According to the New York Times, "the Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million on a no-bid contract to buy 10 used airplanes from a firm in Northern Virginia" but has barely used them.

Why did the Department forgo using the conventional bidding process to make sure the best person or company with the lowest price for the American taxpayers won the contract? According to the New York Times, "the department said it had no time to consider other offers. The planes were needed urgently for deportation flights."

Well, at least the planes were used to fulfill their urgent purpose. "[T]he department has barely used this new fleet — for deportations, or anything else," the New York Times said. Three of the 10 planes are "luxury business jets." Odd that the nation would need three such planes for deporting "illegal monster[s]" and "gang members."

Oh no:

Just months after acquiring them, the department sought to loan or lease two to other agencies, including one for the use of F.B.I. director Kash Patel, according to a letter to the department sent Wednesday by top Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

We can content ourselves on knowing that Kash Patel only uses government planes for the most important government business. After all, he used to harshly criticize the FBI's use of private jets. I am sure jetting to Italy to chug beer with US Olympians and using the plane to wine and dine your girlfriend were of the utmost national importance.

The other seven planes were jumbo passenger jets...that have been parked at a Louisiana airport "for months at a time." According to the New York Times, "An internal government document, obtained by The New York Times, said the agency did not have the staff necessary to operate them."

And to nobody's surprise, like with the reflecting pool debacle, the urgent, no-bid contract went to someone with ties to Trump or those in his orbit. The company that supplied the 10 planes is led by a fellow "who had donated to a political committee supporting the previous Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem." Surely, the selection of this man's company was due to the quality and price of exactly what the government needed and had nothing to do with the corrupt enrichment of politically connected individuals.

This is not, of course, the only plane-related corruption or questionable action perpetrated by Trump and Co.

This sort of obvious corruption by the Trump administration has become so commonplace that it often feels difficult to care, let alone feel (justifiably) outraged, about individual instances. The more we experience something, the more desensitized we generally become to it. Trump and his cronies engage in corruption and exploitation of their positions like a fish breathes water. Cultish Trump-supporters and most Republicans simply do not care. Partly as a result, most Republicans in Congress do not (openly) care. So nothing is done. Trump faces no apparent consequences. He, his family, and his cronies simply get richer while things for the rest of us generally get worse.

But we cannot despair. We cannot give up. Once we as a people accept this sort of corrupt conduct as a standard part of our political system, it will become so. As many of us as possible must remain disturbed by this sort of conduct and reject it as an unacceptable. Talk about it with people. Spread the word. Make sure everyone knows. Make sure low-information voters who do not follow Trump's abominable day-to-day antics know about it.

Trump-supporters may dismiss, excuse, and spin it away, but make them pay for it mentally. Make them add another lead brick to their already weighty cognitive dissonance. Many Trump-supporters may never honestly reckon with their mind-boggling contradictions and hypocrisy regarding Trump, but we need to at least try to make them mentally bear some of the weight of it.