Boondoggle
a guide to the omnicrisis
with Jim Driscoll and Chris Floyd
Boondoggle
The Collapse of the Institutions
In this episode, Jim and Chris discuss the woeful response of Columbia University to Trump's aggressive attempt at control and crackdown on academic freedom and free speech. They discuss the letter organised by friend of the podcast and journalist for The Nation, Sasha Abramsky, recently published in the Guardian and available here. (Incidentally, the question was raised in the episode as to the level of Columbia's endowment. It is $14 billion.)
Other institutions are also crumbling, with major law firms and media organisations also bowing down before the Trump administration's threats. Where are the much vaunted guardrails of democracy now?
Jim and Chris also discuss the seeming incompetence of the Trump administration. Whilst they are incompetent at governing, they are proving very competent at bending the federal government to their will, which is of course what their actual job is. As a thought experiment, think about what circumstances you can imagine Attorney General Pam Bondi resigning under. Weaponising the federal government to go after political opponents? Of course not! Failing to express sufficient loyalty to Trump? Failing to go after Trump's political opponents? That's the ticket! Now you know what her job is.
Jim and Chris finish by noting how, throughout the whole Signal scandal, very few people, including amongst the Democratic opposition in Congress, have pointed out the fact that the US bombed an entire residential building in order to take out one Houthi leader, expressly waiting until he entered his home. This might indicate what the jobs of Democratic members of Congress are too of course.