Electoral politics, circa 1890

Click here for Heather Cox Richardson's diary for February 21, 2026, about jockeying for electoral advantage as new states were admitted to the Union in the late 1890s, with tariffs and presidential bribes thrown in.

Pro-Billionaire March!

"On February 7, 2026, a pro-billionaire march took place in San Francisco, attracting a small crowd of about three dozen participants. The event was organized by Derik Kauffman, who aimed to support California's billionaires amid growing criticism and proposed taxation measures."

Here's a response by Bernie Sanders: 

 

Bad to worse.

Click here for Heather Cox Richardson's Substack entry for February 13. 

Here's what Democrats want in the way of ICE reforms:

The Democrats want federal agents to enter private homes only with a judicial warrant (as was policy until the administration produced a secret memo saying that DHS officials themselves could sign off on raids, a decision that runs afoul of legal interpretations of the Fourth Amendment). They want agents to stop wearing masks and to have their names, agencies, and unique ID numbers visible on their uniforms, as law enforcement officers do. They want an end to racial profiling—that is, agents detaining individuals on the basis of their skin color, place of employment, or language—and to raids of so-called sensitive sites: medical facilities, schools, childcare facilities, churches, polling places, and courts.

They want agents to be required to have a reasonable policy for use of force and to be removed during an investigation if they violate it. They want federal agents to coordinate with local and state governments and for those governments to have jurisdiction over federal agents who break the law. They want DHS detention facilities to have the same standards as any detention facility and for detainees to have access to their lawyers. They want states to be able to sue if those conditions are not met, and they want Congress members to have unscheduled access to the centers to oversee them.

They want body cameras to be used for accountability but prohibited for gathering and storing information about protesters. And they want federal agents to have standardized uniforms like those of regular law enforcement, not paramilitaries.  

Pretty basic, right? I don't see any problem with any of that; it's not a wingnut lefty bunch of unrealistic demands. And yet none of it is going to get passed.

 Then there's the farce about El Paso airspace. The FAA abruptly closed El Paso airspace to all civilian air traffic below 18,000 feet, including medical helicopters, for ten days. The Defense Department immediately lied and said it was because of drones flown by drug cartels (although such flights are common). It turned out DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the use of a powerful military antidrone laser to shoot down the offending aircraft -- which turned out to be party balloons. The airspace closure was then abruptly rescinded. 

 Here's an interesting tidbit: amilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News reported this week that documents from DHS itself show that fewer than 14% of the nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested in Trump’s first year had either convictions or charges for violent crimes, with fewer than 2% either charged with or convicted of homicide or sexual assault. 

 "The worst of the worst"? Yeah, right. 

DHS is buying or leasing warehouses across the country for detention space. "Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) made an unannounced oversight visit to the ICE field facility in Baltimore, Maryland, yesterday. He saw “60 men packed into a room shoulder-to-shoulder, 24-hours-a-day, with a single toilet in the room and no shower facilities. They sleep like sardines with aluminum foil blankets.” Mike Hixenbaugh at NBC News today narrated the life of a Russian family in the U.S. seeking asylum. For four months, they have been incarcerated at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where there is little medical care and the food is often spoiled with mold or worms."

Delightful. This is your government, America.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is carrying on an open affair with Trump buddy Corey Lewandowski. They are running the department together --  "using DHS for their own aggrandizement with an eye to elevating Noem to the presidency." They demanded a luxury 737 Max jet, with a private cabin in the back, for their travel; DHS is leasing the $70 million plane but is in the process of buying it. (Apparently after a recent flight that involved a change of planes, Noem's blanket was left on the first plane; she and Lewandowski fired the pilot on the spot for this oversight, only to rehire him when they couldn't immediately find a pilot to fly them on the return flight.)

Trump is taking election matters into his own hands, tweeting as follows:  

“The Democrats refuse to vote for Voter I.D., or Citizenship. The reason is very simple—They want to continue to cheat in Elections. This was not what our Founders desired. I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future. There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not! Also, the People of our Country are insisting on Citizenship, and No Mail-In Ballots, with exceptions for Military, Disability, Illness, or Travel. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”.

