The Conversation -- February 11, 2025
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday accused Kash Patel..., [Donald] Trump’s nominee for F.B.I. director, of improperly directing a wave of firings at the bureau without having been confirmed as its leader. In a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general [Michael Horowitz], the senator, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, cited 'highly credible information from multiple sources' that suggested Mr. Patel had been personally involved in covertly orchestrating a purge of career officials at the F.B.I.... The accusation comes as the committee prepares to vote Thursday on whether to send Mr. Patel’s nomination to the Senate floor. Mr. Durbin said that if the allegations were true, then the acting No. 2 at the Justice Department, Emil Bove, fired career civil servants 'solely at the behest of a private citizen,' and also that Mr. Patel 'may have perjured himself' at his confirmation hearing last month.” ~~~
~~~ Here's a copy of Durbin's letter to Horowitz via the Daily Kos.
Michael Stratford & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “Treasury Department officials said Tuesday that the agency last week 'mistakenly' and 'briefly' gave a member of Elon Musk’s team the power to alter a sensitive federal payments database, prompting an internal forensic investigation that remains ongoing. The disclosure, made in a series of court filings, undercuts the Trump administration’s repeated public claims that the DOGE team’s access to the federal payments system was limited to a 'read-only' basis. Senior Treasury officials wrote in sworn declarations that Marko Elez, a 25-year-old former SpaceX and X engineer, was erroneously granted 'read/write' privileges to a secure payments system on Feb. 5. Elez resigned from the Treasury Department a day later, after The Wall Street Journal surfaced racist social media posts, and Treasury officials said he has not been reinstated to his previous role.... The affidavits make clear that the DOGE team initially came into the system with plans to block foreign aid payments — following an executive order by President Donald Trump — and to automate some of its functions.”
Ben Johansen of Politico: “The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from attending ... Donald Trump’s executive order signing Tuesday afternoon, the news organization said, after it continued to refer to the 'Gulf of Mexico' instead of adjusting to reflect the administration’s stance that the body of water should now be called the 'Gulf of America.' Earlier on Tuesday, the White House warned the AP — known for its stylebook that many newsrooms follow — that if it did not change its guidance on the body of water, its on-call reporter would be blocked from attending the event, the wire service said.... AP executive editor Julie Pace said in a statement[,] 'Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.'”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump insisted Tuesday that the United States has the authority to 'take' Gaza and that other countries in the region will absorb the Palestinians who currently live there, speaking as he sat beside Jordan’s king in the Oval Office.... The remarks — made at an impromptu gaggle with reporters called in abruptly at the start of the bilateral meeting between the two leaders — represented a new form of pressure on King Abdullah II, who sought to praise Mr. Trump as a force for peace in the region while avoiding comment on a barely formed proposal that the president has repeatedly floated in the past week.... Rather than push back on Mr. Trump’s proposal, King Abdullah said the two nations should consult with other Arab nations, including Egypt.... King Abdullah now faces the difficult task of trying to protect the more than $1.5 billion in foreign aid Jordan receives from the United States while also trying to get Mr. Trump to back off his demands for the mass removal of Palestinians.” ~~~
~~~ This story has been updated with a new lede: “King Abdullah II of Jordan on Tuesday rebuffed ... [Donald] Trump’s proposal for his country to absorb Palestinians living in Gaza, saying that he remained opposed to a plan Mr. Trump has laid out to clear the territory so the United States can seize control of it. During a 'constructive' meeting with the U.S. president at the White House, King Abdullah said, he 'reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.' 'This is the unified Arab position,' he stated in a post on social media after the meeting. 'Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all.'”
Eric Lipton & Kirsten Grind of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk ... have been dismantling federal agencies across the government. Mr. Trump has fired top officials and pushed out career employees. Many of them were leading investigations, enforcement matters or lawsuits pending against Mr. Musk’s companies. Mr. Musk has also reaped the benefit of resignations by Biden-era regulators that flipped control of major regulatory agencies, leaving more sympathetic Republican appointees overseeing those lawsuits. At least 11 federal agencies that have been affected by those moves have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions into Mr. Musk’s six companies, according to a review by The New York Times....
“ On its own, the National Labor Relations Board ... has 24 investigations into Mr. Musk’s companies.... Since January, Mr. Trump has fired three officials at that agency..., effectively stalling the board’s ability to rule on cases.... Over at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a public database shows hundreds of complaints about the electric car company Tesla, mostly concerning debt collection or loan problems. The ... Trump administration ... has ordered its staff to put a hold on all investigations.... Traditional federal conflict of interest rules seem almost antiquated, if Mr. Musk is determined to be involved in specific decisions about agencies his companies do business with.” ~~~
~~~ Theodore Schleifer & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: “Elon Musk plans to file a financial disclosure report to the White House, but it will remain confidential, a White House official said Tuesday. There has never been a White House staffer with the vast potential for conflicts like Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person and the head of leading companies in electric vehicles, space exploration and artificial intelligence. But Mr. Musk is serving ... [Donald] Trump as an unpaid 'special government employee,' which means his financial disclosure is not required to be made public. Mr. Musk received an ethics training this week, [a White House] official said, and Mr. Musk’s staff as part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is in the process of receiving their own training, said the White House official....” MB: I'll bet Donald J. Trump is their ethics tutor. Lesson 1: Do whatever you want. Lesson 2. I'll pardon you. Lesson 3: You can trust me.
