Mob boss as leader

 Trump pal funneled millions of Israeli gov’t cash into US media Responsible Statecraft

Our Mob Boss President

Jamelle Bouie writes that each US president molds the presidency in his own image and Trump has constructed a “government as protection racket and the president as mob boss”.

So what manner of presidency has Trump devised for himself?

You could call it the pecuniary presidency, a presidency not devoted to the public good or to the preservation of the union or even to some narrow ideological crusade, but to the quest for personal enrichment. A presidency devoted to the aggrandizement of a single person, not to satisfy a grand design for the nation but to squeeze a few million here and a few billion there out of the public coffers for your own benefit.

This isn’t the “honest graft” of Tammany Hall — corruption as the price paid for public improvement. It is petty theft. It’s stealing from the Treasury and using your authority, enhanced by the baroque theories of your allies on the Supreme Court, to make yourself unaccountable. It is government as protection racket and the president as mob boss (a role that Trump has clearly embraced).

As I wrote last month:

I’ve found it useful to think of DJT’s 2nd term primarily as a heist: a theft of money & power from the American people by a con man who finally found the perfect score.

Trump feels like he’s running the largest casino in the world and he’s gonna take his deserved cut.

Here Are the Adversaries Trump Has Threatened and Prosecuted

President has asked Justice Department to investigate more than four dozen enemies, leading to a spate of prosecutions

An emboldened Justice Department with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at the helm is ramping up efforts to investigate and prosecute President Trump’s perceived enemies.

New York Times: Trump Clears Way for Corporate Tax Dodge Hidden in the Fine Print

Jesse Drucker & Dyland Freedman, Trump Clears Way for Corporate Tax Dodge Hidden in the Fine Print (New York Times, May 29, 2026)

A year ago, the Trump administration withdrew from a global effort to curb offshore tax-dodging by multinational companies. That decision has been a huge gift to corporate America, enabling companies to avoid at least $40 billion in income taxes since the beginning of 2025.

 

The cost of toxic leadership in the workplace – and how to avoid it

Minters breaks the big law silence: AI is eating graduate jobs

Financial Review: “MinterEllison has become the first major Australian law firm to admit out loud a growing fear across the world: artificial intelligence-led automation may hurt lawyer numbers, and graduates will be hit first. 

Minters has cut its graduate cohort for 2025-26 by almost a third from the previous year, to 72, partly because artificial intelligence automates routine lower-level work. “Client demand remains strong, but the way work gets done is changing, and we are being deliberate about how we shape our workforce,” MinterEllison chief people officer Rachel Banks said.

 “Responsible use of AI is improving efficiency in some of the more routine work graduates traditionally start on, while demand continues to shift towards complex matters. 

That combination has led us to take a more targeted approach to intake this year.” Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Norton Rose Fulbright, Allens and Mallesons also cut their graduate numbers for this financial year. But all said AI was not the main driver of the reduction, and pointed instead to factors such as seasonal variations and earlier over-hiring…”

 

The hidden way dictatorships are shaping what AI tells you

Authoritarian states may have accidentally brainwashed ChatGPT.

 I've spent over 50 years fighting for democracy — and I'm not stopping now.

Cryptic Taxing fraud and prevention landscapes of crypticer Human Resources

 Pope says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House 

Pontiff denounces leaders who invoke religion to justify war, after US bishops offer him support after Vance remarks 

NAB faces scrutiny over culture after 2 staff suicides and bullying claims

NAB is under mounting scrutiny after two staff suicides in as many months and a string of ex-employees alleging an increasingly bullying, high‑pressure culture inside the bank

National Australia Bank is under mounting pressure over its workplace culture after two employees died by suicide in as many months and former staff detailed what they describe as an increasingly intimidating environment inside the lender’s operations.

The two employees, who worked in separate teams in home loan customer operations and fraud operations, died in incidents weeks apart, one of them at NAB’s Docklands headquarters in Melbourne in March.

The deaths, one of which occurred after the staff member had been on extended personal leave, have been raised at board level amid concern about a potential broader culture problem.

