It's been doing this at least since the Citizens United decision (2010). Take a look at, say, Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), in which SCOTUS ruled that "partisan gerrymandering" was OK although racial gerrymandering was not, totally ignoring the frequent overlap of the two AND the fact that earlier Courts recognized this. Madiba K. Dennie's THE ORIGINALISM TRAP (2024) is really good on this, and very accessible to non-lawyers.
Someone needs to write a book about the Thomas phenomenon. It's got everything: white liberal guilt! Reagan and post-Reagan Republicans owning the libs! white people kicking Thurgood Marshall (and civil rights) in the face! Thomas is the ultimate DEI hire.
The direction we are headed in will not be influenced by the Supreme Court. The popularity of the president’s actions will not be affected by any court ruling nor will his behavior and those of you who think the courts are going to save us are delusional. Democracy and a functioning government are destined to the trash heap, what happens then will be interesting.
I really believe that it needs to be complete anarchy before the population realizes the mistake of drinking his cool-aid. So bad that they experience real hardship. So bad that he cannot spin things. Kinda dark, ain’t it?…
It seems that Trump is looking for a sweeping judgement from the Supreme Court like the immunity one (Trump vs United States - now that's a case name you'll never forget!) essentially ruling that Congress has no constitutional power to restrict the president's right to fire and rehire staff in his administration (whether or not they work for agencies that have been given a measure of independence) or to restrict his ability to decide how voted monies are spent. It's a big ask, but there are probably five justices who are ideologically sympathetic to his views on presidential power and that's all he needs.
Kathi Miller: Isn't it amazing how jurists ruling under the theory of "Originalism" find that our Constitutional Fathers wanted the President to have absolute powers and immunity.
Hmmm. Somehow, in reading the Federalist Papers, absorbing the learning of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, I missed all the rhetoric of unbridled discretion.
My reading of The Federalist led me to think that the Constitutional Fathers had designed a Government according to the teachings of the great historian of the Punic Wars, Polybius, who in Book 6 of his Histories had advocated separation and balance of powers among countervailing branches of a Republic, and who advocated limitation of powers.
The "Originalist", Chief Justice Roberts, believes the President has absolute powers and is immune absolutely.
I'll have to read the learned Chief Justice's opinion to see his interpretation of The Federalist, because poor layman Armando thought that that Founding Document implemented in large part the teachings of Polybius on Freedom and a Republic on the solid ground of limitation, separation, and balance of powers among equal branches of Government.
Chief Justice Roberts says we rebelled from a King to set up a President as Sovereign with Absolute Powers and Immunity.
If the Supreme Court decides to enable Trump’s coup, we may have a country/ democracy that will take decades to repair if it even can be repaired at all. Ultimately voter suppression and heavy handed exec actions will change govt so fundamentally, we won’t recognize this country. I already don’t. Kind of think we need mass protests now before the military becomes another subordinated/complicit part of the coup.
Agree. I’m just flabbergasted that McConnell put party before country and didn’t vote to convict Trump. Hard to believe he didn’t see the raw danger this man possesses.
He knew it. They all know it. It's just a matter of either agreeing with what is happening or ignoring it for whatever reason.
Anyone who has ever had even the slightest bit of knowledge about the rise of fascism in the 1930's knows what is happening. It's deja vu all over again(thanks Yogi). The talk of genocide, expansionism, changing the names of geography, plotting with enemies, it's all there.
This time there is less secrecy. There is no hiding the intentions. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in Germany in the 1930's? Have you wondered how the people could be so blind as to what is happening? We're there. The difference is that we have history to refer to. It should be much easier this time around.
Do we agree with it, or do we ignore it? Should we do something about?
They all did. Remember Susan Collins after the second impeachment trial? She said that she believed Trump had learned "a pretty big lesson" and that he would be "more cautious in the future". Cripes!
No, many of us don't like her at all and never have. I've met her several times (big state, small population) and I've never liked the vibe she gives off or how she votes or the excuses she makes. We have a wonderful Dem governor, an Independent Senator who votes with the Dems, two Dem congresspeople although one acts conservative some of the time. It's always been hard to get rid of an incumbent here, though.
And they said J. Biden was too old. When will this hag hang it up. Just another Feinstein. Some of us acknowledge that our cognition is not what it was while other remain sharp as a tack. She is an example of the former. It isn't easy admitting your are too old to do the job, but when you can't even speak intelligently without your voice breaking. The woman needs to be anyplace but the senate
Mitch stated on the TV interview that he is a Republican first, last and always. He is proud to place his party before the country and our constitution. He is no conservative but rather a radical right destroyer of democracy. His party has decided to trash our government and the other party seeks to preserve their seats in congress and the senate. What they will do if they remain in Washington is something I can’t even guess. A handful of patriots in Washington cannot stop this.
