This afternoon, the Supreme Court told us that it will hear Trump's presidential immunity appeal. After sitting on it for two and a half weeks, they've issued a brief grant of certiorari, scheduling argument for the week of April 22. It’s a major disappointment for people who believe justice can be done and presidents are not above the law. And understand, this is not about politics. This is not about using a criminal prosecution in an unfair way against a candidate for office. This is about seeking justice and accountability, the core functions of our criminal justice system. “Justice delayed is justice denied” is the earworm that’s burning through my brain tonight.
Sad to say this, but perhaps we are now seeing the actual meaning of tRump's oft-proclaimed "my Justices" on the Court, who perhaps may indeed fulfill their end of their bargain with the devil.
I think you can delete “perhaps”. We are seeing exactly what Trump owning the judges look likes. His now (I think fired) incompetent who forgot to check jury trial box already said that Kavanaugh owes Trump. They are using Autocracy for Dummies playbook
She’s still there: ““The exorbitant and punitive amount of the judgment, coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions, would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump’s lawyers Clifford Robert, Alina Habba and Michael Farina wrote.”
We women of all generations saw the meaning loud and clear with the hypocritical rush to replace RBG; then the Dobbs decision; the IVF fiasco; and restriction of contraception. Brace yourselves, there's more to come.
Tffg clearly took credit for overturning Roe Because of “his Justices”. Nothing new. Bought and paid for after being planned for years. None of it was by accident or coincidence
And, as usual, he's taking credit only part (if any) of which he deserves. Do we think he actually *chose* those justices, or could have picked any of them out of a candidate lineup? I don't. The Federalist Society and Mitch McConnell delivered them to him on a platter, whereupon he set the platter on the table and claimed to have cooked the meal.
Agreed, TCinLA: With setbacks like this appeasement by SCOTUS, it is up to WE THE PEOPLE to keep Arsonist Trump from again being fire chief. (Why should an arsonist even be allowed to run for the office of fire chief? Looking at you, 14th Amendment Section 3.)
In such moments I go back to evidence-based optimism from the most reliable election data we have: Actual election results in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Additional data-driven observations I rely on include: Trump is weak, getting weaker, and not winning. The GOP is broken, and broke. Joe Biden is a good president. The country is better off. The Democratic Party is strong and winning elections all across the country. Onward to continuing victories crushing MAGA in 2024 elections!
You are so right. We don’t need courts to tell us a wannabe dictator liar should be voted away. Can we please start now and send a Super Tuesday message? No more 10% turnouts that the media headlines as a huge win. GET OUT THE BLUE VOTE ON SUPER TUESDAY!! 💙👍🏻💩🎃🤡💙
Super Tuesday is this coming Tuesday, March 5. If you have a mail in ballot hanging around, fill it out and take it to an official mailbox or City Hall. Too late to mail it. There’s loads of local information at USvotefoundation.org.
Yes but… Gaza is a real potential bomb for the Dems and Biden Blinken need to pull a major coup and get a ceasefire plan agreed to or, I assure you, Michigan is done. Unreal that Arab neighbors think tRump is a better choice, not to mention all the impressionable and mostly uninformed college students who fail to see the historic big picture.
When I was in my 20s, I thought I should vote my conscience in presidential elections. I'm not surprised that many politically engaged people of similar age these days think much the same thing. It took me years to realize that presidential elections aren't primarily about ME ME ME. They're about US US US.
I've been highly critical (that's the polite way of putting it) of U.S. "Israel right or wrong" Middle East policy for decades. I know enough of the history to see how much this policy has contributed to the current mess, in which many Palestinians see no way out but violence and Iran is taking full advantage of the situation. I put that in the balance, but I put other things in the balance too, like climate change, the rights of women and people of color, and (especially) undoing the damage that 40+ years of Reaganomics and unbridled corporate power have done to the country and the world. To me, sitting out this election is giving the wrong answer to "Which side are you on?" And that's even though I live in the reliably blue, non-swing state of Massachusetts.
Agree Gaza is a huge problem for the Dems and Biden needs to pull a major coup as you put it. Re the Arab Dems, I suspect they don't think DT is a better choice. If the election were held today, I think they'd stay home, ostensibly giving the win to Trump. Do they understand what that means for them? A Trump 2.0 Admin?
Re the coup Biden should pull, that would involve a move against Netenyahu, yes? He has to do it to heal the Dem rift and keep his party unified in an election year. And the US IS the senior partner in the US/Israel alliance, so what would stop him?
I'd like to see early elections in Israel, but only a third of Israelis want that now as opposed to after the war is over.
The purpose of the push in the Michigan primary for Democrats to vote "uncommitted" is to send a message to Biden to act now to end Israel's slaughter of Palestinians, not that we or our Arab American residents shouldn't or won't vote for Biden in November.
They’re not going to think tRump greenlighting full scale slaughter is better but time will tell. Seems Bibi and Jared are close, let’s not forget that. Blinken seems to be spending all his time on this to no credit whatsoever.
The 13% uncomitted in MI, if they persist through to Nov and don't vote for Biden or stay home, is enough to give MI to Trump. Unless, as Simon says, the Dems get to work on making it up other places or work really hard to get the number down. Can it be done? I think so.
Increasing propaganda. Increased attempts across the globe to paint the alternative badly. These bullying fascists have been on a mission for decades they will not hold back when they are this close. They have heavily stacked the decks in their own favor while most of us were busy paying attention to doing something positive with our lives. It will be the ballot box that decides full blown fascism or continue to struggle towards a better democracy.
I think Dobbs will be a huge deciding factor in 2024. Election 2020 was before Roe was overturned. I also think the Gaza situation will be cooled down politically by Election Day and Trump will look progressively more unstable as well. The craziness of the Republican house members is a gift that will keep on giving. The trial in NY starts in less than a month.
Yes,vote blue, we can win at the ballot box, but also remember that, while the SCOTUS decision sucks, the legal situation for Trump still looks abysmal.
In summary, there is still plenty of room for optimism. We all need to take a deep breath and calm down. I’m telling myself this as well.
I'm trying really hard to stay optimistic, and that's a real challenge for me right now. Seems that every time I look at the news, WE (not Trump) are dealt yet another blow.
This is just so scary. And disgusting. As far as SCOTUS, their actions are uncalled for. Too bad citizens can't elect THEM, rather than allow them to be appointed by the POTUS --- and his or her "wishes," regardless of what the country NEEDS.
Agreed Dianne. If you’re anything like me I have to focus on the wins and staying too busy to give my time to the MSM. Do you get Jessica Craven’s newsletter?
Simon Rosenberg’s? I couldn’t watch any of the discussion last night after the news hit. I was flat out enraged. Did a bunch of self care and am back in the saddle today. Not letting those monsters take my country without my best fight. We need a big enough majority to fix our broken Supreme Court!!
Christy, I am beyond disappointed with SCOTUS. I used to have respect for them, especially ones that passed over the past few years, but it's not the same group we have today. Wish the exception of a very, very few members, SCOTUS seems to have forgotten their real priorities.
They're appointed but it's a two-step process: POTUS nominates and the Senate confirms. As to what the country needs, we as a nation have been divided on that since the state conventions to ratify the Constitution in 1788. The Anti-Federalists were opposed, but they lost. And they lost in the Civil War and the passage of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts in the 1960s. MAGA is anti-federal government, unless it's used to oppress people they hate. Please God, they must lose this one again.🙏
The Middle East is a horrible mess that has been brewing and brewing and Putin and Netanyahu and every anti-democratic force over there (many!) are gleeful to bust it wide open when we are on holding on by our fingernails to our own democracy. I am forever the optimist because severe depression has been biting at my ankles since first becoming aware of the forces of evil. At this point we do not know and cannot guess what our future holds.
But know this, there has never been a more important time to work ourselves to literal exhaustion between now and November, as the evil monsters are in our beds and have put all their eggs in this basket.
Agree about the strength of abortion and IVF rights in 2024 and that the Gaza situation will be cooled down by election day. However, remember it's no longer election day as it is election season. As Joyce pointed out, some states begin voting 45 days before election day. That shortens the time.
Agree those are all reasons why 2024 is not 2020. Another factor: Trump's performance on COVID in 2020 hurt him. That's not operating in 2024. And now we don't even have a felony conviction in the mix!
We've had four more years of denials and delays; we've had four more years of lies about the 2020 results; we have a speaker of the House who is as bad as--maybe worse than--McCarthy; and President Biden is four years older--which is all the mainstream media is focusing on.
Age = Experience. Joe Biden has the long view of the world's history. He knows all the players. If the media would just substitute AGE with EXPERIENCE in their reporting, we could perhaps overcome this issue.
You know who I'm mad at? The people who sat out the 2016 presidential election or voted third party because for whatever reason they didn't like Hillary Clinton. Those three Trump-McConnell "justices" are on them. Do better this time, people.
Simon Rosenberg, who writes the great Substack column Hopium Chronicles, has always said it was up to the voters, not to depend on anyone else to save our democracy. We now need to organize and act like it. Check out his Substack column for ideas: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/
“First, Republicans need to make sure they’re in control of the House of Representatives on January 6th, 2024, when the new president will be certified.
To do that, even though Democrats might have won enough seats to take back the House in the 2024 election, Speaker Johnson will refuse to swear into Congress on January 3rd a handful of those Democrats, claiming there are “irregularities” in their elections that must be first investigated.”
Robert Hubble refutes Hartman’s assertion of Speaker Johnson having the ability to refuse to swear into congress any newly elected Democrats . (His complete explanation is below). The main reason (and most important) is that as of 11:59am on January 3rd Johnson is no longer Speaker of the House!
Robert Hubble wrote:
“A quick comment on Republican plans to interfere in the 2024 electoral ballot count
Over the last several days, I have received a handful of worried emails about a supposed plan by Republicans to interfere with the count of electoral ballots in the 2024 election. The theory asserts that Speaker Mike Johnson will refuse to swear in newly elected Democrats, thereby maintaining control of the House through January 6, 2025, when Congress will count the electoral ballots.
While I do not mean to minimize or dismiss the efforts Republicans will undertake to prevent a Biden victory, the plan outlined above can’t happen. Why? Under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution and the rules of the House, Mike Johnson’s term as Speaker ends on January 3, 2025, at 11:59 a.m.—three days before the electoral ballots are counted.
On January 3, 2025, at 12:00 p.m., a new Congress begins (the 119th). Every member elected to the 119th Congress is a “representative-elect,” and no one—including Mike Johnson—has yet to be sworn in when the new Congress begins. All the unsworn “representative-elects” of the 119th Congress vote for a new Speaker. (See the rules linked above.)
The newly elected Speaker then swears in every representative-elect—because each begins a new term of service on January 3, 2025. Mike Johnson doesn’t “carry over” as Speaker from the 118th to the 119th Congress.
If Democrats “flip” the House in the 2024 elections, they will be a majority of Democratic representatives-elect, and they will elect Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the 119th Congress. Mike Johnson is irrelevant.”
He concludes writing:
“If I haven’t explained the above clearly, the most important point is that Democrats must flip the House to prevent the radical “Freedom Caucus” from interfering in the count of electoral ballots.
And remember this: No matter who wins the 2024 election, the President Pro Tem of the Senate on January 6, 2025, will be Kamala Harris. Her first term does not expire until January 20, 2025.”
——
So if we win the House in November things will be ok. Not that there won’t be other shenanigans by the GQP to try and subvert/ interfere if democrats have won a majority but, Hartmann’s scenario won’t/ can’t be one of them.