In the wake of the March tragedy, current and former workers have described a shift from a previously supportive culture to one marked by rising workloads, sharper management communication and strict performance controls.

Ex-employees allege they were subject to aggressive pursuit of relatively small redundancy overpayments, heavy monitoring of time away from desks, and escalating pressure linked to targets and return‑to‑office rules, with some linking this environment to serious mental health struggles.

As reported by the Financial Review, a NAB spokesperson said the bank has made health, safety and wellbeing support for workers and families.

“This support includes confidential in-person, phone, and online consultations to help our colleagues manage their mental health and wellbeing,” said the spokesperson.

“Following the tragedy at NAB on March 5, immediate efforts were focused on providing care to our colleague’s family, friends and their team. Leaders and external partners have and continue to provide support and make resources available to our teams.”

“We know we don’t always get it right, but we are committed to creating an environment where our colleagues feel safe, supported, and heard on matters that are important to them,” she added.

NAB has been restructuring and offshoring parts of its back office while cutting hundreds of roles, says it is cooperating with authorities investigating the March death.

The bank points to engagement survey results that it says are in line with global top‑quartile benchmarks and maintains it is committed to creating a workplace where employees feel “safe, supported and heard”, even as critics argue that cost-cutting and compliance‑driven policies are eroding that promise for some workers.

If this story has raised concerns for you, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, or in an emergency call 000

Auschwitz Started in a Warehouse Too

Glass Empires: “This article is the historical companion to yesterday’s investigation of the WEXMAC TITUS warehouse buildout. Read this before they build the next camp

“If they did not know, they did not know because they did not want to know.” — Primo Levi, Afterword to If This Is a Man / The Truce, 1987.  

“The documentary record is not a warning; it is a blueprint for state brutality unfolding again in public view. Violent governments study the methods, refine the procedures, and expand machinery for detention and disappearance. 

Contractors sign agreements, corporations harvest profits, and frightened populations rename visible cruelty “normal life” to protect emotional comfort. The Pattern Repeats in Real Time – A Navy contracting vehicle called WEXMAC TITUS lets the Trump administration skip competitive bidding, environmental review, and GAO protest rights. ICE handed GardaWorld Federal Services $313.4 million for a 1,500-bed warehouse in Surprise, Arizona, and KVG LLC $113.1 million for a second in Williamsport, Maryland. Neither contractor had ever run an ICE facility. 

KVG had banked only $120 million across thirteen prior years. The permission to brutalize has widened. How does a country build its own concentration camps? Not all at once. The construction is gradual; the contractors are normal. Ask yourself what stage we are watching. R

Republicans Funded the Buildout – Congressional Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill on July 4, 2025, allocating $45 billion for ICE detention warehouses through September 2029. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Every Republican who voted yes bought a warehouse. 

Every voter who returned the Republican majority bought one too. GEO Group stock has climbed 73 percent since the November 2024 election. CoreCivic has climbed 56 percent. Both companies donated heavily to Trump. Both told shareholders to expect record profits. The detention buildout moves public money straight into the pockets of political donors. The blueprint has a documented history. 

The story starts in Erfurt. The Camps Were Built by Companies With Addresses – Topf and Sons opened in Erfurt in 1878, building brewery equipment, malting facilities, and incinerators. By the 1920s, the firm dominated Germany’s crematorium market. Topf engineers followed regulations protecting bodily dignity. 

After Hitler consolidated power, executives and engineers aligned with the regime through contracts, technical cooperation, and profitable expansion into the camp system. Auschwitz required ambitious professionals willing to convert mass death into engineering assignments, production targets, and invoice payments. Dachau opened on March 22, 1933, six weeks after Hitler took office. 

The first 200 prisoners were communists, social democrats, and trade unionists. The camp could hold 5,000. Two months in, the guards beat a prisoner to death. Sebastian Nefzger, a Munich schoolteacher, died in his cell. The schoolteacher had been teaching German children weeks earlier. The SS claimed suicide. 

Bavarian prosecutor Josef Hartinger had already spent a month investigating prisoner deaths at Dachau with a part-time medical examiner. Hartinger documented evidence of murder and indicted the camp commandant…”