Drilling down into the horrors of MAGA and immigration

This 25 minute video by John Oliver is both funny and terrifying at the same time. djt's and MAGA elites' lies, arrogance, ignorance, authoritarianism, cruelty, cynicism, contempt for the rule of law and all-around fuckery are crystal clear and undeniable. 

Also, this long comment by me dives deep into due process and immigration.

Bits: Gaza war update; MAGA authoritarianism update; MAGA abortion authoritarianism

The AP writes: “Gaza aid dries up as Israeli blockade enters a third month -- While pummeling the strip with airstrikes, it has banned any food, water, shelter or medication from being trucked into the Palestinian territory, where the U.N. says 90% of the population is reliant on humanitarian aid to survive. Israel says the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds. Of the 59 captives remaining in Gaza, 24 are believed to still be alive.”

Palestinian children at a food distribution center in 

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, April 21, 2025

They are starving to death

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The Daily Beast reports, in an article Historian of Fascism Claims Trump Is Speeding Towards Dictatorship Faster Than Putin about the progress that djt and MAGA elites are making in killing our democracy, rule of law and civil liberties. A leading historian of fascism, Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, argues that the current US slide into authoritarianism under djt and MAGA elites is unprecedented in modern times. She says that djt’s efforts to consolidate power are happening with a speed and ruthlessness that surpass the early years of leaders like Vladimir Putin in Russia or Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. According to Ben-Ghiat, the current U.S. political climate more closely resembles the aftermath of a coup than a typical democratic transition of power

Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present and a professor at New York University, highlights the rapid dismantling of government programs and social services under Trump as a hallmark of “democratic backsliding,” a process seen when democracies transition into authoritarian regimes. She emphasizes that neither Putin, Orban, nor Erdogan moved as swiftly to centralize authority after coming to power through elections. The rapid dismantling of social services and attacks on science are unprecedented, even compared to other dictatorships. She draws historical parallels with Nazi Germany’s swift descent into dictatorship, warning against complacency in advanced democracies.

Q: Is Ben-Ghiat an irrational, full of malarkey alarmist crackpot, or does she make some good, maybe terrifying, points?

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The 19th Newsletter reports about MAGA politicians in Missouri trying to overturn abortion rights that voters voted for: “Missouri’s voters restored abortion rights. Their leaders are trying to overrule them. -- Clinics are rebuilding services, patients are returning and Republicans in the state are moving quickly to take protections away — again. Celeste Athon was one of the first dozen people to have received an abortion in Missouri since the November election, when voters backed a proposal to add abortion rights protections to the state constitution. Missouri, one of the quickest states to outlaw abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade, was the first where voters overturned a near-total ban. Missouri Republicans, who hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers, have filed more than a dozen anti-abortion bills this legislative session, ranging from a six-week ban to a bill that would classify abortion pills as controlled substances to legislation that would treat abortion as homicide.”

Once again, when the public wants something that MAGA elites oppose, MAGA elites reject and ignore what the people want. They want their way, period. This is American radical right authoritarianism in action, clear, pure and simple. In this matter, we see radical right Christian nationalist, theocratic authoritarianism. MAGA’s “rationale” exemplifies MAGA “thinking” about policy. They just argue that voters didn’t understand what they were doing when they voted to protect abortion rights in November. What a bunch of arrogant pricks and liars MAGA elites are.

The abyss of fundamentalist Christian theocracy is now quite near

CONTEXT

I have urgently warned about this critically important Oklahoma lawsuit, Oklahoma State Charter Board v. Drummond. This case is about a religious charter school that wants taxpayers to pay for its operations. If the Catholic school wins this lawsuit, it will become the nation’s first religious charter school. Oklahoma refused to charter the school, citing church-state separation under the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The school then sued the state. The school wants to sink its claws into tax revenue streams. That would force taxpayers to seriously support the CN (Christian nationalist) political movement in its ruthless Christian theocracy wealth and power goals.

This dispute boils down to a ferocious CN theocratic attack on the Establishment Clause, church-state separation, democracy, the secular rule of law and civil liberties that God hates and demands an end to, e.g., abortions, same-sex marriage, birth control, maybe inter-racial marriage, DEI efforts, and LGBQT rights and protections. The lawsuit frames Oklahoma’s refusal to fund a Catholic school as anti-religious discrimination, leveraging recent Supreme Court precedents like Carson v. Makin (2022). A ruling favoring St. Isidore would further entrench the Court’s role in legitimizing theocracy, echoing Justice Alito’s assertion in Dobbs (the USSC's anti-abortion rights decision) that secular moral frameworks lack “neutrality.” The theocratic arguments here conflate religious liberty with state endorsement of sectarian dogma. Project 2025 and its judicial proponents want to replace secular pluralism with a regime that privileges conservative Christianity as the de facto state religion. As Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee warns, this agenda “would hasten our journey down that road to authoritarian theocracy.”