The Democrats are not even trying to stop the destruction. They ask the public to demonstrate in large enough numbers that they can feel confident to speak out - in front of a microphone/on television! They are redundant. Musk/Trump/Vance are the government - all of it. Congress and the Courts.
I squarely blame McConnell for more than that. His refusal to grant Obama's nomination of Garland to SCOTUS was the beginning of this attempted coup enabled by SCOTUS
I don't understand your comment. I'm not fighting a "war". That implies I am "stuck" in the past. I am not! History is history. If Obama had been able to put Garland on the court that would have meant Trump.would not have had three. While the outcomes might not havd been different it would have been 4-5 instead of 3-6. Major difference.
Republicans always put party before country. They can’t compete in a fair election because they have nothing to offer the People. The republican mantra: if you can’t beat them, cheat them. The Republican Party gave up on honest democracy a long time ago. How else could the Big Lie become the cornerstone of that party…
"I already don’t." Same. "We need mass protests now before the military becomes another subordinated/complicit part of the coup." I've been thinking this since Day 1.
Yes, I saw some wonderful pictures from cities across the country today on MSNBC! I've always been a marcher/protestor/organizer from way back when (as in over 50 years ago). Unfortunately, I have limited mobility at this point in my life (can no longer drive, and need a walker) -- so it would be difficult. But you're so right, Riversong! That feeling of power, being part of a group fighting for good, is a great antidote to helplessness! (Maybe I can borrow a wheelchair? Actually, though it was only temporary, that's what I did during the Women's March in D.C. in 2017. :-) )
I'm in the same position as you are, mobility-wise. I've missed getting out there and yelling, carrying a sign, and feeling the solidarity amongst my own kind. I do what I can from home, but it never feels like enough. :( In any event, I won't stop!!
I was at a small rally yesterday in front of our Town Hall on the east end of Long Island organized by Indivisible. Maybe 50+ people attended but the positive reaction from those driving by was inspiring. I’m ready to get out there again!
I was shocked to hear that my medical doctor, a West Point graduate, was a Trump supporter. I had to find another doctor. If you go to a military base and look at a tv in a public place, guess what is playing? FOX news. We have every reason to be concerned about MAGA influence in the military.
One might add here that the lack of Democratic response - save for the few valiant ones, AOC, Crockett, Raskin et al - harkens to the early Jewish response to young Adolph: Oh, it’ll pass, don’t worry.
Instead the Trump/Musk govt. has the effrontery to argue that restoring the Special Counsel to his job of rooting out fraud and corruption will cause "irreparable harm" to the Executive Branch.
Sophia, my hope is that they are doing more that we just can't see. I would love to hear more verbal proof from them, though. I would love it if the MAJORITY of the Dems were louder. As much as I love those voices we hear from, it's really not enough. Or loud enough. They are playing too nice!
I continue to have a hard time joining the hate fest targeting any opposition to the Putin/Musk/Trumpuppet axis. It just seems all the self-loathing, finger pointing, circular firing squads aid the axis most of all, and that the energy wasted on recriminations might be better spent making doable demands, and impassioned suggestions. Better still, as Kamala's mom said: "do something".
Joyce, do you have a sense as to when or if the Republicans will stop falling in line? Are they willing to let the entire democracy fall apart, just because they think that will get them elected again? He is doing everything by the playbook to be a dictator.
At this point the Republicans are just empty suits. I sometimes doubt that even if their constituents threatened them with pitchforks that they still will be helpless like a deer in the headlights. It's a cult..
If they are successful in destroying democracy and allowing or causing our country as we know it to dissolve, what positions do the Rs in Congress think they will have to be reelected to? Would there even be an election of Congress persons? If their seats are that important to them, they must help to save them. Otherwise, their seats dissolve too.
and I wonder if the Congress can make it thru these years....? If the dump declares that he makes all the laws and decisions of spending, then why "would" we have a congress?
The rumor in Washington is that Musk is using some other kind of pressure (like control of all federal money and data or threatening bodily harm to family members) in addition to drowning their political support to get the Senators to vote for these awful nominees and let them run amok. Journalists seem to know but just hint at it. The problem of course is that their ceding of their remaining power makes them powerless for ever more. The same is true of the SupremeCourt.
Of the five Republican Justices, Roberts and Barrett have been known to dissent where Kavanaugh, Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch are Trumpites to the nth degree. I guess it boils down to how much they believe in the GOP's determination to do away with the Constitution and democracy i.e. if they believe they have a place reserved for them in Trump's Reich (Königreich).
"Where SCOTUS ultimately lands on this will have an enormous impact on Trump’s ability to reshape government by removing people he believes are insufficiently loyal to him." I wonder if SCOTUS justices are worried Trump-Musk might fire them once the executive branch is hollowed out. Even Alito and Thomas should worry - - Trump might want to claim all the goodies those justices were given (illegally) by wealthy patrons.
