Tag: finance

We are now firmly in the lawfare stage of the second Trump presidency, with Democrats filing a flurry of lawsuits to hinder the new administration’s agenda until a strong ruling from the Supreme Court eventually sets precedent.

In the latest legal move, a group of 14 states have sued Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, alleging that the authority granted to the billionaire and his team at DOGE is unconstitutional. The states, including Arizona, Michigan and Rhode Island, have taken aim at efforts to dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce, including dismantling entire agencies, as well as their access to sensitive data.

“The founders of this country would be outraged that, 250 years after our nation overthrew a king, the people of this country—many of whom have fought and died to protect our freedoms—are now subject to the whims of a single unelected billionaire,” said Arizona AG Kris Mayes in a statement reported by NBC News.

When @DOGE was first announced I was mildly optimistic. However I underestimated how fast they would move uncovering waste and fraud.

Clearly the #DeepState was caught unprepared.

This is like something out of a maneuver warfare manual.

— Edward Dowd (@DowdEdward) February 14, 2025

The lawsuit argues that Trump violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution by creating DOGE – an unofficial government agency, without congressional approval, and for granting Musk “sweeping power” without the advice or consent of the Senate through a confirmation hearing.

“President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities,” reads the complaint. “As a result, he has transformed a minor position that was formerly responsible for managing government websites into a designated agent of chaos without limitation and in violation of the separation of powers.”

The states seek a court order blocking Musk from making changes to government funding, canceling contracts, making personnel decisions, and more.

DOGE moving towards $100 billion in savings pic.twitter.com/oTNo5mDYqO

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) February 14, 2025

According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the lawsuit is nothing more than a “continuation of the weaponization of justice against President Trump,” adding “The White House will continue to fight these battles in court, and we expect to be vindicated.”

Another Thursday lawsuit from a group of government employees sought to block Musk and DOGE from accessing sensitive data and removing federal employees until “Musk is properly appointed pursuant to the U.S. constitution.”

That lawsuit came on the heels of NY Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other attorneys general suing the Trump administration to block DOGE from accessing personal data housed in the Treasury department, calling it “unconstitutional.” A federal judge temporarily granted that request, ruling that the states “will face irreparable harm in the absence of injuctive relief.”

Meanwhile, 22 state attorneys general were separately granted a request to halt an effort by the Trump administration to make large cuts to federal research agencies.

Authored by Maryanne Demasi via The Brownstone Institute,

On December 6, 2024, a federal judge ordered the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release documents related to the emergency use authorisation of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. These documents had been hidden from public view.

The legal battle traces back to September 2021, when attorney Aaron Siri filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on behalf of the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency. The plaintiffs sought access to the vast trove of documents the FDA relied on to approve Pfizer’s vaccine.

Initially, the FDA proposed a slow release schedule. In November 2021, the agency stated it would release just 500 pages per month—a pace that would have stretched the full disclosure process to 75 years. 

However, in January 2022, District Judge Mark Pittman of Texas rejected the FDA’s proposal, ordering the agency to expedite its release to 55,000 pages per month, aiming to complete the disclosure of all 450,000 pages by August 2022.

As the documents trickled out, researchers began uncovering glaring gaps that prevented a systematic review of the data. These gaps fueled suspicions about what else the FDA might be withholding. 

It became evident that the FDA had withheld records directly tied to its emergency use authorisation of Pfizer’s vaccine, estimated to be over one million pages. 

These documents, which the FDA had full knowledge of, were excluded from earlier disclosures, effectively misleading the judiciary and undermining public trust.

Siri didn’t mince words. 

“The FDA has been hiding a million pages from the Court, the plaintiff, and the public. Only those concerned about the truth seek to conceal evidence,” said Siri in an interview.

“The FDA here is clearly concerned about the truth and lacks confidence in the review that it conducted to license Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine because it is doing everything possible to prevent independent scientists from conducting an independent review,” he added.