TNR reports that in oral arguments, it is starting to look like the USSC will probably rule in favor of theocracy. Such a decision would likely amount to total or near-total obliteration of the Establishment Clause and the waning power of church-state separation doctrine in the constitution and law. The stakes here for democracy, the secular rule of law and what is left of our shrinking civil liberties and protections could not be much higher. Whether people believe it or not, we are now facing a corrupt, horrific, imminent Christian theocratic threat to our country. The decision is expected by the end of June or early July at the latest.

BLOG POST

TNR writes: “The Supreme Court Is Declaring War on Secularism -- The high court’s recent run at rewriting the Constitution has come for the establishment clause. The Supreme Court appears ready to approve the nation’s first religious charter school in Oklahoma, dealing a monumental blow to the separation of church and state by effectively writing the establishment clause out of the Constitution. In oral arguments in Oklahoma State Charter Board v. Drummond on Wednesday, the high court’s conservative majority saw no issue with allowing the Catholic Church to operate a state-funded public school, despite the state and federal constitutional bans on such entanglements. If anything, they appeared offended by the suggestion that it wouldn’t be constitutional.”

Likelihood of theocracy winning: Barrett recused herself due to a blatant conflict of interest, i.e., she has close ties to Notre Dame, which represents St. Isidore, the charter school trolling for tax dollars. The hard core authoritarian four, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh all clearly signaled they will vote for theocracy. Roberts also appears to be sympathetic, but less is strident about it. If there is a 4-4 split, with Roberts voting with the three Democratic Party judges, the charter school will lose and have to pay its own way. A study published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal analyzed 23 religion-in-education cases and concluded the current Court is “statistically likely” to overrule the Oklahoma Supreme Court and permit state-funded religious charter schools. So, if Roberts votes with the other four authoritarian extremists (a 5-3 decision), we’re screwed. Chances of us being screwed? My estimate is ~75%.

Ramifications if Christian theocracy wins: A victory for St. Isidore enables religious groups nationwide to operate taxpayer-funded charter schools. Forty-six states classify charter schools as public institutions, and many have constitutional bans on funding religious schools. A ruling for St. Isidore could force states to either fund religious charters or dismantle their charter systems entirely. A win for theocracy here effectively ends the last major distinction between public and religious education. Given its relentless ideological aggression, states will face intense CN pressure to fund schools teaching creationism, racism, bigotry, e.g., opposing LGBTQ+ rights, excluding non-Christians, the righteousness of discrimination against and oppression of people and groups that God hates, and anything else that CN elites tells us God demands be taught. In essence, the floodgates to hell will bust open and America could fall to some form of dark ages theocratic government and law. 

If and how effectively society rebels against the coming CN theocratic onslaught is an open question. What the plutocrats will do about this, if anything, is also an open question. About half of them appear to be CN adherents. The lawsuit’s outcome will determine whether the Establishment Clause retains any force in safeguarding a government neutral toward religion, or becomes a relic of a secular past that CN elites are determined to erase.

Q: Is this just a tempest in a teapot, or if the religious school wins, does this mark the end of the beginning of a fundamental shift in American government and law from being still mostly secular, to becoming a cruel fundamentalist Christian theocracy? 

News bits: The high cost of cost cuts; MAGA’s authoritarianism on display; MAGA poisons inconvenient history

CBS News reports: “DOGE says it has saved $160 billion. Those cuts have cost taxpayers $135 billion, one analysis says. -- The analysis seeks to tally the costs associated with putting tens of thousands of federal employees on paid leave, re-hiring mistakenly fired workers and lost productivity, according to the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on the federal workforce. PSP's estimate is based on the $270 billion in annual compensation costs for the federal workforce, calculating the impact of DOGE's actions, from paid leave to productivity hits.”

The article points out that the PSP estimate does not include expenses for defending multiple lawsuits challenging DOGE's actions, or the impact of estimated lost tax collections due to staff cuts at the IRS. Also important, the IRS is planning on cutting roughly 40% of its workforce. That would cost the treasury about $323 billion in tax revenue over the next decade (~$32.3 billion/year) due to lower tax compliance and a decline in audits. That data is according to an estimate from the Yale Budget Lab.

