The billionaire boys club surrenders in advance
December 13, 2024
Note regarding Christopher Wray's Resignation
Several dozen readers responded to my criticism of Christopher Wray’s resignation by saying Wray may have been trying to outsmart Trump. Readers cited an op-ed by David French in the NYTimes that claimed Wray may have been trying to limit Trump's options for appointing a replacement under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
David French’s theory is wrong. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act applies equally to vacancies created by resignations and firings—at least according to three legal opinions issued by the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). If the OLC opinions are correct, Wray gains no “strategic advantage” by resigning rather than waiting to be fired.
If David French meant to imply that the Federal Vacancies Reform Act applies to resignations but does not apply to firings, then Donald Trump would have no authority to appoint a temporary replacement if he fired Wray. The Federal Vacancy Reform Act is the exclusive means for filling a vacancy for the Director of the FBI; if the FVRA doesn’t apply to firings, then Trump can’t fill the vacancy. See Ben Miller-Gootnick, Boundaries of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, 56 Harv. J. on Legis. 459 at 489 (2019).
If French contends that the FVRA does not apply to firings, then Wray should have waited to be fired rather than resign—because Trump could not appoint a temporary replacement after firing Wray (under French’s theory).
There are additional nuances to the application of the FVRA, which I note in the linked document. However, the bottom line is that Wray created no strategic advantage by resigning rather than waiting to be fired. But in resigning, Wray surrendered to Trump. About that question, there is no doubt.
Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
Time Magazine has chosen Donald Trump as its Person of the Year. Although Time claims that its “person of the year” is not necessarily a designation of honor, it can be seen in no other light when the owner of Time issued this statement on Twitter:
Congratulations to President Trump on being named TIME Person of the Year 2024. This marks a time of great promise for our nation. We look forward to working together to advance American success and prosperity for everyone. May G-d bless the United States of America.
Reader Katharine H. shared a letter she sent Time Magazine about its choice of Trump as Person of the Year. I have included excerpts below:
Color me unsurprised that yet another formerly respectable publication has bent the knee to try and make us all accept the unacceptable and explain the inexplicable.
Your “Person of the Year” is a liar, a felon, an unapologetic white supremacist, a misogynist, a xenophobe, an adjudicated [sexual abuser], a bully, and a con artist.
Your “Person of the Year” embodies every single character trait I’ve tried to teach my three children NOT to have.
Your “Person of the Year” has broken countless norms of our democracy, including his refusal to accept the results of the free and fair 2020 election, and his incitement of an insurrection at the United States Capitol - the seat of our democracy.
[Y]ou are so fundamentally and inherently wrong to normalize the most abhorrent human imaginable, who has done immeasurable damage to our country, has corrupted its institutions, and is on a path to destroy its fragile and vaunted democracy all in service of his own disgusting and insatiable ego.
Your “Person of the Year” is an insult to millions of Americans like me who care about basic decency, democracy, and the rule of law.
Trump's statements in his Time Magazine interview
In his interview with Time Magazine, Trump admitted that he will not be able to reduce the price of groceries—as he repeatedly promised during the campaign. What a surprise! See HuffPo, Trump Backtracks On Campaign Pledge To Bring Down Grocery Prices
Trump also said he would
allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
begin pardoning January 6 insurrectionists “in the first hours” of his administration.
use the military to deport immigrants
impose tariffs on countries that refuse to accept immigrants deported by the US.
President Biden announces 1,500 clemency grants
On Thursday, President Biden announced the largest grant of clemency in US history. The White House announcement is here: President Biden Announces Clemency for Nearly 1,500 Americans | The White House
Per the White House announcement,
The President is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities. He is also pardoning 39 individuals who were convicted of non-violent crimes. These actions represent the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo published a thoughtful article on Biden’s mass grant of clemency. See Talking Points Memo, Pardons and Unmerited Grace.
Marshall argues that clemency should be more broadly available and should be the norm rather than the exception, given the harsh reality of prisons and the over-sentencing that frequently occurs because of mandatory minimum sentences and federal sentencing guidelines.
Marshall writes,
In fact, much of what passes for pardons or clemency today aren’t really pardons at all. They’re basically fake clemency. . . . [I]n almost every one of these cases the recipients have already done their time! They took responsibility; did their time; expressed remorse and then went on to live an exemplary life. What they get is an almost entirely symbolic record wiped clean.
I recommend Marshall’s article to anyone concerned that Biden’s mass grant of clemency is unwarranted or unusual.
Opportunities for Reader Engagement
I received an “extra credit” newsletter from Indivisible Marin on Thursday that is worth sharing with everyone:
Hello IndiMarin Members!
Thanks to those of you who called the White House earlier this week!
We typically won't send more than one advocacy-related email in a week, but this month is a particularly crucial time for calls to Congress and the White House before the current terms end. So consider this request extra credit and call if you have the bandwidth.
Use this link to look up the contact info for your Senators. Then, place one call and cover any or all of the asks below.1) Express to your Senators your dissatisfaction with the nominations of Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and Robert Kennedy and ask them to take all steps in their power to block these profoundly dangerous nominations whether they have an opportunity to vote on them or not. (Feel free to add names to this short list as desired.)
2) Tell your senators that you expect them to oppose H.R. 9495 and speak out against its inclusion in any must pass legislation. On 11/21, the House passed H.R. 9495, a bill that would give the incoming Trump administration unchecked power to target any non-profit organization that stands in the way of their MAGA agenda. Now, the bill is going to the Senate for consideration.
3) Help protect migrants in the U.S. by asking your Senators to actively support the request of President Biden by Senators Padilla, Lujan and Cortez Masto to designate, redesignate, and extend Temporary Protected Status for eligible countries, and protect deferred action recipients via expedited processing and expansion of legal pathways.
