If Trump wins the election and this goes away, what a catastrophe! I cannot believe more people aren’t taking this more seriously than any other policy issue. I think what we need is for Civics to be mandatory teaching, K through 18. We have lost our way in this regard.
The main point we should take from evidence presented against Trump and his co-conspirators is something I've been loathe to say: it is time for serious people to think seriously about asking the House to impeach and the Senate to conduct a trial of the SCOTUS justices who openly encouraged presidents to commit the crimes Trump committed. Those justices are accountable to us, the sovereign people, and they should be required to prove that they really believed our Constitution gave them the power that they pretended to have.
Six SCOTUS justices conspired to encourage presidents to viciously and egregiously undermine our Constitution, not only by committing crimes, themselves, but also by corrupting other public servants to help corrupt presidents commit such crimes. That's what they did by (knowingly) misrepresenting that Trump had immunity from prosecution for crimes he committed when he abused his "official" or "core" powers to try to seize power in clear and egregious violation of our Constitution. Their decision can be distilled to this: the only real mistake Trump made was in not relying exclusively on other current government employees to commit his crimes.
Those SCOTUS justices knew that their misconduct and misrepresentations were (and are) undermining the most fundamental aspects of our Constitution to deprive voters of the rights and privileges of our Constitution. Don't take my word for that. Take theirs.
In Ariz. State Legis. v. Ariz. Indep. Redistricting Comm'n, 576 U.S. 787 (2015), Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito issued a dissenting opinion. They emphasized that the majority opinion had emphasized that the “animating principle” (the primary point) of our Constitution was "popular sovereignty" (the sovereignty of the people over all public servants). Then, the dissenters, themselves, emphasized that "the ratification of the Constitution was the ultimate act of popular sovereignty, and the people who ratified" it "did so knowing that it assigned authority to 'the Legislature' as a representative body" (to represent the sovereign people).
Every SCOTUS justice who pretended that they had the power to give Trump immunity knew that Congress (working with the president) enacted criminal laws to protect us (the sovereign people) from public servants who would commit the crimes that Trump committed. A big part of the reason Congress makes conduct criminal is to discourage people from committing such crimes.
The dissenting justices in the Arizona case followed the foregoing with this in their opinion: "This Court has no power to upset such a compromise simply because we now think that it should have been struck differently. As we explained almost a century ago," whatever "method" that "the framers of the Constitution" actually "adopted" is what binds SCOTUS because it “is not the function of courts" to "alter the method which the Constitution has fixed.”
Consider also this paragraph from the concurring opinion of Justice Gorsuch in United States v. Vaello-Madero in 2022:
"[I]n our Constitution" every part of the federal government (including the presidency and SCOTUS) “deriv[es] its powers directly” from the sovereign people." (quoting Chief Justice Marshall in McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819). Every part of the federal government (including the presidency and SCOTUS) "is empowered to act only in accord with the terms of the written Constitution the people have approved." (citing Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison in 1803). "Empires and duchies in Europe may have subscribed" to the “doctrine" that "the people were made for kings, not kings for the people.” (quoting James Madison in The Federalist No. 45). “Monarchical and despotic governments” may possess the power to act “unrestrained by written constitutions.” "But our Nation’s government" has "no existence" (no power of any part of federal government exists) "except by virtue of the Constitution,” and our representatives in federal government "may not ignore that charter."
Any judge acting “under color of any law” or “custom” to “willfully” deprive voters “of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by” any provision of the “Constitution” or federal “laws” commits a crime. 18 U.S.C. 242. The SCOTUS justices who pretended to have the power to authorize Trump to commit crimes with impunity should be required to prove they didn't commit a crime.
I don’t think most of the justices know that all arrangements to get permits for the January 6, 2021 rally at The Ellipse were full of fraudulent info and submitted by cohorts of Ali Alexander. Throughout the process of submitting applications to the National Park Service and to the security people they lied about crowd size and claimed they had no plans to march to the Capitol. They were told they could not have weapons in any form nor would they be allowed to enter any barricaded area. The documents about the entire process are online.
I believe the intent was to minimize law enforcement presence so it would be difficult to stop an enormous crowd onslaught from marching to the Capitol. I noticed that security people did become aware that the original crowd size estimates of 50, 500, 750, were at 20,000 by the Jan 5 and told the permit contacts that weapons were forbidden but the information was only posted on the group organizers’ website which obviously, imo, was not going to be read by attendees at that late hour.
