Trump/Musk Target Consumer Protection, Election Security, Ethics, Accountability

 

The scope of the chaos and destruction taking place in your government (or as human/pig clone Steve Bannon would put it, "deconstructing the administrative state") has been overwhelming since the Musk-Trump regime came to power.  The targets have been purposeful.  See if you can spot some common themes:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency formed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to safeguard Americans against unfair business practices, is the newest target of Elon Musk and the Trump administration.

The agency is at a virtual standstill after Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and Russell Vought, the leader of the White House budget office and now acting director of the CFPB, took control.

They and congressional Republicans have accused the agency of overreach and not being politically accountable.

Internal emails obtained by ABC News show Vought advised the agency's headquarters in Washington will be closed all week and told employees, "Please do not perform any work tasks."

In a post on X Saturday night, Vought said the CFPB's funding, which comes through the Federal Reserve, is "now being turned off."...

Here's Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) video response --

 

Federal election security

Staffers at the nation’s cybersecurity agency whose job is to ensure the security of U.S. elections have been placed on administrative leave, jeopardizing critical support provided to state and local election offices across the country.

In recent days, 17 employees of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who have worked with election officials to provide assessments and trainings dealing with a range of threats — from cyber and ransomware attacks to physical security of election workers — have been placed on leave pending a review, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Ten of those employees are regional election security specialists hired as part of an effort to expand field staff and election security expertise ahead of the 2024 election. The regional staffers were told the internal review would examine efforts to combat attempts by foreign governments to influence U.S. elections, duties that were assigned to other agency staff, according to the person.

All were former state or local election officials who were brought in to build relationships across all 50 states and the nation’s more than 8,000 local election jurisdictions. They spent the past year meeting with election officials, attending conferences and trainings, and ensuring officials were aware of the agency’s various cybersecurity and physical security services...

Government ethics watchdog 

A federal judge Monday granted a temporary reprieve to the head of the Office of Special Counsel, who filed a lawsuit claiming President Donald Trump fired him illegally.

Hampton Dellinger, the head of the agency, received a termination email Friday night and filed the federal lawsuit Monday.

“That email made no attempt to comply with the Special Counsel’s for-cause removal protection,” the lawsuit reads. “It stated simply: ‘On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Special Counsel of the US Office of Special Counsel is terminated, effective immediately.’"

The agency investigates whistleblower retaliation and enforces ethics laws like the Hatch Act. It is not related to the similarly named special counsel offices within the Justice Department that prosecute politically sensitive criminal cases...

USAID "into the wood chipper"

Nearly half a billion dollars of food aid is at risk of spoilage following the decision of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s “Doge” agency to make cuts to USAid, according to an inspector general (IG) report released on Monday.

Following staff reductions and funding freezes, the US agency responsible for providing humanitarian assistance across the world – including food, water, shelter and emergency healthcare – is struggling to function.

“Recent widespread staffing reductions across the agency … coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAid’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance,” the report said.

According to USAid staff, this uncertainty put more than $489m of food assistance at ports, in transit, and in warehouses at risk of spoilage, unanticipated storage needs, and diversion.

USAid employs about 10,000 staff, with approximately two-thirds posted at the agency’s more than 60 missions overseas across multiple countries. The entire staff was put on administrative leave on Saturday, with limited exceptions.

The decision has caused chaos and devastation for those receiving foreign aid, such as in Malawi, one of the world’s most aid-dependent states.

The sweeping freeze on foreign assistance has also made it more difficult to track potential misuse of US taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance, according to the report...

You couldn't lay out a better roadmap for an unaccountable, authoritarian, kleptocratic, oligarchic takeover of your government if you'd put in all on paper before the election.  The courts are currently serving as (temporary?) speed bumps, but ominous statements by Musk-Trump officials make it clear they view executive power as preeminent and determinative over that of the judicial and legislative branches.  By their words and actions, they're showing themselves as the corrupt, fascist sociopaths that they've always been.

BONUS:  One more --

bribery is legal dot txt

[image or embed]

— Micah (@rincewind.run) February 11, 2025 at 12:02 AM

 

 

Monday Reading

As always, please read the full articles!

Greg Sargent has a must- read that asserts that the "Nunes memo" is a fiasco that is going to have damaging repercussions to un- indicted co- conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump:

It is still very possible that President Trump could use the Nunes memo as a pretext to try to quash or constrain special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe. Trump tweeted over the weekend that the memo “totally vindicates” his claim that the investigation is a “witch hunt,” which is an absurd lie in every possible respect, but it shows he’s still mulling a move on Mueller. 

