The sheer enormity of the Court’s decision is sinking in by degree, thanks to Heather and others. One thing that leapt out of tonight’s letter is just how desperate the players are to hold on to power. Mitch McConnell will go down in history as a sniveling, shriveled, power hungry little man, who sold his country and OUR birthright for the modern day equivalent of 30 pieces of silver.
The whole frigging Republican party sold it's soul completely, and cast out anyone with any trace of scruples. The ship of state is hurtling at high speed straight for the iceberg, and we will have to pull together if there is to be any hope of averting catastrophe.
The only recourse is for the public – voters – to vote against every Republican up and down the ticket until the party is relegated to obscurity. With the large Democratic majority in the house and Senate, the Supreme Court can be expanded, and this egregious politicized decision can be overturned.
According to the terms of SCOTUS' decision, Biden doesn't have to wait for anything. He can issue fiats, formerly AKA executive orders. One to expand the Supreme Court, and another to impose binding ethical standards and term limits on justices.
Now would someone explain to me how "this Supreme Court will be the deciders" (which is how I read it too) is consistent with "separation of powers"? It basically gives the judiciary veto power over the executive.
Well, SCOTUS has been the final arbiter of the law, thanks to Marbury v. Madison (1803) in which the Court allocated the power of overriding Congress to itself by deciding which laws were or were not in agreement with the Constitution.
The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of the meaning of the language in the Constitution and the decisions of the Court. It has an outsized influence on the law.
Short of a new case testing Trump v US with a refreshed array of justices, it would take a Constitutional Amendment to override this decision.
Because this case does not involve a particular statute, I do not believe Congress can enact either a revised or a new statute that is contra to the ruling.
By the time these orders get to SCOTUS, there will be a completely different body, including the four needed to reach 13 - the number of US Districts. This will be an interesting experiment.
No illusions about this court. I don't think Biden will do anything unethical or outside the law; it's always been the president's prerogative to expand the court and appoint new justices. This ruling is just the canary in the coal mine that if drastic measures aren't taken, America will lose.
Note: adding Supreme Court justices is not taking advantage of the July 1 ruling. It is already legal. The difficulty is getting it through the Senate and the existing Court. Will be difficult.
Congress must mandate the court's expansion. Same with imposing ethical standards. Same with removing Cannon, which requires impeachment. All of this can't be done unless Democrats control the Senate and House.
I don't see where in the Constitution it is said that changing the number of SC justices required congressional approval. There shall be one SC, I see that. And such other inferior courts as congress shall from time to time ordain and establish, I see that. I see nothing about congressional approval for expanding the court.
No, he could not expand the court by an order. We are not that far gone, yet. But he could order the military to apprehend Trump, and then if TFG should try to escape…
Between this immunity decision and the reversal of Chevron, the court has already made a huge power grab. While it wasn't their goal, the majority would have little problem with *Trump* expanding their number by fiat. They said the President's motives can't even be questioned. Biden *is* still the President today, and they're the ones who handed him the keys. He would actually be defending the Constitution, as the orange menace has never done.
He can't act willy-nilly. The court made itself the official arbiter of what is an official act worthy of immunity. They won't give Biden the same breaks they'll give Trump.
If he issues a fiat, does Congress still have to approve the nominee? Will McConnell be able to refuse to bring it up for a vote? Eager to hear the answer, Lauren et Al!
Anne Marie, we have a majority in the Senate so it would be Senate Majority Leader Schumer to put it to a vote. And it would have to be after they ditch the filibuster. None of this will happen because President Biden declared yesterday that he will work within the [former] limits of of the presidency.
I’m afraid The Fix is in via the extremists & liars of our highest court. We, therefore, must get out the vote for a Blue Trifecta in November.
Absolutely correct, Angela. For Biden to use his new powers to reverse this mess, he would have to imprison or assassinate several hundred people. Except for J6, this has been a bloodless coup. The politicians have not yet opened fire on each other or attacked themselves with canes in congress. But all of that could start any day now. How the Dems restrain themselves is beyond me.
Yes, Seth, the only remaining recourse is the public, the voters. If they do as you say, Thomas and Alito could be impeached and replaced. Joe Biden summed it up nicely: “So now, the American people have to do what the courts should have been willing to do, but will not,” Biden said. “The American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy on January 6th makes him unfit for public office in the highest office in the land.”
Sadly, two of the three branches that are supposed to provide checks and balances are so corrupt they failed in that essential function. I don't have much more faith in the American people, given the extensive foreign meddling in our affairs. That said, the Roberts court has blown up the notion of precedent and settled law, so anything this court has done can be undone in the future, provided we give ourselves the opportunity.
That's part of the irony isn't it? After destroying stare decisis, the Roberts Court now claims to be "writing this rule [meaning this specific decision] for the ages" (according to Gorsuch). They must know they've destroyed respect for precedent, so everything, going forward will be an endless seesaw of power grabs :-(
I think perhaps we could contemplate not turnabout, exactly, but whatever opening the court has thrown at the current president to take extraordinary action to reverse the slide into fascist control. At least, measures that might not have been taken in normal circumstances, preferably stopping short of having to declare war on "conservatives."
If Trump loses, he and his people are already figuring out how to steal swing states. I believe that if Trump gets back into office, he’ll never leave. There won’t be anymore elections, or there’d maybe mock-elections like in Russia and other authoritarian countries, but he won’t leave. Project 2025 is well under way with this Supreme Court.
This may well be the act that opens the eyes of those who still aren't sure if President Biden is the best choice. Everyone needs to hear about this and not through the Faux type news filter. It is our responsibility to let everyone know what is really at stake in the next election. SCOTUS wants everything trump wants to do. They want Liz Cheney to be tried for treason on national television. They want him to defy a free and fair election by illegal and even violent means. They want him to assassinate his political opponents. Six of them are fully the enemies of the people of the United States of America. I have been doing more to support our Democracy than ever before. I now realize I need to do more.
It is in my nature to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I can no longer assume anything virtuous, ethical, moral, honest or legal from the current republican party or conservative judges.
supremes can rule against the vote, they've taken over the country and our government and is making it to their liking. If they don't get it all they will destroyed us all.
I am a delegate for the Indiana Democrat Convention in Indianapolis on July 13th. This is a first for an 81 year old. I am excited but concerned! Also, I will be a poll worker on election day.
This is part and parcel to an ongoing and accelerating coup. It's an unprecedented seizure of power. It's a metaphorical rolling out of the red carpet for the coronation of King Trump.
Is there not a space on the ballot that one can check to vote straight Democrat for all offices? We need an image of it to use in ads and posters and Highway signs, to teach the public how to do this! Seth et al, do you agree
We've got that in Australia. Saves a lot of time - unless you want to vote for your cousin in a tiny party that will never be in government, in which case you have to tick all the boxes.
I agree these are dark times but, sadly, I'm not sure the arithmetic is in our favor.
1. 34 of the Senate seats are up this year, and only 10 of those are Republicans. I suspect those 10 are pretty solid. WY, ND, FL, TX, MS are solid red. Utah's Mitt Romney, the only reasonable Republican in the Senate, isn't running.
2. According to a PEW report (CHANGING PARTISAN COALITIONS IN A POLITICALLY DIVIDED NATION), the voter population is 49% Democrat (or independent leaning Democratic) and 48% Republican (or leaning Republican). That won't be helped by the gerrymandering the Republicans have been supporting.
That's not the only recourse. Use your voice as a consumer and stop patronizing news media that normalized the Republican party. Voting is important, but if we lose, then what?
Democrats are the majority. When we vote we win. It sounds like you’re saying you’d like Democrats to get crushed. Is that what you’re saying? If so, your post is wishful thinking.
I say the truth no matter where it leads. The Democrats are going to get crushed in November. Trump was leading in the polls before the debate.
Americans will not elect a candidate with significant dementia. There is a price to be paid by the establishment left for lying to America about Biden's condition. Even worse 30% inflation over the last four years is not a formula that wins elections. So yes, the Democrats are going to get crushed.
It is admirable to say the truth no matter where it leads. What you are stating is your opinion, and I am stating mine. You are not the arbiter of Truth, but you seem to be confused about that. Joe Biden doesn’t appear to me to have dementia. In my 50’s I was confronted with a situation I didn’t know how to respond to—I didn’t have dementia then nor do I have it now. You appear to be trying to sell Biden’s ineffective debate performance as what you’d like the public to believe for your own purposes. So again I say to you that you are engaging in wishful thinking.
The Guardians of Putin don’t realize that making a king is not in their best interest either. It may take a while, but kings don’t enjoy anything as much as throwing syncophants under the bus. Soon it will be their turn. “ And then they came for me” is echoing in my mind.
No you can't fool all of the people all of the time but it appears you can fool about half the people all of time & the really harrowing part of that is that a huge majority of that half reside in the so-called swing states. So my freedoms are going to rest on how a few hundred thousand people vote, in a country of 330 million.
Lincoln may not have uttered that quote as there is no written evidence, but it is associated wit Lincoln. It's a great saying in any case, terse and true,
Thanks for the clarification. His heart was fully committed to these United States whenever he said anything. He gave his life for it. He knew the enemy, and it is us.
I was avoiding reading this newsletter as we are traveling in Greece…but I did and as I’ve feared it has rained on our parade. We’re instructing my relatives to start looking for property….
Yes, Nancy. Most people are stuck here and they cannot afford to leave nor would they always be welcome elsewhere. My garden helper had just discovered Project 25, but she doesn't understand that politics is the art of the possible which means we sometimes have to hold our nose to elect someone we don't really like so hard won progress can continue. She also was railing against the Electoral College and we explained the elephant in the room, slavery, at the Constitutional Convention which they had to find a way to accommodate. And these current traitors on the Court are not originalists, but they are certainly activist judges. Our only hope is victory for Ds up and down the ballot. Right now she and I are planning to spend time in our gardens to soothe our souls. And of course, we are going to have a heat wave starting not the 4th, so I will need to find neglected projects in the house. I am also reading Marilynn Robinson's Jack. She, btw, has an essay in the NY Review of Books about the current mess. I haven't read it yet.
Look at what is happening all over the world. We are all connected to each other and if the US goes down in flames, nowhere will be safe. I personally think we have to stay and fight and VOTE in such numbers that there can be no doubt and then do what we can to repair our ravaged democracy!
Here is a word of caution about Greece …sort of tongue in cheek….in the international press the reporting is that the northern parts are burning and the current business friendly government has worked to implement a 6 day work day. That is they do not have enough labor to support a five much less 4 or less work week. That my friend, speaking from experience thinking I could get decent healthcare in Sweden, is a recipe for an inadequate and frustrating ‘social security’ system. [we are in a bit of a climate sweet spot here so far but I am not gloating as …]
Bullshit. Every four years we hear the same story. Democrats love to virtual signal about leaving. They never do. In a democracy you win some times and you lose some times.
If you think there will be another “sometimes” after November, you’re deluding yourself. Reality is that despite the current desperate situation, bread and circus has sufficiently distracted the larger voting population so as to prevent them from seeing the coming storm. Some will vote for a third party because Biden just looks “too old”. Some will vote for Trump because he “sounds like a good businessman”. Some will abstain altogether because they have either given up or were never interested in how the country is run in the first place. Whereas the Trump party is highly motivated. They’ve been scoring political and judicial wins over the last ten years and it has fired them up. If they lose steam, they have Fox and Sinclair to rile them up again. Democrats will be hard pressed to win enough in November to defeat the tide of democratic erosion aimed at us all. And even if they do, I am not sure our norms will hold against the efforts they will expend to force a reversal. 2020 was a test case - now the apparatus is in place to reverse the will of the voters who do turn out.
I am not a hand-wringer, but the writing is on the wall. Never in my 64 years have I ever felt this much trepidation and hopelessness. It’s not my normal setting. But I suspect it is already too late. I suspect we haven’t as a nation been paying enough attention until it is now too late for attention, much less action. I doubt it will matter how motivated the democrats are in November. The die is cast and you will find the cure for your naïveté in the disaster that ensues.
If you think that this loss will be like other ones you’re whacked. Take a refresher look at the fall of the Roman Empire and see if you can find some similarities…let’s see, corruption? Dividing the Empire into the West and Byzantium that failed to work together against attacks from the exterior? Overspending on defense? Overspending in general? Depletion of slaves (who’s going to pick oranges after we deport millions of migrants?)? Etc. etc. etc.
Or, it's simply a way to express frustration, sadness, anger. Why do you jump to the most negative assumption? How do you know why they are saying what they're saying? At least I have the decency to ask you. You don't want to ask or question, you just want to tell and indict.
Why are you trolling a blog that consistently calls out Republican hypocrisy? Are you scared more and more Americans will learn the truth?
I see you seem enamored of your own intelligence, James. But to use your eloquent wording, I call bullshit on your statements.
If Biden is such a threat to democracy, why isn't he using his anti-democratic powers newly granted him and all presidents by the Supreme Court? Powers like Justice Sotomayor enumerated in her dissent, e.g. "orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival", "takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon", etc. Instead President Biden said yesterday, "I know I will respect the limits of [my] presidential powers". So if he's a threat to democracy as you allege, why isn't he taking advantage? Can you explain that? Didn't think so.
Anne-Louise--finally, the voice of reason. I see the obit for the US is down in the next response. We're not dead yet, but our birthday party is going to be a little bit hypocritical. Work, for the night is coming.
I have a radical idea, thanks to this recent "decision" by the SCORRUPTUS: if Presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts now, why doesn't Joe up the ante and suspend the November elections until after all the criminal cases against the convicted felon memegaga nominee are settled. Delay can't be the banana republican's way to get what it wants all the time. This is the time to act to save the country.
Sandra, McConnell will go down in history as you say because democracy will win and autocracy will lose. The reason democracy will win is because the Democrats will win all three branches of government, and the reason for that is because the choice is so clear.
Controlled experiments prove that we all know the difference between right and wrong on the day we are born. Preverbal infants are attracted to puppets treat other puppets with respect, and reject puppets who behave toward other puppets the way the SCOTUS majority and the MAGA crowd treat others. Preverbal infants don't learn that from experience. Instead, we all inherit that nature, and the MAGA crowd behaves the way they do because they learned not to trust their own human nature.
It is a mistake to be naively optimistic, but the MAGA crowd's cynical pessimism is also a mistake. Our job is to avoid making either mistake by make it as clear as possible to everyone reachable that this election is a clear-cut decision between our species' democratic and egalitarian nature and autocracy.
I agree. There has to be more of us sane, clear thinkers. We have to come out in November and vote! The fools who vote for trump don't even realize how bad a trump regime will be for them as well as the dems. Whatever happens affects us all.
If the outcome of the election is even close, it will go to the Supreme Court to decide and we know who they will side with.
I don’t know that we have enough people who are paying attention and will get out and vote. i’m very discouraged by what I am hearing from people in their 30s and 40s. There is a deafening silence from them or they are voting for RFK in an effort to reform a two-party system. What they don’t realize is that by doing that they are helping a dictator get elected.
I agree, but we have the time and knowledge it will take to turn this around, we just have to use what we already have, part of which is knowledge that giving up is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I’m moving to a safer country. I’ll be looking for a homestead in Sudan where I will be able to sail across the Mediterranean to vaca on my grandparents land of Sicily.
Unfortunately, a lot of us don't have the means to move to another country. I am thoroughly depressed over where our country is headed. Trump is an animal. He will bring death and destruction. I fear for all of us. We have to come out in full force, vote blue, and rid ourselves of these traitors to our country and freedom.
Me, too. Although, after a little thought, I believe a military tribunal and a conviction for treason, followed by a significant prison term, sounds even better. In the long run, that is... a VERY long run, for each of them.
I think of RBG - she hung on and hung on, and with her dying breath she said her wish was that her place be not filled until after the election. I think it was a week later that little Amy stood smiling beside Trump in the (redesigned) Rose Garden.
We need to bring the supremes down, they have committed so many crimes in process of destroying democracy and making a king and a mockery of the good ole US of A.
Those six Justices have committed treason. They've combined to overthrow the government. All that's needed now is to arrest, try, convict and sentence them.
The last execution for treason was on June 19, 1963, when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death for conspiracy to commit treason. Their crime was the passing of atomic secrets to Russia.
And Congress that has the ways and means sits there paralyzed. I viewed myself having excellent antennas for assessing human behavior. Just the notion that people I viewed as normal are promoting the end of our civilization as we know it is indigestible. Im at a total loss….
I think the Department of Justice might be the ones to handle it. Perhaps even with the help of the military. I'd like to see them face a court martial - much quicker and not nearly as complicated... and they do get full legal representation.
It's in my nature to poke humor at essentially a hugely destructive mess we have gotten in. I have thought seriously of returning to Italy where I lived for 2 wonderful years. But this move to the right is infectious. And I have repeated over and over and over and over and over again that no country wants open borders. And when ever I make this suggestion to my fellow democrats, I get shit upon. and then guess what happens. No, you guess.
Both Bush presidencies contributed significantly to destabilization when they invaded the Middle East. Herbert a Walker who was insistent on The Gulf War, had American military stationed in the Arabias which infuriated bin Ladin and the world came tumbling down. It was the Bush wars that are remaking the face of modern western governments for the worst. I would be in favor of an American military coup to restore civilian government. Sounds crazy right?
Joe Biden ended the Trump mandates at the border when he entered office. New leadership often does this to differentiate from past leadership. Trump did it to Obama with NAFTA as well with the Iran deal. Ancient Egyptian leaders often had the noses smashed off previous leaders believing that life originates from the nose passages and smashing the nose ended any continuing influence of previous leadership. Biden is no different.
I agree no country wants wide open borders. Of course, we might be able to come up with a plan for immigration if we had a competent government who doesn't want to use human beings as political pawns... I have no answers, but people much smarter and more experienced than I should be able to compromise something humane. Definitely not in this Congress, or the next if trump wins. Actually, there will be very little good anywhere in a trump regime. But, if it ain't over til it's over. Vote blue!
There are certain things in this world that are simply messy, no matter how you slice it. Immigration is one, the Middle East is another. No one wants to take a stand because no one else will, and it will always be the wrong thing in one way or another. Human beings are complex. Authoritarians like to have simple answers, and boast that they do. It makes them look bold, strong, in charge. But their answers are no better than anyone else's and will provoke subsequent problems like any other answer will. The question is, will you look ahead at ramifications and be prepared to mamnage them, or will you not? With Iraq, the neo-cons made the decision not to, even though, ten years prior, Cheney said in an interview that invading Iraq would be a disaster (you can find it on YouTube) and everything he predicted did come true ten years later.
Concentration camps. More separating families. Deporting existing immigrants that do the necessary jobs no American will do.
Then he'll kill NATO, allow Putin to kill Ukraine & move on to other countries, allow Netanyahu to kill all the Palestinians, and give China free rein in Taiwan.
And sic his DOJ on all democrats, taxes completely done away with for the rich.
But first, as with all dictators he'll come for the free press, so we won't know what's being done to us.
It is only Congress that can reform our immigration law, fund border surveillance and provide funding needed to secure the border. The last time Congress did anything to fix uncontrolled border crossing was in 1986. You are wrong about Biden. He tried to keep Trump's 'stay in Mexico' executive order that was put in place during court. A federal court overturned his efforts. I am constantly amazed at people who blame the President for Congress' inaction. Do people not understand how our government works?
It's days like these where the precariousness of our freedoms becomes clear that I think "ugh, wish I could move somewhere less crazy," look out the window and realize there are very few places that are actually less crazy, and realize how lucky I am to be an American, and need to protect it. Plus, the US is very powerful (I'm sure you've heard?), so if it falls the rest of the world is decidedly unsafe as well.
I have been raging about the dangers of this course for years. They have now gone way beyond being disruptive. They have become dictators themselves. They are a group of arrogant,corrupt, and cruel individuals. They have destroyed the Constitution in order to protect a deranged criminal. We cannot let them continue. They will certainly do whatever they can to make sure Trump takes power. We the People need to take back our freedoms. This is the result of an insurrection from within, while to many of us assumed our freedoms were the essential part of America.
This is not just about Trump. The Heritage Foundation has been working on this for the past 50 years. They have been influential in elections and SCOTUS appointments. They happened to find a deranged, ignorant narcissist to be their puppet in all of this.
If Trump wins the election, it will be the culmination of the Heritage Foundation’s efforts. They will turn back the clock on every progressive gain we have made in the last 50 years. As the mom of a biracial son with special needs, I’m terrified.
Yes, a bunch of mean, crazy, narcissistic billionaires have decided that they are the special people who should run the country. Everyone else can take "Black Jobs." Perhaps your son already has one. The arrogance and corruption that pervades this court is the result of years of planning, some illegal appointmentss, and the luck of have RBG die three months too soon.
Bravo, fellow geezer! Only special billionaires and their Supreme Court hires should run the country. Everyone else can take Black jobs! Hispanic jobs!
I hope the Biden campaign picks up on that. Ask Black Republicans like Tim Scott what Trump means by Black jobs. Ask Clarence Thomas.
Truth. I wrote a paper for school in '93 about Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition, Jack Abramoff, and all. It was clear they were well under way in their learning then and where they were headed.
Yes this will prove a truly unfortunate byproduct. American Democracy will no longer be held up elsewhere as a model. And despots will point to us with cynicism.
Despots instead will have plenty of U. S. Republicans to point to as their long-time allies, abettors, and fellow beneficiaries of the same international billionaire class which has floated Clarence, Donald, Mitch, and all their Fox PR.
Dems? Will any combination of them suffice to make up for the image of Biden with his mouth gaping open in hapless disbelief as Putin's orange agent clobbers him in barrage of lies?
The image of Biden remains as long as we stay frightened and shamed by it. The forceful move is to push back, and get over it. The guy had a bad night. WE needed him to save us. He didn’t in that performance. But to aid and abet the media by staying frightened, frozen, and shamed by our candidate when theirs is anathema to democracy? I dusted off my boots at midnight on Thursday, and woke up Friday ready to push back. We are on the beach at Normandy.
