The country's theocracy hopes to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent to the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
In a 6-3 decision breaking on partisan lines, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Slaughter that Trump can fire Federal Trade Commissioners and other federal agency directors without cause. The ruling overturns longstanding Supreme Court precedent and express statutory instruction that combined to protect the political independence and subject matter expertise of federal agencies for over 90 years.The ruling presents a novel reading of a president’s Constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” expanding that power for a rogue president hellbent on breaking laws instead of executing them. As Justice Sotomayor put it, “The Court… is elevating (Trump) above his once-coequal branches by transforming a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed into a license to act in defiance of those very laws.”An activist Roberts Court has now written into existence an all-powerful unitary executive despite elaborate instructions in art. I, II and III to keep the three branches of government separate and equal. Rejecting federal laws that restrict a president’s removal of agency directors to for-cause removal, SCOTUS has made the president all powerful and Congress less relevant, while arrogating scientific and technical questions to itself.Trump’s corporate donors can now choose their own regulatorsBefore republicans on the bench rewrote it this week, the Federal Trade Commission Act stated that a President could only remove a commissioner for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” That statute clearly and intentionally barred presidents from firing directors for partisan or corrupt reasons, and from punishing regulators who rule against a president’s corporate donor(s). Vesting a singularly authoritarian executive with unprecedented, expansive powers, the Supreme Court re-wrote federal laws to advance their own political narrative.Over two dozen federal agencies will be affected, covering everything from the financial markets, the commodities markets, and nuclear power. Agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission were all Congressionally designed to be independent watchdogs, enforcers insulated from partisan whims. Now Trump can remove any commissioners who threaten to rule against his allies, assuring that his political supporters will be afforded preferential review, licensing, merger approvals and other rulings.With Trump’s new latitude to fire any agency head who threatens meaningful regulation, his corporate donors have been effectively empowered to choose their own regulators. Federal laws passed to protect human health, finance, banking, communications, workplace safety, and clean air, soil and water have been rendered functionally meaningless.Replacing science, expertise and merit with political fealtyCongressionally created and funded federal agencies serve express, statutory purposes written to safeguard the American public. The Supreme Court had protected agency autonomy and expertise dating back to 1935, ruling that some degree of autonomy was necessary for federal agencies to meet specific scientific, economic, communications, trade, health, and environmental mandates. Federal agencies were never meant to be a president’s personal toys with which to reward donors and cronies.For a president in the habit of accepting lavish gifts and cash from foreign governments, along with hundreds of millions from domestic supplicants, finding even more room for self-dealing, corruption and political favoritism must be heady. For the rest of us, it’s dangerous. We actually need competent people to run the federal government, even in its post-DOGE watered down state.If Trump declares that every home must be heated by dirty coal, the head of the Energy Commission must try to effectuate that command no matter the harm to Americans’ lungs. If Trump declares that particulate matter, fossil fuels and the widespread use of Monsanto is good for the environment, any EPA director who contradicts him with cancer and death statistics will be silenced through removal. It’s governance by full Idiocracy.A know-nothing, anti-science president can now follow his gutTo every American outside the Fox News propaganda bubble, Trump has demonstrated astonishing incompetence on all fronts. From economically illiterate tariffs to our defeat in Iran, sprinkled with comically disastrous results in between, an ignorant and arrogant “I follow my gut” Trump revels in rejecting science and expertise as Americans pay the price.The only thing saving the nation from complete chaos and disaster to date is that several federal agencies had retained some level institutional competence despite Trump (and Musk’s) best efforts to dismantle them.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) was indicted by a grand jury in connection with an investigation over alleged threats she made against New Orleans officials, former Judge Laurie White confirmed Thursday. “The grand jury has returned an indictment, it is now a criminal matter,” White, who was appointed as a special prosecutor in the…
The Air Force has confirmed a trainee died as a result of a flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, according to Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). Keon McDaniel was in his sixth week of basic military training when he experienced a “medical emergency” June 12. He was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center and died there on June…
With July 4th looming, the nation’s capital has become a “fortress” as the White House prepares for President Donald Trump’s much vaunted fireworks display amid what security experts say is a “heightened” potential for attack. Increasing the complexity of the situation is “Trump’s approach of making himself the star of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration.”This is according to the latest from the Atlantic, which explained, “This year’s Fourth of July fireworks show on the National Mall is the first such event to be designated a ‘National Special Security Event,’ which requires the kind of screening procedures and police presence usually reserved for presidential inaugurations and Super Bowls. It’s a reflection of the logistical complexity and anticipated crowd size of America’s 250th birthday party, but also, unfortunately, its potential appeal to attackers at a time of rising threats.”That NSSE designation puts the Secret Service in charge of protecting the event, which Trump has declared will be “THE LARGEST FIREWORKS SHOW IN HISTORY.” With temperatures forecasted to soar as high as triple digits, “getting in may be more like going through an airport than going to a party,” writes the Atlantic. “That’s not least because the president has placed himself at the center of the festivities and has plans to give ‘a really long speech just to show that I can do anything.’”As a result of this and other events, D.C. has become a “fortress,” and “the normally wide-open expanse at the city’s heart has been ringed with security fences for weeks… ‘I’ve lived here most of my life, and I’ve never seen it look like this on the Mall,’ Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters on Monday.” According to the agent in charge of the Secret Service DC office, Trump has mobilized thousands of National Guard troops in the capital in addition to “unseen resources” readied to “disrupt any bad actor.”Said Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielimi, there is good reason for all the extra security. As the Atlantic explains, he “told us that the volume of threats that his agency is monitoring overall ‘has never been higher.’ Threat reports requiring Secret Service investigation so far this year have increased 40 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the agency. Security officials say there has been a particular uptick in threats from ‘nihilistic violent extremists,’ many of whom aim to use violence against law-enforcement personnel or symbols of government.”Trump’s war with Iran has only “heightened the threat.” Said Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director of the FBI, “I’m very concerned about a lone actor inspired by Iran, rather than an actual all‑out professional attack. That’s the hardest thing to detect — that lone actor who’s been inspired.” He says that a potential attacker may see the 250th celebrations as the perfect opportunity for “striking at the heart of what they think America stands for.” Further complicating the situation is the fact that “as the threats facing the country have grown, the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies tasked with keeping the country safe have been dealing with a shortage of man power and expertise. Many top officials have quit or been fired since Trump returned to office, and Figliuzzi described an FBI now staffed with what he believes is ‘the youngest cadre of special agents in charge and assistant directors in the modern history of the FBI.’ Some officials acknowledge — in private — that politically motivated purges have left the country’s law-enforcement and intelligence agencies understaffed and more prone to mistakes.”Law-enforcement officials also told the Atlantic that “the president’s central role in the July 4 events and the extending of their length late into the evening have added complexity — and risk.”“This year,” writes the Atlantic, “Trump will occupy the prime-time slot… The White House has not said whether he’ll deliver a written speech or make the kind of semi-improvised remarks more typical of a MAGA rally. But at some point, he’s planning to show off his new Air Force One jet — given to him by the government of Qatar — with a flyover of the crowd. Trump said on Wednesday that he will use the occasion to demonstrate his stamina despite the summer heat. It’s not customary for presidents to give a speech on the Mall for July 4, but it’s in keeping with Trump’s approach of making himself the star of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration.”
A 2025 policy paper arguing against the repeal of birthplace citizenship warned that people losing citizenship would be 'unable to access economic supports in times of need.'
