So, Trump thinks it’s not possible to be President without breaking the law? He may very well be correct. Bush took the country into a war under false pretenses, and Obama certainly broke the law forbidding assassinations. Trump broke that…
Executive Oversight: Gonna Keep Bangin’ That Drum
I’ve been on about this since one of the first posts on this blog (Failed Constitution Check: Executive Oversight): The United States has no effective oversight of the Executive branch. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Witness the ongoing festival of Hatch…
Firing Inspectors: Exposing The Weakness In The System
Trump’s been busy in the last few days, demonstrating the weakness in the United States’ “Inspector General” model of Executive oversight; for the details see Trump Firing Intelligence IG For Doing His Job? Sure, Why Not? and more recently Fired…
No, Just No: Department Of Justice Goes For Broke
Sheriff Barr is gettin’ a mite bit envious of them Banana Republics down South o’ th’ Border. They asked Congress to authorize indefinite pre-trial detention. You can see Mother Jones’ coverage at Trump’s Justice Department Proposes Indefinite Detention in Emergencies—Like…
Executive Branch Jobs: One Is More Than Enough
One person really shouldn’t be able to have more than one Executive branch job. For one thing, how could you manage? There’s no way Mulvaney (or Grinell or any of the others) is actually doing a good job in all…
DOJ Ball: This Has Already Gone Too Far
The Department of Justice has gone more than a bit freaky lately; see Wonkette’s PULL THE F*CKING FIRE ALARM and Bill Barr Breaks The Justice Department for some frankly revolting details. Regulatory Capture. That’s the concept in government that describes…
Impeachment: Not An Effective Solution
Well, that ended pretty much exactly the way everyone except Senator Romney expected it to. And he was only half surprised. I actually have several other things I want to write about. Right now, I even have 7 posts already…
Impeachment: A Stupid Thing Happened On The Way To The Senate
Well, lots of really stupid things. And even more stupid things have happened after it got there. There is one stupid thing that matters more than all the rest. Trump seems to genuinely think that he’s a king. To be…
Impeachment: How’s That Goin’ For Ya?
Since we’re getting a live test of how well the Constitution’s oversight of the Executive branch works at the moment, let’s evaluate how it’s doing vs. my suggestion from Failed Constitution Check: Executive Oversight that the Executive branch needs to…
Setec Astronomy: Government By The [Redacted]
Can we (should we) trust anyone in the government with the ability to keep secrets from the citizens? No. Just, no. Restricting ourselves just to the current administration, for a moment, we know that they have classified records of embarassing…