The Politics of Power, War, and Illusion

 

The Politics of Power, War, and Illusion

Date: March 8, 2026

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). I would guess that no one could be quite as bad as Noem, but perhaps just about as bad without the corruption. That would mean the same old thing, the same old ICE, and the same old problems. Nevertheless, hopefully I am wrong.

What stands out in my mind about Noem and her retreat from her office is that she was not really fired. She was given an alternative job working in the same department, actually within the sphere of immigration, and earning a maximum of $200,000 and a minimum of $160,000. I would guess it is one of those kinds of jobs where you just clock in once a month and go out on excursion trips, perhaps paid for by the same government called the United States of America.

Kind of crappy if you ask me. She should have really been fired instead of the appearance of being fired. But that is the way the news media runs, and that is the way Trump’s friends operate.

Trump’s very expensive war in the Middle East is progressing forward, and the funding of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security has passed the House of Representatives. Sad but true.

What comes to mind about the Iran war is that Trump has eliminated many of his advisors, at least according to some reports by political commentators and Democrats. By eliminating advisors, he cannot get that really profound reflection about what is exactly going on to relay to his administrative body, since he has made himself the owner of the war itself. Because of that, there seems to be a kind of silence surrounding the matter.

All the information I get about the war in Iran comes from Washington Week every Friday. I also notice in the discussion of the war there are constant reflections about how many American people have died, including service personnel and associated personnel.

Thinking back on other wars, starting with Vietnam, the horrific death toll was not just two or three people. It was sometimes five thousand one day and ten thousand the next. Of course, that was a ground offensive.

Following wars after that in the Middle East were also horrific, but not always as devastating in the same way. I would guess it is because a new generation of people in the media itself has not experienced the kind of trauma that comes from war within our own national periphery.

Going back to Trump’s plug-and-play idea, and the hats revolving to mean one thing one way and another thing another way, I guess I never cared too much for the hats. I especially do not like the MAGA people with cowboy hats. They look ridiculous. Those Tennessee-style baseball caps with two colors even look more dinky.

There is something about those hats that turn middle-class ordinary citizens from ordinary backgrounds, mostly white, who as youngsters were bused or even chauffeured to school, graduated, and then broke out of the monotony by moving into rural communities where they raised two pigs and some chickens. Then they make a million or two selling cattle on their small little fifty-acre parcel in places like rural Texas.

They love Trump because they think he is going to bring in that same prosperity. All of it is based upon the plug-and-play idea of hats and hat-shifting, where you can do it and consider it modern.

But what is unsaid here is that it is possible to do almost anything within the confines of the Constitution. This idea of eliminating the Constitution as part of the process, simply to create some kind of newsworthy shock, forms a kind of code of delusion. That delusion becomes a protective barrier, along with constantly bringing people to court and sometimes winning.

However, the plug-and-play kind of attitude can only survive within the confines of the Constitution, at least that is the way I see it. The idea of devastating it in order to make laws rock with nightly lightning storms does not seem to be the appropriate way of doing things. Nevertheless, that seems to be the direction of the moment.