There was plenty of heads up evidence that the five events at and around The Ellipse area were booked under fake names and all by cohorts of Ali Alexander, a Dirty Tricks operator in my view who was likely deployed by Kash Patel.
I think they wanted to dupe the National Parks Service and the security firm who evaluates events for security threats to give low threat assessments to each of the five permit applications so that there would be minimal law enforcement presence. Both Buzzfeed and CNN posted articles about the fraudulent permit applications after the insurrection but the story doesn’t seem to have garnered much interest.
There also is information in the Jan 6 report by the House Subcommittee that has more detail about how the permit application for the man event venue was processed and how t he e security evaluation eventually showed a more accurate crowd size and more law enforcement brought in. However, I think they never caught onto the plan to send an onslaught of weaponized angry Trump thugs to force its way past the barricades and break into the Capitol using violence if necessary. I think they were either duped all the way or someone in the security firm aided in making sure the event wasn’t considered as big a threat as it was.
wow- this feels like new information we should all already know. Thanks! You have made the conspiracy of it all more clear. Jack Smith seems to be on the same wave length even as this information drives home the true extent of the mal-intent.
I want to add that I’ve not seen any reporting that would have brought any of this to the attention of all the Supreme Court justices and perhaps some of even the right wing justices would find this to be a clear conspiracy to implement a coup and possibly think twice before giving Trump a free pass of immunity. I do think Ginny and Clarence Thomas were well aware of it.
Great points! Thank you. I think most of us agree we should set priorities to shape our future. Number one to me is getting the Congressional archivist to put the equal rights amendment on the books now that we have the 38 states where second is impeaching and removing those who lied in confirmation hearings, who later went on to legitimize government officials on the take by approving after the fact bribes- money in the millions for certain justices. That is more actionable perhaps than the presidential immunity ruling, although I have not yet researched impeachment of judges nor looked at their applicable codes of ethics lately. Then we should look to impeach other federal judges- like those who determine that it is ok to challenge very old FDA decisions (leading to the death and subjugation of real women). That any corporation that forms today has 30 days to challenge any long standing regulation now applicable to them is insane and we have to find a way to get that overturned. Lawyers know- forever applicable- we get 30 to 35 days to appeal any decision adverse to our clients or it is over but not anymore, not when it comes to vital regulations developed by government experts in consultation with industry experts and with comments from the public. Vigilance is indeed the eternal price of liberty! Great comments here! We have to get very active very fast to make the wins count. I also agree with Harris that the filibuster should be eliminated and hope we all help her get that done.
I most certainly agree re a Civics requirement in schools! When I was a junior in high school in 1969, the Civics requirement for all seniors was ended. I remember how we all celebrated, since it was said to be a very boring class. Now I wish that I had taken the class -- along with EVERY student since. Critically important if one lives in a democracy.
I could not agree more! I keep finding myself asking "didn't they pass the 8th grade constitution test?" when maybe I should be asking if "they" (those who are oblivious or supportive of destruction of our government) even learned about the Constitution and whether they were even required to take the test as we are in Illinois. Civic in school has got to get tweeked up!
The Trump response: I hadn’t realized Trump had such a honed sense of irony until he accused Jack Smith , with his 165-page indictment, of “election interference” … over Trump’s monumental interfering with the 2020 election certification!
"Election interference" is just a dog whistle, like "open border" and "radical Democrat". It's obvious that TFG has no idea of the actual meaning of that phrase, any more than he understands the concepts of "economy" or "immigration".
I have had opportunities in my life to wonder whether an individual or individuals are ignorant and clueless or mean and narcissistic. I wonder in this case too. Neither one is a good look, especially for someone who wants to hold one of the the most important jobs in the world!
And so we should add to that civics education a little training in mental illnesses and deficiencies as seen through the DSM. I wish Judges were required to train in the DSM so they could see the subtle hints of sociopathy and psychopathy in witnesses as the mentally deranged seem to be able to make their opposing side look like they are the crazy one. This is especially seen in child custody fights.
I was thinking about how many actual MAGAts there are. John Heilemann Had Peter Hanby in discussing wtf happened to the repug party, and it was illuminating. First, it's about a third of the electorate , and a third of them are the true maggots. Still, it's about 30 million Americans who are rabidly this stupid. And they have enough guns they scare the crap out of any "traditional" republicans out there,
So much so my neighbor is afraid to put up her Harris Walz sign, and maggots run around and steal them. And don't feel fear to put their shit on their cars because they know we won't disfigure their cars.
I did get my "too dumb to live" stickers for just these folk's' cars.