Don’t know about you, but my mouth gapes open, too, when I’m flabbergasted.
Some images last and others fade? I can’t get Donald’s smirk out of my mind’s eye when Biden called him a loser. Or his sneer or his lying mouth. Let’s fight our despair.
It is easy to say “I’ll just move somewhere else”, but that seems to me to be an attitude of “I’ll hang around as long as things are going the way I want, and if that changes, I’ll bail out.”. This country is worth staying and fighting for. Best advice I’ve seen in comments so far is to vote against every possible Republican so that at least the MAGA wing is destroyed. Let the centrist Republicans rebuild the party so that there is a counter balance to Democrats.
In my high school I was fortunate to have a teacher in a class called US history, in which we were asked to debate current events. On the topic of school integration and bussing, one student stated that his answer was "I'm going to move to the suburbs.". Fair weather fans have always existed, and none of them are real Cubs fans or real Americans.
If tRump becomes president NO ONE will be safe. He would actually go after and likely kill people like his niece, Mary, Liz Cheney, and Joe Biden, just to name a few. This horribly evil unstable man is holding the country hostage. The comparison to Hitler holds.
One major difference that for now makes Europe a safer place. Guns. Semi Automatics. There are not 60-70 million such weapons in the hands of private citizens
Correct, Susan. Europe’s far-Right movements will tear off their smiling, respectable masks and show their true features. And that will only be the beginning…
Everywhere, ambitious would-be courtiers of the new American Caesar are already angling for a place in his New Order. A New Order that is really the disinterred zombie of that which the ‘30s dictators imposed wherever they conquered.
I have just been sent a book in French called Z comme zombie — Z for Zombie — by one Iegor Gran. Subject: Putin’s total zombification of Russia, the transformation of nice, ordinary people into fully formated zombies programmed to believe whatever the State zombiebox instills, lies, poisonous myths, raging hatred and resentment for all but their subhuman leader.
Americans have already seen this with the MAGA cult. If that man becomes president, the cult will be imposed on the entire population. Those who resist can expect the kind of treatment Putin reserves for any he has failed to condition: systematic persecution, imprisonment, beatings, even death. Just like Hitler, with his rapidly built network of concentration camps, used initially to break resisters and soften up the unenthusiastic.
And what’s done in America will be done wherever PutinMAGA imitators rule.
(This was extracted from my book, "Donald's Vanity Tantrums" which was published in 2020. Perhaps I was ahead of my time.)
A Fireside Chat
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
Bill, I get your attempt at humor, and I sympathize with your desire to ridicule Trump, but really, now is the time to seriously plan how we the people will undo this grossest of errors by our formerly respectable SCOTUS and reinforce our Constitution and the laws it both inspires and regulates. Doing this will require multiple leaps of faith in the next few months, and all of our lives will depend on our doing the right thing.
In an odd way giving immunity to the US President is a bit like setting off the first atomic bomb. Nothing will be as it was.
Sounds like where we're going! Do mention the millions of Project 2025ers who will be looking over your shoulder to help implement this latest interpretation of the law. Will the Supreme Court justices feel bad, or will they be going to their deaths feeling "justified". Terrible history coming right up.
Look at what is happening all over the world. We are all connected to each other and if the US goes down in flames, nowhere will be safe. I personally think we have to stay and fight and VOTE in such numbers that there can be no doubt and then do what we can to repair our ravaged democracy!
Bill, I just posted that we are currently in Greece and directing my relatives to look for property here. The irony is that it is in this country where democracy was established and that my father migrated to America when he was 15 years old because it was so well adapted there….
Nice that you can do that. Following the example of MLK, John Lewis etc I believe we have to keep fighting. Everybody’s personal choice of course. But I wish you could put some of the considerable funds it takes to become an ex pat into the fight for our democracy. Just saying.
Sinking in by degrees? I can’t even sleep. This the a blow to the head. And no one who created this reality will go down in history as anything other than heroes. The Authoritarian State will see to that.
Seriously? When they turned over Roe v Wade everyone said...it will be okay....states will do the RIGHT thing....here in Texas, women, infants, and infants with birth defects are dying in record number. And the evil trio ruling the state are simply buckling down...unrelenting in their 'prolife' (pro death for women) position
Will, as the dust settles and the legal world analyzes the impact, as the politicians create their scenarios of how to navigate this maelstrom, I’m hopeful that some sane responses to this Imperial Court will materialize
The businessmen who count on economic stability to market their products cannot exist without people with money to buy their goods and services. At some point, they’re gonna recognize what they did to themselves in slaughtering the fatted calf
You do not understand the many more centuries where the world but followed the feudalism of a few faux elites lording it over masses as non-educated, badly educated as U.S. schools have left most Americans.
Phil, well perhaps Bus-Ed, sorta, but we both know that Business seeks profit above most else. Destroying an economy is not an effective profit model and contrary to a feudal system with centuries of relative stability, today’s businesses require cash flow to meet their loan and bond notes. The overnight fed reserve rate impacts much. Quarterly reports dominate corporate thinking constantly. The economic system brought to life by Freedom cannot be relegated back to the days of feudal lords without massive pushback from people who have learned how to be free, and free again
Do not discount the vipers in corporate boardrooms recognizing they caught the car. “Now what?”
Plus, me here, just trying to shine up a turd with a little positivity
Republicans used to talk business as if giving people their needs were a good.
Do today's Republicans have such rationality, Dave?
Or are they hungry for, followers of theocrats, sermonizers, and faux aristocrats as those sitting on the Clarence court?
" . . . people who have learned to be free"? Aren't you referring to a long-ago, when American schools still had humanities in them, not just standardized tests herding them?
I am upset, Will, which is an upgrade from the despondence I felt last Thursday. Our only option now is to vote them all out decisively. And I think Biden must expand the Supreme Court before the election, so when the Loser loses and takes his complaints to the judiciary, he won't get a rubber stamp decision.
If it's true the PresidentKing can jail or execute opponents, Biden ought to lock up Alito and Thomas for the bribes they accepted and for naked partisanship.
Let me guess - you are a white man. You’ll be fine. Everyone else? We are all threatened by what will shape up to be Jim Crow Gilead. There’s plenty to fear.
Gotta get the bucket and scrub brush out; there's much more work to be done. (And I confess to tears and one-too-many chocolate chip cookies devoured – but now it's time to get back on the horse.)
Pamela, 'by degrees', I meant the multi-faceted complexities of the whole thing. And the immunity charade was the epilogue of the previous decisions over the past year.
Sandra, we must be united to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. We must stop the Democrat circular firing squad in which we attack our candidates because they are not perfect in our eyes. That’s the only way to stop McConnell and his power-hungry buddies.
John Roberts is a stupid man. He decided in Citizens United that money was free speech, yet didn't believe it would have undue influence on elections. WRONG. He thought there was no longer a need for the election protections of the Civil Rights Act. WRONG. Now he reveals that, well yes, presidents are actually above the law. Of course, WRONG! And, as Heather points out, is antithetical to what this country was founded upon. The court has made itself all-powerful -- certainly above the congress (with Loper-Bright) but now also above the president. This is wrong on every level. This is not America. This will not stand.
I think, to try to wrap your mind around the thinking of Trump’s congressional enablers like McConnell and McCarthy, is almost beside the point. Trump is, almost unwittingly as narcissistic as he is, a straw man. We snigger at McConnell and the like while the monied interest behind Heritage and Project 2025 snigger at Trump but he is so, so very useful as he riled up Steve Bannon’s foot soldiers and undercuts, with his flat out lies and demagoguery any real conversation about wealth inequality and taxation policy and real representation of the people by the people.
McConnell and this court, is a direct link to the Confederacy, and to institution of slavery, to the old southern oligarchy, the false claim that some are better than others, unequal before the law.
Not only McConnell... The Extreme Court just showed how Extreme they really are, paving the way for the orange felon to become king and dictator of America. They will never allow Biden to use this power. Apparently, there's no checks and balances that can hinder SCOTUS: this handful of people are doing as they please; they are all-powerful, and they are gleefully showing it, laughing as they are bashing the American people with humiliating decision upon humiliating decision.
Today, democracy in America came to an end. The "Supreme" Court showed how supremely corrupt they are, selling their own souls, the American soul, American democracy, and with it, all democracy in the world - all just for a few "gifts"...
I see the court setting the American people up to accept by decree after decree, that they violate the constitution to serve their wealthy masters, and in so doing show that we can do nothing against them because Congress is not taking them on. This is all in preparation for them placing Donald Trump into office after he loses the election with some flimsy reason because they have probably already colluded to have him present a case that they will then rule on. Donald Trump is showing us what authoritarian government looks like and thanks to the Supreme Court, that is what the USA is living in. The press is also helping this agenda along, with their distracting noise about Joe Biden resigning, rather than reporting well on the dangers Trump poses to the country and the planet. So, we need people like Prof. Richardson to be keeping us informed because the illiberal mainstream press is not up to the task of reporting on the rise of fascism in the USA.
What was the courts decision? That official acts are covered by immunity and private acts aren't isn't enormous, its exactly where we were the day before. This is lying and hyperventilating of the highest order.
Why don't you be honest and say the obvious: Any thing that seems to benefit Trump
Either you don't really believe that, which makes you a liar, or you do, which makes you a fool. I'm not sure which is worse.
Never before in our history has a president had immunity from prosecution. It's certainly not in the US Constitution. (The founders were familiar with the concept. They could have included it. They chose not to.) The supposedly "originalist" SCOTUS pulled it out of thin air.
The Court didn't stop there. It also said that If any part of an "unofficial act" occurs during an "official act," that part cannot be admitted as evidence at trial, if that "unofficial act" is ever prosecuted. The Court went out of their way to give the President de jure immunity for official acts and de facto immunity for everything else.
Honestly are you an IDIOT? Of course the President has immunity.
Were you born yesterday? The President is commander in chief and head of the executive branch. Under the constitution he has sole authority
The Supreme Court concluded:
"Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.
There it is. The President is entitled to immunity for official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts.
They sent the ruling back to the lower courts to determine whether Trump's actions were official or private.
You are lying about official and un-official acts. This was for the lower court to determine. They said there are facts are borderline.
I am not an idiot. The President has immunity NOW because the Supreme Court just handed it to him. It did not exist before. Otherwise, Ford would not have pardoned Nixon, because there would have been no need.
I was born decades ago. Under the US Constitution, the President does not have “sole authority” for anything. There’s this thing called “Checks and balances.” At least, there was until yesterday. The Constitution says that Congress has the power to impeach the president and throw him out of office. But if the President is immune from criminal prosecution, I don’t know what happens to that rule. Also, there’s this thing we have called “elections” where We the People can throw a president we don’t like out of office—which we did in 2020. (Which Trump tried to prevent by starting an insurrection—the first in US History after the Civil War. Don’t bother to deny it, we all saw it with our own eyes, unfolding in real time.) We also have term limits, imposed after FDR was elected for the third term in a row. Dictators and Kings have "sole authority." Presidents in free countries do not; they are subject to the law just like the rest of us.
If a President wants immunity for "unofficial acts" all he has to do is use his official powers to complete most of the steps. He can now assassinate any rival, or sic the US Military on any civilian city. All he has to do is ensure that most of steps he takes are part of his "official duties". None of those acts are admissible evidence in Court. Whatever acts remain will not be enough to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. (That's a high bar. As it should be.) Sure, it will reach the Supreme Court in...what? 10 years? Even if SCOTUS doesn't give him a pass (which they will), many people have lost their livelihoods, if not their lives.
Then there's the DOJ. Currently, the DOJ is an independent body that prosecutes crimes on behalf of the Federal Government, i.e. We the People. Part of Project 2025 is to destroy that independence and bring it under the person of the President. Under the new rules, the DOJ will not only leave a former President and cronies alone, a current President can use the DOJ to go after his opposition. No matter how specious the charges, or frivolous the actions, Thanks to SCOTUS, doing so is now considered an "official act", as the President is now in charge of the DOJ, and retains sole discretion in who or what it pursues. The President can lock up anyone and everyone from journalists to congresspeople to donors who don't give enough. If we were a free country, the President would not have this much power. Now he does.
Now kindly crawl back under your rock and take your lies and willful ignorance with you.
Proof. Last year lets say the president order a risky mission to fly a combat mission over Ukraine and the crew was killed, could you have indicted the president for negligent homicide. 100% NO. The president as the commander and chief has absolute immunity with regard to official acts over the military
You are an idiot.
If you listen to the Supreme Court oral arguments the Solicitor General admitted that President's have immunity.
As for Trump and insurrection, I can't imagine a stupider claim.
Trump told the crowd to go protest peacefully. He also offered Nancy Pelosi
the national guard. She refused.
Trump was not charged by Jack Smith for insurrection. Why? Because there is no case. ITS A LIE.
From what you say here, you believe the falsehoods that stream from the mouth of a convicted felon, as repeated by Fox, Newsmax, and OAN. Also from what you say here, you have received your opinions and talking points from the same sources. I’m certain you believe that they are very good indeed.
No president has ever had absolute immunity. No president has never needed absolute immunity to act decisively, especially in times of war. Trump pursued absolute immunity because he knows that he committed crimes while in office and plans to do so again. Yelling “no” loudly and repeatedly doesn’t change that.
I watched the insurrection. The president did not call the National Guard until 3 hours until after the insurrection started—after the entire Congress was forced to flee, and after the mob shouted that they going to hang his own vice president. (Perhaps you may be tempted to say that “Hang Mike Pence” was just a joke, or that they didn’t mean it. That would be a lie. They erected a noose in front of the Capitol. You can’t shake the Devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding.)
Trump never contacted Pelosi during the insurrection. That is a Big Lie—a whopper that Trump repeats over and over and over because he knows that if he does, people will believe him. People like you.
Maybe it’s cognitive dissonance. Maybe it’s sunk cost. Maybe your life is frustrating, you don’t feel great about yourself, you’re casting about for a direction, so Trump telling you that you are both superior to everyone else, and a perpetual victim to everyone else is intoxicating. (Hearing that you are the best ever, and all your problems are someone’s else’s fault is a VERY tempting message.) Maybe it’s that he hates the same people as you (the ones that you are both superior to and a victim of), and you look forward to seeing him make those people suffer. Maybe you are so afraid of anyone who is different from you that you don’t care about the truth anymore. Maybe you just want lower taxes, and think all his talk about jailing opponents and setting up concentration camps is nonsense for the hoi polloi.
Whatever the reason, you’ve fallen for one Big Lie after another. I know it hurts to hear. You’ve been conned. You’re still being conned. It’s sad for you, and terrifying to the rest of us that there are so many like you.
Someday, in spite of fighting against it, you may wake up from this fever dream. Depending on what has happened until that point, you’ll be anywhere from ashamed to mortified to suicidal to haunted for the rest of your days. You don’t want it to happen because you know that once it does, it’s going to suck. No one wants to admit that they’ve been conned, especially if they’re smart. That’s why folks who perpetuate cons are called “con artists.” They’re good at what they do. And Trump is one of the best con artists that exists.
In the meantime, until you come to your senses, stop sealioning. Leave us alone. If you don’t want to do that, then ask yourself why you believe that trolling is the best use of your time.
FALSE James it is vey much NOT the end of the story. The case is going back to Federal Judge Chtkan per the remand order & directions for pre-trial hearings all before the November 2024 election. Mr. Prosecutor, please call you first witness.
Why don't re read the thread that President don't have ANY immunity which
is stupid and false.
As for a fall trial you can forget. Not only is the question of whether Jack Smith had illegal authority to bring the charges, the question of which acts are official still needs to be litigated and appealed.
If the Democrats were looking for maximum effect they should have never waited until a year before election to trial these cases. However its obvious why. All the cases were filed once Trump declared his candidacy.
IIRC, the only teeny tiny silver lining I can see in this is that the evidentiary hearings will now occur in September and October. Every single thing that Trump did that day will come out during those hearings, right before the election. Fingers crossed.
Your brother-in-law is correct. I understand only too well what’s at stake, and it’s a guarantee for dictatorship. People complained about the Warren court being judicially activist, but this court is willing to throw out precedent, stare decisis and the Constitution out of the window to benefit one man. This decision will cause the Supreme Court to fall further into disrepute. I do agree with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Brown-Jackson in their dissent. The founding fathers would be appalled at this.
And Robert’s is smirking, and the insurrectionists are laughing their arses off. Look what we did. We whupped the libtards, no shots fired. They know what they did, what they have been trying to do since our beginnings, and what they have pulled off. And they are rewriting history, making the attack on the capitol look like Lexington and Concord combined. Dems had better learn hardball fast. Spring training stupidity is over.
Lexington and Concord were to me Defensive, January 6th was criminally Offensive and should have resulted in the immediate prosecution of every elected and appointed official who helped it in any material way to get them out of any position enabling them to further an insurrection. Now that should apply to at least two Supreme Court excuses for Justices.
As much as I was opposed to almost everything about Jeff Sessions, I at least appreciate his decency and what I see as oath compliance in recusing himself from the Russian Interference Case (the first case, I believe of 40 of 44 cabinet members knowing what is far beyond the limits avoiding refusal to follow illegal orders or recusal in the Trump administration). See https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/magazine/jeff-sessions.html
"...As Sessions still maintains, he believed that in recusing himself, he was doing what anyone in his position would have been obligated to do. “There’s one term that he used to use a lot,” recalled Rod Rosenstein, who served as deputy attorney general under Sessions: “ ‘regular order.’ And what he meant by that was, let’s make sure we figure out what the rules are, and let’s make sure we’re following the rules, and let’s make sure we’re not getting distracted by inappropriate political considerations.”
But it was in the aftermath of his recusal that White House officials, particularly those who had not worked on the campaign, were suddenly enlightened to Trump’s capacity for rage. “It was really the first time I think any of us had ever seen him really blow up,” the former official recalled. “He was frustrated with press coverage of crowd sizes — yes, he was angry about that — but he had never really raised his voice or shouted. But I remember him really laying into McGahn” — Don McGahn, then the White House counsel — “and shouting. It was very much like: ‘How did you let this happen? How did this [expletive] happen?’...”
Jan 6 should have been seen as, and responded to, as our own internal Pearl Harbor.
My grandfather (born during Grant's administration and a Spanish American War Veteran), might have seen Jan 6 as aggression like the firing on Fort Sumter (just a decade before he was born, what he thought of supposed attack on the USS Maine that sparked the war he fought in, or Pearl Harbor that sparked the war my father served in.
They are doing this to benefit an ideology...the one man you are referring to is simply on the same page. He is a puppet, he is a foil, he is the face of a movement that has been resurfacing time and time again since slavery became the center of the dividing force that people were will to fight over.
To what extent is this a page from Project 2025? Seems the SC has been moving in that direct for some time now, esp lately undermining the administrative state, now moving toward a president with greatly enhanced power. Roe v Wade was more the religious side of this. And... gerrymandering is A OK.
No doubt....we have reached this point, I believe, from 50+ years of strategic undermining of our political process. Unfortunately as Reagan came into office I was busy raising kids and working full time. And I was naive in thinking our democracy was strong enough to overcome him and all the idiots that followed. But surprise, democracy is fragile. It is only as strong as it's underpinnings of rule of law and it's institutions. The institutions have been systematically undermined for decades. Now the rule of law is gone.
Theirs is a divide and conquer strategy, which is easy for a proponent to believe in while thinking it's a 2-step process, and harder when recognizing its 3 steps, where Step 1 is "divide," Step 2 is "conquer," and Step 3 is "return to Step 1 and repeat." A large number of former Putin allies learned that lesson the hard way.
A "united we stand and divided we fall" strategy is the alternative, where Step 1 is "unite," Step 2 is "stand," and Step 3 is "return to Step 1 and repeat."
Um... making sure he doesn't win? And then continuing to make other sure crazy people don't win? That's the chance we have, it's perfectly plausible, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise!
Will, it took me a while to realize, with disbelief, that there are way more people who worship Trump than care about democracy. Trying to talk to them, to persuade them to change their minds has been useless. At least in my experience. It's become dangerous around here for those who dare to oppose him.
I see his followers defend everything he's done, and say that they WILL support him as a dictator.
What a sad day and time in our America. Yes, we should stay positive and fight with all our might, but sometimes it just seems unbelievable that the truth will not win.
That is so scary, and people who don't realize how scary it is, don't know what's going to happen when Trump becomes their King.
How do we make sure hedoesnt win when there are so many misguided people who want to make sure that he DOES win.
They are misguided, but a majority of them identify as Christian. What could they say if you were to tell them you're committed to behaving in a way that is consistent with the parable of the Good Samaritan? I have no problem making that commitment. It just makes sense even though I don't happen to identify as a Christian. And how can people who say "thanks for your advice Jesus, but no thanks" call themselves Christians? I know that Jesus called them hypocrites in Matthew 23.
The press is going nuts with (literally) the word "debacle" but since Reagan we tend to go for the most telegenic candidate, not integrity nor substance. Even many Democrats seem to rate Carter much lower than he deserves. It may be the reality, but it's a hell of a way to run a democracy. Allowing those who control media to shape the values of our society has brought us to the brink of fascism.
Biden messed up on Gaza, but overall fought the monster of "Reaganomics" and clueless "deregulation" more successfully than other other Dem president after Johnson. Reagan had severe memory lapses in both terms, which we now know was early Alzheimer's, but the press laughed it off. Reagan's smarmy salesman patter inspired the oft-repeated title of the "Great Communicator" with little sustained examination of illogical and ahistorical claptrap he promoted.
Will: what Pam Taylor said. Sure, we can vote for our preferred candidates, but can't prevent crazy cultists from voting for theirs. To believe otherwise in this political moment is Pollyanna-ish.
Anne-Louise, it seems from actions/happenings in the past few years, that the Mandate for Leadership—Project 2025—has been seeping into our body politic for a while now—no doubt as intended…drip drip drip. It has taken some time for the players to assume their positions at the levers of power to enact their leaning toward a unitary executive & a remaking of our gov’t, and in the case of SCOTUS as HCR points out, effectively rewrite the Constitution at will. I am now sad, scared AND angry and ready to push back on this co-opting of our Constitution any way I am able.
