, and Greyson Arnold, a pro-Nazi blogger.

Chip Roy wasgiven spots on the Budget and Rules Committees and kept his seat on the Judiciary Committee. At a hearing on hate crimes against Asians, he equated lynchings with justice, saying, “There’s old sayings in Texas about ‘find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree.’” Asked about the racist connotations his lynching comments evoked for African Americans, Royreplied, “Yeah, so?”  He voted against the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act.

Consequences of McCarthy’s Bargains: The Future of American Governance

McCarthy’s appointees may be good material for a Saturday Night Live skit, but they should set off alarm bells. We now have powerful legislators steeped in dangerous fictions that will pervert lawmaking to the detriment of Americans. McCarthy has brought a pernicious fringe into the mainstream who are unencumbered by reality, and intent on debasing government. Whether delusional, deceitful, dumb, or deranged, they should not be in positions of power.

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How Trump Swindles Exposes Republican Fraud in Politics

The Electoral College confirmed the victory of Joe Biden this week. Yet Donald Trump continues his efforts to overturn the results with fruitless litigation.Why do Republicans refuse to admit he should halt his efforts? Many think it is because they need his endorsement in the future when they face an election even after he leaves office as president. This situation highlights how Trump swindles are intertwined with Republican fraud to manipulate political outcomes.

The Trump Swindle: Misleading Donors with False Promises

But another reason is to have millions of small donors send money to his defense fund, which has collected more than $200 million since after the election.Donors are told that these contributions will be used to overturn the results. If they believe that, they have another thing coming. Contrary to its stated purpose, the defense fund is a slush fund that exemplifies Trump swindles and Republican fraud. It can pay for his personal expenses and also finance campaigns in the future.

The Role of Republican Fraud in Trump’s Fundraising

Trump and his team know that the legal battle is hopeless. They suffered litigation losses which culminated in the Supreme Court decision against their election case. They failed to convince state officials to overturn the results. Even Attorney General William Barr debunked their arguments as he declared there was zero evidence of massive voter fraud. This is a prime example of Trump swindles and Republican fraud in action.

How Trump Swindles and Republican Fraud Influence Future Elections

But Trump continues to ask donors to finance his fight to overturn the results. His team has sent more than 200 emails with subject lines that claim “the recount results were bogus” and “will you allow the corrupt Democrats to try to steal this election?” The website states the money would “ensure we have the resources” to defend “the integrity for our election” and not “allow the left wing mob to undermine” it.

The Complicity of Republicans in Trump Swindles and Republican Fraud

That is not how the dollars are used because 60 percent of defense fund contributions are sent to Save America, established by Trump, and about 40 percent are given to the Republican National Committee. Supporters would have to donate more than $8,000 before any dollars head toward litigation and recounts. Any contributions under that amount are sent to Save America and also the Republican National Committee.

Trump can use Save America dollars to pay family members and finance travel, hotel stays, and costly events in fancy venues. The donations sent to the Republican National Committee can be used for candidates in any race, even that Georgia runoff election that will determine control of the Senate and likely the future of initiatives and cabinet choices of the next administration. The defense fund is the latest cheat by Trump.

Republicans in Congress have mostly turned a blind eye with his previous infractions. This time they are complicit in misleading Trump loyalists into spending money they cannot afford to lose, in the midst of a pandemic, to reverse an election that has been decided, when they know much of it will head to their pockets. This Trump swindle is a clear example of Trump swindles and Republican fraud. It is the perfect parting shot from an administration that was built on fraud and contempt for our laws and citizens.

The post How Donald Trump swindles voters first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

He ignored two years of warnings that America was not equipped to handle a pandemic, that his approach would lead to the loss of lives, and that his ongoing cuts to our defenses would make America vulnerable to the “significant probability of a large and lethal modern-day pandemic.”  Now the pandemic has hit, and we’ve never been less prepared, thanks to Trump’s actions and inactions.

