Members
of Congress have slithered their way back to
Washington, many Democrats continuing to
silently cower in the face of injustice, many
Republicans kissing the ring (or something
else) of their dystopian, distractive, and
disingenuous leader. In the middle, the people
or suffering, and while Democrats offer some
lip service opposition to oligarchal tyranny,
and Republicans continue to roll over like
puppies on command, working people are dealing
with rising prices, economic uncertainty, and
more.
These
people are capable of bipartisanship when it
serves them. For example, Congressional
members Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Ro
Kahana (D-California) jointly held a press
conference to highlight the women exploited by
Trump’s buddy Jeffrey Epstein. Even Marjorie
Taylor Green, the Trump ally so accurately
described by Jasmine Crocket as a “bleached
blonde bad built butch body, weighed in to
support Eptein’s victims breaking ranks with
her massa. How did these people connect? How
could they overcome the same partisanship that
increases hunger, homelessness, and decreases
health access, to deal with Epstein? Democrats
and Republicans both are guilty of buying into
the President’s distractionary tactics. And
prices keep rising. And some of our streets
are being occupied. And the cowards keep
cowering around economic issues while
pandering to the sideshow.
I’m
not excusing the Epstein violations, nor the
fact that this administration has pandered to
the Epstein legacy by moving his
pardon-seeking partner Ghislaine Maxwell from
a restrictive prison to one of those country
club ones. But I’m wondering when this
president and his team of sycophants move from
the distractions to the real deal. Trying to
fire people like Federal Reserve governor Dr.
Lisa Cook, or CDC director Susan Monarez
generates headlines but what about the
economy? Trump said he’d fix it. He hasn’t.
The
cowards are back after heir undeserved break,
now what is their agenda? Congress holds the
purse strings, by law, but they are letting
the president snatch their authority by taking
funds away from already Congressionally funded
initiatives. His impoundments, outlawed by the
Congressional Budget and Impoundment act of
1974, are patently illegal and he knows it.
But he believes he is above the law, and the
Congressional cowards are unwilling to check
him. I don’t begrudge the Epstein survivors
their two hour press conference and moment in
the sun, but why not a press conference with
some of the entrepreneurs who are hit by these
wilily nilly random tariffs that are slowing
our economy?
This
President is hell bent on implementing his
Project 2025, the one whose complicity he
denied during the campaign. The cowards in
Congress, on both sides of the aisle, seem
powerless to stop him. Democrats offer great
lip service, but little more. Republicans
simply kowtow. And the people suffer.
Congress
has authority, but they fail to use it. The
president cannot fire heads of independent
agencies, and the courts are telling him so.
He knows he can’t fire these people, but he is
doing it anyway. He ought to have better
things to do than to meddle without museums,
but he is so determined to erase history that
he would change the way the National Museum of
African American History and Culture showcases
our horrible legacy of enslavement. He
summoned Smithsonian Director Lonnie Bunch to
a White House lunch, probably to simply flex
his muscles and exert his authority. Bunch’s
term ends in 2026. I’m apprehensive that the
next Smithsonian director will check more of
the Trump boxes.
This
president is shamelessly chasing a Nobel Peace
Prize, which he is unlikely to catch. He
promised to end the war in Ukraine. Not. He
promised to end the conflict in the Middle
East. Not. You don’t get peace prizes for
deporting legal citizens, nor for flooding
cities with the National Guard. The delusion
of the Nobel Peace Prize should be enough for
the president’s close associates to invoke the
25th Amendment, the one that would declare him
medically unfit to hold office.
Meanwhile,
the world is looking at us with shock and awe,
wondering whether there is a grownup in
government to stop this madness. The
Congressional clowns are back, willing to go
along with insanity rather than stop it.
