I was driving to teach class a week or so ago and listening to NPR. Like many of you, I have been watching, wide-eyed and incredulous, the machinations of Trump, his Administration, and the Republican Congress.

All of the sudden, it came to me. The United States of America, my country, no longer is my country.

Even during the dark Vietnam War years and Watergate, I always believed that our Nation’s essence was good. That our people were wise. That we cared, not just for each other, but for the rest of the world.

We were the guys in white hats. We helped to rebuild Europe from the ravages of Naziism, helped to make Japan into a lasting democracy,  and brought to justice WWII’s war criminals. We always were the heroes in war movies.

I always felt this way. Always.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The United States has treated me pretty well. After a spotty start, I became a lawyer and spent almost all of my career working in Federal civil service, trying to make the world a little bit of a better place to live in. We always were  comfortable in a most middle-class way; you don’t get rich working for Uncle Sam. I’ve had serious medical problems and, luckily, have had great, “affordable” health care that saved my life on more than one occasion.

Skating along the edge and getting older brings clarity.

As I drove along, I thought about how we rate when compared to how I felt about the USA growing up. I thought about how we:

• Treat our poor;
• Treat our mentally ill;
• Treat our physically ill and infirm;
• Educate our people;
• Treat our old;
• Treat our children;
• Support mothers and fathers;
• Care for our roads and buildings;
• Respect the Earth and its resources;
• Handle hatred, prejudice, and anger;
• Shore up our institutions;
• Protect Free Speech; and
• Handle the truth.

Just take a minute and think about these items.

There is no question that we are the wealthiest people on Earth. What do we do with that wealth? A large percentage of our Nation’s wealth goes to building the machines of war and supporting the American empire. And Trump wants to expand that another 10%! Another very large portion goes to Social Security and healthcare. In the meantime:

• The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer;
• The middle class is shrinking dramatically;
• Our buildings and bridges are collapsing;
• Millions of people can’t afford basic health care, even after the Affordable Care Act. (We MUST take profit out of the system. We are the ONLY advanced country not to have health care as a RIGHT. Just wait for the Republican’s plan!);
• The mentally ill wander our streets;
• Real pensions have disappeared, exposing people to the vagaries of the markets and causing them to work until they die;
• Our land is being raped, and our waters and air will become toxic again;
• Schools are in crisis, and college loans are crippling students and parents alike;
• An atmosphere of fear is choking Hispanics, Muslims, Jews, and Blacks (too many sources to link to);
• Most of our politicians care more about re-election rather than doing their jobs;
• A large percentage of our politicians and citizens deny the reality of climate change;
• Ignorance is valued over expertise, and
• Universal maternity and paid sick leave does not exist.

I could go on and on…….

Yes, I likely am looking at the late 1950’s and early ’60’s through pink glasses. For young me, those times generally were stable and carefree; Republicans and Democrats generally worked together to solve our problems; we had faith in our democratic institutions and the Free Press; and we were the world leader in manufacturing and trade. The future was rosy, as long as we avoided nuclear war and didn’t get invaded by the Communists.

Of course, I didn’t see the whole picture. Blacks lived in a segregated world and women were kitchen-bound and treated in an inferior manner. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were mostly remote figures on TV. Speaking of TV, I would sit with my Dad and watch Gunsmoke’s heroes and the perfect families in  Leave It To Beaver and The Nelsons. Yes, it was a wonderful world!

I’d hate to be a young person today. The American ideal no longer exists. We quickly are becoming a third-world country with a tin pot despot. The forces of history are marching inexorably towards autocracy and ultimate dissolution. I sincerely hope that we will have a rebirth. History’s pendulum swings back and forth…..

Unfortunately, it’s very likely that I won’t be here to see that.

As you know, the blizzard of news about the Trump Administration has been burying us. With all that news, one extremely important item has been overlooked, and, if not stopped, it will destroy our current way of life.

No, we’re not talking about terrorism or climate change. Nor are we talking about nuclear holocaust or major, global, conventional wars. Our focus here is discussing what appears to be an arcane and boring phrase, but once you understand what it’s about, it’ll make the hair on your neck stand up.

At CPAC on February 24, 2017, Steve Bannon, better known as Trump’s brain, set out the Trump Administration’s three most important priorities. His third priority was the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” He explained that:

“[I]f you look at these cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason and that is the deconstruction, the way the progressive left runs, is if they can’t get it passed, they’re just gonna put in some sort of regulation in — in an agency …. That’s all gonna be deconstructed and I think that that’s why this regulatory thing is so important.”

