I would like to start this by saying I was shocked when I read the following but this administration has set the bar so low, it’s really hard to be ‘shocked’ anymore. This is what caught my eye:
“The US Justice Department, in an extraordinary move on Tuesday, asked to take over the defenseof President Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll, a woman who has accused Trump of sexual assault.”1
Most legal scholars agree this is a real stretch for the DOJ and a continuation of the corruption of the institution under Attorney General William Barr. If successful, this would mean that our taxpayer dollars would be used to defend the President in a lawsuit for alleged sexual assault that took place years before he took office. Think about that for a minute. If there was ever any doubt that Trump is turning the DOJ into his own personal law firm, this should permanently dispel that notion.
It got me to thinking about some of other of Trump’s personnel choices. He promised to bring the ‘best people’ to Washington so let’s review.
Mike Pence, Vice President: Trump’s perfect VP. He just supports whatever lies Trump chooses to spew on any given day.
Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State: “House Democrats on Friday issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as they investigate whether he helped Senate Republicans advance alleged conspiracy theories about presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.”2 And he famously, in contravention of years of precedent, gave a speech at the Republican Convention supporting Trump. Previous Secretaries of State have always tried to remain apolitical.
John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence: Mr. Ratcliffe was appointed to this position by Trump after having no background in the intelligence community at all. He recently told Congress that he would no longer provide election related security briefings in person in spite of the fact that the intelligence community has said Russia is stepping up its attacks to interfere with the 2020 election.
Gina Haspel, Director of CIA: Haspel was appointed to the position after Pompeo left to be Secretary of State. She is a career CIA intelligence officer but is apparently on thin ice because she won’t come out publicly and dispute intelligence reports that make Trump look bad.3 [Of course, it really doesn’t matter who runs the CIA since Trump ignores the intelligence community anyway!]
Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security: Some of the Federal troops that were deployed against protestors were Homeland Security personnel. Chad Wolf, in a previous capacity at Homeland Security while Kirsten Nielsen, was in charge, was alleged the architect of the family separation policy.4 [We all know how well that worked out!]
Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General: We are all too familiar with DeJoy’s recent machinations with the USPS that have resulted in delayed mail and widespread concerns about how that will influence the upcoming election. And most recently, an investigation is being launched into his Republican fund -raising efforts amid allegations of significant campaign finance violations. And, finally, there are ongoing questions about conflicts of interest with his previous business.
Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce: “Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was already the most corrupt cabinet member in the Trump administration. He was party to many shady deals while vice chair of the Bank of Cyprus, and faced multiple lawsuits and SEC fines for his practices with his other business holdings.”5 And don’t forget, he was the one pushing NOAA officials to back up Trump’s erroneous story about Hurricane Dorian!
Betsy Devos, Secretary of Education: Billionaire Republican donor with no background in public education. A big proponent of charter schools and for-profit schools. Has been widely accused to trying to eviscerate the public education system. Recently demanded that schools reopen but offered no national plan to accomplish that goal. [Also, the sister of Erik Prince, founder of the sometimes-controversial security firm, Blackwater. Erik Prince was part of the Mueller probe into Trump’s Russia connections]
Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense: I pointed out yesterday that Dr. Esper is on thin ice because he has publicly opposed Trump’s idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to be able to deploy active duty military personnel to confront protestors in American cities.
I could go on but you get the idea. Trump is continuing to surround himself with wealthy, often corrupt individuals who are more interested in promoting their own self interests rather than what is best for the country as a whole. An oligarchy is defined in Merriam-Webster as:” a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes”. Anyone who deludes themselves into thinking that Trump and his toadies have any altruistic reason for serving in these positions is sadly mistaken. We are now essentially an oligarchy and are well on our way to becoming a full-fledged authoritarian regime. Trump hasn’t ordered the poisoning of any of his critics like Putin has done – yet. But now that Attorney General Barr has turned the DOJ into Trump’s personal law firm, you can expect that if Trump gets reelected, he will use that cudgel to intimidate and perhaps even prosecute anyone who chooses to oppose him. Can’t or won’t happen? Don’t bet on it.
1 https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/e-jean-carroll-trump-lawsuit/index.html
2 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-democrats-subpoena-pompeo-conspiracy-theories-biden
3 https://theintercept.com/2020/08/20/gina-haspel-cia-trump-intelligence-purge/
4. https://heavy.com/news/2020/07/chad-wolf/
5. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/wilbur-ross-noaa-hurricane-dorian/
The Black Shirts of Mussolini and the Brown Shirts of Hitler are now the Red hats of Donald Trump. The Trump supporters act just like the supporters of these two infamous dictators. History is repeating itself and I thought this would never happen to our country.