Trouble for the 2026 midterms? You think? 

Good god -- three more years? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The tragic end of CBS News" - Robert Reich

Click here for Robert Reich's Substack entry of February 12, 2026, entitled "The tragic end of CBS News," subtitled "Another trusted source of information bites the dust under Trump." It starts:

Producer Alicia Hastey departed CBS News Wednesday, saying the kind of work she came to do was “increasingly becoming impossible,” as stories were now evaluated “not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.” 

Whose ideological expectations was Hastey referring to? Would it be impertinent for me to suggest it’s the sociopath in the Oval Office?

Reich goes on to list several offenses that have already been committed by CBS News under recently appointed editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and her lightweight anchor, Tony Dokoupil, and references CBS's ties to Trump crony Larry Ellison and his son, David. Reich says:

Weiss doesn’t exactly report to Donald Trump, of course. Trump runs CBS News the way he runs Venezuela — with a widely-understood threat that he’ll wreak havoc if it doesn’t do what he wants.

 Reich concludes:

I’m old enough to remember when CBS News would never have surrendered to a demagogic president. But that was when CBS News — the home of Edward R. Murrow (who also revealed to America the danger of Joe McCarthy) and Walter Cronkite — was independent of the rest of CBS. And when the top management of CBS felt they had responsibilities to the American public that transcended making money for CBS’s investors.

America can survive without a “60 Minutes” it can trust, just as we can survive without trustworthy editorial pages of the Washington Post — which Jeff Bezos has censored, and whose newsroom he just gutted.

But at some point, as Trump continues to repress criticism of him and his regime, American democracy is compromised beyond repair.

 

 

Laundry list - Trump's offenses

This is copied from a post on Twitter from "Grandpa Snarky":

I owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology. I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency and am still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair, President Trump wasn’t that bad, other than when: 

He incited an insurrection against the government Mismanaged a pandemic that killed nearly half a million Americans 

Separated children from their families, and lost those children in the bureaucracy 

Tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church 

Tried to block all Muslims from entering the country

Got impeached, got impeached again 

Had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history 

Pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden 

Fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia 

Bragged about firing the FBI director on TV 

Took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community 

Diverted military funding to build his wall 

Caused the longest government shutdown in US history 

Called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate" 

Lied 30,000 times 

Banned transgender people from serving in the military 

Ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions 

Vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers 

Refused to release his tax returns 

Increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion 

Had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history 

Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers 

Coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist 

Refused to concede the 2020 election 

Hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House 

Walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl 

Called neo-Nazis “very fine people” 

Suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID 

Abandoned our allies, the Kurds, to Turkey 

Pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans 

Incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic 

Withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords 

Withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal 

Withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership, which was designed to block China’s advances 

Insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter 

Pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op 

Failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies 

Called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries 

Called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation" 

Claimed that he single-handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere 

Forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader 

Believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 

Berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe 

Threatened military action against Greenland 

Colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges 

Repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people" 

Claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases 

Violated the emoluments clause 

Told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public 

Called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “pussy” for following the Constitution 

Nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet 

Nominated a corrupt head of the EPA 

Nominated a corrupt head of HHS 

Nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department 

Nominated a corrupt head of the USDA 

Praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies 

Refused to allow the presidential transition to begin 

Insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death 

Spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president 

Falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote 

Falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year 

Considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions 

Mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID 

Locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones 

Used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus" 

Hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses, including his campaign manager and national security adviser 

Pardoned several of his shady associates 

Gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his batshit-crazy conspiracy theories 

Got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!) 

