Banana Republicans

By James Moore

The idea was steeped in silly optimism. We went to the beach for a long weekend with another couple to try to “ease our troublin’ minds.” A simple plan emerged to sit on the sands of South Padre Island, stare at the Gulf of Mexico, and not think about how our country, its economy and politics and future, were burning behind us on the other side of the Laguna Madre. But who is able to do this? I recall during the 90s taking a trip to Puebla, Mexico with the future President George W. Bush, and as we drove from Mexico City to see the Cinco de Mayo battle reenactments, the forests on either side of the highway were roaring with flames 50-100 feet tall. The fire was right next to the shoulder of the divided roadway and extended for dozens of miles. What was the most striking about the experience, however, was the way people were driving past the apocalyptic scene almost without reaction enroute to jobs and lives. Reality aflame appeared passé.

The Gulf waters down here are surprisingly aqua compared to much of the rest of the Texas Coastal Bend, and the sands, while not sugar-white like the northeastern Gulf from Mississippi to Florida, are bright and soft and comforting between the vacationer’s toes. Unfortunately, while squinting at the sunlight across the waves, it becomes impossible to put away the news that the American president has made his most authoritarian move to date by firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report on the number of jobs added to the economy was alarming because it revealed the slowdown of commerce under Trump. Payrolls for non-farm jobs grew by only 73,000 in July, which was above the June total of 14,000 but below even the low figure Dow Jones projected of 100,000. June and May totals were also dramatically revised lower by a combined 258,000 from previously announced levels.

What’s a putative dictator to do? Well, it’s obvious, you shoot the messenger and proclaim, “The economy is doing great!” In the unlikely event you are a billionaire reading this or an unemployed MAGAt who still believes the lie streamer in the White House, below is the data that speaks to the increasingly dire situation in the American economy. Also, of note, is that the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent, which was accurately predicted by economists. Most of the jobs added were in health care and social assistance businesses, which is another indicator of a lack of vitality under the current administration. The person who assembles and analyzes the data, Erika L. McEntarfer, a 20-year PhD. economist for the U.S. government, who has served with distinction, was summarily fired after the president claimed the numbers were “rigged” to make him look bad, as if he were not doing a fantastic job of that with his performance in office. He needs no help in that regard.

Across the jetties from this location, leading into the Brownsville ship channel, there stands a reminder of how the U.S. came to grief. Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch platforms and towers hover along the far horizon to the south where he turned a former retiree fish camp into a Texas Canaveral, which he has named Starbase. When his Falcon Heavy and Starship rockets were breaking windows and threatening endangered species across the tidal marshlands, an ongoing side effect of his space operations, Musk was spending what the Washington Post estimated was $288 million dollars to help Trump win the presidential election. Immigrant Musk seems to have miscalculated his investment’s value because his alignment with MAGAt politics has alienated the progressive “tree-huggers” who were the majority of the market for his electric cars. Musk was hedging his bets, of course, hoping that loss would be de minimus, or maybe offset by all the federal grants he’d get from Trump for SpaceX and Tesla. Wasn’t he supposed to be extremely bright?

 

 

Just a handful of miles beyond Musk’s rockets’ dead glare, the U.S. – Mexico border is prescribed by the Rio Grande reaching the gulf. The flow of people and commerce across la frontera has sustained a few million lives and businesses. The renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump facilitated, is heavily anchored in cross‑border commerce, including importing fresh produce, logistics, warehousing, maquiladoras, retail, and agriculture. Across the bridge from Brownsville in Matamoros, there are 122 maquiladora plants that feed American manufacturing supply chains. Upriver in Reynosa, just across from McAllen, there are 155 maquiladoras that employ 135,000 people creating products and parts for delivery to U.S. markets and manufacturers. Tariff talk by the White House, though, has created an economic brake on Rio Grande Valley communities. Billions in investment capital have been sidelined by uncertainty and supply chains have been disrupted. Ultimately, the estimated cost of tariffs to each Texas household is estimated to be $1500-$2600 dollars annually, which is nothing more than a Trump tax. His policies, meant to curb migration or drug flow, are instead triggering economic stress, job risk, and community backlash in a region deeply linked to binational commerce.

 

 

Four hundred miles north of where these two countries come together with cultural and economic bloodlines, the coverup of Trump’s pedophila is unrolling before our eyes. The woman who recruited underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein has been moved to a minimum security prison camp in Bryan, Texas where she can buy beauty products, exercise regularly on expensive equipment, and enjoy educational opportunities as she awaits a commutation or pardon by Trump. There was no justification or public announcement on why Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a country club detention facility, but it is likely she is being shown preference as she prepares to offer testimony to clear the president, one of Epstein’s clients. Maxwell is a convicted child sex trafficker whose proclivities have destroyed the lives of young women and the fact that a U.S. president would send his lawyers to speak with her, and probably even cut a deal, is another sign the rule of law and democracy in this country is fading as fast as Trump’s grasp of reality.

The scheme is pretty transparent. Maxwell will likely testify to a congressional committee behind closed doors, all Republicans, to be sure, or she will be brought before a Trump-appointed judge to conduct her confabulations under grand jury rules of confidentiality. Her lawyers will conveniently say that she will not answer questions about the president, which will be a backdoor requirement of her testimony. When the kangaroo court finishes, Maxwell’s lawyers and the White House will issue statements saying she spoke freely and honestly about everything she knew related to her time with Epstein and that she named a number of people, though the president was not among those she listed as participants in sex with children. Reporters will ask for transcripts and recordings of her testimony and will be told that nothing can be released under the law because grand jury rules, or maybe made up congressional guidelines, will not allow suspects to be named because they have not been convicted of any crimes and would be wrongfully harmed. Trump will escape justice again. American history, too, will record its first president who had to argue, “I did not have sex with children.”

But only fools will believe him.

 

This article was originally published on Texas to the world.

 

James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).

His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.

Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”