Our reader “Democracy” always posts wise, deeply researched comments. In this comment, Democracy makes us wonder whether Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz was a deep fake that would make anyone else look better. Such as Pam Bondi.
Pam Bondi will be loyal to Trump. Loyalty is the trait that matters more to Trump than competence or experience.
The Washington Post wrote about Bondi:
“Bondi said the Justice Department’s special counsel investigation into whether Trump associates coordinated with Russian interference in the 2016 election needed to be dissolved. She declared that the 45th president’s first impeachment in 2019 was a “sham.” And when Trump was indicted four times after leaving office, Bondi was blunt about who deserved legal scrutiny — and it wasn’t the former president.
“The prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” Bondi declared on Fox News in 2023, soon after Trump’s fourth set of criminal charges. “The investigators will be investigated.”
Democracy writes:
Pam Bondi as Attorney General.
What could go wrong? Let’s see.
Bondi was never a supporter of the Affordable Care Act and tried to extinguish it. As of February of this year, Florida had more than 4 million people receiving health care through the Affordable Care Act, the highest ACA enrollment in the country.
Bondi has been a long-time opponent of LGBTQ rights and same-ex marriage. After the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision, Bondi said she had OPPOSED same-sex marriage NOT for any personal beliefs or political partisanship but because of “the rule of law.”
Bondi took that $25,000 political donation from a Trump CHARITY and then dropped any participation by Florida in a lawsuit against the Trump University flim-flam scheme. She denied that she did anything wrong or that there was any connection between the moola and her decision not to participate in the suit against Trump’s crooked tactics. Indeed, as one Trump University official said in court testimony, enrollees in the courses were directed to
“call their credit card companies and raise their credit limits two, three, or four times so that they would be able to invest in real estate,” to “charge the course to multiple credit cards” or “to open up as many credit cards as they could.”
Bondi is a 2020 election denier, parroting Trump’s false claims that the election was “stolen” by “fake ballots” — she could never provide any evidence of this — and that any investigation into Trump’s incitement of the violent January 6 insurrection was a weaponization of the Justice Department for political purposes. Just last year she said on Fox ‘news” that,
“When Republicans take back the White House, you know what’s going to happen? The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones — the investigators will be investigated.”
Kinda sounds like “weaponization” doesn’t it?
The mission of the Department of Justice is “to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.” According to its website, DOJ core values are
• Independence and Impartiality.
• Honesty and Integrity.
• Respect.
• Excellence.
Obviously, the nomination of Matt Gaetz was laughably terrible. Pam Bondi may be a bit more palatable, but not by much. She is a liar, and a bigot, and a right-wing hack, and a seditious traitor…but with a “pretty” face. She’s the lipstick on the pig.
So what could go wrong? A whole lot.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good morning, Diane: I turned on Fox just for a minute yesterday to see how the trained liars were doing, and there was one of their female hacks loudly saying (paraphrased):
Now we can sweep all those Trump haters out of Congress. CBK
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CBK,
Think of Trump as an orange deity. A trinket you buy on the boardwalk for $1.50. A fetish. What will these nuts do when their god has shuffled off his mortal coil?
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Diane: He doesn’t look so good recently . . . must be awfully tired.
About the broad picture, however, I feel like every time a point of viable resistance emerges, it fails so that, today, it’s the Congressional GOP who needs to take a collective stand.
And after the failure of Garland and Biden, it seems like anyone who could do something about our present situation, especially in this window between presidents, is just sitting on their hands, . . .
. . . as if the letter of the law were more important than its spirit. CBK
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“Now we can sweep all those Trump haters out of Congress.”
Perhaps there will be a State of the Union address that mirrors Saddam Hussein’s 1979 Ba’ath Party Purge.
Regardless, I have no doubt the worst is yet to come.
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what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I didn’t see a word from you lot about the weaponization of the justice department and the intelligence agencies against Orange Hitler. Not a peep.
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There was no “weaponization” of the Justice Departmebt against the orange fascist. He committed crimes. He took home and hid hundreds of highly classified documents that belonged to the National Archives. Those documents were very valuable to Putin.
Second, he promoted a violent insurrection against the U.S. Capitol. His mob beat and maimed police officers.
Both of these were criminal offenses.
You think he should not have been prosecuted?
Shame on you!
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Dr. Ravitch, that’s the problem is there is no shame.
I hate this thought, but if our evil orange wannabe dictator were to molest a child on live TV, he could probably do so with impunity.
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Joe, you are right. He is above the law. So glad he is 78, not 58.
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Diane is correct. There was no “weaponization” of the DOJ.
Trump is a criminal, and has been all his life. That’s the simple truth.
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But, but, but. . . the tRump is our savior appointed AND annointed by god.
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Big sign on big pickup: God and Trump: What America Needs.
Can’t imagine driving around in that, daring the lightening.