Had a Secretary of State who called him a moron 

Forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history 

Botched the COVID vaccine rollout 

Tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him 

Charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties 

Constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate 

Claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear 

Called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas" 

Used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise 

Opened up millions of acres of pristine federal lands to development and drilling 

Got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers 

Claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US 

Ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings 

Blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining 

Redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle 

Got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters" 

Threatened to go after social media companies, in clear violation of the Constitution 

Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico; threw paper towels and toilet paper at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them 

Pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes 

Thought that the Virgin islands had a President 

Drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane 

Allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing 

Rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos 

Pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID 

Rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers 

Held blatant campaign rallies at the White House 

Tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man 

Refused to attend his successors’ inauguration 

Nominated the worst Education Secretary in history 

Threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted 

Attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci 

Promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t) 

Allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues 

Struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble 

Called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ" 

Threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders 

Went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic 

Claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts" 

Seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution 

Demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director 

Praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles 

Completely gutted the Voice of America 

Placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service 

Claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower 

Suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country 

Suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered, with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public 

Overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported 

Reduced the number of refugees the US accepts 

Insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames 

Gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address 

Named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties 

Eliminated the White House office of pandemic response 

Used soldiers as campaign props 

Fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him 

Demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade 

Hired a ton of white nationalists 

Politicized the civil service 

Did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government 

Falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts 

Claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won 

Insulted reporters of color and women reporters and women reporters of color 

Suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs 

Attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him 

Summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election 

Spent countless hours every day watching Fox News 

Refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas 

Hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer 

Tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him 

Acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney 

Attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault 

Held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present 

Didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin, so that the US had to find out via Russian media 

Stopped holding press briefings for months at a time 

"Ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power 

Led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform 

Claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers 

Tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course 

Suggested that the government nuke hurricanes 

Suggested that wind turbines cause cancer 

Said that he had a special aptitude for science 

Fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure 

Blurted out classified information to Russian officials 

Tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida 

Fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban 

Hired Stephen Miller 

Openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them 

Interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel 

Abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war 

Tried to get Russia back into the G7 

Held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden 

Seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive 

Lost 60 election fraud cases in court, including before judges he had nominated 

Falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t 

Shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies 

Still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan 

Still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks" 

Forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID 

Told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by" 

F***ed up the Census 

Withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic 

Did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings" 

Allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act 

Seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican 

Stood before CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win 

Constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president, which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor, whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump 

Claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War, even though he died 16 years before it happened 

Said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake 

Claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him 

Claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President 

Created a commission to whitewash American history 

Retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain 

Claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun, even though there was an armed security guard there 

Hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims 

Had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons, even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others 

Billed the Secret Service for higher-than-market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties 

Apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House 

Stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians 

Falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police 

Said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about 

Gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic 

Tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax 

Said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states 

Deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented 

Claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln 

Touted a “super-duper” secret “hypersonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all 

Retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile 

Forced through security clearances for his family 

Suggested that police officers should rough up suspects 

Suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs 

Tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender 

Suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher 

Nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy 

Retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “F**k tha Police” at a campaign event 

Hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags 

Accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address 

Claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia 

Mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasely Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault 

For 15 years was best friend of the biggest sexual predictor of young girls 

Obsessed over low-flow toilets 

Ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release 

Called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek) 

Hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech 

Took advice from the MyPillow guy 

Claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists 

Said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading political opponent 

Never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign 

Falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent 

Announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria, which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest 

Insulted the leaders of Canada, France, Britain, Germany, and Sweden

Falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues 

Blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually 

Continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders 

Said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked 

Left a NATO summit early in a huff 

Stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that 

Called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary 

Refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise

And a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment, and that was just his FIRST term. Do I need to list what's happened since then?????? 

Whoever wrote this deserves credit, but I don't know who it is.

ICE will "surround the polls" in the November mid-terms

 Here's the opening of an article at Democracy Docket, February 4:

Steve Bannon says ICE will ‘surround the polls’ as Trump doubles down on taking over elections

Former senior advisor to President Donald Trump Steve Bannon said Tuesday that the federal government is planning to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to patrol polling stations during this year’s midterm elections.