So, what is this “administrative state”? It refers to the many Federal agencies that implement statutes adopted by Congress.* Congress created these agencies and delegated rule making powers to them because Congress simply does not have the time, expertise, or resources to implement its statutes. For example, Congress deemed “clean air” as an important public policy goal, established the EPA, and authorized it to draft rules and regulations to implement that policy goal.

Now, remember what Bannon said, “if [progressives] can’t get it passed [by Congress], they’re just gonna put in some sort of regulation . . . in an agency.”

He doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about.

Congress created Federal agencies and delegated power to them under their enabling statutes to implement Congress’s statutory purposes. These agencies only can do what Congress tells them to do. They essentially flesh out Congressional statutes by adopting implementing regulations and then enforcing them.

Agencies simply cannot establish requirements when they can’t be anchored to their enabling statues.  If they were to do so, they soon would find themselves in court. In fact, courts on many occasions have overturned Federal agency regulations when the promulgating agency has acted  in an way that is “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or not consistent with law.”**

Bannon literally wants to “deconstruct,” i.e., dismantle, those Federal agencies. And, the Trump administration is taking steps to do just that. So far, the Administration, among other things, has:

• Ordered a Federal hiring freeze;
• Instructed Federal agencies to remove two regulations for each newly adopted one ;
• Failed to fill thousands of political appointee positions throughout the government;
• Required Federal agencies to appoint “watchdogs” to ensure that the agencies are fulfilling President Trump’s desires to streamline and reduce regulatory burdens***;
• Installed Cabinet and agency heads (with a few exceptions) that know little or nothing about the organizations that they lead and/or are antagonistic towards their  organization’s policy goals; and
• Ignored expert advice coming from the State Department and other agencies, in particular those from the Intelligence Community.

These steps, taken together, over time, will destroy every single advance that we have made since FDR’s New Deal. It would be a slowly metastasizing cancer, eating away at our civil rights, personal wealth, health and safety, the health of the planet, union rights, and almost everything positive that we have learned to take for granted.

Yes, the Federal statutes very well may remain on the books, but no one would have the funds or the personnel to carry them out. The “administrative state” would just whither away (which also was Bannon’s idol’s, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s, ultimate goal).

As a result, there no longer would be any uniform national standards or expectations. Millions of Federal employees would be unemployed, and the economy would lose their massive buying power.**** Social Security checks and other Federal safety net payments would languish. People literally would be dying in the streets. In sum, utter chaos would ensue.

The only way we can protect ourselves from this fate would be through our State and local governments establishing curative statutes and regulations under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Federal government, however, could very well decide to prohibit States from taking those actions under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, killing those efforts outright.***** To make matters more dicey, State or local governments may fail to protect us if they are controlled by radical, reactionary Republicans.******

Is the hair on your neck standing up?

***** UPDATE *****

On March 5th, after I published this blog post, the New York Times published, Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Miners and More. That article discusses how Federal agencies are being stopped from performing their duties, and how corporate interests and trade associations are working hard to rollback many regulations.

In addition, on the evening of March 4th, I received from a friend information from a trusted source within the EPA regarding what is happening at that beleaguered agency. It’s awful:

“So I work at the EPA and yeah it’s as bad as you are hearing: The entire agency is under lockdown, the website, facebook, twitter, you name it is static and can’t be updated. All reports, findings, permits and studies are frozen and not to be released. No presentations or meetings with outside groups are to be scheduled.

Any Press contacting us are to be directed to the Press Office which is also silenced and will give no response.

All grants and contracts are frozen from the contractors working on Superfund sites to grad school students working on their thesis.

We are still doing our work, writing reports, doing cancer modeling for pesticides hoping that this is temporary and we will be able to serve the public soon. But many of us are worried about an ideologically-fueled purging and if you use any federal data I advise you gather what you can now. We have been told the website is being reworked to reflect the new administration’s policy.

Feel free to copy and paste, you all pay for the government and you should know what’s going on. I am posting this as a fellow citizen and not in any sort of official capacity.”

If you share (please do), please do so with copy and paste.