Aaron Siri, Managing Partner of Siri & Glimstad LLP

Judge Pittman’s latest court order to expedite the full disclosure of documents acknowledges the public’s right to scrutinise the data that underpin one of the most significant public health interventions in history. 

In his ruling, Judge Pittman invoked a powerful reminder from American revolutionary Patrick Henry:

“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” 

Pittman concluded, “The COVID-19 pandemic is long passed, and so has any legitimate reason for concealing from the American people the information relied upon by the government in approving the Pfizer vaccine.”

According to the latest court order, the additional documents are slated for release by June 2025. However, Siri is unsure about whether the FDA will release these records in installments or in a single tranche. Either way, he is not taking any chances. 

Siri issued a legal notice to the FDA and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, warning against the destruction, deletion, or modification of any relevant documents and vowing to report any such violations to the Department of Justice.

“The FDA has spent far too long thinking it can do whatever it wants without accountability,” Siri said. 

He speculated that the FDA may try to extend its deadline and prolong the legal battle, given its army of attorneys and vast resources. 

“I think they’re hoping that we will just go away. What the FDA doesn’t know is that we’re never going away. We won’t stop fighting for freedom and rights, ever,” added Siri defiantly.

A spokesperson at the FDA said it “does not comment on ongoing litigation.”

Republished from the author’s Substack

Arguably the biggest driver behind Donald Trump‘s political rise in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election and his recent return to power is the fact that he is not a politician, at least not in the traditional sense. 

He doesn’t speak like a politician, he doesn’t act like a politician and as a consequence, he doesn’t face the same level of distrust that many career politicians face these days.

As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, according to Statista Consumer Insights, people in the United States have shockingly little faith in politicians, with only 5 percent of U.S. respondents saying they trust politicians in their country. 

That makes politicians the least trusted profession in the country, trailing even online influencers, celebrities and financial services professionals who all face low levels of trust as well. 

The same can be observed in other countries included in the survey, with respondents from Germany, Japan and the UK expressing similarly low confidence in politicians.

 

You will find more infographics at Statista

Another profession that has earned a bad reputation in recent years is journalists. 

With people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk relentlessly exposing “fake news” and the so-called “mainstream media” following an agenda, trust in journalism has eroded noticeably in recent years. 

The trend has only been exacerbated by social media echo chambers, which have made it very hard for people to distinguish between the actual truth and the truth most fitting to their belief system.

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

Elon Musk said on Feb. 12 that he is providing tech support to the White House, while criticizing outdated U.S. government systems and software that he said lack efficiency.

Musk made the comments during a virtual appearance at the World Governments Summit in Dubai alongside the United Arab Emirates’ artificial intelligence minister, Omar Al Olama.

The tech billionaire—who heads the advisory committee known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration—was dressed for the occasion in a T-shirt reading “Tech Support.”

When asked how he plans to make the government more efficient, Musk said part of his role will be to focus on improving outdated technology used by the executive branch.

“A shocking percentage of the problem—or maybe not shocking to those who know it—a big percentage of the problem is improving the technology that the government runs on,” Musk said.

“The U.S. government runs on a collection of thousands of computers, many of them antiquated, running on very old software, and the computers don’t talk to each other. That’s why tech support is kind of a real thing, in order to make the government more efficient you have to improve the technology.”

He told the summit that the current retirement rate among federal employees is limited to 10,000 a month, largely due to the sheer amount of paperwork associated with leaving and how it is stored and handled.

“Right now, it’s manually calculated paperwork that’s put in an envelope and then taken down a mine shaft and stored in a mine,” Musk said.

“One of the things that affects the rate at which federal workers can retire is the speed of the elevator in a mine in Pennsylvania, which is bizarre because it should be digital.”

Musk, the world’s richest man, said he had been informed that the U.S. government has been working toward digitization since 2014 but that it has yet to make sufficient progress.

“So I’m like, ‘We’re going to really need to provide some tech support here otherwise, literally, people can’t even retire, even if they want to,’” Musk said.

