Perhaps the new theme song for Congress (and the Cabinet) should be ‘Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim. The song was made famous by Glynis Johns, Frank Sinatra and, of course, Judy Collins. The Cabinet is filled with a ‘Who’s Who” of incompetent sycophants. Both the Senate and the House are clearly not functioning legislative bodies nor are they enacting any kind of checks on Trump’s maniacal and dangerous follies. The last thing of any note to come out of Congress was the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) and where the hell is that now?
All the Epstein files were supposed to have been released by December 19, 2025. Here we are one month past that due date and only a fraction of the files have been released and some of those have been so heavily redacted that they are useless. This used to be a country of laws. Congress passed a law. It is a legal requirement for the government to comply with that law. Those days appear to be long gone.
Since the DOJ was not complying with the law, the co-sponsors of the EFTA, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), recently moved to have a court-appointed neutral arbitrator – known as a special master – compel the DOJ to comply with the law. In response, Pam Bondi, the U.S. Attorney General, who swore an oath to uphold the law, filed a motion to block that effort. Her DOJ toadies claim that the court lacks the authority to force the agency to comply with the law. If Congress can pass laws and this administration just ignores them, what the hell good are they? If Congress had any backbone they could impeach her but we all know that she could probably shoot someone on the steps of the DOJ and that wouldn’t happen because Congress has become irrelevant.
Now Trump is escalating his threats to acquire Greenland one way or another. He has said he wants to purchase it. Since Congress supposedly has the power of the purse, where is he going to get the money? Theoretically, Congress would have to approve any such expenditure and, given the amount of money involved, it would likely be an uphill battle. Are they going to pass the ‘big, beautiful bill’ which guts aid programs across the country, results in dramatically rising medical insurance premiums for many Americans, all in the name of reducing government waste and then appropriate an obscene amount of money to ‘acquire’ Greenland? “America first” my butt!
If Trump decides to simply invade Greenland and take it, once again, Congress is supposed to have the authority to declare war and an invasion would cost money as would the long-term defense and infrastructure required to sustain a massive US presence on the island. Is Congress just going to sit on the sidelines like they have been doing during so much of Trump’s term while he commits this transgression of international law and burdens the American people with the consequences?
The Congress has been completely emasculated by this administration. They are ignored. They are not consulted. Trump and his toadies just view Congress as a nuisance like a pesky gnat. Everyone keeps wondering which red line Trump will cross that will cause Congress to stand up and fight back. So far, there have been a lot of red lines crossed and Congress, specifically the GOP majorities in both houses, have done zero to protect the country from the follies of a madman.
The technical term for a fear of clowns is “coulrophobia.” It is a phobia many of us have developed during the first months of this administration. Trump’s follies and the adverse impact on this country and the rest of the world could be stopped, but we now have a bunch of clowns in Congress and in the Cabinet who would rather genuflect to Trump than do their jobs to support the Constitution and the Rule of Law. Some clowns are funny. These spineless clowns are dangerous and, history will judge them harshly.