In this case it's lucky that federal judges are exempt from removal except by means of impeachment. That process has been done 15 times; only eight were convicted.
Do we have a president, or a king? Or an emperor? I should hope that the "justices" realize that, allowed to roam unchecked, Trump will make them irrelevant, just as he wants to do to Congress. That should give them pause. And if they have caught any of the anger over the immunity decision from last summer, they should be especially hesitant to seem to be leaning over for Trump. At least, I hope so.
The Justices do not care if they are irrelevant. They will always have a job rubber-stamping Trump's wishes and living off the bounty of their handlers.
Congress has slowly but steadily ceded its power possibly toward this ending. We can see now with 20/20 hindsight how we’ve gotten to this point. It’s been in the works for decades.
Some few of us saw it as it was happening and we were called "Chicken Little". Right. Blame it on not understanding/not being aware/not liking the color of the opposition. Whatever the blinders, the facts were there.
They already did give away their power Tim. Musk made sure of that. They just exist and eat their free lunch in the cafeteria and gossip about how horrible half time football shows are. Medusa is reaching out for them.
. The framers were unanimous that Congress, as the representatives of the people, should be in control of public funds—not the President or executive branch agencies.
U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 9, clause 7
Here is a link that discusses this question in Trump's 2nd term
I am hopeful that there are enough Rs in the House and Senate that support independent IGs, believe Putin is an enemy, see their districts decimated by the illegal cuts, see the damage tariff trade wars are causing and know that the Pi Day government shutdown talking point blaming Ds is total BS so they go Independent, flipping the House and Senate.
My Republican Senator’s office told me, when I called about RFK Jr, that for every 1 caller who wanted them to vote against Kennedy, there were 10 MAHA moms who wanted them to vote for Kennedy. So when your constituents are literally 10 to 1 in favor of the person the President nominated to be cabinet secretary, and you’re in the President’s party, it’s hard to vote differently. Especially if you’re up for reelection in 2026. They say that the morning of the crucial vote Bill Cassidy’s senate website crashed and his DC phone number more or less did also. The MAHA moms are now a large, organized group. They seem to dominate this issue in every state.
The MAGA moms and their kids will ultimately pay the price for their denial of science and medicine. I personally will have not an ounce of sympathy or empathy. Denial of facts is ignorance and stupid.
When a Senator votes for his job rather than the Health and Safety of his country, it is obvious we no longer have a Senate. Profiles of Courage is extinct.
Keep dreaming and hoping. When you look without rose-colored glasses you will see that Congress is following the beliefs of the Republican Party. SMALL GOVERNMENT. Government cannot be small until someone with power gets rid of all those Laws, Acts, and Executive Orders to streamline America to Zero.
Mary - We are on day 29 of this reign of terror. Don’t give up that quickly! I have mentioned before here that I am waiting until 1 May, the 101 day point, to assess where we are as a nation.
As time goes by many MAGA RShits are going to be bombarded by their constituents as they find they have no place to sell their peanuts, wheat, etc; inflation is going up, not down; cars will cost 1,000s more; their children are dying from measles; etc, etc, etc.
I fully expect MAGA to shut down the government on 14 March. I believe that this will happen because MAGA already has a talking point blaming the Ds.
Remember the “I did this” Joe Biden stickers that MAGIDIOTS were putting on gas pumps? I have friends starting to see those stickers with Orange Hitler pointing at egg prices.
The Third Reich Trilogy by Richard J Evans is very widely considered the most comprehensive and up to date books on the entirety of the rise and fall of Nazi German
So good to hear there is a guardrail to having improper firing of innocent public servants. Hope justice seek, justice rewarded for all the laws being broken by the new administration. This give me hope 🤩💪
Diana, I am so with you. These people should not just loose their jobs and get tossed aside so wealthy people can take the money and use it for their favorite nonsense. I see riding around Daytona on the taxpayers dime was a needed expense this weekend.
> "If you’re interested in rooting out waste and corruption, you want someone like Dellinger in place. So, Trump’s insistence on firing him is telling."
Just like the "massacre" of over a dozen Inspectors General in days past.
So the issue at this point before the SCOTUS is only about the TRO, not the merits of the case. It seems inconceivable that SCOTUS would side with Trump on the TRO -or- the merits (when it eventually gets there), but with this Supreme Court, we'll have to wait and see.
Demento's attempt to hollow out the agencies and replace their heads with sycophants raises the specter of an even more disturbing scenario, where enterprises critical to the nation's health and welfare are enmeshed in a never-ending stream of legal challenges. And it is cold comfort that thanks to the Imperial Court's repeal of the "Chevron" doctrine last summer (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce), questionable agency decisions resulting from these draconian personnel measures will almost certainly be up to the courts to interpret the foundational laws on which they presumably are based. This will only tend to increase litigation, with judges now having the final say on how laws are implemented, even in technical cases, with the very real possibility of competing interpretations of the same laws by separate district courts.