Hi-Ho, the Derry-O, The Swindler Takes a Walk. Hurubie Meko & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Stephen K. Bannon ... pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Manhattan criminal court to a single count of defrauding donors who sought to help build a wall at the southern border. Mr. Bannon’s plea deal stipulates that he will be given a three-year conditional discharge, meaning he will receive no prison time if he does not reoffend. He had faced five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges, and faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years on the most serious charge. In the courtroom Tuesday, Mr. Bannon sat among his three lawyers and answered “Yes, your honor” as the judge, April A. Newbauer, asked him detailed questions about his understanding of the deal and the rights he was surrendering, including his right to appeal. Mr. Bannon’s trial had been scheduled to begin in March.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the heads-up.~~~
~~~ Michael Sisak of the AP: “Asked how he was feeling as he left the courtroom, Bannon said, 'Like a million bucks.' Bannon spoke to reporters afterward and called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin an immediate criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Leticia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.... Bannon had ... recently hired a new team of attack dog lawyers who sought to portray the case to jurors as a selective and malicious prosecution.... The district attorney’s office said Bannon is barred from fundraising for or serving as 'an officer, director, or in any other fiduciary position' for any charitable organization with assets in New York state, under the plea agreement. He’s also barred from using, selling or possessing any data gathered from donors to the border wall scheme.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah, I'll bet Bannon feels like a million bucks. He was charged with pocketing more than a million bucks in the scheme.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Monday continued what he has dubbed his 'flood the zone' strategy, issuing a pair of executive orders that target trading practices, threatening Hamas and installing an ally atop two government ethics offices, even as federal courts continued to block some of his efforts and Democrats castigated his moves to shutter agencies as illegal. Trump signed separate executive orders imposing 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, ending the federal government’s 'procurement and forced use of paper straws' and eliminating a training program for government leaders known as the Federal Executive Institute.... And the president named longtime supporter Douglas A. Collins — a former U.S. congressman from Georgia, already serving as secretary of veterans affairs — to run two government ethics offices after abruptly firing the offices’ leaders in recent days.... The president also signed a memo appointing dozens of senior officials across the government, including seven ambassadors.” ~~~
~~~ And here we see Trump explicitly and flagrantly moving to criminalize businesses operating in the U.S. and no doubt to facilitate his own company's shady dealings in other countries: ~~~
~~~ Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: “Trump on Monday ordered a pause in the enforcement of a federal law aimed at curbing corruption in multinational companies, saying it creates an uneven playing field for American firms. The law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, was enacted in 1977 and makes it illegal for companies that operate in the United States to pay foreign government officials to secure business deals. Federal authorities have used the law to crack down on bribery, especially in countries where it is a common business practice. Mr. Trump has objected to the law, which has led to charges against some of the world’s largest companies.” The Guardian's report is here. MB: I'm not sure, but Trump seems to be again abusing his power: the Congress passes a law, one not disputed by the courts, which requires the administrative branch to crack down on bribery, and Trump says fagaddaboudit. If I'm right (and I may not be), then he's abusing his power in two ways: (1) to facilitate his own criming and (2) to undercut the other branches of government. ~~~
~~~ Alanna Durkin & Eric Tucker of the AP: “A U.S. judge on Monday ordered the fired head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers to be reinstated while a court fight continues over his removal by ... Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s order came hours after Hampton Dellinger sued the Republican president over his removal as the leader of the Office of Special Counsel, which is responsible for guarding the federal workforce from illegal personnel actions, such as retaliation for whistleblowing. The judge said Dellinger must be allowed to serve as special counsel through midnight on Thursday while she considers his request for a temporary restraining order to keep him in the job. She said the Trump administration cannot 'deny him access to the resources or materials of that office or recognize the authority of any other person as Special Counsel.'... Also on Monday, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics posted on its website that Trump had removed its director, David Huitema, who like Dellinger was confirmed by the Senate last year to a five-year term. The White House had said before the judge’s ruling reinstating Dellinger that recently confirmed Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins has been named the acting leader of both agencies.” ~~~
~~~ A CBS News story by Kathryn Watson on Government Ethics Director David Huitema's ouster is here. ~~~
~~~ Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: “In the first three weeks of his administration..., Donald Trump has moved with brazen haste to dismantle the federal government’s public integrity guardrails that he frequently tested during his first term but now seems intent on removing entirely. In a span of hours on Monday, word came that he had forced out leaders of offices responsible for government ethics and whistleblower complaints. And in a boon to corporations, he ordered a pause to enforcement of a decades-old law that prohibits American companies from bribing foreign governments to win business. All of that came on top of the earlier late-night purge of more than a dozen inspectors general who are tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies. It’s all being done with a stop-me-if-you-dare defiance by a president who the first time around felt hemmed in by watchdogs, lawyers and judges tasked with affirming good government and fair play. Now, he seems determined to break those constraints once and for all in a historically unprecedented flex of executive power.” Quite a good overview.
⭐Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Monday said the White House has defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump White House was disobeying a judicial mandate. The ruling by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island federal court ordered Trump administration officials to comply with what he called 'the plain text' of an edict he issued last month. Judge McConnell’s ruling marked a step toward what could quickly evolve into a high-stakes showdown between the executive and judicial branches, a day after a social media post by Vice President JD Vance claimed that 'judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,' elevating the chance that the White House could provoke a constitutional crisis....
“On Friday, 22 Democratic attorneys general went to Judge McConnell to accuse the White House of failing to comply with his earlier order. The Justice Department responded in a filing on Sunday that money for clean energy projects as well as transportation infrastructure allocated to states by the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure bill was exempt from the initial order, because it had been paused under a different memo than the one that prompted the lawsuit. Judge McConnell’s ruling on Monday explicitly rejected that argument.” (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's report is here.
