A lot of people have a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that since the federal government has always had some corruption, that Trump could have brought corruption to an entirely new level. So I thought it might help to give an individual example.
I didn't expect to need to post an update on this series already, but here we are.
This has got to be the least surprising development so far.
Summarizing Trump's executive orders so far:
1. Trump fired most of the inspector generals.
2. Trump revoked Biden's rules against accepting gifts from lobbyists
3. Trump revoked Biden's rule against the "revolving door"
4. Trump replaced civil service classification with political appointees.
This actually happened several days ago, but I didn't notice it until now.
The constitutional principles of separation of powers and a co-equal tripartite government are out of balance. The president has become too powerful. Congress has abrogated too much of its power to the executive branch. The president can unilaterally declare war and essentially allocate funding by edict (executive orders). Presidents can now ignore Supreme Court decisions with no consequence. It seems like each subsequent president grabs more power and then flaunts that power in the face of the people along with blatant in-your-face corruption, which now seems the norm.
This is the first of a 4-year long series.
As far as I am aware, there is only three federal government agencies that have no legally enforceable code of ethics: the presidency, the SCOTUS, and the Federal Reserve, In many ways the Pentagon is included, but not officially.
The Supreme Court held hearings the other day, but someone wasn't there.
Author's note: I just woke up and realized that today is Tuesday and I promised to cover the open thread for earthling1. I have to leave shortly for a one and a half hour round trip to a neighboring city to get some shingles for the crew that's working on our house. I don't have time to write anything substantial so I'll post this rough draft that I saved as a future OT.
Our so called leaders are showing us how to survive in today's world. Be a crook. Be corrupt. Lie. Steal. Cheat.
It's become increasingly difficult to make ends meet today, unless one is lawless. It's been made obvious that the rule of law is passe. Both petty thieves and hardened criminals are slapped on the wrist while white collar corruption goes unstopped on a massive scale.
