Category: People

Buddy, I have a question for you:

Do you believe in the rule of law?

I ask this question because we elected you to Congress to be our representative among Congressional lawmakers. That’s what Congress is, you know: lawmakers.

Yet in the few months since Trump has been in office, he and his cohort have been breaking existing laws to a degree never before seen in our country.

He has grabbed people off the street and sent them to a prison known for its enslavement and torture. He has cancelled grants to universities solely because they won’t let him control every last aspect of their operation. He has terminated student visas because they have written opinion pieces in newspapers he doesn’t like.

Trump has turned the Department of Justice into a revenge machine, telling it to open investigations on people who have done nothing more than deny his lie that he won the election in 2020.

He has sent people into agencies and they have openly broken security laws, including grabbing data they have no need for or legal reason to have. And when someone has exposed this behavior to you, in Congress, his life was threatened.

If a law firm has defended someone Trump doesn’t like, he has threatened them with dire consequences if they don’t adhere to his demands, all of which blatantly violate the Constitution.

He has gone after universities and threatened them—threatened them!— if the universities don’t give up their freedom of speech, and their own ability to govern themselves. And when Harvard bravely said no, all grants to the university were pulled—even though these grants were for research that help us live better and longer.

Trump has frozen funds that the country has guaranteed, both to agencies overseas and to our own domestic organizations and states. Funds that are necessary for medical care and medical research; to monitor storms and recover from them; to help communities better prepare for storms and other catastrophes; to help schools better serve their students and ensure all of the students are fed and educated equally; to support small businesses and farmers; to help the hungry, the sick, and those harmed by circumstances beyond their control.

Funds that you, in Congress, allocated and control. Supposedly control.

He openly and laughingly mocks our judicial system, and I include the Supreme Court in this, though this higher court’s timid responses to Trump’s outrageous acts have not shown it in at its best. But even when they finally pushed back, ever so slightly, he laughed at it. Not only laughed at it, he was joined by one of South America’s most brutal dictators in that laughter. His new best friend.

Now, he threatens to not only send migrants to a brutal life in another country, he threatens to send citizens, too. And we already know he’ll do so without giving anyone the benefit of legal representation in a court of law.

He’ll just send armed thugs into the street, dressed in plain clothes and wearing hoods and driving in black SUVs to grab people off the street and put them on a plane and then hold up his hands and go, “Oopsie! Made a mistake! Well, can’t do anything about it now, they’re in foreign control!”

We were warned that we were approaching a Constitutional crises, when the President of the United States held himself above the laws of the land. We waited in hope, and some fear, to see what he would do when courts intervened.

We now know what he’ll do: disobey the courts. We are no longer approaching a Constitutional crises, we’re in one, and we now wonder if, at the end of four years, will we even have a country left? Will we even be allowed to vote for who we want? Or will we receive notes pasted on our doors, threatening us if we don’t do as Trump asks?

And in all of this—all of it!—not one peep from you. Not one mild expression of concern. Not even a single, “well, we might want to reconsider this.” No, all you have done is appear on radically right newscasts as a way of pretending you don’t need a Town Hall, and then spent the time praising Trump.

So I ask you now, do you believe in the rule of law? You are our elected representative to Congress, to the body of lawmakers that have kept our country free, safe, and secure for 250 years. And as a lawmaker, isn’t it your sworn duty to ensure that laws are kept and not broken? Or is your allegiance to Trump so strong that you don’t care about the laws, or the harm that will come to the people in your district because these laws are broken? All that matters to you is Trump?

It’s a simple question, Buddy: Do you believe in the rule of law?

Sources

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man ICE mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison?

