Summary
Donald Trump fired FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the agency’s only Democrats, prompting accusations of illegal action.
Both cited Supreme Court precedent protecting FTC commissioners from dismissal without cause. Bedoya warned Trump wants the FTC to serve corporate interests, while Slaughter said the administration fears accountability.
The 1935 Supreme Court ruling bars presidents from removing FTC commissioners arbitrarily.
Critics say the move undermines regulatory independence and eliminates opposition voices that could challenge Trump’s policies favoring major corporations.
Most blatantly and openly venal miserable and horrible attempt at an “administration” in the last 60yrs… Likely in US history.
Helluva legacy for you Chump! Good one!
🙄 🙄 🖕 🖕 🖕
You went from 60 years to ever in US history lol.
All that he’s missing is a war America is involved in, not related to the trade tariffs. We’ll find out which country he wants to go to war with soon.
Here in America we have great wars, the best wars, possibly ever. We do war so well we fight on both sides, and we always win. We’re so good at war, we keep it civil. The most civil of any war, possibly ever.
Canada, Greenland or Panama. He’s still deciding. Give him time it’s been a busy two months!
I wouldn’t be surprised if it were Central America, first. They already lack strong governments and global positioning. Especially with the cartels actively holding back progress.
Yeah, Panama also side steps the NATO problem.
That is one of my more annoying thoughts. In his child-like rampaging through the most powerful office in the world, he might accidentally do something good like wipe out the cartels or give support to a country that really needs it on the global scale. The cost will be extremely high. Like through the twisted Nazi experiments, we ended up learning a ton about mental health and brain responses that… Well, it’s probably the only way to discover some of those things. But the methodology is unthinkable.
He may have some success in beating the cartels back, somewhat. But overall he’s not going to support any country down there, he’s going to send the military to bomb the fuck out of what little infrastructure they have, cause large amounts of collateral damage and death, and seize whatever is of value. We’ve already seen this playbook in the middle east.
Playing this forward in my head -
The U.S. attacks Panama, who probably have some way of sabotaging or permanently disabling the locks, which are already struggling to keep up with modern shipping demands, despite the recent expansion. Under the weight of either the U.S. attack or the inoperability of the locks and resulting loss of income, the Panamanian government falters, and the only groups with money and a need for land with loose or weak laws is the cartels. The resulting instability may or may not spread to other countries, but the displaced people/refugees will directly or indirectly exacerbate immigration to the U.S. Within 15 years Arctic Sea ice has decreased to a point that the Arctic will be navigable in the summer. Within 50, during the winter, as well. If not sooner, if the U.S.’ attempts to roll back climate policies are successful.
All in all, a losing proposition in the short and long term. Trump’s kind of “deal.”
I didn’t really do a good job in my comment. I meant fostering support by others, just like Ukraine. Against his whatever crazy agenda. But I totally agree.
He already did.
The fact that approval ratings for Trump are still as high as they are while the approval for the only other far, far, far lesser evil you can vote, the Democrats, is sinking, does not give me any hope whatsoever for the US, were I naive enough to believe that the next elections that matter could come soon enough or that they would still remain legitimate. The US no longer has a trace of Democracy except for the mask it wears, it is at the same or even lower level than Russia’s.
I think it’s important to put it in context: the Democrats are hemorrhaging support from their base who thinks they should be doing more to resist this administration. That does not mean they are losing support in favor of Republicans.
Meanwhile Trump is only losing a tiny amount of support because his base is a cult of personality that worships him. They won’t turn against him until he’s hurting them so directly that they can’t rationalize it as somehow being Obama’s fault. But many of them are delusional enough that they will never abandon their fealty so matter how much he harms them.
Democrats hemorrhaging support despite that support not being in favor of Republicans is what already cost them the elections, and they are the sort to more easily fall prey to propaganda meant to dissuade them from participating.