Concluding Thoughts
On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerburg contributed $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. On Thursday, Jeff Bezos matched Zuckerburg’s contribution. See Reuters, Amazon donating $1 million to Trump inaugural fund, to air event on Prime Video. Amazon upped the ante, sweetening the deal with a free airing of the inauguration.
The in-kind airing of Trump's inauguration on Prime video is worth $1 million.
Remember that time—eight weeks ago—when Jeff Bezos defended not endorsing a presidential candidate because “most people believe the media is biased” and that not endorsing a candidate would boost the Washington Post’s credibility?
So, what are we supposed to think eight weeks later when Bezos makes a voluntary contribution of $2 million to Trump? I think that the owner of the Washington Post is squandering what little credibility is hiding in the nooks and crannies at WaPo’s headquarters in D.C.
The collective cowardice and cowering of America’s billionaires before Trump is a sorry sight. Zuckerburg and Bezos are virtue signaling their obeisance to Trump even before a metaphorical shot has been fired in the usual struggle between regulators and robber internet barons.
With the preemptive surrender of Christopher Wray and the Bobbsey Twins, it is a good time to remind ourselves of Timothy Snyder’s first rule of opposing tyranny: Do not obey in advance. A reader sent this YouTube video of Snyder explaining his most important rule from “On Tyranny”: Lesson 1: Do Not Obey in Advance.
Snyder begins his five-minute talk as follows:
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
The “billionaire boys club” is teaching Trump what he can accomplish with a side-eye glance and a gassy grimace. The only redeeming factor in the quick surrender of Zuckerburg and Bezos is that they have finally, irreversibly revealed who they are. We no longer need to waste time wondering or hoping whether they will help defend democracy. They will not.
As always, it is up to us--ordinary American citizens who love their country more than billionaires love their money. It has always been so. This moment is no different. But it does not make it less painful or surprising to learn, once again, that those who have been most blessed by American opportunity and freedom care for it the least.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Daily Dose of Perspective
Clouds are still covering the night sky in Los Angeles, so I am reprinting one of my favorite images: The Rosette Nebula. The nebula is 5,200 light-years from Earth and 130 light-years in diameter. The Rosette Nebula is a dense star nursery, with more than 2,500 newly forming stars in the central region.
Robert, I really appreciate the mention. I hope others will take the opportunity to let Time know exactly how you feel. I wrote the editor here:
letters@time.com
Here’s what I said in full, in case it helps anyone else. And to those who point out that 45’s ascendancy to the cover “tracks” with Time’s pattern of awarding Hitler, Stalin, and other despicable humans with the same “title”, I say perhaps it’s their pattern that needs to change. 🤬
“Color me unsurprised that yet another formerly respectable publication has bent the knee to try and make us all accept the unacceptable and explain the inexplicable.
Your “Person of the Year” is a liar, a felon, an unapologetic white supremacist, a misogynist, a xenophobe, an adjudicated rapist, a bully, and a con artist.
Your “Person of the Year” embodies every single character trait I’ve tried to teach my three children NOT to have.
Your “Person of the Year” is the poster boy for the Seven Deadly Sins, has broken most if not all of the Ten Commandments, never goes to church, normalizes discrimination against the marginalized, yet not only fancies himself a Christian, but is also lauded by evangelicals.
Your “Person of the Year” has broken countless norms of our democracy, including his refusal to accept the results of the free and fair 2020 election, and his attempt to incite an insurrection at the United States Capitol - the seat of our democracy - for the first time in our history.
Your “Person of the Year” is the opposite of everything I’ve been taught to value in my 62 years - those messages and lessons of acceptable behavior as defined by my parents and immediate family, my schools and my teachers, my church and my church leaders, my universities and my professors, my jobs and my bosses, my hometowns and their leaders, my country and its representatives. Since birth, these institutions and individuals have consistently driven home the FUNDAMENTAL importance of honor, integrity, morality, honesty, ethics, and decency in driving everything we do - of being a respectable person of principle - of being humble and honorable, of treating people the way you want to be treated, and of having the courage of our convictions.
I’d like to choose that courage now, and say that you are so fundamentally and inherently wrong to normalize the most abhorrent human imaginable, who has done and will continue to do immeasurable damage to our country, has corrupted its institutions, and is on a path to destroy its fragile and vaunted democracy all in service of his own disgusting and insatiable ego.
Your “Person of the Year” is an insult to millions of Americans like me who care about basic decency, democracy, and the rule of law. “For better or worse” you say in your explanation of why THIS person is “your” person, selling your soul without even the slightest sense of shame. The thing is, you could’ve elected not to mention his name at all, kind of like I’ve done in this letter, and turned the attention to someone else - where it would’ve actually been a recognized and respectable honor - someone who DESERVED such acclaim, who would make us all say YES; yes indeed.
In these fraught times we need a hero. We need the decent. We need the honorable. We need the KIND. We need individuals and institutions willing to defend our nation instead of the indefensible. We need to fight for what is RIGHT, and stop amplifying the awful. Yet here we go AGAIN, placating a narcissistic sociopath with a “title” he so desperately craves but will never EVER deserve.
So is it me who’s gotten life wrong for 62 years, or is it you, in celebrating this MAGA king - this bully - this thug - this disgusting enabler of the hateful underbelly of our society - with an “award” that if I had to guess, he probably paid for?
I’ll take a stab at the answer, leaning into all the lessons I’ve learned since birth, while applying every ounce of honesty I can muster, and say:
I tend to think it’s you.”
Kamala Harris is Person of the Year…hands down!