The above photo are the four members of the National Labor Relations Board in 2023. Lauren McPherran's five year term ended on December 31, 2024. Thanks to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the seat was vacant when Trump came into office and there were only three members of the NLRB: the two guys on the left, and the woman on the right. Of those three, Marv Kaplan (the one on the far left) and Gwynne Wilcox were the two Democrats, giving the board a democratic majority.
When Trump came in, he fired one of of the three (which is illegal, but the Supreme Court doesn't give a shit), which under the Noel Canning Supreme Court decision meant that the NLRB cannot enforce certain labor laws at the moment. Which one of the three did he fire? Obviously, it was going to be one of the two remaining Democrats, but would it be Kaplan, the white guy, or Wilcox, the black woman? The question answers itself.
That's what I thought of when I first heard that Trump illegally fired a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors yesterday. Any guesses which one he canned?
I'm also fairly certain that if Lisa Cook were a white guy, Trump would have fired Philip Jefferson last night.
The big question now is whether the Supreme Court will give a shit about this illegal firing because it may spook the markets. Because unlike workers rights, due process, or the rule of law, spooking the markets is something that our corrupt court might actually care about.
