Trump has been trying to bust federal workers’ unions since his inauguration. Back in January a court blocked him and protected the unions. However, about a week ago the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Trump and gave him a green light to union-bust. Now ProPublica is reporting that while this drama has been playing out, VA hospitals are losing staff and are struggling to replace them.
Veterans hospitals are struggling to replace hundreds of doctors and nurses who have left the health care system this year as the Trump administration pursues its pledge to simultaneously slash Department of Veterans Affairs staff and improve care.
Many job applicants are turning down offers, worried that the positions are not stable and uneasy with the overall direction of the agency, according to internal documents examined by ProPublica. The records show nearly 4 in 10 of the roughly 2,000 doctors offered jobs from January through March of this year turned them down. That is quadruple the rate of doctors rejecting offers during the same time period last year.
I don’t know about doctors, but I can’t imagine RNs or LPNs taking a job in a non-union facility. There are plenty of jobs for them elsewhere. The quality of VA care is going to drop like a rock.
In other news, Trump has fired Billy Long as IRS commissioner less than two months after the Senate had confirmed him. The utterly unqualified Long was the sixth person to head the IRS this year, NBC says. Long is being made ambassador to Iceland as a consolation prize. It’s not clear what happened. And if there is a television sitcom producer somewhere looking for someone to fill a role of a stupid, corrupt small town hayseed, just ask Billy Long to play himself. Keep the dialogue very simple, though.
In Texas, Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton are still trying to get the absent House Democrats kicked out of the Texas House. The Justice Department has convened a grand jury to investigate New York Attorney General Letitia James. This was after Pam Bondi convened another grand jury to probe into “whether Obama administration officials committed federal crimes when they assessed Russia’s actions during the 2016 election,” says NBC News. And on and on. Just about everyone who has ever challenged Trump’s almighty gloriousness is being investigated.
But see Politico, MAGA world swallows a difficult truth: Arresting Trump’s opponents is easier said than done by Kyle Cheney. It begins:
The calls from President Donald Trump’s MAGA base are getting noisier: Texas Democrats who fled the state to derail a hyperpartisan GOP redistricting maneuver should be criminally charged, arrested and dragged back to Austin. …
… But those screaming the loudest appear likely to wind up disappointed. There’s no known evidence that the absconding lawmakers have actually broken any federal or state laws, despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s strained suggestion that they may have committed bribery.
… It’s a familiar refrain for Trump’s second term: The far right lusts to see prominent Democrats or Trump adversaries hauled off in handcuffs, only to be let down when their revenge fantasies run into reality….
…This cycle — impetuous promises of criminal consequences followed by dejection when Trump’s enemies aren’t immediately arrested — has already happened with Jack Smith, with James Comey, even with Joe Biden and Barack Obama (and their top advisers). The Trump administration has ordered investigations of all these figures, but legal experts say the probes are largely performative and unlikely to prompt serious or legitimate criminal charges.
And, of course, the Jeffrey Epstein thing was supposed to be the big payoff. All truth would be revealed about the cabal of Satanic Democrat pedophiles who drank baby blood or whatever it was they were supposed to be doing. In one big cathartic glorious moment all the people they’ve been taught to hate would be rounded up and brought to justice. And now they’re having to face the reality that it’s not going to happen, and Trump is the one blocking them from what he had promised.
“Both Trump and his base are learning that it’s not simple to round up political opponents, even with Trump loyalists in charge of the Justice Department,” Cheney writes. And a whole lot of far-right influencers are turning on Trump for not delivering what he promised. Read Cheney for the details.
See also Things Aren’t Going Donald Trump’s Way by Jonathan Lemire at The Atlantic.
I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised to see that called out – one reason why I'd always want to be in a union medical facility, because that means the nursing union has strict rules about how many patients can be assigned per nurse-shift.
Too many hospitals see nursing care as an expense you can reduce – they don't realize that the best nurses save lives, save surgical numbers, save secondary infections, etc.. And one reason medical facilities can do that, is, a nurse is forced to be responsible for all patients assigned on a shift. If they assign a nurse 3x as many patients as s/he can handle, you better hope all patients need only 1/3rd the attention a nurse can provide.
"they don't realize that the best nurses save lives, save surgical numbers, save secondary infections, etc.."
True but unfortunately our healthcare system isn't really about healthcare it's about making money! And now VA healthcare under Stump/DOGE is all about slashing payroll.