“ benefit one man”. Let us not kid ourselves. Donald Trump is given this power to benefit the wealthy and powerful who are convinced that the rest of us are on Earth to serve them. Blessed are the mudsills. Now let’s get to it.
We must not believe that this ruling helps only trump. It was designed to help the extreme right and the corporate power-mongers. Trump is a useful puppet.
The plutocracy serving "GOP" made him a monster, but I fear that like mythical monsters (and Hitler) they may well lack the control over it they seem to be assuming. And Putin is playing with fire.
JL We need a miracle. As a kid, WW II started for me in September, 1939 (my mother was British and had family serving in the British army and navy).
Things looked extremely bleak, with a strong ‘America First’ organization in the US, Churchill leading an alone England, and Hitler occupying France and much of Europe.
In retrospect, what occurred was a miracle, much as George Washington’s Hail Mary against the Hessians in Trenton.
At 90 I believe that I (and my grand kids) deserve at least one more big miracle.
What could be a bigger conflict of interest than allow judges to judge the person who personally selected them and gave them the job? In the abstract it seems absurd.
J L, as others elsewhere have pointed out, their fingers are on the scales of justice. What they would allow Trump to get away with, they would deny Biden. And they are the deciders (apart from the electorate, of course, but the Court doesn't seem too concerned about protecting us -- in so many ways.)
Here is my pipe dream (of only I could sleep): capital and lower case dems come out in force in November and Dems and like-minded independents sweep both houses and the presidency AND we get a more decisive/determined AG. Thomas and Alito are successfully and humiliatingly removed from office (and stripped of their pensions) and two shinny new Jurists are appointed to the Bench. This decision…and perhaps others… will we so weakened as precedent for future prosecutions of Trump and his cliche that there will be an opportunity for the federal courts to right the wrong. Then I guess we need to move along the lines of Lawrence Tribes’ suggestion and amend the constitution to sever the Justice Department from the executive branch.
What angers me most is that Justice Sotomayor lays bare the hypocrisy of this decision. She argues there was no immunity language in the Constitution by design.
1. Some state constitutions had gubernatorial immunity. The Constitution omitted it though delegates knew of that concept.
2. The Constitution did give limited legislative immunity but deliberately omitted any language of executive immunity.
Justice Sotomayor uses originalism to refute the hollow rationale. She also quotes Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, as well as two early members of the Supreme Court who argued flatly against any such immunity.
Yes and Roberts derides her as, essentially, an over emotional, slightly unhinged woman. Infuriating and so hypocritical given his fabricated basis for worrying about hamstringing presidents with worry that they may put a step wrong!
And let’s all sympathize with the task Jack Smith and Judge Chutkin have in the days and weeks and months ahead. Hopefully Kaplan on the poorly dubbed hush money case will pass on the delay of sentencing; even Trumps former lawyer Cobb thinks it is a non starter vis-a-vis the grave man of the evidence in that case.
Unfortunately it is not about knowledge; it is coming from an ideology..Federalist society, Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 just got a huge boost. And the money behind these forces? Oligarchs. They have been buying politicos for years and now they own the majority of Supers.
Despite the claims of "originalism," the Roberts 6's only true aim is Calvinball. They are just making sh!t up.
Their only consistent goal is for them to take as much power as possible into their own hands and the hands of those who they support. They had no reason to take up this case at all, and furthermore no reason to use it to rule so broadly on something so essential. They just decided they wanted to.
What I see in "Originalism" as "Conservatives speak of it, as positing the authority of the Constitutions as resting in the channeled thoughts of the document's authors; but that's not what they themselves claim. Nor even "We the People" who were alive when it was written. Presumably it is a vow that remains continuously relevant when embraced by each new generation. Like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution appears to to be based on principles of governance, not holy writ. The Declaration is clearly a statement of principles, as well as an indictment. It is meant to faithfully express the sentiments of a movement, not just they who penned and signed it.
To me, at least, originalism is jurisprudence by ouija board. It also, as practiced, precludes the idea of a 'Framer' (i.e., a cherry picked individual conveniently to speak for all) would not say today,
"Well, what I meant was . . . ."
"In light of the way things are nowadays, . . . ."
or a simple
"Yes, but . . . ."
Most galling of all, as Justice Sotomayor argues so well and as elaborated plainly and persuasively by Justice Brown Jackson, is that this tautology of tyranny (reflective of Trump's spiritual vacuity), dispenses with the intellectual pretension of originalism.
My nightmare is that Republican MAGAs will try to make decisions at the state level which votes will be counted and which will be declared invalid, and/or they will continue to try to keep citizens from voting. My hope is that even Republican voters will see where this is headed and vote against monarchy.
Last night on NPR news, the Oklahoma Superintendent of Education was demanding that teachers teach the Bible as a historical text upon which the US was founded and continued to be used to guide and be quoted by leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.
The look on his face was terrifying and the sound of his voice poisoned the air. The koolaid they are demanding we drink is laced with venom and contempt. That is what I see written all over all their faces. From DT across the board. Bitter contempt.
Yes Mona. This is the next right...our right to have our vote counted...that will be stolen. Already, red states are illegally purging their voter roles. When they are caught doing it, the sheepishly say oops...and promise to return the voters to the roles. But they do it slowly...and then stop when the attention is off of them.
So right you are. Any constitutional convention cannot be limited, so I hear. Charles K and bro had an agenda all scoped out. Now it’s just Charles, but he has enough evil for both. I read that only a few states are needed to call for one.
BTW, creating a mess and then enjoying the chaos is a favorite ploy of my cats. But they are still lovable, unlike any Koch or magat
So it seems we do not have a president anymore but a king.And this is wrong. And it happened under President Biden’s watch.President Biden let this happen. Kennedy would never let this happen. He has said that although he can’t promise to overturn the Citizens United decision, he will put forth a drive to amend it constitutionally. President Biden is utterly inept.A vote for him is a vote to lose our democracy.
So you would vote for the party and person who made the president king? Regardless of your dislike of Biden, he will be likely be on the ballot. Will you vote for Trump the King if Biden is on the ballot? Your logic sucks so bad that I'm sure you're a troll.
there’s only one Biden-appointed justice on this court. so saying because it happened “under Biden’s watch” makes Biden accountable shows you don’t know how SCOTUS works.
So why was Mitch McConnell able to prevent Merrick Garland from being appointed and then, for the opposite reason allow Amy CBarrett to be appointed?Do you remember that plaque Truman had on his desk- the buck stops here?FDR would have found a way to stop this government injustice but Biden just whines about it. He hasn’t united the country as he said he would , he is devisive and inept.
While I generally refrain from commenting on your wackadoodle statements, I cannot refrain from this. Without resorting to profanity (whose initials, were I to utilize them would be "WTAF") your reasoning is not-existent, and to think that the sitting president (whose single appointee dissented) could have, before this decision, done anything to prevent the bought and paid for "justices" from doing as their masters told them is complete and utter bovine scato.
Ally, I think we need to go back to Obama’s term when Judge Merrick Garland should have been sworn in on the Supreme Court.He wasn’t because M McConnell said it was too close to the up coming election, which was a lot further away then when Amy C Barrett was sworn in 4 years later.So the Senate Republicans were able to get their way in both instances.I believe the president is ultimately responsible , as Truman had on his desk- the buck stops here. FDR would have found a way to prevent that from happening or at least stop the future impact that we are feeling now from those appointments.Biden is inept because all he has done is whine about the situation.He hasn’t brought the country together as he said he would , and we will get more of the same if he is re elected.Kennedy’s strength is getting congresspeople to work together , not as Dems and Republicans, but as Americans.
You are ridiculous and clearly extremely poorly informed. Donald Trump chose three Supreme Court judges that tipped the balance of the court to the right and that court has knocked down a woman’s right to choose, the protections of expertise in keeping us safe and now this, making the President a King. All of this is Trump’s agenda and you can expect a lot more of this if he is elected - read Project 2025.
Merrick Garland should have been appointed but wasn’t because Mitch McConnell said it was too close to the upcoming election. Then Amy C Barrett got appointed by Mitch for the opposite reason. That was years ago and it hasn’t been fixed because President Biden is inept. All he did was whine about it yesterday. Truman had a plaque on his desk that said the buck stops here.Biden said he would bring us together but he is devisive and hasn’t gotten Congress to fix this. So if you don’t think the president is ultimately responsible for this, why not?
McConnell stopped Merck Garland from being appointed because it was too close to the upcoming election. Then he got Amy C Barrett appointed for the opposite reason. As Truman had on his desk- the buck stops here. Biden should have found a way to bring congress together and make this right, but he does nothing fruitful, just whines like his speech yesterday.We will have 4 more years of this if he is re elected. Yes this is bullshit.
You massively FAIL, John, as your last sentence sums it up.I wonder if you are legitimately suffering from amnesia if not long-term cognitive impairment. In addition to failing to allow Garland to be even considered for SCOTUS (in *Obama's* term not Biden's!) McConnell also had two (2!) chances to get his caucus to vote for impeachment of the traitor/insurrectionist, with the last time the most critical. Had CF45 been impeached, he would have been disqualified to hold federal office.
Please explain how TF Biden could have "found a way to bring Congress together and make this right" -- have you even been paying attention to the party formerly known as the GOP? McConnell, McCarthy and the rest of them would do NOTHING that would aid Biden in any way. A solid conservative SCOTUS majority was McConnell and company's wet dream come true.
Pull your head out of Kennedy's barbequed dog's (carc)ass and use it to explain to me how Biden could have played the SCOTUS issue differently. That's 2 questions for you to answer.
And I hope that we do have four more years of Biden/Harris -- their record of accomplishments is extraordinary and historic, and if we don't, we have indeed reached end days. And your guys not gonna win.
So, present your thoughtful answers to the questions I posed, unless you want to confirm your status as a troll on this platform.
FDR found a way to cut the new deal . Obama and Biden have failed to use our constitution to make the Supreme Court work for the people. Kennedy has said he can’t promise to overturn The Citizens United decision but that he will bring the states together to amend it by using the constitution's provisions for changes.It’s a long hard road to do that and Congress hasn’t been paying attention to the constitution as the two thirds majority rule isn’t working.Kennedy will bring smart legal authorities together to figure out a solution. BIDEN hasn’t done anything accept whine , which is not productive.Ultimately it’s up to we the people to fix this and Biden isn’t effective. Kennedy is pledging to work for and represent we the people and not corporate interests.How is Biden not representing corporations? His campaign donations come from them.
Since when can a President overturn a Supreme Court decision? Plus, SCOTUS has dithered over this since February, after an appeals court already stated quite forcefully that a President does not have immunity.
If the president isn’t ultimately responsible for this who is? Truman had a plaque on his desk that said the buck stops here.Why wasMitch McConnell allowed to stop Merrick Garland’s appointment because it was too close to the election, then for the opposite reason get Amy C Barrett appointed?I don’t think this would’ve gotten so out of control under FDR. He would have found a way to fix it . Biden is inept. All he did was. Whine about it yesterday. I am afraid of 4 more years of his whining without solutions.
We have seen it's face before, here and in other parts of the world. It's the sociopathic side of human nature. We turn out to be our own worst enemy; but are there not alternatives?
But who in our country, before 2020, would ever have thought the USA could be brought so low by so many? MAGA has not only the majority of the Supreme Court but also the Majority in the House, and significant portion of our Senate, a large number of our Governorships, and many many state legislators throughout the country between the two Coasts.
And many whose voices will carry far further than most of us here would be wise to speak up with clarity. The MAGA end of SCOTUS is attempting a coup, and that truly is a BFD. The newspaper headlines I have seen so far don't seems to "get" that.
.........
“We have to be Paul Revere every chance we get to let people know what is at risk and why it is at risk. We live it. Every time we eat breakfast we think about these things,” Governor Jay Inslee of Washington told CNN.
“I don’t think you can be overly concerned about this. The American psyche has not recognized we were one vice-president away from a coup.”
''“The Court has handed Trump, if he wins this November, carte blanche to be a ‘dictator on day one,’ and the ability to use every lever of official power at his disposal for his personal ends without any recourse,” Rangappa wrote. “This election is now a clear-cut decision between democracy and autocracy. Vote accordingly.”''
We' still have the capacity to overwhelm them at the ballot box. Millions of unregistered folk trend heavily Democratic. Register them to save democracy. Gen Z can outnumber them.
And we always were, or at least meant to be. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, right? But in such a hyped up world, it's easy to forget.
I agree, Ned. The idea that too much of the media has been promoting for the cynical purpose of profit at all cost, that politics is a spectator sport, is being revealed as a dangerous lie. For anyone's whose looking for it, that's good news.
Nobody is a spectator. Anyone who still doesn't see themselves as a player is helping the wrong team.
I plan to vote early for our current president. I’m not under any illusions about Trump. He will govern illegally and unconstitutionally, and kowto w to Vladimir Putin. Putin already knows most of our secrets thanks to Trump.
I fear that there are enough young people who won't vote for Biden because of Palestine to swing the election to Trump. That seems like an insurmountable block.
In the last few months we have good-sized youth polls from Harvard, Tufts, Pew, and CBS all showing high engagement from young people and lopsided 20-point margins in vote intention for Biden/Democrats. The Middle East is always low on the totem poll regarding issues selected as "important."
Remember, the majority of online activity on any given topic is produced by a small slice of very engaged users. Haven't seen many encampment in the news recently, have we now?
I just can NOT believe that in this nerve-wracking week when our (wonderful) President's campaign is being (potentially) jeopardized by (valid, but overhyped) alarm over his old age... we still got people here acting like the fearsome intransigence of the youth is the problem. Irony is loston some people. Oy.
Will, agree with you and I do hope folks of all ages will step up and vote. I am so angry at the TV/radio pundits who keep harping on Biden’s ONE lousy debate. IMHO, he knows what he is doing, how to do it and surrounds himself & Kamala with a talented & knowledgeable administration. I trust them to carry on doing the best & right things for our country.
I have no problem voting for the President because l have no problem with a President Harris. I will disagree a lot with her; on things that count, however, the Vice President is true blue.
Biden is going to win. This will help put him convincingly over the top. It smells that bad. The focus should be on Congress. We need a unified government to do anything. And we are where we are now for the lack of it under both Biden and Obama. A president’s first job is to move the nation to vote his party in to office….generously….thus securing a mandate. His next job is to hold on to that.
My sentiments exactly. Justice Brown Jackson had the most common-sense, compelling statement of the whole document: "If the structural consequences of today’s paradigm shift [from traditional accountability of the individual to 'presidential accountability' of this decision] mark a step in the wrong direction, then the practical consequences are a five-alarm fire that threatens to consume democratic self-governance and the normal operations of our Government."
As long as human beings are involved, and the care of our earth is being taken for granted...there will be people (thankfully) waking us up....trying to move our dull hearts and minds to realities around us which we may choose to ignore.
Young people with good intentions can be troublesome with their idealistic ideas. MAY THEY CONTINUE !!!
Our senses can easily be dulled as we age, just trying to pay our bills, maintain decent relationships...etc. We need youth to remind us to examine what is going on in our country and within our world. As long as protests from our fellow citizens can be peaceful and views/concerns clearly expressed and RESPECTFUL,PRODUCTIVE communication and nonviolent actions taken, I am for these honest expressions of concern. They are necessary!
Will -- I generally like your spin on things, but the polls you cite are a few months old. I can't see the youth getting enthusiastic about voting for their grandpa (and I'm an enthusiastic Biden voter who will vote again for him, unless he decides to pull out )
Let's wait for post-"debate" and post-SCOTUS debacle polls among the eligible younger voters to see if Biden has maintained strength among that group.
CBS was taken very recently, actually, with a 25-point Biden preference.
But that strength has literally nothing to do with him. His favorability ratings among youth are very low. Current youth are way more likely to be motivated by singular issues and vote out of a sense of self-preservation. Frankly, most young people (probably incorrectly) view the man as embarrassing and senile, and would see the debate and just go "Yup, thought so. Ok boomer." They thought he was boring and doddering when he ran the first time. The campaign seems to have been delusional as to ignoring how wide this perception is. But young people still voted for him and his party in record numbers recently because he keeps out the devil and has enough motor skills left to sign a couple policies they like and give them civil and bodily rights back.
It's not just the Republicans who are willing to vote for someone they don't like to get something they want.
Reassuring stats, Will. MisTBlu has a good point in concept. For those turned by this or that Biden policy, we can remind them that under a President Biden, (s)he will have the privilege of dissent.
Will, I appreciate your optimism but two things: the encampments were on college campuses and the students are no longer there, and, sadly, the Electoral College forces us to think in terms of swing states. Michigan is one of those states and it has a large population of Arab-Americans who are vocal in their opposition to Biden's policies in Palestine. One hopes they'll see the dangers of a King Trump as the existential crisis it is and vote for Biden.
I have run into that, but even on the issue of Palestine, a Biden win perseveres the ground on which to fight for justice and a Trump win removes even that.
And what about generations to come if plutocrats gain full permission to rape the earth?
Seriously, I kept hearing all these commenters going on about Joe's endless string of rhetoricaI blunders last Thursday... but the nutso psycho to his left thought it would be a neat idea to label Biden a "bad Palestinian," which - while totally in line with the bloodcurdling racism that has always been his central thing - is such an astonishingly stupid debate move, in that it proved not just that he thinks of that ethnicity as an inherently bad thing deserving of destruction, but that his opponent - who had a weakness on this issue with part of his coalition! - is now immediately seen as the sympathetic party on stage. An absolutely anti-strategic head-slapper, and yet...
no comment on MSNBC. Instead, whole weekend of shows about how the other guy was the unforgivably bad debater. Astonishing.
Will, I'm waiting for the NYT editorial and opinion sections to declare CF45 must withdraw from the race, given the newly-granted powers he would use with immunity and immunity.
Being depressed when nothing bad has happened saps the energy we need to prevent the bad things from actually happening, so let's have some tea, now shall we?
I am depressed too; someone mentioned that she is grieving. I am, too. Part of summoning the strength to fight back not only hard, but also smart. Any scones while you are at it?
"Gen Z and late Millennial voters (ages 18-29) are more dissatisfied with their choices and worried over kitchen table issues such as inflation and housing. But most still support Biden over Trump, contrary to some earlier polls, and they do still intend to make their voices heard in November, according to a new Harvard Youth Poll released Thursday."
There are so many blocks (red swing states, debates, propaganda, hypocritical Christians, etc), with Putin circling the wagon with many of them, and the Repub congressional reps providing openings for more Trojan Horses
Well, remind these young people that they will decide if trump becomes president again. Don’t care? Who’s Netanyahu’s best-friend besides himself? Trump. Netanyahu wants nothing other than to wipe Palestine off the map. You want MORE death and destruction in Palestine. You want a president who will “look the other way”? Vote for the serial liar, convicted felon, sexual assaulter, stealer of national secrets, proud eliminator of women’s rights, xenophobe, “Dictator on Day 1”. Vote for trump , third party, or stay home. It all adds up to a trump victory, and absolutely NO help for the Palestinians.
You mean Biden’s humanity and still believing in our system. Yep, that is foolish these days when he seems to be the only one on the stage that behaves so
Andy, I tend to feel the same frustration, until, in my best Calvin-&-Hobbes manner, I imagine sitting in the 0val 0ffice when decisions have consequence often irreversible and unexpected. Then I cut the President some slack.
A democracy depends entirely on the votes of the citizens. If people don’t vote, the democracy will be lost.
“a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.”
No argument here, but Stalin knew, as do Repubs, that it also matters who counts the votes. Since Repubs know that they can’t win on the issues, the cheating has ramped up to Everest heights. And not just in Texas
Really, I have tried. My grands live in a sea of red, they are reluctant to say a word in public. Neither would vote for chump, but the fear around here is palpable
Oh, how nice, he'll be out in time to enjoy the election. What I actually meant was, has he got his electronic communication? Is he in solitary? And so on.
Ayep. We're going to elect either a president or a Fuehrer in November. Vote accordingly. And remember, from the time the Nazis were elected to office until the time they opened the first concentration camp (Dachau) was just four weeks.
I am under no illusion that my grief will not suffice; I have to get through stage one though. 🙃I feel like I did as a apolitical 11 year old when the Red Sox lost the 1986 World Series: run over by each of the 18 wheels of a Mac truck.
Katherine, even tho’ written/sung in the mid-80’s it still rings true today: Jackson Brown’s Made For America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqrjMmpr1c. And when I need some juice to keep going (and have posted this here a number of times), from the same album, is my “anthem” to keep on keeping on: Til I Go Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw As the famous words by Todd Beamer to his fellow passengers on flight 93 to take the hijackers down “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.” Let’s be those folks….ready to roll to resist an autocracy.
I retired from EPA region 3. Seeing Chevron bite the dust, the CAA case, the wetlands case....a stake driven into my heart. Gorsuch is seeking retribution for his mother who was sent in to dismantle EPA under Reagan. I despise them all.... and of course Dobbs....and now this....
What can we the people do to fight back? This is breathtakingly reckless on the part of the court and undermines our reason for being on many levels. And for what? An amoral piece of garbage, a rapist, a liar, and a cheat? This is the man the illustrious justices want as their king? I grew up learning about George Washington and the cherry tree. "I cannot tell a lie, father. I did cut down the cherry tree." George Washington struggled his entire life to curb his temper and stay true to his principles. To see the highest court in our land throw away such a legacy for a common criminal is a slap in the face to America and all Americans. How do we fight back?
We can vote of course. But if this lowest of all high courts nullifies our vote, we can refuse to cooperate in any way with a fascist government. The Supreme Court is supposed to be the guardian of the Constitution. But it violated the Constitution in this ruling. Two "Justices" participated who were required to recuse.
If members of the military are called to enforce King Trump's edicts, they can refuse to follow illegal orders. If governors of blue states are told to enforce Trumpian edicts, they can refuse, saying those are illegal. Lawsuits can be brought before sympathetic judges who can stay illegal mandates, just as Trumpian judges do. In other words, non-cooperation in every way.
