The Trump regime slowly is opening the door to corruption

Pres. Trump signs executive order pausing enforcement of U.S. law banning foreign bribes | Watch 

Update: 2/11/2025  Donald Trump pauses enforcement of decades-old foreign bribery ban

Original post continues.Within three weeks of being sworn in, Trump and his billionaires have already opened the doors to corruption.   Welcome to the brave new world of Trump...where bribery is back in style in business negotiations abroad,, and China, Iran, and Russia can influence what we hear and see in US media, and it is just ok with the Department of Justice.Pam Bondi ends FBI effort to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics The greatest beneficiaries, multinational corporations owned by US billionaires

.Sometimes hidden in actions by the new Bondi driven Department of Justice are changes that appear to be subtle and bureaucratic and others that are blaring.  Blaring was dispanding the DOJ section that focused on investigating foreign influence in US elections. That was just done         . This newest one would probably go unnoticed unless you knew how US business was conducted abroad. Not permitted was bribery, either the taking of bribes or bribing the country or people involved in foreign negotiations. That was just changed: bribery is now OK. A Game-Changer Relating to FCPA Enforcement | Insights | Holland & Knight  

The laws are not changed; the enforcement is openly abandoned and announced to the world.  

The greatest beneficiaries, multinational corporations owned by US billionaires

Looking past the pushback: Democrats still must show they are the better alternative to MAGA

Messaging again. The resistance, the pushback, is slowly taking shape; the messages are still reactive to each outrageous thing Trump says.  There is still no single message other than billionaires running Trump's regime are by their nature self-serving and uncaring about the human condition. Words like stupid and incompetent are entering the Democrats' vocabulary as they point to Trump's failures. Trump himself may begin to blame others for so many of his edicts biting the dust in a still-alive judicial branch, at least until the Trump Supreme Court gets involved. Indivisible is also getting organized to gear up protests and tap into the 48% of the voters who voted against Trump and are rightly so outraged by the power grab and ready to act because the Democratic party apparatus and some Democrats in Congress wishy washes while a Constitutional crisis became a gathering storm. 

Democrats are also in danger of just speaking to their choir and still failing to regain power. Street protests may just scare the pants off of some on the right who otherwise would object even quietly to Trump. If it is to increase its base, instead of just keeping its 48% energized, Democrats will also have to appeal to some more rational part of what used to be the GOP.   Resistance, outrage, and anger are going to happen at the grassroots by a minority of 48%, but that does not guarantee they will be the majority again. To win, Democrats must do better than just preaching to their choir and must appeal to enough Trump voters to win. The first opportunity will soon be the tax breaks to the rich..debate...and Dems must scream to the rafters, "It ain't fair".

Update: Here is a message that will work: Jeffries is on the right track. https://www.msn.com/.../gop-slammed-over-bait-and-switch.../ This gets it down to what counts...grocery prices, utility costs, child care, etc to be gutted to pay for billionaire tax cuts. Warnings and I told you so's are fine, but until voters actually feel the pain in their personal lives, we will be stuck at 48%. That needs to be hammered home until it reverberates in heads, right and left. Still missing from this is how the Democrats will fix it since they are being blamed for high grocery prices, utility and energy costs, etc.

For now though, bait and switch is a good attack.  Watch for the Consumer Price Index for signs of inflation and cost of basic consumer needs. the next one is 2 12 2025.

Democrats must also be more than obstructionists and take to the streets or make use of whatever vestiges of democracy remain in the courts and a midterm election. The value of street protests is not only to convey how powerful the pushback is by rank and file but also to convey a message (s). The more focused and simple the message, the more unified the messengers are, and the more effective the street demonstrations will be in rallying more than just the 48% Harris voters. 

A valid pitch is still to offer a return to normalcy and end the madness, incompetence, stupidity, and power madness.  That still is not enough: "normalcy " was why MAGA revolted in the first place because they felt the pain of an economy that passed them by. Attacking the billionaires is a short-term rally focus. In the long run, the billionaires could become so toxic, and Trump's popularity sinks into the upper 30s, he will ease them out of his close circle or force them to be in the shadows. Musk may get the blame for all, but Democrats will need to pin the blame on Trump, who empowered him and so far has never reined him in or disagreed with his actions. Musk was his appointee and the buck stops with Trump, not Musk. Then what? In the long run,  for the non-racist-driven MAGA, it is still the economy, stupid.  Per Joe Scarborough 2/6/2025, on Morning Joe,  don't make it personal; make it about the voters whose lives are affected.

The most powerful message could be just the issue of economic fairness and ending the open and hidden corruption of a Trump regime based on an alliance with billionaires. There will be little Democrats can do about the racist and "cultural" elements in the GOP, and that will just have to be accepted as reality and unreachable.  

The rest of the message will depend on what Trump does about inflation, grocery prices, tariffs on China, and other dislocations in the economy. Trump may provide the fuel for the most successful pushback: once again, it is the economy, stupid, and the stupidity is happening on Trump's watch. That is still a speculative strategy since it will take some months before MAGA feels economic pain, so it depends on what Trump does.  At that point, the message needs to pivot to capitalize on how ordinary people are being hurt.

Two week mark of the Trump presidency: attempted rule by fear and favor

 To take the standard of the Department of Justice it had until recently, to administer prosecutions "without fear or favor'.is a good standard of how the rule of law should work in order to be as fair and nonpartisan as possible.  It is also a standard for democracy as a whole and describes the ideal fairness standard for which it strives. By the two-week mark of the Trump presidency, Trump has turned that worthy goal upside down, and he is attempting to create a regime using fear and favor to gain power and to keep it.  