Unfortunately, you forget that if Trump loses--and he expects to, he is already jockeying for a position where he can claim the election was rigged by going on and on about mail-in ballots--his followers will promptly conduct Insurrection 2.0.
We need to prepare for that and counter it. Civil War Redux. J6 was just the dry run.
If they lose that battle, they will then do everything they can to wear us down for another four years, with the help of the Christian Nationalists and this stacked SCOTUS.
This is why if we win, the SCOTUS # of Justices needs to be corrected, brought back to 1 SCOTUS Justice for each Circuit Court at the very least: 13. It was frozen at 9 due to, drum roll, slavery interests from the South.
We also need to pass an amendment to force retirement at 75 in any public service role at the federal level, including the Presidency. Although I am extremely grateful for Biden's wisdom and experience right now, the old need to step aside for the young; it is THEIR futures at stake.
I would like to hear what Joyce has to say about what it would take in terms of legal efforts and state campaigns to pull those two changes off: 1) age limits and 2) restoring the intended # of SCOTUS Justices--intended as they started out with 1 SCOTUS Judge per Circuit Court in the beginning.
Finally, Roberts and his little coterie along with their sponsor Leonard Leo deserve a special place in history, if we ever make it through this. Worst. SCOTUS. Ever.
"Unfortunately, you forget that if Trump loses--and he expects to, he is already jockeying for a position where he can claim the election was rigged by going on and on about mail-in ballots--his followers will promptly conduct Insurrection 2.0."
But saner / wiser heads in the RNC/GOP are saying that Trump is self-destructive on this issue ... that to win elections you have to GOTV over the whole voting period, not just getting your people in the booth on the Tuesday. Let's hope Donald persuades millions of R voters again not to use mail-ins, plus stay at home.
While the rational part of me agrees with you, my logic brain keeps interfering. Meaning, if everything we want happens - Trump loses in November - what will prevent a repeat of the last four years? He lost then too. Nothing else will have changed. The same supporters will be in Congress, in the Judiciary, in the media, and in the public. He will still be allowed to continue his conspiracy theories, and on and on and on.....
We also need to get the MAGA far right adherents out of office too. Any plans in the works for that. This is not meant at all to be negative or disrespectful to the views of all who contribute here. I simply feel we are being too narrow sighted, focusing on the man not the problem. To
"We also need to get the MAGA far right adherents out of office too. Any plans in the works for that."
Get them out of office?? In three plus years "American Democracy" - led alone a Democrat controlled White House and Senate - hasn't even indicted (let alone convicted and imprisoned) one single person who wears a tie, for the attempted coup and the definite insurrection ... not one. Chesebro, Eastman, Meadows - and many others - walk around free ... maybe even go to upscale dinner parties in Georgetown.
I don't know why so many people on here care so much - when obviously the political class (including the Dems, DOJ, and judiciary) couldn't care less it seems. It's as if "let bygones be bygones" is the only game in town.
That does not say good things about America and its institutions. And even if Biden wins, it does not augur well for the future. Emboldened extremists, committed election deniers, dangerous people in Congress and state legislatures. There could be a very dangerous future ahead for the United States. People will need to be very vigilant.
Agreed. But many people can't wait that long -- people in situations that put them at odds with the Supreme Court and some horrific laws that could hijack their bodies or put them at risk of violence and persecution. A lot of people and families should move after the next election, to safer states or to other countries. Safety first. Human dignity first.
But they will not accept defeat in any case, and their methods of objection and obfuscation will be more sophisticated and also, more forceful. Defeating Trump at the ballot box does not defeat Trumpism, and for that we need to organize and rally in the streets, over and over again, using non-violent means to attempt to save our institutions and to sway public opinion. And we may still lose.
We already won the election in 2020. Why are we thinking winning the next one will somehow fix the problem??
Beginning any minute now, Trump will start saying the upcoming election is rigged. When he loses, that will the proof. Jan.6 2025 will be little different from Jan.6, 2021.
We're in this together... I feel it coming on like kind of a mantra. One day and one step at a time toward keeping all of us free. History will be at our back.
I'm sure my sixth great grandfather and his few comrades left of the Revolutionary Army that Christmas Eve of 1776 were scared and many were disillusioned, but they held their personal honor enough not to desert that night when they manned the boats and crossed the Delaware River with General Washington and then hid in the snowy forest until morning when they took Trenton Barracks and the Hessians surrendered and the Revolution was saved.
Every battle since has been won by people who were scared to death and did it anyway. There wasn't anyone in the landing craft shouting "Hurrah" as they grounded on Omaha Beach 80- years ago.
This exchange between you, Susan, and TCinLA just turned my feelings of fear and despair into hope and a fighting spirit. Thank you both! As Joyce always concludes, "we are in this together".
Thank you TCinLA. That’s beautiful, and is what we need to hear. What I saw in the Michigan Primary results is that the media keeps trashing President Biden, and the people keep quietly voting for him. I feel encouraged.
I think that it was a huge shock to our senses to see the Trump Supreme Court actually take away basic rights from women with Dodd. With the decision out of Alabama naming fertilized eggs children, Christian Nationalism is closer than we realized. I’m starting to think of the Spanish Inquisition. Nothing is worse than forced religion.
Worry Less/Do More, Susan! That's Simon Rosenberg's phrase. (Substack: Hopium Chronicles.) You may already be civically engaged helping register young voters and getting out the vote and so forth. If so, great! If not, turn your fear into action. Jess Craven's Chop Wood, Carry Water is another great inspiration and source of actions you can take. So is Robert Hubbell's Substack, Today's Edition. Check 'em out!
Glad to see somebody else who admits their fear of what is to come. Then I think about all those boys who were launched on Omaha Beach and what they did for democracy and I want to cry. How can anybody even consider doing this to America?
I’m watching Band of Brothers for the first time, as well as Masters of the Air. They were so young and brave, but they were also well-trained to face their fears and keep moving to accomplish their mission. May their example-plus the many more from our history-inspire us to do the same. It’s our turn!
OMG!!! Me too! The Supreme Court has let the people down, the constitution down, and the world. The judiciary is a sham and an embarrassment. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Susan -- just take refuge in the fact you have a lot of us subscribers on your side, and just as scared as you are. If i was smart I'd be popping blood-pressure pills often tonight.
I cannot agree enough. I’ve been searching for organizations to support ( I’m already donating to the Democratic Party) but being more of a Republican historically I keep looking for those people who are Never Trumpers. But they seem to all be packing it up. So I’m a positive Democrat now!!!
The other thing that kept me up at all night was how to ensure history is not rewritten by these bought and paid for justices. This is not justice. They took the lady with the scales and turned her into a prostitute - sold to the highest bidder. I’m so disappointed disgusted and depressed right now. But I want to try and do more than just vote!!! From your “on the ledge” friend lol. But I’m not really laughing. 😭
I always wondered how societies let themselves be taken over by crooks, dictators, incompetents, etc. Now we see it happening in the US in real time. Your last few paragraphs are helpful, Joyce, because the rest of us need to stay engaged and determined to defend our democracy and defeat MAGA and Trump. Cynicism, despair, and fatalism will not save us. We can overcome the corruption and extremism on SCOTUS by registering voters, getting out the vote, supporting honest local election officials, and celebrating our shared values for our democracy and freedoms.
And they're doing it under the banner of God. Shameless! I'm not religious, but this is the most perplexing aspect. A 91 count indictee, a sexual abuser, a multiple-fraudster, and some very questionable, mentally unstable rabid Republicans are claiming religious ideals.
Because Trump is the puppet of the Christian nationalist evangelicals whose mission is/was to erase women's rights (and to erase civil rights). It was easier for them to go after women's rights, so they did. They've been at this for more than 50 years and found the perfect puppet in Trump. They promised him they would elect him: he promised them the SCOTUS lap dogs (and he delivered). Now they have promised him another election, because they want a theocracy. He is no more an Orange Jesus than I'm a barking Dachshund. Find Frank Schaeffer's 'You disgust me' on YouTube (Meidas Touch). It is an awakening in and of itself and it will answer the question inherent in your comment. There is nothing 'Christian' about their plans. They exclude everyone except white males from leadership positions and all progressive rights will be erased. The video is about 45 minutes - well worth it in an interview from one who has known Mike Johnson from the get go. He left the movement.
I'm pleased you've given up claiming the American federal legal system is close to saintliness. Garland is two or three years late - that is the reality - Trump should have been subject to an urgent investigation from 21 January 2021, and I think everyone knows that - especially the non-lawyers.
You are confused. I explained to you ad nauseam why Garland couldn’t drive tanks down to Mara Largo to break down the gates and doors as soon as you wanted him to. We live in a country of rules and we do have a justice system that operates under the rule of law. It means we have to have evidence before making an indictment unlike civil lawsuits. The criminal cases from the DOJ have to have above 95% certainty of winning. Your complaint has always been against Garland. He needed to have justification to call the grand jury, and to nominate a special counsel. He did not have evidence that Trump had classified documents until more than a year after he Trump left office. Your complaint has also been about the amount of time that it’s taken to bring the criminal cases. That’s the way the system works. No matter how much you dislike it. The charged person is not guilty until proven so in a court of law. Until then that person is innocent. I respect Garland very much for his carefulness in bringing a complete case for Jack Smith to carry forward. You’ve missed the point. Your non sequitur regarding my comment about the Supreme Court has nothing to do with my refusing to shoot slings and arrows at the DOJ, and the many other excellent federal prosecutors and judges who have brought cases against Trump, and also refused to rule for his nonsense petitions that the election had been stolen. I’ve been writing for many decades about the failure of the Supreme Court from the time Sandra Day O’Connor typically had been a swing vote stayed on the court (she was going to retire that fall) to vote to stay the Florida supreme Court decision to recount votes. That’s when our democracy was lost from a politicized Supreme Court. And somehow you must have missed that I’ve been writing for months now about the bargain Trump made with the right wing Christian nationalist evangelical movement that has been working for 50 some years to erase women’s rights (they would like to erase a lot more but they could get a lot more noise and traction against women than they can against the civil rights movement). Trump did not get elected with his brand. He got elected with the Orange Jesus campaign. Trump only believes in himself, but the Christian nationalists have used him as their puppet. His job was to stack the Supreme Court. He did his job and their part of the bargain is to spread as much false propaganda as they can among Republicans to try to get him elected in 2024. It’s simply a bargain, the Christian nationalist evangelicals now led by Mike Johnson as speaker of the house, want a theocracy. Trump wants to be a dictator and he doesn’t care if he’s dictator of a republic or a theocracy so long as he can be dictator and have money. So his appointments to SCOTUS, who are Christian nationalist supporters, do not represent neutral, knowledgeable, individuals, who fairly apply the rules of the court and the law. They obviously are not applying the facts of cases to make fair and just decisions. Recall that we have lost two important cases, impacting hard, won rights. Dobbs and affirmative action. You are either unaware or stretching (or substituting the conflict) to think that I don’t know the difference between the federal court system and the Supreme Court ninnies Trump appointed. I’m not stupid and I’m not naïve. I know exactly what you’re trying to portray. You know full well that indictments come from grand juries. We’ve had this discussion before. And there has to be evidence given to the grand jury for them to be able to recommend an indictment. Just because January 6 committee had volumes of evidence and made recommendations. doesn’t mean that those documents could be used in the indictments that were issued against Trump and his co-conspirators. We have Aileen Cannon, slow walking her case, and we saw the Supreme Court turn away Jack Smith’s requests for cert. We have in Eileen Cannon someone who has ignored case law that Jack Smith has presented. That can’t go on forever without him, making an appeal to the 11th circuit to remove her but all of that takes time. And you know full well (or should know) that Clarence Thomas is making decisions when he should recuse himself. The Trump appointees are making decisions, exactly as they told him they would during his interviews with them, before nominating them.
