Donald Trump, in his effort to crush the American federal government, has started the first Republican Putsch.  Several news sources report that the EPA funneled federal funds through a no-bid contract to partisan Republican groups.  The avowed purpose was “media monitoring”.  That really means using Republican dirt-research firm America Rising to search out anyone in the agency who criticizes the EPA, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, or President Donald Trump.  Really, forget all that niggling ‘freedom of speech’ trash.  This is realpolitik.

Oh, yeah, that’s your tax dollars they’re spending on partisan, illegal, anti-democratic and wholly anti-American activities.  Are you wondering why another obvious misuse of federal funds isn’t even worth apologizing for?  No investigation was even suggested.  Sounds like another ‘check and balance’ is magically missing.

Before I go on, consider the idea of regulatory capture.  Here’s Wikipedia:

Regulatory capture is a form of corruption. Specifically, it is a government failure which occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.
— Wikipedia, Regulatory Capture

There are a ton of older examples:

• The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).
• The U.S. Copyright Office.
• The Federal Election Commission (FEC).
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
• The modern Republican party.
• And now, the criminal enterprise we call the American Presidency.

 

And now that Republicans and Trump control all three branches of government, they’ve been gutting even more critical agencies:

• The Department of State (DOS).
• The Department of Justice (DOJ), including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
• The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department.
• And, in big, upper-case letters, the Scott Pruitt Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Oh, and they’re working on corrupting the courts, too.  You can’t “Lock him up!” when you’ve fired most of the US attorneys.  Oh, and they’re undermining the free press, of course, here and abroad.

Trump’s goal?  I have trouble looking into his mind.  Maybe he’s just trying to keep his richer friends happy?  For the rest of us, it’s like we’re being punk’d.  Yes, Trump had to work really hard to find the appallingly unqualified nominee for each major position in his administration, but somehow, he managed to find the absolute worst candidates for each slot, over and over.  And there are all the critical positions that Trump won’t even fill.

By comparison, the Republican party’s motives have been much more obvious.  They’ve been working for decades to create a permanent Republican state.  It’s their daily wet dream.  And for decades, they’ve been gerrymandering districts, buying out the press, viciously enforced party loyalty, voter suppression, open dirty tricks, and undermining every part of the government that might restrain the Republican party from creating an American totalitarian state.

Now we’re spending federal agency funds on evaluating people’s individual party loyalty.  Wowsa.  Along with chartered private jets and the critical EPA Cone of Silence. We’re on our way now!  Fascists around the world are cheering!

It’s not like Accidental President is the author of this.  Trump’s not close to smart enough.  Hell, he’s too deeply thick to see that Republicans will chuck him out of power the instant they stop thinking they need him.  He’s just their patsy.

We’ve seen this before.  The Republicans have already come for the socialists, and the trade unionists, and the immigrants, and the refugees.  Here’s a prediction: they’ll come for the pornographers next.  Watch what happens after the FCC decision against Net Neutrality becomes effective.  After all, who will defend pornographers?