Yes, these agencies are going to get a lot of lawsuits, in conjunction with Doge. Trump wants obsequious agency heads so he can tell them which states get disaster assistance and which need to do something for him. I'm also concerned that Doge has demanded access to taxpayers' personal info, at IRS, Treasury, and Social Security, so far. It seems to me musk wants to acquire the ability to withhold various payments or other benefits to specific people or groups of people. If he doesn't intend to misuse his access to our personal government payments, then why does he need to install his people to take total, exclusive control of agency servers? Why does he need to have access to such granular info when he's allegedly checking for fraud, waste, and abuse on an institutional level? We had agency Inspector Generals in place in those agencies to report fraud and waste to. Then trump got rid of them because he didn't want employees or IGs to interfering in musk's fraud. If fraud had occurred, there were places and IGs set up to take care of it. I think musk is firing staff and gaining control of our personal data. We didn't have a fraud problem until trump and musk's charade. He thinks all of us are pretty gullible and he can tell us he's doing anything he likes.
Technical expertise has been discarded. Years of training and nonpartisan work for the health and safety of the country and entire world has just been arbitrarily thrown out in every single agency and department. President musk makes the decision, takes the action and then informs the chief felon, who then just gushes about how wonderful the president is.
A perfect example of the clear and present danger of a bunch of functionally uninformed and incompetent techies allowed to rummage around in the government is what happened recently at the National Nuclear Security Administration, where the Muskrats again took a meat ax to staffing for the nation's nuclear weapons programs. These include critical programs managing massive radioactive waste sites and ensuring the material there doesn't further contaminate nearby communities --- a good many of which are in red states. When it dawned on the dimwits that firing for firing's sake probably wasn't a good idea in this case, many who had been reinstated could not be reached and more than a handful of others were said to be reconsidering whether to return to work, given the uncertainty created by DOGE.
Here in WA state we have Hanford which is a cleanup site for nuclear waste. SO, it's a BIG concern for us. It would be a great time for foreign assets to step over any federal
safeguards and acquire control or secrets and then destroy any concerns they have for future interference. It would almost seem like they are doing these things on purpose. How can trumps 'genius' be that short sighted or just plain DUMB!
I remember a time when I wanted a case to go to the Supreme Court.
Now I am fearful they will enable Trump and hasten our exit from the strongest democracy in world history.
A genuine fear — who’d a thunk? The U. S. Supreme Court abandons the Constitution for political favor … or so it seems.
But there is no favor the Supreme Court can court unless it pockets wealth given to individuals like Uncle Thomas or the Upside Down Flag Waver.
The Four Million Dollar Man …
Is Dellinger alleging he is a whistleblower? Is he related to Walter?
I have no trust in the extreme court. None! Six of them have been bought and sold many times over.
Indeed! Remember the extravaganza for Justice Barrett … at the White House … in the middle of a vaccine less Covid-19 … for over a million bucks.
It's been doing this at least since the Citizens United decision (2010). Take a look at, say, Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), in which SCOTUS ruled that "partisan gerrymandering" was OK although racial gerrymandering was not, totally ignoring the frequent overlap of the two AND the fact that earlier Courts recognized this. Madiba K. Dennie's THE ORIGINALISM TRAP (2024) is really good on this, and very accessible to non-lawyers.
Truth here … unvarnished by smarmy deflections.
Look at Justice Thomas—buyable … but the price is steep.
Someone needs to write a book about the Thomas phenomenon. It's got everything: white liberal guilt! Reagan and post-Reagan Republicans owning the libs! white people kicking Thurgood Marshall (and civil rights) in the face! Thomas is the ultimate DEI hire.
And let’s not forget dear Ginni — she was already bought by Leo Leonard even before her Clarence got a chance (DEI hire?) to shine.
Me too. We'll learn relatively soon the direction our nation may be headed.
The direction we are headed in will not be influenced by the Supreme Court. The popularity of the president’s actions will not be affected by any court ruling nor will his behavior and those of you who think the courts are going to save us are delusional. Democracy and a functioning government are destined to the trash heap, what happens then will be interesting.
I think the only enforcement of the law at this point will be have to come from our patriotic military (minus HegStupid).
I can only hope that you speak of a worst case scenario that will not happen.
