Here's an example of the anti-Trump take on the speech: "Trump calls his opponents ‘scum’ and lawbreakers in bellicose speech at Justice Department/For more than an hour, he delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence" (Politico): "It was, even by Trump’s standards, a stunning show of disregard for decades of tradition observed by his predecessors, who worried about politicizing or appearing to exert too much control over the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency. Trump, instead, called himself the 'chief law enforcement officer in our country' and accused the DOJ’s prior leadership of doing 'everything within their power to prevent' him from becoming the president."
Key word: "appearing."
And here's a free-access link to the NYT fact-check of the speech.
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161 comments:
“disregard for decades of tradition”
Garland disregarded both tradition and the law. He targeted Trump and tried to jail him for political crimes. Garland also did nothing about the fentanyl importation that killed more Americans than the Vietnam war.
Trump is 100% correct.
Trump delivered his Victim Impact Statement.
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-vns/victim-impact-statements#:~:text=Victim%20impact%20statements%20describe%20the,direct%20result%20of%20the%20crime.
It's no longer the Democrats' Department of Just-Us.
“ They didn’t even know why. They imported illegal alien murderers, drug dealers, child predators, from all over the world to come into our country.”
False. The Biden administration did not purposely allow criminals into the country, but it did experience a historic level of illegal crossings at the border. Homeland Security secretaries have long said most of the crossings are people fleeing poverty and persecution rather than violent criminals. During the campaign, Mr. Trump effectively highlighted crimes migrants had committed to build support for his immigration policies. But immigrants overall are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States, according to studies of arrest and incarceration rates.”
Pathetic. That’s an “F” response. I won’t bother fisking it.
"the desecration of a place where decent Presidents dare not tread. There he is, for over an hour, in front of the Department of Justice sign, trashing his predecessors for weaponizing the justice system."
Absolutely!
It's WRONG for Any republican to Ever complain about democrats weaponizing the justice system.
The justice system EXISTS for penalizing the enemies of the democrat party.
LONG LIVE BIG BROTHER!!
Remember when Obama declared that Eric Holder was his "wingman?" Yeah, an independent DOJ my a**.
"This needs context." In other words, he's right, but we don't want to say he is.
I said in the Althouse comments some time back that I wanted Trump to simply have the exact same type of DOJ that the Obama administration had. I want the Attorney General to be Trump's wingman. I want the DOJ to somehow "find" to means or the regulation that makes the Attorney General immune from contempt of congress charges. I want Trump to dismiss Inspectors General that he disagrees with.
I never thought I would get it. But here we are.
The Biden administration did not purposely allow criminals into the country, but it did experience a historic level of illegal crossings at the border.
The Joe Biden Experience.
I read it and I think I see even NYT’s heart isn't really in it anymore. We’ve pretty much sorted out the voters for a while and I suppose these stories are for the McCain wing of the GOP and maybe the nitpickers who focus on style over substance, emotion over policy. Might work…
And every single thing he said is true. They are scumbags, and Trump and his supporters all deserve justice. No justice, no peace!
Begley, whether claims about immigrant crime are true or false, I hold that they're mostly a sideshow. The true threat from uncontrolled immigration really is the nonviolent, hard-working immigrants. They create ER medical costs that the rest of us have to absorb somehow. They fill the schools with ESL students who take money away from programs that could benefit students born here. They violate zoning rules in places where it's already difficult for working-class people to get housing. They fill the roads with unlicensed, uninsured drivers - more costs that the rest of us have to absorb. And of course, they take jobs and depress wages that would otherwise go to working-class citizens, many of whom are minorities.
Most citizens haven't been raped, killed, robbed, pet-eaten, etc, by illegal immigrants. A lot of citizens have suffered the effects I listed supra from illegal immigrants. I sort of understand why Trump focused on the shock value of migrant crime, but I still don't understand why, with his oratorical gifts for telling 15-minute shaggy-dog stories, he has never really laid out the boring economic case for tightening up the border. The best he did was his oft-derided "they're taking black jobs."
JSM
The whole thing has been about Trump whining that people are mean to him.
Even Grok gets it: "What is the psychological condition for someone who constantly feels the need to be praised, and cannot tolerate any criticism?"
"The psychological condition you're describing could be closely associated with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), though it’s not a definitive diagnosis without a full clinical evaluation. Individuals with NPD often exhibit an excessive need for admiration and praise, coupled with a hypersensitivity to criticism. This stems from an inflated sense of self-importance and a fragile ego that relies heavily on external validation to maintain their self-esteem.
Key traits relevant to your description include:
Grandiose sense of self: They crave constant recognition and feel entitled to it.
Fragile self-esteem: Despite outward confidence, they’re deeply sensitive to criticism, which threatens their self-image.
Emotional reactivity: They may respond to critique with anger, defensiveness, or even humiliation."
Is it still true that the surest way to the federal bench is from the U.S. attorney's office? I stopped paying attention a long time ago.
“Key traits relevant to your description include:
Grandiose sense of self: They crave constant recognition and feel entitled to it.
“Fragile self-esteem: Despite outward confidence, they’re deeply sensitive to criticism, which threatens their self-image.
Emotional reactivity: They may respond to critique with anger, defensiveness, or even humiliation."
This describes Joe Biden (and Barack Obama) to a T.
Kak, ref Trump overreacting to criticism:
There is a big difference between criticism and the package of insubordination, impeachment, disbarment, ballot-stuffing and prosecution that greeted Trump & co's first attempt to govern.
Mere criticism would have been a pleasant Sunday picnic for Trump.