My guess is that in the short and long term, DOGE’s alleged cuts are going to cost more than they save. The whole MAGA waste, fraud and abuse narrative is a cynical lie. The effort disguises MAGA’s real intent, i.e., take wealth, power and protections from the people and public interest and give all of that power and wealth to unrestrained (de-regulated and untaxed) MAGA elites and all kinds of tax cheats, elite and otherwise. The annual tax gap is running at about $700 billion/year according to official estimates, about $1.1 trillion by my estimate. For 2025, the top 40% of income earners are estimated to underpay about $660 billion in taxes according to Yale’s analysis.   

Tax cheating by income level

High income earners are the biggest tax cheaters by far

P0-10 - bottom 10% of income earners

P10-20 - 10-20% of income earners

P99.5-100 - top 0.5% of income earners

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Talking Points Memo reports about a lawsuit that MAGA elites have filed in an effort to gain a lot more power over federal courts: “Close allies of President Trump are asking a judge to give the White House control over much of the federal court system. In a little-noticed lawsuit filed last week, the America First Legal Foundation sued Chief Justice John Roberts and the head of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. The case ostensibly proceeds as a FOIA lawsuit, with the Trump-aligned group seeking access to judiciary records. But, in doing so, it asks the courts to cede massive power to the White House: the bodies that make court policy and manage the judiciary’s day-to-day operations should be considered independent agencies of the executive branch, the suit argues, giving the President, under the conservative legal movement’s theories, the power to appoint and dismiss people in key roles.” 

The 1st paragraph of the MAGA lawsuit:

For several years, the media and enterprising lawmakers have launched an onslaught to destroy the impartiality and political neutrality of Article III courts and, particularly, the Supreme Court. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh have all faced political and physical threats because of the politicization and weaponization of the law. This lawfare has been led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson, relying upon an ideologically favorable legacy media, to falsely accuse Justices Thomas and Alito of ethical improprieties. Their aim was simple: to chill the judicial independence of these Supreme Court Justices. 

Every sentence in that cynical screed is an insulting, outrageous lie. Whitehouse and Johnson aimed to reduce corruption of the USSC, not to chill the judicial independence of any judge. MAGA judges on the USSC just cannot tolerate ethics rules, which usually have nothing to do with judge independence. Threats against USSC judges have nothing to do with anything that Whitehouse or Johnson said or did. Public backlash against some MAGA judges is because some of the public is pissed off about decisions like Dobbs, which took away abortion rights. MSM reporting has been investigative journalism based on evidence, not allegedly partisan attacks for no reason. The evidence the MSM reported included improperly undisclosed gifts, flight records, tax documents, and insider accounts of USSC judge sleaze and corruption.

FWIW, if anything, the TPM article says that MAGA’s effort to corrupt the federal courts is very likely going to fail. Regardless of how it turns out, this is just more solid evidence of the staunchly authoritarian and completely kleptocratic intent of MAGA’s wealth and power agenda, which is deeply anti-democracy, anti-rule of law and anti-civil liberties.  

I will file a complaint with the D.C. bar asking disbarment of the two attorneys who filed this deepl unethical lawsuit, William Scolinos (DC Bar No. 90023488) and Daniel Epstein (DC Bar No. 1009132). D.C. bar will probably ignore me, but so what? 

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The Independent newspaper reports more evidence that MAGA elites intend to rewrite history to fit the mountain of lies that its extremist authoritarian ideology is based on: “Oklahoma wants to teach kids Trump’s false version of the 2020 election where he was cheated out of victory -- The Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, announced a new education policy for the state on Thursday, which includes the allegation that there were “discrepancies” in the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump baselessly claims was stolen from him. The new academic standards for social studies for the coming school year state that students should ‘identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellweather county’ trends.’”

This is not new. For years, djt and MAGA elites have been very clear that (i) inconvenient history is unacceptable, and (ii) they will try to replace it with MAGA lies as much as possible. That is fact, not opinion. Examples include, (1) the TPM article where MAGA elites try to institutionalize false claims of widespread election fraud in 2020 (but, djt himself did engage in large scale election fraud in Georgia, his insurrectionist 1/6 coup attempt and his failed fake electors schemes), (2) on Jan. 21, 2017, just one day after the inauguration, djt made the false claims that (i) the media had misrepresented his inauguration crowd size, and (ii) saying it “looked like a million-and-a-half people” and extended “all the way back to the Washington Monument”, (3) djt falsely said efforts to critically examine slavery and racism in American history was “toxic propaganda” and “ideological poison” without evidence, and (4) djt falsely claimed (i) the Biden administration had lost track of over 300,000 unaccompanied migrant children, and (ii) “We have 325,000 children here during Democrats - and this was done by Democrats - who are right now slaves, sex slaves or dead.” 

MAGA’s pattern of historical revisionism within the authoritarian movement shows that factual reality is subordinate to political narrative. Normalizing historical lies undermines democratic discourse, the rule of law and decision-making. That is the point and the goal.