I really believe that it needs to be complete anarchy before the population realizes the mistake of drinking his cool-aid. So bad that they experience real hardship. So bad that he cannot spin things. Kinda dark, ain’t it?…
It seems that Trump is looking for a sweeping judgement from the Supreme Court like the immunity one (Trump vs United States - now that's a case name you'll never forget!) essentially ruling that Congress has no constitutional power to restrict the president's right to fire and rehire staff in his administration (whether or not they work for agencies that have been given a measure of independence) or to restrict his ability to decide how voted monies are spent. It's a big ask, but there are probably five justices who are ideologically sympathetic to his views on presidential power and that's all he needs.
Kathi Miller: Isn't it amazing how jurists ruling under the theory of "Originalism" find that our Constitutional Fathers wanted the President to have absolute powers and immunity.
Hmmm. Somehow, in reading the Federalist Papers, absorbing the learning of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, I missed all the rhetoric of unbridled discretion.
My reading of The Federalist led me to think that the Constitutional Fathers had designed a Government according to the teachings of the great historian of the Punic Wars, Polybius, who in Book 6 of his Histories had advocated separation and balance of powers among countervailing branches of a Republic, and who advocated limitation of powers.
The "Originalist", Chief Justice Roberts, believes the President has absolute powers and is immune absolutely.
I'll have to read the learned Chief Justice's opinion to see his interpretation of The Federalist, because poor layman Armando thought that that Founding Document implemented in large part the teachings of Polybius on Freedom and a Republic on the solid ground of limitation, separation, and balance of powers among equal branches of Government.
Chief Justice Roberts says we rebelled from a King to set up a President as Sovereign with Absolute Powers and Immunity.
Who knew?
You have distilled the convoluted reasonings of that opinion well, Armand
Kathi Miller: We live in an upside down world as in „Alice Through the Looking Glass“.
As John Lennon sang in his last album in 1980, „My mama always told me there would be days like these! Strange days, indeed!“
If the Supreme Court decides to enable Trump’s coup, we may have a country/ democracy that will take decades to repair if it even can be repaired at all. Ultimately voter suppression and heavy handed exec actions will change govt so fundamentally, we won’t recognize this country. I already don’t. Kind of think we need mass protests now before the military becomes another subordinated/complicit part of the coup.
Agree. I’m just flabbergasted that McConnell put party before country and didn’t vote to convict Trump. Hard to believe he didn’t see the raw danger this man possesses.
Oh he saw it, he deliberately chose to ignore it. His deep pockets needed filling, his seat needed saving. His cravenness knew no boundaries.
He knew it. They all know it. It's just a matter of either agreeing with what is happening or ignoring it for whatever reason.
Anyone who has ever had even the slightest bit of knowledge about the rise of fascism in the 1930's knows what is happening. It's deja vu all over again(thanks Yogi). The talk of genocide, expansionism, changing the names of geography, plotting with enemies, it's all there.
This time there is less secrecy. There is no hiding the intentions. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in Germany in the 1930's? Have you wondered how the people could be so blind as to what is happening? We're there. The difference is that we have history to refer to. It should be much easier this time around.
Do we agree with it, or do we ignore it? Should we do something about?
They all did. Remember Susan Collins after the second impeachment trial? She said that she believed Trump had learned "a pretty big lesson" and that he would be "more cautious in the future". Cripes!
She is so wishy-washy. Does not deserve to be reelected.
Well she's been re-elected four times so they must like wishy-washy in Maine.
No, many of us don't like her at all and never have. I've met her several times (big state, small population) and I've never liked the vibe she gives off or how she votes or the excuses she makes. We have a wonderful Dem governor, an Independent Senator who votes with the Dems, two Dem congresspeople although one acts conservative some of the time. It's always been hard to get rid of an incumbent here, though.
I guess!
And they said J. Biden was too old. When will this hag hang it up. Just another Feinstein. Some of us acknowledge that our cognition is not what it was while other remain sharp as a tack. She is an example of the former. It isn't easy admitting your are too old to do the job, but when you can't even speak intelligently without your voice breaking. The woman needs to be anyplace but the senate
They say that sometimes old age brings sagacity but clearly that's not a given.
Mitch stated on the TV interview that he is a Republican first, last and always. He is proud to place his party before the country and our constitution. He is no conservative but rather a radical right destroyer of democracy. His party has decided to trash our government and the other party seeks to preserve their seats in congress and the senate. What they will do if they remain in Washington is something I can’t even guess. A handful of patriots in Washington cannot stop this.
The Democrats are not even trying to stop the destruction. They ask the public to demonstrate in large enough numbers that they can feel confident to speak out - in front of a microphone/on television! They are redundant. Musk/Trump/Vance are the government - all of it. Congress and the Courts.
I squarely blame McConnell for more than that. His refusal to grant Obama's nomination of Garland to SCOTUS was the beginning of this attempted coup enabled by SCOTUS
I am not sure Garland would have been a good Supreme Court Justice. I do not think he is a match for the SickSix.