We know this because former staff have reported those conversations and written books about those interviews. So the fact that Trump was able to make appointments when the Republican led Senate blocked Obama from making SCOTUS appointments has given the Christian nationalist evangelicals who are major donors an advantage. That can all change if we elect a blue bicameral Congress. Try to understand that one can differentiate between bad appointments to the Supreme Court (bad being defined as judges, who are not neutral and do not apply the law, and are also influenced by Christian nationalist evangelical ideology) and our judicial system that does work very well. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a court case but Trump is charged criminally. All of the advantages go to the person who is charged in a criminal case because the stakes are so high for them to lose their freedom. Our job is to re-elect Biden, elect Blue bicameral Congress, and make the changes we need to in order to protect our democracy. The Republicans have made in-roads for a very long time with gerrymandering - and that has resulted in the way, the electoral college votes have stacked up these have been overwhelmingly unfairly drawn election lines for people of color - including in presidential elections, as well as house and Senate on the federal level. You’re not getting anywhere with me by throwing out your slings and arrows toward Garland and the DOJ as they’ve followed every rule of law. It’s not as fast as you want it to move but it’s correct. And so is our judicial system. Just because there are a couple rotten apples such as Eileen Cannon doesn’t mean the federal judicial system is broken. What’s broken is the house and Senate with corrupt MAGA legislators.
Cargill: You are entitled to your opinion, because we still have a country that allows that: we have the first amendment. I am not making an ad hominem attack against you. I am presenting what I believe to be the facts - but we may have to wait a few years for both Merrick Garland and Jack Smith (And Alex Whiting) to write their memoirs, so what I believe to be the scenario behind why charges against Trump moved more slowly than you (and others) would have liked may not be spelled out by them for a while. I am not 'attacking' you for missing the big picture or for being narrow in firing repeated slings and arrows at our justice department, legal system and AG Garland. One view is that Trump is Putin's boy and he 'owes Putin' for being the part Putin played in getting him elected. Trump has publicly stated that he 'gets along well with dictators.' I don't know if he 'gets along' with Putin, as in having a friendship, but every indication is that Trump is an accomplice of Putin. He admires him for his power. Trump knows the role Putin had at hand when he sent his software engineers to England to work at Cambridge Analytica to use an app designed to lift 75 million records of US citizens from Facebook accounts to use to help Trump's election 2016 campaign. This is all in the public record and you can find it and read Steve Bannon's role in it. He was rewarded by being given a position at the White House. Without having any security clearance, Trump installed Bannon in the highest level security meetings involving knowing sensitive intelligence he had no business knowing about. I am not sure how anyone can determine that Putin did not interfere in the 2016 election. When Mark Zuckerberg was questioned by congress, he 'had no idea' about the 75 million FB accounts, couldn't remember a thing: and couldn't even remember where he had stayed the night before the hearing. But Putin did interfere and Trump owes him (as well as the national Christian evangelicals).. We know about Russia's interference from the Cambridge Analytica case and nothing happens with Russia without Putin knowing about it. Those details are on-line: but Steve Bannon is still running around (out of jail for now) putting forth his propaganda directed to Republican cult members six days a week through his 'War Room.' Why on earth would a president of the United States invite a thug who harvests his enemies' body parts to the White House? How do you have dinner with that?? On November 3, 2020, Hashim Thacci, Kosovo's then-president, was getting on a plane to meet Trump at the White House. Jack Smith was then in the Hague, prosecuting war crimes in the Kosovo war (Jack Smith was looking into charging Thacci for harvesting and selling body parts of his enemies among other crimes). Trump had invited Thacci to the White House to discuss 'the Balkans. What do you suppose THAT was about? Putin has made it his mission to restore Russia to one with all the countries pre-cold war countries and he would love to add the Balkans to that mix. Putin wants to control the Balkans because they control the land routes - and most of them do not want Putin: they want to be in the EU and part of NATO. (Except for Thacci and Kosovo. Thacci claimed that Putin told him he would support a peaceful agreement with Serbia; however, when have we believed Putin? And when are we going to believe a body parts seller?). Jack Smith arrested Thacci when he was getting on his plane to travel to the White House. This was prior to the January 6 event. So after January 6, when the committee gathered evidence, Jack Smith (and Alex Whiting) were plenty busy prosecuting the war criminal Thacci. In the bigger picture, Merrick Garland prepared the case against Trump to hand over to Jack Smith to prosecute. That's what prosecutors do: they prosecute. The case is made prior to prosecute and Jack Smith was busy prosecuting Thacci. He did not need to prepare a case: his skills are prosecuting the prepared case. Garland's job was to prepare the case: and the DOJ did not receive information that classified documents were in the boxes Trump refused to return to NARA until January 2022 - and NARA then informed the DOJ - who asked the FBI to begin an investigation. That's how the legal system works in the United States. A few months after the FBI had raided Mara Largo (and Trump had hidden documents and lied to his own attorney), Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel (and Trump coincidentally announced his 2024 campaign - much earlier than a regular announcement would have been. Trump knew exactly who Jack Smith was - and he knew his friend Thacci was sitting in jail at the Hague, waiting for his trial for war crimes). Your complaint seems to be that Garland did not move quickly enough against Trump for the insurrection case. January 6 was indeed horrific: more horrific if you can imagine it would be to have Trump elected with his alignment with Putin. As for your accusation of a 'strawman argument,' you are entitled to your opinion. Be my guest. But you are not entitled to your own set of created from thin air conjectures about our legal system. Garland and his team do not have the luxury of making mistakes. Trump does: our legal system appears to favor the accused.
Nancy Pelosi (bless her chutzpah) didn't wait. The House select committee began its investigation with a preliminary public hearing on July 27, 2021. Garland, on the other hand, had the DOJ sit on it's hands as the House, with no subpoena authority, was able to accumulated a wealth of information and testimony. Only after that did the DOJ finally wake up. Garland most certainly dropped the ball.
I agree. We can lay much of the blame for this mess on Garland and his ineffectual leadership. He did nothing until forced to by the findings of the January 6 committee.
Hi Dave, I do believe the evangelists are using Trump as their useful idiot. They contacted him and offered support in 2015. Trump had a luncheon meeting tete a tete with the evangelical king-maker in Washington DC. The evangelicals wanted an end to women's rights and Trump delivered the SCOTUS nominations to make that happen through a Republican majority senate. My point is they want to impose a theocracy: Kevin Roberts has been working full time on his mission to write the revisionist history that the Founders were Christians who wanted to form a government based on God's direction (the Founders actually stated that they thought 'if' God had created the world, they - the Founders - were in charge of running it). The last thing they wanted was a religion based government. They had just finished fighting off King George III, who was head of the Church of England. The Founders wanted none of that: but there is no other word for what Kevin Roberts and the rest of his evangelical buddies want: a theocracy, and they really don't care who heads it. It's perfect for them in fact to have Trump as their puppet head of government because he does not follow science. Nor did Iran. We will get what Iran has. And a 12 Century Catholicism Inquisition mode from the corrupt Supreme Court who are now Catholic dominated. I am not anti-Catholic or anti-religious, but I don't like their brand of religion removing women's rights and poised to remove our other civil rights. I believe the evangelists installed Trump (his 'brand' was not enough to get MAGA votes - some of them had not ever voted in past elections even though they were baby boomers); and Trump's job was to repay them by installing his three nominees to the Court. Indeed: January 6 will be a kicking to the curb day. Those in Congress who have supported the national Christian evangelical push to dismantle our democracy need to be booted as well.
Anyone who self-righteously declares they are acting on gods wishes should be burned like a witch or consigned to a facility for the mentally ill. I'm looking at you, Mike Johnson.
So, to be clear, if SCOTUS finds in Trumps favor, President Biden can and should do anything to stay in power and prevent trump from returning to power. Correct?
Biden can have him thrown in gitmo as the traitor he is. But that’s my personal fantasy. And throw the insurrectionists from congress in with him. The sitting president will be the one with absolute immunity- not djt. Stupid stupid dolts. This is a cray cray ask by djt.
Exactly!! If they do that, Biden needs to take full advantage of his “immunity” to save our democracy. I hope Biden’s admin. now have people with the ability of Bannon’s kind of criminal thinking working on a plan for that! 😡 so enraged!! The fascists are betting that the Democrats won’t play by their new made up fascist rules.
While it is hard to imagine that a majority of even this benighted court could accept Trump's presidential immunity claim, at least four justices plainly want to give Trump the advantage of not going to trial before the election. Disgraceful election interference.
Hopefully, they will hold it in their minds -- as I argue in my Substack Reasoning Together -- that the possibility of a re-elected President Trump ordering the assassination of those he deems “enemies of the people” is not in the least hypothetical.
Hey, if they have no problem interfering with the upcoming election, why would they rule against Trump interfering with the previous election? Bush v. Gore set a precedent, and these Justices are just the people to see that it is followed.
I don't think they really want an executive with the power to kill for personal reasons. Bush v Gore was about the succession. They already are now set to control the court for decades. And what if an empowered Trump decides some Supreme Court justice wasn't loyal enough to him, and needs to replace them? Anyone can be the kind of political adversary who Trump needs Seal Team 6 to take out.
Mitchell - I have an uneasy feeling that a "Hit List of Enemies of the People" regardless of the upcoming Presidential election is in preparation within the inner sanctum of Trump and his minions.
Supreme Court History Replay: The same folks who made Bush President now tip the scales for Trump. This infographic shows how John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Ted Cruz, Joel Kaplan, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alioto helped stop the vote recount in Florida to get Bush Jr. elected. Surprised by their decision to tilt the scales for Trump?
This is not just on the GOP & SCOTUS … it’s on the Dems. Who bring water guns to battle, cave in to GOP too often, and when they had the opportunity failed to eliminate electoral college or stack the court. Plus the Dems take money from the exact same corporations as the GOP. They are compromised in both the practice of & support for “we the people.”
I wonder which nations are going to permit US citizens to resettle there under claims of political asylum?
Any Dem elected, party official or activist who is in this country after 1/21 is a fool. You (and likely me) will be thrown in jail to rot bc we longer have rule of law in this country.
No, but it is the truth. The current crop of Dems stay silent. The texts I get asking for money is reprehensible. Asking for money, but staying silent while reps spew their lies. Where is Senator Kelley of AZ? Where is Jon Tester? Why are they staying silent? Gutless. And The spineless Dick Durbin is worthless.
When will the Dems grow a pair? I have told several of these spineless enablers that I will donate when they get the guts to speak out. It hasn't had any effect.
If you are serious (vs ranting to feel better) suggest you contact the persons in whom you are disappointed and ask them to explain their decisions to respond in these particular ways. They might also have info for you not available on the internet that would be satisfying to you. I do not share your perception nor do I have a problem with the party - so I have little else to say to your repeated stance. I refuse to eat the only people who might right this ship. I have sent my own suggestions to the appropriate people. My job now is to help get out the vote and correct misinformation spewed by the opposition in tRumps favor - whether it actually resonates with the listener or it doesn't. Finally, on donation dollars, it is a personal choice always. I look at where effective ads run to the widest audience and support those who create that content or run it. Though talking within our own groups is helpful it doesn't help change a mind. I also support candidates who appear to have a good chance and who would make a big difference. Your formula is up to you.
