DCUM Weblog

Back in August I wrote a post about cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's hatred of renewable energy, particularly wind power. The basis of Trump's antagonism appears to be a failed battle to prevent wind turbines from being built within sight of his Balmedie, Scotland golf course. The other side of this particular coin is that Trump loves coal power. This week, multiple U.S. departments announced a coordinated plan to "Reinvigorate and Expand America’s Coal Industry". As is the case with most Trump initiatives, this one is poorly considered and moves the country in the wrong direction.

The United States is facing a period of increased energy demand. According to a recent study by ICF, "U.S. electricity demand is expected to grow by 25% by 2030 and by 78% by 2050, compared to 2023." The Department of Energy says that "Rising electricity demand is mainly driven by data center expansion and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, domestic manufacturing growth, and electrification of different sectors." This increased demand will also result in increased electricity prices for U.S. consumers. ICF predicts that "For residential customers, electricity rates could increase by 15% to 40% by 2030, depending on the market." The U.S. clearly needs to invest in electrical production.

In recent days, cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has taken presidential actions aimed at clamping down on vaguely defined "incitement of violence." Justifying his moves due to recent acts of political violence, including the murder of Charlie Kirk and the shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Dallas, Texas, Trump is mandating that the powers of government be used to attack the political left. There are two possible interpretations of Trump's efforts. The first is that this signals the beginning of an all-out government-led assault on the First Amendment rights of those with whom Trump disagrees. This school of thought expects government investigations of organizations that support causes popular on the left, such as the rights of immigrants. The second interpretation is that Trump is demonstrating weakness and has taken to arm waving and foot stomping in lieu of concrete moves. Like a swimmer who is splashing around wildly but making little forward progress, Trump is floundering and making up for that with wild demonstrations that are largely symbolic. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle.

As I have written many times, with autocracy comes incompetence. Today, I am going to describe another example of the incompetence of the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. This particular situation is solely the responsibility of Trump and undermines his claims of being "America First." This is the strange triangle of American farmers, Trump's tariffs, and Argentina. It is a drama in three acts.

Act One is Trump's imposition of tariffs on imports, specifically those from China. China took immediate steps to retaliate. U.S.-China trade relations have been going through rapid ups and downs with Trump repeatedly announcing trade deals that don't materialize. Ramifications of Trump's tariffs and the Chinese retaliatory moves are not always easy to decipher, but when it comes to U.S. soybean sales, the impact has been very clear. Countries have learned to strategically target retaliatory methods in order to maximize political pressure on Trump. Farmers are a favorite target. They mostly voted for Trump and tend to live in states dominated by Republicans. China simply stopped buying U.S. soybeans and has not made a single purchase since May. Sales to China once made up about 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports. This is the height of the traditional export market, and farmers risk going out of business due to the loss of sales to China. The political pressure that the Chinese hoped to generate has been forthcoming, with desperate farmers pressuring their elected representatives for a solution.

Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is clearly facing cognitive challenges. I wrote about this in early August, but things have only gotten worse. There have been a number of examples over the past several days of Trump showing mental decline. While Trump has elite intelligence services at his fingertips, he seems to rely on Fox News and unvetted social media posts for information. The combination of declining cognitive abilities and fake news is making it increasingly difficult for Trump to distinguish between fantasy and reality. This is having a real impact on policy and not simply something about which we can joke.

The first example that I will provide requires a little background. On September 25, John Solomon at "Just the News" published an article headlined "FBI Bombshell: 274 agents sent to Capitol for J6, many later complained they were political ‘pawns’" that started out saying, "The FBI secretly deployed more than 250 plainclothes agents to the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot...". The headline and lede were consistent with MAGA conspiracy theories that FBI agents hidden in the January 6 crowds had instigated the insurrection. Solomon didn't actually make that claim, but he did misrepresent the report to which he was referring. The report does not use the word "plainclothes" and clearly says that "The number includes agents that responded to the Capitol grounds as well as inside the Capitol, the pipe bombs, and the red truck that was believed to contain explosive devices as well as CDC/ADCS." Solomon has long been a source of disinformation, and this is an obvious case of him suggesting that the report says something that it doesn't. Far from being secret agents sent to stir up a revolt, the FBI personnel were sent in response to the insurrection to attempt to protect the Capitol.

A point that I have repeatedly stressed in these blog posts is that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is an authoritarian who wants to rule the United States as a dictator. Yesterday, there were two more examples of his intent to implement this goal. The first was the indictment on two felony charges of former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey. The second was a Presidential Memorandum Trump issued titled, "Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence". Both demonstrate how Trump intends to use the power of the state to harass, punish, and suppress his political opponents. Today, I will discuss the Comey indictment and address the memorandum in a subsequent post.