I think he would have been better in the court. More suited to his personality. It would have been fuckinfive.
Quit fighting the last war and get busy doing something.
I don't understand your comment. I'm not fighting a "war". That implies I am "stuck" in the past. I am not! History is history. If Obama had been able to put Garland on the court that would have meant Trump.would not have had three. While the outcomes might not havd been different it would have been 4-5 instead of 3-6. Major difference.
Republicans always put party before country. They can’t compete in a fair election because they have nothing to offer the People. The republican mantra: if you can’t beat them, cheat them. The Republican Party gave up on honest democracy a long time ago. How else could the Big Lie become the cornerstone of that party…
"I already don’t." Same. "We need mass protests now before the military becomes another subordinated/complicit part of the coup." I've been thinking this since Day 1.
They’re starting to happen, kd. Have you had the chance to join in? Do it. You’ll be glad you did!
Yes, I saw some wonderful pictures from cities across the country today on MSNBC! I've always been a marcher/protestor/organizer from way back when (as in over 50 years ago). Unfortunately, I have limited mobility at this point in my life (can no longer drive, and need a walker) -- so it would be difficult. But you're so right, Riversong! That feeling of power, being part of a group fighting for good, is a great antidote to helplessness! (Maybe I can borrow a wheelchair? Actually, though it was only temporary, that's what I did during the Women's March in D.C. in 2017. :-) )
I'm in the same position as you are, mobility-wise. I've missed getting out there and yelling, carrying a sign, and feeling the solidarity amongst my own kind. I do what I can from home, but it never feels like enough. :( In any event, I won't stop!!
I was at a small rally yesterday in front of our Town Hall on the east end of Long Island organized by Indivisible. Maybe 50+ people attended but the positive reaction from those driving by was inspiring. I’m ready to get out there again!
I worry about the military and the police.
I DO, TOO. Not yet, but with the orange sadist getting rid of some of the top military, you know what that will mean.
I was shocked to hear that my medical doctor, a West Point graduate, was a Trump supporter. I had to find another doctor. If you go to a military base and look at a tv in a public place, guess what is playing? FOX news. We have every reason to be concerned about MAGA influence in the military.
One might add here that the lack of Democratic response - save for the few valiant ones, AOC, Crockett, Raskin et al - harkens to the early Jewish response to young Adolph: Oh, it’ll pass, don’t worry.
"f you’re interested in rooting out waste and corruption, you want someone like Dellinger in place." This perfectly summarizes the hypocrisy.
Yes, the silence on both sides is deafening. Their own family members will reject them--they have not one iota of concern about their legacy.
Instead the Trump/Musk govt. has the effrontery to argue that restoring the Special Counsel to his job of rooting out fraud and corruption will cause "irreparable harm" to the Executive Branch.
Sophia, my hope is that they are doing more that we just can't see. I would love to hear more verbal proof from them, though. I would love it if the MAJORITY of the Dems were louder. As much as I love those voices we hear from, it's really not enough. Or loud enough. They are playing too nice!
Scary, this appropriation of the language to appease the Master … and his barely appreciative minions.
I continue to have a hard time joining the hate fest targeting any opposition to the Putin/Musk/Trumpuppet axis. It just seems all the self-loathing, finger pointing, circular firing squads aid the axis most of all, and that the energy wasted on recriminations might be better spent making doable demands, and impassioned suggestions. Better still, as Kamala's mom said: "do something".
Like what do you suggest Mr. Nice Guy?
Axis indeed
And it does not help when MSNBC interviews the likes of Whitehouse and Klobuchar - BIG AYE voters for Trump's miserable choices to run the country.
Our “loyal Germans” who still seem to believe this is a “reality tv” script.
Joyce, do you have a sense as to when or if the Republicans will stop falling in line? Are they willing to let the entire democracy fall apart, just because they think that will get them elected again? He is doing everything by the playbook to be a dictator.
At this point the Republicans are just empty suits. I sometimes doubt that even if their constituents threatened them with pitchforks that they still will be helpless like a deer in the headlights. It's a cult..
I fear that all the congress critters except the few that we know of in blue coats also fall prey to the jaws of greed and fear.
If they are successful in destroying democracy and allowing or causing our country as we know it to dissolve, what positions do the Rs in Congress think they will have to be reelected to? Would there even be an election of Congress persons? If their seats are that important to them, they must help to save them. Otherwise, their seats dissolve too.
and I wonder if the Congress can make it thru these years....? If the dump declares that he makes all the laws and decisions of spending, then why "would" we have a congress?
The rumor in Washington is that Musk is using some other kind of pressure (like control of all federal money and data or threatening bodily harm to family members) in addition to drowning their political support to get the Senators to vote for these awful nominees and let them run amok. Journalists seem to know but just hint at it. The problem of course is that their ceding of their remaining power makes them powerless for ever more. The same is true of the SupremeCourt.