He said a lot of software systems used by the government will need to be updated and fixed while others may need to be completely automated or removed altogether. This, he said, will also help to reduce unnecessary government spending, which is one of DOGE’s main goals.

Musk Addresses Possible DOGE Conflict of Interest

Musk also spoke to reporters alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Feb. 11.

During that visit, Musk, who was joined by his 4-year-old son, X, addressed questions regarding any possible conflicts of interest between his role in reshaping the government as head of DOGE and his stakes in electric vehicle company Tesla and U.S. space technology company SpaceX, which is a major aerospace contractor for the U.S. government.

“Transparency is what builds trust,” Musk told reporters at the White House.

He said the general public can see everything he is doing with DOGE via continuous updates on X and the DOGE website and that they can assess, themselves, whether or not that work benefits him or his companies.

Trump followed up on Musk’s remarks by stating that the government would not allow Musk to “do that segment or look in that area if there was a lack of transparency or conflict of interest.”

DOGE is currently facing multiple lawsuits from Democrats and progressive groups, including one regarding its access to Treasury Department payment systems data.

That legal challenge, filed by a coalition of 14 state attorneys general, alleges DOGE lacks authority to access the systems and that the move violates the law and poses a massive cybersecurity and privacy risk.

A Manhattan judge has temporarily blocked DOGE employees from looking at that data and ordered them to destroy any data they may have obtained so far.

Other lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks challenging Trump’s executive actions, including his efforts to freeze payments for federal programs and end automatic citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil.

A better question would be: what was the need for this exhibit to exist in the first place?  It seems a little…cult-ish…even for a place where the highest aspiration is to be a 5th grade field trip stop. But we digress. 

“In the past 48 hours, HHS canceled 62 contract[s] worth $182 million. These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses — none touched any healthcare programs. This included terminating a $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum,” DOGE wrote on its X account this week. 

The cut is part of more than $180 million in cuts being made, according to the New York Post.

The Post wrote this week that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had planned to spend $168,000 on an exhibit honoring Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, set for completion by July.

Now where will we take the kids for summer vacation?

However, the project was scrapped following pressure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which claims to have saved taxpayers billions through similar cost-cutting measures, though some face legal challenges.

Fauci led the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, gaining prominence for his work on AIDS and later as a key figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

His handling of the pandemic, including support for strict mitigation measures, drew sharp criticism, particularly from conservatives. He also faced controversy over his congressional testimony about U.S. funding for gain-of-function research abroad. Emails revealed that a Fauci aide helped reinstate a grant for EcoHealth Alliance’s work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with Fauci allegedly informed via a “secret back channel.”

Fauci denied involvement, stating he didn’t “recall any specific interaction.”

Last month, former President Donald Trump ended funding for Fauci’s post-retirement security detail, stating, “You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government.”

Before leaving office, President Joe Biden controversially issued a pre-emptive pardon for Fauci – we’re sure for no reason at all – amid concerns he could face prosecution under a Trump administration.

In addition to canceling the exhibit, NIH announced reforms to its grant process to reduce administrative overhead, aiming to save $4 billion annually. “Last year, $9B of the $35B NIH granted for research was used for administrative overhead,” NIH stated on X. “Today, NIH lowered the maximum indirect cost rate research institutions can charge the government to 15%,” significantly less than the 60%+ charged by some institutions.

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

Despite soaring solar and wind power installations, China launched construction of as many as 94.5 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power projects in 2024, the highest level since 2015, new research showed on Thursday.

China also approved 66.7 GW of new coal-fired power capacity in 2024, as approvals picked up in the second half after a slower start to the year, found the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

Apart from the new coal power construction starts, China last year resumed construction of 3.3 GW of suspended projects.

All these approvals and construction start to signal that “a substantial number of new plants will come online in the next 2-3 years, further solidifying coal’s role in the power system,” the report says.

China added 356 GW of wind and solar capacity in 2024 alone – 4.5 times the EU’s additions and nearly equivalent to the total installed wind and solar capacity in the U.S. by the end of the year, according to the research.