“We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon, still a figure of influence in the administration, said on Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, addressing Democrats. “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”

The comments come amid rising concerns that Trump is plotting to interfere in this year’s midterms.

 Unfortunately, the rest is behind Democracy Docket's paywall.

 

 

Krugman on the cowardice of SCOTUS

Click here for Paul Krugman's Substack entry for February 4, 2026, entitled "Profiles in Cowardice, Tariff Edition, subtitled "The Supreme Court's silence says volumes."

The Constitution is quite explicit in saying that Congress alone has the right to levy tariffs. Trump is end-running Congress by claiming he has the right to act in a "national emergency." There is of course no emergency; it's another Trump lie. But that's the defense he's putting up in a case argued in the Supreme Court in early November. We're still waiting for a decision.

 Krugman explains why SCOTUS is dragging its feet on coming to a decision. Trump has no case; it's open and shut. So if they decide in his favor, they are announcing to the world that they are not a court of justice, but are simply partisan hacks in Trump's pocket. But if they make what everyone knows to be the right decision and go against Trump, it will be a humiliating blow for him, and they will be ostracized from the social milieu they live in, where they are comfortably surrounded by right-wing billionaires and Republican luminaries. Krugman says:

They share in the privilege and glitter of that scene even if they aren’t outright corrupt — even if they aren’t all like Clarence Thomas, who, as ProPublica revealed, has taken multiple lavish vacations paid for by billionaire Harlan Crow. 

In fact, with death threats skyrocketing against people who oppose Trump, perhaps judges, SCOTUS among them, fear actual physical danger if they come to a decision that would certainly damage Trump. 

Jeff Bezos's film "Melania" is a huge bribe.

Click here for Robert Reich's Substack entry for February 2, 2026, entitled: "Melania: The Movie. The Bribe. The Shame," subtitled "Bezos's illegal payoff."

 He starts: 

I haven’t seen it. I hope you don’t, either.

This, from one of the kinder reviews:

“Across some 104 minutes, the first lady delivers these blatantly scripted and meaningless narrations with all the conviction of someone who just woke up from a two-hour nap and can’t remember what day it is.”

Reich states:

My purpose today is less to highlight this inane excuse for a film than to talk about its real excuse — allowing Jeff Bezos to give a big fat bribe to the president of the United States. 

He goes on to state some of Bezos's business ventures that are dependent on Trump's goodwill -- for example,  "Bezos’s Amazon Web Services has a $1 billion agreement with the General Services Administration for cloud services, which presumably Bezos would like renewed."

He says he hopes American business leaders who knuckled under to Trump will be "condemned to the hellfire they deserve for helping destroy American democracy." In this category he lists Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Larry and David Ellison, Shari Redstone and the board of Paramount; Bob Iger, CEO of Disney; Debra O'Connell, president of ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks; Elon Musk; Tim Cook of Apple, crypto magnates Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss; oil tycoon Harold Hamm; Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman -- but especially Jeff Bezos: "Jeff Bezos, with his $75 million bribe of Trump, will deserve a special place in the innermost ring of hell."

The $40 million he paid Melania Trump’s production company is at least $35 million more than the cost of typical high-end documentaries. (By way of comparison, Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films produced “RBG,” a documentary about the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for around $1 million.)

Melania Trump pocketed more than 70 percent of that $40 million — or more than $28 million — the Journal reported.

The additional $35 million Bezos shelled out for marketing “Melania” is 10 times what other high-profile documentaries spend on marketing. The promotional budget for “RBG” was about $3 million. (To be sure, Melania Trump is no Ruth Bader Ginsburg, so I suppose you might argue that Melania needed a larger promo budget. But this much larger?)

He concludes by saying "Melania" was never a financial investment:

Of course it’s an outright bribe.

If America still had a Department of Justice, Bezos would be indicted for bribery of a public official pursuant to 18 U.S. Code § 201, which criminalizes offering or giving anything of value to a public official with the intent to influence their official actions. Penalty: imprisonment for up to 15 years.