I have provided some of the background to the Comey indictment in an earlier blog post. But just to refresh, Trump has consistently made threats to punish his political enemies. It is ironic that Comey has been among Trump's most frequent targets because Comey could arguably be said to have been the key factor in getting Trump elected in 2016. Nevertheless, because of Comey's involvement in the Russia probe and Comey's well-documented refusal to pledge loyalty to Trump, Trump has had it in for him. Six days ago, Trump posted a "truth" on his Truth Social social media network that may have been meant as a private message. Addressed to "Pam," clearly U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the message complained that "[n]othing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done." Comey had been under investigation by the Eastern District of Virginia's U.S. Attorney, but that prosecutor, Erik S. Siebert, had been unable to find sufficient grounds to seek an indictment. Trump was infuriated with Siebert, and Siebert had resigned the day before Trump's "truth". Trump, however, claimed that he had fired Siebert because Siebert was a "Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job." In Siebert's place, Trump put Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance lawyer who had never prosecuted a case but had been part of Trump's defense team in his classified documents case. Halligan was fully aware that she had one job, and that job was to indict Comey (and probably New York Attorney General Letitia James as well).

Yesterday morning, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn opened fire on the Dallas, Texas office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, leaving one immigration detainee dead and two others wounded. Jahn then turned his rifle on himself and took his own life. He also left behind shattered glass and bullet-damaged walls, suggesting that he had fired randomly at the building. Shortly after the shooting, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel tweeted a photograph showing unused cartridges, one of which had "ANTI-ICE" written on it. A host of Republican politicians, including cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, immediately blamed Democrats and anti-ICE rhetoric for the shooting. This is similar to the Republican reaction after the murder of Charlie Kirk, when Trump, Vance, and others vowed to launch a broad attack on the left, including going after funders. Despite the quick rush to blame Democrats and the left for the current wave of political violence, it is worth taking a look at how Republicans have reacted to violence in recent months. Republicans may be eager to portray themselves as innocent victims of Democratic attacks, but the truth paints a much different picture.

This morning, the first thing I did was watch the Jimmy Kimmel Live! episode that was filmed last night after Kimmel's return from a suspension. The reason I watched the show this morning rather than last night when it was broadcast is because I live in a television market served by an ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair, along with Nexstar, chose not to air the program. This seems to have been a terrible decision for those affiliates, or at least for Sinclair. In the D.C. area, viewership would have been through the roof. I suspect that almost nobody watched whatever was shown in Kimmel's place. The YouTube video that I watched this morning already has over 10 million views. But I am not here to give Sinclair business advice. If the company's strategy is to discourage anyone from watching their broadcasts, who am I to complain? Instead, what I'd rather talk about is a future where the likes of Sinclair and Nexstar are not important.

One point that I have repeatedly attempted to stress is that with autocratic government comes incompetence. The reason for that is simple. An autocrat surrounds himself with those chosen for loyalty rather than ability. For all the talk of Benito Mussolini making the trains run on time, he did not, in fact, make the trains run on time. There is a belief in some quarters that dictatorships may have political disadvantages, but that they are able to "get things done." That is almost never the case. Instead, such governments tend to be replete with corruption and incompetence. We saw that yesterday when the President of the United States, a man with no medical training, took the advice of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, another man with no medical training, and recommended an unproven treatment for autism in the form of a drug in which the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services holds a financial interest. This man at least has medical training, though it is as a heart specialist rather than a neurologist or other specialty related to autism. Moreover, he is best known as a television celebrity doctor. Another example of incompetence occurred this past Friday when cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump issued a proclamation.

"For my friends everything, for my enemies the law." This quote has been variously attributed to both Peruvian president Oscar Benavides and to Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas. Regardless of who said it originally, this has become a foundational principle of the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. Immediately upon taking office for the second time, Trump either pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 1,600 individuals convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection. This included people convicted of assaulting police officers and the leaders and organizers of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol Building. Nearly 20 of those have gone on to commit additional crimes since being pardoned. Over the weekend, there were more examples of the Trump administration protecting its friends and attempting to punish its enemies in a massive misuse of the justice system.

As soon as I finished yesterday’s blog post, my first thought was that today I should write about the civil war that has broken out in MAGA land regarding Charlie Kirk and Israel. My second thought, however, was that Will Sommer of the Bulwark would address the same topic, and nothing that I wrote would measure up. I hoped that I might beat him to press. But, sadly, no. He published a report yesterday, and as expected, it’s excellent. I strongly recommend Sommer’s article. However, that article is behind a paywall, so I assume there is still room for my poorman's version.

Just to set the table, I should emphasize that there is no evidence whatsoever that Israel had any role in Kirk's murder. Moreover, I am not aware of any prominent MAGA influencer who has explicitly accused Israel of killing Kirk. Rather, the allegations have been more of the "just asking questions" sort of thing. The crux of the controversy appears to be whether or not Kirk was changing his views on Israel and was suffering repercussions as a result. The leading voice suggesting that this is the case is Candace Owens, now primarily a podcaster but earlier in her career had been hired by Kirk at Turning Point USA. By all accounts, she and Kirk were reasonably close friends. Owens has support from Tucker Carlson, Roger Stone, Megyn Kelly, and Matt Gaetz. Lined up against them are a host of MAGA establishment figures such as Vice President JD Vance, Ben Shapiro, and most vocally of them all, Laura Loomer.