If [the president] disagrees with the law that Congress has enacted, including an appropriation, he can urge Congress to amend the law. Ideological disagreement with a law is not a justification for refusing to execute that law. -- David Cole of Georgetown Law ~~~
~~~ Jake Pearson & Anjeanette Damon of ProPublica: “... the Trump administration is not backing down in its fight to slash spending and dramatically reshape the federal government, despite multiple court orders explicitly restraining the president’s sweeping executive actions. In some cases, to get around the judges’ rulings, the administration has cited a memo that it says is not subject to the existing orders. In others, it denied funding to organizations because their granting agencies are not defendants in one of the ongoing legal challenges. In others still, it has withheld funds by citing the agencies’ own judgment, not the president’s directives.... Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority — and the limits of the presidency.”
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “There is no universally accepted definition of a constitutional crisis, but legal scholars agree about some of its characteristics. It is generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse. 'We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,' [Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley] said on Friday. 'There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.' His ticked off examples of what he called President Trump’s lawless conduct: revoking birthright citizenship, freezing federal spending, shutting down an agency, removing leaders of other agencies, firing government employees subject to civil service protections and threatening to deport people based on their political views.” Other law professors Liptak cites agree. And Liptak reminds us, “Mr. Trump has already disregarded one Supreme Court decision, its ruling last month upholding a federal law, passed by lopsided bipartisan majorities, requiring TikTok to be sold or banned.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: “The United States is sleepwalking into a constitutional crisis. Not only has the Trump administration seized for itself extraconstitutional powers, but yesterday, it raised the specter that, should the courts apply the text of the Constitution and negate its plans, it will simply ignore them.... What makes ... [Trump's demands to ignore Constitutional Congressional prerogatives] so astonishing is that Trump could persuade Congress, which he commands in personality-cult style, to follow his demands. Republicans presently control both houses of Congress, and any agency that Congress established, it can also cut or eliminate. Yet Trump refuses to even try to pass his plan democratically. And ... he is now threatening to ignore [courts,] too.... Given his party’s near-total acquiescence in every previous step toward authoritarianism, perhaps Trump would not have to be crazy to take the next one.... The crisis lies not in the structure of government so much as in the character of the party that runs it, which refuses to accept the idea that its defeat is ever legitimate or that its power has any limits.” Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Because Trump is at least going through the motions of addressing court orders, I suppose we still are in the "constitutional crisis" mode. But we're awfully close to an autogolpe or self-coup, and we are slouching toward Masada primarily because Congressional Republicans are willing to jump off a cliff when Trump says "jump." It is one thing that many of them agree with Trump's cruel & harmful policies. But it is quite another to let him get away with setting the policies unilaterally. Members of Congress have a right, I guess, to be stupid, but they have a Constitutional duty, which they have abrogated, to stand up to the president* when he usurps their Constitutional powers. Update: Here's someone who sees the handwriting on the wall: (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Lisa Needham of Public Notice: "While Trump and his henchmen deconstruct the administrative state, his lawyers are embracing the logic of dictatorship. The core argument emerging in their legal filings and executive orders — one without support anywhere in the Constitution or the law — is that simply by being elected, Trump has the power to do whatever he wants.... When executive orders are challenged in court, government attorneys typically point to the underlying laws that give the president the authority to issue the order. Trump seems to have dispensed with that requirement, however.... The administration's stance appears to literally be that federal laws are irrelevant in the face of Trump’s wishes and the courts can’t stop him. If Congress and the judiciary no longer check or balance the executive branch, no separation of powers is left.... That’s tearing democracy down to the studs and rebuilding something entirely different and much worse in its place.... This sounds a lot like dictatorship, and a despotic one at that." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here's something else that "sounds a lot like dictatorship": ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “Just eight days after he won a second term, Mr. Trump ... mused about whether he could have a third presidential term, which is barred by the Constitution. Since then, he has floated the idea frequently. In public, he couches the notion of staying in office beyond two terms as a humorous aside. In private, Mr. Trump has told advisers that it is just one of his myriad diversions to grab attention and aggravate Democrats, according to people familiar with his comments.... The third-term gambit could also serve another purpose, political observers noted: keeping congressional Republicans in line as Mr. Trump pushes a maximalist version of executive authority with the clock ticking on his time in office.... Even when Mr. Trump presents something as a joke, the idea he suggests often becomes socialized by his supporters.... The concept then often takes on more weight, including for Mr. Trump. Recently, some Republicans have started pushing the idea of changing the Constitution for him.”
Daniel Wu, et al., of the Washington Post: “Farmers report missing millions of dollars of funding they were promised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, despite promises from the Trump administration that a federal funding freeze would not apply to projects directly benefiting individuals. On his first day in office..., Donald Trump ordered the USDA to freeze funds for several programs designated by President Joe Biden’s signature clean-energy and health-care law, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.... Farmers who signed contracts with the USDA under those programs paid up front to build fencing, plant new crops and install renewable energy systems with guarantees that the federal government would issue grants and loan guarantees to cover at least part of their costs. Now, with that money frozen, they’re on the hook.... The USDA has also halted funding for other programs, including scientific research grants in agriculture and producing climate-smart crops.... [This is] another blow to farmers who are also facing threats of tariffs and freezes to foreign-aid spending that involved food purchased from American producers.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I reckon quite a few of these farmers are Trump voters. But, hey, if Trump isn't going to run for re-election he doesn't need them anymore, does he? I guess he'd just call them suckers & losers if he ever thought for one second about stiffing them. P.S. These frozen assets are among those covered by Judge John McConnell's order to "defrost" federal grants, an order the judge ruled Monday that Trump has defied.
