The accountability for Venezuelan boat attack: symptom of a larger problem

 Who can be held accountable for the two-tap Venezuelan drug boat hit? This is a symptom of a larger problem: the pattern of the Trump administration's strategy to avoid accountability for any unpopular or controversial act. The buck no longer stops at the Oval Office desk. "The Buck Stops Here" Desk sign | Harry S. Truman

Trump is saved from legal action by the Supreme Court granting him immunity: Those below him are accountable and do not have immunity, but it is not as simple as we are learning to pin anything on them, as well. Probably the only entity with the power to expose responsibility is Congress, which is now engaged in doing so.: Trump's usual pattern of response when he is challenged for his actions is to deflect attention by claiming the protesters are against something they are not. He also reacts by throwing his own appointees "under the bus", letting them to take the fall and blame.

What particularly frustrates holding Trump legally responsible for an act is that the Supreme Court puts Trump above the law and he would never be held accountable within the justice system or outside of it for various reasons. there is an excellent discussion of this in a CNN analysis: Trump is immune from accountability for boat strikes. What about everyone under him? | CNN Politics

Here is how this Venezuelan boat controversy, side-stepping accountability, could play out based on Trumpian response to being blamed for other unpopular actions that get blowback.. I see this one as typical of Trumpian strategy: pick an issue that most support...stop narco and human trafficking...and get rid of migrants who committed crimes in our country. and claim the libs are supporting all of those sins. Narco and human trafficking, and migrants with serious criminal records are bad guys, and these are are motherhood and apple pie kinds of a consensus held by both the left and the right. Then, when there is an objection to the methods or legality, Trump will claim the libs are supporting human trafficking and drug runners and narco trafficking and want to cripple the military.

There will be many in MAGA who will nod their heads and say "amen" without serious consideration of the implications, political fallout, or the methods. They will just pass it off as "you hate Trump" or ignore the methods used to carry out goals, which is the essence of the criticism. Where Trump et al go off the rails is the methods they use that far exceed what they promised to do. Most migrants deported by ICE and grabbed without a warrant, for example, have no criminal record, and appear to be treated cruelly and brutally, violating human and civil rights and threatening family separation to force compliance. Per the CATO ,Institute, 73% of those detained by ICE have no criminal record, and only 5% have a record of violent crimes. Politically, polls are showing the majority of voters are showing disdain for the methods, if not the goal. Trump may have underestimated the blowback to his methods, if not the goals. Most Immigrants Support Border Enforcement, but Not Mass Deportations, Poll Finds - The New York Times

MAGA itself has been spooked to support mass deportations by such claims that yearly 4000 are killed by undocumented migrants. However, as Reuters reported, there are few statistics available but there are statistics on the commission of crime in general that show that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the general population.  Texas does keep such statistics and they also agree that migrants commit crimes less than do the citizen population. Fact Check: No evidence 4,000 people are killed yearly by undocumented immigrants | Reuters

5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convict.ons | Cato at Liberty Blog

List of particulars: How Trump has consolidated his dictatorial powers in eleven months

List or particulars: How Trump has consolidated his dictatorial, king-like powers in eleven months. In the Declaration of Independence, the colonists listed their objection to the king acting like a tyrant. Here is my list. This has been a firehose of many different steps he has taken to destroy the fundamental foundations of our Constitutional democracy...so much so, those of us supporting democracy are so involved in the outrage du jour, we lose track of the total picture and get caught up in the news story of the day. 

Trump is in the process of building his own paramilitary force. He is invoking wartime powers to deport people without due process, even suggesting that American citizens may be sent to foreign prisons. He has deployed National Guard troops to cities over the objections of local officials. That one is still being contested in the Courts, though lower courts have generally ruled against the Trump position. Trump has signaled that he is open to invoking the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that allows the president to deploy the military in the United States. And he has claimed, without legal justification, that he has the right to order the military to summarily kill people suspected of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America.  This one is the hot one on the burner now.

The  firing of the JAGs is just one element of a broader purge of the military, which started at the beginning of Trump’s second term in February, five former defense secretaries, including James Mattis,

In fact, we were warned that this and other purges would happen in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. 2025 was a blueprint for two purposes: rule by white Christian nationalists and enable it by making the president a virtual dictator by replacing executive branch civil servants with political appointees pledged to the cause.  So far, 2025 is on track. The telltale phrase was the destruction of DEI throughout, and the proponents were devotees of a unitary form of government with all power in the executive branch. The chief author of 2025 was Russell Vought, whom Trump appointed as Director of Management and Budget ( and personnel) with the power to carry out the purges. The 2025 plan was to do away with supervisory civil service positions and make the positions political. That was not done, and instead, positions and whole agencies were eliminated in addition to purges. All during 2025, the Heritage Foundation was vetting for ideological purity the potential appointees to replace civil servants. All has not gone as planned since the incompetence of replacements has resulted in amateurish mistakes that have backfired on the administration itself. https://thehill.com/opinion/5059017-trump-cabinet-nominees-unqualified

Trump views himself as the final arbiter of the legality of anything he does. An executive order he signed in February says, “The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties. No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law.” For greater detail, go to MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: How Trump is destroying the rule of law, replacing it with the rule of Trump

Trump is suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission should revoke the licenses of television broadcasters that give him too much “bad publicity” and is suing major newspapers and networks.  The 6-3Trump Supreme Court is expected to rule that all independent agencies will no longer be independent and will be comprised of the partisans of the president.  That will affect the FCC, as well as the FDA and FTC.