“This record-breaking expansion highlights China’s leadership in renewables, yet instead of replacing coal, clean energy is being layered on top of an entrenched reliance on fossil fuels,” CREA said.

Despite a pledge to phase down coal by the end of the decade, China continues to be committed to coal power, which overshadows clean energy progress and exposes fundamental challenges in China’s energy transition, the authors of the report wrote.

Globally, China is the leader in renewable energy capacity installations, but it is also a leader in coal-fired power and continues to be the key driver of record-high global coal demand.

The persistent growth in Chinese coal demand, including for power generation, goes to show that coal remains the baseload of China’s power system to back up the surge in renewables and will stay such for years to come as power demand jumps with the increasing electrification of homes and transport.  

In a highly unusual and embarrassing incident, a US Navy aircraft carrier has collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, a US Sixth Fleet spokesman revealed Thursday.

The collision involved the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at around noon local time on Wednesday.

The vessels collided near Port Said, but there were no injuries reported on either ship. No injuries or flooding on the aircraft carrier were reported, and its propulsion plants “are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet said.

However, the Truman did sustain some damage, statements indicate:

The Truman was approaching the Suez Canal to go from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, a Navy official told CBS News. There’s no assessment at this time which vessel was at fault, the official said.

The Truman sustained some damage above the waterline, the official said. It wasn’t clear if it will be going in for repairs. The ship remained in the Mediterranean.

The Navy is conducting an investigation and has released few other details, including which vessel was at fault. The Besiktas-M also sustained damage – likely more significant than that of the carrier.

The carrier deployed to the Mediterranean and Mideast region starting in September and has reportedly been conducting ‘counter-ISIS’ missions, including Trump-ordered strikes on Somalia on Feb.1st. As of late last week it was in a Greek port.

The Truman was likely headed into the Red Sea to monitor developments out of Yemen, and to be in a position for a potential response. The Houthis have vowed to resume attacks on Red Sea shipping if the Gaza ceasefire collapses.

Three more Israeli hostages are expected to be handed over on Saturday, but Hamas earlier this week called off the handover, but in the last 24 hours indicated it plans to move forward with the exchange. Israel has warned that if the hostages aren’t freed, attacks on Gaza will ensue. This means the Houthis would unleash more Red Sea attacks, including on American warships.

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

Politicians are screeching at the top of their lungs, there have been threats of extreme violence, and Washington D.C. has never seen a tsunami of lawsuits of this magnitude.  Amazingly, all of this is happening just because Elon Musk and his team are targeting waste, fraud and abuse in our federal agencies.  

The left suddenly hates Elon Musk with a passion, and that is because he is coming after their money.  It has now become clear that multiple federal agencies have been used as giant money laundering operations, and billions upon billions of dollars are at stake.  If they cannot put an end to what Musk is doing, it will be an unmitigated financial and political disaster for the left, and many of them will likely end up in prison.  

The following are 7 examples that show why there is such a conspiracy to stop Elon Musk…

#1 Last year, Medicare paid out more than 800 billion dollars in benefits, and Social Security paid out more than 1.5 trillion dollars in benefits.  Unfortunately, it appears that vast amounts of money are being paid out through these programs fraudulently.  In fact, Elon Musk is now claiming that “the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements” is greater than “the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR”…

At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR.

Just think about that.

If Musk’s claim is true, it is a scandal that is absolutely unparalleled in American history.

At the White House, Musk told the press that there are people that are supposedly 150 years old that are still receiving Social Security payments each month…

‘Reexamination of Social Security – we’ve got people in there that are 150-years-old,’ Musk lamented during an impromptu press conference as Trump signed an executive order.

‘Now do you know anyone who’s 150?’ the billionaire asked. ‘I don’t know. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records. They’re missing out.’

‘So, you know, that’s the case where I think they’re probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous – one of the two,’ he concluded.

