Santa Claus isn’t the only one who is keeping a list of “who is naughty and who is nice.” Charlie Sykes recently brought some limited order out of the chaos of Trump’s first months–a real service, since most of us have been beaten down by the daily firehose of assaults on decency, the Constitution and the rule of law–the tactic Steve Bannon has called “flooding the zone with shit.”
Sykes assembled his list in order to criticize Chuck Schumer, who has finally graduated from sending “stern letters” and moved to block Trump appointees. Sykes asks “What took you so long? Why didn’t you act when”…and then he provides his list of Trumpian assaults that should have prompted active blowback when they occurred.
Granted, Sykes’ list isn’t comprehensive, so intensely has the zone been flooded, but here are the acts that he says should have triggered action from Schumer when they occurred:
- blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, including those who assaulted police officers.
- his purge of the FBI, targeting agents who had investigated his own misconduct.
- suspending enforcement of the foreign bribery ban.
- calling for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled against him.
- firing the head of the Office of Special Counsel who protects whistleblowers.
- firing the head of the Office of Government Ethics.
- firing the prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot investigations.
- slashing the office that prosecutes misconduct by public officials.
- dropping charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in return for Adams agreement to work with ICE — a move that led to the resignation of the acting SDNY U.S. attorney and several other federal prosecutors.
- Trump’s refusal to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. — stating that he could, but wasn’t going to.
- Trump’s suggestion to the president of El Salvador that he would send “homegrown” criminals — American citizens — to his notorious prison.
- Trump’s executive orders targeting individuals who had criticized him — including Chris Krebs, who had challenged his 2020 election lies.
- stripping the security clearances of law firms who had challenged him.
- Trump’s threats to strip licenses from media critics.
- allowing Elon Musk’s team to access sensitive and protected taxpayer information.
- when his top aides were caught chatting about military action on Signal.
- firing six National Security Council officials on advice from far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.
- refusing to rule out the use of military force to seize Greenland.
- Trump’s purge of top generals, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
- sending masked agents to seize people on the streets.
- arresting international students for little more than for writing op-eds.
- when White House aide Stephen Miller said that administration was considering suspending habeas corpus.
Sykes list–which I would emphasize is far from comprehensive–was generated as Americans learned of Qatar’s offer of a “gift”–a plane described as a “palace in the sky.” The offer was, as Sykes says, “a very visible symbol of Trump’s susceptibility to corruption.” But–as he also reminds us– we have seen countless other examples.
Sen. Chris Murphy, for example, has been banging the drum about Trump’s potential $TRUMP crypto conflict of interest for months. “My hair has been on fire about the meme coin from day one,” Murphy told The Washington Post. “That is a level of corruption that is just absolutely stunning. It was already the most corrupt thing a president has ever done in the history of the United States.”
What didn’t make Syke’s list is the Trump administration’s effort to neuter the other two branches of government.
Under the Constitution, Congress and the courts are “co-equal” with the Executive branch, but Trump and MAGA have bullied the Republicans in Congress into submission. (Given that the GOP is currently in the majority, Democrats have been left with limited options for resistance–a good reason to put those options to maximum use.)
Unlike Congress, the courts–at least, the lower federal courts–have fulfilled their Constitutional role. They have ruled for the plaintiffs in virtually every case challenging Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional actions–but while Trump has given lip service to obeying those rulings, he continues to ignore a number of them. At the same time, he has increased his threats against judges who dare to rule against him, and MAGA thugs (Trump’s “brownshirts”) have taken to issuing threats against the judiciary and their families.
We the People need to leave a large civic lump of coal in the Trump stocking. Sooner rather than later.
A large civic lump of coal needs to be left in the stockings of every Congressional elected representative from Indiana, and that includes the overrated and underperforming Andre’ Carson.
A very good one, Sheila, but, oh, so sad and frightening. Our country is in a precarious situation, but we will rise!
Carson is the BEST we have in Indiana. There are much more worthy targets for failure to act in OUR interest. He may not be perfect but he is on OUR side
To reiterate, this is just in the first four months of Dear Leader’s presidency. Congress has slipped in a clause in their BBB neutering the courts or one of the co-equal branches. In fact, it eliminates their power of contempt charges. Without that, their rulings are equal to Schumer’s “harshly-worded letters.”
