Donald Trump and Elon Musk transformed Washington in just six weeks. The entire bureaucracy got the memo: get with the program or leave. The Senate, the House, and the entire executive branch have implemented new priorities.
The Senate: All of Trump’s nominees were confirmed, including such high-risk picks as Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr. Of course, the Democrats voted against them in lockstep; RINOs made a few noises about maybe not voting to confirm. But John Thune, the new Majority Leader, compiled a 20-0 record.
The House: Speaker Mike Johnson has an even tougher job: a very slim majority, RINOs from swing districts and, at the other extreme, the Freedom Caucus. Herding cats would be easier. But Johnson got a budget passed on schedule. It contains some lard, as the cost of convincing RINOs to approve it. Of course, Senate Democrats are now stalling, risking a government shutdown.
The Executive Branch: Trump’s new Cabinet immediately went to work. DEI was eradicated. Work-at-home bureaucrats were told to come back to the office and explain what they do that’s so valuable. Thousands took a buyout or were fired, so a lot of offices remained empty. Some are being repurposed.
("Bill Ayers Dancing." Image created by Jim Davis, with Hailuo AI.)
USAID had wasted billions of tax dollars, on such left-wing projects as transgender surgery in Guatemala. It’s now shut down for a thorough audit. Its former building lost its enormous “USAID” lettering, re-occupied instantly by ICE, which is processing murderers, drug traffickers and rapists — who happen to be illegal immigrants — for deportation.
Nothing better illustrates the new priorities of this administration.
What Awaits Unemployed Democrats?
As the most trustworthy minions of the Democratic Party Deep State (DPDS) resign or get fired, they’re heading back to Chicago, NYC and California. If they have law licenses, DPDS law firms such as Jenner & Block, or Sidley & Austin, would be happy to make them partners.
Otherwise, academia awaits with six-figure salaries. Such soft landings are customary for DPDS elites. Here in Illinois, Sen. Alan Dixon got a well-compensated “of counsel” position at a law firm years ago, and disgraced Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot just landed a lucrative Harvard fellowship, teaching one class per semester for a six-figure salary.
The left-wing lecture circuit is another option. Hillary can train them how to get $200,000 for 20-minute speeches. It seems unlikely that any of them will land in a homeless camp behind a liquor store, but one can always hope.
Retribution needs to be high-visibility, dating back to Obama’s first year in office in 2009. If possible, hard landings in federal court should become their “new normal.”
“The Chicago Way”
The test case for looting the federal treasury in broad daylight was Solyndra, under Obama’s “green energy” initiatives:
Solyndra’s chief investor, George Kaiser, was also a bundler for Obama’s 2008 campaign, gathering over $50,000 in campaign contributions. Kaiser, together with Solyndra executives and board members, donated $87,050 to Obama’s campaign.
As part of the economic stimulus, Obama’s Department of Energy (DOE) fast-tracked a loan of $535 million (at the lowest interest rate granted by the DOE program) to Solyndra in 2009 to create green jobs. …
About a year later … Solyndra laid off nearly all of its 1,100 workers and declared bankruptcy. … DOE allowed Kaiser and other investors to recover their investments first, before DOE attempted to recover the $535 million in taxpayers’ money. What a sweetheart deal. America’s taxpayers have been left holding the bag.
Solyndra board members voted themselves “golden parachutes”: multi-million-dollar severance packages. This was repeated by Nevada Geothermal ($145 million) and Beacon Power ($43 million). For Illinois voters, the Solyndra pattern was all too familiar. Left-wingers contribute to Democrats’ campaigns; after the election, they’re rewarded with taxpayers’ millions.
Some of those executives again donated generously to Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012. Those were kickbacks. Notice also that Obama’s “economic stimulus” was the same as Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act: neither was intended to repair the economy. They were “green energy” gravy trains for Democrat donors.
During Biden’s term, what the Chicago Tribune’s John Kass calls “the Chicago Way” returned to Washington on steroids. The DPDS — whether its chairman is Obama, Hillary, or Kamala — is always scheming up new ways to steal millions, or billions, of our tax dollars for their donors.
