The downward spiral continues

So much has happened since Labor Day weekend, I hardly know where to start. The backdrop includes the federal appeals court supporting the decision of the U.S. Court of International Trade’s determination that many of the tariffs that Trump has imposed were imposed illegally; the dismissal of the newly Senate-confirmed CDC Director, Susan Monarez, along with the resignation in solidarity of four key top CDC officials; the announcement of the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud.

What’s to be said?

With respect to the tariff ruling, I have no doubt that this decision was correct, but I do doubt that it will last. It was a 7-4 decision, with the dissenting position largely accepting Trump’s characterization of the facts and circumstance as constituting an emergency and thus allowing for these executive actions. Given this experience, it seems a remote prospect that the current Supreme Court will reject that premise. We just must wait and see, but I’m not holding my breath.

What’s going on at the NIH and the CDC is a mess, made even more obvious by the three-hour Senate Hearing with RFK Jr. testifying. The public is being forced to idly witness this federal agency being stripped of its expertise and seeing critical medical research funding sharply reduced. While this is happening, the Republicans sitting on the Senate Finance Committee offer the mildest of tepid reservations, thereby allowing this degradation of an agency that is critical to our nation’s and world’s health. Perish the thought that these illustrious leaders would put nation over party.

And then there’s Lisa Cook…. First her firing, and then publicly announcing a criminal investigation. The destructive political motivation is all too transparent. I don’t know the facts concerning her mortgage history, but a criminal charge in this instance – at this time, given Trump’s clearly stated intention to compromise the independence of the Federal Reserve – is a remarkable over-reach, particularly since, as reported by Pro Publica, three Cabinet members,

Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Labor), Dean Duffy (Transportation) and Lee Zeldin (EPA) allegedly have quite similar mortgage “irregularities”. Nary a word from the White House on the obviously selective prosecution of Lisa Cook.

What’s the worst? The fact that Cook was summarily fired without ever being found guilty of even a misdemeanor; the fact that the Justice Department, in defiance of prior practice, announced the investigation publicly, thereby besmirching Cook’s name prior to any finding of cause; or that the independence of the Federal Reserve is under attack. What we see here is a trifecta of abuse of power.

Meanwhile, masked ICE agents continue to round up and deport thousands of people with no criminal record, separating families, forcing myriad immigrants in the U.S. to live in fear of detention, and fostering shortages of workers in critical sectors of the economy; federal military forces are occupying Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, with the overhanging threat to expand these activities to other cities; leaders of all stripes in public and private sectors are having to negotiate with Trump in order to limit the extortionary tributes that he has – or might – demand of them, and it now seems to be just fine to blow up ships and their inhabitants at sea, based on accusations of drug running with no regard for due process or international law.

While reasonable people may disagree on the severity of any individual instance of law-breaking or norm-breaking by this administration, I keep waiting for the accumulation of such controversial (to be charitable) actions to reach a tipping point—one that finally compels Republican leaders to repudiate the unchecked power Trump has been afforded. Until then, the downward spiral continues.