No special counsel, Attorney General, judge or Supreme Court was every going to save us from Trump. Joyce is right, it's up to us to vote, to get everyone we know to vote. People who don't care that Trump is liable for rape and defamation, or that his company committed tax fraud, or that he committed financial fraud through his company will change their vote based on any of the criminal charges. People can't even see the illogic of thinking Trump is immune to criminal charges but ignoring the fact that it also means Biden is immune (although I don't think Biden would become a criminal). I do wonder if any of them will question their vote because Trump doesn't have the funds, at this point in time, to file any appeals; he is not a billionaire or a successful businessman. Republicans will also keep pushing their Christian Nationalist agenda which has been the reason they've been losing elections.
Patricia, with all due respect, and understanding this may sound like splitting hairs, Trump, has in fact, already filed notices of appeal in the New York cases to appeal the verdicts and the size of the judgements. His ability to post a bond will impact his ability to stay action by the State of New York to enforce and collect on those judgements.
If he is unable to either come up with enough liquid assets to secure a bond, and/or put together a financing arrangement by pledging his real estate and other assets to fund a bond, expect Trump to describe his inability as another example of how he is being treated unfairly, and that his illiquidity is directly caused by the illegal prosecution by his political rival. Why else would anyone not lend money to one of the richest people in the world, who owns “…the most beautiful real estate worth many billions of dollars…” unless it was a coordinated effort by the “deep state”, and maybe the cabal controlling the financial markets worldwide (you know, the Rothchild’s, George Soros, Colonel Sanders “…with ‘is wee beady eyes! And that smug look on his face.” 😂 Sorry - could not help adding a Mike Myers pop culture reference for levity…).
Also, because it will take some time for the State of New York time to certify the judgements, identify the location and ownership of the assets, file foreclosures, provide the required notices, etc., etc., Trump will likely have more than the 30 days to come up with the bond and stay any further enforcement efforts. His largest risk would be his bank accounts and and public market investment securities, unless he has them in accounts The State of New York is not aware of; or the ownership of the accounts do not exactly match the companies on the judgements; or are held out of state, which might require New York to file declaratory actions to try to attach the assets, which could cause further delay; or for many other reasons.
My point is, appeals have been filed, and in actuality, he may have more time than the 30 day limit to actually post the bond and receive the stay. In any case, expect him to make it sound, regardless of how he navigates the financial issues, that it is more evidence of how unfairly he is being treated, and if “Biden and the Dems” can come after his assets, they can come after everyone’s assets.
The Court has lost all credibility! History will judge those 5 politicians harshly pretending to be honest and fair judges! They are scum and I am sadly but proudly saying it! Disgusting!
Ira, I don’t think they are pretending at all. They are doing what they were put in place to do. Now, we have to make clear, as voters, we are not going to let them run the clock and delay justice. We must go to the ballot holding them accountable just as we must Trump and all his co-conspirators.
Joyce, thank you for your posts which add much needed clarity to these labyrinthine proceedings and machinations by the Trump legal teams to once more deny justice through delay.
I am feeling much anger tonight. Anger at Merrick Garland for not appointing a special prosecutor a year earlier. Anger at Joe Biden for not being more aggressive earlier in his term and check mating McConnell by expanding the court when he had the chance. Lastly I am angry that our country's democracy hangs by a thread and lies at the mercy of a politicized court with an authoritarian right-wing theocratic agenda and mission.
I hope for the best, but if not, to the November ramparts where we will fight to defeat this tyrant.
As you always remind us, we're in this together. I need you and the comfort of this community more than ever.
I agree with all you said, Mary. I'm also so damn angry that Clarence Thomas didn't recuse himself from this one!! I'm appalled by the fact that none of the other Justices have applied enough pressure to make him see the light. What utter balls that man has. He should be hung up by them.
Truth is, we do not know if Justice Thomas recused himself or not at this point, and do not think it will be announced by the Court. We probably will not know for sure until oral arguments, and we see if Justice Thomas is physically in his chair or not.
Mike, I heard one of the legal pundits on MSNBC last night say that because he signed off on the paper (can't remember what it's called, the one saying they'd hear the case) that it means he didn't recuse himself. I hope you're right! Maybe there's some hope.
1. I have not seen anything which indicates which Justices signed off on anything. The copy I saw is an unsigned statement from the Chief Justice.
2. I do not wish to mislead you personally - I have little hope Justice Thomas recused himself - was trying to provide an objective view. I might be surprised, however, I personally have little faith in Justice Thomas.
Perhaps I misunderstood what I was hearing - it certainly wouldn't be the first time! And I'm with you in not having much faith in Thomas. Thanks for the response!
Yes,Joyce is amazing. Joyce, Heather and many others. Let’s do this for them and for our kids and grandkids.
A huge turnout on Super Tuesday March 5 is the best way to use our anger against the orangeslimeball. VOTE NEXT TUESDAY and help get out the vote. A 10% turnout is not how to preserve our freedom. Check
After that, letters to editors, calls to Congress, and donations will make a difference. Capitol Hill switchboard connects you to all— (202) 224-3121. Put the number on your speedial now. Let’s roll. 🇺🇸💙XX🎃💩🤡XX
I'd like to see a MILLION woman march in front of the Supreme Court protesting their right wing, autocratic, arrogant. politicized decisions meant to reshape our Nation into a White Christian Nationalist theocracy in tune with Leonard Leo's agenda. It's time to call for expansion of the Supreme Court so that their makeup mirrors where the majority of the American public is. We also need to press our leaders to pass a written Code of Ethics consistent with the Appellate Court Judges. We need to send a clear message to the FIVE that what they are doing is NOT OK, and is out of step with Americans. This is no longer a drill. The threat is now imminent and here at our doorstep.
Maybe the Georgia case will go to trial and a verdict before the election. But Joyce is absolutely correct that we have to go all out to defeat Trump without any convictions.
Give to campaigns.
Support voter registration drives.
Talk to people.
Write letters to the editor.
Stay informed and fight!
I’ve been a social justice advocate since the 1960s. It’s too bad we still have to keep fighting for the right to vote. But I’m not too tired to continue struggling and none of us should be.
The fascist coup mentioned in hartmann report is going on. Incredible. Distressing. But is this really a surprise. Mitch the bitch is one artisan of it. They blocked obama's appointee to scotus. No shame those corrupt justices. Civil war looming. Why do you think most police depts received generous military upgrades a few years ago? Not only to clear old stocks. Yes we are in this together and I fear more and more deeply.
In deciding to take the immunity case today, with its sweeping, overly broad question and setting a very slow timetable, SCOTUS pretty much assured that Trump won’t go to trial before the election. During the months of delay, he’ll get to continue trying his case in the court of public opinion where he has the main stream media facilitating his doing that. SCOTUS has shown itself in even starker terms to be corrupt, in Trump’s pocket. They know what this delay means that they are effectively declaring Trump immune.
We need to fight back. What are the ways open to us? At the least, we should ALL be writing letters to the Court, our Congress people, the media. Flood them with letters. I would love to hear what others think and what else we can be doing.
It’s so hard to have another battle to fight when we have so many.
We know we have to win -- and win big – at the ballot box, but in the meantime, let’s flood SCOTUS etc with letters of outrage.
Hi both~ Ira Lechner on this Substack has a group at Harvard who are doing a Women's March in August. I'm hunkered today - I will contact him and get the info posted again. It is already set up - should be on the Harvard website. I have a relative as well.
I suspect you're right, but we 't know how much they care, if at all, until we try. How can we give up without trying? Besides, letters to Congress, letters to the editor at NYTimes and WaPo will let more than SCOTUS know how we feel. And possibly set up a way to change the court when we get back the power of both Houses.
When it gets closer to the election, write letters to left-leaning voters with Vote Forward. In the past I have used the pitch “Your vote is your voice” but I’m going to try “Elections have consequences” this time.
We’re it.
The first line and the last line of defense.
The only way all these criminals will be held responsible for their crimes is for Donald Trump to lose the election in November.
The only way we will see justice is when we create the conditions for justice to prevail.
Sad to say this, but perhaps we are now seeing the actual meaning of tRump's oft-proclaimed "my Justices" on the Court, who perhaps may indeed fulfill their end of their bargain with the devil.
I think you can delete “perhaps”. We are seeing exactly what Trump owning the judges look likes. His now (I think fired) incompetent who forgot to check jury trial box already said that Kavanaugh owes Trump. They are using Autocracy for Dummies playbook
McConnell had a very heavy hand in this also.
Damn him to hell
She’s still there: ““The exorbitant and punitive amount of the judgment, coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions, would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump’s lawyers Clifford Robert, Alina Habba and Michael Farina wrote.”
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/28/trump-appeal-bond-fraud-case
Melania and Ivanka could afford to bail him out if they wanted to.
Jared could - with Saudi money.
You bet!
Of course, she is. She has no where to go at this point.
We women of all generations saw the meaning loud and clear with the hypocritical rush to replace RBG; then the Dobbs decision; the IVF fiasco; and restriction of contraception. Brace yourselves, there's more to come.
Yep
Lance - Thank you ... I agree
Tffg clearly took credit for overturning Roe Because of “his Justices”. Nothing new. Bought and paid for after being planned for years. None of it was by accident or coincidence
And, as usual, he's taking credit only part (if any) of which he deserves. Do we think he actually *chose* those justices, or could have picked any of them out of a candidate lineup? I don't. The Federalist Society and Mitch McConnell delivered them to him on a platter, whereupon he set the platter on the table and claimed to have cooked the meal.
Agreed, TCinLA: With setbacks like this appeasement by SCOTUS, it is up to WE THE PEOPLE to keep Arsonist Trump from again being fire chief. (Why should an arsonist even be allowed to run for the office of fire chief? Looking at you, 14th Amendment Section 3.)
In such moments I go back to evidence-based optimism from the most reliable election data we have: Actual election results in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Additional data-driven observations I rely on include: Trump is weak, getting weaker, and not winning. The GOP is broken, and broke. Joe Biden is a good president. The country is better off. The Democratic Party is strong and winning elections all across the country. Onward to continuing victories crushing MAGA in 2024 elections!
You are so right. We don’t need courts to tell us a wannabe dictator liar should be voted away. Can we please start now and send a Super Tuesday message? No more 10% turnouts that the media headlines as a huge win. GET OUT THE BLUE VOTE ON SUPER TUESDAY!! 💙👍🏻💩🎃🤡💙
I have already voted here in OK. We may be red but some of us have a brain.
💙🙏🏼🇺🇸🥳Bless you and your brain!🏆👍🏻
God Bless you!
Super Tuesday is this coming Tuesday, March 5. If you have a mail in ballot hanging around, fill it out and take it to an official mailbox or City Hall. Too late to mail it. There’s loads of local information at USvotefoundation.org.
Should have said ballot box.
...in Alabama that's like spittin' in the wind!
Illinois just banned Trump from the ballot pending the SCOTUS decision on Colorado.
Yes but… Gaza is a real potential bomb for the Dems and Biden Blinken need to pull a major coup and get a ceasefire plan agreed to or, I assure you, Michigan is done. Unreal that Arab neighbors think tRump is a better choice, not to mention all the impressionable and mostly uninformed college students who fail to see the historic big picture.
When I was in my 20s, I thought I should vote my conscience in presidential elections. I'm not surprised that many politically engaged people of similar age these days think much the same thing. It took me years to realize that presidential elections aren't primarily about ME ME ME. They're about US US US.