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Oh, come on man. That is ridiculous.
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THE NONDELEGATION DOCTRINE: THE TOOL TO STOP TRUMP FROM ISSUING “EXECUTIVE ORDERS” and “NATIONAL EMERGENCY” DECLARATIONS TO SEIZE POWER:
Trump had stated that on his first day back in The White House he will issue a blizzard of Executive Orders and National Emergency declarations to take control of nearly every aspect of our government.
The tool to stop him is the Nondelegation Doctrine that is based on Article 1, Section 1, of our Constitution. Here’s how:
THE NONDELEGATION DOCTRINE
Article I, Section 1, states: “ALL [emphasis added] legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
What that flatly, unequivocally means is the ONLY CONGRESS has the constitutional authority to create laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in “Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha” that the clear intent of our Constitution is that laws are to be written by our nation’s bicameral Congress, not by some other entity, including the Executive Branch.
In that ruling, the Court pointed out our Founding Fathers’ intent by reserving ALL legislative power to our bicameral Congress was to erect constitutionally enduring checks on each Branch and to protect The People from the improvident exercise of power by the Executive Branch and by governmental agencies.
The Court ruled that Congress cannot delegate its constitutional lawmaking role and duty to a President or to any other agent, unless there is a valid sudden, unanticipated emergency, and that is not the case with situations such as the U.S./Mexico border situation and the illegal immigrant situation, or with other situations for which Trump has said that he will issue Executive Orders and declarations under the National Emergency Act.
SLOWNESS IS NOT A REASON
The Court also stated in Chadha that the slow, deliberate pace of legislation in Congress does not constitute a reason for Congress to delegate away its legislative responsibility: The Court declared that “There is no support in the Constitution or decisions of this Court for the proposition that the cumbersomeness and delays often encountered in complying with explicit constitutional standards may be avoided, either by the Congress or by the President. With all the obvious flaws of delay, untidiness, and potential for abuse, we have not yet found a better way to preserve freedom than by making the exercise of power subject to the carefully crafted restraints spelled out in the Constitution.”
Because issues like the U.S./Mexico border situation and the presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are issues that EVOLVED OVER DECADES of inaction by Congress, these issues do not constitute “sudden, unanticipated emergencies” and therefore cannot be addressed by presidential declarations of “national emergencies”. It is the SOLE AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS and Congress’s constitutional duty to address these issues by legislation.
Nor can Congress delegate its authority to special agents, such as the proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” because as the Court also pointed out in Chadra: “[T]he fact that a given law or procedure is efficient, convenient, and useful in facilitating functions of government, standing alone, will not save it if it is contrary to the Constitution. Convenience and efficiency are not the primary objectives — or the hallmarks — of democratic government.”
EXECUTIVE ORDERS
Trump has stated that on his first day back in The White House, he will issue a blizzard of Executive Orders to take charge and change things his way. But — the same nondelegation-based argument can be brought in court against Trump’s Executive Orders.
The United States Constitution does not contain any provision that explicitly permits the use of Executive Orders. Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the Constitution simply states: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Sections 2 and 3 describe the various powers and duties of the president, including “He shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. That’s what the Executive Branch is charged with doing by the Constitution: Carrying out the laws made by Congress, not overriding those laws or making law by itself.
In fact, the act issuing an Executive Order to override laws passed by Congress is a breach of the presidential oath of office to uphold and defend the laws of the United States.
So, while the Constitution explicitly states in Article 1, Section 1, that ALL legislative power resides with Congress, the Constitution only IMPLIES that the President has the authority to issue Executive Orders, and even that implication is limited to orders from the President to his cabinet departments to “faithfully execute” the laws made by Congress, not to override or to circumvent them.
Executive Orders that carry the weight of law are therefore unconstitutional because the Constitution assigns solely to Congress the authority to make law.
Moreover, if the President issues Executive Orders that interfere with or override the laws made by Congress, that is a breach of the President’s oath of office.
THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY ACT
Trump also plans to issue declarations based on the National Emergency Act to basically make law that suits him. The same Nondelegation Doctrine can stop him. Here’s how:
The 2011 “National Emergency Powers” report by the Congressional Research Service regarding the National Emergency Act lists the essential elements of an emergency condition:
An emergency is sudden, unforeseen, and of unknown duration.
An emergency is dangerous and threatening to life and well-being.
An emergency requires immediate action because it was unanticipated.
Do issues such as the U.S./Mexico border situation and the presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. qualify as “emergencies”?
So, the situation at the border does not constitute an unforeseen, unanticipated “emergency”. The situation at the border can be dealt with by normal passage of laws by Congress.
So, neither the border situation nor the illegal immigrant situation meet the criteria for being “emergencies”.
Moreover, since National Emergency declarations carry the weight of law, they, too, violate the Nondelegation Doctrine.
STOP TRUMP!
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