Related in a way, Cameron Stracher writes in the NYT about his catch and kill work for the National Enquirer hiding stories about fearless leader. Not proud of his role in history, he writes of lawyer remorse having to live with the possible consequences of his work. The scofflaw in chief a.k.a. fearless leader along with Mr. Pecker, the then editor in chief of the National Enquirer, knew well how to use the law to hide truth from the public. It is the business of both, you know.
It is good to see a lawyer in redemption mode.
Opinion | I Helped Bury Stories About Trump. I Regret It. – The New York Times
"Long is being made ambassador to Iceland as a consolation prize"
The puns write themselves, being put on ice, put out in the cold, frozen out, etc!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOkQsVJV8ts&t=1s
The Obamas, the Clintons, Jack Smith, James Comey, Oprah Winfrey, Leticia James, Beyoncé…. All people Trump wants to put through trial and public exposure before incarceration. It's not happening, and Trump does not like it and MAGA is chafing at the thought all of them will escape retribution.
This is the most juicy aspect of the MAGA wet dream – revenge. What escapes them did not escape the Founding Fathers. The guarantee of a jury trial was augmented in the 14th Amendment.
"….nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Trump can rant but if the A/G has her stooges with a warrant from a MAGA judge pick up HRC, she will quickly get a hearing in front of a judge where the state has to show evidence that a crime has been committed and there is a risk of flight or violence in order to deny bail.
Thus, in my younger days when I was picked up for drunk driving after two beers and blew a completley legal result on a brethalizer, when I was brought before a magistrate, charges were dropped and I was released. The same is true for Democrats Trump wants to persecute.
What's lost on MAGA, and Trump, is that having power alone, in a democracy, does not empower you to banish an enimy to a deep dark hole. The LAW, in a Democracy, is king. Trump has violated that concept all over the board but when it comes to criminal prosecution, the decision will be made by a jury of peers. And there's no way around that – not yet.
Trump immagines his legal ordeals had nothing to do with his criminal actions. He does not get it. The call to Zelinski that precipitated impeachment was illegal. His call to GA to find votes was illegal. The fake electors scheme was illegal. Taking secret documents to MAL was illegal. Without violating the law, Trump would never have been subjected to indictments.
Trunp holds the levers of power and he gan't *get* his enemies. MAGA does not get that they have not committed a crime by opposing Trump. (Neither have I.) The failure of the Administration to take vengence will not be forgiven by MAGA.
"…the decision will be made by a jury of peers."
Does donnie think this means via an election?
PoliSci Quibble: Law is king in a Republic, not a Democracy. In a Democracy, The People – and their elected leaders – can do whatever they want, ignoring or erasing inconvenient laws.
This is something that my [ex-]Republican [ex-]friends were once proud to explain, and they weren't wrong.
The fact that the modern Republican Party has abandoned its defining principle is firmly lodged in my Top Ten List of Reasons I Hate the GOP. As with most other terrible things about the GOP, it did NOT start with Trump; he has merely stopped bothering to hide it.
The feral hatred that Republicans – especially MAGAts, but also more traditional types – have for [all!?] Democrats is the result of decades of propaganda. Getting rid of Trump won't change that.
I'm relieved that the good guys are so far immune to this kind of persecution.
I'm angry that the shakedown of higher ed – Harvard, Columbia, and now UCLA – and various media orgs – CBS / Stephen Colbert – show no signs of stopping.
This files better here. My error I am fairly sure.
I was not aware of Kyle Cheney before your link, who seems both quite readable and well credentialed. The gem of the article was not his but a quote he took from the elongated one. Pardon the Musk quote but this is a killer (figuratively):
It is the impotency of it all you all and all you all. Important but impotent does not cut it. Even the socially challenged (he claims to be on the spectrum you know) elongated one has that down. It is the ABC level stuff of the real man world. It is way beyond camo, long neck bottles, and pick-up trucks.
That is why the behind the curtain true self of fearless leader has been exposed. The cankles don't help either. Does not fit. Can't acquit. Maybe he is not really one of "us".
Mehdi Hasan finds his sweet spot: ‘1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives’ – Mehdi Hasan on why he went on Surrounded
I admire anyone who is so quick on his feet rhetorically. Sort of like Bruce Lee fighting off a dozen attackers. I hope he inspires lots of young fighters.
This will pick you up: Heather Cox Richardson in Forms of Resistance and Reasons to Believe It’s Working. One of the clearest voices out there.