In 2018, he fired Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert, who had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics. A month later, Trump’s National Security Council advisor John Bolton disbanded the entire team of Timothy Ziemer, Trump’s senior director for global health, and never replaced it. Dr. Luciana Borio, the NSC’s director for medical and biodefense preparedness, left in May 2018 and was also not replaced.

The administration’s pandemic response chain of command is in disarray. Trump agency heads and advisers clash over who’s in charge. State leaders bemoan the lack of a clear leader.

In November 2019, a blue-ribbon bi-partisan commission warned “the American people are far from safe,” and urged  Trump to reestablish strong leadership on health at the NSC and invest more in biodefense. “The U.S. must either pay now [or pay] much greater…human and economic costs” when a pandemic hits,” it argued.

Instead, Trump proposed defunding the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) efforts to help other countries combat epidemics and prevent infectious diseases from invading America.  He also proposed to cut discretionary funding for the CDC.

Trump’s 2020 budget slashed the CDC 10%, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 12% —  “devastating” cuts at a time when state and local health departments have 50,000 fewer workers than they did in 2008. Also cut was a $30 million emergency response fund created under Obama to deploy experts in the event of a crisis.

As a result, not only has there been a shortage of corona test kits, but the kits sent to labs weren’t usable for weeks. 300 million respirator masks are needed by healthcare workers; the government had only 12 million, many of which had expired.

On March 2, the 472 tests that had been posted to the CDC’s website were removed because U.S. number pales in comparison to South Korea (109,591 tests), the UK (13,525), Italy (23,345) and others.  Even Turkey tested twice as many people as we did (940).

On March 5, Trump finally signed an $8.3 billion bill to fight coronavirus (which he might not have needed to do if he hadn’t decimated funding for the CDC, HHS and others). But it was too late to instill calm, particularly in the markets. In the two days following the law’s announcement, the Dow Jones plummeted 1224 points. At present writing, it’s more than 5000 points off its pre-corona high (29,551 on February 12).

It’s the president’s job to calm the country in a crisis. But it’s hard to believe a president who has told more than 16,000 lies and counting, who repeatedly contradicts his public health experts, and who blames everything on his critics.

Trump told us  “the risk to the American people remains very low.”  The World Health Organization told us that the outbreak presents the “highest level” of risk for the world.”

Trump said the mortality rate from coronavirus was 2% and the number of cases in the U.S would “within a couple of days [be] close to zero.”  But U.S. cases are proliferating, and health experts warn the virus will continue to spread. The World Health Organization says the mortality rate among documented cases so far is 3.4%, and actual mortality could be higher, depending on the quality of the local healthcare system.

Trump calls 3.4% mortality a “false number.” But it’s his numbers that are misleading.  He cited the March 6 tally of coronavirus in the U.S. — 225 cases and 14 deaths — and high recovery rates, as evidence health risks are low. But we missed the bulk of U.S. cases due to problems with testing protocols.  At present writing, in the U.S. there are actually 1,016 cases, 31 deaths, and 15 recoveries we know of.  That’s a 3% mortality rate, and both the incidence and the mortality rate are trending up.

Trump claimed that his administration was very close to a vaccine. His acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf promised it would be ready within “several months.” The WHO begged to differ, saying a vaccine would take “at least a year to a year and a half at best.”

Trump said the vaccine would be affordable for those who need it. On the same day, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar  told Congress, “we can’t control that price.” Azar ought to know; he was head of operations for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. His concern may be more about Big Pharma profitability than containing the virus.

Trump’s supporters and Republicans in Congress have tolerated Trump’s incompetence, corruption, tailoring foreign policy for his own financial gain and coddling Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. None of those things made much of a dent in Trump’s core support.

But this is different. Trump’s actions are costing American lives, and that may cost him some support.  He once boasted, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”  It seems that theory is about to be tested.

Neil Baron is an attorney who has represented many institutions involved in the international markets and advised various parts of the federal government on economic issues. 

The post Trump’s unraveling series of blunders is costing American lives — and will test his ‘Fifth Avenue shooting’ theory first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.