Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

Expendables: Illegal and Unconstitutional

I believe the sentiments of most American people towards Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi are that their firings are no great loss.

To give credit where credit is due, before becoming national public figures, both women had achieved notoriety in their own states. Like it or not, they are accomplished women, women achieving competently in the world of politics, Noem as governor and Bondi as attorney general.

Both are transactional types. Again, like it or not, each did her bounden duty to serve the will of the President, even when his demands were illegal and unconstitutional. Each, I believe, hoped for higher offices to come, in reward for executing acts and processes to eliminate the leaders “enemies,” whether enemy aliens or political opponents. Each stretched constitutional and societal mores beyond their limits in efforts to appease the endless greed of their leader, failing only because they wouldn’t go far enough. They broke laws. It wasn’t enough. They lied for the leader, they served his means.

I’m glad they are gone, and I feel sorry for them. They did everything the leader asked. They sacrificed personal integrity. They lied. They issued unconstitutional orders.

It didn’t pay. In the end, they took attention away from the man of endless genius they served. He found them to be expendable. They did what he wanted, but were not successful and exposed his means to public scorn. That was unforgivable. They’re pretty enough (and that matters to the leader) but just women.

“Off with their heads!” exclaims the Red Queen.

The one good thing, for them, that may come out of all this is to have escaped a morality-impaired regime before it collapses in ruins. This is just the beginning. Those who will not accept accountability must have scapegoats to carry the blame.

April 4, 2026 Posted by | Bureaucracy, Character, Civility, corruption, Leadership, Political Issues, Women's Issues, Work Related Issues | , , , | Leave a comment

Slight of Hand and Wires and Mirrors; No Accountability

Our leader announced a speech to the nation, which turned out to be nothing but repeats of “Truth” social posts and comments previously made. A boring, disjointed 19 minutes of nothing credible. Credibility is stating a mission and following through. Chaos is changing the mission and its achievements every ten minutes or so. If you don’t believe me, watch the stock market.

Meanwhile, behind the curtain, The Great Oz and his handlers are changing how our democracy operates. The failed military officer, Pete Hegseth is examining and removing African Americans, females, and especially African American Females from promotion lists. He is firing the top general who questions his judgement in toying with a time honored system where the military chooses its leaders based on performance and leadership abilities, not their gender nor their color.

Does Hegseth understand demographics? Does he understand that military recruitment is problematic these days days, that the pool of recruits has shrunk dramatically? Does he understand that brawn no longer wins wars, but fighter planes, drones, new ideas and weapon development are fighting a new kind of war, where every gender and color contributes the the nuances of creative strategies available to a commander in chief who genuinely understands how to function in the fog of war?

Today Heather Cox Richardson alerts us to another slight of hand, the kind of small change the controllers hope will go unnoticed: The challenge of ACCOUNTABILITY and how it impedes a sitting President. She quotes the following, and it quite takes my breath away:

Yesterday Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, of the Office of Legal Counsel, published an opinion for the White House that claims the Presidential Records Act, which requires that presidents keep records of their official business and turn them over at the end of their term, is unconstitutional. Gaiser clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

“The PRA is not a valid exercise of Congress’s Article I authority and unconstitutionally intrudes on the independence and autonomy of the President guaranteed by Article II. The Act establishes a permanent and burdensome regime of congressional regulation of the Presidency untethered from any valid and identifiable legislative purpose,” the memo reads. “For these reasons, the PRA is unconstitutional, and the President need not further comply with its dictates.”

(taking a moment to catch my breath)

We burden our elected president with the requirement that we know what he does and why he is doing it?

How can anyone believe this lunacy? Any person in a position of responsibility has to answer to his polity! Elected politicians all the more. He answers to us, the voters.

Our leader has a lot to answer for. We can’t trust anything he says, from minute to minute. Our treasury has been declared insolvent. He is sending our children off to war with unclear orders and insufficient leadership.

He has hired a confederacy of ignorant, greedy sycophants. He has gutted our diplomatic service. He has gutted Consumer Oversight. He has gutted the Environmental Protection Agency. He has corrupted the Department of Education.

He is terrified he cannot win and is attempting to take over national elections. Meanwhile, he is bankrupting our country with garish monuments and wars we never agreed to fight.

He is subjecting women to outdated standards and taken away their rights to make decisions for their own bodies.

He is corrupting our social system, taking medical care away from those who need it most, and callously neglecting the veterans who have served our country so loyally.

He has made agreements with other countries that we only learn about by accidental comments.

This can’t go on. Give us Accountability. Oversight. Congressional Approval. Fair and Free Elections. Constitutional Restraints!

April 3, 2026 Posted by | Bureaucracy, Character, corruption, Counter-terrorism, Cultural, Free Speech, Interconnected, Iran, Law and Order, Leadership, Living Conditions, Middle East, Money Management, Political Issues, Scams, Social Issues, Stranger in a Strange Land, Uncategorized, Weather, Women's Issues, Work Related Issues | , , , , , | Leave a comment