(Also note: The U.S. Constitution lists taking a bribe as an impeachable offense for a president.)

There’s a statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of such bribes: Prosecution must begin within five years of the deed.

So, my friends, if America gets a true Justice Department starting in January of 2029, Bezos’s inferno may become a reality.

 

State terror in America

Click here for an excellent op-ed in The New York Times by M. Gessen, entitled "State Terror has Arrived." Gessen begins:

After the past three weeks of brutality in Minneapolis, it should no longer be possible to say that the Trump administration seeks merely to govern this nation. It seeks to reduce us all to a state of constant fear — a fear of violence from which some people may at a given moment be spared, but from which no one will ever be truly safe. That is our new national reality. State terror has arrived. 

He compares what is going on in America today to state terror in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, and finishes:

The toolbox isn’t particularly varied. President Trump is using all the instruments: the reported quotas for ICE arrests; the paramilitary force made up of thugs drunk on their own brutality; the spectacle of random violence, particularly in city streets; the postmortem vilification of the victims. It’s only natural that our brains struggle to find logic in what we are seeing. There is a logic, and this logic has a name. It’s called state terror. 

President Obama on the shooting of Alex Pretti

Statement by President Obama and Mrs. Obama:

JANUARY 25, 2026

"The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety.

That's not what we're seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we're seeing the opposite.

For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city. These unprecedented tactics—which even the former top lawyer of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration has characterized as embarrassing, lawless and cruel—have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens. And yet rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they've deployed, the President and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanations for the shootings of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good that aren't informed by any serious investigation—and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence.

This has to stop. I would hope that after this most recent tragedy, administration officials will reconsider their approach, and start finding ways to work constructively with Governor Walz and Mayor Frey as well as state and local police to avert more chaos and achieve legitimate law enforcement goals.

In the meantime, every American should support and draw inspiration from the wave of peaceful protests in Minneapolis and other parts of the country. They are a timely reminder that ultimately it's up to each of us as citizens to speak out against injustice, protect our basic freedoms, and hold our government accountable."

 Here's an entry on Democracy Docket by stalwart Democratic lawyer Marc Elias:

January 24, 2026

Only a day before Donald Trump stood on a global stage and declared that he was prosecuting political enemies, Prime Minister Mark Carney issued an important warning: “We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.”  In his observation, Carney touched on America’s Achilles’ heel and the challenge for the pro-democracy movement. Though the United States is a young country, we celebrate it as the world’s oldest democracy. Though Jim Crow ended only a generation ago, we recite how this country guarantees liberty and justice for all.  The United States’ identity is entangled in nostalgia. We tell ourselves that the Statue of Liberty’s torch guided immigrants towards a beacon of hope. Our presidents paved the path to peace in two world wars. We are not only a world power, but the global light of justice and liberty.  There is a reason why Donald Trump’s slogan to Make America Great Again resonated with the masses, even though it excluded so many. Like many families, mine came to America to flee persecution. Under the Russian czars, they lived in the Pale of Settlement — the only area in the empire where Jews were allowed to legally reside. Life in the Pale was difficult. Jewish families were subject to pogroms, where they would be beaten, killed and expelled from their villages.   America wasn’t the only safe haven, but it was certainly a safe haven for many — including my family. As Holocaust survivor Benjamin Meed was told when his boat docked at New York Harbor after the long journey from Warsaw, “Everything is open to you. What you do is up to you.”  That America doesn’t exist anymore. And we cannot afford to be nostalgic for it. Yet, we still are.  During his testimony on Thursday, former Special Counsel Jack Smith warned: “If we do not hold the most powerful people in our society to the same standards, the rule of law, it can be catastrophic. It can endanger our election process, it can endanger election workers and ultimately, our democracy.”  While I agree with the threat posed by Trump, I worry about Smith’s use of the word “if.” We do not hold the most powerful people in our society to the same standards. The rule of law is not applied fairly or to all.   Our election process is already endangered. Election officials are regularly doxed and attacked by Trump and his supporters. Our democracy is already on life support. It is already catastrophic.   Worse still, it’s not coming back. Those who are looking in the rearview mirror and expecting the rule of law to crawl back to us are fooling themselves. Those who expect the old norms and institutions to protect us are endangering our democracy. For over a year now, Trump has targeted and threatened his political opponents. His administration has ignored court orders. His party is actively trying to manipulate and rig the next election for his political party.   The paradox of the current moment is that while none of this is normal, it is also not extraordinary. It is the country in which we live, and we are not going back to a previous era. Those who sit around and insist things will revert after Trump is gone have learned nothing from the history of why many of our families once fled to this country.   It’s heartbreaking that this is what the United States has come to. But we are doing ourselves a disservice by thinking otherwise.   From what I witnessed at Davos, our NATO allies have come to terms with the new world order. The United States is no longer a steady ally and a trusted global power — but an unstable volcano ready to erupt. We cannot be looked to for democracy, nor can we be the torchbearers for peace. They should be wary of us, and they should be prepared for uncertainty.  Just as nostalgia is not a strategy for them, it cannot be one for those of us who care about democracy and free and fair elections.   There are no longer huddled masses at the Statue of Liberty. Instead, we see ICE agents terrorizing our cities.   Our government no longer believes that its power comes from the consent of the governed. Instead, Trump believes power comes from threats and force.   Most importantly, we no longer have a country in which we have one system of justice for all, and no one is above the law.   However, if we allow ourselves to let go of nostalgia and recognize our current reality, we can, as Carney said, “build something better, stronger, more just.”