I've been highly critical (that's the polite way of putting it) of U.S. "Israel right or wrong" Middle East policy for decades. I know enough of the history to see how much this policy has contributed to the current mess, in which many Palestinians see no way out but violence and Iran is taking full advantage of the situation. I put that in the balance, but I put other things in the balance too, like climate change, the rights of women and people of color, and (especially) undoing the damage that 40+ years of Reaganomics and unbridled corporate power have done to the country and the world. To me, sitting out this election is giving the wrong answer to "Which side are you on?" And that's even though I live in the reliably blue, non-swing state of Massachusetts.
Agree Gaza is a huge problem for the Dems and Biden needs to pull a major coup as you put it. Re the Arab Dems, I suspect they don't think DT is a better choice. If the election were held today, I think they'd stay home, ostensibly giving the win to Trump. Do they understand what that means for them? A Trump 2.0 Admin?
Re the coup Biden should pull, that would involve a move against Netenyahu, yes? He has to do it to heal the Dem rift and keep his party unified in an election year. And the US IS the senior partner in the US/Israel alliance, so what would stop him?
I'd like to see early elections in Israel, but only a third of Israelis want that now as opposed to after the war is over.
The purpose of the push in the Michigan primary for Democrats to vote "uncommitted" is to send a message to Biden to act now to end Israel's slaughter of Palestinians, not that we or our Arab American residents shouldn't or won't vote for Biden in November.
Than you! Makes sense to me.
I also think this puts more pressure on Neata- don't-want-to to listen to Biden.
It's about the ongoing slaughter of civilians, not that they think Traitor is a better choice.
They’re not going to think tRump greenlighting full scale slaughter is better but time will tell. Seems Bibi and Jared are close, let’s not forget that. Blinken seems to be spending all his time on this to no credit whatsoever.
Isabel's genocide is horrifying to me. Hamas's atrocities are horrifying to me. Many people feel this way, but the numbers do not support your statements. https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/biden-breaks-80-in-michigan-trump?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The 13% uncomitted in MI, if they persist through to Nov and don't vote for Biden or stay home, is enough to give MI to Trump. Unless, as Simon says, the Dems get to work on making it up other places or work really hard to get the number down. Can it be done? I think so.
They lost at the polls in 2020. Why should 2024 be different?
Increasing propaganda. Increased attempts across the globe to paint the alternative badly. These bullying fascists have been on a mission for decades they will not hold back when they are this close. They have heavily stacked the decks in their own favor while most of us were busy paying attention to doing something positive with our lives. It will be the ballot box that decides full blown fascism or continue to struggle towards a better democracy.
Christy;
I think Dobbs will be a huge deciding factor in 2024. Election 2020 was before Roe was overturned. I also think the Gaza situation will be cooled down politically by Election Day and Trump will look progressively more unstable as well. The craziness of the Republican house members is a gift that will keep on giving. The trial in NY starts in less than a month.
Yes,vote blue, we can win at the ballot box, but also remember that, while the SCOTUS decision sucks, the legal situation for Trump still looks abysmal.
In summary, there is still plenty of room for optimism. We all need to take a deep breath and calm down. I’m telling myself this as well.
I'm trying really hard to stay optimistic, and that's a real challenge for me right now. Seems that every time I look at the news, WE (not Trump) are dealt yet another blow.
This is just so scary. And disgusting. As far as SCOTUS, their actions are uncalled for. Too bad citizens can't elect THEM, rather than allow them to be appointed by the POTUS --- and his or her "wishes," regardless of what the country NEEDS.
Agreed Dianne. If you’re anything like me I have to focus on the wins and staying too busy to give my time to the MSM. Do you get Jessica Craven’s newsletter?
Simon Rosenberg’s? I couldn’t watch any of the discussion last night after the news hit. I was flat out enraged. Did a bunch of self care and am back in the saddle today. Not letting those monsters take my country without my best fight. We need a big enough majority to fix our broken Supreme Court!!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17z4jWvVZK43zIjr0oEaeudrZq5RTBxRO4Wsubu2i76o/edit?usp=drivesdk
This is my piece quoting Rosenberg and Hubbell. Should help, Dianne!
And yes, I am a huge fan of Jess Craven's!
Christy, I am beyond disappointed with SCOTUS. I used to have respect for them, especially ones that passed over the past few years, but it's not the same group we have today. Wish the exception of a very, very few members, SCOTUS seems to have forgotten their real priorities.
Good move, Christy, self-care, then back in the saddle! 🐎
They're appointed but it's a two-step process: POTUS nominates and the Senate confirms. As to what the country needs, we as a nation have been divided on that since the state conventions to ratify the Constitution in 1788. The Anti-Federalists were opposed, but they lost. And they lost in the Civil War and the passage of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts in the 1960s. MAGA is anti-federal government, unless it's used to oppress people they hate. Please God, they must lose this one again.🙏
I bet He's listening to our prayers, but at the same time, is probably very disappointed in Trump.
The Middle East is a horrible mess that has been brewing and brewing and Putin and Netanyahu and every anti-democratic force over there (many!) are gleeful to bust it wide open when we are on holding on by our fingernails to our own democracy. I am forever the optimist because severe depression has been biting at my ankles since first becoming aware of the forces of evil. At this point we do not know and cannot guess what our future holds.
But know this, there has never been a more important time to work ourselves to literal exhaustion between now and November, as the evil monsters are in our beds and have put all their eggs in this basket.
Christy;
When I feel overwhelmed by bad news I find comfort in a quote from Mark Twain:
I’m an old man and have known a great many troubles,but most of them never happened.”
That's great!!!
Agree about the strength of abortion and IVF rights in 2024 and that the Gaza situation will be cooled down by election day. However, remember it's no longer election day as it is election season. As Joyce pointed out, some states begin voting 45 days before election day. That shortens the time.
Agree those are all reasons why 2024 is not 2020. Another factor: Trump's performance on COVID in 2020 hurt him. That's not operating in 2024. And now we don't even have a felony conviction in the mix!
We've had four more years of denials and delays; we've had four more years of lies about the 2020 results; we have a speaker of the House who is as bad as--maybe worse than--McCarthy; and President Biden is four years older--which is all the mainstream media is focusing on.
Age = Experience. Joe Biden has the long view of the world's history. He knows all the players. If the media would just substitute AGE with EXPERIENCE in their reporting, we could perhaps overcome this issue.
And he's sane.
Oh, details.
Gaza
Gaza does not equal the democracy of the US.
You know who I'm mad at? The people who sat out the 2016 presidential election or voted third party because for whatever reason they didn't like Hillary Clinton. Those three Trump-McConnell "justices" are on them. Do better this time, people.
Simon Rosenberg, who writes the great Substack column Hopium Chronicles, has always said it was up to the voters, not to depend on anyone else to save our democracy. We now need to organize and act like it. Check out his Substack column for ideas: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/
Agree, We the People are all that's left and we need to get busy. Thx for the link.
Even when he loses, it's sure to be a mess. Check out this disturbing article from Thom Hartmann.
The New "Over the Top" Secret Plan on how Fascists Could Win in 2024
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/26/2225913/-The-New-Over-the-Top-Secret-Plan-on-How-Fascists-Could-Win-in-2024?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR3sHvy_u0CJe-wKVd_o_9PgIKSddC9x8uMtw3WpATQj1vP40NhBSLuF82s
In that article Hartmann writes:
“First, Republicans need to make sure they’re in control of the House of Representatives on January 6th, 2024, when the new president will be certified.
To do that, even though Democrats might have won enough seats to take back the House in the 2024 election, Speaker Johnson will refuse to swear into Congress on January 3rd a handful of those Democrats, claiming there are “irregularities” in their elections that must be first investigated.”
Robert Hubble refutes Hartman’s assertion of Speaker Johnson having the ability to refuse to swear into congress any newly elected Democrats . (His complete explanation is below). The main reason (and most important) is that as of 11:59am on January 3rd Johnson is no longer Speaker of the House!
Robert Hubble wrote:
“A quick comment on Republican plans to interfere in the 2024 electoral ballot count
Over the last several days, I have received a handful of worried emails about a supposed plan by Republicans to interfere with the count of electoral ballots in the 2024 election. The theory asserts that Speaker Mike Johnson will refuse to swear in newly elected Democrats, thereby maintaining control of the House through January 6, 2025, when Congress will count the electoral ballots.
While I do not mean to minimize or dismiss the efforts Republicans will undertake to prevent a Biden victory, the plan outlined above can’t happen. Why? Under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution and the rules of the House, Mike Johnson’s term as Speaker ends on January 3, 2025, at 11:59 a.m.—three days before the electoral ballots are counted.
On January 3, 2025, at 12:00 p.m., a new Congress begins (the 119th). Every member elected to the 119th Congress is a “representative-elect,” and no one—including Mike Johnson—has yet to be sworn in when the new Congress begins. All the unsworn “representative-elects” of the 119th Congress vote for a new Speaker. (See the rules linked above.)
The newly elected Speaker then swears in every representative-elect—because each begins a new term of service on January 3, 2025. Mike Johnson doesn’t “carry over” as Speaker from the 118th to the 119th Congress.
If Democrats “flip” the House in the 2024 elections, they will be a majority of Democratic representatives-elect, and they will elect Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the 119th Congress. Mike Johnson is irrelevant.”
He concludes writing:
“If I haven’t explained the above clearly, the most important point is that Democrats must flip the House to prevent the radical “Freedom Caucus” from interfering in the count of electoral ballots.
And remember this: No matter who wins the 2024 election, the President Pro Tem of the Senate on January 6, 2025, will be Kamala Harris. Her first term does not expire until January 20, 2025.”
——
So if we win the House in November things will be ok. Not that there won’t be other shenanigans by the GQP to try and subvert/ interfere if democrats have won a majority but, Hartmann’s scenario won’t/ can’t be one of them.
Thanks for the feedback. I, for one, have little confidence that the Trump-led GQP won't do unthinkable things to get him back in the WH.
Wow, thx for all these details. You would think Hartmann would know that, yes?
Unfortunately, you forget that if Trump loses--and he expects to, he is already jockeying for a position where he can claim the election was rigged by going on and on about mail-in ballots--his followers will promptly conduct Insurrection 2.0.
We need to prepare for that and counter it. Civil War Redux. J6 was just the dry run.
If they lose that battle, they will then do everything they can to wear us down for another four years, with the help of the Christian Nationalists and this stacked SCOTUS.
This is why if we win, the SCOTUS # of Justices needs to be corrected, brought back to 1 SCOTUS Justice for each Circuit Court at the very least: 13. It was frozen at 9 due to, drum roll, slavery interests from the South.
We also need to pass an amendment to force retirement at 75 in any public service role at the federal level, including the Presidency. Although I am extremely grateful for Biden's wisdom and experience right now, the old need to step aside for the young; it is THEIR futures at stake.
I would like to hear what Joyce has to say about what it would take in terms of legal efforts and state campaigns to pull those two changes off: 1) age limits and 2) restoring the intended # of SCOTUS Justices--intended as they started out with 1 SCOTUS Judge per Circuit Court in the beginning.
Finally, Roberts and his little coterie along with their sponsor Leonard Leo deserve a special place in history, if we ever make it through this. Worst. SCOTUS. Ever.
This time they need to shoot a few hundred of the traitor morons. Pour encourager les autres.
"Unfortunately, you forget that if Trump loses--and he expects to, he is already jockeying for a position where he can claim the election was rigged by going on and on about mail-in ballots--his followers will promptly conduct Insurrection 2.0."