Of the five Republican Justices, Roberts and Barrett have been known to dissent where Kavanaugh, Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch are Trumpites to the nth degree. I guess it boils down to how much they believe in the GOP's determination to do away with the Constitution and democracy i.e. if they believe they have a place reserved for them in Trump's Reich (Königreich).
"Where SCOTUS ultimately lands on this will have an enormous impact on Trump’s ability to reshape government by removing people he believes are insufficiently loyal to him." I wonder if SCOTUS justices are worried Trump-Musk might fire them once the executive branch is hollowed out. Even Alito and Thomas should worry - - Trump might want to claim all the goodies those justices were given (illegally) by wealthy patrons.
I wonder if Vance saying they did not need to follow court orders will color this
In this case it's lucky that federal judges are exempt from removal except by means of impeachment. That process has been done 15 times; only eight were convicted.
You're right, of course. But Trump-Musk are firing lots of people illegally now, so I wonder if anything would stop him from firing judges, too.
Do we have a president, or a king? Or an emperor? I should hope that the "justices" realize that, allowed to roam unchecked, Trump will make them irrelevant, just as he wants to do to Congress. That should give them pause. And if they have caught any of the anger over the immunity decision from last summer, they should be especially hesitant to seem to be leaning over for Trump. At least, I hope so.
loyalty = royalty
The Justices do not care if they are irrelevant. They will always have a job rubber-stamping Trump's wishes and living off the bounty of their handlers.
Did I read this correctly!(Paraphrased)
Congress has the power of the purse UNLESS they give it away... likely to the president.
It'll be interesting to see if Repubs are willing to give away this power.
Congress has slowly but steadily ceded its power possibly toward this ending. We can see now with 20/20 hindsight how we’ve gotten to this point. It’s been in the works for decades.
After much reading and research wherever I could find it, I believe that's true!
Some few of us saw it as it was happening and we were called "Chicken Little". Right. Blame it on not understanding/not being aware/not liking the color of the opposition. Whatever the blinders, the facts were there.
They already did give away their power Tim. Musk made sure of that. They just exist and eat their free lunch in the cafeteria and gossip about how horrible half time football shows are. Medusa is reaching out for them.
. The framers were unanimous that Congress, as the representatives of the people, should be in control of public funds—not the President or executive branch agencies.
U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 9, clause 7
Here is a link that discusses this question in Trump's 2nd term
https://www.espadvisor.com/post/congress-controls-the-purse-strings-but-can-the-president-decide-not-to-spend-the-money
I think they already have given it away.
I am hopeful that there are enough Rs in the House and Senate that support independent IGs, believe Putin is an enemy, see their districts decimated by the illegal cuts, see the damage tariff trade wars are causing and know that the Pi Day government shutdown talking point blaming Ds is total BS so they go Independent, flipping the House and Senate.
Hopefully a reckoning is coming in March.
Keep calling your Senators and Congressmen/women about all of this, especially if they are up for reelection in 2026. Blanket their phones.
My Republican Senator’s office told me, when I called about RFK Jr, that for every 1 caller who wanted them to vote against Kennedy, there were 10 MAHA moms who wanted them to vote for Kennedy. So when your constituents are literally 10 to 1 in favor of the person the President nominated to be cabinet secretary, and you’re in the President’s party, it’s hard to vote differently. Especially if you’re up for reelection in 2026. They say that the morning of the crucial vote Bill Cassidy’s senate website crashed and his DC phone number more or less did also. The MAHA moms are now a large, organized group. They seem to dominate this issue in every state.
The MAGA moms and their kids will ultimately pay the price for their denial of science and medicine. I personally will have not an ounce of sympathy or empathy. Denial of facts is ignorance and stupid.
When a Senator votes for his job rather than the Health and Safety of his country, it is obvious we no longer have a Senate. Profiles of Courage is extinct.
Keep dreaming and hoping. When you look without rose-colored glasses you will see that Congress is following the beliefs of the Republican Party. SMALL GOVERNMENT. Government cannot be small until someone with power gets rid of all those Laws, Acts, and Executive Orders to streamline America to Zero.
Mary - We are on day 29 of this reign of terror. Don’t give up that quickly! I have mentioned before here that I am waiting until 1 May, the 101 day point, to assess where we are as a nation.
As time goes by many MAGA RShits are going to be bombarded by their constituents as they find they have no place to sell their peanuts, wheat, etc; inflation is going up, not down; cars will cost 1,000s more; their children are dying from measles; etc, etc, etc.
I fully expect MAGA to shut down the government on 14 March. I believe that this will happen because MAGA already has a talking point blaming the Ds.