In other cases, people that have no Social Security numbers at all are getting payments.

Prominent Democrats keep warning their constituents that Elon Musk is coming after their Social Security checks.

And in a twisted way, they are correct.

It appears that vast numbers of people are illegally receiving Social Security checks each month, and if those checks suddenly get cut off many on the left are going to be incredibly angry.

#2 The Department of Education has always been a giant money-generating machine for the Democratic Party, and now Elon Musk has gone in and cancelled nearly a billion dollars in DOE contracts…

Elon Musk has already saved nearly $1 billion after slashing contracts at the beleaguered Department of Education.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been combing through the embattled agency and has cut $982 million in spending so far.

The bulk of that – $881 million – was saved by ditching 89 contracts dished out by the department’s Institute of Education Sciences.

#3 Elon Musk has revealed that retirement paperwork for federal employees is stored 230 feet underground in an abandoned limestone mine in Pennsylvania…

Today we learned the absolutely INSANE process our Government uses for Federal Employee Retirements.

You wouldn’t think that would be anything special or weird, but it is!

For some reason, back in the 1950s, our Government decided that Federal Employee Retirements would be processed in an abandoned limestone mine in Pennsylvania, 230 feet underground.

What this means is that the speed at which federal retirements can be processed is literally limited by the speed of the single elevator shaft that goes down to that limestone mine…

Elon Musk says that there is a literal limestone mine where they store all the US Government’s retirement paperwork built in 1950 that they need to go up and down every time they want to retire someone from Federal Government. The speed in which they can retire people is limited by the speed of the elevator shaft. Yes, actually.

#4 Elon Musk’s team has discovered that 59 million dollars was paid out last week to house migrants in luxury hotels in New York City…

The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that “four employees are being fired today for circumventing leadership and unilaterally making the egregious payment for hotels for migrants in New York City.”

The firings come after Elon Musk wrote on X Monday that “The DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.”

“Firings include FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist,” the DHS also said. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people.”

#5 Elon Musk’s team has also discovered that the Department of Health and Human Services had signed a $168,000 contract for “an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum”…

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled more than $180 million in contracts over 48 hours, including a nearly $170,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit.

“In the past 48 hours, HHS canceled 62 contract [sic] worth $182 million,” The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced in a Friday social media post. “These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses – none touched any healthcare programs. This included terminating a $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum.”

#6 Do you remember that scene from Office Space in which two consultants named “Bob” ask employees what they actually do at the company?  Well, it sounds like that is precisely what has been happening at the General Services Administration…

Three General Services Administration employees — all of whom spoke to POLITICO anonymously out of fears of retribution — described their and their subordinates’ recent interviews with Musk’s DOGE agents as potentially career-ending, with federal employees feeling like every word they’re saying could be grounds for future dismissal. The behind-the-scenes agency handles the federal government’s real estate, software and logistics — so Musk and his team’s efforts to trim GSA could have a domino effect across the government.

“The interviews are anxiety provoking,” said a GSA supervisor whose employees were recently interviewed by a DOGE worker. The tension swells the moment a worker receives a calendar invite from a Gmail account, they said, “frequently with almost no notice and often scheduled over existing client meetings.”

I am sure that those interviews were definitely “anxiety provoking”.

If you are making over $100,000 a year but are not really doing much that is productive, there is a very good chance that you will be on the chopping block.

#7 On top of everything else, Elon Musk says that the Federal Reserve could soon be audited by DOGE…

Billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday signaled that the Federal Reserve could face scrutiny as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to audit federal agencies and spending.

Musk wrote on X in response to a user’s post about the billionaire’s support for an audit of the Fed that the central bank isn’t above scrutiny from DOGE.

“All aspects of the government must be fully transparent and accountable to the people. No exceptions, including, if not especially, the Federal Reserve,” Musk wrote.

If you don’t understand why this would be a really, really big deal, please see my previous article entitled “11 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is Bad”.

