I was going to write about Krugman‘s column from yesterday because to me it embodied nearly everything wrong with the current administration and made a seminal point about AI, data centers, and why this election is heavily tilting towards throwing the bums out. It’s one of the best columns. I’ve read this year.
But the flood of illegality, insanity, insecurity, inanity and insidiousness coming out of the Trump administration in the last day or two is just unbelievable and I wanted to touch on some of them.
Blatant Illegality. The Trump Admin literally ignored Congress and the law and reallocated funds specifically allocated to countries “impacted by the situation in Ukraine“. Side note: the headline for this article reads “Trump defies Democrats, diverts aid for Europe to Latin America instead”. WTF?! How about, “Trump breaks law and ignores the constitution to spend money where he wants in defiance of Congress”. That’s more like it.
From the article (bold emphasis mine):
It is also a continuation of President Donald Trump’s undercutting of the legislative branch’s spending powers, a core constitutional authority that Trump has challenged in ways big and small.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, Shaheen and Meeks called the move a breach of the hold they had put in place and a violation of statutory requirements about where the money could go. The diversion of funding for Slovakia and North Macedonia drew particularly strong opposition because that money was included in an Ukraine supplemental bill specifically for countries affected by the war in Ukraine.
“Both chambers of Congress provided these funds for a very specific purpose: supporting Ukraine and our European allies in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion,” they wrote in the letter, a copy of which wasobtained by The Post. “The Executive Branch does not have unlimited discretion to redirect these funds toward unrelated Administration policy priorities or countries.”
…
When asked about the lawmakers’ objections, the State Department told The Post that the money would be better used in Latin America in keeping with Trump’s foreign policy doctrine of re-prioritizing the Western Hemisphere.
“Reprogramming money away from Middle East and Europe to the Western Hemisphere is consistent with the National Security Strategy,” the department said in a statement. “The funds used in our region will combat narco-terrorism in our hemisphere and help continue to secure the Panama Canal.”
“The funds used in the Western Hemisphere will strengthen U.S. security partnerships and counter adversary military influence in our shared region,” the department added.
The State Department did not address questions about Shaheen and Meeks’s contention that the administration’s diversion of congressionally approved funds violates statutory requirements.
The media fail and lack of urgency here is stunning. “Undercutting of… a core constitutional authority” is an interesting way of writing about blatantly illegal and unconstitutional actions. Again, it seems as if there’s a very specific fault in our governance system - the lack of any legal personal consequences for knowingly and purposely taking unconstitutional action. Somehow, this needs to be fixed. And fast.
Insanity. One has to read this series of excerpts from Trump’s interview with Time Magazine. This is a mentally ill, deranged, demented ignoramus:
There are no words…
Insecurity. I’m not sure anyone in the United States thought we would see things like this adjoining the walls of the People’s House:
This guy looks up to dictators. He’s a never-will-be wannabe, and although he’s totally incompetent, he’s still doing incredible damage to our country. Also, he’ll sell out anybody for a buck, even though he may be the worst deal maker in business history.
Inanity. Dean Baker hits the nail on the head:
This is just rambling silly foolishness that he spouts every day. Of course, no one in the media actually follows up with serious questions that might actually put him on the spot or force him to explain his idiotic pronouncements.
Insidiousness. Finally (for now, because there’s so much more), they are acting insidiously:
Trump rescinds nearly $1B in federal funding, bypassing congressional approval
Of course, the government accountability office (GAO) has already found this maneuver illegal.
This is truly Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone” theory come to life (in a 2018 interview Bannon said, “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”). I’d add that the “real Opposition” to Trump and gang is literally everyone in the U.S. and the world who disagrees with them.
We are basically one month out from the midterm election. For a candidate, it’s time to flood the zone with the message one wants to get out. Home field issues, play offense not defense, get inside voters Circle of TrustTM. Democrats could do worse than highlighting any and all of the above, pivoting to “It’s the Corruption, Stupid” and linking that to the issues in their respective districts that resonate with voters.
If we get through this mess, there needs to be a reckoning on a level this country has not seen since the Civil War, and those newly in charge will need to have the guts and intestinal fortitude to hold people personally accountable by using the full weight of the law as it was intended.
Having spent time inside the Beltway and the DC bubble, trust me when I say most of our elected won’t have the cajones they require, so true accountability won’t happen unless We the People elect the right people AND maintain constant pressure on them to act.
It’s up to us now…
John Lennon - Power to the People