I have a magat neighbor and I would love to deface or take down the signs she has on her wrought iron fence, but she also has signs about 24 hour surveillance. That prevents me from doing anything.
Better not to censor the free speech of your neighbor or destroy her property in violation of the law. Shame will come soon enough or it will not have mattered as Trump goes to big house jail instead of the whitehouse.
I agree with you, Penni. Someone suggested some time ago that I do something to deface the signs, or take them down, but much as I would like to, it always felt wrong to do anything like that. That neighbor is someone I've had some conversations with, but she puts out a ton of mixed messages and I figure it's best to not have anything more to do with her.
Thank G-D that the nattering nabobs of narcissism (Reps Baublehead, Haz-Matt, Jordan, Spleen and Coma) are out of session so the weaponization sub-committee can not proceed with another scheiße charade of a hearing. Now a make-believe investigation would be election interference.
Ned, your list of nabobs made me laugh out loud. The language, and also the rhythm, of your renaming is just perfect. Thanks for the chortle. These days, such things are welcome and precious.
As I've mentioned below, the concept of irony is lost on DJT and his acolytes. In addition to not teaching civics, our educational system can do much better teaching concepts like irony and the language of propaganda. It's the purview of every English and history teacher, at a minimum!
This is all very enlightening. However, I will admit my faith in our judicial system is almost zero. Every person who wanted to witnessed the attack, by an angry mob, on our beautiful Capitol building. We witnessed it being ravaged by trump’s cult/henchmen while trump sat eating his burgers. Congress men and women hunkered down and hid from the mob. Justice has been played with, delayed time and again by his lawyers, playing what I would call “lawyer games”, and a few lowly ones have been convicted. Trump and Co committed treason by trying to overthrow a free and fair election. But, he has been able, for almost 4 long years to lie over and over about it so now his followers think he is being mistreated. I know the saying, “the wheels of justice grind slowly”, but it seems in trump’s case, he has always had the upper hand and has, so far, gotten away with his crimes and the wheels not only have ground slowly but have almost ground to a halt. Will he ever be held accountable? I have little faith this will happen. Every single day he is lauded in the news. I just want him gone forever.
Thank you, Sharon. Another thing that bothers me is the 147 Retrumplican legislators who voted to NOT approve the electoral college report in the early morning hours of January 7, 2021. When all of this is put to bed and trump is found guilty as charged, I hope those 147 traitors to the principles of democracy AND their sworn oaths pay some degree of ethics violation even if it only amounts to censure.
My Congressman was one of the 147 and he will probably win this year again. I have written him, calling him out as a traitor, but he doesn’t care…he will still go to Washington again…another old white man (78 years, I think) dictating laws against women, people of color, etc. Disgusting!!!
I totally agree with you and don’t understand why there has not been any consequences to date. How are these legislators eligible to run for office, again?
Hey Sharon, I don’t think it was burgers that he was eating….he has an affinity for fish sandwiches. We will have to hope for a bone in one of them to cure the problem.
I had an ethics professor in law school who started each class by saying: "Your are not a bus." This puzzled me for a while so I asked the smartest person in the class what that meant. She was much older than us yougons. She said: You don't have to take every guy who has a dollar as a client. In other words, you can decide to represent people who represent what you care about. We need more lawyers who care about the clients and causes and less about winning for bad guys. I'm glad lawyers got prosecuted and disbarred for helping Trump as their conduct crossed so many lines. Still I wish more baby lawyers to grow up into people who contribute to preventing harm than perpetrating it.
Smith isn’t just prosecuting Trump—he’s putting the entire idea of unchecked presidential power on trial. If this doesn’t hold up, we’re setting a precedent that chaos can be a strategy, not just a consequence.
I agree completely. I agree with complaints about the justice system, and how trump seems to always be able to circumvent it, but Jack Smith clearly wants to go to trial and take trump down. He seems to be beating SCOTUS at their own game. I'm rooting for him.
Tina Peters gets nine years, and rightly so. Trump will get zero if he wins the election, and that slimy b***ard will live on to make America quake again under his (non) leadership. Where is the justice? We cannot continue to live with this fraudster controlling the narrative of our nation; he has got to go.
I take comfort in the fact his mental abilities are waning, and while he'll probably escape punishment because when the law finally gets to him, he'll be in his 89s and undeniably senile.
Maybe the Putin asset and his handler Melanoma will slink off to Dementiana. More likely she'll divorce him and end up the retired Russian doll of some other rich bastard.
For what it's worth, a few hours ago I received confirmation that my mail in vote was received by the Department of State in Pennsylvania. I made sure to carefully read and follow the instructions.
