Who Gets to Define and Interpret the Law?

On February 18th, Der Furor signed yet another royal decree executive order, this one titled "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies."

As most of his royal decrees executive orders do, this one begins with several paragraphs of lofty rhetoric about presidential responsibilities and sound government, and pays lip service to the "structural safeguards, along with the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, regular elections for the Congress, and an independent judiciary whose judges are appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, by which the Framers created a Government accountable to the American people."*

So far, so good. Things go downhill fast, though, and by the time you get to Section 7 of the decree order, you learn what it really means ... 

Rules of Conduct Guiding Federal Employees’ Interpretation of the Law. The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch.  The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties.  No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to the issuance of regulations, guidance, and positions advanced in litigation, unless authorized to do so by the President or in writing by the Attorney General.

Translation: the president - not the Congress or the Courts - decides what the law is. The Attorney General can also provide "authoritative interpretations of law," but only "subject to the President's supervision and control."

It's been a long time since I took my American history lessons in high school and college, but I seem to remember that we fought a war for independence from kings whose whims and opinions were the law. As I see it, the only real difference between a royal decree from a king and a royal decree executive order from Der Furor is that a king announced his decrees with a roll of drums and a blare of trumpets, while Der Furor slips his in quietly, carefully couched in executive doublespeak so that you don't realize you're being screwed until it's too late. 

I'm glad I didn't vote for this, although I'll suffer from it along with all the fools who didn't pay attention in history and civics classes. 

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when we announce the Left-Cheek Ass Clown for February. See you then.

Bilbo

* Section 1: Policy and Purpose, first paragraph.

What President Musk and Der Furor Can Safely Eliminate

President Musk, citing the illusory "overwhelming mandate"* given to Der Furor in the election, has been taking a chainsaw to the federal government, his unsupervised and unqualified flunkies slashing positions at will without any apparent thought to the impact of those cuts. As an example, the administration last week was frantically trying to re-hire some 200 persons fired from the Department of Energy ... after learning that their positions were responsible for the security of our nuclear weapons stockpile. Ruthless cuts to the Federal Aviation Agency are likely to undermine air travel safety and may have contributed to the recent rash of deadly aircraft accidents. Other cuts and tariff impositions will likely slam farmers (mainly in red states of the midwest) who depend on federal loans and exports (largely via the now-defunct USAID) for their livelihood, and gut support to schools in low-income and rural areas that depend on government grants to compensate for low local tax revenue to support education.

These are examples of what I like to call "DOGE's Law of Mission Accomplishment: anything is possible when you don't know what you're doing."

There are, however, a lot of positions across the government that can now safely be cut: the jobs of those who handle the calls from our allies. There won't be very many of those calls to answer in the future, now that JD Vance, in an astounding display of crude, bullying behavior and diplomatic ineptitude that did credit to his boss, demeaned and insulted our closest allies at last week's Munich Security Conference. 

After needlessly alienating both Canada and Mexico, the administration has shown that it's approach to the world is not "America First," but "America Only," and that it is uninterested in mutual benefit - only crass, one-sided advantage that ignores the legitimate concerns of our closest allies.

Of course, a counterargument can be made that those call receivers could be kept busy answering calls from the autocrats and despots whose approval Der Furor craves ... but since such callers are probably on Der Furor's speed-dial already, he won't need any administrative or technical assistance or, for that matter, advice from Cabinet departments already neutered, an obedient Congress, and courts he is already primed to ignore.

The popular acronym nowadays is FAFO - [Mess] Around and Find Out ... and Americans who voted for an agenda they didn't fully understand are slowly finding out. 

Have a good day, and do what you can to preserve what little competent and effective government we have left. You'd better be planning to vote in the 2026 midterms ... assuming annoying things like free and fair elections are still here.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* It needs to be repeated - often - that there was NO "overwhelming mandate" for Der Furor. In fact, he won a bare majority of the popular vote: 77,303,573 (49.8%), as opposed to the 75,019,257 (48.3%) won by Kamala Harris. This is hardly an "overwhelming mandate," although Der Furor and his supporters like to claim it is. 