JSM
I think he understated what was done to the office of the President and citizens of the United States by the Obama era DOJ, FBI and CIA in collusion with the Democrats in the House and Senate.
This was supposed to be a press conference about fentanyl.
I think it was in Conspiracy Theory that the Mel Gibson character said something like "I'm only paranoid because they want me dead..." It's pretty mind boggling when one thinks about all Trump went through at the hands of different justice departments run by Democrats.
The premise that the Justice Department is or should be independent of political influence has always been false. It sits in the Executive Branch by design. If the President crosses the line and indicts their political opponents on made up charges, that President deserves the backlash. President Trump has every right to investigate or punish people who engaged in his political persecution. They need to be made examples of to deter others of thinking they would face no consequences if they did the same.
Trump doesn't have a grandiose sense of self. He is grandiose. You can't deny his accomplishments. All you have is criticism - which is a very grandiose sense of yourself.
Speaking truth to power.
Politico is on the USAID payroll. They’re one of the scumbags. One of the conspirators trying to rig the 2020 and 2024 elections.
And what about the shooting in Butler—when we find out that Obama and friends were behind it, what will the NYT print then?
I dunno. Maybe if they hadn't arranged for multiple DAs in multiple jurisdictions around the country, one after another, to bring lawsuits against him. Or maybe if they hadn't chased him while in office with faux dossiers pushed by the FBI, tapped his campaign communications, and handcuffed him with the moronic Mueller thing, maybe he wouldn't have this attitude.
Or maybe if they hadn't covered Biden's crooked operation, and continue to do so, he wouldn't have this opinion of them.
Love that Politico and what remains of the journalist class in this nation is still playing like no one else saw what took place.
I agree, now, where’s the Epstein list?
Sometimes you just have to get things off your chest.
Narcissism is a basic personality trait for politicians.
Trump is no exception. He doesn't pretend to be anyone but who he is.
In fact he's a fabulous narcissist, the best narcissist ever, everybody says so, a terrific narcissist....
“He's … speaking his mind.”
That’s quite an assumption.
Conspiracies aren’t created in a crowd. We know Fanni’s bf was a regular visitor to the WH.
Thank you Politico for your pitch perfect rendition of "nevermind what the Democrats did, have you heard what Trump said?"
Finally dawned on me that Trump is projecting. Once I see everything through the projection lens, he is easier to take, because at least I can interpret what he means. (Before I understood his projection, I just thought he was constantly spewing nonsense.) When he accuses someone else of doing something, it’s because he himself is/will be doing it.
But what do *you* think, Ann? You concede “there’s never been a speech like this” and it was an “epic tirade” and Trump was “out in the open, speaking his mind” and link to a NYT fact check article. But that’s all form, no substance. What do you think of the substance of Trump’s speech? Do you agree with the substance of what he is saying? You always leave me so curious.
"That’s quite an assumption."
I know, and I thought about it when I wrote it that way, and I meant to say that.
Some people say he's unfiltered, but I don't think he says everything that crosses his mind, but what we are hearing is flowing directly from his mind, and he does it for an hour and a half with full energy and fluidity. We have never seen anything like that.
He may not fully believe everything he says, and he engages in simplification and exaggeration, but that's his mind on display for us to hear and judge.
The last president HID from us and WAS hidden from us. That is the most astounding outrage I've ever seen in American politics, especially when connected with the funny business known as Hunter.
Who turned on the italics?!!
The whole thing has been about Trump whining that people are mean to him.
Eh, I think there is an equal and opposite thing about people whining they wish to punish Trump but they're not being mean to him.
Which side has the better of the case?
said...
“… appearing to exert too much control over the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency.”
So who was in control of the nation’s most powerful law-enforcement agency?
I don’t see anywhere in the constitution a statement about an independent Department of Justice. Is the New York Times arguing that tradition should supersede and control over the Constitution?
"What do you think of the substance of Trump’s speech?"
I think it's exactly what he was saying at the 70+ rallies he did in the 2024 campaign. He won the election decisively, and the voters knew the facts as he presented them, so I think there is riveting honesty in the substance. If you don't like those facts, — the working findings of fact in our democracy — maybe you don't like democracy!
AG Eric Holder: 'I'm still the president's wingman'
Democrats already have a yuge problem with the optics of a super vigorous Chief Executive getting a lot done in a short time compared to the flaccid yet blustery opposition leaders Schumer and Jeffries, not to mention the corpse-like outgoing POTUS who had no clue what his autopen was doing. So the DNC Media is doing Democrats no favors by switching to the passive voice when describing what Biden's corrupt DOJ did to Trump.
The passive voice is not just annoying to readers of the news, it's a pointed reminder that the DNC Media cannot truthfully report on what their side actually does. Trump DOES things. Things JUST HAPPEN when Democrats are in charge.
unitalic
Sorry about that ii mistake!
John Althouse Cohen said...
[“He's … speaking his mind.”]
"That’s quite an assumption."
He's speaking from his id, as per normal.
Ann Althouse said ..
… maybe you don't like democracy!
After all those years living in Madison you finally understand Democrats, Professor. Well done.
"Bellicose" to describe the president who hasn't started any new wars.
I must have missed the part where the NYT fact-checked Joe Biden. Why should we care when one of the most dishonest newspapers in the country attacks Trump? Just one example, see the NYT's editorial position of the filibuster. When the Democrats control the government, the filibuster is an obstacle standing in the way of governing. When the Republicans control the government, the filibuster is an essential protection for minority rights. The NYT is situational to the point where it's worthless.
