Toadies one and all ...

They’re on the same page, and they expect everyone else to be. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Hill & Valley Forum and Oliver Douliery/AFP via Getty Images.

There you have it, the big 6, toadies to the max, obsequious, self important and incompetent, they are the products of Mitch and the Federalist Society, individuals one and all, hell bent on instilling pretzel logic to the law of the land while expecting we, the great unwashed, to willingly comply no matter the cost.

To whit.

The Supreme Court expanded Donald Trump’s power yet again on Wednesday, granting him the authority to fire Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in direct violation of federal law. Over the liberal justices’ dissent, the conservative supermajority greenlit the first step of Trump’s systematic destruction of the agency—a plan that collides with many other federal statutes. The court’s action imperils the CPSC’s ability to ban products that may maim or kill consumers, including children, giving corporations freer rein to flood the market with dangerous goods. And it hands the president even more leeway to restructure the federal government in ways that hurt regular people, reward the wealthy, and contradict Congress’ direct commands.

What’s perhaps most galling about Wednesday’s decision, aside from the fact that it makes us all less safe, is SCOTUS’s reprimand of lower courts that try to stop Trump’s abuses of power. The majority scolded these courts for failing to interpret the smoke signals it has sent up on the shadow docket and, instead, daring to enforce existing precedent that limits executive authority. It seems the Republican-appointed justices are determined to radically rewrite the law—without admitting what they’re doing or offering any explanation—while demanding that lower courts somehow read their minds and fall in line. These justices are increasingly embracing the Trump administration’s scornful attitude toward any judge who stands in its way. Yet they do not appear to recognize that by undermining lower courts, they are putting their own independence at risk as well.

Pretzel logic ... applies