The Project 2025 Rewrite of the Preamble to the Constitution

The Preamble to the Constitution is one of the most famous and frequently cited written works of American history. In case you need a refresher (and nowadays, most Americans do), here it is:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Most people haven't noticed, but Project 2025 - the detailed plan for a complete ultraconservative makeover of the United States that Der Furor claimed to know nothing about during the campaign - also included a full rewrite of the Preamble to the Constitution to align it with the Republican wet dream of a Christian theocracy run by billionaires who know better than the great unwashed how to make and manage money. They haven't rewritten the rest of the Constitution yet ... they're just ignoring what they don't like and making up the rest as they go along.

In case you haven't seen it, here's the Project 2025 version of the Preamble to the Constitution that presents Der Furor's vision of the United States of America:

We the Wealthy, White, Christian citizens of the United States, in order to preserve our political power, ensure justice appropriate to the race and economic station of each individual, insure domestic tranquility by militarizing the police and strengthening their qualified immunity, provide for the common defense by making sure the military isn't full of nonlethal woke transgendered DEI hires, promote the general welfare insofar as such promotion does not create a culture of dependence which turns lazy individuals into public charges or limit the funding available for corporate welfare programs, and secure the blessings of liberty only to those belonging to traditionally American racial, economic, and religious groups, do ordain and establish this updated Constitution for the United States of America. If you don’t like it, leave. 

Just trying to keep you up to date on what's going on behind the scenes while you've been distracted by the outrage du jour.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Presidents Day, 2025

Today, the third Monday in February, is Presidents Day, the holiday which honors all the wealthy white men (and Barack Obama) who have served, with varying degrees of honor and success, as the nation's chief executive.

The holiday was originally known as Washington's Birthday in honor of the first president, who was actually born on February 22nd. It was later combined with Abraham Lincoln's birthday (February 12th) to honor two of our greatest presidents.

Things grew more complicated with the arrival of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968, which permanently moved all Federal holidays other than Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's to a Monday to create three-day holiday weekends. The act would also have officially renamed the Washington's Birthday holiday "Presidents' Day" to honor the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln, but that proposal failed in committee, and the final bill signed into law on June 28, 1968, kept the official name "Washington's Birthday." 

Nevertheless, today we call it Presidents Day to honor of all 45 of our presidents (not 47, because Grover Cleveland and Der Furor each held office twice) and to provide a convenient handle for sales of automobiles, furniture, clothing, and other items. At one time, the White House website hosted a list of the presidents, but that page has been deleted, probably because it mentions presidents other than Der Furor; for a complete list of presidents, you'll need to go to Wikipedia, which now has a better track record of documenting US history than the White House. 

Presidents Day also provides an opportunity for historical reflection on the evolution of Republican presidents ...

So, happy Presidents Day to those who celebrate. Perhaps in another few years we'll again have a president worth honoring.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Poetry Sunday

I long ago came to terms with my rapidly-advancing age. I know my days of dancing the night away are pretty much over, now that the night comes calling by 8 o'clock, and things like cage fighting and extreme sports are nowhere to be found on my agenda. But I'm still as much in life as is Mary Oliver in today's poem ...

Self Portrait

by Mary Oliver

I wish I was twenty and in love with life

and still full of beans.

Onward, old legs!

There are the long, pale dunes; on the other side

the roses are blooming and finding their labor

no adversity to the spirit.

Upward, old legs! There are the roses, and there is the sea

shining like a song, like a body

I want to touch

though I'm not twenty

and won't be again but ah! seventy. And still

in love with life. And still

full of beans.

Yes, I'm still full of beans, in a world and a time where many in positions of national leadership - whether elected or unelected - are full of something else. I still love my wife, my family and my friends, who do their best to try to keep me grounded and humble.

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

The hits just keep on coming, don't they? 