Trump has pressured the Department of Justice to target, indict, and destroy those he considers to be his political enemiesTrump has pressured the Department of Justice to target, indict, and destroy those he considers to be his political enemies. Ask Letitia James and Jim Comey how those attempts have bit the dust.  Nonetheless, even the act of charging it regardless of the outcome in courts is a painful hammer. To say this is an abuse of power is an understatement.

Trump has usurped the Congressional powers to levy across-the-board non-security-related tariffs. The Supreme Court has heard the arguments, but there is no hurry to decide. Cosco has filed a heavyweight lawsuit on this matter, but in the meantime, the tariffs continue.  This is an abuse of power that has repercussions on consumer affordability and even the ability of some to stay in business.  This one may not set well with the conservative members of the Supreme Court who are, in their ideological hearts, free traders.

Trump has violated the civil rights of migrants with warrantless detentions and racial profiling. Colorado has gotten a lower Federal court decision to stop the ICE practice...but no doubt the 6-3 Supreme Court may weigh in. Federal judge restricts how ICE can arrest people in Colorado, calling past conduct ‘unlawful’ - The Journal

How Trump is destroying the rule of law, replacing it with the rule of Trump

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The Supreme Court likely to further presidential power, destroying independent agencies. Trump's pattern of abuse of law and order, criminal and civil justice, is his method to replace the rule of law with the rule of Trump.  If any of the rules, laws, and regulations stand in his way of getting what he wants done, he succeeds most of the time. One of Trump's weapons is to subvert the rule of any law: attack first, get away with it until he gets sued, and he will keep on appealing until he gets the judgment he wants. When it comes to acting unlawfully, Trump shoots first, then waits until someone tells him" no" in the Supreme Court or even a lower court, and maybe not even then if he can find a workaround. (ask Abrego Gracia how that works)..

He has already usurped the legislative powers of Congress, treating executive orders like the law he expects to you to obey.  This is not like a frog in boiling water analogy, gradually, without the subversion going unnoticed. It is more like sticking the Constitution in a microwave to burn to a crisp, and any opposition has yet to find the cancel button. The destruction of the rule of law has all been accomplished in 11 months.  

 If there is one fundamental characteristic that separates a dictator/autocrat/king from a democracy, it is the degree to which law is respected and complied with in advance, this is.  Otherwise, the subjects/citizens of Trump's rule are at the mercy of his fear and favor.  Pay homage, contribute treasure, and expect in return, the head of government will favor you. This is a reward for loyalty: you get out of jail reward even if you pleaded guilty or were found guilty by a jury of peers.   This is the definition of corruption. This is the rule of law replaced by a wannabe tyrant of a dictator, issuing pardons daily to those he favors and making an example of how others are to act in the future, if they know what is good for them.  This makes a mockery of the legal system, including the findings of juries. Justice is no longer blind; the blindfold has been ripped off. Do not worry about committing a crime on Trump's behalf; you too, will be pardoned, is the unstated message.   Even the worst of the worst get pardons if they were acting to benefit Trump such as violent January 6ers or the central American king pin of cocain smuggling, How Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Landed a Trump Pardon - WSJ Hernández had been convicted in March 2024 by a federal jury for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, with prosecutors stating he used his presidential power to facilitate the transport of more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras. 

What has enabled Trump to operate in this manner is the grace of a 6-3 Supreme Court, which anointed him King, ruling that he was above the law and could not be prosecuted for crimes committed while executing his executive functions.  Trump took this bit in his mouth like a runaway outlaw horse gone berserk, out of control,  and full of aggressive kicks, strikes, and bared teeth.  

Before the Supreme Court became the ultimate player, there was an enabler. The GOP dominated Senate was the prime mover of measures that resulted in the 6-3 Supreme Court. For over the past ten years, their leaders kept Democrat nominees from even getting a vote, and then, when in the majority, got their Federalist Society vetted "conservative' choices on the Bench.

 Like a rider of a tiger, the GOP Congress now fears to dismount, since Trump, the tiger, will turn and attack and destroy anyone in his political party who would try to contradict his wishes or pronouncements, and he has the teeth to rip his victims apart with no one standing in his way. Ask Marjorie Taylor Greene how that works.  Only now are a few voice being raised, brave enough to withstand the threats of violence by MAGA thugs,  revenge in denying money approriateed by Congress, or insults and rages by Trump, acting like the mad Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland shouting "off with his/her head" at whoever dare challenges his power.

   The rule of law has been replaced by the law of the ruler.

The Supreme Court likely to further presidential power, destroying independent agencies

Trump bid to expand power comes before Supreme Court   Independent regulatory agencies like the FDA and FTC would become more political tools for a power-hungry Trump. It would replace them with political appointees subject to the whims of whoever is in the White House and destabilize the stability of the capitalistic system that had been the envy of the world. Dependable policies are needed for any long-term planning in making decisions.   Furthermore, any protections of consumer rights will be gone with the wind if the rich and powerful self-interested are in power in the short term.  

This would destroy any vestige of a government that rules on the facts and the purposes for which Congress set them up. It gives more power to dictator Trump to get revenge on enemies and favor his supporters. The president would now gain absolute control of any agency that dares to favor consumers, the environment. The only antidote is regime change in 2028 so the partisans from the left can get their way if they gain the White House. What goes around will come around. We will be dealing with a pro-Trump Supreme Court for a very long time unless Congress expands it, which I favor as the only way out of a Supreme Court sanctioned dictatorship.