Cause and Effect

The Empire strikes back, 2025 edition

May 8 was certainly a bad day for the Trump administration in Congress. Two of their highest-profile stooges—and there are so many of them to choose from—went before Senate committees and got their asses handed to them. Senator Chris Murphy handed Kristi Noem a world-class beatdown (shown above) and Kash Patel looked both indifferent and clueless under questioning from Senators Patty Murray and Jeff Merkley. They both looked like fools and, since Congress controls the power of the purse, they had to sit there and take it. It made for some fascinating viewing.

But on the very next day—and I can’t believe there wasn’t some causation involved here—a truly disgusting scene played out in Newark, New Jersey. What can only be described as a gestapo-like action saw the mayor of Newark being arrested, and three members of Congress and many innocent civilians pushed around in a show of the type of brute force that should never happen on the streets of America.

It’s no accident that Congress reminds the Trump administration one day of its dependence upon them for funding, and the next day an array of government henchmen—each armed with masks and sunglasses and hidden identities along with their weapons and body armor—descends upon elected officials who were peacefully performing oversight functions. It was calculated payback, plain and simple.

To add an additional layer of sliminess to the situation, Stephen Miller has dangled the possibility of suspending the writ of habeas corpus because he thinks that there’s an invasion going on. There isn’t, of course, but that’s just a minor technicality to this crowd.

Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg, as Abraham Lincoln used to say, but labeling the presence of undocumented persons in this country an “invasion” can have real world consequences, particulary when a supine Republican party controls both houses of Congress. And the Democrats’ play appears to be holding off on impeachment until after the midterm elections, which are still eighteen months away at this point.

Who knows what will happen between now and then? I have my own list of preferred outcomes, but sharing them here won’t do me any good once the next round of gestapo actions kicks in, so I’ll leave them off for now. But they aren’t too hard to figure out, either. Time will tell, just like it always does.