Republican Representative Earl Carter of Georgia introduced legislation to negotiate the purchase of Greenland and rename it "Red, White, and Blueland;" Florida GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna announced that as part of her Congressional task force's investigation into alleged irregularities in the Warren Commission report on the JFK Assassination, she intends to call as witnesses the members of the Commission, the physicians who tried to save Kennedy, and the doctor who performed the autopsy, all of whom are dead; according to a State Department document detailing procurement plans for fiscal year 2025, the department is expected to purchase $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles ... after the news broke, the document was amended to remove the word "Tesla;" the Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a merchant vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said, Egypt; Der Furor, after commuting the sentence of disgraced and corrupt Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, is reportedly considering appointing him ambassador to Serbia; and in Memphis, Tennessee, customers at a local food truck were undeterred by the presence of a dead shooting victim, stepping around him to place and pick up their orders.

This week, in honor of confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, I thought a collection of cartoons about death would be fitting. 

I'm sticking with the broccoli, anyhow ...

He must be a lawyer ...

Specially designed for alpha males ...

Couch potatoes always rest in peace ...

After you, Alphonse!

Well, what else would he read? ...

He would, wouldn't he? ...

I find myself asking that question at least three times a week ...

It surely is! ...

He'll be buried alongside the dynamite salesman ...

And that's it for this weekend's salute to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, our new Secretary of Health and Human Services ... who has also won the endorsement of the National Alliance of Funeral Directors.

Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts tomorrow, when Poetry Sunday returns.

Bilbo

Great Moments in Editing and Signage

It's time for the first collection of Editorial and signage ya-ha's for February ... something to take your mind off the relentless bad news. Not as if you need it.

Priced to move ...

What is an "incorrect" bathing suit? Don't worry, Der Furor will soon define it in an executive order drafted by his White House "Faith Advisor" ...

It's a good way to get ahead ... so to speak ...

I guess thinking that Ben Franklin was a president suggests the need for better education ... maybe even a department thereof ...

Somehow, I don't think this is a very good choice for a Valentine's Day gift ...

"Zigeunerschnitzel" literally translates as "Gypsy Schnitzel." "Schnitzel with no fixed address" is probably not the best translation ...

School lunch menus after budget cuts probably leave something to be desired ...

This one is also not a recommended Valentine's Day gift ...

There's one thing in common on both lists ...

I hope the person who wrote this headline got a raise ...

And that's it for today! I hope you got a well-deserved - and certainly-needed - laugh.

Have a good day and be sure to come back tomorrow for more thoughts on a deadly Cartoon Saturday. See you then.

Bilbo

The Coming DC Real Estate Boom

People who know something of history and economics are shaking their heads over the direction of the new administration. Many of the actions that have been mandated in a blizzard of royal decrees Executive Orders seem counterproductive, cruel, questionably legal, arguably unconstitutional, and generally make no sense, viewed as a whole in a historical context, as a way to run a railroad.

But I think at least some of them can be understood by taking a closer look at a few things:

1. The administration is slashing thousands of government jobs, and wants to move many of those that remain out of Washington. This will result in a huge reduction in the amount of office space needed by government workers.

2. The head of the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, wants to sell off as much as 50% of the entire federal real estate portfolio. 

3. This will drop the bottom out of the commercial real estate market in Washington, leaving scores of buildings in prime locations for redevelopment.

4. And who, pray tell, claims to be the world's premiere real estate magnate, to know more about (insert topic) than anyone else, and has refused to divest himself of his business interests as he gleefully allows President Musk to handle the day-to-day nuisance of governing?

If you think Der Furor has the best interests of the American people at heart, just follow the money ... none of which you'll ever see or benefit from.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Spectral Evidence

Today is the birthday in 1663 of fire and brimstone Puritan preacher Cotton Mather (pictured above). During the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692, Mather generally supported the use by the prosecutors of “spectral evidence” against the defendants – evidence visible only to the witnesses themselves.  

