One of the most important decisions from the Supreme Court / Doormat since the beginning of this mascarade was handed down yesterday, when the Court ruled on the Slaughter case. This case brought on behalf of an FTC commissioner arbitrarily fired by Donald Trump — overturned 90 years of precedent to give Trump dictatorial power over the regulatory machinery of the US government.
The Court has then stripped regulatory agencies of their independence from Trump’s whims and corrupt practices. Even for an agency created by Congress with a specific mandate and responsibilities, Trump is now free to direct that agency to do something completely different, to fire any civil servant who doesn’t do whatever he wants, or to completely gut it so that it is unable to serve its function.
Bye bye the independence of regulation of critical areas such as antitrust policy, environmental policy, food and drug standards, and air safety. Hello the evisceration of the Federal Trade Commission — which is supposed to limit big companies monopoly power on markets, on prices, on quality — and the National Labor Relations Board, which is supposed to protect workers’ rights against big companies and others. Donald Trumpoleon, the wannabe dictator, is fully aware of how much the Supreme doormat has undermined democracy in his favor.
Only one exception (but why ? the doormat is sometimes incoherent as its master and commander…) is the Federal Reserve System, the governement’s bank. Why, then ? Probably because the Court feared the market reaction if it allowed Trump to take immediate control. Dictator but still realistic.
This Court decision is about empowering Trump personnally, not the presidency or his administration in general. Every dismissal and removal from office he has carried out — or attempted to carry out — since his inauguration was motivated by nothing else than personal retaliation, prejudices (Cook is a Black woman: coincidence ?) or personal greed.
This administration – specially the army with Pete Hegseth at its head – was corrupted. It’s now a little bit more an administration of henchmen and lackeys who will do whatever Dear Leader wants. And what he wants depends, above all, on who is most willing and able to enrich him, his family, and his cronies (in this order of priority). He is a skunk.