But saner / wiser heads in the RNC/GOP are saying that Trump is self-destructive on this issue ... that to win elections you have to GOTV over the whole voting period, not just getting your people in the booth on the Tuesday. Let's hope Donald persuades millions of R voters again not to use mail-ins, plus stay at home.
Here's the thing, it doesn't matter whether he wins or loses--he's going to claim he won anyhow.
While the rational part of me agrees with you, my logic brain keeps interfering. Meaning, if everything we want happens - Trump loses in November - what will prevent a repeat of the last four years? He lost then too. Nothing else will have changed. The same supporters will be in Congress, in the Judiciary, in the media, and in the public. He will still be allowed to continue his conspiracy theories, and on and on and on.....
We also need to get the MAGA far right adherents out of office too. Any plans in the works for that. This is not meant at all to be negative or disrespectful to the views of all who contribute here. I simply feel we are being too narrow sighted, focusing on the man not the problem. To
me Trump is more a symptom, not a cause.
"We also need to get the MAGA far right adherents out of office too. Any plans in the works for that."
Get them out of office?? In three plus years "American Democracy" - led alone a Democrat controlled White House and Senate - hasn't even indicted (let alone convicted and imprisoned) one single person who wears a tie, for the attempted coup and the definite insurrection ... not one. Chesebro, Eastman, Meadows - and many others - walk around free ... maybe even go to upscale dinner parties in Georgetown.
I don't know why so many people on here care so much - when obviously the political class (including the Dems, DOJ, and judiciary) couldn't care less it seems. It's as if "let bygones be bygones" is the only game in town.
That does not say good things about America and its institutions. And even if Biden wins, it does not augur well for the future. Emboldened extremists, committed election deniers, dangerous people in Congress and state legislatures. There could be a very dangerous future ahead for the United States. People will need to be very vigilant.
Yes, we're looking at having to win at least the next three presidential elections to squeeze out the virus - maybe.
Agreed. But many people can't wait that long -- people in situations that put them at odds with the Supreme Court and some horrific laws that could hijack their bodies or put them at risk of violence and persecution. A lot of people and families should move after the next election, to safer states or to other countries. Safety first. Human dignity first.
But they will not accept defeat in any case, and their methods of objection and obfuscation will be more sophisticated and also, more forceful. Defeating Trump at the ballot box does not defeat Trumpism, and for that we need to organize and rally in the streets, over and over again, using non-violent means to attempt to save our institutions and to sway public opinion. And we may still lose.
We already won the election in 2020. Why are we thinking winning the next one will somehow fix the problem??
Beginning any minute now, Trump will start saying the upcoming election is rigged. When he loses, that will the proof. Jan.6 2025 will be little different from Jan.6, 2021.
The beat goes on. And on. And on.
We're in this together... I feel it coming on like kind of a mantra. One day and one step at a time toward keeping all of us free. History will be at our back.
I'm scared to death and so disillusioned right now. 😳
I'm sure my sixth great grandfather and his few comrades left of the Revolutionary Army that Christmas Eve of 1776 were scared and many were disillusioned, but they held their personal honor enough not to desert that night when they manned the boats and crossed the Delaware River with General Washington and then hid in the snowy forest until morning when they took Trenton Barracks and the Hessians surrendered and the Revolution was saved.
Every battle since has been won by people who were scared to death and did it anyway. There wasn't anyone in the landing craft shouting "Hurrah" as they grounded on Omaha Beach 80- years ago.
Buck up. You have a lot of company. Do it anyway.
You’re right. Thank you. My 6th great grandfather was Joshua Younger and served with Washington. Hey! Are we related!?!?😂😂✌️
As fellow Americans. What a coincidence that I would pass t hat message to someone with a similar ancestry. My ancestor was Isaac Cleaver.
That is a coincidence. I’ve been working on my genealogy for several years. Amazing the things we find!! 👍🏻
This exchange between you, Susan, and TCinLA just turned my feelings of fear and despair into hope and a fighting spirit. Thank you both! As Joyce always concludes, "we are in this together".
TCinLA, you make it as clear as Joyce. Let’s gear up and move out. Thank you.
Thank you … I needed that encouragement…
Everybody does. this is hard work.
Brava TC - I think we are related. Or our relatives knew one another. Let's do them proud!:)
EXACTLY. Don’t ask whether we should continue the fight, only ask how.
TCinLA -- wow ! I needed that. Thank you.
Thank you TCinLA. That’s beautiful, and is what we need to hear. What I saw in the Michigan Primary results is that the media keeps trashing President Biden, and the people keep quietly voting for him. I feel encouraged.
I think that it was a huge shock to our senses to see the Trump Supreme Court actually take away basic rights from women with Dodd. With the decision out of Alabama naming fertilized eggs children, Christian Nationalism is closer than we realized. I’m starting to think of the Spanish Inquisition. Nothing is worse than forced religion.
Thank you for this. I'm sharing it on FB and X-Twitter (if I can get it to fit). Much needed words for all of us.
Worry Less/Do More, Susan! That's Simon Rosenberg's phrase. (Substack: Hopium Chronicles.) You may already be civically engaged helping register young voters and getting out the vote and so forth. If so, great! If not, turn your fear into action. Jess Craven's Chop Wood, Carry Water is another great inspiration and source of actions you can take. So is Robert Hubbell's Substack, Today's Edition. Check 'em out!
Glad to see somebody else who admits their fear of what is to come. Then I think about all those boys who were launched on Omaha Beach and what they did for democracy and I want to cry. How can anybody even consider doing this to America?
I’m watching Band of Brothers for the first time, as well as Masters of the Air. They were so young and brave, but they were also well-trained to face their fears and keep moving to accomplish their mission. May their example-plus the many more from our history-inspire us to do the same. It’s our turn!
Susan - I feel the same regardless of what my ancestors did or did do in the past to foster our freedom.
You and me both. Have been since I heard the news…we the people better wake up! 🤯
I’m in shock, we better wake up indeed!
OMG!!! Me too! The Supreme Court has let the people down, the constitution down, and the world. The judiciary is a sham and an embarrassment. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Read Heather Cox Richardson Feb 28 episode here on SubStack.
Love her!
Susan -- just take refuge in the fact you have a lot of us subscribers on your side, and just as scared as you are. If i was smart I'd be popping blood-pressure pills often tonight.
The last 1/4 mile of a marathon is what decides if you are a marathon runner. Every step before that is just running toward that final stretch.
We are on mile 16. Grab a water bottle, cram a bite of banana, pee in your running shorts, whatever it takes, but get there!
I cannot agree enough. I’ve been searching for organizations to support ( I’m already donating to the Democratic Party) but being more of a Republican historically I keep looking for those people who are Never Trumpers. But they seem to all be packing it up. So I’m a positive Democrat now!!!
The other thing that kept me up at all night was how to ensure history is not rewritten by these bought and paid for justices. This is not justice. They took the lady with the scales and turned her into a prostitute - sold to the highest bidder. I’m so disappointed disgusted and depressed right now. But I want to try and do more than just vote!!! From your “on the ledge” friend lol. But I’m not really laughing. 😭
Please don't let the Supreme Corrupters get you down. Dante is waiting.
We just have to fight harder!
My first reaction yesterday was the same. But as the evening progressed I felt better especially after hearing Lawrence O'Donnell.
Also hang in there - I believe something big will happen before the election. I can just feel it.
My sleep was fitful last night but I do resolve to do what you suggest and hang in there. Thank you Beatrice. I appreciate you! ✌️
Stay scared! Get out the vote!
I'm scared too, but I'm also angry. How dare they do this to our country?!?!?
so am I
Susan, I hear you. I could use a big hug right now, and someone to wake me up from this horrible nightmare about Trump.
Susan Niemann: You state it exactly right.
Your words speak for me.
All I can share with you, who are a deeply good and spiritual person, is that you have friends, and, as Joyce Vance says, "We are in this together."
It is when we are scared that we can show courage!
I always wondered how societies let themselves be taken over by crooks, dictators, incompetents, etc. Now we see it happening in the US in real time. Your last few paragraphs are helpful, Joyce, because the rest of us need to stay engaged and determined to defend our democracy and defeat MAGA and Trump. Cynicism, despair, and fatalism will not save us. We can overcome the corruption and extremism on SCOTUS by registering voters, getting out the vote, supporting honest local election officials, and celebrating our shared values for our democracy and freedoms.
And they're doing it under the banner of God. Shameless! I'm not religious, but this is the most perplexing aspect. A 91 count indictee, a sexual abuser, a multiple-fraudster, and some very questionable, mentally unstable rabid Republicans are claiming religious ideals.
Because Trump is the puppet of the Christian nationalist evangelicals whose mission is/was to erase women's rights (and to erase civil rights). It was easier for them to go after women's rights, so they did. They've been at this for more than 50 years and found the perfect puppet in Trump. They promised him they would elect him: he promised them the SCOTUS lap dogs (and he delivered). Now they have promised him another election, because they want a theocracy. He is no more an Orange Jesus than I'm a barking Dachshund. Find Frank Schaeffer's 'You disgust me' on YouTube (Meidas Touch). It is an awakening in and of itself and it will answer the question inherent in your comment. There is nothing 'Christian' about their plans. They exclude everyone except white males from leadership positions and all progressive rights will be erased. The video is about 45 minutes - well worth it in an interview from one who has known Mike Johnson from the get go. He left the movement.
I'm pleased you've given up claiming the American federal legal system is close to saintliness. Garland is two or three years late - that is the reality - Trump should have been subject to an urgent investigation from 21 January 2021, and I think everyone knows that - especially the non-lawyers.
Cargill,
You are confused. I explained to you ad nauseam why Garland couldn’t drive tanks down to Mara Largo to break down the gates and doors as soon as you wanted him to. We live in a country of rules and we do have a justice system that operates under the rule of law. It means we have to have evidence before making an indictment unlike civil lawsuits. The criminal cases from the DOJ have to have above 95% certainty of winning. Your complaint has always been against Garland. He needed to have justification to call the grand jury, and to nominate a special counsel. He did not have evidence that Trump had classified documents until more than a year after he Trump left office. Your complaint has also been about the amount of time that it’s taken to bring the criminal cases. That’s the way the system works. No matter how much you dislike it. The charged person is not guilty until proven so in a court of law. Until then that person is innocent. I respect Garland very much for his carefulness in bringing a complete case for Jack Smith to carry forward. You’ve missed the point. Your non sequitur regarding my comment about the Supreme Court has nothing to do with my refusing to shoot slings and arrows at the DOJ, and the many other excellent federal prosecutors and judges who have brought cases against Trump, and also refused to rule for his nonsense petitions that the election had been stolen. I’ve been writing for many decades about the failure of the Supreme Court from the time Sandra Day O’Connor typically had been a swing vote stayed on the court (she was going to retire that fall) to vote to stay the Florida supreme Court decision to recount votes. That’s when our democracy was lost from a politicized Supreme Court. And somehow you must have missed that I’ve been writing for months now about the bargain Trump made with the right wing Christian nationalist evangelical movement that has been working for 50 some years to erase women’s rights (they would like to erase a lot more but they could get a lot more noise and traction against women than they can against the civil rights movement). Trump did not get elected with his brand. He got elected with the Orange Jesus campaign. Trump only believes in himself, but the Christian nationalists have used him as their puppet. His job was to stack the Supreme Court. He did his job and their part of the bargain is to spread as much false propaganda as they can among Republicans to try to get him elected in 2024. It’s simply a bargain, the Christian nationalist evangelicals now led by Mike Johnson as speaker of the house, want a theocracy. Trump wants to be a dictator and he doesn’t care if he’s dictator of a republic or a theocracy so long as he can be dictator and have money. So his appointments to SCOTUS, who are Christian nationalist supporters, do not represent neutral, knowledgeable, individuals, who fairly apply the rules of the court and the law. They obviously are not applying the facts of cases to make fair and just decisions. Recall that we have lost two important cases, impacting hard, won rights. Dobbs and affirmative action. You are either unaware or stretching (or substituting the conflict) to think that I don’t know the difference between the federal court system and the Supreme Court ninnies Trump appointed. I’m not stupid and I’m not naïve. I know exactly what you’re trying to portray. You know full well that indictments come from grand juries. We’ve had this discussion before. And there has to be evidence given to the grand jury for them to be able to recommend an indictment. Just because January 6 committee had volumes of evidence and made recommendations. doesn’t mean that those documents could be used in the indictments that were issued against Trump and his co-conspirators. We have Aileen Cannon, slow walking her case, and we saw the Supreme Court turn away Jack Smith’s requests for cert. We have in Eileen Cannon someone who has ignored case law that Jack Smith has presented. That can’t go on forever without him, making an appeal to the 11th circuit to remove her but all of that takes time. And you know full well (or should know) that Clarence Thomas is making decisions when he should recuse himself. The Trump appointees are making decisions, exactly as they told him they would during his interviews with them, before nominating them.