What is this "traditional notion of DOJ independence"? Who was John Kennedy's Attorney General? (spoiler: his brother)
Time to junk the notion that Trump isn’t a brilliant intellect. He is. His strategic comeback from the 2020 rigged election and the lawfare and assassination attacks is the proof. As Scott Adams has said repeatedly, Trump may be the most brilliant and persuasive President in U.S. history.
The reason Trump was in a position to make that speech in that place is because the majority of voters in this country agree that pretty much everything he said is true.
The Dept of Justice sign behind the podium is hanging crooked. It's a little low on the right.
It was pure Trump and his critics are hot to portray it as the desecration of a place where decent Presidents dare not tread.
“The place” was desecrated when the execrable Merrick Garland extended the definition of domestic terrorism to include people who speak up at PTA meetings. And the media have been saying for a decade that Trump is anything but decent.
If not "scum," AA, what would you call them and their behavior?
The civil service reforms of the late 19th century were a grave error. Every single executive branch employee should have to reapply for their job when a new President takes office. To throw the bums out requires the ability to vote the bums out.
"And what about the shooting in Butler—when we find out that Obama and friends were behind it, what will the NYT print then?"
I think we'll eventually find out it was to impress the Jodi Foster du jour. If Kamala had visited his town she might have been the victim.
As for the security arrangements, I put that down to complacency, incompetence and the then obvious DEI initiatives.
I like what Trump is saying, but talk is cheap.
Desecrate, Baby, desecrate!
“ Biden — we couldn't even tell if he had a mind.”
You go girl!
The reactions and responses fall along the usual lines. For the TDS afflicted, Trump yet again defiles hallowed ground, the sacred institutions. The campaign of lawfare on any available front, the passage of laws to specifically breathe life into long-dead allegations and fan them into convictions, all of these creatively nefarious and malign acts - these were all perfectly valid, to the TDS afflicted. The assassination attempts, well, those were bad, maybe - but, understandable.
To those that saw all of this and reacted with dismay and disgust, the defilement of the institutions has already taken place, in an organized and methodical way, over the course of years. The institutions have already violated their charters, perverted their purpose. These people see lawfare differently; against the George Floyd riots, they see the Jan 6th prosecutions and imprisonment of the pre-convicted as a purge, a travesty of swift and impartial justice, as a race against the eventual revelation of the setup by Capitol Police. These people see the arrest of school board meeting parents and the surveillance of church goers as 'domestic terrorists' as overreach.
Trump is using the bully pulpit to reinforce his message and shift public sentiment. The voters have voted, but that's not enough - he wants to remind them what they have voted against, or voted for. He wants reflection. Nothing he does is as chaotic as the TDS-afflicted would like you to believe.
While he is engaging in hyperbole, Trump’s overall assertion that the Justice Department was weaponized against him is true.
I have always been bothered by the investigations of traditional Catholics. Given limited resources I would think the resources would have been better spent investigating actual violent groups like Antifa.
I would be interested to know what the FBI was doing about the groups that organized the anti-Semitic protests that magically arose in the wake of the 10/7 attacks.
I would think that violent communists and Jew hating “students” who disrupt people’s lives pose a greater threat than young families attending traditional Latin masses.
Aggie said...
Trump is using the bully pulpit to reinforce his message and shift public sentiment. The voters have voted, but that's not enough - he wants to remind them what they have voted against, or voted for. He wants reflection. Nothing he does is as chaotic as the TDS-afflicted would like you to believe.
3/15/25, 8:52 AM
——————————-
Trump’s problem is that his style turns most people off. He was not elected by people voting for his agenda. He was elected people who more strongly opposed the Democrat agenda. This is a mirror image of the 2020 election. Biden was not elected to be the new FDR, he was elected to not be Trump.
Polls show this. Trump gets high marks for his actions on immigration and social issues where the Democrats have gone completely off the rails. He is way underwater on things people did not vote for.
His bizarre obsession with obsolete 18th and 19th century economic thinking will sink him as sure as inflation and radical trans up ideology sunk the Democrats..
“I think it's exactly what he was saying at the 70+ rallies he did in the 2024 campaign. He won the election decisively, and the voters knew the facts as he presented them”
Fair enough, but “as he presented them” is doing some heavy lifting there.
He persuaded enough of the electorate with his rhetoric, that’s democracy. Fact-checking all of his inaccuracies has proven to be not as persuasive to the electorate as his spewing nonsense. You react to this as if you are some neutral observer from afar, but you live here! “Oh well, the voters believe this, I guess that’s fine!” You seem more concerned with what the voters believe than what you believe. What do you believe? (Queue the Ryan Gosling Notebook meme, “what do you want!?!?”)
Biden hid from interviews, that was bad. Trump ostensibly faces the media, but he and his team obfuscate and don’t answer direct questions, then his fans lap it up. This is arguably worse! I don’t give him credit for taking questions but not answering them. When his press secretary is asked this week, why does the president claim to be for tax cuts but then does tax hikes in the form of tariffs. She says tariffs are tax cuts for Americans. She is either lying or mistaken.
You and I have different views of “riveting honesty.” Are tariffs to stop fentanyl or are they trade policy? Canada has been ripping us off for years? Trump, you, signed the last trade deal with Canada! Does he understand the laws of comparative advantage? Has he explained how moving away from free trade, a core part of making us the richest nation in the history of the world, and bringing manufacturing back here will make us richer? There wouldn’t be tariffs to collect in that scenario by the way. He is intentionally confusing, which I interpret as deception. This is not honesty!