The most telling of the evidence is Trump telling Pence, when Pence said he would not refuse the duly certified vote tallies , “You’re too honest.” Trump knew he was lying, plain and simple.
Mr T would probably answer by blaming the 35 million criminals and rapists that crossed our borders while Kamala was controlling all the policies of the Biden administration.
SCOTUS seems to have gotten it wrong in giving Trump a pass for criminal conduct using official powers. A dissenting opinion in Alden v. Maine., 527 U.S. 706, 804 (1999) quoted Poindexter v. Greenhow, 114 U.S. 270 (1885) for the proposition that purported government "action" that "is unconstitutional” is "not the word or deed of the" nation or a state, "but is the mere wrong and trespass of those individual persons who falsely speak and act in its name,”
Alexander Hamilton emphasized something similar in The Federalist No. 83: "Wilful abuses of a public authority, to the oppression of" the people "are offenses against the government, for which the persons who commit them may be indicted and punished according to the circumstances of the case."
I imagine the SCOTUS majority is furious that Jack Smith has developed work-arounds for their appalling grant of partial immunity to Trump. I'm furious that our trust in the rule of law in our country's democracy now depends on Jack Smith and his team - a brave, intrepid crew for sure. Let's make sure we live up to their trust in the law and in America.
Many North Carolina residents refused to believe the warnings about Hurricane Helene because they'd never experienced anything that bad before. That's exactly what millions of Americans are doing, too - denying the warnings about Trump, MAGA, a corrupt SCOTUS, Project 2025, the right's embrace of Christian nationalism and white supremacist. Apparently they don't believe history or their own eyes.
As someone who lives in the area in NC affected by the hurricane, there really weren’t that many warnings. I get your point, but I would go with a better analogy that doesn’t demonize disaster victims.
Trump squawks about Smith's October Surprise, but Trump did not mind Comey going after Clinton in the waning days of the 2016 campaign. Plus, Trump is guilty! The more detail the better. I thought Kamala's speech today in Ripon, WI with Liz Cheney was very good. (You can find the speech on C-SPAN.) She changed-up her stump speech and drilled in on "Trump is unfit for office" with a large dose of patriotism. Very Presidential indeed! Adding Republicans to her coalition is so smart and needed. She seems to be aiming to close this campaign strong. Her campaign is hitting on all cylinders.
Another look into the felonious being that is Orange 1 should be along in seven days when the biopic "The Apprentice" is scheduled to be released here and in Canada. Think of it as a kind of modern-day "Frankenstein" story with Roy Cohn as the doctor and, well, I'm sure you can figure out who the monster is.
Been waiting for your detailed explanation and as usual worth the wait.it is beyond me that people could read/hear this and still think he could be the leader of our great nation.lets face it he is looking at the presidency as a get out of jail free card.
The problem, imo, is that too many people aren't paying attention at all to the election. That's why we need grass roots supporters of democracy to help with phone or text banking, writing postcards, knocking on doors, or contributing however we can to ensure the largest voter turnout possible.
People need to pay more attention because it is more convenient to say that this is above their pay grade, too complicated, or that it is someone else's job. It is easier to feign ignorance and avoid the evidence to keep their warped belief system intact.
If Trump wins the election and this goes away, what a catastrophe! I cannot believe more people aren’t taking this more seriously than any other policy issue. I think what we need is for Civics to be mandatory teaching, K through 18. We have lost our way in this regard.
The main point we should take from evidence presented against Trump and his co-conspirators is something I've been loathe to say: it is time for serious people to think seriously about asking the House to impeach and the Senate to conduct a trial of the SCOTUS justices who openly encouraged presidents to commit the crimes Trump committed. Those justices are accountable to us, the sovereign people, and they should be required to prove that they really believed our Constitution gave them the power that they pretended to have.
Six SCOTUS justices conspired to encourage presidents to viciously and egregiously undermine our Constitution, not only by committing crimes, themselves, but also by corrupting other public servants to help corrupt presidents commit such crimes. That's what they did by (knowingly) misrepresenting that Trump had immunity from prosecution for crimes he committed when he abused his "official" or "core" powers to try to seize power in clear and egregious violation of our Constitution. Their decision can be distilled to this: the only real mistake Trump made was in not relying exclusively on other current government employees to commit his crimes.
Those SCOTUS justices knew that their misconduct and misrepresentations were (and are) undermining the most fundamental aspects of our Constitution to deprive voters of the rights and privileges of our Constitution. Don't take my word for that. Take theirs.