This is just the beginning with Trump's opening salvo of decrees and executive orders. The pushback has not begun. We do not know how effective the pushback will be. It will come from the courts and from the voters in the midterm election in two years, which could reinforce the legislative branch, giving them a backbone with a different party in the majority., and restoring some degree of the balance of powers. It could also come from the streets, given the passions and anger Trump has awakened.  It could be propelled by Trump's decisions that result in higher living costs and inflation, disillusioning some of Trump's 2024 voters.

Who is Trump favoring?  Trump is the dream ruler for billionaires. He promises to lower taxes on rich people and free them from administrative constraints on rich people's ability to become richer. These barriers the already rich want to control or eliminate were designed to protect consumers and the environment and to cut the ability of the government to provide help to those unable to help themselves, the sick, the elderly, and racial and societal minorities, Head Start,  and children with poor nutrition. One of the regime's first acts: fire the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Next, they will attempt to eliminate civil service employees by reclassifying through regulation F, removing protections from political pressures, and replacing them with loyalists to Trump or the ideology of Project 2025 so that government rulings are in step with their priorities. Already executed in Trmp's first week: the end of DEI and the firing of all employees associated with the program. The plan laid out in Project 2025 was to eliminate DEI (diversity) goals in hiring and promotions as if it is to make white males who claimed they were the victims of discrimination the sole government rulers again as they were before the civil rights movement of the 1960s. 

The attempt has virtually neutered Congress so far, with the GOP majority nodding heads or being silent and turning over their power to Trump to do as he pleases. Trump and Musk ignored the Constitution and laws that define the executive branch's role in "faithfully executing" the laws and funding Congress passed. Instead, they are attempting to become the controller of the purse in the place of the legislature.

How could this happen? Trump uses the tools of the powers of government to discipline his followers to comply by threats to primary them if they are House members and to destroy those he sees as political enemies by using the DOJ to bankrupt them by filing criminal action (without even probable cause) against anyone else.  Trump's revenge against anyone who had anything to do with bringing criminal charges against him since 2020 may satisfy his hateful instincts, but it also serves as making an example of how he would treat those he sees as his foes and how he keeps his supporters in line.  It is a rule by fear in political messaging as well. Fear of "others" who are not white males and are immigrants has been the leading drumbeat of his campaigns since he first entered national politics. It has been a successful message and strategy. Trump knows what works, and he knows the soul of his core supporters.

Trump is attempting to rule by favor, as well, as he places in power as a reward for loyalty and campaign contributions, primarily the very rich. Top of the favors he promises are lower taxes, with loss to the treasury offset by a reduction in government and national security services and regulations protecting consumers and the environment.  By placing his loyalists up and down government agencies, he can offer those favors to those who have proved their loyalty to him and his priorities.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-fires-rohit-chopra-wall-street-consumer-protection-rcna190444?

https://www.yahoo.com/.../invitation-foreign-actors-bondi... Yesieree bob, voters do not need to know what China, Iran, or Russia are doing to help MAGA win in any elections, right? WRONG.

Musk's power grab to control of Federal payments process, could jeopardize personal information and government services

 https://fox40.com/news/political-connection/ap-politics/ap-elon-musks-doge-commission-gains-access-to-sensitive-treasury-payment-systems-ap-sources/

Musk's power grab to control Federal payments could jeopardize personal information and government services people depend on. The checkbook is now in the hands and knowledge of Muskwho now has the power and tools to abuse the intent of laws passed by Congress and to be responsive to the political whims of his fellow oligarchs and Trump. Musk holds no official position and was not elected by you to do it, nor is his position and approval derived from the advice and consent of the Senate. The oligarchs share the same goal:  cut government services to needy citizens and programs that make lives better for us to offset the reduction in taxes to them. They are not there to serve the public interest. We cannot trust them to do what is best for the rest of us.  In the meantime, we, the citizens, no longer have any privacy protected by bureaucratic rules and procedures. Trump/Musk will have access to each and every one of our sensitive information.

If this grant of powers to Musk is only for the purpose of streamlining government processes in paying for contracts, grants, Social Security, and everything that the federal government disburses money to, then that is one thing. Stopping waste, fraud, and abuse is another, but Trump has fired the government officials who monitor this. Such official whistle-blowing findings are no longer public information, and there is no one to hold Musk accountable for abiding by any law or rules he chooses to abuse. 

If Musk attempts to stop payments to citizens and social programs that help citizens in the name of cutting costs or contrary to the ideology and policies of Trump, he will, in theory, be violating the purpose of the Constitutionally assigned power to the executive branch to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress.  Grabbing the Treasury payment system will give him the ability, if not the right, to do that, to stop payments authorized by Congress. Congressional power to hold the purse strings on behalf of the people is being neutered. 

 Once again, just as Trump's enforcement of federal laws, purging the FBI will be subject to Trump's political whims.  Welcome to the wonderful world of Trump and his dictatorship-like power and a democracy based on self-governance for, of, and by the people perishes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/musk-s-lackeys-seize-control-of-social-security-check-system

There also maybe some nest feathering in this power grab if Musk comes to the "conclusion" the payment system should be privatized and he and his buddies get a percentage of the deal.Their companies can do it cheaper and want you to turn your data over to them....

Stay tuned.