More Trump Bullying. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Monday that he could cut aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused his demand to permanently take in most Palestinians from Gaza, substantially increasing the pressure on key allies in the region to back his audacious proposal to relocate the entire population of the territory in order to redevelop it.... 'If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,' he told reporters in response to a question a day before a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan.... The president also said from the White House that if Hamas did not release all the remaining Israeli hostages by '12 o’clock on Saturday,' the cease-fire agreement with Israel should be canceled.... Jordan and Egypt, both major recipients of U.S. military and economic aid, have rejected any suggestion that Palestinians be relocated to their countries. But Mr. Trump said on Monday that the assistance could be in jeopardy.” Related story linked below, under “Israel's Wars.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump seems to view his threat to withhold aid to Egypt and Jordan as a “negotiating tactic” in his plan to build a “Middle East Riviera”: “I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt,” he told White House reporters. ~~~
~~~ Claire Moses & Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said the nearly two million Palestinians that he wants to displace from the Gaza Strip would not be allowed to return to the territory under his hypothetical plan to rebuild it. In a clip from a Fox News interview scheduled to air on Monday, Mr. Trump elaborated on his recent proposal for an American-led takeover of Gaza. Asked if Palestinians who would be removed from the territory while it is cleared would have the right to eventually return to their homeland, he said: 'No, they wouldn’t. Because they’re going to have much better housing — in other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: Donald “Trump announced sweeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, re-upping a policy from his first term that pleased domestic metal makers but hurt other American industries and ignited trade wars on multiple fronts. The president signed two official proclamations that would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum from all countries. Mr. Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Monday evening, called the moves 'a big deal.'... In contrast with Mr. Trump’s first term, [a White House] official said, no exclusions to the tariffs for American companies that rely on foreign steel and aluminum will be allowed.... The tariffs are likely to rankle America’s allies like Canada and Mexico, which supply the bulk of U.S. metal imports.
“They could also elicit retaliation on U.S. exports, as well as pushback from American industries that use metals to make cars, food packaging and other products. Those sectors will face significantly higher prices after the tariffs go into effect.... Studies have shown that while Mr. Trump’s first round of metal tariffs helped American steel and aluminum producers, they ended up hurting the broader economy because they raised prices for many other industries, including the auto sector.” The G
~~~ Marie: So just another instance of Trump reneging on his most successful campaign promise: to bring down inflation and consumer prices. As I speculated yesterday, these tariffs raise costs for U.S. manufacturers. They really doubly hurt U.S. manufacturers, because the tariffs necessarily raise prices of U.S. products here and abroad, plus the manufacturers face retaliatory tariffs from other nations, further reducing U.S. export sales. Moreover, the tariffs make people and leaders in other countries like and trust the U.S. even less. IOW, Trump's tariffs are bad any way you look at them. Oh wait ... unless you are a Republican and you hope revenues from the tariffs will increase the Treasury's coffers enough to give you an excuse to cut taxes on the rich.
Julie Bosman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signed a full pardon on Monday for Rod R. Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois who was convicted of corruption in 2011 in a scheme to sell a Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama. 'It’s my honor to do it,' Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office of the pardon. 'I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people that I had to deal with.'... Just five years ago, Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence....” MB: Trump does not despise Democrats whom he is apt to call “radical left-wing lunatics.” Rather, he despises good-government politicians who can't be bought or otherwise compromised. He doesn't care what a person's politics are; his only concern is whether or not he can fairly easily control the person. He likes crooks.
Chloe Atkins, et al., of NBC News: "A federal judge in Boston on Monday continued his pause of the Trump administration's unprecedented plan to get millions of federal workers to resign until he responds 'to the issues presented.' U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. had temporarily halted the administration's plan to offer mass buyouts to millions of federal workers on Thursday, just hours before a deadline to accept the offer. After a hearing Monday, he said the pause would continue until he rules on a preliminary injunction." The New York Times story is here.
Sheryl Stolberg & Christina Jewitt of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the National Institutes of Health from cutting research funding in 22 states that filed suit earlier in the day arguing that the plan would eviscerate studies into treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and a host of other ailments. The funding cuts, announced late Friday, were to take effect on Monday. But the attorneys general of Massachusetts and 21 other states sued. They argued that the Trump administration’s plan to slash $4 billion in overhead costs — known as 'indirect costs' — violated a 79-year-old law that governs how administrative agencies establish and administer regulations.... Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a temporary restraining order asking the 22 states to file a status report in 24 hours and again every two weeks to confirm the regular disbursement of the funds. The judge set a hearing for Feb. 21.... The order leaves out states that did not join the lawsuit, which will still face the funding cuts.” Politico's report is here.
Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “Lawyers for the Trump administration argued late Sunday that a court order blocking Elon Musk’s aides from entering the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems impinged on the president’s absolute powers over the executive branch, which they argued the courts could not usurp. The filing by the administration came in response to a lawsuit filed Friday night by 19 attorneys general, led by New York’s Letitia James, who had won a temporary pause on Saturday. The lawsuit said the Trump administration’s policy of allowing appointees and 'special government employees' access to these systems, which contain sensitive information such as bank details and social security numbers, was unlawful. Members of Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is not actually a department, have been combing through the databases to find expenditures to cut. The lawsuit says the initiative challenges the Constitution’s separation of powers, under which Congress determines government spending.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump Makes Another Dictator Friend. Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: “Two flights carrying Venezuelan migrants from the United States back to Venezuela will arrive late Monday in the capital, Caracas, the country’s communication’s ministry said. The flights are a major victory for the Trump administration, which made a campaign promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants. To accomplish this goal..., [Donald] Trump needs Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s autocratic president who has found himself increasingly isolated by world leaders, to agree to accept some of those people. Two planes owned by the Venezuelan airline Conviasa left Fort Bliss in Texas, where migrants subject to deportation are being held.... The White House confirmed the move in a message on X. 'Repatriation flights to Venezuela have resumed,' said the post. 'MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.'”
