So the news reports that Mr. Russ Vought, the Acting Director of the O.M.B., refuses to comply with the request from the House for a deposition, as does Mr. Michael Duffey, a political appointment at OMB. Vought had earlier defied a House subpoena for details about the missing $400M.

I do not understand how all the Trumpites can get away with this behavior. If the law requires that they comply with requests and obey subpoenas, then the law should be enforced severely to coerce them to do their duty. (A sub-poena surely implies some punishment for non-compliance.) On the other hand, if the law does not require their compliance, then why bother with the requests and subpoenas?

I suppose the ritual of request/subpoena and refusal/rejection may make it evident that refusing faction have something to hide. But this is not really a legal process, but a drama of posing and posturing. But is it not evident that these people are no more than brazen scofflaws who refuse to accept the rule of law?

The investigations of Trump & Co. are far, far more important than the usual party vs. party taffy pull. Democrats have their liabilities, who would deny it? But in the Trump Era the Republican party has thrown over their former ideals of government according to law and have signed on to the Trumpian doctrine that what matters is not the law, but only what you can get away with.

The U.S. has from the beginning in fact been a plutocracy with a supporting democracy. But hitherto the plutocrats, their agents, and the people have agreed on the necessity of everyone obeying our laws. In the Age of Trump, however, all this is changed. We now have a plutocracy standing upon an ochlocracy, sc., an ignorant, sentimental, lazy, resentful mob who will believe whatever they are told. And they are being told and shown that smart people, winners, succeed by ignoring the laws and what they require.