Comments
THE VIEW FROM HERE - Trump is the worse deal maker of all time. He has yet to make any real deal with anyone since he was elected in November 2024. He announces “deals” but they turn out to be the terms and conditions which the US previously had, e.g., Trump’s trade deal with the UK. I suppose one might consider Trump’s threatening to primary Representatives and Senators to be making a deal. As Vito Corleone said, “I made him an offer he could not refuse.” For a few months, Trump had Musk’s billions of dollars to back up his threat to primary them. Threats, however, are not deals. Deals, agreements, and contracts require two sides to mutually assent to the final decision. Jack Benny knew such a “Your Money or Your Life Offer” was a threat, yet he had to think it over. Today, the world is adopting Jack Benny’s approach to Trump’s tariffs. When Trump announces one of his deals with new tariffs, it obviously is not a mutual agreement, but another lost for Trump. We know the announced tariffs are imposed against the consent of the other country since he then says that if they start being nice to him, then Trump may lower the tariff. Each tariff is a tax on the American consumer. Nonetheless, to this day Trump claims that other countries are paying us hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. Let’s be clear; only American consumers are paying the “tariffs.”
Tariffs may harm other countries or they may benefit other nations in the long run. Many will realize that they had been complacent in trading with the US. They had been continuously modifying trade agreements to tweak them here and there so that the agreements are more mutually satisfactory. The system was stable and benefitted both the US and other nations. As the Romans’ recognized, mutatis mutandis, the world is constantly changing, and thus, almost everything needs constant modification. The Salk polio vaccine shots were wonderful, but the Sabin’s inexpensive sugar cube vaccine was better. No rational person, however, torpedoes the world system by attacking friend and foe alike on the absurd basis that we are living in 1550 and winner nations produce everything and only loser nations buy from others.
The Unitary Executive Marches Towards Military Occupation
Promoters of the Unitary Executive have been using Trump to dismantle the constitutional Republic. They plan to control America for years after Trump has gone bye-bye. Most of Wall Street, Sen. John Thune, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, are huge advocates of the Unitary Executive. On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, came the next step towards the Unitary Executive with Supreme Court’s decision in Trump vs American Federation of Government Employees, 606 US – (2025). This decision allows Trump to go ahead and fire hundreds of thousands of federal employees and abolish entire departments which Congress had established to carry out Congressional intent. See Unitary Executive The Supreme Court’s asinine rationale was the district court could not enjoin the firings because “Executive Order directs agencies to plan reorganizations and reductions in force ‘consistent with applicable law.’” Actual firings for no stated reason are neither legal nor planned reorganizations! Screaming “waste, fraud, and abuse” is not a plan.
Where in US law does it say that a non-agency (Doge) under the control of a single unelected person, Elon Musk, may fire thousands of employees under the Doctrine of Move Fast and Beak Things? The court verbiage “consistent with law” was obviously total BS: For example, “350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were abruptly laid off late Thursday, with some losing access to email before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning to find they were locked out.” Feb 16, 2025 AP Release. In its approval of the decimation of the federal workforce with no rational plan, the Supreme Court stated, “. . . the Government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful.”
As with Trump vs Casa, the rules for injunctions have been turned upside down. Almost universally, an injunction maintains the status quo. What was the status quo before the massive absurd firings for no reason? Obviously, the status quo was not to dismantle the agencies. The fact that Doge’s firing employees who protected our nuclear stockpile was absurd is highlighted by the fact then firings were almost immediately reversed. The firings sabotaged thousands of medical trials; employees had to stop all their work no matter how vital their day to day attention was to the health and welfare of the nation. Under the big lie that in the final analysis the Supreme Court in 2028 or 2029 may rule that Doge’s rampage through the American government was unlawful, we are left with only questions with no answers: How do we recall all the workers? How do we save all the medical research experiments which were halted mid-stream? How do we go back and retroactively save all the lost lives? What good will it be for NOAA to issue advance warnings to Kerr County Texas, girls’ camp in 2028?