I too worry, this Court will find a way to turn over a Biden win. Ultimately, every lower court decision can filter upward. If Biden or Congress has the power to add Supreme Court Justices...now is the time
2. Support other grassroots efforts to register voters, help voters get required ID, educate voters on their address's ballot, and Get Out The Vote, such as:
5. Donate to progressive state legislature candidates in critically flippable/keepable states (AZ, KS, MI, MN, NV, NH, NC, PA, WI), as through The States Project's HCR inspired Giving Circle:
Barbara Keating, excellent! I was trying, but to no avail, to locate a quote in my brain for courage to add to FDR's,. Her words are suberb and so needed in this moment! (And they point to my point of fear is a rascal that can overtake us and incapacitate us.) Thank you so much!
We can vote. And start controlling the state legislatures so we can have several terms of Democratic Presidents to fix the 'Extreme Court'. I am not sure there is a legislative fix to this outrage; I do not think so.
At this point, I fully agree. We MUST overturn NAZI control of our state governments. And yes, that was deliberate; they are not republican, nor so-called MAGA. They are NAZI, through and through.
AND I have been mentioning/inquiring of folks I come across if they’ve heard of Project 2025—just yesterday the young checker at a local market & any number of neighbors, family and friends. So many have no idea.
We need to figure out exactly how we will not let this happen. Our votes will be meaningless if waiting for November. All the devil has to do is scream fraud, the SC takes it and overrules the outcome. We have to be locking arms now! We’ve already been complacent far too much and long. The dark side has been planning this for almost a century. We are the majority however! We have power in numbers. Our “regular lives” will have to take a backseat. We need to be in an offensive mindset or we will be taken just like Afghanistan. Like sitting ducks.
I wish every citizen who supports Trump and the Republican Party could/would read this comment and let it sink in. The USA is in big trouble. Putin is ecstatic!!!
The problem that I see with this is (and this is based on 12 years of conversations with these people) THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT. They do not see it as bad, they see it as a positive direction for them and for the county.
Yeah, Steve, and many have been quietly working behind the scenes for decades, with plenty of big money supporters bankrolling their efforts, to “remake” the USA into some sort of autocracy with their chosen ones at the helm. Scary.
I doubt the six traitors of this alleged "court" would have much ability to tell President Biden he doesn't have immunity if they were sitting in the clink after he arrested them for treason, or -better - were laid out in their coffins after he ordered their assassination.
No reason for Biden to waste time with a grand jury. This illegitimate and incompetent Court majority is a threat to democracy and the US Constitution. Therefore, the urgency to neutralize it calls for urgent, bold and decisive action to protect the country and its citizens. Arrest and imprison the Seditious Six today at a Super Max prison.
Absent such decisive action, an executive order should be issued invalidating the Court's illegal opinion as it is contrary to the clear framing of the Constitution.
Arguably, because of eminent dangers to US citizens in the event of another Trump presidency, Biden is morally obligated to use his new powers to order a military special forces operation to assassinate Trump, the six conservative SCOTUS Justices, and that rogue federal judge in Texas. Then, pardon the soldiers that did the job.
True, and SCOTUS would hammer him if he did, as HCR
pointed out. Nothing is going to stop weathy white men from establishing an oligarchy that operates outside the law with impunity. It’s always been that way to some extent, but it will be openly kleptocratic now, like Russia. The only hope is that enough white working-class women decide they don’t want to be treated by the government as brood mares and vote accordingly. I have some hope of that, but it’s a faint glimmer.
You can’t hammer anyone once detained by Seal team six. Biden must use his new powers to fulfill his duty to protect the Constitution and make the Scotus Six and Trump and his flunkies disappear . Without them democracy can be built. Left in place, it doesn’t matter who wins elections: SCOTUS will undo all advances.
I would say five. Justice Coney Barrett had a reasonable view in her concurring opinion. "The Constitution does not insulate Presidents from criminal liability for official acts. But any statute regulating the exercise of executive power is subject to a constitutional challenge. Thus, a President facing prosecution may challenge the constitutionality of a criminal statute as applied to official acts alleged in the indictment. If that challenge fails, however, he must stand trial."
A bold action indeed. Do you suppose it is one the Justices were thinking of? Doubts the Democrats would do it. I know they wouldn't as playing fair obscures their wellness to confront the awful truth of this decision.
The Clarence court far-right missionaries want their orange criminal as king.
They want to Handmaid’s-Tale-eff all American women, gut the all agencies that protect the public, and laugh at their perjuries about honoring precedent, or meaning anything at all when they swore oaths to the Constitution.
Like their orange criminal – Putin’s paw – they also perch above the law. (Article 14, section three: haw, haw, haw, the corrupt all laugh.)
Dems, make it key this election year to add four seats to what has sunk, stunk as full-bore corrupt Clarence court.
Also, Dems – as if it were personal – ask the American people how so many got so corrupt: the Clarence court, Putin’s and U.S. oligarchs’ orange paw, all the scurrying, scurrilous Republican lemmings in Congress.
Tiday I listened to a podcast called "We Don't Talk About Leonard." I was stunned to learn that Leo's been involved in the selection of justices starting with Thomas! He's been methodical, single-minded and very effective. He's now in charge of an unlimited dark money fund of >$1.3 BILLION. He's one very scary dude.
MisTBlu—yeah, this has been in the works for a long long time—pre-Reagan & he was enamored of the substance of the Powell memo & influenced many of his actions/policies….playing the long game & only now really coming out at what they see is an opportune time.
Long game is an understatement! Worse, other than our willingness to see the long-term damage from climate change, we don't seem to have a Leo-mindset on our side.
Agree, too many “regular” folks, in addition to gov'ts world wide—with the exception of low-lying island countries—are ignoring this ginormous issue & continue to petty-squabble instead. Sigh.
Trump is an utter moral void. He’s a sociopath, malignant narcissist, a sadist, and his only concerns have always been himself and his bank accounts. The only purpose of his life is to revel in committing every one of the Seven Deadly Sins. We’re all going to be worse off because of this, and I wonder how many of us will be shipped off to camps because we opposed this.
And how exactly do you propose we do this? In the US people have been avoiding their responsibilities as citizens to preserve our Constitution and the rule of law - they've allowed a cancer called the anti Constitution conservative movement now headlined by Trump to invade our society - to the best of my knowledge Cancer still has no cure.
The Ukrainians and Syrians didn't want a goddamned war either, but they got one anyway. Same with your predecessors in the USA. Same with my own predecessors in the United Kingdom - and though they didn't choose or want war, they did their duty to defend what was right on matters of principle, as in 1940 or 1642.
It takes two sides not to want a war. The moment one side decides to have a war, there is a war. If that happens, your decision will be either to choose a side and fight the war, or to leave your country to its own fate and find refuge elsewhere.
Just to be clear, I spent a year of my life as an Army soldier in Viet Nam, attached to the First Cavalry Division. A few weeks after Americans landed on the moon, I landed in the American War in Viet Nam. That was 1969. I was 21.
Some of us recognize a paradox about talking about war. I often hear that somebody's father was in a war, or brother, or sister, but they never talk about it. Veterans talking with veterans don't need to say much about what war is like because we already understand it. Veterans talking with civilians about warfare makes little sense because it is exceedingly difficult to understand it if you have not experienced it.
A major consequence of that paradox is that many people talk about war as if it is something we would choose to do. Sometimes when I see an older gent wearing a Vietnam cap, I will say hello and ask about the war. And often during the ensuing conversation I'll say "I learned one thing from the war" and pause and then say "Don't go looking for trouble." The most fun is when we both say at the same time "Because Trouble is looking for you!"
You are correct in your assertion that even if you want to avoid going to war, somebody may insist on bringing the war to you. The question is how much effort will we put into avoiding the outbreak of war? Some people seem eager to find an excuse to fight.
War is stupid. If there is some form of human activity that is more stupid than war, I'm always happy to hear about a contender.
I have never been in a fist fight in my life. I have never had to dissuade anyone from attacking me. Maybe I'm just lucky. Or maybe it's my version of "the thousand yard stare". I would do everything I could think of to dissuade someone from attacking. I would say that if I am attacked, I would assume that I may have only one opportunity to land a strike, and so I would try to put an end to the threat. I would try to make it count. If I were successful in that endeavor, my assailant would either die, or would take a long time to recover.
I suppose my point is that it bothers me when people talk casually about going to war. I don't need another war because my war never goes away, even after 53 years.
We just purchased our first Electric Vehicle, and drove it home yesterday. I love our life in retirement. I'd like to look forward to many more years of this life. I am fairly certain that I am not naive. I am well aware of the resurgence of authoritarianism. I can see that our economic system is self-centered and short-sighted. I can see that it is necessary for our system to maintain a class of people living in poverty in order to force people to seek work in factories, etc, with the goal of making a few people absurdly wealthy. I can see that we are consuming finite natural resources as though there will be no tomorrow, because unless we make some significant changes soon, then at some point it seems inevitable there will be no tomorrow, for a future generation of children.
Thank you for taking the time to explain your background, David. My own, in the International Committee of the Red Cross, also brought me to the heart of several wars and genocides, dealing with their worst consequences, so I hate war probably as much as you do. Only people who haven't seen it close up actually want a war.
Now, regarding this sentence: "The question is how much effort will we put into avoiding the outbreak of war? Some people seem eager to find an excuse to fight."
That's true enough. The question I have turns around the word 'avoiding'. Diplomacy? bring it on. I think it was Churchill who said - 'better jaw-jaw than war-war'. But diplomacy must be in good faith. If you look at the efforts made by France and others to talk to Putin - he was just laughing at them. He doesn't want an honourable way out. He wants Ukraine. And if Trump is elected, he might get it (he might get it anyway, or half of it). That's his only reason for engaging in diplomacy - to win Ukraine more cheaply. That means that engaging in diplomacy with Putin with the aim of freeing Ukraine from the clutches of Russia is an exercise in futility, at best (as Macron discovered), or in appeasement at worst.
Diplomatic solutions to conflict or pre-conflict are usually only possible when both parties are negotiating in good faith - a good example of that is what led to the Good Friday Peace Agreement in Ireland - or when one party is much stronger than the other and can impose its will. Think of the settlement of the Bosnian War, imposed from above by President Clinton, through Richard Holbrooke, who shuttled around the capitals of the Balkan states, then got everyone round a table in Dayton, Ohio and kept them there until they signed. A more begrudging peace agreement, I've yet to encounter. But it's held, more or less, for 30 years.
Now, inside a country, things happen in similar ways, except without professional diplomats and often without professional soldiers either, unless a national army splits and the two sides fight each other. The diplomacy needed to overcome or avoid conflict must also be in good faith. And the parties must act in good faith.
In the US, you have one party that is systematically dismantling the whole apparatus of democracy and rights that your countrymen have slowly and patiently assembled over 250 years. How you and your fellow supporters of democracy and rights respond is all important. What will it take to reverse this trend? What do you think it will take?
The sheer enormity of the Court’s decision is sinking in by degree, thanks to Heather and others. One thing that leapt out of tonight’s letter is just how desperate the players are to hold on to power. Mitch McConnell will go down in history as a sniveling, shriveled, power hungry little man, who sold his country and OUR birthright for the modern day equivalent of 30 pieces of silver.
The whole frigging Republican party sold it's soul completely, and cast out anyone with any trace of scruples. The ship of state is hurtling at high speed straight for the iceberg, and we will have to pull together if there is to be any hope of averting catastrophe.
The only recourse is for the public – voters – to vote against every Republican up and down the ticket until the party is relegated to obscurity. With the large Democratic majority in the house and Senate, the Supreme Court can be expanded, and this egregious politicized decision can be overturned.
According to the terms of SCOTUS' decision, Biden doesn't have to wait for anything. He can issue fiats, formerly AKA executive orders. One to expand the Supreme Court, and another to impose binding ethical standards and term limits on justices.
And this Supreme Court will be the deciders if such acts on Biden’s part are above the law. How do you think they will rule?
In order to reveal the hypocrisy in the starkest way, I think that Biden should test it.
But he’s too noble to do so. Unfortunately.
But it won't be this SC, it will be the SC containing the newly appointed justices. How about 9 additions?
There needs to be an odd number. 13 is the number of US Districts, so I think Pres Biden should immediately appoint four more today.
Considering how Obama was robbed of a judge. It would be right to pack the court to get back some sanity.
Now would someone explain to me how "this Supreme Court will be the deciders" (which is how I read it too) is consistent with "separation of powers"? It basically gives the judiciary veto power over the executive.
Well, SCOTUS has been the final arbiter of the law, thanks to Marbury v. Madison (1803) in which the Court allocated the power of overriding Congress to itself by deciding which laws were or were not in agreement with the Constitution.
Checks and balances? Separation of powers? Hah!
The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of the meaning of the language in the Constitution and the decisions of the Court. It has an outsized influence on the law.
Short of a new case testing Trump v US with a refreshed array of justices, it would take a Constitutional Amendment to override this decision.
Because this case does not involve a particular statute, I do not believe Congress can enact either a revised or a new statute that is contra to the ruling.
He can take one (or several ) for the Team Democracy
By the time these orders get to SCOTUS, there will be a completely different body, including the four needed to reach 13 - the number of US Districts. This will be an interesting experiment.
No illusions about this court. I don't think Biden will do anything unethical or outside the law; it's always been the president's prerogative to expand the court and appoint new justices. This ruling is just the canary in the coal mine that if drastic measures aren't taken, America will lose.
Let's start taking advantage of this new ruling NOW.
Note: adding Supreme Court justices is not taking advantage of the July 1 ruling. It is already legal. The difficulty is getting it through the Senate and the existing Court. Will be difficult.
First step, expand the SCOTUS so the MAGAts are in the minority, essentially powerless to do anything other than dissent.
Second, impose ethical standards and term limits on justices, which they couldn't prevent.
Third, remove Aileen Cannon from the bench for judicial malfeasance.
Congress must mandate the court's expansion. Same with imposing ethical standards. Same with removing Cannon, which requires impeachment. All of this can't be done unless Democrats control the Senate and House.
I don't see where in the Constitution it is said that changing the number of SC justices required congressional approval. There shall be one SC, I see that. And such other inferior courts as congress shall from time to time ordain and establish, I see that. I see nothing about congressional approval for expanding the court.
No, he could not expand the court by an order. We are not that far gone, yet. But he could order the military to apprehend Trump, and then if TFG should try to escape…
Just order his execution by military firing squad. That's now perfectly legal.
Unfortunately the SCOTUS ruling has a hitch in it. It will be up to them to decide which acts of the President count as official acts!
What would George Washington do??
What would it take for us to BE that far gone?
Between this immunity decision and the reversal of Chevron, the court has already made a huge power grab. While it wasn't their goal, the majority would have little problem with *Trump* expanding their number by fiat. They said the President's motives can't even be questioned. Biden *is* still the President today, and they're the ones who handed him the keys. He would actually be defending the Constitution, as the orange menace has never done.
The reactionary majority would find a reason to disallow that. Even if they had to make one up. Not like they’re shy about doing that.
Power grab = declaration of war. We now have two de facto governments. Fort Sumter has fallen.
How about terminating Thomas and Alito for tax evasion?
Like Al Capone.
Let’s do it and see what happens
He can't act willy-nilly. The court made itself the official arbiter of what is an official act worthy of immunity. They won't give Biden the same breaks they'll give Trump.
If he issues a fiat, does Congress still have to approve the nominee? Will McConnell be able to refuse to bring it up for a vote? Eager to hear the answer, Lauren et Al!
Anne Marie, we have a majority in the Senate so it would be Senate Majority Leader Schumer to put it to a vote. And it would have to be after they ditch the filibuster. None of this will happen because President Biden declared yesterday that he will work within the [former] limits of of the presidency.
I’m afraid The Fix is in via the extremists & liars of our highest court. We, therefore, must get out the vote for a Blue Trifecta in November.
Absolutely correct, Angela. For Biden to use his new powers to reverse this mess, he would have to imprison or assassinate several hundred people. Except for J6, this has been a bloodless coup. The politicians have not yet opened fire on each other or attacked themselves with canes in congress. But all of that could start any day now. How the Dems restrain themselves is beyond me.
Thank you for your reply.
Good suggestion. Biden can demonstrate his strength and leadership for voters to elect him.
Yes, Seth, the only remaining recourse is the public, the voters. If they do as you say, Thomas and Alito could be impeached and replaced. Joe Biden summed it up nicely: “So now, the American people have to do what the courts should have been willing to do, but will not,” Biden said. “The American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy on January 6th makes him unfit for public office in the highest office in the land.”
Sadly, two of the three branches that are supposed to provide checks and balances are so corrupt they failed in that essential function. I don't have much more faith in the American people, given the extensive foreign meddling in our affairs. That said, the Roberts court has blown up the notion of precedent and settled law, so anything this court has done can be undone in the future, provided we give ourselves the opportunity.
That's part of the irony isn't it? After destroying stare decisis, the Roberts Court now claims to be "writing this rule [meaning this specific decision] for the ages" (according to Gorsuch). They must know they've destroyed respect for precedent, so everything, going forward will be an endless seesaw of power grabs :-(
Turn about is fair play
I think perhaps we could contemplate not turnabout, exactly, but whatever opening the court has thrown at the current president to take extraordinary action to reverse the slide into fascist control. At least, measures that might not have been taken in normal circumstances, preferably stopping short of having to declare war on "conservatives."
If Trump loses, he and his people are already figuring out how to steal swing states. I believe that if Trump gets back into office, he’ll never leave. There won’t be anymore elections, or there’d maybe mock-elections like in Russia and other authoritarian countries, but he won’t leave. Project 2025 is well under way with this Supreme Court.
This may well be the act that opens the eyes of those who still aren't sure if President Biden is the best choice. Everyone needs to hear about this and not through the Faux type news filter. It is our responsibility to let everyone know what is really at stake in the next election. SCOTUS wants everything trump wants to do. They want Liz Cheney to be tried for treason on national television. They want him to defy a free and fair election by illegal and even violent means. They want him to assassinate his political opponents. Six of them are fully the enemies of the people of the United States of America. I have been doing more to support our Democracy than ever before. I now realize I need to do more.
It is in my nature to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I can no longer assume anything virtuous, ethical, moral, honest or legal from the current republican party or conservative judges.
Yes, Craig Moore. A party that thinks only of more money for the rich and ignores climate change needs to be “dismissed.”
Do you really think voting will do the job??
supremes can rule against the vote, they've taken over the country and our government and is making it to their liking. If they don't get it all they will destroyed us all.
I've worried about that too. If we have a contested election, who's gonna be on the hook to decide? This SCOTUS. Look at 2000's Gore v Bush.
We may already be screwed.
That we are screwed may be true, but meanwhile let us vote and work at the polls and get Chris Krebs out to watch the election!
I am a delegate for the Indiana Democrat Convention in Indianapolis on July 13th. This is a first for an 81 year old. I am excited but concerned! Also, I will be a poll worker on election day.
This is part and parcel to an ongoing and accelerating coup. It's an unprecedented seizure of power. It's a metaphorical rolling out of the red carpet for the coronation of King Trump.
Massive reputations. Landslides can’t be overturned.
Yes they can.
Is there not a space on the ballot that one can check to vote straight Democrat for all offices? We need an image of it to use in ads and posters and Highway signs, to teach the public how to do this! Seth et al, do you agree
We've got that in Australia. Saves a lot of time - unless you want to vote for your cousin in a tiny party that will never be in government, in which case you have to tick all the boxes.
I believe there may be such a thing in some states. Not in every state, certainly. It does not exist in California, for instance.
Do Dems have a leader, as Republicans have Putin's agent?
We are the leaders as in "We the people'.......dont cha know.
Huh?
You know. Democracy. Demos = the people.
This, this, this to the power of 10.
I agree these are dark times but, sadly, I'm not sure the arithmetic is in our favor.
1. 34 of the Senate seats are up this year, and only 10 of those are Republicans. I suspect those 10 are pretty solid. WY, ND, FL, TX, MS are solid red. Utah's Mitt Romney, the only reasonable Republican in the Senate, isn't running.
2. According to a PEW report (CHANGING PARTISAN COALITIONS IN A POLITICALLY DIVIDED NATION), the voter population is 49% Democrat (or independent leaning Democratic) and 48% Republican (or leaning Republican). That won't be helped by the gerrymandering the Republicans have been supporting.
That's not the only recourse. Use your voice as a consumer and stop patronizing news media that normalized the Republican party. Voting is important, but if we lose, then what?
Project 2025 has got that all worked out.
We're gonna need more constitutional amendments.
No need to expand necessarily, just impeach the 6 conservatives for their most recent rulings, this one being the most dangerous!
There is a tsunami coming in November and the Democrats are going to get crushed
Democrats are the majority. When we vote we win. It sounds like you’re saying you’d like Democrats to get crushed. Is that what you’re saying? If so, your post is wishful thinking.
I say the truth no matter where it leads. The Democrats are going to get crushed in November. Trump was leading in the polls before the debate.
Americans will not elect a candidate with significant dementia. There is a price to be paid by the establishment left for lying to America about Biden's condition. Even worse 30% inflation over the last four years is not a formula that wins elections. So yes, the Democrats are going to get crushed.
It is admirable to say the truth no matter where it leads. What you are stating is your opinion, and I am stating mine. You are not the arbiter of Truth, but you seem to be confused about that. Joe Biden doesn’t appear to me to have dementia. In my 50’s I was confronted with a situation I didn’t know how to respond to—I didn’t have dementia then nor do I have it now. You appear to be trying to sell Biden’s ineffective debate performance as what you’d like the public to believe for your own purposes. So again I say to you that you are engaging in wishful thinking.
I for one will encourage my fellow HCR followers to NEVER EVER read your substack. Intellectual honesty, how brazenly arrogant.
You again!
The Guardians of Putin don’t realize that making a king is not in their best interest either. It may take a while, but kings don’t enjoy anything as much as throwing syncophants under the bus. Soon it will be their turn. “ And then they came for me” is echoing in my mind.