Travis Andrews, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump named former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell as the interim executive director of the Kennedy Center in a post on Truth Social, installing an ally at the head of one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, which Trump has vowed to overhaul. The president’s authority to unilaterally reshape the board, install new staff and make himself board chairman is an open question for the public-private institution. 'So we took over the Kennedy Center. We didn’t like what they were showing and various other things,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday evening, adding, 'But we have, I guess, a whole new group of people going in. ... I’m going to be chairman of it, and we’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke.'” ~~~
~~~ Andy Borowitz of the Borowitz Report: “Donald J. Trump tightened his grip on the American arts scene on Monday by naming himself principal ballerina of the Kennedy Center Ballet. Announcing a purge of the company’s ballerinas, Trump declared on Truth Social, 'I will soon be announcing a new roster of ballerinas, with an amazing principal ballerina, DONALD J. TRUMP.' He said he was 'disgusted' to discover that all of the company’s current ballerinas were women, a state of affairs that he blamed on DEI.” See also Akhilleus' commentary in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Inspired by laura h.'s comment late in yesterday's thread, I found file footage of Trump in rehearsal:
Dean Obeidallah on Substack: “If you just watched corporate news..., you would think Donald Trump is all powerful, all knowing and 'all' just about everything. They are breathlessly covering Trump wall to wall and by doing so are by design trying to make him appear omnipotent, that 'resistance is futile' and that he is winning in ways never seen before. Why? Simple, the corporate media executives want the tax cuts, less regulations and freedom to merge their companies as Trump has promised them. But back in the real world, not only are we finally seeing organized resistance by a growing number of Democratic leaders, we are also seeing Trump losing over and over in the courts this week — with even a Trump appointed judge ruling against him. Those standing up to Trump deserve far more coverage than the corrupt corporate media is providing them.” Obeidallah highlights Democratic members of Congress, grassroots organizations, judges & the people and organizations who are bringing suits against the Trump administration. Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Obeidallah's assessment of the media coverage could explain why the majority of Americans think Trump is doing a great job (CBS poll linked below). (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Steve M. has some more suggestions as to steps that can be taken to stop/ridicule/diminish Trump, Musk & do-nothing Congressional Republicans. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Also from Steve M.: Plutocrats to the Rescue! "I suspect that the people with the most power to stop Trump are the plutocrats.... They thought electing a Republican president would let them pursue unlimited mergers and other deals, but that's not the case[.]... Right now, the markets are shrugging all this off. But the plutocrats are probably the only people who scare Trump, and they don't seem happy. Their disgruntlement, and the disgruntlement of ordinary consumers, might be the only thing that can save us if all the other guardrails are gone." (Also linked yesterday.)
Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Four young staffers working under Elon Musk gained access to highly sensitive personal data held by a consumer protection agency before shutting it down. White House budget director Russell Vought ordered wider access to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau materials by staffers working for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency over the weekend before agency chief operating officer Adam Martinez ordered all its employees to stay home for the week, reported Bloomberg News.... 'Just nine days before his DOGE team visited CFPB, Musk’s X ... announced that it had struck a deal with Visa to process peer-to-peer payments,' Bloomberg reported. 'Musk has publicly mused about expanding into payment-services since he first took control of X in 2022. Entering that business could bring CFPB oversight under rules the agency finalized in November. The records DOGE can now access would include sensitive and potentially competitive information.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Nothing to see here, people. Musk is self-policing."
A Fake Populist Victory in the War of Northern Aggression. John Ismay of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that he is renaming Fort Liberty, whose previous name honoring the Confederate general Braxton Bragg was changed in 2023 as part of a wider effort to eliminate military honors bestowed on individuals who rebelled against the Union during the Civil War. The move returns the Army base in North Carolina to being called Fort Bragg, but the name will now honor an enlisted Army soldier named Roland L. Bragg, who according to a Pentagon statement was awarded a Silver Star and the Purple Heart for combat during World War II.” MB: Gotcha, you Northun East Coast elitist swine!
Friend of U.S. Enemies/Dictators on Way to Becoming DNI. Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “The Senate on Monday voted along party lines to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence, signaling the collapse of Republican resistance to her nomination and placing her on a smooth path to confirmation. The 52-to-46 vote was the latest sign that Republicans, facing intense pressure from ... [Donald] Trump to confirm his nominees, are willing to drop serious reservations and capitulate to his wishes. It cleared away the final hurdle to Ms. Gabbard’s confirmation, once thought to be an uphill battle in the Senate amid strong bipartisan concerns about her positions on intelligence matters and sympathetic statements about the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: It is clear that the Trump/Musk administration is determined to prove that government itself is useless and irrelevant. Here we see their Congressional accomplices are determined to prove themselves useless and irrevelant. Apparently the only valid form of government, as these people see it, is a malevolent dictatorship.
