The Situation: Just Asking Questions

The Situation on Saturday contemplated murder in the Caribbean Sea.

Today, however, I am keen to ignore “The horror. The horror.”

I am ignoring the National Guard deployments, the threats thereof, and the litigation over them. I am ignoring the apparently ongoing effort to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud. I am ignoring the ongoing government shutdown. I am even ignoring the Treasury Department’s determination to mint a dollar coin with Donald Trump’s visage on it.

Today, rather, I am just asking questions.

I have a lot of them.

Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Why do the civil service laws mean so little?

Why are appropriations laws not binding? And why do we nonetheless say that Congress has the power of the purse?

Why does the Supreme Court care so little if the president defies appropriations laws?

Why do I always find lost things in the last place I look?

Why do laws governing TikTok not count?

Why do institutions created by Congress, funded by Congress, and never eliminated by Congress no longer exist?

Do I have to obey a masked person who claims to be a law enforcement officer and wants to detain me but won’t identify him- or herself—and if so, why?

Will the meek actually inherit the earth?

Does the government have to tell the truth in court? And why does the Supreme Court not seem to care if it doesn’t?

Why does the administration not care if children take the measles vaccine but care very much if pregnant women take Tylenol?

Whatever happened to the inspector general of the Justice Department—a figure I recall once having some energy and eagerness to take on alleged misconduct at the FBI? Why does the suddenly-spectral occupant of that office have nothing to say about the firings of career officials at the FBI and the litigating components of the department, the dismissal of prosecutors for refusing to bring cases they believe meritless, or the conduct of senior Justice Department officials in certain matters that have become the subject of whistleblower complaints?

Here’s one that’s been bothering me for a few weeks now: Would the United States be blowing up civilian boats in the Caribbean Sea in frank violation of federal murder laws had the Supreme Court not declared the President of the United States to be absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for official acts like ordering military actions?

Why do the words “Vaseline” and “baseline” not rhyme?

Why does the Supreme Court consider it an irreparable injury if the government is temporarily blocked from enforcing a questionable interpretation of a law but not consider it an irreparable injury if the enforcement of that law while its legality gets adjudicated causes someone to be deported to a repressive country or causes some institution to go belly-up for lack of funds or causes an entire federal agency to be dismantled? 

What does the word “irreparable” actually mean?

Does democracy actually die in darkness?

Why do people say they are “humbled” after winning an award about which they actually feel like kvelling? 

What were all those flag officers, some of whom traveled thousands of miles for the occasion, thinking during Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s speech about grooming standards, weight, and “beardos”?

What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force, and can God make a rock too heavy for Himself to lift, and can a future non-MAGA president RIF ICE out of existence?

How many times does a federal grand jury have to refuse a federal prosecutor a true bill of indictment before that federal prosecutor faces ethics allegations before his or her state bar, and is there any mechanism by which these things get reported to state bars? For that matter, how many times must the Justice Department as an institution face rebuke by a grand jury before someone—anyone—takes a formal look at the ethics of departmental practice?

Will deployments of ICE, federal law enforcement, and national guard troops in urban areas interfere with the conduct of midterm campaigns and elections—and does the Supreme Court mind if it does?

Does a television producer named Mark Burnett have any regrets about creating a reality show called “The Apprentice”?

Does a senator named Bill Cassidy have any regrets about voting to confirm a cabinet secretary named Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?

How is the country going to function given all these people with “mitochondrial damage,” and how can I learn the neat trick of distinguishing vaccinated from unvaccinated children merely by looking at their faces?

Is climate change still happening?

What exactly is current American policy towards the war in Russia and Ukraine?

Can the center hold?

Do the majority of Americans actually want to live in a constitutional republic?

Can a constitutional republic function in the absence of shame?

I’m just asking questions.

The Situation continues tomorrow.