Holding the worst offenders of the past 16 years accountable would be a crowning achievement for Team Trump, but many were pardoned. James Comer and Mike Johnson said they’ll look into declaring Biden’s pardons invalid. Pam Bondi and Kash Patel should as well; and, if successful, they should look into both prosecution and asset forfeiture.
Here in Illinois, Mike Madigan (D) was the longest-serving speaker of any state legislature in history. Last month he was convicted on ten out of 23 bribery-related charges. In May, he’ll face asset forfeiture on $3.2 million in bribes, and he’ll be tried on the remaining charges this fall.
Similar fates should await all of Joe Biden’s pardon recipients, and other DPDS operatives who have scattered billions of tax dollars to the four winds. It's unprecedented: we had a vegetable for president, whose handlers directed him to massively abuse his pardon power. He was reading whatever they put on a Teleprompter, and signing whatever they put on his desk.
But whether Biden’s pardons survive or not, justice demands a creative solution.
Bondi’s DOJ could argue that because Biden didn’t understand what he was signing, his pardons aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. After all, a special prosecutor said a year ago that he’s too senile to stand trial. But Bondi and Patel can start with the ones who weren’t pardoned.
How Forfeiture Works
They might take every penny these DPDS operatives have through asset forfeiture, just like Madigan. The DPDS has looted the federal treasury, off and on, since 2009. DOGE exposes the titanic contours of this plundering. Forfeiture can “claw back” the stolen and misspent funds.
Some view forfeiture as unconstitutional. If it were, it would have been thrown out by federal courts in the earliest days of the Republic. They’ve had thousands of opportunities. (Guidance on forfeiture can be found here and here.)
For those who object to this as government weaponization, it’s already been weaponized: against Trump, his associates, and ordinary Republicans who entered the Capitol on January 6, prayed in front of abortion clinics, or objected to LGBT porn during school board meetings.
“Turnabout is fair play,” but this is not weaponization. It’s an appropriate use of forfeiture laws.
Forfeiture seizes property bought with criminal profits, or used in committing a crime. In one notorious case, the DEA seized a $100,000 boat because a joint was found in the ashtray. The worst offenders who lived by Lawfare should die by forfeiture, financially.
Potential targets obtained this wealth through (or used these assets to commit) bribery, money laundering, even manslaughter. For Peter Daszak, it was a million manslaughters: a crime against humanity. For Gavin Newsom, it was wildfires that killed 27 people. Add Anthony Cuomo and other governors who sent COVID patients into nursing homes, killing thousands of those most vulnerable to COVID.
Here in Chicago, Bill Ayers launched Obama’s political career. He has a “reverse Midas touch”: everything he touches usually turns to left-wing bull manure. He led the Weather Underground, but avoided prison time for his bombings, much like these pardon recipients.
Joe the Vegetable may have just created dozens like Ayers. Like Obama’s Chicago Way, the reverse Midas touch may have metastasized across America. The most notorious Ayers quote is, “Guilty as hell. Free as a bird. It’s a great country.” His photo was taken for that interview while he danced an Irish jig on an American flag, in a filthy Chicago alley.
DPDS operatives, whom this writer hopes will face forfeiture, could repeat this Ayers quote with the same grin. But they should quote him sarcastically, angrily, in a homeless camp behind a liquor store — just before dumpster diving for their next meal.
Pam Bondi should create a forfeiture task force, targeting every DPDS minion who participated in this looting and reckless mismanagement. Make them prove — with a defense fund that will, no doubt, be hastily organized — that they didn’t get any of it from, or use any of it for, criminal activities.
Even if a few succeed, the details in the public record would be educational.
Jim Davis is an IT specialist and paralegal, with degrees in political science and statistical analysis: the underpinning of all science. His work has appeared in Newsmax and Daily Caller. You can find him as RealProfessor219 on Rumble.
("Push-to-Play Joe Visits a Homeless Camp." AI image created by Jim Davis, with Hailuo AI.)