Marie: One surprising result of the impending Trump/Musk dictatorship is that it has aroused even some of the most namby-pamby, ever-so-slightly left-of-center politicians & commentators. Two cases in point: ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: “Are there no red lines? Are there no limits? [Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) asked his Republican colleagues.] These days, there are no red lines for any but a few Republicans, and then only the faintest. Not a single one — not King’s fellow Mainer, Sen. Susan Collins, not Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, not the seemingly liberated former majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — defected from the party-line vote to confirm [Russell] Vought [as director of the Office of Management & Budget]. This about a man who, as King reminded his colleagues, would usurp their most fundamental power, to decide how to spend taxpayers’ money. Who has declared that 'we are living in a “post constitutional” time['] in which a 'Radical Constitutionalism' is needed to reassert untrammeled presidential authority. Who is an architect of Project 2025, the plan to reshape federal government and the constitutional order. Directing OMB sounds like the wonkiest of jobs, but Vought’s plan for the post, already underway, is to use it to execute an unprecedented — and unconstitutional — power grab.” ~~~
Elon Musk Is Very, Very Busy. Mike Isaac, et al., of the New York Times: “A group of investors led by Elon Musk has made a $97.4 billion bid to buy the assets of the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, according to two people familiar with the bid, escalating a yearslong, deeply personal tussle for the future of artificial intelligence between Mr. Musk and OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman. The consortium includes Vy Capital and Xai, Mr. Musk’s artificial intelligence company, as well as the Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel and other investors, said the people.... Mr. Musk’s unsolicited offer could complicate OpenAI’s attempt to complete a $40 billion fund-raising deal that would nearly double the high-profile company’s valuation from just four months ago.”
~~~~~~~~~~
New York, Where NYC Mayor Eric Adams Earned His Payoff for Sucking Up to Donald Trump. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: “The Justice Department on Monday ordered federal prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, a remarkable incursion into a continuing criminal case that raises questions about the fair administration of justice during ... [Donald] Trump’s second term. The order was sent in a letter from the department’s acting No. 2 official, Emil Bove III, to Manhattan prosecutors who brought the charges against the mayor last year. Mr. Bove justified the decision to ask for the dismissal by saying that the mayor’s indictment had limited Mr. Adams’s ability to cooperate in ... [Mr.] Trump’s immigration crackdown. He also suggested that the indictment, which was handed up in September, threatened to interfere with the June 2025 mayoral primary, despite the nine-month interval between the two events. Mr. Bove explicitly said that the Justice Department had made its decision without assessing the strength of the evidence against Mr. Adams or the legal theories undergirding the case. Instead, his letter criticized the U.S. attorney who brought it and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. He offered expressly political arguments for dropping the charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions from foreign nationals and bribery, asserting the urgency of Mr. Trump’s immigration objectives....
“The letter was a remarkable intervention in a high-profile public corruption prosecution, one that cast the independence of federal prosecutors into doubt given the way Mr. Adams has curried favor with Mr. Trump. Mr. Bove directed that the charges against Mr. Adams be dismissed without prejudice, suggesting that the case could be revived if merited — or if it pleased the president.” CNN's report is here.
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$ calls this "nominally bipartisan corruption." MB: As I asserted above, Trump doesn't hate Democrats; he hates honest ones. He likes crooks. ~~~
~~~ Jeff Coltin, et al., of Politico: “The move [to dismiss the case] must pass muster with Judge Dale Ho. And as Politico previously reported, how much power the jurist has to push back on prosecutors’ request to drop the case is an open question. While some legal experts said Ho’s hands are tied, others believe he could outright refuse. 'The “leave of court” requirement exists precisely to guard against the dubious, perhaps corrupt, dismissal of cases against powerful and well-connected defendants,' said Thomas Frampton, ... of University of Virginia [Law].”
Wisconsin. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: A young Wisconsin man died of an asthma attack when his pharmacist told him his insurer would no longer cover the cost of his inhalers, so he'd have to pay $539 for a three-months supply instead of the $67 he'd been paying. His parents are suing both the insurer -- a subsidiary of United Health Group -- and the pharmacy -- Walgreen's -- for not informing the man of alternative medicines the insurer would cover. MB: They really don't care, do they? That Walgreen's pharmacy sounds just as good as my CVS. P.S. Stick an "alleged" in front of all this. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel's Wars. Lara Jakes, et al., of the New York Times: “Hamas has indefinitely postponed the release of Israeli hostages who were set to be freed from the Gaza Strip this weekend, a spokesman said on Monday, accusing Israel’s government of violating an already fragile cease-fire agreement. The move threatens to derail both the six-week truce agreed to last month and the prospects for agreement on a lasting end to the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was consulting with his top advisers on Monday night, and planned to move up a scheduled meeting with his security cabinet to Tuesday morning, a top official said. Hours later..., [Donald] Trump issued an ultimatum to Hamas on Monday evening, saying that if all Israeli hostages were not released from Gaza by 12 o’clock on Saturday, then the cease-fire agreement with Israel should be canceled and 'all hell is going to break out.'”
Share Article
Reader Comments (25)
Nureyev tried dancing with the pig but realized too late that the pig won’t go away, even after he tosses it aside, it keeps coming back to center stage for another pas de dunce. Boy, don’t we know it.
Maybe he could have tried a curtain weight to the side of the head?
Maybe we could? The resulting brain damage wouldn’t change anything, the pig is already oinking mad, but it would probably feel soooo great to try.
Palestinians plan to take over Mar-a-Lago, ship residents to other
countries.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DF/sbCORg3fe/
Ending all investigations into fraudulent business practices (ordered by a guy convicted of thirty something counts of…wait for it…FRAUDULENT BUSINESS PRACTICES!) by the CFPB, an agency that alone accounted for returning $21 billion from corrupt businesses to American consumers, a huge no-no for Fat Hitler’s billionaire supporters who live to scam consumers (just like Trump!), halting enforcement of a law put in place to prevent bribery of foreign officials by American businesses (such as the Trump Crime Family), release of over a thousand felons convicted of the violent attack on the capitol, ending prosecution of corrupt politicians like Eric Adams, but turbocharging prosecutions against FBI and Justice Dept officials who investigated J6 and Trump’s many crimes.
How can any reasonably sane person look at these actions and determine they are not in and of themselves stunningly corrupt. Had a Democrat done these things, there would be blood in the streets. But all we get now is Concern.
