Mike the Mad Biologist

I like this detrumpification proposal from Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin (boldface mine):

President Donald Trump may get a show at the Smithsonian, though not as he might have hoped. On October 6, representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland introduced a bill directing officials from the Smithsonian Institution to collect and preserve “artifacts related to the President’s narcissistic self-worship.”

These artifacts include the giant banners bearing Trump’s face that have hung outside several federal agency buildings over the past 21 months, and signs the President plans to place outside of Smithsonian museums warning visitors about the “ideological capture” of the institution.

“The Preserving and Remembering the History of Trump and other Tyrants Act” is, in part, a response to July’s executive order 14416, which was titled ‘‘Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution.’’

The goal of the six-page bill is to establish a permanent museum exhibition that presents “the rise of governmental propaganda, corruption, and authoritarianism due to the two Presidencies of Donald J. Trump.” In addition to artifacts of the state, the bill directs the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to collect relevant photo, film, and media, as well as the personal narratives of American citizens “who resisted and opposed authoritarianism.”

The exhibition would place the Trump presidency in the context of earlier periods of American political extremism. These include the Know Nothingism of the mid-19th century, the Lost Cause myth that gained popularity at the turn of the 20th century, and McCarthyism of the 1950s. The bill also proposed a sign of its own to accompany the permanent exhibition. It would read: “Donald Trump ordered the installation of these signs without any Congressional authorization as required by the Constitution. The 119th Congress passed legislation authorizing this exhibit.” In a Republican controlled house, the bill is unlikely to pass.

(You can find the actual legislation here).

While it won’t pass this term, Democrats should pass it next term, and if that fails make it part of a reconciliation bill.

One of the frustrating things about DOGE is that so many of those little shits have profited from their time spent helping themselves to our data and firing dedicated public servants. So this suggestion for some accountability should be filed under “you live by the sword, you die by the sword”, with the House DOGE Committee being the sword:

Here is a tangible short-run action to hold DOGE accountable. Lets assume Democrats gain control of Congress in November. There is an existing DOGE subcommittee in the House. Reconfigure it with staff and members able to make it do the job it has failed to do thus far: provide real oversight of DOGE. Run hearings that puts former DOGE members under oath. Call whistleblowers the DOJ has ignored. Call the “blockers” Lewis wrote about and other witnesses to abuse. Create public salience and a record that will lay the groundwork for criminal investigations in 2029. Establish credible signals that they won’t get away with it.

And when you do this, don’t have hearings in the usual alternating five minutes of blather for each side. Run roughshod over the Republicans–enough with the ‘we need to work with fascists in a bipartisan manner’ bullshit–and have real hearings, with the threat of contempt charges if they lie.

Because Democrats do need to “establish credible signals that they won’t get away with it”, and this would be a good start.