Last Week Today Episode 186 Show Notes for Monday, February 17th, 2025
Trump vs. the Deep State and USAID; Canada’s Clueless Premiers & Territorial Leaders, Gabbard, JFK Jr. Confirmed & Vance in Munich; Recession or Depression Expected in 2025; & "Light as Medicine."
Trump vs. the Deep State & USAID
Our top story this week is the Trump Administration’s ongoing attacks against rogue elements of the US government acting independently from public accountability as either a “deep state,” or a “breakaway civilization,” depending on who you listen too.
We begin with the February 17th, 2025 Fox news post, “Trump admin aims for killing blow to independence of 'Deep State' agencies.” The post notes that:
President Donald Trump's Department of Justice is seeking to overturn a landmark Supreme Court case in an effort to give the president greater control over independent three-letter agencies.
In a move that could allow Trump to more easily fire officials who refuse to implement his policies, the acting U.S. solicitor general sent Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin a letter on Wednesday, notifying him of the Justice Department's plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a key precedent that limits the president's power to remove independent agency members.
The letter, penned by Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, says the DOJ has determined "that certain for-cause removal provisions" that apply to certain administrative agency members are unconstitutional, and the department would "no longer defend their constitutionality.
The case in question, Humphrey's Executor v. United States, is a 1935 Supreme Court case that narrowed the president's constitutional power to remove “agents,” employees and senior bureaucrats working for the executive branch of the US government.
As outlined in the Supreme Court case, the heads of certain independent regulatory agencies (often called “three letter agencies” because of their acronyms) cannot be directly fired by the President without cause.
They include the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) but there are others, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies.
Their agency heads serve fixed terms and can only be removed by the President for performance reasons, "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office" as defined by the statutes establishing these agencies.
This protection is designed to ensure independence from political influence.
Samantha Power, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2021 to 2025 was ”placed on administrative leave” in February 2025 as a result of an ongoing investigation from the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
A strong case could be made that she was acting with “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance:
DOGE has accused USAID of being a "highly coordinated, egregious criminal enterprise" and claims that it has been stealing US tax dollars for years. DOGE considers the situation to be one of the greatest scandals in US history involving government spending, with perhaps up to 40% of the official USAID budget missing or reallocated illegally to programs outside of its mandate.
While USAID is officially tasked with distributing just under $50 Billion dollars budgeted for foreign aid annually, it also sponsored the Wuhan Lab with its illegal gain of function research and undermined governments around the world in a variety of attempts to further the aims of mostly long-term US government autocrats, the US military complex and Democratic politician who essentially didn’t believe their ideas would ever be accepted by voters in an open debate.
The DOGE investigation seem to indicate that 9 out of 10 US based journalists are funded, at least in part, by taxpayer dollars originating illegally from USAID. It’s not clear how domestic journalists received so many tax dollars earmarked for foreign aid were funneled for so long into domestic US legacy media but malfeasance seems to be involved.
While the current situation at USAID is the story making headlines this week, its worth noting that USAID Administrator Power hasn’t been fired, only placed on leave.
If such an obvious example of "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office" can only be placed on “administrative leave” but not fired, it will be interesting to see the Trump administration’s next moves.
Its worth noting that the legality of the executive order placing Power and most other USAID employees on leave has been contested and a federal court has issued a temporary restraining order pausing the staff reductions.
As outlined in the February 7th, 2025 Guardian post, “Government workers sue Trump and Rubio over ‘catastrophic’ USAid cuts,” the lawsuit accuses DOGE head, the billionaire industrialist Elon Musk, of spearheading the campaign to destroy USAID with “humanitarian consequences.”
According to the post:
“The agency’s collapse has had disastrous humanitarian consequences,” Thursday’s lawsuit said, including shutting down efforts to fight malaria and HIV. “Already, 300 babies that would not have had HIV, now do. Thousands of girls and women will die from pregnancy and childbirth.”
But the bait and switch tactic doesn’t seem to have worked this time. USAID remains mostly shut down and the government remains on track to reduce the size of the department from 10,000 to 300.
From Trump’s perspective, other agency heads and their staffs are now on the chopping block. The US President is hoping that his challenge to Humphrey's Executor v. United States will prove successful and allow his administration to hire and fire US government bureaucrats as they see fit.
Also in the News this Week
Canada’s Clueless Premiers & Territorial Leaders
“I think diplomacy is working” trumpets the February 13th, 2025 Toronto Star post, “Canada’s premiers meet with Trump advisers at White House: ‘I think diplomacy is working’.”
The post noted that:
All 13 provincial and territorial leaders were in the American capital Wednesday to warn US lawmakers about the potential fallout of Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canadian imports.
The “sub-national” leaders also secured an afternoon meeting at the White House with Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Jim Blair, and Sergio Gor, director of the presidential personnel office.
All the extra time an effort to get a public meeting at the White didn’t enhance the public perception of any of the leaders or provincial premiers because, as outlined in the January 13th, 2025 CBC News post, “Alberta Premier Danielle Smith visits Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago,” the Alberta Premier had already had private conversations with the US president in January 2025.
Trump normally doesn’t meet with people who have nothing to say so Smith scored a coupe by getting a personal meeting.
The premiers and territorial leaders weren’t quite so lucky, having to console themselves with a short meeting with a mid-level staffer and the head of the White House personnel office.
The result was more of a snub and hardly the success the Canadian leaders and the Toronto Star claimed.
In other Canadian news, independent new media journalist Sam Cooper continues to note how close crime bosses affiliated with Chinese Triads have also managed to affiliate themselves with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal MPs and how the connection is affecting and influencing tariff negotiations.