Fortunately, it appears that President Trump is quite pleased with Elon Musk’s work so far.  In fact, he just signed an executive order that gives the Department of Government Efficiency even more authority…

With Musk standing to his right in the Oval Office, Trump praised the work of his office, known as the Department of Government Efficiency Service (DOGE). And Trump said he wanted Musk to now do more, even as DOGE faces multiple lawsuits from labor unions and Democratic state attorneys general over whether it is acting within the law.

The new executive order directs federal agencies to “coordinate and consult” with DOGE to cut jobs and limit hiring, according to a summary provided by the White House. Each agency will be ordered to “undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force” and limit hiring to only “essential positions,” the summary says.

Of course the more that Elon Musk and his team dig into the waste, fraud and abuse, the more irate the left is going to become.

All sorts of people have been making violent threats against Musk, and that includes a Baptist pastor in Tennessee…

A Baptist church in Tennessee has taken down its website amid calls for its pastor to step down after a video clip surfaced in which he stated that “sometimes violence is necessary” when speaking about the Trump administration’s efforts toward fiscal transparency.

Dr. Steve Caudle, senior reverend at Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church (GSMBC) in Chattanooga, delivered a sermon on Sunday in which he appeared to threaten the “possibility of violence” over the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its ongoing investigations into misappropriation of taxpayer funding.

In a message titled “The Violent Kingdom,” Caudle warned about the DOGE initiative as a threat to “steal your personal information and your Social Security check” and appeared to link the effort to “the devil.”

As large numbers of fraudulent payments start to get cut off, there will be widespread chaos in the streets.

People will be screaming that they “want their entitlements”, but the truth is that everyone that is legally eligible to receive them will still be getting their checks.

Those that are illegally raking in money from the federal government every month are stealing from all the rest of us.

If we want Social Security, Medicare and other key programs to be there for us in the future, we must root out waste, fraud and abuse.

Otherwise, eventually the system would simply collapse under the weight of all of the corruption that currently exists.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Authored by Thaddeus McCotter via American Greatness,

In a January 30 appearance with Elizabeth MacDonald on Fox Business’s The Evening Edit, American Majority CEO Ned Ryun, author of the best-selling American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism, advanced a singular proposition for President Trump to utilize an often neglected tool in the executive branch’s workshop for dismantling the “Deep State”: presidential commissions.

Succinctly, the chief executive establishes presidential commissions to address an issue and report directly back to them for prospective further action. The president determines the commission’s scope; appoints its leadership and membership; establishes its charge, functions, and powers; its funding and other administrative support from the executive branch; and sets a deadline for its termination. (See Mr. Biden’s presidential commission on expanding—i.e. packing—the Supreme Court.)

Per Mr. Ryun, there needs to be a presidential commission composed wholly of members of the public to investigate abuses of power and all instances of the weaponization of government by those who were—and perhaps still are—entrusted with the police and surveillance powers of the state.

“I think it is time for President Trump to appoint a special presidential commission, in which he appoints all the members of that commission; gives them full investigative and subpoena powers; and has that commission report directly to him. And then when Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbards, and John Ratcliffe are confirmed, have all of them come before the commission; [and] have those hearings be public.”

Mr. Ryun then went further, explaining what should be done with the presidential commission’s findings:

“[The presidential commission] should do a final report with recommendations, including stripping even more people of security clearances, prosecutions, [proposing] legislative reforms from Congress. It’s time to pull back and have radical transparency and accountability for these institutions that have been massively abused over the last nine years.”

Some may argue that the presidential commission is merely repeating much of the oversight work performed by Congress over the last few years. 

This overlooks two important factors.

First, the Biden administration was, shall we say, less than cooperative and forthcoming in responding to Congressional oversight requests, especially from the Republican-led House. 

There is likely a lot left on and, more importantly, under the table for a public commission to unearth and investigate. 

Given the diminished, though still extant, bipartisan opposition to reforming the administrative state, President Trump is best served by establishing his commission rather than wholly relying upon Congress to do it.