We’re fucked.
@Akhilleus: AND 53% of the American people think he's doing a great job! This stupidity, as Ken Winkes pointed out the other day, is why, as you say, we're fucked.
Fat Hitler sez “I can do a deal with Jordan and Egypt”. Threats are not deals. Threatening to break someone’s leg if they don’t do what you say is not “deal making”, it’s leg breaking. There’s a difference.
Fatty’s art of the deal has always involved thuggery of some kind, the sort of tactics that, had they been used on him, would have him screeching bloody blue murder about how unfaaaair it all was and how he’s a victim of unscrupulous manipulation.
It’s the same thing when the astonishingly corrupt Elon Musk shouts “Corruption! Help! Corruption!” if a judge tells him his illegal, skeezy plotting to eviscerate government operations has to stop.
Just a couple of slimy leg breakers who cry like babies when told to knock that shit off.
Gifts of AI
"Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”
Researchers find that the more people use AI at their job, the less critical thinking they use."
Do all these guys doing double duty with multiple jobs in this administration get both the salaries? For example, Doug Collins is filling at least three government positions right now. Or are they supposed to pick up the second so called job for free? Many of them are do nothing or no show jobs meant to effectively shut down agencies or positions he knows he doesn't have the legal authority to close.
I hope Letitia James comes and files the corruption charges on behalf of the state of New York. Adam's administration has been so corrupt with so many people around him already being charged or found guilty. The former police officer should be behind bars. I hope he gets a long perk walk in front of the cameras since he us such a fan of that public display of the long arm of the law catching it's criminals.
The Borowitz Report
"Donald J. Trump’s tariff on imported aluminum would result in a major price increase for Marjorie Taylor’s hat, the Georgia congresswoman said on Tuesday.
“When I learned that President Trump was slapping a tariff on aluminum, I felt betrayed,” Greene told reporters. “Like millions of his supporters, I depend on aluminum headgear for protection from cosmic mind-control lasers.”"
This is Justice?
Another Fat Hitler crony commits crimes and walks.
Steve (Blow it all up) Bannon pleads GUILTY to defrauding citizens of millions of dollars.
No jail time.
This is the same Steve Bannon who screeches that black people who protest police brutality should be locked up. Who demands that judges who rule against right-wing criminality should be imprisoned.
There is no justice.
@RAS: I imagine Trump would outright pardon Eric Adams if it looked like Letitia James could successfully prosecute Adams. Trump sure as hell doesn't want to let James beat him at anything (guess I should make that "anything else.")
BUT it would be great if James had a means to obtain the feds' case files on Adams in preparation for bringing suit and would then let the public see what she had on some excuse or other.
Red states, where pettiness is king.
In many states controlled by the traitors they’ve taken to passing laws severely curtailing the power of an incoming new governor, should that governor be a democrat. If the Democrat is voted out and a Republican takes his or her place, the PoT hacks reinstate gubernatorial powers and add a few extra just in case.
Petty, no?
But here in Kentucky, PoT hacks make petty part of their daily routine. Many states, when you drive in, have road signs welcoming you to that state, most often with a nod to the governor, eg, “You are entering Kentucky, Andy Beshear, Governor.” They had R crook and corrupt governor Matt Bevin’s name plastered across state signs back when he was screwing the state.
But now they’re passing a law that will remove Besear’s name from all signs.
Small. And petty.
Ifill
"Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything?
Yes. And You Can Too."
Sherrilyn Ifill
Exhaust Them
Well, I don't know if this will go through-- I wrote one about an hour ago and it went wherever the last three I have written go.
Very annoying. I don't know if Elon is doing this, or not...but I am tired of it. When I press to send, create post, it goes to the other screen, white with tiny little writing. And it says it was sent, so...
Try the Rude Pundit. At last someone says some of the things we want to be said. I know who did all this evil: voters (undereducated and dumb as dishwater) the big media, Fox, certain congresspeople like Moscow Mitch, the cult, ultra-wealthy selfish egomaniacs, etc etc
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/
Paper or plastic? What? Paper explodes???
(*sigh*)
No…bigger…
(*SIGHHHHH*)
Okay…so today Jeanne points to “dumb as dishwater” voters (one could reasonably maintain that at least dishwater does its job…but…), and Marie reminds us that 53% of brainless morons polled think Fat Hitler is doing a good job. Jesus…I wanna go work for some of those people:
My job: rake the yard.
My solution: can of gasoline, set fire to the leaves on a windy day, leaves gone, house burns to the ground, new car in the driveway catches fire and explodes, shrapnel from the car kills three people walking their dog on the street. Pieces of the former car hit a light pole causing a power outage to fifty houses in the neighborhood. One neighbor hooked up to a dialysis machine dies, another lady in her now darkened basement, lights a candle to see, drops it accidentally into a pile of paint cans. She goes to the hospital with third degree burns, house destroyed.
Outcome: good job! Here’s a bonus!
Yeah. These are the people who think FH and his co-emperor, the drug addled former illegal immigrant who is at this moment sharing their personal tax information with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Nazis, are doing a bang-up job.
And these people are allowed to vote. For real.
Tom Sullivan on Digby’s blog feels our pain:
“Arshad Hasan from Democracy for America’s Campaign Academy (back in the day) told us straight away: You are not normal. Normal people do not spend their weekends learning to run political campaigns. Let me extend that: If you read this blog, you are not normal either. Since these are abnormal times, you are in the right place.
The lesson Arshad meant to convey was not to talk to normal people like you do to other political geeks. They don’t get worked up by things like, say, a constitutional crisis. Too removed from work, kids and shopping. Not even the collapse of the republic breaks through until tanks are blocking the streets or social security checks stop coming.”