But the performance of congressional Republicans on the Sunday shows — and a weekend’s worth of legal analysis taking apart the Nunes effort — together suggest another possibility. The Nunes memo affair may be shaping up as a much bigger fiasco than we even know — so bad, in fact, that it could ultimately undermine Trump’s position even more dramatically than we could have expected.

He concludes,

In the end, Trump could still use the Nunes memo to hamstring Mueller by firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and replacing him with a loyalist to oversee the probe. But this would now have to happen either after the Schiff rebuttal served to reinforce the investigation’s legitimacy, or after Trump suppressed the Schiff rebuttal even though it could further undermine his own rationale for taking such a dramatic step. Trump is shameless enough to do this in either scenario. But it could now be harder for congressional Republicans to go along with it. This would not be the case if not for Nunes’s antics — which Trump backed.

We can only hope.

Tea party director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Mick "Dick" Mulvaney is back in the news. Following his actions to protect the payday loan shysters, he's continuing to do his best to further castrate the bureau and help his buds in the financial industry:

Mick Mulvaney, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.  

Equifax (EFX.N) said in September that hackers stole personal data it had collected on some 143 million Americans. Richard Cordray, then the CFPB director, authorized an investigation that month, said former officials familiar with the probe. [snip] 

Three sources say, though, Mulvaney, the new CFPB chief, has not ordered subpoenas against Equifax or sought sworn testimony from executives, routine steps when launching a full-scale probe. Meanwhile the CFPB has shelved plans for on-the-ground tests of how Equifax protects data, an idea backed by Cordray. 

The CFPB also recently rebuffed bank regulators at the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency when they offered to help with on-site exams of credit bureaus, said two sources familiar with the matter.  (our emphasis)

The U.S. Supreme Court just rejected an attempt by Pennsylvania Republicans when it refused to block the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court's order to scrap the Republican- gerrymandered congressional map and replace it with a fair one by February 15:

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt Republican gerrymandering a crippling blow when it refused to block a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that struck down the GOP’s congressional map for illegally discriminating against Democratic voters. The state court had ordered the Republican-controlled legislature to draw and pass a new map by Feb. 15, but GOP leaders have refused to cooperate with the ruling after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf promised to veto any new gerrymander. As a result, the state court itself will likely draw new nonpartisan districts, which could lead to major Democratic gains this fall—anywhere from one to as many as six seats.​ [snip] 

At the same time, because the state Supreme Court’s case is based on Pennsylvania law, this case can’t set a legal precedent for other states. However, the standard that the judges have established could influence federal courts that are hearing challenges to other partisan gerrymanders in pending cases in Maryland, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. This ruling could also encourage reformers to challenge maps elsewhere under their own state constitutions. 

Ultimately, this decision is a monumental victory against one of the worst Republican gerrymanders in the country, and it’s a massive game-changer for Democratic chances of gaining a House majority in November.

Significantly and surprisingly, ultra- right Justice Samuel Alito was the one who denied the stay. Things are looking up.

Finally, as customary, we would draw your attention to the link round- up put together by Infidel for an afternoon's worth of exploration.

Payday Loan Industry Gets Its "Loan" Repaid By Trump Regime

As we noted yesterday, even as they go full- bore obstruction on Russiagate, the regime of un- indicted co- conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump is busy whittling away at the functions of government intended to protect people and advance the common good.  With every day, it seems a new outrage comes to light;  this is today's:

The Trump administration has stripped enforcement powers from a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unit responsible for pursuing discrimination cases, part of a broader effort to reshape an agency it criticized as acting too aggressively. 

The move to sharply restrict the responsibilities of the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity comes about two months after President Trump installed his budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, at the head of the bureau. The office previously used its powers to force payouts in several prominent cases, including settlements from lenders it alleged had systematically charged minorities higher interest rates than they had for whites.

The tea party weasel running the CFPB, Mick "Dick" Mulvaney, also wants to make sure that a certain clientele (no, not the public!) is served:

... Mulvaney has also dropped a lawsuit against payday lenders and said the agency will reconsider rules the financial industry complained would be particularly onerous. He also updated the bureau’s mission statement to include addressing “outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations.” 

As with most things so rotten they reek, you need only to "follow the money" to see why that clientele gets a break from the meanies at CFPB (click on image to enlarge):


(Source: www.opensecrets.org)

Note above that the CFPB was established in 2010 following the financial crisis, after which the payday lender industry shifted it's political donations almost exclusively to Republicans.  So, now their loan has now been paid back with interest.