There are so many stories to follow up on that it’s hard to decide which to write about. I’ll start by briefly listing a few of them.
FCPA enforcement paused
The new AG
Pam Bondi has been instructed by the president to stop prosecutions of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and review all current investigations against American
companies. According to Trump “over-enforcement” of this anti-bribery law is
hurting American competitiveness. Bondi is to write a new guideline for FCPA
that prioritizes “American interests”. According to anti-corruption watchdog
Transparency International, this law has made America a world leader in
fighting corruption. Trump's directive will open American business to more
corruption and bribery.
ordo amoris
JD Vance and
the Republicans have adopted a concept from Medieval Catholic theology known as
“ordo amoris”. This means there is a hierarchy of love – family first,
neighbors and community next, fellow countrymen third, then all the others. The
Republicans use this to justify their persecution of immigrants of non-European
countries. In a letter addressed to U.S. Bishops Pope Francis countered this by
quoting the biblical command to “welcome the stranger” and “love thy neighbor”.
The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches that our neighbor includes those of
other ethnic or religious groups. Jesus taught that we are all part of the
family of God and gave no special consideration to his own mother or brothers.
BEYA conference
The Black
Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) is an annual conference that attracts students,
academics and professionals in science, technology, engineering and math. Historically
this has been an important event for the Pentagon to recruit top talent. But
not this year. The U.S. Army Recruiting Command will not be participating and
Armed Forces officials are not permitted to attend in uniform. So much for
meritocracy. It appears that the Trump regime is not interested in hiring the
best qualified people for the job if they happen to be Black.
On the same
theme Pete Hegseth said on January 31 that Black History Month and Women’s
History Month are “dead”. I wonder if he’s going to cancel Mother’s Day next?
Kash Patel lied under oath
Kash Patel
is Trump’s pick for head of the FBI. At his Senate hearing he said, under oath,
that he knew nothing about the recent firings of top officials at the FBI. He
also said that he would follow all the internal FBI processes with respect to
any type of employment action.
Richard Durbin,
ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, received information
providing clear evidence that not only did Kash Patel know about the firings
but that he was directing them. There are two problems with this. First,
someone who will lie under oath is not the best candidate for the head of the
most important law enforcement agency in America. Second, he has only been
nominated, not appointed, so has no jurisdiction to give any directions to the
FBI.
Elon Musk’s Conflicts of Interests
There is a
huge conflict of interest with Elon Musk and the dismantling of certain government
agencies. A review by the New York Times found that 11 of the federal agencies
that have been affected by the firings of their top officials have more than 32
investigations or enforcement actions into six companies that Musk owns. FAA
has fined SpaceX for safety violations. The Securities and Exchange Commission
is suing Musk for $150 million for violating federal securities law. The
National Labor Relations Board has 24 investigations into his companies for
violating labor laws. There have been hundreds of complains to the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau about Musk’s Tesla cars. Musk’s businesses
currently have about 100 contracts with 17 federal agencies and over the last
five years has secured $13 billion in contracts. A State Department plan for a $400
million contract for “armored Tesla vehicles” was just changed today to “armored
electric vehicles” to avoid the appearance of conflict. Do you doubt who will
get the contract anyway?
Another conflict of interest involves USAID (see February 4 post) which Elon Musk has gleefully destroyed. In September 2024 the USAID Inspector General Paul Martin testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability. The name of the hearing was ""Foreign Policy, Interrupted: How Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Blunt America's Impact Abroad". Martin testified that Musk's company Starlink was interfering with their efforts to stop sexual exploitation and abuse in Ukraine. So Elon Musk while claiming to eliminate fraud and abuse in USAID was actually covering up his own fraud and abuse. The full report of the investigation will now never see the light of day.
Run out of
time for today. Two more stories I’ll get to tomorrow – dismissal of charges for
NYC mayor Eric Adams, and Trump’s negotiations for peace in Ukraine.
Sources
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fcpa-anti-bribery-law-executive-order/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/world/europe/pope-trump-immigration-deportations.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/kash-patel-fbi-durbin.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/elon-musk-companies-conflicts.html
https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/poking-around-at-the-end-of-year
No comments:
Post a Comment