In Ariz. State Legis. v. Ariz. Indep. Redistricting Comm'n, 576 U.S. 787 (2015), Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito issued a dissenting opinion. They emphasized that the majority opinion had emphasized that the “animating principle” (the primary point) of our Constitution was "popular sovereignty" (the sovereignty of the people over all public servants). Then, the dissenters, themselves, emphasized that "the ratification of the Constitution was the ultimate act of popular sovereignty, and the people who ratified" it "did so knowing that it assigned authority to 'the Legislature' as a representative body" (to represent the sovereign people).
Every SCOTUS justice who pretended that they had the power to give Trump immunity knew that Congress (working with the president) enacted criminal laws to protect us (the sovereign people) from public servants who would commit the crimes that Trump committed. A big part of the reason Congress makes conduct criminal is to discourage people from committing such crimes.
The dissenting justices in the Arizona case followed the foregoing with this in their opinion: "This Court has no power to upset such a compromise simply because we now think that it should have been struck differently. As we explained almost a century ago," whatever "method" that "the framers of the Constitution" actually "adopted" is what binds SCOTUS because it “is not the function of courts" to "alter the method which the Constitution has fixed.”
Consider also this paragraph from the concurring opinion of Justice Gorsuch in United States v. Vaello-Madero in 2022:
"[I]n our Constitution" every part of the federal government (including the presidency and SCOTUS) “deriv[es] its powers directly” from the sovereign people." (quoting Chief Justice Marshall in McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819). Every part of the federal government (including the presidency and SCOTUS) "is empowered to act only in accord with the terms of the written Constitution the people have approved." (citing Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison in 1803). "Empires and duchies in Europe may have subscribed" to the “doctrine" that "the people were made for kings, not kings for the people.” (quoting James Madison in The Federalist No. 45). “Monarchical and despotic governments” may possess the power to act “unrestrained by written constitutions.” "But our Nation’s government" has "no existence" (no power of any part of federal government exists) "except by virtue of the Constitution,” and our representatives in federal government "may not ignore that charter."
Any judge acting “under color of any law” or “custom” to “willfully” deprive voters “of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by” any provision of the “Constitution” or federal “laws” commits a crime. 18 U.S.C. 242. The SCOTUS justices who pretended to have the power to authorize Trump to commit crimes with impunity should be required to prove they didn't commit a crime.
I don’t think most of the justices know that all arrangements to get permits for the January 6, 2021 rally at The Ellipse were full of fraudulent info and submitted by cohorts of Ali Alexander. Throughout the process of submitting applications to the National Park Service and to the security people they lied about crowd size and claimed they had no plans to march to the Capitol. They were told they could not have weapons in any form nor would they be allowed to enter any barricaded area. The documents about the entire process are online.
I believe the intent was to minimize law enforcement presence so it would be difficult to stop an enormous crowd onslaught from marching to the Capitol. I noticed that security people did become aware that the original crowd size estimates of 50, 500, 750, were at 20,000 by the Jan 5 and told the permit contacts that weapons were forbidden but the information was only posted on the group organizers’ website which obviously, imo, was not going to be read by attendees at that late hour.
There was plenty of heads up evidence that the five events at and around The Ellipse area were booked under fake names and all by cohorts of Ali Alexander, a Dirty Tricks operator in my view who was likely deployed by Kash Patel.
I think they wanted to dupe the National Parks Service and the security firm who evaluates events for security threats to give low threat assessments to each of the five permit applications so that there would be minimal law enforcement presence. Both Buzzfeed and CNN posted articles about the fraudulent permit applications after the insurrection but the story doesn’t seem to have garnered much interest.
There also is information in the Jan 6 report by the House Subcommittee that has more detail about how the permit application for the man event venue was processed and how t he e security evaluation eventually showed a more accurate crowd size and more law enforcement brought in. However, I think they never caught onto the plan to send an onslaught of weaponized angry Trump thugs to force its way past the barricades and break into the Capitol using violence if necessary. I think they were either duped all the way or someone in the security firm aided in making sure the event wasn’t considered as big a threat as it was.
wow- this feels like new information we should all already know. Thanks! You have made the conspiracy of it all more clear. Jack Smith seems to be on the same wave length even as this information drives home the true extent of the mal-intent.
I want to add that I’ve not seen any reporting that would have brought any of this to the attention of all the Supreme Court justices and perhaps some of even the right wing justices would find this to be a clear conspiracy to implement a coup and possibly think twice before giving Trump a free pass of immunity. I do think Ginny and Clarence Thomas were well aware of it.
