Summary
Donald Trump fired FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the agency’s only Democrats, prompting accusations of illegal action.
Both cited Supreme Court precedent protecting FTC commissioners from dismissal without cause. Bedoya warned Trump wants the FTC to serve corporate interests, while Slaughter said the administration fears accountability.
The 1935 Supreme Court ruling bars presidents from removing FTC commissioners arbitrarily.
Critics say the move undermines regulatory independence and eliminates opposition voices that could challenge Trump’s policies favoring major corporations.
DEI?
Just illegal, fascist things.
guns
Most blatantly and openly venal miserable and horrible attempt at an “administration” in the last 60yrs… Likely in US history.
Helluva legacy for you Chump! Good one!
🙄 🙄 🖕 🖕 🖕
You went from 60 years to ever in US history lol.
Sorry wasn’t more clear…
I’ve been alive 60+ years so 60yrs is “in my lifetime”… What I witnessed…
The rest, I assume, is clear.
All that he’s missing is a war America is involved in, not related to the trade tariffs. We’ll find out which country he wants to go to war with soon.
Canada, Greenland or Panama. He’s still deciding. Give him time it’s been a busy two months!
I wouldn’t be surprised if it were Central America, first. They already lack strong governments and global positioning. Especially with the cartels actively holding back progress.
That is one of my more annoying thoughts. In his child-like rampaging through the most powerful office in the world, he might accidentally do something good like wipe out the cartels or give support to a country that really needs it on the global scale. The cost will be extremely high. Like through the twisted Nazi experiments, we ended up learning a ton about mental health and brain responses that… Well, it’s probably the only way to discover some of those things. But the methodology is unthinkable.
He may have some success in beating the cartels back, somewhat. But overall he’s not going to support any country down there, he’s going to send the military to bomb the fuck out of what little infrastructure they have, cause large amounts of collateral damage and death, and seize whatever is of value. We’ve already seen this playbook in the middle east.
I didn’t really do a good job in my comment. I meant fostering support by others, just like Ukraine. Against his whatever crazy agenda. But I totally agree.
Playing this forward in my head -
The U.S. attacks Panama, who probably have some way of sabotaging or permanently disabling the locks, which are already struggling to keep up with modern shipping demands, despite the recent expansion. Under the weight of either the U.S. attack or the inoperability of the locks and resulting loss of income, the Panamanian government falters, and the only groups with money and a need for land with loose or weak laws is the cartels. The resulting instability may or may not spread to other countries, but the displaced people/refugees will directly or indirectly exacerbate immigration to the U.S. Within 15 years Arctic Sea ice has decreased to a point that the Arctic will be navigable in the summer. Within 50, during the winter, as well. If not sooner, if the U.S.’ attempts to roll back climate policies are successful.
All in all, a losing proposition in the short and long term. Trump’s kind of “deal.”
Yeah, Panama also side steps the NATO problem.
Here in America we have great wars, the best wars, possibly ever. We do war so well we fight on both sides, and we always win. We’re so good at war, we keep it civil. The most civil of any war, possibly ever.
The fact that approval ratings for Trump are still as high as they are while the approval for the only other far, far, far lesser evil you can vote, the Democrats, is sinking, does not give me any hope whatsoever for the US, were I naive enough to believe that the next elections that matter could come soon enough or that they would still remain legitimate. The US no longer has a trace of Democracy except for the mask it wears, it is at the same or even lower level than Russia’s.
I think it’s important to put it in context: the Democrats are hemorrhaging support from their base who thinks they should be doing more to resist this administration. That does not mean they are losing support in favor of Republicans.
Meanwhile Trump is only losing a tiny amount of support because his base is a cult of personality that worships him. They won’t turn against him until he’s hurting them so directly that they can’t rationalize it as somehow being Obama’s fault. But many of them are delusional enough that they will never abandon their fealty so matter how much he harms them.
Democrats hemorrhaging support despite that support not being in favor of Republicans is what already cost them the elections, and they are the sort to more easily fall prey to propaganda meant to dissuade them from participating.
Do what a Trump official would do, refuse to leave. What are they going to do?
Earlier today, the DC police forcibly removed the employees of an independent agency after the employees called said police to get the illegal attempted-invaders removed.
Then make them do that
So, let’s say after we add this to the already massive stack of criminal acts he and his jackbooted loyalists have done, we all gather around and admire how big it is while the few who remain that are capable of doing anything at all about it- do absolutely nothing at all about it.
Enjoy your tiered internet, US citizens! Want to access cnn.com? That’s in the special site, requires the premium package of 150/month extra but we’ll throw in free reddit.com…
Hey bud, FTC, not FCC. Both woulf be bad but this might be worse.
FTC website (current 20250319)
The Commission is headed by five Commissioners, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, each serving a seven-year term. No more than three Commissioners can be of the same political party. The President chooses one Commissioner to act as Chair.
FTC website (current 20250319)
The FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection stops unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices by collecting reports from consumers and conducting investigations, suing companies and people that break the law, developing rules to maintain a fair marketplace, and educating consumers and businesses about their rights and responsibilities.
I mean at this rate… wait another month 😞
ftc, jfc.
Xitter now cost you 50 cents for the privilage of posting a tweet bootlicking president musk
(and the magats would happily do it)
What I don’t understand is, in what sense did he actually fire you? It’s illegal. Just show up to work anyways.
Why do people keep saying this is illegal lol. Just because you don’t agree with something doesn’t make it illegal. Don’t you think some high powered lawyer would offer to fight this for them?