I take your implied point that the opposition to Trump needs to become more persuasive. But the likelihood is that’ll just be a socialist demagogue, and that makes me sad. That’s what makes your cruel neutrality so frustrating.
Do I have to keep saying it? Politicians are narcissistic. You don't stay in politics long or rise high without a high degree of narcissism. Even those who aren't narcissistic by nature become so, because they are always hawking a product -- themselves. Which of the politicians in recent times weren't narcissists? Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, maybe George H.W. Bush. Their White House years didn't go well and didn't end well. They didn't have the nerve or the spine to handle the job.
Of course there are different degrees of narcissism. Trump is more of a showman or exhibitionist or, if you like, narcissist than others in politics, but is he a truly malignant narcissist? Those aren't so common in the upper ranks of politics. They can't control themselves. They don't make a good impression on staffers, donors, and voters. They often crash and burn somewhere along the way. I heard that Bill Clinton was a malignant narcissist, then Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump. Were any of them really? Politicians like Harris and Klobuchar alienated or terrified their staffs. Malignant narcissists?
If you can't admit that Biden's DOJ tried to destroy Trump and that's what Trump is reacting against, then you won't have a clear view of what's going on now.
The Democrats are scum. Merrick Garland is scum.
This is not controversial.
Cool!
Merrick Garland (D-dutiful mob butt-boy) openly said that he approved the raid on Trump's private residence.
Funny how that never amounted to anything.
The democrat party is a sewer.
Yeah, a Biden voter had the goddam nerve to chime in with that grade-school insult at 7:54 AM. There's your cult member, reality be damned.
The Tradition says - you must be nice to the corrupt mob-controlled corrupt corrupt corrupt Democrat Party.
or boo hoo.
"Tradition observed". From afar, on a postcard, found in the archives
I'd like to know one thing, Politico: Did Trump tell any lies during that one-hour speech? You know, of the non-Lefty fever dream, hard evidence-corroborated type...
If there are politically motivated prosecutions, Justice Department officials are obligated to refuse, report or resign.
You'd expect a 28 year old idealist or 63 year old curmudgeon about to retire to burn some bridges! But no one did. Kind of amazing.
Stop the kakaphony of distractions, kak. Man up, sissy.
The idea that Biden's team wasn't obfuscating and dodging direct questions doesn't stand up. Trump and his people are a breath of fresh air after Ginger and Mop Top. If the new administration can avoid press attempts to trap them so much the better.
Is the New York Times arguing that tradition should supersede and control over the Constitution?
I think so. Of course, it’s just more situation-based left-wing instrumentalism. They are fine with having the President micromanipulate the Justice Department whenever it works to the advantage of the Gramscian project to turn this country into a satrapy of a socialist one-world government run by the likes of Schwab and Soros.
Just like the antiquated notion of an impartial, professional civil service that should not suffer the indignities of the “spoils system” after each election, the tradition of the independent Justice Department is a relic of a time when neither the civil service as a whole nor the Department in particular were ideologically captured by one party, and willing to use all its powers for political and financial gain.
All executive power is vested in the President under Article II of the Constitution and is delegated by him to all his underlined at his sole discretion. He can perform the jobs of anyone from the Attorney General to the FBI Director to the 7th-floor janitor. I hope that when the likes of Fani and Bragg and Garland are indicted for conspiracy against civil rights, Trump goes down to the courthouse and files the charges himself, over his own signature.
"Traditional notions of independence" at the DOJ is like "objective unbiased journalism." You can claim it all you want, but everyone knows that it is BS.
I note that AMDG has lost the penchant of referring to the president as tRUMP, so there’s some personal growth and maturation in evidence.
Joe Biden pardoned his 6 members of his family? Right?
Isn't that astonishing?
And the left dutifully lei and say - "oh it's because they must be protected from Trump.'"
BULLSHIT.
The Sewer Molotov Cocktail authoritarian mob-controlled democrat party is above the law.
Biden pardoned his family back to 2014 - when VP Joe's family Ukraine grifting machine kicked into high gear.
Media? NYT? Nothing.
When did progressives ever give a flying f*** about tradition?
If you don't like those facts, — the working findings of fact in our democracy — maybe you don't like democracy!
You have a very weird definition of "facts". Just because Trump tells the same lies over and over again does not turns those lies into "facts". There is no evidence of a grand conspiracy to get Trump. Foreign governments are not emptying their prisons and "insane asylums" and sending them to the U.S. The alleged fraud in the 2020 election has no basis in fact.
I think I would have been less reserved if my ear had been shot due to the bungling of those failing to do their job.
Looks like we got us another "Life Long Republican" troll who would really rather be living in the EU where elections can be overturned by judicial fiat rather than having to do the messy work of actually convincing voters.
And he's so disappointed in our hostess.
Every part of the Federal goliath was used to hunt down and destroy Trump, his lawyers, and his supporters. This is seen as good and normal by the leftists on this blog, and elsewhere.
You children have absorbed the propaganda fed to you by your Masters, that Trump and all of us are Nazis. And anything done to rid the world of Nazis is sanctioned by your Masters.
And he upsets you, angers you, frustrates you. You react like little children being told no for the first time.
The responses to Trumps latest speech remind me of those spoiled kids-
The man was hunted by the United States of America-by our intelligence agency, our law enforcement agency, and by the entire information industry.
The symbolism of him standing there, in the halls of justice, is beyond wonderful. The same institution that spent huge resources to destroy him, is now neutered by his election.
And he says very clearly he wants it to be used to go after actual criminals- the fact that this upsets people tells you everythjing you need to know about the dimbulbs who are having tantrums.