As outlined in the February 11th,2025 Elev8 Podcast on YouTube post, “Big CRIME Bosses Found FUNDING Liberal Party of Canada! Trump was RIGHT,” the US president’s public concerns in the current tariff negotiations are all about:
The increase of fentanyl trafficking through Canada.
The connections between the traffickers, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and both the Canadian and Mexican governments.
And the ease which illegal’s can cross the Canadian border.
Trump doesn’t talk about explicit or specific examples of Canadian corruption, but US intelligence and law enforcement authorities are certainly aware of the situation.
It’s also worth talking a look at the January 29th, 2025 ITM Trading post, “The Real Reason Trump Wants Canada: Lies and Dark Ties to China - Exclusive Report,” which includes an interview with Cooper and fills in a few of the blanks.
Of course, none of this information is available through a reading of the final report of the Federal governments Foreign Interference Commission, released on January 28th, 2025.
That report, as outlined in the January 28th, 2025 CTV News post, “No evidence of ‘traitors’: Takeaways from the foreign interference inquiry’s final report,” is generally perceived of as being a “whitewash” intended to protect Federal MPs from close scrutiny and domestic prosecution.
To be fair to Trump, the US president cares more about the Chinese CCP connections to various Canadian politicians than he cares about drug use. It’s generally conceded by intelligence agencies on both sides of the Canadian border that illegally obtained profits from Chinese drug running helps to fund Canadian politicians and makes them beholding to Chinese communist party interests.
The Canadian politician’s insistence that there’s nothing to see does a disservice to both the Canadian public and the US who both know damn well what’s going on.
Although the Canadian premiers and territorial leaders are refusing to admit the extent of what’s going on, there are some developing cracks in the Canadian façade.
The February 12th, 2025 Associated Press post, “Canada’s new fentanyl czar says goal is to totally stop the drug from entering the US,” provides an overview of some initiatives designed to placate international sensibilities.
Of course, the February 13th, 2025 CBC News on YouTube post, “The impossible task of Canada’s new fentanyl czar | About That,” almost immediately walked back the new “fentanyl czar’s” earlier statement, at least for domestic consumption, because it contradicted previous Federal government statements on the matter.
Gabbard, JFK Jr. Confirmed & Vance in Munich
Also in the news this week, Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, a cabinet level US government appointment giving her direct control over the United States Intelligence Community (IC) to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP).
All 18 IC agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), report directly to the DNI and changes are expected there very soon.
Gabbard, a former Lt. Col. in the Hawaii National Guard with tours of duty in Iraq and two terms in Congress, has come down hard on many intelligence policies and actions over the last twenty years.
Until 2024, she was listed on an US intelligence “no fly” list for her political views, in spite of her ongoing service.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also been confirmed as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
As outlined in the February 17th, 2025 Food Safety Magazine post, “RFK Jr. Confirmed as HHS Secretary; Widespread Firings Coming to FDA, CDC,” changes are also expected in that government department.
Hopes are riding high that Kennedy’s tenure at HHS will be one of the most consequential in recent memory.
His well known opposition to big-food and pharma companies concerned more with profits than health has made him both enemies and friends.
In Europe, US Vice President JD Vance was at the 61st Munich Security Conference, held in Munich from February 14th to 16th.
The consensus of the other attendees, mostly European Union (EU) and NATO senior officers, is that Vance gave them a piece of his mind. The February 16th, 2025 BBC post, “Five takeaways from the Munich Security Conference,” notes that:
JD Vance gave either a really good speech or a really bad, but definitely a memorable one on Friday, attacking EU security policies, especially their concerns over domestic freedom of speech, and reinforcing the policies of the new administration in Washington.
The current age is “the end of an era.” While America is still in NATO, Europe can no longer automatically rely on US aid to fight its political battles.
It’s also an age of “disunity and discord,” with funding and warfighting concerns mixed in with policy considerations and a lack of overall consensus of the way forward.
NATO’s policy of providing unequivocal support of the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “upended,” and falling apart.
Europe, everyone agrees, needs to rapidly raise its defense spending if it has any hope of deterring a newly emboldened Russia in the Ukraine and elsewhere.
While the Munich conference was occupied by the geopolitical, Donald Trump announced plans to bring in a 25% tariff on all Canadian and EU steel and aluminum imports, beginning in March, 2025.
As outlined in the February 11th, 2025 BBC News post, “Trump says no exemptions with metal tariffs to start in March,” the announcement was as good of a way as any to remind EU and Canadian leaders of the person really driving the negotiations.
Recession or Depression Expected in 2025
But while the military big-wigs congregated in Europe, the real news was being reported in North America by new media outlets focused on pocketbook issues.
The February 8th, USA Watchdog post, “Danger of Deep Worldwide Recession in 2025 – Ed Dowd,” quotes former money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd, who notes that a week economy under former US president Joe Biden was “propped up under the Biden Administration and how a crash, this year, is inevitable.”
The post also discusses how massive quantities of illegal immigrants, mostly funded by USAID grants, and how they have distorted the economy. According to Dowd:
What we are going to have going forward is the reversal of deficit government spending, which was juicing the economy with illegals.
Some of them got jobs, but a lot of them got benefits. They got housing accommodations. The NGO system was flush with money to facilitate this massive, purposeful logistical operation.
People don’t understand that the net legal migration in the US is one million a year. That’s one million people a year. The last four years, we brought in 10 million to 15 million people. That is a new economic variable, and it distorted the economy. It never got us into expansion territory, but it papered over a lot of the ills we were seeing.
Trump’s policies are going to reverse that all out...
Standby for adventure and hard times, beginning in 2025.
Light as Medicine
And finally tonight, here’s the February 15th, 2025 Mongo Minds on Bitchute post, “Light as Medicine.”
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