I prefer Goons of Putin….guardians is far too nice a word for these traitorous idiots.
And the Guardian is one of the few trustworthy newspapers in the English language.
And Trump is capricious. The only person that matter to Trump is Trump. Everyone else is a potential toy.
As Adam G writes in the New Yorker, half the country is rooting for the iceberg.
". . .
but you can't fool all the people all of the time." --A. Lincoln
No you can't fool all of the people all of the time but it appears you can fool about half the people all of time & the really harrowing part of that is that a huge majority of that half reside in the so-called swing states. So my freedoms are going to rest on how a few hundred thousand people vote, in a country of 330 million.
We must never give up. It's worth everything to stop the madness. Doe what you can, and then do twice as much.
Lincoln may not have uttered that quote as there is no written evidence, but it is associated wit Lincoln. It's a great saying in any case, terse and true,
Thanks for the clarification. His heart was fully committed to these United States whenever he said anything. He gave his life for it. He knew the enemy, and it is us.
I was avoiding reading this newsletter as we are traveling in Greece…but I did and as I’ve feared it has rained on our parade. We’re instructing my relatives to start looking for property….
Lucky you!
Yes, Nancy. Most people are stuck here and they cannot afford to leave nor would they always be welcome elsewhere. My garden helper had just discovered Project 25, but she doesn't understand that politics is the art of the possible which means we sometimes have to hold our nose to elect someone we don't really like so hard won progress can continue. She also was railing against the Electoral College and we explained the elephant in the room, slavery, at the Constitutional Convention which they had to find a way to accommodate. And these current traitors on the Court are not originalists, but they are certainly activist judges. Our only hope is victory for Ds up and down the ballot. Right now she and I are planning to spend time in our gardens to soothe our souls. And of course, we are going to have a heat wave starting not the 4th, so I will need to find neglected projects in the house. I am also reading Marilynn Robinson's Jack. She, btw, has an essay in the NY Review of Books about the current mess. I haven't read it yet.
I have read all of Marilynn Robinson's books at least twice. I love them and thank you for mentioning her piece. I will look for it.
I love her fiction. i struggle with the nonfiction and had a real problem with Reading Genesis.
Look at what is happening all over the world. We are all connected to each other and if the US goes down in flames, nowhere will be safe. I personally think we have to stay and fight and VOTE in such numbers that there can be no doubt and then do what we can to repair our ravaged democracy!
Here is a word of caution about Greece …sort of tongue in cheek….in the international press the reporting is that the northern parts are burning and the current business friendly government has worked to implement a 6 day work day. That is they do not have enough labor to support a five much less 4 or less work week. That my friend, speaking from experience thinking I could get decent healthcare in Sweden, is a recipe for an inadequate and frustrating ‘social security’ system. [we are in a bit of a climate sweet spot here so far but I am not gloating as …]
Bullshit. Every four years we hear the same story. Democrats love to virtual signal about leaving. They never do. In a democracy you win some times and you lose some times.
If you think there will be another “sometimes” after November, you’re deluding yourself. Reality is that despite the current desperate situation, bread and circus has sufficiently distracted the larger voting population so as to prevent them from seeing the coming storm. Some will vote for a third party because Biden just looks “too old”. Some will vote for Trump because he “sounds like a good businessman”. Some will abstain altogether because they have either given up or were never interested in how the country is run in the first place. Whereas the Trump party is highly motivated. They’ve been scoring political and judicial wins over the last ten years and it has fired them up. If they lose steam, they have Fox and Sinclair to rile them up again. Democrats will be hard pressed to win enough in November to defeat the tide of democratic erosion aimed at us all. And even if they do, I am not sure our norms will hold against the efforts they will expend to force a reversal. 2020 was a test case - now the apparatus is in place to reverse the will of the voters who do turn out.
I am not a hand-wringer, but the writing is on the wall. Never in my 64 years have I ever felt this much trepidation and hopelessness. It’s not my normal setting. But I suspect it is already too late. I suspect we haven’t as a nation been paying enough attention until it is now too late for attention, much less action. I doubt it will matter how motivated the democrats are in November. The die is cast and you will find the cure for your naïveté in the disaster that ensues.
So well said Sandy. Painfully well said. I’m 74 and every word you wrote is the trepidation I am living in. Still, we try find some hope. Right?
Democrat erosion - you are delusional.
Which party has censored political opponents?
Which party has open the border?
Which party wants to regulate your gun
Which party has used the DOJ, FBI, CIA against its opponents
Which party wants control your children?
If you think that this loss will be like other ones you’re whacked. Take a refresher look at the fall of the Roman Empire and see if you can find some similarities…let’s see, corruption? Dividing the Empire into the West and Byzantium that failed to work together against attacks from the exterior? Overspending on defense? Overspending in general? Depletion of slaves (who’s going to pick oranges after we deport millions of migrants?)? Etc. etc. etc.
How is that virtue signaling??? And some do leave, some have left. Do you have some tally somewhere?
Why would you bring it up? Why does anyone need to know that you are moving? Of course its to virtue signal how beautiful your politics are.
Or, it's simply a way to express frustration, sadness, anger. Why do you jump to the most negative assumption? How do you know why they are saying what they're saying? At least I have the decency to ask you. You don't want to ask or question, you just want to tell and indict.
But if we lose this one, WE HAVE NO DEMOCRACY!!!
You don't have democracy when the president is senile and his administrative staff, who are unelected, run the country.
You don't have democracy when Biden uses the DOJ, FBI, and CIA to go ofter political opponents.
You don't have democracy when Biden censors free speech.
Democracy has been threatened under Biden. Proof. Look at the polling.
Washington Post poll - Swing state polling shows voters are more worried
Biden as a threat to democracy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/26/biden-trump-swing-state-poll-democracy/
This is leftist hyperventilating.
Why are you trolling a blog that consistently calls out Republican hypocrisy? Are you scared more and more Americans will learn the truth?
I see you seem enamored of your own intelligence, James. But to use your eloquent wording, I call bullshit on your statements.
If Biden is such a threat to democracy, why isn't he using his anti-democratic powers newly granted him and all presidents by the Supreme Court? Powers like Justice Sotomayor enumerated in her dissent, e.g. "orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival", "takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon", etc. Instead President Biden said yesterday, "I know I will respect the limits of [my] presidential powers". So if he's a threat to democracy as you allege, why isn't he taking advantage? Can you explain that? Didn't think so.
Who is hyperventilating??
But “some times” are more permanent than others…
And I am trying to conjure any scenario that stops this steal.
You mean the people who lied to America for years about Biden and his condition?
How did the Republicans sell their soul exactly? You said absolutely nothing.
I can tell you the Democrats have:
Open the borders to anyone including criminals
Pushing 30% inflation on America
Undermining our energy independence
Support the "Transing" of kids
Censoring leading opponents of COVID
Unleashing the CIA, FBI, & DOJ on its political opponents
a Fox kool-aid drinker.
...and spitting it up. Wow.
True but better not to engage. NOTHING will change these nutsos’ minds….
You can't cite a single example. Leftist don't have a clue then other to scream
and hyperventilate.
They lied about Biden's health.
What a stupid response. Name one thing that's untrue? Of course you can't.
Who are “the opponents of COVID”? Leading or otherwise?
My immune system opposes COVID.
I do not see one true statement in your list.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was a Stanford medical school professor, who challenged the Biden Administration on COVID was targeted by Biden and censored.
Alex Berenson, was targeted by the Biden administration to be censored
for simply publishing scientific data that differed with Biden administration positions. He has a lawsuit pending Berenson v Biden.
Current US inflation rate is 3.3%
I read it was 2.8 or thereabouts.
And? That doesn't reverse the previous inflation. It just continues the trend
at a slower rate. The net effect it has raised the cost of living for all Americans.
Energy, Housing, and Groceries pricing has increased over 30% over the last four years.
Its been devastating for middle America.
I will detail it for you or any Troll if you submit to Mediation per Substack Inc's contract with Readers & Authors.
I've started reporting him unless he's managed to start a discussion.
You are sick and should get help.
"James A" allegedly his name -- reported.
So have I. Several times already.
Substack identifies him as “James Abbuhl.” His profile image is the same as the “James Abbuhl” identified here: https://theorg.com/org/healthcare-synergy/org-chart/james-abbuhl
Your ridiculous comments are expected since you have shown what a completely obtuse and non serious person you are. 🙄
What McConnell's done over the last 20 years is unforgettable and unforgivable.
USA Born: July 4, 1776. Died: July 1, 2024. Thanks for nothing Mitch.
NO!!! this motley crew is outranked by the commander-in-chief. Who's the commander-in-chief?
Anne-Louise--finally, the voice of reason. I see the obit for the US is down in the next response. We're not dead yet, but our birthday party is going to be a little bit hypocritical. Work, for the night is coming.
I have a radical idea, thanks to this recent "decision" by the SCORRUPTUS: if Presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts now, why doesn't Joe up the ante and suspend the November elections until after all the criminal cases against the convicted felon memegaga nominee are settled. Delay can't be the banana republican's way to get what it wants all the time. This is the time to act to save the country.
I like your idea Sander.
Sandra, McConnell will go down in history as you say because democracy will win and autocracy will lose. The reason democracy will win is because the Democrats will win all three branches of government, and the reason for that is because the choice is so clear.
Controlled experiments prove that we all know the difference between right and wrong on the day we are born. Preverbal infants are attracted to puppets treat other puppets with respect, and reject puppets who behave toward other puppets the way the SCOTUS majority and the MAGA crowd treat others. Preverbal infants don't learn that from experience. Instead, we all inherit that nature, and the MAGA crowd behaves the way they do because they learned not to trust their own human nature.
It is a mistake to be naively optimistic, but the MAGA crowd's cynical pessimism is also a mistake. Our job is to avoid making either mistake by make it as clear as possible to everyone reachable that this election is a clear-cut decision between our species' democratic and egalitarian nature and autocracy.
I agree. There has to be more of us sane, clear thinkers. We have to come out in November and vote! The fools who vote for trump don't even realize how bad a trump regime will be for them as well as the dems. Whatever happens affects us all.
And we need to do whatever we can to support democracy before that. I hike; I can wear my Biden shirt.
From your mouth to God’s ears.
If the outcome of the election is even close, it will go to the Supreme Court to decide and we know who they will side with.
I don’t know that we have enough people who are paying attention and will get out and vote. i’m very discouraged by what I am hearing from people in their 30s and 40s. There is a deafening silence from them or they are voting for RFK in an effort to reform a two-party system. What they don’t realize is that by doing that they are helping a dictator get elected.
I agree, but we have the time and knowledge it will take to turn this around, we just have to use what we already have, part of which is knowledge that giving up is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Oh I’m not giving up; I’m part of a letter writing campaign and a poll worker.
We must keep going!
This is worrisome.
I’m moving to a safer country. I’ll be looking for a homestead in Sudan where I will be able to sail across the Mediterranean to vaca on my grandparents land of Sicily.
Unfortunately, a lot of us don't have the means to move to another country. I am thoroughly depressed over where our country is headed. Trump is an animal. He will bring death and destruction. I fear for all of us. We have to come out in full force, vote blue, and rid ourselves of these traitors to our country and freedom.
. . . and find a way to have a new SCOTUS reverse this abomination!
I vowed a long time ago not to wish ill on a fellow human, but after this decision, there are a couple of SC justices that have made me go there….
Sophia, me too, and more than two.
Me, too. Although, after a little thought, I believe a military tribunal and a conviction for treason, followed by a significant prison term, sounds even better. In the long run, that is... a VERY long run, for each of them.
I think of RBG - she hung on and hung on, and with her dying breath she said her wish was that her place be not filled until after the election. I think it was a week later that little Amy stood smiling beside Trump in the (redesigned) Rose Garden.
RBG thought she would live forever. Obama tried to get her to retire. So in manner, we are are own worst enemy.
Who created SCOTUS in the first place? It's Frankenstein's monster.
We need to bring the supremes down, they have committed so many crimes in process of destroying democracy and making a king and a mockery of the good ole US of A.
SCOTUS. Marbury v Madison.
Those six Justices have committed treason. They've combined to overthrow the government. All that's needed now is to arrest, try, convict and sentence them.
The last execution for treason was on June 19, 1963, when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death for conspiracy to commit treason. Their crime was the passing of atomic secrets to Russia.
And people think that trump hasn’t already sold top secret documents to our adversaries?!! Of course he has! He should follow the Rosenbergs…
I don't doubt that for a minute. Personally, I'd like to see him follow the path of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, death sentence and all.
And Congress that has the ways and means sits there paralyzed. I viewed myself having excellent antennas for assessing human behavior. Just the notion that people I viewed as normal are promoting the end of our civilization as we know it is indigestible. Im at a total loss….
I think the Department of Justice might be the ones to handle it. Perhaps even with the help of the military. I'd like to see them face a court martial - much quicker and not nearly as complicated... and they do get full legal representation.
It's in my nature to poke humor at essentially a hugely destructive mess we have gotten in. I have thought seriously of returning to Italy where I lived for 2 wonderful years. But this move to the right is infectious. And I have repeated over and over and over and over and over again that no country wants open borders. And when ever I make this suggestion to my fellow democrats, I get shit upon. and then guess what happens. No, you guess.
Both Bush presidencies contributed significantly to destabilization when they invaded the Middle East. Herbert a Walker who was insistent on The Gulf War, had American military stationed in the Arabias which infuriated bin Ladin and the world came tumbling down. It was the Bush wars that are remaking the face of modern western governments for the worst. I would be in favor of an American military coup to restore civilian government. Sounds crazy right?
Joe Biden ended the Trump mandates at the border when he entered office. New leadership often does this to differentiate from past leadership. Trump did it to Obama with NAFTA as well with the Iran deal. Ancient Egyptian leaders often had the noses smashed off previous leaders believing that life originates from the nose passages and smashing the nose ended any continuing influence of previous leadership. Biden is no different.
Bill, perhaps you should indeed move to Sudan.
I told you have a lease on the house first so you go.
I'm not the one who proposed it (and never, ever, would), you did. They'll love your humor! Have fun!
I agree no country wants wide open borders. Of course, we might be able to come up with a plan for immigration if we had a competent government who doesn't want to use human beings as political pawns... I have no answers, but people much smarter and more experienced than I should be able to compromise something humane. Definitely not in this Congress, or the next if trump wins. Actually, there will be very little good anywhere in a trump regime. But, if it ain't over til it's over. Vote blue!
There are certain things in this world that are simply messy, no matter how you slice it. Immigration is one, the Middle East is another. No one wants to take a stand because no one else will, and it will always be the wrong thing in one way or another. Human beings are complex. Authoritarians like to have simple answers, and boast that they do. It makes them look bold, strong, in charge. But their answers are no better than anyone else's and will provoke subsequent problems like any other answer will. The question is, will you look ahead at ramifications and be prepared to mamnage them, or will you not? With Iraq, the neo-cons made the decision not to, even though, ten years prior, Cheney said in an interview that invading Iraq would be a disaster (you can find it on YouTube) and everything he predicted did come true ten years later.
Guess what trump has in store for immigration.
Concentration camps. More separating families. Deporting existing immigrants that do the necessary jobs no American will do.
Then he'll kill NATO, allow Putin to kill Ukraine & move on to other countries, allow Netanyahu to kill all the Palestinians, and give China free rein in Taiwan.
And sic his DOJ on all democrats, taxes completely done away with for the rich.
But first, as with all dictators he'll come for the free press, so we won't know what's being done to us.
Sure, Biden is no different.
Italy sounds like a good plan for you.
It is only Congress that can reform our immigration law, fund border surveillance and provide funding needed to secure the border. The last time Congress did anything to fix uncontrolled border crossing was in 1986. You are wrong about Biden. He tried to keep Trump's 'stay in Mexico' executive order that was put in place during court. A federal court overturned his efforts. I am constantly amazed at people who blame the President for Congress' inaction. Do people not understand how our government works?
It's days like these where the precariousness of our freedoms becomes clear that I think "ugh, wish I could move somewhere less crazy," look out the window and realize there are very few places that are actually less crazy, and realize how lucky I am to be an American, and need to protect it. Plus, the US is very powerful (I'm sure you've heard?), so if it falls the rest of the world is decidedly unsafe as well.
I have been raging about the dangers of this course for years. They have now gone way beyond being disruptive. They have become dictators themselves. They are a group of arrogant,corrupt, and cruel individuals. They have destroyed the Constitution in order to protect a deranged criminal. We cannot let them continue. They will certainly do whatever they can to make sure Trump takes power. We the People need to take back our freedoms. This is the result of an insurrection from within, while to many of us assumed our freedoms were the essential part of America.
This is not just about Trump. The Heritage Foundation has been working on this for the past 50 years. They have been influential in elections and SCOTUS appointments. They happened to find a deranged, ignorant narcissist to be their puppet in all of this.
If Trump wins the election, it will be the culmination of the Heritage Foundation’s efforts. They will turn back the clock on every progressive gain we have made in the last 50 years. As the mom of a biracial son with special needs, I’m terrified.
Yes, a bunch of mean, crazy, narcissistic billionaires have decided that they are the special people who should run the country. Everyone else can take "Black Jobs." Perhaps your son already has one. The arrogance and corruption that pervades this court is the result of years of planning, some illegal appointmentss, and the luck of have RBG die three months too soon.
Bravo, fellow geezer! Only special billionaires and their Supreme Court hires should run the country. Everyone else can take Black jobs! Hispanic jobs!
I hope the Biden campaign picks up on that. Ask Black Republicans like Tim Scott what Trump means by Black jobs. Ask Clarence Thomas.
Truth. I wrote a paper for school in '93 about Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition, Jack Abramoff, and all. It was clear they were well under way in their learning then and where they were headed.
Bingo! Trump is just their useful idiot.
Yes this will prove a truly unfortunate byproduct. American Democracy will no longer be held up elsewhere as a model. And despots will point to us with cynicism.
No, they won't, Tyler.
Despots instead will have plenty of U. S. Republicans to point to as their long-time allies, abettors, and fellow beneficiaries of the same international billionaire class which has floated Clarence, Donald, Mitch, and all their Fox PR.
Dems? Will any combination of them suffice to make up for the image of Biden with his mouth gaping open in hapless disbelief as Putin's orange agent clobbers him in barrage of lies?
The image of Biden remains as long as we stay frightened and shamed by it. The forceful move is to push back, and get over it. The guy had a bad night. WE needed him to save us. He didn’t in that performance. But to aid and abet the media by staying frightened, frozen, and shamed by our candidate when theirs is anathema to democracy? I dusted off my boots at midnight on Thursday, and woke up Friday ready to push back. We are on the beach at Normandy.
Exactly, and it does not matter who the Dem candidate is; Biden is fine. This is a fight to preserve democracy.
MLRGRMI, BRAVO!
Don’t know about you, but my mouth gapes open, too, when I’m flabbergasted.
Some images last and others fade? I can’t get Donald’s smirk out of my mind’s eye when Biden called him a loser. Or his sneer or his lying mouth. Let’s fight our despair.
It wasn't the barrage of lies, and that wasn't hapless disbelief. Ask CNN what it was.
It already is.
But I am going north across the border if they’ll have me.
It is easy to say “I’ll just move somewhere else”, but that seems to me to be an attitude of “I’ll hang around as long as things are going the way I want, and if that changes, I’ll bail out.”. This country is worth staying and fighting for. Best advice I’ve seen in comments so far is to vote against every possible Republican so that at least the MAGA wing is destroyed. Let the centrist Republicans rebuild the party so that there is a counter balance to Democrats.
In my high school I was fortunate to have a teacher in a class called US history, in which we were asked to debate current events. On the topic of school integration and bussing, one student stated that his answer was "I'm going to move to the suburbs.". Fair weather fans have always existed, and none of them are real Cubs fans or real Americans.
And therein lies the rub. (purple heart emoji)
If Trump becomes president, you will not be safe Bill. Europe will be abandoned and the autocrats/fascist/dictators will take over.
If tRump becomes president NO ONE will be safe. He would actually go after and likely kill people like his niece, Mary, Liz Cheney, and Joe Biden, just to name a few. This horribly evil unstable man is holding the country hostage. The comparison to Hitler holds.
One major difference that for now makes Europe a safer place. Guns. Semi Automatics. There are not 60-70 million such weapons in the hands of private citizens
Terrifying and true.
Which is why I’ll move to a much safer land: The Sudan, lol.
Correct, Susan. Europe’s far-Right movements will tear off their smiling, respectable masks and show their true features. And that will only be the beginning…
Everywhere, ambitious would-be courtiers of the new American Caesar are already angling for a place in his New Order. A New Order that is really the disinterred zombie of that which the ‘30s dictators imposed wherever they conquered.
I have just been sent a book in French called Z comme zombie — Z for Zombie — by one Iegor Gran. Subject: Putin’s total zombification of Russia, the transformation of nice, ordinary people into fully formated zombies programmed to believe whatever the State zombiebox instills, lies, poisonous myths, raging hatred and resentment for all but their subhuman leader.
Americans have already seen this with the MAGA cult. If that man becomes president, the cult will be imposed on the entire population. Those who resist can expect the kind of treatment Putin reserves for any he has failed to condition: systematic persecution, imprisonment, beatings, even death. Just like Hitler, with his rapidly built network of concentration camps, used initially to break resisters and soften up the unenthusiastic.
And what’s done in America will be done wherever PutinMAGA imitators rule.
.... followed by a really bad world war...
(This was extracted from my book, "Donald's Vanity Tantrums" which was published in 2020. Perhaps I was ahead of my time.)
A Fireside Chat
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
Bill, I get your attempt at humor, and I sympathize with your desire to ridicule Trump, but really, now is the time to seriously plan how we the people will undo this grossest of errors by our formerly respectable SCOTUS and reinforce our Constitution and the laws it both inspires and regulates. Doing this will require multiple leaps of faith in the next few months, and all of our lives will depend on our doing the right thing.
