The Gulf

Why not The Gulf of America?  The coastlines that border the Gulf are about the same length give or take a hundred miles. Mexico will continue to call it Golfo de México.  Two names for the same place aren't unheard of.  The French call the stretch of water between France and England "La Manche" while the Brits call it "The English Channel".  So let's not sweat the small stuff. There are bigger fish to fry, though they don't come out of the Gulf.  

Jim Jordan, where are you now?

Does anyone remember Jim Jordan serving on the House Select Committee on Benghazi? During what seemed like weeks of hearings, in which he and his GOP colleagues tried to blame Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the deaths of  United States Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, Jordan lambasted Clinton for sending email on her private email server that should have been deemed classified at the time they were sent, including 65 emails deemed "Secret" and 22 deemed "Top Secret". 

(As an aside, Jordan and Gowdy's efforts to keep the matter in the public eye, and James Comey's decision to reopen the investigation which he has previously closed were likely significant contributors to Trump's election victory in  2016).   

Nine years on we have what appears to be an far more more egregious lapse in security.  Peter Hegseth, Trump's (utterly unqualified) Secretary of Defense used a group chat on the Signal platform to circulate information about an impending US military strike on Houthi terrorist leaders in Yemen.  

While the chat never explicitly labeled the details as 'war plans'", Hegseth's claim that this wasn’t a disclosure of 'war plans'—despite listing targets, timing, and tactics—is laughable; and that he couldn't come up with a better defense speaks volumes in and of itself.   

So where is Jim Jordan, defender of our national security and the rules on classified information that we need to keep our operational military personal safe and our military interventions effective?  Clinton endured eleven hours of televised questioning and a months-long FBI probe. Where's Jordan on Hegseth's screw-up?  Is he calling for an FBI probe, public hearings, resignation? Of course not; he's complete silent!  His grandstanding was never about national security.  It was always about scoring political points.  

Turbulent Priests and the return of the monarchy

Henry II of England, in a moment of anger, asked rhetorically "Will nobody rid me of this turbulent priest"?  Some in his court took him both literally and seriously and killed Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral. Trump used this device when he summoned his supporters to the Capitol on January 6th and encouraged them to disrupt the lawful transfer or power to the next administration.  He claimed that he never actually instructed them to storm the Capitol but anyone reading between the lines could see that was what he wanted, a view reinforced by his unwillingness to intervene while he watched the violence from the Oval Office.      

When the Supreme Court in its 2024 decision Trump v. United States granted the president immunity from criminal prosecution for "official acts", the need for such plausible deniability is moot.  If, as Justice Sotomayor asked, "the president decides that his [political] rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military or orders someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get immunity?" 

In reply Trump's lawyer, D. John Sauer, argued that the President has absolute immunity from prosecution for all official acts unless successfully impeached and convicted by Congress.  But with Congress now irrevocably divided along a hyper-partisan party lines, impeachment and conviction is no longer a threat if the President's party holds one or other of the two houses. 

We we now have what is to all intents and purposes a medieval monarchy. The King aka. the President can threaten violence against his enemies with impunity and no one can rein in his powers. The only distinctions between medieval times and the present day are term limits (which Trump is working to change) and the inheriting of high office. That aside, Trump's acolytes are already paying obsequious deference and flattery as plainly as members of Henry II's court. 

The Best Government Money Can Buy

Many elected members of Congress enter politics with a desire to effect change. But at least in the public's perception, they are widely seen as corrupt [1,2].  Despite efforts to prevent insider trading by members of Congress, it is still widespread and highly lucrative [3].  According to Business Insider, seventy eight members of the 117th Congress violated the STOCK act. 

Leaving aside the restrictive "quid-pro-quo" requirement established by the Supreme Court in McCormick v. United States, the "delayed gratification" version of corruption in which members work to help private business interests while in office and are rewarded afterwards with a lucrative appointments as lobbyists for the companies they previously dealt with as lawmakers, creates the very strong appearance of corruption.  So why do people who were initially motivated by their principles end up compromising them for money?         

The answer may be a combination of envy and a feeling of inequity.  Members of congress are paid well by most people's standards but very poorly compared to the people they mix with in Washington: the industry leaders, the wealthy donors, not to mention highly paid ex-colleagues who are now lobbyists.  As they are wined and dined by people who they see as their equals or even their inferiors, they may come to resent the fact they they are being much less well rewarded for the hard work they do than they deserve to be.  That may lead them to relax any standards they had about public service and the appearance of impropriety.  From there it's a short step to becoming one of them.   

[1] https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/51398-most-americans-see-corruption-as-serious-problem?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[2] https://news.gallup.com/poll/656891/trump-job-approval-rating-congress-jumps.aspx?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[3] https://www.ballardspahr.com/insights/alerts-and-articles/2024/10/politician-trading-if-you-cant-stop-them-join-them?utm_source=chatgpt.com