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*             The first independent regulatory agency (Interstate Commerce Commission) was  established in 1887.
**           5 U.S.C. § 706, and see, e.g., Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843 (1984).
***        Congress also is undermining Federal agency authority using the obscure Congressional Review Act.
****     In 2015, the average federal wage (not including benefits), was $86,365. In 2014, the Federal government employed approximately 2.7 million people.  Assuming that Federal employment would be reduced 25% under Trump, the economy would lose approximately $58.3 billion. Some of those persons, of course, would obtain new jobs, likely at lesser pay. So, assuming all these folks got a job paying 60% of their previous wages, the economy still would take a hit for about $35 billion. We certainly could use that money, considering that the USA, in 2015, had a $484.1 billion deficit in its Current Account.
*****   The Federal Government has routinely killed progressive laws in the District of Columbia. Also consider the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
****** See how this is occurring in Minnesota and North Carolina. Also note that Republican State legislatures have been in the forefront limiting voting and abortion rights

By now, I’m sure most of you know about Flynn’s exit and the chaos in the White House. This morning, he must have thrown a fit and succeeded in getting his phone back and engaged in a tweet storm.

Among other things, he tweeted:

Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia, and

Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia

Instead of being Americans First, the Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, want to focus on investigating the leakers, rather than the close connections between ’45, his campaign and administration, and the Russians.

We’ve seen this before. The Republicans had to be dragged kicking and screaming to investigate Watergate. They finally gave in when the evidence of wrongdoing became overwhelming, and the public  rose up and demanded it. We need to keep the pressure on Congress to investigate the current situation, but that’s the subject for another blogpost.

Let’s talk about the leakers. To me, they are patriotic heroes. They put themselves at risk, professionally and personally, to shine light on truth.

Here’s a non-exclusive list of some of those heroes: Daniel Ellsberg  and the Pentagon Papers, Deep Throat of Watergate fame, Edward Snowden and the U.S. surveillance state, and Jeffrey Wigand and the dangers of cigarette smoking.

Leakers, together with the Free Press, have been proven to act as a checks on illegal and other nefarious governmental and industrial actions. Without them, the Vietnam War would have continued longer, Nixon would have gotten away with his schemes, we would have never learned about the “security state,” and tobacco still would be deemed safe. The lesson of Watergate is, “Where there is smoke, there is fire.”

The leakers surrounding the “Flynn Affair” are serving in this great tradition. Without them, it is clear to me that we would NEVER have learned about the facts. For months, I have been most troubled about 45’s love affair with Putin and Russia. I sincerely hope that you are, too. We must get to the bottom of this!

We must put pressure on all of our governmental representatives, Congressmen and Senators to do their patriotic duty. A Watergate-like type independent prosecutor must be appointed and given free rein to find the facts.

To the leakers, I applaud you and wish you well. Keep up the good work. Only through your work will we learn the truth.

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. We should be celebrating freedom, inclusiveness, and the dignity of every human being.

I’m not celebrating.

I am angry.

Families are being split up.

People are living in fear.

An otherwise innocent knock on the door at another time now could signal disaster.

No, we’re not talking about the Gestapo.

Immigration and Customs Service agents are scouring the country looking for undocumented immigrants. A new reign of terror has begun.

Enough!

America has lost its way. The USA that rebuilt a war-destroyed Europe, created the United Nations to avoid war, and helped those less fortunate is comatose.

Just take a bird’s-eye view of our two political parties. Democrats have a large tent and a platform that has long centered on helping “regular folks.” Attendees at the Democratic Convention were of all races, creeds, and religions, reflecting the true makeup of our society.

Conversely, Republicans focus on capital growth and maximizing each person’s assets, at the cost of those less fortunate. Their appeal is to an ever shrinking, white population, as evidenced by the attendees of the Republican Convention. Very little diversity there. Their angry, incessant cheers of “lock her up” were frighteningly similar to the unthinking chants at a Nazi rally. Joseph Goebbels would have been proud. They threaten the very bedrock principals of our democratic system of government, such as the separation of powers, free speech and press, separation of church and state, due process, and equal protection.

What does the Republican Party stand for today?

Not truth.
Not piously professed “family values.”
Not paths to citizenship.
Not healthcare unless it is profitable.
Not gun control measures.
Not loving your neighbor if he or she is not white, Christian, or straight.
Not logic.
Not science.
Not women’s, minority, and LGBTQ rights.
Not food unless you can afford it.
Not curbing Capitalism’s excesses.

They should be ashamed.

President Eisenhower and Governor Rockefeller are spinning so fast in their graves that they just might drill themselves right out of the ground.

America is lost. I am heartbroken. We might be the richest country in the history of the world, but we are the poorest one when it comes to respecting and caring for each other.

I can only hope against hope that there “is light at the end of the tunnel.”

* America© 1968, by Simon and Garfinkel