Bondi Fired, Courage After Retirement, & A Library So Fancy "It" Forgot the Books
April 4, 2026
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: The 4th U.S. President could teach the 47th a thing or two.
Pam Bondi Out: When “you’re doing great!” means “pack your things.”
The Backbone Shows Up Late: Or, poor NATO, with friends like these…
Library: A 747 in the lobby, not a book in sight…Miami’s Newest “Library”
What I’m Watching: Cover-Up
Jukebox Playlist: Living For The City
Kareem’s Daily Quote
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” James Madison
James Madison originally wrote that quote in Federalist 51, part of The Federalist Papers. I’m assuming the angels he was talking about were not strictly from the Christian point of view (where some are thought to be fallen), but maybe closer to the Muslim ideal of heavenly beings of light who are faithful to their Creator and the Creator’s tenets, who wouldn’t think of doing anything else. And yes, any being who falls short of those ‘angelic standards’ could probably use some reining in.
Including you and me.
You know how it is: if I accidentally swerve into someone else’s lane of traffic, I’ll right the wrong and quickly justify the action. I was tired. Someone swerved towards me. I had something in my eye. The other car was in my blind spot. But you just try to swerve into my lane…then there’s no excuse. You’re a lousy driver, period, and your license ought to be taken away.
In other words, we’re not terribly forgiving of one another’s shortcomings. And when we’re not, it’s good to know there’s an arbiter who will judge correctly, rationally, without prejudice.
In other words, government at its best.
The trouble is, we have to trust the arbiter. And the more a government (I won’t say which one) goes on recess when it should be working; or approves people to run huge and powerful sectors with no training, qualifications or even obvious intelligence; or goes belly up in the face of adversity (also known as “being primaried”); or refuses to legislate—to do its damn job!—we the people lose confidence in our elected and appointed officials, and it’s every man and woman for themselves.
Because, here’s another hard-to-believe fact: those same government officials are people too. They’re not a mind hive. They don’t automatically slip on the robe of righteousness the moment they get elected. Which means that they need to be governed as much as we the people do—I’d even say more, because they have more power and can therefore do more damage. A recent NY Times guest article by Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had this chilling line: “It is increasingly evident that the greatest threat [to our elections] now comes from inside our own government.”
Let that sink in for a moment. The very government who is supposed to be protecting us and our vote is trying to undermine this foundational tenet of how to make a government work. But why would people who made a vow to protect our Constitution do such a thing?
Because power changes people. It bends and tempts them. It whispers, “Hey, you’re different. You can handle it.” Which is usually the moment we (and they) stop handling it…and start getting our picture taken with a $50,000 Rolex on our wrist and cages of human beings as a backdrop. Or start talking about war as an “excursion” that’ll last a few weeks or maybe a month—oh, and have you seen sketches of my gargantuan ballroom? How about this terrific Arch of Triumph? (As they say, you can’t spell Triumph without Trump!)
Madison was right. Government exists because people will absolutely take advantage of a system if you let them. You give someone an inch, they’ll take a mile. You give them a mile, they’ll build a condo and start charging rent. And we the people exist not only to live our own lives and do our own thing but to make sure that government officials do what they’re supposed to do instead of taking advantage of our system.
And the sooner and the more thoroughly we do that, the quicker we’ll be able to believe in that system as the arbiter of justice once again.