He just gave a very polite finger to everyone of his critics, and you idiots just can't stand it. Good, as they say on X, your tears make me happy.
“Just because Trump tells the same lies over and over again does not turns those lies into "facts". There is no evidence of a grand conspiracy to get Trump.”
Certain notions that were once dismissed as cynical opinions about politicians are now requirements of Trumpism.
The NYT/Wapo/Politico are mouthpieces for the liberal/left wing of the Democrat party. WHy keep pretending we're getting objective news from them? This "factcheck" is just another set of DNC talking points.
I'm glad Trump did his "Tirade", now lets have some action. Lets investigate DoJ, including Garland, and see if any laws were broken in the quest for the Great white whale named Trump. Lets clean house at DoJ and fire the bastards.
Its funny how the Liberal/left acts. If claims of Election fraud so obviously false, why were they against an audit of the votes? Why were banning people on social media for saying their was election fraud? why were they disbarring lawyers who supported Trump's legal actions?
All this crap happens because the Liberal/left Democrat wont continue historical traditions and rules. No one has ever gone after an Ex-POTUS or tried to jail an major Presidental politican who's slated to be the current President's opponent. Never been done before because its bannana republic stuff. But the NYT's and Democrats LOVED it.
The corrupt democrat party has proven they do not deserve to be treated with ANY respect.
Not until they shed their authoritarian above-the-law mob control. and apologize. and change.
The whole 2020 election fraud discussion went like this:
-wow, there's some crazy stuff going. Lets investigate. Looks like Fraud.
-No. Biden won. No need to investigate or audit the votes.
-But why not investigate to put all doubts to rest?
-Shut up, election denier. There was no fraud. There is no evidence of fraud.
BTW, why weren't Garland and Biden portrayed as being vengeful in their pursuit of Trump? Wasn't it all "payback" for Trump denying Hillary the Presidency and Garland a SCOTUS seat?
Looking at conditions in some Central American countries before Biden invited all their gang members in, I'd have to say that illegal alien crime is a real issue. It's not the whole problem, but if it weren't happening illegal immigration wouldn't have been as frightening as it has been.
It's true that the migrant crime was a useful political issue that Trump got some traction on. Talking about the economic impact would only result in a stalemate. Trump was accused of bigotry and divisiveness for talking about MS-13 and Tren de Arugagua, but imagine if he were going on about the non-violent, working illegals. Wouldn't that be more divisive? Trump was helped along by the fact that so many of those who the Biden administration took in weren't actually working but only hanging out in hotels that were being paid to accommodate them.
Peachy said...
Merrick Garland (D-dutiful mob butt-boy) openly said that he approved the raid on Trump's private residence.
Funny how that never amounted to anything.
They wanted to find a dildo in Melania's dresser or bedside table.
Forget the D's apologizing. They need to change their behavior and learn if they break the rules/traditions they will get the same treatment. You cant shame them or expect them to be moral/reasonable. They only respect power and payback.
"The whole thing has been about Trump whining that people are mean to him."
When you object to efforts to put you in prison for the rest of your life or, alternatively, to blow your brains out and the response is you're whining — that's rich.
The civil service reforms of the late 19th century were a grave error. Every single executive branch employee should have to reapply for their job when a new President takes office. To throw the bums out requires the ability to vote the bums out.
I will agree, with a few qualifications. I don’t think that the secretaries and janitors and forest rangers should have to beg their local party ward-heeler to keep their jobs after every election.
I do think that anyone whose job description encompasses the following should be answerable to the president and dismissible at his sole discretion:
1) Gives final approval to any disbursement of funds except petty-cash or per diem expenses, or approves contracts with entities outside the agency.
2) Responsible for writing proposed regulations, or issuing approvals thereof.
3) Allowed to carry a weapon on or off duty.
4) Holds power of arrest
5) Practices law on behalf of the government before any court, or gives approval for filing civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions.
6) Serves as a liaison from an executive branch agency to Congress or the courts, or from one cabinet department to another,or as a special master, administrative law judge, or expert witness.
7) Approves visas and asylum requests
8) holds approval power over wire taps, search warrants, and subpoenas.
9) holds the power to grant or revoke security clearances, or holds a clearance allowing access to raw intelligence data.
10) selects targets for tax audits
11) approves the curriculum of any educational institution
12) approves permits, licenses, or privileges that are not generally available to the public on demand.
I’m sure there are others that should be included. Basically, anyone who has the power to cause harm to a disfavored individual for political purposes or financial gain needs to have no job security at all. The senior civil service has become a mutinous snake pit of left wing machinations, and pretty much anyone over GS-6 or so needs to feel the boot of the People on his throat, by way of the President they elect.
Interesting to see Presidential leadership by DJT with the courage to speak truth to the corrupt DC power gang.
But more interesting to see the courage of our brilliant VP speaking truth to power at the Munch Security Counsel.
See, VDH YouTube segment on Vance’s speech. It makes it clear who the USA’s main enemy is toda.
People often need to be spoonfed how the govt actually works because book learning isn't big on acknowledging real world politics and its implications. Difference here is the person and the position holding the spoon.
The legacy Media is as corrupt as the corrupt Democratic party. It's a sewer u p and down.
Watch them WHINE and pee and moan.
And tell them to F off.
Molotov Cocktail Authoritarian Leftist mob scum.
Trump’s victimhood schtick is getting old — that’s what’s “rich”
Loyalist leftist Kakapoodle - It's your corrupt media and party who are WHINING and moaning ... on Q... in hivemind unison.