Courageous Carney vs. Demented Donald

Click here for Paul Krugman's Substack entry for January 22. It's a comparison of Mark Carney's and Donald Trump's statements at the Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Carney's speech at Davos - met with wide acclaim

Trump despises weakness, and treats those who roll over for him with contempt. Here is Mark Carney's courageous statement of Canada's position:

Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry. That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must. This aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable — the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself.

And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety. It won’t. So, what are our options?

In 1978, the Czech dissident Václav Havel wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless. In it, he asked a simple question: how did the communist system sustain itself?

His answer began with a green grocer. Every morning, this shopkeeper places a sign in his window: “Workers of the world, unite!” He does not believe it. No one believes it. But he places the sign anyway — to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along. And because every shopkeeper on every street does the same, the system persists.

Not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false.

Havel called this “living within a lie.” The system’s power comes not from its truth but from everyone’s willingness to perform as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same source: when even one person stops performing — when the greengrocer removes his sign — the illusion begins to crack.

It is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.

For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, praised its principles, and benefited from its predictability. We could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.

We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim

This fiction was useful, and American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.

So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

This bargain no longer works.

Let me be direct: we are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy, and geopolitics laid bare the risks of extreme global integration.

More recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.

You cannot “live within the lie” of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.

The multilateral institutions on which middle powers relied— the WTO, the UN, the COP—the architecture of collective problem solving — are greatly diminished.

As a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions. They must develop greater strategic autonomy: in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance, and supply chains.

This impulse is understandable. A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself, or defend itself has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.

But let us be clear-eyed about where this leads. A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile, and less sustainable.

And there is another truth: If great powers abandon even the pretence of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from ‘transactionalism’ become harder to replicate. Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.

Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty. Buy insurance. Increase options. This rebuilds sovereignty — sovereignty which was once grounded in rules—but which will be increasingly anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.

This classic risk management comes at a price.

But that cost of strategic autonomy, of sovereignty, can also be shared. Collective investments in resilience are cheaper than everyone building their own fortress.

Shared standards reduce fragmentation. Complementarities are positive sum.

The question for middle powers, like Canada, is not whether to adapt to this new reality. We must. The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls — or whether we can do something more ambitious.

Canada was amongst the first to hear the wake-up call, leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture.

Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumption that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security is no longer valid.

