Why Law Won’t Stop Trump: the View of a Former Deputy Inspector General

As we search for ways to resist efforts by President Trump and his surrogates to undermine our democracy and cripple our government, we focus on pillars of our system— Congress, Courts, and Press.  Congress, controlled by Republicans, is demonstrating it is not up to the task.  The media are as confused and uncertain as the rest of us, and the overwhelming power of social media serves to sow confusion.  As a result, many of us are focusing on a major pillar of our system—the rule of law.  We are counting on our federal and state Courts to roll back and restrain Trump’s more outrageous actions.
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The Super Bowl and the Super Rich: Partners in Slime

The number of U.S. billionaires — only 13 in the first Forbes 400 count in 1982 — jumped to 66 in 1990 and 298 in 2000 and then all the way up to 404 in 2010 and 614 in 2020. All these billionaires desperately needed new high-profile playthings. Many found them in NFL franchises. In quick order, teams that had been selling in the tens of millions began going for hundreds of millions and then billions. In 2018, the hedge funder David Tepper spent $2.2 of those billions buying the Carolina Panthers. Four years later, Robson Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, led an ownership group that shelled out $4.65 billion to take possession of the Denver Broncos. More

Trump and Energy: An Exercise in Unseriousness

Upon being sworn in as president. Donald Trump immediately declared an energy emergency. The proclamation, issued on January 20th, states that “The energy and critical minerals (“energy”) identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the  United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs.” More

Control and Worse: Trump is Criminalizing All of Latin America

From preparing to send migrants to Guantanamo Bay, to labeling cartels “terrorist organizations,” Trump has been using both language and policies to frame Latin American countries and Latinx migrants in the US, as criminal. Painting the entire region as a source of danger, as the enemy, rather than as a partner, paves the way for coercion, subjugation, and the normalization of human rights violations. It is a path for the US to advance its business interests and nationalism through control rather than the usual pretense of diplomacy and dialogue. More