DCUM Weblog

Last Wednesday, I wrote about Israel's attempt to drag the United States into its war with Iran. Then, on Saturday, cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump launched bombing and missile attacks on sites involved in Iran's nuclear program, effectively putting the U.S. at war with Iran. Following the attack, Trump administration officials were quick to argue that the U.S. attacks on Iran were limited to stopping its nuclear weapons program and not aimed at broader goals such as regime change. However, at nearly the same time, Israeli officials began to argue in favor of regime change. Appearing to contradict his own officials, Trump then posted on his Truth Social social media platform that "It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" On the face of it, Trump appearing to side with Israelis against his own officials, especially on the topic of regime change which Trump has explicitly campaigned against, might seem strange. However, it follows a very consistent pattern of Trump putting Israel first.

Last month the New York Times ran a long article about work the company Palantir Technologies was doing for the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. As the Times reported, "In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power." As Trump administration officials worked to implement this plan, "they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm."

According to the Times, Palantir has contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, the Health and Human Services Department, and the Pentagon. In addition, Palantir is in talks with the Social Security Administration about buying its technology. The paper also says that "At the I.R.S., Palantir engineers joined in April to use Foundry to organize data gathered on American taxpayers...Their work began as a way to create a single, searchable database for the I.R.S., but has since expanded". This raises concerns that the Trump administration may be "Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data". Moreover, there are fears that "Mr. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics".

An article in yesterday's New York Times titled, "How Trump Shifted on Iran Under Pressure From Israel", contained this paragraph:

For Mr. Netanyahu, the last several months brought to an end years of trying to cajole the United States into backing or at least tolerating his long-held desire to deal Iran’s nuclear program a crippling blow. He appears to have judged, correctly, that Mr. Trump would ultimately come around, if only grudgingly.

These two sentences touch on two undeniable facts that will likely play a crucial role in public perceptions of the Israel-Iran War if the United States becomes further involved, which seems likely to happen within the next few days. The first is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long wanted to attack Iran's nuclear program and has consistently warned that Iran was very close to obtaining nuclear weapons. CNN recently put together a collection of video clips showing Netanyahu making such warnings as far back as 1996. The Daily Show did even better, creating its own compilation of clips that included one showing Netanyahu claiming in 1995 that Iran could produce a nuclear bomb in three to five years. The second fact is that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has opposed attacks on Iran and had to be very publicly pressured by the Israelis into condoning an Israeli attack and potentially launching U.S. attacks on Iran as well.

Today's Republican Party might be viewed as a merger of the Tea Party movement of a decade ago and QAnon conspiracy theorists. With cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump at its head and powered by its own self-contained media ecosystem, the movement has little value for facts, instead preferring "alternative truths". Therefore, while it is disappointing, it is not surprising that in the wake of the murder of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the wounding of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife this past Saturday, MAGA supporters have indulged in spreading disinformation and falsehoods about the attack.

First, the facts as outlined in the FBI affidavit submitted in U.S. District Court. Shortly before 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning, Vance Luther Boelter pounded on the door of the Hoffman's house. When the door was opened, he entered the home and subsequently shot both Hoffmans. Their daughter called 911 to report the shooting. Police reviewed security camera footage and observed that Boelter had been dressed as a police officer and was driving a vehicle that resembled a police SUV.

For months I have been stressing in these posts that the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's actions against immigrants were the most obvious indications of Trump's autocratic intentions. Autocratic leaders generally don't start with head-on attacks on liberty. Rather, they begin on the margins, targeting the unpopular. They are able to normalize their methods before expanding their dictatorial rule. Trump promised that his administration would target violent criminals for deportation. The specter of undocumented residents who are threats to our communities being removed raised little opposition. But almost immediately, the same procedures were used against undocumented residents who had no criminal record.

