***. “corruption as commonly understood is back to Gilded Age levels..Never since the scandal-ridden administration of Ulysses S. Grant has there been an executive branch as nakedly given over to self-dealing as that of Donald Trump. To describe even a few of the dynamics not yet mentioned would take pages.” [Sarah Chayes: “On Corruption In America”]
This post presents excerpts from George Will’s. “Dumb and dumber, Republican-style” [St. Paul Pioneer Press; 5/24/26]:
1]. “In this past week, the Republican Party has accomplished something difficult: It made itself stupider. It subtracted from its already shallow reservoir of intelligence by moving to purge two fine senators. And its embodiment authored a novel grift.”
6] “There is a sort of artistry, akin to the shenanigans used to cook Enron’d books, in Trump’s attempt to fleece taxpayers for a $1.776 billion [get it? this is patriotic] slush fund to be doled out by his friends to his accomplices. The doling will be done by a board appointed by the attorney general, who serves at the president’s pleasure. Trump can fire the board members for any reason. And the fund will disappear immediately after the 2028 election.” [!!!!!!!!!!!!]
*** “There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin”: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” [ Tammany Hall ward boss, George Washington Plunkitt, in: “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall”, by William L. Riordon ]
2]. “..the two senators will be replaced on this autumn’s ballots by persons who, if elected…can be counted on to be exactly what no senator should be: another of the president’s congressional sock puppets, promising, as a high principle, not to think independently.”
3] “His scarlet sin was to have believed that Donald Trump’s urging a mob to stop Congress from certifying the results of a presidential election constituted an impeachable offense. Cassidy’s departure will subtract most of the Senate membership interested in responding to the approaching crisis of Social Security funding.”
4]. “Cassidy’s genuine sin – casting the decisive vote that put an amateur quack [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] at the pinnacle of the public health system. – probably pleased the yahoos who wanted Cassidy gone. He will be replaced by a Republican whose identity does not matter: He or she will be a cipher, vigorously subservient to Trump.”
***. “as president – Trump’s ignorance of science…many of them had no qualifications whatsoever…The Trump administration deposited political termites throughout the structure of our government.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
5] “..Trump surely, correctly, sees in Paxton a kindred spirit…He is a pinup of religious “conservatives” who disregard his lurid personal life.”
7} “In January, Trump sued the IRS [the head of which serves at the pleasure of the president] for $10 billion. this was a prelude to this week’s ‘compromise.” Trump – essentially negotiating with himself, sitting on both sides of the table – agreed to drop this suit. In exchange, the Justice Department [its head serves at Trump’s pleasure] agreed to create a $1.776 billion fund to compensate government “lawfare” victims”. [NOTE – but the fund will NOT compensate any person, any city, any state victimized the the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s persecution or prosecution !!!!!!!!!!!!]
8]. “Purging senators while complaining about “lawfare” but punishing law firms he dislikes…Sophists devoted to obfuscating the obvious will insist that Trump, not the Republican Party, is doing all this. But sentient people know it is a distinction without a difference.”
***. “Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” [ Henry Clay; U.S. Senator; 1829 ]
***. “The point is you can’t be too greedy.” [ Donald John Trump: “The Art of the Deal” ]
With Justice For All 