Did you not read the article OR the comments? ? ? I quote an above op who paraphrased the law. “They do have a ruling. 1935. May not without cause. Specific language is inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”
Alternatively, it’s illegal because it was confirmed to be illegal by the supreme court in 1935. Why would you assume we’re not speaking truthfully?
If the security team and the operations team are willing to obey the order and revoke access then the illegal firing is very much effective.
The jackboot thugs that work security for these government agencies have repeatedly demonstrated that they’re happy to listen to the children running DOGE over the members of the agency that they’re supposed to be securing, so at that point what do you expect one of these beaurocrats to do? Get into a fist fight with all the mall cops that are itching to serve the fascists?
That would be something at least
And nothing will be done.
Dems are just going to sit there with frowny faces, say bold things but take it up the ass.
Nice frowny face, are they using lube in your fantasy?
No but there’s a block in yours.
Oh, I get to say it this time. A dog can’t play basketball!
This makes no sense unless he can’t get his own people on the FTC or the FTC Republicans aren’t amenable to his agenda. It’s a bipartisan agency and the head leaving earlier left a spot open to swing the 5 person board to the Republicans.
okay, so, ‘bipartisan’ but the fiscal conservatives sided with the wild eyed fascists, because they always do that.
the thing is, there’s a split there. the fiscal conservative oligarch wall street coke fiends know the FTC exists to create a perception of stability, making america an appealing place to invest, and put your money, so they get more money.
the wild eyed fascists are rabid frothing ideaologues who just need somebody to hate. right now that’s ‘the government’.
It took me a second but I think you’re saying this is a factional thing within the GOP. Where the Christian fascists just wanted the FTC dead and they got Trump to listen to them?
more complicated than that, not exactly but overlapping with the christofascists, but yes.
I don’t understand why the Fuhrer voted himself additional emergency powers, he should have as much power as he needs as chancellor of the reichstag?
Stop making sense. I want to go back to the 90s when such an idea was laughable.
While we cannot go back, what we can do is go forwards.
Why are you still expecting nuance? They’re Democrats and haven’t kissed his ass yet. That means they’re on the chopping block.
Entirely possible with this asshole. And with more coffee on board it strikes me that making the FTC unable to function at all may be the goal.
Woke: Get illegally fired and act like you were fired illegally. Keep going to work. Let security block your entry. Argue that you still work there because the order to fire you was illegal. When you’re arrested, take the matter to court and get legal standing on the fact that your firing was illegal.
Broke: Get illegally fired and whine on social media about it.
I’m sure going into the FTC, swiping their security fob and having it deny them entry would be a huge boon for their cause. If they’re asked to leave by security and they don’t they can be legally arrested for trespassing.
The same afternoon she was dismissed, Slaughter is out with an official statement and on the phone to multiple press agencies to get the story out immediately. Sure sounds like someone taking action to me. No doubt she will take them to court (likely the other guy will join her) but that doesn’t happen overnight, this was literally yesterday - best lawyer in the world would struggle to have an actionable case ready yet.
You’ll note that none of the above can be done if you’re still under arrest for trespass…
Biden: “I can’t fire a postmaster general who actively tried to sabotage the election against me in 2020 because it would be against the law.”
Trump: " I fired someone who SCOTUS directly said i can’t fire because some people openly bribed me"
Biden then preceded to fill the open slots on DeJoys board with DeJoy supporters btw.
that was the wierd part he did.
I’m not sure I buy into Dems being Republican-Lite, but through that lens Biden’s actions do seem pretty suspicious
They’re both pro capitalism parties sponsored by the 1%, Democrats suck up social change movements to ensure they don’t challenge the status quo.
Hey at least they have the moral high ground - they’ll have a good view watching the country sink into fascism from up there
Or Biden and the 10k$ of student debt - which he buckled on basically immediately. Handouts to donors are okay, helping Americans isn’t.
This is a perfect example of why refuting bullshit is so much harder than generating it or spreading it.
The Biden admin tried several times to forgive debt and was stopped by every republican and finally the Supreme Court. They didn’t drop it, they were forced to stop by Republicans after repeated attempts. If they didn’t find a legal path to forgiveness, it could be clawed back easily in the future.
The Trump administration can do whatever the fuck it wants right now because Republicans are letting them with their overall majority.
And as Trump has shown us the Supreme Court has LOTS of Teeth so you BETTER listen to them!
More unnuanced bullshit, that’s objectively false, with small grains of truth. Makes people think Biden had the same backing Trump does now, which is false.
If only Biden had ignored all checks and balances the way Trump is. That’s what we’re actually asking for here, right?
Trump Dum
“Illegally fired” means you rolled over and resigned in response to a threat
Its not like they can just keep showing up to work and the security keyfobs will keep working and the paycheck will keep coming.
That shit wouldn’t work at a Taco Bell I don’t see how you guys think it would work for a Federal Trade Commission officer.
Right, much better to just sadly vacate the building when threatened. If you do what they want, maybe they’ll be nicer to you.
Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said they’d been dismissed illegally and would sue to block Trump’s order. They also said they consider themselves still part of the FTC, though whether they will still have access to their offices and logistical tools like email going forward was unclear.
From a different, apnews article. Not sure what more you want them to do.
What if they were fired but kept showing up and being paid, then you just keep moving their desk and taking their staplers? Then get a couple of Bob’s to interview the entire staff after a few years of that. Oh, and make sure that any birthdays that get celebrated they have to pass their piece of cake to the next person and don’t get any themselves. Eventually “fix” the accounting error and just let things work themselves out.
