L'etat C'est Trump

[saidsimplesimon]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/l-%C3%A9tat-c-est-trump/ar-BB19DtHJ?ocid=msedgdhp

The Atlantic

L’état C’est Trump

Franklin Foer
10/2/20

Although arrogant men have often occupied the Oval Office, the nation has never suffered a presidential ego quite so expansive as Donald Trump’s. In his mind, he is the state, his interests indistinguishable from those of the nation. When Trump looks at the federal bureaucracy, he sees hired help.

Endless examples capture this selfish view of government, but perhaps the clearest is that the Justice Department is now serving as his defense team, in a defamation case brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll. Never mind that the case traces back to an alleged rape said to have taken place in the ’90s, decades before Trump became president. (Technically at issue is that Trump said in an interview that he could not have raped Carroll because she was “not my type.”) Never mind that every president before Trump has used personal lawyers to represent them in personal matters. Trump has always viewed the attorney general as a better-resourced version of Michael Cohen. That’s why he nursed a long grudge against Jeff Sessions, who felt ethically obliged to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, for failing to vigorously act on his behalf.
…snip
Although Trump is hardly the first president to despise technocrats—or to chafe at the idea that his appointees, including his attorney general, have an obligation to remain independent—his abject lack of respect for the spirit of the administrative state has eroded the foundational ethos of the federal
...snip

[underpants]

1. 👀

I like anything written by a Foer.

[saidsimplesimon]

2. You reminded me of a movie

"Everything is illuminated"

[world wide wally]

3. Now who will Barr work for?