Remember the “I did this” Joe Biden stickers that MAGIDIOTS were putting on gas pumps? I have friends starting to see those stickers with Orange Hitler pointing at egg prices.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
The prescient novel “1984” points the way — own the language, own its users.
The Third Reich Trilogy by Richard J Evans is very widely considered the most comprehensive and up to date books on the entirety of the rise and fall of Nazi German
I’m an old man—sleep is precious enough. A trilogy? Nightmares unending.
Heavy going, but essential reading.
The first naked woman I ever saw as an adolescent was via a documentary on Auschwitz. A sight I will never unsee.
Yes, it was all very ghastly.
Richard Evans wrote a ligher book, "Hitlers People, The Faces of the Third Reich."
Many small bio's.........one nazi for each brainwashed syncophant in the WhiteStag.
Thanks. I've not read that one yet. It can be a very depressing subject and after the trilogy I decided to leave it alone for a while.
So good to hear there is a guardrail to having improper firing of innocent public servants. Hope justice seek, justice rewarded for all the laws being broken by the new administration. This give me hope 🤩💪
Diana, I am so with you. These people should not just loose their jobs and get tossed aside so wealthy people can take the money and use it for their favorite nonsense. I see riding around Daytona on the taxpayers dime was a needed expense this weekend.
Another photo op for the orange one—-he can’t resist the opportunity to be in from of a camera. Puke.
Without a care for anyone but himself.
The Court has been without honor since Scalia and Thomas slimed the bench. Now the majority is just a band of paid off flunkies.
Keep in mind those flunkies were installed by REPUBLICAN Presidents. Except for Amy - all MEN.
> "If you’re interested in rooting out waste and corruption, you want someone like Dellinger in place. So, Trump’s insistence on firing him is telling."
Just like the "massacre" of over a dozen Inspectors General in days past.
So the issue at this point before the SCOTUS is only about the TRO, not the merits of the case. It seems inconceivable that SCOTUS would side with Trump on the TRO -or- the merits (when it eventually gets there), but with this Supreme Court, we'll have to wait and see.
Let’s hope Trump gets another one in the loss column.
Demento's attempt to hollow out the agencies and replace their heads with sycophants raises the specter of an even more disturbing scenario, where enterprises critical to the nation's health and welfare are enmeshed in a never-ending stream of legal challenges. And it is cold comfort that thanks to the Imperial Court's repeal of the "Chevron" doctrine last summer (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce), questionable agency decisions resulting from these draconian personnel measures will almost certainly be up to the courts to interpret the foundational laws on which they presumably are based. This will only tend to increase litigation, with judges now having the final say on how laws are implemented, even in technical cases, with the very real possibility of competing interpretations of the same laws by separate district courts.
Yes, these agencies are going to get a lot of lawsuits, in conjunction with Doge. Trump wants obsequious agency heads so he can tell them which states get disaster assistance and which need to do something for him. I'm also concerned that Doge has demanded access to taxpayers' personal info, at IRS, Treasury, and Social Security, so far. It seems to me musk wants to acquire the ability to withhold various payments or other benefits to specific people or groups of people. If he doesn't intend to misuse his access to our personal government payments, then why does he need to install his people to take total, exclusive control of agency servers? Why does he need to have access to such granular info when he's allegedly checking for fraud, waste, and abuse on an institutional level? We had agency Inspector Generals in place in those agencies to report fraud and waste to. Then trump got rid of them because he didn't want employees or IGs to interfering in musk's fraud. If fraud had occurred, there were places and IGs set up to take care of it. I think musk is firing staff and gaining control of our personal data. We didn't have a fraud problem until trump and musk's charade. He thinks all of us are pretty gullible and he can tell us he's doing anything he likes.
Technical expertise has been discarded. Years of training and nonpartisan work for the health and safety of the country and entire world has just been arbitrarily thrown out in every single agency and department. President musk makes the decision, takes the action and then informs the chief felon, who then just gushes about how wonderful the president is.
A perfect example of the clear and present danger of a bunch of functionally uninformed and incompetent techies allowed to rummage around in the government is what happened recently at the National Nuclear Security Administration, where the Muskrats again took a meat ax to staffing for the nation's nuclear weapons programs. These include critical programs managing massive radioactive waste sites and ensuring the material there doesn't further contaminate nearby communities --- a good many of which are in red states. When it dawned on the dimwits that firing for firing's sake probably wasn't a good idea in this case, many who had been reinstated could not be reached and more than a handful of others were said to be reconsidering whether to return to work, given the uncertainty created by DOGE.
Here in WA state we have Hanford which is a cleanup site for nuclear waste. SO, it's a BIG concern for us. It would be a great time for foreign assets to step over any federal
safeguards and acquire control or secrets and then destroy any concerns they have for future interference. It would almost seem like they are doing these things on purpose. How can trumps 'genius' be that short sighted or just plain DUMB!