Great points! Thank you. I think most of us agree we should set priorities to shape our future. Number one to me is getting the Congressional archivist to put the equal rights amendment on the books now that we have the 38 states where second is impeaching and removing those who lied in confirmation hearings, who later went on to legitimize government officials on the take by approving after the fact bribes- money in the millions for certain justices. That is more actionable perhaps than the presidential immunity ruling, although I have not yet researched impeachment of judges nor looked at their applicable codes of ethics lately. Then we should look to impeach other federal judges- like those who determine that it is ok to challenge very old FDA decisions (leading to the death and subjugation of real women). That any corporation that forms today has 30 days to challenge any long standing regulation now applicable to them is insane and we have to find a way to get that overturned. Lawyers know- forever applicable- we get 30 to 35 days to appeal any decision adverse to our clients or it is over but not anymore, not when it comes to vital regulations developed by government experts in consultation with industry experts and with comments from the public. Vigilance is indeed the eternal price of liberty! Great comments here! We have to get very active very fast to make the wins count. I also agree with Harris that the filibuster should be eliminated and hope we all help her get that done.
Do something. https://www.mobilize.us/
thanks!
In other words “it’s the economy and we’re stupid”
Think positively, there may well be more people taking this seriously than we can appreciate on 10/4. We’ll know in November.
We have reason to be optimistic but no reason to be complacent. Get Out The Vote!
I most certainly agree re a Civics requirement in schools! When I was a junior in high school in 1969, the Civics requirement for all seniors was ended. I remember how we all celebrated, since it was said to be a very boring class. Now I wish that I had taken the class -- along with EVERY student since. Critically important if one lives in a democracy.
I could not agree more! I keep finding myself asking "didn't they pass the 8th grade constitution test?" when maybe I should be asking if "they" (those who are oblivious or supportive of destruction of our government) even learned about the Constitution and whether they were even required to take the test as we are in Illinois. Civic in school has got to get tweeked up!
The Trump response: I hadn’t realized Trump had such a honed sense of irony until he accused Jack Smith , with his 165-page indictment, of “election interference” … over Trump’s monumental interfering with the 2020 election certification!
"Election interference" is just a dog whistle, like "open border" and "radical Democrat". It's obvious that TFG has no idea of the actual meaning of that phrase, any more than he understands the concepts of "economy" or "immigration".
He understands. Narcissistic psychopaths don't care.
I have had opportunities in my life to wonder whether an individual or individuals are ignorant and clueless or mean and narcissistic. I wonder in this case too. Neither one is a good look, especially for someone who wants to hold one of the the most important jobs in the world!
And so we should add to that civics education a little training in mental illnesses and deficiencies as seen through the DSM. I wish Judges were required to train in the DSM so they could see the subtle hints of sociopathy and psychopathy in witnesses as the mentally deranged seem to be able to make their opposing side look like they are the crazy one. This is especially seen in child custody fights.
And yet the shrinking MAGAs bow to a shrinking demigod.
I was thinking about how many actual MAGAts there are. John Heilemann Had Peter Hanby in discussing wtf happened to the repug party, and it was illuminating. First, it's about a third of the electorate , and a third of them are the true maggots. Still, it's about 30 million Americans who are rabidly this stupid. And they have enough guns they scare the crap out of any "traditional" republicans out there,
So much so my neighbor is afraid to put up her Harris Walz sign, and maggots run around and steal them. And don't feel fear to put their shit on their cars because they know we won't disfigure their cars.
I did get my "too dumb to live" stickers for just these folk's' cars.
I have a magat neighbor and I would love to deface or take down the signs she has on her wrought iron fence, but she also has signs about 24 hour surveillance. That prevents me from doing anything.
Better not to censor the free speech of your neighbor or destroy her property in violation of the law. Shame will come soon enough or it will not have mattered as Trump goes to big house jail instead of the whitehouse.
I agree with you, Penni. Someone suggested some time ago that I do something to deface the signs, or take them down, but much as I would like to, it always felt wrong to do anything like that. That neighbor is someone I've had some conversations with, but she puts out a ton of mixed messages and I figure it's best to not have anything more to do with her.
Dumb and paranoid. No wonder these people yap about censorship to excuse mistrust and bad manners
I'm not sure he can tie his shoes.
TRUMP: Jack Smith's attempt to prove my conduct was election interference is Election Interference!!!
Wash rinse and repeat.