In and of itself, all these individual outrages are horrible for Americans and immigrants, but taken together, a picture of the future is starting to appear. As I’ve pointed out before, what happens when the pendulum swings back to the Democratic Party, who will be given the numbers to force Trump to stop?
Trump and his administration don’t seem worried. Musk and Thiel don’t seem fazed by the blowback to their businesses. Congress doesn’t seem concerned about losing elections because the individual Congressmen lied directly to the American people about slashing the social safety net.
Why aren’t they concerned?
I don’t think there will be an election in 2026 or 2028. Lawsuits from the states will be massive, but who will stop Trump? Not the courts. They can rule all they want, but he’ll ignore them. The mainstream media seems oblivious to this and is almost normalizing the potential. They aren’t even discussing geopolitics outside the United States.
In case the media hasn’t explained what happened in Ukraine yet, Russia kicked NATO’s ass in Eastern Europe. We just lost the Afghanistan War, which cost trillions of dollars and lasted for over 20 years. And now our “fierce fighting machine” wants to take down China. LOL We’ll be destroyed before we even get there.
Our biggest problem right now is financial-monetary. The system set in place after WW2 at Bretton Woods is collapsing. Trump, whether consciously or not, is speeding it along, which is probably why the oligarchs are stealing $4 trillion from the Treasury before it collapses. It’s not a tax cut! It’s grand larceny.
Let’s see all the gyrations our Senators take as the BBB enters their realm…
p.s. Congresswoman Spartz stood in front of a mixed crowd of supporters and opposition and told them that we had to do something about our massive debt and reduce the deficit, which is why she supported Musk/DOGE efforts. The same Congresswoman voted in favor of the BBB, which does the exact opposite. Now, it’s Todd Young’s turn to dance in front of voters.
patcc, you obviously did not attend the Andre’ Carson farce of a town hall meeting on May 2nd. You would be singing a different song if you had.
Todd is correct; it is only the beginning. Our institutions have failed us, the government is broken beyond repair. Chaos reigns in the halls of government, and soon will be in the streets.
The worst is that We the People are helpless to do anything about it.
So, sit back, relax, and let the country fall apart. “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
Yes, indeed, ““So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
James, when the people inevitably get hungry, can’t pay for their f***ing cell phones or buy dolls for their little darlings, there will be blood. All this dystopia mentioned above will indeed foment a rebellion. It will be open, it will be violent and it will eventually create an entirely new nation. Republican greed is utterly stupid and one-sided.
I agree with Todd that there probably won’t be a 2026 election. By then the orange turd will have suspended the Constitution and John Roberts will just smile his Mona Lisa smile and shake the hand of the shit bag … again.
One thing this blog does not lack is criticism of the system, BT, before Trump.
An observation is that these days could be the birthing pains of a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Some of my right-wing extremist friends get tripped up on “equal” because they disregard what precedes that, “created”. My DNA is not special, nor is Trump’s or Putin’s or Netanyahu’s or anyone else’s. What made me the single me in a sea of 8.5B other people now is when and where I was born and to whom and what’s happened since. The second-by-second investments of time were mine. Everyone else in the world has a different story.
The question is, where do we go from here? Nothing else matters. What will be our second-by-second investments of time from now on?
We, down here in the weeds among the Grass Roots faction, must form a strong Neighborhood Watch and Listen to keep eyes and ears on family, friends and neighbors who are aware of most or all of the above and continue supporting the blatant actions of them. They are the voters who will keep them in office. We are in their firing range come election days; you can be sure they are keeping their eyes and ears on us as the enemy.
June 14th seems a likely day to be in the streets.
So, what are we individually and collectively going to do about it? I know we’ll all call our Senators and Representatives. What do we when it becomes evident that calling doesn’t change anything? Are we all prepared to fight, understanding that fight is according to our abilities. We might be called on to face the “brownshirts” on the frontlines. I hope I’m up to the task.