In an odd way giving immunity to the US President is a bit like setting off the first atomic bomb. Nothing will be as it was.
Rewrite your book!! You're playing into the hands of the racists, bigots, heartless insurrectionists
I don’t think you understand satire. Don’t read Mark Twain.
I understand satire. I don't find humor in your words.
Sounds like where we're going! Do mention the millions of Project 2025ers who will be looking over your shoulder to help implement this latest interpretation of the law. Will the Supreme Court justices feel bad, or will they be going to their deaths feeling "justified". Terrible history coming right up.
Hijacking HCR posts to stroke your ego (you are a poor writer) is rude and infantile. If I had wanted to read your book (I do not!) I’d buy it.
This decision affects the whole world Bill
Look at what is happening all over the world. We are all connected to each other and if the US goes down in flames, nowhere will be safe. I personally think we have to stay and fight and VOTE in such numbers that there can be no doubt and then do what we can to repair our ravaged democracy!
Bill, I just posted that we are currently in Greece and directing my relatives to look for property here. The irony is that it is in this country where democracy was established and that my father migrated to America when he was 15 years old because it was so well adapted there….
Nice that you can do that. Following the example of MLK, John Lewis etc I believe we have to keep fighting. Everybody’s personal choice of course. But I wish you could put some of the considerable funds it takes to become an ex pat into the fight for our democracy. Just saying.
Sudan? I think Spain is a nicer and safer choice.
You have a subtle sense of humor.
Why thank you
And agree with other replies that if you think you’re safe there if Trump wins it’s an illusion.
You are fortunate to have that choice.
Good luck with that.
You'll have to cross Egypt and/or Libya first to get to the Mediterranean!
I’m told the Nile is fun to sail.
Sinking in by degrees? I can’t even sleep. This the a blow to the head. And no one who created this reality will go down in history as anything other than heroes. The Authoritarian State will see to that.
I get being upset, but let's not make dystopian apocalypse a self-fufilling prophesy and come up with a different story for ourselves instead.
Seriously? When they turned over Roe v Wade everyone said...it will be okay....states will do the RIGHT thing....here in Texas, women, infants, and infants with birth defects are dying in record number. And the evil trio ruling the state are simply buckling down...unrelenting in their 'prolife' (pro death for women) position
Will, as the dust settles and the legal world analyzes the impact, as the politicians create their scenarios of how to navigate this maelstrom, I’m hopeful that some sane responses to this Imperial Court will materialize
The businessmen who count on economic stability to market their products cannot exist without people with money to buy their goods and services. At some point, they’re gonna recognize what they did to themselves in slaughtering the fatted calf
Then voters will do the rest
This Court cannot stand
You're speaking the biz-ed school speak, Dave.
You do not understand the many more centuries where the world but followed the feudalism of a few faux elites lording it over masses as non-educated, badly educated as U.S. schools have left most Americans.
Phil, well perhaps Bus-Ed, sorta, but we both know that Business seeks profit above most else. Destroying an economy is not an effective profit model and contrary to a feudal system with centuries of relative stability, today’s businesses require cash flow to meet their loan and bond notes. The overnight fed reserve rate impacts much. Quarterly reports dominate corporate thinking constantly. The economic system brought to life by Freedom cannot be relegated back to the days of feudal lords without massive pushback from people who have learned how to be free, and free again
Do not discount the vipers in corporate boardrooms recognizing they caught the car. “Now what?”
Plus, me here, just trying to shine up a turd with a little positivity
Republicans used to talk business as if giving people their needs were a good.
Do today's Republicans have such rationality, Dave?
Or are they hungry for, followers of theocrats, sermonizers, and faux aristocrats as those sitting on the Clarence court?
" . . . people who have learned to be free"? Aren't you referring to a long-ago, when American schools still had humanities in them, not just standardized tests herding them?
I am upset, Will, which is an upgrade from the despondence I felt last Thursday. Our only option now is to vote them all out decisively. And I think Biden must expand the Supreme Court before the election, so when the Loser loses and takes his complaints to the judiciary, he won't get a rubber stamp decision.
If it's true the PresidentKing can jail or execute opponents, Biden ought to lock up Alito and Thomas for the bribes they accepted and for naked partisanship.
Supreme Court would say that was unofficial.
Will -- so what's your plan, besides to vote? This Court has arrogated powers to itself while abrogating its oath to the Constitution.
Asha Rangagpa was correct: it is now the decider of which president shall have what authority to commit crimes. If that's not dystopia, then what is?
Let me guess - you are a white man. You’ll be fine. Everyone else? We are all threatened by what will shape up to be Jim Crow Gilead. There’s plenty to fear.
Gotta get the bucket and scrub brush out; there's much more work to be done. (And I confess to tears and one-too-many chocolate chip cookies devoured – but now it's time to get back on the horse.)
Pamela, 'by degrees', I meant the multi-faceted complexities of the whole thing. And the immunity charade was the epilogue of the previous decisions over the past year.
Sandra, we must be united to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. We must stop the Democrat circular firing squad in which we attack our candidates because they are not perfect in our eyes. That’s the only way to stop McConnell and his power-hungry buddies.
https://open.substack.com/pub/luciantruscott/p/grow-a-spine-democrats?r=3kkhg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
History? To the victor goes the spoils. They get to write history. Let us make sure the spoiled do not get the victory.
John Roberts is a stupid man. He decided in Citizens United that money was free speech, yet didn't believe it would have undue influence on elections. WRONG. He thought there was no longer a need for the election protections of the Civil Rights Act. WRONG. Now he reveals that, well yes, presidents are actually above the law. Of course, WRONG! And, as Heather points out, is antithetical to what this country was founded upon. The court has made itself all-powerful -- certainly above the congress (with Loper-Bright) but now also above the president. This is wrong on every level. This is not America. This will not stand.
I think, to try to wrap your mind around the thinking of Trump’s congressional enablers like McConnell and McCarthy, is almost beside the point. Trump is, almost unwittingly as narcissistic as he is, a straw man. We snigger at McConnell and the like while the monied interest behind Heritage and Project 2025 snigger at Trump but he is so, so very useful as he riled up Steve Bannon’s foot soldiers and undercuts, with his flat out lies and demagoguery any real conversation about wealth inequality and taxation policy and real representation of the people by the people.
McConnell and this court, is a direct link to the Confederacy, and to institution of slavery, to the old southern oligarchy, the false claim that some are better than others, unequal before the law.
I have put the entire blame on McConnell. He has caused this from the minute he wouldn't let Obama replace RBG.
Far before then, he was holding open federal judicial seats.
Not only McConnell... The Extreme Court just showed how Extreme they really are, paving the way for the orange felon to become king and dictator of America. They will never allow Biden to use this power. Apparently, there's no checks and balances that can hinder SCOTUS: this handful of people are doing as they please; they are all-powerful, and they are gleefully showing it, laughing as they are bashing the American people with humiliating decision upon humiliating decision.
Today, democracy in America came to an end. The "Supreme" Court showed how supremely corrupt they are, selling their own souls, the American soul, American democracy, and with it, all democracy in the world - all just for a few "gifts"...
I see the court setting the American people up to accept by decree after decree, that they violate the constitution to serve their wealthy masters, and in so doing show that we can do nothing against them because Congress is not taking them on. This is all in preparation for them placing Donald Trump into office after he loses the election with some flimsy reason because they have probably already colluded to have him present a case that they will then rule on. Donald Trump is showing us what authoritarian government looks like and thanks to the Supreme Court, that is what the USA is living in. The press is also helping this agenda along, with their distracting noise about Joe Biden resigning, rather than reporting well on the dangers Trump poses to the country and the planet. So, we need people like Prof. Richardson to be keeping us informed because the illiberal mainstream press is not up to the task of reporting on the rise of fascism in the USA.
You are so right! Had he done what he should have done....we would not be in this situation today! Damn him!
Would Roberts applied his muddled logic if Trump wasn't on the ballot?
Does the sun rise in the East?
What was the courts decision? That official acts are covered by immunity and private acts aren't isn't enormous, its exactly where we were the day before. This is lying and hyperventilating of the highest order.
Why don't you be honest and say the obvious: Any thing that seems to benefit Trump
you hate. End of story. Period.
Either you don't really believe that, which makes you a liar, or you do, which makes you a fool. I'm not sure which is worse.
Never before in our history has a president had immunity from prosecution. It's certainly not in the US Constitution. (The founders were familiar with the concept. They could have included it. They chose not to.) The supposedly "originalist" SCOTUS pulled it out of thin air.
The Court didn't stop there. It also said that If any part of an "unofficial act" occurs during an "official act," that part cannot be admitted as evidence at trial, if that "unofficial act" is ever prosecuted. The Court went out of their way to give the President de jure immunity for official acts and de facto immunity for everything else.
Honestly are you an IDIOT? Of course the President has immunity.
Were you born yesterday? The President is commander in chief and head of the executive branch. Under the constitution he has sole authority
The Supreme Court concluded:
"Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.
There it is. The President is entitled to immunity for official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts.
They sent the ruling back to the lower courts to determine whether Trump's actions were official or private.
You are lying about official and un-official acts. This was for the lower court to determine. They said there are facts are borderline.
I am not an idiot. The President has immunity NOW because the Supreme Court just handed it to him. It did not exist before. Otherwise, Ford would not have pardoned Nixon, because there would have been no need.
I was born decades ago. Under the US Constitution, the President does not have “sole authority” for anything. There’s this thing called “Checks and balances.” At least, there was until yesterday. The Constitution says that Congress has the power to impeach the president and throw him out of office. But if the President is immune from criminal prosecution, I don’t know what happens to that rule. Also, there’s this thing we have called “elections” where We the People can throw a president we don’t like out of office—which we did in 2020. (Which Trump tried to prevent by starting an insurrection—the first in US History after the Civil War. Don’t bother to deny it, we all saw it with our own eyes, unfolding in real time.) We also have term limits, imposed after FDR was elected for the third term in a row. Dictators and Kings have "sole authority." Presidents in free countries do not; they are subject to the law just like the rest of us.
If a President wants immunity for "unofficial acts" all he has to do is use his official powers to complete most of the steps. He can now assassinate any rival, or sic the US Military on any civilian city. All he has to do is ensure that most of steps he takes are part of his "official duties". None of those acts are admissible evidence in Court. Whatever acts remain will not be enough to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. (That's a high bar. As it should be.) Sure, it will reach the Supreme Court in...what? 10 years? Even if SCOTUS doesn't give him a pass (which they will), many people have lost their livelihoods, if not their lives.
Then there's the DOJ. Currently, the DOJ is an independent body that prosecutes crimes on behalf of the Federal Government, i.e. We the People. Part of Project 2025 is to destroy that independence and bring it under the person of the President. Under the new rules, the DOJ will not only leave a former President and cronies alone, a current President can use the DOJ to go after his opposition. No matter how specious the charges, or frivolous the actions, Thanks to SCOTUS, doing so is now considered an "official act", as the President is now in charge of the DOJ, and retains sole discretion in who or what it pursues. The President can lock up anyone and everyone from journalists to congresspeople to donors who don't give enough. If we were a free country, the President would not have this much power. Now he does.
Now kindly crawl back under your rock and take your lies and willful ignorance with you.
NO NO NO NO. Of course it existed before.
Proof. Last year lets say the president order a risky mission to fly a combat mission over Ukraine and the crew was killed, could you have indicted the president for negligent homicide. 100% NO. The president as the commander and chief has absolute immunity with regard to official acts over the military
You are an idiot.
If you listen to the Supreme Court oral arguments the Solicitor General admitted that President's have immunity.
As for Trump and insurrection, I can't imagine a stupider claim.
Trump told the crowd to go protest peacefully. He also offered Nancy Pelosi
the national guard. She refused.
Trump was not charged by Jack Smith for insurrection. Why? Because there is no case. ITS A LIE.
From what you say here, you believe the falsehoods that stream from the mouth of a convicted felon, as repeated by Fox, Newsmax, and OAN. Also from what you say here, you have received your opinions and talking points from the same sources. I’m certain you believe that they are very good indeed.
No president has ever had absolute immunity. No president has never needed absolute immunity to act decisively, especially in times of war. Trump pursued absolute immunity because he knows that he committed crimes while in office and plans to do so again. Yelling “no” loudly and repeatedly doesn’t change that.
I watched the insurrection. The president did not call the National Guard until 3 hours until after the insurrection started—after the entire Congress was forced to flee, and after the mob shouted that they going to hang his own vice president. (Perhaps you may be tempted to say that “Hang Mike Pence” was just a joke, or that they didn’t mean it. That would be a lie. They erected a noose in front of the Capitol. You can’t shake the Devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding.)
Trump never contacted Pelosi during the insurrection. That is a Big Lie—a whopper that Trump repeats over and over and over because he knows that if he does, people will believe him. People like you.
Maybe it’s cognitive dissonance. Maybe it’s sunk cost. Maybe your life is frustrating, you don’t feel great about yourself, you’re casting about for a direction, so Trump telling you that you are both superior to everyone else, and a perpetual victim to everyone else is intoxicating. (Hearing that you are the best ever, and all your problems are someone’s else’s fault is a VERY tempting message.) Maybe it’s that he hates the same people as you (the ones that you are both superior to and a victim of), and you look forward to seeing him make those people suffer. Maybe you are so afraid of anyone who is different from you that you don’t care about the truth anymore. Maybe you just want lower taxes, and think all his talk about jailing opponents and setting up concentration camps is nonsense for the hoi polloi.
Whatever the reason, you’ve fallen for one Big Lie after another. I know it hurts to hear. You’ve been conned. You’re still being conned. It’s sad for you, and terrifying to the rest of us that there are so many like you.
Someday, in spite of fighting against it, you may wake up from this fever dream. Depending on what has happened until that point, you’ll be anywhere from ashamed to mortified to suicidal to haunted for the rest of your days. You don’t want it to happen because you know that once it does, it’s going to suck. No one wants to admit that they’ve been conned, especially if they’re smart. That’s why folks who perpetuate cons are called “con artists.” They’re good at what they do. And Trump is one of the best con artists that exists.
In the meantime, until you come to your senses, stop sealioning. Leave us alone. If you don’t want to do that, then ask yourself why you believe that trolling is the best use of your time.
FALSE James it is vey much NOT the end of the story. The case is going back to Federal Judge Chtkan per the remand order & directions for pre-trial hearings all before the November 2024 election. Mr. Prosecutor, please call you first witness.
Why don't re read the thread that President don't have ANY immunity which
is stupid and false.
As for a fall trial you can forget. Not only is the question of whether Jack Smith had illegal authority to bring the charges, the question of which acts are official still needs to be litigated and appealed.
If the Democrats were looking for maximum effect they should have never waited until a year before election to trial these cases. However its obvious why. All the cases were filed once Trump declared his candidacy.
IIRC, the only teeny tiny silver lining I can see in this is that the evidentiary hearings will now occur in September and October. Every single thing that Trump did that day will come out during those hearings, right before the election. Fingers crossed.
ZERO chance of anything happening before yearend.
A very sad day for American Democracy. -- Let's all work our hearts out to defeat Trump and Trumpism.
My bother-in-law (who is visiting) called this "a day that will live in infamy".
Your brother-in-law is correct. I understand only too well what’s at stake, and it’s a guarantee for dictatorship. People complained about the Warren court being judicially activist, but this court is willing to throw out precedent, stare decisis and the Constitution out of the window to benefit one man. This decision will cause the Supreme Court to fall further into disrepute. I do agree with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Brown-Jackson in their dissent. The founding fathers would be appalled at this.
And Robert’s is smirking, and the insurrectionists are laughing their arses off. Look what we did. We whupped the libtards, no shots fired. They know what they did, what they have been trying to do since our beginnings, and what they have pulled off. And they are rewriting history, making the attack on the capitol look like Lexington and Concord combined. Dems had better learn hardball fast. Spring training stupidity is over.
What they did is try to sell the US to a dictator they want to protect. Why? What we must do is VOTE. It’s all that’s left.
The other thing we must do, in addition to voting, is work together.
That's the only way democracy can work; diversity in solidarity, The Blessings of Liberty in more perfect Union.
Sadly, the extremes will be counting the votes when all is said and done. You are so right, it’s all that is left, except resistance
DO you know how to organize a march?
Lexington and Concord were to me Defensive, January 6th was criminally Offensive and should have resulted in the immediate prosecution of every elected and appointed official who helped it in any material way to get them out of any position enabling them to further an insurrection. Now that should apply to at least two Supreme Court excuses for Justices.
As much as I was opposed to almost everything about Jeff Sessions, I at least appreciate his decency and what I see as oath compliance in recusing himself from the Russian Interference Case (the first case, I believe of 40 of 44 cabinet members knowing what is far beyond the limits avoiding refusal to follow illegal orders or recusal in the Trump administration). See https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/magazine/jeff-sessions.html
"...As Sessions still maintains, he believed that in recusing himself, he was doing what anyone in his position would have been obligated to do. “There’s one term that he used to use a lot,” recalled Rod Rosenstein, who served as deputy attorney general under Sessions: “ ‘regular order.’ And what he meant by that was, let’s make sure we figure out what the rules are, and let’s make sure we’re following the rules, and let’s make sure we’re not getting distracted by inappropriate political considerations.”
But it was in the aftermath of his recusal that White House officials, particularly those who had not worked on the campaign, were suddenly enlightened to Trump’s capacity for rage. “It was really the first time I think any of us had ever seen him really blow up,” the former official recalled. “He was frustrated with press coverage of crowd sizes — yes, he was angry about that — but he had never really raised his voice or shouted. But I remember him really laying into McGahn” — Don McGahn, then the White House counsel — “and shouting. It was very much like: ‘How did you let this happen? How did this [expletive] happen?’...”
Jan 6 should have been seen as, and responded to, as our own internal Pearl Harbor.
My grandfather (born during Grant's administration and a Spanish American War Veteran), might have seen Jan 6 as aggression like the firing on Fort Sumter (just a decade before he was born, what he thought of supposed attack on the USS Maine that sparked the war he fought in, or Pearl Harbor that sparked the war my father served in.
They are doing this to benefit an ideology...the one man you are referring to is simply on the same page. He is a puppet, he is a foil, he is the face of a movement that has been resurfacing time and time again since slavery became the center of the dividing force that people were will to fight over.
To what extent is this a page from Project 2025? Seems the SC has been moving in that direct for some time now, esp lately undermining the administrative state, now moving toward a president with greatly enhanced power. Roe v Wade was more the religious side of this. And... gerrymandering is A OK.
No doubt....we have reached this point, I believe, from 50+ years of strategic undermining of our political process. Unfortunately as Reagan came into office I was busy raising kids and working full time. And I was naive in thinking our democracy was strong enough to overcome him and all the idiots that followed. But surprise, democracy is fragile. It is only as strong as it's underpinnings of rule of law and it's institutions. The institutions have been systematically undermined for decades. Now the rule of law is gone.
It's to the benefit of more than one man, that's the horror.
A whiny carnival barker at that, but he’s a placeholder
Theirs is a divide and conquer strategy, which is easy for a proponent to believe in while thinking it's a 2-step process, and harder when recognizing its 3 steps, where Step 1 is "divide," Step 2 is "conquer," and Step 3 is "return to Step 1 and repeat." A large number of former Putin allies learned that lesson the hard way.
A "united we stand and divided we fall" strategy is the alternative, where Step 1 is "unite," Step 2 is "stand," and Step 3 is "return to Step 1 and repeat."
Exactly! Power hungry and willing to do anything for self gain.
A big question though is: will any of us have a chance? Trump has already publicly stated his intent to be a dictator on Day One.
Um... making sure he doesn't win? And then continuing to make other sure crazy people don't win? That's the chance we have, it's perfectly plausible, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise!
Will, it took me a while to realize, with disbelief, that there are way more people who worship Trump than care about democracy. Trying to talk to them, to persuade them to change their minds has been useless. At least in my experience. It's become dangerous around here for those who dare to oppose him.
I see his followers defend everything he's done, and say that they WILL support him as a dictator.
What a sad day and time in our America. Yes, we should stay positive and fight with all our might, but sometimes it just seems unbelievable that the truth will not win.
That is so scary, and people who don't realize how scary it is, don't know what's going to happen when Trump becomes their King.
How do we make sure hedoesnt win when there are so many misguided people who want to make sure that he DOES win.
They are misguided, but a majority of them identify as Christian. What could they say if you were to tell them you're committed to behaving in a way that is consistent with the parable of the Good Samaritan? I have no problem making that commitment. It just makes sense even though I don't happen to identify as a Christian. And how can people who say "thanks for your advice Jesus, but no thanks" call themselves Christians? I know that Jesus called them hypocrites in Matthew 23.
Spot on, Pam
They are a minority.
Maybe if Dems wake up and don’t make another debate debacle
The press is going nuts with (literally) the word "debacle" but since Reagan we tend to go for the most telegenic candidate, not integrity nor substance. Even many Democrats seem to rate Carter much lower than he deserves. It may be the reality, but it's a hell of a way to run a democracy. Allowing those who control media to shape the values of our society has brought us to the brink of fascism.
Biden messed up on Gaza, but overall fought the monster of "Reaganomics" and clueless "deregulation" more successfully than other other Dem president after Johnson. Reagan had severe memory lapses in both terms, which we now know was early Alzheimer's, but the press laughed it off. Reagan's smarmy salesman patter inspired the oft-repeated title of the "Great Communicator" with little sustained examination of illogical and ahistorical claptrap he promoted.
Will: what Pam Taylor said. Sure, we can vote for our preferred candidates, but can't prevent crazy cultists from voting for theirs. To believe otherwise in this political moment is Pollyanna-ish.
Doug, Isn't it sad and scary that it's come to this?
He's evidently managed to read the first page of 2025.
Anne-Louise, it seems from actions/happenings in the past few years, that the Mandate for Leadership—Project 2025—has been seeping into our body politic for a while now—no doubt as intended…drip drip drip. It has taken some time for the players to assume their positions at the levers of power to enact their leaning toward a unitary executive & a remaking of our gov’t, and in the case of SCOTUS as HCR points out, effectively rewrite the Constitution at will. I am now sad, scared AND angry and ready to push back on this co-opting of our Constitution any way I am able.
