okay, but who hasn’t accidentally added an unvetted stranger to a group chat brimming with high-ranking government officials freely talking about the innermost, classified details of a sensitive military operation?

As of May 23, 2024, CFPB enforcement has yielded over $19B billion. A random sampling of cases:
• The CFPB successfully fined Wells Fargo $3.7 billion for widespread abuses affecting 16 million—including $2 billion in consumer restitution—wrongful foreclosures, illegal fees, & misapplied payments.

• The CFPB settled with Santander Consumer USA for $11.79 million ($9.29 million restitution, $2.5 million penalty) due to deceptive marketing of its S-GUARD GAP add-on product and unclear disclosures regarding loan extensions, violating the Consumer Financial Protection Act.

• The CFPB secured a $15.5 million settlement from USAA Federal Savings Bank ($12 million restitution, $3.5 million penalty) for violating consumer protection laws regarding stop-payment requests, error resolution, and unauthorized account reopenings.

• The CFPB secured a $25 million settlement ($20 million restitution, $5 million penalty) from Freedom Debt Relief for violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule.

• The CFPB secured a $30 million settlement ($25 million restitution, $5 million penalty) from TCF National Bank for violating overdraft consent rules.

• CFPB concluded a lawsuit against Navient, a former major student loan servicer, resulting in a $120 million settlement—a $20 million penalty & $100 million in borrower relief— for misleading about repayment plans, botching payments, & misrepresenting cosigner release and credit score improvement.

As of May 23, 2024, CFPB enforcement has yielded over $19B billion. A random sampling of cases:
• The CFPB successfully fined Wells Fargo $3.7 billion for widespread abuses affecting 16 million—including $2 billion in consumer restitution—wrongful foreclosures, illegal fees, & misapplied payments.

Fun fact: If George Washington were still alive, he’d be the oldest living former president. 🤯

no president, trump included (or especially him really), is an all-knowing sage whose every word should be met with unquestioning obedience. they’re not “the boss.” you are!

but it is hardly in the interest of either entrenched party to upend the status quo for its sake.

the uk's recent election, where the reform party fragmented the conservative base, enabled labour to capture a disproportionate share of seats relative to its vote share. what is needed is a system like ranked-choice voting,

there are simply too many partisans whose political fortunes are intertwined with the president's to ever reach a critical mass.

unfortunately, i don’t see it changing soon either. fear of vote splitting is well-founded.

for awhile, i dismissed the need for more political parties on the grounds that the existing ones could simply accommodate diverse ideological factions. the reality, however, is that this arrangement makes such basic accountability measures as impeachment all but impossible.

There’s an interesting rift forming between hardline anti immigration Nazis and far right business interests that understand no immigration will collapse our economy. The incoherence of the coalition has once again hit a fracture point

dear diary,

today i said merry christmas at starbucks.

the woke barista fainted, george soros fled crying, and an eagle named freedom landed on my shoulder. everybody clapped.

not all heroes wear capes - some just fight against the happy-holidays industrial complex 🇺🇸🦅

There is a very real possibility that the bird flu will send egg prices soaring to record heights. By the standard Trump himself has set, it is only consistent that he bears full responsibility.

- Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI Director nominee, vowed to “come after the people in the media”

Trump's recent activities:

- Attempted to appoint Matt Gaetz – then under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sexual misconduct with a minor – to lead the DOJ, but withdrew the nomination amid insurmountable opposition

- Threatened to impose 25% inflationary tariffs on both Canada and Mexico
- Routinely including Elon Musk on calls with foreign leaders

- Nominated Monica Crowley—another Fox News personality who had claimed “Obama was born to a Muslim father, which under Islam automatically made him a Muslim...Can he be both loyal to Islam and loyal to the United States?”—to be Assistant Secretary of State

- Appointed RFK Jr. to lead HHS despite a history of spreading vaccine misinformation that helped bring about a measles outbreak in American Samoa, infecting 5,700 and killing 83

- Appointed Tulsi Gabbard – whose foreign policy baggage includes casting doubt on heavily evidenced accounts of Assad gassing his own people – as Director of National Intelligence

- Only relented on his resistance to FBI vetting of nominees when it became clear the confirmations would otherwise stall
- Appointed his other daughter’s father-in-law as Middle East advisor

- Nominated Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, despite Hegseth's inexperience and history of serial infidelity, alcohol abuse, a settled sexual assault case, and his own mother's condemnation of his treatment of women

- Nominated his daughter’s father-in-law – whom he also pardoned for a crime that Chris Christie called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he’d prosecuted – for ambassadorship in France

Trump's recent activities:

- Attempted to appoint Matt Gaetz – then under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sexual misconduct with a minor – to lead the DOJ, but withdrew the nomination amid insurmountable opposition

Presidential press access matters, schedule permitting, but watching reporters persistently shout questions at a far-off leader – as if volume could bridge a 100-yard gap – never fails to entertain. Hence the skit:

SANDRA
(Into her phone recorder)
The President notably refused to deny allegations that he is, in fact, three children stacked on top of each other.

The group counts down dramatically.

ALL REPORTERS
FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!

The President points to the engines and makes the universal "can't hear you" gesture.