1) A “wedge strategy” (for lack of a better term) has worked well for the nihilists who have taken charge. During the 2024 campaign, Israel’s actions in Gaza served that function. Theresa’s pointing s out Rep Carson’s shortcomings is similar. If John Schmitz had won against Carson, we would have a Micah Beckwith protege in Congress in place of Rep Carson. By all means, keep your ideological purity, but don’t complain about the dictator. 2) SCOTUS is no help. Six pieces of filth were placed on the Court to assist in carrying out the takeover, and still can split people who oppose trump/maga. Example: Barrett’s vote against trump on flying people out of the country to foreign prisons. She already lied to Congress in her confirmation hearings & carried out what she was appointed to do: kill Roe v Wade. 3) The only is one force that, on the level of practicality, can stop this. That’s the military. 4) And, to be clear, if we do not get a re-set to where we were 1/19/17, with supporters of Jan 6 disqualified from holding office and the six pieces of filth on SCOTUS tossed aside, efforts at remedy will be of little value. 5) Worst of all is to dither. That will only play into those who believe in TESCREAL. (Look it up.)
While we oldies all seem to be imagining the worst, perhaps this is he time for the younger generation to be writing up their own Project 20 whatever, something that would outline where they want the country to be ten or twenty years from now.
Meanwhile, the rest of us should probably prepare ourselves to sacrifice everything in order to keep the principals of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights alive.
What are you prepared to die for?
At 84, I am too old to take on Jefferson Shreve. Somebody younger; PLEASE step up and take on this piece of s***.
There is a very bright young man named George Hornado who has thrown his hat in the ring to take on Andre Carson. His challenge was noted in the New York Times over a month ago and in Mirror Indy this week. It has yet to be noted in the Indianapolis Star or in the Capital Chronicle. It is almost like the local media is deliberately suppressing news of the revolt.
Sometimes something on a downward spiral has to hit bottom before it can rebound. The question now is, where is the bottom to be? Have we reached it or will we descend into a bloody civil war that makes us ALL losers? Every individual is participating in the outcome of that question, by their actions or their inactions.
As I wrote yesterday, consider what action you can take and then DO it.
So if you take a look at the historical pathways, those that actually happened, and are not some empirical delusion, the dye has been cast. And if you don’t think it has, you better become a student of history. Religion, for the most part promotes the most derogatory pathway humans could possibly produce. The sword of righteousness as claimed by the church, has to be completed by the political sword of justice. This happened with the Nazis in Germany, where their religious beliefs told them they were correct in eliminating those unlike themselves, and somehow, they had the right to use the political system for execution. The combination of both were never meant to be, never approved by Christ in that regard, but it doesn’t matter. Because humanity will do what humanity does, obfuscate truth and righteousness to benefit the political realm.
The papal bull of the 1300s, was just as terrible as the papal bull of the 1400s. The justification for inhumanity to their fellow man, the lack of love for their neighbor, the desire to destroy their fellow man, was about power and influence over the political realm. If you can claim or produce a dyed in the wool enemy, you can convince politicians to do anything especially if they claim it’s in the name of God!
Unfortunately, it never was in the name of God, it was in the name of those who craved power and authority, they claimed to be gods instead of disciples. And they’ve done it throughout written history. It will never ever change until that link is broken. And when that happens, it’s going to be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth, because people actually believe that the untruth they revel in, is actually the truth! But they willfully delude themselves, they invent alternate realities to give them permission for the cruelty and criminality that they engage in. Collapse of society as much closer than people realize. Because they are still deluding themselves willingly. When they beg for help, when they are looking for a way out, there will be none. And that’s too bad! Because history shows what’s coming, but everyone is blind to the fact humans cannot direct their steps, and even if they could, it wouldn’t be in an appropriate manner.
Just a note –
“So long and thanks for all the fish” was a farewell message. The dolphins left the planet. We are stuck here on Earth I.
The MAGA crew lives on Earth II where the orange savior can do no wrong. Fantasy makes for a much easier life for them.
Len,
I just saw what you wrote, and I love that movie. Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy. The dolphin said so long and thanks for all of the fish, I wonder if they were irritated at humans for all of them that were slaughtered by humans!?!?!?