Spectral evidence remains important, if not vital, today as President Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" and cowed Congressional Republicans employ it to "prove" - without evidence - the existence of titanic fraud and waste* in government, and of a weaponized federal government** they believe unfairly targets them. They appear to have missed the added warning Mr Mather provided to the judges:

"but (do not) lay more stress on pure spectral evidence than it will bear … It is very certain that the Devils have sometimes represented the shapes of persons not only innocent, but also very virtuous.”

With this and his other writings, Mather appeared to suggest that spectral evidence alone was sufficient to indict, but insufficient to convict the accused.

Our government is full neither of "Devils" nor the "very virtuous," but a slash-and-burn approach that shutters entire agencies without regard to the long-term effect will get rid of both, to the detriment of the nation and the world.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* That there is waste and fraud in some areas of government is hardly a secret. That it exists in the enormous numbers that are assumed by President Musk and the GOP and are used to justify the wholesale elimination of departments and programs is backed only by loud and repetitive innuendo, not by evidence.

** That the government has been weaponized is perfectly obvious under the new administration ... it's just weaponized against everyone who has either investigated in the past, is investigating now, or is in a position to potentially investigate the crimes committed by Der Furor, President Musk, and anyone else on the far right.

The Pardon Power

Der Furor wasted no time in seizing the reins of power once he had been sworn in as the 47th President. He signed scores of royal decrees Executive Orders on a wide range of topics, many of them rescinding Executive Orders signed by previous presidents. He loves the trappings of power, and the imperial image of sitting at a desk with the cameras rolling, signing and showing off one huge, leather-bound order after another, is one of the joys of his presidential life. 

Many of his executive orders drew criticism for their mean-spiritedness or downright unconstitutionality, but few received as much condemnation from so many quarters as his full and complete pardons of persons imprisoned for crimes committed during the insurrection of January 6th, 2021. A significant number of those pardoned were sentenced after being convicted by juries for violent attacks against police officers (five of whom were killed) or causing millions of dollars of intentional damage to the Capitol itself.

The authority to issue pardons is established in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution, which says that the president 

"... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."

Because this wording is pretty straightforward, the presidential pardon power is almost always presented in the media and by presidential allies with adjectives like full, complete, and unlimited. Other adjectives which should perhaps apply, like judicious, appropriate, earned, or deserved, are seldom used in the new America.

A president's pardon power is, in fact, somewhat limited; they can grant a pardon only to persons who were convicted in a United States District Court, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, or a military court-martial. They cannot pardon persons convicted in state courts and may not be able to pardon themselves - this has never been litigated before (and you can bet Der Furor would do so on his own behalf), although a simple reading of the Constitutional provision above ("... except in Cases of Impeachment") would argue against it*. 

You can argue about the propriety and appropriateness of former President Biden's pardon of his son Hunter, and the preemptive pardons he issued to members of his family and to public servants likely to be targeted by a vengeful Furor ... I personally think they were ill-considered, yet well-intended, as compared to Der Furor's pardons issued to dangerous criminals for purposes of personal gain and revenge.

I believe that the inappropriate abuse of presidential pardon power argues for a clarification of guidelines and limits on that power. One hopes this could be accomplished by legislation validated by the Supreme Court rather than by Constitutional Amendment, but in today's overheated political environment, either one is probably out of the question. We will be stuck indefinitely with a presidential power that is both just and moral, but ripe for abuse.

What would I recommend as guidelines for pardon power? I believe there are four crimes that should be ineligible for presidential pardons:

Murder;

Crimes committed as intentional acts of terrorism, whether or not lives were lost;

Financial crimes which resulted in irrecoverable losses for the victims; and,

Treason**.

Pardons issued for other offenses should be carefully vetted and should reflect an appropriate balance of mercy and justice ... not presidential whim. 

Pardon me for thinking so.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* But my degrees are in Linguistics and International Relations, not Constitutional Law, so what do I know?

** The Constitutional definition of treason in Article III, Section 3 ("Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort") is vague and needs clarification in order to prevent abuse of the charge; Der Furor has his own ideas of who is guilty of treason, and his definition is, let's just say, "expansive."