We know this because former staff have reported those conversations and written books about those interviews. So the fact that Trump was able to make appointments when the Republican led Senate blocked Obama from making SCOTUS appointments has given the Christian nationalist evangelicals who are major donors an advantage. That can all change if we elect a blue bicameral Congress. Try to understand that one can differentiate between bad appointments to the Supreme Court (bad being defined as judges, who are not neutral and do not apply the law, and are also influenced by Christian nationalist evangelical ideology) and our judicial system that does work very well. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a court case but Trump is charged criminally. All of the advantages go to the person who is charged in a criminal case because the stakes are so high for them to lose their freedom. Our job is to re-elect Biden, elect Blue bicameral Congress, and make the changes we need to in order to protect our democracy. The Republicans have made in-roads for a very long time with gerrymandering - and that has resulted in the way, the electoral college votes have stacked up these have been overwhelmingly unfairly drawn election lines for people of color - including in presidential elections, as well as house and Senate on the federal level. You’re not getting anywhere with me by throwing out your slings and arrows toward Garland and the DOJ as they’ve followed every rule of law. It’s not as fast as you want it to move but it’s correct. And so is our judicial system. Just because there are a couple rotten apples such as Eileen Cannon doesn’t mean the federal judicial system is broken. What’s broken is the house and Senate with corrupt MAGA legislators.
Strawman arguments and ad hominem attacks ... charming!
Cargill: You are entitled to your opinion, because we still have a country that allows that: we have the first amendment. I am not making an ad hominem attack against you. I am presenting what I believe to be the facts - but we may have to wait a few years for both Merrick Garland and Jack Smith (And Alex Whiting) to write their memoirs, so what I believe to be the scenario behind why charges against Trump moved more slowly than you (and others) would have liked may not be spelled out by them for a while. I am not 'attacking' you for missing the big picture or for being narrow in firing repeated slings and arrows at our justice department, legal system and AG Garland. One view is that Trump is Putin's boy and he 'owes Putin' for being the part Putin played in getting him elected. Trump has publicly stated that he 'gets along well with dictators.' I don't know if he 'gets along' with Putin, as in having a friendship, but every indication is that Trump is an accomplice of Putin. He admires him for his power. Trump knows the role Putin had at hand when he sent his software engineers to England to work at Cambridge Analytica to use an app designed to lift 75 million records of US citizens from Facebook accounts to use to help Trump's election 2016 campaign. This is all in the public record and you can find it and read Steve Bannon's role in it. He was rewarded by being given a position at the White House. Without having any security clearance, Trump installed Bannon in the highest level security meetings involving knowing sensitive intelligence he had no business knowing about. I am not sure how anyone can determine that Putin did not interfere in the 2016 election. When Mark Zuckerberg was questioned by congress, he 'had no idea' about the 75 million FB accounts, couldn't remember a thing: and couldn't even remember where he had stayed the night before the hearing. But Putin did interfere and Trump owes him (as well as the national Christian evangelicals).. We know about Russia's interference from the Cambridge Analytica case and nothing happens with Russia without Putin knowing about it. Those details are on-line: but Steve Bannon is still running around (out of jail for now) putting forth his propaganda directed to Republican cult members six days a week through his 'War Room.' Why on earth would a president of the United States invite a thug who harvests his enemies' body parts to the White House? How do you have dinner with that?? On November 3, 2020, Hashim Thacci, Kosovo's then-president, was getting on a plane to meet Trump at the White House. Jack Smith was then in the Hague, prosecuting war crimes in the Kosovo war (Jack Smith was looking into charging Thacci for harvesting and selling body parts of his enemies among other crimes). Trump had invited Thacci to the White House to discuss 'the Balkans. What do you suppose THAT was about? Putin has made it his mission to restore Russia to one with all the countries pre-cold war countries and he would love to add the Balkans to that mix. Putin wants to control the Balkans because they control the land routes - and most of them do not want Putin: they want to be in the EU and part of NATO. (Except for Thacci and Kosovo. Thacci claimed that Putin told him he would support a peaceful agreement with Serbia; however, when have we believed Putin? And when are we going to believe a body parts seller?). Jack Smith arrested Thacci when he was getting on his plane to travel to the White House. This was prior to the January 6 event. So after January 6, when the committee gathered evidence, Jack Smith (and Alex Whiting) were plenty busy prosecuting the war criminal Thacci. In the bigger picture, Merrick Garland prepared the case against Trump to hand over to Jack Smith to prosecute. That's what prosecutors do: they prosecute. The case is made prior to prosecute and Jack Smith was busy prosecuting Thacci. He did not need to prepare a case: his skills are prosecuting the prepared case. Garland's job was to prepare the case: and the DOJ did not receive information that classified documents were in the boxes Trump refused to return to NARA until January 2022 - and NARA then informed the DOJ - who asked the FBI to begin an investigation. That's how the legal system works in the United States. A few months after the FBI had raided Mara Largo (and Trump had hidden documents and lied to his own attorney), Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel (and Trump coincidentally announced his 2024 campaign - much earlier than a regular announcement would have been. Trump knew exactly who Jack Smith was - and he knew his friend Thacci was sitting in jail at the Hague, waiting for his trial for war crimes). Your complaint seems to be that Garland did not move quickly enough against Trump for the insurrection case. January 6 was indeed horrific: more horrific if you can imagine it would be to have Trump elected with his alignment with Putin. As for your accusation of a 'strawman argument,' you are entitled to your opinion. Be my guest. But you are not entitled to your own set of created from thin air conjectures about our legal system. Garland and his team do not have the luxury of making mistakes. Trump does: our legal system appears to favor the accused.
Nancy Pelosi (bless her chutzpah) didn't wait. The House select committee began its investigation with a preliminary public hearing on July 27, 2021. Garland, on the other hand, had the DOJ sit on it's hands as the House, with no subpoena authority, was able to accumulated a wealth of information and testimony. Only after that did the DOJ finally wake up. Garland most certainly dropped the ball.
I agree. We can lay much of the blame for this mess on Garland and his ineffectual leadership. He did nothing until forced to by the findings of the January 6 committee.
Valere, Trump is not a puppet of the Evangelists, he’s just using them as proverbial idiots. Their usefulness will end abruptly on Nov 6
Hi Dave, I do believe the evangelists are using Trump as their useful idiot. They contacted him and offered support in 2015. Trump had a luncheon meeting tete a tete with the evangelical king-maker in Washington DC. The evangelicals wanted an end to women's rights and Trump delivered the SCOTUS nominations to make that happen through a Republican majority senate. My point is they want to impose a theocracy: Kevin Roberts has been working full time on his mission to write the revisionist history that the Founders were Christians who wanted to form a government based on God's direction (the Founders actually stated that they thought 'if' God had created the world, they - the Founders - were in charge of running it). The last thing they wanted was a religion based government. They had just finished fighting off King George III, who was head of the Church of England. The Founders wanted none of that: but there is no other word for what Kevin Roberts and the rest of his evangelical buddies want: a theocracy, and they really don't care who heads it. It's perfect for them in fact to have Trump as their puppet head of government because he does not follow science. Nor did Iran. We will get what Iran has. And a 12 Century Catholicism Inquisition mode from the corrupt Supreme Court who are now Catholic dominated. I am not anti-Catholic or anti-religious, but I don't like their brand of religion removing women's rights and poised to remove our other civil rights. I believe the evangelists installed Trump (his 'brand' was not enough to get MAGA votes - some of them had not ever voted in past elections even though they were baby boomers); and Trump's job was to repay them by installing his three nominees to the Court. Indeed: January 6 will be a kicking to the curb day. Those in Congress who have supported the national Christian evangelical push to dismantle our democracy need to be booted as well.
Atrocities have been committed under the banner of religion for as long as humans have been around. This is not new at all.
Anyone who self-righteously declares they are acting on gods wishes should be burned like a witch or consigned to a facility for the mentally ill. I'm looking at you, Mike Johnson.
Yes
They are the most dangerous self serving , holier than though, true psychopaths ! Never to be trusted or turn your back on.
I thought I was sounding extreme. But you're right. The right especially is bought and paid for, and the structure of the court itself is corrupting.
We have to keep the senate
We really need the entire systemic victory; Pres house and senate.
Then impeach Thomas.
It must be a complete slam.
Even if we keep the senate, impeaching Thomas will be impossible. But while we're at it, Roberts, kavenaugh and Barrett, for lying in conf hearing
We did it in very red, Koch-targeted Douglas Co Colorado in last years off-year election. We can do this.
Well said, Laurie!
So, to be clear, if SCOTUS finds in Trumps favor, President Biden can and should do anything to stay in power and prevent trump from returning to power. Correct?
Biden can have him thrown in gitmo as the traitor he is. But that’s my personal fantasy. And throw the insurrectionists from congress in with him. The sitting president will be the one with absolute immunity- not djt. Stupid stupid dolts. This is a cray cray ask by djt.
Ooh. Liberal porn at its finest…;)
Ooh. Liberal porn at its finest… I’ll bring the wine and snacks for the watch party. ;)
Exactly!! If they do that, Biden needs to take full advantage of his “immunity” to save our democracy. I hope Biden’s admin. now have people with the ability of Bannon’s kind of criminal thinking working on a plan for that! 😡 so enraged!! The fascists are betting that the Democrats won’t play by their new made up fascist rules.
I have to *force* myself out of the thought that Biden is therefore immune to prosecution…
Chuck -- Oh you devil ! I needed that.
I need about ten pounds of chocolate right now.
I drank a few glasses of wine tonight!
It’s definitely scary right now, but it makes me mad as hell too! NEVER AGAIN! 😡😡😡😡
Disappoints is an understatement
While it is hard to imagine that a majority of even this benighted court could accept Trump's presidential immunity claim, at least four justices plainly want to give Trump the advantage of not going to trial before the election. Disgraceful election interference.
Hopefully, they will hold it in their minds -- as I argue in my Substack Reasoning Together -- that the possibility of a re-elected President Trump ordering the assassination of those he deems “enemies of the people” is not in the least hypothetical.
Hey, if they have no problem interfering with the upcoming election, why would they rule against Trump interfering with the previous election? Bush v. Gore set a precedent, and these Justices are just the people to see that it is followed.