Secondly, as Mr. Ryun stresses, these abuses of power were falsely deemed justified as being done in the defense of the very public whose trust they violated:

“If President Trump were to do this, he should announce: ‘I’m doing this for the American people. This abuse has been done in the name of the American people, they have funded it; and the American people deserve to know the whole truth about what’s happened the last nine years with the FBI, the DOJ, and our intel community.’”

I could not agree more. 

As I responded to Mr. Ryun at the time: 

“Great idea, @nedryun, for a presidential commission composed of the public for the public to protect the public from government abusing its powers.”

Mr. Ryun is correct, and this renders it critically important that his proposal not be incorrectly perceived.

This or any other prospective presidential commission would be designed by Mr. Trump to facilitate reforming and deciding the future and fate of the components of the executive branch. Thus, such a presidential commission could operate contemporaneously to provide suggestions for current and future reforms to President Trump or could serve as a post-mortem inquest providing to him ameliorative measures for the damage the rogue agency and individuals caused and the prophylactic policies to ensure such abuses of power never again occur.

Above all, as his final term progresses, by keeping the administrative state’s abuses front and center in the citizenry’s mind, any of Mr. Trump’s prospective presidential commissions will maximize the first and best guard against the resurrection of the rogue administrative state: public awareness and transparency.

The deep state thrives in darkness; the deep state dies in daylight. 

Consequently, if President Trump implements Mr. Ryun’s sound proposal, I would humbly offer a further suggestion: next up, a publicly comprised, likely post-mortem, presidential commission on the waste, fraud, abuse, and weaponization of USAID. 

Talk about lit…

New York’s top federal prosecutor and two senior federal prosecutors in Washington DC have resigned after refusing to follow a DOJ order to drop corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, NBC News reports, citing ‘multiple officials.’

The resignations of Danielle R. Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, John Keller, the acting head of the Public Integrity Section, and Kevin Driscoll, the acting head of the department’s criminal division, came three days after acting US deputy AG Emil Bove issued a memo ordering federal prosecutors in New York to drop the case against Adams because, in part, it hampered his ability to combat “illegal immigration and violent crime.”

And before anyone gets too crazy about this, let’s look at the timeline…

• Jan. 23, 2022: Mayor Eric Adams Begs For Federal Help As NYC’s Crime Problem Spirals Out Of Control

• Jan. 20, 2023: NYC Mayor Adams Calls For ‘National Czar’ To Manage Border Crisis, Despite VP Harris Already Holding Role

• May 11, 2023:  NY Mayor Adams Booted From Biden Surrogate Squad After Immigration Criticism

• May 25, 2023:  NYC Mayor Eric Adams Asks To Suspend ‘Right To Shelter’ Rule, Citing Illegal Immigrant Influx

• Aug.15, 2023:  New York’s ‘Right To Shelter’ Law Now Has Mayor Adams Saying “Go Away”

• Sept. 10, 2023:  NYC Mayor Adams Proposes Budget Cuts As Biden’s Migrant Crisis ‘Destroys’ Big Apple

Revenge…

• Nov. 10, 2023: FBI Seized NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ Phones, iPad

• Nov. 23, 2023:  NYC Mayor Eric Adams Accused Of Sexual Assault

• May 27, 2024:  NYC Mayor Adams Working With ICE To Circumvent ‘Sanctuary City’ Laws ”

• Sept. 26, 2024: Eric Adams Charged With Bribery, Wire Fraud: Unsealed Indictment

In December of last year, Adams vowed to work with the Trump administration on mass deportations, saying “I reached out to [Trump] and I shared that I would like to sit down and speak with him to hear what are his ideas, because I don’t want people talking at each other, I want people to talk to each other. And I made it clear that I’m not going to be warring with this administration, I’m going to be working with this administration.“

BREAKING: NYC Mayor Eric Adams says he will work with Trump and Border Czar Tom Homan regarding deportations

“Cancel me, I don’t care” pic.twitter.com/8nXolPEhgi

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 3, 2024