Kakapoodle- YOUR Party tired to jail and kill him.
YOU can go F yourself. Leftist loyalist.
“ This was supposed to be a press conference about fentanyl.”
So?
You children have absorbed the propaganda fed to you by your Masters, that Trump and all of us are Nazis.
@Jimmy, they know Trump and his voters aren’t Nazis. If we were, they’d know to keep their mouths shut, lest we treat them as they treated us.
Leftists cannot handle criticism and push-back.
They are so protected by their Propaganda and Media hacks - dedicated leftists have no idea what the truth is.
A post that calls to my inner sarcaster. But before I sarcasticate, I need more coffee.
Imagine if a "rightwing" sniper almost took-out Biden at one of his rallies - and that same "rightwing" sniper shot and killed a democrat in the audience.
Go ahead- imagine that.
We would not hear the end of it - from the Democrat Party Mainstream legacy media.
Hassayamper,
I don't necessarily disagree but all of those classifications that are dismissable by the executive in your proposal will be immediately reclassified as in the same class as park rangers, janitors etal.
If a young kid looked at Bich crosseyed, Bich would whine about it to his mom.
Imagine if Trump pardoned 6 members of his family going back to 2014.
Democratics = the authoritarian party of rot.
Every single executive branch employee should have to reapply for their job when a new President takes office.
I suspect Presidents became tired of the constant stream of office seekers and were happy to give up much of that power. The civil service worked okay for some decades. The Church CIA revelations in the 70s should have warned us that it no longer was.
Merrick Garland(D) - may karma and cumupance - bite his ass.
I took advantage of the free link and read the NYT fact check. It took three 'authors' to transcribe a series of DNC talking points. They could have just re-posted the original DNC talking point memos. If it wasn't expected, the blatant dishonesty and partisanship would make me angry. Now, it generally makes me laugh. The funniest one of all were the claims that the mass immigration wasn't a deliberate choice by Biden's handlers (it's not like he was capable of making any decisions) and that most of the illegal crossers were simply poor asylum seekers.
Immense narcissism and a bottomless well of insecurity.
“I was attacked more than anybody in the history of our country. The great Al Capone was attacked only a small fraction of what I was attacked.” ~ Donald Trump
Why was Al Capone “great”? Capone faced prison—Trump is just facing reality.
"If a young kid looked at Bich crosseyed, Bich would whine about it to his mom."
That poor baby is butthurt... again. Must be a day ending in "Y".
Kak: “ Trump’s victimhood schtick is getting old”
What, two months old? His actual victimization went right up to Jan 20. In fact, he is still a “convicted felon,” so in a way his victimization continues.
Stop victimizing him and he will stop the shtick.
JSM
It’s fascinating that the leftmediaswine still think that dumping on Trump incessantly will carry the day for the Dems. For folks like my Portlandian son the die is cast. “Trump is an idiot. His policies are stupid.” That’s pretty much it from a man who was Executive VP at a university with 15,000 full time students. For the most of us, who cares what DNC media says or what their bubble people think.
Yes we could tell Biden had no mind. I distinctly recall listing in this blog's comments his exhibition of multiple dementia symptoms during his 2020 campaign. And announcing the cessation of a horrible misuse of government against political opposition and regular citizens at the locus of that misbehavior is damn appropriate, as a warning to those there not try it again.
Lazarus: good points on the downsides of focusing on the economic impact of illegal invasion. Definitely a “both-and” strategy would have worked best. And I of course do not mean Trump should have literally said “these non violent hard working aliens are eating our lunch.” Something more like focusing on the kid who had to return his oboe to school because the music teacher was fired to pay for an ESL teacher. Or the inner city AP Calculus class that got cancelled for similar reasons. There were enough stories coming out with black and Hispanic citizen parents complaining about school facilities being taken for illegal use; Trump could have lent his megaphone to that bandwagon. Or find someone who died waiting for care in an ER clogged with illegal industrial injuries. Heck, find a 1619 black cab driver put out of business by Uber. Lots of ways to highlight the injustices.
JSM
The kleptocracy is embittered as their catastrophe is exposed with factual presentation.
Kakarichpod - we all know the hivemind want to see Trump dead or in prison - for fake crimes built by the corrupt left.
Old. Tired.
Old Sctick.
An "NYT fact-check"? Is that a small lie as big as a big, fat lie?
Even Ann got italicized(!) at 8:06 AM.
Yancey at 10:42 - perfect description of the blog Klown.
During my 30 years as metropolitan prosecutor both appointed and elected, and beyond, it was always clear that the DOJ was political, but only mildly corrupt even with Obama’s “wingman,” Eric Holder, as AG. Under Biden and Garland rampant political corruption became the defining characteristic of the DOJ and the FBI. Trump is entitled to screech, but I would prefer to see him quietly reorganize federal law enforcement.
Althouse, everything published by the NYT is a lie. We are in "a", "and" and "the" territory here.
"Trump is entitled to screech, but I would prefer to see him quietly reorganize federal law enforcement. "
I don't see the benefit. I'd prefer noise and figurative bloodletting. I think the public needs to be led past the carnage - by that, I mean the evidence, as it is revealed - and made to look. Not everybody believes that Trump's mission is driven primarily by patriotism, but the evidence supports it.
Remember, the initial screeching was that Trump's candidacy was a stunt, self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. What became of the supporting evidence, if these allegations were so self-evident? If anything, Trump's run at politics has been damaging to his health and destructive to his freedoms, and there's no guarantee that the efforts to kill him aren't ongoing.