I don't think they really want an executive with the power to kill for personal reasons. Bush v Gore was about the succession. They already are now set to control the court for decades. And what if an empowered Trump decides some Supreme Court justice wasn't loyal enough to him, and needs to replace them? Anyone can be the kind of political adversary who Trump needs Seal Team 6 to take out.
I think the Republicans on the bench are less concerned generally with Trump than they are with satisfying the benefactors who put them there.
Mitchell - I have an uneasy feeling that a "Hit List of Enemies of the People" regardless of the upcoming Presidential election is in preparation within the inner sanctum of Trump and his minions.
It probably is, not I think at this point for execution, but for prosecution and investigation by a MAGAfief Justice Dept and IRS.
Death by a thousand cuts....
Supreme Court History Replay: The same folks who made Bush President now tip the scales for Trump. This infographic shows how John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Ted Cruz, Joel Kaplan, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alioto helped stop the vote recount in Florida to get Bush Jr. elected. Surprised by their decision to tilt the scales for Trump?
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/02/28/maga-supreme-court-justices-tip-the-scales-for-trump/
I almost want to call these justices pro-fascists!
They are, it's a fact.
This is not just on the GOP & SCOTUS … it’s on the Dems. Who bring water guns to battle, cave in to GOP too often, and when they had the opportunity failed to eliminate electoral college or stack the court. Plus the Dems take money from the exact same corporations as the GOP. They are compromised in both the practice of & support for “we the people.”
I wonder which nations are going to permit US citizens to resettle there under claims of political asylum?
Any Dem elected, party official or activist who is in this country after 1/21 is a fool. You (and likely me) will be thrown in jail to rot bc we longer have rule of law in this country.
And Fuck SCOTUS
self hate never accomplishes anything good.
No, but it is the truth. The current crop of Dems stay silent. The texts I get asking for money is reprehensible. Asking for money, but staying silent while reps spew their lies. Where is Senator Kelley of AZ? Where is Jon Tester? Why are they staying silent? Gutless. And The spineless Dick Durbin is worthless.
When will the Dems grow a pair? I have told several of these spineless enablers that I will donate when they get the guts to speak out. It hasn't had any effect.
If you are serious (vs ranting to feel better) suggest you contact the persons in whom you are disappointed and ask them to explain their decisions to respond in these particular ways. They might also have info for you not available on the internet that would be satisfying to you. I do not share your perception nor do I have a problem with the party - so I have little else to say to your repeated stance. I refuse to eat the only people who might right this ship. I have sent my own suggestions to the appropriate people. My job now is to help get out the vote and correct misinformation spewed by the opposition in tRumps favor - whether it actually resonates with the listener or it doesn't. Finally, on donation dollars, it is a personal choice always. I look at where effective ads run to the widest audience and support those who create that content or run it. Though talking within our own groups is helpful it doesn't help change a mind. I also support candidates who appear to have a good chance and who would make a big difference. Your formula is up to you.
It's the "almost" part I have a problem with. Otherwise, yeah, me too.
I do call them Pro Fascists worse! Nazi-ism is a good word for their New America,
“Almost”??!!!!!
NOPE.
No special counsel, Attorney General, judge or Supreme Court was every going to save us from Trump. Joyce is right, it's up to us to vote, to get everyone we know to vote. People who don't care that Trump is liable for rape and defamation, or that his company committed tax fraud, or that he committed financial fraud through his company will change their vote based on any of the criminal charges. People can't even see the illogic of thinking Trump is immune to criminal charges but ignoring the fact that it also means Biden is immune (although I don't think Biden would become a criminal). I do wonder if any of them will question their vote because Trump doesn't have the funds, at this point in time, to file any appeals; he is not a billionaire or a successful businessman. Republicans will also keep pushing their Christian Nationalist agenda which has been the reason they've been losing elections.
Patricia, with all due respect, and understanding this may sound like splitting hairs, Trump, has in fact, already filed notices of appeal in the New York cases to appeal the verdicts and the size of the judgements. His ability to post a bond will impact his ability to stay action by the State of New York to enforce and collect on those judgements.
If he is unable to either come up with enough liquid assets to secure a bond, and/or put together a financing arrangement by pledging his real estate and other assets to fund a bond, expect Trump to describe his inability as another example of how he is being treated unfairly, and that his illiquidity is directly caused by the illegal prosecution by his political rival. Why else would anyone not lend money to one of the richest people in the world, who owns “…the most beautiful real estate worth many billions of dollars…” unless it was a coordinated effort by the “deep state”, and maybe the cabal controlling the financial markets worldwide (you know, the Rothchild’s, George Soros, Colonel Sanders “…with ‘is wee beady eyes! And that smug look on his face.” 😂 Sorry - could not help adding a Mike Myers pop culture reference for levity…).
Also, because it will take some time for the State of New York time to certify the judgements, identify the location and ownership of the assets, file foreclosures, provide the required notices, etc., etc., Trump will likely have more than the 30 days to come up with the bond and stay any further enforcement efforts. His largest risk would be his bank accounts and and public market investment securities, unless he has them in accounts The State of New York is not aware of; or the ownership of the accounts do not exactly match the companies on the judgements; or are held out of state, which might require New York to file declaratory actions to try to attach the assets, which could cause further delay; or for many other reasons.
My point is, appeals have been filed, and in actuality, he may have more time than the 30 day limit to actually post the bond and receive the stay. In any case, expect him to make it sound, regardless of how he navigates the financial issues, that it is more evidence of how unfairly he is being treated, and if “Biden and the Dems” can come after his assets, they can come after everyone’s assets.
Sad, but true
The Court has lost all credibility! History will judge those 5 politicians harshly pretending to be honest and fair judges! They are scum and I am sadly but proudly saying it! Disgusting!
Ira, I don’t think they are pretending at all. They are doing what they were put in place to do. Now, we have to make clear, as voters, we are not going to let them run the clock and delay justice. We must go to the ballot holding them accountable just as we must Trump and all his co-conspirators.
And it could be more than five (5) justices (or politicians 😉)
true....sadly
Agreed!
Joyce, thank you for your posts which add much needed clarity to these labyrinthine proceedings and machinations by the Trump legal teams to once more deny justice through delay.
I am feeling much anger tonight. Anger at Merrick Garland for not appointing a special prosecutor a year earlier. Anger at Joe Biden for not being more aggressive earlier in his term and check mating McConnell by expanding the court when he had the chance. Lastly I am angry that our country's democracy hangs by a thread and lies at the mercy of a politicized court with an authoritarian right-wing theocratic agenda and mission.
I hope for the best, but if not, to the November ramparts where we will fight to defeat this tyrant.
As you always remind us, we're in this together. I need you and the comfort of this community more than ever.
I agree with all you said, Mary. I'm also so damn angry that Clarence Thomas didn't recuse himself from this one!! I'm appalled by the fact that none of the other Justices have applied enough pressure to make him see the light. What utter balls that man has. He should be hung up by them.
Truth is, we do not know if Justice Thomas recused himself or not at this point, and do not think it will be announced by the Court. We probably will not know for sure until oral arguments, and we see if Justice Thomas is physically in his chair or not.
Mike, I heard one of the legal pundits on MSNBC last night say that because he signed off on the paper (can't remember what it's called, the one saying they'd hear the case) that it means he didn't recuse himself. I hope you're right! Maybe there's some hope.
Two responses:
1. I have not seen anything which indicates which Justices signed off on anything. The copy I saw is an unsigned statement from the Chief Justice.
2. I do not wish to mislead you personally - I have little hope Justice Thomas recused himself - was trying to provide an objective view. I might be surprised, however, I personally have little faith in Justice Thomas.
Perhaps I misunderstood what I was hearing - it certainly wouldn't be the first time! And I'm with you in not having much faith in Thomas. Thanks for the response!
Yes,Joyce is amazing. Joyce, Heather and many others. Let’s do this for them and for our kids and grandkids.
A huge turnout on Super Tuesday March 5 is the best way to use our anger against the orangeslimeball. VOTE NEXT TUESDAY and help get out the vote. A 10% turnout is not how to preserve our freedom. Check
USVOTEFOUNDATION.ORG
After that, letters to editors, calls to Congress, and donations will make a difference. Capitol Hill switchboard connects you to all— (202) 224-3121. Put the number on your speedial now. Let’s roll. 🇺🇸💙XX🎃💩🤡XX
I'd like to see a MILLION woman march in front of the Supreme Court protesting their right wing, autocratic, arrogant. politicized decisions meant to reshape our Nation into a White Christian Nationalist theocracy in tune with Leonard Leo's agenda. It's time to call for expansion of the Supreme Court so that their makeup mirrors where the majority of the American public is. We also need to press our leaders to pass a written Code of Ethics consistent with the Appellate Court Judges. We need to send a clear message to the FIVE that what they are doing is NOT OK, and is out of step with Americans. This is no longer a drill. The threat is now imminent and here at our doorstep.
Disinformation political propaganda 🙏
Absolute Disappointment.
Maybe the Georgia case will go to trial and a verdict before the election. But Joyce is absolutely correct that we have to go all out to defeat Trump without any convictions.
Give to campaigns.
Support voter registration drives.
Talk to people.
Write letters to the editor.
Stay informed and fight!
I’ve been a social justice advocate since the 1960s. It’s too bad we still have to keep fighting for the right to vote. But I’m not too tired to continue struggling and none of us should be.
The fascist coup mentioned in hartmann report is going on. Incredible. Distressing. But is this really a surprise. Mitch the bitch is one artisan of it. They blocked obama's appointee to scotus. No shame those corrupt justices. Civil war looming. Why do you think most police depts received generous military upgrades a few years ago? Not only to clear old stocks. Yes we are in this together and I fear more and more deeply.
In deciding to take the immunity case today, with its sweeping, overly broad question and setting a very slow timetable, SCOTUS pretty much assured that Trump won’t go to trial before the election. During the months of delay, he’ll get to continue trying his case in the court of public opinion where he has the main stream media facilitating his doing that. SCOTUS has shown itself in even starker terms to be corrupt, in Trump’s pocket. They know what this delay means that they are effectively declaring Trump immune.
We need to fight back. What are the ways open to us? At the least, we should ALL be writing letters to the Court, our Congress people, the media. Flood them with letters. I would love to hear what others think and what else we can be doing.
It’s so hard to have another battle to fight when we have so many.
We know we have to win -- and win big – at the ballot box, but in the meantime, let’s flood SCOTUS etc with letters of outrage.
Can we write SCOTUS?
I suspect that even if we can, they do not care
I wonder that, too. Or a march to the SCOTUS steps several million strong.
Yes Hope. Pitchforks and torches.
Definitely a MILLION Women's March. It would give me enormous schadenfreude to see Alito whining that we're picking on him and Thomas.
I might ho to DC for that! I have relatives in the area.
Hi both~ Ira Lechner on this Substack has a group at Harvard who are doing a Women's March in August. I'm hunkered today - I will contact him and get the info posted again. It is already set up - should be on the Harvard website. I have a relative as well.
I suspect you're right, but we 't know how much they care, if at all, until we try. How can we give up without trying? Besides, letters to Congress, letters to the editor at NYTimes and WaPo will let more than SCOTUS know how we feel. And possibly set up a way to change the court when we get back the power of both Houses.
Letter to the editor-coming up! Good idea!
When it gets closer to the election, write letters to left-leaning voters with Vote Forward. In the past I have used the pitch “Your vote is your voice” but I’m going to try “Elections have consequences” this time.