Trump officials cut billions in Harvard funds after university defies demands

How the Education Department cuts could hurt low-income and rural schools

Trump directs DOJ to investigate former administration officials who criticized him

USDA cancels $1 billion in funding for schools and food banks to buy food from local suppliers

FEMA cuts $30 million grant earmarked to improve flooding, drainage issues in Savannah

Public libraries in Georgia brace for federal cuts

Academic medical centers say funding cuts jeopardize health research

A whistleblower’s disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data

Video shows Tufts graduate student grabbed off the street by federal immigration officials

Core Democratic groups are preparing to be targeted by the Trump administration

The Trump administration’s defiance is proving Justice Sotomayor’s point

Lawrence on Trump attacking the rule of law: We are all Harvard. We are all Abrego Garcia.

Buddy Carter is Georgia’s First Congressional District Representative

Winning.

“This will decimate our ability to function as an institution,” says one senior NIH scientist who had to notify staff that HHS was firing them. “Whatever the opposite of government efficiency is, this process will take us there.”

‘Wrecking ball’: RFK Jr. moves to fire thousands of health agency employees

“The actions taken against the federal workforce thus far by the administration have already dramatically diminished the capacity of CDC to respond adequately, in the way that Americans deserve, to emerging public health threats,” the person said. “And cutting EIS will make Americans and global populations less safe in years to come.”

CDC cuts expected to devastate Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health

“On Friday, an employee still at NNSA told NPR that the firings are now “paused,” in part because of the chaotic way in which they unfolded. Another employee had been contacted and told that their termination had been “rescinded.” But some worried the damage had already been done. Nuclear security is highly specialized, high-pressure work, but it’s not particularly well paid, one employee told NPR. Given what’s unfolded over the past 24 hours, “why would anybody want to take these jobs?” they asked.”

Trump firings cause chaos at agency responsible for America’s nuclear weapons

““This has been slash and burn,” said Nicholas Detter, who had been working in Kansas as a natural resource specialist, helping farmers reduce soil and water erosion, until he was fired by email late Thursday night. He said there seemed to be little thought about how employees and the farmers and ranchers he helped would be impacted.”

Anger, chaos and confusion take hold as federal workers face mass layoffs

“Allowing parks to hire seasonal staff is essential, but staffing cuts of this magnitude will have devastating consequences for parks and communities,” NPCA President Theresa Pierno said in a statement.

US Forest Service fires 3,400 workers, Park Service cuts 1,000

“Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that defends government workers, said the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service would be hit especially hard by laying off probationary employees because it has trouble recruiting inspectors required to be present at all times at most slaughterhouses.”

Trump administration initiates new round of layoffs for federal workers with least experience

Ah…winning?

“Nearly half of the FDA’s $6.9 billion budget comes from fees paid by companies the agency regulates, including drug and medical device makers, which allows the agency to hire extra scientists to swiftly review products. Eliminating those positions will not reduce government spending.”

Trump administration cuts reach FDA employees in food safety, medical devices and tobacco

““Tribes who receive direct service will be hit the hardest,” one official told ICT. “In communities across the country, if there are not protections for employees providing services for Indian Country and protections for mission-critical occupations, exempt employees, excepted employees and emergency employees, tribes will see a loss of essential services: healthcare, emergency services, childcare and educational services, justice services.”

https://ictnews.org/news/abrupt-federal-layoffs-expected-to-hit-tribal-programs

More winning.

“The tax agency grew by about 10 percent last year, as its ranks swelled from roughly 90,000 employees in fiscal year 2023 to 100,000 employees this fiscal year. The IRS has said publicly that personnel critical to the tax filing season are ineligible for the “deferred resignation” plan that encouraged federal personnel to quit. That has fueled speculation that the cuts to IRS personnel will be concentrated among the agency’s tax collection staff, which could reduce the amount of revenue brought into federal coffers even as Musk calls for a reduced deficit.”

Layoffs to hit IRS as DOGE targets tax collections

“If the purpose of such cuts is to make sure taxpayer dollars are not wasted and used well, the evaluation and data work that has been terminated is exactly the work that determines which programs are effective uses of federal dollars, and which are not,” Tofig wrote, noting several contracts were nearing their completion.

Crucial research halted as DOGE abruptly terminates Education Department contracts

So. Much. Winning.