I understand and agree with everything you say, Barbara. That's what I meant the other day when I said that it had a widespread root system.
Kathy, I can't imagine there's any feeling of comity or collegiality between the three and the six after this decision.
The three must feel an incredible weight and impotence all at once. Probably have their share of sleepless nights
Well said, Doug. Note the lack of "respectfully" in the tag "I dissent".
“ benefit one man”. Let us not kid ourselves. Donald Trump is given this power to benefit the wealthy and powerful who are convinced that the rest of us are on Earth to serve them. Blessed are the mudsills. Now let’s get to it.
We must not believe that this ruling helps only trump. It was designed to help the extreme right and the corporate power-mongers. Trump is a useful puppet.
The plutocracy serving "GOP" made him a monster, but I fear that like mythical monsters (and Hitler) they may well lack the control over it they seem to be assuming. And Putin is playing with fire.
The favorite game of dictators
Without a doubt.
JL Spot on! As a kid I listened to FDR’s ‘day of infamy’ declaration on December 8, 1941.
Apt description. But the sleeping tiger knew what to do with Japan. And Japan shut up the enemies within. Now they are the enemy that we sleep with
Well, at least Bannon isn't sleeping in his own bed in Connecticut these next four months.
I missed seeing him walk into prison. Were there any televised shots, Doug?
I only saw an SUV drive up to the entrance.
He made his bed....
Hope they snatched his phone.
Some things stick in memory. And clearly advanced age does not necessarily mean not lucid. I greatly appreciate your long-term perspective.
JL We need a miracle. As a kid, WW II started for me in September, 1939 (my mother was British and had family serving in the British army and navy).
Things looked extremely bleak, with a strong ‘America First’ organization in the US, Churchill leading an alone England, and Hitler occupying France and much of Europe.
In retrospect, what occurred was a miracle, much as George Washington’s Hail Mary against the Hessians in Trenton.
At 90 I believe that I (and my grand kids) deserve at least one more big miracle.
Every day is Pearl Harbor Day and the attacks are coming from within our own country.
Your brother-in-law is an astute individual as those were my exact words to an acquaintance!
And it's also a Court which shall live in infamy.
Along with the Dread Scott derision.
What could be a bigger conflict of interest than allow judges to judge the person who personally selected them and gave them the job? In the abstract it seems absurd.
J L, as others elsewhere have pointed out, their fingers are on the scales of justice. What they would allow Trump to get away with, they would deny Biden. And they are the deciders (apart from the electorate, of course, but the Court doesn't seem too concerned about protecting us -- in so many ways.)
A truly sad state of affairs!
It is a coup from within.
SC is the tip of the spear of Project 2025.
Here is my pipe dream (of only I could sleep): capital and lower case dems come out in force in November and Dems and like-minded independents sweep both houses and the presidency AND we get a more decisive/determined AG. Thomas and Alito are successfully and humiliatingly removed from office (and stripped of their pensions) and two shinny new Jurists are appointed to the Bench. This decision…and perhaps others… will we so weakened as precedent for future prosecutions of Trump and his cliche that there will be an opportunity for the federal courts to right the wrong. Then I guess we need to move along the lines of Lawrence Tribes’ suggestion and amend the constitution to sever the Justice Department from the executive branch.
What angers me most is that Justice Sotomayor lays bare the hypocrisy of this decision. She argues there was no immunity language in the Constitution by design.
1. Some state constitutions had gubernatorial immunity. The Constitution omitted it though delegates knew of that concept.
2. The Constitution did give limited legislative immunity but deliberately omitted any language of executive immunity.
Justice Sotomayor uses originalism to refute the hollow rationale. She also quotes Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, as well as two early members of the Supreme Court who argued flatly against any such immunity.
Yes and Roberts derides her as, essentially, an over emotional, slightly unhinged woman. Infuriating and so hypocritical given his fabricated basis for worrying about hamstringing presidents with worry that they may put a step wrong!
And let’s all sympathize with the task Jack Smith and Judge Chutkin have in the days and weeks and months ahead. Hopefully Kaplan on the poorly dubbed hush money case will pass on the delay of sentencing; even Trumps former lawyer Cobb thinks it is a non starter vis-a-vis the grave man of the evidence in that case.
Justice Sotomayor knows the Constitution better than the shameless justices who agreed with this bad decision.
Unfortunately it is not about knowledge; it is coming from an ideology..Federalist society, Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 just got a huge boost. And the money behind these forces? Oligarchs. They have been buying politicos for years and now they own the majority of Supers.
It’s true, and we are about to face a catastrophe like one we have never had before.
Don’t let facts get in the way of control
They know it. It just was in the way. “Bust through it”, because who is going to stop them?
Obama could have declared Garland an SC judge and sent troops to insure he was seated. That's an "Official Act", law be damned.
Despite the claims of "originalism," the Roberts 6's only true aim is Calvinball. They are just making sh!t up.
Their only consistent goal is for them to take as much power as possible into their own hands and the hands of those who they support. They had no reason to take up this case at all, and furthermore no reason to use it to rule so broadly on something so essential. They just decided they wanted to.
Ah, yes.... Calvinball. Make it up as you go along, only with the added weight of the Federalist Society behind you.
I’m sure we can find something by Thomas Jefferson to add to that.
Yeah, man!
What I see in "Originalism" as "Conservatives speak of it, as positing the authority of the Constitutions as resting in the channeled thoughts of the document's authors; but that's not what they themselves claim. Nor even "We the People" who were alive when it was written. Presumably it is a vow that remains continuously relevant when embraced by each new generation. Like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution appears to to be based on principles of governance, not holy writ. The Declaration is clearly a statement of principles, as well as an indictment. It is meant to faithfully express the sentiments of a movement, not just they who penned and signed it.
Religion is another matter.
To me, at least, originalism is jurisprudence by ouija board. It also, as practiced, precludes the idea of a 'Framer' (i.e., a cherry picked individual conveniently to speak for all) would not say today,
"Well, what I meant was . . . ."
"In light of the way things are nowadays, . . . ."
or a simple
"Yes, but . . . ."
Most galling of all, as Justice Sotomayor argues so well and as elaborated plainly and persuasively by Justice Brown Jackson, is that this tautology of tyranny (reflective of Trump's spiritual vacuity), dispenses with the intellectual pretension of originalism.
"deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
You cannot create an unaccountable president and preserve the consent of the governed. Period.
My nightmare is that Republican MAGAs will try to make decisions at the state level which votes will be counted and which will be declared invalid, and/or they will continue to try to keep citizens from voting. My hope is that even Republican voters will see where this is headed and vote against monarchy.
There are no longer any Republican voters. There are just members of the Cult of Trump, hoping to become subjects of King Donald I.
Last night on NPR news, the Oklahoma Superintendent of Education was demanding that teachers teach the Bible as a historical text upon which the US was founded and continued to be used to guide and be quoted by leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.
The look on his face was terrifying and the sound of his voice poisoned the air. The koolaid they are demanding we drink is laced with venom and contempt. That is what I see written all over all their faces. From DT across the board. Bitter contempt.
To "protect and to serf" their king, Betsey.
That’s why the numbers have to be overwhelming.
States have been as busy as the extremes. Don’t put your eggs in Repub baskets. I know them, the smart ones are all in. At least the ones I have known
Yes Mona. This is the next right...our right to have our vote counted...that will be stolen. Already, red states are illegally purging their voter roles. When they are caught doing it, the sheepishly say oops...and promise to return the voters to the roles. But they do it slowly...and then stop when the attention is off of them.
Koch’s love the idea of amending the Constitution. Be careful what you wish for.
Create the crisis, then control the chaos.
So right you are. Any constitutional convention cannot be limited, so I hear. Charles K and bro had an agenda all scoped out. Now it’s just Charles, but he has enough evil for both. I read that only a few states are needed to call for one.
BTW, creating a mess and then enjoying the chaos is a favorite ploy of my cats. But they are still lovable, unlike any Koch or magat
Thomas' "gifts' are a scandal, but it's not treated as such.
“Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.” - Jon Adams
So it seems we do not have a president anymore but a king.And this is wrong. And it happened under President Biden’s watch.President Biden let this happen. Kennedy would never let this happen. He has said that although he can’t promise to overturn the Citizens United decision, he will put forth a drive to amend it constitutionally. President Biden is utterly inept.A vote for him is a vote to lose our democracy.
Utter rubbish. You sound like a troll.
On the RFKJ payroll for chump
Wow! You so have that wrong. You must be part of the disinformation campaign.
He likes attention.
Reminds me of someone.
So you would vote for the party and person who made the president king? Regardless of your dislike of Biden, he will be likely be on the ballot. Will you vote for Trump the King if Biden is on the ballot? Your logic sucks so bad that I'm sure you're a troll.
Of course he will. Distorted logic and endless lies are the strategy.
O.m.g. Shut up.
there’s only one Biden-appointed justice on this court. so saying because it happened “under Biden’s watch” makes Biden accountable shows you don’t know how SCOTUS works.
a boat-rocker only knows how to rock the boat.
So why was Mitch McConnell able to prevent Merrick Garland from being appointed and then, for the opposite reason allow Amy CBarrett to be appointed?Do you remember that plaque Truman had on his desk- the buck stops here?FDR would have found a way to stop this government injustice but Biden just whines about it. He hasn’t united the country as he said he would , he is devisive and inept.
"Blame the Victim" is a "GOP" axiom. They do it all the time.
While I generally refrain from commenting on your wackadoodle statements, I cannot refrain from this. Without resorting to profanity (whose initials, were I to utilize them would be "WTAF") your reasoning is not-existent, and to think that the sitting president (whose single appointee dissented) could have, before this decision, done anything to prevent the bought and paid for "justices" from doing as their masters told them is complete and utter bovine scato.
Ally, I think we need to go back to Obama’s term when Judge Merrick Garland should have been sworn in on the Supreme Court.He wasn’t because M McConnell said it was too close to the up coming election, which was a lot further away then when Amy C Barrett was sworn in 4 years later.So the Senate Republicans were able to get their way in both instances.I believe the president is ultimately responsible , as Truman had on his desk- the buck stops here. FDR would have found a way to prevent that from happening or at least stop the future impact that we are feeling now from those appointments.Biden is inept because all he has done is whine about the situation.He hasn’t brought the country together as he said he would , and we will get more of the same if he is re elected.Kennedy’s strength is getting congresspeople to work together , not as Dems and Republicans, but as Americans.
You are ridiculous and clearly extremely poorly informed. Donald Trump chose three Supreme Court judges that tipped the balance of the court to the right and that court has knocked down a woman’s right to choose, the protections of expertise in keeping us safe and now this, making the President a King. All of this is Trump’s agenda and you can expect a lot more of this if he is elected - read Project 2025.
Merrick Garland should have been appointed but wasn’t because Mitch McConnell said it was too close to the upcoming election. Then Amy C Barrett got appointed by Mitch for the opposite reason. That was years ago and it hasn’t been fixed because President Biden is inept. All he did was whine about it yesterday. Truman had a plaque on his desk that said the buck stops here.Biden said he would bring us together but he is devisive and hasn’t gotten Congress to fix this. So if you don’t think the president is ultimately responsible for this, why not?
May I have your address, please. My agents are rounding up Messy Minds to intern them at a new Funny Farm for Re-education.
Bullsh!t, John -- McConnell made this happen, in so many ways. You're a troll. Goodbye.
McConnell stopped Merck Garland from being appointed because it was too close to the upcoming election. Then he got Amy C Barrett appointed for the opposite reason. As Truman had on his desk- the buck stops here. Biden should have found a way to bring congress together and make this right, but he does nothing fruitful, just whines like his speech yesterday.We will have 4 more years of this if he is re elected. Yes this is bullshit.
You massively FAIL, John, as your last sentence sums it up.I wonder if you are legitimately suffering from amnesia if not long-term cognitive impairment. In addition to failing to allow Garland to be even considered for SCOTUS (in *Obama's* term not Biden's!) McConnell also had two (2!) chances to get his caucus to vote for impeachment of the traitor/insurrectionist, with the last time the most critical. Had CF45 been impeached, he would have been disqualified to hold federal office.
Please explain how TF Biden could have "found a way to bring Congress together and make this right" -- have you even been paying attention to the party formerly known as the GOP? McConnell, McCarthy and the rest of them would do NOTHING that would aid Biden in any way. A solid conservative SCOTUS majority was McConnell and company's wet dream come true.
Pull your head out of Kennedy's barbequed dog's (carc)ass and use it to explain to me how Biden could have played the SCOTUS issue differently. That's 2 questions for you to answer.
And I hope that we do have four more years of Biden/Harris -- their record of accomplishments is extraordinary and historic, and if we don't, we have indeed reached end days. And your guys not gonna win.
So, present your thoughtful answers to the questions I posed, unless you want to confirm your status as a troll on this platform.
FDR found a way to cut the new deal . Obama and Biden have failed to use our constitution to make the Supreme Court work for the people. Kennedy has said he can’t promise to overturn The Citizens United decision but that he will bring the states together to amend it by using the constitution's provisions for changes.It’s a long hard road to do that and Congress hasn’t been paying attention to the constitution as the two thirds majority rule isn’t working.Kennedy will bring smart legal authorities together to figure out a solution. BIDEN hasn’t done anything accept whine , which is not productive.Ultimately it’s up to we the people to fix this and Biden isn’t effective. Kennedy is pledging to work for and represent we the people and not corporate interests.How is Biden not representing corporations? His campaign donations come from them.
Since when can a President overturn a Supreme Court decision? Plus, SCOTUS has dithered over this since February, after an appeals court already stated quite forcefully that a President does not have immunity.
If the president isn’t ultimately responsible for this who is? Truman had a plaque on his desk that said the buck stops here.Why wasMitch McConnell allowed to stop Merrick Garland’s appointment because it was too close to the election, then for the opposite reason get Amy C Barrett appointed?I don’t think this would’ve gotten so out of control under FDR. He would have found a way to fix it . Biden is inept. All he did was. Whine about it yesterday. I am afraid of 4 more years of his whining without solutions.
You are way off base.
Go away
I'm with you on that. How? MAGA is an ugly, twisted movement. It has to be defeated.
We have seen it's face before, here and in other parts of the world. It's the sociopathic side of human nature. We turn out to be our own worst enemy; but are there not alternatives?
But who in our country, before 2020, would ever have thought the USA could be brought so low by so many? MAGA has not only the majority of the Supreme Court but also the Majority in the House, and significant portion of our Senate, a large number of our Governorships, and many many state legislators throughout the country between the two Coasts.
I had a clue. Told FB and T and got banned by both.
I had a clue. Everyone laughed at Hillary when she warned of the “Vast Right-Wing conspiracy”. She was our Cassandra.
There is nothing else to do but vote. In huge numbers. Period.
And many whose voices will carry far further than most of us here would be wise to speak up with clarity. The MAGA end of SCOTUS is attempting a coup, and that truly is a BFD. The newspaper headlines I have seen so far don't seems to "get" that.
.........
“We have to be Paul Revere every chance we get to let people know what is at risk and why it is at risk. We live it. Every time we eat breakfast we think about these things,” Governor Jay Inslee of Washington told CNN.
“I don’t think you can be overly concerned about this. The American psyche has not recognized we were one vice-president away from a coup.”
..........
- Jay Inslee in 2021
I like Inslee; an idealist without illusions.
- Pulled Quote -
''“The Court has handed Trump, if he wins this November, carte blanche to be a ‘dictator on day one,’ and the ability to use every lever of official power at his disposal for his personal ends without any recourse,” Rangappa wrote. “This election is now a clear-cut decision between democracy and autocracy. Vote accordingly.”''
This is where we are.
We' still have the capacity to overwhelm them at the ballot box. Millions of unregistered folk trend heavily Democratic. Register them to save democracy. Gen Z can outnumber them.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Thanks for reminding me; my declining brain forgot one of my first reactions. WE ARE ALL STATESMEN NOW; WE WILL ALL BE JURORs, TOO.
And we always were, or at least meant to be. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, right? But in such a hyped up world, it's easy to forget.
I agree, Ned. The idea that too much of the media has been promoting for the cynical purpose of profit at all cost, that politics is a spectator sport, is being revealed as a dangerous lie. For anyone's whose looking for it, that's good news.
Nobody is a spectator. Anyone who still doesn't see themselves as a player is helping the wrong team.
Better stated, James. Thank you. By the way, I just received your book, 'The wisdom Theory'; thank you for the rec.
That's awesome. I hope you find it useful.
I plan to vote early for our current president. I’m not under any illusions about Trump. He will govern illegally and unconstitutionally, and kowto w to Vladimir Putin. Putin already knows most of our secrets thanks to Trump.
I fear that there are enough young people who won't vote for Biden because of Palestine to swing the election to Trump. That seems like an insurmountable block.
OMG this again???
In the last few months we have good-sized youth polls from Harvard, Tufts, Pew, and CBS all showing high engagement from young people and lopsided 20-point margins in vote intention for Biden/Democrats. The Middle East is always low on the totem poll regarding issues selected as "important."
Remember, the majority of online activity on any given topic is produced by a small slice of very engaged users. Haven't seen many encampment in the news recently, have we now?
I just can NOT believe that in this nerve-wracking week when our (wonderful) President's campaign is being (potentially) jeopardized by (valid, but overhyped) alarm over his old age... we still got people here acting like the fearsome intransigence of the youth is the problem. Irony is loston some people. Oy.
Will, agree with you and I do hope folks of all ages will step up and vote. I am so angry at the TV/radio pundits who keep harping on Biden’s ONE lousy debate. IMHO, he knows what he is doing, how to do it and surrounds himself & Kamala with a talented & knowledgeable administration. I trust them to carry on doing the best & right things for our country.
I have no problem voting for the President because l have no problem with a President Harris. I will disagree a lot with her; on things that count, however, the Vice President is true blue.
Biden is going to win. This will help put him convincingly over the top. It smells that bad. The focus should be on Congress. We need a unified government to do anything. And we are where we are now for the lack of it under both Biden and Obama. A president’s first job is to move the nation to vote his party in to office….generously….thus securing a mandate. His next job is to hold on to that.
My sentiments exactly. Justice Brown Jackson had the most common-sense, compelling statement of the whole document: "If the structural consequences of today’s paradigm shift [from traditional accountability of the individual to 'presidential accountability' of this decision] mark a step in the wrong direction, then the practical consequences are a five-alarm fire that threatens to consume democratic self-governance and the normal operations of our Government."
Will, from Cal,
As long as human beings are involved, and the care of our earth is being taken for granted...there will be people (thankfully) waking us up....trying to move our dull hearts and minds to realities around us which we may choose to ignore.
Young people with good intentions can be troublesome with their idealistic ideas. MAY THEY CONTINUE !!!
Our senses can easily be dulled as we age, just trying to pay our bills, maintain decent relationships...etc. We need youth to remind us to examine what is going on in our country and within our world. As long as protests from our fellow citizens can be peaceful and views/concerns clearly expressed and RESPECTFUL,PRODUCTIVE communication and nonviolent actions taken, I am for these honest expressions of concern. They are necessary!
We can and must do better!
Will, I am reminded of an old camp song:
"Here comes the next verse, same as the first.
A little bit louder and a whole lot worse!"
Will -- I generally like your spin on things, but the polls you cite are a few months old. I can't see the youth getting enthusiastic about voting for their grandpa (and I'm an enthusiastic Biden voter who will vote again for him, unless he decides to pull out )
Let's wait for post-"debate" and post-SCOTUS debacle polls among the eligible younger voters to see if Biden has maintained strength among that group.
CBS was taken very recently, actually, with a 25-point Biden preference.
But that strength has literally nothing to do with him. His favorability ratings among youth are very low. Current youth are way more likely to be motivated by singular issues and vote out of a sense of self-preservation. Frankly, most young people (probably incorrectly) view the man as embarrassing and senile, and would see the debate and just go "Yup, thought so. Ok boomer." They thought he was boring and doddering when he ran the first time. The campaign seems to have been delusional as to ignoring how wide this perception is. But young people still voted for him and his party in record numbers recently because he keeps out the devil and has enough motor skills left to sign a couple policies they like and give them civil and bodily rights back.
It's not just the Republicans who are willing to vote for someone they don't like to get something they want.
Reassuring stats, Will. MisTBlu has a good point in concept. For those turned by this or that Biden policy, we can remind them that under a President Biden, (s)he will have the privilege of dissent.
Will, I appreciate your optimism but two things: the encampments were on college campuses and the students are no longer there, and, sadly, the Electoral College forces us to think in terms of swing states. Michigan is one of those states and it has a large population of Arab-Americans who are vocal in their opposition to Biden's policies in Palestine. One hopes they'll see the dangers of a King Trump as the existential crisis it is and vote for Biden.
I have run into that, but even on the issue of Palestine, a Biden win perseveres the ground on which to fight for justice and a Trump win removes even that.
And what about generations to come if plutocrats gain full permission to rape the earth?
Seriously, I kept hearing all these commenters going on about Joe's endless string of rhetoricaI blunders last Thursday... but the nutso psycho to his left thought it would be a neat idea to label Biden a "bad Palestinian," which - while totally in line with the bloodcurdling racism that has always been his central thing - is such an astonishingly stupid debate move, in that it proved not just that he thinks of that ethnicity as an inherently bad thing deserving of destruction, but that his opponent - who had a weakness on this issue with part of his coalition! - is now immediately seen as the sympathetic party on stage. An absolutely anti-strategic head-slapper, and yet...
no comment on MSNBC. Instead, whole weekend of shows about how the other guy was the unforgivably bad debater. Astonishing.
Will, I'm waiting for the NYT editorial and opinion sections to declare CF45 must withdraw from the race, given the newly-granted powers he would use with immunity and immunity.
Click-bait mania is the death of us all.
They won't have known the difference. (Yes, I'm very depressed at the moment).