Mildly amusing to note some comments meant to encourage pushback in order to gratify the ego of those who lost the election.
However they try to emulate, none can compare to the GOAT provocateur , Inga.
The current crop may get a few responses from multi paragraphs of yawn worthy observations, while Inga can post one sentence, or one cut-and-paste, and keep us normals busy for hours.
Credit where credit is due.
She is the queen, the other pretenders are scum, (or bastards).
"Who turned on the italics?!! "
That's the Mama voice. I can't help but wonder how many times JAC heard it growing up.
What’s remarkable is not the New York Times running propaganda interference for the Democratic Party, it’s how laughably bad they are at it.
The best part of all of this is that X has removed the imprimatur assumption that there is an "Elite."
The idea that being a college graduate gives you some sort of superior social status is over. The media and all of our social institutions used to reinforce this and magnify the opinions of the "Elite." ADMG is slowly coming to this realization. He is slightly more intelligent than Rich.
Ann still wants to start out these conversations from the POV of the mainstream media. The Media is destroyed and is in the final retracement activities now.
Most people no longer start these conversations inside the frame created by the "Elite." Our social contract is no longer bounded by credentialed fools. Nobody cares what the globalist tools in the US want or think is appropriate.
As soon as election integrity measures are put in place and the education system is reformed the cognoscenti will be banished to the political wilderness for a generation.
Ann, did you delete my comments? Your 8:12a comment was a response to my original. So my first comment was a little before that, my second one was around 9a, I think. Both are gone now.
I hope it doesn’t have to do with the italics. My first comment was the first one after @ Mike (MJB Wolf) 8:00a comment that started the italics. Then my comment showed up in all italics, nothing I did to cause that that I know of.
Anyway, I stepped away to exercise then write a post about who I am at my own blogger profile. Figured, I’d link it here, even if late in the thread. Figured I could use it in future back-and-forths because I want to get past the part where everyone else doesn’t believe who I say I am. Anyway, here that is:
https://actualitems.blogspot.com/2025/03/my-politics.html
Hopefully, this comment makes it through and my original comments get restored.
Fact Check = This doesn't comport with our world view. Similar in nature to Conspiracy Theory = Spoiler Alert. Didn't even bother to look at the NYT link. Somehow, DOJ independence is only expected in Republican administrations.
actual items wrote in another forum "I voted for Clinton."
Consider the possibility that everything you think you know is wrong.
He is the head of the branch of governmend that heads the DOJ. Maybe PBS could make another animated video series explaining government powers to children -- and dolts.
"Fact Check = This doesn't comport with our world view..."
"and we're going to twist and torture it into something we can find fault with and argue against that instead."
@ Rabel
That's how bad I think Trump is.
The traditional notion of an independent DOJ was put to death a long time ago by Janet Reno on order of the Clinton Crime Syndicate, and their China-to-Clinton $$pipeline.
Rich/sockpuppet said...
Trump’s victimhood schtick is getting old — that’s what’s “rich”
No, YOU'RE Rich, no matter what fake ActBlue sockpuppet account you go by.
actual items: "@ Rabel
That's how bad I think Trump is."
LOL
No. That's how much you love the dems.
Let me guess: you are are a "lifelong republican" that golly, gee whiz, just cant support the republican party and have been "forced" to ride with the marxists!
You would think that after 30 years of these seminar callers, seminar posters, astro-turfed dems posing as "muh principles" "conservatives" they would come up with a brand new schtick.
But we know that leftists and lefties posing as non-lefties have but 1 play in their playbook.
So "actual items" appears to be the official replacement for LLR-democratical Chuck and joins the other fakers LLR-demicratical Rich and lonejustice.
Good times, good times...
@ Drago
https://actualitems.blogspot.com/2025/03/my-politics.html
Here’s a real collector’s item:
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1900913160044892426?s=19
Gee, a "War and Peace" length treatise on how a super duper "conserving conservatism most conservatively" "muh principles" dude is now fully aligned politically with the marxists!
LOL!
Thanks Chuc....er.... "actual items"! So very very "principled" and "believable"!
Hilarious!
Next up for "actual items": AOC and Tlaib are the true intellectual and policy heirs to Edmund Burke as well as "The "Conservative" Case for outlawing Conservatives from political office"...with a Forward by David French!
Just who do you think you are fooling?
You're reading him wrong.
@ Drago
I was fooling myself into thinking I could engage in good faith with you. Thank you for pointing that out to me.
actual items: "@ Drago
I was fooling myself into thinking I could engage in good faith with you. Thank you for pointing that out to me."
LOL
Sure tiger. Sure. Have you purchased an updated copy of The Communist Manifesto and/or anything written by Klaus Schwab?
Dont hold back now. Wow us with your hot takes! LLR-democratical Rich needs the support!
Aggie said:
I think the public needs to be led past the carnage - by that, I mean the evidence, as it is revealed - and made to look.
**********
Yes! Just like German civilians living near Auschwitz were made to go into the camp and see what they were convenienly "Ignoring".
I am not surprised in the least that the panicky dems are already launching even sadder and more pathetic demoralization ops on social media on top of their fake polls given how the tsunami of events/news is sweeping them away and they have to try and generate significant lie-based momentum somewhere to mollify their lunatic base.....which is also "actual item's" lunatic political home! Because "conservatism"!
The only thing more pathetic than corrupt regime Democrats are the corrupt regime Republicans.
Rich said…“ Trump’s victimhood schtick is getting old”
'Our opponents are Nazis' is what's getting old.