Thank G-D that the nattering nabobs of narcissism (Reps Baublehead, Haz-Matt, Jordan, Spleen and Coma) are out of session so the weaponization sub-committee can not proceed with another scheiße charade of a hearing. Now a make-believe investigation would be election interference.
Ned, your list of nabobs made me laugh out loud. The language, and also the rhythm, of your renaming is just perfect. Thanks for the chortle. These days, such things are welcome and precious.
You are welcome, Rhoda. 🤝 I aim to please. 😉
R's seem to be completely irony deficient! They just do not get it!
LOL it’s the MAGA disease of irony deficiency, for which the only treatment is to become a Democrat
Clever, and true!
As I've mentioned below, the concept of irony is lost on DJT and his acolytes. In addition to not teaching civics, our educational system can do much better teaching concepts like irony and the language of propaganda. It's the purview of every English and history teacher, at a minimum!
Trump ALWAYS responds by accusing his critics of engaging in a version of his bad behavior. He is a master of projection.
This is all very enlightening. However, I will admit my faith in our judicial system is almost zero. Every person who wanted to witnessed the attack, by an angry mob, on our beautiful Capitol building. We witnessed it being ravaged by trump’s cult/henchmen while trump sat eating his burgers. Congress men and women hunkered down and hid from the mob. Justice has been played with, delayed time and again by his lawyers, playing what I would call “lawyer games”, and a few lowly ones have been convicted. Trump and Co committed treason by trying to overthrow a free and fair election. But, he has been able, for almost 4 long years to lie over and over about it so now his followers think he is being mistreated. I know the saying, “the wheels of justice grind slowly”, but it seems in trump’s case, he has always had the upper hand and has, so far, gotten away with his crimes and the wheels not only have ground slowly but have almost ground to a halt. Will he ever be held accountable? I have little faith this will happen. Every single day he is lauded in the news. I just want him gone forever.
Thank you, Sharon. Another thing that bothers me is the 147 Retrumplican legislators who voted to NOT approve the electoral college report in the early morning hours of January 7, 2021. When all of this is put to bed and trump is found guilty as charged, I hope those 147 traitors to the principles of democracy AND their sworn oaths pay some degree of ethics violation even if it only amounts to censure.
My Congressman was one of the 147 and he will probably win this year again. I have written him, calling him out as a traitor, but he doesn’t care…he will still go to Washington again…another old white man (78 years, I think) dictating laws against women, people of color, etc. Disgusting!!!
I totally agree with you and don’t understand why there has not been any consequences to date. How are these legislators eligible to run for office, again?
Yes, Fay!
Hey Sharon, I don’t think it was burgers that he was eating….he has an affinity for fish sandwiches. We will have to hope for a bone in one of them to cure the problem.
I had an ethics professor in law school who started each class by saying: "Your are not a bus." This puzzled me for a while so I asked the smartest person in the class what that meant. She was much older than us yougons. She said: You don't have to take every guy who has a dollar as a client. In other words, you can decide to represent people who represent what you care about. We need more lawyers who care about the clients and causes and less about winning for bad guys. I'm glad lawyers got prosecuted and disbarred for helping Trump as their conduct crossed so many lines. Still I wish more baby lawyers to grow up into people who contribute to preventing harm than perpetrating it.
Those wheels are grinding in reverse lately re:scotus.
Smith isn’t just prosecuting Trump—he’s putting the entire idea of unchecked presidential power on trial. If this doesn’t hold up, we’re setting a precedent that chaos can be a strategy, not just a consequence.
Smith did a stellar job of creating a roadmap of how to convict any criminal act of a president, while also bypassing the corrupt SCOTUS decision.
I agree completely. I agree with complaints about the justice system, and how trump seems to always be able to circumvent it, but Jack Smith clearly wants to go to trial and take trump down. He seems to be beating SCOTUS at their own game. I'm rooting for him.
I have no faith in our Supreme Court. They take the word Supreme to another level and truly believe THEY are Supreme. They love Trump.
Three don't.
I heard someone on the news say that SCOTUS gives Motown a bad name. You have to be in my generation (Baby Boomer) to understand.
For generations to come and beyond.
Today, former Mesa County (Colorado) clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to 9 years in prison for her attempt
Now we need the rest of the traitors in Congress, Trump's White House, and elsewhere to go to prison for years. I think they've earned life in prison.
Tina Peters gets nine years, and rightly so. Trump will get zero if he wins the election, and that slimy b***ard will live on to make America quake again under his (non) leadership. Where is the justice? We cannot continue to live with this fraudster controlling the narrative of our nation; he has got to go.
Do convicted felons get to keep their government pensions??