Our new approach rests on what Alexander Stubb has termed ‘values-based realism’ — or, to put it another way, we aim to be principled and pragmatic.

Principled in our commitment to fundamental values: sovereignty and territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter, respect for human rights.

Pragmatic in recognising that progress is often incremental, that interests diverge, that not every partner shares our values. We are engaging broadly, strategically, with open eyes. We actively take on the world as it is, not wait for the world as we wish it to be.

Canada is calibrating our relationships, so their depth reflects our values. We are prioritising broad engagement to maximise our influence, given the fluidity of the world, the risks that this poses, and the stakes for what comes next.

We are no longer relying on just the strength of our values, but also on the value of our strength.

We are building that strength at home.

Since my government took office, we have cut taxes on incomes, capital gains and business investment, we have removed all federal barriers to interprovincial trade, and we are fast-tracking a trillion dollars of investment in energy, AI, critical minerals, new trade corridors, and beyond.

We are doubling our defence spending by 2030 and are doing so in ways that builds our domestic industries.

We are rapidly diversifying abroad. We have agreed a comprehensive strategic partnership with the European Union, including joining SAFE, Europe’s defence procurement arrangements.

We have signed twelve other trade and security deals on four continents in the last six months. In the past few days, we have concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar. We are negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines, Mercosur.

To help solve global problems, we are pursuing variable geometry— different coalitions for different issues, based on values and interests.

On Ukraine, we are a core member of the Coalition of the Willing and one of the largest per-capita contributors to its defence and security. On Arctic sovereignty, we stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future. Our commitment to Article 5 is unwavering.

We are working with our NATO allies (including the Nordic Baltic 8) to further secure the alliance’s northern and western flanks, including through unprecedented investments in over-the-horizon radar, submarines, aircraft, and boots on the ground.

On plurilateral trade, we are championing efforts to build a bridge between the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union, creating a new trading block of 1.5 billion people. On critical minerals, we are forming buyer’s clubs anchored in the G7 so that the world can diversify away from concentrated supply. On AI, we are cooperating with like-minded democracies to ensure we will not ultimately be forced to choose between hegemons and hyperscalers.

This is not naive multilateralism. Nor is it relying on diminished institutions. It is building the coalitions that work, issue by issue, with partners who share enough common ground to act together. In some cases, this will be the vast majority of nations.

And it is creating a dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities.Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.

Great powers can afford to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness.

We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.

In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: to compete with each other for favour or to combine to create a third path with impact.

We should not allow the rise of hard power to blind us to the fact that the power of legitimacy, integrity, and rules will remain strong — if we choose to wield it together. Which brings me back to Havel. What would it mean for middle powers to “live in truth”?

It means naming reality. Stop invoking the “rules-based international order” as though it still functions as advertised. Call the system what it is: a period where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion.

It means acting consistently. Apply the same standards to allies and rivals.

When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window. It means building what we claim to believe in. Rather than waiting for the hegemon to restore an order it is dismantling, create institutions and agreements that function as described.

And it means reducing the leverage that enables coercion. Building a strong domestic economy should always be every government’s priority. Diversification internationally is not just economic prudence; it is the material foundation for honest foreign policy. Countries earn the right to principled stands by reducing their vulnerability to retaliation.

Canada has what the world wants. We are an energy superpower. We hold vast reserves of critical minerals. We have the most educated population in the world. Our pension funds are amongst the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors. We have capital, talent, and a government with the immense fiscal capacity to act decisively.

And we have the values to which many others aspire.

Canada is a pluralistic society that works. Our public square is loud, diverse, and free. Canadians remain committed to sustainability. We are a stable, reliable partner—in a world that is anything but—a partner that builds and values relationships for the long term.

Canada has something else: a recognition of what is happening and a determination to act accordingly. We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is. We are taking the sign out of the window.

The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just.

This is the task of the middle powers, who have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from a world of genuine cooperation.

The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home, and to act together.

That is Canada’s path. We choose it openly and confidently.

And it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us.