The reality is that there is no art of the deal operating in the Trump Administration. Instead, we are witnessing the destruction of the constitutional Republic in favor of a military dictatorship. There are two basic ways to govern a nation: (1) by mutual cooperation and consent, as envisioned by the Declaration of Independence or (2) by military rule by one extreme. America has become a polarized society where the GOP and the Dem are controlled by extremists: MAGA and Wokers. Since MAGA and Wokers are each about 15% of the population, no matter who wins an election, the Declaration’s mutual cooperation and consent type of governance is dead.
There Was a Deal to Be Made with Mayor Bass’s Sanctuary City
Except for the racist Stephen Miller and his ilk within the Trump Administration, there was a deal to be made with Karen Bass and other Woke mayors. Virtually everyone thought that deporting criminals was a great idea; almost no one thought deporting their grandparents and hard working immigrants who had been in the US for decades was acceptable. The entire Southwest had been part Mexico before we started the Mexican American war in 1848 and incorporated the Southwest into America. As explained in “Deporting Mexicans form Los Angeles is like Deporting Jews from Jerusalem,” See here Mexicans have deep historical ties to Los Angeles and the flow of Mexicans to Del Norte which started in the 1700's did not abate when the government changed hands. In fact, the Californios in 1848 were glad to become part of the USA since Mexican administration far away in Mexico City treated Californios rather shabbily. Despite the vicissitudes of the economy, the decades following 1848 right up to today had a steady ebb and flow of Mexicans to California where there they were welcomed – even when they were not permitted legal status. The denial of legal status was not due to any criminality or other deficiencies of the Mexicans, but rather, their precarious status allowed employers to cheat them. When millions of Mexican workers stayed, bought homes, started businesses and contributed hundreds of millions of dollars, and now billions of dollars, to the economy, the US was glad to have them – also the US was glad to keep them classified as illegals so that the government could continue to cheat millions of workers. For example, while they have to pay into Social Security, they are not allowed to collect benefits. If all the Mexicans were deported today, Social Security would probably go broke tomorrow. They pay property, sales and income taxes, but their sections of town receive inferior infrastructure and police protection.
The Deal for Trump Was Obvious
Los Angeles city and county would cooperate with ICE to deport bona fide criminals. It would allow ICE into the jails and prisons and the LAPD and Sheriff’s Department would use its gang units to help ICE find organized criminals like MS-13, which is not Mexican. MS-13 stated in Los Angeles, but it is a El Salvadoran criminal cartel. In return, ICE would overlook the illegals in the LA’s wider society. This would protect the day laborers, the field workers, and the factory workers in the garment industry. Trump could garner a ton of highly positive publicity from all the actual criminals he had deported. Then, Trump would declare victory!!!
Such a deal would dovetail with the actual deportation mandate – get rid of the criminals. No one voted to deport their gardener or the teacher aides in their child’s 5th grade class. For generations, a path to citizenship for those Mexicans who came here, worked hard, served with valor in our military was the only decent thing to do. Trump, however, allowed Stephen Miller, an anti-Mexican racist, to deprive Trump of this Real Deal. Instead, ICE, Homeland Security, the National Guard, and the US Marines are being used to advance the militarization of our cities. As Secretary Noem stated, the military is in Los Angeles to replace our socialist and burdensome leadership (i.e., duly elected officials). Of course, the US Supreme Court in its rampage to impose the Unitary Executive upon the nation ignored this fact and based itself in Trump vs Casa on the outrageous lie that the military was required to keep peace.
Federal Troops Try to Incite Violence
The despicable behavior of ICE in Los Angeles was shown when it used ICE agents, mounted on horse back, to break up a children’s day camp in MacArthur park. ICE Stops Children at Play.
The plan behind the military being in Los Angeles is transparent. ICE is targeting innocent Mexicans, deporting grandparents, and parents of American citizens, as well as legal resident aliens and some Mexican looking US Citizens. Bystanders who object are beaten up and arrested for their allegedly attacking ICE agents. ICE’s real goal is to provoke violence, thereby to justify the US Marines to take over LA. So far, Angelenos have been wise. Do not be surprised, however, when federal agent provocateurs attack ICE agents in Los Angeles, whereupon Trump will deploy the US Marines against everyone.
Why do people claim, “It can’t happen here,” when it is already happening here?
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected])