Being depressed when nothing bad has happened saps the energy we need to prevent the bad things from actually happening, so let's have some tea, now shall we?
Good idea.
And some chocolates.
I am depressed too; someone mentioned that she is grieving. I am, too. Part of summoning the strength to fight back not only hard, but also smart. Any scones while you are at it?
Not only tunnel vision, but myopia. The big picture is irrelevant for the deliberately blind
Brilliant!!
Couldn’t be more true…
The eye us willing, but the integrity is weak.
The integrity took a powder long, long ago
Really astute statement, J.L. Thank you.
Not according to the Harvard study. https://iop.harvard.edu/news/younger-votes-still-lean-toward-biden-its-complicated
"Gen Z and late Millennial voters (ages 18-29) are more dissatisfied with their choices and worried over kitchen table issues such as inflation and housing. But most still support Biden over Trump, contrary to some earlier polls, and they do still intend to make their voices heard in November, according to a new Harvard Youth Poll released Thursday."
There are so many blocks (red swing states, debates, propaganda, hypocritical Christians, etc), with Putin circling the wagon with many of them, and the Repub congressional reps providing openings for more Trojan Horses
I hope better than that. They're all on various "social" feeds, and are probably getting a more balanced view than their elders.
Well, remind these young people that they will decide if trump becomes president again. Don’t care? Who’s Netanyahu’s best-friend besides himself? Trump. Netanyahu wants nothing other than to wipe Palestine off the map. You want MORE death and destruction in Palestine. You want a president who will “look the other way”? Vote for the serial liar, convicted felon, sexual assaulter, stealer of national secrets, proud eliminator of women’s rights, xenophobe, “Dictator on Day 1”. Vote for trump , third party, or stay home. It all adds up to a trump victory, and absolutely NO help for the Palestinians.
It is time to talk with these young people and make them aware of this catastrophic mess that this country will be facing if Biden isn't re- elected.
I agree but I think it will be more effective if it's on a peer-to-peer basis. Taraji P. Henson pulled no punches this past weekend at the BET awards ceremony. https://x.com/TheRickyDavila/status/1807613857009201631
Foolish actions have foolish consequences. Imho it is Biden's timidity that prevents him from being a truly effective leader.
What timidity? Any bolder and he'd stray on to the territory of tfg. He's a gentleman, if anyone can still recall what that's like.
He has already BEEN an effective leader.
You mean Biden’s humanity and still believing in our system. Yep, that is foolish these days when he seems to be the only one on the stage that behaves so
Andy, I tend to feel the same frustration, until, in my best Calvin-&-Hobbes manner, I imagine sitting in the 0val 0ffice when decisions have consequence often irreversible and unexpected. Then I cut the President some slack.
Perhaps you conflate timidity with intransigence? His blind loyalty to Israel in the face of the calamity in Palestine isn't timid, it's stubborn.
Where I am, Gen z has tuned out, at least many have
A democracy depends entirely on the votes of the citizens. If people don’t vote, the democracy will be lost.
“a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.”
No argument here, but Stalin knew, as do Repubs, that it also matters who counts the votes. Since Repubs know that they can’t win on the issues, the cheating has ramped up to Everest heights. And not just in Texas
Not when YOU speak to them.
Really, I have tried. My grands live in a sea of red, they are reluctant to say a word in public. Neither would vote for chump, but the fear around here is palpable
There are too many repigs in swing states. The polls keep showing tfg leading in those states. President Biden deserves to win but most likely won’t.
The polls are influencers, not voters.
Not if we add new Democrats, https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Love repigs
"...repigs..."
I like that!
Thank you for bringing this group to my attention. I just began a monthly donation.
President Biden's solemn reaction; only five minutes.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?536720-1/president-biden-delivers-remarks-supreme-court-immunity-ruling
Worth watching.
Bannon smirked (his usual expression) as he said that Trump can't not win. I wonder what form his imprisonment takes? In what way is he confined?
Sadly only for 4 months.
Oh, how nice, he'll be out in time to enjoy the election. What I actually meant was, has he got his electronic communication? Is he in solitary? And so on.
No. No internet.
That's another giant step for mankind.
May he meet his maker in the next 4 months.
Anne-Louise, Will Bannon be able to vote? Is he not a convicted felon?
Club Fed: Danbury (CT)
Nice.
Hopefully, no electronic communication.
Club Fed in Danbury, CT.
Talk about unleashing the cracken … well … LET’S GO BRANDON … we’re in the homestretch and the finish line is in sight and you’re our man!!!
Weekend at Bernie’s … I sure hope not!!!
Ayep. We're going to elect either a president or a Fuehrer in November. Vote accordingly. And remember, from the time the Nazis were elected to office until the time they opened the first concentration camp (Dachau) was just four weeks.
I agree with you Michael!If TRUMPIE wins he Will be a dictator!
They’ve essentially created a monster!
As a former staff attorney for the US Courts, I’m grieving.
Grieving isn't enough.
The Democrats still think they are playing to the same rules but they are being well and truly shafted.
Donald Trump is not the problem, he is just a useful puppet.
America is well on the way to becoming a fascist theocracy, and when it gets there not even the ballot box will help.
I am under no illusion that my grief will not suffice; I have to get through stage one though. 🙃I feel like I did as a apolitical 11 year old when the Red Sox lost the 1986 World Series: run over by each of the 18 wheels of a Mac truck.
It is a process, I have been going through it since Nov of 2000
Or November 2016!
But my disquiet began much before chump
Katherine, even tho’ written/sung in the mid-80’s it still rings true today: Jackson Brown’s Made For America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqrjMmpr1c. And when I need some juice to keep going (and have posted this here a number of times), from the same album, is my “anthem” to keep on keeping on: Til I Go Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw As the famous words by Todd Beamer to his fellow passengers on flight 93 to take the hijackers down “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.” Let’s be those folks….ready to roll to resist an autocracy.
Christopher Colles,
Donald Trump is a WILLING puppet.....and he is enjoying every minute!
I retired from EPA region 3. Seeing Chevron bite the dust, the CAA case, the wetlands case....a stake driven into my heart. Gorsuch is seeking retribution for his mother who was sent in to dismantle EPA under Reagan. I despise them all.... and of course Dobbs....and now this....
Yah it is hard when you have been on the ground floor in one capacity or another. sorry
Gorsuch is more than any of them. He was taught from the cradle. His mama dearest is so proud today.
I was the equitant to a federal administrative Dodo bird or Mastodon for 30 + years.
Thanks for the laugh…haven’t had many since that debate….
As someone who took an oath to defend the constitution, I am grieving.
What can we the people do to fight back? This is breathtakingly reckless on the part of the court and undermines our reason for being on many levels. And for what? An amoral piece of garbage, a rapist, a liar, and a cheat? This is the man the illustrious justices want as their king? I grew up learning about George Washington and the cherry tree. "I cannot tell a lie, father. I did cut down the cherry tree." George Washington struggled his entire life to curb his temper and stay true to his principles. To see the highest court in our land throw away such a legacy for a common criminal is a slap in the face to America and all Americans. How do we fight back?
We can vote of course. But if this lowest of all high courts nullifies our vote, we can refuse to cooperate in any way with a fascist government. The Supreme Court is supposed to be the guardian of the Constitution. But it violated the Constitution in this ruling. Two "Justices" participated who were required to recuse.
If members of the military are called to enforce King Trump's edicts, they can refuse to follow illegal orders. If governors of blue states are told to enforce Trumpian edicts, they can refuse, saying those are illegal. Lawsuits can be brought before sympathetic judges who can stay illegal mandates, just as Trumpian judges do. In other words, non-cooperation in every way.
I too worry, this Court will find a way to turn over a Biden win. Ultimately, every lower court decision can filter upward. If Biden or Congress has the power to add Supreme Court Justices...now is the time
Susan, I hadn't thought of SC throwing out a Biden win. My heart skipped some beats. But nothing is written in stone, so I'll put that to the side.
The pulling apart is painful but no more than acquiescence
How do we fight back? Let me count the ways...
1. Write postcards to encourage people to register to vote and to vote (take your pick):
https://postcardstovoters.org/
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
https://postcards.markersfordemocracy.org/
2. Support other grassroots efforts to register voters, help voters get required ID, educate voters on their address's ballot, and Get Out The Vote, such as:
https://www.lwv.org/
https://www.voteriders.org/
https://bluevoterguide.org/
https://indivisible.org/
3. See Jessica Craven's "Chop Wood, Carry Water" for easy-to-follow actions (Monday-Friday and weekend edition of good news:)
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/chop-wood-carry-water-71-194
4. Donate to Biden/Harris campaign:
https://joebiden.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
5. Donate to progressive state legislature candidates in critically flippable/keepable states (AZ, KS, MI, MN, NV, NH, NC, PA, WI), as through The States Project's HCR inspired Giving Circle:
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/1XQhnyD/-
6. Donate to Marc Elias' law firm which routinely challenges the right wing Christo-fascist laws as they spring up.
https://www.elias.law/team/marc-elias
Other readers here surely have more ideas to add!
As Robert Hubbell says, "We have no time to be complacent, but every reason to be hopeful!"
As Jessica Craven says, "Hope is an action verb!"
As Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together!"
Ellie Kona, and as FDR said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
Let me add Susan Sontag’s “Courage is as contagious as fear”.
Barbara Keating, excellent! I was trying, but to no avail, to locate a quote in my brain for courage to add to FDR's,. Her words are suberb and so needed in this moment! (And they point to my point of fear is a rascal that can overtake us and incapacitate us.) Thank you so much!
Thank you, Ellie. Action rather than reaction, despair, discouragement, or surrender.
Vote 💙
This is definitely an "all hands on deck" moment.
And prisoners to the brig.
We can vote. And start controlling the state legislatures so we can have several terms of Democratic Presidents to fix the 'Extreme Court'. I am not sure there is a legislative fix to this outrage; I do not think so.
At this point, I fully agree. We MUST overturn NAZI control of our state governments. And yes, that was deliberate; they are not republican, nor so-called MAGA. They are NAZI, through and through.
Truth
Vote Blue Stop The Coup
Recommend this org: Stop The Coup https://www.stopthecoup2025.org/
AND I have been mentioning/inquiring of folks I come across if they’ve heard of Project 2025—just yesterday the young checker at a local market & any number of neighbors, family and friends. So many have no idea.
We need to figure out exactly how we will not let this happen. Our votes will be meaningless if waiting for November. All the devil has to do is scream fraud, the SC takes it and overrules the outcome. We have to be locking arms now! We’ve already been complacent far too much and long. The dark side has been planning this for almost a century. We are the majority however! We have power in numbers. Our “regular lives” will have to take a backseat. We need to be in an offensive mindset or we will be taken just like Afghanistan. Like sitting ducks.
No our votes will not be meaningless. However, I believe you mean START NOW and then vote.
Vote BLUE! Vote BLUE! Vote BLUE! Vote BLUE! Vote BLUE!
What did you do in 1776?
I wish every citizen who supports Trump and the Republican Party could/would read this comment and let it sink in. The USA is in big trouble. Putin is ecstatic!!!
The problem that I see with this is (and this is based on 12 years of conversations with these people) THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT. They do not see it as bad, they see it as a positive direction for them and for the county.
Be a part of a Blue Wave
The name of this case says it all:
“Donald J. Trump v. United States.”
Because it is DJT against all the rest of us.
Agree! See my comment, Sioux!
I respectfully disagree - it is Maga vs the US - there are many Maga even worse than the felon Insurrectionist
Yeah, Steve, and many have been quietly working behind the scenes for decades, with plenty of big money supporters bankrolling their efforts, to “remake” the USA into some sort of autocracy with their chosen ones at the helm. Scary.
It has been DJT v US since he slid down that gilded escalator.
And "Republican" minions of sociopathic billionaires VS US ever since Reagan.
Too bad he didn't lose his balance and take a tumble down that gilded escalator and land on his head! We wouldn't be in this mess right now!
I doubt the six traitors of this alleged "court" would have much ability to tell President Biden he doesn't have immunity if they were sitting in the clink after he arrested them for treason, or -better - were laid out in their coffins after he ordered their assassination.
No reason DOJ can't subpoena them to a grand jury re corruption.
No reason for Biden to waste time with a grand jury. This illegitimate and incompetent Court majority is a threat to democracy and the US Constitution. Therefore, the urgency to neutralize it calls for urgent, bold and decisive action to protect the country and its citizens. Arrest and imprison the Seditious Six today at a Super Max prison.
Absent such decisive action, an executive order should be issued invalidating the Court's illegal opinion as it is contrary to the clear framing of the Constitution.
Arguably, because of eminent dangers to US citizens in the event of another Trump presidency, Biden is morally obligated to use his new powers to order a military special forces operation to assassinate Trump, the six conservative SCOTUS Justices, and that rogue federal judge in Texas. Then, pardon the soldiers that did the job.
President Biden wouldn’t play these games, but Trump won’t hesitate to do it
The least he will do is to unconstitutionally jail his political opponents.
True, and SCOTUS would hammer him if he did, as HCR
pointed out. Nothing is going to stop weathy white men from establishing an oligarchy that operates outside the law with impunity. It’s always been that way to some extent, but it will be openly kleptocratic now, like Russia. The only hope is that enough white working-class women decide they don’t want to be treated by the government as brood mares and vote accordingly. I have some hope of that, but it’s a faint glimmer.
You can’t hammer anyone once detained by Seal team six. Biden must use his new powers to fulfill his duty to protect the Constitution and make the Scotus Six and Trump and his flunkies disappear . Without them democracy can be built. Left in place, it doesn’t matter who wins elections: SCOTUS will undo all advances.
Agreed - but just stop talking about it and fucking well do it!!!
I would say five. Justice Coney Barrett had a reasonable view in her concurring opinion. "The Constitution does not insulate Presidents from criminal liability for official acts. But any statute regulating the exercise of executive power is subject to a constitutional challenge. Thus, a President facing prosecution may challenge the constitutionality of a criminal statute as applied to official acts alleged in the indictment. If that challenge fails, however, he must stand trial."
In her case it would be for Dobbs.
In that case, she had a conflict with 1. her husband and 2 her cult.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/03/fbi-people-of-praise-amy-coney-barrett-faith-group-abuse-allegations
She voted with the majority on immunity. She noted a minor caveat but the decision was 6-3.
A bold action indeed. Do you suppose it is one the Justices were thinking of? Doubts the Democrats would do it. I know they wouldn't as playing fair obscures their wellness to confront the awful truth of this decision.
The Clarence court far-right missionaries want their orange criminal as king.
They want to Handmaid’s-Tale-eff all American women, gut the all agencies that protect the public, and laugh at their perjuries about honoring precedent, or meaning anything at all when they swore oaths to the Constitution.
Like their orange criminal – Putin’s paw – they also perch above the law. (Article 14, section three: haw, haw, haw, the corrupt all laugh.)
Dems, make it key this election year to add four seats to what has sunk, stunk as full-bore corrupt Clarence court.
Also, Dems – as if it were personal – ask the American people how so many got so corrupt: the Clarence court, Putin’s and U.S. oligarchs’ orange paw, all the scurrying, scurrilous Republican lemmings in Congress.
Tiday I listened to a podcast called "We Don't Talk About Leonard." I was stunned to learn that Leo's been involved in the selection of justices starting with Thomas! He's been methodical, single-minded and very effective. He's now in charge of an unlimited dark money fund of >$1.3 BILLION. He's one very scary dude.
MisTBlu—yeah, this has been in the works for a long long time—pre-Reagan & he was enamored of the substance of the Powell memo & influenced many of his actions/policies….playing the long game & only now really coming out at what they see is an opportune time.
Long game is an understatement! Worse, other than our willingness to see the long-term damage from climate change, we don't seem to have a Leo-mindset on our side.
Agree, too many “regular” folks, in addition to gov'ts world wide—with the exception of low-lying island countries—are ignoring this ginormous issue & continue to petty-squabble instead. Sigh.
Yup!
Follow the money.
Written 6½ years ago.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/us-republican-party-gop-whigging-out-you-make-call-ned/
An interesting article. I'll return to look some more.
Thank you for indulging me. Like the slave-o-crats: follow the money.
The goal of Republicans is to enrich the rich. This may have exceeded their charge.
Trump has no internal morality and he will not accept limitations from others, including SCOTUS. He can play God and “hang” his enemies.
Trump is an utter moral void. He’s a sociopath, malignant narcissist, a sadist, and his only concerns have always been himself and his bank accounts. The only purpose of his life is to revel in committing every one of the Seven Deadly Sins. We’re all going to be worse off because of this, and I wonder how many of us will be shipped off to camps because we opposed this.
Conservatives. Call them what they are.
They are today's equivalent of NAZIs.
The Court’s six did an abject thing, they know it.
We shall get rid of another mad King and we shall renew the initial vision.
That’s all.
No question about it
And how exactly do you propose we do this? In the US people have been avoiding their responsibilities as citizens to preserve our Constitution and the rule of law - they've allowed a cancer called the anti Constitution conservative movement now headlined by Trump to invade our society - to the best of my knowledge Cancer still has no cure.
The first couple of times, you had a fight a war. The presumption must be that you will have to fight again.
Honestly, I don't envy you. If my own Supreme Court had nullified 1688, I'd be grabbing my pitchfork.
As gently as I can say this, the last thing we need is another goddamned war.
The Ukrainians and Syrians didn't want a goddamned war either, but they got one anyway. Same with your predecessors in the USA. Same with my own predecessors in the United Kingdom - and though they didn't choose or want war, they did their duty to defend what was right on matters of principle, as in 1940 or 1642.
It takes two sides not to want a war. The moment one side decides to have a war, there is a war. If that happens, your decision will be either to choose a side and fight the war, or to leave your country to its own fate and find refuge elsewhere.
First, get a fo¥d card…
And the training that goes with it.
Sophie, I appreciate your point of view.
Just to be clear, I spent a year of my life as an Army soldier in Viet Nam, attached to the First Cavalry Division. A few weeks after Americans landed on the moon, I landed in the American War in Viet Nam. That was 1969. I was 21.
Some of us recognize a paradox about talking about war. I often hear that somebody's father was in a war, or brother, or sister, but they never talk about it. Veterans talking with veterans don't need to say much about what war is like because we already understand it. Veterans talking with civilians about warfare makes little sense because it is exceedingly difficult to understand it if you have not experienced it.
A major consequence of that paradox is that many people talk about war as if it is something we would choose to do. Sometimes when I see an older gent wearing a Vietnam cap, I will say hello and ask about the war. And often during the ensuing conversation I'll say "I learned one thing from the war" and pause and then say "Don't go looking for trouble." The most fun is when we both say at the same time "Because Trouble is looking for you!"
You are correct in your assertion that even if you want to avoid going to war, somebody may insist on bringing the war to you. The question is how much effort will we put into avoiding the outbreak of war? Some people seem eager to find an excuse to fight.
War is stupid. If there is some form of human activity that is more stupid than war, I'm always happy to hear about a contender.
I have never been in a fist fight in my life. I have never had to dissuade anyone from attacking me. Maybe I'm just lucky. Or maybe it's my version of "the thousand yard stare". I would do everything I could think of to dissuade someone from attacking. I would say that if I am attacked, I would assume that I may have only one opportunity to land a strike, and so I would try to put an end to the threat. I would try to make it count. If I were successful in that endeavor, my assailant would either die, or would take a long time to recover.
I suppose my point is that it bothers me when people talk casually about going to war. I don't need another war because my war never goes away, even after 53 years.
We just purchased our first Electric Vehicle, and drove it home yesterday. I love our life in retirement. I'd like to look forward to many more years of this life. I am fairly certain that I am not naive. I am well aware of the resurgence of authoritarianism. I can see that our economic system is self-centered and short-sighted. I can see that it is necessary for our system to maintain a class of people living in poverty in order to force people to seek work in factories, etc, with the goal of making a few people absurdly wealthy. I can see that we are consuming finite natural resources as though there will be no tomorrow, because unless we make some significant changes soon, then at some point it seems inevitable there will be no tomorrow, for a future generation of children.
War is waste.
Thank you for taking the time to explain your background, David. My own, in the International Committee of the Red Cross, also brought me to the heart of several wars and genocides, dealing with their worst consequences, so I hate war probably as much as you do. Only people who haven't seen it close up actually want a war.
Now, regarding this sentence: "The question is how much effort will we put into avoiding the outbreak of war? Some people seem eager to find an excuse to fight."
That's true enough. The question I have turns around the word 'avoiding'. Diplomacy? bring it on. I think it was Churchill who said - 'better jaw-jaw than war-war'. But diplomacy must be in good faith. If you look at the efforts made by France and others to talk to Putin - he was just laughing at them. He doesn't want an honourable way out. He wants Ukraine. And if Trump is elected, he might get it (he might get it anyway, or half of it). That's his only reason for engaging in diplomacy - to win Ukraine more cheaply. That means that engaging in diplomacy with Putin with the aim of freeing Ukraine from the clutches of Russia is an exercise in futility, at best (as Macron discovered), or in appeasement at worst.
Diplomatic solutions to conflict or pre-conflict are usually only possible when both parties are negotiating in good faith - a good example of that is what led to the Good Friday Peace Agreement in Ireland - or when one party is much stronger than the other and can impose its will. Think of the settlement of the Bosnian War, imposed from above by President Clinton, through Richard Holbrooke, who shuttled around the capitals of the Balkan states, then got everyone round a table in Dayton, Ohio and kept them there until they signed. A more begrudging peace agreement, I've yet to encounter. But it's held, more or less, for 30 years.
Now, inside a country, things happen in similar ways, except without professional diplomats and often without professional soldiers either, unless a national army splits and the two sides fight each other. The diplomacy needed to overcome or avoid conflict must also be in good faith. And the parties must act in good faith.
In the US, you have one party that is systematically dismantling the whole apparatus of democracy and rights that your countrymen have slowly and patiently assembled over 250 years. How you and your fellow supporters of democracy and rights respond is all important. What will it take to reverse this trend? What do you think it will take?