Trump soon went after non-citizens who were legally in the United States and who had broken no laws whatsoever. Legal residents were seized off the street by masked government agents, whisked into unmarked cars, and secreted off to far-away detention centers. The government openly admitted that these individuals had committed no criminal acts or violations of civil law. I want to stress again that these were individuals who were legally in the country — including Green Card holders — who had done nothing illegal. This is the stuff of dictatorship. But Trump and his associates did not stop there.

Last night, Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran. There is not a lot of information about the scope of the attack at this moment. Clearly, Israel has killed a number of senior military figures as well as scientists involved in Iran's nuclear program. There are reports of military installations being hit as well. What we don't know is whether Israel has been successful in destroying the underground nuclear labs and research centers. While Israel has struck human resources, what about the physical nuclear resources? It is also not clear at this point how much of Iran's retaliatory capability has been eliminated. According to Israeli statements, the attacks will continue for several days, if not longer. The bottom line is that, at this point, it is impossible to evaluate the overall success of Israel's attack.

Last month I wrote a post about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, allegedly a humanitarian project aimed at providing food aid to the starving Palestinians of Gaza. At that time I was very skeptical of the operation and predicted that it would fail to be a successful provider of food assistance. After weeks of operation, the GHF has proven to be an even bigger failure than I had expected. The organization is undoubtedly causing the deaths of more people than it is saving.

As a review, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was only created in February of this year, largely by Americans. As a new organization, it obviously had no track record of delivering aid, let alone in an environment as difficult as Gaza. Moreover, its model for food delivery was almost exactly the opposite of that used by traditional humanitarian organizations. The GHF's plan was to open a very small number of aid hubs located some distance from the populations that they planned to serve. Traditionally, aid organizations prefer to open many small distribution centers close to populations in need. Critics, including me, predicted that the GHF plan would result in Gazans being forced to travel long distances — trips that would be impossible for many — and result in large crowds that would likely get out of hand. Moreover, there were concerns that the Israeli military would take advantage of these hubs to further abuse the Palestinians. All of these predictions have come true.

Yesterday, two separate interviews with the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, were published in which he suggested that there has been a radical change in the U.S. policy regarding Israel and the Palestinians. In one interview, published by Bloomberg, Huckabee was asked if the United States continues to support a two-state solution to the conflict. In response, Huckabee was quoted as saying, "I don’t think so". In a second interview, this one with the BBC, Huckabee again played down support for a two-state solution, calling it an "an aspirational goal". Huckabee's remarks call into question the long-standing position of the United States that the Israel-Palestine conflict should be resolved by the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Today I am going to provide an update regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while driving his son home from his grandmother's house and subsequently sent — in violation of a court order — to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center or CECOT. There have been a number of developments since I last wrote about Abrego Garcia, the most important of which is that he has been returned to the United States and charged with two felonies related to transporting undocumented migrants from Texas to other parts of the country.

I am continuing to follow this case because I believe that it is an almost perfect representation of the dishonesty, incompetence, and sheer mendacity of the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. Many times this administration's actions warrant questioning of whether they are the result of malice or incompetence. With this administration, we can almost always ensure ourselves that it was both. I quoted now-suspended ABC News correspondent Terry Moran yesterday and will do so again today. For that matter, I may do so every day for the foreseeable future. His description of Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as “world-class haters” is one of the most accurate characterizations of this duo. It says a lot about the state of the U.S. media that stating the truth is grounds for suspension. If you doubt Moran's characterization, the plight of Abrego Garcia is a good demonstration of the lengths to which Trump and Miller will go due to their loathing of migrants.

This weekend I was thinking a lot about protests. A big reason for this was the considerable coverage in my social media feeds of two very different protests. In the Mediterranean Sea, a group of peace activists, including Greta Thunberg, was attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza and deliver food and medical supplies to the starving Palestinians. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, activists took to the streets to protest arrests by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service. While these protests had little in common, the reaction to them did have some similarities. In both cases, authorities intentionally escalated events and, also in both cases, the protesters were criticized for having laudable goals but employing the wrong tactics. This follows an ongoing trend in which authorities appear less willing to tolerate even the most mild forms of protest and protesters are advised to adopt tactics that cause little, if any, disruption.