Gordon L. Weil
1. Lt. Columbo, one of the most famous television police
officers, always identified himself and showed his credentials. There’s a reason that police officers wear
badges, so it was routine for him and almost all officers to identify
themselves.
The purpose of the Constitution is to protect people from an
overzealous government that might trample on their “inalienable rights.” The badge identifies the police to a person
who they approach and gives that person a means to take action against an abuse
of their authority. It can limit
arbitrary police action and promote accountability.
But agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement show no identification,
even wearing no insignia on their uniforms.
This American secret police wears face masks. It is impossible to know if a person is being
accosted by an authorized law enforcement agent or a thug. ICE says they need to be protected from illegal
immigrants. Children? University graduate students? People asking who
they are and risking arrest for impeding them?
This looks remarkably like a policy that says a national emergency
allows the government to ignore the Constitution. That document is not meant only for use on sunny
days; it’s meant for any day.
2. President Trump is hailed for getting NATO allies to
agree to match the American spending of five percent of GDP on defense. The U.S. is a continental nation, unlike all
NATO members except Canada. It must
maintain a two-ocean defense plus a presence elsewhere. That’s not true for Belgium or Spain. Maybe one size does not fit all.
Besides, five percent, like so many other rules, is based on
the number of fingers on the human hand.
When Spain says it can meet the alliance’s obligations applying to it,
but at a lower cost, the NATO Secretary General, a total Trump fan, flatly says
they can’t. That raises the question if
member countries even have specific military obligations to the alliance or
just a budget commitment to keep Trump satisfied and on board. Maybe we don’t have to see them, but we need evidence
they exist.
3. Maine Sen. Susan Collins was one of only three GOP
senators to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill. Her risk-taking deserves credit.
Some of her Maine critics allege that she takes on the
president when she knows it won’t influence the outcome. Did she know that Alaska’s Murkowski,
normally her ally, would vote for the bill?
Collins is proud to chair the once-powerful Appropriations Committee,
a post which requires her to show GOP loyalty.
But her committee was entirely bypassed by the OBBB. It had no visible say on any appropriations
in the bill; Collins was just another face in the Republican crowd.
North Carolina’s GOP Sen. Thom Tillis was so unhappy with
Washington events, that he chose not to run next year for a third term. Collins seems to be moving toward seeking a sixth
term, more than any senator from Maine has ever had. Her place in history might be better if she
showed more independence and either chose not to run or accepted the risk of defeat. Margaret Chase Smith is well remembered, but
she lost her last race for the Senate.
4. Trump likes to count people like the leaders of Russia,
China and North Vietnam as his friends.
Maybe he thinks that will flatter them.
Maybe he thinks that, in his select group of friends, he will be respected
and get results. For him, world politics
is personal.
He may be missing out on history. The other chiefs are not wheeling and
dealing; they are pursuing centuries-old goals and relationships. Trump simply does not have the educational
background to know where they are coming from.
He does not get results as he might in a purely business deal.
Maybe the authoritarians think they can string him along so
that they can pursue their ambitions without his interference? We’ve heard of the “fog of war.” How about their “fog of false friendship?”
5. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a select group of
five Norwegians. Often, the Prize reflects
the idealism of Alfred Nobel or the political values of Norway. For example, the 1935 Prize went to an
imprisoned German journalist who had been critical of illegal Nazi rearmament. And it doesn’t usually go to peace mediators,
but rather to the parties that have agreed to make peace. Negotiations are rewarded more often than
surrenders after being bombed.
Trump has been nominated for the Prize by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued
an arrest warrant to face charges of responsibility for war crimes.
Taking this all together, it’s doubtful Trump will be
invited to Oslo in December.
6. A Supreme Court “shadow docket” decision just allowed
Trump to reorganize the federal government and lay off thousands of workers
until such time as the Court decides if what he has done was allowed by
law. By that time, Trump will have reshaped
the government without congressional approval, in effect overriding its
decisions.
Thus, what is served up as a procedural decision, overriding
the detailed analysis by a district court without providing any substance, has
the effect of a major ruling. In the
unlikely case that the Supreme Court were persuaded by the lower court’s
ultimate ruling, its decision would amount to locking the barn door after the
horse is stolen.
Either it should have taken the case, heard arguments, and
made a reasoned decision or it should have left the temporary stay in place
until the district court did its job. That
court could have been given a limited time to produce an appealable decision. Instead,
the Supreme Court continued rubberstamping presidential actions without any
sign of serious consideration.
The shadow docket – decisions without reasons – are a cause
for public losing confidence in the Court.
Biden, if he had determined that he was retiring after one term, might have tried to restore some balance to the Court by “packing” it? Instead, he was sure he would win, so did nothing to undermine what he thought was his popularity.