I take comfort in the fact his mental abilities are waning, and while he'll probably escape punishment because when the law finally gets to him, he'll be in his 89s and undeniably senile.
Maybe the Putin asset and his handler Melanoma will slink off to Dementiana. More likely she'll divorce him and end up the retired Russian doll of some other rich bastard.
I enjoyed reading the judge’s sentencing comment to her !
For what it's worth, a few hours ago I received confirmation that my mail in vote was received by the Department of State in Pennsylvania. I made sure to carefully read and follow the instructions.
#VOTE
The most telling of the evidence is Trump telling Pence, when Pence said he would not refuse the duly certified vote tallies , “You’re too honest.” Trump knew he was lying, plain and simple.
I would love to hear Mr Trump answer that question in court and under oath. Prosecutor: Mr Trump, how was your Vice President, too honest?
Mr Trump: maybe go to the bathroom?
Mr T would probably answer by blaming the 35 million criminals and rapists that crossed our borders while Kamala was controlling all the policies of the Biden administration.
SCOTUS seems to have gotten it wrong in giving Trump a pass for criminal conduct using official powers. A dissenting opinion in Alden v. Maine., 527 U.S. 706, 804 (1999) quoted Poindexter v. Greenhow, 114 U.S. 270 (1885) for the proposition that purported government "action" that "is unconstitutional” is "not the word or deed of the" nation or a state, "but is the mere wrong and trespass of those individual persons who falsely speak and act in its name,”
Alexander Hamilton emphasized something similar in The Federalist No. 83: "Wilful abuses of a public authority, to the oppression of" the people "are offenses against the government, for which the persons who commit them may be indicted and punished according to the circumstances of the case."
Thank you so much for including these points in the discussion--current events aren't happening in a separate reality.
I imagine the SCOTUS majority is furious that Jack Smith has developed work-arounds for their appalling grant of partial immunity to Trump. I'm furious that our trust in the rule of law in our country's democracy now depends on Jack Smith and his team - a brave, intrepid crew for sure. Let's make sure we live up to their trust in the law and in America.
Many North Carolina residents refused to believe the warnings about Hurricane Helene because they'd never experienced anything that bad before. That's exactly what millions of Americans are doing, too - denying the warnings about Trump, MAGA, a corrupt SCOTUS, Project 2025, the right's embrace of Christian nationalism and white supremacist. Apparently they don't believe history or their own eyes.
Excellent analogy, LaurieOregon.
As someone who lives in the area in NC affected by the hurricane, there really weren’t that many warnings. I get your point, but I would go with a better analogy that doesn’t demonize disaster victims.
Excellent newsletter! Thank you for guiding us through the details of what this means and where it goes now.
Go Jack! And Judge Chutkan!!
Trump squawks about Smith's October Surprise, but Trump did not mind Comey going after Clinton in the waning days of the 2016 campaign. Plus, Trump is guilty! The more detail the better. I thought Kamala's speech today in Ripon, WI with Liz Cheney was very good. (You can find the speech on C-SPAN.) She changed-up her stump speech and drilled in on "Trump is unfit for office" with a large dose of patriotism. Very Presidential indeed! Adding Republicans to her coalition is so smart and needed. She seems to be aiming to close this campaign strong. Her campaign is hitting on all cylinders.
This is the important stuff Louise L.
When the SCOTUS made their “immunity decision,” I said at the time….im still betting on Jack Smith! He’s not let me(us) down!!
I vote for Jack Smith and his team: Time Persons of the Year!
I was thinking exactly that!!
Another look into the felonious being that is Orange 1 should be along in seven days when the biopic "The Apprentice" is scheduled to be released here and in Canada. Think of it as a kind of modern-day "Frankenstein" story with Roy Cohn as the doctor and, well, I'm sure you can figure out who the monster is.
Mr. Hyde without Dr. Jekyll?
Been waiting for your detailed explanation and as usual worth the wait.it is beyond me that people could read/hear this and still think he could be the leader of our great nation.lets face it he is looking at the presidency as a get out of jail free card.
The problem, imo, is that too many people aren't paying attention at all to the election. That's why we need grass roots supporters of democracy to help with phone or text banking, writing postcards, knocking on doors, or contributing however we can to ensure the largest voter turnout possible.
People need to pay more attention because it is more convenient to say that this is above their pay grade, too complicated, or that it is someone else's job. It is easier to feign ignorance and avoid the evidence to keep their warped belief system intact.
Thank you! I hope you had a good celebration, and I have been waiting to see this post!!