Then I read that DunceKing Donnie is addressing an issue of utmost importance, so he claims, to these people, people like my hypothetical employers:
Paper straws.
Call out the troops! Fuck posse commitatus! PAPER STRAWS!?!?!
According to DunceKing, they EXPLODE. (Sure, if you dip them in C4 and light ‘em up.)
Exploding paper straws is the new national emergency. So we go back to plastic straws. 500 million plastic straws are used in the US every day. Enough plastic to fill about 50,000 large school buses full of crap that will still be around when the next killer meteor hits us. After that, everything will be dead but the straws will still exist. Plastic straws account for 40% of all the plastic dumped into the environment every year.
But sure. Let’s help that out. Hey, the National Plastic manufacturing poobahs are thrilled.
These are the people you see on Jimmy Kimmel when they do street interviews.
“How much is ten percent of a hundred”
Long pause…
“Take a guess.”
“Fifty?”
“Can you find Russia on this map?”
Points to Canada
“What happened in 1776?”
“When was that, like ten years ago? I dunno. I was only 12.”
But paper straws is apparently the sort of thing that these dishwater douchebags seem to care about. And while they congratulate Fat Hitler for saving us from paper straws, he deputizes the J6 thugs to round up anyone saying mean things about him.
Christ almighty. We ARE fucked.
Peter Wehner, in The Atlantic, on the demise of USAID.
THE SPEED OF THE CRUELTY has been stunning
"IT WAS NOT ENOUGH for Trump and Musk, the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, to unleash mass suffering and death with the stroke of a pen. They had to slander USAID and spread lies about the agency in the process.
....
Six years ago, my colleague Adam Serwer wrote of Trump and his movement that 'the cruelty is the point.' That has never been more clear than in the president’s decision to demolish USAID. The cost savings will be minimal; the carnage will be massive. And all of the agony that will be unleashed by this decision—the cries of pain that Trump will never hear, the tears of grief Musk will never see—is not accidental. It was done with malice. This is what Trump and MAGA represent, what lies at their moral core. To be silent in the face of this is to be complicit in what they are doing."
Will Saletan, for The Bulwark, considers whether He is Lying or Delusional?
"If Trump were just cynically spreading conspiracy theories—first about the 2020 election, then about USAID and other parts of the government—then he might be able, apart from these deceptions, to govern rationally. But the interview [recorded Sunday with Bret Baier] showed that on fundamental policy questions, Trump is similarly detached from reality....
Initially, when Trump talked about annexing Canada, Canadian leaders told themselves he was joking. But now they know the joke is over. He’s serious—and dangerous.
Likewise, many people thought Trump wasn’t serious when he suggested a week ago that the United States would evacuate Palestinians from Gaza and 'take over' the territory. Since then, however, he has continued to repeat his proposal."
Like Akhilleus said^, "Christ almighty. We ARE fucked."
Will Google comply with all the renamings? Pathetic idiotic "GOP lawmaker proposes renaming Greenland ‘Red, White, and Blueland.’
The legislation, called the “Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025,” directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to oversee the implementation of the name change and to ensure official documentation and maps refer to Greenland by its updated name."
Accidental Truths
"Kristi Noem: ‘We can't trust the government anymore.”
Dana: “You are the government.”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”"
"Los Angeles? More like Løs Ångeles."
"Let’s Buy California from Trump – Denmark’s Next Big Adventure
Have you ever looked at a map and thought, "You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates." Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality.
Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!
Why California?
Sunshine Galore: Let’s face it, Denmark’s weather is… well, let’s just say it’s cozy. California has 300 days of sunshine a year. Imagine swapping your rain boots for flip-flops!
Tech Dominance: Gaining an extra bunch of Tech bros? Great! It is what every democracy needs.
Avocado Toast Forever: California grows 90% of the U.S.’s avocados. That’s right – we’ll never run out of avocado toast.
To protect the free world: Most people say we have the best freedom. Colossal freedom.
Disneyland: We’ll rename it Hans Christian Andersenland. Mickey Mouse in a Viking helmet? Yes, please."
Favorite fantasy image of the day (no, kids, it’s not Fatty and the MuskRat riding in a tumbrel—that’s a close second) is Mickey Mouse in a Viking helmet! Is that Donald Duck and Goofy on that long boat?
Then I wanna see this scene recreated with Goofy and Mickey.
The telling phrase in this one is "in reality."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/nyregion/fema-fired-nyc-migrant-hotels.html
It's a phrase already worn threadbare from use.
But then what has reality to do with the Pretender's administration?
It's government by and for delusion and the deluded.
Jonathan Chait, of The Atlantic, Trump Says the Corrupt Part Out Loud
"Amid the flurry of changes to the face of American government—the president may or may not have the right to unilaterally eliminate agencies; engaging in insurrection has been decriminalized while prosecuting it has become grounds for termination; wars of conquest are now on the table—you could be forgiven for missing the news that bribery is basically legal now, as long as you support, or are, Donald Trump.
...
This time around, Trump has quietly put together a policy theme—call it 'Corruption Week'—for which he has actually delivered the goods. Whether Trump did this intentionally or just had numerous pro-corruption initiatives coincidentally stacked up on his desk is hard to say. What seems clear, however, is that Trump genuinely believes in corruption as a normal and acceptable way to do business."
How bizarre to find ourselves in an era where the president* openly sells favors, financial crimes by public officials, including the highest office(!) are just shrugged off and pricey gifts to Supreme Court Justices are tolerated. And the highest office holder's approval rating climbs above 50%. What in the world happened? Capitalism run amok?