I sincerely don't understand how anyone can look at the unprecedented lawfare waged against Trump by the Biden administration and associated democrat officials and not see it for what it is. I know, the claim is "he's different". No, he is not. The difference is they thought they could get away with it, and they pretty much did. They didn't get rid of Trump, but their lawlessness resulted in no consequences to themselves. I am dismayed by the precedent they have set.
Part of me is concerned Trump is motivated by the desire for payback.
Another part of me wants to say to those who spent four years weaponizing the federal government against political opponents "ain't payback a b*tch?"
Rick67: "Another part of me wants to say to those who spent four years weaponizing the federal government against political opponents "ain't payback a b*tch?"'
10 years. 10 Full Years.
The New Soviet Democraticals and their LLR-democratical allies started all this in 2015.
How DARE Trump weaponize the Department of Justice!!
Only we can weaponize the Department of Justice! /the left
There is no evidence of a grand conspiracy to get Trump.
You're such a lying POS. Just because your head's been up your butt for the last 10 years doesn't mean the rest of us didn't see it with our own eyes.
"Part of me is concerned Trump is motivated by the desire for payback."
If we're into the FO phase of FAFO, I'm sure not going to lose any sleep over it. Nobody forced the Demos to FA in the first place, they willingly chose to do so.
"There is no evidence…"
That phrase should have been retired when they claimed that the Bidens raking in millions from foreign entities into 20+ shell corporations was "not evidence" of influence peddling.
The Democrats need to make a somewhat sanitized list of all the things Beiden, Hunter, and Garland did, have a 30 min show condemning it, and promise that the evil influence and actions of Beiden are repudiated and will never happen again. That is the only hope they have for a new start.
By dumping on Beiden, someone everybody hates, they can maintain some cover for the two Clinton’s, Obama, and current dem congresspeople.
They must lance the pustule.
Trump calls his opponents ‘scum’ and lawbreakers in bellicose speech at Justice Department
Fact check: True
For more than an hour, he delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence"
Fact check: Bullshit from Politico. AG Eric Holder described himself as President Obama's "wingman"
"It was, even by Trump’s standards, a stunning show of disregard for decades of tradition observed by his predecessors, who worried about politicizing or appearing to exert too much control over the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency.
None of them worried about "politicizing" the DoJ, because they all did it.
Perhaps they worried about doing it so loudly the press couldn't cover it up for them, but that's not the same thing
Trump, instead, called himself the 'chief law enforcement officer in our country'
And he is. As was Bill Clinton while he committed perjury
accused the DOJ’s prior leadership of doing 'everything within their power to prevent' him from becoming the president."
Fact check: true
Going down the fact check:
1: His legal troubles : This lacks evidence.
False. The entire "Trump Russia collusion" hoax was known by the FBI to be a hoax, and they pushed it anyway.
So the NYT "fact checkers" come out the gate spouting garbage
2: The 2020 election: False
NYT is wrong here. Dem Governors illegally unilaterally changed election law in multiple States that flipped from Trump to Biden
That's "rigging" under any reasonable use of the term
3: Biden and classified documents: False
No, true. Biden did commit actual classified handling felonies, and the excuse for not prosecuting his was because he was too demented to stand trial
4: The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol : This needs context
No, it doesn't, go fuck yourselves
5: Parents, anti-abortion activists and Catholics: This needs context
Again, no it does. The only "threats" the parents were making was the threat to expose corrupt Democrats
"The protesters were not put on trial for praying, as Mr. Trump claimed, but for conspiring against civil rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act"
Bullshit. They were prosecuted for praying
You don't have a civil right to "not be made to feel bad"
6: Immigration and crime: This needs context
No, it doesn't. Trump promised to enforce the law, and did so, and the illegal invasion ended
7: “Under the Biden regime, crime went up": This lacks evidence
No it doesn't, you pathetic fucking hacks
8: “They didn’t even know why. They imported illegal alien murderers, drug dealers, child predators, from all over the world to come into our country.”
False. The Biden administration did not purposely allow criminals into the country,
The fuck they didn't
It's a crime to come into the US illegally. The Biden Admin encouraged this, and paid NGOs to encourage these criminals to come here
The idea that the pool of criminals violating US immigration law would not be "enhanced" for other criminals is pure stupidity
9: Egg prices: This needs context
Biden Admin followed policies that drove up egg prices. Trump didn't
Trump 9, NYT 0
"a stunning show of disregard for decades of tradition observed by his predecessors, who worried about politicizing or appearing to exert too much control over the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency. "
Can't go back farther than 1963 when the agency was run by the President's brother. This is of course nonsense on stilts and totally contrary to constitutional order. The Department of Justice is not only an executive department but the one tasked with the executive's most fundamental task - "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" as stated explicitly in the Constitution. It is WHY it is called the executive branch for crying out loud.
It was assumed forever that the Attorney General (head of the Department) would be the President's right-hand man and close confidante, until the "tradition" started of demonizing Republican Presidents who didn't keep the executive branch independent of the executive. Democrat Presidents of course got a free pass, like Obama and his "wingman" Holder.
Fake newsing at it's best.
FYI, I can't delete my duplicative comment. Tried several times.
Wingman Holder wasn't Clinton's only contol of the DOJ. His personal lawyer, Elena Kagan, was deeply involved in working with Clinton and Holder on implementing hate crime protocols the DOJ imposed on states. The three worked together long hours to entirely transform the independence and mission of the agency. I have the papers and audiotapes to prove it. I keep everything in hard copy. Good luck finding it anywhere else now.
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